Jitters

For the past few months, I've constantly re-vamped my work - I've been going on/off in different clinics, various schedules almost everyone is confused regarding my work schedule. They've always asked me "My bago ka na namang clinic?" I know they're confused. Me too.

Like before, I'm going through another series of changes starting next week. Today (as of this writing) is my last day here at Tokyo Healthlink in Makati. After less than 4 months of being their part-time Family Physician (from a reliever promoted to a regular physician just in the middle of June), I resigned one week ago due to personal, professional, and financial reasons.

My mother company, Health Delivery Systems Inc. recently has tied up with Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) to be the third party outsource to man their different clinics in select branches. HDSI has recruited lots of specialist physicians, nurses to be assigned in different branches. I was offered this job & accepted the offer. In exchange, I had to leave Tokyo Healthlink.

Yesterday, we had our orientation regarding their electronic record system. Their system is very different, more complex in comparison to what we have in Health First. During the entire orientation, one thing was in my mind "Nosebleed ito!". There were more tabs to click, but with few available characters, more complicated steps. I got more & more confused because they have a system uniquely their own. Immediately I became worried, nervous about my performance on the first few weeks. Adapting to their system will take some time (but not too long, hopefully). Being the first doctor to "start the ball rolling" every tuesdays, punctuality is the top priority. I have to brace myself for a more toxic workload than in Health First.

After the orientation, I had many reasons to go back to HDSI Office. I signed my contract with PLDT, tried which size of long coat fits me for use at PLDT and anywhere else that is a client of HDSI (like in my case, at DMPI and Health First clinic itself), posed for a 1x1 picture & specimen signatures for our IDs at PLDT, filled an application form for an HDSI privilege card. I thought "Finally! They're starting to treat me like one of them" since I'm starting to get privileges.

However, this journey was not smooth-sailing. I went into argument with one of their HR personnel several times before; I almost thought of refusing this job completely. Since this is the beginning, taking an absence, looking for relievers is not being considered for now. I made some sacrifices, I postponed some personal matters. It was hard for me to accept at first & after crying through it, I thought that this job is the priority & it will be for my best.

But really, as early as now, I'm having jitters when I think of tuesday next week. Waah! Goodluck to me (& to all of us as well).

Net Book Or Smart Phone?

Just a few weeks ago, I've posted something about my laptop being fixed and how I almost bought a new laptop. Even if it's fixed now, my perennial problem is still there - it takes approximately 30 minutes to start up the system, and running some programs take time. Like for example when I open Adobe Lightroom, other programs hang, it will take 10 minutes before the window of Adobe Lightroom pops up and I can resume my activities. It's "turtle-like" actions has been my complain for several years, and people have been telling me to buy a new one. It crashed for three times already and I'm getting dissatisfied more and more. I thought maybe because of the operating system (Windows Vista Home). But if I'm going to buy another license to change into Windows 7, heck! I'll just buy a new one instead. Perhaps a net book.

On the other hand, I just got a new mobile phone unit (white Nokia X3-02 Touch & Type) at the start of the year because of plan rebate and upgrade of postpaid plan. For basic necessities like SMS, calls, FM/AM radio and camera functions, it's ok. The downside is when you surf the internet. The screen is very small and I'm confused with its buttons/controls even if I've read the user manual many times. The OS of the phone is Symbian, not Android. Probably perhaps it's not quiped for frequent 'net users like me. For months, I've been studying/looking into Android phones. Not primarily because it's the trend but the necessity of installing applications into mobile phones for quick reference, specifically medical ones. I have an iTouch but having too much gadgets is confusing & heavy on my pockets. I barely use it nowadays, strange as it may sound. 

Both gadgets (the model units I'm targetting at least) are priced almost Php25K. I want 'em both but I have to choose only one and prioritise which I need more - the new netbook or an Android phone? I'm starting to weigh the pros and cons of each one.

Almost

Yesterday afternoon, my laptop's networking feature was corrupted - internet access was impossible, the bluetooth cannot be detected. It was like my laptop became useless. I became distracted because I needed the internet badly (nowadays, who doesn't?).

I had no choice but to go to a service center and have my laptop fixed. At the back of my mind, I anticipated that it may have to be reformatted. The last time I reformatted my laptop was way back October 2009 when the fan broke down. I brought it at Sony Service Center near my previous training hospital. I didn't pay anything because it was still covered by its 1 year warranty. Thank goodness for my already stored file at the Seagate external drive, creating back-up files were very short. I admit I never copied some files (i.e. Adobe Lightroom, new mp3 files) thus I have to painstakingly download them again. My anti-virus program (Kaspersky 2011) will also be erased. I still have the cd but I don't know if I can still install it (since it can only be installed in 1 computer). Sayang.. Hay..

The technician told me he'll try to solve the problem by reformatting the entire system, the problem could be the software. Otherwise, the problem lies with the hardware and changing the hardware is expensive. I had to wait patiently for 3 hours while it is being fixed (hopefully). I started to windowshop for a new laptop since I thought the possibility of buying a new one is inevitable (ouch!). I had a target - Toshiba Notebook NB--- worth almost Php25K. I was keeping my fingers crossed that the problem is just with the software. Sana.. Sana..

When I got back at the center, I was happy to learn that it was just a software problem. He was also generous to (secretly) install a new anti-virus for my laptop. To test if the network connection is restored, he installed Yahoo Messenger and Google chrome. The system runs faster compared than before. My laptop seems very new. At least, I only paid for the service fee, a smaller amount compared to a new notebook. It was a close call in spending something that I don't need at this time. Almost..