More about food...

I love those bags of frozen chicken breast tenderloins they have at Fry's Grocery (I'm sure everyone has them, or at least the bags of frozen breasts). I don't have to plan on any kind of defrosting. I put 6-8 of them in a baking dish, smother them with some kind of barbecue sauce or other kind of marinade, and bake them at 400 degrees for 35 minutes. Any other frozen food (except frozen dinners -- which we're kind of getting bored with) requires too much planning.

Podcasting, RSS feeds, and other technological marvels

I know I go on and on about nurses not being good with computers, and that it's left non-nurses behind the steering wheel regarding many nursing issues. So it's with some embarassment that I admit I have not been able to get on the bandwagon regarding the latest hot items, podcasting and RSS feeds. I was thinking about this after Maria's podcast interview with  Kent Bottles of SoundPractice.net. With most podcasts, I don't bother, but I'd never heard Maria's voice, after these years of reading her blog, so I decided to see what these podcasts are all about.

So I click on the link. It takes 2 hours and 20 minutes to download, since I'm one of those last hold-outs for dial up. Which might be why I don't listen to podcasts. [Although, I did chuckle when Maria was asked one of those "two part questions," and after Maria answered the first question, she had forgotten the second question -- That is ALWAYS happening to me).

So I was Doing My Time on the eliptical machine this morning, listening to a Don Henley CD. Most of the folks have mp3 players, strapped to their biceps (I'm personally thinking Deep Vein Thrombosis, but I guess such thoughts are part of my job). Some might be listening to podcasts. I've thought about purchasing an mp3 player, but there's that download time again. Besides, about once a month, I drop that beat up old CD player and it's survived many falls from the top of the eliptical machine. Doubt most mp3 players are built that tough.

And what happens with the mp3 files if you decide to kill your iTunes membership? Do you get to keep those somehow? What, exactly, do you OWN, especially when you've paid, say, 99 cents to download? I guess you can burn everything onto CDs, but don't some people have thousands and thousands of mp3 files? Do they burn all those?

Then there's RSS feeds. I don't use them. I know there are RSS readers that automate checking blogs, and will give you all of the blogs that you read on one page. But my blog reading is something I do for sheer enjoyment. Time isn't really an issue there. And I like to see how blogs evolve with the author. A new background here, an updated personal photo there... those usually don't make it into RSS readers. And can you read the comments on other people's blogs? I don't think so, and some of them are so entertaining.

So I'm not really a believer in the two big things going on with the internet. As with any other tool, my adoption of that tool is based on how it impacts my productivity. It has to get something done, or I won't bother.

Comments

[Eric]

I thought your interview went well, and you didn't sound terribly nervous. I liked the idea about bloggers using their blogs to review their mental processes that day, and how blogging could open the author to a wider variety of responses to situations. Kent should have concentrated more on the emotive style of your writing, because I think that's the draw for physicians that write blogs (you and Examining Room of Dr. Charles are the best examples I can think of). I think this type of writing can help bridge the gap between physicians and a public that continually thinks of physicians as fee-for-service peddlers. They forget physicians have to live through it too.

[Maria]

Hey, thanks for the link. ;) Someone sent me an e-mail about my Podcast and stated that I have a voice for radio. My first thought was, "And I've got a face for radio, too." ;)

I'm still on dial-up, too, and it might be easier to download the mp3 file first and then play it later. It takes less time.

And that two-part question bit--yeah. We're specifically taught in psychiatry residency to avoid those "compound" questions for that exact reason. ;)