Heav'n has no Rage...

I first heard the following proverb at Disneyland prior to the start of a guest (crowd) control shift. The lead (supervisor) pulled out this worn copy of Zen Flesh, Zen Bones and proceeded to give us a spiritual pep talk. The following paragraph changed my life:

A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him. Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!

Thinking about that strawberry is how I manage to get by during those 51 weeks every year when I am not in paradise. Okay, Newport Beach is not that bad, but it is still a good idea to have some zen handy for those days when your company misses earnings estimates by six cents.

Just in case Jamaica is absolutely the most fabulous place anywhere...

I thought I would look into getting registered to practice pharmacy in Jamaica.

(If you want to read a similar story about the Hawaiian Boards, click here.)

Unfortunately, the people of Jamaica do not appear to be actively seeking American Pharmacists. Here is all the information from the Pharmacy Council of Jamaica website under the link "Policy for the Registration of Foreign Trained Pharmacists".

It would appear there are not very many pharmacists in Jamaica. In California, you can go to the Board of Pharmacy Website and search by name and/or license number to find a specific pharmacist (I'm number 52 thousand and something). Things are simpler in Jamaica. Click here to see the 25 pharmacists with last names starting with A. Half of them are named Allen, and half Anderson. Are those common names in Jamaica, or are there two competing pharmacy dynasties?

Anyway, in case I don't get another post in before Friday, I'll be in:

Kingston

I thought Jamaica was 3 hours ahead of us. I suppose there is no need for Daylight Saving Time in the Carribean.

I told the truth!!!!!!!!!!!!

Email sent to my coworkers on Saturday:

Some friends were going to come over for dinner tonight, but have cancelled due to illness.

If I know Mrs. Lasko at all, she’ll be spending the day cleaning up the condo and cooking something fabulous (while I slave away here at work). Were I to relay the above information promptly, it is likely that neither of these things will happen.

So the question for the group is: at what hour am I required to let the Mrs. know that nobody will be joining us for dinner? Hmmmn, why isn’t Minh working today?

My tally from the all female crew yielded one "LOL" (which I took to mean, "No need to tell her yet"), 3 responses of the: "Have you no conscience?" variety, and 3 abstentions. (This world is run by clowns, who don't get my jokes).

I ended up breaking the news to Nicole before any of the extensive cooking and/or cleaning occurred...I was rewarded with: a clean house, tamales from scratch, and a mojito. I don't think it's a gay drink...mo-hee-tohhhh.

I guess those Mormons might be on to something.

And if you don't expect too much form me, you might not be let down...

For the first time since leaving my job at the happiest place on earth, I have exceeded expectations on an annual performance review. Oh my God, I entered the pharmacy profession (or at least pharmacy business) 12 years ago...

Certainly, the main reason for my run of mediocre (met expectations) performance reviews has been the fact that I am rarely in a job long enough to be evaluated, let alone long enough to receive any sort of commendation. But also, I tend to do my work very well when I start a job (if it's interesting, at least...Crescent Healthcare was not interesting); after a few months, I get bored, and begin the search for a new job. I suppose much of life is like this. I really need to reverse my strategy in the future...exceeding expectations would be a breeze.

So I am not really sure what I did differently during this last year of employment. Just in case somebody important is reading my blog, I will not write about how I've been phoning it in here for as long as I can remember. (I have a friend who once had a merit increase revoked [due to UC budget constraints, not lack of merit]--I think he hung a sign over his desk that read: "I will pretend to work for as long as you pretend to pay me". Or was that the other way around: "As long as you pretend to pay me, I will pretend to work"?)

Note to anyone that has recently complained that my posts are of no interest to anybody except the writer:

1) Please put blog related comments and/or complaints in the appropriate comment field. Yes, registration is required, but it takes 10 seconds to register, and you are more than welcome to make up a name.

2) Read more carefully, maybe something will be applicable to your own existence. Maybe not, I am not particulary deep, and I am well aware my writing style can be less than clear. If you want easy, try USA Today (The only newspaper in the country that is not afraid to tell the truth: that everything is just fine).

Sorry, I did not mean to chastise my 3 or 4 remaining readers. On that note, a special takealotofdrugs shout out to my Uncle Terry, who somehow stumbled across my page a few days ago. Hey Terry, how much UNH stock is too much UNH stock?

Why do you doubt me, my darling tortoise?


http://www.greatturtlerace.com/

Stephanie Colburtle? This turtle race has gotten lame. I do not care for Stephen Colbert, or his turtle...his ice cream looks okay.

And no, I am not very busy today.

Leeches are not drugs.

That was not the point of this article:

At least 115 chemical compounds have been developed from what researchers thought was the medicinal leech, Hirudo medicinalis, with many being used in drugs.
But genetic analysis has now shown the leech that led to the discoveries may have been the species Hirudo verbana.

But these two sentences that got me thinking of my year(s) in the basement pharmacy at UCI:

Leeches are used in modern medicine mainly as a research tool, with scientists developing drugs based on the chemicals in their bodies.

Leeches were once used traditionally and have made a return to the doctor's armoury since the 1980s, when it was realised they were useful after plastic and reconstructive surgery.

I only know of one FDA approved drug made from leeches...it's quite possible there are more, and I am just out of date (I have not been a real pharmacist in over three years). [Future employers, that's just a joke. I read a lot. Please feel confident in hiring me.] We used a bit of Refludan (lepirudan) at UCI, but we used far, far more real, live, swimming leeches. At most hospitals, leeches are handles by the blood bank...at UCI leeches are drugs. They get dispensed in little prescription vials with little prescription labels. They get dispensed by a pharmacist...who gets to catch them with a little fish net, and put them in the aforementioned prescription vials. Leech suppliers have all kinds of storage/maintenance recommendations (like changing the water every other day); but seriously, have any of you seen our home aquarium?

Hmmmn, I had some sort of point when I started writing this...oh yeah: Leeches are not drugs.

My favorite line of that article:

It could be equally devastating for the leeches themselves, which as H. medicinalis have legal protection, but as H. verbana have no defence against being collected from the wild in hundreds of thousands.

What the hell are you people doing collecting hundreds of thousands of leeches?

Mr. Skinner (too busy to read this blog), you have a lot of catching up to do.

Newport to Bolsa Chica and back=20 miles. That runner's high you've heard so much about is a hoax; well, maybe not a hoax, but very short lived (it was completely gone at the half way point...with me 10 miles from home).

If you ever run 20 miles, do not make any plans for the rest of the day. You will not get said plans done. Unless your plans are to watch Oprah and fall asleep.

Something has finally happened.

I have moved up in the world.


Yes that's right: I, Michael B. Lasko, have a window cubicle. I am not sure why that picture looks so dreary, because my cubicle is actually super sunny all day. I was wearing sunglsses for a while...and not just to look cool. Also in the new cubicle: a bigger monitor. Not much bigger or anything, but at least my anti-glare screen no longer falls off.

The People's Republic of California

Do they make those in a bicycle jersey?

Finally got around to doing my taxes. Although Uncle Sam has given us a couple of extra days this year, I thought I might have better things to do on April 17th.

(You really should have clicked that link, it gets you free ice-cream).

Nico and I had the W-4s set up perfectly this year (or almost perfectly, we ended up owing $400 to the Feds). Unfortunately, both of us neglected to update the dreaded DE-4 (that's the California equivalent of the W-4 for you out of staters)...resulting in $3000 owed to the Proud State of California. I have got to find a better accountant.

Buy us beers, we're friends for life.

Alternative title was: "It's never winter here"

Except it was a very cold day sailing, so that title was not very appropriate. Except in an ironic sort of way, I suppose.


Nicole always looks huge in these photos (like she could crush the other occupants of the boat at will--do not anger Giant Nicole). She's actually quite svelte, but everybody else is always afraid to move off the benches...putting Nicole on the rail, at the front of the boat (and closest to the photographer). If I knew more about art, or photography...or physics, I would know what this was called. (perspective???) Also pictured are Janet, and Janet's friends Charles and Samantha. Charles bought us nachos and beer (please see title above), and Samantha quotes lines from Airplane, so they get another photo (beautiful Corona Del Mar coastline in the background).