digital health

i do not see a practical purpose in my health records being available on the internet. i dont understand why they would need to be veiwable by any person with a free google account, nor why anyone would want to veiw them. if i were a patient at the cleveland clinic i probably would have volunteered if someone could have given me a legitimate reason why i should have. if people need to manage and access their own health information, why not create a specific website just for that, based solely on area or hospital. or, follow steve jobs format, where people can manage them themselves. why publish it all over google? i dont think the excuse that it helps others search ways to manage their own health is reliable either, there are plently of ways to self diagnose on the internet. try webmd.com, its a blast.

honestly, whether or not it is safe, or ethical doesnt bother me... if someone asked me to put my health records on google, or actually anywhere online, i would never be able to think anything more than "why?"

i do what i want

spring break is going to be excellent. saturday toad tripping to longwood with my best friend erin, who i have not seen in ages, and am going to visit my other two best friends, lindsey and emily. and it will be fantastic. and then i am going to the outer banks with my parents for two nights, just to get away from everything. while i am down there i really hope to arrange my first piece of music. hopefully gavin degraw's "dancin shoes" if it goes well i am also hoping to arrange "because the night" and "it had to be you" i worry it will be pretty tough though. im excited to try it out, and im hoping i can mail the files to maria and she can help me out. after that im going to apply for jobs, visit my friends from high school, and sleep. it will be good to be back.

call me paranoid

I hate to get too "big brother," but the concept of wire tapping make me nervous. I feel like right now, even if the government can justify whatever it is doing under the grand headline of "Homeland Security," we are letting them run away with too much power. The Patriot Act alone was a heinous and egregious error on the part of our legislature. They claim to be wire-tapping terrorists and Al-Queda insurgents, but they are using it as an excuse for racial profiling. Luckily for the government, the right and left are too busy blaming and ridiculing each other to step in and actually protect civil liberties. The conflict from within is perpetuating the encroachment of government control.

I sound entirely too paranoid and intense for my actual emotional attachment to the situation. I do not worry about being spied on or bugged [at least for the moment]. So for the sake of light-hearted fun:
http://www.asofterworld.com/index.php?id=274

lunar eclipse

I just had a friend tell me that the lunar eclipse last night influenced the way computers work. I can only come to the conclusion that it is a bold faced lie. If you ever meet Charlie Heyer, you should tell him he is a liar. Just walk up to him on campus and tell him that. Or Facebook friend him, with a little message attached which said "Did the lunar eclipse also affect your ability to be cool?" That was kindof a lame insult, so take your own liberties with the second half of the statement. But don't be too harsh, he only meant to be witty. All in all, it was disappointing to not be able to see the eclipse last night. I hate snow and cold weather, so having sleet instead of the eclipse was as bad a trade as Frank Robinson for Milt Pappas.

the future of the internet.

The internet is the closest thing to infinity we can reach in the modern world. Its possibilities are endless and the entire range of the concept cannot be grasped. Perhaps this is because the internet is controlled behind closed doors, by a certain group of all-powerful business executives, as suggested by Aaron in his article. These closed doors he says, lead to censorship and executive control of something that is supposed to be equally veiwed by all. Aaron also discusses America's poor progress compared with other nation's internet services, and attempts to overhaul the system. Both of these concepts fall short of finding a solution in this article, maybe as a result of the vastness that is the internet. The concept of controlling something that large and flexible seems almost impossible. Whether or not the public or an executive few try to control it, the internet is alway quickly changing and adapting to new concepts and ideas. Why try to control it? The focus should move away from control, censorship, and regulations, and focus solely on advancement of technology in order to better benefit consumers. That is the purpose of a market economy anyway, let's not forget the basis of our country's industry.

little sister.

I have an almost little sister. She is actually my best friends younger sister, but we have been really close for really long and I consider her family. Tonight she won my high schools pageant, the Miss Cox pageant. I'm happy for her because she is kindof a status queen and these things make her really happy and give her the boost in confidence she really needs. Teenage years are tough. I can't say I really support the concept of a beauty pageant, and telling girls who are already stressed about their teenage lifes and have poor self image that they need people's approval in order to succeed. I worry about her. I worry that she spends so much time worrying what other people think of her she will just get stressed out and become unhappy. I'm still proud, but in a way that makes me question what I'm really proud of.