I’ve already blogged about this at The Bridge, where I have the nine principles as stated by the AMA.

The principles had not appeared on the AMA site with the initial media release, but I got them direct from the AMA after a phone call. For the moment, The Bridge is the only place you can find them.

I didn’t say this “over there” since it’s not a place where I allow myself to pat myself on the back … but every time medical travel and tourism gets recognized for what it is, an important and global phenomenon, I feel proud to have been on top of it years ago, and to have written Beauty from Afar.

The version of it I’ve had up on careerbuilder dot com and monster dot com (no links for you guys, hah) has never done me a whit of good … I think HR departments are good at screening out rogues. The last time a resume played any role in getting me a job, I think it was 1981.

Yesterday, I debated deleting myself from the aforementioned job sites because they do me no good and, increasingly, they let their clients spam me for sales and/or multilevel marketing jobs, which makes me crazy. But instead I tried a writing experiment. I added *this* to the top of my resumes:

“I don’t see any point in writing a boilerplate “objective” designed to squeeze me through the HR funnel to interviewers on the way to Cubicleland, or even a corner office. If you’re unnerved that I would say so, please don’t bother me. I’m busy. You might be getting paid to seek me out, but I’m not getting paid to listen to you.

“If, on the other hand, you’re someone who needs a wickedly smart person who writes anything as well as anyone, has a tremendous range of skills and interests and knows how to get things done, you’re invited to try and get my interest. Please start with email. Try to be clever. I treat online job sites just as I would a dating site. I’m choosy because I can be. And I won’t chase YOU unless you’re irresistible.”

What do you think? Can’t hurt, right? I do crack myself up sometimes …

There is a cheery little plugin called “Hello Dolly” and you, dear reader, cannot see what it does, because all it does is display random lyrics from Louis Armstrong’s classic song in the top right of my blog administration screens. Some people complain about this plugin and call it “useless.” These people lack joie de vivre (let’s see what Global Translator does with that …) “Hello Dolly” is, in fact, the first-ever plugin written for WordPress. So it was kind of a test, presumably.

But even people with joie de vivre, such as myself, can get a little tired of seeing random snatches of “Hello Dolly” lyrics at the top of their screens, right? I was strangely reluctant to disable the plugin though … I have this thing about using software if it is at my disposal. Finally, it occurred to me that I would be happier if I had a choice of song lyrics.

So I rewrote the “Hello Dolly” plugin using the lyrics from “Sympathy for the Devil” by the Rolling Stones. It was pretty simple to do, and for now, I am the only one in the world, probably, whose WordPress admin screen says, at the top right, “Pleased to meet you, hope you guess my name …”

My little hack of “Hello Dolly” is absolutely no more useful than the original. But what the hell. Maybe I’m in need of … some restraint. (woo woo, woo woo.)

Maybe I’ll make it available for download if anyone wants it.

Update: I did that little thing. Here’s the page at WordPress:

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/sympathy-for-the-devil/

I hope Mick and Keith will leave me alone now. Fifty four downloads as of May 2, woohoo …

The Blue Screen of Death has kinda bothered me for some time,” said company founder Bill Gates. “So I took a shot at it myself. I hadn’t coded in a while, really, but it was sort of like riding a bicycle.

“Suddenly, I remembered back when there was no Blue Screen of Death — before Windows, the screen had always gone black. And the solution came to me in a flash.”

Instead of the Blue Screen of Death, Windows users will now have a choice of seven different themed Screens of Death, with the default theme “a sort of snow-globe-like winter scene,” Gates said.

“I found it very soothing, myself,” Gates said. “So did Steve Ballmer. I used to get such a stomach ache when I got a BSOD or anytime I read about one, frankly. Which was a lot sometimes. You have no idea.

“Now I feel like I can move on to more important things. Curing AIDS and malaria and what-have-you.”

Windows users who prefer the BSOD rather than the new error messages can select BSOD when installing or reinstalling their operating system. The download that eliminates the BSOD from most existing Windows computers will be propagated through the Microsoft Update beginning April 1.