My day

Why does the Cleveland Clinic Suck Pt 1

2007-11-05T21:24:00.000-05:00

I'm talking about the premier Hospital in the Cleveland OH area. Don't get me wrong, it is always listed as one of the best hospital in the country, usually only topped in the rankings by John Hopkins in Baltimore, and the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. It is commonly considered the best hospital in the country for Health Care.

So what is my issue with the Clinic?

Well, it seems that if you are just a normal person, who is only looking for normal preventative care, or minor procedures, well, you really don't matter to the Cleveland Clinic. It seems like the only way you matter to the Cleveland Clinic is if you have some ailment that they can bill your insurance company lots of money, or if you are a wealthy foreign dignitary who is making some highly publicized visit here, you just don't count. They even brag about how they treat their V.I.P. patients. I have heard that they even have a special private floor for those who have the money.

My experience was that I had a small lump on my side that was not that big of a deal, but it was extremely painful. I took two separate times off from work to see my primary care doc. Both times it was told that he didn't know what it was, but these kind of things usually just go away. Finally on the third time of taking time off from work, my primary care doc wasn't in, so I took the first available. This do was quite nice, and almost immediately said that he thought it was something that should be looked at by one of the surgeons.

So, finally three weeks later when I get in to see the guy, he pretty much agrees with the primary care doc, and said I would need to make yet another appt. to come in for the procedure that would remove the lump. So two weeks later I got in for the procedure. It went OK, but obviously was yet another day where I had to take time off from work. Once the procedure was done, the Physician's Asst. came out and told me that I would have to make yet another appt to have the stitches removed.

So, if you were counting, the Cleveland Clinic got six visits out of me, and I had to take time off from work 6 separate times. Times like these I really miss my old doc who is retired. I would like to think that he would have diagnosed it right the first time, and removed it right there in the office on the same visit.

More to come later

christmas is coming

2007-10-31T14:19:00.000-04:00

OK, so I promise I won't do another rant about how people have their undies in a bunch because people say happy holidays instead of merry christmas.

But I suggest those that do, buy a crow bar to pry the undies out.

2007-10-31T14:17:00.000-04:00

OK, so this was kind of fun. I saw it on a friends blog

You are a
Social Liberal
(63% permissive)

and an...
Economic Moderate
(41% permissive)

You are best described as a:

Centrist (41e/63s)

Link: The Politics Test on OkCupid Free Online Dating
Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

War on Christmas? -- Give me a break!

2006-12-22T10:29:00.000-05:00

Here's wishing you a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year, or a happy whatever event you, your family and friends celebrate at this time of year.

Sorry I haven't posted in quite a while, but then again I probably only have between zero and one regular readers of my blog, and that number includes myself.

Now it's time that I crawl on the soapbox.

I'm sick and tired of people complaining about how some retail organizations are asking their people to say Happy Holidays versus Merry Christmas. Don't those two phrases mean essentially the same thing? Besides, I don't believe any of those retail organizations said anything about not wanting to experience the Christmas holiday. Let's face it, most retail organizations live or die by the sales during the Holiday season. (I used "Holiday" because the season lasts over multiple holidays, including Thanksgiving and New Year).

Now some news organization(s) have picked up on it, and are reporting it like we are in the middle of a culture war because of it. Personally, I think that is blowing thing way the hell out of proportion. News stories and commentary like that does nothing but inflame disgust and hatred in the far right fan base they cater to, towards moderates and liberals that they are portraying as being behind the movement (or war as they state) against Christmas.

If you are someone that believes that there is a War on Christmas, why don't you become someone on the front line and do something in the Christmas spirit. But what does that mean? Does it mean that you are supposed to make snide, sarcastic comments to anyone and everyone about how we aren't supposed to say Christmas any more, because it might offend someone? I don't think so. Does it mean that you should boycott a retail establishment that asks it's employee to say Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas? Well, I think that is a little extreme. Besides, like I mentioned earlier, doesn't Happy Holidays mean pretty much the same thing as Merry Christmas? I don't think anyone has ever been accused of being a heretic because they said Happy Holidays.

I'm so confused, What should I do?

Someone tell me what to do, Please.

It's been a while, Obviously

2006-07-04T17:45:00.000-04:00

Oh, how my life has changed since I last posted in Dec of 2004.

Carrie and I have bought a house. Carrie had back surgery, and I got laid of from my job, all in that order, and in about a months time. And I got laid off about a month and a half after I went to my boss, asking since I have all of these large, long term financial obligation coming up, if I had anything to worry about. I'll let you guess what his answer was.

I has the good fortune to go to Indianapolis twice to see the United States Grand Prix. If you follow Formula 1 racing you may remember that last years race only saw 6 of the 20 cars start and finish the race due to some political bickering between the teams and the series owner. Well this year only 9 cars finished, but at least all 22 cars started. It was an action packed race. But let me tell you, sitting in 95 degree (F) heat with moderately high humidity on aluminum bleachers with 20,000 of our closest friends wasn't fun.

Carrie and I were there for the whole 4 days of events including the Pit walkthrough. They allow anyone who has a raceday ticket to come into the pits while the teams are setting up on Thursday. It was awsome. And I'll try and get some pics posted in the near future.

I have also gotten a new job. I'm now working for a university, which is cool because I get free tuition. So I have also started back to school. This time it's for my MBA. It will be challenging though. It's only part time, all evenings. So it will be 2 nites a week for over three years. The hardest part will be adjusting to the time commitments. It's been 14 years since I last took classes, and I have gotten used to working only a 9-5 job. Oh well, it should be a good investment in our futures.

later

Christmas is coming, OOppps, I said Christmas

2004-12-15T15:05:00.000-05:00

This is one thing that is really bothering me lately. You see all over the mainstream media (yes I am talking about FoxNews) that Christmas is under attack. It seems like all over, city and state gov't are removing any reference to Chirstmas. and that retailers are not promoting Christmas, but Christmukah. It's all freakin' rediculous.

What the worst part is though is how FoxNews is making it seem like it's all over where it's happening, when in reality, it's only a view places. They are even attacking retailers who have changed their Christmas ads. In my opinion those ads that they are attacking is just fun and querky, and jews and chirstians should be offendend that someone is trying to push those two holidays together.

Don't get me wrong, I love FoxNews' news coverage. The problem is, there is less and less news coverage, and more an more opinion and editorial. FoxNews slams some of the larger newspapers for their liberal agenda, but what is being slammed is primarily in those papers Op/Ed section. Yet you don't see FoxNews stop the news coverage, and promote that they are going into an Op/Ed piece. They just keep going like it's actual news that they are covering.

Sorry, I'll get off my soapbox now

A look back -- Post Election, Final

2004-11-16T11:24:00.000-05:00

OK, so I had some illusions of grandure on this whole election process. Through the whole election and just after I though that if I voiced a few things, it would change the way people though... Over the past week, I realized that is just not what I am about. I am more of live and let live kind of guy. I cherrish other peoples thoughts and opinions, and I believe in free speech.

By the way, I voted for Kerry (like you couldn't have guessed).

And my final election issue, Where I live we had a local tax levy to give more funding to the schools. It failed, for the 7th straight time. Now our local school district will be placed in a fiscal state of emergency. The state will come in, fix what it feels needs to be fixed, turn control back over to the school board, then require repayment of what it spent. So, in the years to come, we will get control of the school back, with higher expenses, which will require a tax levy to pay for, and we will have to pay back the state. In my opinion it would have just been better to pay for it now, and keep control.

My wife and I are wanting to buy a house. We are sure that it won't be in the city we currently live in. Although we don't have children, and aren't that concerned with the quality of the school, it does affect the property values. Currently prices are really low, which makes it attractive. But who wants to live there? The town will have a hard time attracting families because of the school system.

I know that I'm ranting now, but what I'm trying to get to is a problem in the Cleveland metro area. The general feel is that "It's not my problem, let the state change the way it funds education" The state needs to give us more. Granted, Cleveland is rated as the poorest city in the U.S. If taxes are raised, it won't effect that many people, since they are mostly not paying taxes anyway. Just give me more. It's almost as if this city wears it's problems on it's sleve like a badge of honor.

Now, you would thing that with who I voted for is contradictory to my thoughts about Cleveland. I don't think the problem with Cleveland is with the politicians in D.C. or even the state capital. I do think it is with, to some extent, the politicians in the City level, and more so with the general attitude of the public. In the City goverment there are a lot of good people there, doing good work. But there are also way to many corrupt, well, politicans.

I'm sorry, as I look back on this post, even I have a hard time following it. But that is the way that I am. I just think aloud most of the time. And I'm going to leave it as is.

Mandate from the People -- Post Election #3

2004-11-08T10:55:00.000-05:00

Sorry It's been a couple of days.

There is something that is troubling me. I have heard many times now from the Spin out of the white house and the GOP that the Bush administration has received a mandate from the public. Yes, Bush (jr) is the first US president to receive the majority of the vote (greater than 50%) since Bush (sr). But I would hardly say that he received a mandate from the people. When you look at it, he won by just over 200,000 votes (that was the margin of victory here in OH). Had Kerry won Ohio, the results would have been different. Yet the administration gets up in front of the camera and acts as if it had won by 15% or more. When in reality they barely edge Kerry out.

I think it's a sad state when the race is so close, they consider it a major victory if the election isn't decided in the courts.

My point is, will this lame duck president follow the will of the people, or will he only go more conservative, because he knows that he won't be up for re-election in four years. One thing is for sure, this adminstration will be different for his last. There are already rumours that the big players in his cabinet are leaving (Rice, Powell, Aschcroft, Thompson, Ridge and maybe even Rumsfield sorry if I mispelled any of them). Will he replace them with people that better reflects how divided our country really is, or will he replace them with even more conservative people?

One thing I find outright scary is how much of Karl Rove we have seen since the election. For those of you who don't know who he is. He is the presidents main political advisor. It is even rumoured that he is the one responsible for speading romours about John MacCain, having a black child out of wedlock, during the 2000 election. If that is any indication of things to come, it scares me.

My prediction, if Bush goes more moderate, it will start to heal the division in the country, but alienate the hardcore conservatives. Yet if he goes more conservative, it will deepen the divide in the coutry, and all of the conservative will be basking in glory. If the later happen, look for a really ugly election in 2008.

Up next -- Who did I vote for?

Every Vote Matters -- Post Election #2

2004-11-04T13:19:00.000-05:00

Shouldn’t it be every vote counts? Ideally, yes, but let’s be realistic. We are asking a small group of people to accurately count over 100 Million ballots in a couple of hours of time. It’s obvious that it will not be 100% accurate. I’m sure that spread over the country that several hundred, or even several thousand votes were mis-counted. But let’s face it, those miss-counts should statistically follow the voting. I’m sure that close to 51% of the miss-counts were votes for Bush, while close to 49% were votes for Kerry. Statistically it shouldn’t affect the overall outcome of the election.

It may sound a little harsh to open admit that we shouldn’t expect to have a 100% accurate vote count, but we need to be realistic. There is a way to ensure a more accurate vote count, but it would never be allowed. My recommendation would be that we take more time to count, as I mentioned in my last post.

Taking more time to count would allow the election officials to take time, and not be rushed. It would also allow all of the provisional ballots to be investigated, before they are counted and finally it would allow all of the absentee ballots. If you remember, absentee ballots are how most of our military personal vote.

The results could be certified as soon as it is statistically impossible for anyone but the leader to win. But votes would continue to be counted until every vote was counted. Once the results were certified, the results would be released. Now obviously it would take a little longer to find out who won, but isn’t it important enough to get an accurate count. Let’s look at other countries. Afghanistan just had an election, a couple of months ago, yet they are only now declaring a winner. Is it that important to find out immediately who won? It only serves a selfish purpose to find out who won, on the day of the election.

I just realized that there would be another side benefit for not releasing results right away. It would minimize bogus claims of voter irregularities. Individuals would have to file a claim immediately. One would not be able to come back a couple of weeks later, after they found out that their guy is behind.

I think I’ve rambled enough for this post.

Up next: A mandate from the people.

It's Over -- Post Election #1a

2004-11-03T11:15:00.000-05:00

It just came across that Kerry conceded. Did someone email my blog to him?

It's Over -- Post Election #1

2004-11-03T09:57:00.000-05:00

Someone tell the Kerry camp that it's over.

As the title would suggest I'm going to do a series of these. I'll let you know where I stand on some issues, and on some candidates. I do have a lot of opinions regarding this election. Some of them may be obvious, and others not so obvious. I do vote my gut most of the time, so I may not have the empirical rationalization that some of you may like, but that's how I vote. Please let me know what you think, so please post comments. With that in mind, I won't allow it to turn into "you're a right wing nut case" or "you're a pink-o commie" discussion.

First things first. I am most satisfied with the fact that the news and commercials can move on to something other than people claiming that your candidate is not good enough. We can get back to legitimate commercials for feminine hygiene products and hair transplant procedures, and serious news stories about how a crazy woman had 57 cats living with her in a one bedroom apartment. Thank god for TIVO!

I am disappointed though with the news coverage, and how the states are handling it. It's now Wednesday morning, and a winner hasn't been declared. Last nite all of the networks wanted to be the first to have the results. Yet this morning, even though the results are obvious, they aren't calling it. And it's all because of the state I live in (Ohio).

Let's look at the numbers from Fox News. They have called Ohio for Bush. I don't dispute the results. Yet we all know that there is a question mark by the Ohio results (However improbable that question mark is). With that in mind, it gives Bush 269 electoral votes, one short of having the 270 needed to win. Now on the other hand, Fox News is not calling the Iowa election. The report that Bush has a lead of approx. 25,000 votes, and 100% of precincts reporting. Seems like a done deal to me, yet they don't call it. Why? Well if they did, then they would have to call Bush the winner of the whole thing. But what if for some reason Ohio's results swing the other way. Then they have egg on their face. They would rather have to change the outcome of one state, rather than the whole country.

Now, I'm not picking on Fox News. It appears that all of the networks and news organizations are in the same boat. Others just claim that Ohio is still in play, while they have called states that would have less of an impact on the overall outcome.

In my opinion, we should take away from this media circus. I think we should ban the release of election results until they have been certified.

In my next blog: Every Vote Matters?

It's Early, and I'm Pleased

2004-11-02T08:15:00.000-05:00

No, I cannot see into the future, no I do not know who is going to win the election, and no, it not because I think my guy is doing well. In fact I think it will be weeks, if not months before we find out who won the election. For that reason, I'm not pleased.

The reason I'm pleased is to see so many people out to vote early, and the general mood is quite pleasant. My wife and I got the our polling place early. In fact my wife was ballot #2 and I was #3 in our polling place. The election workers were a little frustrated because the person bringing the tables hadn't shown up yet. They were all crammed onto one 8 ft table. I feel for them if they can't get any more tables. My wife and I talked with people in line with us. Everyone was really upbeat. No one was talking about if this guy get in, we'll be headed down the wrong path, or you're crazy if you vote for this issue.

I got done voting so early, that I had time to get some breakfast before I went to work. As I was walking into McD's, I met an entire family at the door that were all wearing a certain candidates shirts. They saw the sticker I was wearing that said I had voted. They asked if my polling place was crazy (busy). Evidently where they vote was so busy, they were going to try again later. It's almost as if voting makes you part of a group, and it doesn't matter who you voted for. I would say exclusive group, but there's a lot of people out voting today.

The American public can do some pretty amazing things. Sometimes they do some pretty stupid things, but today they are showing us that the election process isn't that bad. I think the election process would be ten times better now if we could only get rid of all of the political stratagist, lawyers, and for that fact the politicians. I think one of the main problems is the entrenched political system we have. I will not say who I voted for, or what party afiliation I have. But I will mention two things that I feel strongly about. First of all is real campaign finance reform, and the second is term limits. Get rid of the old cronies who spend less time in their own district (in non election years), that another state, campaigning for someone else.

But more importantly, if you are he in the U.S. and you are registered to vote, make sure you do. If you don't know where your polling place is, find out. If you are in one of the areas where your polling place will be chaotic, Have patience. We feel for you.

Two Weak Candidates

2004-10-28T22:10:00.000-04:00

<>OK, so the election here in the

U.S.

is only a couple of day away, and in my opinion, it’s going to get ugly, but more on that later.

As for the title of this blog, well let’s take a look. If you have two strong candidates, it a heated election, but not as nasty. You get some negative campaigning, but not as much. In my opinion, voter turnout is lower. Fewer people are worried about the wrong candidate getting in office. And you clearly don’t get the outrage against the other candidate or party. When you have one strong candidate, it’s a no brainer. There is no questions as to who will win. One candidate will beat the other by 15-20% or more.
<>

Now to two weak candidates. What happens? There are in my opinion two tell tale signs. First of all, there is the sharp division of the public down political lines. And second of all, rather than people telling you who they are voting for, they tell you who they are not voting for. Don’t get me wrong. If you ask anyone who they are voting for (if they tell you) they will say who they are voting for. But as you talk to people, and as voting comes up, people talk more about the negatives of the one candidate they aren’t voting for. I think it pretty sad when one candidate’s positive attributes are expressed in the terms of the other candidate’s negative attributes.

It’s a very important election, vote for the lesser of two evils. I have heard that comment time, and time again. Let’s look at the stupidity (and I think stupidity is an understatement) of the second part of that comment. So we are to vote for an evil person to run this country? Enough said? Don’t get me wrong, I think it is a very important election, and I think if you are eligible to vote, you should. But don’t vote for the wrong reasons. Go and vote your heart. I personally would love to see a significant amount of people go in, and say to themselves, neither of these guys are worth it. And vote for someone else. I would love to see the “other” column get a significant amount of votes. And no, this is not an endorsement of Nader, or any other Third party, except to say there are choices out there other than the two big ones. Don’t vote for one of the big two, just so you can say “I didn’t through my vote away”, or “Don’t blame me, I voted for the other guy.” Although you would definitely be able to say that if you voted for a Third party candidate.

Now for the ugly part. Here in Ohio, a judge has blocked challenges by the GOP to thousands of voter registration. After looking into most of the challenges, they found that by far the majority of registrations were legit. Now I’m not saying that either side is right. But they fact that a legal challenge is being blocked, no matter how legitimate, simply invites a post election challenge of the results.

<><>

<>I believe that Ohio will be this election years Florida.

Did I call it or what?

2004-10-19T08:45:00.000-04:00

So, early voting has begun in Florida. Already there are reports of a glitch which prevented voting in the entire Orlando area. There is another report (don't know if it's related or not) that they say will prevent manual recounts of any of the votes cast with the electronic machines, period. I'm sure that both sides have already drafted complaints challenging the election results, that will be filed the day after the election, in Florida as well as the US Supreme court.

It appears the next month or so will be fun.

One of the morning radio personalities made a good comment. Why is it that we can have ATM's everywhere that operate flawlessly, yet we can't produce a simple programs that can track votes. Or at least something to that effect.

Sick of this crap 2

2004-10-14T13:46:00.000-04:00

Sorry, got to rant a little more. After the debate last nite, all of the networks had to rush to claim who won. What is there to win!!!!! How good will it make anyone feel saying "they won the debate, but lost the election" Depending on what network, it could be either one. The conservative networks had all of their pundants one claiming that Bush smoked Kerry, While the liberal networks had their pundants on claiming it was Kerry who won.

I do like the fact that the local Cleveland paper runs a story the day after each debate that checks the facts of the candidates claims. See if your local paper does the same. If not, check out the Cleveland Plain Dealer's story:

http://www.cleveland.com/election/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/isele/1097753542190300.xml

My opinion is that they were both misleading. Although none of their claims were flat out false, the majority of the statements were far from accurate.

How is it that we are supposed to trust one, or both of these guys enough to run the country. And why is it that so many people become frustrated with the political system?

Sick of this crap

2004-10-14T08:24:00.000-04:00

I can't wait until maybe the middle of next year. Maybe by then all of the election crap will have calmed down. Of course just after the election there will be the standard challenges to the voting results (they miss counted in this county, or didn't even count these votes in this state) or may even (They didn't even allow these people to vote). Don't get me wrong, I thing anyone who wishes to vote, should have their vote counted. But I bet that both of the candidates’ advisors are drafting challenges, in case they don't win.

Then after the winner takes office, there will be the claims that they didn't even win by a majority of the vote (even though they got more votes than the other guy), which it appears will be the case. Then after a month or so, the partisan politics will really start to kick in, by not confirming appointments and the such.

I'm not saying that by mid year, the crap will have ended, but we should be numb to it by then.

Why am I ranting now? Well I watched the presidential debate last nite. It was the only one that I watched almost in its entirety. I'm just getting sick of the same old crap.

I Have a Plan.......
We've been working hard.......
My opponent wants to raise taxes

I feel as if I could have answered most of the questions from last nites debate, as well as the candidates did.

I believe that the US is the greatest country out there, but there are things that need to be fixed. Just two examples, Health Care and Social Security. One of the candidates said that every American deserves the same health care that members of congress gets. I think a better solution would be to kick members of congress off their cushy plan, and put them on the same plan the Medicare covers. Also I hear that members of congress essentially receiver their same pay, even after they leave. I think they should only receiver the same thing that seniors get when on Social Security, and only if they meet the age requirements.

Now, I have not verified these facts, so let me know if they are not true. But I think we should end the entitlements in the congress. Maybe then, members would have some motivation to actually fix things.

How beautiful!

2004-09-23T08:39:00.000-04:00

Ok, so last nite I had to spend time with my in-laws. It's not as bad as it seems. I actually get along with my in-laws quite well. Carrie had to try on a dress that her mom was making for her to wear while participating in her friend's Renaissance themed wedding. The dress was beautiful (thank you Shirley) and my wife looked gorgeous (that is an impartial observation by the way). Shirley also made my costume (a monks robe). I'm not in the wedding, except for the time that I spend with my wife at dinner, so I had a few more options on what to wear. I'm really looking forward to it. Maybe if I can figure out how to post pictures, I'll post one of us at the wedding.

I'm looking forward to this weekend. It's the first Formula One race in China. The track looks great, and there will be over 200,000 people in the stands. Hopefully the race excitement will live up to the excitement of the new track and the excitement of being in a new country.

And finally, here's hoping that the Kansas City Chiefs can turn their season around this weekend. The play the Houston Texans. I don't know what to expect. I don't get to see too many games. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

So it begins

2004-09-13T23:14:00.000-04:00

This obviously is my first attempt at blogging. My wife got me started with this. It also sounded really cool when I heard a story on NPR a couple of weeks ago on how several dozen bloggers have started up in post Sadam Iraq. Although several of the bloggers wrote about the war, and how they were better or worse off, they said the big majority of them were just writing about day to day life. It just sounded really cool.

So it begins, and ends

Although I was gone last week for a conference, I got back Saturday evening. My wife said they had been working on a office construction project right outside our door. It seems like this stage includes putting in the parking lot. Up until a couple of minutes ago we had the constant rumble of steam rollers. It got dark about a half an hour ago. I would hate to be the person in charge of quality control on this project.

I think I'll end it now, before I really start to ramble. I'll try to post occasionally