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Seumas Hyslop

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(no subject) [Aug. 22nd, 2016|06:56 pm]
Seumas Hyslop
*tap, tap* - "Hello, is this thing on?"
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TRIP PLANNING - I need your input! USA 13TH-22ND MARCH [Jan. 27th, 2011|11:07 pm]
Seumas Hyslop
OK, here's the current plan.

SYD-LAX
13 MAR: QF11 Dep SYD 2:10 PM Arr LAX 9:45 AM (on the A380!)


TIME IN LOS ANGELES (AND MAYBE SAN DIEGO?) (13TH-15TH MARCH)
I'll spend from 13th-15th in LA, with possible side journeys to SD (if I have time). Lots of people in LA I really want to see! Not sure what I should do whilst here - go to Disneyland again, or Universal Studios? Last time I was here Dave (e_ticket ) took me to a Fox Studios Backlot Tour and to Disneyland. Maybe I should go see a taping of a show?

THE STATUS CREDIT/MILEAGE RUN
Here's where the holiday gets ugly:
15 MAR: WN1255 Dep LAX 07:45 PM Arr LAS 08:50 PM

16 MAR: AA2538 Dep LAS 12:35 AM Arr ORD 06:00 AM
16 MAR: AA1200 Dep ORD 07:45 AM Arr MIA 11:45 AM
16 MAR: AA1845 Dep MIA 12:25 PM Arr SJU (San Juan) 02:50 PM

17 MAR: AA841 Dep SJU 12:15 PM Arr MIA 03:10 PM
17 MAR: AA295 Dep MIA 04:10 PM Arr ORD 06:35 PM
17 MAR: AA2013 Dep ORD 07:10 PM Arr LAS 09:05 PM

And immediately back to SJU again:
18 MAR: AA2538 Dep LAS 12:35 AM Arr ORD 06:00 AM
18 MAR: AA1200 Dep ORD 07:45 AM Arr MIA 11:45 AM
18 MAR: AA1845 Dep MIA 12:25 PM Arr SJU (San Juan) 02:50 PM

SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO (16TH & 18TH MARCH)
I'm going to be here twice on 16th March and 18th March, for about 20 hours each time - I'm figuring I should hire a car each time. Not sure where I'll stay, but I'd prefer it to be something on the cheaper side. I might end up splurging and going for the Sheraton or something though. Will make sure to drink bottled water here.

Any advice on San Juan from anyone that's been there? The days in San Juan are going to have to allow me to recover. I also know no-one there. Going to be interesting. Probably going to be downtime days in between all the travel

SJU-SFO
19 MAR: AA1812 Dep SJU 06:10 AM Arr MIA 08:55 AM
19 MAR: AA635 Dep MIA 09:40 AM Arr DFW 12:00 PM
19 MAR: AA721 Dep DFW 02:00 PM Arr LAS 03:00 PM
19 MAR: WN1800 Dep LAS 06:15 PM Arr SFO 07:50 PM

SAN FRANCISCO (19TH-22ND MARCH)
Three days in San Francisco - Going to a beer bust, hanging out at Starbucks on 18th Street, and I'll have to organise a group dinner on probably the Monday night - is Firewood still good?

SFO-SYD
22 MAR: QF3152 Dep SFO 07:00 PM Arr LAX 08:25 PM
22 MAR: QF12 Dep LAX 10:25 PM Arr SYD 07:25AM (+2)

And the very next day, I go straight back on the plane up to Cairns!

Very excited about this trip - at the end of it, I'll have hit QANTAS Frequent Flyer Platinum, which is OneWorld Emerald, and means trips to First Class Lounges and AA Flagship Lounges when I travel as well as a pile of other benefits.

So, anyone think this is a good idea? Anyone think I should change the order of SFO and LAX? I'd be interested to see how this works for everyone. If it does work, I'm going to book everything within the next 24 hours.
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Almost done with training! [Jan. 27th, 2011|09:11 pm]
Seumas Hyslop
It's hard to believe that it's only a few more weeks until I finish my training. It's getting so close that I can feel it I'm not sure exactly what it's going to feel like, but I know that things are going to get better from here on in.

The one thing that will hold me back though is that once I have finished, there are several committees that will have to review my submission that I am eligible to receive my specialist qualifications and be made an Anaesthetist.

Anyway, in that time between me finishing work as a trainee and being approved as an Anaesthetist, I'm going to travel, so here's my plans for March:

4TH MARCH: Finish work!
5TH MARCH: Mardi Gras Parade
6TH-12TH MARCH: Fly to Townsville, QLD to work for a week for Careflight, NSW. They have a major teaching contract with the Australian Defence Forces there and I'm going to teach with them for that week. Back to Sydney.
13TH-22ND MARCH: California, Las Vegas (only in transit) and San Juan, Puerto Rico (twice!) - this is part holiday, part mileage/status credit run - more on this in the next journal entry.
25TH-28TH MARCH: Port Douglas, QLD - it's Russel's birthday, and after all those years of him having to have his birthday shadowed by my work and exams, he's going to have this one in style - at the Sheraton Mirage, Port Douglas, surrounded by friends who will be joining us up there!

Originally I planned things like a trip to Norfolk VA and Aruba, but it just became unworkable (particularly trying to get from LAX to SNA/John Wayne Airport in Orange County in just three hours, so I've had to ditch that idea).

And then hopefully I'll be able to start work as an anaesthetist!
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On realising sometimes how good you have it (healthcare) [Nov. 27th, 2010|08:47 pm]
Seumas Hyslop
I attended a session today which was designed for Anaesthetic Fellows like myself who were about to finish their training, giving advice on all the sorts of things that you need to get organised when you qualify, going into practice.

Along with all the stuff about the billing, insurance, practice arrangements, paperwork, government regulation and the multitude of other things you have to do as a consultant anaesthetist, there was an interesting session on decisions in your career: public work vs private work, urban vs rural work, and there was a section on choosing to donate your time to do overseas aid.

Overseas medical aid takes the role of many different forms - in some cases it's covering anaesthetists on certain islands so that they can go and get some inservices - sometimes it's teaching the locals how to do surgery and anaesthetics, and sometimes it's doing work in self-sufficient teams coming over from Australia. It'd all be very interesting and really valuable work. The main reason is that the patients are usually sicker, usually more likely to die, and so you can have a greater impacts (by preventing a child dying by fixing their congenital heart disease).

As I looked through the pictures of what they were doing, I felt a tremendous sense that we don't deserve the incredible healthcare that we have in Australia. It's a priviledge to have a system that cares for everyone. Particularly when you see these people that manage with so little care, and often die from inadequate healthcare.

It's amazing how many people complain about their healthcare in Australia. Not that people don't have legitimate complaints, but sometimes it's good to put them in perspective. There was a story today about how when these medical teams go over to perform surgery for a week or two and patients that can get operated on in that time miss out. People line up there for lifesaving surgery in the same way that we line up for concert tickets or consumer electronics.

There was a woman that was mentioned this morning who had come from an outlying island via boat to the small hospital in Papua New Guinea. A month before the team had arrived in town, she was camping outside the clinic door with her child, so that the child could be first in line for the heart surgery that was going to make sure that her child would not miss out on closing the hole the child had in their heart (ventricular septal defect). The reality is that children with these sorts of problems usually get to about age 10 and then at that time the disease is so irreversibly advanced that they die before age 15.

Particularly when I think that the amount of money that has been spent on me and my back injury could fund 4 or 5 cardiac operations on kids which would be lifesaving. Yes, my back injury was devastating to me, and I still have issues, which are improving slowly. But every step of the way, I got the care I needed, from the specialist I wanted, and I didn't pay a cent. But when the money they spent on helping me get over my back injury could save 4 or 5 lives of kids, you start to wonder where the equity is that I get the healthcare that I need, and others in the world probably do not. There is just no fairness in that at all. What did I do to deserve such good care? It's only that I was lucky enough to be born in a country with a good healthcare system and to be lucky enough to have massive resources and good, uncorrupt government that provides welfare, healthcare, and education to all its citizens.

It reinforced in my mind that I'm going to join one of the AusAID trips and do this annually in the future. It's only fair. To give back in honour of the system that has been so good to me.
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Why did I leave LJ for Facebook? [Nov. 15th, 2010|10:40 pm]
Seumas Hyslop
Just came back to visit LiveJournal for a moment, and got stuck reading. I miss it here.
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I never thought that poetry would ever mirror my life so closely. [Jul. 13th, 2010|11:40 pm]
Seumas Hyslop
I've borrowed some of the words of Christiaan Van Vuuren, as it explains my life perfectly at the moment.

"Some days I'm proud of the man in my reflection
I see a man who is full of life and full of passion
A man that makes light of this heavy situation
And one who lights the darkness to search for inspiration

His head held high, not being a slave to this condition
And not allowing it to affect him, he's occupied by distraction
He'll never be a victim of a microscopic faction
Whose microscopic actions cause these global repercussions

And every action in our lives will result in a reaction
And sometimes an addition will result in a substraction
The addition of strength right now is a protection mechanism
To substract from his fear and turn it into optimism.

And the tiniest of ripples can become a tidal wave
And the softest of whispers can take him away
But when the flights of fantasy finally wear off
He finds himself in this room where he left off.

Today in this mirror there's a man I don't recognise
He's a boy wearing the body of man for a disguise
And this is a boy for whom I can't help but sympathise
For it's the apparent strength of mind on which this poor boy relies

And these eyes in the mirror that stare back at me
No longer offer the strength and the comfort I long to see
Just a patient, a broken spirit, longing for sympathy
Someone to save me from sinking in self-pity

But too proud to accept pity and not wanting weakness to be seen
I'll wrap myself up in an artificial well-being
Because it's better than seeing myself as a weak human being
So I'll just keep on smiling and I'll keep on agreeing

That's everything's okay and that I'm feeling fine
Because I know there are hundreds of thousands that are left to die
Who won't even get themselves a right to a medical file
Or see a doctor, or a nurse or see anyone, and meanwhile

I can choose to be a victim, cursed from the beginning
Or can face up to fear and do all my own forgiving
For the risks I have taken, and the mistakes that I've made
And for the errors of our brothers and sisters of yesterday

Because the earth will still continue in its destined revolutions
And us quick little humans pursue the fastest solutions
And mark tiny ticks on paper next to massive global problems
Creating new illusions instead of solving them

And that's the train of thought that might keep me up tonight
But I refuse to lose sight of the battle I have to fight
And in my own little victory I will win myself the right
To see a man in the mirror, not a boy that hides inside."
- Christiaan Van Vuuren
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Why would anyone want to be in the public eye? [May. 21st, 2010|09:35 am]
Seumas Hyslop
In the last 24 hours, the New South Wales Minister for Roads, David Campbell, resigned ahead of footage which showed him exiting a well known gay sauna. Apparently the Seven Television network was able to film him exiting KKK aka "Ken's Karate Klub" on Anzac Parade, Kensington.

The Sydney Morning Herald has the story. Essentially David Campbell has been outed by the media as a married man who has sex with men.

First of all, my thoughts are with his family - they may have come to accept this arrangement privately, but they may not have, and understably could be hard on them. If they were unaware, the family's feeling of betrayal would be awful, and I would hope that they would get the support that they need.

However, I can't help but think that as a member of the general public, we don't need to know about this aspect of Mr Campbell's personal life. Mr Campbell has been a Roads Minister that doesn't have a strong political record, and he's been disastrously ineffectual at times, but that's the record we should be judging him on, not his private life. His private life does not have any role in his duties as Minister for Roads. The public doesn't need to know this. The public's eternal fascination and horror that anyone might be gay is the reason this story exists - it's the gossip angle that is driving this story, not any public interest. Mr Campbell did not have a staunch anti-gay stance, and he was not being hypocritical politically (like say, Senator Larry Craig). We should have left this one to rest.

I've spoken to journalists about this. If you go back 20 years, stuff like this was known by journalists, and it was understood that a politician or a public figure's private life was off-limits provided it was not affecting their public duties or actions. But since the increasing tabloidisation of media in that time, gossip now seems to masquerade as news. It makes me wonder - why would anyone want to be a public figure? If you're at the mercy of journalists who will sell out anything about your personal life, then you start to live in a state of fear. That's something that I certainly wouldn't want for myself, and I'm sure others wouldn't. It means that we lose good people that would otherwise be fantastic in public life.

The only trouble is that the horse already seems to have bolted, and even major broadsheets seem to get in on the act. I know what's happened, but I don't see how things are going to change. Gossip equals ratings, and that's going to drive more of this sort of prying into the private lives of public figures. Sadly, it's a loss for all of us.
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On the 20 year anniversary of my mother's death. [May. 3rd, 2010|08:50 am]
Seumas Hyslop
Today marks 20 years since my mother passed away from a near 10 year battle with breast and then bowel cancer. I was there when she died, and that experience has deeply affected me over the years. She died two days before my 15th birthday, and whilst I've since come to a much better understanding of everything since then, it did have a major impact on my life.

My mother was one of those people that seemed to do everything. It just seemed like nothing was too hard for her. She would raise a brood of nine kids, drive them all to school and pick them up, and still find time for each of them. And then she would be involved with helping out with charity work, the local school canteens and the local church activities. Even when she was battling cancer.

But I still feel like I have a relationship with my mother even though she was sick for much of my childhood. And even though I've had no direct contact with my mother since I was a teenager, my mother has been a constant influence in my life. I still often think about what my mother would do. She had a strength about her and of her convictions that I think has carried on in her children - we're all very much people that get up and go, and don't sit and wait for life to happen to us. That's the influence of our mother showing through. We have many of her mannerisms, and many of us still hold her belief system. I know that my own personal belief that every person is valued by virtue of being a human being, and from that, deserves a basic level of respect. That's something that has carried through everything I do, and that's my mother's influence there.

I guess that's how she lives on - by how much you could see of her in all of her kids.
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Testing Facebook Connect [Dec. 31st, 2009|06:39 am]
Seumas Hyslop
Testing the "Facebook Connect" function to see if LiveJournal updates Facebook properly.
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Ridiculous periods to boot up [Aug. 15th, 2009|08:28 pm]
Seumas Hyslop
It seems my primary laptop is taking ridiculous amounts of time to boot up. Almost 20 minutes until everything is fully loaded. Interestingly, it seems to take 5 minutes alone to boot through the BIOS (which the original BIOS loadup screen where it says "press F10 to enter setup". Previously it would take about 15 minutes to load everything, but recently the BIOS started loading slowly as well.

I'm thinking it might be a good idea to wipe it fresh and reinstall Windows from scratch, and repopulate the hard drive with my regular programs, but all the issues you have with product licenses (for Windows, Office, Norton, etc.) is a pain.

I almost feel like I should ditch it and go and buy a new computer.

But can people tell me - why would the BIOS take so long to load? Is there a sign of a deeper problem that might need attention?

I'd be grateful for any advice that anyone's got.
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New Digital Channels [Aug. 9th, 2009|09:08 pm]
Seumas Hyslop
If you haven't programmed your digital set top box in Australian capital cities, it might be time to give it all a rescan. There's been some new channels launch, including Go!, which the Nine Network launched today.

On first look, it seems to be a bit of an American content channel, with non-stop US dramas/sitcoms/reality shows. Russel's enjoying The Big Bang Theory right now.
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Willpower needed [Aug. 9th, 2009|07:53 pm]
Seumas Hyslop
Having to use all my willpower not to confirm all those friend requests on Facebook and start using it.

One of the problems is that I'm travelling again soon, to Perth for a break immediately after the exams. There are several people I'm trying to co-ordinate things with, but some are only on Facebook.

But I know it will kill my spare time, so going to persist a little longer.
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City2Surf - and I'm not running it. [Aug. 9th, 2009|11:31 am]
Seumas Hyslop
The annual City2Surf 14km timed run is on right now - they're running it as I type this.

I am disappointed that I haven't been able to run this year, but I need the time to study.

Still, I have my time of 84 minutes and 1 second to chase when I do go back to it next year. I can't see any reason that I won't be running next year - and I'll have to work to beat that time.

Still, I'm a little wistful as I think about how I could be out there, iPod loaded with music at 120bpm to keep my rhythm going, and making a commitment not to stop moving until I reach the finish line at Bondi Beach.

Next year, Seumas, next year.
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Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O'Neil are on "indefinite recess" [Aug. 2nd, 2009|11:23 pm]
Seumas Hyslop
Well, mark me as surprised. When I wrote my last entry, I didn't think that Austereo would have the guts to do this.

Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O'Neil (of "The Kyle and Jackie O Show") on 2DAY-FM's breakfast radio segment will not be going to air in the morning.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2009/08/02/1249152504446.html

This statement was released by Austereo:

"Kyle Sandilands' management has advised Austereo that he is unable to perform his duties on-air at this time.

Further, following a great deal of consideration and having consulted Jackie O and all stakeholders, Austereo has formed the view that it is in the interest of all parties, for the Kyle and Jackie O Show to go into recess until we have completed an across-the-networks review of the principals (sic) and protocols of our interaction with our audience. This review commenced last Wednesday, July 29."


I would read into this that Austereo (the parent company that owns 2DAY-FM and are therefore Sandilands and O'Neil's employers) went to Sandilands with a set of conditions, possibly including the ACMA guideline for a seven-second delay on live radio, which apparently Sandilands refuses to use, instead insisting on pure live radio. I suspect that Sandilands refused to work under such conditions, and ergo, he's not turning up to work in the morning. To suggest that he's "suspended" is not really true - it's Sandilands that is refusing to go to work.

It seems Austereo was taking things seriously after all.

It seems that to come back to work, Sandilands might have to bow to certain conditions, which means that he can't operate as a media cowboy anymore. I really do hope this is the case. The sophistry that went on with their argument that had they known about the rape, they wouldn't have put the segment to air, but never actually discussing the issue of whether putting a 14 year old woman on the air with the aim of disempowering and publicly humiliating/shaming her about sex and drug use was a bad idea or not.

On Tuesday, we'll also find out whether Sandilands will lose his Australian Idol judging position as well. It's likely to go, as the parent company in the UK, Nineteen, is said to be putting pressure on the Ten Network to dump him to maintain their "family" brand with Idol.

Whilst I'm not strictly pleased that he is going down partially for this, I think he does need to realise that he's a radio star, but not invincible. What he does has consequences, and he has the power to hurt people, and hurt them badly. As I've said previously, his style of comedy is usually about getting laughs out of denigrating others, and he's made his career on that. Maybe, just maybe, he might learn that you don't trample on those that are worse off than you on your way to the top.
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Kyle Sandilands, Jackie O and the on-air lie detector rape incident. [Jul. 30th, 2009|12:20 am]
Seumas Hyslop
As I posted this post a week ago about Kyle Sandilands and 2DAY-FM's idea of "comedy", I didn't know that Kyle Sandilands was going to become the story of the day.

Here's all the links you need:

AUDIO OF THE INCIDENT: News Limited and Fairfax Limited.
2DAY-FM Statement
Kyle Sandilands Statement

Essentially, the Sydney FM Breafast Show, The Kyle and Jackie O Show, has a segment in which they put people on lie detectors to ask them awkward and difficult questions for people's tittilation. A good example of this is over at Media Watch, in which Kyle asks women about masturbation, anal sex and "have you ever gone down on a[nother] girl?" all whilst connected to a "lie detector". This segment is, like much of the rest of the show, about making comedy out of degrading people. Their comedy is about making people feel good simply because another person is feeling awkward, uncomfortable, and getting them to tell personal things about themselves that they don't want aired.

Of course, this was already going too far, but Kyle was unrepentant:

Kyle Sandilands: Apparently Media Watch has got all their little knickers in a twist, their big granny undies in a twist because they can't believe over at the ABC where they're all wearing the fawn cardigans that we're over here having fun flashing around some boobs and willies.

— 2Day FM, The Kyle and Jackie O Show, 4th July, 2008


This morning, they decided that they were going to have a 14 year old girl called Rachel on the air, with her mother, who was going to ask questions of her daughter. This went horribly wrong. It's easier to listen to it in the link above than read it, but I want to make sure there is a record of the story here.

( The full transcript of the segment where the 14 year old girl was forced to admit on radio that she was raped...Collapse )

I personally am appalled.

First of all, let's get the issue of the mother out of the way. There is now a Department of Community Services investigation into this family as a result of the on-air events, as there should be. Coercing a 14 year old child into a lie detector test on a live radio program and planning to ask her questions about sex and drug use was terrible, and will likely harm the young woman immensely. This should never have been allowed to happen.

But by this, 2DAY-FM, Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O have a massive culpability in this. They had agreed to have this mother and her 14 year old daughter on the radio program to coerce the young woman to a lie detector test about these things.

The young woman knew what was she was going to be asked about, because she heard the replay of the previous segment where the mother spelt it all out. She clearly said that she was scared. She obviously felt powerless. And yet Jackie O thought it was amusing, continually laughing. There was an obvious change in tone once the woman admitted that she was raped, but where was the concern for the woman BEFORE the admission? Prior to her shouting "Oh, okay, I got raped when I was 12 years old.", there was absolutely no concern for the woman - she was merely someone that was going to have their personal life derided for Kyle and Jackie O's (and 2DAY-FM's) own means.

2DAY-FM released a statement this afternoon which they said "had [they] known ahead of time, the segment would never have gone to air." They claimed that "in the normal course of preparing the segment all due care and consideration was given to the family and clearly we didn't know anything about this traumatic incident."

Rubbish. Of course you didn't. Kyle in a later article tonight on The Punch admitted that they "check with the mother before hand, and go through the questions they want asked". That means they were putting a breakfast show to air in which they knew that they were questioning a young woman of age 14 about whether she was having sex and doing drugs, all whilst she was attached to a lie detector. If that sort of interrogation is not disempowering, then I don't know what is. Your concern for her after the fact seems odd - you were quite happy to discuss her sex life with her in a disempowered position - why do you suddenly develop concern for her now? This 14 year old woman had no-one on that broadcast that was acting as her advocate. Her mother certainly wasn't acting as her advocate, and you could tell that before the broadcast in the nature of the questions that she was going to ask. So who was the woman's advocate? You? No, no-one. She was left to fend for herself, the victim of your attempt for breakfast radi "entertainment".

Jackie O makes out that she was concerned, and she was. But she was certainly not concerned prior to the revelation. Her incessant laughing and her excitement was evident in the broadcast - it was like she knew she was onto something juicy, and she couldn't wait. So they all bulldozed this woman into a compromised situation and thought that was hilarious.

Tomorrow, we won't hear about it anymore - but those two will continue to be on the airwaves, and they'll be looking for the next person that they can denigrate for laughs. Kyle isn't repentant at all - he's sorry to the 14 year old woman, but only in as much as she talked about the rape - if that hadn't been brought up, he would have been happy for the interrogation to continue on air. He's done this before, and he'll do it again. Please, honestly, Kyle. Go away. Jackie O, please follow him.

EDIT: Under the Broadcasting Act, the Australian Communications and Media Authority can't investigate this until a complaint is lodged with the radio station and the response is unsatisfactory. So I've lodged a complaint with 2DAY-FM (two page letter) detailing where they've breached the Code of Practice in my opinion. Of course these Codes are deliberately vague, and are hard to get anyone on anything, but dammit, I'm going to try. This is really ordinary form on the part of the radio station.
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Being a lemming and joining Facebook and Twitter (although not completely) [Jul. 27th, 2009|02:46 pm]
Seumas Hyslop
So I signed up to Facebook and Twitter.

As I got in a message from roybear, "Hell has frozen over, it seems. :-)".

No, I am not on it yet and I am not yet using it, and I have no intention of using it at the moment, but when the thing about the facebook usernames came up, I went to stop either Jerry from Indiana or those guys from Italy getting my username first. I did the same with Twitter, for the same reason. I am using neither of them regularly at the moment.

Twitter, fom my point of view, is more problematic. No easy way of sending messages to people without the @username format, and the 140 character thing to me feels constrictive. It seems that it really doesn't want to know what I feel, other than in the most superficial way. There also seems to be no lasting benefit to messaging on Twitter - it's all about what's happening now, and even going back a day or so seems pointless. Unlike reading a journal entry from six or seven years ago and understanding how you felt back then, Twitter doesn't have that longevity to each message.

Twitter does seem to work in the here and now, and for that it does very well. I can imagine that if everyone was microblogging constantly about a current event, it could prove interesting. A bit like how things were back when the Twin Towers had fallen and I was reading about things as they happened, only this time it's even more immediate. Superficial, yes, but even faster to the web than ever before.

I'm a little mixed about whether I'll ever use Twitter. If I do, it would seem that I would have been mistaken on Twitter for some guy who is a furry/plushie - and so getting all these weird messages:

( Some of the bizarre furry messages I've been getting on Twitter - obviously a case of mistaken identityCollapse )

I'd write something to clear it up, but I don't want to actually start using Twitter. I worry that I'll get sucked into it.

Facebook, I will have to admit, is an incredible platform. Someone really has thought about it, and it really is the "ultra-personalised" experience that they used to talk about when they invented the term "Web 2.0". Its ability to recognise your preferences and adapt is nothing short of amazing.

I haven't started using it - I've only put up my name and a picture, and instantly I was getting friend requests. I haven't added a single friend (and won't until I have the time to use the site, next year), but amazingly, it seems to constantly make suggestions of people and I'm amazed at how good it is at picking who might be my friend. On the list of suggestions, I personally know 20 of the 27 people that it lists. That's pretty amazing.

What's even more amazing is that they have come not from my core group of friends, but from different obscure parts of my life - people I used to hang around with in Canberra over ten years ago, bears I haven't seen since about 2001 from Melbourne, a fifty-something nurse that I used to work with at Auburn that we used to write to after I left, even bears that are on the other side of the world (it just started suggesting our very own Larry (urbear) this morning).

With very little information, it's able to make decisions about who I know, and bloody hell, it's right. It actually makes me a little uneasy - if they're able to profile my friends based on what little information they have about me, then what are they going to be able to know about me when I do start putting information about myself up there?

So far, I can see the application framework is also very powerful. Equally, whilst it's a powerful platform, I am yet to see anything useful that has actually been done with that platform. I can see I'm going to be blocking a large number of those applications, or they'll drive me crazy. Sex quizzes, card games, and "What Mr Men are you?" personality tests are a big yawn. If anyone is aware of an application on the Facebook platform that is actually useful, I'd be really interested to hear about it.

What's interesting though is that there are people I've never heard of asking for friend requests. Are they adding me because I've forgotten who they are? Do they know me through the Bears in the City Podcast and have found me on Facebook? Or have they just seen my photo and added me without thinking? I've decided that I'm not going to add people as friends just because they're handsome - I have to have some concrete connection with them outside of Facebook. Equally, I think I'll avoid adding work colleagues, or if I do, they won't have access to much in my profile (I plan to make heavy use of the privacy settings to make sure that work people can't see much at all other than I'm on Facebook and they can message me).

I can see that the quality of discourse on Facebook is far less than here. It's going to be something that I'll have to moderate - I like the "in-depth" nature of LiveJournal, and I can't see anything replacing it for me.

Anyway, I've wasted much too much time on critiquing the finer aspects of Twitter and Facebook. And since it's not being used yet (I'm just queueing up the friend requests and will confirm them only when I start to use the site).

Just stunned though that in the matter of weeks, so many people have found me, without me actually having done anything on the site.

For anyone else that wants to send a friend request, please do - I won't forget you, and I'll confirm with you when I actually get on board the site.

http://www.facebook.com/beardoc
http://www.twitter.com/beardoc
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Why 2DAY-FM and Kyle Sandlilands disturbs me [Jul. 20th, 2009|07:38 pm]
Seumas Hyslop
This has been doing the rounds of the commercial television networks recently. Ratings of 2DAY FM's "Kyle and Jackie O Show" must be dipping, because this is almost reaching saturation:



For me it sort of really simply sums up Kyle Sandilands in a nutshell - he's a guy whose humour is generated purely out of making fun out of others, whether or not they deserve it. His show is full of stuff that is "I'm okay, they're the a***holes."

No, Kyle, it's you that is the problem. Making fun of people that really don't deserve it isn't funny. Being nasty for cheap laughs is still essentially just being nasty. There's no intelligence to your comedy. It's just demeaning.

It's a pity, because Hamish Blake, one of my favourite Australian presenters, is on the same network. His comedy is far smarter, and he's a joy to listen to.

Please go away, Kyle.
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I could not care less about Australian MasterChef [Jul. 16th, 2009|03:10 pm]
Seumas Hyslop
All I seem to hear about is bloody Masterchef. On the radio, in the newspapers, and in employee tea rooms everywhere, it seems I can't get away from it at all.

I couldn't care less whether Po wins or whatever. I don't even know who Po is!

Hopefully this will be over soon.
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In Brisbane for Deirdre's 50th Birthday [Jul. 12th, 2009|10:33 pm]
Seumas Hyslop
A quick rush up to Brisbane on QANTAS after the EMAC Course to make sure I was at Deirdre's 50th birthday party. Deirdre is my second eldest sibling, and the one that continuing the run of 50th birthdays that we're having in the family this decade. We managed to get eight of the nine siblings together at Mary-Anne's place (Catriona couldn't make it), and had a take-away dinner and a bit of socialising with several of the kids from the next generation (the nephews and nieces) as well.

It was wonderful.

What I love about my family is that despite our very different paths (from the ultraleft to the ultraright, from the very rich all the way down to the not so rich, city folk that never leave the capital cities to people that live on massive remote properties and run cattle, climate change skeptics all the way through to some of us who are almost theological over the issue), we all still seem to believe in the family, and get-togethers are a magic affair. We argue, we bicker, and we love each other very much.

One of the best things of the night (and which is now a tradition for these birthdays is that we all share our own memories of the person having the birthday. In our case, there were several strong themes - Deirdre was stubborn as all hell (and tough as nails!) but she's by far the most generous person of anyone in the family. Countless stories of how she'd been there for all the family members. It was just wonderful, and made me glad to be a part of this family.

And I found out something interesting that I didn't know - Deirdre is famous! She is a regular presenter on ABC Radio Western Queensland as "The Country Kitchen Chef" and does a weekly segment presenting recipes for everyone. I'm going to make a point of listening into her when I can (ABC Local Radio streams all their local radio streams online). You can catch some of her recipes on the ABC Radio Western Queensland site.

I love that our family gets together like this. And we have a pile more 50th birthdays in the next 9 years (as well as my 40th wedged in there!).
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EMAC - how to have critical incidents without killing patients [Jul. 11th, 2009|04:10 pm]
Seumas Hyslop
Over the last few days, I've been at a medical simulation course called EMAC (Effective Management of Anaesthesia Crises). Whilst I can't talk specifically about the content of the course (a confidentiality agreement prohibits me from talking about my performance, anyone else's performance, or the specific scenarios), I can't tell you how amazing it was.

The premise of the course is a "high-fidelity" simulator, which is a mannikin that has been developed to be able to do a whole series of things - it can open its eyes, change pupil size, have pulses all over the body that feel real, develop bronchospasm, wheezes in the chest, change the breath sounds, and be connected up to the monitor and you can cannulate, stick needles into the chest to decompress pneumothoraces, and they can make it easy or hard to intubate. Essentially, there are a series of events in anaesthetics that are very uncommon, but when they do happen people get really sick really quickly, and they see how you go managing the crisis situation. Monitors operate just like real monitors, and you run anaesthetics and drugs just like you would a real patient.

In short, you can see how you go in a crisis without having to put a real patient at risk. Everything is centred around teamwork and organisation and being able to manage multiple people - it's about getting help when you need it, and being able to effectively manage about 4-5 people in that critical situation.

To top it all off, there are filming this from every angle, and others would be watching, and we would debrief and review every performance.

What I discovered is that I already have a lot of the skills that they were trying to tease out - persons that take control when necessary, and organise everyone, trying to remain in looking at the big picture rather than dealing with the nitty gritty. Truth is, this is how I've been running things in arrests since I was involved in arrest teams since 2004.

What it demonstrated to me was that I'm operating on the level that they're hoping to achieve. I'm not saying I was perfect, and I learnt a lot from the experience, but it also reaffirmed with me that I can do this job, and that my temporary setbacks with failing the exam are not representative of my abilities.

To be really honest about the couse, I loved it. I loved being thrown in the deep end and seeing my way out of it. It's that adrenaline rush as you try to work your way through an arrest or a critical situation that I get such a kick out of.

I'm in the right job, I'm good at it, and I love what I do. Now to convince the College of Anaesthetists of that.

At the end of the course, I was even so bold that I enquired about whether they needed people to train as instructors to run the course in the future. It's a fantastic course, and I would love to be involved in teaching it. We'll have to wait and see how that goes.
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"Laser by Cee" and how fear sells stuff. [Jul. 5th, 2009|11:11 pm]
Seumas Hyslop
I was in Fitness First Darlinghurst this morning, as it's the only place that seems to do BodyAttack on a Sunday morning, and was about to leave when I heard an ad on the Fitness First Lifestyle Network about some laser hair removal place called "Laser by Cee" or something similar. "Blah, blah, blah, need to start now for summer, etc." - all the usual things that these sorts of ads have. Didn't care too much.

And then it said something that I won't forget:

"At Laser by Cee, we understand that unslightly body hair can contribute to low self-esteem..."

...and then went on to use that as justification for people needing to "call today".

I want to say this to "Laser by Cee" or whatever they were calling themselves:

FUCK YOU.


Fuck you and your fucking laser hair removal service. While you can run your commercial service and provide services to those that want to remove body hair, where do you fucking get off? There's one thing to advertise your services, but another to play to people's fears. That whole bit about "we understand that unslightly body hair can contribute to low self-esteem"? You fucking understand all right - you understand how you can manipulate people into giving you money. In the guise of supposedly "understanding" your clients, what you're actually doing is telling people that body hair is unsightly and a reason for low self esteem. You're not understanding people's fears - you're fucking well telling people that they should have low self-esteem if they have body hair.

Body hair isn't a cause of low self-esteem. It's people fucking telling people that body hair is unsightly that is the cause of low self-esteem. For that, you're the fucking lowest of the low. You're using fear as a motivator for your fucking business model. You don't care about your clients at all. You just want them to fucking give you money and you'll dispense some electrolysis or something else that doesn't have anything to do with their self-esteem at all. You feed the fear, and then under the guise of supposedly treating the fear, you laugh all the way to the bank.

You're not the fucking solution, you're the fucking problem.

How fucking dare you.
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Back out of hospital isolation but now into home isolation [Jun. 29th, 2009|12:18 pm]
Seumas Hyslop
Home again now. In the standard isolation for Influenza and will not be going out of the house for much of the rest of the week.

Two things I have to do this week:
  • Survive without going out of the house and contacting anyone else
  • Try not to give any of this to Russel.

    I've been sleeping in the guest bedroom the last couple of days and I'll be continuing that. No contact with Russel even for meals, and of course, no sharing of utensils/equipment/etc.

    I'm going to have to allow him to keep the remote! Fortunately we have different computers etc., so we don't generally need to make contact for most things. He'll have to start unloading the dishwasher though, to prevent me from handling clean dishes that he might use.

    Expect me on LiveJournal a lot in the next few days - I might be bored at home!
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    In isolation (hopefully not H1:N1 but you never know) [Jun. 29th, 2009|09:59 am]
    Seumas Hyslop
    I'm currently sitting in Isolation Room 2 at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Emergency. Been here since 8am.

    Why am I here? Over the weekend I developed "flu-like symptoms" - fever, cough, a mildly runny nose, muscle aches and pains, and fatigue. As I'm a healthcare provider and am exposed to mulitiple people with similar symptoms, my GP felt it was better that I go to Emergency rather than seeing him.

    So I'm in here. It was all very quick - the triage nurse saw me within a couple of minutes of arriving, and within 5 minutes I was whisked away to this isolation room. Of course, it might be several more hours (or more!) before I am actually seen by anyone, but I'm here with a computer (and wireless internet, albeit flaky inside the building), and a couple of books to study.

    Fingers crossed I don't have H1:N1. Time will tell, I guess. Hopefully not, anyway. I think I would be bored having to maintain home isolation for a week.
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    Writer's Block: First Aid [Jun. 28th, 2009|07:50 pm]
    Seumas Hyslop
    [Tags|]

    First Aid
    Have you ever performed CPR, mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, or the Heimleich maneuver on someone in an emergency?
    Reply 200


    I've never done one of these Writer's Block things, but couldn't help this one.

    The answer? Of course. All the time. By the way, you don't ever do the Heimleich maneuver anymore - if they are conscious and coughing, it's 5 short sharp hits with the heel of your hand to the upper back. It's to attempt to jiggle the obstructing object around so that it can be coughed up. If they're unconscious, then you call for help and administer CPR.

    I actually love CPR. I get a kick out of it. I know that sounds macabre, but when the chips are down and there's no output, jumping on someone's chest and keeping the brain and the coronary arteries perfused is something that I treat as a challenge. My aim is to keep on beating the chest to keep a mean arterial pressure of at 70-90mmHg, which is a challenge. However, although the recommendations are that at least two people take turns at chest compressions, I try to keep going - I usually throw people off it and try to stay on it as long as possible. I get all red in the face, but I enjoy it. It becomes an endurance challenge for me.

    My longest stint was 25 minutes of chest compressions, keeping a mean arterial pressure of greater than 70mmHg, until we discontinued CPR at the 30 minute mark.

    The only problem with this is that being an anaesthetic registrar, I'm usually required to take the airway, and that means I'm usually ruled out of chest compressions. Damn.

    I can still remember the first time I ever did CPR - I even wrote about it (sorry, you have to be on the friends list to read it), back as an intern.

    It was that experience, though, that made me want to do an Anaesthetics term, and then I discovered I wanted to be an Anaesthetist. So you can say that my first CPR experience affected the course of my life.
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    Back at work [Jun. 19th, 2009|12:06 pm]
    Seumas Hyslop
    Back at work today. Still not feeling absolutely fantastic but am better.

    They are being really nice here at work though and not pushing me too hard.
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    Still sick - could it be appendicitis? [Jun. 17th, 2009|09:02 pm]
    Seumas Hyslop
    Took today off - and have a medical certificate now for today and tomorrow off.

    It's all abdominal aches and pains, with feeling off, and fevers. My GP wanted to check if I had appendicitis - and whilst I had a lot of non-specific generalised abdominal pain, there was no specific pain in the right iliac fossa (the bit of the abdomen near the right hip bone).

    Appendicitis is something that does this - it's initially a non-localised visceral pain, which as it progresses, it tends to localise, as the tissue around the appendix becomes more inflamed.

    Needless to say, if the pain does start moving to the right iliac fossa, I'll be down to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Emergency faster than you can imagine.

    Now just got to wait and see what happens. I hope this isn't appendicitis. I really don't need to have lots of time off work lying in bed thinking about how painful my tummy is.
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    Sick [Jun. 16th, 2009|10:05 pm]
    Seumas Hyslop
    Blargh. Sick. Stomach aches, muscle aches, fevers and just feeling off. Temperatures to 38.1 degrees centigrade.

    I'll sleep on it, then decide whether I'm going into work tomorrow. Which is frustrating as I'm working a long shift tomorrow. I'll be inconveniencing one of my fellow registrars.

    Anyway, see in the morning whether I'll be going to work or staying home.

    Good night.
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    Cute liBEARians at Fisher Library. [Jun. 14th, 2009|03:21 pm]
    Seumas Hyslop
    One of my favourite things about coming to Fisher Library at the University of Sydney to study on the weekend is the very cute white bearded and deep-voiced daddybear that often sits on the information desk. I still can't think of anything to ask him though. I'm too shy at times like this!
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    No-one went and bought a Palm Pre? [Jun. 7th, 2009|05:55 pm]
    Seumas Hyslop
    Bugger - I was hoping that someone on my friends list was going to go out and buy a Palm Pre so that I could live vicariously through them. There are no signs that the Pre is going to be picked up here in Australia yet, and no confirmed plans to bring it here yet in a UMTS version, either.

    Now I finally understand what all those Australian people that were waiting for the iPhone were talking about. A release date for Australia couldn't come soon enough!
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    Optus UMTS/HSPA is a pile of crap [Jun. 1st, 2009|01:23 pm]
    Seumas Hyslop
    I have posted previously about how I moved over from Three to PennySIM (from Pennytel) for my mobile service. PennySIM is outstanding - although I am using an application to make calls it works easily, and the resultant lack of virtually any expense means that I am now on the phone all the time. Trips to work are now a pleasure as I am calling you people in the US on the way to work, and people in Australia and the UK on the way home, talking for periods of up to 90 minutes! For all that, my mobile bill is less than AU$15.

    There is one downside on it though - the mobile network is provided by Optus and after a month on this, I think I can safely say this: in Western Sydney, Optus 3G (UMTS 2100 MHz/HSPA) is terrible. You can get some form of 3G signal outdoors, but the moment you set foot in any major building, it drops back from 3G to GSM, which is fine for voice and SMS messaging, but for data, GPRS is painful. It can take upwards of 90 seconds to check one of my mail accounts via IMAP at work.

    It was not this bad on Three. I used to get 3G signals in most buildings in Western Sydney, although admittedly I didn't use it for data.

    Of course, it won't stop me from using them (cheap extended international phone calls are hard to beat!), but it will irritate me.
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    How long does it take to dry your hands with a hot air dryer? [May. 30th, 2009|09:05 am]
    Seumas Hyslop
    [Tags|]
    [Current Location |The University of Sydney, Fisher Library]
    [Current Mood |amusedamused]

    Time trial 1, cold wet day outside: 67 seconds.

    After years of going to public toilets and thinking how useless those hot air hand dryers are, I decided to stand there and see how long it would actually take to get my hands completely dry even when rubbing vigorously as the instructions say to do. The results are above. Forget it - I have more important things to do than stand and wait for my hands to dry.

    Guess I will go back to my usual technique:

  • put hands under dryer. Dryer will start automatically.
  • rub hands vigorously under hot air stream.
  • Dry hands on pants, and leave.
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    Switched from Three to PennySIM (Optus) - and on paying next to nothing for phone calls. [May. 27th, 2009|10:18 pm]
    Seumas Hyslop
    For those in Australia that might have used to call me on my mobile because the calls were free on Three, I'm now on the Optus network.

    First phone was on Telstra (Motorola Jazz), second was Vodafone (Ericsson T28), third was Orange (some cheap Samsung CDMA device that I purchased outright), then a free upgrade to Nokia 6280 on Three (my first UMTS phone!), and then I purchased my own Nokia E71 on Three, and now I've moved to Optus. This means I've finally been on every mobile network in Australia at some time in history.

    With me on an old grandfathered plan on Three with cheap calls (24c for 10 minute calls to landlines nationally), it was hard to move on, particularly as I won't be able to move back to the same plan if it doesn't work out. Three have been good to me.

    But yesterday I moved to a service that has recently become available from my VoIP company, Pennytel - an $8.80/month SIM card that allows me to make voice calls through their infrastructure at their VoIP rates, whilst avoiding using VoIP and only making voice calls. Like a calling card, they have an application that sits on the phone, calls the Pennytel gateway and then dials out. This means that virtually all my phone calls are now made at just 8 cents per call, regardless of the length of the call), and this includes calls to the UK, Canada, US, New Zealand and piles of other countries as well.

    With phone calls costing next to nothing, and long calls costing no more, I am finding that I'm calling many people now. On the way home from work each night, I'm using the 40-plus minutes each way on the Bluetooth headset, speaking to people. I did a 90 minute call to Rick (ricksf) from home, driving to work, and then walking into work, and it only cost me 8 cents. That's just incredible. Suddenly I'm back to having those in depth discussions with family again, and I love it. I'm reconnecting in one of those basic ways that I used to do - with telephone conversations in the car.

    Now just to convince Russel that he needs to go on PennySIM, and I'll be set (free calls between our mobiles again!). But for now, I'm just happy to be making calls.

    So since I can now call the US, UK, Canada, etc. from my mobile for next to nothing, who wants a call? I'll screen comments so that if you want to leave personal details, you're welcome to and they won't be public. It would be great to chat with as many of you as I can on the phone. Expect me to spend a lot more time on it.

    Oh, and Randy (lostncove) and Tom (pierbear)? I still owe you guys calls. Timezones are the major problem (your 7pm is my 11am, when I'm at work - I'll have to try the weekend instead.
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    "The Chaser's War on Everything" Season 3 [May. 27th, 2009|09:25 pm]
    Seumas Hyslop
    As someone that used to love The Chaser's War on Everything, the break has not been good to them. I know that after two seasons they were pretty tired, and took an 18 month break, time enough for The Gruen Transfer to sweep in and do a much more interesting show.

    So The Chaser is back on TV for ten episodes. I watched it for 20 minutes that then stopped - I just couldn't find it funny. Most of it were jokes that fell flat, largely because I think people knew who they were and knew it was a joke. I just feel like we'll never get to the levels of what they used to, like the APEC stunt (managing to break through three levels of security with a fake Canadian motorcade).

    Pity.
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    Russel is a homophobe. [May. 26th, 2009|10:15 pm]
    Seumas Hyslop
    Russel is a homophobe. He's sitting watching How to Look 10 Years Younger in 10 Days and grunting "Poof!" under his breath every time he sees any of the male "fashion stylists" on the show.
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    I'm about to be an uncle again! [May. 24th, 2009|08:28 pm]
    Seumas Hyslop
    Just got an email from my brother, Paul. My sister-in-law, Linda, is now 13 weeks pregnant!

    This is fantastic news - it's going to be my 19th niece/nephew, and the first in 8 years. We've had a bit of a baby lull in the family, so this is exciting!

    Due date is 2nd December, so an early Christmas present for the Hyslop family, I think.

    I'm stoked!
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    I think I want a Palm Pre [May. 23rd, 2009|06:01 pm]
    Seumas Hyslop
    Wow - I think I want one.

    http://www.palm.com/us/products/phones/pre/



  • Electro Magnetic Induction charging - seriously cool!
  • Natively multitasking OS which feels responsive and is heavily data focused.
  • Decent camera!
  • Real QWERTY keyboard (no virtual keyboards!
  • Actual GPS (not a hobbled one)
  • None of those irritating things like not being able to add a photo to an email after you've started the email.
  • Actual integration of multiple web-based data sources (including getting address book information from GMail, Facebook, etc. as well as your own address book - this is the most valuable feature I can think of - I'll be able to keep up with people's new address/phone details, etc.)

    Depending on whether people develop for it in the same way that they develop for iPhone, I could find myself getting one of these! A real QWERTY keyboard, fast and much less clunky than an iPhone. A freely available SDK as well as an App Store system might be what this phone needs to kickstart a development community. And if it takes off, we finally might get a real GPS with turn-by-turn maps, which is one of the biggest things that I dislike about the iPhone (why no turn-by-turn maps on the iPhone? There's no reason they can't do this.)

    A pity it's not going to be available in Australia anytime soon. I can't wait for a 3G version to be available here. I'll be buying one outright, I'm sure. I've missed not having a Palm device, and will be so glad to be back on one for everything.
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    Rain [May. 23rd, 2009|10:10 am]
    Seumas Hyslop
    Wow, I've just seen a ray of sunlight! Seems like things are clearing in Sydney - it has been an odd week with rain, as much of it has been heavy - much of it though hasn't been continuous, but largely erratic. One moment nothing, the next a massive downpour, and then two minutes later, nothing again.

    At least we're not getting the flooding that is going up in northern New South Wales and the flash flooding in south east Queensland. Brisbane had its average annual rainfall in just 3 days this week.

    Oh, and the sunlight has disappeared behind a cloud again. Back to work.
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    The Exam Aftermath - regrouping and moving forward [May. 6th, 2009|09:46 am]
    Seumas Hyslop
    Well, it's certainly been a roller coaster couple of days. Since getting the news that I've failed the Anaesthetics Fellowship exam, I spent most of the first 24 hours in a state of shock. Having to go to a memorial service for Paul Smith (an old friend and partner of Gary Stocks) the same day, about an hour after finding out, I really didn't know what to think.

    Most of Tuesday was spent not really knowing what to do. I fired off a pile of emails to people at work (people like my Supervisor of Training at Westmead, Nicole, my "mentor" at work, Alan) and SMSed several people whom had provided support for me through the exam period. There was an almost deathly silence for about eight hours, as no one responded. Although intellectually I knew this wasn't the case, it felt like everyone at work had sort of abandoned me and written me off.

    Over the last 18 hours or so, I've had various people contact me - Tim, who took me through the Medical Vivas gave me a call. He had failed his Fellowship exam the first time around, so he could relate in a way and knew how I was feeling. I got a call from Emily, another Registrar at work that has for some reason always been there for me, and she was wonderful - it was one of the most comforting 17 minute phone calls of my life. I have now got emails back from all of the other members of my studygroup, and one from Adam, who really isn't known for his emotional

    "None of us can understand what you must be feeling. None of us can say anything to make this awful situation better for you. Just know that we continue to respect, admire and support you and will be there to help you out, whenever and however you might decide. Make sure that you take some time away from studying to collect your thoughts and recharge your batteries. See you next week. Adam."

    This sort of thing has been really important to me, as I kind of feel like I've lost the respect of all my professional colleagues in the last few days.

    Thanks too to everyone that left messages on the last post, and to others that left me messages in my friends list. What you did was really so important to me - to know I wasn't facing this alone.

    Tuesday was a bit all over the place. I tried to study, but I just couldn't get into it. I started re-reading a textbook but stopped so many times, as it all seemed familiar and I almost didn't feel like I was learning anything new. In the end I didn't do much.

    Truth is, I'm not really a good fit when it comes to Medicine. I'm a bit of an odd duck in Medicine because I seem to approach things in a fundamentally different way to most people. That's okay - I don't think I'm clinically inept, and when it comes to the crunch, that's when I spring into action. I like trauma, arrest calls and obstetric anaesthesia for that reason - because it's a matter of getting down to business and organising everyone else. Other people fear those critical situations - I see them as the time that I can have the biggest impact on someone's health. I know I'm a good doctor - just that I have a problem with getting over medical exams. I've failed exams through medical school, I've failed the Anaesthesia Primary Exam, and now this. There's something about how I seem to approach these exams that I just don't seem to get. But eventually I get over the mark - jump through the hoops, and actually get on with being a doctor.

    I have resolved to do a few things differently now:

  • I will be sitting the second sitting of exams in July, which is only a couple of months away - not that long to wait.
  • I will not be completely disconnecting myself from my life anymore - for the last six months, I have told friends "you won't see me until the exams are over" and spending all my time eating, sleeping, working and studying. Nothing else. This is not healthy - although I thought it was what I had to do to remain focussed. I will now study, but I will ensure that I get to see friends over a coffee or have a break over dinner with people as a reward for studying.
  • I will continue to come to Fisher Library at the University of Sydney to study. This is where I do my most effective study. I'm here now - I will spend the day here - I have coffee and a lunch packed, and will put about 6-7 hours of study in (with breaks of course).
  • I will go back to the gym. Truth is, I don't have any problems motivating myself to go to the gym - BodyAttack and BodyCombat are things that I truly enjoy, as it's where I get away from myself a little bit and get into the zone. Not that I didn't want to go, but I felt that I was doing it to exhaustion and it was making me fall asleep during study periods. I did a BodyCombat class last night and felt so much better - so energised! With me not going to the gym, I have put on 5kg in the last six months. That's about to start coming off and I'm going to get back down to 91kg again.

    I will be spending the next few weeks working out where I went wrong, and will be addressing those things. Not sure how I'm going to do that yet, but I will. I'll be enlisting the help of the Anaesthetics Department and everything.

    And I'm still planning to be doing a DONE3 ex-DPS (it will be interesting to see how many people know what that is!) when this is all over. That's still my reward for when this is all done. And as I'm flying around the world and going to all these interesting places, it's going to be extra sweet for me to know that I've earned it.
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    The Anaesthetics Fellowship Exam? Sadly, it's a fail. [May. 4th, 2009|09:43 pm]
    Seumas Hyslop
    [Tags|, , ]
    [Current Mood |sadsad]

    AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND COLLEGE OF ANAESTHETISTS
    Monday 4th May 2009

    Dear Dr Hyslop

    FINAL FELLOWSHIP EXAMINATION

    Candidate Number: 232

    I regret to inform you that you have failed to pass the written and medical sections of the recent Final Fellowship Examination. You are therefore ineligible to present for the Anaesthesia Vivas.

    Further information including your scores and percentile rankings will be forwarded to you following the completion of the Anaesthesia Vivas.

    An original copy of this document has been forwarded to you via mail.

    Yours sincerely


    Mark Priestley
    CHAIRMAN
    FINAL FELLOWSHIP EXAMINATION

    Well, that was a way to take the wind out of my sails today.

    I wrote this email to people on my studygroup email list tonight:

    Hey Adam, Arvind, Agnes and Chris,

    I hope that everyone got their trial viva details today, and I hope you're all on to the next stage. I wasn't so lucky - apparently I've failed both the medical and the written exam, so they're not offering me a viva. Apparently I don't have a grasp of the subject matter very well.

    There is some degree of embarrassment here, and I'm going to have to face the department next week and inevitably it's going to go around that I haven't got through. In some ways there's a sense of sadness as well as I've enjoyed the collegiality of working with you all, and I sadly won't have that next time when I sit (there's only one other person sitting. I really do hope that you all get through, and I'll be wishing everyone all the best for it - I'm just sorry that I won't be there in Melbourne to savour the moment with you all.

    I'm not really sure exactly where I went wrong, but will find out after everyone has had the anaesthetic vivas at the end of the month. I'll have a better idea then. Truth is, though, I've struggled through many exams in medicine over the years - in medical school, with the Physiology Primary and now with this. Somehow I seem to monumentally miss the point of things the first time around, and then have to pick it all up and do it again. I just don't have the aptitude for the enormous amounts of rote learning for medical exams, and I struggle with this every time I have an exam.

    I've taken the day off today to go to the funeral of a friend this afternoon, which is why I've been out of the loop. Part of it was also just not wanting to face up to things for a little while. I was really looking forward to having this all over in a month and rewarding myself with a few things that I had planned to do in June. To now have it be at least five more months of hard slog study is not something I'm savouring.

    Thanks everyone for all your support over the last six months. If it's okay, I'd like to stay on the studygroup mailing list for the moment, and stay along for the ride, although I'll be more silent.

    Tomorrow I'm going back to starting work on the MCQs and SAQs again, trying to see if there's anything else I've really missed.

    I know it's going to eventually get out around the hospital, and I can't really stop that from happening.

    I really really do hope everyone does well. I'll be proud of you when you all succeed. It's been a real honour to study along with you all.

    Regards,
    Seumas."


    Russel is being very good to me - he's been giving lots of hugs, and is willing to do whatever he needs to do to be supportive over that time. I'm lucky in that sense.

    But today, with the funeral for Paul Smith, and this news, it was just a little hard going. Not one of my better birthdays, sadly.
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    The Finals Countdown [May. 1st, 2009|09:41 pm]
    Seumas Hyslop
    I know this might not be comedy for everyone, but it's how I feel right now with the information overload. One for the medical/healthcare people out there!



    It's a stress release to see something like this with all the study!
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    Working at Kids [Apr. 28th, 2009|07:08 pm]
    Seumas Hyslop
    I haven't written that much about work at all in the recent past at all - not that there are not interesting things happening, just that with the exams I haven't had the time.

    I'm currently working at a paediatric institution in Sydney, and working nights again. Strangely, I don't mind nightshifts once I get into it - I'm hitting a certain degree of independence with kids now after 3 months here - I've had a couple of near misses early on (one case of laryngospasm, where a kid is half asleep/half awake and their vocal cords clamp shut and you can't intubate and can't ventilate them and their saturations drop from 100% down to 40%!). But generally, I think I can now manage fairly straightforward airways.

    Being on nights you're the most experienced anaesthetics staff on site, and you are treated as such. It's nice to be back in the situation where I'm managing my own cases again without anyone looking over my shoulder and insisting I do it "their way". This is nice, and allows me to get a decent feel for how I would anaesthetise kids. Again, I like the people here, and get along very well with the nurses, which seems to be something that I'm good at doing very early on.

    Probably the roughest part of the job is the shift called the "ward dog" which means you spend 12 hours during the day running around on the wards doing everything that they want you to. Usually this means just seeing patients and their parents preoperatively, and doing all the difficult cannulations on the wards. It's one thing to have a 40 year old that is a difficult cannulation, and it's another thing to have a 12 month old that is chubby, with tiny veins, and who kicks, screams, cries and generally won't cooperate with you at all. Sometimes I have to take a breather afterwards - it's that stressful.

    But by and large it's good to be here for a little while. I will be heading back to Westmead in a couple of weeks, glad for having been looking after the little 'uns, but I don't know that I could become a Paediatric Anaesthetist, really. Dealing with the kids with severe congenital abnormalities (particularly cardiac and respiratory abnormalities) is pretty stressful. Sometimes trauma is a lot more fun (and interesting!).
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    Facebook - why are we struggling with it so much? [Apr. 26th, 2009|07:37 am]
    Seumas Hyslop
    [Tags|]

    On my friends list in the last 100 entries are no less than six entries about Facebook and how people are struggling with issues around it. It used to be the source of so much interest by people - but why now are we all having such problems with it now?

    EDIT: I'm not talking about any server/bandwidth issues - more people that sign up to Facebook and regret it, or whom feel that the quality of their discourse is somehow limited, or whom agonise over whether their work colleagues should be on their friends list, etc.
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    Finally getting my head around Drupal 6 [Apr. 13th, 2009|06:55 pm]
    Seumas Hyslop
    [Tags|]

    After so many false starts, and looking at the basic installation of Drupal 4.7, then 5 and then 6, I've been playing around with Drupal 6.10 the last couple of days, and I think I've finally done it - I've finally got my head around it, the Zen theme engine, multisites and podcasting with Drupal.

    Now to move all of my sites over to run off a single Drupal application, and I can finally ditch my old Wordpress and even basic old HTML/PHP, etc., and run them all off the same codebase - no more having to update modules and code for each site!

    I don't know what it was about it this time, but it just seemed to work for me - something clicked this time.

    I need to work out the Views module and then I should be able to launch a compliant podcast feed, similar to what I'm doing with Wordpress now.

    Is anyone else on LJ using Drupal for their websites/podcasts/etc.?
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    8 sleeps to go until D-Day [Mar. 26th, 2009|10:17 pm]
    Seumas Hyslop
    8 more days and counting to the start of biggest exams of my life.

    This is it, the Australia and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists Final Examination. For about 9 months I've been preparing for this, and for the last 3-4 months, it's been pretty much all I've been doing. Other than the podcast, I haven't been out, I didn't do Mardi Gras, I don't have any chat accounts on any sites any more, and I've even removed things like ISpQ and MSN/Yahoo from the computers as well - such is my desire to not be distracted.

    I've been waking up, going to work, coming home and studying. On weekends or days off, I go to the The University of Sydney or the State Library and sit there all day, with drinks, lunch and snacks, and study until it's time to come home for dinner.

    Most of my life is now on hold. Friends, family, everyone. No one sees me at all.

    Needless to say, I'm completely over it and just want it done.

    But it's a big exam - one where they can ask you almost anything relevant to Anaesthetics, and in multiple formats. I'll be given questions like:

    In patients with phaeochromocytoma
    A. Paroxysmal hypertension is the most common presentation
    B. Initial treatment should be with beta blockade if tachycardia is present
    C. Excesses of adrenaline and noradrenaline occur with equal frequency
    D. Urinary Vanillyl Mandelic Acid (VMA) studies may be normal.
    E. Extra adrenal tumours occur in 2% of pts.

    A 40-year-old woman presents having been trampled on by a horse. She has a compound fracture of her arm requiring surgery and bruising over the centre of the chest with a fractured sternum. List the injuries to the heart that may be caused by this blunt trauma. If she had no signs or symptoms of cardiac injury list and justify any screening investigations for cardiac injury you would perform prior to anaesthesia.

    A 75 year old man, who already is on your Hospital’s waiting list to undergo Aortic valve replacement and Coronary artery bypass grafting, is admitted at midday with a diagnosis of acute pulmonary oedema. You are contacted at 5.30 pm by the Head of Cardiac Surgery who wishes to operate on this man immediately. What will be your response to the Surgeon?

    This is only a subset - there's a massive collection of things that could be asked.

    I go through phases of thinking "I can do this" and then hours later have phases of "I haven't got a hope." It's nerve-wracking.

    I'll do a series of papers and live examinations with real patients next Friday and Saturday 3rd/4th April, and then another series of live examinations in Melbourne in late May. I'm just hoping that this is the only time I have to do this - I'm not really keen to put my life on hold for much longer.

    Things that I'm dreaming of being able to do after the exams are done are the things that are keeping me going: Travel (overseas and domestic), Guitar Hero 3 World Tour, lazy Saturdays in coffee shops with new and old friends, and finally being able to sign up on the chat sites again - they're the reason I haven't gone mad yet!

    May I say, Russel has been sterling through all of this - putting up with all of this, and not complaining at all. Must take him overseas when it's all over as a thank you.

    See you all when I come up for air next.
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    First day of the Melbourne course [Feb. 17th, 2009|06:43 am]
    Seumas Hyslop
    QANTAS did locate my bag - it was in a pile of about 6 or 700 bags that they had unclaimed. Apparently this weekend has been a mess, with snap baggage handler's strikes in Melbourne. But fortunately Nigel and Martin, who I am staying with, drove me back to the airport and we got it sorted. QANTAS are going to be paying me compensation as well for the inconvenience.

    It's nice being in Melbourne - I am always really excited when I'm staying here for any length of time - it gives me a chance to feel like I'm living here for a while. Whilst I've never lived here, the rest of my family (other the an my father) were born and raised here, so there's an affinity to the town. Melbourne has a vibe that I love - the cafe culture, the restaurant culture and things just seem to work here. I think the only thing that has really stopped me moving to Melbourne has been career and relationships.

    The "Anaesthetics Part II Exam Review Short Course", as it is known, so far has been fantastic. So far it has been four two hour lectures on different aspects of Anaesthesia, and it's down to the nitty gritty. For months I've been loading my brain with as much knowledge of all sorts of different papers, and it's all been getting a bit jumbled - it's nice to be able to go to a lecture where they sort out some of that knowlege into an ordered fashion - and pointing out important journal that you're going to have to know inside out because the examiners are going to want to know if you've read it or not. This will probably be the difference between me failing and passing (I hope!).

    Nigel and Martin have been perfect hosts - it has been great spending time with them and they're understanding of my need to study too. I have a few other people that I'm going to try to catch up with this week - including if I can, one of my mother's oldest friends from her days of nursing training in Melbourne, Rose, who is now 75 years old and has recently moved into a nursing home. I plan to visit her on the weekend.

    Now just time to get back to the study!
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    In Melbourne, but about 28kg lighter. [Feb. 15th, 2009|06:23 pm]
    Seumas Hyslop
    [Tags|]
    [Current Music |The lovely on-hold music from QANTAS Baggage Services]
    [Current Location |Melbourne]

    Well, I've landed in Melbourne and it's a lot hotter here than in Sydney - but I'm minus my bags!

    It turns out when I got to the airport at 9am this morning, the baggage conveyor belt systems weren't working, they were sorting bags into piles just behind the checkin area at Sydney Terminal 3. I thought at the time "uh-oh, this doesn't look good" but dropped my bag and headed off to wait for my flight.

    When I met Nigel at Melbourne Airport, my bag still wasn't out after some 15 minutes. I was one of only a few people still left there, and they took my flight number off the baggage carousel board and still nothing. So it was off to QANTAS Baggage Services to launch an missing bag enquiry.

    It's some 4 hours later and I've been on hold for half an hour with QANTAS and still nothing. It's very rare to lose something domestically - but my worry with this bag is that it's the majority of my favourite clothes (GAP clothing which can't be replaced in Australia, and Bear Run T-Shirts which can't ever be replaced, as well as my CPAP machine, and several Anaesthetics textbooks, which unfortnately means about $3000 to replace everything (that's if I can replace it all).

    So it's a bit of a worrying wait. I'm hoping that it is resolved soon.

    Start the Anaesthetics "exam cram" course in the morning - hopefully that will go okay.
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    (no subject) [Feb. 14th, 2009|12:13 pm]
    Seumas Hyslop
    To those guys and girls in Melbourne, I'm flying down Sunday 15th February and flying back late on Monday 233rd February, and will be in town for a study course. Will be staying in the inner west (Spotswood), and will be travelling each weekday to the ANZ College of Anaesthetists Headquarters on St Kilda Road.

    Anyone up for catching up for a coffee or dinner any of those nights or on the weekend?
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    Sometimes, I love Whirlpool [Jan. 31st, 2009|09:48 pm]
    Seumas Hyslop
    People outside of Australia may not be aware that one of the most popular forums for discussing EVERYTHING is the Whirlpool Forums, a site that started out being about broadband, but now discusses everything (although most of it you can't see until you're a regular user, unfortunately.

    Sometimes, just sometimes, they come up with stuff that makes me laugh.



    Someone was channelling Margaret Cho's mother, it seems.
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    "United States of Tara" [Jan. 26th, 2009|08:57 pm]
    Seumas Hyslop
    I've just been watching the first episode of United States of Tara (from Showtime in the US). I know it sounds sort of cheesy, but a drama about a woman who has multiple dissociative personalities and the family that seem to manage to live with her every day and treat her with respect, no matter what's going on with her or what personality that she has at any one time. It has a certain feel about it that this is one of your surburban next-door neighbour families. I thought that was kind of sweet in a way.

    Toni Collette does an amazing job of handling the different personalities - what could go horribly wrong she actually pulls of convincingly. I think this is going to draw me in for the rest of the season!

    I hope they bring this to Australia later in the year - Toni Collette could be a drawcard for an Australian audience, but this should probably have a place on the ABC or SBS. If only it were possible.
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    I can't watch the footage on YouTube of Oscar Grant being shot. [Jan. 10th, 2009|03:30 pm]
    Seumas Hyslop
    Courtesy of the stories breaking on my LiveJournal friends list, I have been reading about the BART Police shooting of 22 year old Oscar Grant and the protests/riots that have occurred since. It's horrible, tragic, and I hope that those involved are charged and brought to justice.

    But one thing I've stopped short of is watching any of the camera-phone recordings of the shooting posted to YouTube. I can see how YouTube is incredibly useful in getting information about these sorts of things out there, providing vital evidence. But like I have difficulty watching violent movies where people are harmed, I am struggling to bring myself to watch footage of a real person being killed. For the same reason I could not bring myself to watch footage of Saddam Hussein being hanged - I just bring myself to want to see some things in my life. I work in an environment where often we're trying to fix those that have been the victims of this sort of violence (chest and abdominal stabbings and shootings, nail guns to the head - that sort of thing), and I just cannot bring myself to watch it really happening myself. I'm very happy that there are media reports telling me what happened, but I just don't feel that I can watch it first hand.

    Maybe it will bring changes to the BART Police, and maybe things will change so that this horrible thing never happens again - if that happens as a result of the YouTube postings, then that might be a good thing. But there are some things in life I don't need to see - and someone being shot at point blank range in the back as they are being pinned to the ground is one of those things.

    It's a struggle, because I'm not completely against violence in movies - I cope with violence that induces horror or makes a point about how terrible it is. Obviously, this would be horrifying too - but I still just can't bring myself to watch it.

    My thoughts go to Oscar and his family - nothing deserves this.
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