Two weeks

School starts in two weeks (September 8th). I'm spending this week hanging out with family in the US.

Timetable

I'm now able to see my timetable, for 3rd semester. I have classes Monday through Thursday, starting at 8AM. My school day will be over at 3 or 4PM, depending on the day.

My two days of Practicum will be done on Fridays. Friday will be a day off, when I'm not doing a Practicum.

I'm scheduled for 21 hours of lecture and 4 hours of lab, for a total of 25 hours a week.

Last semester I had 18 hours of lecture and 4 hours of lab, for a total of 22 hours a week. 3 of last semesters lecture hours were for a really easy History course.

Bastards

My timetable, for next semester, is supposed to be available today.

It's been August 17th for over 40 minutes now. How come I can't see my timetable yet? I stayed up late so that I could take a look at my timetable. It's not fair.

Bastards.

:-)

Arterial Line Placement

Placement of an Arterial Line from Cruz Rincon on Vimeo.

Elmo Vs. Pharmacist

Thoracentisis

Thoracentesis from Cruz Rincon on Vimeo.

Orotracheal Intubation

Orotracheal Intubation from Cruz Rincon on Vimeo.

Chest Tube insertion

Chest Tube Inserction from Cruz Rincon on Vimeo.

Cricothyroidotomy

Cricothyroidotomy from Cruz Rincon on Vimeo.

Can you save the bunny?

Save the bunny!

Golden handcuffs

Most people who make career changes don't do it to make less money. I am.

When I was working in IT, I would often times think about my job as my golden handcuffs. I felt kind of trapped in IT and a big part of it had to do with money. I was making really good money and, if I changed careers, I would be making less while making the change and when starting a new career. The problem with golden handcuffs is that you don't want to take them off because they're really shiny and made out of gold.

When I try to explain the golden handcuffs to people, they don't really seem to understand what I'm talking about or why they were such a big deal. I think that's because I have always been reluctant to talk about how much money was involved. The money that I used to make is in the past, so I think I can now talk about it, without coming across like a pretentious Ahole.

My last year of full time employment, in IT, was 2005.

Year: 2005
Employmet Income: $101,292.64
It's going to be a long time before I see money like that again. I was wearing the golden handcuffs and was looking for the key to unlock them.

Year: 2006
Employment Income: $53,253.18
I was a full time student studying Biotechnology/Science. I was working part time. That was the year of being really, really tired. People at school thought that I was always "so happy". I was more relieved than anything else. I'm actually kind of a grumpy person, so I was surprised by how people thought of me that year. I was wearing the golden handcuffs and had the key, to unlock them, in my back pocket.

Year: 2007
Employment Income: $60,276.39
I was a full time student up until the end of April and part time until July. I was still working part time but trying to work more hours. Making more money was more important than going to school, at that point, because I was saving for RT School. I unlocked the golden handcuffs but was still carrying them around with me because they were so pretty and shiny.

Year: 2008
Employment Income: $48,656.35
At this point I was living 10 minutes away from school and a couple of hours from work. I was working 3 days a week until September. I quit my job in August and started RT school in September. If I was working during school, I probably wouldn't have done very well in school. School was quite a grind. I put the golden handcuffs in a shoe box in the back of my closet.

Year: 2009
Employment Income (so far): $0.00
I will probably start a peer tutoring job when school starts back up in September. I thought I put the golden handcuffs in a shoe box in the back of my closet. I can't find them anymore. Where they really made out of gold? Did I really have a pair? Why didn't I sell them to somebody? I sure could use the money.

Fortunately, I had a bit of money saved for retirement. Unfortunately, most of that money is tied up in the stock market. The stock market really kicked my ass. I'm now living off of borrowed money, while I'm waiting for the stock market to recover a bit. Fortunately the stock market is recovering. I think I'll dip into my retirement savings in Novemeber or December.

If things go well, I'm hoping to make about $50, 000.00 in 2011 when I'm working as an RT. That's about what I was making in 2006 when I was a full time student and working part time.

RN Medics?

Quite some time ago, when I was wandering around in Toronto, I saw an ambulance that had 'RNMedics' written on it instead of the usual 'Paramedics'. Did some ambulances in Toronto have RNs on board? I tried to figure out what was going on by poking around on the Internet and didn't have any luck.

I was in Toronto a few weeks ago and saw another one of those ambulances and discovered that they had 'CBRNMedics' written on them and not 'RNMedics', as I had incorrectly remembered. CBRNMedics makes a bit more sense. CBRN stands for Chemical, Biological, Radioactive & Nuclear.

Privacy

A few months ago I had to go to a Doctor's office to get a photocopy of some blood test results. The results of the blood test prove that my Hepatitis B vaccinations have given me immunity to Hepatitis B.

In order to get a copy of the results I had to sign a release form, authorizing release of the blood test results to myself.

Huh? Uh. OK.

Lame apology

In an earlier post I mentioned my neighbour who's doing renovations. Last night he knocked on my door and sort of apologized. He essentially apologized for breaking the noise bylaw. He then asked if I could let him know whenever I go out in the evening, so that he could do some more renovations when I'm gone! I told him that I'm usually home after 7PM and probably won't ever be doing that.

What about being civil to your neighbours? I talked to him twice about all of the noise and that didn't work. The threat of a $5000 fine, and a Bylaw Enforcement Officer knocking on his door, made him stop acting like an idiot. He's essentially behaving himself, like a reasonable human being, because he does not want to be punished. The concept of having some respect or consideration for his new neighbours still hasn't seemed to cross his mind. He's definitely still in the Ahole category in my books. If you don't act like an Ahole because you don't want to be punished, you're still an Ahole.

It's OK to say you're sorry

It's OK to say you're sorry, there's a new law that says so.

When I first heard about the law, I was glad to hear about it. Then I started thinking about why we needed a law to make apologizing OK, in the first place...
http://www.hiroc.com/AxiomNews/2009/April/April27.html