Just who do they think they are?

So yesterday I had to go to the eye doctor. Here's a hint: Never say to the doctor, or their staff, "I need to make an appointment with the Optometrist." when they are actually an Ophthalmologist. You would have thought I strangled babies in front of the pope. "No, Dr. Ku is an Ophthalmologist! He's a MEDICAL DOCTOR." Excuse the hell out of me. So set me up for an appointment with the almighty DOCTOR, please.

I arrive at the doctor's office about 30 minutes early, thinking I might be able to get through a little before the coming of the apocalypse. So I sign in, fill out the same form 20 times, sign my life away, hand back the papers, and I ask "About how long of a wait will it be?" Keep in mind, I'm early. It's 2:30 in the afternoon on a Friday, and I want to get home and relax just like everyone else in that office, which was packed like sardines by the way. The receptionist looks up at me at and says "It's going to be a long while. Just sit down." So I wedge myself in to a chair, and proceed to wait....and wait..... And wait... 3:00, 3:15, 3:30, 3:45, 4:00... When an old woman comes out and says, “Dr. Ku is running very late, over an hour, would any of you like to reschedule?" Three patients get up and walk over and out. Since my appointment was for 3, I figure I'll wait... I should be next....NOT! At 4:20, they call me in.

I walk back and the doctor’s assistant says, "Do you want to get glasses or contact prescription from this visit?" Well, duh! "Yes, I would, both contact and glasses, please."

“You checked off that you didn't want that test done."

“Yes, that said it was for cataracts. I don't have that, so I don’t want to pay the extra $30 for it."

"No, that test is for your corrective lenses, not just cataracts. And as a new patient, it will be more like $70. Dr. Ku is a MEDICAL DOCTOR. He does this test as an additional service for his patients. He doesn't HAVE to do it."

" $70 bucks, huh. No, I think do it at my regular eye doctor."

"He isn't a MEDICAL DOCTOR."

"No, he is my EYE DOCTOR. He can do this corrective prescription, correct?"

"Well, yes. But he isn't a MEDICAL DOCTOR."

"I'm ok with that. I'll use the extra $70 to buy, you know, contacts."

So during the exam, I have to take out my contacts. I blinder than Ray Charles without my contacts or glasses, and that's pretty blind since Ray is dead and all. And they walk 10 feet away and ask me to follow them around to another exam room. I keep telling them "I cannot see you... I see several large blurs... which one are you?" At which point I see what I assume is one of them waving their arms around, although to me it looks like the blob attacking a white cylinder. Then they place the drops in my eyes to dilate my pupils, and sit me down in another chair that was made for Twiggy and not me.

After about 20 more minutes, of which I spent playing UNO on my cell phone by clicking only on colors (I actually won too. Amazing). I finally see Dr. Ku. You know... the MEDICAL DOCTOR. And all I see is a yellow blob with a blue blob underneath it (I am assuming he was Asian, or had a really bad tan, and wearing blue scrubs). He does the whole look in my eye with a really bright light. Possibly brighter than the sun. And then starts to take to me about my diabetes. The usual stuff, lose weight, eat right. Then he says, "I see about 1000 diabetes patients a month, and at least one a month is going blind from the disease." So all I can think about at that point is that if so many of your patients are diabetic, get some larger fucking chairs for you waiting rooms, asshole.

What makes a Doctor believe that his time is so much more valuable than ours? Doesn't the technology exist that could make the doctor’s office so much more efficient and patient friendly? I'll save that for another blog.

Open up and say 'AHHHHHHHH'.

Catching Up

So, it's been a while since I wrote on this blog. I'm very excited, as next week I start my project with Improving Enterprises to rewrite the software I create almost 20 years ago. Sure, we re-wrote it once in 1998, taking it from 'C' to Visual FoxPro. But is is a re-conceptualization of the software. It's hard to describe. When it's done I'll put up some screen shots and let everyone know when it hits the stores for use.

And yet, as I feel excited, I wish it wouldn't be as bitter sweet still knowing that 200 + co-works will soon be out of a job. What I don't really understand is how massive amounts of knowledge can be discarded like yesterdays trash. These are people that have years and years of experience and knowledge that we are farming out to low-contact bidders from foreign lands. I think the company is headed in the wrong direction, and the nation as a whole, when companies don’t see what impact they have on the local and national economy. Do they think the billions of dollars they are paying these overseas companies will ever come back into our economy in terms of sales? They really can't be that naive, right?

Maybe it's the Hollywood movies I saw growing up, but I thought that if you took care of the company, the company would take care of you. But when all the owners of these companies look at is how much profit they made over last year, and they want more, at any expense it won’t be the people that got them there in the first place feeling needed or wanted.

I guess it's a dog eat dog world now, and personally I fear for the future of my children and my children's children, not to mention my own.

Cool Image tools on the Web

This is an image I pulled from a web site called aviary.com. They have several products for manipulating images on your web browser, so there is nothing to install on your computer, except maybe the Adobe Flash plug-in. The reason I'm looking at them is for ideas on user interfaces. In particular, the application they call Peacock has a very interesting take on filters. Take a look at it and let me know what you think. While I think it is innovative, I don’t now that I think it is user friendly. Maybe it's just me and my Old Dog ways.

L8R,

Steve

Shhhhh! Be Very, Very Quite... I'm Hunting Rabbits!

Please be sure to read the above title with an Elmer Fudd accent. Just to see if anyone is reading this or not I'm going to ask for post on everyone’s favorite cartoon. Character, specific episodes, types, etc... I'll list off some of mine here:

• Any Warner Brother’s cartoon made before 1960. The Tasmanian Devil is my favorite, followed by really old Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, when they were very insane and very funny.
• Ren and Stimpy. Happy, happy, joy, joy. Need I say more?
• South Park. Because I'm not fat, I'm big boned.
• Family Guy. The thought of Brian the dog being in love with Lois is very funny to me. I don't know why. Plus I get to see funny references to all the movies I love.
• For stop motion, it's got to be Robot Chicken. Again all the movies I love being spoofed with toy dolls and clay people is hilarious to me.

So what is yours? Please post your comments.

Why Blog?

So I've had at least two people ask me with in the space of 2 hours, "Why Blog?".
And I really don't have a good explanation for it. I think maybe it's because I feel like I'm missing out on something. I see these younger, smarter consultants come in to work in our group (not the brain dead off-shorers we just hired). All of them a blogging, tweeting, and IMing (just to name a few) and I feel left out. Maybe I think that if I do this, I can somehow make more information seep into my brain. So far, it's not working. I'll keep you posted on if anything changes and all of a sudden I turn into Stephen Hawking without the voice box and wheelchair.

I was talking to my wife, Suzy, last night. She is actually more connected in cyberspace then I am. The problem she has is with Twitter. She said she couldn't understand half the messages coming down the pipe. And I sometimes have this problem too. I believe that’s it is because we are looking at a new language being developed before our eyes. Between texting on your phones, pagers, and tweets people have to become more cryptic with their thoughts. I personally make fun of both of my sons for the text messages they leave me, and they drop letters, misspell words, or substitute numbers for words (4 being a prime example). But I find myself doing the same thing now. Y for yes, or K for okay. Sort of makes me feel like technology has defeated me in some way. Can I be very far from becoming a Borg? After all, Resistance is futile.

L8R, Steve

Can world domination be far away?

So, in the space of an hour or two, my followers increased by 100%. Things are looking up! At this rate, I'll be someone in no time.

To quote Steve Martin in the Jerk:

Navin R. Johnson: The new phone book's here! The new phone book's here!
Harry Hartounian: Boy, I wish I could get that excited about nothing.
Navin R. Johnson: Nothing? Are you kidding? Page 73 - Johnson, Navin R.! I'm somebody now! Millions of people look at this book everyday! This is the kind of spontaneous publicity - your name in print - that makes people. I'm in print! Things are going to start happening to me now

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This is my second blog. I may start going through how my day was at work while everyone is being "Right-Sized".... So far it sucks balls.