Analyze This

I didn't sleep well last night, which usually means that I'll remember my dreams. Last night's was just begging for some pondering.

So, I won a spot on the space shuttle Discovery flight in a raffle at my sons' elementary school. It's the day of the launch, and I need to head on over. The info sheet I have says that I'm expected at 8:00 AM and if I'm more than 10 minutes late, I won't be getting on the shuttle. No problem, it's way before 8:00 AM. I pack the boys up and we head over to a friend's house first, he's having a party. Pre-8:00 AM, mind you, but what's time in dreamland? Nothing except a plot device to cause you to freak out later, if your dreams are anything like mine.

So, we get to my friend's house, and it's a cute little stone place with lots of unnecessary spires and windows - very fairy tale like. We go in, get the boys settled with my friend's kids, and then we hang out for a while. Eventually, I need to head to the launchpad - plenty of time still - so I make my goodbye rounds. That always takes longer than you think it will, doesn't it? Then I need to find the boys, but of course they have disappeared. Now it's starting to get to the time when we REALLY need to be heading out, and I still can't find them.

They finally show up, all muddy and knowing full well that they are in trouble. I'm now running late, and if I don't make it for the launch, not only will I have missed my chance but I will have kept a seat from someone else who maybe could have gotten there on time. It's not all the boys' fault, I shouldn't have gone to the party..

So we head over, but I'm lost. My info sheet doesn't have a number for NASA, so I have to call the school to get the number to let them know that I was running late. The receptionist takes my name and number and says she'll call me back. Meanwhile, I figure out that I'm going the wrong way, so I pull an illegal U-turn and end up rear-ending someone (how I did that, I have no idea). Now I'm late, have smashed my car, and still don't have a phone number for NASA. It occurs to me at this point that I might be deliberately sabotaging my efforts because I am afraid of the shuttle blowing up. Still, I feel like I have to go there because my fear is probably irrational and besides, I feel obligated to go since someone else could have won the raffle and had this experience of a lifetime.

Finally, I get in touch with my mother, who comes and gets us so we can head over to the launch. Unfortunately, she has a few stops she wants to make on the way (this would be somewhat typical of my mother) and there is apparently some roadside historical monument on the way. It turns out to be a marking from when the Statue of Liberty went on a nationwide tour, and we are accosted by craftsmen hawking various replicas of the Statue. I notice that most of the statues have a malevolent clown look going and I'm very anxious to leave this place.

And then I woke up.

Lots going on here. Anxiety about the shuttle, obviously. Putting too many things on my plate that ended up taking me way off course. The whole Scary Statue thing. Maternal issues. Responsibility issues. Priorities. I dunno. More pondering.

Kaizen

I read an interesting book this weekend. I was reminded of it when I was flipping through stations last weekend and saw What About Bob on television. Didn't really watch the movie but the scene where he's Baby Stepping out of the therapist's office was playing. He had been instructed to break everything down into small, manageable steps, and that reminded me of a sales letter I had received that mentioned this book - One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way.

As is my usual policy (that policy being "at least TRY not to buy something if you can get it for free somehow), I went to our little library's website to see if it was there and it was, so I rode on over and picked it up.

This is one of those books that really doesn't need to be written, but ... it does. It's common sense stuff, we hear it all the time. Hell, pick up any women's magazine sometime around March (spring cleaning) or November (Thanksgiving dinner) and you'll basically read the same thing - don't let huge projects paralyze you, break it down.

The only difference between Good Housekeeping and Kaizen Way is that in the book, it's explained how breaking it down works for us. In short, it bypasses the fear responses we have learned over the course of our evolution - or in the last 10,000 years, whichever is your personal belief, I really don't give a damn - because instead of "showing" our brain a huge, intimidating task, we're showing it little things that are simple. Easy. That's right, Mr. Fear Response, you just keep on resting quietly, don't mind us, nothing to see here.

So ... even though it's only been a few days, I've been testing this out. I've been pleasantly surprised. For example - my closet desperately needs attention, but because of wacky work schedules, I can't get in there on the weekends during the day. It's been really bugging me, but even during the times when maybe I could have done it (evenings), I have avoided that whole area of the house. Monday morning, I decided to take two pieces of clothing out of the closet that I knew I would never wear again, and put them in another room where they can be stored until it's time to go to Goodwill. I started out taking only two pieces, but it ended up being more like ten. Yay! But yesterday when I went to look for more, it wasn't so easy to pick out the dogs - so only two. This morning - two. Yes, that's only fourteen items ... but by the end of the month, it will be quite a pile, and it'll be more than if I'd decided to do it all at once at some vague point in the future.

I have another room that needs to be decluttered, and for this Baby Steps project, I enlisted the boys. Every day before school they have taken one thing out of that room and put it where it can be neatly stored. They do the same after school. It takes them about two minutes altogether but the room is clearing out noticeably.

And then there's exercise. I'd like to go walking at work but it's way too hot. WAY too hot. And besides, there isn't a lot of time. What I CAN do, though, is take a long route to and from the restroom and with as much water as I drink every day, that's adding quite a few steps.

So - we'll see how this works. I could see adding little things every day ... and I could see how with the "right" personality, this method could lead to some pretty OCD traits. Not being one to obsess over much of anything, I'm not too worried about it.

Several days of silence - I had lots of things I wanted to say but no real time to sit down and say them. Yesterday was another licensing exam, the day before was a class for the exam and studying at night.

So, after a decent night's sleep, I'm ready to start thinking about other things besides Investment Advisor registration requirements and ethics rules.

Won't bother with the Supreme Court nomination of John Roberts (I wonder what his REAL name is), except to say that I think the Dems would be wise to let him in with only a token fuss. If Bush gets another appointment opportunity, that will be the time to be stubborn because that will be the wingnut appointee. Damned activist Republican judges ...

Friday afternoon news that nobody will care about come Monday ...

USA Jobless Rate Understated

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - The current low U.S. unemployment rate probably understates the true level of joblessness by 1 to 3 percentage points, the senior economist at the Boston Federal Reserve says.

Millions of potential workers who dropped out of the labor force during the recession four years ago have not returned as expected and are thus not counted in the official unemployment statistics, said Katharine Bradbury in a paper published by the Boston Fed.

...

Some policymakers have argued that the economy is close to full employment with the jobless rate at 5%, thus justifying higher rates to pre-empt inflationary pressures from building in a tight labor market.

While the official unemployment rate has fallen from a peak of 6.3% inJune 2003 to 5% in June 2005, the labor force participation rateremains close to 15-year lows of 66%.Typically, labor force participation rates rebound sharply following recessions, Bradbury found.

The official jobless rate understated the severity of the slowdown in 2001 and has overstated the strength of the recovery since then, she said.

So folks - how do we feel about jobless rates of 6-8%? We've been through joblessness in my house (a couple of years, actually) and were fortunate to have healthy IRA's and 401ks. Past tense. We burned through nearly $80,000 in retirement savings - which we paid a penalty on, natch - and are now having to start over. But let me tell you, that $300 tax break sure came in handy. Thanks Georgie, love ya - mean it!

Get back to work!

There are way too many ways to waste away a day on this site.

Go here only if you have nothing else to do for a few hours.

Why is it that I can't lose more than a couple of pounds a week but I go to New Jersey for 9 days and come home 10 pounds heavier? Shouldn't that be just as impossible? I mean, I know we're meant to conserve energy for lean times, we go into starvation mode if we don't eat, we have more food in these times and all of that ancestral evolutionary fiddle faddle, but it just doesn't seem right that I could actually gain a pound a day.

I'm thinking part of it must be that a lot of that stuff is still hanging out in my system, getting comfy in my innards and settling in for a nice spell. I am not OK with that, so for the next however-long, I'll be doing some cleansing. I plan on having plenty of time to catch up on my reading, if you get my drift. Can't do this again, I just don't have the time for that kind of commitment - although I recommend the process, it really was a great experience (that will sound nuts once you actually read about it). No, nothing that intense ... but I'll be looking around.

I've already noticed that since I got back from New Jersey, I've unconsciously gone almost entirely lacto-ovo, heavy on the green veggies. Haven't really had much meat at all, and maybe that's a good sign that I'm at least listening to my body a little. I definitely got plenty of meat out there and perhaps my system said "enough!" loudly enough to break through to my appetite.

So - as I do a little surfing, don't be surprised to see some odd posts about some of the cleansing/diet/health sites I come across in the next few weeks. Should be fun. It's going to drive Bill nuts.

Tony Blair is SHOCKED. SHOCKED, I say.

Blair said it is "shocking" that the four suspected London suicide bombers are believed to be home-grown terrorists.Three of the men are thought to be from Leeds, with the fourth coming from Luton.

The Prime Minister told the Commons during PMQs that it was "shocking that they were brought up in this country".

... yeah, he's just gabberflasted. Nevermind that anyone with half a brain would figure out that it'd be easier to pull like this off without having to hassle with visas or general immigration issues. I'm more surprised that it wasn't four white guys.

So another kid died in a hot car. That this still happens astounds and disgusts me. This woman, though, was drunk and on painkillers, the 35 year old grandmother of a 2 year old, her 20 year old daughter's second child (there is also a 5 year old granddaughter). It's just heartbreaking and makes me want to rush home and hug the boys.

DENVER - The grandmother charged in the heat-related death of a 2-year-old had been drinking alcohol and had taken pain medication the day the girl's body was found inside a sweltering car, according to an arrest affidavit.

Yvonne Mabry, 35, told police she couldn't remember putting Elizabeth Buchmiller in the car, according to the affidavit released Monday.
...
The girl's parents, Tim and Kristina Buchmiller, had sent their children to Mabry while they packed for a move to Illinois.

Damned prissy women who perch above toilet seats! You know what, you germophobe psychos? Your splashback ends up on the seats for everyone else. THANKS. Put down some toilet paper if you must (it doesn't really matter), but stop with the hovering. Unless your ass is criss crossed with open sores (in which case, you need to stop worrying about other people's toilet hygeine) and you're sitting down on a seat within a minute or so of someone with oozing wounds who just spent their toilet time rubbing their cooch around the seat, YOU ARE NOT GOING TO CATCH ANYTHING.

At least clean up after yourself. Lord.

Just testing out this whole blog world. Bound journals have never really seemed to work, I end up with a few pages of thoughts and then a mostly empty book ... and then when it occurs to me to add something (usually much later), I get the urge to go buy a fresh new one because THIS TIME I'm really going to be good about keeping up. Well - no more tree killing. From now on, my big lapses do nothing but perhaps make for some disjointed reading.