Rollingskull

I stole this…

Yes I’m a bad person….

Yes it was worth it!

1. You must learn to pronounce the city name. It is: “FEE – niks”.

2. The morning rush hour is from 5:00a to 10:00a. The
evening rush hour is from 3:00p to 7:00p. Friday’s
rush hour starts on Thursday morning.

3. The minimum acceptable speed on all freeways-I-10, I-17, U.S. 60, Loop 202 — is 85 mph. You may only exceed that speed on Loop 101, where the speed is allowed to match the highway number. Anything less is considered wussy.

4. Forget the traffic rules you learned elsewhere. Phoenix has its own version of traffic rules. Cars/truck with the loudest muffler go next at a four-way stop. The truck with the biggest tires go after that. (Note: East Valley cell phone-talking moms ALWAYS have the right of way.)

5. If you actually stop at a yellow light, you will be rear ended, cussed out and possibly shot.

6. Never honk at anyone. Ever. Seriously.

7. Construction is a permanent fixture in Phoenix. Detour barrels are moved around during the middle of the night to make the next day’s driving a bit more exciting.

8. Watch carefully for road hazards such as drunks,
skunks, dogs, barrels, cones, cows, horses, cats,
mattresses, shredded tires, squirrels, rabbits, crows,
vultures, javelinas, roadrunners, and the coyotes
feeding on any of these items.

9 . You must know that Maricopa Freeway, Papago Freeway and the I-10 are the same road.

10. To find anything in Phoenix, it is required to know where Central and Washington are. This is our Alpha and Omega-the Beginning and the End.

11. If someone actually has their turn signal on, wave them to the shoulder immediately to let them know it has been accidentally activated.

12. If you are in the left lane, and only driving 70 in a 55-65 mph zone, you are considered a road hazard and will be flipped off accordingly.

13. Ground clearance of at least 12 inches is recommended for city driving.

14. You are allowed to wear potholders to protect your
hands and fingers during summer driving.

On the subject of work recently.  I’m still loving the job down in Scottsdale so I’m not going to bitch about that.  Instead I’m going to bitch about….  A article I read recently about hiring a good PACS application specalist.

Understand that it seems like PACS is the bastard step child of most hospitals.  It’s this hugely important application that is run enterprise wide.  And how many people typically support it?  In Kingman it was yours truly and 1 GE Field Engineer… And the GE Field Engineer left 2 months after go live.  So it was me and me alone for the four months between her leaving and my leaving.   Of course PACS wasn’t the only thing that I supported but it took up a huge chunk of my time.  Actually in retrospect things should have gone down diffrently in Kingman.  But that is another diatrabe for another day.  

At the current healthcare system?  There are 5 of us (4 employees plus the GE Field Engineer).  I still support other apps and PACS still takes up a huge chunk of my time.   Other hospitals in the Phoenix area?  Well of the other folks that I have met so far there is typically 1 or 2 people for the entire healthcare system down here.  So a healthcare system may have 3 or 4 facilities (not nesscarily all of them full blown hospitals) that are taking care of PACS systems.  These aren’t small healthcare systems either. 

And when I say 1 or 2 people I mean 1 person full time and maybe someone part time to help out.  

As far who controls a PACS system it seems to be split between x-ray departments and IT departments.   A few places actually seem to have some sort of workable arraingment for sharing employees and resources (Kingman had real issues with this). 

Getting back to the article.

So this article was put out in a publication aimed at Computer proffesionals in imaging.  Both technical and clinical users.   This list was presented in the form of a "Top 10" and number 8 was something to effect of:
    "A good PACS administrator should be personalbe and able to communicate effectivly" 
OK I know I’m not the greatest communicator in the world but I like to think I’m somewhat approachable.  Granted somedays I’m about as approachable as a porcupine but still. 

Well #8 goes on and the last line reads;
    "Highly technical but sometimes socially inept IT administrators" 

That last line in #8 is was really irks me.  Yes I’ve met my fair share of IT folks that have real issues relating to people about things other then computers.  But come on do we really need to be perpeuating this stereotype?     I’ve also met people from other walks of life that had real issues relating to people.  And in a couple of cases were actually worse then some of the IT folks I have run into in my time. 

Really it’s that last line that has me bugged the most.  I still consider myself a IT guy, though admitatly I have specalized in one particular type of application for a particular sector of IT. 

It still pisses me off.

Go rent (or buy) “Audioslave: Live in Cuba”

Good music (of course) but it’s really intersting for how Audioslave did their former bands songs (Soundgarden and Rage Against The Machine). The Rage guys do a pretty good job of doing a soundgarden song. And Chris Cornell is no slouch on the Zach Delarocha lyrics.

Highlight of the DVD?

“Black hole sun” Acoustic with just Chris Cornell.

Lowlight?

Some dude in Cuba is waving a flag for the state of Texas for the first 20 minutes. It’s the only thing I can watch while it’s on the screen.

What the truth to anything is until you have looked yourself square in the face and have made peace with yourself.

Have I done that?

NO.

Will I?

I don’t know I going to have to get back to you on that one.

However now in the mean time I bring you the drivel that is my writing. It would appear that a few of you have missed it. More like one of you has so guess that is not really a majority. The fact that anyone reads this still boggles my mind.

So I’ve decided that myspace is particularly evil. It’s even more evil when a friend subscribes to a music group. Now granted that in of it self is not a bad thing. Let me present the following evidence. I have 14 friends (rough number I don’t know how many I actually have as I’m to lazy to look and I’m trying to prove a point). Since this one “friend” joined a group I have gotten no less then 40 friend requests. Since Friday of last week (this is being written on a Monday evening).

So what is the take away from this? If you join a group make damn sure I’m not in your top 8.

I have nothing else to bitch about. So I’m going to leave you with the bewilderment that is my new TV.

CHEERS!

Whish I posted a bit more?

NO?

Tough Shit!

I will return when I have something meaningfull to say.

NNNNNoooooooo!!!!!

I just kicked off the pod cast to episode 20 of the second season of battle star galactica!!!!

Ricker was so disturbed when he heard it that he jumped to death (again)

At least I was able to stop it before I heard anything!

P.s. not much else is going on… can you tell?

Holy crap it’s March already?  

 

I think I’ve been playing a little to much Eve….

 

I don’t’ know is 4 hours a night to much?

 

Some people would say yes…. I say… it’s either play a game that utilizes my mind and forces me to interact with people to achieve a common goal.  Or veg out and read a book / watch television. 

 

That is the thing that gets me about online gaming… people are very down on it… a lot of the comments I get tend to be of the flavor of

 

-It’s anti-social

 

-It’s violent

 

-Gaming makes you dumb… or some how seem less intelligent.

 

Anti-social…. This is a two edged sword here…. in the traditional sense of the Console game, yes it’s very anti-social.  It’s you VS the computer.  In the world of MMO’s and Online gaming it actually very social, your main opponents are real people and for years now games have included apps that let players speak to each other.  Most groups however then to use Ventrilla or Team-speak as their preferred method of communication and use the in game voice client for working with mixed groups.   As a direct result of the MMO’s I play, I have made several friends.  (Friends defined as people I would like to hang out with on my personal time) (Personal time being defined as the most valuable of my time and for me to use at my discretion)

 

Violence… yes some games are violent.  It’s a not a graphical violence (outside of the realm of the FPS).  It’s more of a cartoonish violence.  One could argue that the board game Battleship is violent, or any of the various versions of Risk that are out there.  Violence in the MMO’s is no worse then what you would find in a Old school Saturday morning cartoon.

 

Gaming makes you dumb?  I still don’t understand why people feel this way.   I can read 1,000 books and have all the knowledge in the world.  If I can’t communicate that knowledge, well who is dumb now?  This point goes back to my first point "Gaming is Anti-social".  You can turn your mind onto cruise control while reading a book or watching tv just as easily as you can playing Tetris.  You can also have alot of brain activity while watching tv or reading a book.  The difference is in the MMO you have alot of the cognitive higher brain functions going on then you do when participating in other forms of entertainment. 

 

Ok that is my diatribe… so hopefully this little f-list blogger will move to the E-list some day.

 

Your normal drivel will return with the next post.

Having gone to Kingman and back several times now it’s interesting to see how people act towards you when you show up after having been gone for several months.

1st time, like you never left. You chat life is ok

2nd time you return, People are more chatty…. folks offer to buy you food and/or alcohol and they aren’t related to you.

3rd times + (and after 6 months)– where the hell have you been and how have you been doing? You moved? holy shit your kidding! Where too? What are you doing ? Are you married?

The constant barrage of questions…. It’s different but it’s just a fact of life coming from a small town.

Of course it is heart warming to know that the girl scout troop that is in my old neighborhood was sad to see me go… Mainly because I bought so many cookie’s.

Now for phase two of my world domination plan… yoda at his wisest.

First item of business…. for all of you who were watching the super bowl with me.  There is no "Code black" at SHC.  When you google the term "code black in hospitals"  you get no one defintion.  In short, it’s a nice bit of hollywood fiction that was probally explained once you tuned into the show.   It does appear that more then a few hospitals out there use code black but there is no one standard definiton.

For all of you who didn’t watch the superbowl with me… well now you know what we talk about when I watch the superbowl. Hospital codes… also known as work!

Ok we really didn’t do much work talk as we were all to busy critquing the commercials and some of the officating… yes folks you know it’s bad when I’m going "hey that wasn’t a touch down was it?"

I was sorry to see the Seahawks lose but at the same time I’m glad the cardinals won’t be facing the "Defending world champions".  Not that it would make a diffrence one way or another.  

You know it’s bad when all you want out of your team is a season at .500.  That is all I’m after, no playoffs, no superbowl.  Just a plain old average year.   If they could do that I would be happy enough. Of course that would also require a team that could show up for more games then not.   Lets face it even when the cardinals do show up they tend to be not quite with it.

Here is something for you all to chew on… I wonder if there is a significant bump in the number of births that occour in about mid November of each year. 

food for thought.

Saw the Violent Femmes in concert tonight.

They rock… I’m converted. That’s two in a row that Cody has converted me to.

Highlights include

* Beer bottle as method of playing bass guitar

* Crowd knowning all the words to all the songs and singing good portions of most of the songs

* Conch shell used more then once during set.

* Opening act did DMX song with banjo and ukallee… (you know that guitar looking thing that tiny Tim always played)

Lowlight…. the screaming girl behind me…. I hope she is good in bed because that is all she has going for her.