Year: 2007

Late night pharmacy shock

Maxim got sick again. I’m almost used to this, as he did so at least a dozen times this year alone. The difference this time was that his ear started hurting later in the evening. We gave him some medicine, but our reserves were empty and I had to go out to find some more.

Usually, that’s not a problem. 90901415 is the phone number where they give you a list of “late night pharmacies”. All I have to do is pick the closest one.

This time, the closest one was only a couple of blocks from our place. So I drive there pretty fast. Closed. OK. That’s why they usually give residence number too – you can call up the pharmacy guy and he’ll open up in no time. So, I’m calling.

– Good evening, is this Mr.X?

– Yes. What do you want?

– I’m calling about the pharmacy.

– It’s 00:30. The pharmacy is closed!

– Yes, but they gave me your contacts in the “late night pharmacy directory”…

– Do you have a prescription?

– No, but I do have an emergency!

– I can’t open the pharmacy without prescription! … beep… beep… beep…

I never wish anybody any harm. But this was an exception. All sorts of words that I am not proud of were coming out of my mouth.

Closed locks

So, I call the automatic lady at 90901415 again, and get myself the next closest target. Drive up there – closed again. Calling the residence… No answer. Again… No answer. Again… No answer. Those words that I weren’t proud of… Again they are coming out of my mouth…

The third pharmacy on the list was way too far. I drove back home with an intention of taking Maxim to the doctor for the prescription. Gladly, I found out that his pains calmed down a bit and he was asleep.

Today morning, when we visiting the doctor, I asked him if pharmacies should be working 24×7 or if they are indeed “late night pharmacies”. He said that they should be open all night, but that “they always find excuses”. And that “even with prescriptions they often don’t open”.

Although I am a frequent user of late night pharmacies, I was surprised to get into this situation. And I was double surprised to find two pharmacies like this being “on duty” at the same time.

Background thinking

Sometimes, when I get really excited about an idea (say a project), I notice that there is a lot of background thinking goes on in my brain.  It’s an amazing process.  I am sure it’s there, as I lose a great deal of concentration and appear staring at the same point for hours.  But at the same time, I can’t get close to what is going on.  I am receiving results of this process every few days, but I there is no way for me to control or direct the way the thinking goes.

This type of thinking also produces the best results.  If I force myself into thinking about something, I can’t get outcome half as good.  Even when I try hard.  And the worst part is that it’s not easy to put something into background thinking.  If I force something into it, it just falls our right back.

With that, I have these questions to ask:

  • Do you understand what I am talking about?
  • Do you have any similar experience?
  • Do you know how to control this better?

P.S.: If this post seems disorganized, it’s because of background thinking taking place in my head right now…

Personal fitness goal

Last year, when I went to the gym, my primary goal was to lose weight. Thanks to a few people, I succeeded.  This time I just felt that I have to get back to the gym, but I failed to identify the goal of the exercises.  Today, while jogging, it suddenly came to me.   My fitness goal can be expressed in the following two points:

  • I want to live until I am at least 80 years old.
  • At that age, I want to be physically fit to pick up and carry around my grandson, who’ll be a 20-something years old fat bastard.  Either him, or both granddaughters.

Yeah, something like that.  Give or a take.

Twitter tracking

Twitter added a really cool feature – tracking:

You can follow friends on your phone through Twitter, but what about concepts? What if you wanted an update anytime anyone mentioned your name, your favorite band, “NYC,” “earthquake,” or “Steve Jobs?” In real-time? What if you were attending an event and wanted to know who else was there?

You can send “track something” from your mobile or IM and get instant notifications when somebody metions “something” on Twitter.  Works like a charm.  I’ve already subscribed to “mamchenkov”, “cyprus”, and “wordpress”, and not only I got some notifications, but I also found some relative content.

With this feature it is easy to get news and answers to questions even for those people who don’t have many friends.  You just type your WordPress question in, I’ll get it in a second.  Then I can reply to you with “@your_nickname”.

The only thing to be careful about is generic terms and brand names.  You’ll get notifications in all languages, not just the ones you can understand (I got this tested with WordPress, which is a rather popular piece of open source software  used all over the world)…  Still, love this new feature.

Google AdSense via Wester Union

Yet another cool thing from Google – Google AdSense payments can now be received via Western Union.  For the time being they offer it only in a few countries, mostly those with weak banking system (?) – Argentina, Chile, China (Mainland), Colombia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Peru, the Philippines, and Romania.

Benefits are obvious:

  • Faster transfers.  Money will be available next day after the payment was issued.
  • Easier processing. Cash, no checks.
  • More money. Western Union transfers are promised to be free. Check processing costs something.
  • More privacy (not that I care). Again cash, not a debit-only check.

I don’t get all that much money from Google AdSense, but I sure can appreciate the method.  Hopefully Google will expand it to Cyprus and the rest of Europe in the near future.