I love my tablet PC and MS OneNote. And I know there are other programs out there that will do the same in other OS's. I am in my 2nd year of med school and each of our lectures typically comes with a PowerPoint or PDF. I download it, print it to OneNote and then take notes directly on the instructor's presentation. I can draw, type and highlight. It is by far the best combination of writing/drawing/notetaking that I have ever used. Furthermore, it allows me to organize by course, exam and lecture. It is really rather keen.

The house across the street...

Clotting depends on a lot of factors. Some of which include the various cytokines that are released whenever there is tissue damage. These released cytokines can jump start the clotting process, whether in the vessel or on your skin surface. Another factor, as you mentioned, is stasis. This is the source of clots and chronic wounds, we call these 'venous stasis ulcers,' they are very hard to get to heal. You can see this in advanced stages of type two diabetes (what we used to call 'adult onset' diabetes). No, I am not a doctor, but as a 2nd year med student I often get graded on pretending to be a doctor in the sim lab...

The property of the elasticity of the vessels has much more to do with the constituents of its wall and less to do with the pulse. In fact, all of the arterial vessels (and even a few of the venous ones) have muscle fibers in them and are affected by various endogenous and exogenous forces. Parasympathetic innervation tends to constrict the vessels in certain places and dilate in others (the gut), sympathetic innervation tightens it up in many places (the gut) and dilates them in others (skeletal muscles). I am not a doctor, but as a 2nd year med student, I often pretend to be one.

Also won't work if the patient has Raynaud's.

Ha ha! I used to be a Java programmer. Now I am a 2nd year med student. The systems! The problems! The differentials! I used to think that programming was the best kind of work because I love problem solving. But that got boring for a lot of reasons and I found out I'm not really a great programmer. It just isn't that important. I was a lowly bit pusher! I had to have a story! I had to have excitement! I needed to be challenged! So I got my pre-meds, took the MCAT and applied (twice) and now I'm learning tons. Being challenged everyday. Working towards making it better for all sorts of people from all sorts of backgrounds. It is awesome. If you are in a rut, go volunteer at your local emergency room for a few hours a week for a year. When I did that, for about 18 months at a county safety-net hospital (no insurance, court ordered and prisoners, as well as those with insurance, all were welcome) in the emergency department. It was a different and invaluable kind of education and it really opened my eyes to how little I really knew about the human condition, at least for the poor and destitute from my city. I still know very little, but at least I know about my ignorance. And the crazy stories! Ha! I loved it. I miss volunteering there, but now I don't have time, and this time next year, I will be doing my rotations and clerkships, so I'll be back in the clinics, ERs and surgery rooms, learning by doing and helping people get better. Making a difference.

My favorite was always live-fire military games, personally. Nothing says RTS like leading a squad of Marines out on a combat recon patrol, loaded for bear and looking for to make mayhem.

"Freedom is not free, but the U.S. Marine Corps will pay most of your share." - Ned Dolan

I started out as a phone rep on the floor of a credit collection department. Because I liked to build computers and was interested in programming, I began building a relationship with the LAN team/help desk. I got a certification, then applied for an open position. I enjoyed it but it left me wanting more than unjamming stuff and rebooting computers for clueless users. Even though I didn't mind the work (I don't stress out very easily) I knew I could go further. I began taking programming classes and began proactively taking on scripting tasks and small programming assignments to make my job and the jobs of those around me a lot easier. I jumped at every chance to learn something new, even if it wasn't fun or interesting. I was always eager to learn. When the opportunity opened up to become an intern programmer, I applied and was accepted. Meanwhile, I got an associates in software engineering and began taking classes to complete a B.S. in comp sci. At this point, I realized I would never move up as fast as I wanted to with that company so I bailed and took a similar (lateral move) position with G.E. as a web developer. I began taking classes in web development, earned 2 of the 4 Java certs that were available at the time and finished my degree. Then they laid me off! Eight days before Christmas when we were expecting our 3rd child only a month later! Turns out, it was the best thing to happen. Forty-five days later I was offered a job in another state with a generous move bonus and a slight raise. Thirteen months later I moved yet again to another company. It was then that I realized I didn't really like computers so I took some pre-med classes, volunteered at a local emergency room (on Friday nights until midnight and sometimes later, the stories I could tell!!) and took the MCAT (3 times). Now I am between my 1st and 2nd year in med school and I love it. I would never have thought I would be a physician, especially not at nearly 40 years old with 4 kids and a big mortgage, but everything is working out. Here are the points of my rather long story:
1) work hard and learn continually
2) always look for a better situation and be prepared to get out of your comfort zone to obtain it
3) be receptive to new experiences in different areas that might later bear fruit
4) work hard and learn continually.

I know! When you are as old as I am, you really want to find new stuff to fight the boredom. These days, hardly anything works, plus I seem to be making more typos than I used to. The price of getting really old, I guess...

That's it! I quit! I will never play D & D again! Oh wait, I haven't played since I was 1986. yawns and moves on

...and nuke the place from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.