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  • Pharmaceuticals

    And my Dad thought that I wasn’t living in the real world because I was in IT; welcome to the world of pharmaceuticals. 

    Last night, Erin and I went to a dinner about Spiriva.  This was both of our first adventures into this sort of setting. 

    Erin made it downtown a little bit early for the drinks & appetizers part of the evening (6:30 PM), so we started out at Petterino’s.  I love that place.  Ed is by far the best bartender, ever, but I could be biased, because he knows who I am.  Anyways, after a Goose Island there, we headed over to Nick’s Fish Market.  Yup, that is where the Spiriva Dinner was hosted.

    Anyways, we walk in to Nick’s and they have the whole main dining room downstairs booked for the drug dinner.  They have us sign in and specify if we’re physicians or just in the healthcare profession.  I was tempted to check physician, but then they’d probably try to hunt me down to push their drug on me later.  The representative at the table made some small talk with us and then we headed into the dining room.  The main dining room encompased around 12 tables with 14-16 people per table.  We sat down and immediately a waiter was over asking if we wanted wine or anything else to drink.  We both had a glass of wine and waited for Erin’s friend from PT school. 

    Appetizers were served, the assorted platter, three to a table.  However, there were only 5 people at our table, so we gourged on the yummy bites.  Overall, the tables were about 75% full.  Not a bad turn out, but quite a few short of what the apparently expected.  We were asked what we would like for our main course at this time, Chilean Sea Bass or Filet Mignon.

    By this time, I think I was on my second glass of wine, and one of the representatives grabbed the mic and introduced the presenter Dr. Nicholas J Gross from Loyola.  He started into his speach and informed us that he was being paid by the pharmaceutical companies behind Spiriva to give the talk.  During this time the second course was served: Manhattan Clam Chowder. 

    Dr. Gross (man, that’s an awesome name) gave his speech about COPD and how, basically, Spiriva is a miracle drug.  All in all, his presentation lasted about 15-20 minutes.  Needless to say, I didn’t know what he was talking about a fair amount of the time, but I had Erin there to translate for me.  Not like it mattered though, it was purely marketing propaganda.  Nowhere were we told what the drug physically does in the body, or how it increases the FEV1 of patients, just that it does.  I was tempted to ask questions along those lines, but the food was too good.  Anyways, nearing the end of his presentation course three was delivered: Ceasar Salad.

    I think I was on my third or fourth glass of wine by now.  It’s hard to tell because the waiters didn’t actually let you finish a glass before refilling.  Talk about service.  Our fourth course came out, and I had picked the Chilean Sea Bass, while Erin had the Filet Mignon.  Talk about delicious. 

    Things started to wind down and Erin’s friend left, but we stuck it out for course #5: banana chocolate cheescake and coffee.  By this time we were both more than stuffed, but it was so good we couldn’t say no. 

    It was around 9:00 PM so we headed home after we had both finished our entire piece of cheesecake.  We stopped back by my office to grab my bag and then proceeded to walk home to try and burn off some of the food.  Man was it good though.

    Afterwards I told Erin, that whenever she gets an invite to one of these dinners again, we definitely need to go.  Granted, I was just along for the food, but she actually wanted to go for the information.  However, she was a little disappointed with the information in the end.  It was quite funny to see the different types of people there though.  The people that they were actually pitching the drug to were easy to spot.  They were the nicely dressed doctors.  Then there was everyone else, which mainly consisted of nurses, some of which were still wearing their scrubs.

    It was definitely a learning experience, and you figure that if only one doctor prescribes this drug to his patients, the whole evening is probably paid for.  I’m just hoping there’s some sort of mailing list that I can get on for other upcoming events.

  • Chicago Protesters, An Open Letter

    Dear Chicago Protesters,

        If you wish for people to rally behind your cause, we really need to know what your cause is.  Parading around with plackards that say nothing does not help this cause.  When I have to sit and watch you dance around in a circle for more than 10 seconds, chanting the same things as every other protest group, I’m not going to feel sympathetic.  Your cause is even further hindered when you completely block the sidewalk which prevents me from ingesting delicious food.

    Do us all a favor and

    1. Don’t take up the whole sidewalk
    2. Make it easy for us to figure out what you’re complaining about

    Thankyou,
    Your rebelpeon.com friends

  • Links 4/20

    Post down-time links.

    • Credit Card Sized Biodiesel Reactor—Wow, that would make homebrewing crazy easier.  Wonder how much it will cost though?

      The device – about the size of a credit card – pumps vegetable oil and alcohol through tiny parallel channels, each smaller than a human hair, to convert the oil into biodiesel almost instantly.

    • Virtual Server Front-end—With the amount of Virtual Servers we run at work, this would help a lot.

  • Eww

    The tea made at Argo Tea on Randolph (between State and Dearborn) has just been described to me as having a taste that lingers in the back of your mouth akin to chewing on a cigarette.

    Yum!

  • Links 4/19

    • Traffic in India—Wow, and I thought traffic in Mexico was bad.
    • Photography Companies Feeling the Pinch—All I can say is that I completely agree with the author’s last paragraph. That is definitely what has taken me this long to actually go out and purchase a camera.

      It’s a been a rough century for the traditional camera kings. Many of the traditional camera makers were late to embrace the new digital upstarts, and when they did, they found themselves at a huge disadvantage.

    • 103” Plasma Display—I know what I want for Christmas!
    • Table for the Pool—Is it just me, or does this have mess in the pool written all over it?

     

  • Photography

    I’ve finally got a camera. I’ve been wanting to get one for a long time, but I never seemed to have the motivation to spend the money. However, after taking all that time to clean up the scanned in analog photos, I couldn’t take it anymore. Plus, a coworker wanted to take a photography class with me, so it’s a no-brainer.

    Anyways, I bought the Nikon d70s kit which comes with the body and a 18-70mm lens. In addition, I purchased a 50mm f/1.8 lens. So far I’m very happy with it, but I may get the 50mm f/1.4 instead later. The 1.8 doesn’t let in a lot of light, and the flash keeps trying to be used even in good lighting areas.

    I’ve also got my hands on my Dad’s old Nikon F with FTN viewfinder along with 3 lenses: nikkor 50mm f/1.4, nikkor 135mm f/3.5, and sigma 80-200 f/3.5-4. Unfortunately, all of the lenses are old enough to warrant needing an AI conversion, which they haven’t had, so I can’t use them on my new body. Unfortunately, for my camera, I don’t know if it’s even worth having it done. My Dad said I could throw them up on eBay, but I don’t if I want to do that either. Decisions, decisions, decisions.

    Well, with all of this going on, there will definitely be an influx of pictures in the gallery. Speaking of which, I need to get a link up on the sidebar for that.

    Update 4/18/2006 11:14 PM
    Just got out of the photography class.  I definitely think I’ll be paying them for the other 7 weeks.  Also, after talking with a few of the people there, I’ll probably be selling the Nikon F and lenses.  Basically, manually focusing with such a small viewfinder (smaller than 35mm) will be next to impossible.  Be sure to keep an eye out for them on craigslist if you’re interested.

    Oh, and there’s a “Pictures” link in the sidebar now, yay!

  • Weekend Wrapup

    Wow, talk about a beautiful Friday and Saturday (and Sunday started out great). Friday evening started out with appetizers out on the patio with Erin, my parents and my brother (Jason), who came down for the weekend. It was too gorgeous not to be outside, and well the apartment was a little warm. We all headed across the street for dinner at May Street Market.

    Dinner was quite appetizing, and the atmosphere was nice and modern. It appears to be a completely different restaurant than the Italian place it used to be, but that’s only from observing externally as I never actually ate there. The market also has a large lounge area where the full menu is also served. I can see going back there just for drinks and desserts sometime, especially since it’s so close.

    Post diner, we headed back out on the patio with some wine. The evening was just too enjoyable not to be outside. Around 11 I brought my parents to their hotel, and Jason, Binford, and I played some guitar hero. Jason played until I told him to stop at around 3am. I think he was addicted. Maybe it was all the rockin’ out?

    The next day the fam, Erin, and I strolled around Millennium and Grant park. I showed them the bean, it was a glorious day. We then hit up Portillo’s for some Big Beefs and Chicago Style hotdogs, something you can never go wrong with. The family then headed back home to Detroit, and Erin and I took a much needed nap.

    The night concluded with a trip to the movies to see Thank You For Smoking. Hilarity ensued. Talk about a great movie. By far the best part is the very end, when Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart) talks about how the population already knows that smoking is bad for them and that a picture isn’t going to help. Also, at the same point he alludes to the fact that education should fall into the parents responsibility range, and not the governments. And for those that have seen it, “Jeff, when do you sleep?!” “Sunday.” Hilarious.

    The weekend concluded with a trip to Vertical Endeavor on Sunday, and then heading over to Erin’s parents place for Easter Dinner. Except for the horrible thunderstorms that hit while we were there, it was another excellent day.

    Now I just need to recover from the weekend with another weekend.

  • Links 4/14

    • Chemistry Glassware in the Kitchen—Pure genius, and not that expensive either!
    • Jesus in Hot Chocolate Stain

      An investigation has been launched to establish the stains authenticity.

  • Links 4/13

    • Segways at the New York Auto Show—The picture and comments alone are worth a view.
    • Keep the Snacks in Illinois Schools—I’m guessing this didn’t get passed because of the money problem.  Vending machines bring in money for politicians schools.

      Legislators in Illinois have voted against a proposed junk food ban. The bill would have eliminated all junk foods from vending machines in elementary and middles schools, grades K-8, in the state.

    • McDonald’s Fattier in US than Abroad

      At a New York City McDonald’s, a large fries-and-chicken-nuggets combo had 10.2 g of trans fat, Spain, Russia and the Czech Republic had a mere 3 g, and Denmark nuggets and fries came in the lowest at 0.33 g of trans fat.

    • Obese?  Write It Off!

      The cost of weight-loss programs that are part of the treatment for obesity are tax deductible, the Internal Revenue Service ruled Tuesday.

    • Obesity Tax

      When you go to a store to buy food or anything for consumption, you’re carded—just like children under 21 are carded when they try to purchase alcohol. Upon viewing the obesity notation on your license, the cashier will add a mandatory 25% tax on your food & drink purchases on top of normal taxes.

    • Honey, We’re Killing the Kids

  • Final Puerto Vallarta Pictures

    I’ve finally got all the Puerto Vallarta pictures scanned, cleaned, and uploaded.  You can view them in my gallery.

    Wow, talk about a pain.  Since these were taken with an analog camera, I scanned in the negatives and then had to clean up the pictures because of dust and stuff on the scanner.  I’m just glad that they’re finally up, a month and a half after we got back.

    My personal favorite is a picture of Erin, but there are other good ones in there too.

    The pictures were a little grainy on film, so that is why some of the pictures don’t look the best.  Some of the coastal pictures could have been aided with a better lens filter I think too.  But hopefully I don’t have to worry about scanning in negatives much more, and the gallery may have some new activity.  More to come on that later.