Now you see it.....now you don't

Today, I had a big task at work, to clear my electronic data from my computer. I wrote about this last week and today was the day that I had to move all my electronic files, folders etc. Where do you start, I have endless number of documents, lots of drafts and final documents, some duplication and some just back up files. Some I worked on long time ago and some are as recent as last week. I had lots of things already organised in big folders (yes, I am not totally hopeless) but I still felt overwhelmed by the task at hand.


So, I decided to do this in a tidy and organised fashion (OK, OK, no need to laugh) I decided to do it the quick way. I created a new folder and called "work old PC" and then moved everything to it, just as they are. 'I will look into them later' I told myself. The files were so big and took a long time to be transferred to my external drive but it was done at the end. Then with one click I deleted the folder from the main computer after it was transferred. Just like that, one click, one button and it was all gone. More than 8 years of work, research and teaching just gone from the PC, as if I was never there. All you can see on the old PC was my log in name.

There is a book on Amazon called "Now you see it, now you don't: lessons in sleight of hand" by Bill Tarr. Shows you how to do magic tricks and when I deleted the files it felt like that, a magic wand that cleared everything. Then I thought, what if we can do that in real life. Just one click and the problem is gone, one button and 'done' pain deleted. But if we can do that, then we have to be able to run the risk of deleting the good things by mistake or accident. I don't really fancy backing up my relationship in 3 different ways like I do with my documents in case they get lost. I am confident in the love, support and friendships that I have and am sure they can not be lost by mistake, or with a click of a button. As much as I would like for the bad things to be taken away, I know that God in his wisdom is writing the story of my life, weaving it all, dark colours and bright ones, all together to make a wonderful complete picture.

Enjoy life with all its ups and down, no back up and no system crashes, invest in what matters as when it is all said and done only two things remain, your faith and your relationships.

Science or what?

The buzz words in medicine at the moment are about "evidence based" and "controlled studies", we need to prove everything and research everything in a "controlled" way, to the extent of this paper here on the effectiveness of parachute in preventing death. Here is the summery of the paper, you can read the full paper on the BMJ.


BMJ 2003;327:1459-1461 (20 December), doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7429.1459

Hazardous journey

Parachute use to prevent death and major trauma related to gravitational challenge: systematic review of randomised controlled trials Gordon C S Smith, professor1, Jill P Pell, consultant2

1 Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Cambridge University, Cambridge CB2 2QQ, 2 Department of Public Health, Greater Glasgow NHS Board, Glasgow G3 8YU

Correspondence to: G C S Smith gcss2@cam.ac.uk


Abstract
Objectives To determine whether parachutes are effective in preventing major trauma related to gravitational challenge.

Design Systematic review of randomised controlled trials.

Data sources: Medline, Web of Science, Embase, and the Cochrane Library databases; appropriate internet sites and citation lists.

Study selection: Studies showing the effects of using a parachute during free fall.

Main outcome measure Death or major trauma, defined as an injury severity score > 15.

Results We were unable to identify any randomised controlled trials of parachute intervention.

Conclusions As with many interventions intended to prevent ill health, the effectiveness of parachutes has not been subjected to rigorous evaluation by using randomised controlled trials. Advocates of evidence based medicine have criticised the adoption of interventions evaluated by using only observational data. We think that everyone might benefit if the most radical protagonists of evidence based medicine organised and participated in a double blind, randomised, placebo controlled, crossover trial of the parachute

Passed my PhD !

So..here we are, another day, another entry, but what a day it has been. after a 3 hours of siting in a hot office to defend my work, i was awarded my PhD degree. WOW. it is an amazing feeling and i do not think it has sunk in yet that i have actually passed. As i said before, it has been quite a journey. Through it all i was blessed with family and friends who were tremendous support, their prayers and confidence in me helped me tremendously to live through it all. However, science and degrees only inflate egos, but only God can fulfil to the maximum and as i prepare to celebrate this wonderful blessing (and sure it will be a big celebration) i only remember that without God we are nothing and without people that you celebrate with, success does not mean a lot.