Accidents and Finances

I had recently got into an accident on Interstate 270 in Maryland. I had run into the back of a fucking Subaru, and set off a chain reaction that involved two other cars. Now the two cars were drivable, but I feel guilty about the lady I had run into. She seemed like a nice lady, and she wasn't hurt (which was my primary concern). In fact, nobody was hurt, but I will be fucking pissed if one of them decides to sue me. Anyway, there was a state trooper who eventually showed up. The guy took everyone's story and basically put the fault on me. At least it was a citation and nothing more serious than that. I like to consider myself as a good driver, and I only got into to two accidents in my life. One that I was not at fault for, and one where I had a huge station wagon I was driving and took a turn too wide into a parking lot. I feel like crap at this point. But I'll be really fucking pissed if someone decides to file a lawsuit. Nobody got hurt and the car insurance should be able to pay for their shit. Sure the insurance rates for me are going to go up, but whatever, shit happens. Right now, I'm driving a rental car, and thank god my insurance covers rentals. Maybe State Farm's catchphrase is accurate after all.

At least I'll be able to get a new car. My car may be totaled, but in a crisis, there is always opportunity. I hope that the insurance will be able to give me some money so I can get to use it as a down payment. I'm in the hunt for a Honda Civic Hybrid. Now a friend of mine told me that if the battery goes kaput, it will cost a thousand bucks in order to fix it. I figure it like this, with gas prices going up as it is, and the dollar is going to be further devaluated because of the financial crisis, it would probably be better off for me if I don't have to spend a shitload of money for gasoline. I mean, when a car can get 40 miles per gallon in the city and 45 on the highway, it may cost a pretty penny, but I save money in the long run. It would have to depend on the capacity of the gas tank. If the tank is 15.4 gallons, I'm good to go. I am trying to aim for 400 dollars per month as the car payment, with a 3% APR. People will eventually have to buy hybrids eventually so I hope I can get ahead of the game and get one now. I want to get one by this weekend. Hopefully, I can be able to drive. With my eventual entrance into the pharmacy field, I figure I'll be able to afford this thing. I mean, when the lowest starting pay is around $85,000 (and I think that is for a clinical pharmacist), I'll be able to definitely afford it. Now I'll have to find an apartment and some other things, but I have a feeling this is my wake-up call for the real world. I'll have to get Quicken or one of those other financial programs.

Let's see what happens.

Sadness and anger.

Recently, my friend George W. Quinn suffered a tremendous loss in his family. His mother, Janet, had been diagnosed not all that long ago with stage IV lung cancer. After hearing about the condition from my friend Dan, I had figured that George might want to start thinking about saying his goodbyes. Its not that I was trying to be a dick or anything, its just when that sort of cancer has hit that particular stage, it would take a medical miracle for her to pull through. Janet Quinn died this past Saturday. There was a blog that covered her treatment and eventual death located at this address: http://janetquinn.blogspot.com. Its sad what happened and her funeral (actually it more of a mass gathering because she was cremated) is supposed to be today. But that's not what pisses me off.

I would like to give a big fuck you to Howard University. Apparently, during rotations, a student has to show up for their thing no matter where their site is. I had recently contacted them about going to the funeral, and someone there basically said that I had to show up to my rotation site because the death was not in my immediate family. I would like to consider my friend's parents sort of like family, at least because I had worked for Safeway as a cashier and I would occasionally see them come through my line. But Howard policy states it has to be immediate family. I think I'm going to try to skip the rest of the day and show up anyway.

More later.

Rotations suck and other things.

It seems that Children's National Medical Center (hereafter abbreviated CNMC) really likes to torture Howard pharmacy students. It has been only recently that the student's got access to the intranet of the hospital network. I mean, they need to print out the reports on the patient's medications so they can participate in their treatment. At least, they are supposed to be learning how to treat patients. It seems as though CNMC is about as coordinated as Howard University, which is to say: never. My rotation there is more or less paper pushing or administration if you will. I've had to do some things that the hospital pharmacy basically pushes onto whoever comes in to work with them. It sucks, it sucks badly. At least I've got two more weeks of this BS, and then I have August off. Considering I've had to wake up at about six in the morning, it'll be worth the month of doing nothing.

I was reading the Washington Post Express periodical, and it seems that tweens (those between 11 and 14 years old) are not only dating, some of them are in abusive relationships. I think that's way too young to be dating and stuff. Think about it, these kids (and honestly, they are still kids) are bedding each other. What next? Kids having sex by the time they hit kindergarten? But what really pisses me off is that, apparently these kids have cell phones. Now what's so bad about that? I don't know if these kids will be responsible enough to learn cell phone etiquette (actually, a lot of people don't have cell phone etiquette, but that's a topic for another time). I remember when mobile phones were about a big as a lunch box. Nowadays, they are about as wide as the index and middle fingers of a normal human hand. Kids could be text messaging in class and I'm sure that would piss teachers off. Pretty soon, land lines will go the way of the dodo bird. But, kids that young should not have cell phones. When I was in high school, it was prohibited from bringing them to school. It should be that way right now but it probably isn't. At least if they had an iPod with them, it wouldn't be as bad. But it would have to be the iPod nano, the regular iPod would have me looking at them and thinking "Jeez, their parents must be loaded".

Time to go, but I shall return.

My weekend

I had an opportunity to head down to Richmond International Raceway in Richmond, Virginia for the Indycar Series Suntrust Indy Challenge race. It was a pretty decent race. Personally, I don't really know much about cars, but I do like when cars race each other. I used to be a fan of NASCAR, before it became practically castrated of characters, and all the races became a four hour informercial. I remember an August night race some years back when Terry Labonte actually won a race at Bristol International Speedway in Tennessee, and Dale Earnhardt (Sr.) ran into his rear bumper on the last straightaway. Labonte crossed the start/finish line in first but had to drive into Victory Lane with a messed up front end of the car. As for the IndyCars, 26 cars started the race on a 3/4 of a mile track. I think this may have been too many. If it was 22 cars I think it would have been okay. Considering that much of the early part of the race was run under the yellow caution flag, I was thinking about going to the bathroom at some point in the race. I didn't get to and saw Tony Kanaan win. My friend Dan actually bought a Tony Kanaan hat that had his sponsor on it (7-Eleven), and Kanaan won. Guess it must be lucky for Dan since Tony is now his favortie driver. As for me, I just enjoyed to racing for the show, and it was pretty good. Some of my friends who also came down didn't like the race, but I think it wasn't their cup of tea. I did have a great time though, and I hope to upload some pictures I had taken while I was there.

Currently, I am doing a practice experencial program for my pharmacy school at Children's National Medical Center (http://www.cnmc.org/). I'll hope to put up my opinions on it sooner or later. I attend the Howard University School of Pharmacy in Washington, DC. Apparently, historically black universities can accept non-black students for their professional schools. I've already put up some opinions on that "institution". Right now, I need to get back to work. I might put up a new post later.

I hate Howard

It seems as though the Howard University School of Pharmacy finds new ways to fuck over students as much as humanly possible. When I went for my colloquium (which I figure I'm not going to go to during the summertime, more on that some other time), my dean of the school (acutally the assistant dean of the pharmacy school but whatever) comes in and mentions that out of 91 students currently taking the pharmacy practical experience program, about 7 are compliant with all of the medical requirement (vaccines, titers, physical exams, etc.). Naturally, I was pissed. I blurted out loud that this was unfair and then I get chewed out for being unprofessional. It would have helped if the pharmacy school would have informed us ahead of time if a student is medically cleared before going for their work experience program. But since this is Howard, Howard and coordination are comletely incompatible with each other. I did make an appointment with the Student Health Center. But it would have been better if I was informed ahead of time, instead of scrambling to get this shit done. Its the principal of the matter that counts, and the school was unprofessional in this case.

I might post later if I feel like it.

Which Battle Royale character am I?

Which Battle Royale character are you? by liz.

Intro

Hello, I'm Dr. Dizdar. I have a lot of things going on in my mind that I wish to provide as my opinion. I don't know too much about this whole blogging deal, but I hope to be able to write in a nice, concise manner and that I can make it look like I actually know how to proofread stuff. Hope to have people read.