Scott’s Spiel

 Yep, we finally got a dog. This isn’t the best of pictures so you’ll just have to take my word for it that it really is quite cute. He’s a border collie and only 9 weeks old so it’s not too keen on being left alone at night. Poor thing won’t be able to get out for about a month by which point he’ll probably be a lot bigger.

General

I think I’m getting to the point where Birthday’s are quite scary. I don’t want to be 19, it’s a horrible age.

The 20s are quite near now. Here’s to my last year as a teen…

General

Yes, I bought one.
Been dispatched, expect delivery tomorrow (we’ll see).

Geeky

I need a laptop. Ok, so maybe I don’t need one, but I want one. This is a struggle I’ve been fighting over for a year and each time have decided to put away the money and wait till later. Not quite sure what I’ve been waiting for, but now I want one. The problem is, what to get. I could:

• Wait, get a job and be able to buy one without going into savings.
  • I’ve been waiting all year, it’s time to buy one!
• Get a PC
• Get a Mac

The PC/Mac choice has been killing me for a while now. PC is by far the cheaper option and I’m certainly familiar enough with them. I could always slap on some misc Linux distro and be Windows free. The problem there is iTunes. Despite everything there isn’t really a Linux equivalent and emulation doesn’t work nicely (as far as I’ve tried). I have a fair volume of DRM music on my iPod (yes I know, how stupid of me) and it won’t work without iTunes. This pretty much rules any Linux version off my choices.

What about Vista then. It’s alright, nothing spectacular. More of a fancy graphics display which takes up a lot of processor power than anything else. It’s something I’m familiar with and wouldn’t really have any enjoyment tweaking it on a brand new laptop, since most of them will include it. I also find a lot of the PC laptops are pretty damn big and ugly. My mum got a 15″ Dell not too long ago and it’s enough to it carry around a house, never mind elsewhere.

A MacBook, however, well they look damn cute. At only 13″ it’s a little bit smaller. I’ve also not used Mac OS for years (we have a OS 8 Power Mac upstairs that’s heading for the dump rather soon). This would give me something to learn and explore which I haven’t had for ages. iTunes would also not be a problem. If the worst came to be and I hated OS X (which I doubt), I could simply run Vista via Parallels or Boot Camp. Sorted!

Not quite.

I’m struggling between the colour of my MacBook - black or white?

Black looks damn sexy and is rarer too. However it does cost more and not always for a higher spec model. I’m keeping an eye on the refurb shop this week on Apple.com as advised (they have loads of good deals there) so we’ll see what happens. Also still waiting for the money to be transferred from savings.

At least I’ve finally got a move on. It’s only money after all. Read more…

Geeky

Finally got the chance to look over my communication skills video of my interviewing an angry mother (actually an actor). Basically, the story went that she’d discovered that her (15 year old) daughter had been prescribed the Pill. Rather than talking to her daughter about all this she stormed down to her GPs to find out what the hell the doc though he was doing, contraceptions of all things - “I mean she’s only 15!”.

Out of the 5 actors I could’ve picked that day, this was probably the worst. However, being the model student I am I’ve decided to learn from this event. Here follows my rules (in no particular order) for dealing with angry mothers with Pill-taking 15 year old daughters:

1. Apologise. They like that. Something such as “I’m sorry to see you’re upset about this”.
2. Be careful with confidentiality. Can’t even tell them whether their daughter attended the practice or not.
3. Never ever interrupt the ranting mother. If they really want to talk for minutes on end, let them. Follow by #1.
4. Explain, in general terms (watch #2) things like Gillick competence. The criteria for prescribing contraception to those under age (aka Fraser guidelines) are:
   1. the young person will understand the professional’s advice;
   2. the young person cannot be persuaded to inform their parents;
   3. the young person is likely to begin, or to continue having, sexual intercourse with or without contraceptive treatment;
   4. unless the young person receives contraceptive treatment, their physical or mental health, or both, are likely to suffer;
   5. the young person’s best interests require them to receive contraceptive advice or treatment with or without parental consent.

   Tell the mother these. First, make sure you know them (which I didn’t).

5. Don’t ask pointless questions about the mother.
6. Don’t accuse her of not being available to her daughter.
7. Don’t smile or laugh. Seriously, that’s a big no no.
8. Try not to think of the 8 people watching on camera who will probably be in fits of laughter. Should help with #7.
9. Do try and find out about the kind of mother/daughter relationship.
10. Do let her speak to the doctor at some point. She probably isn’t chuffed to be lumped with a medical student. Try not to take too long about this. The quicker you finish, the quicker she’s shouting at someone else.
11. If possible, try and get her to not shout at you or someone else.
12. Even better, try and get her to avoid throwing her handbag at you. All physical contact is something to avoid. Thankfully, actors aren’t likely to take a swing at students, even in Glasgow.
13. <more?>

I can feel the CPD (“holistic commitment to structured skills enhancement and personal or professional competence”) people idolising this post.

Hopefully I’ll do a better job when it’s not an actor.

Medical, Uni