CPR

Gotta jumpstart this blog again. Sorry for the delay... I hope I haven't driven away my millions of faithful readers.

Anyway, I finished my History of the Old Testament class this summer with a fairly mediocre grade. Enough to pass etc, but I was a little too demotivated by the sun etc to really put my heart into it. It's hard not to feel that the rest of my studies now are just a prelude to "real" school, which won't start until January.

I tried to skate by without buying a textbook (so often in online classes I haven't ever used one), but it would have been very helpful in this case. I ended up getting one in time for the final exam, and that was enough to get me through...

I've begun the fall quarter at MHCC and my last two prerequisites:

- World Religions (Independent study) -- Chris Jackson
- Nutrition (Online) -- Jack Brook

World Religions required an orientation last week. There I found out that the entirety of my grade will be based on three progressive exams and one comprehensive plus some worksheets that I turn in each time that I go in for an exam. This is going to work out really well since MHCC is about 30-45 minutes from my house.
The other cool thing about that class is that everything is self-paced. If I wanted to cram for a few days and go take all my exams next week or something, I could be done with the class next week. I don't think I'll do exactly that, but it's nice to have that kind of freedom.
The instructor, Chris Jackson, heads the philosophy department @ MHCC, and seems like a really cool guy. I would love to take more classes from him...
I have no plans to buy a textbook for the World Religions class.

Taking Nutrition online seems to be working okay too, though I will definitely need the textbook I just ordered on Amazon. There are a few more requirements for this class than for World Religions, but nothing too difficult.
I sure do like the online class system at PCC better than this one at MHCC. The PCC version seems a lot more intuitive and better-organized. Maybe it's just me, though.

I confirmed yesterday that my first day of class @ UP will be January 12. Just a little more than 3 months. It's hard to believe it's coming so soon! It seems like such a short time since I took my first prerequisite, before I even knew for sure that I wanted to go into Nursing. I'm feeling pretty intimidated by the UP Nursing program at this point, so I kind of hope the next two years go by as quickly... :)

Radiohead!

I saw Radiohead play an amazing show at Auburn, WA last night. I have more to write than I'm able to at the moment, but here's the link to some pics I took.

I love you Onion

From The Onion:

"40-Foot American Flag Pin Welded To Statue Of Liberty"

There we go -- it didn't seem quite patriotic enough before...

Why nursing?, Part 1

I have a wide range of interests and aptitudes in more than one area. Of all the options available to me, why did I choose to go into the nursing field? In no particular order, I'm going to talk about some of the factors that led me to my decision.

Job demand:

The Bureau of Health Professions at the Health Resources and Services Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, reports that the US will be short over 1 million RN FTEs by 2020 (scroll down to the bottom of the table for the total), which will mean that projected supply will meet only 64% of 2020's demand.

The picture locally in Oregon is even more stark (see state-by-state breakdowns in the same tables): by 2010, they project that Oregon will be short 5,300 nurses, with 81% of demand filled; in 2015 we'll be down 10,000 nurses at 68% coverage; by 2020, the state will be in need of 15,300 additional nurses and will have only 56% of its needs covered.

This shortage will ensure that for the forseeable future, I shouldn't have any trouble at all with finding a job as an R.N. One downside to this shortage, though, is that it will likely force a larger burden of patient care on nurses that are today often already feeling overworked and underpaid. I imagine this will lead to increasing and increasingly contentious policy confrontations between health care employers and nursing organizations such as unions.
Though these facts do have this negative aspect, overall I'm looking forward to ample job security and the knowledge that with training in such a high-demand field, I will be very valuable to my employer and that I can lend a hand with one of the great health care challenges on the current horizon.

Misspelled tattoos

"The 10 Greatest Misspelled Tattoos"

Funny

This woman found a bunch of old Weight Watchers recipe cards and posted them with commentary. Seriously disturbing/funny...

Coming attractions...

Posts I intend to write within the next day or two:

- Why I chose the nursing field
- Georgia v. Russia in South Ossetia: this one guy's (i.e. my) opinion on what's really going on...
- A review of Casa del Matador (literally, "The House of Del, the Matador"), a tequila bar in NW portland