PharmCountry

Ok, my first attempt at Live-blogging. Here’s dorkbot:

7:00 – The groups founder introduces himself, and asks the group to introduce themselves as well, which is somewhat pulse-raising for me, since I’m fairly introverted.

7:05-15 – General intro to dorkbot, including website stats, listing of various tech/art shows.

7:15-53 – Auralizing DNA, R. Mark Adams, PhD – A very well-spoken presenter explains auralization (like audio visualization) of DNA. He talked about how he was inspired by “The Preservation Machine,” in which the main character puts sheet music into a machine, and animals come out. He walked through a basic chem 101 of DNA. He told us about how, in ascii, human DNA is about the same size as a dvd-rom.

He maps dna bases (atgc) to rhythm, amino acids (of which there are 20) to Melody, and the secondary structures (shapes, solubility, etc.) to the harmony.

It’s really interesting to hear dna mapped to music.

7:53-8:14 – John Singer, from the Joss Research Institute, demonstrates DIY Pulsed UV lasers. Most of the explanation of it is way over my head, so head to his website if you’re interested in it.

8:14-8:22 – A little break while the next presentation is set up.

8:22-8:47 – A demonstration on DIY LED’s useful for room lighting. Unfortunately the presenter shined it in my (and everybody else’s) eyes, so it’s kind of difficult to type right now with spots in front of me.

The presenter built the led for about $55 (pretty good for a DIY). He showed how led lighting would be less expensive over a very long time, but we’re better off waiting until led’s are more efficient.

8:48-8:56 – Roberto Bocci presents a movie about an art exhibit that interacts with participants.

Unfortunately my battery is about to die, so I’ll talk to you later.

And so has allergy season. Both oak and maple seem to be “gettin’ it on” (at least as much as trees can) this week. The problem is Zyrtec, one of the most-used allergy medications (outside of Claritin, which is over the counter) is on backorder at my wholesaler. The only kind we can seem to get right now is the chewable tablets, and I’m betting that won’t last for long.

Of course, if McKesson’s website had been working yesterday, I might have been able to check to see if it was available. As it was, I had to use their TeleStock phone system to order everything, which went something like this:

1. McKesson Voice: Thank you for using TeleStock. Please enter the item number, followed by the pound key.
2. Andrew: (typing) 1944560#
3. M: How many would you like to order?
4. A: 1#
5. M: Please hold while I check stock for that item…Thanks! Would you like to order another item? Press 1 for yes, or 2 for no.
6. A: 1
7. Repeat steps 1-6 about 50 times until all items are ordered.

So, yesterday was fun. We also got generic Norvasc, another fast-moving drug. It would have been nice to actually use it, but the generic hadn’t been put in our computer yet, so we couldn’t fill with it. The first prescription we tried to fill for it today was rejected as “non-match NDC,” which is a fancy way of saying that it wasn’t in the insurance company’s computer yet.

The good news is I sent about $10,000 worth of drugs back to McKesson (getting the higher-ups off my butt about inventory, at least until next month), and the wholesaler website was back up today, faster than ever.

Anyway, at least today’s over and tomorrow’s a short day. Thank –insert deity here– for small miracles.

I’ve started using Google Calendar for the technician schedule at work. I was getting tired of having to call all the time and asking, “What hours am I working tomorrow again?”

Our schedule tends to change very quickly, as both of us are in our early 20’s (and the other tech goes to school). We were just doing it on paper, and by the end of the month, there was so much white out on the page, the thumb tack that holds it onto the cork board would keep falling off.

So, it’s nice to just be able to log on to google and check the schedule. Any time there’s a change, we just log on, change it, and print a new copy for the pharmacy (so the pharmacists know what’s going on.)

It’s working fairly well, but I do wish google would let you customize how it displays times better. If you put in an “event” (in our case a work shift) as say, from 9am-5pm, it will show as “9am Andrew”. That doesn’t do me any good, so I have to set it as an “all day” event, and just put the hours as part of the event title.

So, it’s not necessarily the best solution, but it suits our needs nicely.