Doctor Numbers

Flying home today and I still keep thinking about the intercom call for a doctor that happened on our flight down. It seems like such a strange policy. And for sure it is some type of policy because airlines have procedures for everything. I decided I wanted to look at the numbers:

Cooling My Feminist Jets
So, I had been very happy/surprised that it was a female doctor answering the call. Turns out, not that rare. There is probably still a wage gap, and possibly still a 'senior position' gap, but the gender gap for Canadian doctors has shrunk considerably. 41% are female; 59% are male. Two thirds (64%) of family physicians under age 35 are female.

What About Specialists
Almost half of the over 83,000 Canadian doctors are specialists of other disciples, instead of Family Medicine. Students in medical school in Canada will experience many fields of medicine and decide on their specialty during 3rd or 4th year. After that choice, residency training can be anywhere from 2 years (Family Medicine) to 6 years (Neurosurgery). Most specialties are a 5 year program. So they have the medical base, but a specialist can really be pretty specialized, and there are 37 specialties available in Canada. Would a urologist be that much help to someone who fainted in a plane?

Seems Like A Long Shot
Based on the total population of Canada there is only about 1 doctor for every 500 people. The plane we were in seats 100. That is a 0.2% chance there would be a doctor on board. When looking at people who fly, mainly those who can afford to fly, than doctors would be more likely to be on board a plane while the general population less so - this increases the chance. Often planes would be larger than the jet we were one, increasing the passengers to maybe 200. Huge planes can have more than 600 seats (in a two-tiered class configuration. Actually 800 in single-class, but I have never seen that.) I still don't like the odds, or many I don't like the fact that they are relying on odds.

Improve Your Odds
If they had asked "Is there a doctor or nurse on board" that would really improve the chances of a generally trained health care professional. There are lots of different types of nurses, including those in advance nursing practice, like nurse practitioners and clinical nurse specialists. There are 4 times as many nurses as doctors in Canada.

Source information:
Look at me citing things like a good girl who went to university and grad school!
- Canadian Institute For Health Information
- The Canadian Medical Association
- University of British Columbia Medical School
- AirBus Corporate Site, Aviation Blogs

Further Reading:
I am like my own Wikipedia article here. If you found this as fascinating as me, the likelihood of that might be small, then these are some interesting international articles on the same topic:
- July 2017 - ABC News (Australia) - Is there a doctor on board? What happens during a mid-air medical emergency
- March 2017 - The Telegraph (UK) - What really happens during a medical emergency at 35,000 feet
- January 2017 - Singapore Medical Journal - What to do during inflight medical emergencies? Practice pointers from a medical ethicist and an aviation medicine specialist
- April 2013 - Quartz (USA) - What it’s like to be the “doctor on board”, and why airlines shouldn’t be relying on them

Hole In The Soul

I have been feeling a bit empty lately and I realize that it is because I haven't made or 'created' anything in a while. My mind is filled with timelines, organizational details, and budgets/prices for work, Casa Verde, travel, family and more. These leaves me feeling productive but hollow. I know that I am good at keeping track of these types of details. I analyse data well, much better than any creative skill I might have. But the data isn't enough, I need to be creative.

I thought that Casa Verde projects would fill that void. Fun little DIY upgrades like our 'fake crown molding' are really enjoyable, especially as they tend to take a fair amount of problem solving to recreate in our space. However, at the same time it often just feels like I am following instructions, just going step by step and not being really creative.

Hopefully I will get a chance to be artistic soon, but the opportunities seem more limited now for some reason. Maybe just getting back to writing will be enough.

Quiz - Distance Dispute

I don't know if you noticed from the previous posts but Jason and I had different answers for the question about the furthest we have traveled together. He said Peru and I said Paris. He was pretty confident that Peru was further, I didn't really know but felt like going over an ocean seemed like a bigger deal. But we both love facts and statistics and numbers, so Jason looked it up.

So, as the crow flies, in a straight line from one city to the other, using a Distance Calculator, we got the following answers:
- Toronto to Cusco: 6,410 km
- Toronto to Paris: 6,007 km
Jason was right but the difference is pretty close!

How Does A Rebel Get Anything Done?

I love classifying things, including people. (Remember THIS joke?) Lately I have been thinking about the four personality types presented by Gretchen Rubin in her latest book: Upholder, Questioner, Obliger, and Rebel. I particularly like that there is a corresponding Venn diagram and that the types exist on a simple x-y axis.

The classification is in regards to how someone responds to rules, both those set by others and those set internally. Rubin starts to outline her theory in THIS blog post. Her definition of rules or expectations is very broad: Looking at people's response to outer rules, like laws, traffic signs, work deadlines, requests from friends, doctors' advice, and their response to inner rules, like personal resolutions, goals for self-improvement, or working on a self-generated project. Luckily she put together a QUIZ to help determine which type you might be - I didn't even have to take it to know that I am a Questioner. (I have to understand the reasoning behind an expectation, and agree with it, before I follow along.)

What confuses me though is how does the Rebel type get anything done? Basically as soon as something is a rule or expectation they become repulsed by it. Rubin does suggest that it is the smallest category. What are you?

History In A Dot

I was shown a really cool website at work. It has won a lot of design awards and I can see why! Pulling articles from wikipedia the designer has created an interactive timeline that spans across 14 billion years of history. It is a beautiful way to represent data and allows you to scroll though based on time or subject.

View the website here: Histography.

It was made by a designer/developer Matan Stauber.

Damn You Bob Barker

The house next door sold this week. We saw the SOLD sign go up and immediately started guessing what it had gone for. We knew that it had been listed sometime in May at $599,900. Jason was pretty sure that it been sold for around $575,000 since it was priced quite high and hadn't sold right away.

I didn't think our neighbours were in a rush to sell so would wait to get something close to what they had listed as asking. We made a bet with "Price Is Right Rules" and I decided that the buyers would need to have offered at least $585,000 to get the house, any lower than that would be too big of a discount off of the list price.

We get a daily email that provides all the GTA real estate sold data. It is interesting to keep on top of the market and also the houses have all sold so there is not hoping and falling in love with options, just research. When the listing update came through on the house next door it confirmed that it had sat on the market for a long time (by Toronto standards.) They didn't put a sign in their yard right away but it was officially for sale for 29 days. It sold for $584,000.

So Jason won, even though I feel like I was right, the annoying Bob Barker technicality that helps eliminate closest-to comparison math - screwed me.

Welcome Aiden

Last month, a day before my own birthday, Ava became a big sister! Her new brother, Aiden, also has the best birth announcement / newborn photo that I have ever seen. It is basically a baby infographic (and I love me some visual representations of data.) Contrats to James and Mike - all my love!!

The only thing is that I can't tell from the picture if he was born at quarter after five in the morning or evening.

Closer To 3 But Still Sad

The above image (from Facebook) is amusing, in a sad way. If you're Canadian, than you know that our dollar is doing very poorly in comparison to the American. It isn't actually at 25 cents, current exchange rates are closer to 70. However, has been declining for a while now, check out the chart for the last 5 years:

This has really hit me hard when it comes to travel. Teri and my road trip this past summer ended up costing much more anticipated, mainly because the dollar had fallen significantly from when we starting looking and booking things. The same thing happened with Jason and I in Chicago. I love to travel and I really like visiting places in The States, but I don't know how much longer I will be able to do so in an affordable fashion.

Feminist Friday - Wage Gap

It seems unbelievable that that the Gender Wage Gap exists. As in, I actually have a hard time believing the science. I don't understand how it can happen. I expect women to trend lower pay from choosing careers that pay less or due to maternity leave absences. However, even when statistics are adjusted for these variables it still shows up.

Article from Forbes

The Awful Truth Behind The Gender Pay Gap

It makes me wonder if it has been some unseen force in my life. I have occasionally felt underpaid, but never because I was a girl - usually due to the company I was working for, the stage I was at in my career, that not-for-profits involve some sacrifice in pay, my skill-set and industries of preference are undervalued, etc. Never because of my gender.

However, maybe I wouldn't see it, I have never been somewhere that had lots of people doing the same job as me, the statistics have never represented a male that is physically sitting beside me and getting paid more. It feels like an issue that exists only on paper and it infuriates me that these numbers keep showing up in black and white - reflecting quiet biases back to us. It so unfair that it is unfathomable. But it also seems so abstract that it is hard to believe.

Seriously, how does it even happen? I just want this issue to go away, I know it won't fix itself but I don't really know what can be done to change it. (Besides making it illegal, but isn't it already under discrimination laws?) Someone needs to fix this.

Math Makes Her Sleepy

Teri is really great about texting and emailing me photos of Two when she stays in Oakville. Here is another photo from this recent sleepover:

I'm Trying To Mark

Photo by Teri

Happy Belated Birthday to Teri!

Teri's birthday was yesterday, though we celebrated on Sunday with another Escape Room. We were supposed to all go out for dinner but I went home to bed because I was too hungover. The Escape Room was a bit different than other ones I have done, there were about 20 teams (of 6 people) all doing it at the same time. Only 3 of us escaped and I believe we were the first ones. Maybe I am better at this type of stuff when I am hung over? Actually I think it is just a very smart, and fairly balanced group. Having K's math skills helped a lot too.

The Dream Team Of Escaping!

Matt, Greg, Teri, Jason, Me, and K in the front

Escape from the Cursed Forest, Sept 13, 2015

I am pretty bad at remembering birthdays. As friends for well over 20 years now, Teri is one of the few birthdays I actually know, though when the time comes I am not that on top of it. Found this quote on Twitter and I feel like it applies, "Your secrets are safe with me because I literally won't remember them. This also applies to your birthday. Your birthdays are safe with me."

A-cute Angle

-----------from Facebook (found by Jenn)

Travel Diary - Friday August 7, 2015

Date: Friday August 7, 2015
Theme/Title: California Girls
Overview: I woke up early to go to a free yoga class offered at the hotel - there were just two of us and it was very enjoyable. We had breakfast at the healthy cafe next to the hotel. Teri and I drove to La Jolla for a kayaking tour we had booked online. It had been cheaper to get a double kayak instead of two individual ones, so Teri and I shared. I was in the back 'steering' since I am heaver. Our tour featured the 7 Caves and the guides were amazing, we learnt a lot about the local culture, history, geology, and marine life. We even saw Dr. Seuss' house. The kayaks fit in the last of the seven caves and the guides took us in a few at a time. There were so many sea lions!! They were jumping in and out of the water, rolling around, playing everywhere, even really close to people swimming and snorkeling nearby - we were so close I was scared of accidentally hitting one with my paddle. Unlike elephant seals, the California Sea Lion is small and super cute. On our way back to shore, Ter and I tipped in the shallows from the waves. Besides getting ourselves soaked, Teri's SLR also got wet but luckily the case kept it dry enough. Ter and I had both assumed that the kayaks would be the covered type but they were not. I got a terrible burn on my shins since I skipped the sunscreen there, assuming my legs would be tucked under plastic. After the tour we spent the rest of the afternoon lying on the beach. Teri helped me with math problems from my GMAT book and we read - it was so sunny, warm, and beautiful. In the early evening we drove for a bit around the shoreline looking for seals but didn't see any. We went to the Old Town for dinner and had Mexican again. Back at the hotel we finished the Scientology documentary before bed.
Woke-up: 8:30am for free yoga at The Sofia Hotel
Transportation/Distance: 2 hours kayaking. Minimal driving.
Meals: The Power Bowl from Tender Greens. Frozen yogurt on the beach. Burrito at Los Locos in Old Town.
Highlight of the Day: Seeing the sea lions was so much fun!
Lesson Learnt: That the 'J' in La Jolla is pronounced as an 'H' and the double 'L' is a 'Y' sound. So instead of La Jolla it is pronounced La Hoy-a.
Quote of the Day: Me (driving) to Teri (navigating) "Oh, so Juan like J-U-A-N? Yeah, we have passed that street like 5 times. Sorry I had been looking for W-A-N-D. When I kept seeing J-U-A-N, I thought that was Jew-An Street. Grrrr, Spanish."
Night's Accommodation: The Sofia Hotel, San Diego

A Solid Score

I did a GMAT prep test this weekend. I would like to get an MBA at some point but am not in any rush because of the time, work, and cost involved. However, both Maria and Natasha are planning on writing the GMAT this summer to apply for their Business Masters. I figured it would be nice to have some company when studying and the scores last for 5 years. The fake test helps give a sense of my starting point - I went in pretty much blind. I knew what type of questions to expect but hadn't studied at all.

My score was 620, which is pretty decent. This is in the 69th percentile. With just that score I would have no issue getting into most of the Canadian schools. However, it isn't quite high enough for the elite programs and it isn't good enough for scholarship options, which I will need because an MBA is expensive. Here is what the test is like and how my score broke down:

Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA) - 30 Minutes - 1 Topic
Scored out of 6, not scored on the practice test.
This is an essay.

Integrated Reasoning (IR) - 30 Minutes - 12 Questions
Scored: 4/8
Percentile: 37
Types of questions: Multi-Source Reasoning, Graphics Interpretation, Two-Part Analysis, Table Analysis

Quantitative - 75 Minutes - 37 Questions
Scored: 36/60
Percentile: 40
Types of questions: Data Sufficiency, Problem Solving

Verbal - 75 Minutes - 41 Questions
Scored: 40/60
Percentile: 90
Types of questions: Reading Comprehension, Critical Reasoning, Sentence Correction

I know that I can do much better on the Quantitative (or Math) section. I knew how to figure out pretty much all of the problems but without studying, I didn't have the tools needed (like the formula for the area of a circle, or different shortcuts you can make with exponent equations). I am glad that I will be able to improve this because the main score is out of 800 and is calculated only from the last two sections. The IR is really really hard. I don't know if they send that score separately and if they do how much it matters to admissions.

Dad

Sunday Mornin' Coming Down - A post about my Dad each Sunday, named after a song that he loved.

A nighthawk and a social butterfly.
Mental numbers focused on prices.
Sailing, squash, bikes, and Wi Tennis or Golf.
Mama's boy, baby brother, posthumous grandfather.
Suits, old tank tops, sandals with socks.
Loving and kind - an amazing guy.

Soon!

Teri and I have started to book things again for our trip this summer. (We booked our flights a while
ago.) It is going to be an amazing two weeks, mid-summer, for a road trip down the west coast of the USA. We will spend time with Monica in Seattle, visit Portland, meet up with Jason and Greg in San Francisco for the long weekend, and hang out on beaches down near San Diego. I put a countdown on my phone this morning. However, right after the took the screenshot (see Right) I double checked and we actually don't fly out until Sunday morning, June 26 so the counter has been updated to reflect that. 47 DAYS! We are doing most of our planning on a Google Docs spreadsheet, Greg made it for us and I love it! Travel planning is almost as fun as the travel itself.

36 Hours Of Stress

Sorry that I haven't posted in a while. Jason and my lives were thrown into chaos midday Sunday for about 36 hours of pure stress and craziness. Admittedly, this was self inflicted.

We stumbled across a beautiful loft condo for sale near my work and started to think very seriously about buying it. So seriously in fact that we decided to put an offer on it. Just as we stumbled upon the place itself, we also fell fast, head first, into the intense real estate world of the Toronto housing/condo market.

There was an offer deadline of Monday night, in preparation for multiple offers on the place. By Monday night, 13 had been submitted. The loft was listed for $449,999 and sold for $581,000 (our offer was much lower than that.)

Overall, it was an overwhelming and terrifying experience. Jason and I were very lucky to have the support of friends and family, many of whom shared their skills/knowledge with us. The encouragement was appreciated.

We are going to spend time now just researching and learning more about the market. I am keeping half and eye on lofts but we are pretty sure that we would like to have a detached or semi-detached home. A house is an even scarier endeavor and we intend to wait until we feel more financially secure and knowledgeable.

Picking It Up

I noticed from the Archives section in the right side bar of Always Standing that I have only done 8 posts for April, and it is already the 14th! I don't want to fail at my goal of posting everyday for the third year in a row.

It looks like I did more than enough in February but not enough in January or March. I know this because I use my knuckles to determine how many days in each of the months. The song does not work!

Thirty days has September, April, June, and November, when short February's done, all the rest have thirty-one.

The thing is, the song trick relies on the rhyming between September and November, but any of the last four months of the year would fit that rhyming scheme, so I never know which ones to put in. Also, the April, June part works with any one-syllable month, which March and May are as well. The song sucks - knuckles are the way to go!

Great Math Joke!

-------------------- from Facebook

Dear Algebra,

Stop asking us to find your X
She`s not coming back

We don`t know Y either

Slow On The Uptake

---------- from Facebook

A Little Intelligence Test
(See comments for my response.)

6   + 4 = 210
9   + 2 = 711
8   + 5 = 313
5   + 2 = 37
7   + 6 = 113
9   + 8 = 117
10 + 6 = 416
15 + 3 = 1218