Wireless has Drawbacks

You know you never notice how many times a wire has saved a piece of equipment until you take that wire away. I got a wireless mouse a little while ago, and I can't believe how many times it's dropped off of the desk. So far it's been able to take the beating, but I'm concerned that it won't take the abuse forever.

Do your TV shows say something about you?

For those of you who don't know my wife, she is an avid TV watcher. Picture in your mind the guy who you run into and get into a conversation about college football and in like 5 seconds you figure out that this guy has watched every single college football game in the history of college football. He knows every stat, every player, every coach. He can tell you interesting stories about the backup kicker for the championship team of 1975 (you know you know this guy). Translate that depth of knowledge into TV and you have my wife. The point of that is that she is the keeper of the shows that are watched in the house. I basically hate TV at this point. I'm not a huge fan of reality TV (I have my own reality that is hard enough to keep track of), and most drama's or comedies aren't really dramatic or funny.

As the keeper of the TV shows she tells me what would be interesting for me to watch and pay attention to. She knows that I can only keep track of maybe 3 stories and 2 of those need to be what's going on in her life as well as j's. She's recently recommended 3 shows that I need to announce that I like, and if you haven't seen any of these shows you should check out at least 3 of the first season's episodes on Hulu.com to see what I'm talking about. The shows are Dollhouse, Castle, and Glee.

Later I'll tell you why I like these shows because it might not be obvious, but last night I had a small epiphany. Hulu.com provides TV shows with limited commercials because the sponsers of commercials pay Hulu.com to provide the show. This is a great strategy if you're a marketer because you just need to figure out what shows your target audience is watching and then sponsor that show. My epiphany was when I decided to watch an extended minute and a half version of a NuvaRing commercial so I could watch Glee without any other commercial interruptions. As I was trying not to listen to 4 women talk about why they prefer an extended release hormone product that's placed in the downstairs I had a moment of clarity that I wasn't the target audience of Glee. And later that night as I was catching up on the Castle episodes that I'd missed and was being bombarded by commercials for Latisse (a drug that stimulates eye lashes to grow) I again asked myself if there were any heterosexual males in America that were watching this show. Oh, and don't get me started on why Latisse is the beginning of the end for the pharmaceutical industry. Or maybe we should go there because my feelings about products like Latisse are the reason that I really like Dollhouse.

So in front of all 3 people who read this blog I will declare that I like Glee because it's fun music with great writing and interesting, mostly clean plot lines. I like Castle because the back and forth dialogue is some of the sharpest I've seen in several years. And I like Dollhouse because the premise that if we were able to discover a way to truly understand and manipulate the mind we wouldn't cure disease we would find a way to make billions and ruin society, is a fresh take on apocolypse writing.

Excited About Poop

There were 2 different strategies about potty training in this house. The wife was adamant that we don't start potty training J until, I don't know, right before his senior prom. I was taking a slightly more aggressive strategy and have been asking about potty training since we brought him home from the hospital. Clearly there needed to be some common ground found.

J resolved this little dilemma for us by taking an increasingly large interest in the potty. At some point a couple of weeks ago we decided to start really talking to him about the potty and asking him if he needed to go. Before his bath I would ask him if he needed to go, and sit him on the potty even if he didn't gesture that he wanted to be there. About a week ago he gave us a major breakthrough, he peed in the potty. You would have thought that he had just discovered how to solve world hunger, because the praise that he got for managing that little trick was enormous. Since that moment he has successfully peed in the potty several times. We kept encouraging him to let us know if he needed to poop, but he wasn't quite sure how to get our attention when the poop snuck up on him. Close but no cigar.

Tonight was the breakthrough! We were playing in the tub and he started to get real animated about the potty. I was tired and thought, "You know, go ahead and pee in the tub. It's not that big a deal." But there was an emphatic look of 'get me to the potty quick' that prompted me to swing him out of the tub and onto the potty. And before I could determine if he was actually going to produce, or just laugh and try to pee on my face, there was a plop. I won't get any more graphic I guess, but it was freaking amazing!! Again the accolades came quickly and profusely. We gave high fives. We gave fist bumps. We sang songs and laughed. We've crossed a threshold in the potty training. He knows it's awesome to do his doody (pun intended), with the potty.

We're no where close to taking away the safety net of the diapers. We'll be going to pull-ups this week, and before you know it under-roo's.

Is the test over?

Several months ago I decided to try to take a new step for the advancement of my career. There are several areas of pharmacy that someone can become Bard Certified in and I decided that it would be a good thing for me to become Board Certified in Pharmacotherapy. This is the most general of the fields and that is both good and bad. The good is that there must be something that I remember from my days in pharmacy school and a residency. It was bad because as I studied the material I kept thinking, "I'm not sure I'm even a pharmacist anymore, because all of this seems like new material."

I had ample time to study really, but I don't think I took full advantage of the time. There always seemed like something else that needed to get done. Or some other crisis that needed to be dealt with. At 2 weeks before the exam I actually panicked. I talked with the wife, who is pregnant now with #2, and having major gall-bladder trouble, and told her that if I didn't spend every moment after work studying for this exam I might as well not take it at all. I wasn't sure that after the studying I would pass, but I was positive that if I went in cold it was going to be over before it began.

And so I studied. I listened to lectures, did practice exams, and looked over guidelines. I tried to budget my time on what others said was a large part of the exam. In one moment of self reflection my mind drifted momentarily and I wondered if I was passing the other tests of my life. Here I was at 10pm in a hospital office pouring over material that has very little practical application to my everyday work. My wife was asleep at home after dealing with J for 12 hours. She was literally sick and tired, and I wasn't around to provide comfort or support.

I wish I could say that there was a swelling of peace and comfort that I felt that I was doing the right thing. There wasn't. The only good news is that there wasn't a sinking feeling that I had my priorities all messed up. It was all just...blah.

On the day of the test I woke up and started to get J ready for the day. After a couple minutes I noticed that the wife wasn't in the house. I was confused, but j was hungry so I kept plugging along. I noticed that there was a text message on my phone, it said the wife was at the hospital with a friend, the wife had a gall-bladder attack after I went to bed. She got up quietly, called the friend, slipped out of the house quietly, and the friend drove her to the hospital. The wife didn't wake me up because she didn't want me up all night sitting in the ER before my test. I think she passed her test, but I didn't get the chance to pass mine.

I took the Board Certification, well rested and somewhat prepared. The wife and J are definitely more than I deserve, and everything I've ever dreamed about.

USC vs. Ohio State

If ever there was a way that both teams could lose and thus right the BSC universe, this would be the game. USC is ranked 3rd and is playing like a junior college. Ohio State in all of their glory really can't put much together that would dazzle anyone whose watching the game objectively. It would be nice if the BSC powers that be finally woke up and said, yeah they both lose and should be dropped from the top 25 ranking.

You are a liar

I'm sure ya'll heard about a little event in Congress when a Republican from SC called the President of the United States a liar. Now, I'm not real shocked that that's what he was thinking. I'm sure there are a whole mess of uneducated hicks in SC that think the same thing. There are even some better than average educated hicks in SC that think the President is the embodiment of the antichrist. But to call the President a liar when he is addressing Congress is at least one step too far.

When did we stop caring about the process of debating ideas to understand the value of each side? When did it become the social norm to repeat whatever sound bite we heard last night from a commentator that resonated with us, but was a distortion of the issue at hand. When did we stop trying to piece together the facts of the issue. Here are some facts about health care that I think we've missed.

1. Each of us is an expert on our own health care experience if we'd only stop and critically examine what our experience has been. Have we at times waited too long to see a specialist with or fancy private insurance? Do we wish our medications were cheaper? What is actually being charged to us for the care we receive and if we suddenly had to pay cash would that ruin us? Why are we baulking at someone decided what health care we'll receive when that is the very charge of an insurance company. Every single day insurance companies deny procedures, medication, or treatment options and they do it so they can make money, NOT so you get better care.

2. It's dangerous to rush into a massive overhaul of a system that touches every single citizens life.

3. It's immoral to look the other way when the person next to you is suffering with less than adequate or no health care. The parable of the good Samaritan is fundamentally about someone who needed medical attention and was aided by another who was in a position to help. We can collectively decide that we will support this principle to be put into action for millions of people.

There are more, but I'll let those sink in for now. Getting back to our less than stellar Representative. He obviously forgot his Southern manners, because it is perfectly okay to call someone a liar if you say, "bless their heart" before or after you do it. And so to Representative Wilson I say, "Bless your heart you incompetent baboon."

Fine Dining

J is a son of the South. The other day we were at a BBQ place and I thought, maybe he wants something off of my plate. So I got a little pulled pork on my fork and gave it to him. He was beside himself with excitement. Funny, that's how I feel about BBQ pulled pork. About a week ago the wife had a Waffle House craving, which is basically like playing dietary Russian Roulette. The breakfast she ordered came with a side of grits (of course it does), and because she doesn't really favor grits she gave some to J. He willingly took it in his mouth, examined it for a moment, and then downed the rest of the serving.

The final example can possibly be cited as parental stupidity so please read on with caution. Today was a difficult day for me at work and I needed some hot wings to soothe my soul. The wife and J were attending a church meeting and eventually met up with me. I didn't really expect them to join me, so I ordered hot hot wings and a chipotle BBQ that was very heavy on the chipotle. When the wings arrived J was more than eager to have some. I thought the BBQ would be a better choice, so I sacrificed a drumstick and the wife did her best to get chicken sans sauce. J would have none of it, and picked up the wing and started to go to town. We wrestled it away and kept giving him smaller bites, but he was determined. I finally just gave him some chicken bones that I was finished with so he could gnaw on them. And he did with vigor. The hot ones and the chipotle alike. He even got the "wing" face down.

We might pay a hefty diaper price for all that spice, but as far as J is concerned it was worth it. I'm not exactly sure where to go from here. We could embrace J's southernness and get him a NASCAR hat, and oddly colored camo. We could teach him to replace his current, "Yeah", with "yep". Or we could continue to try to root him in a Northern sensibility and education that is far too uncommon in SC.