Happy Halloween

I started buying Halloween candy in early September.

I'm pretty sure I've eaten a million of those little Reese’s peanut butter cups.

Photo by TD

I Love This

Halloween Toys & MySpace Layouts at pYzam.com

Just click on the differences.

Halloween 2008

New ER Medblog

There’s a new ER doc in town.

Here’s what I know so far. He’s funny. He wears blue scrubs. He’s kinda cute. And best of all – he invites you to ask him questions.

Got the anatomy of a gummi bear here.

I'm Moody

Really.

Even though the weekend is over, here's a new timekiller. This one asks you to choose what mood you are in, then it takes you to a website appropriate for your mood. I got taken here.

Okay, it's not the greatest timekiller, but it gave me the opportunity to post this baby picture, which was my real goal.

There won't be a Calendar Doc this month, but there will definitely be a Dr. November. Plus, there will be a special Twelve Days of Christmas calendar in December. I'm going to start working on it this week, so there's a good chance I will actually finish it by December. Yes, December 2008, smartasses.

Charity Doc's Back - Kinda

Ok, it's not a juicy knife wound story, but maybe this is a sign that Charity Doc misses us and will start blogging again.

Google Google Google

It's the weekend, so you know what that means. More timekillers!

Google 2001

Google says it’s their 10th anniversary, so to celebrate, they’ve brought back their oldest available index -- Google 2001.

Being the nosy curious person that I am, I googled GruntDoc and came up with this from January 2, 2001:

From: Allen Roberts
Sent: Tuesday, January 02, 2001 12:00 AM
To: EMED
Subject: [EMED-L] problem patients and solutions

All,

We have a "problem patient", and I'm looking to the list members who have dealt with this to enlighten me on moral, ethical, and preferably EMTALA-approved ways to deal with this patient. Basically, this patient is a homeless person with a serious alcohol problem. He's taken to using the ED as a Rescue Shelter, sleeping in the department until seen for his complaint (2 or 3 times a day); sack lunches from compassionate staff; and, as a kicker, sleeping on, or just across from, hospital grounds. When confronted that it's a 'no sleeping zone', he brilliantly says "I need to go to the ER", necessitating a trip back to us, and not going either away or to jail. Per our EMTALA gurus, anyone on "hospital grounds" can get a MSE by asking for one, and our MSE's are defined as a physician evaluation. He refuses the Shelter, as they have rules and kick out patrons who continue to drink, and he's not interested in sobriety.

. . .

So, those of you who have constructively dealt with this issue, how did you do it?

(reprinted with GruntDoc's permission, of course)

The funny/sad thing is, it seems like after eight years, nothing has changed; this e-mail looks like it was lifted straight from an October 2008 ER medblog.

Wayback Machine

Google 2001 was okay fun, but the Wayback Machine is more fun. They describe themselves as “a service that allows people to visit archived versions of Web sites. ... Imagine surfing circa 1999 and looking at all the Y2K hype, or revisiting an older version of your favorite Web site. The Internet Archive Wayback Machine can make all of this possible.”

For me, the Wayback Machine has been hit and miss, but I’ve found some old medblog posts that aren’t on the “regular” Internet anymore. So when I’m missing the good ole day of medblogs, when I could read an ER blog and ask myself, "how long does the blade of a knife have to be in order to puncture a lung and large airways?", I’ll go back and read some classic TrenchDoc. (This is where you'll see the original Calendar Docs. No, I didn't steal the idea, I'm borrowing it until TrenchDoc comes back.)

[Special note to Seaspray--I know you've had your hands full lately, so I put together some TrenchDoc links just for you. No Red Velvet Cake or Throckmortons, but you can read about Pride, Pirates, and Peetie. And there's more classic TrenchDoc here, here, here, and here.]

When I want a giggle, I’ll read what the doc at intueri has to say about penises. This isn’t available anymore on her blog, but you can find it on the Wayback Machine.

Mail Goggles

This is definitely something I need. I seem to always be e-mailing crap I wish I could take back. Google has come up with something called Mail Goggles.

Here’s what the Google guy says about Mail Goggles. “Sometimes I send messages I shouldn't send. Like the time I told that girl I had a crush on her over text message. Or the time I sent that late night email to my ex-girlfriend that we should get back together. Gmail can't always prevent you from sending messages you might later regret, but today we're launching a new Labs feature I wrote called Mail Goggles which may help."

"When you enable Mail Goggles, it will check that you're really sure you want to send that late night Friday email. And what better way to check than by making you solve a few simple math problems after you click send to verify you're in the right state of mind?”

The Google guy says Mail Goggles is only active late night on the weekend because that’s the time you're most likely to need it. I have to admit, that's when I do most of my drunken e-mailing.

Google Knows Everything

Finally, I don’t know about y’all, but Google kinda creeps me out. I know that the Google guy reads my e-mail and keeps track of my searches. I'll be e-mailing my sweetie about dinner and, suddenly, I'm getting ads for Kissing 101 and pizza. Google knows everything. If you don’t believe me, go here.

The Great Potato Chip Shortage of 2008

In the last month, I have gone through a gas shortage, a power shortage, a water shortage, a money shortage, and an ice shortage. I thought the worst was over, then tonight I saw this sign at the grocery store:

There is now a POTATO CHIP shortage.

All I can say is, there had better not be a chocolate shortage.