Your questions, my answers
Time for another episode of me answering questions from the comment section!
Kim said:
I'd love to hear about the plexiglass stand you have above your PC keyboard. I would assume it's very helpful in keeping dust and debris off your keyboard. And makes a great stand for food and drink, obviously. 😉 But how much does it get in the way of your hands when you're typing?
That is actually a product designed to cat-proof a keyboard. As any cat-owner knows, keyboards are irresistible, and Chiquita had stepped on my "delete" and "backspace" buttons one too many times. 😉
So, I reluctantly plunked down over $50 for what is essentially a small plexiglass table. My hands fit under it just fine, and it doesn't hinder my typing at all; it is just mildly annoying when I want to reach for the mouse.
However, that is not nearly as annoying as having your keys stepped on.
Chiquita does sometimes use this as a lying-down spot, which is actually pretty inconvenient because then I can't see my keys at all. I mostly touch-type, but when I'm doing a bunch of keyboard shortcuts and moving off of the alphabet keys, I do like to be able to see what I am doing!
Also, if it's getting close to time for pate, she stands on the plexiglass and swishes her tail in my face, and this is 0% helpful. Sometimes I just have to kick her out of the office and shut the door.
So, I don't know...I'd say this product is helpful, but it doesn't entirely solve cat/keyboard problems.
Speaking of cats, Anita asked for a photo of Miss Shelley:
Next! Dori asked:
So, what did you think about how the polenta leftovers did traveling to your work for your lunch that day? Did that work well for you? It certainly sounded delicious!
Yes! It worked surprisingly well, and I will add this into my rotation.
Next time, I will cook the polenta until it is extra firm, though, because the sausage and tomato sauce on top adds a fair amount of moisture.
Joyce said:
I've never tried kombucha but I know some people swear by it and even make their own. I'd be interested to know if you feel any difference in your gut health. And how often do you drink it?
During normal times, I drink kombucha very sporadically. But right now I'm drinking a bottle maybe every other day, because I was recently sick with a slow-to-leave GI bug.
My digestive system feels 99% back to normal now, but of course, I do not have data to compare how I would have fared without the kombucha!
However...there is some data showing that it is beneficial for the human gut, and there's also a pretty well-established benefit to consuming probiotics, which are in kombucha, yogurt, and other fermented foods.
It's not as well-studied as one would hope, but I figure that it's a pretty low-risk thing to try. Maybe it won't be a magic bullet, but at bare minimum, it's not going to hurt me.
Jan said:
I'm curious if you feel that the courses you are taking to get your degree are useful at all, or are they mostly busywork. What has been the most valuable to you and what has been the least valuable so far?
Welllllllll.....I would say it's been about 95% busy work.
I have gotten faster at APA formatting, searching and skimming journal articles, and making PowerPoint presentations, but those are mainly just busy-work survival skills.
A lot of the nursing-related topics we are covering are areas I am not faintly interested in pursuing. For instance, we learned about nursing management, but I don't want to be a manager. We covered nursing informatics, but that kind of work is my idea of hell.
Some of the topics are just repeats of what I already covered in my RN program too; for instance, we had an extensive social determinants of health project at the community college, where I researched and presented on the resources in my county. And this week in my current class, I had to write a discussion post outlining the resources in my county. I'M BORED. I ALREADY DID THIS!
Almost none of my classes are on topics that directly impact bedside patient care. Since bedside patient care is what I like, these BSN classes feel irrelevant. My RN classes? Totally different! I needed those to help prepare me for nursing.
I haven't yet met an RN-to-BSN student who felt the classes were interesting or useful, so my experience seems pretty typical. It's just a hoop we have to jump through to be considered more valuable and competent.
(And it is also necessary so that down the road, I can get a master's degree for teaching at a nursing school.)
Ok! I think I'm caught up now, except for one about my blogging routine, and I think I'll just answer that one in a separate post.
