Archive for life
May 1, 2008 at 9:01 am · Filed under life
I read a fantastic Reuters article that was picked up by one of my favorite online magazines this morning. It just so happens that my lovely wife was interviewed for it.
Desensitization effective for women with metronidazole hypersensitivity
http://www.sleepreviewmag.com/reuters_article.asp?id=20080430clin005.html
From the article:
“CDC currently recommends either the IV or oral desensitization protocols that are reproduced in the paper,” Donna J. Helms from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia told Reuters Health. “These are both also referenced in the 2006 STD Treatment guidelines (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. MMWR 2006;55:No.RR-11:52-53).”
Helms and her colleagues investigated the effectiveness of the metronidazole desensitization protocols as well as the alternatives to nitroimidazoles for the treatment of trichomonas infection in women with suspected metronidazole hypersensitivity.
April 15, 2008 at 3:45 pm · Filed under life
This morning I got a root canal. I slipped and banged one of my front teeth on an icy driveway about 16 years ago; as the result of some endodontical phenomena the tooth has been getting darker and recently had darkened enough for me to feel compelled to get it checked out. I saw a dentist last week and he referred me to a specialist. I learned a little bit about what was to be done before going in for the procedure but was largely ignorant about the process.
After the specialist confirmed that I did indeed need a root canal, he stuck a bite guard in my mouth and told me that often the hardest part about the procedure is keeping the mouth open wide for an extended period of time. He said the procedure was similar to a filling and many patients fall asleep in the middle of it. I haven’t had a filling in about 15 years and the guy who did it my family nicknamed Dr Hurt, so although my dentist today didn’t know it, comparing the impending procedure to a filling was pretty terrifying…and at no time in the past when receiving a filling was I ever close to nodding off. Dr Hurt earned his reputation. He once told me to raise my arm when the pain was getting unbearable and then after I raised my arm the first time proceeded to tell me to put my arm down, that I needed to be willing to bear a little pain. That said, I like to think I’m pretty tough so I played it cool.
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April 11, 2008 at 10:37 am · Filed under books, life
I finished reading Timothy Keller’s book The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism over a month ago but have put off posting my thoughts on it because I did not think I could articulate them in a coherent post. (this disjointed post confirms my worry).
A day after I finished the book on a flight home from Chicago I coincidentally listened to an NPR Fresh Air podcast which analyzed the arguably dichotomous relationship between science and religion. Within this framework evolutionary biologist and author of The God Delusion Richard Dawkins presented an argument for atheism while geneticist-physicist Francis Collins, leader of the Human Genome Project (HGP) and evangelical Christian, presented a scientist’s case for God. Listening to the brilliant scientists talk about God and Christianity in particular gave me the opportunity to reconsider, or reexamine what I had just read. It was serendipitous timing for sure.
While reading Keller’s book I often thought about a powerful scene from ER that I strongly identify with that beautifully illustrates a reason for the Christian God. The pervasive relativistic, post-modern ideals of modern western culture can be so convenient. As the video clip illustrates, the ideals are impractical in real-life situations: we need more. In fact it was only after a friend posted the video on facebook that I was moved to write this post.
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April 8, 2008 at 9:23 am · Filed under life
Yesterday as part of preparation for a summer trip to Guatemala I made three copies of the front page of my passport. While making the copies I realized that as bad as I remember my passport photo to be, the actual photo is worse. I had it taken the week I was getting married, nearly five years ago, at a small studio near the courthouse in Annapolis where I got my marriage license that same day. I was harried and distracted so when the “photographer” gave me my photo and said, “Nobody likes their passport photo”, I simply glanced at it, shrugged and moved on. Little did I know that just a couple of years later the same photograph, now immortalized by an attachment to a US passport, would be passed around for the enjoyment of a bus full of Contiki travelers and unanimously declared the worst passport photo ever.
March 5, 2008 at 11:18 am · Filed under life
“You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake. You are the same decaying organic matter as everyone else, and we are all part of the same compost pile.” Tyler Durden, Fight Club
Little stings me more than the realization that I am so easily satirized by sites like http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/, a website just a few months old that boasts nearly 8 million hits. Tyler Durden could be the site’s author or inspiration. Since January it has listed 81 things that white people like and then a brief explanation why or how they came to like them. The 80th thing listed is The Idea of Soccer. I visited the site after hearing it mentioned for the third time in the past week and just after I had set my status on facebook to ‘Andrew loves champions league football’. The 81st and most recent entry is Graduate School; though business school isn’t specifically mentioned, I am in my last semester of graduate school. In skimming the 79 other things that white people like, I found that I was able to split them into three categories: stuff that makes me defensive; salient stuff that I can laugh at other white people for liking; and completely ironic. Do you know which category is which?
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February 23, 2008 at 5:34 pm · Filed under life
My sister sent me an email with the hilarious graphs pictured below. It is too funny not to share. Enjoy.
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January 30, 2008 at 6:41 pm · Filed under life, technology
I’ve been captivated by the presidential nomination process and have been consuming all the information I can handle relating to the debates, speeches, endorsements, posturing, etc. The polarizing, counter-productive nature of American politics bothers me but I make it a point to try to stay informed. So as not to alienate or terribly offend anyone, I subconsciously adopted a common, practically failsafe method of engaging in political conversations with co-workers and acquaintances: never take a side, always play the cynic. It’s really a cowardly, easy out. In Good Will Hunting, Sean (played by Robin Williams) confronts Will (played by Matt Damon) and his similar approach to women: “I think that’s a super philosophy, Will, that way you can go through your entire life without ever having to really know anybody.” Don’t worry, I’m not going to address my cowardice here.
CNN put together a cool tool called Political Market that is right up my alley. According to CNN, the “goal of CNN Political Market is to combine the opinions of a diverse group of people to try and predict the probability of an event occurring or the value of something”. I don’t have to take sides; I just have to predict outcomes. I created an account today and bought shares. A couple of widgets that track performance on the answer to a question I am particularly interested in are pasted below. If you’re inclined give it a shot.
January 24, 2008 at 11:39 pm · Filed under life
The Wall Street Journal’s Robert Guth interviewed Bill Gates ahead of his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Guth says “the software tycoon plans to call for a ‘creative capitalism’ that uses market forces to address poor-country needs that he feels are being ignored.” In the video interview, Gates talks about the bottom third–the bottom 2 billion–and how they’re not doing too well. It is important and wonderful for influential citizens like Gates to care about and want to address poverty. He intends to encourage companies to create businesses that make profits by building products and services for the poor. In The Wealth of Nations Adam Smith talks about the selfish motivations of individuals benefiting the collective and Gates is counting on those motivations to serve the poor. If the attitudes and ideas of the British are any indicator, we better rely on selfish motivations because empathy is nearly non-existent.
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January 17, 2008 at 8:41 pm · Filed under life
2 times the disappointment, 2 times the hate, 2 times the blood alcohol content
The following post was written by my youngest brother Jared. He is a high school junior who plays soccer and tennis and aspires to be a professional comedic writer.
On Sunday, December 29, or Week 17 as most male Americans know it as, I had the pleasure of attending (thanks to the Spearman family) my first ever Baltimore Ravens game. And what a first game to go to – against the Steelers! the Ravens arch rival (hated just like those Yankees!). Okay, it was week 17, when most teams seasons had been decided for better or worse, sure neither starting Quarterback or Running Back were playing, yeah Ray Lewis – the face of the Ravens – was limited to doing his dancing in a cast and heavy jacket on the sidelines, fine the Ravens had lost 8 ½ * straight, whatever if the Steelers were going to the playoffs, and alright it was 38 degrees and raining, but I was excited to go. Honestly, in my excitement I didn’t even realize 4 of 6 of those things until I heard the guys in my section having a P + M session about the Ravens disappointing season before kickoff.
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January 17, 2008 at 11:12 am · Filed under life
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