So, as you can see the last update here was quite some time ago. I think Facebook and Twitter have killed my desire to write on my blog at all. That sucks because anything that’s posted to these other social networking sites is pretty ephemeral (yeah, that’s my big word for the day!). My original reason for writing was to have a “journal” that I could refer to. This just isn’t feasible when we use Twitter or FB (actually, you can use something like Twinbox to archive Tweets, but you need to use something other than just a browser to do so) so it’s sad to see a lot of my “journaling” done on these other sites.

The other thing that has kept me away from posting here is my desire to find some better blogging software. Bblog is long dead and probably full of security holes. I fiddled around with Drupal and a couple other platforms for a while but these ended up being more than I needed and not worth the “price of admission” (the steeeeep learning curve). I think I’ve pretty much decided to install a copy of WordPress locally and go from there since I don’t trust anyone else to host my content.

In other news, it’s been a crazy year so far and I simply cannot believe that it’s already the first of September. So much has happened and so little has changed! One of these days I’ll get around to writing about it all.

I was sitting in the orthopedic doctor’s office a few weeks back when I went to get the pain and clicking in my knee checked out. As with just about every doctor’s office, the wait between checking in and finally being seen into an exam room was about 40 minutes so I spent the time looking at the well worn magazines strewn about the waiting room. The article about travel in Peru was not really keeping me entertained so I turned my attention to the conversation going on between the receptionist and the other folks at the front desk.

They were talking about how their “coffee boy” was going to be in any time now and they hoped that he would bring their favorite drinks. Within a few minutes, a well dressed, good looking gentleman holding one of those cardboard drink carriers from Dunkin Donuts came up to the desk and he was greeted happily by all the office workers. He made another trip back out and returned with a second set of drinks. Everyone thanked him saying they were impressed that he remembered what to bring and that he was their favorite sales rep. They all shot the shit for a while and the pharmaceutical rep asked about “the numbers”. I’m guessing he was referring to the number of prescriptions the doctor was giving out for whatever medications were sold or manufactured by his employer.

At one point, the receptionist said with a laugh, “he’s giving those out like candy”.

The conversation went on for a while (with what I think was a bit of flirtatious banter) and then Mr. Salesman asked what day next week would be best for him to bring in lunch. They gave him a day and spent a while telling him their food preferences. Everyone chatted about their favorite catering places and how some were better than others. Mr. Salesman indicated that he always uses the same caterers because he knows they do a good job.

Soon he was out the door and on his way to visit the next doctor’s office and a week or so later, I was waiting to get an MRI on my knee. To my surprise, I caught the end of a similar conversation between the receptionist at the MRI place and a woman who must have been a medical salesperson. Another question about what day would be best to have lunch brought in….

I can picture these discussions going on hundreds of times a day in medical offices all over New Jersey, and thousands of times all over the country. How much money is spent by these pharmaceutical and medical supply companies on these kinds of things? The amount must be staggering.