FILIPINO GRADUATE INTERN PHARMACIST experience (AFTER FPGEE BEFORE NAPLEX)

Hi everyone, it has been a while since I last blogged.
It’s just a month to go then I will be completing my internship hours. I know that after passing the FPGEE and TOEFL this is another obstacle since the recession made it difficult for foreign grads to find internship position in the location most accessible to them.
It has been a great experience overall since the practice of pharmacy in Philippines is totally different. Pharmacist here are called “doc,dr” and they do deserve it, they know not just the drug but they can even diagnose which I did not know how after graduating from a pharm school. Maybe I do but not as in depth from what they studied here but it can be learned through books, reading and experience. It is a plus factor being a doctor of medicine of course but I know if I did not pursue graduate school it is not impossible to pass FPGEE but it will just take more effort and patience.
Anyways, I worked with clerk and technician in an independent pharmacy and mostly we handle derma prescription since we are next to dermatologist. It is not as busy as the big chain so I was able to learn everybody’s task, which is good so that if you don’t have the tech or clerks you still know how to manage on your own. It is a whole new experience for me answering a call, dealing with the customers, greeting everyone “Hi , How are you, How may I help you, Thank you and Have a good day”……. we did not have these in Philippines. I do not remember going to pharmacy being greeted like this well hindi lang siguro ako sanay since when I got here I have to get accustomed to that not just in pharmacy but in any establishment here. Being able to compound some RX is nice too since not a lot does that. What I had difficulty with at the beginning is running the computer, there are commands that you have to know so you can transmit to the insurance. Wala din insurance sa Phi to transmit the prescription bills, mostly its cash in Phi. Well in the end I guess in any field thats why there is such a thing called internship is for us to get used to the ways and system so that it will be easier to troubleshoot and work when we become full-pledge professionals.
I know everybody has different experiences, good or bad share it here so that others can learn from it and expect these things to come.

Sony PSP Go

My mother-in-law bought me a PSP Go for Christmas, thanks Mommy! I’ve had for almost a month now. So far it’s great. But first, let me just say that I came from a PSP 2000. I love the console but I didn’t play it as much so I sold it last year. Now the PSP Go comes out and I started to miss my PSP. I had a choice between the PSP 3000 or the Go. So I spent a few days to weeks trying to figure out which to get. I heard both sides and I have my reasons.

Here are the reasons not to get the PSP Go and some notes as to why I still went with the PSP Go.

1. More expensive. (It’s free for me since it’s a gift.)
2. Can’t sell downloaded games when you’re done with them as oppose to old UMD games. (I never sold any of my UMDs either even after I was done with them.)
3. Not all games are available for download. (I’m more of a classic guy. I like playing older titles.)
4. New games aren’t available the same day as UMD versions are released. (As I stated above, the new titles aren’t such a big deal to me. I have a PS3, Wii, 360, iPhone, Google OS phone – so the PSP won’t be my primary gaming console let alone the only portable gaming console I have.)
5. Frequent deals on UMD version games versus the downloaded games. (See #4 and I’m a patient person.)
6. The controls are awkwardly placed. (As with any new console, we all have to get used to the newly shaped controller. You can also use the “claw” position when playing the PSP.)
7. Smaller screen size. (No big deal for me.)
8. 802.11 B only. (I know it doesn’t support at least G or N, I doubt the PSP can process that big of information even if it did. Also, Sony’s servers are slow most of the times, even if it had the capability of 54mbps, I doubt you’ll be downloading at that speed anyway.)

Here are reasons why I like the PSP Go over the old series.

1. Smaller. It’s more portable and fits easier in my pockets.
2. Lighter. Not that much lighter, but lighter.
3. Downloaded content. I hated UMDs. I hated carrying them around. I’ve lost too many in the past. With downloaded content, I don’t have to worry about losing games. I can re-download them.
4. Bluetooth. You can connect headsets and the PS3 controller.
5. Pause a game any time. This feature is great. I can pause a game any time without having to look for a saving point. Of course you can only do this one game at a time.
6. 16GB internal memory. It’s plenty to begin with. I’ve downloaded a few games and demos and still have 10GB of space left.

Other things I noticed.

• It took a little over 2 hours to download God of War (1.3GB) and 34 minutes to install. If you have a PS3, use it to download the content and extract – it is so much faster.
• Downloading content from PSN is noticeably slow whether on my PS3 or PSP.
• There is no L2 or R2 buttons on the PSP. You may run into problems with PS1/2 games such as Twisted Metal and the Street Fighter Alpha series – they use L2 and R2 buttons. You may have to reassign them.
• When connected to OS X, it mounts as if it’s an external storage device. Transferring data shouldn’t be a problem. No official software from Sony is available if you want to use your Mac and download from the PSN website (of course).

So far I like it. Many others don’t like it but for what I need and use it for, it fits me just fine. Here are a few pics next to the old PSP.

Compaq Mini 110C-1100DX and 1105DX netbook

I just picked up 2 Compaq netbooks from Best Buy. It was part of their black Friday special. Because I’m a premiere reward zone card holder, I was able to get their door buster deals on Monday, 4 days before the deal and was able to call them to place the order. I really didn’t need the 1105DX model but I was limited to one per so I had to get the higher one.

I bought 2, one for me and one for my mother-in-law as her Christmas gift. Both netbooks are fairly the same. The 2 differences I see is one comes with Windows XP Home and 160 GB hard drive (110C-1100DX). The other Windows 7 Starter and 250 GB hard drive (110C-1105DX).

Here are some pics I took. I have them next to an Asus EEEPC 900A (8.9″) netbook and Macbook Pro 13″ to get a size comparison.

Overall, the netbooks are great. I’m replacing my Asus 900A with this one. I just needed a bigger keyboard and hard drive space with a web cam. Here are a couple of things to watch out for.

• Make sure you figure out a plan for restoring the netbook if something happens. These do not come with restore CDs. You can buy them from HP for around $16. Even then, netbooks don’t come with CD/DVD rom drives so you may have to use an external USB CD/DVD drive.
• There is no hidden partition that contains the restore data for the 110C-1100DX. There is a restore program installed by Roxio. What the program does is creates an image file (proprietary) that can be used to restore your netbook. It is not the usual restoring of only the OS and default programs from day 1 (unless this is the first thing you do after the first boot). You can use a memory card or USB external drive. Unfortunately, it requires a format of the device – unlike Time Machine (OS X) where it can use an existing hard drive or memory card and doesn’t require it to be formatted. Kinda a bummer there. There is also a program that you need to download (SP42226) which will format a memory card to make it bootable and allow you to restore an image created by the Roxio program in case you cannot boot into Windows. Don’t bother searching for it outside HP’s forum. At the time I wrote this, it can’t be found. I’ll save you the trouble – http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareDownloadIndex?softwareitem=ob-72722-1&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&product=3943766&os=228&lang=en. It’s 184MB. It’s a wonder why it wasn’t included with the default HP programs. You will need a memory card that has at least 2GB and it will format it so make sure you don’t have anything on there.
• There is a partition that will restore the 110C-1105DX. There is a program that can create a restore CD but again, netbooks don’t have CD/DVD drives so you will get an error that it doesn’t detect one. You can use another program to create one using memory cards. The program will tell you that it needs at least 8GB. Another tip, get a 16GB. After it created one for me, it ended up close to 12GB.
• The F and J keys have the usual “bumps” that let you know you’re on the home row keys. To me they aren’t as obvious as the keyboards I use. They could have been raised a little higher.
• There is only 1 memory slot. It’s using 1GB DDR2 PC6400 and according to HP it isn’t upgradeable. I have read people already have upgraded to memory to 2GB but you must use DDR2 PC5300. I haven’t upgraded it yet but am planning on doing so.

Aside from the list above, they are great netbooks. It’s my second netbook. If it’s going to be your first, get used to not having a CD/DVD drive, smaller keyboard, and installing things via memory card or internet. Also, they feel sturdier than my Asus 900A netbook.

TOEFL FOR FOREIGN GRADUATE PHARMACIST

I sit in for the TOEFL iBT last May 30, 2008 in Ontario, CA. This is my first attempt for the test and I was very anxious since the requirement for the National Pharmacy Board is too high in some areas for instance in a scale of 30 we need 26 for the speaking which is around 89%. This has been the waterloo of most pharmacist intern. Thankfully, I was able to meet all the requirements and I will be able to start to work as an intern already. There are several materials that I used for this exam. I wouldn’t personally recommend it for everybody because that is just how I react when I am stressed. Books are my security blanket. To mention some of what I have are Barrons 12 ed. TOEFL iBT this is helpful as a practice test, Princeton’s TOEFL iBT is more of techniques which I will highly recommend, another is the ets official guide since it is from the test takers themselves this is good view of what is to be expected for the test, and Longmans speaking guide focused more on the speaking section. Although I have this books, I never had a chance to read everything. Well not because of time constraints, it was more of I am lazy to do so. I had two months to prepare for the test but in most days I would only put 2-4 hours a day, I think 3 weeks of 8 hours study would be enough to prepare for this test. The reason why I had two months is because that was the only date available in our location. There are a lot of people taking the test so depending on the area one should schedule the test months ahead. Also, I studied how to type faster since in our country in the Philippines we didn’t have this subject to improve our skill. It is important to learn this since for the writing section the time is limited, it is already hard enough to compose an essay that is why it would be an advantage to learn how to type faster. I underestimated the reading section, that is why after my exam that is the area that I was worried the most. During the practice test, I would often get a high score and I would even have spare time after each passage. This was totally different during the actual test. In the reading section, since this was the first area of test there were a lot of distraction since some of the test takers are just being seated and they are making noise as they test their microphone. This should be taken into consideration since I would often practice in a quiet environment. Listening part is the easiest and the dreaded Speaking part is easy if you did practice a lot by recording your answer so you can keep playing it back and improving your response.
For all those taking this test, just practice a lot and put a lot prayers cause that always makes a difference and it has always been the key for me.

iPhone 3G tethering with MyWi

I recently jailbroke my iPhone 3G running OS 3.1.2. Then I installed MyWi to check out the tethering capabilities for the iPhone. With this app you can tether using USB, bluetooth and wifi.

Here is the speed test results.

The latency is pretty high but the connection seems consistent. I used to run a Verizon V740 internet card and was getting higher speeds – close to 2x faster download. I’m also getting a full signal on AT&T 3G – surprisingly.

Anyways, my Verizon contract is up and I terminated the service. I hardly found use for it. With MyWi, $10 seems like a good deal. Hopefully, AT&T doesn’t pull a “switch” to somehow disable this app.