Jenks's Journal

12/14/2009 18:43 #50553

Ok, WTF?!

More collegiate murder-mystery for Tiny...

So today I got an email from my dad, entitled "WTF?"

The message was a picture of an article he came across when reading one of his medical journals-
About how a surgeon I knew in med school had been murdered.

It said his body was found, stabbed to death, in his apartment, when the police responded to a call from neighbors about a fire.

I.e. someone stabbed him to death, then lit the place on fire to hide the evidence.

And just to add to the horribleness of it-
He was found 10/31.
A brief google search revealed no info newer than 11/5.

WTF have the NOPD been doing for the last month?

Also, I have no heard a peep about this from Tulane.

At least when people were murdered on the Yale campus, then sent out an email blast press release. And it was in the news daily, with udpates, or lack thereof.

Is this crime less newsworthy?
Or is Tulane just not as "worthy" of news coverage as Yale?

Dad had it right: WTF!

dimartiste - 12/28/09 16:10
Had you been in touch with him before his murder? It seems like such a strange thing that evil could be one person away or around the next corner. My condolences on your loss.

Congrats on practicing medicine! Might sound strange but I just read your post. Tough stuff medicine. What is your PhD in? If you don't mind my asking. I was torn between art and medicine. Art won. I still have medicinal interests. Why not practicing now? or is both the research and the PhD taking priority?

Any word from his family? or any other updates?

tinypliny - 12/17/09 17:39
Did practice for slightly more than a year after I graduated but I deviated slowly towards research and didn't specialize. I am taking a break for this PhD. I sometimes miss it and maybe will go back to practice and research when I finish. Not very clear about the future at this point, though.

:::link::: <- that's my school.

jenks - 12/17/09 17:10
I never knew that! Was in here, or in India? Did/will you ever practice?

tinypliny - 12/17/09 16:25
Yes and yes.

jenks - 12/17/09 16:23
crap tiny, that super-sucks!
(and, you went to med school?)

tinypliny - 12/16/09 19:30
A classmate at my med school was burnt to death along with his car. Police later found out he was murdered, and then burnt along with his car. They never solved the crime. It was so creepy and I knew him so well...

dimartiste - 12/14/09 19:45
Any loss of life should be newsworthy, but the news and I have disagreed most of my adult life. I think that the positive and negative need a balance. I will look forward to an update as you get it. I have to check on one that happened, Did you hear about the Sweat Lodge Deaths? I would have to check my email for the link. There has not been an upate there either. It could be a leads issue. I watch too much Law & Order, NCIS, CSI, SVU, and Cold Case Files. We all want the end of the book or else we would not be a captive audience!

12/10/2009 18:08 #50534

yada yada (cute/gross pix)

Just to keep the bad stuff so you have to scroll to it, I will start with the latest adorable picture of my niece. (To which I commented "now she has a rocking sheep too?" and my sister replied "no. We were at Pottery Barn Kids. But I think they're on to us- we just play with all their stuff then leave." ha!)

And, what else.
Well, I went to the conference on Friday, and I gave my presentation, and (of course) it went just fine. I was able to answer all my questions. And my cutie-pie dad came all the way to the meeting, and walked around on crutches all day [he had both knees replaced a month ago] just to support me. (maybe not 'just' to support me. He might have learned some stuff too, hopefully.) And, he bought me a ridiculously overpriced super nerd present from the vendor too. (A little 3-in-1 two-point discriminator, goniometer, and penlight. Yeah, I know you're jealous.) So... that went well. Then when I got back into town friday night, we went to see a super fun swing band, and watching the couples who REALLY know how to dance made me really want to learn. They were having so much fun. So, that's on my list.

Sunday went to get a christmas tree... trekked out to a tree farm in the boonies... kneeled in the snow/mud to cut it down... drove home at about 5mph b/c we were afraid it would blow off the roof of the car... and finally put it up. And- it's now thursday and I only have half the lights up. Ack. (so, "decorate tree" is still on the list, along with "buy presents", "make cookies", "send christmas cards" and "tell mom a few things I'd like so she will stop asking". I'd better get cracking!)

Then yesterday it snowed for the first time. Only a couple inches, totally no big deal. I went to drive in to work, and OMFG it was the worst drive to work I've ever had! I don't get it! I figured after 5 years in buffalo with no trouble (in my little MINI, with NO snow tires, I only got stuck once- and that was in my own driveway during the october storm) that 2 inches of new england snow was no biggie. Well, I had ZERO traction, and my traction-control kept kicking in, so I could not get ANY speed, and was going so slow I was probably dangerous. Even though I had the gas floored. WTF?! Maybe I need snow tires. It WAS wet snow, maybe it was extra slippery? Dunno.

But so I was on call yesterday. Bad timing. I was in the OR all morning, and by the time I got out I had about 4 messages from the ER. And a message from the resident who sounded a little overwhelmed. By the time I met him in the ER it was about noon, and he was trying to handle SEVEN snowblower injuries.

WHAT THE FUCK, PEOPLE?
"don't stick your hand in the snowblower" is not fucking rocket science!!! By the end of today the grand total of mangled hands seen was ten.

And here's the gross pic. This is how I spent about 5hr (in the OR) yesterday afternoon. [sadly, the fingers were too mangled to re-attach. And that stringy thing is a tendon. I don't have a pic, but the fingers are in another bucket, with more tendons trailing out of them like that.]

(picture removed for decency's sake)

metalpeter - 12/14/09 18:34
I flew past the picture cause I didn't want to see it. In fact we where talking a little bit about this Journal last night at the estrip pot luck. I Think I said something along the lines of if there where no identifying marks then it would be ok because it doesn't breach confidentlity. I also said that If I was asked about the picture being posted I would say yes. But if I found the picture on line and wasn't asked and the picture was snuck then I would be upset. But that is just me, I say keep it up as a warning to others.

tinypliny - 12/11/09 16:48
ooohh, and I was just reading something about prostheses in Science/Nature (I forget) but they were discussing the possibility of a chip controlled prostheses that would receive precisely controlled input from human nervous electrical charge (further up from the prosthesis or directly from the spinal cord segment controlling the appendage) and transmit them to the prosthesis - basically doing what the human body does.

The day that becomes commercial, the humanoid robot may not be a thing from fiction and amputees need not think it's the end of the world (and you will be aided by computer scientists - possibly in the OR, to determined personalized patient voltages and other patient-specific characteristics!)

tinypliny - 12/11/09 16:43
Nice to hear the follow-up to the surgery. I think your specialization is so cool. :-)

PS: Weren't you the one agonizing over lack of readers? Well... now you know what gets you vocal readers here. Hahaha

jenks - 12/11/09 16:31
wow! lotsa comments.
To respond-

@Tiny- yes, I agree. Losing hand function is devastating, which is why fixing it is so satisfying. And single finger prostheses are not very common, b/c they are considered cosmetic, and are very expensive (and not often covered by insurance). That said- the silicone cosmetic prostheses they make now are INCREDIBLE. Totally realistic (but not functional). They DO make really amazing functional hand prostheses now. don't look much like real hands, but they MOVE and work. They have ones that hook up to nerves and everything. super cool.

@Dcoffee - are you kidding, or does your snowblower seriously have a cartoon of fingers getting cut off? If so, that is AWESOME. And yes, 2-3 finger hands do really well. this guy will have a thumb and ring/little- he should do fine, once the shock wears off and he makes it through rehab.

@jbeatty- I don't think mower accidents are as common, b/c I think when they're off, they're OFF. Unlike snowblowers. At least, I certainly hope they are.

@drew- that's what I'm saying. My car throttles down so much to prevent spinning, that even when I floored the gas, it wouldn't go any faster than about 5mph b/c anything more would just spin.

@Lauren- that picture was taken in the OR, before we got started. I just took it with my phone while waiting.

And finally, @Jim- lol.

And to clarify-
this guy lost his index/middle fingers. In that pic the ring finger is there, but it's flexed. the thumb and ring were all busted too, but we fixed them. So he should end up with a pretty good thumb, and ring/little to work with, which should do pretty well.

jim - 12/11/09 16:15
Drew: Speed is like violence, if it's not working yet you need more of it.

drew - 12/11/09 15:37
@Lauren, I think technically, thrower is more accurate.

@Jim, REALLY?

jim - 12/11/09 11:01
I disagree Drew, when in doubt floor it.

lauren - 12/11/09 10:59
random, but related question. i hear often enough in Buffalo "snowTHROWER" as opposed (?) to snowblower. At least, I thought I did, but none of you said it. Course, I don't think there are too many native Buffalonians in this crowd. Hmm.

Seriously though Jenks, how did you manage to take this picture?? :)

drew - 12/11/09 01:21
If you are driving in slick conditions and you floor it, you will not go any faster. You will in fact go slower because you will lose more and more traction, and you will create more and more ice beneath you.

theecarey - 12/10/09 22:42
(e:vincent) I can't think of the kids name, other than a nickname a few of us (Janelle R. and Mike R.) had for him- "meatball". He lived on my street.. Mark, maybe? Is that the kid you are talking about? Funny if it is because anytime I hear of anyone's fingers or toes being cut off, I think of him. That story stayed with me (never saw his foot, or lack of..)always. And the image of his flopping sneaker!

vincent - 12/10/09 22:34
Yikes is all I say say as I can't believe I actually scrolled down to take a look as I'm squeamish.

I remember as a kid there was someone with whom I played baseball with who had 1/2 of a foot. The story was that as a kid he was mowing the lawn barefoot and something or another happened. It was just weird to see his run as his sneaker would just fold in half. Later on I guess he got a prosthetic but it's still something that stuck with me.

jbeatty - 12/10/09 22:22
Wow, that is a crazy picture. I know a guy who was/is a really great bass player who lost his fingertips doing that. It's a shame that guy lost half of his hand. I'll bet you can wait for the first day of mowing season.

dcoffee - 12/10/09 22:05
ok maybe I will sell my snowblower after all. I never use the thing. Seems pointless, we only use about 1/3 of the driveway for the car. I'm young, I can spare the 20 minutes.

Now that kinda makes me freaked out. First I laughed at the warning picture of the poor stick figure guy getting his fingers thrown out the top. I promise Jenks I will never stick my hand or foot or anything living in a snowblower.

To make you feel better, my father in law is missing parts of 3 fingers, and he's the craftiest dude I know, using his thumb and pinky to build stuff you could live in.

tinypliny - 12/10/09 21:58
AAAAgrh, grammar.

they have
might potentially work

tinypliny - 12/10/09 21:57
Do they prosthetic fingers nowadays? At least everything till the end of his palm might potential be working, no?

paul - 12/10/09 21:51
That beats every road kill pic I ever took in grossness. I can't even believe it's real. I would be so fucked without my hands.

tinypliny - 12/10/09 20:14
That is so sad. The hand is one of worse things to mess up in the body.

Your niece is the cutest little girl I have seen in a long while.

theecarey - 12/10/09 19:05
A need to unclog the packed icy-snow makes sense. That is SCARY though that it could still be powered even after shutting it off. Yuck.

mrmike - 12/10/09 18:53
Used a snowblower for a long time and never felt compelled to reach in, even less so while it was RUNNING???? whatthe hell makes guys think that?

heidi - 12/10/09 18:53
Oh no, (e:jenks)! Don't take it down and don't feel bad. I was being evil. Apologies!

14 is an awful lot of snowblower injuries.

jenks - 12/10/09 18:49
Aw crap... I wasn't making fun!
I debated whether or not to post the pic- but in the end decided it's ok b/c there's no idenitifying info.
Now I feel bad. :(
Should I take it down?

I feel terrible for the guy. Most of the people just lost fingertips, if anything. Only one had to go to the OR. It was sad to not be able to save the fingers. But in most cases, bad fingers are worse than no fingers.

And carey- apparently one sticks one's hand in a snowblower to unclog chunks of ice. And in their defense, apparently even if you turn it off, there's lots of stored up energy, so once you get it unclogged, it spring to life and rotates a few times. So, turning it off is not enough.

Also had a 3 year old girl yesterday who "stuck her hand in a blender". not sure I believe that one- but that's irrelevant. We fixed her the best we could.

And one guy told me today that his record for snowblower injuires is 14 in one day, so we weren't even close!

theecarey - 12/10/09 18:39
I'm disturbingly enthralled with that mutilated hand picture.I've never used a snow blower so.. under what circumstances would someone stick their hand in one? Good grief, ten mangled hands in one night? Too bad about the fingers. Well anyways, give him a high five for us. bahahaha

heidi - 12/10/09 18:15
Did you tell the poor guy, "Just because you didn't read the instructions on the snowblower, I'm going to take a picture of your mangled hand and post it on my blog so I can make fun of it."? <evil giggle> Well, I guess we've all been warned.

Love the picture of niece on rocking sheep!!

12/03/2009 19:44 #50454

updates

Sooooo....
I have to give a presentation at a Regional conference tomorrow. I'm not sure how many people will be there- maybe 100 or so. I'm scared to death.
There is not much I hate more than public speaking. I am DREADING it, so I can't wait til it's over.
Also, my topic sucks, and I don't know that much about it (it's complex), so hopefully they won't ask me any hard questions. And my boss/mentor won't be there (for the first time since he founded the conference 20+ years ago, b/c his daughter won regionals in cross country so he's going to nationals with her)- which I guess is good and bad. Good b/c I don't want to do a bad job in front of him. Bad b/c if I do a good job he'll miss it. And bad b/c if he is there, people won't dare pick on us [his fellows].
My DAD is going to be there... good and bad for the same reasons. He said he'd be a plant in the audience to ask really easy questions to make me look brilliant. :D
The other good thing is that it's only a 4 minute presentation. I really shouldn't stress. But of course I do. So my goal is to run long, if anything, so there's no time for questions.
And, I'm at the very very end, so hopefully most of the audience will have left by then.

But the worst part of all...
So last night I was working on my powerpoint, so I could give a 'dress rehearsal' at work this morning.
I had finally finished, and everything was perfect.
clicked save.
No problems.
Went to quit powerpoint, and got some error like 'powerpoint has a problem and needs to quit. Please save your work and restart powerpoint." So I hit save, again. Tried to quit. Same error.
So I hit save as, and gave it a new name. then quit. No error. Phew!
Then went to transfer the file to my flash drive.
Aaaaand it's not there.
NOWHERE. I searched the entire HD. It's GONE.
An old version was there, but I lost about 50% of my presentation.
FUCK YOU MICROSOFT! ack.
and what about all the autosave crap it does? it interrupts me to save like every 5 min. Where are those copies?
OMG I'm livid.
So, instead of getting a good night's sleep, I get to spend the night re-doing all my slides.

But on a happier note, here's a new picture of the bebe.
I cannot get over the dress. Or the legs. Or those freaking little shoes.

jenks - 12/05/09 10:14
office 2008

vincent - 12/04/09 09:16
Are you using MS Office for Mac '04 or '08?

lilho - 12/04/09 02:25
i dont like microsoft either. i do like the baby though, she's a gem.

joshua - 12/04/09 00:13
My God Alex slow down! Don't be so worried! =P

paul - 12/03/09 22:36
I hate Microsoft products.

tinypliny - 12/03/09 20:22
Plus - you have a plant! Can't be better, hey?

tinypliny - 12/03/09 20:21
Relax! No one can possibly do any wrong in 4 minutes. :)

jbeatty - 12/03/09 20:04
That sucks about the powerpoint. I have had troubles in the past with office 2008. It used to crash on me anytime I would transfer a graph from Excel to Word. There is very little more frustrating than finishing a presentation and it not being there. Good luck at the conference, If anyone has any questions you can't answer just do like my professors do. Tell them you will get back to them.

11/28/2009 17:28 #50398

baby videos

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Hope you all had a lovely time.

My sister sent me two little videos of my niece all dressed up, and WALKING! Apparently she loves these travel mugs and won't put them down.
Let's see if the videos upload.
(and I apologize that they're sideways- she sent them to me this way and I'm not sure how to rotate them).

CUTE CUTE CUTE!
(She reminds me of "Pearl the landlord" in those will ferrell skits)

::Download Flash Video::

oh! and here's a leftover pic from her birthday- first taste of birthday cake.

metalpeter - 11/29/09 10:36
I guess that walking with things is normal, think linus and his security blanket. My Niece doesn't walk yet but will with hands and can stand alone often crawls with something in her hand, could be a small toy or a Piece of bread. The Point is that I think this isn't anything to worry about. Now if they where full cups of Coffee and drinking the coffee was part of it then that might be a Problem, HA.

11/30/2009 19:49 #50419

girlie stuff.

Ok, this is a question/rant for the (e:ladies)... ((e:gents), feel free to read on, but don't say I didn't warn you.)

Ok, so one time this summer when I was home, my mom took me bra shopping. There's some little lingerie shop, and the woman prides herself on fitting you perfectly and finding your perfect bra. Sounds good to me!

So, I went, and tried a bunch of stuff on... she insists I'm a size X. (I have been a Y my whole life.) I mean, I know I lost weight, but still. I had a hard time believing her, but she insisted these were perfect.
So, I bought (well my mom bought me) 4 bras. At $60-80 each.

So I came back here and wore them a few times... and every day when I'd come home I'd look in the mirror and notice that really horrible thing where you're bubbling out of the top of a bra. Horrible!!

I finally decided the bras just don't fit. I mean, if I spend 5 min adjusting them and then stand perfectly still, they're ok. But as soon as I move or do anything, I come popping out of the top.

So I only wore each one a couple times. I kept the receipt. And I just never had a chance to go to the shop when I was home (b/c they're barely open on weekends).

So, this friday I went back. Took all my bras and the receipts. They said they can't take them back b/c it's been months, and b/c I've worn them. Which I guess I understand, but still, bummer. But she suggested I try them on again for Deb, and see if we can figure out what's wrong.

So, I tried them on. And, as I had predicted, they didn't fit right.

She brought out a Z. Which seemed better. But still not perfect. But so I was trying to figure out what was wrong... was it the straps? Something I could adjust? she wouldn't even consider going up a size. And she never once apologized to me... just got very accusatory. Saying things like "I can't remember all the way back to this summer, but I KNOW I would NOT have sent you out in a bra like this." And then, the icing on the cake, told me it's my fault. That I must have gained weight. Whatever happened to "the customer is always right"?

But despite that... I bought the newly recommended one. (and she didn't give me ANY sort of discount or anything.)

And put it on tonight- and it's exactly the same. Looked ok in the store, but as soon as I put a sweater on, went and put on makeup, and came back out- popping out of the top.

WTF.

So, enough is enough. I'm going to keep the tags on it, and ask for my $75 back.

And I don't care what she says... my good old cotton VS secret bras that I've been wearing forever seem to fit just fine. Even if she insists they're "garbage". And my favorite, sexiest, best fitting bra ever? $12.99 at Target.

But is it just me, or is it kind of awful that she just sat there and blamed me?

I guess I should have known something was up when this (very average sized) woman told me she's a 32F.

hodown - 12/01/09 11:49
I would have thrown a fit. That's bad business. I would polietly go back, return the bra and make sure to mention that you will be giving them a poor rating on websites such as Yelp.

jason - 12/01/09 10:27
Josh and I watched a Grateful Dead DVD the other day, it was in the 70's, and one major difference between yesterday's hippies and today's hippies is that yesterday's hippy REFUSED to wear a bra. Today they're all strapped up. Whassup with that? We think trends should head in reverse.

lauren - 12/01/09 10:22
wow. that's a crap ton of money to spend on bras... especially ones that don't fit! I don't know much about bras at all and have never been fitted for one cause, uh, it weirds me out. I too have bought my favorite bras at Target... VS is my fancy go all out bra shopping experience, if that tells you anything...and truth be told, I have never bought a bra from there cause I just can't cough up the dough. If I were you, I would absolutely insist on returning at least the most recent purchase, because that's a load.

theecarey - 11/30/09 21:50
Forget what the actual numbers/letters mean, they are simply a very loose guideline, and each brand and style will differ. The person helping you *should* have been more help, but obviously she is more concerned with being "right". Someone should take her measuring tape away.

My suggestion is to select a bra for "everyday wear" (this will be your baseline measurement bra for further selections)and go up a band size or a cup size depending on how the bra sits. If for example, you are a 34C, then you can usually accommodate a bra that is a 32D or a 36B.

The more lines of hooks a bra has, the better, as it allows slight measurement adjustment.

Also,'bulging' which can occur with not only with the wrong size but also with the cup style (full cup is better than a demi cup, for example) and may also be alleviated with loosening of the bra strap if other options did not help. (but in your case, it is more likely the band needs to go up?).

Specialty bras and certain styles will completely derail your perception of measurement, so in those cases, just use your "everyday wear" bra as a simple guideline, but don't fret if it is WAY off base.

Another tid-bit..cheap or expensive, bras are only "good" for so many months of wear, then they begin to break down and become a slightly different size as when you first started with it. So if you can find something you like for less, then go for it. Buy a bunch and then you won't need to bother for awhile!

:)

tinypliny - 11/30/09 21:11
For some reason, it reminds me of this

:::link:::

;-)

tinypliny - 11/30/09 21:10
It sounds like going to a hairdresser who won't talk to you because you are not really up to her/his lofty standards of a customer.

I say, down with disastrous customer service.