Friday, November 9, 2018

List of Scandals Republicans REFUSED to Investigate


What is Conservative about the Current Republican Party


Matthew 16:26


Closing Arguments for the 2018 Midterms


Articles of Impeachment against President Richard Nixon


Public Education and Political Parties


If you believe in Public Education - as a force for good, a weapon against poverty, a vaccine against ignorance - then you must vote for the Democrats. The other political party consistently shows itself hostile to public education by cutting resources, eliminating assistants, and outright attacking teachers.

I am a proud product of public schools -  K-12, Undergrad, Masters, Doctorate. I taught in public schools for 7 years. I would not be where I am today without public schools. And I firmly believe that all children deserve a quality education. The Democratic Party stands for education, stands for children, and stands for teachers. 
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DdR_NczU8AElnxt.jpg

You cannot say that you support education while voting Republican. If you believe in education, believe in a better future, better citizenry, and better economy. It is a simple choice - Vote for the Democrats.

Voter Suppression is a Republican Tactic


Make no mistake. The Republican Party is the party of voter suppression.  Instead of being party of American ideals and good ideas that can persuade voters to trust them with our future, it became the party that blocks as many voters as possible from making their voice heard. The Democrats want you to vote, even if you disagree with us. We want to make it as easy to participate in the system without unnecessary barriers.

H/T to /u/1mjtaylor
Republicans have different ideas about the most fundamental right of all Americans. They close polling places in populated areas, in minority areas (Kansas erased the only polling place in a Hispanic-majority city), and on college campuses (see Boone in 2016).  They limit the availability of early voting, reducing hours and even closing on the weekends (no Sunday voting?!?). They kick people off the voter rolls for little reason (of 53k voter denials, 70% are black) like saying someone moved because they didn’t send back in a nondescript postcard. They push for voter ID laws but then severely limit the allowable ID’s (picking ones that minorities are less likely to have as in NC with near surgical precision) or make them more difficult to obtain.  Free IDs might be free, but it costs a person working 2 minimum wage jobs a day off work. If you live in a black community they are probably shutting down the nearest DMVs (see Alabama). They actively send out misinformation to voters telling them the wrong dates for the election or that you can vote by text message.  They send out fundraising letters that look like official voter mail to scam old people into donating to their campaigns. And they ruthlessly gerrymander districts to create safe districts for themselves, effectively allowing legislators to pick their voters instead of voters picking the legislators (In the 2017 blue wave election in Virginia the Democratic governor won by 9 points, but the House of Delegates only broke even). In at least 2 states, the person in charge of protecting the elections is the person running for governor (Georgia and Kansas) as more of the scams become evident. 

Today, the Republican party claims that counting your vote is fraud.  They can't win without cheating.

#MAGABomber


Just two weeks a crazy Trump fan sent pipe bombs to leaders of the Democratic Party and vocal critics of the President - Obamas, Clintons, Biden, Eric Holder, Maxine Waters, George Soros, Robert De Niro, and John Brennan (care of CNN). This list easily reads as a political hit list of the President’s favorite targets, a President that celebrates violence and encourages the hateful rhetoric of modern politics. While many politicians in the past have played on our differences, dividing Americans, Trump has enflamed those divisions for political gain. 

During campaign rallies, he routinely encouraged violence against protestors - even offering to pay the legal fees (he didn’t end up paying). Trump “joked” about 2nd Amendment solutions should Clinton win After the election, he defended the white supremacists in Charlottesville that not only beat counter protestors with sticks, bats and shields but also murdered a woman by driving a car into the crowd. During these midterm rallies, he has attacked Democrats an a angry mob that will use violence if they win back Congress (which makes no sense whatsoever, but that’s who he is). He still leads chants of lock her up, though exactly who and for what isn’t exactly clear other than political opponents (Ted Cruz also got into this by saying that his opponent Beto O’Rourke should be jailed, I guess for running against him). And just last week he celebrated a Republican representative that plead guilty to assaulting a reporter that simply asked the candidate their position on repealing the ACA. Celebrated him as an American journalist was murdered by the Saudis (who only made the Saudi enemies list when he criticized Trump). As he calls the press the enemy of the people, encouraging despots around the world to imprison and murder journalists without American retribution.  

https://jimheath.tv/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/van-1-1080x675.jpg
I am clearly not saying that Trump built and sent these bombs. That is the fault entirely of the bomber.  But this political environment is entirely the fault of President Trump. Well, Trump and the people that support him. It is no coincidence that racists chant Trump’s name as a they harass people of a darker hue as it elicits a strong feeling of pride in the white supremacists amongst us. And I don’t just mean the frothing MAGA-hat-wearers who cheered on his celebrations of violence in real time.  Republican politicians either completely ignored or mildly rebuked his rhetoric while completely caved to his hate to win an election. It’s also the fault of all of those that voted for him. You had a chance to show him and other hate mongers, that incitement of political violence remains unacceptable in America and you failed spectacularly. He faced no electoral punishment for his behaviors and you rewarded with an unexpected victory.

Yesterday, as events unfolded, the President meekly read from a statement prepared by his staff. He did not stand with the former Presidents that had been targeted. But he read, the absolute minimal statement he needed to. And that lasted for less than a day. As political opponents received more packages, he went back to the campaign trail. While he did not aggressively attack as he normally did, he did demonstrate that he doesn’t care. He mocked the idea of his own statement- saying he can be good for awhile. Then this morning he attacked the mainstream media for this situation. Because reporting on Trump’s hateful rhetoric is their fault, for repeating his words and actions. The Press Secretary (who no longer holds daily press briefings) said that it was CNN’s fault for receiving a bomb at their office.

Trump and the Republicans will not unify the country. The entire Republican platform is about fear and hate. They want to encourage the haters to get out to vote. Those that hate blacks, hate Hispanics, hate Muslims, hate immigrants, hate gays, hate trans people, hate liberals and so on. They have always done this. But now their leader actively encourages the violence that follows. Hate crimes surged in 2017 against Jews and Muslims as the White House said nothing. White supremacists feel entitled to march in the streets, even starting a brawl last week in NYC. The President says nothing, and in fact purposefully describes himself as a nationalist (exactly what those people want). 

The president will not change. We must rebuke him and his rhetoric at the ballot box.  We dod so forcefully in 2018 and we must do so again in 2020.


Attacking the Press


Any politician that attacks the media is afraid of what the media can uncover. That politician is doing something embarrassing, unethical, or illegal that they do not want you to know about. You should vote for the other candidate immediately. Calling the press “the enemy of the people” is a tried and true technique from the dictator’s handbook, a tactic used by Hitler, Stalin, Sadaam, etc. This is not metaphorical or hyperbolic. Trump is AFRAID of what the press has uncovered, what the press will uncover and that the American people will understand just how corrupt he, his family and his administration are. 

There are few things as American as a free press and this is yet another American value the Trump/Republicans have degraded. 

H/T to /u/jaydawg69
This week the White House has gone to great lengths to help the Saudi’s cover up the murder of a journalist. The journalist was an American resident and worked for this country. Interestingly, he wasn’t put on a Saudi blacklist until AFTER HE CRITICIZED President Trump. Meanwhile, Saudi money flows into the US to pay for our obliviousness. A question that has not been asked about previous presidents must now be asked - how much of that money is going directly into the Trump family?

And still, the President encourages and celebrates violence against the media. Trump praised the Congressman that pled GUILTY TO ASSAULT on a journalist last year. Where’s the decency, the civility, the respect?  It doesn’t exist. Trump and his supporters don’t actually appear to support anything America actually stands for. 

The Importance of Pre-Existing Conditions


At this very moment, it is illegal for insurance companies to deny you or your loved ones health coverage is you have a pre-existing condition. They can’t, it is a popular part of the ACA, or ObamaCare. The Republicans have voted 72 times to remove protections for patients with chronic health conditions. The Republican Party will allow insurers to deny coverage for pre-existing conditions. Apparently some candidates are blatantly lying in adds to make you think that they won’t. But they will. They will do it quickly and quietly as they pocket donations from the insurance companies. 

Conditions which include diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, childhood cancer, and pregnancy. If Republicans succeed, if you fit in these categories, the insurers can either outright deny you or increase your price beyond what you could pay. 

This is not a hypothetical situation - this is how it worked before the ACA was passed. This is why we had so many medical bankruptcies. This why people were stuck in jobs they hated to maintain health coverage - preventing people from find the jobs they love or taking a risk on the next big idea and starting their own business.  Now, bankruptcy filings have been cut by 50%, thanks to Obamacare and the Obama Economy.

But hey, if you are okay with a child cancer survivor being denied the coverage they need later in life, then vote Republican. If you think that health care is a right, described in our Declaration of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, then vote Democrat. The choice is not that hard. 
https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/170504112456-gfc-healthcare-states-with-highest-pre-existing-conditions-exlarge-169.png


Fear and Immigration


As with nearly every subject, the Republican Party is dreadfully wrong on immigration.  It seems to me their entire is FEAR - be afraid of immigrants, be afraid of Hispanics, be afraid of Muslims, be afraid of children, no matter what, be afraid, be very afraid. But the only thing to fear is exactly how many Americans subscribe to this fear mongering and racism.

And yes, the party’s attitude on immigration is completely and totally racist. Why? Because the only immigration that the ever care about involves people with darker colored skin.  In fact, the second part to Trump referring to “shithole countries” was a remark about why don’t we get more people from Norway.  “Shithole countries” as a term to describe human beings who want to make a better life for themselves, people who go through an extensive vetting process and on average turn out more successful.

It’s also not about illegal immigration at all, because the Stephen Millers of the administration also want to restrict legal immigration. That’s what the “shithole” discussion was about. They simply don’t want more browns in this country.  Even to the point of arguing against reuniting families.  Supposedly the party of “family values” want to end what they call chain migration, but what is really called family reunification.  Because what we know is that people who immigrate with family members around do better. They integrate better, they succeed more, which is why this process exists.

Speaking of families, let’s not for get that the Trump administration has been systematically orphaning the children of people trying to come here.  Let’s make that more clear - TAKING CHILDREN FROM THEIR PARENTS AND PUTTING KIDS IN CAGES.  That whole process hasn’t been resolved.  We took the kids, deported their parents, kept the kids, and then claimed we couldn’t find the parents.  I do mean “we”.  Because it was done in your name, in my name, in our name.  The kids that are return have suffered severe mental trauma at our hands.  The “family values” party really, really sucks at “family values”.  Which is really odd considering how many times the Bible tells us to care for the immigrants among us.

A lot of the families that the Republican Party so gleefully ripped apart were seeking asylum.  Asylum is an entirely legal process where you come to the border, turn yourself in to an immigration officer and request asylum on the basis of persecution or fear of your home country.  It’s legal.  We destroyed families who tried to do things the legal way.  Not every petition for asylum is granted and those people are sent away. But it a legal process, agreed to by international treaties.  I make the point about asylum, because the “terrifying caravan” that has WALKED from Guatemala is the current fear mongering of the President and the reason 11 Jews are dead.
https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/claremoreprogress.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/5/97/597263bf-791e-5e26-b1b6-c9f6395504a6/5bdbe31ba74e8.image.jpg?resize=1200%2C800

The Caravan started walking during Holy Week to leave their home marred with violence to seek a better life in America. It started as like 7000 men, women, and children. That whole number won’t make it here - they receive asylum in the other countries along the way or give up.  But the ones that do, turn themselves in and request asylum.  Poor, tired men, women and children are now a political scare tactic of the President and Republicans.  For this, the President wants to send more troops to the border than we have in Afghanistan and has said that we could “open fire” on the children.  ON CHILDREN. I would rather send blankets, water and food, and let an immigration judge hear their request for asylum.  

But then again, I’m not the racist asshole sitting behind a Presidential desk.  Nor am I sitting on a couch on Fox & Friends continuing to spew this hateful garbage.  Recently, the President said that George Soros was paying for this caravan.  He’s not. But let’s look at it.  George Soros is a prominent Jew - most people don’t know who he is, but the white supremacists do.  The President’s lie was previously being spread around on Neo-nazi websites and one guy decided he would do something about it and killed 11 Jews in a synagogue and wounded 4 police officers.  That horrific event happened before the President gave it a megaphone.  You can’t say he didn’t know that it was dangerous rhetoric.  People have died and he supported the argument of the crazy guy.  Because he wants to pander to white supremacists.  He thinks that if he gets the white supremacists and you on the same side, then he will win.  That’s who he is grouping you with.  

That’s were the birthright citizenship comes from.  The 14th Amendment is clear.  If you are born in the United States, then you are a US citizen by birth.  It is clear as can be.  The Neo-nazis and the president point to the “jurisdiction clause” saying that illegal immigrants are within our jurisdiction.  Except that they most certainly are.  If an undocumented person commits a crime (which they do are a far lower rate than the current administration), then they can be prosecuted as they are within the jurisdiction of the US.  If they have a child here, then that child is a US citizen. It also comes down to this.  Even if you disagree with how the parents got here.  It has nothing to do with the child.  We do not punish children for their parent’s sins.  Now, if Trump can write an executive order striping the citizenship away from the children of undocumented parents, what is to stop him from striping the citizenship from legal immigrants? But it doesn’t seem like a good idea to argue that you can change the Constitution with a pen.  If he did it, it would be struck down immediately.  But that’s not the point.  It is a hat tip to racists.  It’s using their language.  Giving their arguments the appearance of legitimacy.  This is why white supremacists have become so emboldened under the Trump administration.

We can have a legitimate discussion about immigration, numbers, etc. We can debate an unnecessary $25 billion wall paid for by American tax dollars. But unfortunately, you have to get through all of this other crap first.  Because real debate aren’t the arguments the Republicans are making.  Republicans want you to be afraid of brown people.  They think that you will vote for them if you are afraid.  These choices aren’t hard.  Do you want to be a part of the party of fear and hate, or the party of hope?  Unfortunately, the Republican Party is no longer the party of Lincoln, Reagan, McCain or even the Bushes.  It’s the party of Trump and his hate is their hate.  Again. You might not hate immigrants, you might be mad about tearing families apart, or disgusted with the racist rhetoric.  But if you vote for the Republicans, then you are affirming exactly that.

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Compounding in Pharmacy School

One of the more stressful parts of Pharmacy School so far has been compounding.  Compounding prepares a specific product for a specific patient.  As opposed to manufacturing that provides a more generalized approach.  You can remove excipients that might cause allergic reactions or you can simply change one formulation for another.  A lot of this is done for pediatrics turning a large tablet into a liquid.  So far in three semesters, we have made creams, sticks, solutions, and suppositories.

The actual compounding can be fun.  Manipulating ingredients to help a patient.  The stress comes from rest of the process.  We have a quiz on the various formulations in the form of questions written by the man who wrote the textbook regarding compounding.  We must complete a compounding record that includes the manufacturer, lot number, and exact amounts of every ingredient.  We counsel our TA as if s/he were the patient, so we memorize the major counseling points.  And every product is tested to make sure it is within 10% for the stated strength.  If your products falls outside of 10%, you have to come back and remake it.  If you are too far outside, especially too high, you have "killed the patient" and receive a zero without the option to remake it.

But I learned last week that not every pharmacy student goes through this.  In fact, only half of the pharmacy schools do any compounding at all!!!  For some, compounding is little more than an elective course that students take for a semester.  Few compound as regularly as we do.  Of those, very few routinely test the products for accuracy.  And we seem to be the only school that tests every product that gets made.  That means that they just go through the motions and hope that the products are good.

Much of this comes from budgeting concerns.  Compounding is expensive.  I know.  I bought lab supplies for my classroom.  It's not easy.  Checking the products takes more money and time.  Things that can be rare in a pharmacy school.

But compounding is important.  A study randomly checked some compounded products from some pharmacies and found a wide range of accuracy, from drastically underdosing (essentially a placebo) to dramatically overdosing (more than 400%).   A lot of the range comes from technique.  We hear a lot about quantitative transfer.  We routinely make 10% extra product to account for loss.  But in all, compounding is an important skill.  A licensed pharmacist may never, ever compound during there career.  But all pharmacists should know how to do it.  It's like parallel parking.  I avoid parking that way, but to get my driver's license I had to display enough control of a car to complete the task.  Maybe compounding should become an essential part of a PharmD degree.

Monday, September 22, 2014

A Different Timeline of Earth

One difficulty in teaching biology was explaining the history of Earth.  How do you effectively show 4.6 billion years to 15-year-olds?  I have used timelines, football fields, and even a piano to represent deep time.  There was a great TED talk on the subject as well.

I think that I like this one the best.  The details would be hard to show, but everyone would understand it.  Just use your arm!
It would be like a built in cheat sheet.  Everyone can bring their arm to the test.  I don't know if it would work, but it is an interesting way to think about time.

Friday, September 19, 2014

Fall PY2 - Week 6

It was another crazy week, so I apologize for failing to post this week.  Let's get right to it.

Monday
The first test of the week happened after lunch.  I had the joy of coming in early to remake my Coal Tar solution.  My first attempt had too many particles in it, so I spent an hour with two spatulas and yellow goo.  Then came the Diabetes test.  I did not do as well as I thought that I should have.  That came from complacency.  The dermatology test was so easy and my team tied for first in diabetes jeopardy, so I went into the test expecting it to be easy.  But it was much more about memorization than rationalizing.  The questions I missed were bullet points on the different drugs instead of other parts.  It is completely my fault.  I definitely should have studied much, much more.  Now I will have to make up for it on the test test.

Tuesday
Norepinephrine
The second test of the week happened first thing in the morning.  Exam #1 for Drug Lit was a mystery to me.  I did not really know what to study for it.  I decided to go back over the objectives, and I felt that it went much better than the previous diabetes test.  I still don't know how I did, but I felt pretty good about it.

Med chem has changed from histamine to adrenaline.  We reviewed the structure of norepinephrine and epinephrine.  This section will really get into all of our heart medicines.

Therapy was a divided class that began with more medicinal chemistry related to sex hormones.  Afterwards we started the next unit about contraceptives.  Lots about contraceptives.  In the remaining 30 minutes of the class, we flew through 90 slides about contraceptives.

Wednesday
More contraceptives.  Lab started by reviewing the brand and generic names of contraceptives and looked at two bags of examples.  I had to explain the advantages and disadvantages of Plan B and Novum.  Then we went to compound misoprostol vaginal suppositories.  Used to induce labor, the compound might have been the easiest formulation yet.  You just had to wait for the base to melt, mix and harden.

Kinetics went through the concepts related to multiple dosing.  If you don't know, steady state concentrations are reached within 5 half-lives.  If you have any doubt just multiply by five.  It was less about actually calculating things and more about the concepts.  Change the clearance, what do you expect to happen.

Thursday
More statistics for drug lit.  This time about risk assessments.  The students succumbed to a common mistake.  Would you take a drug that increased the incidence of something bad from 2 in 1000 to 4 in 1000?  Would you take a drug that doubles your risk of an adverse reaction.  Most people would say yes to the first but a definite no to the second.  Except the two are exactly the same.  Doubling your risk of something of something incredibly rare doesn't put you at a lot of danger.  Statistics are fun.

Med chem went into more about adrenergic receptors.  I like the new professor, but I could not understand him a few times.  He was very funny and trying to engage the students.
Norepinephrine in the binding pocket of its receptor.

After lunch, we had a professor from Asheville to come and talk to use about Contraceptives.  Instead of a lecture about the different types, we did a case about a patient who wanted to start using something.  We went through each category to see which would work for her and which wouldn't.  You do have to be careful.

Thursday night was a scholarship dinner at the Alumni Hall.  The Chancellor spoke to the crowd, the food was great, the conversations were better.  I don't know how you get on a board for a foundation, but I would be interested in doing something like that.  Overall it was a great evening celebrating the scholarship recipients and their donors.  I was most excited by meeting with the Chancellor.  I made sure to go up and talk to her.  She is incredibly nice and enthusiastic about Carolina.  She's doing a great job.

I had one last event on Friday.  As a Recruitment Ambassador, I gave a tour of the pharmacy school to prospective high school students.  They came from all over the state.  We gave them a quick tour and taught them how to take blood pressure.  That's it for the week.  No exams next week, but two quizzes.  I should get to do some relaxing this weekend.  We;ll see.

Friday, September 12, 2014

Fall PY2 - Week 5

Bryant Park, New York City at 11 pm
That was a heck of a week.  I apologize for not posting but everything got a bit hectic.  When things
get crazy, I will probably resort to only posting on Fridays.  The most important thing for me was coming back from New York City!!!  It was my first time in the Big City.  My wife and I went for our 5th wedding anniversary to see the sites and Manhattan and the Broadway play, Book of Mormon. It was a great weekend, with lots of walking.  But I felt a little behind all week, of course so did everyone else who didn't spend a weekend elsewhere.  So let's get to the events of Week 5:

Monday
This Monday started differently with an hour of Med Chem before therapy.  The professor wrapped up Second Generation Antihistamines and Mast Cell Stabilizers for our exam on Thursday.

If you can guess, in therapy we talked about diabetes!  This time we went over some different insulin regimens that people use.  We had a very hard pre-class quiz that took me 9 tries to finally get a 100.

Prelab was also about diabetes - specifically our MTM for a diabetic patient.  We were given prescriptions and we talked about what might be wrong with them and what we should prepare to ask the patient in Lab.

Later that night, I attended the training session for the Recruitment Ambassadors Program.  Now I can give tours to people, talk up the school of pharmacy, talk up pharmacy in general.  I could do that before, but now I get credit that I can put on my CV.

Tuesday
More statistics in Drug Lit.  Probabilities and Power were the main focus.  You show know that studies are powered (by sample size) to find the correct answer, but there is always a possibility of finding an answer that isn't there (Type I Error) or missing the answer that is (Type II Error).  The best part was the quiz halfway through which I passed to give myself a few hour to work on the other things due this week.

Med Chem brought in one of my favorite professors to provide the clinical details of antihistamines.  The main goal of antihistamines is to block H1-receptors which cause inflammation.  But the G1s are non-selective and easily enter the brain that they cause many side effects: sedation, dry mouth, increased appetite, etc.  So clinically, you can use those side effects as a potential treatment.  Colds do not have anything to do with histamine, but cold medicine usually contains an antihistamine.  The small molecules also block ACh receptors which dry out the sinuses to relieve your runny nose.

Therapy finished up the diabetes module.  We finished going over the insulins for both type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

Wednesday
This was going to be the rough day.  Two quizzes, a SOAP note and an MTM all were on the schedule.  So lab begins by going over our SOAP note for a diabetic patient.  My answers were similar to everyone else so I feel okay about it.  I might not get a 100, but I should at least earn an A.  I did the worst I have ever done on a lab quiz - worst of all it was because of the calculations.  I worked everything out to discover my two answers were off by 1000x.  In finding a mass, I messed up the Weight Percent (like 3% NaCl) as mg/mL instead of the correct g/mL.  I got cocky and it cost me 5 points out of 25.  The rest of lab was just talking about insulins.  We took a look at insulin pens and the subcutaneous needles.  Then we actually gave ourselves the shots we will have to teach patients to give, but with saline.  I did not feel a thing.

Kinetics was another quiz about continuous infusions and multiple dosing.  I was worried about this one because I tried to read the chapter on the plane headed to NYC.  That environment and the anticipation meant that I did not really grasp the fine details from the book.  When I got back to it on Monday and Tuesday, it made sense leading to a redemptive 100.

Thursday
Drug Lit was another article class.  The article was about? Diabetes!  Specifically a controlled, phase 3 trial for Canaflagozin, an SGLT2-inhibitor.  We went through the article in tedious detail (professor's words).  The major concern is the first drug lit test next week.

Med Chem was our first big exam of the semester.  GPCRs and Histamine.  I studied off and on all week.  That included taking the practice test on the plane ride home, when I only missed 2.  I was pretty confident.  Comparing answers with other people, there is a high probablity of a perfect score.

Therapy was an Q and A session on diabetes before our Monday exam.  I kind of didn't pay attention but instead focused on making a study guide for me to work on this week.  After the questions, a new professor flew through 90 slides about contraceptives.  It was so fast!  Some of it sunk in, but I will be looking over that again.  Any time she mentioned copper IUDs, all I could think about was the House episode with the nuns.

Thursday night included Diabetes Jeopardy for a CAPS event.  We got some CAPS points, but most importantly was review of diabetes and questions from previous exams.  I missed more questions than I thought I should have, but somehow we ended up tied for first place!!!  We both missed the first tie breaker, and then the other group got the next one right.  So we technically ended in second place without the certificate or mug.  I don't like losing, but we did beat everyone else!  Hopefully that bodes well for the test next week.

Well, that is all for a hectic week.  Next week will probably be the same with two exams on Monday and Tuesday.  I am looking forward to it.

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

TED Talk Tuesday: Andy Puddicombe

10 mindful minutes to clear your brain of everything.  Do nothing.  At all!  Get away from the world for a few minutes to recharge.  Andy Puddicombe spoke at a TEDx in London about mediation.

Enjoy!

Monday, September 8, 2014

Back from New York

I just returned from a weekend trip to New York City.  We did lots of walking up and down Manhattan.  Saturday along included 38,000 steps on my FitBit.  The sights and sounds of the city were amazing, but one of the best parts was a Broadway show.  We saw The Book of Mormon, written by the guys from South Park.  I didn't know what to really expect, but if you go to any show, this one is worth it.

Here is their performance from the 2011 Tony Awards: