It’s no different than hitting Starbucks every day. That’s usually what you hear when the talk turns to concierge medicine. Paying for concierge medicine involves nothing more than giving up your daily latte, and it’s healthier too. Well, not all concierge medicine is as pricey as a coffee a day.

Well, it’s no wonder that doctors are transitioning to concierge medicine in masses. Leaving paychecks and reimbursements in the hands of the big insurance companies hasn’t worked too well for family doctors. Many of them are using different avenues to keep their doors open, serve their patients, and keep their mortgage paid.

Opting for cash only payments from patients allows concierge physicians some room to negotiate. They can reduce their stress by shortening their workload and work days, spend more time with the patients they care for, and basically do what they went to school to do; treat their patients to the best of their abilities. When relying on the big insurance companies to reimburse them, doctors are filling up their schedules to the brim in order to assure at least some insurance money will come their way.

Not too many years ago, there were only about 250 concierge physicians around the nation, serving 100,000 patients. Today, that number has grown to over 5,000 serving 500,000 patients. It’s a trend that is exponentially taking over family practices.

Many times, it’s not even the money insurance reimbursement that causes doctors to transition to concierge medicine; it’s the entire health care system. Check this out from a recent MSNBC article on concierge medicine:

…it was the grueling pace of insurance-dominated care, where high demand and low reimbursements had her seeing 40 patients a day and reviewing charts until 2 a.m.

 

Worse, it was barely possible to assess illness, let alone prevent it, which attracted Debin to primary care in the first place.

 

“I was passionate to do this and to practice a certain kind of medicine.” Now, she says, she can.”

But, when the talk turns to concierge medicine it almost always promotes the doctor’s side of things and rarely the patient’s. The patient is the one forking out the cash every year to stay in the capable hands of the doctor who has transitioned to concierge medicine. The patient is the one who has to decide if they want to pay the yearly fee, or continue to trust in their insurance company and stick with premiums and deductibles.

What’s the pay-off for patients with concierge medicine? I think the statement from Dr. Debin above says it all. With concierge practices, it’s all about the patient. No more of this system of meeting with your doctor for ten minutes before they race off to the next patient. Concierge patients are truly given the vip treatment, offered longer appointments and preferred scheduling, as compared to insurance patients who get shorter appointments yet a longer wait.

There is always two sides to every story, however with the high cost of deductibles, co-pays, prescription drugs, and the constant fear that  your insurance won’t even cover the half of it, concierge medicine doesn’t seem like a bad option.

For more information on how to transition to a concierge practice, or how to find one for your family, visit http://www.signaturemd.com.

Word of the Day for Friday November 20th 2009:

BIONIC

bi⋅on⋅ic  /baɪˈɒnɪk/ [bahy-on-ik]
–adjective
1. utilizing electronic devices and mechanical parts to assist humans in performing difficult, dangerous, or intricate tasks, as by supplementing or duplicating parts of the body: The scientist used a bionic arm to examine the radioactive material.
2. Informal. having superhuman strength or capacity.
3. of or pertaining to bionics.

A) With a double espresso in hand, JoAnn became a bionic shopaholic.

Really liking this car, found it on some random street in cph.

Really dont want to be in the house, want to get out in the air, out and away to the city. Think I might just go to my cafe for a late cup of coffee.

te pienso perfecta.

mujer bella, linda, eterna.

-

te pienso amarilla.

ojos grandes

labios delgados

piel tersa.

-

te pienso función recursiva.

llamándote a ti misma

siendo más y más tierna.

-

te pienso circuito impreso.

circuito ideal,

sin cortos o interferencias.

-

te pienso trinomio cuadrado perfecto.

factorizable. sencillo

porte elegante.

-

te pienso, mujer.

te pienso más,

y no hago mas que adorarte.

-

te pienso,

y te sueño

-

y luego despierto …

y me pregunto si serás real.

si eres lo que creo.

-

si eres bello resplandor en el cielo,

o si aún no existes,

y tengo que seguir sufriendo…

Beverage vending machines were probably introduced to help cater to a large crowd with speed. Single machines evolved to cater varied choices, and began to depend on very little human intervention. These were then introduced into corporate offices. Now the staff in these offices did not have to go outside their buildings to find a cup of coffee or tea that they are habituated to. A quick cup could be grabbed any time and how much ever one wanted to have it.

While tea or coffee press buttons deliver decent quality, the push for milk gives only half milk and half water. This is one thing the human race has always abhorred. The vending machine looked like the local milkman who lost public trust and gave way to packet milk. The vending machine was not easy to replace but was after all a machine. Whether milk followed water or water followed milk on your push for milk, you could cup only the white and let the see through liquid flow. More pushes and lo the cup is filled. The cost bearer paid for two or three cups of milk (based on the pusher type personality) where the pusher (consumer) had only one cup of satisfied consumption.

The pushers got into a habit and the habit extended to tea and coffee mugs. Pushed with three times the actual budget of providing tea and coffee, the cost bearer (the pushed) decided to make habitual behaviors pay the cost of their habits. The vending machines were fixed with swipe card reader. Prepaid cards did not sell much. The pushers changed their habits. Some pushers started discovering loopholes (to know more click http://linsononloopholes.wordpress.com) in the new vending machine (the pushed now employed human guards), others rediscovered the joy of having tea outside the four walls of their office.

Un día mas, podemos encontrar una suite de herramientas con la que podemos extraer información de un equipo.

Una suite de herramientas desarrollada en principio por Microsoft. Además que la puedes llevar en tu USB.

Se trata de Microsoft Coffee.

Que es y de que está formado Microsoft Coffee?

es una “unidad de almacenamiento USB”, que fue distribuido en silencio a un puñado de organismos policiales en junio pasado.

El dispositivo contiene 150 comandos que puede disminuir drásticamente el tiempo necesario para reunir pruebas digitales, que es cada vez más importante en la delincuencia en el mundo real, así como los delitos informáticos. Puede desencriptar contraseñas y analizar la actividad de Internet de una computadora, así como los datos almacenados en el ordenador.

Una vez descargada la herramienta, vamos a crear la unidad USB.

Creando USB Coffee

Ejecutamos COFFE.exe y nos saldrá una GUI para hacer de manera gráfica nuestra unidad USB de Coffee

Ya tenemos nuestra unidad USB comprobemos…

Como veis aqui tenemos nuestra unidad USB Coffee.

Ahora vamos a utilizar Coffee

Utilizando Cofffee

En nuestra unidad USB tendremos un archivo llamado runner.exe.

Lo ejecutamos…

Ahora podemos ver que nos ha creado una serie de carpetas y ha ejecutado una serie de tests.

En cada una de esas carpetas hay información obtenida de nuestro equipo.

Información extraída

Después de los test que se han realizado, podemos entrar en alguna de las carpetas y ver la información extraída:

Aquí podemos ver que ha sacado una información de los servicios que hay sobre nuestra máquina.

Y ya está!

Como podéis comprobar la herramienta está muy bien y además echa por la gente de Redmon.

Saludos.

Plunger (Frenchpress)
Evde kolaylıkla hazırlayabileceğiniz bir yöntemdir. Bu tür demleme yöntemi için kalın öğütülmüş kahve kullanılmalıdır. Öncelikle hazne sıcak suyla çalkalanır. Yaklaşık olarak 1 yemek kaşığı kahve hazneye konulduktan sonra 180 ml sıcak su üzerine eklenir ve 4 dakika demlenmeye bırakılır. Daha sonra filtre aşağıya doğru itilerek servis yapılır.

Ev Tipi Filtre Kahve Makinesi
Öncelikle pot sıcak suyla çalkalanır. Filtrenin içine her 180 ml su için bir yemek kaşığı (10 gr) orta derecede öğütülmüş kahve yerleştirilir. Taze filtre edilmiş su eklenerek makine çalıştırılır. Sıcak bir fincanda servis edilir.

Espresso Makinesi
Makine 15-20 dakika ısıtılır. Portafilter kahveyle doldurulur ve sıkıştırılır. Portafilter yuvaya yerleştirlir ve 30 ml espressonun 20-30 saniyede elde edilmesi sağlanır. İsteğe bağlı olarak ısıtılmış süt eklenebilir.

Aldığınız kahveyi evde nasıl saklamalısınız?

1 – Kahveyi aşağıdaki etkenlerden uzak tutmalısınız.
• Nem
• Çok sıcak, çok soğuk
• Işık
• Hava

2 – Kahveyi hava geçirmeyen kaplarda, dolap ve tezgah içinde, serin ve kuru ortamlarda saklamalısınız.

3 – Kahveyi buzdolabında saklamayınız ya da dondurmayınız.

4 – En iyi sonucu elde etmek için kahveyi iki hafta içinde tüketmelisiniz. Maksimum lezzete ulaşmak için de kahve çekirdeklerini demlemeden
hemen önce öğütmelisiniz.

KAVURMA İŞLEMİ

Kavurma işlemi sırasında kahve çekirdekleri yeşil renkten kahverengiye dönüşürken aromatik yağlar ortaya çıkar ve kahvenin kendine has, eşsiz lezzetini belirleyen özelliklerinin oluşumunu sağlar.
Kahve uzmanları, kahve kavurma işlemini mükemmele ulaşmanın en önemli faktörü olduğunu düşünürler ve bu işlem doğru bir şekilde uygulanmazsa, en iyi kahve çekirdekleri bile kullanılamaz duruma gelebilir.

KAVURMA SKALASI

AMERİKAN USULÜ KAVURMA
Orta dereceli bir kavurma işlemi olup kahve çekirdeğine kestanemsi bir renk verir.

VİYANA USULÜ KAVURMA
Orta ile koyu arasında bir derecede kavurma işlemidir.

FRANSIZ USULÜ KAVURMA
Koyu bir kavurma derecesi olup kahve çekirdeklerinin rengi koyu kahverengi olur.

İTALYAN USULÜ KAVURMA
İtalyan usulü kavurma işlemi, kahve çekirdeğine çok koyu bir renk ve parlak, yağlı bir yüzey kazandıran en koyu kavurma

kynk: Gloria Jean’s Coffe

We sure did sleep in today. I love sleeping in when it’s rainy and gray outside. Going to grab us a big umbrella and go and have breakfast at lovely Gail’s cafe on Portobello. See you there?

By the way, are you a coffee or tea person? I’m a green tea kind of girl but I do have a latte every now and then.

Image: notebookdoodles

1. The cutest customizable porcelain coffee mugs from Circa Ceramics

2. These cute creatures from Skunkboy Creations

Ophelia the Octopus

Mr. Monkey

and these lovable panda couple

3. These lovely print from raw art letterpress

4. This lovely painting by Robin Maria “Moonlight Serenade”

5. This is the cutest mobile i’ve ever seen.

6. Vintage owl bottle opener

tu nombre me sabe a aire húmedo

a tierra aplanada

a flores recién cortadas

…

tu nombre me sabe a tierra prometida

a sueños vagos

a ideas mal planeadas

…

me sabe a maldiciones

a sueños inconclusos,

a tardes planas

…

me sabe a chocolate

a chocolate con vino

y vino para embriagarse

…

me sabe a no sé

a ojos cansados y cuerpos juntos

…

tu nombre me sabe algo…

¿por qué?

Since I’ve been writing a lot of things that I’ve come to hate over the years, I’ve determined to write a small list of things that I really love.

1. Driving.
People that’s no interested in taken the drivers license don’t know what they are missing out on. It’s a fantastic feeling to drive on the high way, in a comfortable speed and don’t care about a thing at all. Also, it’s a great way for moving over longer distances without having any kind of delay. Also, I’ve got (thank you kulsli) the best high-way driving sound track: LINK

2. Interesting people.
Problem is that I can’t fucking stand people going on about how much they drank the last day, or week, and how much they’ve been mouth-raping their girldfriend and whatnot. For those people: I don’t F-ing care! it’s idiotism, and I won’t be a part of it. that goes out to people who don’t care about how this country is run, currently by conservative liberalists (yey, norway!), and then complain about busses, trains and collective transport afterwards!

God I hate that kind of people.

3. Wanting something you may get, but at a cost.
To get something without doing anything for it, isn’t worth anything. If there’s no strain, no pain, then there’s no gain. I enjoy things with a variety of options on how to obtain something, and that’s also the only situation I might get interested enough to ask for help.

Since that’s something I don’t usually do. 

4. Music.
I love music, doesn’t really matter what kind as long as it’s good. Since I can’t stand mrs. Rihanna (ride hannah) and that kind of generic happ crap. But for some people; that’s good music. somehow anyways. I’ve got  a lot of music, but seriously, Spotify premium, is a serious blessing!

5. Discussions.
In think sometimes I should be living in the 300 B.C or something. I would love to walk around discussing different things with the other philosophizers of Athen! I would love that soo much I’d revitalize my heart again!

6. Coffe.
I don’t need to say more than; Indonesian Blue Java.

7. The easy things of life.
I don’t think I need to explain this.

But let’s face it, it’s no abundance of these things, I can’t even sit on my computer for more than an hour, before my parents get sick.
Fuck it all, next time it’ll be hate again.

Sincerely
/Fluffy

And I love the small things in life..

Here’s a recipe I just happened to come across on the boob tube.  It sounds easy and delish so I might just try to whip it up in the kitchen for me and my man later.

*fanfare* Coffee Panna Cotta
Ingredients:
2 250 milliliter packs All Purpose Cream
2/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon unflavored gelatin
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Ingredients for the Coffee Syrup:
2/3 cup espresso (or really strong brewed coffee)
1/8 cup sugar
1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin

Procedure:
1. In a small bowl, dissolve unflavored gelatin in milk and let bloom for 5 minutes.
2. In a small saucepan, combine All Purpose Cream with sugar and vanilla extract. Bring to a simmer but do not let boil.
3. Turn off heat and add milk and gelatin mixture. Stir to combine and let cool.
4. Transfer into individual cups or molds. Chill for at least 8 hours or until firm.
5. To make espresso syrup: Add gelatin to 1/8 cup room temperature espresso until softened. Boil remaining espresso and sugar in a saucepan until reduced (about 5 minutes). Add espresso-gelatin mixture and bring to a simmer. Take off heat and serve warm over chilled panna cotta.

*** I looked up the recipe from the web and got it at wmn.ph

Today is my day off, and that means..sleeping in! I love sleep so I could not wait to sleep in this morning. I am talking sleeping in…like 9:45am sleeping in. And it felt amazing! Because I woke up so late I was pretty hungry so decided to have breakfast before working out. But before I get to all that lets talk about last night.

I had an awesome idea in my head for dinner, but as the day went on I thought more about it, and I needed more time to prep. It has to do with a marinade, and I wanted to make sure my meat had enough time to marinade. So I decided to put the awesome dinner off until tonight that way I have more time to prep for it to make it come out outstanding. Because we have no food in the apt I decided to grab my Thursday ritual…frozen pizza. Now I normally do Freschetta, but that is so bad for you, and recently have been getting into making my own pizza, but that was too much work than I wanted. So I opted for a compromise. Newman’s Own Thin Crust Supreme. That way we get all the toppings we want, but with literally half the fat and calories. (I checked the nutrition facts of all the pizzas in the grocery store). And Chris and I actually like this pizza-it has good flavor.

Before I left work I has three small pieces of Pecorino Toscano Fresco cheese. For some reason I was starving today, and the whole ‘wait till dinner’ thing was not going to cut it. As I was walking around the grocery store I picked up a few other things.

I finally got a PUMPKIN! Pineapples were on sale for $2 a piece. I couldn’t resist that. And of course I had to try a pomegranate. They were doing an entire showcase on them. I also picked up some directions on how to open one. Hopefully I won’t make too much of a mess.

And a perfect pumpkin it is. Chris and I were supposed to go to a pumpkin patch and apple picking last Saturday, but it was monsooning so our plans got cancelled. I figured I didn’t need a pumpkin this year because I have so many other decorations up in the apt, but this one was just calling my name!

Dinner was light and easy. I had 4 small pieces of the pizza, and some Popchips and salsa. This pizza is very low in calories and fat compared to other frozen pizzas. It actually has half the calories and fat than the Freschetta pizza we always get, AND the Digiorno pizza we like. But on the other hand it is not as filling. I probably would have been fine eating nothing else, but I still had a small craving for more. I figured the popchips and salsa was a low calorie add on that would fill me up with less guilt. No hummus this time, just salsa. It’s a fairly low calorie snack considering the Popchips have 16 calories each and salsa has very little as well. It was perfect to fill me up.

Dessert was devine!!!!! I took the homemade pumpkin ice cream out of the freezer to thaw a little and then re-blended in my smartchop (it’s like a wee mini food processor). It was thick, creamy, and delicious! I added a few dark chocolate covered edamame to the mix and Voila.

Incredible. I may have grabbed a small handful of these edamame by them self too. It’s so hard to resist them…they are so good! At least they are dark chocolate and have lots of protein.

And finished the night with a mug of herbal mint tea and some awesome Thursday night TV.

So now we are back to this morning. I woke up around 9:45am and made some coffee. While the coffee was brewing I got in my morning routine. Leg lifts and kneeling push-ups. I was thinking of ways to change this up, but I love the stretching I get from the leg lifts, and the kneeling push-ups are an easy quick way to get some arm strength in. I am not sure what else can be this quick and easy. I’ll have to think about it.

I wanted to show you what goes into making coffee in my house. I find that using fresh ground coffee gives the best flavor and it actually tastes fresher. So I bought a coffee grinder a while ago and have never turned back.

I first take the beans out of my coffee canister and fill up my grinder. Because I don’t like gridning EVERY day I try to make enough for three days. So I feel the bowl about 3/4 full of beans

Then I put on the lid and start grinding. The smell that comes from grinding coffee beans is like no other. And this dark roast Cubano Roast coffee is so aromatic that the smell fills the entire apartment.

Once the beans are ground I scoop out what I need to make 5 C of coffee. I love this grinder because it comes with an air tight lid and I just pop it on and stick the rest of the coffee in the frdige for the next day.

And start brewing. I don’t have a fancy coffee maker, and I have toyed with the idea of getting a french press, but I can’t justify buying another coffee maker when I already have a perfectly good one. What do you think? Do better coffee makers and French presses make better coffee? I want your opinion.

Because I have no food in the apt I had my go to breakfast again…oatmeal. I thought about what I had in the pantry to change it up a bit since

• Sunday I had warm Kashi Go Lean Crunch and Kashi Heart to Heart with Mighty Maple PB and raspberries
• Monday I had pumpkin oats in a Mighty Maple PB jar with dried cranberries
• Tuesday I had pumpkin oats in a jar of Almond Butter with peaches
• Wednesday I had warm All bran and Kashi Go Lean Crunch cereal with PB
• Thursday I had Cinnamon oats with chopped dates and PB

What could I do different with what I have? So I got an idea from Kristin’s blog yesterday about chocolate in my oatmeal. I will try her baked oatmeal soon, but I wanted something fast. Here is what I came up with. Mexican hot chocolate oats with white chocolate peanut butter. Sounds good huh?

I made my oats with 1/2 C unsweetened almond milk, 1/2 water, and 2/3 C oats. I added in 1 Tbs of Trader Joe’s unsweetened cocoa powder (only 20 calories for 1 Tbs), and lots of cinnamon. This reminded me of a coffee drink I always get in San Diego, where my brother lives, at this place called Kono’s. They have the best coffee and breakfast right on the beach, and I always get their Mexican Hot Chocolate coffee latte (I can’t remember the name exactly, but you get the gist.) I digress.

The oats smelled amazing…I wish you could have smelled them. I decided to add 1 Tbs white chocolate peanut butter to them to complete the chocolate theme.

Unfortunately my oats looked and smelled better than they tasted. I had to add one more tbs of peanut butter because they really had no sweetness or flavor. A breakfast like this seems like it would be unhealthy, but it really isn’t. It was oats, unsweetened almond milk, 1 Tbs unsweetened cocoa powder, and 2 tbs all natural peanut butter for protein. It’s like eating healthy dessert for breakfast. There are many benefits to a little cocoa and cinnamon in your diet.

One of my all time favorite combinations is Chocolate and Peanut Butter. Without all the cinnamon I added I guess you could call this Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Oatmeal.

And here is the result of my freshly brewed coffee with Almond milk and Truvia.

I have been much more diligent about showing or writing everything I eat, good and bad, on the blog. I figured this was more honest, and since my blog is about loving food and trying to stay fit while enjoying it, I thought it was only fair to put everything I eat on the blog. I know sometimes it can seem like a lot of food, but that is all part of my healthy living learning and loving process.

My plans for the rest of the day are ‘me time’. I am going to relax, catch up on my Gossip Girl and Biggest Loser, figure out how to actually use my Garmin besides just getting my time and mileage from it, and then get my workout in. Excited and actually a little nervous for my race tomorrow! Have a great Friday!!!

P.s. Don’t forget about that awesome dinner I’m making tonight!

digamos que te quiero.

digamos que mucho, al menos lo suficiente.

que me quieres.

más de la cuenta, de lo necesario.

-

digamos algo.

algo tierno o dulce.

-

digamos que esto será para siempre.

-

digamos lo que sea

para pasar el rato.

-

para hacer como si pasara algo.

-

digamos no sé.

cuánto nos extrañamos.

digamos o hagamos,

o pensemos algo.

New York based Mucca Design created the branding and design for a new grocery store called Brooklyn Fare. The store sells healthy, environmentally friendly food. Mucca designed a custom typeface, color palette, and in-store graphics from packaging to uniforms to interior design. The above diagram is how Mucca summed up this project on their website, it is quite quirky. Mucca said their goal in this design was “to position this smaller, neighborhood store to be able to compete with the national grocery giants.”

The typography Mucca designed is called Fare Serif, and it was designed to be used in large formats. It is such a clean, fresh and playful typeface. The type is only ever represented in white or black which looks extremely fresh and predominant upon the four colour palette. I absolutely adore this branding, it is so fresh and innovative. There is no over design, there is not too much information, there is no logo, it is just simple, plain text that is so easy on the eye that it just begs to be read. The slogans on the in store design are so quirky and fun and extremely friendly. Me being me I would have to collect each piece of the design, just to have it all.

The napkins are so quirky ‘wipe that smile on your face’, ingenious, it communicates with the customer, something that almost all grocery stores fail to do. Just reading the napkin would make you smile and feel good. The layout and spacing of the type is so cleverly done, it all just fits so perfectly together, throughout all of the treatments. On the napkins the type is all in the same typeface, in the same weight, but in differing sizes but even at that you still know that the smaller font is the logo, or the shop name.

I want to work in this store, who knew orange could be so beautiful. The quirkiness of the uniform just adds to how inviting the store is. ‘We know our store front to back’, which makes the employees so approachable, the uniforms again beg for you to go to the wearers. It is such a simple yet such an extremely powerful piece of design. The designers went straight back to basics, and have succeeded. They have created an extremely exciting and innovative piece of design that I believe will stand the test of time. I want to hop on a plane to Brooklyn to see this design in its environment.

Check out more of Muccas designhere!

very interesting;)i would like to learn to do this:D

te quiero a medios sueños

a murmullos

en recuerdos

-

te quiero cerca

tibia

-

con el cabello suelto

-

te quiero,

a ratos

en dos tiempos.

-

cuando sonríes

y te haces la linda

y todo es bello

-

te quiero de a ratos

de a momentos.

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university Professor.

Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

Offering his guests coffee, the Prof. went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups:
porcelain, plastic, glass, some plain-looking and some expensive and exquisite, telling them
to help themselves to hot coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the Prof. said “If you noticed, all the nice-looking, expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is but normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. That all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the better cups and are eyeing each other’s cups.”

“Now, if Life is coffee, then the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, but the quality of Life doesn’t change. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee in it.”

Source: Amazing Posts