I finally did something productive today

No...no job. :-P

The local affiliate for ABC (WICD/WICS--yes, they are ABC now and WAND is NBC) did a story on MRSA in hospitals. That's the staph infection that my dad had. In this story, they interviewed a woman who lived through it, but now has terrible problems with her legs. They also went into a hospital room of a woman who has it. I completely didn't see the point in that because they didn't interview her, and all she could do was lay there.

So, anyway, what got me was that at the end of the story, the reporter announces that there was one case reported in Central Illinois and that it was only reported because a complaint was made to the Illinois Department of Public Health. Illinois does not require that hospitals report incidence of MRSA to IDPH. (Keeping up with the letters?)

This completely floored me and my sister saw the same story on the 10 o'clock news last night (they do a lot of repeating around here). She was floored also. We were told at the hospital while my dad was still living that they had to report the occurrance. Who did they have to report it to? Their superiors at the hospital? The CDC? Bozo the Clown?

I made a couple calls after seeing the report. I got the toll-free number for the IDPH to report a complaint and now they are going to investigate my dad's case. I also left a message for the reporter who is in Springfield. She called back and wants me to let her know what I find out. I don't know what will be done or what sort of penalties there might be, but I will feel a bit of vindication.

I'm going to have to get internet at home one of these days

Since I am still doing the wifi thing, I get to observe life downtown and I think I need to stay home b/c

1. There must be new people on the city police force as they seem to drive by a lot more, and one stopped to see what i was doing again the other day.

2. It's darn cold!

3. The local ABC news affiliate did a story on people connecting to open wifi connections. They were talking about how hackers can do that and get personal info from the network they use. Can the same happen backwards? Can the owners of the network get my passwords or personal info?

Note to anyone checking from any network I have used. I don't have the time or energy to figure out how to hack into your system's info. I just need a free connection for a little while longer to check mail, work on genealogy, and sell on ebay. Oh..and keep up with world news since the local tv news sucks at that.

An update just for Brett

Ok, so I haven't done a whole lot, but wanted Brett to be able to keep tabs on me without having to speak to me.