My Doctor Is My Dealer*

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Let me start by saying that I am not generally opposed to modern pharmaceuticals.  As a sufferer of kidney stones, I am very happy that morphine and its opiate relations are available to me.  But I have to wonder if we, as a nation, are not using modern pharmaceuticals a bit too much.  For example, at a recent physical, I was told my cholesterol was outside the norm.  So rather than tell me to lose 40 pounds - which would be a good idea and a goal I have - I was put on a commonly prescribed statin drug. One described as clean, meaning few side effects and few interactions. For grins, I will take it for a while and see what happens, but I will work harder at losing the weight.

Further, two reports made me sit up and take notice that this is getting worse, rather than better.  The first was that more than 25% of boys have been diagnosed as ADHD.  The second was that 1 in 50 children are suffering from an Autism spectrum disorder.

1 in 4 boys are suffering from ADHD?  And the solution for this is to medicate them?! ADHD is characterized by either significant difficulties of inattention or hyperactivity and impulsiveness or a combination of the two. Without getting into it too far, this describes most boys between the ages of 2 and 30 (and a number of teenage girls too). I am sure there is a standard by which the rather subjective definition of significant is, but I am also wondering if part of the problem is a simple lack of exercise. I do remember growing up, that we had a lot of running around.  Sports, recess, after school sports, and walking back and forth to school.  Today, not so much.  As I have written numerous time, we are seeing a serious decrease in exercise in schools.  Recess is almost non-existent, sports are more standing than participating, and we all know that walking to school is almost a vanished skill. So I am skeptical that medication is really the answer.  Or even the primary solution.

Autism is a little bit harder though.  The new guidelines lump a whole mess of spectrum disorders under the heading of Autism and do not take into account the level of severity.  Again, autism is characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior.  We are all familiar with the gross levels of autism, but again I have to wonder if we have not gone too far in the diagnosis.  Under these descriptions, I could be suffering from it, to some extent.  Of course, there are no drugs currently available, although I heard that a study into an Alzheimer's drug might help some of the more severely affected sufferers.

This is not to say that there are individuals who are bona fide sufferers.  Clearly and without question.  But based on the two survey's, these numbers are going up, not down, which begs the question - are we over targeting people that are not really suffering from these (or other) diseases, or has the genetics of humanity finally failed? Only time will tell.

* From Robin Williams's sketch on Drugs, Alcoholism, And More Drugs, on Weapons of Self Destruction

Camp Nanowrimo

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2013-Participant-Campfire-Square-ButtonApril 1, 2013 is a very busy day. It is Opening Day for Major League Baseball, it is April Fools Day, and it is the first day of Camp Nanowrimo.  Now, normally, I would not be too excited about that this year, especially since April is when I traditionally do Script Frenzy. In June last year, I reported that the Office of Lights and Letters had decided to terminate the annual script writing contest. So I was not particularly looking forward to April this year.  But lo and behold, as part of the April CampNanowrimo, you can write a script!  From the official FAQ:

Former Frenziers and scriptwriting novices unite! To determine your word-count goal for a script, just take the number of pages you'd like to write and multiply it by 200.

So, I am going to have to put my mind to it and see if I can find the bandwidth to write a script between all the other work that has to be done.  I do like the art of writing a script!

Wal-Mart Shows The Way

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Wal-Mart doesn’t have enough bodies to restock the shelves (Bloomberg)

While the article is about the loss of business by Wal-Mart to other cost conscious retailers, that fragment caught my attention.  Further, Wal-Mart says the problem is not stock:

Our in stock levels are up significantly in the last few years, so the premise of this story, which is based on the comments of a handful of people, is inaccurate and not representative of what is happening in our stores across the country

So, if the stock is there, why is it not on the shelf? Especially with the unemployment rate at 7.7% (est), roughly 4.8 million people are looking for work. But Wal-Mart cannot find enough people to get stock on the shelves? I find this baffling. But only slightly.

Clearly there are a couple of factors at work, but I cannot exactly come to any conclusion which one is having the most impact. It could also be a combination of factors. Here are my thoughts. First, those looking for work are not looking for a minimum wage job.  They are professionals, with mortgages, student loans, and credit cards to pay off, much less be able to feed and clothe their families. Second, I am willing to be that if Wal-Mart is paying minimum wage, it is only just paying it. In those areas of the country without a stated minimum wage, they are paying much less.  Which makes it hard even for those willing to accept those jobs to make ends meet.  Third, they cannot find skilled workers. I have said this before, but there are a large percentage of the population that simply are not able to function in our modern society.  Either because of illiteracy, and in this case I mean being unable to either read, write, do basic math, or use basic tools like scanners and registers, or because of work status. Not all immigrants are illegal, but most human resource departments do not have the proper training for evaluating the documents that are needed to get a job, and thus they are turned down, rather than put the company at risk.

And yet the companies, including Wal-Mart, will not invest.  As stated further down in the article:

Adding five full-time employees to Wal-Mart’s (WMT) U.S. supercenters and discount stores would add about a half- percentage point to selling, general and administrative expenses...about $448 million a year.

Half a percentage point, which would be passed onto consumers who are barely able to pay the prices of these goods in the first place. Which really is the bottom line. If they raise their prices, people will not shop there, further increasing the flight. Or so the business logic goes. I do not buy it though.  I believe that most people would rather pay a little more for good quality goods, and good service, rather than the lowest price. I would argue that the chickens are coming home to roost.

Wal-Mart is discovering that lowest price is not the be all and end all of retail success. Sadly, this comes at a point when they have almost entirely crushed out of existence all of the potential alternatives. Leaving the shopping public with few, if any, alternatives.

A Wintry Mix?

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Snow on the trees

Snow on the trees

Early this month, Washington, DC was paralyzed by a monster snow storm. I think we got an inch of snow. Maybe. Now some to the west received considerably more, but most people got maybe an inch.  Schools were shuttered, the Federal Government preemptively closed and people rushed out to get milk, bread, and toilet paper.

The trees through the Arch

The trees through the Arch

Since then, there have been two wintery mix events. The first one dumped three to six inches on us.  Last night, we got another two inches.  Yes, two events, described as wintry mixes have delivered more snow than a predicted Snowmageddon.   Which begs the question...how do I get a job where I can be factually wrong, more often than I am right and still keep my job?

Enjoy the pictures.

I Do Not Have A Bucket List

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Two items came into conjunction this morning.  One, a tweet:

What's on your bucket list? My list included being on Jeopardy.... Life is short- Live your dreams!

The other a text:
...hospice says he has a week, maybe two.

One of my friends is going to be on Jeopardy, the other is likely to be dead of cancer by the end of the month.

I am of that age where most would consider it middle age.  I have lived about half my life, depending on who you listen too, and based on my genetics.  I have been fortunate that I have attended more weddings than funerals.  But that might be changing.

What is on your bucket list? I do not have a bucket list.  Those that know me would agree I am not one to make lists.  Of any sort.  I do not have a to do list, I am barely organized enough to make grocery lists, or "things I need for the radio" lists.  I am not a list person.

So not having a bucket list is not a surprise. But I do admit that perhaps, just perhaps, I have not fully lived my dreams.  Come to think of it, over the last year, I have barely been living. Existing perhaps, but not living.  It is tough to do more than exist when you are under the hammer for getting things accomplished because of huge financial penalties hanging over you and your company if you do not deliver on time.

But, on the other hand, if I were to die today, I am not sure I could say, "I wish I had...".  And that is really the point.  I am not going to sit here and be falsely philosophical. I remember a discussion around the camp fire that went something like, if you had a $1 million, what would you do?  Of course, the things that were put forward were the usual - travel, help, etc., but in the end, the result was, "so what, really is stopping you?"  Because it isn't the money.  This is not exactly true, but to a point it is.  Over the weekend I helped out the Marine Corps Marathon Program Office with their 17.75K run.  A number of people said "Thank you for coming out this morning."  As a volunteer, that is our payment.  And having total strangers thank you for helping is a great feeling.

So, if you are keeping a bucket list, let me ask these two questions: Why, and why are you not knocking things off it?  When your ticket it punched, it is too late to start knocking things off your list.

Life is short.  Live your dreams.  Today.

Follow up to National Handwriting Day

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I have been busy since the last post, which was on Fahrney's Handwriting contest to celebrate National Handwriting Day. I did not win, but don't cry, I did do well. The winning post is "The Personality of Pens."  I was selected as one of their favorites. I will smile and think I came in fourth, but it was fun to just write it. You might want to take inspiration from this and sit down and write something of your own.

In the meantime, I am going back to working on my day job.

January 23rd – National Handwriting Day

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When was the last time you picked up a pen and wrote a letter? Nothing large, but more than what you would traditionally put on a pre-printed birthday card.  A month? A year? More? Sadly, if you answered less than a year, you are in the minority. And that is a sad statement. I am writing this post using a computer, not pen and ink. There are a number of reasons for this, but despite how much care and feeling I put into the post, it will not likely echo from the screen. There will be no variation in line width, no variable height to the letter, no tactile feeling of the paper under your fingers. Your eyes will flick over the words, quickly, and move on to the next post, on the next web site. Unless I can hook you with my words, you will barely remember what I wrote by the time the next page loads.

Not so with a letter. Oh, you might not remember the exact content of it, but you might remember the condition of the envelop, or the colour of the ink.  You might remember a passage when you see it laying in a drawer, or on a desk. But quickly the contents of the letter would come back. Shape of the letters would impart themselves, colour the words, and bring about a tone that the uniformity of a typewritten word can never convey. And yet, people are finding the convenience of sending an email, or a shorter text, the norm, rather than pouring their soul into a handwritten note.

But if you would like to change this, now is your chance. January 23rd is National Handwriting Day and if you are going to change your ways, this might be your incentive.  If you are feeling very adventurous,  Fahrney's Pens, here in DC, are having a little contest that might further spur your creative juices.

In either case, take the opportunity to set pen to paper and write a letter.  Start small.  A small note is a good way to start.  Soon you will be sending letters everywhere.  And discovering the joy of handwriting.

Wake Up Congress, Time To Get To Work

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While the political machinery is recovering from its collective hangover, the average American got up and went to work, and that buzzing they heard was the Congressional alarm clock. And this time they cannot afford to hit snooze any longer.

The media calls it the fiscal cliff, officially it is called Sequestration.  Most in DC are looking at it as the single largest layoff of federal contractors and employees in the history of the Federal Government. If Sequestration is not managed, it will do more to damage the American economy than the housing and banking fiascoes combined. Impacts are estimated to be as large as a billion dollars in lost revenues and millions of people unemployed.

Now I am not going to blow sunshine and flowers. The Federal government I broken, bloated, and needs some serious retooling, but wholesale, uncontrolled cuts are not the way to achieve this. In fact it has contributed to the sluggish recovery as companies that would have been hiring in October actually began laying people off because of the uncertainty caused by the lack of commitment, heck the lack of action by Congress on resolving this issue.

This all started, way back in early 2011 when the United States needed to raise its debt ceiling.  How and why they got to this stand-off is a long, tortuous road, but they got there, and the Congress, that group of power hungry politicians who never ran from a chance to avoid working while scoring political points, kicked the can down the road in a showdown over something they varnished with fiscal responsibility.  It was as far from it than you could get, and they did it in such a glorious fashion, you could hear the backslapping of congratulations all they way to Arlington.  Along came the Supercommittee, a non-solution to a non-solution and of course, they came up with no solution.  But there was no time to resolve this.  Congress was too busy trying to repeal the Affordable Care act (33 times, in fact) and trying to get re-elected, so yet again, they hit the proverbial snooze button and businesses, already nervous, started shaking like an addict in withdrawal. And their shaking has resulted in a the sloughing of a number of jobs on the fringes of the core, but there is less and less to slough and the time for serious cutting is drawing close.

The election is over.  It is now time for Congress to get back to work and fix the myriad of issues, outstanding decisions, and tasks that they have put off for far to long.  Call it a Lame Duck session if you will, but these last few months of this session of Congress will be the most important and most impactful in the history of the country.  Because if it is not, it will prove to the American people how little the Congress cares about them.  And given how low an opinion America has of Congress, that will not be a good thing.

NaNoWriMo 2012

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NaNoWriMoParticipant November 1 means the start of the National Novel Writing Month! Now lest you think this insanity is just happening here in the Excited States of America, let me set the record straight.  NaNo is world wide!  There are people in Asia who are close to starting on Day 2 of this 30 day descent in to insanity and novel writing.  The goal: 50,000 words in 30 days (that works out to about 1700 words a day).  If you think that is a trivial amount of writing, then I encourage, nay, I challenge you to participate.  This will be my fourth year, and so far, I have no clue what I am going to write about.  I just know that 30 days from now, I will be a little greyer and hopefully, I will have cranked out some sort of novel.  It might be like last year, where the novel crossed the mark but was never really finished as a story, or maybe it will be like 2009 where I not only crossed the finish line, but also finished the story.  I am certainly hoping I do not repeat 2010 where I not only did not cross the finish line, but I barely got out of the starting blocks - a paltry 4,000 words written.  I could say I had a good excuse - and I did, a new job, and very busy getting acclimated, but really, I did not feel inspired and so I did not write.

So, sharpen your pencil, grab your word processor, and dive into that novel.  The motto of the month is "No Plot, No Problem," so do not let anything stand in your way!  Skip the laundry!  Put out a month of food for the pets, and tell your family you will see them in December (you wanted an excuse not to visit the in-laws for Thanksgiving anyway right?) and get writing!

I will see you at the end!

Is it time to rethink the US holiday calendar?

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First, let me wish my Canadian friends a Happy Thanksgiving.  For my US friends, those at least that do not work for the Federal government, financial institutions or the odd school district, it is just another Monday morning.  Today is Columbus Day and like most of what I call the "Little Four," - today, Veteran's Day (November), MLK Day (January), and President's Day (February) - is a normal work day.  More and more, these four days are less a holiday and more of a work day.  Even school districts can no longer say they are vacations.  In fact, most school districts now only take off two of them - MLK and Columbus, although some no longer take off Columbus.

And honestly, unless you work for the Federal government, you could argue that there really are no mandatory holidays in the United States anymore.  Even Easter, a non-Federal holiday, is finally seeing a break in the "everything is closed" mentality.  And as I have commented, it is very odd that you can buy a car on Independence Day, but you cannot buy a gallon of milk on Easter Sunday.  Even the sacred cows of Thanksgiving and Christmas are no longer days of rest.  Movie theatres, grocery stores, and other stores are opening.  Which begs the question - Why does the United States still have Federal holidays, if no one really gets a holiday?  This will continue to evolve as the United States struggles, and I mean struggles, to merge into the global economy.

As I mentioned, today is a holiday in Canada - a mandatory holiday.  I do not know anyone who is working today (if you are, drop me a note and tell me what industry you are in - First Responders, yeah, I know - sorry, but thanks!).  Not so if you work in the United States.  Especially if you work for an international corporation.   I have received phone calls on Thanksgiving, asking for technical support; Christmas for getting things printing in time for a release; and a number of phone calls when I am on holiday.  So, do holidays matter?  Of course.  And in the United States, holidays are almost as scares as hen's teeth.  Real time off is hard to come by, and productivity continues to decline as people burn out.

So I propose a major change to the US holiday calendar.  Scrap it.  Yes, scrap it.  Throw it out.  There are no more Federal Holidays.  In place, mandate a minimum of four weeks vacation for those employers that have more than 10 employees.  If you want to take August off and go to the beach, and your employer can cover you, have fun and take your sunscreen.  If you would rather take it one day at a time, that works too.

Of course, this is all dreaming.  The United States government does not believe in dictating to businesses how to manage their employees, at least, unless it has something to do with workplace harassment or a number of now outdated labour laws.  One has to wonder what the roll of the Department of Labour is anymore.

So, enjoy your day off, or your work day, or whatever today is for you.  I will put another pot of coffee on.