This started out to be a communication blog, but I have had life adventures and regular posting was not in the cards. I am going to take a shot at reviving it as a general-life blog for friends who want to keep up with my story. I will also post my thoughts and ideas here, which will probably involve politics, religion, and other controversies.
Monday, January 5, 2026
It's only been a few years . . .
I think I'm going to revive this blog. I've been wanting to write more lately, and this is a good format for me. Is anybody still out there?
Wednesday, October 28, 2020
Writing prompt: Eavesdropper: Create a poem, short story, or journal entry about a conversation you’ve overheard.
Sometimes I overhear the damndest things on the bus. Some folks just aren't self-conscious at all. I've overheard personal conversations about STDs, people fleeing violent relationship (either side), and two guys sentenced to AA meetings convincing each other to sign their own meeting records and skip the meeting in favor of using some pills one of them had.
The all-time topper, though, wasn't exactly eavesdropping. I was on a westbound #10 bus here in Columbus one afternoon with a passenger who was trying to sell anyone a prescription written to him for pain medicine. He addressed the entire bus seeking a buyer. I don't know if he wanted the money for a different drug or something else, but he must not have been worried about being arrested for that. He left the bus with another man, and I guess he sold his script. The risk of that takes my breath away, but I guess addicts do what they have to do.
(Prompt from https://thinkwritten.com/365-creative-writing-prompts/)Monday, October 26, 2020
Writing prompt: The Vessel;
Write about a ship or other vessel that can take you somewhere different from where you are now.
(This prompt and the last one come from https://thinkwritten.com/365-creative-writing-prompts/.)
Not a ship for me. I could take a small boat down the Scioto River, then something bigger on to the Gulf of Mexico, but there's a hurricane headed that way. The vessel for me would be a minivan or similar land vehicle that could take me anywhere in the Americas in due time when the travel restrictions for the virus go away. In the meantime, I could live in the vehicle if need be, or at least use it for local transportation.Where to go, though? All over! Roads run from the northern edge of Alaska to Tierra del Fuego at the southern tip of South America and from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific. There are tons of places I've never been to and quite a few I'd like to see again. The vessel could call at many "ports" and not be done seeing everything in one lifetime.</p>
Tuesday, October 20, 2020
Daily writing prompt: what's the weather outside your window doing right now?
The rain stopped sometime this morning, but the sky won't clear before tonight or maybe tomorrow. The asphalt parking lot still looks a little wet. We're downwind from Lake Erie and Lake Michigan here, and the clouds rule most of the cold season.
I'm not forever restless and ready to leave any given place like I once was, but if I move along in the future, climate or weather will have everything to do with it. My sinuses never liked Ohio humidity, and my lungs have joined in that chorus. They both want to go to the Southwest until wildfire season comes. Then there's no good place to be except maybe the Dakotas. My knees, meanwhile, have grown creaky and they object to my enduring winters here. Climate change or desert air would help with that, or I could go to Florida for the few months between hurricane season and extreme humidity, except for the bugs there. I know, by this time, that I'm not going to find one place with a great year-round climate except a couple of places I can't afford.
I know people who live on wheels. Needless to say, there are drawbacks to that, too.
The bottom line, though, is simpler than that. I don't get much attachment to places, and there's a family history going back more than a century on both sides. What I get attached to is people. I have grandchildren, "family of origin," and close friends now that I never dreamed of in my younger days. I'll probably move around this part of the city, but I won't be leaving the area "for good" without a damn good reason.
Sunday, October 22, 2017
Another couple of years went by
So I got the disability. I moved back to Columbus, but have yet to succeed in following up on the lung issue. I've been trying to work with Primary One Health Care. Their only advantage is taking Medicaid. However, I've reinforced my impression that "reactive" asthma is most of what I have. I've found a correlation to humidity, and other than that I react to any scented product and most cleaners, petroleum products, etc.
The bike is an "e-bike," which means a bike where the rider's assisted by an electric motor and battery. This one's pretty cheap, but it gets me around the city much better than I can do without it.
After a year and a half, I'm still trying to get my back pay from the government. I've received two payments, but will eventually get another one. The bike came out of my last one, and the next one might bring me a minivan. I think I need a drier climate for my lungs, but I'd rather stay near the grandkids and my recovery friends. We'll see what happens.
Saturday, January 30, 2016
Still alive/around
EDIT: I have learned that I have to attach this blog to Google in order to post it to Facebook. Google controls (and tracks) too many things to be trusted, so I will find some way to migrate this blog to another platform. Stand by for updates.
I'm still around, but it's past time for an update.
I have gone through the entire Social Security Disability/SSI process and am awaiting formal results. I went all the way through the "final" appeal hearing, and I received a letter from the hearing officer. My lawyer and I believe this letter means I have been determined to be disabled, but we could not make heads or tails of the rest of it. I'm still awaiting clarification.
My medical situation continues confusing. The sleep diagnoses are sleep apnea (relatively mild) and hypersomnia, which just means I sleep too much in the daytime but do not have narcolepsy. I'll get a second opinion on the narcolepsy when I can use big-city medical resources. My other conditions are basically stable. I discovered during our first cold snap this year that the arthritis in my left foot flares badly when the temperature drops.
In the meantime, I have been seeing a pulmonologist (lung doctor), who always sounds confident. It has become obvious that she is guessing what is wrong because she keeps ordering tests that fit different diseases. My guess says the Breathing Association was correct in the beginning. They said asthma with indoor allergies.
I continue using Linux, but I changed to LinuxMint 17.2. I gave up Windows because it's difficult and annoying to install the dual boot (keep both) without training and background in this technology. Having done that, I began running into other problems that I cannot solve without much more knowhow, and LinuxMint's oversold "community" has shown little ability to understand my level of ability or inability. All the Linux who tried to help me work in the computer field, and their skills are too far above mine for them to understand my questions. I don't understand the jargon, and they don't understand questions not using it. I will go back to Windows when I get another laptop. That will be as soon as possible. The two laptops I own are too old to run Windows and pretty old even for "lightweight" Linux varieties.
I bought a tablet in July of 2014. Admittedly, I bought the cheapest one I could find new. I believe the Android version was 4.4 or thereabouts. Even with an accessory keyboard (extra cost and weight), I could only develop indifferent skill with it. The Android apps often either cut programs down too much for me to understand, put functions where I cannot find them, or use some approach I am now aware of. I never figured out security very well, either. Now the tablet has been taken over by ransom-ware and I have no idea what to do with it. Whatever happens to the tablet, my bottom line is knowing how to work in Windows, how to get help, and easily finding freeware for it.
My future plans are unknown. I expect to get some amount of money for the "back" amount of my Social Security and/or SSI, but the amount and payment procedure are determined by whether I get one, the other, or some of each. Medical coverage (Medicare or Medicaid) is even more uncertain.
I miss the resources I had in Columbus (transit, MetroParks, big libraries, choices about medical resources) and I still have close friends there, so I'll probably go back there, but my asthma and other factors will determine whether I stay, move, or do something else.
For those who will ask, I'm still very active in 12-Step recovery.
I'm still around, but it's past time for an update.
I have gone through the entire Social Security Disability/SSI process and am awaiting formal results. I went all the way through the "final" appeal hearing, and I received a letter from the hearing officer. My lawyer and I believe this letter means I have been determined to be disabled, but we could not make heads or tails of the rest of it. I'm still awaiting clarification.
My medical situation continues confusing. The sleep diagnoses are sleep apnea (relatively mild) and hypersomnia, which just means I sleep too much in the daytime but do not have narcolepsy. I'll get a second opinion on the narcolepsy when I can use big-city medical resources. My other conditions are basically stable. I discovered during our first cold snap this year that the arthritis in my left foot flares badly when the temperature drops.
In the meantime, I have been seeing a pulmonologist (lung doctor), who always sounds confident. It has become obvious that she is guessing what is wrong because she keeps ordering tests that fit different diseases. My guess says the Breathing Association was correct in the beginning. They said asthma with indoor allergies.
I continue using Linux, but I changed to LinuxMint 17.2. I gave up Windows because it's difficult and annoying to install the dual boot (keep both) without training and background in this technology. Having done that, I began running into other problems that I cannot solve without much more knowhow, and LinuxMint's oversold "community" has shown little ability to understand my level of ability or inability. All the Linux who tried to help me work in the computer field, and their skills are too far above mine for them to understand my questions. I don't understand the jargon, and they don't understand questions not using it. I will go back to Windows when I get another laptop. That will be as soon as possible. The two laptops I own are too old to run Windows and pretty old even for "lightweight" Linux varieties.
I bought a tablet in July of 2014. Admittedly, I bought the cheapest one I could find new. I believe the Android version was 4.4 or thereabouts. Even with an accessory keyboard (extra cost and weight), I could only develop indifferent skill with it. The Android apps often either cut programs down too much for me to understand, put functions where I cannot find them, or use some approach I am now aware of. I never figured out security very well, either. Now the tablet has been taken over by ransom-ware and I have no idea what to do with it. Whatever happens to the tablet, my bottom line is knowing how to work in Windows, how to get help, and easily finding freeware for it.
My future plans are unknown. I expect to get some amount of money for the "back" amount of my Social Security and/or SSI, but the amount and payment procedure are determined by whether I get one, the other, or some of each. Medical coverage (Medicare or Medicaid) is even more uncertain.
I miss the resources I had in Columbus (transit, MetroParks, big libraries, choices about medical resources) and I still have close friends there, so I'll probably go back there, but my asthma and other factors will determine whether I stay, move, or do something else.
For those who will ask, I'm still very active in 12-Step recovery.
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Linux and personal update
This is a catch-all post. I have another one on my mind but I have waited too long to do this and I have loose ends to organize.
First, the Linux update. As I type this, I have been using Pinguy Linux for a couple of months. I have dual-installed it on two laptops, both of which run Windoze 7 otherwise. I re-installed it on this one because of a booting (startup) issue, and that has worked well. This netbook has no DVD drive, but saving the Pinguy download to an SD card solved that. In addition, it gave me an entire set of software that I can carry around in my pocket if need be.
Most of this works the same way it did in Windows although the wording may differ and program names always do. Setting up different software is easier because I don't have to download or pay for any of it; it's included free and is part of Pinguy. All I have to do is click a "menu" button in the upper left corner of the screen and find the correct category of software. The actual installation is pretty much exactly the same. Most other functions reside there as well. The menus get long but I like the organization.
I spend most of my time in Mozilla Firefox, a popular browser that works with almost everything on the Internet, and I do occasional word processing (Libre Office). All of this is familiar. Now and then I use something else. No problem. The desktop differs from Windows; there are more useful things there. Also, the browser screen does not automatically take up the full screen, but it can be set to do so from that same menu button. If I leave it as only part of the screen, I tend to run into things in Docky, which is basically the task bar containing things like the trash can (recycle in Windows) that people use often spread around different sides of the screen. All in all, the big problem was installing Pinguy in the first place. Once installed, it works more easily than I had expected.
Now for the personal update. I have had an interesting time at the same time that most of my days have been boring. I have had no cash income between selling my junk car before Thanksgiving and receiving my income tax return a few days ago. Therefore, I spent very little time in stores other than grocery buying with my food benefits. I find little that I can do with no car, no money, and no job. I have however caught up on most of my Internet activities. I actually read a bit less than I did before due to that.
The transit here lacks reliability, evening operating hours, and intelligent design. I have been using it anyhow when I could get the $1 per trip fare. I celebrated when I finally got one of my bicycles back. I have been riding it whenever possible. When my tax return came in, I ordered a trailer for the bicycle. Given that I will not have money to buy a car in the near future, I will use the trailer to make the bike do jobs such as big grocery runs and trips to the laundromat.
I continue in the process of trying to get a disability income. I received my notice that my first appeal was denied pretty much as expected. I am waiting a while to continue the process because I have Medicaid now and I am using it to gather much more evidence of my medical condition.
The two largest current events in my illness/disability story are (a) I am now taking an extended-release generic for nitroglycerin (heart medication) as an experiment to see whether it helps my symptoms and (b) I have a sleep study scheduled for the 20th of this month.
The shortness of breath and constant fatigue do seem to improve with the medicine. I may have found a cause for my un-wellness. That is a good news-bad news kind of thing. The bad news is that I might have heart problems. The good news is that those issues might get me my disability.
Most of the people who know me and also the medical people expect the sleep study to find apnea. Given that I snore too much to sleep on my back (I wake myself up) and have had insomnia my entire life, they are probably right.
As I mentioned above, I have another post in mind. You will see that as soon as I have the energy to write it.
First, the Linux update. As I type this, I have been using Pinguy Linux for a couple of months. I have dual-installed it on two laptops, both of which run Windoze 7 otherwise. I re-installed it on this one because of a booting (startup) issue, and that has worked well. This netbook has no DVD drive, but saving the Pinguy download to an SD card solved that. In addition, it gave me an entire set of software that I can carry around in my pocket if need be.
Most of this works the same way it did in Windows although the wording may differ and program names always do. Setting up different software is easier because I don't have to download or pay for any of it; it's included free and is part of Pinguy. All I have to do is click a "menu" button in the upper left corner of the screen and find the correct category of software. The actual installation is pretty much exactly the same. Most other functions reside there as well. The menus get long but I like the organization.
I spend most of my time in Mozilla Firefox, a popular browser that works with almost everything on the Internet, and I do occasional word processing (Libre Office). All of this is familiar. Now and then I use something else. No problem. The desktop differs from Windows; there are more useful things there. Also, the browser screen does not automatically take up the full screen, but it can be set to do so from that same menu button. If I leave it as only part of the screen, I tend to run into things in Docky, which is basically the task bar containing things like the trash can (recycle in Windows) that people use often spread around different sides of the screen. All in all, the big problem was installing Pinguy in the first place. Once installed, it works more easily than I had expected.
Now for the personal update. I have had an interesting time at the same time that most of my days have been boring. I have had no cash income between selling my junk car before Thanksgiving and receiving my income tax return a few days ago. Therefore, I spent very little time in stores other than grocery buying with my food benefits. I find little that I can do with no car, no money, and no job. I have however caught up on most of my Internet activities. I actually read a bit less than I did before due to that.
The transit here lacks reliability, evening operating hours, and intelligent design. I have been using it anyhow when I could get the $1 per trip fare. I celebrated when I finally got one of my bicycles back. I have been riding it whenever possible. When my tax return came in, I ordered a trailer for the bicycle. Given that I will not have money to buy a car in the near future, I will use the trailer to make the bike do jobs such as big grocery runs and trips to the laundromat.
I continue in the process of trying to get a disability income. I received my notice that my first appeal was denied pretty much as expected. I am waiting a while to continue the process because I have Medicaid now and I am using it to gather much more evidence of my medical condition.
The two largest current events in my illness/disability story are (a) I am now taking an extended-release generic for nitroglycerin (heart medication) as an experiment to see whether it helps my symptoms and (b) I have a sleep study scheduled for the 20th of this month.
The shortness of breath and constant fatigue do seem to improve with the medicine. I may have found a cause for my un-wellness. That is a good news-bad news kind of thing. The bad news is that I might have heart problems. The good news is that those issues might get me my disability.
Most of the people who know me and also the medical people expect the sleep study to find apnea. Given that I snore too much to sleep on my back (I wake myself up) and have had insomnia my entire life, they are probably right.
As I mentioned above, I have another post in mind. You will see that as soon as I have the energy to write it.
Thursday, December 5, 2013
Pinguy Linux update
One month on, Linux is again a major malfunction for me. I installed it on my laptop after it had worked well for about ten days or two weeks. There was a glitch about starting it from the "boot menu," and I eventually re-installed Pinguy because of that. When I updated after the re-install, something went wrong with the boot menu, and now I cannot make the computer do anything. Fortunately for me, I have a little simple computer that I can use. When I asked a question about this on a Pinguy forum, I got an answer that assumed I did not know to save changes, which is one of the earliest things I learned about computer work, circa 1989. One of my issues about Linux in general is that most of the Linux users I talk to show condescension, contempt, or both.
I will probably keep the computer that is down and try other things. After all, I have nothing to lose. I keep reading how Pinguy is "user friendly" and usable for anyone, even the inexperienced. I don't think so. Linux in general is over-sold. I have been pursuing this particular will-of-the-wisp for several years. It has cost me a prior computer and forced me to "restore" another to factory settings, losing all of my documents and pictures in the process. Moral of the story: user friendly is an easy term to say, but actual results may vary.
I will probably keep the computer that is down and try other things. After all, I have nothing to lose. I keep reading how Pinguy is "user friendly" and usable for anyone, even the inexperienced. I don't think so. Linux in general is over-sold. I have been pursuing this particular will-of-the-wisp for several years. It has cost me a prior computer and forced me to "restore" another to factory settings, losing all of my documents and pictures in the process. Moral of the story: user friendly is an easy term to say, but actual results may vary.
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
Pinguy Linux
After several years of stress, mistakes, and other issues, I am using a Linux distribution as my operating system as I write this post. The confusion and issues cleared once I found a called OSDisc.com where I could request a "live" disc with the operating system (OS) I wanted to use. It cost me $4 for the disc and $4 and change of Postal Service shipping, but that includes all the software I need for anything I do. Using the live disc required no computer knowledge beyond changing the "boot order" of the computer, which is not especially difficult. I did have to look at the new GUI (starting screen, mostly), because that's better arranged and gives far more information than my prior Windows interface.
I have yet to install Pinguy on my hard drive because I'm being very cautious about saving my Windows files and about noting differences in operation from Windows systems, but I think I will be using the Linux setup most of the time in the future.
I have yet to install Pinguy on my hard drive because I'm being very cautious about saving my Windows files and about noting differences in operation from Windows systems, but I think I will be using the Linux setup most of the time in the future.
Monday, October 28, 2013
Hi to all two of my followers.
There's some sort of "update" on Blogger, and it showed me a peak on page views recently. While that may be someone stumbling across this by accident, it does mean I'm still a blogger in some technical sense.
I'm not sure what I've published here, but life has taken a fairly strange turn or two. I will publish more when I have permission, but for now I'll just say I'm living in a corn field in central Ohio. I have applied for a disability through Social Security, been turned down and appealed. I really do not expect to receive Social Security or SSI, but might be able to get Medicaid long enough to get some of my issues addressed. I will be looking for work after a few things here resolve and I have an assignment scheduled beginning in December.
There's some sort of "update" on Blogger, and it showed me a peak on page views recently. While that may be someone stumbling across this by accident, it does mean I'm still a blogger in some technical sense.
I'm not sure what I've published here, but life has taken a fairly strange turn or two. I will publish more when I have permission, but for now I'll just say I'm living in a corn field in central Ohio. I have applied for a disability through Social Security, been turned down and appealed. I really do not expect to receive Social Security or SSI, but might be able to get Medicaid long enough to get some of my issues addressed. I will be looking for work after a few things here resolve and I have an assignment scheduled beginning in December.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Book Review: With Liberty and Justice for Some
With Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful, by Glenn Greenwald (2011, Metropolitan Books, New York) reports the news: powerful people have attacked a founding principle of the United States, equality under law. These people, politicians and corporate interests, have reached a point where they dismiss Federal laws and international agreements openly, even boastfully. Greenwald provides in-text sources for the modern-day events and quotes the Founding Fathers or gives Constitutional sources for his background references. However, he does not give footnotes or endnotes should a reader wish to check the references.
Greenwald spares neither parties nor personalities; liberals, conservatives, and moderates will each find some discomfort here. He also removes the illusions of those who still see the media as eager to expose wrongdoing. Greenwald concludes with a contrasting chapter on the lot of the less powerful, pointing out that the US prison population is huge and tends to be minorities and poor people. He points out that this growing prison population, largely non-violent drug users, does not correlate to either lower crime rates or reductions in drug use. In this chapter, he gives a good background to suggest why this continues despite its inability to achieve the stated results.
The flaws in Greenwald’s communication derive from his failure to go beyond passion. Except in the last chapter, he gives little background for his characters or their times. For example, why would Nixon do something as desperate as the Watergate break-in when he was leading in the polls and very likely to be re-elected without that? Why do people who make millions of dollars annually seek to make more millions by violating the law?
Greenwald spares neither parties nor personalities; liberals, conservatives, and moderates will each find some discomfort here. He also removes the illusions of those who still see the media as eager to expose wrongdoing. Greenwald concludes with a contrasting chapter on the lot of the less powerful, pointing out that the US prison population is huge and tends to be minorities and poor people. He points out that this growing prison population, largely non-violent drug users, does not correlate to either lower crime rates or reductions in drug use. In this chapter, he gives a good background to suggest why this continues despite its inability to achieve the stated results.
The flaws in Greenwald’s communication derive from his failure to go beyond passion. Except in the last chapter, he gives little background for his characters or their times. For example, why would Nixon do something as desperate as the Watergate break-in when he was leading in the polls and very likely to be re-elected without that? Why do people who make millions of dollars annually seek to make more millions by violating the law?
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Unintentional Communication
This Republican primary season has become a fine example of the difficulties of directing communications to a limited audience. All of these would-be nominees try all-out to woo the likely Republican primary voters, essentially Tea Party activists. None of them seems to notice that the entire country watches newscasts, and only Fox News has any sympathy for them. This leads to fascinating spectacles again and again.
Early on, we saw Sarah Palin spouting whatever came to mind, complete with a reality TV show and a bus tour, only to realize that continuing as a celebrity is safer and pays more than actually trying to run for President. I suspect that she might have caught on that a majority of the voters do not believe she could see Russia from her front porch. Her successors almost make her look sensible, and that is a difficult task.
Michelle Bachmann (remember her?) knew she would not have to use facts and figures to please the Tea Party. She was doing well without that, but then Newsweek put her picture on their cover looking crazy. Really crazy. Someone claimed that "crazy" was the only kind of picture available, and she drowned in the waves of laughter. Ron Paul comes and goes in the polls. The problem with him seems to be honesty. Congressman Paul appears to be a libertarian at heart, and that works fine on issues such as smaller government and lower taxes, but he would rather not outlaw sex or attempt to imprison anybody the Tea Party disapproves of. Governor Perry of Texas tends to talk like a drunk in a bar, which would be less of a problem if his many competitors pointed it out less often. Herman Cain knew the right words (except for that 9-9-9 thing) but quickly got a reputation for sexual harassment and at least one long-term adulterous affair. The Tea Party does not approve of sex for fun under any circumstances. Mitt Romney has somehow maintained a decent position in the polls through all of this. I suspect he depends on the non-Tea Party wing of the Republican Party, because he makes sense when he talks most of the time. Unfortunately, he has a record that would serve a Democrat well, he changes his stated positions often, and he is a Mormon. While I see Mormons as a kind of fundamentalist Christian, many in the Tea Party see them as some bizarre “other” creature, possibly out to destroy them.
So all of these people parade before the devout followers of Rush Limbaugh et al., trying to reach the Republican convention with enough delegates to grab the nomination so they can run against President Obama. They debate again and again, looking more and more foolish. They attack each other, using old pictures, past statements, and wild accusations.
The great thing for Obama is that they also parade before the rest of the USA. Obama will not need to spend as much money as usual on making new advertising against whichever one of these people outlasts the others. He can just use video of the debates and information the Republicans have already uncovered in this primary season.
Michelle Bachmann (remember her?) knew she would not have to use facts and figures to please the Tea Party. She was doing well without that, but then Newsweek put her picture on their cover looking crazy. Really crazy. Someone claimed that "crazy" was the only kind of picture available, and she drowned in the waves of laughter. Ron Paul comes and goes in the polls. The problem with him seems to be honesty. Congressman Paul appears to be a libertarian at heart, and that works fine on issues such as smaller government and lower taxes, but he would rather not outlaw sex or attempt to imprison anybody the Tea Party disapproves of. Governor Perry of Texas tends to talk like a drunk in a bar, which would be less of a problem if his many competitors pointed it out less often. Herman Cain knew the right words (except for that 9-9-9 thing) but quickly got a reputation for sexual harassment and at least one long-term adulterous affair. The Tea Party does not approve of sex for fun under any circumstances. Mitt Romney has somehow maintained a decent position in the polls through all of this. I suspect he depends on the non-Tea Party wing of the Republican Party, because he makes sense when he talks most of the time. Unfortunately, he has a record that would serve a Democrat well, he changes his stated positions often, and he is a Mormon. While I see Mormons as a kind of fundamentalist Christian, many in the Tea Party see them as some bizarre “other” creature, possibly out to destroy them.
So all of these people parade before the devout followers of Rush Limbaugh et al., trying to reach the Republican convention with enough delegates to grab the nomination so they can run against President Obama. They debate again and again, looking more and more foolish. They attack each other, using old pictures, past statements, and wild accusations.
The great thing for Obama is that they also parade before the rest of the USA. Obama will not need to spend as much money as usual on making new advertising against whichever one of these people outlasts the others. He can just use video of the debates and information the Republicans have already uncovered in this primary season.
The Republicans seeking the nomination are communicating more effectively than they know. Unfortunately for them, they are telling all Americans, not just the party faithful, who they are.
Monday, December 5, 2011
Book Review: Pictures of the Mind
Pictures of the Mind: What the New Neuroscience Tells Us About Who We Are
Miriam Boleyn-Fitzgerald
FT Press, 2010
Here's a book on brain imaging, and it turns out to have everything to do with communication. After all, communication of any sort originates in a brain (mind) and is directed to other brains (minds). Beyond that, people find it easy to believe they understand their own actions, moral values, and identity. Many people even believe that their memories given a clear and complete picture of their lives. This book addresses all of those questions, and the answers will enlighten readers.
Pictures of the Mind opens with a discussion of the differences among people in different non-responsive states; some are essentially dead, some not. Work on those distinctions should matter a grat deal to anyone whose loved one(s) cannot respond to stimuli. In fact, because accidents or illnesses can put anyone in such a state, this matters for all of us.
Having made a strong beginning with that important topic, Pictures of the Mind goes on to examine a new understanding of how people can change their personalities (emotional responses to life) by effort and why that matters so much, which includes a discussion of something I have learned from experience, that meditation is a more effective treatment than medication for some illnesses.
The chapter on happiness should help cheer readers after the serious topics, and happiness turns out to have a serious side itself because happiness and health go together. This also marks Pictures of the Mind as more than a discussion of illness; health, mental as well as physical, needs study. Then comes unhappiness; the next fascinating finding is that addicts have important brain responses in common with people who suffer chronic pain; progress in studying one might lead to progress with the other. This chapter adds a great deal more to that finding.
The most interesting part of the entire book for many readers will be the chapter on morality. This addresses whether the "brain" is exactly the same as the "mind" as well as the fact that the brain handles different moral decisions in measurably different ways, with contradictory results. Equally interesting, young brains do not have the same capacities or the same responses as grown-up brains. A fascinating discussion of legal and moral responsibility ensues, considering both people with impairments and "normal" (no measurable defects) citizens. Of course, spirituality, religion, and whether they are separate from the mind become a running thread in this section.
The chapter on memory (including releasing the power of or even removing traumatic experiences) and the concluding chapter on the "self" continue the fascinating quest to understand what it means to be human. The author is considerate enough to include a list of resources at the end of her book, so readers can continue learning about this fascinating subject.
Miriam Boleyn-Fitzgerald
FT Press, 2010
Here's a book on brain imaging, and it turns out to have everything to do with communication. After all, communication of any sort originates in a brain (mind) and is directed to other brains (minds). Beyond that, people find it easy to believe they understand their own actions, moral values, and identity. Many people even believe that their memories given a clear and complete picture of their lives. This book addresses all of those questions, and the answers will enlighten readers.
Pictures of the Mind opens with a discussion of the differences among people in different non-responsive states; some are essentially dead, some not. Work on those distinctions should matter a grat deal to anyone whose loved one(s) cannot respond to stimuli. In fact, because accidents or illnesses can put anyone in such a state, this matters for all of us.
Having made a strong beginning with that important topic, Pictures of the Mind goes on to examine a new understanding of how people can change their personalities (emotional responses to life) by effort and why that matters so much, which includes a discussion of something I have learned from experience, that meditation is a more effective treatment than medication for some illnesses.
The chapter on happiness should help cheer readers after the serious topics, and happiness turns out to have a serious side itself because happiness and health go together. This also marks Pictures of the Mind as more than a discussion of illness; health, mental as well as physical, needs study. Then comes unhappiness; the next fascinating finding is that addicts have important brain responses in common with people who suffer chronic pain; progress in studying one might lead to progress with the other. This chapter adds a great deal more to that finding.
The most interesting part of the entire book for many readers will be the chapter on morality. This addresses whether the "brain" is exactly the same as the "mind" as well as the fact that the brain handles different moral decisions in measurably different ways, with contradictory results. Equally interesting, young brains do not have the same capacities or the same responses as grown-up brains. A fascinating discussion of legal and moral responsibility ensues, considering both people with impairments and "normal" (no measurable defects) citizens. Of course, spirituality, religion, and whether they are separate from the mind become a running thread in this section.
The chapter on memory (including releasing the power of or even removing traumatic experiences) and the concluding chapter on the "self" continue the fascinating quest to understand what it means to be human. The author is considerate enough to include a list of resources at the end of her book, so readers can continue learning about this fascinating subject.
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Book Review: Willful Blindness
Willful Blindness: Why We Ignore the Obvious at Our Peril, by Margaret Heffernan; 2011, Walker & Company, New York.
According to the bio on her book jacket, Margaret Heffernan is a former producer for BBC radio and TV and has been CEO of several interactive media companies. She came across the term “willful blindness” in the transcript of the Enron trial, and it so interested her that she eventually wrote this book about it. The term “willful blindness” means “you are responsible if you could have known, and should have known, something that instead you strove not to see (p. 2).” It matters not whether this avoidance was conscious or not. As with so many books, the subtitle makes the point. This becomes a communication topic because none of us can reach an audience that will not listen.
Heffernan goes on to examine in detail ten important causes of willful blindness, with examples ranging from match.com’s use of affinity (like attracts like) to the role of fatigue in the disastrous explosion at BP’s Texas City oil refinery to the factor of being too sure of one’s ideas in the collapse of the world economy. She makes interesting connections by means of these causes. For example, Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, held onto the idea that “free, competitive markets are by far the unrivaled way to organize economies (quoted on p. 59)” long after the derivatives market endangered the economy in ways that he, of all observers, should have seen. He chose to hold onto what he already believed rather than see the facts in front of his face, a trait he shares with much of the world’s population, including some folks who believed that an alien space ship would save them from a world-ending flood back in 1954. Even after their entire prophecy proved false, most of them continued to believe, just as many American politicians continue to believe in “free, competitive markets” today.
Heffernan uses a chapter to examine each of the ten causes of willful blindness, and then gives us hope by including a chapter on people who do not blind themselves and one more chapter on ways to reduce one’s own blindness. Heffernan weaves her stories together very neatly around her themes, never losing track of the need to keep the reader involved. She uses a wide range of history and research to support her ideas, but this book reads far better than an academic paper. (Following up the endnotes is optional.) She gives a good bibliography and index, each of which increases the academic value and believability of Willful Blindness.
If you ever ask, “What was he thinking?” or “How could they not know?” read this book.
Friday, June 24, 2011
Willful Blindness
According to a book of the same name, "willful blindness" is a legal term for ". . . the idea that there is an opportunity for knowledge, and a responsibility to be infomed, but it is shirked." (Willful Blindness, by Margaret Heffernan, copyright 2011; Walker Publishing Company: New York.) I am still reading the book, and learning from it. The first three chapters discuss important reasons people ignore or fail to process important information. Expect a book review when I finish the reading. Unfortunately, that must take a back seat to my college courses, but I will persist.
I hope the importance of this to communication hits readers here immediately. Talking to people who fail to listen even if your subject affects them wastes your time and energy. Finding ways through the barriers stands to improve your communication skills much more than using "might" rather than "may" when some expert deems that appropriate.
Stay tuned for further discussions of this and related subjects.
I hope the importance of this to communication hits readers here immediately. Talking to people who fail to listen even if your subject affects them wastes your time and energy. Finding ways through the barriers stands to improve your communication skills much more than using "might" rather than "may" when some expert deems that appropriate.
Stay tuned for further discussions of this and related subjects.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
You can take back anything you say . . .
In fact, many organizations and some people take back almost everything they say. You can do so at any time by taking actions that fail to match your words. For example, I attend a "university," which will remain nameless for now. They say wonderful things in their heavy advertising, including the front page of the web site. Then they go and cancel that in so many ways: by having a low graduation rate, some instructors not suitable to teach, many courses and course web pages apparently prepared by amateurs, and allowing the public to believe they are not accredited (they are). I imagine most readers could give more examples of this. Hypocrisy costs a person or organization in more than morality and ethics; people who could not function at this school are giving their friends, relatives, and blog or social-networking readers word of mouth that the marketing department cannot overcome by words. Hence the heavy, expensive, advertising.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Only a thousand words?
 | Pictures are often worth more than a thousand words, but they usually need words to explain them. In this case, the words explained why European airspace was being closed after the eruption poured a huge amount of volcanic ash into the air. | |
| Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland from Boston.com April 2010 |
Communication as my subject
Because I specialize in communication and my major field is Organizational Communication, I have decided to focus this blog on communication. That’s a broad field; it may narrow over time, or I may continue looking at anything involving communication successes, failures, or methods. If communicating fascinates you as much as it does me, we’ll both enjoy this!
Monday, October 4, 2010
Another new course
This one is called Sociology of Work. It officially started September 27, but some unknown thing happened and the instructor has been replaced, a new adventure for me. All the same, I really enjoy sociology courses, and work especially fascinates me. I have done the first week's work and begun the second week. So far, so good.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
"Popular Culture" class
Please be advised that I will be using this blog for a "popular culture" class for the next six weeks. Apologies to any regular readers.
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