Archive for the 'get meta with me!' Category

September 21, 2007 | Filed under: get meta with me!, hello, nurse!

Yesterday I attended a nursing conference where the focus was safe and effective charting techniques in OB nursing. I love these all-day seminars; I always learn a lot and they never fail to scare the crap out of me. Keeps me on my toes.

Blogging as a medical professional can be a tricky business. Whenever I write about work*, I tread carefully. Ethical issues abound: privacy, HIPAA, job safety. But until yesterday I never considered the legal ramifications. I should. So should all other medical bloggers, for that matter.

* I maintain a separate text blog that is reserved for my experiences as an RN. It is more anonymous than this one (as anonymous as one can be on the internet) and only a small cadre of bloggerfolk know that I am the author. I haven’t posted there in awhile, although I have written a ton.

March 21, 2007 | Filed under: get meta with me!

Wanna Shower in Flash? Click here or the picture to lather up.

or click here to videobathe in mpeg4/mp4/Quicktime

Steven Bochco, acclaimed producer of Hill Street Blues, LA Law and NYPD Blue has decided to make a foray into online video. I find his ideas regarding video on the internet (and internet use in general) a little off-putting.

Bochco says he views the Web as a medium best suited for snippets of entertainment that can be consumed between tasks, something he calls a “mental shower.”

“I think people go to the Internet, particularly younger people, assuming they’re not going for information, for a distraction between tasks,” Bochco said.

A distraction? Steve, I’m hurt. I agree that the internet can be distracting, sure, but to characterize the intercommunicative juggernaut that is The Internet as just something that can keep you from getting bored between scooping out the cat box and waiting for your dinner to pop out of the microwave is a little sad. You have saddened me, Steve. So what’s he offering the new web 2.0 world? Confessions. Terrific.

“A good anecdote is like a good joke in terms of length, structure and punch line,” Bochco said. “Here I am in the most embarrassing moment of my life — that’s the punch line. A lot of people don’t know when to stop. Find the punch line and go out with that.”

Hmmm…okay. I’m listening.What else?

“The charm of this medium lies in its enormous spontaneity,” Bochco said, “because these are completely unscripted and sometimes, for a geezer like me, shockingly candid.”

Well, that’s certainly true.

I suppose I should be happy that a TV bigwig is joining the internet video world with a concept that doesn’t (quite) attempt to copy television–there’s enough of that already. But still, it doesn’t sit right with me. I want more, I want different, I want better.

I think Steven Bochco can do better.

January 1, 2007 | Filed under: get meta with me!, hello, nurse!

Click the pic (or here) for Flash
Or, Contrariwise, Click Here for mp4

When will the computer issues cease? I do not know. But my recently rebuilt Powerbook is NOT behaving. Complicated hi-tech activities such as cutting & pasting seem to be difficult for the poor little thing. Crashes every day. I’m stumped. But 2007 is going to be a booming videoblogging year for me, dammit, and this computer had better start doing its damn job pronto.(it just froze again…I think the silver bastard reads my every thought)