Registered Nurse :)

Good morning blog-o-sphere, 

The time is 10 am and I have been awake since 730 this morning reloading the NCLEX results page, awaiting my test results.

Ladies and Gorillas,  I have passed! 

This is an exciting time for me because, although jobless and living with my parents, I no longer have to spend my days studying arterial blood gases and side effects of medications.  Its the little things people. 

Hooray x 8 million. 

Here are a few photos from my celebratory "burning of the notecards." 



goodbye flash cards, see you in hell.... muah hahaha



  



look jon we are skyping haha





Busby Berkeley

1933, only four years after sound was added to motion pictures. After the initial ballad check out the choreography and even (high tech) neon violins. I also like the use of mirrors, which I noticed he (Busby Berkley) does a lot in his videos. Enjoy!

More on Wisco

Check out this article by Paul Krugman about whats happening in Wisconsin.  Thanks to Katie for sharing it with me! 

New York Times article

"There’s a bitter irony here. The fiscal crisis in Wisconsin, as in other states, was largely caused by the increasing power of America’s oligarchy. After all, it was superwealthy players, not the general public, who pushed for financial deregulation and thereby set the stage for the economic crisis of 2008-9, a crisis whose aftermath is the main reason for the current budget crunch. And now the political right is trying to exploit that very crisis, using it to remove one of the few remaining checks on oligarchic influence."

couldn't have said it better myself! 

At the state capitol in Madison, WI

68,000 people attended the protests on Saturday

Wisco Wisco Wisco

Read this article about Wisconsin

25,000 people protested at the capitol building in Madison, Wisconsin.  The protesters were gathering in an attempt so show disapproval with the new governor of Wisconsin's plan to change collective bargaining rights of public employees.  In effect, he would be breaking up unions, and decreasing their ability to negotiate with the people they work for. This is part of the plan to reduce the deficit in Wisconsin. 

I am interested in seeing how this plays out in Wisconsin, because I think it will influence other state's budget decisions.  I think unions are an important force in any industry, and throughout history they have represented the middle class- people who are struggling to keep their head above the water as it is. Although I do believe that we need to face the budget defecit, I hardly think challenging unions was a good idea on the Governors part.  The idea of challenging unions seems silly, they know how to organize and they represent thousands of middle class jobs...it just seems like a recipe for a giant protest on the capital, especially in Madison - with the University of Wisconsin and thousands of students and teachers present. I wish that our government could come up with answers that don't strangle the middle class, because they are essentially what keeps our country running.

Here is a quote from the article I liked:
But Wisconsin's greatest governor, Robert M. La Follette, declared: ""We have long rested comfortably in this country upon the assumption that because our form of government was democratic, it was therefore automatically producing democratic results. Now, there is nothing mysteriously potent about the forms and names of democratic institutions that should make them self-operative. Tyranny and oppression are just as possible under democratic forms as under any other. We are slow to realize that democracy is a life; and involves continual struggle. It is only as those of every generation who love democracy resist with all their might the encroachments of its enemies that the ideals of representative government can even be nearly approximated."

Life is So Good

I just finished a book I picked up at the Ypsi library entitled, Life is So Good.  It is the biography of George Dawson who was born in 1898.  Having lived for a total of 103 years until he passed away in 2001, Dawson's life spanned 3 centuries.  Aside from this incredible feat, he was illiterate until the age of 98, when he began to take classes to learn how to read and write. 

I liked this book, it was an interesting to read about Dawson's experience growing up in America.  His point of view was unique as he talked about racism and segregation, and encounters he had with both.  He is also a very optimistic man and he states a belief in simplicity that has kept him alive and healthy for so long- with an emphasis on not worrying so much:

"Things will be all right.  People need to hear that.  Life is good, just as it is.  There isn't anything I would change about my life.  Be happy for what you have.  Help somebody instead of worrying.  It will make a person feel better.  Even the poorest man can take the time to say hello; that can be a help."

Uke.Ypsi. Detroit.

My new guitar and ukulele!

I hit it big at the casino and won enough for a Ukulele I've had my eye on...



The Wolverine in Ypsi



 

the ice sculptors





At The Grand Trunk with my dad, it was originally where tickets were sold for The Grand Trunk Railroad in Detroit.



One Eyed Cat and Pfizer

Here's lookin at you kid

And on a completely different note....

Wall Street Journal

This article is about the future of the drug company Pfizer.  Pfizer is the largest pharmaceutical company in the world, creating drugs you've probably seen a lot of advertisements for:  Lipitor, Celebrex, Fosamax among others.  According to the article, Pfizer is preparing for a huge loss in revenue related to the expiration of patents on their best selling drugs. 

"Patent expirations are a big problem. Drugs are granted 20 years of patent protection, although companies often fail to get a product to market before half of that period has elapsed. Once it hits the market, however, the patent-protected drug is highly profitable: Typical gross margins are 90% to 95%. When patents expire, generic makers offer the products at a price much closer to the cost of production."

 Seeing a company like Pfizer go down seems like a joyous occasion.  Finally people will have an option to buy significantly cheaper generic drugs.  Its easy to hate a company like Pfizer, but essentially they are a business, and in a free market they have done what businesses strive to do- make A LOT of money.  According to the article, last year on Lipitor alone Pfizer raked in 13 billion dollars!  

I admit it was nice to see this company finally losing a little, they represent greed, capitalism, untouchable financial and political power. 

"The industry spent $155 million on lobbying from January 2005 to June 2006, according to the Center for Public Integrity, on "a variety of issues ranging from protecting lucrative drug patents to keeping lower-priced Canadian drugs from being imported." The industry also successfully lobbied against allowing the federal government to negotiate Medicare drug prices..."

The future of Pfizer is still unclear, but it sounds as though they will be investing in biotechnology- which is actually kind of horrifying to think of....

"Biotech drugs are especially appealing because they face no competition from generics: No regulatory pathway yet exists in the U.S. for bringing to market generic biotech drugs. So until Congress creates such a pathway, no generic threat will exist to the $4,400 a month that Genentech Inc. charges for its cancer drug Avastin..."

As a nurse I find the pharmaceutical industry to be something of interest, it inspires me to eat healthier and stay fit.  In the modern world its hard to avoid never getting a prescription drug (and I certainly believe in the need and validity of drugs for treatment), but I think we should be mindful of companies like Pfizer or Genentech, because they are strictly in a money making business, and even with loses in sight, their power will continue in new directions like biotechnology. 

Someday I hope to be apart of the American Nurses Association and lobby to protect patients from companies that exploit them.  

*this is an old article, but the majority of patents are starting to end (2010-2011) and we are currently seeing Pfizer losses and cuts begin.  read this current article in scientific american

Mission Statement

Hello.  Considering I am the only one reading this I guess I can say whatever I want.  HA! ha! ha! 

I run the franchise This Might Fit and its subsidary companies This Might Help, This Might Work, and This Might Start.  I started the business in the summer of 1972.  Back then I was just a spec of dust ya might say. 

I created a blog to document achievements of mankind, both big and small.  My hope is that if the world ends someday someone will find a computer in the rubble, put two and two together and get the internet going again.  If they do, chances are they will read my blog and have a glimpse into what life was like in the early 21st century.  Now I certainly don't represent the whole, in fact, I probably don't represent even a small minorty.  But I guess the point is that I represent something, to quote my best friend Katie, "we all go down in history." 

Whoever you are out there in the internet, I hope you enjoy my blog.  I have a goofy sense of humor, and since I lived through the Bush adminstration, I've realized, if you aren't laughing... you're crying...So I try to find humor in things because it helps me mentally digest the absurd nature of humanity.  I think Jack said it best:  Why think about that when all the golden land's ahead of you and all kinds of unforeseen events wait lurking to surprise you and make you glad you're alive to see?  

Time travel with me