A day after starting my new job at Yahoo! (contracting through WorkforceLogic) I got a call from Stanford Department of Psychiatry to finally schedule my appointment, which I had been told would be about two months out. Lucky for me there had been a last-minute cancellation for the next morning at 10am. Of course, I didn’t check the message until 8pm when Dave and I were out at dinner, resulting in a late night call to Stanford Psychiatry’s voicemail desperately hoping no one else had snatched up the appointment and an email to my team lead at Yahoo!, whom I had known for a little over a day at this point, to explain that I would be into work later than anticipated.
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Well Hello There Little Skin Cancer Cells
I recently saw a primary care physician (PCP) here in CA, even though I had seen my MN PCP back in September, because I was hoping she could prescribe me meds while I wait for a psychiatry appointment. Although that didn’t work out, I left her office with instructions to make three additional medical visits. Continue reading
Hot Cocoa
I, like many people, love a tasty rich cup of hot cocoa on a cool winter’s day. Although, it doesn’t get nearly as cold here as it did in MN, it’s still a nice pick-me-up in the middle of the full month of chilly rain. Well, and we also don’t turn on the heat in the winter here since hardy Minnesotans would never admit to using heat in California when the high rarely drops below 50 (at least in the sunny South Bay).
I used to use crappy packaged hot chocolate that contained trans fats and ingredients I couldn’t pronounce, but then one day I stumbled upon a recipe on the box of unsweetened cocoa I use for baking. I modified it a bit and it has since been the best hot chocolate that I’ve had the pleasure of consuming.
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Owning Our Burdens
One of my favorite episodes of Scrubs is the one with Michael J. Fox in which he plays Dr. Kevin Casey who has OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). I wasn’t entirely sure why it had the affect on me that it did, but just that I felt it was extrememely well done. He was a dr. who was envied by many because he was an incredible surgeon and medical attending.
Throughout the episode, JD, Turk, and Dr. Cox all developed a bone to pick with him. JD because Dr. Casey had insulted his need for a mentor, Turk felt inadequate because Dr. Casey performed a surgery much faster than his previous record time, and dr. Cox was insecure because Dr. Casey was quicker with diagnoses and one-upped him as the best dr. at Sacred Heart.
In the end, JD looks for Dr. Casey to confront him and finds him washing his hands after surgery. As JD begins to speak with him JD realizes that he has been washing his hands for the past two hours. Then we see Turk and Dr. Cox both appear at the door in succession each to show realization without confronting Dr. Casey and then fading away or turning to leave. This is when JD has his characteristic inner monologue and realizes that as successful as some people seem, we all have our burdens and as hard as it is for him, “it’s not that daunting if you look around and see what other people have to deal with”.
Looking back now, I understand better why it spoke to me the way it did.
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Virgin America Makes Less Boring Flights
Having recently taken a flight to MN with NWA and being an avid traveler, I can say with some authority that Virgin America runs a comfortable ship. Our trip started with a personal greeting from one of our flight attendants who made rounds of the lounge introducing herself and shaking hands. Although not a terribly meaningful gesture for a 5.5 hour flight of hundreds of people, it was still a nice touch.
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Geeks Like Us Are Naming Genes
I was doing a bit of reading on Wikipedia tonight and came upon a reference to The Hedgehog Signaling Pathway. I had no idea what it was referring to, but knew it had something to do with genetics and thought it was a silly name so I decided to read more.
I didn’t have to read long before I noticed this sentence, “Mammals have three Hedgehog homologues, of which Sonic hedgehog is the best studied.” Thank you Wikipedia for linking everything that has an entry. Of course, I stopped reading about silly hedgehog pathways. I want to read about Sonic the Hedgehog! Again, I understood very little of what I was reading, but was intrigued. Continue reading
Photos from NYC
I’m currently playing catch-up after a couple of trips, but I do plan to write a couple of posts about our first-ever trip to NYC soon. But first, since it’s a quick and easy post to make. Here are some of my favorite shots from the city that never sleeps! Continue reading
Chicken Pad Thai
Our favorite Thai restaurant in the area so far is Krung Thai and although my favorite dishes are the special noodles of the house and pad see ew, I noticed that they had their recipe for pad thai up on their site so I decided to take a stab at it.
I changed it quite a bit based on my preferences and what I had access to, but overall it’s still pad thai and still quite delicious. I did overcook the noodles the first time because I just wasn’t vigilant enough and had forgotten how easy it is to overcook rice noodles, or any noodles for that matter. Next time I think it will turn out better if I go through the steps quicker instead of letting it cook so much in between (I have a tendency to run into the other room to check the recipe on my computer in between steps) and I plan to add some spicy hotness with crushed red peppers or powdered cayenne. You can find the original recipe on the Krung Thai site. Here is my modified version:
Where’s a Doctor When You Need One?
One of the assumptions when moving to a larger metropolitan area is that there will be more access to services. With so many people here, in and around the Bay Area, there is seemingly a service for everything (there’s an ice cream trolley outside my apartment right now!) and competition to keep those services affordable and hold them to a standard of quality.
Consider this assumption debunked! Continue reading
Super Happy Dev House
Today was my first Super Happy Dev House (SHDH), which is an event that happens once a month where a bunch of developers get together in a big house somewhere in the San Francisco bay area and develop stuff. What kind of stuff, you ask? Whatever they want, of course.
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A little bit of wisdom 