Friday, August 12, 2011

Engagement


Here is the evidence. We are planning April or May 2013 when I am on research and therefore will have more time off. At this point we are planning to have it in Key West. We are going down for vacation in September to look at some places. I will keep you all updated.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

2011 Mustang GT


My new car. I bought it in January and absolutely love it. It is ridiculously fast. 412HP fast. It has the same performance as a new BMW M3 but less than half the cost. Plus, it is pretty luxury inside. All leather and I especially like the hands free radio, satellite, bluetooth telephone and iPod.

Long time no blogging



Well everyone, it has been a LOOONG time since I have updated this. But, better late than never. I am now in my third year of residency and have a little more time now than last year so here goes.

Here are two photos from my balcony tonight. I thought I would share a touch of Florida sunsets with all the folks back home. If you are jealous, you should visit. I have not had enough visitors (so far Kristen my first year, and my parents last year).

I am awaiting other visitors, please feel free to come by. We have a spare room and all are always welcome, preferably when I am not on call.

I will be trying to update this much more often this year with things we are doing, work, and getting ready for the wedding.

Keep in touch everyone!

Friday, March 26, 2010

Healthcare Reform Improves Education

The title of this is by my confusion of Nancy Pelosi's acceptance speech of her Grammy, Oscar, and Pine Wood Derby Blue Ribbon. She had a little slip in there where she mentioned education will improve with the passing of healthcare reform. If anyone has any insight, please let me know.

Healthcare will change. I am not sure how or when, but it will. All of what I heard prior to the past year was people wanted healthcare reform. I agreed. I wanted Tort Reform, I wanted people to take responsibility for their own health, self investment in health, and less corruption within the health system (including Medicare/Medicaid). I always thought that if people had the choice to buy a $100 per month cell phone bill not only for themselves, but for their children, they could handle the same payment for basic healthcare coverage. But I also have had strong belief that we all have the choice to not purchase healthcare insurance.

So, what happend. I am not going to tell you what is in the bill. If you want to know, read it or read the summaries. I will tell you what is not in it. Tort reform is not in the bill. Probably, likely, because the bill was written by lawyers. These same lawyers who profit from law suits made against MD's, Hospitals, and Insurance Companies. I find this interesting because in medicine, when we write scientific articles to be published in journals, they go through a very rigorous review process. The process includes, but is not limited to, reducing biases and conflicts of interest. Also, we know that great papers can still be written by people with these biases and conflicts of interest, so we have policy that we must disclose any of these on the paper itself. Why does the government not have these checks and balances and disclosures. I would love to see on the cover of the bill: "Disclosure: This manuscript contains information by policy makers that may have conflicts of interst. All authors are lawyers. All authors are wealthy. No authors plan to abide by the policies within this document." In all honesty, the list of biases and conflicts of interest are too long to list in a blog (it would take a 2,000 page bill that noone would read).

Things that annoy me:
1. The fact the Dems state there are 50 million uninsured. Here is the skinny:
It is broken down into two categories: Those who choose not to be insured, and those who do not.
1. Voluntarily Uninsured - ~45%
-Very large percentage (21%) have an income >$75,000
-about 1/2 of the uninsured b/t 18 and 64 fall into this group
-40% of this group is young and healthy, and feel the investment in healthcare insurance is unjustified (this last part is my opinion, but the percentage is true)
2. Involuntarily Uninsured - ~55%
-1/3 are highschool drop outs
-1/3 are immigrants
-remaining 1/3 are made of different groups
-26% of those uninsured have access to public healthcare but do not make use

-So, after reading the statistics, let's break down the numbers. We'll say 50 Billion uninsured (for ease of math). That means about 27 Billion are those who do not have insurance in the not by choice group. Seven Billion of these have access but do not use it. Therefore, 20 Billion people are uninsured because they have no money or access to healthcare. Of these, many are illegally residing in the United States, and others decided high school was not worth the effort (because it is so hard?).
-Despite this, the Dems sold to us that 50 Billion do not have health insurance without breaking it down. And now, we have more socialized healthcare because (in my opinion) people break the law (illegals), are lazy (high school drop outs and those who decide not to work and be a productive member of society), are making great money but are too cheap to spend it on their health, or are young and healthy and have a God complex and feel they will never get ill.

2. The fact the Dems think if they take the "Rich" man's money and give it to the "Poor" is going to make everyone equal.

3. Bullying Chicago-style politics that now run Washington. The majority of people feel one way, but Obama and his posse bribe, bully, and destroy those against their agenda and then cram it down our throats.

4. Thinking illegal immigrants have constitutional rights in the United States. (By the way, they already have access to free education and healthcare).

5. Obama and Co. jumping from one "emergency" to another. It is like a game of leapfrog from one lilly pad to another. What is next? I would guess the legalization of all immigrants and opening our borders to unlimited immigration. Whatever it may be, it will be ridiculous, against common sense and reason, and will undoubtedly pass because Obama is King.

6. This may be the most annoying to me. The fact that there is no reason in the White House. There is no valid thought process. No educated conversation. No reason or common sense whatsoever. These people running our country are supposed to represent us, not rule us. They are supposed to do as we say as a collective.

7. Global Warming and everything that is Green (which sucks because this used to be my favorite color).

8. A few people in government thinking they know what is best for me.

9. Involuntary charity - Government taking our tax dollars (mostly from the rich) and giving it to charitable organizations. If we want to donate money or time, we will. You do not have to force us to donate to organizations we do not morally support or agree with.

Friday, January 1, 2010

Christmas/New Year

Hello everyone/anyone that reads this blog. Christmas and New Year's Eve are at their ends. I finished Cardio Thoracic Surgery this week and start the surgical intensive care unit rotation Monday. I hear it is a good learning month. Only bad thing is I have to wear a dreaded tie the entire month.

Christmas was good. I was on call Christmas Eve but got a few hours of sleep, enough to get me through the day without being tired. Val's sister, Faye, was in town from Minneapolis. It was nice seeing her again. They attempted/accomplished watching all of the Harry Potter movies. I did not take part in the marathon. I spent Christmas Day at Val's parents' house in St. Pete just outside of Tampa. As far as gifts, I got a Blue-Ray player, some wine and beer glasses, pajamas, a jacket, and some other small things. The Blue-Ray player is pretty nice because it connects to the internet and I can play "Watch It Now" videos that are a part of my Netflix plan. Before, we would have to watch them on my computer. There are quite a few movies on the watch it now so that is a definite plus. Val got an iPhone so she is excited and plays with it all day long. All-in-all, it was a good relaxing day.

Then I worked a few days between the holidays but fortunately have had off the New Year block. It has been nice sleeping in over the past two days. Tomorrow I am going to go down south a bit and visit my friends Mike and Angie because they just had a baby boy, Cameron.

Other than that, just living it one day at a time down here. I am getting excited about spring fishing that is coming up in a couple of months. I got a new reel (so now I have to get a new rod to go with it, of course) at Cabela's when I was in St. Louis. So, if anyone ever wants to visit I have a spare rig ready to go.

Well, I am off to eat some homemade pizza and read a little bit. Take care everyone and Happy 2010.

Friday, December 11, 2009

Back From Vacation


So, I just got back from vacation this week and started my next rotation, Cardiothoracic Surgery. Vacation was nice but just oh so short. I drove home because I wanted to get some hunting in. Above is a couple of pictures of our cabin. The top one is of the wood burning stove and the bottom one is when we laid the stone foundation around the bottom. Well, to get to the story about hunting and the reason there are no pictures of a deer, is that I suck at hunting and missed the deer I shot at. End of story.

It was nice seeing all of my friends and family. I stayed with my parents the whole time and we all had dinner at my grandparents for "Thanksgiving." I wish I had time to hang out with everyone longer.

Well, needless to say, it had to come to an end and I had to drive home. On the drive to and from St. Louis, I read a couple of "Books on Tape."
1. Common Sense - Glenn Beck
-This was a great book. It was short and to the point. It did not speak about how bad democrats are, or how bad republicans are. It basically spoke about the lack of common sense that goes into many of the decision that are made, both in and out of politics. It is a book inspired by the Thomas Payne book. I have yet to read that one but hope to someday.
2. Christmas Sweater - Glenn Beck
-This is a book written based around a true story/true events in Glenn Beck's life. The moral of the story is that we are the only person who can decide if we are happy or not. Not our past, present or future events, but our attitudes. It basically states that everyone has terrible things happen to them at some point in their lives, but only we can make the decision to wake up happy.
3. The Shack - William P. Young
-Awesome book. A Christian book. I don't want to give details because it is worth
reading and I hope you do. It really makes you think.

Anyway, I have to go read. I haven't had time this week but have a couple of hours tonight.

Happy Holidays

Monday, November 23, 2009

First Visitors

Well,
I had a weekend off and my cousin, Kristin, and Yosh came in to town to run a half-marathon. I was going to run this, but I started out too quick and got shin splints. For some reason I tried running six miles my second week. I accomplished the six miles, but thereafter I could not even run 1/2 mile due to pain. They still ran the half. Unfortunately, it was a short weekend and we didn't get to do too much, but it was nice having visitors. Here is some pictures of us in Hyde Park by the Christmas tree.