Hurry! Rush the patient!

So it was a slow night last night... by slow night I mean during the 12 hours I was on shift we had one patient come in. This patient came in because of chest problems, problems breathing so he was sent to our little crash room. I was minding my own business in the back room as one of my co-workers informed me that three corpsman and a doctor were in the room assisting in the patient's set up. I was told that no help was needed.

Later on that night my supervisor tells me she needs to talk to everyone as a whole, all seriousness promoted, so I quickly hung up with my wife, after informing her that I would call her back, of course. I squeezed myself into the huddle and stood awaiting whatever rant was about to be distributed, reason why I put it like that is because she had a look on her face like we killed someone.

How do I put this? Dumb? Nitpicky? Bored? Reprising?

Regardless, the feelings portrayed were that me and the other coworker didn't jump to tend to that patient. We were also in the wrong for not knowing why the patient came in to see us. First off, do we really want to crowd patients? Well apparently we have to now... if we have 6 staff members and 1 patient all 6 of us need to go into the patient room, EVEN IF THERE IS NOTHING FOR THE EXCESS WORKERS TO DO. Now tell me something, if you are a patient laying on a cold examination bed, already nervous about what a provider is going to say, in pain, and enduring a negative state of health would you really want 6 people in the room with at least 2 hovering over you? It's already overwhelming enough to be in a combat zone with injuries and 3 people doing 3 seperate things to you with one provider asking a plethora of questions. You then feel the uncomfortable factor of having to remove your shirt, possibly your pants, the cold sensation of EKG leads being placed around your chest, wires dangling, pressure cuffs squeezing your arm, lights, temprature apperatures in your mouth, and IV cathers being placed into your veins. With all the violating, yet health promoting, procedures would you really want a pair of 4 more eyes glaring into your deficient state of well-being? It's unecessary and, quite frankly, is the outcome of someone who is angry that a little bit of workload shattered the thought process of what letter to type next on the keyboard of boredom. Yes it may be sarcasm but this is the result of my frustration when trying to understand the demands of incompetant must-do's that only came into effect due to the fact that nothing had to be done until Jesus walked through the door with chest pain. Because the leader hopped into action, the followers stoot observations were of no match to anywhere near the common sense that had been brought to the table of reason and just.

Sure leader, next time Joe Smith walks into the doorway of Unecessary but Intentful Clinic due to a headache, have no fear -- we will have all our staff members scurrying around the room, dodging the working provider and intently staring into the uncomfortable eyes of the victim, reassuring him that he is hurt with every second hand the ticks into place during his stay in wonderful Afghanistan. Oh, and we shall ready the trauma teams and inform the intensive care unit of our findings.

Final Fantasy - Boredom Destroyer

Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core

Very interesting addition to the series, I must say. Why is it interesting? Maybe because it doesn't flow like a normal RPG.

 First off it's an action RPG so running around to position yourself behind the enemy then attack is crucial as opposed to just a stand still point-and-command based system, either way is fine with me but I do enjoy the freedom of being able to run around with my character.

Secondly, you are one character... so this means you don't have a plethora of sidekicks to pick and choose from to strategize against an enemy force. This is all good and well due to the fact that the system is a lot more in-depth and intriquite than the normal systems; Materia isn't just materia, it is an application that has numerous opportunities to climb the ladder in ranks/levels (pretty sweet). With leveling Materia also comes a new option in the FF realm, Materia Fusion which allows you to test your creativeness in combining certain materias in hope of conjuring up a new and improved materia. With combinations also comes with the choice, later on, to include items into the fusion process which normally just boosts certain aspects to whatever it is you are creating. Back to the main point, one character is alright but it would have been nice to get a taste of some of the others within the storyline.

Additionally, the fighting sequences are a bit confusing at first as you have options at the bottom of the HUD and one executing key, "X". Basically you have slots of actions and you can cycle through them in mid-battle so say for instance I am attacking an enemy but I want to heal myself, first off I need to have cure equipped in one of my 'materia' slots, I use the left/right bumper to highlight 'cure' then press "X" to execute. After that you have to make sure you are highlighting the correct action or else you will be continuously executing that same command, wasting MP/AP.

Most importantly, in terms of leveling and limits, the game offers a constant slot machine styled leveling/limit-breaking/summoning system. Basically during your fighting sequence you have a 3 barred slot machine rolling through different options. You can have normal 'wins' which give you little bonuses like "No Cost MP" or "Invincible" which last for a few seconds. You can also achieve power surges which are basically your limits. Once you get three of the same character portraits you execute a limit based on your relationship or personality of that characters (ie. Areith heals you for a good amount). Additionally, when the numbers hit two in a row, that is the slot that will level up (ie. if you have Blizzard in slot 2 and during your power surge you get "[2][7][2]" then Blizzard will advance a level. If you get triple 7's then your character levels, that is the only way you level in this game is by chance, triple 7's, that's it. In order to level, the character portraits have to be the same as well. During this slot machine process the game could change states and enter a summoning slot machine (Ifrit, Bahamut, Odin, etc...) or could enter a chocobo slot machine. There are different slot machines that make battling that much more dynamic and interesting.

The story line is awesome so far and the audio is great. Only annoying thing about the audio is when you enter a battle and leave. It turns into second nature where you are lip-syncing the voice overs.

   Pretty Thweet! 

A year too late, Eh?

So a year goes by, yes a year. I pretty much put this project on the back burner for whatever reason, maybe feeling like a digital journal is useless.

What to catch up on? Well at the moment I am in Kandahar, Afghanistan, yup they finally got me, moved to Rhode Island to my new command, purchased our first house, and knocked my wife up... if that sounded a bit disregarding you are under the wrong impression. Our girl is going to be the best thing that has ever happened to us... Madison is her name and Lauren is 32 weeks now. I won't be home for the birth but will be eventually.

Anyway I always seem to catch night shifts as that's what I am doing here now. Things are a bit quiet but so far deployment hasn't been bad... at all. Could be worse, I could be in a body bag.

I did suture up a contractors pinky today... my first time suturing -- really neat actually. Oh I am also a Surgical Technologist now, not to bring insignificance to the title because it is fucking intense at times, I love it.

Anyway more updates to come.... maybe.

Angry Doc

So I was in the O.R. room yesterday, by the way I am a student, and we are getting set up for a patient to roll back. We established our sterile fields and set up what needed to be set up for this shoulder arthroscopy case. The patient enters the room and the docs do their thing with the patient and anesthesia fires up the gases to put this patient to sleep. The patient goes out and the surgeon leaves the room to scrub. At this time I hand the circulator the prepping wand so she can get started with the prep. She does her things prepping the arm and holding it. At this time the surgeon comes back in the room and asks me to hold the arm while he decides to drape the patient. I grab the patients wrist and hold it up like any normal person would do. the doc looks at me and says "You have to hold it hard and tight."

"Alright." I grab a bit harder and squeeze tightly.

He stands there, his drape in front of him, staring at me. At this point in time I'm thinking what anyone would... WHAT THE FUCK? And it this moment in time, as everyone is staring at me, the doc, angry as shit, goes. "DON'T YOU KNOW WHAT HARD IS?! YOU grab it like this..."

At this point in time I wish I could have stabbed the doc in the face and said "Don't you know what the fuck you are trying to explain bitch?" but as a student you have to sit there and take everything with a grain of salt.

In the end he explained it wrong anyway because what I needed to do was grab taughtly and pull up hard while he draped.

Sorry a Massa, Yessa Massa.

Million Dollar Question

My wife and I were watching a show today about people who hit the lottery and became millionaires instantly. Some obtained as little as $3.4 million to $56 million. After watching this show an hour or so my wife and I then asked the million dollar question... "What would you do with that amount of money?"

Honestly I think splurging would be a necessity at some point in time especially if you really came from a poor to a medium income family, but my first worry about the money would be what if it runs out? What if I spend it too fast?

So I think investing would be wise. If I had $56 million I would take about $45 million and throw it all in a CD account, if possible, and let it sit and gain interest. If the interest on the CD account was 4% that would be a $1.8 million annual income from interest alone. Can you imagine making $1.8 million a year? Talk about set for life. Even if you made that $3 million you could invest the whole lump sum and interest would set you at $120,000 annually.

Another alternative would be buying a few fast food chains here and there. I don't know how practical the reality of it is but the concept of it seems nice. If it were to work the way I would want it I would buy a few Taco Bells and McDonalds and let that monthly income accumulate. It may require a lot more work and responsibility but this would be an interesting way of creating a constant income.

So my question to you is, What would you do with $56 Million?

Back to Workkkkk!!!

Alright I am back to work after taking my two weeks of leave. Actually I have been back to work for about two weeks but right now I am taking over for the night shift for two days. Holy shit I have been watching a lot of movies with my wife lately, hopefully I can get the reviews up here shortly... it's a lot.

Anyway this post is simply for in case you get lost and can't find something good to listen to. If monotonous radio and or personal playlists' drive you nuts then tune to http://www.di.fm. It is more or less an electronic music site but for the most part these tracks and genres are pretty diverse. Check it out. My personal favorite is the Chillout genre.

Also my life long friend has started up his blog which will be as diverse as mine and then some. I may be slotted into a journalist position there as well so make sure you visit http://www.betrothal.net!

Long time no write

I have definitely spent a long time away from this blog... eventhough I pay for it monthly... ANDD I will just add an update.

 I have about a month left at this command I am at before the Navy sends me off to FMSS (Fied Medical Service School). The intent of this schooling is to earn the proper education on how to react during a combat situation as a Hospital Corpsman. The consistancies seem really fun as I do get to play in the mud and learn to asses combat situations properly as well as learn the in's and out's of field medical care. I will definitely keep a journal going on while I am there and will post up some entires when I can.

 Talk about breaking monotony.

Want to learn more about FMSS? Click here. 

The Music Page has been added! Click here or use the Navigation. New music may be added in the future but as of now it consists of old tracks.