eric135

We decided to put up pictures of our pets for Valentine's Day

For Valentine's Day, someone on our unit had the wonderful idea of posting pictures of all of our pets. It's been extremely popular, and it has done a lot of good bringing some unity to the staff. With all of the turmoil of the past several months, with our director resigning, and the subsequent problems associated with that kind of loss, it's nice to see staff sharing and enjoying each other while standing in front of this bulletin board.

The patients seem to like it also. Makes us all look just a little more human, I suppose.

The Godfather I, II and III; The Stimulus Package

General bits:

• I've been watching the Godfather movies over the past couple of days (Godfather I was on AMC, now I'm working on II and III on Blu-Ray). Never realized before, not many strong female roles or role models in that movie. Women were basically furniture and/or window dressing. I'm about an hour into Part II, maybe they'll fix that... [Update: 6 hours later, and into the 3rd movie, Kay and Connie have emerged as pretty strong female roles].
• I'm thinking about the stimulus package... I think they should just directly put the money into folks that have lower credit scores -- say <600. I mean, folks with better scores will save/hoard the money for a rainey day. Lower credit score folks have already established a record for doing what is needed most -- spending money in an economic environment that is telling consumers to constrict spending. Even if they spend the stimulus money on paying off old debt, generally, they will take those zero balances and buy, well, shoes. Or Blu-rays. Or cars. Or big screen TVs. I don't think stimulus money will be very effective going for tax credits for buying new houses. Should the housing market continue to shrink, that will just put more folks behind the 8-ball. We need folks that will cash the check and immediately start spending, not try to get a loan. Just my opinion.
• It has been raining all day.

The Last One...

The Last One...

Sarah Palin supports aerial shooting of wolves and bears

This is really disgusting.

Sarah Palin is really disgusting.

God Damn Sarah Palin to Hell.

EyeOnPalin.org

Jury Duty, George Takei, Twitter and a watercolor Rooster...

• I hadn't painted anything in a few days (that didn't look like something only my mother would hang on her refrigerator at home). But I was listening to CNBC, a Senate hearing on the need for Senate oversight on corporate spending of TARP money. This image of a rooster came to mind. Yeah I know. Big one, eh? Yeah I thought so too. I've got a serious problem with scale, if those trees are, say, oaks. Puts that cock at about 100 feet (sorry I could not resist).
• I gotta go to Jury Duty. Again. I barely make it past my 18-month hiatus and then another letter comes in the mail. I have been to jury duty at least 4-5 times since we moved here. It's ridiculous considering how many folks I know just never ever get summoned. So over the next few weeks, I'll try to think of some really offensive statements to make in front of the judge so I won't have to go for a trial.
• I've been Twittering more lately (follow me @Eric135). It is fun, now that I'm following folks, and some folks are following me. I'm not sure, but one of the Twits (don't scoff, that's what we're called) is apparently none other than Mr. Sulu himself, @GeorgeTakei!! I got the link to the latest Star Trek Movie trailer. God bless the internets.
• Back to work for 2 nights...

Facebook and Twitter

A general poutpourri of updates:

• I finally succumbed and joined Facebook. I had resisted up until now, because I hardly write on this blog anymore, and I don't like my real name associated with an internet presence and Facebook requires your real name.
• I don't have very many friends on Facebook. It's my own fault because I don't utilize the networking functions, where you identify groups (such as schools, employers) and instead am relying solely on person-to-person connections to make Friends. So I "befriended" my family, and so far I've reconnected with friends from my teenage years (what a hoot that has been) and some cousins (who were babies the last I saw them, or even were not yet born when I last visited the Philippines). I also hooked up with my best friend from high school, but whom I have not seen since 1982 or so.
• I find that I am getting to be a lot more inhibited with what I say on Facebook, as opposed to my thoroughly opinionated and passionate writings on my blog.
• I have not yet decided if I will network Facebook through my present employer. Right now, I doubt it.
• I did set my Twitter updates to also update my Facebook status... although really I can't figure out what kind of use I will get from this function.
• I recently ran across this article on Wired about the privacy ramifications of an online presence. The article is about the hazards of the new GPS capabilities of the iPhone and Google phone, but I am always stewing about the amount of personal info one can glean from blogs and social sites.
• So now I've got Twitter updates going to Facebook, and Twitter and Facebook updates going to my phone. This seems too much. I mean, how much use can these phone updates be? I mean, what daily use can these beeps and auto updates be to me?
• Oh shit, my phone just reminded me to pay my damn rent...