I was really hoping to be able to take the doors and roof off the jeep this weekend. But the 40 degree weather (down from 95) wasn't conducive to taking it apart. Instead, I decided to share some pictures of what it would look like if I were to take it all off!

More...

I just upgraded my blog to the 2.0 version of BlogEngine.Net.

It has a much cleaner interface and loads much faster. The performance and speed makes it the premiere Dot Net blog. It now uses .NET 3.5 as opposed to 2.0 (technical jibberish), but this all makes it faster and better. It took me a while to figure out how to upgrade, but I finally got it done!

The controls and dashboard for the administrators is clean and much more user friendly. I know that doesn't matter to anyone else, but makes my life easier. Bloggers are more likely to write if their software is easier to use. Try using blogspot/blogger and see what I mean. It's very slow and you have multiple steps. Hence, the custom blog.

Every few years you have a very strange patient interaction that leaves you shocked and sort of delineates why we have a health care crisis in our country. This was from many years ago, but is very pertinent.

"Hello sir, my name is Dr. Alo. What brings you into the hospital today?"

"I couldn't sleep."

"What do you mean, sir?"

"I just couldn't fall asleep."

I recently started reading and following two new blogs, I thought I'd share them with you. There are links to all the blogs I follow under my blog roll section at the bottom right of my blog.

The Angry Internist

This is a physician that is hilarious and says things we all want to say. It seems like he wants to stay pretty anonymous and that's probably a good thing. 

Bananars Blog

The musings of a young single, working female who lives in the suburbs of Chicago and works in the city. Very funny, and interesting reading. Sometimes inappropriate as well, which makes it even funnier.

Enjoy the other more serious blogs I read as well!

I've had the Palm Pre for over a year and have had a great experience with it. My previous 3 phones were all Palm Treos and they worked really well. The 5-way button on the Treos let you quickly get around and the touchscreen added more function and usability. The battery life was tops and you could go 5 days without a charge. I loved it!

You can avoid caffeine headaches during Ramadan. Don't fall victim to the unexplained headaches in the first few days. Find out how.

Ever wonder why you are getting a strange headache at night during the first days of Ramadan? Right around Iftar (break-fast) time? Do you think it is a caffeine headache? Do you usually drink a lot of coffee or tea?

As Muslims begin fasting in Ramadan, a lot of Muslims will complain about "caffeine headaches". Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset and not drinking coffee in the morning leads many to believe that they are having a caffeine headache. Is this possible? More...

It's that time of year again! Ramadan begins in less than a week. It's a great time to start good habits and stop bad ones.

While Ramadan is designed to be a month of empathy, caring, compassion, humility, piety, and many other things, it's also a great time of year to make changes. This is the month of fasting, wherein Muslims are required to fast during the daylight hours. No food, no drink, no smoke, no chewing gum, no form of oral sustenance whatsoever. Basically, you are NPO while the sun is up. The point of this month is to be able to empathize with those who are less fortunate and gain some humblitude.

But sustenance isn't the only thing you are supposed to avoid. You are also supposed to be a better human being, be kind, don't lie, cheat, steal, be more generous, and be a better person overall.

For these reasons and many others, Ramadan is a great time to do "New Year's Resolutions". I always tell Muslim friends and patients that this is the time to quit smoking, adopt a new diet regimen, make other lifestyle changes, avoid saturated fat, eat more fruits and vegetables, and so on and so forth. Ramadan is perfect in that regard. It's great for stopping bad habits.

Ramadan is also great for starting new good habits. Become more generous, donate to local food shelters, start a new diet for life (like the Alo Diet http://www.AloDiet.com), begin a nightly exercise routine, pray more, get closer to God, help a friend in need, become more humble, donate a skill you know, give a talk at a local grade school, see patients for free at a local clinic, do more "family" stuff, plant a tree, etc, etc. You get the picture.... BE A BETTER PERSON!

Let's all make a commitment to maximizing this Ramadan and making the world around us a better place!

Enjoy this Ramadan!

(stay tuned on a follow up post regard medical research that has been conducted on people who fast during Ramadan)

One of the best features of Windows 7 that most people don't realize or use is the ability to find anything on your computer with the tap of a button.

Want to find the "Windows Update" program?

Just press the Windows key (near Alt key), and start typing, "U-P-D..." it will find anything that has those letters in it, and put them in order of the most commonly used. It will search program names, emails, documents (titles of documents as well as text in them), files, media, music, image tags and keywords (if you added any)... just about everything. More...

An amazing artist and carpenter made this custom set of Denver Broncos cornhole for me. He does all kinds of custom work. Let me know if you are interested! More...

After getting us all excited, our dreams were dashed.

What happens now?

How do we lose to Ghana? How do we get down in every game, then end up with a tie or a win? Why do we put ourselves in such a hole then have to climb out? How many times in a row can you climb out? More...

A lot of hefty predictions are going around about what this goal means for US soccer. Some are predicting a new era of soccer dominance by the US. Some are predicting soccer to flourish throughout the United States. Some are predicting a huge following now, unlike one we've seen before. All I know is that the entire country was on pins and needles biting their fingernails as time was about to expire... then exploded in cheering and screaming and hugging and high-fiving random people! Doesn't that say enough? More...

No, you do not need to exercise to lose weight. It's true. You can lose almost all the weight you want just by changing your eating habits. The vast majority of people can get to with 10-15% of their desired weight with diet alone.

Too often physicians tell patients, "Diet AND exercise." We hear this all the time. Diet AND exercise. The fact of the matter is, that diet alone is usually enough to achieve very significant weight loss. More...

The Health Care Reform bill finally passed congress. It is awaiting a few edits from Senate, and will likely be signed into law.

There is a lot of opposition by "Republicans" or people who claim to be Republican. There is a lot of opposition from physicians who don't understand this bill. Unfortunately, a lot of this is unfounded, based on towing the party line, and misconstrued information.

I am a Republican and I am a physician! More...

A while back we were discharging a patient from the hospital and gave her prescriptions for all of her medications. One of her prescriptions was for Crestor (the most powerful cholesterol lowering medication). The nurse calls me and says that the patient would like to ask me a few questions before she leaves.

"Doctor, I'm allergic to Crestor. Can I take something else."

"Maam, how do you know you are allergic?"

More...