emergency.

A few weeks ago, this piece was in the NY Times about emergency care and doctors being available 24/7. It seemed to spur a lot comments from the healthcare community – specifically about doctors giving out personal contact information.

I’ll admit I have this fear of going to an emergency department because I know it’d be ridiculously expensive. I also know, in most emergency rooms, if it’s not a real emergency (ie, I’m having trouble breathing or chest pains or something like that) – I’m most likely going to be sitting in the waiting room, which isn’t all that different from me sitting at home. Also, I don’t see the point of going to see someone about generic symptoms (headache, stomach ache, vomiting, dizziness) unless it persists for days.

However, being someone who doesn’t get sick very often, much less emergency sick, I really have very little knowledge about what to do when I do run into an issue. The emergency room is one place that I know is open, has doctors, and most likely will take my insurance. It requires not too much thought or research and it’s always an option. But wouldn’t it be great if people were more aware of urgent care centers and nurse hotlines? Seriously, nurse hotlines are the best thing. They’re very helpful in trying to determine if you actually have an emergency or if you can wait until Monday to see a doctor.

But let’s get back to having personal contact information for doctors. It’s a very split opinion. Would I love this as a patient? Yes. If I emailed or texted my doctor would I expect a response within at least a few hours? Yes. Do I recognize that it’s totally unreasonable to expect my doctor to be on-call all the time? Yes. Doctors deserve time off just like everyone else. And I know I don’t want to be checking my work email on the weekends. Another a major concern for doctors seems to be the liability that could go along with this kind of communication. What if they don’t get the message in a timely matter? What if something is difficult to communicate through email? It’s one of those things that as a patient and not a physician, I’m probably just really biased about how great this would be. I’ll just stick to not getting sick on weekends.

 

reads.

I haven’t written about books since last summer. This is partially because I went on a kick of reading really terrible chick lit romances and mystery crime thrillers. Let me just say – reading easy crime novels is a lot like watching Law and Order in book form. You already know how the book is going to go, there’s usually a pretty happy ending, and the plot moves really fast. But given that I read on my plane rides every week and almost every night and sometimes when I’m being lazy on the treadmill – I’ve been moving through books at a pretty good pace.

I read the entire series of The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel – which was essentially YA fantasy. It was quick but somewhat repetitive after 6 books. It was kinda like getting episode recaps constantly. I also read the entire Thursday Next series except the newest one that recently came out. This series was a lot better, but definitely lost steam by the sixth book too. Thursday is a pretty cool female heroine.

World War Z - This is my book of the year and the movie doesn’t look anything like it (disappointing). What I like about the book is it’s told documentary style. Little individual stories from around the world about how the zombie war started and progressed. It’s surprisingly less a book about zombies and much more about war and crisis and humans reactions to that. So good. I will recommend this book to everyone I know.

Ready Player One – I enjoyed this book a lot. It moved fast. It was kinda nerdy in the hipster nostalgic pop-culture way (not in the “I’m a real nerd” kind of way). But the storyline of people basically playing a real life game is pretty cool. And it reads really fast – I think I read it in two days.

Fast Food Nation – This book started out awesome discussing how fast food got it’s start. I felt like I was learning a lot about how fast took off, the people who started these restaurants that are now huge, and the curious bits about these chains (like franchising and crime and unions). Then it became pretty much what I expected. Deplorable meat industry, agriculture industry in general, obesity. I understand how the fast food industry helped all these along, but for half the book it felt a little preachy.

Foundation – How have I not read this before? No idea. But I definitely see why it’s one of THE science fiction books to read. It’s the kind of science fiction that really needs a suspension of disbelief (which I’m so good at) and it’s really an epic story. But it’s very unique. So if you already like science fiction and you haven’t read it, I’d recommend it.

routine.

I’ve pretty much completely settled into a routine at work. It’s a weird thing – to travel every week. And my routine is really really boring. Pretty much work for 10-11 hours, work out for an hour, get food and eat, read, sleep. But this helps me accomplish a few things.

1) Eat Right – I just can’t eat out all the time and feel good. This is especially difficult now because I have to eat out during the week, but then I want to try new restaurants in San Francisco too. So my routine mostly involves going to the grocery store to grab healthy snacks and frozen meals. It’s much better portion control than restaurant servings and I get to experiment with different eating habits. I’ve been trying high protein breakfasts and the “eat 5-6 small meals a day” routine and drink almost 2L of water a day. My next attempt is to try to cut down on carbs.

2) Stay Fit – Gyms in San Francisco are too expensive for me to join and then be gone every week. So I’m stuck with a routine of hotel fitness center exercising and yoga on Fridays. Ultimately this means I’m working on the running thing again. I still don’t think it’s very fun exercising but it gets the job done. It’d probably be better too if I could run outside rather than on a treadmill – but Seattle rain just makes that impossible.

3) Sleep enough – My sleep always get disturbed from sleeping in hotels. It usually takes at least one night to adjust, and even now I struggle with waking up a lot in the middle of the night. Plus I’m paranoid about oversleeping for some weird reason. So I go to bed pretty early and then wake up pretty early too.

It’s easy to see how I don’t really do much else during my work week. But it ends up making the hotel seem more like home, and then I don’t feel completely wiped out during the weekend.

plastic.

So I wrote about how San Francisco has made me super conscious of recycling and composting, and now I can add another thing to the list. Plastic bags. San Francisco recently banned plastic bags. Or I guess, they’re forcing stores to charge 10 cents per bag (paper or plastic) while restricting what kinds of plastic bags can be used. As the policy is still a bit new, I’m a bit torn for a few reasons.

No matter which way you slice it – it’s inconvenient for me. It ultimately forces me to constantly carry around a bag in case I might buy something bigger than my purse. Good thing I bought these a few years ago. Weirdly, this actually happens a lot. I’ll be out and realize that I need to buy shampoo or cereal or eggs. I guess maybe large purses are never going to go out of fashion now. Plus, everyone always talks about how reusable bags are so much bigger than plastic bags, so you need fewer. Not a fan of that argument. I’m not really strong enough to fill up a reusable bag with heavy things and still be able to carry it in any reasonable way for more than a block.

And now I need to buy garbage bags. I’ve always used my plastic bags from stores in place of large garbage bags. Mostly because I always have them and it makes me take out the trash more. If I used the 13 gallon trash bags, I wouldn’t take out the trash for a month and it would be gross.

Lastly, the 10 cent charge gives off a really weird vibe. When the cashier asks “Do you want a bag? It’ll be a 10 cent charge” – it just feels like bad service. Like airline fees. Like this article says – if you spend a whole bunch of money at a store, do you really want them to ask you to pay for a bag on top of it? Maybe that’s just because the fee is new and they have to tell people about it up front. So eventually they can just say “do you want a bag?” and not explicitly state the charge. I doubt it though with all the tourists the come through – someone’s always going to need to be told.

Then as a customer, I’m thinking “it’s only 10 cents”. I actually feel totally petty saying I don’t want to pay an extra dime or two. Especially when I can clearly afford it as I already live in this expensive city. I know that’s just in my head. And it actually does work as a deterrent as I rarely accept a bag if I don’t need it. But it still makes me feel weird about it. Don’t like that.

secure.

This is really just a rant because I had a bad day on Wednesday.

I attempted to set up my work email on my phone. I guess security of email for the organization I work with is really important because in order to set up the email, I had to encrypt my phone. I don’t even know what this means, except I gathered that I had to change to a more secure unlock method (password or pin) and a password to get into this email. Plus, my phone had to be at at least 80% battery in order to spend at least an hour encrypting. OK, at that point, I’m giving up. I’ll just deal with no email on the phone. Work life balance, right?

Except, now that I’ve started this process, I’m no longer allowed to switch my unlock method back to pattern swipe. Yep. Apparently it’s possible to get locked out of certain functions on your own phone. So logically, I delete the email account. Delete the device administrator account. Restart the phone. Nothing. I’m stuck unlocking my phone with a pin instead of a swipe pattern. And after many google searches online, it seems to the only way to fix this is a factory reset. What?! That’s pretty much the WORST THING EVER. Lesson learned: never encrypt your phone.

I reset the phone. First step is logging into my Google account because everything on Android seems to be tied to that. Except my free apps which I have to download and set up again. Ok, problem. I set up Google 2 step verification a few weeks ago. Let me tell you – HUGE pain. And in this case, I can’t log into my phone until I verify the device. Which means Google needs to text me the code or voicemail it to me. Which I can’t access because I can’t log into my phone. And I have no second backup phone because who has two phones? And why when I click the link for “I don’t have access to my phone” do you just tell me that I should have set up a backup (well, duh) or possibly Google emailed me one time use codes (that away from my personal computer, I also could not login to see). Worst experience ever.

Here’s my big gripe. I turned on 2 step verification because it’s suppose to be more secure. Awesome, I’m all for that. I don’t want to have a “I got hacked” story. Except it didn’t occur to me that this really just means you have to enter TWO passwords any time you log into a new computer/device. And one of those passwords, you have to look up every single time on your phone. And that this in general really really sucks because phones are now too big for me to comfortably keep in my pocket ALL THE TIME. I also don’t always have pockets. So much frustration in one night.

time warp.

Movie watching has gone downhill a bit. I’ve been spending most of my time working through Breaking Bad (still) and re-watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer (which is amazing).

Looper – Went to see this the other night. I think time travel movies are fun because I don’t think hard enough to find the inevitable loopholes that are there. But upon thinking about it afterward, my biggest problem with the movie is that Bruce Willis’s character’s motive is so bad. I realize that you can’t want both Willis and Gordon-Levitt to “win”, but still. The future in this movie was totally lacking any worthwhile details.

My Week with Marilyn – I watched this movie on a plane, when I realized I had another three hours to kill. And I liked it. I think Michelle Williams did a fantastic job. But I’m pretty sure if this movie were any longer than the 1.5 hours, it would have felt repetitive.

galaxy.

It was time to get a new phone. It’s been almost 2.5 years. A discount from Sprint combined with reaching the 400MB memory limit of my HTC Evo Shift – upgrading was in order. I really loved my Evo Shift – great size, slide keyboard, nothing too fancy. And now the market only has these huge phones, with no keyboard, and cool stuff I don’t even know about. For someone who types and looks up directions on my phone, the iPhone 5 not terribly exciting. Unless Apple maps counts as a reason to switch?

So Samsung Galaxy S3 it was. Because if all phones are going to cost me $100+, I might as well get the best version so I don’t run into basic issues with battery and memory. It’s taken me a good chunk of the 5 days + major Googling of questions to get it set up working how I want. Here’s my current list of gripes:

1. The screen turns on when I get a text message – this is in addition to notification in the status bar and the sound I have it play. It also turns on in the middle of the night and I’m not sure why.
2. The snooze on the alarm doesn’t work. This doesn’t seem to be a consistent problem, but it doesn’t work for me. This was quite annoying for work this week.
3. I can’t set it to only give me email notifications if it’s an “Important” email…unless I also set my default Inbox to my Priority Inbox.
4. I turn on sound notification for chat messages, so I can chat with people at work. But I don’t want it to continue to beep with every message if I’m actively in the app. So much beeping. Also, LED notification is too bright at night.
5. WiFi notification randomly turns on throughout the day, even if I think I’ve turned it off. Why?
6. Who wants ringtones with animal and nature noises?

It’s a bit funny that notifications seem like a tiny little aspect of the phone – something not even worth mentioning. But in terms of actual use – being able to control sound, lights and status bar notifications is huge. I feel like either I’m getting overloaded with notifications or I’m not being notified for the important things. I guess this just happens when you switch phones.

recycle.

I spend a lot of time in the Seattle area for work.

One of the weirdest areas I’ve noticed a change is in how I throw out trash, or rather how I feel about throwing things in the trash. Who even thinks about that, right? See, San Francisco passed a law a few years back that called for mandatory separation of recyclables and compostables. And the prevalence of bins for compost and recycling makes it so you hardly have to think about it. Sometimes it’s even easier to find those than regular trash cans. On top of that, glass, paper and plastics can all go into the same bin. Even better – by plastic they mean any of the numbers - no more checking the bottom of your plastic containers or taking off the caps on bottles.  Most bins even have handy pictures on them to indicate what can and cannot go in them. My apartment came with a handy little compost bin that I can keep by the sink. And the city picks up compost like they do trash and recycling.

It’s pretty amazing to me how much garbage can be diverted from landfills and such.

But here in Seattle, I’m just not sure what to do. My office building only gives us individual trash cans, and a bin for recycling paper (which I really think is more for documents that need to be shredded). What am I suppose to do with my plastic bottles? What am I suppose to do with the compostable lunch take-out containers? I just feel bad that I’m putting them in the trash! Talk about habit changing.

breaking bad.

One of the reasons I love Netflix Instant is so that I can watch TV shows straight through. I can’t even remember the last TV show that I actually watched on TV, waiting from week to week for each episode. And a whole year of not working meant I actually sat down and watched a lot of TV. Which is probably a topic for another post.

But anyway, the boyfriend and I are currently powering through Breaking Bad. I just can’t handle reading the hype every time the season premier or finale comes around – or rather avoiding the hype because I may watch the show eventually. So we’re finally doing it. Or rather, we’re trying for the THIRD time to get through it. Part-way through season 3 and it’s just gotten to the point where I think I want to watch it when I’m not doing anything else.

Because, let’s be honest, season 1 was slow as molasses up until the last two episodes and season 2 would be unmemorable if I hadn’t just watched it in the last couple weeks. And now that I’ve invested so much time, it’s at the point where I should just stick it out.

Chuck Klosterman wrote a great piece on why Breaking Bad is great. He says:

The central question on Breaking Bad is this: What makes a man “bad” — his actions, his motives, or his conscious decision to be a bad person? Judging from the trajectory of its first three seasons, Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan believes the answer is option No. 3. So what we see in Breaking Bad is a person who started as one type of human and decides to become something different. And because this is television — because we were introduced to this man in a way that made him impossible to dislike, and because we experience TV through whichever character we understand the most — the audience is placed in the curious position of continuing to root for an individual who’s no longer good.

While I love that the show is about Walt’s transformation into a bad person, I cannot get behind the fact that he’s a likeable guy. Because I think he’s not. I think Walt’s arrogant, stubborn, resentful, unappreciative, with bottled up emotions. What exactly makes him likeable? I find myself siding with all the other characters – his wife, his son, his drug dealing partner – but I never seem to be on Walt’s side. And it’s hard to love a show where you aren’t all that invested in what happens to the main character.

ceo.

Marissa Mayer just became Yahoo’s new CEO. Just another female, C-level exec in the tech industry. Would seem like old news following Sheryl Sandberg. But Mayer is special because she is pregnant with her first child due in October. So pregnant female CEO. It’s a big deal – to a lot of people. As CNET puts it, she “ is a new breed of woman in technology and business and — as a pregnant CEO — a role model of the highest order”.

Penelope Trunk, however, had a different opinion. And I love Trunk’s females and work (despite that she seems crazy sometimes). She says,

“Why do we celebrate Mayer’s decision? Why does Mayer fight for all women? You know why people don’t like to hire pregnant women? Because it is completely normal to have a new baby and be so consumed by the new baby that you divert lots of energy to that baby. In fact, it would be abnormal to not divert a significant amount of energy to a new baby.

So why do we celebrate women who are aberrations? Clearly only a minority of women could even dream of making the choice to take two weeks maternity leave when they have enough resources to take much more. Her decision is an anomalous decision.”

Holy cow. Two weeks maternity leave. Only two weeks off when the first child is BORN – which is probably one of the biggest events in both their lives. That’s like the holidays in December. Or “I got really sick with the flu, possibly mono”. At least in my opinion, that doesn’t even count as a maternity leave. Not to even think about any complications (for mom or baby) that could arise. That’s crazy to me.

CNET included a video in their article – it’s Mayer talking about women in tech. And about halfway through, she’s discussing how she thinks burnout is a result of resentment. Specifically, your job causing you to miss other parts of your life. Now here she is – about to be a new mother and taking on a job, which we can all agree, will have crazy hours.  So I wonder, how much will Mayer feel she’s missing out on in her child’s life? And if she doesn’t feel like she’s missing out on anything – why choose to have a kid you never see? Or maybe she really will be able to “do it all”? (cough, doubtful)

Extra: this article was also good, though not at all focused on Mayer being a female and therefore not connected to this post much at all.