Remember Yesterday?

Remember when I ranted about fall yesterday? Today's heat index in this great city is expected to get up to 109 DEGREES.

 

Can everyone just remind God that it's October for me? Thx.

 

 

The Fall

My family is all over the place.

ILs are in Michigan - Current Temp: 59 F

Bro is in Oregon – Current Temp: 55 F

Parents and Sis in Colorado – Current Temp: 57 F

I'm in Houston – Current Temp: Eighty-fricken'-four Degrees Fahrenheit.

I grew up in Michigan, where people know what "seasons" are.  Where in the summer it's hot, in the winter it snows, in the spring, the snow melts and plants return.

And where in the fall, you can put on a cute sweater, go pick apples, buy a gallon of apple cider and a box of cinnamon sugar donuts, eat all of them in one sitting, along with the gallon of cider, run through the falling leaves, feel and hear them crunching beneath your feet, see the colors in the trees, breathe the cool, crisp air, smell that it might snow soon, and jump in a pile of freshly raked leaves.

Fall is when I miss Michigan the most. When the best we can hope for is a cool front to bring the high down to a respectable mid-seventies, I just can't get into the festivities of fall. I need to bake apple crisp, but it's still too hot to turn on the oven. I need to bundle up a little to go outside, but I'll sweat right through my shirt. I want to go pick some apples, but I'd have to drive for hours to get to an orchard. And there aren't any leaves on the ground to rake into a pile. It's OCTOBER and I can't even drink a dark beer because it's TOO D*@( HOT.

/rant.

Working on a Saturday

If I put on my rose-colored glasses, I can find some things that are really great about working on Saturday.

 

1. M is also working, so I would be home alone and since I already watched Top Model this week, I don't have any shows I can watch without him. BORING!

2. No one else is in the office, so I can get work done.

3. No one else is in the office, so I can play music through my computer speakers, rather than headphones.

4. No one else is in the office, so I can sing along.

5. No one else is in the office, so I can sing along LOUDLY.

6. I can take off my shoes and wrap my blanket around me (note: I do this during the week, too. Shh!!)

7. I don't feel guilty checking MafiaWars every hour, since I'm not being paid to be here.

 

So, I'm at work. But! The project I'm working on is ALMOST done. Then I'll get my life back, kind of.

 

ION (In Other News): I ran 11 miles this morning. Took a while, but feeling good about the distance I've done and how much energy I still have following a 2+ hour run. Like, I can still drive my manual car, walk, and stay awake enough to get work done. Next week I'm doing a 10 mile race about 30 minutes South of here. I've never raced a 10 mile race before, so... PR! Then, 2 weeks after that: half marathon. I'm not sure if I'll be able to beat my time from February, or if I'll even try. I may try to save my energy for the San Antonio Half.

 

OK - Back to work! Have a good weekend!

The Plural of "Anecdote"...

My status message for the last few days has been:

 

The plural of "anecdote" is not "data".

 

As a few people have asked me to clarify, I thought I'd just post my response.

 

The status came as a result of an article by The SciGuy over at the Houston Chronicle. This specific article was about a study that found that children who were spanked a certain number of times per week lost a point to 3 points off of their IQ over the course of 3 years. In the comments section, there were a number of people saying variations on the theme: "I was spanked as a child and I have an IQ of 130! Imagine if I hadn't been spanked! I'd be a genius!"

 

I was getting frustrated because these people seemed to think that:

 

1. If their IQ was high, that meant it hadn't been lowered.

2. If their IQ was 3 points higher, that would be a noticeable change to them.

3. Their personal assumption that their IQ hadn't been lowered meant that the research was false.

 

#3 is where the status update stems from. The study evaluated over 1000 children. Of those 1000+, there were some who did not follow the pattern of the majority, that doesn't mean that the pattern is wrong, it just means that there is variation. Some children lost much more than 3 IQ points. Some may have gained. Some of those children may have had extenuating circumstances not captured in the research. Your one personal story does not mean that the research is false.

 

My dad said it like this:

 

I could sit in McDonald's and watch an old guy come in and say, "MacDonald's is where old people go to eat." I could see another old person come in and say, "That confirms it! All old people must eat at MacDonald's!" But that anecdotal evidence does not mean that it's good research. Until I study a large, random group of old people, I can make no conclusive statements about the eating habits of old people. The plural of "anecdote" is not "data".

My Kind of Protest

And "Yes, Barack, if you do one thing in your presidency, make it this!"

Sexual Assault Prevention Tips Guaranteed to Work!

1. Don't put drugs in people's drinks in order to control their behavior.

2. When you see someone walking by themselves, leave them alone!

3. If you pull over to help someone with car problems, remember not to assault them!

4. NEVER open an unlocked door or window uninvited.

5. If you are in an elevator and someone else gets in, DON'T ASSAULT THEM!

6. Remember, people go to laundry to do their laundry, do not attempt to molest someone who is alone in a laundry room.

7. USE THE BUDDY SYSTEM! If you are not able to stop yourself from assaulting people, ask a friend to stay with you while you are in public.

8. Always be honest with people! Don't pretend to be a caring friend in order to gain the trust of someone you want to assault. Consider telling them you plan to assault them. If you don't communicate your intentions, the other person may take that as a sign that you do not plan to rape them.

9. Don't forget: you can't have sex with someone unless they are awake!

10. Carry a whistle! If you are worried you might assault someone "on accident" you can hand it to the person you are with, so they can blow it if you do.

 

Remember: ONLY RAPISTS CAN PREVENT RAPE.

Health Care Part 1

This health care conversation happening in the US these days is really interesting to me. I've been trying to think about how I use my purchasing power and almost 100% of the time, it is motivated by what is best for me, my family, and my close friends. As a Christian, I should be using my choice of health care insurer to give aid to the weak, sick, lame, "least of these", right?

So, my understanding of how insurance works is that it works based primarily on probability.

100 people are insured under Plan A.

100 people are insured under Plan B.

Plan A has higher deductibles and co-pays, excludes pre-existing conditions, excludes annual exams, excludes prescription medication.

Plan B has lower deductibles, lower copays, covers pre-existing conditions, covers annual exams, covers prescription medication.

Plan A is cheaper, not only because of the higher deductible and copay, but also because it attracts younger, healthier people who don't need prescription meds, and don't go to the doctor except in an emergency, but also because only 5% of them use their insurance, so the ratio of people paying in to people taking out is very low.

Plan B gets people who need to have insurance that covers pre-existing conditions, people who are have family history of illnesses, people who need medication to maintain their health, etc and the cost goes up, because 25% of them need to use their insurance more regularly.

If I were looking out for my own best interest, Plan A is my plan, for the most part. I don't go to the doctor that often. I don't have any pre-existing conditions. I don't take medicine regularly. I would be paying for coverage I don't need if I got Plan B. But, if I think about society as a whole, and what is best for the people who are sick, I should go with Plan B, because increasing the pool of healthy people in Plan B means lowering the cost for everyone else who needs that plan. Right?

But no one looks at it that way. No one considers that when buying their insurance. So the people who are sick, who have a harder time paying for their insurance due to being out of work sick or being on fixed income, have an even harder time affording their health care. While the people who are healthy and can afford to work, keep getting cheaper insurance, choosing the cheaper insurance, and costs for them go down.

Which is why I believe someone needs to step in, and if no one else is, then I believe it is up to the government. Which is why I support health care reform.

Wastefulness: From the Top Down

At work, we have little fliers in the kitchen with 10 ways we can save energy. They include the usual things like turning the thermostat up in the winter, turning off lights in your house, changing the set temperature of your hot water heater, etc. What they don't include is anything you can do at work. How about this:

Turn off your desk light when you leave at night.

Turn off the power strip that powers your monitor, cell phone charger, docking station, and desk light.

Turn off the lights in conference rooms when you leave.

Wear light clothing so that the thermostat at work can be turned up. (This is unlikely to happen, so bring a sweater or blanket so you can adjust to the temperature setting without using more energy in the form of a space heater.)

Or, even more annoying:

Two months ago (MONTHS!) I got an alert on my computer that the batteries in my mouse were beginning to die. Many people would take that warning and replace the batteries. I wanted to see how long the batteries would last without changing them. TWO MONTHS. And today, my scroll wheel started to be less sensitive. The scroll wheel. That's it! If I had changed my batteries when I got the message, I'd be two months into a new set of batteries and probably would have already received a warning about those batteries.

I would also like to add that space heaters are a great thing for the winter. They allow you to save energy by keeping the thermostat low and only heating the areas where you will be working. When you use them to counteract your air conditioning, you only cause a ripple effect of more energy usage. Using the space heater makes the temperature heat up, which makes the air conditioning turn on, which makes the space heater turn up, which makes the air conditioning work harder. This is NOT ROCKET SCIENCE. It's also the reason I'm wearing a knit shirt, jacket and blanket at work today instead of firing up the space heater. /rant

My Musical Tastes and a Sandwich You Won't Believe

I just signed up for an account on last.fm. After signing up, it prompts for a list of your favorite artists, presumably so that it can suggest new artists for you to check out. Unfortunately, due to the crappy Internet connection I get at work, which randomly redirects me to google, I didn't get any results. Not that I think I'd get a lot of coherent results anyway, with a list like this:

 

Justin Timberlake, Beyonce, Imogen Heap, Jem, Black Eyed Peas, Goo Goo Dolls, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Miley Cyrus, Shakira, Incubus, System of a Down, and the Blind Boys of Alabama.

 

That would be a pretty fun radio station to listen to, though. Definitely wouldn't be boring.

 

 

And- FYE: check out the new sandwich in testing from KFC: GROSS. Estimated to have 1220 calories. Ew.