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2004 archive

While reading the October issue of the Pharmacy Times during lunch today, I came across an interesting article. It was in the Pharmacy Law section and was titled "Court Reviews the 'Usefulness' of Pharmacists". Basically, the plantiff was appealing his case to the US Patent and Trademark Office because it rejected his invention, a machine that distributes drugs to a patient via a pre-encoded credit card. A physician would encode a patient's prescription on the card, and the patient would go to a dispensing machine and get his drugs. The machine would do all the duties of a pharmacist (verification, review of drug-drug interactions, etc.) with presumably no errors. Hooray.

According to the article, patent law requires that every new invention must be novel, useful, and nonobvious. The plantiff stated his invention was novel because it eliminated the supervision of a pharmacist. The patent examiner rejected the plantiff's application because it was obviously based on previous drug-dispensing systems and that the elimination of the need for a pharmacist did not make the invention patentable. Hooray.

Head's up to all my pharmacist friends: It looks like America has not learned its lesson from blockbuster movies such as The Matrix and The Terminator. If we've learned anything at all, it's that Hollywood is amazingly accurate at predicting the future. Take Star Wars for example. George Lucas had such great insight that he knew Darth Vader would turn to the Dark Side over 20 years before he would actually do it! Amazing! But I digress... the moral of this blog is to smash all machines, because you never know when the next one is going to take your job.

Ahh, Halloween, the day where the freaks come out at night because for once, they're considered normal. I unfortunately had to work today since my scheduler couldn't find a replacement. I guess everyone else wanted to go trick or treating. Or maybe they wanted a head start on protecting their houses from rotten eggs and toilet paper. Whatever the case, today marked a significant milestone in my short pharmacy career: I worked as a pharmacist at my 30th Walgreens location. That may not seem like a big deal, but keep this in mind: I've only been a pharmacist for 3 months. Another startling fact: I've only worked in half the Walgreens locations in San Francisco. If that's not a monopoly, I don't know what is.

We were watching Conan the other night and the guest was Christopher Walken. He was talking about his latest movie which was set in the middle of the desert. "There's lots of parking in the desert. Lots of parking and cowpies."

dave: What's a cowpie? Is it a bird or something?
lana: I don't think so. It's cow poo shaped like a pie.
dave: That doesn't make any sense. I'm pretty sure it's a bird. Go to www.dictionary.com and look it up.
lana: Okay, Jessica Simpson.

cowpie /kou pi/ n. a small rounded pile of cow excrement

(fifteen seconds of laughter, mostly done by Lana)

dave: Can you Google a picture? I want to see what it looks like.
lana: You're a dumbie.

It's always great to see old friends! I recently had the chance to catch up with Telly and Marilyn over a delicious breakfast at Louis', a popular and quaint restaurant that overlooks the Pacific Ocean. It was a beautiful morning and the view was breathtaking. After a hefty meal of omelettes, hash browns, and english muffins, we hiked through the steep hills and rocky caves to burn off the breakfast calories. Atkins Shmatkins... the Dave Diet states you can eat whatever you want as long as you're able to walk up 45 degree angle hills afterwards.

The above picture is us with the Golden Gate Bridge. Don't mind the man wandering in the background. Apparently he must have strayed from his "I Love To Ruin Random Stranger's Pictures" tour group. He must be their best tourist because he's doing an awesome job.

Here are a few points to ponder:

* Every once in a while, you have to stop and smell the roses. Life can get so hectic sometimes; it's during times like these that you have to stop what you're doing and step back and focus on what's really important. For instance, I've had 3 stress pimples on 3 separate locations on my face for 3 consecutive weeks (eyelid, nose, and chin, in case you were wondering). Stressing to fill a waiting customer's prescription within the promised time is not worth that kind of abuse.

* I like chess. It's a game that makes you look intelligent, even if you have no idea what you are doing. It's hard, however, to take the game seriously when the pieces are as big as your leg.

One month later and I'm still alive... phew. Just a few interesting tidbits about the last 30 days since I last wrote:

1) I have worked 24 days, which translates into 200 hours. If you're wondering what happened to my weekends, so am I.
2) I have floated through 12 different stores and worked both opening and closing shifts, including 3 graveyard shifts. I've been awake when normal people are asleep.
3) Cross my fingers: I have yet to be verbally or physically abused by a customer. It must be my rugged good looks and uncanny wit. Or my lack of deodorant.

It took 4 years of hard work, tens of thousands of dollars, countless hours of stress and worry, and a once-lush scalp of hair, but it's finally over! I can now practice legally in California what I've been practicing illegally for years in Mexico! I still have a few more steps left to take before I can get my license, but that shouldn't be too difficult:

* Completing the form is a piece of cake. All you have to do is sign your name. That's D-A-Y-V-E-D, right?
* What? 115 more smackaroos?!? That basically translates into 3 more pints of blood and 2 more trips to the sperm bank.
* Fine, you can have my intern license. Good thing I still have my driver license or I'd never be able to do anything fun!
* Whoa, no one said anything about a DOJ background check! Looks like I'll be heading South for the winter...

What a way to spend the July 4th weekend. Lana and I drove up to Seattle, and on the way, pissed off drivers from all three West Coast states! Lana will be in Seattle the entire month for her externship. People have told us that Seattle is just like San Francisco except that it rains a lot, and they weren't kidding. What they forgot to include was that it's a lot cleaner. Downtown is beautiful and Safeco Field (where the Seattle Mariners play) looks just like SBC Park. We didn't get a chance to go up the Space Needle, but we'll do that when I go back up at the end of July.

By now, you're probably baffled by the above picture. We stopped for gas and lunch somewhere in Northern (and I mean really Northern) California. As we drove up the main street, we saw this sign. Apparently in the area, Black Bear Diners are a fairly popular chain, probably because they offer "good old fashioned family food". Anyway, this entire entry only makes sense if you're from USC Pharmacy school. So for those of you who get it, enjoy! And for those of you who don't, maybe we can enjoy a good black bear dinner together one of these days.

We met most of the Giants players and coaches that day, including manager Felipe Alou and Giants great, Orlando Cepeda! We were able to shake their hands and take pictures with most of them. Our greatest treat, however, was the opportunity to shake hands with one of the greatest baseball players ever, Barry Bonds! In case you've been living in a cave the past few years, Barry Bonds holds the single-season home run record (73) and is quickly closing in on Babe Ruth (714) and Hank Aaron (755) for the all-time home run record. After we shook his hand, my brother and I looked at each other and smiled, knowing that this was a once in a lifetime moment. We would never wash our hands again. Oh yeah, the Giants lost.