Hasta La Gadget!

I am a psychiatrist in in a cancer center. It is more than simply a job to me. It gives my life meaning and purpose.

My patients are not always those with the cancer diagnosis themselves, but all have been impacted by the cancer experience, and may include parents, partners, significant others, or children. Many are focused on the future, waiting for something to change, and some are focused on the past — asking themselves what they could have done differently. Many feel numb, disconnected, anxious and alone. Almost all are sad.

Often the symptoms of depression are obfuscated by medical treatments and their side effects. In this way, my work is often complicated. Time is always of the essence.

My job is to bring people back to their senses, reconnecting them to their inner strengths, their family’s love, their friends’ encouragement and other available resources to support them through the experience. In doing so, my work allows them to feel less anxious and isolated, and to eliminate as many of their symptoms of depression as is possible under the circumstances, especially a diminished pleasure in life or a sense that life is not worth living any more. Further, in our work patients can not only rediscover their former selves but also emerge from the experience with greater compassion and understanding of their strengths.

The challenges my patients face may seem to them impossible to overcome. This may be best illustrated by the life and work of Dr. Viktor Frankl. He was a concentration camp survivor and psychiatrist, wrote one of the most influential books of all time on this subject (according to the U.S. Library of Congress): Man’s Search for Meaning.

His book addressed coping in the face of insurmountable odds. He wrote that even in the face of a situation whose cause you cannot change, the best way to cope is to change the attitude you use to cope with the situation. Essentially, even though we may not be able to change the stressor, we always have a choice in how we cope with it.

Despite the situation, it is possible to “turn tragedy into triumph.” With a new approach, life will have meaning. Dr. Frankl asserts that transformative thinking can, in turn, be inspiring to others.

Without question, my work is challenging. The time I spend with my patients, however, inspires me daily by giving meaning to my life as we work together to overcome adversity. And I hope I in turn am bringing meaning to the lives of others.

Have a story about depression that you’d like to share? Email strongertogether@huffingtonpost.com, or give us a call at (860) 348-3376, and you can record your story in your own words. Please be sure to include your name and phone number.

Need help? In the U.S., call 1-800-273-8255 for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

It was teased for months, but now we finally know which “Simpsons” character died in the Season 26 premiere. The Internet is pretty upset about how things turned out.

SPOILER ALERT FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN’T SEEN THE SEASON 26 PREMIERE

In the end, Krusty’s father, Rabbi Hyman Krustofski, said his final shalom to the series while talking with his son. His last words to Krusty: “I think you’re eh.”

Everyone’s favorite clown was pretty disappointed, but he wasn’t nearly as disappointed as Twitter:

Ahh, the revelation of which Simpsons character has been killed off. Much like the last few seasons: promising but ultimately disappointing

— Josh Taylor (@joshgnosis) September 29, 2014

Can’t believe The Simpsons killed off a character who’s only been in a few episodes and wasn’t voiced by the original actor for awhile.

— Josh Kurp (@JoshKurp) September 29, 2014

If that’s who they’ve killed off, it was a complete waste of time. #Simpsons

— Andrew Cunneen (@Cunneen92) September 29, 2014

The new Simpsons episode was a major disappointment. Krusty’s dad! Really? Overhyped is an understatement…

— Isa! (@IamIdriss) September 29, 2014

The Simpsons death is Krusty’s dad? Lame

— Joe (@_JoeySmithy) September 29, 2014

Wtf all that hype about the Simpsons killing someone and it was Krusty’s dad?? Like who now? Fs

— Pete (@peterrmmm) September 29, 2014

People even used the opportunity to take shots at old disappointments.

This is like when the twin died in Harry potter… kill a real character #simpsons

— Quantel. (@LeMarWills) September 29, 2014

(Hey! Fred was a pretty good character … or was it George? Eh, never mind.)

“Simpsons” producer Al Jean had previously given the clues that it was a “beloved” character who died, the actor who voiced the role had won an Emmy for the work and that the title of the episode was called “Clown in the Dumps.” From this, many presumed that Krusty would be the one to go, but Jean spoke with Entertainment Weekly about why he thinks people shouldn’t have felt misled:

What’s funny is at the [Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour in July], we said, “Okay, we’ll make the title kind of easy and it should be really obvious,” so I said, “Clown in the Dumps.” And then there were people going, “(gasps) You’re killing Krusty???” And I was like, “What? In the dumps doesn’t mean you’re dead. It means you’re sad.” I thought it was so obvious. I would be nuts to kill Krusty. Everybody loves that character.

Though Jean said he thought the identity of the character who would die was obvious, that didn’t stop him from teasing a bigger death on the summer press tour: “I didn’t say I was killing Krusty … I didn’t say I wasn’t,” he said.

“The Simpsons” airs Sunday at 8:00 p.m. ET on Fox.

1) Age 5, when I was more concerned with dinosaurs than romance.

I was roller-skating around the back patio as my mom listened to the radio. That Bryan Adams song that was in the Kevin Costner Robin Hood movie came on…

“Don’t tell me it’s not worth tryin’ for.
You can’t tell me it’s not worth dyin’ for.
You know it’s true:
Everything I do, I do it for you.”

Then that Whitney Houston song in The Bodyguard came on…

“And I…. Will alwayyyyyys love you.”

(Wait, wasn’t Kevin Costner also in that movie?)

Then Meatloaf:

“And I would do anything for love, but I won’t do that.”

I noticed a pattern and I was confused.

Most songs I knew I learned from Sesame Street or nursery school, which means most songs I knew were about dinosaurs, cooperation, and letters of the alphabet. But all the songs on the radio seemed to be about boring grown up love.

Me: “Mom. Why are so many songs on the radio about love?”

Mom: “I think you’ll understand some day.”

Me: “Oh.” It was a cop out, dissatisfying answer. I pondered it for a half second more, and moved onto more important questions: “Can I have some ice cream?”

2) Age 7, when I realized that I should like-like someone:

I was in my second grade classroom. It was free time and I was building something awesome out of blocks. Brian Matthews approached.

Brian Matthews: “If you tell me who you like, I’ll tell you who I like.”

I was perplexed by the question. I liked a lot of people. Was I supposed to list everyone I liked? And why did Brian Matthews care? What a stupid question. Already, in second grade, I had no patience for pointless or perfunctory conversation.

Me: “I like my mom the best.”

Brian: “No I mean, which boy do you like?”

It was a moment of socialization: I at once realized and internalized a norm of our society — that as a girl, I should like a boy, and hope to date, marry, and raise a family with that boy. It seemed like a hassle on top of all my other responsibilities like learning cursive and making a sock puppet of Sandra Day O’Connor for Women’s History month. A hassle yes, but a necessary one that everyone was doing.

I said my neighbor’s name because he was the first boy I knew outside of my family.

Brian revealed that he liked me. Then he stole a pencil with my name on it and stuck it down his pants. Ten seconds after realizing that I should like boys, I realized that most of them are creeps.

From ages 7-15 I maintained a series of crushes that were inconsequential designations, like your favorite color or dream vacation. I liked Drew. I liked Doug. I liked Keenan. But nothing ever happened, until…

3) Age 15, when stuff started to happen with boys.

The context of my first kiss was standard for someone raised in middle class suburbs in the 2000s. We had a class together. Then we started AIM chatting. Then he invited me to watch a movie in his furnished hangout basement. Twenty minutes into Ocean’s Eleven he put is hand on my thigh. Forty-five minutes in, he kissed me and we made out for the rest of the movie.

It was mundane to an outsider’s perspective, but momentous to me. There was nothing special about that particular boy, but kissing someone, anyone, instantly and irrevocably changed my worldview. My head was invaded and consumed by thoughts of boys. I anticipated potential conversations. I analyzed past conversations. I printed AIM conversations to get input from my friends. I took specific routes between classes in order to cross paths with my crushes and exchange nonchalant “heys.”

I joined the ranks of humans obsessed with our own sexual and romantic histories. From age 15 on, nothing was more interesting to me than my own love life.

4) Age 21, when I loved someone, but was not ready to settle down.

I had a wonderful boyfriend. We loved each other, respected each other, and had fun together. But it didn’t seem like enough. I broke up with him because I wanted more adventure and uncertainty. I wanted more first kisses.

Soon after the breakup, I was home for Thanksgiving and explaining this to Abby, a friend from high school. It was Wednesday before Thanksgiving, which means we were about to enter a bar, where we would see everyone we hated from high school — a situation that cannot be entered sober.

So, we were in a parking garage across the street, sitting in Abby’s mom’s Subaru, drinking Bud Light Limes, having a serious discussion about Love.

Me: “I mean I love him, or I think I love him, but how am I like supposed to know what that means if I haven’t dated that many people. I thought I loved my first boyfriend, but now that seems so stupid…”

Abby: “Yeah…”

Me: “And the breakup was so sad because there was like no impetus for it. It was just like, ‘I love you, but I don’t know if I love you enough’…”

Abby: “Yeah…”

Me: “So I don’t know, maybe in ten years I’ll want to marry him, but it just seems like I need to date more people now. But maybe everyone else out there is terrible and he’s the best guy I’ll ever meet.”

Abby: “I think you did the right thing. Love is about timing. There’s more than one person for you, and it’s about who you’re with at the right time.”

Me: “That’s so true.”

Abby has always been so wise and practical. For example, it was her idea to drink those Bud Light Limes in the parking garage!

5) Age 28, when I’m just tired.

I’ve had plenty more first kisses, but just as many last kisses. I’ve endured heart breaks and I’m sorry to say that they haven’t made me stronger. They’ve made me weary. Fragile and distrustful. I want to start every first date by saying, “Look if you plan to break my heart, we should stop this date right now.”

I’ve had relationships that sounded good on paper, but lacked passion. I’ve had relationships that had passion, but nothing else. Some of my boyfriends have had secret girlfriends. I’ve been the on-the-side girlfriend of others. I’ve tried juggling multiple relationships and I’ve tried going all-in to something that just wasn’t worth it. I’ve had one-night stands and four night stands and months long so-so relationships. I’ve acted distant and aloof. I’ve acted passionate and uninhibited.

And now I’m tired. Tired of being fooled and tired of fooling myself. I want a simple and respectful relationship. No silliness, no manipulation, no capriciousness. If I now had that boyfriend who I had at age 21, I would commit to him without hesitation. So I guess this is “the time” Abby was talking about.

Abby did get married a few months ago. She and her husband looked right — like the right people finding each other at the right time. I was uplifted and exuberant for them, confident in their lasting love. And drunk, obviously.

This has been my sentiment and state at most weddings. I sit at the singles table or I’m a bridesmaid paired with the groom’s 16-year-old brother. Some crowd-pleasing corny love song comes on, like Elvis…

“Wise men say only fools rush in….
but I can’t help falling in love with you”

…and I think back to asking my mom why so many songs are about love. Well, I get it now.

Onto more important questions: where’s my wedding cake?

WASHINGTON (AP) — An American doctor who was exposed to the Ebola virus while volunteering in Sierra Leone was admitted Sunday to a hospital at the National Institutes of Health near the nation’s capital.

The patient, who was not identified, arrived at NIH’s Clinical Center about 4 p.m., NIH said in a statement on its website.

NIH said that out of “an abundance of caution,” the physician was admitted to a special isolation unit. NIH infectious disease chief Dr. Anthony Fauci wouldn’t discuss details about the patient but said that in general, an exposure to Ebola doesn’t necessarily mean someone will become sick.

“When someone is exposed, you want to put them into the best possible situation so if something happens you can take care of them,” Fauci said.

“NIH is taking every precaution to ensure the safety of our patients, NIH staff and the public,” the agency said in a statement.

Four other American aid workers who were sickened by Ebola while volunteering in the West African outbreak have been treated at hospitals in Georgia and Nebraska. One remains hospitalized while the others have recovered.

An Associated Press photographer saw a person dressed in a white protective suit get off a plane and walk to a waiting ambulance at the Frederick Municipal Airport in Maryland about 3:30 p.m. Sunday.

The plane’s tail number matched that of the aircraft that has been used previously to transport other Ebola patients to the United States from overseas.

NIH spokesman John Burklow confirmed that the plane carrying the patient landed at Frederick.

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

As somebody who has to produce content on the road all of the time, I’ve got a whole lot of devices in my backpack – an ultrabook laptop, an iPad, lots of cables and chargers, and still often find myself less productive when traveling than I do when at my desktop at home. My laptop is my go-to tool for creative work, as it runs a full version of Photoshop, and it’s easier to type on. But the iPad is good for reading emails, sketching ideas, doing quick edits, and is easier to travel with because it weighs less. But at the end of the day, there are trade-offs with both devices. Now that I’ve spent some quality time with the Microsoft Surface Pro 3, I think I might have just found the perfect device for creative professionals.

When Microsoft first introduced the Surface a couple of years ago, it was seen more as a direct competitor to the iPad – especially in its Windows RT variants. But Microsoft quickly realized it could offer the ultimate laptop replacement once it released the Pro versions that could run a full version of Windows 8.x Pro. Sporting fast Core i3, i5 or i7 processors, up to 8GB RAM, and a eye-poppingly sharp 2160 x 1440 multi-touch 12″ display, the 3rd generation Surface Pro is no toy.

The Surface Pro 3 not only delivers on the laptop/tablet hybrid concept, it’s a pretty great machine at both of those things. I found the 1.9GHz Core i5-4300U review unit I’ve been using to be plenty fast for any of my regular daily tasks, which include editing text and image content, uploading and downloading large files, surfing the web, reading emails, doing image retouching in Photoshop and Lightroom, and the occasional video 1080p edit in Premiere. The Surface Pro 3 was up to the challenge at all of these tasks.

In fact, it handily outperformed my 18 month-old Core i7 ZenBook Prime. This is my go-to laptop, which I always thought was plenty fast:

There are times when I’m on a bus, airplane or train, and don’t want to deal with the space a laptop takes up. No problem with the Surface Pro 3. Just remove or flip back the optional Type Cover, and it can be used as a tablet. Lay it flat on a tabletop, and it becomes a Wacom Cintiq style drawing tablet thanks to the included stylus. And unlike iPad styli, this one is precise and fully pressure sensitive. Switching between your fingertip and stylus is seamless, and the Surface does a pretty solid job at palm rejection too. That said, I occasionally ended up opening up one of the various slide-out controls on the edges of the screen while I was drawing with the stylus, but I quickly figured out how to avoid that by changing the angle of my hand.

What’s truly wonderful about the Surface Pro 3 is the sheer variety of ways you can interact with it. Whether you want to use it with your fingertips, a keyboard, a trackpad, a mouse or a stylus, you can bounce between all of them seamlessly. In fact, I found myself doing this frequently. Tasks I normally would rely on a mouse for, I reached out and used the touchscreen for – like pinch-zooming in and out of photos in Photoshop. But then I’d use the trackpad to navigate menus. Outlining an image with precision? Stylus to the rescue! Need to grab a quick product image? Snap a photo. While they’re no substitute for your DSLR, it’s got a pair of 5 megapixel cameras, both of which support 1080p 30fps video recording.

Man, this thing is versatile. Want to use it flat on your lap? No problem. Hold it in the air? Sure. Use it on a table? It’s got a built-in, adjustable stand that pops out of the back. The only deficiency I found in this department was being able to use on your lap, because the stand is a skinny piece of metal – I wouldn’t want that digging into my thighs.

Not only does the Surface Pro 3 handle a wide variety of tasks and input methods with aplomb, it’s a beautiful piece of hardware. Made from a substantial magnesium body, and measuring in at 11.5″ (H) x 7.93″(W) x 0.36″ (D), it’s about the size of a pad of paper. Without the Type Cover and stylus, it weighs about 1.76 lbs. With those accessories in place, you’re looking at about 2.4 lbs., about the same as an 11″ MacBook Air, and several ounces lighter than a 13″ Air.

While you can type on screen using the touchscreen, the optional Type Cover ($129.99) is a must-buy if you type with any regularity. This full-size backlit keyboard connects directly to the Surface using a magnetic hinge, and requires no external battery charger like add-on Bluetooth keyboards. It can also be positioned flat against the desk or at an angle for more comfortable typing. It’s also got a built in trackpad.

Functionally, the Type Cover works well, and is even smart enough to turn off when you flip it around to the back of the Surface. I have a couple of complaints about the Type Cover though – one, it’s covered with a soft touch velour that looks nice, but I’m pretty sure will attract grease and dirt with time. In a week of use, it had already attracted quite a bit of dust (which I cleaned off before these photos). Also, the holder for the stylus is an add-on bit that you stick on with an adhesive pad. While I appreciate the fact that this allows you to choose where to place your stylus, I had the adhesive come off on one occasion, and that bit just feels like an afterthought. It really should be integral to the cover. Even better, it would be nice if the Surface itself had a place to stow or at least clip on the stylus, because I’d sure hate to lose it.

Battery life for the Surface Pro 3 is rated at 9 hours for web browsing, though with my typical usage, I got between 7 and 8 hours on a charge. Other pertinent specs for the Surface Pro 3 include 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac wireless networking, Bluetooth 4.0 low energy support, an accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, ambient light sensor, microSD reader (hidden behind the kickstand), USB 3.0 port, and a Mini DisplayPort video output. While I wish there was a full size SD slot for pulling images off my camera, at least there’s an easy way to get data in and out of the device without additional hardware. Also, keep in mind that there’s no cellular connectivity available like there is with the iPad, so you may need to use your smartphone as a hotspot if you aren’t in Wi-Fi range.

While the power adapter isn’t as small as the ones that come with tablets, it’s smaller than many laptop adapters, and has the bonus of having an extra USB charging port built into it. The power connector is also idiot-proof, with a thin blade that connects to the side of the device and automatically aligns using magnets whether you place it upside-down or rightside-up.

Overall, the Surface Pro 3 is a fantastic piece of hardware. It’s fast, lightweight, runs Windows applications, has very good battery life, a really sharp display, and it’s beautifully crafted. Plus, it works however you like to work, thanks to its wide variety of input methods, connectivity and versatile form-factor. It’s especially awesome if you’re in the creative arts. Next time I travel, I might just be leaving my laptop and iPad behind, and just traveling with the Surface Pro 3 and my smartphone.

Prices for the Surface Pro 3 range from $799 to $1949(USD), depending on the processor and amount of SSD storage you choose. You can start out with a Core i3 with 64GB of storage and 4GB RAM, or go all the way up to a Core i7 with 512GB and 8GB RAM. The 256GB, Core i5, 8GB RAM version tested here retails for $1299. However, if you go to select Microsoft retail stores by November 2, 2014, there’s an incentive program which lets you get as much as $650 in trade-in credit towards the purchase of a Surface Pro 3 if you turn in a working MacBook Air.