Michigan makes a hire

I have my flights of fancy.  I'll take minutes, hours, and sometimes days, and just let my mind wander off in some direction.  I've even posted about some of those things here.... exercising, my next phone, getting a bachelor's degree.

So it's no wonder that for the past two days I've been thinking a lot about Michigan's future coach.  Not much else has been on my mind so I've thought around a lot of different angles on this.

First, just to encapsulate what's happened.  The long view:  Lloyd Carr retired in 2007.  Michigan thought outside of the box and hired Rich Rodriguez from West Virgina.  That sucked.  He didn't get support from the university, the fans, the alumni, the players.  He didn't know the traditions of the school.  And worst of all... he didn't win.  After four years he was fired,  and Brady Hoke was hired.  Not everything was perfect, but Brady was a 'Michigan Man'.  He didn't just know the tradition, he lived and breathed it.  But where he got every break that RichRod didn't (fan support, alumni support, player adoration...), he didn't do the key thing that a coach a Michigan should do... he didn't win.  He was fired earlier this month after going 5-7 this year.

They made an Ass out of U and Me

I think I just got complimented at work... by doing something wrong.

I've been working in 5 block a lot lately.  More or less they don't have a regular person for the afternoon shift, so two nurses along with me are sharing it.

I got quite the nasty gram (an email) from the regular nurse on how I had screwed up several things lately.  Evidently I had processed some orders incorrectly, I had ordered some meds incorrectly, I had notified the psychiatrist about an issue incorrectly, and I had documented something incorrectly.

Overall I was quite upset.  I hadn't been trained on how to do any of these things in 5 Block, and had simply done them how we do them over on the South.

I thought I had made it clear in a meeting we had a week ago that I hadn't been really trained out in 5. Sure, I had my orientation out there about 18 months ago.  And sure, I had worked out there for many of the past weekends and the occasional weekday.  But in between that original orientation and now, there have been major changes in how 5 block operates.

Chistmastime

Oh, the times they are a hectic.  Christmas really seemed to sneak up on me this year.  I know, I know... I wrote about getting Christmas gifts just a few days ago, but I'm talking over a little more time.  It seems like Thanksgiving was just yesterday.  Add in the fact that the family had it's Thanksgiving on this past Sunday (the 21st), and the season felt more sudden than it normally does.

We had to do our Christmas gift exchange on Sunday as it was the closest day that all of us had off.  Obviously, mom has all the days off, but my brothers and I, our schedules were all screwed up.

Getting prepped was more than a little bit of a pain.  Mainly because Mom got sick on the preceding Friday.  A bad cold that had her coughing all day and practically all night.  So R and I took over and made her sit quietly while we did everything.

The day itself was fine.  Mom felt a little better that day (in hindsight I believe she was the same and simply lying to us),  The kids really enjoyed their gifts.  The adults really enjoyed theirs.  Mom was ecstatic about her car starter and even more excited that it would get professionally installed the next day.

Christmas Shopping

I like giving gifts.  Finding that one thing that someone wants whether they asked for it or not.  It is a true joy to see them get all happy and excited.

And that's what's so cruel about Christmas.  Because that just doesn't happen all that often.  Sometimes my gift giving fu is something impressive.  Most of the time it's just sad.

Obviously for many MANY years I couldn't really afford good gifts.  Sometimes I couldn't afford ANY gifts.  Last year was a bit of a crunch as I was hired in by the state just before the holidays.  Normally that would be a good thing, but as a contract worker I got paid for the previous week's work.  As a state employee I got paid every other week, and they more or less held back a week.  So while my bills paid up, I went without a check for three weeks.  When I did get that first check, the majority of it had to go to the bills that had accumulated, leaving only a bit for Christmas cheer.  They year... oh this year though, I have a very high budget.

Unfortunately I'm just missing out on that creative spirit.  I don't know what to get for anybody.

An Apple A Day

When I met my doctor, I had three things on my mind.  Diabetes, Cholesterol, and NOT talking about smoking.

It turns out the doctor had other things in mind.

Let me back up a bit.  Before I get into out interactions, lemme go over what I want in a doctor.  I want knowledge, confidence, and curiosity.  Knowledge is hard to define in a profession like medicine.  To get their licence they have to go through a lot of schooling.  It's easy to say that the worst doctor is better educated than most other people.  So when I say I want knowledge, I want a doctor that has the know how of his trade quickly at hand, as well as a basic understanding of disease process, medicine, and medical procedures.  I accept that he won't have it all at hand at all times.  He can research and learn what he needs when it isn't an every day occurrence.

That easily leads into the curiosity aspect.  He should be naturally curious about things that don't quite fit into a standard diagnosis.  Yes, most things I'll go to a doctors office for will be straight forward.  I pee a lot, am always hungry, am always thirst... diabetes.  But if there are other things that don't quite fit into that diabetic definition, I want him curious enough to find out.  To ensure that the diabetes diagnosis is the correct one.  I also want that curiosity to go into the little things I say.  I mention that I have 'this' problem and later in the conversation say that I have 'that' problem.  Individually they may mean nothing, but when added together they may point to another problem or disease process.  In short, I don't want him to be constantly satisfied with the easy straight forward answer.  I want him curious enough to get to the REAL answer.

UPDATED 12/14/14

CFP, Michigan Coach, Doc Visit, Work

Let's start with the College Football Playoff, as I just finished watching the playoff presentation show (I started it a bit late, caught up to live, took a few hours off for dinner, and finally got it done about 10 minutes ago).

The Sugar Bowl will have #1 Alabama playing #4 Ohio State.  The Rose Bowl will have #2 Oregon playing #3 Florida State.

I like the match ups.  I like the rankings.  The only big issue I have is I would put Florida State as #4.  Yes they're undefeated, but they never looked invincible.  Just about every game was a nail biter for them.  While all the others lost a game, they looked dominant in many other games.

I do like that Ohio State went ahead of both Baylor and TCU.  All three are close, but having another game to show dominance is important.  OSU's out of conference schedule was more impressive even with the loss, and that loss can partially be chalked up to an injury which the panel said they would consider.  Just think about it, that was JT Barret's second start in college because Braxton Miller got injured just before the season.  Sure, this will now be their new quarterback's second start, but he blew out Wisconsin in the Big Ten Championship game.

Fuck your freedoms, mine are more important

I'm not sure if this is making national news, but it's really REALLY pissing me off.  It's a specific example that represents a FAR larger trend.

I'm not sure how it started, but the Michigan legislature at one point considered adding to the state's anti discrimination law.  Specifically they wanted to put in protections for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender groups.

Think about that for a minute... currently the state of Michigan has no laws protecting those groups from discrimination.  You can be fired for being gay.  You can be fired for people thinking you are gay.  You can be denied any service any where in the state of Michigan for your sexual orientation and/or sexual identity.

That's fucked up.

But hey... at least there was an attempt to correct that.  The problem?  Republicans.  Michigan's legislature is controlled by a Republican majority. It also has a Republican governor, but so far he hasn't been really involved with the process.

Now as this idea moved through the legislature, the Republicans could have simply denied it.  They could have stopped it from every moving forward.  Even if it did move forward, they have the votes to deny it becoming law.  Easy Peasy right?

Ferguson: Some More Random Thoughts

Watch out you might get what you're after

Cool babies strange but not a stranger

I'm an ordinary guy

Burning down the house

Hold tight wait till the party's over

Hold tight We're in for nasty weather

There has got to be a way

Burning down the house

- Burning Down The House by Talking Heads

Before I get to deep into this post, I should say that I started writing this on November 29th.  They day got away from me as well as the week, so I never returned to finish it.  My 'fire' for writing this up has diminished, so unless the act of writing itself fans those flames back to life, this will be a short post.

So I left off my last Ferguson post talking about the news getting out and the protests beginning.  Lemme say that I'm a fan of protesting.  I think there are two great types of protests.  The first is the simple, raw, emotional "We've Had Enough And We Aren't Going To Be Quiet Any More!"  This is the way that I saw the Ferguson protests  as they began.  They were spurred to protest from the news that A White Cop Killed An Unarmed Black Teenager.  As 'news' continued to trickle out it just got the people more and more angry.  Stuff like: