Tag: War on Drugs

Climbing the Mountain of Paperwork

This week’s Life Well Lived question is:

How do you organize paperwork both online and off? Share your tip(s) to managing physical and digital clutter!

Be sure to visit BlogHer’s main post on the topic and add your comments. While you’re in the area, don’t forget to enter the current Life Well Lived sweepstakes.

I will be honest. Stuff tends to pile up on my desk. Thankfully, my brokerage has a really great digital document storage system to help me keep that stuff organized properly.

File folders are great things. Heck, folders in general are great things. It makes it a lot easier to keep related items together: bills to be paid, receipts, tax documents, Christmas cards, appliance manuals, whatever. When you’re done, it goes into a filing cabinet where it’s easy to find right up until the day you don’t need it any more and can shred it. Pro-tip: label folders with a fine point marker or permanent ink pen and do your best to make it easy to read.

This still leaves a pile on the corner of my desk that I must go through and ruthlessly prune about once a month.

I organize email with folders too. A folder called “Receipts 2012” contains exactly what you think it does. Maybe there’s one called “Smith” that has all my correspondence with a client named Mr. Smith. It also contains scans of his documents and emails back and forth to the title company. And once my transaction with Mr. Smith is done, the whole folder gets archived.

I’d like to say my hard drive is that well organized. Thank goodness OSX does a lot of this stuff automatically: apps end up in the “Applications” folder without too much effort on my part. “Downloads” go into the right folder unless I specifically save it elsewhere — and yes I periodically have to purge that folder.

So that’s my tip. No fancy organizers beyond a vertical file holder on my desk and a filing cabinet in my home office. Cheap and easy to implement.

In Closing: Jon Lovitz 3, anti-Semite teenagers 0; 6000 Japanese vocabulary words; War on Drugs is a failure; drone on; life in space may have come from Earth; security theatre; no kidding; follow up on unlicensed doctors; tornado alley is bigger, climate change deniers blame almost anything but climate change; over 1 in 5 health care dollars spent is because of obesity; and no, it’s not illegal to use a cell phone while driving in Nevada! It’s illegal to use one without a hands free device.

Stephen King’s Bag of Shorties

Red Meat: Well sure, if you’re willing to call a double cheeseburger “unprocessed red meat,” maybe red meat is bad for you. I also liked the fact that the same questionnaires that “prove” the connection also say that 1/5 of women make do on 1200 calories daily — that would be a bare minimum for somebody trying to lose weight, not something sustainable. Think just maybe some people weren’t quite reporting the whole truth?

It turns out that 100% of rapes are committed by rapists: Don’t rape.

Bruce Wayne: Has a hard time at the psychologist’s office.

Senator Lugar: Well, is he a resident eligible to run for Senate, or is he a non-resident who can’t vote?

His name is disgusting: Mr. Santorum thinks Puerto Rico should learn some darn English already so they can become a state! Ok, he actually said they have to make English and only English the official language, and they need to have a “common language” with us whiteys normal Americans. What makes him think they want to be a state? Pretty blatant example of a conservative expressing the idea that “those brown people would be so much better off if they did things my way!” Now he can’t decide if he wants to stand by the comments or not. mmWaffles.

So you want to be a blogger?: Here.

Deregulation: Doesn’t work (HT).

There’s no point arguing with crazy: Ornery Bastard colorfully and succinctly says what many think about the GOP.

Viva Las Vegas: House sales up. That’s right, I said up. And people are noticing.

Glad I’m not in Arizona: Proposed bill would allow employers to ask women if they use The Pill and fire them if they don’t like the answer. Never mind medical privacy. No word on whether they’ll ask men if they take erectile dysfunction meds. Guess they aren’t expecting a lot of women voters. Maybe the next proposed bill is to disavow the 18th Amendment.

If only just Arizona were the problem: Thankfully we have some uterus-having Legislators helping bring balance and/or silliness to some of the anti-woman bills.

Double-you tee eff: An officer but not a gentleman.

Hail Britannica: Someday kids will look at you funny when you talk about an encyclopedia being a big set of reference books that many middle class families owned.

What??: Hotel pools must close or install wheelchair lifts.

You know there must be candy and rainbows for bankers in the foreclosure fraud settlement: JP Morgan Chase announces a hike in the dividend. The investors go wild.

Crash the system: Refuse a plea bargain. Insist on your Constitutional right to a jury trial.

Nixon in Love: Turns out he was a bit of a romantic. Who knew.

I see it around here: More people using public transportation. And as a result, more people walking, at least locally. I think it’s a good thing.

Eastern Germany: Check out the before and after pictures by clicking the pic at top.

Yin and Yang of Healthy Living, Part 1

You will never get in shape through diet, and you will never control your weight through exercise.

A little explanation here. My office is beginning a “Biggest Loser” style challenge this week, and this post is in support. Yes, I know everybody sensible did their posts on this topic at the beginning of the year. Perhaps this will help those at risk of falling off the New Years Resolution bandwagon. It’s never too late to start new, good habits. Those of you who have sworn off diets permanently should feel free to scroll down to the closing bits.

Part One: Diet

I know I’ve said this a number of times, but every weight loss diet that works demands that you sharply limit — if not completely eliminate — added sugars from your diet.

In the 70s and 80s, people could lose weight on a low-fat diet. It worked because people on these diets knew they couldn’t eat cookies, candies and cakes. They knew they couldn’t eat most sauces. They knew they had to eat plenty of vegetables. Dean Ornish never, ever said you could lose weight by switching from Snickers to Twizzlers. Then the Food Industry started making food-like chemistry sets with words like “low fat” and “fat free” in the name. Suddenly these people could eat cookies, candies, and cakes and pretend they were still following a diet. These people did not lose weight, and many of them decided that fat free diets don’t work.

In the 90s, people could lose weight on a low-carbohydrate diet. It worked because people on these diets knew they couldn’t eat cookies, candies and cakes. They knew they had to avoid added sugar in everything from turkey lunch-meat to yogurt to spaghetti sauce (which they could put on a nice chicken filet but not spaghetti). They knew that pasta was nothing more than pressed flour (yum?). People who actually read up on the subject before charging off to the meat counter knew they had to eat plenty of veggies.  Then the Food Industry started making food-like chemical sets with words like “low carb” and “sugar free” in the name. Suddenly these people could eat cookies, candies, and cakes and pretend they were still following a diet. These people did not lose weight, and many of them decided that low carb diets don’t work.*

I’ve known people who lost weight on a vegan diet. It worked because people on these diets knew they couldn’t eat cookies, candies and cakes. They knew they had to eat lots of vegetables and actually think about where their protein is coming from. I’ve known other vegans who depend too much on food-like chemistry sets to simulate eating food that they shouldn’t be eating such as cheeseburgers. They don’t lose weight.

Recently, people have been having a lot of success losing weight on a gluten free diet. It worked because people on these diets knew they couldn’t eat cookies, candies and cakes. They know that they have to look carefully in ingredient lists for things that might contain gluten, and for some of them this is a matter of life and death. Now I see “gluten free bakeries” and all kinds of chemistry lab crap labeled “gluten free and I see the end of gluten free dieting on the horizon.

See a pattern here?

Nobody will ever lose weight eating cookies, candies, cake, ice cream, or sweetened fizzy drinks. On the other hand, most people will have a hard time losing weight on the food-like chemistry sets that the Food Industry tries to sell people who are on a diet. The purpose of “diet food” is to get you to buy more of it, and you won’t do that anymore if you lose weight and get on a sensible weight maintenance program. Which brings me to another interesting point: if after losing weight, you go back to eating the crap that made you fat in the first place, you will gain back every pound you lost.

Success lies in a sensible path: no added sugars; plenty of water; plenty of veggies; sensible use of quality fats; fewer food-like chemistry sets and more real food; pay attention to what you are eating and don’t eat more calories than you use; only eat stuff worth eating, and then only if you are hungry. I don’t think there’s a nutrition expert in the world that will disagree with these points, unless they are paid to do so.

* The new twist on this is Paleo or Primal eating, which goes back to the idea that processed food (including corn syrup) is bad, grains and legumes are suspicious, and if a caveman wouldn’t have known it was food you should probably not eat it. Some mistakenly see this as “all the protein I can stuff in my pie-hole, and then put some bacon on it.” They probably aren’t really eating as many veggies as would be desirable.

In Closing: If hard work cured poverty, the third world wouldn’t exist; you mean your local university doesn’t have a SWAT team?; cyberwar; diamonds; shocking; and magic button.

Paint It Black

Since most of your favorite sites may be down tomorrow, here’s some things to keep you busy.

Why I Won’t Hire You.

Be Grateful to Your Wall Street Overlords.

Cop or Soldier? Take the quiz. I didn’t do very well.

35 Tips in One Infographic.

The Truth About Math.

About Paula Deen.

Dog Shames Shelter into Accepting Dogs.

And Modern Neanderthals Victorians Puritans Witch-Burning Hypocrites Slut-Shaming.

Shorties Night 3D

Ok, I’m all tabbed up so let’s get rolling!

Not sure what to think: Ron Paul wants to make sure kids aren’t subjected to mandatory mental health screenings. On one hand I don’t want to see kids needlessly medicated. On the other hand, I know people who really could have and should have been diagnosed with treatable mental health disorders as kids!

Side Effect: Women are suing cops for tricking them into long term relationships with their undercover alter-egos. Oops.

Never Thought I’d Link Glenn Greenwald: But he’s right about the detention provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act. It’s there in black and white, no matter how people spin it.

Cat Herding: How Occupy Portland outsmarted the cops (without necessarily planning it that way).

Good Grief: 10 things you didn’t know about “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”

I hope they didn’t spend a lot of money on that research: “The more a person drinks the more likely they are to have unprotected sex, according to research.”

This looks good: Dark Chocolate Macadamia Bark with Sea Salt.

Remember this when your Christmas bills arrive: Minimum payments will eat you alive.

Let’s see if that’s more than talk: Most Americans think we need a third party.

Turns out the Military is a way out of a bad neighborhood in more ways than one: Military schools smack around local schools, particularly when it comes to poor and minority kids. Now if only there weren’t the occupational hazard of being shot at!

You’ve seen my musings: Now here’s Anderson Cooper on traveling.

Turning Japanese: 68% of Japanese cars sold in the U.S. were made here in America, in 29 plants that employ 50,000 people. For reference, “American” car manufacturer GM has roughly 68,000 employees in the United States.

About Time!: 6 Fannie/Freddie execs charged with fraud. They might actually go to prison. There’s another big mortgage fraud suit here in Nevada.

Dim Bulb: One idiot thinks those curly light bulbs are so bad, she says she’s giving incandescent bulbs as Christmas presents. Don’t let her kids anywhere near her car with a carton of eggs.

How does that work?: As condition of a plea bargain, a man had to agree to give up a home he didn’t own and never did own.

And Finally: A boy chokes on a meatball in the school cafeteria. The sad part is that rather than make sure all the staff know CPR, they will probably take meatballs off the school menu.

Down And Out on Paradise

Sticklers for detail will notice this is the Strip and not actually Paradise, a few blocks East.

Things are tough all over.

I do hope nobody is surprised to learn that poverty in the United States is even higher than expected. After all, some 15% of our population is on food stamps — and that’s according to the freaking Wall Street Journal! And it is worse than average here in Vegas, where the “recovery” you lucky souls in other parts of the nation have been experiencing the last 2 years has passed us by like some angry Santa:

There’s a newer version of this chart right here. Add to that the fact that Vegas is still the reigning foreclosure capital of the nation, and it shouldn’t be any shock that we have a problem with homelessness and “food security” — a fancy term for “no food and/or no money for food.” Please remember that no matter what you may think of the work ethic of people in these situations, some of the people effected are children. There are mighty few jobs available to children that will pay the family’s bills, and most of them are worse than mere hunger.

Maybe if Wall Street didn’t sell us a pack of lies about how we can run our economy on lattes and cheap imports, we could change things. Even Starbucks is trying to create jobs outside the Latte Economy.

In Closing: is police use of a GPS really different from tailing them (uh, yeah); whites use more drugs, but blacks get sent to prison more (huh, could the War on Drugs possibly be racist??); even a broken clock is right twice a day; Americans would rather have government bureaucrats than insurance company bureaucrats (who could know these things?); amen; and right on, Rick.

Curious No More

When I saw this in a parking lot, I wondered what the heck it was:


Now I know. It’s an old mail truck!

 

Alright, for those of you who aren’t into Volkswagens, here’s In Closing: earthquake shaking things up at the zoo; solving Too Big Too Fail with Even Bigger; I wonder if Blodget is right; the cover-up continues; just in case you didn’t have enough depressing bank news; sure a “high fat” diet can cause diabetes, when it’s also a MEGA sugar diet!; wouldn’t it be terrible if Amy Winehouse didn’t have a drug/booze problem but rather a degenerative neurological disease?; “Hey, if he can stop earthquakes, why can’t he golf and bike at the same time?”; the New Retirement Plan; told you so; in case you didn’t understand that the War on Drugs was racist; only 1 in 5 medical malpractice cases result in anybody getting money (other than the lawyers, of course) (or if you prefer, 4 out of 5 med-mal cases may be almost completely without merit).

A Buffet of Bad Ideas

There’s a restaurant site down the street that does not appear to attract success.

I forget what the place was originally, other than an expensive build. I feel certain that high expenses are what killed the place.

After remaining empty for a while, it became an “Asian fusion seafood restaurant.” Hey, this is Vegas, we can support that sort of thing. Of course maybe if the site weren’t within a few hundred feet of not one, but two nationally known chains of “Asian fusion seafood restaurants,” and down the street from a notable modern sushi bar, it might have done better. Oh yeah, they maybe could have had some advertising. But it was clearly an expensive build, so maybe they didn’t have money to let people know it was actually open.

After remaining empty for another long while, the building got a new paint job in colors that suggested Mexican or some other sort of Latin cuisine, and signage for a new restaurant. It never opened. I remember seeing some sofas out by the dumpster behind the building. Yet another expensive build.

Then the sign changed again, and signs of what was by my count a 4th expensive interior redesign began. The name of the place? Hotel California. Yeah, like this:

Right, because everybody wants to go eat dinner someplace where they’ve got no wine, but plenty of pink champagne on ice. And you have to stab your dinner to death with a steely knife. Oh, and you might not be allowed to leave after you pay your check. Happy Hour indeed.

As if that’s not enough, we have a California Hotel here in Vegas.

Yesterday, I noticed that the sign — which by the way looks like it was painted by teenagers from Acapulco — had changed. It’s now the “Baja California.”

The big, brass, expensive-looking letters on the front of the building still read HC.

In Closing: truth; I hope this really happened; do you think the Republicans would be willing to put tax rates where they were during the Reagan Administration?; Not Gonna Happen! There can never be a Get Out of the Security Line Free card!; when ideology is more important than science; Al Jazeera prints the truth; another victory lap around the shark tank; “die, bitch”; and the last dinosaur.

A Plea for Civility

Can we please all stop with the name-calling?

Seriously, I don’t care if you’re liberal or conservative, we need to stop hurling around insulting names. It doesn’t do a bit of good, certainly doesn’t persuade anyone to your way of thinking, and it makes everyone who agrees with you look like an asshole.

I’m tired of hearing about Mooselini, the Chimpinator, McLame, Speaker Boner, Rummy, General Betray-us, Tweetie, Slick Willy, George Snuffleupagus, the O-Bomber, Wiener’s wiener, Rahmstein, Bachman-Poptart-Underdrive, Al Frankenstein, the Koch-heads, Dumb-o-craps, Repuglicants, MoDoDo, GingGrinch, and any other creative insults you can think of. Can’t we refer to people with their names and/or titles like civilized adults? “The President,” or “Senator So-and-so”, or “Mr. Clark”?

Now, I will concede a handful of exceptions. The Governator earned his nickname fair and square. So did “Heckuva Job” Brownie — the President himself gave him that nickname. To refer to Pat “Go F*** Yourself” Leahy is a compliment to his restraint. The Cyborg Dick Cheney, well, he is a cyborg.

The rest of it? Knock it off, already! It’s a distraction from real issues, like our eroding Constitutional rights, the developing American oligarchy, the endangered social safety net, the disappearing middle class, our crumbling infrastructure, the failed War on Drugs; our anemic economy, and the elimination of women‘s rights.

In Closing: Dam, dam, dam; Hollywood‘s out of ideas; the most sensible thing I’ve read about the Wal-Mart ruling; it’s a good start; and exercises at work.

Another Book Review

This time, the BlogHer book event is A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. My version is right here. Next up will be Terry McMillan’s Getting to Happy.

In Closing: Ezra; Beetles; Faux-pas; finances; debt; wieners; banks; speculation; carbs; demand; testing; Reich; and free books.