hypocaffeinemia

I’m hoping this will end well.

Last weekend at work, some coworkers were discussing various viewpoints of Christianity. This is a subject I tread lightly on– My hospital is religiously affiliated and I’m not fond of burning bridges.

Somewhere in the conversation, Calvinism got brought up. Now, even when I was Christian, I held Calvinism in low esteem. Its central tenets are downright loony, in my not so humble opinion, so I had to argue against it vociferously. In the interest of full disclosure, I let slip that I was an atheist. Now mind you, I wasn’t arguing against Christianity in general, just the Calvinist take on it. Anyways, my coworker was rather dumbstruck by this, and has now set out on a course to (I guess) convert me.

To date, she has provided me with a copy of Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis, pointing out that “Lewis was an atheist, too”. It left me thoroughly unimpressed and the critique I wrote back to her probably won’t sit well. I was honest in my distaste for Lewis’s views on universal morality and his false trilemma, so I’m wondering where this will go next.

If past history is any indication, I will likely be crossed with Antony Flew, Lee Strobel, and others of their ilk in the coming weeks.

As long as it stays friendly, I’m game.

Predictably, my post frequency decreases significantly in the midst of school. I haven’t lost interest in blogging per say, but I definitely lost the right mind for it.

On top of school, we’re moving exactly one month from today, so I have all that entails with that going down concurrently. Our current landlord is an elderly Hispanic woman with a hearing problem– negotiating all the minutiae of the move-out has proven to be quite headache-inducing.

Until next time,

Matt

I’m midway through day three of five in the hospital– four of them working, one of them clinicals. This is generally around the time ICU psychosis sets in for me. As such, I’ve taken to figuring out anagrams for the word hospital.

Some of my favorites:

• staph oil
• il pathos
• shoal pit
• “Ah, it lops!”
• I lap host
• At ho’s lip

A funny one for nursing: gin runs

This week, several of the local hospitals have opened their internship applications for May. I’ve already applied to as many as possible, but unfortunately this isn’t a race. My fate now lies in the hands of recruiters sorting hundreds of applications.

Nerd point: Taken with a Canon 5D MarkII

As of 11am this morning (Central Time is the One True Time), Barack Obama is our president. This is an amazing day– not only have barriers been shattered, Bush is finally out of office. I don’t hate Bush– I pity him. I think he’s just a cog in a corrupt political system. However, that’s all beside the point. Obama is here, and while he is no savior, he is fresh blood and fresh attitude– attitude which seems to rub off on all of us. I wish him well in his– nay– our quest to better this society. We certainly have our work cut out for us.

By the way, I give him mad props for consistently throughout both his campaign and now his inauguration acknowledging that non-believers exist in the fabric of America.

As I was driving into work this morning, an ad played on the radio for some cosmetic/skin care product called “hydroxatone”. Such products are a dime a dozen these days so I typically tune out their ads, but this one had a statement in the middle of it that made me literally laugh out loud:

Hydroxatone is so effective, it was given away in gift bags at international film festivals.

I kid you not; that’s actually what the ad claimed. Those who know me know I love fallacies; this one in particular is a non sequitur fallacy. Literally, “it does not follow”.

Hydroxatone, it does not follow that the effectiveness of your product is determined or is evidenced by which prestigious gift baskets you get it in to.

Of course, you’re likely doing this intentionally to scam people out of money: Google.

Despite the budget tightening at my facility, management has apparently found room enough to belittle its staff by purchasing a Talk LIGHT™ Too noise detector for the ICU nursing station. Here’s a picture of it:

...but does it also make us walk in single-file lines?

Somehow, renewing my ACLS will count for one of my community health clinicals. This is awesome for me as I’m all about acute, critical care, but I still can’t help but to think I’m cheating my way out of it. I’ll get over it.

Last night’s SNL contained a charming little sketch filled with in-references that probably flew right over the head of the public. It’s days like this I relish the fact I’m still a theatre nerd at heart.

Here’s the video:

[hulu=r2t9YCDBfEFFSoNBfsg8TQ]

The episode was fairly decent thanks in no small part to the awesomeness that is Neil Patrick Harris. His comic timing is impeccable and he is quickly becoming one of my favorite actors.

I just want to lick it.

The more I read of Palm’s new (company-saving hail mary) phone, the more I wet myself. Okay, not really, but it’s that good. It’s hard to describe in words just what makes this phone competing in a tough market alongside the iPhone and the android so appealing, so I’ll let the video do the talking: Watch here. Be sure to see the webOS demo detailing the unique card system and the ability to multitask easily. If this works as demonstrated, it truly is worth noting. I hope to get my hands on one come Day 0.