She never posts anymore,
Jan. 14th, 2008 02:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bronwynrhand when she does, she asks us to do her a favor! Sheesh!
So... if I've gotta gif that needs changing, can I change it or do I need the file from which that gif was made?
I ask because I'm still charged with "fixing" errors on our website and, well, I can't get to everything. Or I can get to everything, but I've no idea what to do with a gif - particularly one that says I'm a postdoctoral fellow when it should say that I'm the Manager of Technology Development. This is nuts. There are a handful of people who've had their hands on various aspects of the website, and it's a chaotic mess. I'm losing more of my time in finding crap than in fixing it.
The good news is, although I have not convinced TPTB that our website needs overhaulin', my report of an 80% bounce rate from our homepage has convinced them that our front door has got to go. They're not ready to make more than baby steps yet, until I get a quote on how much a new homepage will cost (Shredder, I'm ready to talk when you are!), so I have to poke around the site and see if I can't find a page that we can tolerate as a landing page for a while, until we get that new front door. I'm thinking this will do, but I'm not sure.
In other news, Samuel's doing very well although he's been very shrieky these past few days. Kid's forgotten all his consonants and is back to testing his vocal range. He'll squeal at higher and higher pitches until all you hear is a faintly whistling hiss.
In related news, my tinnitus is worse.
In completely unrelated news, I was on the Glenn Beck show today, just before noon. I doubt any of you were listening but if you were, please don't tell me how incoherent I was. At least I got my foot in the door and he's interested. Long story short, we may be genotyping Beck to help him understand why he suffered such a bad reaction to the medication he was given in the hospital. I hope we are given the chance to do this... I've suffered similar bad reactions to pain medication and any of you who know me know that I've dealt with my share of pain medications. I'm finally in a position to help others who've had similar problems, and I intend to take every advantage. The more people know, the more empowered they'll be. Who better than a popular radio and television personality to help spread the word?
Related to that, there was a piece in Parenting magazine about codeine and breastfeeding moms that said "there's no reliable test" to determine whether a woman is a rapid metabolizer of codeine and if she is therefore at risk of causing morphine overdose in her nursing infant. ACK! That's so untrue! We do the test in our laboratory every single day! So I wrote a letter to the editor, left a voicemail for the physician who's quoted in the piece, and our marketing VP is going to follow up.
Spreading the good word of pharmacogenetics and personalized medicine. Boo-yah!
Yep. She asks us a favor and then rambles about a bunch of unrelated crap. *bounce*
So... if I've gotta gif that needs changing, can I change it or do I need the file from which that gif was made?
I ask because I'm still charged with "fixing" errors on our website and, well, I can't get to everything. Or I can get to everything, but I've no idea what to do with a gif - particularly one that says I'm a postdoctoral fellow when it should say that I'm the Manager of Technology Development. This is nuts. There are a handful of people who've had their hands on various aspects of the website, and it's a chaotic mess. I'm losing more of my time in finding crap than in fixing it.
The good news is, although I have not convinced TPTB that our website needs overhaulin', my report of an 80% bounce rate from our homepage has convinced them that our front door has got to go. They're not ready to make more than baby steps yet, until I get a quote on how much a new homepage will cost (Shredder, I'm ready to talk when you are!), so I have to poke around the site and see if I can't find a page that we can tolerate as a landing page for a while, until we get that new front door. I'm thinking this will do, but I'm not sure.
In other news, Samuel's doing very well although he's been very shrieky these past few days. Kid's forgotten all his consonants and is back to testing his vocal range. He'll squeal at higher and higher pitches until all you hear is a faintly whistling hiss.
In related news, my tinnitus is worse.
In completely unrelated news, I was on the Glenn Beck show today, just before noon. I doubt any of you were listening but if you were, please don't tell me how incoherent I was. At least I got my foot in the door and he's interested. Long story short, we may be genotyping Beck to help him understand why he suffered such a bad reaction to the medication he was given in the hospital. I hope we are given the chance to do this... I've suffered similar bad reactions to pain medication and any of you who know me know that I've dealt with my share of pain medications. I'm finally in a position to help others who've had similar problems, and I intend to take every advantage. The more people know, the more empowered they'll be. Who better than a popular radio and television personality to help spread the word?
Related to that, there was a piece in Parenting magazine about codeine and breastfeeding moms that said "there's no reliable test" to determine whether a woman is a rapid metabolizer of codeine and if she is therefore at risk of causing morphine overdose in her nursing infant. ACK! That's so untrue! We do the test in our laboratory every single day! So I wrote a letter to the editor, left a voicemail for the physician who's quoted in the piece, and our marketing VP is going to follow up.
Spreading the good word of pharmacogenetics and personalized medicine. Boo-yah!
Yep. She asks us a favor and then rambles about a bunch of unrelated crap. *bounce*
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: January 14th, 2008 08:33 pm (UTC)Did you ever go to Riyadh? There's a short-term job there (3 years) that intrigues me. I am 90% certain I'd never actually want to go to Saudi Arabia for any reason other than the hajj, but how is Riyadh?
(no subject)
Date: January 14th, 2008 08:51 pm (UTC)The country is one big contradiction, and its people have been struggling with it ever since the first Westerners looked across the water from Bahrain and saw those tell-tale mounds.
I don't know, Dallas. As a Muslim, you'd certainly get more respect there than otherwise, but you'd have to be super careful about teh gay. You know, there's no such thing as gay people in Saudi Arabia and if ever the wrong person found out, you'd be in a world of hurt.
I'd rather see you go to the U.A.E. ... A childhood friend of mine is raising her new family in Dubai and the place looks great. Dubai has always been more liberal - and openly so. Our tv antenna strained toward Dubai and its uncensored broadcasts, back in the day.
Honestly, Riyadh may be a whole new world, but I wouldn't be comfortable going back there.
You know what may be helpful - Start reading the Arab News. I look at it a couple of times a month to see what's going on. Granted, it's the Saudi's public (english-language) face so you have to take it all with a grain of propaganda salt, but it's a start. I don't recall how good your Arabic is, but peruse the Saudi newsmedia (http://www.onlinenewspapers.com/saudi.htm) to get a taste.
This is the country where it's forbidden to forecast the weather, after all.
(no subject)
Date: January 14th, 2008 09:06 pm (UTC)Don't tell me - because that would be considered gambling?
(no subject)
Date: January 14th, 2008 09:18 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: January 15th, 2008 02:37 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: January 14th, 2008 09:19 pm (UTC)That's the impression I've gleaned from the news. It freaks me out that they behead people there. Not that we are oh-so-much-better with our lethal injections, but...
To me, Dubai seems like the global equivalent of Las Vegas. I don't mean that in a negative way, either. I'm fascinated by their determination to actually create islands that are arranged to represent palm trees, the world, etc.
(no subject)
Date: January 14th, 2008 09:20 pm (UTC)It leaves me with an uncomfortable feeling, and I'm not sure I'd want to live in an entire nation that feels plastic.
(no subject)
Date: January 14th, 2008 11:36 pm (UTC)And everybody that I've ever met from there has been really nice. Apparently they're still taught that, for example, Jews eat babies (no, really!), but then when they come over here and meet some, they're not reluctant to throw that idea out the window.
...granted, they might just believe that Israelis eat babies instead, but it's progress.
(no subject)
Date: January 14th, 2008 11:43 pm (UTC)This isn't limited to Qatar. We have a rabbi at the university who leads interfaith dialogs around central and southern Illinois. She said that people ask to see her horns and honestly mean it.
(no subject)
Date: January 15th, 2008 02:42 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: January 15th, 2008 02:49 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: January 15th, 2008 02:53 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: January 15th, 2008 02:40 am (UTC)Even after my stint in The Magic Kingdom.
Hell, Bahrain used to be the destination for a dose of normalcy. And lookit 'em now!
Bahrain beat normalcy down into its own, sad little burial mound.
(no subject)
Date: January 14th, 2008 09:25 pm (UTC)I used to read the Arab News, but honestly I forgot all about it. Thanks for reminding me. Unfortunately I don't read Arabic at all, so I too have to rely on the English language publications which are almost certainly half propaganda.
Yeah I am fairly certain that I wouldn't apply to a job in Saudi. It is the gay thing that is the deal-breaker. It was very, very hard remaining in the closet for much of my time in Eastern Europe. I can't imagine three years of it in Saudi Arabia. Working abroad again is a teasing thought, however. I am feeling the wanderlust again recently.
(no subject)
Date: January 15th, 2008 02:44 am (UTC)Just go perform Hajj some year and get out right quick.
(no subject)
Date: January 14th, 2008 09:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: January 15th, 2008 02:48 am (UTC)Er, no. I hadn't even heard the term before one desperate afternoon at my desk in Iowa. I'm trained as a microbiologist, with specialties in biochemistry and molecular genetics. The beauty of DNA is, it looks pretty much the same whether it's in a bacterium or in a person.
I was looking for a way out, found this little company, cold-called the VP and the rest, as they say, is history.
I loved basic research, but I hated the inability to follow through. I found some pretty great things in my graduate research, and I may never see them applied as I dream they could be. In industry, I get to take good science and DO something with it.
(no subject)
Date: January 15th, 2008 03:33 am (UTC)Incidentally, how did you end up on the Glenn Beck show?
(no subject)
Date: January 15th, 2008 01:31 pm (UTC)So I called and sat on hold, listening to his show on my cell phone. He took my call right at the end and was interested enough that he asked me to send information to his producer.
The coolest part is that suddenly we've had an almost 20-fold increase in hits at our website and our business director had a voicemail inquiry from someone in Seattle. This was a great way to get the word out!
(no subject)
Date: January 15th, 2008 05:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: January 15th, 2008 05:19 pm (UTC)I just got a *calculates* 34% raise as of the new year. Criminy. If my whole year goes as well as these first two weeks.... holy moly :-D
I'm getting all sorts of kudos today, too. I never used to jump on opportunities like this because I lacked confidence. Now I say, "to hell with it" and jump in. It's pretty fun.
(no subject)
Date: January 15th, 2008 06:13 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: January 16th, 2008 01:10 pm (UTC)The Warfarin story has garnered the most attention, and more recently the codeine and breastfeeding story is picking up.
You might want to get back into science writing, you know. Personalized medicine is going places and too few in the media have the understanding and the vocabulary (or even the awareness) to tell the story.
(no subject)
Date: January 16th, 2008 05:50 pm (UTC)Actually, I e-mailed my old science writing teacher (who's now director of the UCSC Science Writing program) yesterday and asked for his thoughts on pharmacogenetics as a topic for an article. I asked him for advice on who might bite if I pitched it. In theory, I think it would be cool to get back into it, but it's so time consuming, especially because you have to do a bunch of reporting before you even propose your idea to someone.
(no subject)
Date: January 16th, 2008 06:18 pm (UTC)We do a different type of genetics, though - the author touched on it, but didn't report on his results - we deal with gene-drug interactions from two angles. (1) can you metabolize the drug? (2) can you respond to the drug?
The first has two (basic) implications. For some drugs, if you can't metabolize, you build it up and experience toxicity (warfarin for example). For others, you have to metabolize to get any effect - so if you can't metabolize, you don't get any benefit (hydrocodone for example).
The second is a receptor problem. Say you can metabolize hydrocodone to morphine just fine, but your receptor doesn't work as well? You're going to need more of the drug - or a different drug altogether.
This sort of genetics is far more helpful - for more people, I mean - and far less scary than the "what's gonna kill me?" kind of genetics. There's a place for the disease predictive genetics, but I think it should follow from classical diagnostic techniques. It shouldn't be the first-line diagnostic. On the other hand, pharmacogenetics should be the first-line diagnostic when a doctor is considering which medications and what doses to prescribe.
Tell me what your writing teacher says when he responds :)
(no subject)
Date: January 16th, 2008 06:23 pm (UTC)I'll let you know what Rob says. He's been pushing me to get back into it. I have a low tolerance for bullshit, though, and there's a LOT of bullshit that goes into getting someone to take on your story idea.
(no subject)
Date: January 16th, 2008 06:31 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: January 16th, 2008 10:31 pm (UTC)off topic...
Date: January 15th, 2008 03:02 pm (UTC)i'm an lj friend of 'acoolsecretary' and she listed you as the 'go to' person for any news.
i hope you don't mind me hitting you up this way, but i was just wondering if you'd heard from her hubby on her status?
Re: off topic...
Date: January 15th, 2008 03:31 pm (UTC)I plan to return to nadine's latest post to add any news to the thread there, unless she's left instructions for me to post an entry for her.
Re: off topic...
Date: January 15th, 2008 03:39 pm (UTC)Re: off topic...
Date: January 15th, 2008 03:39 pm (UTC)