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Paul's Journal

paul
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12/06/2007 11:38 #42414

Does this make you feel safe or scared
Category: work
I got his email this morning. Am I really supposed to be afraid to walk home everyday. The last three are the worst. What about (e:tinypliny), how do you feel?

As we approach the holiday season, the following habits and practices can help to make our work environment safe and secure.

1. Avoid bringing large sums of cash or other valuables to work.
2. Try to keep items of value and wallets or purses with you or in a secure, locked location.
3. When leaving your office or work area unoccupied, lock the doors.
4. Keep track of keys. Be careful not to leave keys unattended and in view of anyone who passes by.
5. Contact the Safety and Security Department, ext. 3069, if you or a colleague sees a suspicious individual or anyone you do not recognize or does not have an identification badge.
6. Use caution when traveling outside.
7. Be aware of your surroundings and individuals in close proximity.
8. Use Roswell Park designated parking areas and the shuttle, whenever possible.
9. Use indoor routes through the campus when traveling alone.
10. Travel in groups.
11. Avoid walking outside alone, particularly on the perimeter of the campus, if at all possible. If that is not possible, then contact Security at ext. 3069 for an escort.


When we practice these common sense habits, we not only create a secure environment for ourselves, but also for our patients and their families.
leetee - 12/06/07 23:25
isn't there a line you can transfer onto the Elmwood from, (e:Libertad)?
jim - 12/06/07 23:23
How'd it go today?
libertad - 12/06/07 22:55
So far I have actually felt pretty safe walking by myself to the bus stop on Elmwood. Probably because it is so freaking cold and rainy when I have gotten the bus that would be muggers aren't even out. Maybe I can call security and they can take me to Elmwood to catch my bus?? It would be nice if they had a shuttle that hit key public transportation hot-spots instead of just taking all the fat asses to their cars.
metalpeter - 12/06/07 18:55
During the holiday season there are more people who are hard up for cash, plus people with gifts make easy targets. I don't have crime stats but certain ones do go up around this time. This on top of the fact that the area around the hospital is allready not so safe to be honest. That is why they sent the list I assume. The day that I took pictures of roswell and other places some dude came out of no place and was trying to sell me drugs or maybe he wanted drugs. That was on main st. Now if that guy just wanted money I would have been stabed before I heard him. I hear people most of the time but not this time. I think the main thing that they are trying to say is to be carefull and to be safe and pay attention and remember that you are in a crime filled hood. They might be trying to scare you a little bit so you stay safe, not sure.
mrdeadlier - 12/06/07 12:32
I'm keeping my mouth shut because anything I say is bound to be misconstrued.

12/05/2007 18:49 #42409

Two Years Of This Roswell Job
Category: work
Working At Roswell Park For Two Years
And frankly, I still love it. Today was my two year anniversary at Roswell. I probably would have quit 2 years ago if I had to go in at 8:30 every morning like the ad for the job had said. It almost made me not apply. Besides the fact that it is doing what I enjoy doing most, that it is extremely challenging, that it pays well and that the people are great - I think the flexible schedule is still the most important part for me.

I just don't function as well at 8:00am as I do at 10:00am no matter what time I go to bed. Maybe if we lived in a sunnier climate but getting up in the cold winter dark kills me. Check out this journal from my first day (e:paul,32382) and this day last year (e:paul,32845). On a side note I noticed I was complaining about my migraines here and had five in one month (e:paul,32844). Look how cell phone image shave changed - check out this journal from 12/05/04 (e:paul,31479)

Here, I would like to thank Del Reid (e:mrdeadlier) for choosing me as an employee and letting me come in later.

My only regret so far was not be able to convince (e:jim) that it was worth staying ;(

Insuring my health
I would much rather buy health assurance but its better than nothing. I got a doctor's appointment for tomorrow at 3:45PM!!

Community Blue!
I also went to the health benefits fair for my union today and I changed (e:matthew) and I's health insurance to Community Blue so we could just cut out all this referral crap. Did you know that you didn't need a referral with community blue in order to see a doctor.

Back To Talking about Work
Below are some of the web things I created and/or worked on during my time at roswell. In additional I did about 100 million other things which can't be shown as a pictures, such as fixing other code, setting up and administering servers, creating tons of reusable code for the team through surebert toolkit and framework, integrating with other systems and even creating multimedia CDs.

Surebert javascript toolkit which you guys know about - I designed this and coded the toolkit/site
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An online signature program for captures users signatures on the web for extra security and verification.
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Yroswell, a blogging site for generation Y kids who want to be in medicine or science when they grow up? This site took up a lot of time. It is similar to estrip but they made it difficult by consistently changing their mind about what it should do and how it should look. In its short life span they have already had me do two major redesigns of look and feature sets.

My only regret is that I couldn't have been in charge of the design and feature set of this. I think I could have done so much more by making a functional design that fed off of more live data and was more engaging, less reliant on images, no drop downs, better, more functional chat, more social networking fun, etc.

This is the front page. I seriously can't stand the top right area or the drop downs. I think the rest of it could work. But the chat and blog-a-thon buttons are so blah and the drops are not very useful.
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And here is a look at the blogging part which I think was much better designed. (e:enknot) where are my users icons!
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gather which you guys have seen was for sharing file. The new version will be part of the intranet which I am in charge of re-designing and programming as my next big task.
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The employee evaluation system for all the employees in there million positions and unions. I did design this and program it.
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A PHP backend Framework that uses a presentation gateway to communicate between front end surebert javascript and backend surebert php
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A code sharing site for us to never use. designed and programmed
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A dermatology skin viewer that lets you upload, manipulate (contrast, brightness, saturation) and notate right from the site. This is still on hold for some reason. Designed and programmed
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I built a CMS that replaced a whole bunch of our hand coded satellite sites. Note - I did not design the look for some of these. - like Ride For Roswell and Carly's Club.

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lilho - 12/06/07 14:37
you are the craziest web genius ever, and kinda my hero in that way. seriously i need to come back to blo so you can just be my mentor.
mrdeadlier - 12/06/07 11:30
lol, I swear I didn't read this post before I congratulated you belatedly today
leetee - 12/06/07 10:28
wow... 2 years... where does the time go? seems like you just started there. but i'm old, time goes faster for us old farts.

congrats on your anniversary and for all the hard work you have done. :)
james - 12/05/07 22:05
My only regret is that Jim has not become a multi-billionaire and pay you handsomely to work on estrip and other projects.

Happy anniversary.
jim - 12/05/07 20:53
Congrats on the anniversary, Paul!
paul - 12/05/07 19:19
I think maybe you were hearing about yroswell? They have some upcoming sports tie in with a hockey player I think.
metalpeter - 12/05/07 19:15
First of all it seems like less then 2 years to me. Congratulations on making it this far. You should do something to celebrate even if it is nothing big where you just sit around and not do anything and be happy that you are there for 2 years.

Secondly I do have a roswell question. I read some article about them having a part or divisions that are for kids with cancer but can't remember what it is called. What is it called (or all of them if there are mulitple ones)? And does it have its own website? The article I read had some sports tie in but didn't list any web sites.

In terms of your last post I have a theory about your stomach, neck, shoulder stuff, just an idea. Often stress can cause stomach problems. I don't mean if you mean your real stomach or what most people call there stomach and is really there intestines or gut. For a couple weeks I had a problem with my "stomache" not the organ and once I added food the pain went away but it wasn't hunger and it went away on its own. The neck shoulder thing could be from repetive motion and could be that kind of injury. But It could also be from typing at home or laying in some bad posture position. Both things could be making each other worse from stress or from causing you to do something you wouldn't normally do. It could also be from the cold. If you walk to work slipping and sliding on the ice can through off your body alignment. It has happened to me. I'll slip and my lower body will slide and my shoulders won't move with the rest of me and it takes all the force or at least enough so it hurts all day. Just because you do something and feel comfortable doesn't mean it is good for you. I will use myself as an example. Sometime I have this way of neeling that feels nice but what happens is it makes my feet fall asleep and even kinda my lower legs sometimes and then it is a real bitch to get up. But when I'm on the ground watching tv or what ever it feels good, untill I have to get up. I hope you are able to find the cause of what is making you ill and then you can change things so that you don't have these problems.

12/04/2007 21:44 #42396

Pretty sure I am going to die
Category: health
I have this horrible feeling I am going to die soon. Could be the return of the migraine or the non-stomach stomach pain or the shoulder pain or all of it combined. Feeling sick all the time is really, really bad. If this turns out to be some long term I feel like this for the rest of my life thing, I don't know if I can handle it.

It's like all this skeletal pain mixed with intestinal pain.

I can't figure it out. Nothing particular makes me sick when I eat. Actually, the eating part is good, as is after. It is the when I have not eaten part that is really bad. My intestines get all bloated and my stomach starts making crazy noises. Between that and the noise my neck/shouler make now - I sound so broken.

I have finally made a doctors appointment with my cousin who is a gastrointestinal specialist for next week. I wish it was tomorrow, but tomorrow I am busy with the dumbness that is my life. I decided to forgo the primary care physician with the hope he can suggest one. I seriously just can't wait anymore. I am sure that will mean the stupid health insurance will not cover my visit but maybe it will because I went to him before. If it doesn't I am going to switch to another company just out of spite.

What is it going to be? What, and how did I go from feeling relatively fine to totally broken so fast. Could it be a lack of Vitamin D from my almost zero sun exposure this year?

This is interesting . I guess I shoulod be fit considering I walk "30 minutes a day, five days a week" I don't feel fit.

I have all these pictures I want to post but I can't move my head around enough to go get the camera.
jenks - 12/04/07 23:37
Visco power will save you!!

And seriously- if he doesn't help, go ahead and abuse the system and go to the ER. Seriously, if it takes 3 months to see a freaking primary care doc, then the ER deserves to be over-run.
mike - 12/04/07 23:04
don't die during the holidays , it will forever spoil them for me. Hopefully the specialist will be able to help you.
fellyconnelly - 12/04/07 22:39
please dont die paul.
also.... feel better.
thnx
imk2 - 12/04/07 22:23
your primary care doctor is able to give you a referral to this doctor even after you've seen him. mine has done that. they can post date it.
james - 12/04/07 21:58
Mushrooms are the only plant source for vitamin D. A little fact I learned ten minutes before you posted this. You see, it is synchronicity! The gods want you to feel better.

Feel better Paul.

12/04/2007 10:13 #42391

Does this seem like advanced Java, lol?
Category: programming
Still sitting in java class. I swear this is as procedural as it gets. I followed the instructions exactly.

package lab_04c;

/**
 *
 * @author visco
 */
public class Main {

    /**
     * @param args the command line arguments
     */
    public static void main(String[] args) {
       
        System.out.println("Student Score Grade");
         
        int[] scores = {76,91,80,55,71,98,70,88,69,60};
        String[] names = {
            "Suzie Q",
            "Peggy Forsnacht",
            "Boy George",
            "Flea",
            "Captain Hook",
            "Nelson Mandela",
            "he Might Thor",
            "Oedipa Maas",
            "Uncle Sam",
            "The Tick"};

        String[] grades = new String[scores.length];
        System.out.println("Name	Grade	Score");

        for(int x=0;x<scores.length;x++){
            
            int score = scores[x];
            String grade = "";
            
            if(score < 60){
                grade = "F";
            } else if (score < 70){
                grade = "D";
            } else if (score < 80){
                grade = "C";
            } else if (score < 90){
                grade = "B";
            } else {
                grade = "A";
            }
            grades[x] = grade;
            
            System.out.println(names[x]+"	"+score+"	"+grade);
            
        }
        
        String[] possibleGrades = {"A", "B", "C", "D", "F"};
        int[] frequency = {0,0,0,0,0};
        double total=0;
        
        Student: for(int student=0;student<scores.length;student++){
           Grades: for(int g=0;g<possibleGrades.length;g++){
               if(grades[student] == possibleGrades[g]){
                   frequency[g]++;
               }
           }
           
           total += scores[student];
        }
        
        System.out.println("
Statistics:");
       
        for(int g=0;g<possibleGrades.length;g++){
            System.out.println("Total "+possibleGrades[g]+"s: "+frequency[g]);
        } 

        System.out.println("
The mean score was : "+(total/scores.length));
    }

}

jbeatty - 12/04/07 21:42
Seems pretty advanced to me!
carolinian - 12/04/07 13:40
I'd say that PHP's array_push($myArray, $myValue) is about procedural as it gets.

Though the above java code runs a close second.
paul - 12/04/07 10:20
I am doing the optional labs now, they a more interesting. Compressing RNA sequences with bit shifting. I swear it sounds sexier than it is.

12/02/2007 21:13 #42365

I am not joining facebook ever
Category: facebook
I was really surprised to get this AIM message from Zack Schneider today. I assume it was some auto-generated bullshit from facebook. I extra especially would not be interested in facebook considering the latest developments with privacy issues and it clear involvement in the excesses advertising world, puke -

image

I am probably never joining another keep track of my friend and keep a journal, picture gallery kind of thing ever again. If there is some feature I really need I will just make it for myself here or I don't really need it.

I made it this far and I really just don't see any reason to spread myself any thinner than I already am. Especially considering that I am not looking to network for a job or lover and there is no one I don't talk have contact with that I really am interested in ever talking to except maybe my friend Yvonne in Germany who I never manage to talk to.


jbeatty - 12/04/07 19:53
I'm kinda digging facebook. I just started using my account this week and one person I haven't seen in 9 years and one I haven't seen in 7 contacted me. So it's nice to have in order to find people that I normally wouldn't know how to get in touch with.
ajay - 12/04/07 18:12
Where else can I meet hot chicks but on Facebook?
paul - 12/04/07 16:29
I definitely wasn't comparing, they are totally different in scale and purpose as you pointed out. I was just saying I wouldn't join facebook with all its recent privacy issues. Rest assured estrip does not care what you buy when you are online and leaves it up to you to tell your friends and family.
scott - 12/04/07 16:01
Facebook has it's place. It's in no way a blogging site like (e:strip). However, it does a very good job of helping contact old friends, and has lots of time-wasting games and crap.

To compare Facebook and (E:strip) is pointless, as the two sites are completely different in purpose and design. The only common ground I see is they both take members and the both allow pictures.

So, I like facebook for what it's good at, locating old friends and spitting out trivia quizzes. I like (e:strip) for discussion.

If I were looking for social networking, I'd look to neither website, as no website can replace real human interaction and conversation.
metalpeter - 12/03/07 16:51
I have never used face book my self. But from what I know of it, it was a great idea. Notice I said was. First of all you had to have and edu adress meaning you had to be at a college or university. I think that is where it should have stayed. From what I read it was a pretty good way to meet people from school or find someone in your class who had the notes you missed or interact how ever or keep in touch with friends who went to different schools. I'm guessing the people who ran it at sometime decided they wanted to be more like myspace and that is a bad idea.
fellyconnelly - 12/03/07 06:38
estrip rules, facebook drools!

no really i hate them too.. good job for standing your ground. speaking of which i should probably check mine....
lilho - 12/02/07 23:30
yea, facebook kinda sucks. go (e:strip)!
james - 12/02/07 21:43
alright dinosaur Paul. But when people stop having real friends and only have digital friends you are going to be a lonely, lonely man... just like everyone else.