Hello Reality

This semester we have moved past the regurgitation of pre-reqs and are slowly delving into actual pharmacy material. It has been an enjoyable experience, for the most part, to start learning the information that I have been aching to yearn for several years.

Suddenly last night I was introduced to a small bit of reality. In discussing a question from our most recent drug delivery exam, one of the people in our group exclaimed it didn't matter if he didn't understand a particular type of question because it was just one exam.

I thought about that statement later that night, and about the question in general, and came to a startling dose of reality.

What we learn now truly does matter.

When you're an undergrad sitting in philosophy or British lit, you realize that what you are learning is really immaterial to your future. Sure it's good to learn about Socrates and maybe you can apply some of those learnings to your daily life.

In reality it does not matter if you remember who did what and a certain act. Call it disposable knowledge if you will.

Last night came the realization that, for the most part, that disposable knowledge is now gone.

The question the person in our group claimed to not care if he understood had to do with renal clearance for certain drugs. It's a piece of information that, may very well, prove to be highly important at some point in your professional life.

What we are learning now is the opposite of disposable knowledge, it is highly intrinsic knowledge that we will in some form be using for the rest of our professional lives.

It may seem like a meek or unimportant realization, but it's a stark one nonetheless. That thought provided the first feeling that this was more than just exams and labs... that we were actually learning something with a purpose.

And it was a pretty damn good feeling.

Way To Piss Me Off

I am currently stuck with.. lets say a less than desirable TV provider. Okay, I take it back, I would really like to burn their HQ down, but that's another blog post from a jail cell.

Honestly I don't need to watch a ton of TV. There are a handful of shows that I watch on a dedicated basis (House, Castle, Dexter and Top Chef come to mind) and when I do watch it, it's usually something nerdy.

I'm also a bit of an insomniac. Most of these posts are written well after 10pm. In fact, I'm not much of a morning person at all. What makes this even more trying is that I despise coffee.

How's that for cruel?

So when I'm wide awake late at night, as I am right now, I start surfin my usual late night channels. Namely History, Nat Geo, Discovery, Smithsonian HD and Food Network. On nights like tonight, there's not a whole lot to choose from.

Ah, but nights like tonight are made that much worse by my shitty cable provider.

You see back in early July, we were informed that they would be adding a few new HD channels, one of which would be The Science Channel. Now I don't get the non-HD version, so naturally the inner nerd in me was jumping up and down.

Seriously. If I hadn't found pharmacy I probably would have gone into astrophysics or something of that nature.

Now, on nights like tonight, I see all of the awesome shows on The Science Channel... except I cannot watch them. You see the channel appears, but I cannot access it. It's the only channel I'm supposed to have, that I cannot view.

They blame it on a local outage. An outage which has lasted six weeks and counting. And it only effects one freakin' channel.

Right.

Here I sit, itchin' to watch Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman and I cannot. It's like a kick in the balls, if a nerd does have balls that is.

Maybe since I don't have anything to watch I should go and burn that building down... maybe they took my stapler too.

Bastards.

The 100,000th Visitor

August 9th, 2010 at 10:28:01pm was a historic moment for this site. It was at this moment that we had our 100,000th visitor to my blessed rants.

I honor you, 100,00th visitor and thank you for visiting me on your iPhone. St. Elizabeth, Missouri appears to be a small town just like the area I grew up in.

Your award is the $100,000 bill at the top of this post. All retailers will take it, although you may want to ask if they can make change first. Print off as many copies as you'd like, it's my treat to you.

No one else is allowed to do so though. If I find out someone else is using our 100,00th visitors award, I will find you and introduce you to the pleasure of Fleet Enemas... many of them. Unless you're into that kind of thing... then we'll have to find some other punishment.

Like making you watch this movie. Yea, that's right, I'll do it.

Now that that is clarified, enjoy your award my Missourian friend!

What I Do For Fun....

Note: I had to kinda scrunch the videos to get them to fit within the width of the blog, so if you want to see them in their full glory, click the video again to go to it's specific page

This is something I've been meaning to put together for quite a while, but just never gone around to it. When I mention I'm a fan of motorsports and that I participate on a virtual level I often see people roll their eyes. To them, they think it's something that's not overly challenging because they 'drive' every day.

Thus, I present to you two examples. The first is from the Star Mazda that I am currently battling for a championship in. Car info is HERE. This is a lap from Laguna Seca, the track we were racing on this past weekend. It's probably best known for is corkscrew which is a freakin' blast to drive thru if you nail it correctly. This isn't the cleanest lap by any means, but it was still the fastest lap in my division for the week.




Now I don't have any good videos of oval racing (yet), but recently they had the Late Models (Car info HERE) run at a road course called Lime Rock Park. Since these are oval cars on a road course, they are a bit of a handful. This is a video during race as I jump up from 4th to 2nd and you can get an idea that there does take a bit of skill to wheel these bad boys.



Anywho, that's what I do now that I'm unemployed. Pharmacy posts will resume shortly... I promise

The Masses Have Voted And....

Tada! Image is click-able for it's entire enjoyment, sparks and all.

I also added a bit of a stat tracker on the left side of the site. Ya know, for the three or four people who may actually be interested.

Now to try and squeeze in a race or two tonight...

Help A Nerd Out

I have decided to ask the masses to help a fellow nerd, myself, out with a bit of a quandary I am in at the moment. You see, I will be running my first ever full season (since I have the time) of my online racing dealie.

The problem is I'm debating running a new livery, but I cannot decide which to run. I have decided that I shall ask the advice of my oh so wise readers out there.

You can vote on the pole in the upper right hand corner. The first livery is the one I have been running for the past year, so I am a bit partial to that one.

And I promise I'll get back to more nerd pharmacy rants in a day or two.

Livery 1

Livery 2

Livery 3

Livery 4

Livery 5

Advair... In A Provocative Position

Slow day at work today and someone left their Advair diskus here. Naturally I decided to act like a five year old and crack her open to see how she works.

So if you ever wanted to see the innerds of an Advair Diskus... today is your lucky day.

I Remember When...

I think one of the defining characteristics of growing older is an increase in using the phrase "I remember when..."

I concede that I am not truly that old, I'll hit the quarter century mark a little less than six months from now, but I still find myself uttering that phrase on a more regular basis.

For instance, I stopped at a gas station a short while ago to grab a bottle of Diet Dew because its one of my vices in life. When the clerk told me the total I did a bit of a double take. $1.84 for a 20oz bottle of pop.

Instantly I texted a friend of mine, "I remember when we sold these for 90 cents each when I started working...." and then I stopped. I realized what I had started to say and how I had started to say it.

My god, I'm growing old.

Sure I have gray hairs now. Drinking more than six beers in a night will usually cause me to have a wicked hangover the next morning. My days of downing several liters of Mtn Dew per day are done because of the heartburn it gives me.

This was seriously a new level for me though. Sure I watch the Golden Girls from time to time (a hilarious show if you neglect it) and maybe I like vegetables more than I used to. Choosing to eat a salad over a burger for lunch doesn't make me old?

Does it?

I suppose I shall have to go buy some Polydent tonight. And maybe watch Matlock when it's on later. And then eat some prunes. All before I go to bed at 4pm.

Sound like fun?

Theme Song for Pharmacy?

I bought this CD probably about three years ago and completely forgot about it until my recent excersion around the country. Always thought this would make a damn fine theme song for pharmacy and I used to have it playing in my head when particular customers came to the window.

I Need A Life

Wandering around the strip last night, saw this and immedately snapped a pic of it with my phone.

That is the nicest looking Walgreens I have ever seen... and I am such a damn pharmacy nerd I can't even act normal while on vacation... Oh well

Old School

This is just too damned cool. Snapped it up from the SDN forums the other day, figured I'd continue passing it around.... yikes sounds like it could be syphilis when I word it that way

http://www.archive.org/details/Pharmaci1946

Smile, You're On Camera!

Recently one of our stores received a shiny new camera system. The kicker is the 'new and improved' color digital cameras produce a massively shittier image than the old black and white ones.

Whatever.

With this new system, we received an extra four cameras. Our initial thoughts were, "Cool! We can finally see that deep dark corner of the store where the trolls live and people steal shit." Ok, not really, but you see what I'm getting at.

So we stroll into the pharmacy the other day, preparing for the hell that is the first of the month and we see they installed the new cameras... all in the pharmacy.

Now you're thinking, "But Phathead, that is to prevent internal theft of narcotics and things of that nature."

Again, this would be the logical assumption... if it were true.

You see all the cameras are placed so they can view us as we work. There are no cameras on the C-II cabinet nor where we keep our cases, yes I said cases, of various hydrocodone strengths. Instead they are placed to watch us work each and every day.

And the feed goes straight to the owner's office AND his home. Isn't technology wonderful?

Now that we are effectively a part of a voyeur program, whatever shall we do?

The answer? Well it involves choreography. You see we figured if we're gonna be watched like this, we're gonna fuck with them. We're planning a bit of a dance routine and I am in the market for a gorilla suit.

Can you imagine what the hell's gonna be going through his head when he looks up and sees us dancing Chorus Line style? It'll be brilliant!

They're Watching Me...

A bit of insomnia recently had me diggin' through the visitor stats of this lovely little site. I stumbled upon something that made me giggle like a school girl.

One of the regular readers of this blog works in the admissions office of a school I applied to.

Seriously what are the odds of that? And before this person gets any ideas, there are about 600 or so what I would refer to as 'regular readers' and many of them are from various institutions. Hell a more recent visitor comes from the office of the Dean of one of the more prestigious schools in the nation.

So to all of you reading from the various pharmacy schools across the nation... would you please let me in? Pretty pretty please? With sugar on top?

Pharmacy School Admissions Interview Attire

I figure everyone who has read this blog (all 41,104 visitors as of the writing of this post) has been with me on my journey towards becoming a pharmacist. Due to this fact, I feel as if I should share at least part of the experience with you guys.

I know right now you're thinking either, A) Holy shit is he fucking crazy! or B) Holy shit what the fuck is he talking about?!?

And in either case it is perfectly understandable, but let me digress. Yesterday I went out and picked me up a spiffy suit for the interviews. I have since begun the process of attempting to pick out what precisely to wear with the suit.

Now herein lies the dilemma I have tons of dress shirts and ties as I generally wear those to work. Many of them, however, are not in consideration for the interview. Together they all sob and drink Jack Daniels in my closet. Why is this you ask? Because, from everything I have read, most pharmacy schools prefer that you dress conservatively for your interview.

That is a problem for my dress clothes because they are not conservative. I like bold colors which is why my shirts are colored Fuchsia and Copper and True Blue and Hunter Green and Blood Red and Chocolate Brown and etc etc with ties to go with. I do not like wearing pastel like colors and I will not wear a white shirt.

Therein lies the problem. I am left with two options in my closet and I went to the store today and picked up a 'conservative' shirt and tie. I know ask for honest and constructive criticism as to which to wear.

Now let's start with the 'conservative' shirt and tie. Of course all pictures are click-able to scale to a large size... if for some god awful reason you want to do that.


I will admit this does not look near as bad as I thought with the suit. The tie seems very Harry Potter-esq, but its decent. Now I could go with a pink tie, which I have and the wife loves to torture me about, but I figured that my scare the admissions people. Because, as well all know, pink is EXTREMELY threatening.

Let's carry on to my personal favorite.


This is probably my favorite shirt/tie combo I have at the moment. It helps that the shirt is like wearing the skin of a baby sheep against your body... ya know without all the blood and such. I have the fear that it is too fancy for the admissions folk. Not sure if that is the best way to phrase that, but I am genuinely not sure if this would be the correct way to go. The flash made the tie look quite a bit more shiny and silver than it actually is.

And last, but certainly not least;


This is actually the very first shirt/tie combo I ever bought (although this is a 2nd gen shirt) and I always thought I looked pretty snazzy in it. My problem is I think I look a bit like mint chocolate chip ice cream, but without the ice cream. And really, I don't need the admissions people salivating while they look at me. Well, salivating from hunger at least.

So there are your choices oh loyal blog readers. For those of you who are of the quiet type, I have placed a poll on the top right side for your clicking pleasure.

Now... lay it on me!

Why I am King of the Pharmacy Nerds

I am the self proclaimed King of the Pharmacy Nerds. Instead of having Newsweek or Sports Illustrated in the bathroom, you'll usually find Drug Topics or Pharmacy Times. My book case has a shelf dedicated to various pharmacy books and materials.

If I do get into pharmacy school, I will promptly go and get my first tattoo. It is a Bowl of Hygeia I have been designing the last couple years. Obviously I will not get something like that unless I am sure I will be in pharmacy for the long haul.

My prized possession is the one which my wife does not like. In fact, it currently resides in the closet of our study. To be honest, I understand that. It's more of a single guy's pad type of thing, but I still think it's cool. Besides, who else honestly has something like this in their home? Probably the best thing I ever found while cleaning out the basement of my work many years ago.

Lunch Time Reading

... or Shitter Time Reading. Really it can go by either name. What I am talking about, of course, is what you read either during your lunch or on your shitter.

Everyone has their go to for this situation. For daily use, I have the UniWatch blog or perhaps cnet.com. For actual magazines, usually Car and Driver or Maxim.

And then there are those special readings, the ones that you only get once a month or so. I'm not talking about a magazine, but a single article that, when published, you print off and bring with you for when 'the time is right.'

For me those special readings come from Bill Simmons. Those of you who are not into sports or despise ESPN, which is understandable, may have no idea who Bill Simmons is. Quite simply put he is one of the funniest SOBs to pen anything on the net. He could turn the most mundane of situations into high class hilarity.

My readings for the past four days? His return trip to Vegas found in two parts: Part 1 - Part 2

It is just one of those things that literally makes me laugh while I read it. Of course it draws funny stares (especially if you come out of a stall laughing) but its well worth it.

A recent gem from the discussing of creating a Real Men of Genius Hall of Fame

And my friend Wildes thinks we should throw in the first guy who looked at a cow and said "F this, I'm drinking that milk" in a fit of thirsty bestiality. Source

I snorted some horseradish up the ole olfactory area when I read that.

I ask you, oh loyal readers, if you have anything you use for your lunch time/shitter reading. I'm always up for something interesting to kill time.

What I Did on my Summer Vacation

I mentioned here what I had planned for this past lovely summer. Since classes started back up today, lets make sure I accomplished everything I wanted.

Retake Gen Chem I - Check! Passed with an A
Retake PCAT - Check! See here
Get Married - Check! See here

And finally, my nerdiest endeavor of the summer. I mentioned I was going to start back up doing some sim racing. Well I did end up picking up that wheel and pedal set I wanted


And I drove many different cars, Example 1, Example 2 and Example 3. And ended up the summer with a decent set of stats.

All in all it was a damn fine summer. Now it's time to finish those damned pharmacy school apps...

I Helped Redesign the Vytorin Bottles

Seems like a ludicrous statement does it not? That is a true statement yet I misplaced the actual proof I have from Merck stating I had a hand in it. I misplaced that proof until today when I stumbled upon it while moving.

I usually don't mention it because it sounds outlandish. The sort of thing someone would make up to make themselves sound more impressive and I did not want to give that impression.

Now I don't know if any of you remember specifically, but when Vytorin first came out it was in very similarly colored labels. They consisted of mainly red, white and silver accents with the type on the bottle being fairly hard to see. We especially were having numerous problems with Vytorin 10/40mg and 10/80mg being mixed up due to similarities in the bottle design.

Yes I know we should being paying more attention and blah blah blah, but this was becoming a serious problem to the tune of one error per day. There simply was not enough difference in the bottles or tablets to discern an error if, for whatever reason, there was a lapse in judgment.

So I hopped on the phone one day, after being frustrated, and got ahold of someone in the marketing department. I relayed my concerns, hung up the phone and thought nothing off it... until I received a call four days later from the VP of Marketing for Merck.

He explained that I had brought up a point that no one else had noticed and I was now in a conference call with another Merck exec, the head of the QA department and two other product designers. They asked me what I thought would be helpful to people 'in the field' to identify bottles properly.

I replied that first they needed to emphasize the milligram dosing as it was too small to eyeball quickly with all the other lettering on the bottle. I then suggested that since they had 4 differing bottles (for the 4 strengths) that they needed to move beyond their simple 3 color scheme and employ a fourth or fifth color. I suggested one of the colors be something that would stand out against the red/silver coloring of the current bottles and it should be used with the most common strength for ease of identification. I then suggested a blue would do just fine.

After another twenty minutes of discussion we were done. And I forgot about the incident for several months... until unpacking an order one day. I noticed a massive change in the packaging design... the Vytorin 10/40mg bottles were now blue with my design elements.

I was floored. I didn't say anything because, again, I thought it would sound completely improbable. About a week later I received this letter from Merck in the mail thanking me for my assistance in this matter.



Now I'm sure others hand an input into the design of the new bottles, but I always thought that I had some part in it.

The bigger question is, should I use this for my pharmacy school applications and/or interviews? I know have proof, to a certain extent, that I am not fabricating what I did, but I feel I would be walking a very thin line between what they could misconstrue as the fact and fiction.

So, any thoughts?

Summer Vacation... Kinda

Classes ended this past Friday. Hard to believe I have only one semester of undergrad left.

The fun part is I start classes again on Monday. Yay for having two days off school! The most exciting part is I am retaking a class. Actually it is the first class I ever took in college, Gen Chem I.

See when I was a wee little college student, I was a bit on the cocky side. I know, really hard to believe. My first Chem prof made a point that no one with poor attendance had ever gotten a higher grade than a D in the course. Seeing as the never really taught and just bitched about her life, I almost never went. Yet I got mostly A's on my tests and assignments. I decided to point that out to her near the end of the semester.

And I ended up with a C- in the course. I didn't get anywhere fighting it, so I took Gen Chem II the following summer at another college.

Now I find out that several of the pharmacy schools I am applying to do not accept grades below a C.

Fuck.

So I am retaking the course. Never mind the fact I've gone through 300-level Chem courses, I get to retake the first one. Awesome. Plus it runs from 7:30am to 1:00pm four days a week. I'm sure you're jealous.

Aside from that I get to retake the PCAT on June 20th and get pharmacy school apps in order for August.

Oh of course I'm going to be getting married on July 25th.

It shall be a hectic summer. I did decide that I want to start running again, perhaps so I can run a half marathon next spring.

In perhaps my geekiest endeavor, I decided to jump back into sim racing again. I'm going to order iRacing tomorrow night and see how rusty I am. Now if only I could justify this for the wedding...

Done laughing yet? Good. It's not like I'm into Star Trek or anythi.... oh wait, I am. Damn, any ideas where I can order a pocket protector?

Happy Birthday Internet

Often we take for granted that which we use on a daily basis. Part of the reason the show 'Dirty Jobs' exists is to show others just what goes on in the background of their daily lives. It also conveys a sense of respected needed for those particular jobs.

Twenty years ago today the first proposal for the World Wide Web was presented (see here). Now just think how much the world has changed because of this simple proposal?

Without the internet, us in the pharmacy profession would think we are alone in our struggles to maintain sanity. We would never know of the existence of Drug Monkey or The Angry Pharmacist. We would have no place to vent and no place to relate to one another.

Even beyond that notion, think of how much things have changed. We have become an instantaneous culture, which is part of the reason we are in this economic crisis, but that's another post I'm working on it. In actuality we have moved beyond instantaneous information and almost require information before it exists.

Twenty years ago could you imagine that you would be able to pay a credit card bill via your cellular phone? Could you imagine your nine year old daughter would have her OWN cellular phone?

It's amazing how fast change occurs in our world today. It is equally amazing that change appears to be accelerating. Who knows, maybe in another twenty years we'll be accessing the Web via our thoughts. Just imagine surfing for porn then...