| I'm growing my hair out and throwing away my shaver. |
[14 Aug 2007|12:07am] |
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mood |
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civilian |
] |
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music |
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The Offspring - Pay the Man |
] |
US ARMY: Uncle Sam Ain't Released Me Yet.
After six years in the National Guard, as of today I'm a free man. I'll come back once I've settled into practice, but for now it's nice to have my weekends to myself again.
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| Certified 100% Spoiler-Free |
[21 Jul 2007|02:07pm] |
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mood |
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magically delicious |
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music |
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John Williams - Harry Potter Main Title |
] |
Just so's everyone knows, this is safe to read even if you're dodging Book 7 spoilers.
Rachel & I are having an unofficial Harry Potter-fest today. We just got home from seeing Phoenix for the first time. One-line review: I loved it. It's styled distinctly differently than the previous movies, and while it's far from the most accurate verbatim recreation of the book text, it does a superlative job of portraying the spirit.
Also, it's a shame Bellatrix and Luna are such small roles. Helena Bonham Carter and Evanna Lynch respectively give them two of the best character performances I've seen in a long time. Seeing such strong performances from minor roles does draw Michael Gambon's lackluster Dumbledore into even sharper focus, but even with that one significant gripe, I still enjoyed the film immensely. I'm already thinking about how to talk Rachel into seeing it again at an Imax.
Also, we got some mail today.
I read the first chapter just to whet my appetite, and this book definitely hits the ground running. Rachel is devouring it as we speak, and I'll take my turn as soon as I can finish getting books 5 & 6 reread.
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| Bill Johnson, DDS. |
[14 May 2007|06:24pm] |
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mood |
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accomplished, relieved |
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music |
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Queen - We Are the Champions |
] |
More to come soon...but for now, the photo has been eight very long years in the making. It can stand on its own for a bit.
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| On Iraq. |
[28 Mar 2007|04:22pm] |
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17787144/
“They need to send me a clean bill, without conditions, without restrictions, and without pork,” Bush said Saturday.
Or, as we of the peasantry would say in our plainer language: "They need to give me what I want, and then shut up and leave me alone."
I like the article, though. The longer I think about it, the more I begin to think the Democrats have the upper hand in the stalemate. The man just cannot seem to wrap his head around the notion that the authority of the Congress whose majority disagrees with him is as legitimate as his own. I'm not a huge fan of Nancy Pelosi's politics in toto, but as the Iraq policy struggle progresses, her leadership and willingness to hold the line are starting to impress me.
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| Mice just might be the most genetically versatile critters this side of membrane-bound organelles. |
[19 Feb 2007|11:01pm] |
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mood |
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dental-geeking out |
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music |
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Chrono Cross Time's New Scar OC ReMix |
] |
Dentistry leads the way!
I haven't written in this thing in virtually forever. To the two or three of you who even noticed the disappearance, I haven't disappeared. I'm just preoccupied with everything that comes with being in your last semester of dental schools--national boards, licensure examination, procedural requirements, graduation clearances, and plenty more. I'll be back--just perhaps not before I graduate on Mother's Day.
(incidentally, that's 82 days, 12 hours, 57 minutes, and 31 seconds...30...29...)
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| 193 days (I hope) & counting. |
[01 Nov 2006|11:22am] |
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mood |
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Another day in the life |
] |
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music |
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Evanescence - Sweet Sacrifice |
] |
As I wrote a couple months ago, this school year is being chiefly devoted to three supergoals. A quarter of the way in, I figure it's time for a progress report.
Obtain a license
So far, so good. The results from the first portion of my licensing exam came back last week, and I'm very pleased to report I scored 199 out of a possible 200. I scored a perfect 100 on the endodontics (root canals) component and 99 on the prosthodontics (crown & bridge) portion. Now my attention turns to studying for the next segment, a 400-question written exam I'll probably schedule in close proximity to Part II of the NBDE (nationwide graduation written board exam) in order to dovetail my studying.
Match into a general practice residency (hereinafter GPR)
Again, so far so good. I only applied to two GPR programs, both here in Indianapolis, for logistical reasons. I'm pretty sure I want to practice here in Indiana, so I don't want to pick up and move halfway across the country only to do it all again in a year's time to come back here.
Fortunately, GPR programs are typically less competitive than specialty residencies (new dentists want to get out and start earning a living, not waste another year working crummy hours for peanuts in a residency), and the interview invitations I had hoped to receive from both programs came last week. The first is tomorrow afternoon (after what will probably be a fairly bloody surgery case in the morning--thanks, Murphy), and the second is next Thursday.
Once I complete those, I'm not sure how long I'll have to wait before hearing anything. Since these programs operate outside the Match, I'm hoping it won't be inappropriate to ask when I may expect to be contacted regarding acceptance. Once (/if) I'm accepted, all that's left to do is...
Graduate
This one I'm not as sure about. I'm still behind the curve thanks to all the time I spent away from school last summer. Speaking with advisors & faculty, everyone I've asked about my situation seems confident I'll graduate on time, and intellectually I know these people have seen enough nervous students graduate that I can probably trust what they're telling me, but that's not the same as having it in the bank. For now I'm just trying to avoid dwelling on the uncertainty.
I feel pretty good about my technical skill, and I like the progress I'm seeing in my mind's eye. I'm seeing more things ahead of time, adjusting my plans accordingly, and relying less on faculty to spot potential problem, than even a few months ago, and that's pretty exciting. All I have to do now is keep the ball rolling far & fast enough to get out the door May 13th.
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| More news-culling. |
[17 Oct 2006|10:18pm] |
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15305276/
Ouch. Moral of the story, kids, is that piercing your tongue is a bad idea for a number of reasons. As a future dentist with an office lease to pay, it's music to my ears; but as a human being interested in the well-being of others, it makes me wince.
I'm not familiar with the logistics of piercing, though, and one excerpt of the article in particular got my attention.
Fritch recommended people interested in tongue piercing see only professional, experienced piercers and use only “implant grade” metal jewelry. Good mouth hygiene while the tongue heals also is important, Fritch said.
When I hear "implant grade" metal, I'm thinking titanium. Do they even make body jewelry out of titanium? Or is it more likely the source misspoke and meant to say "surgical steel", a term I've often seen on jewelry? My credibility with pincushioned teenagers is on the line here.
As a final irrelevancy, I'm pleased that the author went to the trouble of finding a picture that diagrams at least the major branches of the trigeminal nerve (a major anatomic structure) with some degree of accuracy, rather than showing the ophthalmic nerve providing motor innervation to the pinky finger.
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| Eloi, Eloi, lawyer sabachthani? |
[17 Oct 2006|10:04pm] |
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15305033/
Harmful reactions to some of the most widely used medicines — from insulin to a common antibiotic — sent more than 700,000 Americans to emergency rooms each year, landmark government research shows. Accidental overdoses and allergic reactions to prescription drugs were the most frequent cause of serious illnesses, according to the study, the first to reveal the nationwide scope of the problem. People over 65 faced the greatest risks. “This is an important study because it reinforces the really substantial risks that there are in everyday use of drugs,” said patient safety specialist Bruce Lambert, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s college of pharmacy. Even so, the study authors and other experts agreed that the 700,000 estimate was conservative because bad drug reactions are likely often misdiagnosed.
The clear solution to this problem is lawsuits against everybody implicated.
1. The doctors prescribing all these drugs need to be sued. Even if the medications were properly prescribed & labeled. Child-proof lids & label instructions written at a fifth-grade reading level are entirely inadequate precautions.
2. The doctors at the emergency rooms patients go to after overdosing also need to be sued because, according to the article, bad drug reactions are likely often misdiagnosed. Imperfect outcomes are pathognomonic of bad medicine, so these doctors must be punished for their ineptitude.
3. The authors of this study necessitate legal action against themselves. By drawing conservative conclusions, they're leaving untold multitudes of patients out in the cold, and this clearly implicates them.
Are there any aspiring personal-injury lawyers, looking to make a name for themselves with a 700,000-plaintiff class action suit, reading this?
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| ... |
[16 Oct 2006|12:14pm] |
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mood |
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 aggravated |
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15287223/
The doctor who made the error works for an anesthesia practice that contracts with Methodist. The doctor has decades of experience and a good record, Stephan said. He did not release the doctor’s name.
Baise’s attorney, Nathaniel, said the physician’s good record was irrelevant.
“There are certain mistakes that you can’t make, that you shouldn’t make, regardless of your education, regardless of your training, and this is the kind of mistake that you shouldn’t make,” Lee said.
Thank God for personal injury lawyers and everything they do to improve all our lives.
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| On the newest member of The Club. |
[09 Oct 2006|07:21pm] |
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15199174/
“We invaded Iraq, the country that didn’t have weapons of mass destruction, and ignored Iran and North Korea, the two that did." - Sen. Bob Menendez, (D) New Jersey.
Compared to most political sound bites, this one mounts a pretty compelling case in the space of three seconds.
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| Exhaling. |
[23 Sep 2006|11:48pm] |
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mood |
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relieved as heck |
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music |
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Stone Sour - Through Glass |
] |
I think the exam today is a done deal. Woke up at 5:45, got to school at 7 to sign in & set up, started working at 9, and finished at about 3:30 with about an hour to spare. I think I'm pretty pleased with the results. I think everything I did today falls in the range of "good" to "very good", and to quote a friend of mine afterward, "I didn't have any 'oh, shit...' moments. I hate to jinx anything by saying so, but I feel pretty good about my performance. I'll be pretty surprised if I fail anything in the prosthodontics (crown & bridge) portion, and astonished if I fail the endodontics (root canals) portion. I'll find out in 2-3 weeks. The remediation exam is at Ohio State in December, and it sounds like several of my classmates are already planning to make the drive and pay the $800 retake fee.
With this hurdle out of the way, I can turn my attention to the next part of the licensure exam (a 400-item written test), the second half of my national board exam (another 400-question written test), getting on with graduation requirements, and matching to one of the GPR's here in town. A hero's work is never done. Thanks to everyone who wished me luck.
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| Gulp. |
[22 Sep 2006|09:46pm] |
| [ |
mood |
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just a shade nervous |
] |
Tomorrow I take the first part of my licensure examination. They rig up a dental model with a fake head, cheeks, etc., and in a little over seven hours we have to do two root canals, a crown preparation, and a bridge preparation.
This is a fairly significant Life EventTM that I'd very much like to take care of on the first attempt. Wish me luck, and to those of you so disposed, I'd ask you to say a quick prayer for me tomorrow if you happen to think of it.
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| Tipping Guidelines, courtesy of Militant Serviceworkers for a Better America |
[12 Sep 2006|09:07pm] |
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14801364/
Wow. All I can say in response is that any restaurant that charges me an automatic 20% "service fee" is a restaurant I'll never sit down in again. One line in particular caught my attention:
"I find it unacceptable for people not to know that the tipping rate is 20 percent."
The sources quoted in the article all seem to have a pretty clear bias. I think waiters & etc. have their heads in the clouds if if they expect customers to give them 20% just for showing up to work--and I say that married to a woman who spent nearly 1/3 of her life waiting tables at the local mom & pop diner. This is something I'd like to collect some opinions on. My default is 15% for adequate but unremarkable service, 10% for a job poorly done, and 20% for particularly good work. What's *your* rule of thumb for calculating, say, restaurant tips?
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| Requiem. |
[28 Aug 2006|07:25pm] |
|
...As it turns out, few things grab the attention like finding out through the local TV news that someone you know, such as a particularly favored teacher, died that afternoon in an airplane crash just a few miles from where you routinely treated patients under his supervision.
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| Elaboration. |
[27 Aug 2006|01:08am] |
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mood |
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tired |
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music |
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Stabbing Westward - Waking Up Beside You |
] |
OK, mea culpa. I've grown pretty negligent of my LJ recently, and I dislike that, but I have at least a partial excuse for the last couple weeks.
Zapped! Sometime during the afternoon of August 10, lightning struck a neighbor's home and surged across the street into our house. Once there, it discharged through the two nearest electrical outlets. The bad news? One of those outlets was in the living room powering all our home entertainment electronics, and the other was in my office powering all my computer stuff. The good news? Our homeowner's insurance agency has been extremely cooperative & helpful--after we took stock & gave them a list of damaged items, their instructions amounted essentially to "just buy whatever you need and send us the receipts"--and as a result we have a houseful of new electronics, some of which we had planned on replacing soon anyway, for the mere cost of a $500 insurance deductible. Considering a house not far from ours burned down from a lightning strike that same day, on balance we're definitely pleased with the way this has turned out.
"Bill Johnson, DDS": Monday morning starts my final year of dental school in earnest. The clinics have been open for patient care throughout the summer, but I literally spent more than half the available clinic time indisposed for one reason or another. As I mentioned before, I have three remaining items on my academic to-do list:
- Obtain a license (successfully complete a periodontal scaling, two fillings, a crown preparation, a bridge preparation, and two root canals to examiner satisfaction, plus a written exam)
- Graduate - (doing OK here, except that I'm getting nervous about the number of denture patients I still need to treat and the time left to do it)
- Match into a general practice residency (hereinafter GPR) (need to submit my Match application this week, then it's time to wait for interview invitations)
The overwhelming majority of students complete everything and get out of school into the real world on schedule, but it's an armful to juggle in the meantime. The encouraging flip side is that I'm beginning to really enjoy practicing dentistry. The learning curve is incredibly steep, but improvement seems to come quickly to those willing to work toward it. After one year of treating patients, I can do any given procedure in less than half the time I originally required, and to a higher degree of technical proficiency. I feel like last year was more about learning to work on a living person with a tongue, cheeks, a mind, and developing a comfort zone; having accomplished that to a certain extent, I'm looking forward to spending this remaining year concentrating less on obtaining those skills than on refining them, and consciously cultivating the clinical judgment, attention to detail, & mental intangibles that will enable me to stand on my own.
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| A diamond in the rough. |
[26 Aug 2006|01:20pm] |
| [ |
mood |
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grass-clipping-allergic |
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music |
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Casting Crowns - American Dream |
] |
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14504791/site/newsweek/page/3/
I don't care much for Newsweek on balance, but I found this article an interesting light read. It's about the growing dependence of our economy on easy credit, and where things may go from here now that the party's winding down.
In other news, I never got around to expanding on my last entry, but as I'll get to later today, I think this time I have a legitimate excuse. More to come.
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| Pending talking points: |
[03 Aug 2006|10:59am] |
| [ |
mood |
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travel-weary |
] |
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music |
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Ozzy Osbourne - Mama, I'm Coming Home |
] |
I don't have a lot of time at the moment--I haven't had much time to sit down since Memorial Day or so--so let me just jot a couple quick things down here to elaborate on later:
National Guard AT 2006: I've spent the last two weeks doing my National Guard annual training. As I write this, I have a year and nine days remaining in my enlistment. August 13, 2007 can't get here fast enough.
My to-do list for the coming school year: On the other hand, I'm afraid May 13 will be here entirely too quickly. My big picture to-do list for the coming year only has three items, but they're all doozies, and I'm worried nine months won't be enough time to scratch them all off.
Like I said, more later.
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aphistis's journal