what the heck is a "solutions consultant?"

How can I phrase that?

How can I communicate what it is that I actually DO?

Here's an example -

Just a moment ago, a friend who's about to become a homeowner, told me the result of his property inspection.  He said everything was as he expected it to be, except for a massive bee infestation.

In my head, I carry the following information:

My dear friend Mary has a cute little rent house, and her husband keeps bees on their adjacent lot, which is a truck farm.

Mary and Tom (husband) have mentioned (once) that their bee hives are managed by a bee keeper, who has a little business abating bees from homes and other property - without using chemicals.  The bees can't be relocated IF they've been sprayed or fumigated.

So, I said "do NOT allow them to be sprayed or fumigated" - I have a referral who will remove the bees and put them in a safe place.

Problem solved.

I can do this in nearly any business matter.

How, though can this be monetized?  Any ideas?

health care from several perspectives

One of the few non-lobby, non-industry witnesses at Congressional health care hearings.  As he speaks, you can hear that he is not motivated by trying to increase his personal income, but from recent, direct experience in trying to run a small business and dealing with health care from that perspective.

This article in the current Economist magazine has an interesting discussion regarding the process of reforming health care, and includes some opinion polling regarding the general opinion offered of the issue.  As we saw last week, the public's opinion on health care reform is sharply different depending on how you frame the question.

Another article that I've found today from The New Republic suggests that one driving force in this debate is again going to be the young, as they drop off of health care plans that were in force due to their enrollment in education.  Where are they to go now?

The other day, I was at a function and listened to a small group of men across age groups who were united in their rejection of any change to the status quo ante.  Yet, they had no personal connection with any need for change - none of them had been rejected for pre-existing conditions, none had experienced difficulty in accessing benefits because none had been sick and apparently didn't know anyone - they were only parroting what they'd heard in the way of 'socialized medicine restricts choice' and 'Canadians have to wait for health care'.

People who have faced not having health care, who are unable to buy medication, see a doctor, see a specialist, get coaching from a health educator, or who find themselves in the cataclysmic place of having accessed health care and then having their claim retroactively denied cannot understand this argument.

Last night, I was talking with some close friends about religion and the Bible, and the idea was batted around that many people don't really know what the Bible says, and that a common teaching originating from those that are seeking to protect the status quo is to advise those who are not learned that people who study and try to understand can "twist the meaning and the words to fit their agenda".

The same thing is happening here in this debate, as it does in all elements of human discourse.  Reasonable minds can easily agree about a path, but nearly all humans have the same goals and outcomes in common.

Whether one is inclined to favor single payor health care, or keep everything the same "but keep the damned lawyers from ruining everything" - keeping an open mind, hearing and learning as much as possible, and pushing away headlines and talking points in favor of doing your own research will provide for the most balanced outcome.

This is my first post using a new Firefox plug in that easily allowed me to haul in references and links, and post them most effectively, so it may look a little clunky.  I'll learn, though

Further to my last

Check out this picture. Hey, it's me! It's me and I wasn't the one who discovered that cartoon!

Some random thoughts:

It's time to release a blizzard of books that I don't read. I have READ them, but I don't still READ them. I look at them and think "well, I don't want to look at that.."

I've now posted a bunch of them on Amazon, and loaded another big stack into the car to go to the church garage sale.

A change in course

I received my first web-connected computer - a Zenith laptop - in 1988.

It was shipped to me FedEx - it was twice the size of a modern laptop, with a blue on silver LCD screen. 10MB hard drive. 80806 Intel chip. 2400 baud modem.

It was the pinnacle of what was available 21 years ago.

I frankly don't know what I did to divert myself prior to 21 years ago. There were no cell phones, no iPods. Just books. I know that I read a great deal. I didn't engage in watching much television even then. I did have more external contact.

My computer came with a subscription to CompuServe - then, the most advanced of the internet services. They had email, chat, news, stocks, all in text only format, all of which spilled across my silvered screen in purple/blue letters and lines.

Fairly quickly, I knew that I was avoiding work and life by focusing on this safety zone. It's seemingly impossible to break away from that sort of distraction, and somewhat terrifying to see it happening but not be able to stop.

For these last two decades, I've zeroed my attention in on my computer, and although I've produced a prodigious amount of work output, I've also invested the large part of my time reading, reading, reading. It was like having access to the Library of Alexandria in real time - without having to get up from my chair.

I can completely understand how some South Korean video gamers end up dying in their chair after not having moved for three days during an intense game.

So, things are changing and I have been calling out to the Universe for support in changing for months. In the next week, my environment will change and in that new space there will be no spot for the computer, nor connection to the interwebs. All communicating of that nature will be during business hours.

What will step forth to replace that time and focus will be a renewal of live interaction, a renewal of my standards of care for clothing, home and vehicle, and a reconnection with reading that is no longer of the divergent sort, but of the challenge to self-structure sort.

After hearing of this notion, I was told that I was going to be getting a Roku for my birthday, so the blackout may be over by mid-October. In the meantime, the political blogs and reading are cast out, and the endless searching for some new piece of information is likewise cast out.

I'll let you know how this all goes.

The best message ever left...

Prior to this, the top contender for the best message ever left was the vivid and unforgettable scene in the movie "The Godfather", in which the Hollywood executive wakes up in his silk sheeted bed with the head of his beloved race horse lying next to him.

How does one get all of that blood out of taupe gray silk anyway?

Judy's brother lives up the street a few doors, and has an older yellow lab who just LOVES me. I've "babysat" a few times, and I knew that they wanted me to watch her again soon.

I came home last night to a 40 pound bag of dog food lying in the middle of the kitchen floor, on which was written his request that I watch his dog in magic marker.

THE BEST MESSAGE EVER!!

Musing or is it just worrying?

I love this entry from the website "texts from last night"

(215): i got kicked out of Barns and Nobles cuz i put all the bibles in the fiction section

I did NOT love this personal on Craigslist today "It's hot out". What a capacity for understatement! Creativity pours forth.

You know, there are several things that astonish me.

One, that people continue to believe that depression is just a matter of attitude. "Just focus on the good things".

Two, that people continue to believe that someone would choose a "lifestyle" or "preference" that involves having every aspect of your being long for a person antithetical to every message be they religious, social, family, media, entertainment, visual, aural and otherwise.

Three, that people continue to believe that people who are overweight or have developed adult onset diabetes should just "eat less" and that they are somehow flawed in their character.

There are more things that astonish me, but I'm doing my best today to avoid seeming bitter (grin).

Monetize? How?

Every day that I drive into town from out here at the Judy shack, I get to experience some of the most ill-mannered driving styles found in this area.

That having been said, I thought I'd share a few interesting thoughts.

Over the last fifteen years or so, we've seen two heinous criminal defenses/alibis that have been proffered over and over again. They are ALWAYS a lie, and they have become so prevalent as lies that they are being soundly rejected.

This would be the "Gay Panic" defense, and the "A Man Kidnapped/Carjacked/Assaulted me" and took/killed the spouse/child.

In the case of the latter, when some person has engaged in the most vile sorts of perfidy, killing or gravely injuring someone very close to them in relationship - they always blame some dark skinned man/men of nondescript appearance.

Has anyone noticed how often and how quickly it turns out that there was no dark skinned man?

The "Gay Panic" defense is equally vile - here, younger men (usually either engaged fully in straight society, hookers, hustlers or otherwise) brutally attack and usually kill an older gay man, take his money, credit cards and car, and go on a days long spree of relative freedom.

When caught, they assert that said older (now dead) gay man "came on to them" and made unwelcome sexual advances.

Okay, so .. as Nancy Reagan oft repeated "Just Say No".

News flash to said younger men - if a single, somewhat effeminate older man compliments your appearance, offers you money, food and shelter and you DON'T get a little nudge toward the nookie - you've discovered Santa Claus's warm weather hideaway.

Fortunately for the dark skinned men, the dragnet now less frequently catches up one of these innocent bystanders and the villain is revealed for what they are fairly quickly. I am aware that dark skinned people have for decades been lynched, beaten, gassed, jailed and put to hard labor for just being handy. More scientific criminal investigations and the ubiquitous electronic nannies such as video surveillance, OnStar and cell phones have started to interrupt that process.

For the gayer set, however, the "gay panic" defense is alive, well and kicking. Only recently did we first see a Defendant lose utterly in his "gay panic" defense in the matter of Angie Zapata.

In the practice of law, certain circumstances give rise to "presumptions" which may be refuted by contravening testimony advanced by the opposing side.

I propose that in criminal investigations and judicial prosecutions, the promoters of Justice create for themselves a working presumption that should any suspect or defendant advance either of "A Random Black/Latino Man Did It" or "He Tried To Grab Me, So I Beat Him To Death" - the entire crime and prosecution team make the logical presumption that the accused did it. No more should we seek to plead out the young murderer to property crimes because someone touched his wee-wee. No more should we start rounding up men of color because some blond woman in an SUV screams that her husband/baby were taken off by black men with no definite description.

Just focus on them's that did it.