eric135

Where the Hell is Matt?

My room mate showed me this video a few days ago. At first, I just thought it was a weird fellow, doing what a lot of folks do on YouTube. I could tell I really liked the music, but it was just a guy dancing a silly dance in cities from all over the world.

Then I got to the part of the show where the folks ran into the picture, and I finally got it. Folks were happy, laughing, enjoying the commonality of really bad dancing. Everybody wanted to dance. Hell, I even think that guard in the demilitarized zone in Korea really just wanted to dance, but couldn't.

I've watched the video dozens of times at this point, trying to pick out individual people (some of them have really good moves). My favorite parts:

• The guy from Stockholm, Sweden, standing to the far right... sort of Matt meets Riverdance.
• The guy standing next to Matt in Thimphu, Bhutan. He's totally got the moves down and is really pleased with himself.
• The dancers from Gurgaon, India. It's the only spot where Matt changes his "spaghetti noodle" dance to match their movements.
• The four girls from Tokyo Japan.
• The whales from Vava'u, Tonga (I believe they're whales).
• The guy from Paris, France ... he's the one in the front, with the beard, a white T-shirt. Serious moves.

From Where the Hell is Matt?

When to finally pull the trigger

I've been doing more reading (so I'm presently reading Kill the Messenger, mentioned in an earlier post, and these two new ones. I like reading more than one book at a time. I know lots of people that can only read one book at a time, but yet it is normal to watch a dozen TV shows. I don't see any difference.

I've mentioned Jim Cramer before. I used to watch him a lot when his new show, Mad Money, first came out on CNBC, and I still do watch it on those days I am sitting in my office in the mood to do stocks. I think Cramer has an excellent understanding of how markets work, and how you can make money by identifying inefficiencies in the market. He also displays (almost too overwhelmingly) the excitement and euphoria of trading. I guess the lesson I took from his show is that you have to have both sides of the equation -- you need to know the numbers (price, earnings, PE, etc.) but you also need to know who is excited by all of it. Who will become fearful. Who will become boastful and overconfident. I personally don't party like Cramer does when a trade goes well, but I try to cash in on emotional buyers and sellers that, due to their emotionalism, have made a transient inefficienty where I can make a profitable trade. I've only read the first few chapters, and I already like it. I like his personal stories, about how he and his wife would seal themselves off in "the steak room" where she heartlessly makes Jim state clearly why they still own a stock even if it's down (my parents have their own version of this room, and the conflict my parents go through is captured so vividly in Cramer's book).

In Heiserman's It's Earnings that Count, I am trying to find a more mathematical method to determine how good or bad a company's earnings report really is. I do read earnings reports (the 10-K and 10-Q reports that you can get a piece of on yahoo, and the summary financial tables on yahoo). But my analysis is extremely simplistic. Reading the table from year to year, I want to see the company making more money quarter after quarter, year after year. However, as a shareholder, I am more interested in the earnings per share (EPS), which is the total earnings divided by the total number of shares. I want EPS numbers to also grow year after year, quarter after quarter.

But I'm missing a lot. There are numbers on the reports which can make the report a more pessimistic view, or a more hopefull view, that is not warranted or deserved. I've read only the first 4 chapters, but the jist seems to be to take the earnings report, and break it up into two reports -- one a pessimistic view (prevention of loss of capital is the primary objective) and an optimistic view (to realize greater gains and profits). By comparing these two views, you have a better grasp of whether the company is growing or faltering. The trading strategy I use now is to identify stocks with good earnings reports (indicating growth ahead), that did not already get overpriced due to market excitement (often these will take a tumble immediately after the earnings announcement). A trigger for me is a company with good earnings, with positive guidance, and whose price has not doubled overnight due to over-anticipation.

oh no, NOT the ice pack...

Yesterday I spent 6 hours in class getting recertified in ACLS. As you can see from the picture, we are about to start on the babies. At first these classes made me nervous but the tests are not nearly as comprehensive as the review materials, and the "mock code" test (where you have a CPR dummy connected to a monitor with a crash cart nearby while you tell everyone what to do based on the rhythm the instructor puts up on the monitor). I've done real ones so often I don't worry about them anymore.

The last night at work, I was called to insert a foley. The patient has a pretty good case of prostate hypertrophy, but I was able to "make the turn". I got the catheter inserted all the way up to the hub but no urine came out (we had scanned him and he had about 500cc in there). Suddenly, the patient care tech and I were being sprinkled by a fountain of urine. There must have been some blockage of the tube (or it was kinked or occluded in some way) and the urine squirted out of the urethra around the catheter. We were trying to stay clear of the line (arc) of fire. My hands were full, and I told the tech to cover the penis with anything at all. In the vacinity, I noticed several pillows, pillow cases, blankets, paper towels. Behind her, almost a full arms' length away, I spied an ice pack. The next thing I knew, that ice pack (full of ice) went right over the tip of his penis and both of my hands.

Women. Typical.

After the procedure, I had to get a set of hospital scrubs to replace my urine-sprinkled uniform.

It could have been worse. I have an eerily similar story involving a patient that was getting an enema. They were washing down the walls, doors, ceilings and a window for the next day.

Delicious lists

Here's a link to an online productivity site called 43 Folders. It's based on a book called Getting Things Done, which is devoted to becoming more efficient in achieving one's goals (that's a gross oversimplification that will probably get me more hate email).

I'm pretty efficient already, or at least as efficient as I need to be where I'm at in Life. Especially considering my line of work (nursing), I'll never be criticized by anyone at work who needs me to be more productive or efficient (a prideful statement I can stand beside, believe me). So I haven't really been able to implement anything new reading this site. But the site sent me to del.icio.us, (it took me a few days to figure it out, but it spells delicious). This is a site where you can store all of your saved bookmarks.

The nice thing is that you can access this list from any computer. It also has automated the bookmarking process so that, when you find an interesting site, you click on a button on your Links Bar, and bam, it's on your list.

The really neat thing is that del.icio.us organizes your bookmarks according to tags, or keywords. You can assign multiple tags to a site, so that you can find a site listed in multiple ways. So if you've ever wondered what folder to place a bookmark in, those days are over. You can use as many tags as you want, and you can find that site by remembering any one of the tags you used.

The list you create is not private. When you look at your list, you will get links to other del.icio.us users who also have that site bookmarked, and you can go look at that person's list of bookmarks. Or, you can click on the tag name, and you'll get a list of folks that are using that tag, and see what others have saved under that tag. At the home page, you can see a list of the most popular sites, and a list of universal tags (which you may or may not decide to use -- you can use your own tags, and form a hierarchy according to your own needs.) Others who have bookmarked the same site as one of the sites on your list will find links to your list when they look at their own. What I'm saying is, if some of your sites have titles like "BigBoobs.com" or "HairySexyBacks.org", you might not want to put that on your del.icio.us list.

Here's a link to my "delicious list." If you're site is on it, please don't freak out at whatever tag/tags I've assigned to your site. So no email that "my site is really a personal site, not a professional one" or silly crap like that. I'm only now starting to get the whole "tags" thing under my belt. Right now, I use it as a place to store sites that I want to link to in some future blog entry, as well as keep up with all of the blogs I read.

I don't see how you can make a private list of links. Thus, it will never totally replace private bookmarks. I also think it would be useful if a group of users could have access to a common list of private tags, so that an organization can share information found on the web without having to link via email (or checking on each other's blogs). But so far, it's a completely public system. Maybe this group utility is something the creators of the site are working on.

MedSelect, Blogs, Caller-ID

Work

Gosh, two really quiet nights in a row. I was charge for the night, but basically spent a lot of time working on the schedule of night shift nurses for the month of October, started a couple of IVs (a bad night, 0 for 2) and spent a lot of time helping the patient care techs clean up poopey patients.

The pic is of our new automated medication administration hardware. It's from MedSelect. The industry standard is Pyxsis (this is probably mis-spelled) but having worked with many clones, I can't tell the differene. Basically, a nurse is able to punch in a secure password, punch up a list of a patient's ordered medications, touch the screen, and small drawers packed with medications pop open. Such a time-saver, since most medications can now be dispensed soon after the physician's order, without having to wait for a run from the pharmacy. The real plus is the fact that it keeps track of narcotics use, and tracks discrepancies automatically. Thank Almighty God we actually have one now. Before, at the end of the shift, we'd have to manually count all narcotics, to make sure the amount recorded jived with the actual number of pills/vials/syringes in the drawers. A pain, especially when someone forgets to record a dose, or whose skills in arithmetic need serious work. Yes, it's usually me, which is why I always volunteer to conduct the count.

Blogs

I found another interesting blog. This specific entry includes helpful links to information about writing blogs. I hate to admit it, but I do find myself sneaking peaks at my referrer logs and site statistics. I really shouldn't. Wondering who reads me always has a (usually negative) effect on how I write me. But the guidelines are sound. The only comment I'd add as far as advice on increasing readership is to read blogs written by others, and to write comments frequently. With most blogging software able to link back to your web site, you will unfailingly get a visit from the site owner, wondering who you are. I also think the issue of trackbacks is not mentioned sufficiently. I've spoken of trackbacks before, and wish every blog had this useful tool.

Caller mis-ID

From Leo Laporte's blog: Here's a questionable web service that, for a fee, allows a client to determine what number shows up on someone's caller ID unit. The company states they will be limiting their services to companies attempting to recover debt, The way it works, a subscriber goes to the web site and enteres the telephone number to call, and the number to be displayed on the Caller ID. The phone rings and the call is initiated.

I have mixed feelings about the service, only in light of already existing laws prohibiting deceptive practices by banks and other lenders. Where we live, for a small monthly fee, we block all phone calls to voicemail unless the caller knows a password to enter. The only way anyone can get a hold of us is to set a specific time (usually via email) for a call to be made (or they ask us to call them). We have not had an unexpected call in years.

But what worries me about this new service is that my number can be displayed on someone else's Caller ID, in an attempt to get someone I know to answer the phone. I am also assuming that, by using *69, people may try to call us when we never tried to call them. The whole thing just seems wrong. I read that bigwigs in the banking industry consider the service a violation of laws prohibiting deceptive practices, but the web site's own lawyers say it's legal and so it's up and running.

Another problem: the technology used by the website may be used by others for all sorts of nefarious telephonic behavior.

More from The Register.

So if my number shows up on your Caller ID, but I didn't send you email first, don't answer.