Short Twitter Survey

Recently, fellow tweeter Rick Osborne and I had a tweet-versation about how to best tweet blog postings and other kinds of promotions. I questioned him when he re-tweeted his own tweet about a blog posting on his site a number of times throughout the day.

He had good reasoning for posting as he did. He has several hundred followers who are spread in many different time zones. He was going under the assumption that his followers may only read the first page of tweets and therefore might miss the tweet about the blog posting.

When I go on Twitter, I go back and read all the new posts starting with where I left off during my last visit. My question to him was based on the assumption that most people use Twitter like I do, going back where one left off and reading all the tweets going forward. Under that assumption, repeated posts might be considered tweet spam.

I think we both have valid assumptions; but, since they are both based on how we do things I thought it would be a good idea to ask around and see how others read posts on Twitter. To that end, I've created the following survey to learn how others read posts in Twitter and what they might consider spam.

Please answer the following questions and help us learn about your Twitter habits. After a few days I'll share the results with everyone here. Please feel free to tweet this around your circle.

Live Tweets From A Plane Crash

This morning I read an AP story by P. Solomon Banda about the plane crash of a Houston-bound Continental airliner where someone actually live-tweeted about the crash. You can read Mike Wilson's tweets here: http://twitter.com/2drinksbehind. I don't think I would have the presence of mind to even think about Twitter, but Mike even took a photo on his phone and posted it.

I don't know Mike, but I have to say: well done. I'm glad you made it out OK and thank you for sharing about your experience.

Background:

For those of you who don't "tweet" Twitter is a micro-blogging site. It's a place where people can post their thoughts and observations. It's called "micro" because each post has a strict limit of 140 characters. It's a great place to connect with friends and family throughout the day.

I highly recommend checking it out. If you want an interesting experience, click on the "Everyone" link and read the posts. What you will read are the last 20 tweets posted to the site. You get a very interesting perspective of the stream of consciousness of people around the world.

Whataburger Love in Michigan

My mom enjoys Whataburger. The only problem is, there are none in Michigan where she lives. So, she's limited to visiting when she comes to Texas for a visit.

For the past couple of years, I've thought about getting her some Whataburger merchandise on a gift-giving occasion. I didn't do it until this Christmas, though. I ordered her a Whataburger mouse pad, which looks like one of Whataburger's ketchup containers, and a Whataburger 50th anniversary coffee mug.

Little did I know that my step-dad was a "Whatafan" too. He appropriated the mouse pad. Now I hear they are racing to the kitchen in the morning so they can be first to grab the Whatamug.

I ordered him a whatamug this morning. I can't have those two acting like a couple of kids, can I?

Ugly Scott

My friend Scott is anything but ugly. But, who am I to argue? Whatever he may call his blog, his point of view is unique, thought-provoking and entertaining all at the same time. I invite you to check him out at Ugly Scott.

I Have No Taste - Follow Up

I reported in an earlier post I was having trouble with my senses of smell and taste. You can read it here if you missed it.

I'm happy to report that since starting on the zinc and magnesium supplements my taste and smell are working rather well. I rarely get the burning smell which plagued me and I'm starting to taste things better.

Please remember, if you smell odd things which no one else does go see your doctor. Although rare, these sensations can be indicators of serious health conditions. It's nice to know, though, that if the odd smells are not from a serious health condition that treatment is available.

Beef and Blizzards in Deming

A friend of mine often insisted the World's best Dairy Queen was in Deming, New Mexico. Having never been to Deming, I didn't completely understand why. But, he insisted nonetheless, and was quite adamant about it. I remained neutral on the subject until I had a chance to stop there.

Deming was a small city (maybe it still is), on Interstate 10 between El Paso and Tucson. It's about 1/3 the way to Tucson, and about 2/3 the way to El Paso - depending on which direction you go. I was once on a four-day weekend and decided to drive to Tucson from El Paso to visit my friend. On my way, I had to stop to see what he was talking about.

View Larger Map

Coming from either direction, all the food places were on Pine Street, just south of the interstate. On the east side of town was the Dairy Queen, and on the west was the Arby's. Two of my favorite fast food places, what more could I ask for?

The Dairy Queen wasn't all that much different from the Dairy Queens found in Texas. I did find there were two things which made this DQ stand out: 1. it was in a great location to stop when travelling through the desert and 2. the people were very, very nice. 

When I got to Tucson, I had to tell my friend he was absolutely right about that Dairy Queen, it really was the World's best.

When my boys were small, even before #3 son was born, we loved to eat at Arby's. When we would drive there, I'd get them bouncing in the back seat (as much as one can bounce strapped into a child car seat or booster seat) yelling "Beef, beef, beef, beef, ... !" It was our favorite meal: Beef!

On another occasion, I was driving from Fort Huachuca, Arizona, to El Paso. My family had come to see me graduate from an Army school there and we were on our way back to visit my in-laws in El Paso until we flew back to Germany where we were stationed. During my six month stay at "The 'Chuc'" I drove to El Paso almost every weekend to visit my family. On those trips, I ate quite a few meals at that Arby's (and the World's greatest DQ). I was more than familiar with the road, and exactly how long it took to get to Deming going in either direction.

Heading west to El Paso, about 20 miles outside of Deming, the signs started to appear. They weren't large billboard signs, but smaller signs set just about eye-level, attached to the supports of the larger signs. The signs were shaped like the distinctive Arby's hat, and had the number of miles until the Deming Arby's printed on them. "20 miles to Arby's," "10 Miles to Arby's," "5 Miles to Arby's," (the anticipation is growing) "Arby's - Next Exit." We started bouncing and yelling at the first sign. For 20 minutes we were hollering out "Beef! Beef! Beef!" By the time we pulled into the parking lot we were in a carniverous frenzy and we'd worked up a big appetite.

There is one visit to that Arby's which really causes it to stand out in my memory.

On one of those weekend trips to El Paso, I was riding with an acquaintance who also had family in El Paso. We stopped at the Arby's (of course, I insisted). We got there about 5 minutes to 9:00 pm. I never lived in a small city like Deming, so it never occurred to me that they would be closing at 9. We walked in, ordered, and waited for our food. Then I heard someone back in the kitchen remark something like he'd just finished cleaning the fryer area. I asked, what time they closed? The person who took our order replied that they closed at 9.

Both of us tried to cancel our orders. We insisted, quite strongly, that they not mess everything up on our account. The workers in the place had already started preparing our order and insisted they would never turn away any customer before closing time. They even refused our request to change our "dine-in" order to a "to-go" one. I was very impressed by this, not so much because the entire crew chimed in agreeing that no customer should be turned away before nine, but more because there was not one real "adult" in the entire group. They all looked like high school kids, and most of them probably were. That really stuck in my head even after more than 10 years.

I don't have much call to drive through Deming any more. You can be sure, though, if I do I'll be having beef and Blizzards.

Ambidextrous

I was at the bank the other day with my wife opening an account. The lady helping us was ambidextrous. I watched as she moused with her right hand and wrote with her left at the same time. I mentioned to my wife what a time-saver that would be for me if I could do that. It's like the lady I know who can write with both hands simultaneously - and have what she wrote in both hands be perfectly legible.

What a handy skill (no pun intended). (Well, maybe a little pun).

I wonder if I could practice enough to master left-handed mousing and right-handed writing. Maybe I'll try that some day.

Hilton Hot Water Update

The week after I returned from the Texas EMS Conference, I used the contact us form on www.hilton.com to complain about the hot water problem I had at the downtown Fort Worth Hilton. (You can read more about that here and here).

I wasn't expecting too much more than an apology, so when I received a reply the next day from a Guest Relations Specialist in Memphis giving me a reference number for my complaint it was a bit of a surprise. Later that same day, I received another email from the Front Office Manager of the Fort Worth Hilton offering me 5000 HHonors points.

Naturally, I took the 5000 points, but also stressed in my reply that I told them about my problem so they would fix the hot water situation. Hopefully they will follow up and make some changes.

My group will be attending next year's EMS Conference, again in Fort Worth. If we end up staying there I'm still going to check the hot water as soon as we check in.

Local Radio Disappears

I don't live in a big city, so my choice of radio stations is somewhat limited. This is exacerbated to a large degree because many of the local radio stations are owned by one large national company.

I like to listen to talk radio, especially when the talk is about local happenings. The local talk station (also owned by the big conglomerate) features syndicated shows most of the day, but the morning and evening drive time show were local hosts talking to local people about local events. That is, until this past week.

The morning guy was let go. Granted, he was only doing radio part time, so he'll land on his feet. The real bad thing is now we have to listen to The Wall Street Journal Report. My goodness that is a bad show. It's like CNN Headline News for radio, only worse. I had to turn it off the other day because it was driving me nuts. They play ESPN Radio at night and on weekends. I'm not that huge a sports fan, but at least the people on ESPN Radio are interesting and entertaining. That would have been a far better choice.

I emailed the radio station yesterday to express my displeasure and disappointment at their choice of programming. I went to their web site and sent an email to the address shown on their contact us page. A few minutes ago I got a reply - the email bounced. No such domain.

Why is it that we have to put up with so much schlock? It's all very disappointing.

Please Help The Salvation Army

My sisters are in the process of kicking off a non-profit organization the purpose of which is to help raise money for other non-profit groups and to provide scholarships for those who wish to become firefighters to help pay their way through the fire academies. The group is called Chadderbox and is named for my brother-in-law, Chad Wessels, who was a firefighter killed in the line of duty a few years ago. Chad was the kind of guy who never met a stranger and liked to chat with everyone he met, thus the name "Chadderbox."

Much to my shame, their website at www.chadderbox.org is showing GoDaddy's domain parking page. Click on the link anyway, by the time you read this it might be up and running.

Thankfully, my lack of attention to the web site has not stopped me nor the other members of Chadderbox from fulfulling the mission to raise money for other non-profit organizations. 'Tis the season for the Salvation Army's kettle campaign and the Chadderbox folks have set a goal to raise $10,000 for the Salvation Army during the holiday season, and we need your help. Please consider donating to this worthy organization. I know how busy The Salvation Army was in Texas assisting those affected by hurricane Ike this past fall and I'm sure they'd like to be ready to help with disaster relief again when the time comes. Please click on the link below and give what you can. Thank you!

By the way, the web geek in me loves the Salvation Army's web site. It was very easy to set this campaign up, join, and create the widget which generates the link above. They are very web savvy. Hats off to them for making it easy and fun to help.

Dramatize

My wife and I were talking about people who always seem to have some sort of drama going on in their lives, be it real or imagined. I don't know if this is the first time it's been used this way, but upon getting off the phone with a drama queen we know, she said that she'd been "dramatized."

I thought it quite apt and offer this new definition of dramatize: To endlessly talk about your problems, real or imagined, to someone else usually while dominating the conversation. "I hate to talk to Ashly, all she does is dramatize."

Dramatized: to have been talked at about someone else's ongoing "drama," normally only because one wants to appear to be polite. "I just got off the phone with Joe and I'm dramatized from his endless problems."

Let's spread the word of the day - dramatize!

Texas EMS Conference - Day 3

The first session of the morning was entitled "The Emergency Reponse to Africanized Honey Bees" by Dr. Bryan Bledsoe. Here are some points he brought up:

• Because someone is stung so many times in an Africanized attack there is not only an allergic reaction risk but also a risk of invenomnation. Even though the venom is no more potent than European bees' but because they sting more during an attack more venom is introduced to the stingee.
• It's hard to tell the difference between africanized and European bees.
• Bee venom contains histamine, pheromones, enzymes, peptides, acids and amino acids.
• Brazilian researchers were experimenting with interbreeding africanized and European honey bees to try to get more honey. Several swarms escaped and the bees began to spread north.
• The bees migrate north at about 200 miles per year. They are now around San Francisco across the country and are even found in Florida.
• Africanized bees prefer to nest in the ground.
• It's important to make a plan to respond to bee attacks.
• Persons who are allergic should not respond to bee attacks even if they are on duty to avoid EMS personnel becoming patients.
• It's a good idea to have a list of experts in dealing with africanized bees to assist.
• A good thing to also have a bee response cache with beekeeping clothing, duct tape, and allergic reaction meds.
• Fire personnel can use water to knock the bees down enough to affect a rescue, but this is only temporary. In order to kill the bees foam or soapy water must be used.
• There is a device called BeeAlert™ which can be deployed to kill the bees. It uses a proprietary surfactant in a fog which will drown bees. The product can also be sprayed on victims to kill the attacking bees.
• Victims need to be carefully evaluated for systemic versus localized reactions. Remove the stingers to relieve pain and stop continuing envenomnation. Consider prophylactic diphenhydramine. Victims with systemic reactions should be transported.

Dr. Bledsoe was the speaker for the next session entitled "Neurological Trauma." He reviewed the physiology of brain injury, signs and symptoms, and treatment options. It was a very good review with some new things - at least new to me.

The Hilton had hot water problems again this morning. My roomie told me he waited about an hour for the hot water to come for his shower in the evening. I don't think we'll stay in this hotel again.

** Follow up on the hot water problem **

Overall, it was a good event. I learned a bit from the sessions I attended - lots of new information.

Now, it comes time to head home. I hope the traffic isn't too bad. Considering this is the busiest travel day of the year, I'm not too optimistic.

Texas EMS Conference - Day 2

First, a note about the hot water: There was hot water this morning and I didn't have to wait very long to get it. I'm glad for that since I was late waking up. My phone locked up sometime in the middle of the night and didn't go off when it was supposed to.

The first session of the morning was entitled: "Precious Cargo: Pediatric Emergencies" and was presented by Bolleter. He had a few points to make regarding pediatric calls and why they shouldn't be difficult:

• Don't Panic
• Take a systematic approach to each call (do the same thing every time and be thorough)
• Look beyond the obvious
• Follow your protocols
• Be aggressive - remember: Ventilation, Oxygenation and Perfusion

The main thing to do is to look for something "that just ain't right."

The second morning session was presented by Dr. Racht and was titled "The Twenty Most Important Things." And here they are:

• Resuscitation
• Hypothermia - post arrest hypothermia. This is new and important. I don't know much about it, so I attended a session on it in the afternoon.
• Airway Management
• Breathing - remember not to over-ventilate
• Stroke Management
• Spinal Movement Restriction
• Infectious Diseases - like MSRA in particular
• The Medicine of Dispatch - dispatch operators instructing the caller on how to assist until help arrives. They can help quite a bit.
• Acute Coronary Syndrome
• End Title Carbon dioxide
• Interoperability (this is still an issue, though it is getting better)
• Weirdos - like those who would perpetrate mass casualties
• Hospital Diversion - Dr. Racht says this practice needs to stop
• Determination of Death in the Field - we need to get better at this
• Keeping Up - there is ALWAYS something new to learn
• EMS Designated Receiving Centers - those emergency departments which specialize in certain areas
• Errors - we need to be more open about mistakes so we can learn from them
• Turf and turf wars. This has to go
• "Customer Service" Pre-hospital, in-hospital, we need to make sure we're doing the right thing, taking care of the patients physical as well as emotional needs. We also need to be sure we treat everyone with respect.
• Love what you do and do what you love - if you don't love EMS then go do something else.

The final morning session I attended was presented by Dr. Pepe entitled "US Trauma Care: Experience in Iraq." This was a very informative talk dealing mostly with trauma care.

One thing Dr. Pepe stressed was not to ventilate so much that positive pressure builds up in the chest, thus slowing or stopping blood flow back to the heart for recirculation. This is something which goes against was I was taught in school which was to bag fast and bag often. Studies are starting to show that for those patients who have hypoperfusion and hypovolemia will more likely have a bad outcome if they are ventilated too much. Bagging needs to be done much slower, around 12 times per minute. Overzealous positive-pressure ventilation hurts patients more than it helps. Also, bleeding must be stopped before fluid resuscitation begins. Otherwise, you're just wasting your time.

Another thing Dr. Pepe brought up which is something I've heard a little about the use of tourniquets. Because of faster response times, quicker time to definitive care and improvements in treatment, any damage which might be caused by the tourniquet can be repaired. It's better to save that person's life than to worry about losing an extremity.

The first session after lunch was entitled "Liability For Negligence of Paramedics and First Responders" given by Kevin Madison who is an attorney and an EMT with a volunteer service.

Kevin discussed current statues and case law regarding negligence in lawsuits in Texas (of course, I'm not an attorney nor do I profess any legal knowledge other than my opinion based on what Kevin said. If you have any questions, please contact Kevin at his web site: www.code3law.com).

The current wording of the "Good Samaritan" law in Texas indicates that EMTs (basic, intermediate or paramedic) are considered "First Responders" and are not to be help liable for damages unless there is willful and wanton (gross) negligence. Current case law, Dunlap versus Young being one example, also holds that the statue covers EMTs.

But, this exemption is not spelled out as clearly in the statue as it could be. The law reads, in effect, that only those who are licensed in the "healing arts" can be held liable for simple negligence. Those licensed professions are listed in another statute and do not include any level of EMT.

The question comes to mind, and has been argued by plaintiffs seeking damages from EMTs, that since paramedics are licensed under Texas law, they should be included in the simple negligence category. The courts, however, have disagreed.

No cases challenging this interpretation of the law has yet made it to the Texas Supreme Court, so the question is still somewhat up in the air. The way to fix this is to lobby our legislators to change the wording of the "Good Samaritan" statute and specifically include EMTs in the language.

The next session was given by Kelly Grason (www.kellygrason.com) and covered tips for handling those occasions when a patient is violent and needs to be restrained. The bottom line is that all EMS services need to have plans and protocols in place to cover these types of incidents. Most don't. Also, most times it's best to let LEOs handle restraining since they are specifically trained to do so. If a patient is restrained by LEO, make that LEO ride with you in the back of the ambulance.

The last session was a fun and entertaining story session by Kelly Grason and Gary Saffer. They told some funny stories with some good lessons on what not to do as an EMS provider. I'm told Kelly has a book out which can be purchased off his web site (linked above). I'll bet it's a fun read.

Texas EMS Conference - Day 1

The EMS Conference kicked off this morning with the keynote address by Dr. John Griswell who spoke on medical ethics. That's a tough sell first thing in the morning, and it's tough to make it interesting, but he did a pretty good job and he brought up some good points:

• Doctors and EMS are in the medical practice together and neither can function alone.
• Ethics is not legality. Legal standards are minimum standards. Ethical standards should go above legality.
• One common denominator in unethical behavior us a sense of entitlement or superiority. "We're better than they are so we can use them," or "They were going to die anyway" statements can be used to rationalize ethical lapses such as in Nazi Germany or in many ethical lapses in the US.

The second session I attended was entitled "America's School Shootings" by Ken Bouvier. His was a very informative and entertaining presentation. Don't get me wrong, the subject was totally serious and Ken was serious. But, he did throw in a joke or two at tasteful and appropriate times. Some of the main points of his presentation were:

• School shootings have been going on for a long time and will happen again. It's up to the police, fire and EMS communities to have a plan in place in case it happens in their area.
• The scenes are usually chaotic and inherently unsafe. Sometimes EMS crews will have to jump in before the "all clear" is given. It could take up to an hour for things to settle down enough to where things are truly "safe."
• The kids who perpetrate school shootings fit a certain profile:
  
• • History of clinical depression or signs of clinical depression which were not noted until after the fact
  • History of suicidal thoughts or actions
  • Had low self-esteem
  • Tended towards satanic and/or Nazi ideals
  • Were taking Ritalin and sometimes another anti-depressant
  • Many were late bed-wetters
  • Most were members of broken homes
  • Almost all were victims of some kind of abuse

It is mostly incumbent on the parents to lock up their guns securely and to only allow kids to use them under proper supervision - especially if they have some of the profile signs listed above.

The last session of the morning was entitled "The ABCs of Cardiac Arrest: Is the 'B' Necessary?" given by Ken Navarro. Ken made some very interesting observations about assisting cardiac arrest victims with compression-only CPR (or CCR - Cardio-Cerebral Resuscitation):

• Despite changes in ALS techniques, there has been no statistical increase in survivals of cardiac arrest victims.
• Studies have show there is no real statistical increase in out of hospital cardiac arrest patients, and good-quality CPR is most effective.
• CPR techniques need to be taught properly and graded objectively. Most people cannot tell if they are compressing deep enough, fast enough and allowing the proper time between compressions.
• Starting in the 16th century and continuing until the 19th, a fireplace bellows was commonly used to resuscitate those in respiratory arrest. (Trivial fact which was interesting to me)
• Compressing the heart alone isn't responsible for moving blood around the body during compressions. It's also the effect of pressure change in the chest which helps move things along. Compressions must be deep enough to change the pressure in the chest to sufficiently help the heart move blood.
• Often times, while using a BVM, too much pressure is built up in the chest so blood movement is either slowed or stopped because the blood can't get into the heart to get pumped.
• Studies show that bystander no-compression CPR is no less effective than more traditional methods.
• A Wisconsin study showed (again) that good quality compressions make the most difference when determining what will lead to greater survivability.

It was a very interesting session.

The afternoon kicked off with a presentation by Kirk Mittleman entitled "Critical Calls Take Critical Thinking." 

He started off the session by showing two video clips showing the importance of seat belt usage and how wearing them can increase the survivability of people in motor vehicle collisions. The first was by the Montana Department of Transportation called "Room To Live" which stressed the fact that there is room to live inside a vehicle during a collision and that being ejected raises the chances of being killed. It is quite a moving story. The second was of a related topic showing how one person not wearing a seat belt can cause injury or death to the other passengers even if they are belted. Here's where you can catch it on YouTube. 

The rest of the presentation was quite good, but I really think these two videos should be the highlights of it. I plan to show these to my kids (one drives, another is about to, and the youngest needs to make sure to wear his belts).

Dr. Ed Racht and Dr. Paul Pepe gave a great talk entitled "In-Hospital Care Driven by EMS" which pointed out examples of equipment and techniques which started in EMS and made their was into hospitals instead of the other way around. Those in EMS have always had to be more "creative" and find ways to get things done for their patients outside the "nice" confines of a hospital. EMS is also aided by hospitals which now specialize in types of care (i.e. trauma, stroke, sepsis, pediatrics, etc.). 

Dr. Racht talked about a web site which rates hospitals by certain criteria based on surveys taken by patients of those hospitals: www.hospitalcompare.nhs.gov. I just checked out some of the hospitals in my area and it was a bit of an eye-opener. I recommend you check it out.

The last session of the day I attended was called "Port-Partum Pre-Eclampsia" given by John Rinard. Not knowing much about pre-eclampsia I found it quite informative. It's especially telling that pre-eclampsia and eclampsia can occur up to 4 weeks post-partum. I had no idea that was the case.

We're staying at the Hilton. It's a nice place with a bit of history. This is the former "Hotel Texas" which is where John F. Kennedy stayed the night before he was shot in Dallas. There are pictures hung all around the building showing President Kennedy at various times around the hotel that fateful morning.

I have a complaint about the accomodations. In the bathroom are the "obligatory" signs inviting guests to help save the Earth by reusing their towels. It's a nice idea, which I often do. But, I think it's rather hypocritical to ask us to save the Earth by reusing our towels when I have to run the water for 10 minutes before it gets hot enough to shave with. That's very wasteful. I know it might be petty, but I've shaved with cold water enough times that I know I don't like it. Although there is not sticker on the back of the door indicating how much the room is worth per night, I'm sure we're paying enough for there to be hot water without waiting that long.
** Follow up on the hot water situation **

There is also a low-flow shower head in the tub. Hotel owners and managers: please hear this - "low-flow" and "water-saving" does not have to mean low water pressure. You can have both water savings and high pressure.

Now, that's not to say I'm totally dissatisfied with the hotel. It's good, but I expect a bit more from the Hilton name.

Dinner this evening was at The Reata. Very good chicken-fried steak and excellet desserts. If you're in Downtown Fort Worth it's definitely worth stopping by.

Texas EMS Conference - The Day Before

We drove up to Fort Worth this afternoon to get ready for the Texas EMS Conference which begins tomorrow at 8:30am. The trip itself was uneventful, other than the unusually high traffic volume compared to other Sundays I've made the trip north. We made our obligatory stop at the Czech Stop in West to get some poppy seed kolache (yes, that the way it's spelled in Tex-Czech and I know it's not a "real" kolac if it has stuff other than fruit on it - but they are so good).

After we checked into the hotel, we headed over to the convention center to check out the exhibition hall. There were a lot of EMS services actively recruiting - I guess showing that medical care is a real recession

-proof field. No matter what the economy is like, people get sick and hurt and need assistance.

I took some pictures of a few interesting vehicles. Harris County EMS had some new vehicles on

 display. I like the new Dodge Charger, though I think it would have been excellent in red or yellow (the Charger being one of the only cars I think looks good in yellow). The

 ambulance looks good in the same color scheme.

There was another, smaller, vehicle on display which I can only describe as a Segway on steroids. there were two models, one which looked pretty basic and the same basic setup, but with plastic motorcycle saddle bags.

We had dinner at Razzoo's, which is a chain restaurant featuring Cajun style food. I hadn't eaten at one before, but we went on the recommendation of one of our group. He did not disappoint, either. The food was excellent and I ate way too much. There is a Ruth's Chris Steakhouse connected to the hotel. I've never eaten at Ruth's Chris and have wanted to try one. Although we are limited in what we can claim on an expense report, we might eat there tomorrow and "eat" the cost over the limit ourselves.

I heard someone call on 146.52 a while ago, but didn't respond when I called back. I'm beginning to think the antenna which came with my Yaesu VX-3 is very limited. The higher gain antenna I purchased separately is rather long and somewhat inconvenient to carry, but it seems to make a huge difference in my transmission strength. I might just switch to it permanently. I'm also thinking a telescoping whip might work well, too. With that I can collapse it for monitoring and extend it when necessary.

I'll write up some thoughts about the sessions I attend tomorrow. I'm looking forward to some good instruction.

I Have A Problem With Government Bailouts

I have a BIG problem with the proposed bailout packages being put together in Congress. I understand why this huge cash infusion is desired, I understand it's a huge political nightmare for those in power to not do anything about the economy, and I'm willing to go along with dumping money into the economy (though begrudgingly). I don't, however, think it's a good idea for the government to borrow (or just print more) money to do it. Isn't that how we got into the mess in the first place?

My main complaint is: the Federal Government has no business buying ownership stakes in individual businesses. I believe this is an unconstitutional power creep into the affairs of private businesses. (I use the term private as a general description of businesses which don't belong to the government whether they are public or private companies or corporations.)

I, again begrudgingly, went along with the idea of the Federal Government buying up bad debt from banks and other lending institutions. I don't think it is within the purview of government to own land, except that land on which government installations are built on. Buying mortgages or property would at least have an "end game" to it. Once the economy starts growing again, the government could easily sell any unpaid securities back to private companies and sell any property it gained and use the profits to pay off some of the national debt. 

What happens, though, when the government starts buying pieces of private companies? Where's the end game in that? To be sure, we may hear things like "It's only temporary" or "Once things are going OK we'll sell the stocks back to the public," etc. But I don't think it's going to be that simple. Government programs, once started, have a nasty habit of never going away.

Why do I see this as a bad idea? Here's why:

First - where is this stock going to come from? Shares of stocks already out in the public market have already benefited the companies which issued them. They issued the shares, those shares were purchased, and the companies have already received what they were going to get. If the government comes in and start buying those shares already on the market, the price per share may go up, but the issuing companies really don't get any benefit from that action. And, if the government decides to divest itself of the shares, the prices will drop from the sudden availability of those shares.

As I see it, in order for the government to actually infuse money into companies, those companies will have to issue new shares for purchase. This will put money into the companies, but would dilute the shares already outstanding and thus possibly cause another drop in the markets. That certainly won't help those who already own shares. If the companies issue new shares and then purchase those shares directly back, the possible negative impact on the outstanding shares might be lessened. Still, the stock markets are strange entities and tend to fluctuate for no reason at all and just the action of issuing new shares might make the outstanding shares lose their value.

Second - When the government owns shares of stock, how much influence will it have over the running of those companies of which they hold shares? I've already heard more than once that the government should have a say in how the companies are run to make sure their (our) money isn't wasted. Of course, the government knows just how to not waste money, don't they? Really though, the government already wields a lot of influence over companies through regulations and taxes. How much more influence will they want? I see this as a major problem with any stock buying scheme. It's tantamount to nationalizing a large sector of the economy, and that is never a good thing. 

I think we need to be very wary of any bailout which involves government ownership of private companies. Ronald Reagan put it best when he said, "The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'" I've written before in this space and I reiterate here: The more freedoms we yield to the Federal Government, the more we head towards having no freedoms at all. If we go along with this plan, I can almost guarantee there will be a new government bureaucracy out there which will be set up to manage "our" stock portfolio before the end of Obama's first term.

So, you may be thinking to yourself, "What ideas do you have to fix things?" I'm glad you asked, because there is an example from history which might show a far better solution.

Back in the late 70s and early 80s, the economy was in a bad way. As I recall, things then were far worse than they are now. Living in the Detroit area in those days, I remember things being especially tough for the auto industry. Like today, they were making the wrong cars at the wrong time and, unlike today, the quality of those cars was very, very bad.

All of the "Big 3" were having financial problems caused by losing sales to imports and because the economy was bad overall. However, Chrysler was, by far, the worst off. Like today, they were on the verge of collapse, and that collapse would have put many more thousands out of work. Prospects were rather bleak, to say the least.

Then, along came Lee Iacocca. He was a business genius and knew the auto industry inside and out. He had a plan to revive Chrysler, but in order to put it into action he needed cash. Instead of going to the government for a hand out, he asked for a hand up. He got leaders in the Congress to go along with loan guarantees so Chrysler could borrow money again. This turned out to be a great move for everyone concerned.

Iacocca was able to revive Chrysler very quickly, and managed to pay off all the loans he made based on those government guarantees within a few short years. Not only did he get Chrysler back on its feet and moving in the right direction, he also purchased the languishing American Motors Company and helped keep its Jeep division alive under the Chrysler name. This is truly a fantastic success story, and one I think bears scrutiny today.

Now, there may not be any more people with the business acumen of Lee Iacocca. Perhaps he was one-of-a-kind. But, certainly there are some folks out there smart enough to pull off a similar feat. I am certain of one thing: those people are most likely not going to come from the Federal Government. To quote Reagan again: "The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would hire them away."

Although loan guarantees are, in my opinion, unconstitutional as well, they do have a couple of advantages over stock purchase programs. One, they don't involve the government throwing huge wads of cash everywhere. Loans help keep the cost to all of us down. Two, they keep the private sector private.

There are those who say there is no money to lend. I disagree. There may not be a lot of money in Citi, AIG, and others who are now hurting because they got greedy and speculated in bad loans. But, there are many more banks and lenders who didn't get greedy and kept themselves out of the current mess. They might not have billions to loan individually, but when smaller loans are combined together they can be enough. This way, the risk is also spread out across many companies which will minimize further risk to the financial sector.

There are other solutions to our problems other than running to Big Daddy for cash. There are other alternatives to ease the current financial problems which don't involve us giving our hard-earned cash and hard-won freedoms. I think we need to consider those before we just let our leaders throw a lot of our money away.

Excellent Social Marketing: Knights of NI

"Ah, these are dark times when passing ruffians can go around saying 'NI' to an old woman."  - Roger the Shrubber from Monty Python's "Monty Python and the Holy Grail."

Yesterday I had chance to hear Deirdre Walsh speak about her role in National Instruments' social marketing on on-line community. Their's is a great case study about how to well use an on-line community not only for the benefit of the company but, more importantly, for the benefit of the community members who are customers of the company.

National Instruments (NI) is based in Austin, Texas and makes hardware and software for testing. It's a company whose customers are pretty much into all things engineering. Deirdre illustrated how they built their on-line community to allow not only NI's employees to help customers, but also to help the customers help each other. It is quite a success story.

There are a select few among those who belong to on-line communities who go above and beyond sharing their knowledge, and the NI community is no exception. There is a handful of people who posted over 16,000 entries in seven months. The folks at NI wanted to reward those people with some kind of special status in the community. They turned to the community to ask what this status sould be called and the community responded the name should be the "Knights of NI." (Read the postings on the subject.)

Now, for a web geek like me, I thought this was not only very funny, but a great play on the name of the company bounced off a movie done by a group of folks who are well-loved by techies and geeks. This certainly goes on my list of way cool things.

Aside: I have to give kudos to Jive Software for putting on the workshop where Deirdre spoke. It was high with good content and very low with sales pitch. Hats off to Jive for putting together a very informative event.

Fun with the IRS

We recently had some dealings with the IRS which is a great example of bureaucratic silliness and rather humorous. It all started about the time everyone started getting those tax "rebate" checks ...

We got our rebate check in the mail and happily put it into the bank thinking we might use it for a vacation or to purchase a freezer. Apparently, we weren't meant to keep it, for a day or two later we got a notice from the IRS that we owed them $200 more than the amount of the "rebate." I thought something was fishy, "Maybe this is the government's way of looking like they're giving out lots of money, but they really aren't because they take it right back." Although that would be an hilarious absurdity this wasn't the case.

We really did owe the government the money they asked for. A few years ago I settled an outstanding credit card debt with the bank which issued the card. I had heard that one needs to claim a debt forgiveness as income at tax time. Thinking the person at the bank with whom I was dealing would know a thing or two about such matters, I asked. He told me that if the forgiveness was considered income, I would get a W4 (or a W2 something) from the bank. Otherwise, he informed me, it wasn't.

I try to be an upright guy who strives to do the right thing, and paying taxes honestly is a Biblical command (Matthew 17:27, Matthew 22:15, Romans 13:6-7). Although I had no reason to distrust the person at the bank, I thought it best to ask around for another opinion. I consulted with a CPA and a couple other people I know who have some experience with the tax code, and they echoed the answer the person at the bank gave me. Satisfied, I waited to see what would happen come January.

When it was time to do taxes, I hadn't gotten anything from the bank other than a letter declaring that the debts were no longer owed. There was no IRS form to be seen, so we happily did our taxes without counting the "forgiveness" amount as income. We got back a pretty healthy refund that year, too.

When we got the letter from the IRS earlier this year, enclosed were copies of the IRS form the bank sent to the IRS along with a copy of the recalculated return for that year. Ta-daa, we owe them money. I was a little miffed about the whole thing because I felt the bank did me a disservice. But, the bottom line was that we owed the money based on the recalculated amount.

My wife and I described this situation with an accountant about this whole event, thinking it rather humorous. She offered to recalculate our taxes for that year and see if we could knock the amount we owed down a little; at least enough to get it where we just had to pay the "rebate" amount. She was successful, so we sent in an amended tax return along with a check for the amount we felt we owed.

A few weeks later, we received a letter from the IRS letting us know they were going over our paperwork again and that they would contact us again if need be. I figured the matter was pretty much settled and consoled myself with the though that the amount extra we sent in would pay for body armor for a soldier in Iraq - a worthwhile expense.

But, this wasn't the end of the matter. 4 months later we received another letter from the IRS. They accepted our amended tax return, but we owed some more money based on the interest accrued from the time we sent in our amended tax return until they accepted it. The total we still owed was $2.00. Now, I thought, we're getting into the absurd.

Thinking it over, I figured based on a person's salary to go over the paperwork, computer cycles, printing and postage, that letter cost far more than $2.00 to send. What a waste! I was pretty ticked off about it - not so much that the IRS wanted more money but that the bureaucracy was now wasting my money sending out a request for 2 bucks.

In the end, I sent a check for $2.00 to the IRS. Rather than quibble over 2 bucks and sending this transaction further into losing territory I thought it best just to give them what they wanted and get it over with. Ah, but that wasn't to be.

The day after I dutifully sent in my $2.00, we got not one, not two, but three envelopes from the IRS. The first envelope contained a check for $5.72. The other two envelopes, one addressed to me and the other to my wife, contained identical copies of documents which showed how the IRS actually owed us money, rather than we owing them $2.00. By this time the whole affair is so absurd I can't stand it. Not only did they lose money sending the bill for $2.00, now they've compounded the loss by $5.72 and however much it cost to process that check - and the waste of sending two identical letters to us.

As I described this series of events to the accountant who figured our amended return for us, she cautioned us to make sure if there is any interest which was paid to us that we make sure to count it as income next year or we'll be sure to be audited again. We better check those letters carefully. Though I'm not concerned about an audit, I certainly don't want to cause the national debt to increase because I forgot to claim a few cents as interest income.

I Have No Taste

While it is true I'm not much of a snappy dresser and if my wife didn't decorate our home it would look a rather plain, that's not what I refer to. You see, I've started to lose my senses of taste and smell and rather often I smell something burning when there's nothing burning around me.

I started to notice this in late June and early July, 2008. I spent a day or so in a place where there were a lot of smokers. Having quit smoking a few years ago, my nose is very keen to pick up the scent. It's not unusual for me to catch a whiff of burning tobacco even days after being around it. At first, I didn't think much of the smell of something burning, but as weeks went by I started to get somewhat concerned. Smelling something that no one else smells was not unusual for me since I've always had a sensitive nose, but smelling something so strongly that no one else does at all wasn't. And it was getting stronger all the time.

Researching on line, I found there were a number of reasons people sometimes smell things which aren't there: trauma to the head, severe nasal allergies, sinus infection, exposure to certain chemicals and a tumor in the brain. I couldn't think of any recent occasion I experienced any of the first four things, so I decided it was time to visit the doctor to make sure it wasn't the fifth.

My primary care physician referred me to an Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) specialist. While he informed me that tumors are very rare, his body language and constant "hmmm, this is strange" comments unnerved me a bit. As he did his tests, we found I couldn't smell mint very well and nor could I smell lemon (I had to very deeply sniff it 3-4 times to get the scent) and my taste of salt was diminished. As we talked about my signs and symptoms, I realized I couldn't smell coffee nor taste many things. It was time for me to go "hmmmm."

Earlier this week I underwent an MRI and found out there's nothing in my head that's not supposed to be there (though someone did ask if I checked to see if anything was missing - no, I forgot to ask about that). For the week I had to wait to learn the results of the MRI I was really caught in the "what ifs" of having a tumor or not. I'm quite glad it wasn't, though I really just wanted to know what was going on.

Looking back I can see this problem probably started a long time ago. My blood pressure has been up for the past few months. I realize now I was way over-salting my food because I can't taste salt very well. I've since given up extra salt, though I can still taste black pepper so I use it. Blood pressure is down a bit now.

I also noticed over the past few weeks that if I eat very spicy food I don't smell the burning whatever as much. Bring on those jalapenos!

My advice to those who are experiencing similar problems: Go get checked out. Loss of taste and smell is common as people age. But, smelling things which aren't there could be a sign of a very serious problem. My doctor assured me that a tumor causing symptoms like mine are about 1 in 100; however, it would be nice to rule out that your in that 1%. My doctor recommended taking supplements of zinc and magnesium, which I will try. (Remember, don't try any medication or supplements without consulting your physician. I'm not a doctor, though I'm handsome enough to play one on TV).

Now They've Done It or My Future Weight Gain

Rumors have been circulating around here for months. "A Cracker Barrel is going to be built off I-35," people would say. I would cringe each time I heard it. "I hope they never do," I would reply. Most people would look at me like I was from Mars. I can almost hear them thinking, "Is he nuts, we need more good restaurants around here."

I couldn't agree with them more. Chain restaurants have been popping up all over the area for the past 4-5 years. It's been great for our community.

I found out last week a Cracker Barrel opened up down the road about 1/2 an hour away. I was somewhat relieved at that news. "It's just far enough away," I thought to myself. *whew*

My relief was short-lived, though. Last Monday I noticed a new building being framed out on my way to work. Nothing unusual these days. Even though times are rather tough for construction crews new stuff is still going up all around the area. The day after I saw that frame going up there was the tell-tale sign that a Cracker Barrel was, indeed, going up in our town. There were a dozen or so working bricking up the signature fireplace and chimney which is the central part of any Cracker Barrel restaurant.

I'm done for.

This is terrible. I might as well start buying bigger clothes now. My bank account will be drained. Life as I know it will end.

You see, it's not that I don't like Cracker Barrel. Quite the opposite: I like the place way too much. I can hardly drive by a Cracker Barrel on the highway without stopping. The temptation is sometimes too great and I will go gorge myself with Uncle Hershel's favorites or the Country Boy breakfast even if I'm not particularly hungry. I can almost smell the bacon, gravy, biscuits - I'm salivating here just thinking about it. 

With one on the way to work, how will I be able to resist? What was once a treat to make a day trip or a great vacation even better will become an obsession, almost a curse. How can I resist those tempting goodies? Eggs to order with cheesy hash browns, wheat toast to dunk into my over medium eggs...

I'm done for.

http://www.crackerbarrel.com/