Out to play
“Take your complaints of cruelty up with the Game Commissioner.” (USPD/Commons.wikimedia.org)
Game changers. Bored on board. The doc is spaced.
Sports, once every boys’ dream (and every orthopedic’s and neurologists’ bread and butter), seem to be rolling towards the tar pits.
Golf is on the ball with an updated unique experience.
How about playing Top Golf style in Houston’s baseball stadium? Stadiumlinks has a new way to make greens.
But only for a short time in November. Don’t worry about the golf carts and they provide the clubs..to play with as well as a VIP lounge.)
“Minute Maid Park is about to be transformed into a golfer’s dream“
(Wonder if participants are encouraged to wear eye protection? After the Ryder Cup incident, golf logo safety glasses demand may be exploding like bike helmets did.)
Now this is, uh, golf. (Stadiumlinks)
Baseball also offers some big hits – not only for home runs and rotator cups, but also for temper tantrums.
Possibly why “Major League Baseball attendance is down 4% as 6 ballparks set lows“
The seating in many areas at Minute Maid Park reminds people of being loaded into a filled to capacity air plane. Being jammed together sets people up for seat rage.
(Any chance those “We believe survivors” protesters in DC would be available for Astros games if pitcher Roberto Osuna takes the mound? His domestic abuse case in Toronto “dropped” when the victim refused to appear in court, not because he was innocent. After all, in this case, there was actual, indisputable evidence with security video of the violent incident. What? Too busy? Oh. Selective outrage. I just thought since…)
Another thing hard to believe is that gamers like Nick Overton are sitting around and turning their hobby into a career.
“Fortnite: how an Iowa gamer makes up to $500,000.00 a year”
There are those who say he’d not be successful if his parents, worried about his time playing games, hadn’t tossed his Xbox, motivating him to work part-time after school to buy an Xbox 360, and his tech dad hadn’t told him “If you’re going to do this, you need to find a way to make money from it”. Funny how things play out.
“Oh, stop. The games have changed. Even Monopoly has been updated to be Fortnite. Go stack yourself.” (USPD/Commons.wikimedia.org)
Some careers can be all work and no play. Like MD doctors these days. Not the game it once was.
It cost to play.
- “By the time these kids go through four years of pre-med, medical school, residency, and then fellowships, they usually don’t start earning money until their mid-30s, and they’ve got $500,000 in debt. And you can be making $2 or $3 million a year in my business with a lot less preparation at the age of 27 or 28.” “(source “America’s worsening doctor’s shortage is a serious problem”)
- “…the brain drain going out of medicine into less productive things, like my business and the tech world, social media, and things, has been horrendous,” (source)
However it’s not all about debt load, it’s the working conditions and current attitudes towards doctors
The old image of rich doctors out on the golf course is outdated. As corporate employees, docs already face 50-90 hour work weeks, sleep deprivation, and battles with insurance companies over treatments. And now this:
“Stabbed, punched, bitten. ER doctors face rising violence in ER”
Maybe the future of medicine is docs and healthcare workers behind bullet proof glass while robots tend patients on the other side. (They could be cute robots!) Or maybe Medicine will be tethered to space stations’ video screens.
The medicine ball could be back in their court.
Your game to play, right?
Phil, the Philosopher Mouse of the Hedge.
NASA astronaut and McGovern Medical School alumna Serena Auñón-Chancellor, M.D., answered questions from medical school students and faculty live from the International Space Station (ISS). Dr. Auñón-Chancellor, a 2001 graduate of McGovern Medical School, is board certified in both internal medicine and aerospace medicine. She joined NASA in 2006 and has been a part of the astronaut corps since 2009. She is a member of the Expedition 56/57 crew and has been on the ISS since June.
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Philosopher Mouse of the Hedge 
One of my docs recently hired a PA (physician’s assistant). He told me that she was incredibly smart and a decade or two ago she would have gone on to be a doctor. Even people interested in the medical field are looking at alternatives to long ride to doctorhood. Seat rage? OMG! I hate when someone else’s (hot, sweaty) butt is plastered next to me. Fortunately I don’t pack heat. Orange doesn’t suit me. 🙂
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One of my nieces is a PA now (started out with emergency responder) – she loves it and is just as happy not having the burdens/debt/ time loss of med.school…now in a upscale ski resort with lots of time to ski.
The problem with the baseball stadium here is that the seats are not only small but the aisle/foot room between rows is unbelievable tiny, the sample angle is really steep, so if you have an overly enthusiastic fan standing and yelling behind you, it does get pretty claustrophobic. But hey they managed to squeeze in a few more seats that sell well. Enough agitation. I’ll just stay home…and maybe find something else to do. Orange is not my color either
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I read about that Ryder Cup incident and found it horrifying. I didn’t know about seat rage as a term, but we no longer go to any professional baseball games because it’s so expensive and uncomfortable. If professional sports of any kind want more people to attend [and I’m assuming they do] then the experience has to be safe and relaxed. Seems rather obvious to me, but then most common sense things do!
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Seat rage is probably my term (maybe it’ll go viral- people all want labels, so does rage! HAHA)- No sports league wants that kind of message out there – but look how they cram people in there – and then act surprised when there are incidents (and if there’s a kid who can cry and look pathetic it’s not their fault no matter what – on airline and in stadiums). We said enough, too. Decided to spend money in other places.
Thanks for the cheering remark!
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Ha, seat rage. Why am I thinking about airplanes. Same issue. How to make more money. The heck with the customer. –Curt
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Pretzels can take it just so long before they crack. HAHA Setting people for problems is really bad for business in the long runway. Thanks for flying in with a comment
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Merging golf and baseball?
That’s as odd as pairing a reality star and the presidency.
Then again, these days you have to expect the unexpected I suppose…
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Backwards world. Now the expected is the unexpected. Are we expected to remember that? Beer anyone? (It’s Octoberfest – perfect place to search for sanity? HAHA)
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I’m convinced that the Australian health care system is the WTG, In the last 20/30 years I cannot recall visiting a doctor, without being greeted with a big, smiling, happy face, even on the 2 occasions they’ve informed me I had cancer.
On Monday I got a call from Nurse Percy at my GP’s, to tell me that Doctor Francis wants to see me saspo, seems there’s a problem somewhere. Where else does this sort of thing happen?
And the visit doesn’t cost a thing, our socialized system takes care of the lot; and any medication that’s prescribed I have to pay the outlandish sum of $5;80 for. nice being a senior otherwise a script would cost me nearly $40
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Much of that is the same here.
The post is not about health care systems. It is about how doctors are treated
The big change in the US that is a major concern is the way the general public views and treats doctors. The patients. Many of whom have never paid a dime into the system – those patients tend to have come from places where they have never had any preventative visits/treatments and often have multiple issues (due to lack of previous care or their previous diet/life). I also love the patients who have a crowd of family in the room – all happily chatting in English until the doctor comes in the they all start saying “No English. Must have translator.” Many doctors here are bilingual if not multilingual, but the considerately get a translator for the patient and the whole discussion eventually happens…and once the translator and doc leave the room , the English conversations start up again….
With the media and political parties demonizing doctors and blaming them as the ones driving up health care costs, these patients are feeling very empowered and are unreasonably demanding – and often act out, threaten, and become inappropriately abusive/.violent.
Then there’s the “new” concept where everyone is asked for feedback on their treatment – often anonymously or not validated/followed up on. Patients are hyper critical about things the doc has no control over (like the number of parking spaces, who works in the office desk area/ or the phone appointment desk pool who are told by health care corporations to stack patients every 15 min in doc’s schedule even if that is totally unrealistic – and results in wait time to see the doctor.) It’s the doctor that gets bad ratings for other’s work – and those ratings affect whether the doctor keeps their job and their salary by the corporation.
Then there’s the ranting by patients on social media sites – often completely untrue. I know one specific case where an angry patient refused more painkillers became a troll on social media sites like YELP, Facebook, trashing the doctor with lies from multiple fake accounts using pictures of other people she cut and pasted from all over the Internet. Even after the actual people in those pictures contacted the tech. companies informing them that they had not written that review/passage and had not authorized it, the companies refuse to remove the false item. More and more docs are at risk if they refuse to authorize painkillers and drugs (which are often requested so they can be sold on the street). Docs are going to their cars only to be confronted by angry patients with their friend – often with guns. Angry patients show up at people’s houses.The hammer call doctors.
I know one doc after he refused to authorized pills, has his building broken into, his office broken into to, a man spent a great deal of time and effort breaking into the secure cabinet where he stole drugs, went home and took them all and died from the overdose. His family sued the doctor who told his insurance company “nonsense – go to court” only the insurance company decided it was cheaper to pay off the parents instead of paying lawyers to fight it even though the doc was right. And of course they raised the doc’s malpractice insurance cost. That doctor said enough and walked away from medicine.
I’m really glad you are getting good care with your system. No doubt you paid in your fair share and were happy to do it (who wouldn’t be?) I’m really glad your area has lovely patients who are respectful and act as they should.
If the attitudes towards doctors here doesn’t change, this place will have fewer, less qualified, less innovated, and less motivated doctors. THAT’S the concern.
But no matter where you are, the best idea is to take care of yourself and stay as healthy as possible. (And of course that goes for darling pups, too)
Thanks for smiles when you visit – smiles keep you healthy!
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Unfortunately we have quite a lot of the great unwashed, those who’ve never lifted a finger to help themselves, or contribute anything, just take take take, and many are of the younger generations.
They complain about the health system, and ours is second to none, Many of our hospitals and their ER’s are grossly overworked, and probably underpaid, though they never seem to complain, mainly because the g.u’s don’t have a regular doctor and just like to go to the ER’s, probably hoping they’ll get a free bed and food for a few days. I get quite mad when I read about them, parasites the word that always springs to my mind.
But our system is great, and deserves being treated with respect, as do all the doctors, nurses physios etc that make it run efficiently.
When my GP came to the conclusion that I had cancer and was doing nothing about it, it was he that booked me into the best hospital in Australia to have the colonoscopy, and pressured me into going (stood over me)and a few days after I had a phone call from the secretary to the hospitals and the University of Sydney’s leading gastro surgeon to say that HE wished to see me as soon as possible. Two months later this man removed my stomach,
Never stop smiling probably have a big silly grin plastered across my dial when I die 😀 my mother used to tell me that !
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How long will it be till ‘coffin rage’.
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