Archive for the 'Silly Fun Stuff' Category

Smart bird!

Published
by
drsam
on May 21, 2008
in Miscellaneous and Silly Fun Stuff
. 1 Comment

Calico CatNot sure why exactly, but this story really made me smile

Lost Parrot Gives Vet His Name and Address

It made me think of an experience my wife and I had during my medical school days in Jackson, MS.

One day, my wife came home and discovered a calico cat on the front porch of our house. It was a really beautiful cat with an extremely sweet disposition.

She petted it a bit and then went inside, figuring it belonged to a neighbor and would go home soon.

Well, the cat continued to stick around….for a day or two, so we decided to see if we could track down it’s owners.

It had a collar with a rabies vaccination tag.

So my wife called the veterinary clinic that was listed on the tag to see if they could use the tag number to locate the owner.

The clinic was located in south Jackson in what is essentially a nearly exclusively African American neighborhood.

The receptionist answering the telephone took the tag number from my wife and put her on hold while she looked up the owners name in her records.

A few moments later she came back on the line and my wife heard her say “That’s not yo’ kitty.”

My wife responded “Oh, I know she’s not mine. That’s why I called you. I found her on my porch and I’m trying to locate her owner.”

My wife heard her start giggling and say “No, that’s not yo’ kitty.”

Realizing she was not being understood, my wife responded, speaking a little more slowly “I know it’s not my kitty. I’m trying to find out whose kitty it is.”

They went back and forth like this a few more times with the receptionist getting increasingly giggly and my wife getting increasingly frustrated.

Finally, the receptionist between giggles cleared things up by telling my wife, “You don’t understand. I’m trying to tell you the cat’s name. Her name is ‘Nacho-Kitty.’   If you bring her down to the clinic, we can contact the owner for you and return their cat to them.”

(Maybe you had to be there, but usually when my wife tells this story, people give her a funny look.

I think maybe in our overly-P.C. society they think she is being racist and making it up or something, but my wife is by far the least racist person I have ever known. I honestly know nobody with a more pure, kind, and accepting heart.

She’s just relaying the story as it happened.)

HT for the parrot story to BadHabit.
Picture credit.

More On Spam (or should I say Moron Spam?)

Published
by
drsam
on April 28, 2008
in Miscellaneous and Silly Fun Stuff
. 1 Comment

Turkey SpamThis is a pretty new blog and I am a relatively very new blogger.

When I started this website and blog, one of my main goals was to simply expose myself to this cyber-world and get some experience and learn a bit about creating internet content.

Many/most of my blog posts have been excessively wordy, but I realize that this is part of my learning experience. All of them have been heartfelt. All of them represent countless hours of research and work.

As with most new blogs, my internet traffic has been less than stellar. This hasn’t really surprised me too much.

I read one statistic that stated that there are approximately 175,000 new blogs started every day. So, I know that no matter how great a writer I might be (which I know I am not), it’s going to take some time to get any sort of meaningful traffic.

So, with all that in mind, I must say that I was somewhat amused with my most recent post which I put up a little over a week ago. It was the one titled Fax Spam in which I briefly talked about an annoying though somewhat humorous fax I received advertising some sort of male sexual enhancement product being sold at the website www.ready4her.com.

Of all my posts, this was the one I put the least effort or thought into. It was just a brief little blurb I typed out in about 10 minutes for fun.

Wouldn’t you know, it has garnered more traffic so far than all my other posts combined.

My traffic is still certainly pathetic, but this was a real head-shaker.

The most fun part of the whole thing was in the comments section of that post. I have learned that there are definitely some real loons out there in internet land.

Anyway, I thought I’d try a little experiment here and provide a small sample of the email spam I have received today just to see what happens.

If you are reading this, then thanks for your participation in this experiment in human behavior.

Here goes.

This first one is a spam email I received from “Anita Kaiser“. It’s subject line is titled “BEST PRICE ! Buy Cialis, Viagra online NOW - and save 50% your money !!!“

The body of the email reads as follows.

“Hello !

Now you have the opportunity to save your time and money!

With US based online p,h,a,r,m,a,cy store you can buy any meds you
need!

Forget about p/r/e/s/c/r/i/p/t/i/o/n/s and doctors. Now you save your
time.

Forget about high prices at local stores.

M/e/n/’s H/e/a/l/t/h
A/n/t/i - D/e/p/r/e/s/s/a/n/t/s
P/a/i/n R/e/l/i/e/f
W/e/i/g/h/t l/o/s/s

Go visit: http://jyigegg.com

HVFQBKVAZXPJULRRVAKRX“

Next in our experiment is the following spam email I received today from “Ernest Calloway“, though his return email address is Brian@steamsteel.info.

By the way Brian, if my publishing of your email address generates some spam for you, well you know, Karma.

Anyway, the title of Brian’s, er I mean “Ernest’s” email is “re: (no subject)”

Ooh, now that’s original. Hey, do you think he was trying to fool me into thinking he was actually responding to an email I sent him? Oh Ernest, you’re so clever!

Anyway, the body of his email reads as follows.

” Hey, want to get those bills under control for good, it’s easier than you think. We will help you.

Go here http://steamsteel.info/Brim/ this is your solution. ”

Now, after “Ernest’s” scintillating email, I was really looking forward to the next one which looked suspiciously familiar. Its subject line was very similar to the one Ernest sent. It was simply titled “(no subject)” and was sent to me by Louise Hinson. Interestingly, like Ernest above, her email address, Sara@bellfleece.info, didn’t really seem to match up with her name.

Oh and Sara, that Karma thing applies to you as well.

The body of her message is where she and Ernest bore the most striking resemblance however and it was as follows.

” Hey, want to get those bills under control for good, it’s easier than you think. We will help you.

Go here http://bellfleece.info/Orchestral/ this is your solution. ”

So these are three little slices of spam I’ve dined on today and thought I’d share them with you. I’m curious to see what sort of response they generate.

Let’s see!!

Cheers,

…Sam

Fax Spam

Published
by
drsam
on April 17, 2008
in Miscellaneous and Silly Fun Stuff
. 27 Comments

Fax SpamWow.  This was a new one for me.

About 20 minutes ago, this came over the fax machine at my clinic.

I know the picture quality isn’t so good as I took the pic with my cell phone camera, so I’ll type what is written.

It is a fax from LBI, INC. of Toronto, Canada and was sent by “Tod”

The subject is “Re: our last conversation”

Under the comments section it says

“Sorry, my cell battery went on me.

The pills I use Work Better than Viagra & you don’t need a prescription because it’s herbal.  That alone saves you $100 for a doctor visit.

This website gives out FREE samples

[w.w.w.READY4HER.com]

I’t very, very effective, you’ll be happy you tried it.  The Free Sample offer can end anytime so I’d get it now while you can.”

For what it’s worth, I don’t know Tod, nor have I had any cell phone conversations with him.

At the risk of revealing too much information, I will also state here for the record, that I have no personal need for any product of this sort.  The plumbing is still fully functional so far!

I know a lot of folks routinely receive this sort of spam via email on a regular basis. This is the first time I’ve ever received any via the fax machine, however.

Since I am the only male working in my clinic, the girls all had a good laugh and told me that this fax was obviously for me.

I’d sure like to know who gave Tod our fax number.

You can’t really see it in the picture above, but Tod has wisely blocked his number from appearing on the fax copy.

Anyway, hope you all have a laugh at this, and I hope this isn’t the first in a new wave of spam.

On a positive note however, perhaps this is just the sort of thing to drag the medical profession kicking and screaming into the 21st century and convince us all to get rid of the fax machines.

 Cheers,

 …Sam

A Plan for Intelligent Health Care Reform Part 5

Published
by
drsam
on March 18, 2008
in Silly Fun Stuff and Zealous Bloviating Rants (Politics, Religion, etc.)
. 1 Comment

To recap parts 1-4, so far in this little series, I’ve just been laying some groundwork, pontificating sort of non-specifically about where I think the main problems lie with our health care system and where I think the direction of reform should go.

In a nutshell, I think the major problems boil down to a whole lot of interference with the traditional doctor-patient relationship from outside forces such as third party payers (government and insurance), bureaucratic regulating bodies, a civil liability system that seems to have been designed by Jackie Chiles, and other outside industries such as the pharmaceutical industry, compliance industries etc.

I have compared our health care system with our veterinary health care system and made the contention that the veterinary system is vastly superior in many areas primarily due to a relative lack of such interferences. I contend that it is because veterinarians operate in a nearly free market system where the relationship between the veterinarian and the patient/owner is a direct one, without third party payers or as much government, corporate, or civil liability interference and fears, veterinarians are much more responsive to the needs and demands of their clients and clients are much more responsible with the money when it is coming out of their own pocket. They are much less apt to make needless visits to the ER and demand expensive tests and medications when there is not some nebulous third party footing the bill.

I have also mentioned that within this relative laissez-faire environment there are also some problems that become apparent in the form of people’s too frequent inability or unwillingness to pursue appropriate medical intervention due to financial considerations.

With this post I intend to finally start delving in with some ideas for bringing all this stuff together to try to come up with some solutions for creating a plan for intelligent health care reform. Continue reading ‘A Plan for Intelligent Health Care Reform Part 5′

Here’s the “One Semester of Spanish Love Song”

Published
by
drsam
on February 1, 2008
in How to stay healthy, Miscellaneous and Silly Fun Stuff
. 0 Comments

Okay, this post has absolutely nothing to do with medicine, the healthcare system, medical practice or anything of the sort.

In a sort of tangential, really-making-a-stretch way however, it does have to do with staying healthy.

There’s an old saying that says “Laughter is the best medicine.” There’s even a good bit of empirical evidence to back that up. Here’s just one example.

Continue reading ‘Here’s the “One Semester of Spanish Love Song”’