neurotwitch

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

two new sites

A lot of what we’ve been busy with is behind-the-scenes stuff. But we recently launched two new websites.

The first, Cerulean Advisors, is for a company that provides capital markets advice as well as unbiased financial and strategic guidance to emerging public and privately held healthcare companies. It’s an elegant site that will expand as the company does. This site, as well as the one below, are built with the Expression Engine content management system, which we like more and more as they polish and improve it.

The second site, which is in a soft launch as we fine-tune things, is Robin’s Resources, a site that reviews Fairfield County, Connecticut stores, restaurants, bars, coffee shops, charities, and more, and is geared to busy women. It features succinct reviews and tips on what to look for or to order or why to give your money to a particular charity. Eventually it will have a full directory and be supported by advertising.

posted by lee on 01/27/10 at 07:41 PM
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Saturday, January 02, 2010

the only annual list i care about

The 2010 List of Banished Words from Lake Superior State University (Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan):

[Note: I’ve trimmed the comments—you can read them all, and more, and even get your Unicorn Hunter license at the link above]
Shovel-ready
“Apparently, the generally accepted definition of this phrase is to imply that a project has been completely designed and all that is left to do is to implement it ... however, when something dies, it, too, is shovel-ready for burial and so I get confused about the meaning. I would suggest that we just say the project is ready to implement.” – Jerry Redington, Keosauqua, Iowa. “Stick a shovel in it. It’s done.” – Joe Grimm, Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

Transparent/Transparency
“In the lexicon of the political arena, this word is supposed to mean obvious or easily understood. In reality, political transparency is more invisible than obvious!”—Deb Larson, Bellaire, Mich.

Czar
Long used by the media as a metaphor for positions of high authority, including “baseball czar” Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, appointed by team owners as commissioner-for-life in 1919. U.S. president Woodrow Wilson had an “industry czar” during World War I. Lesser-known “czar” roles in government during the last 100 years include: censorship, housing and oil czars in 1941; rubber czar in 1942; patronage czar (1945); clean-up (1952); missile (1954); inflation (1971); e-commerce (1998); bioethics, faith-based and reading czars (2001); bird flu (2004); democracy (2005); abstinence and birth control czars (2006); and weatherization czar (2008). George W. Bush appointed 47 people to 35 “czar” jobs; Pres. Obama, eight appointments to 38 positions

Tweet
And all of its variations ... tweetaholic, retweet, twitterhea, twitterature, twittersphere ... “I don’t know a single non-celebrity who actually uses it,” says Alex Thompson of Sault St. Marie, Mich. Jay Brazier of Williamston, Mich. says she supposes that tweeters might be “twits.”

App
“Must we b sbjct to yt another abrv? Why does the English language have to fit on a two-inch screen? I hate the sound of it. I think I’ll listen to a symph on the rad.”—Edward R. Bolt, Grand Rapids, Mich. “Is there an ‘app’ for making this annoying word go away? Why can’t we just call them ‘programs’ again?” – Kuahmel Allah, Los Angeles, Calif.

Sexting
Sending sexually explicit pictures and text messages through the cell phone. “Any dangerous new trend that also happens to have a clever mash-up of words, involves teens, and gets television talk show hosts interested must be banished.” – Ishmael Daro, Saskatoon, Sask., Canada.

Friend as a verb
“‘Befriend’ is much more pleasant to the human ear and a perfectly useful word in the dictionary.” – Kevin K., Morris, Okla.

Teachable moment
What might otherwise be known as ‘a lesson.’ “It’s a condescending substitute for ‘opportunity to make a point,’” says Eric Rosenquist of College Station, Tex. “This phrase is used to describe everything from potty-training to politics. It’s time to vote it out!” – Jodi, Youngstown, Ohio.

In these economic times ...
Nominations concerning the economy started rolling in as the 2009 list was being put together last year, i.e. “bailout.” They kept coming this year, in these trouble economic times. ” South Park ” warned us about what would happen if we angered The Economy. “In this economy, we can’t afford to be wasteful…In this economy, we all need some security…In this economy, frogs could start falling from the sky…In this economy, blah blah blah… Overused for everything from trying to market products as inexpensive to simply explaining any and all behavior during the recession.” – Mark, Milwaukee, Wisc. “When someone prefaces a statement with ‘in this economic climate,’ its starts to sound like a sales pitch, or just an excuse on which to blame every problem. And if a letter or e-mail message from your employer starts with this phrase, usually it means you’re not getting a raise this year.” – Dominic, Seattle, Wash.

Stimulus
“What next, can I go down to the local bar and down a few drinks and call it a stimulus package?” – Richard Brown, Portland, Ore.

Toxic Assets
We think we’re going to be sick. “Whatever happened to simply ‘bad stocks,’ ‘debts,’ or ‘loans’?”—Monty Heidenreich, Homewood, Ill.

Too big to fail
“Does such a thing exist? We’ll never know if a company is too big to fail, unless somehow it does fail, and then it will no longer be too big to fail. Make it stop!” – Holli, Raleigh, NC.

Bromance
“I am sick of combined words the media creates to make them sound catchier. Frenemies? Bromances? Blogorrhea? I’m going to scream!” – Kaylynn, Alberta, Canada.

Chillaxin’
Nominated for several years. We couldn’t chill about it anymore. “A made-up word used by annoying Gen-Yers.” – Chris Jensen, Fond du Lac, Wisc.

Obama-prefix or roots?
The LSSU Word Banishment Committee held out hope that folks would want to Obama-ban Obama-structions, but were surprised that no one Obama-nominated any, such as these compiled by the Oxford Dictionary in 2009: Obamanomics, Obamanation, Obamafication, Obamacare, Obamalicious, Obamaland ... We say Obamanough already.

posted by lee on 01/02/10 at 05:10 PM
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Friday, January 01, 2010

another year begins

Well, 2009 was both good and bad. Good because we have three new babies in the family. Bad because a friend, Catherine Gordon, died way too young of cancer on November 18.

Christmas was better this year—I wasn’t so numb. Dad gave me a wedding portrait of Mom that is so beautiful I cried (between that and the note he wrote). Stanley gave me a Kindle which I like even more than I thought I would. Maureen kept Christmas fairly simple this year, which is what we all needed.

Maybe 2010 will be better. I can sort of feel this miasma of funk I’ve been in since my mother died start to clear up—like seeing glimpses of the road through the fog. I’m starting to think about what I want to create and projects I want to do—next step is starting something that’s not work-related. Maybe the President will keep one or two of the promises he made. Maybe there will be jobs and maybe they will straighten out the economy ... and maybe I’ll get some good tomatoes from the garden this year.

posted by lee on 01/01/10 at 07:51 PM
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Thursday, December 17, 2009

words can’t express what a slime lieberman is

And what spineless cretins most of the Democrat Senators are. Maybe now the dumbasses who voted for LIEberman over Ned Lamont will understand what a mistake they made—especially if they lose their jobs or get sick or both.

posted by lee on 12/17/09 at 07:11 PM
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Saturday, December 12, 2009

i keep waiting ...

Back in November 2008, I voted for Obama. I bought the dream and was teary-eyed as I watched events on Inauguration Day. Not that I could ever have voted for McCain—I just can’t vote for the mean-spiritedness and intolerance that is the Republican Party now. But I was so happy to be voting FOR a candidate for a change, not holding my nose and voting for who I thought was the lesser of two crappy choices, as is usual.

I feel like such a sucker now. The war in Iraq is still going on, the war in Afghanistan is escalating, we’re killing people in Pakistan, it turns out that the country really is a banana republic, credit card “reform” has kicked our collective ass backwards as far as paying off debt goes (gee thanks Senator Dodd), and health care insurance reform is turning out to be another joke that will probably wind up hurting us rather than easing the pocketbook pain we feel as we send of our health “insurance” check every month, and I know too many people out of work with no hope in site. Sure, the stock market is higher than it’s been in a while, but that can change at any second and it’s meaningless to most Americans, anyway. Obama won the peace prize for nothing and it still turns my stomach that he accepted it.

Why is it so hard for our leaders to do the right thing? To pull our troops home, to institute universal healthcare, to end the credit-card terrorism waged by the banks, to create real jobs, to rein in the greedy and regulate Wall Street, to house our homeless, to educate our students, to take care of our vets, to grant equal rights to all? Christmas time just makes it more acute that despite all the pious platitudes spouted by our so-called leaders, we are far, far from a Christian nation. Godless socialism is such a better deal for most Americans. At least a homeowner wouldn’t lose the house due to medical bills.

And I should have known better—I let my cynicism slip. I read William Blum and I know he’s been dead on for years. I’m so disappointed in Obama and the brain-dead wonders of our current “Democratic” House and Senate I’ve had to cut way down on watching the pundits blab on TV—the bullshit and the shittiness of most of the “leaders” is beating me into an even bigger funk.

Obama has done nothing. I don’t want to stop believing in him, but I can’t help it—unlike those who are able to have faith in the absence of any evidence, I need something tangible to sustain me. I sign petitions and send letters to my senators and representatives—what else can we do?

I think Matt Taibbi is right: first Obama needs to get Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street tune masters out of our government. Read “Obama’s Big Sellout” to see what I mean—Taibbi might not be without flaw in getting the details exactly right, but he gets the important stuff right and, more importantly, he gets the big picture right. He articulates my outrage.

All I can do is hope Obama cuts his puppet strings and starts working on the world he wants his daughters to live in. But I’m not holding my breath.

posted by lee on 12/12/09 at 07:46 PM
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Saturday, November 14, 2009

more baby pix

Dad, aka Papa Jim, went downstate for his birthday (81st!), which was on November 5. He sent a batch o’ photos—here are some of them:

The Four Greats: Papa Jim, Riley, David, & Breanna (click to enlarge)

Papa Jim & Breanna (click to enlarge)

Aunt Kelly and Breanna (click to enlarge)

posted by lee on 11/14/09 at 07:10 PM
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Saturday, October 31, 2009

welcome breanna marie & alexandria

Breanna Marie McCaskey, born Saturday, October 24, 2009 at 8pmish, at Wyandotte Henry Ford Hospital in Wyandotte, Michigan. Six pounds, eight ounces according to Granny Carolyn.

Breanna Marie McCaskey (click to enlarge)

Amber, Brian, and Breanna Marie (click to enlarge)

Daddy Brian meets baby Breanna (click to enlarge)

Also, Alexandria LaPorte met the world on October 16, in Chicago I think. I don’t have any details, have to ask, but I know Bob LaPorte is thrilled (thank you to Wendy for sending on the photos!)

Alexandria LaPorte a few minutes after she was born on October 16, 2009 (click to enlarge)

As soon as I get some more details and photos, I’ll make a gallery for the October babies!

posted by lee on 10/31/09 at 05:43 PM
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Thursday, October 08, 2009

health care reform is a moral issue

Keith Olbermann, on MSNBC, devoted his entire show last night to a Special Comment. You can listen to it by clicking on this link. He argues that it is both immoral and anti-American that one’s access to health care depends upon how much money one has; how wrong it is that a father has to go bankrupt to pay for a child’s medical treatment while others get the best health care money can buy because they’re rich.

We must reform a system that lets my father get better care than yours does, or better care than Mike’s daughter does, because by the accident of life, I make more money than he does, or my checkbook can hold out longer than his does, or yours does, as the bills come endlessly like some evil version of the enchanted water buckets in Fantasia.

The resources exist for your father and mine to get the same treatment to have the same chance and to both not have to lie there worried about whether or not they can afford to live!

Afford to live? Are we at that point? Are we so heartless that we let the rich live and the poor die and everybody in between become wracked with fear — fear not of disease but of Deductibles? Right now, right now, somebody’s father is dying because they don’t have that dollar to spend. And the means by which the playing field is leveled, and the costs that are just as inflated to me as they are to you are reduced, and the money that I don’t have to spend any more on saving my father can go instead to saving your father that’s called health care reform!

Death is the issue! How can we not be unified against death? I want my government helping my father to fight death! I want my government to spend taxpayer money to help my father fight to live and I want my government to spend taxpayer money to help your father fight to live! I want it to spend my money first on fighting death. Not on war! Not on banks! Not on high speed rail!

Olbermann proposes that we donate to the organization that brings together medical professionals to provide free clinics to the uninsured and under insured so they can hold free clinics in the capitol cities of the six Democratic Senators blocking real health care reform: “I want Sens. Lincoln and Pryor to see what health care poverty is really like in Little Rock. I want Sen. Baucus to see it in Butte. I want Sen. Ben Nelson to see it in Lincoln. I want Sen. Landro to see it in Baton Rouge. I want Sen. Reid to see it in Las Vegas.” It makes a lot of sense to me, so I will donate what I can when the mechanism is put into place.

My fear is that Health Care Reform will be enacted—as it should be, with the public option—but that Congress is its infinite ineptitude won’t protect us from being gouged by the insurance companies before the reforms are in place (2013, the last I read). Like the royal screwing we’re getting now from the credit card banks because Congress neglected to protect us during the interim. But my greatest fear is that the USA really is an oligarchy, a 21st Century banana republic, and Congress will cave and do nothing, or as close to nothing as they can.

posted by lee on 10/08/09 at 11:20 AM
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Wednesday, August 19, 2009

my current hero

Finally, someone tells it like it is.

posted by lee on 08/19/09 at 11:44 PM
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Thursday, August 13, 2009

4th generation gallery - at last

Okay, finally, I put up a gallery of the photos I’ve acquired having to do with Riley and David. It’s in no special order, and some are taken by Dad, some by others, some from Diana—sorry no specific credits on this (I lost track). You can find it here: The 4th Generation: Riley and David. Please let me know if something is mis-captioned.

Lots on my mind but not enough time right now to rant.

posted by lee on 08/13/09 at 08:53 PM
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