Hi.

I’ve been surrounded by jaded, frustrated, angry and blunt haters of late.  I like them.  They are honest about how they feel about things.  I suppose if we had more of that on Wall Street we’d be in a different situation today.

The whole protest thing does call attention to what is wrong so we can fix it- it can also be tedious and tiring after a while.  To stay in complaint mode and not shift to fix mode is self indulgent.  Usually the people who can truly figure out a way to fix things are the ones who get annoyed by them.  Protesting something is the first step:  infiltrating is the next.

I am writing an e.book right now about protest.  My dad was brilliant in his civil rights activism.  He elected to infiltrate the organizations he wanted to integrate.  Standing outside an organization with a sign makes us THEM and them US.  Infiltrate the things we want to change.

Hating doesn’t work.  It gets Hackles up.  When hackles are up - heels are down.  People listen less.  They will hurt themselves to do the opposite of what we say.  Rather than approach a person with a warm gun- approach them with a warm BUN.  They are more likely to listen with their mouth is full of a warm yummy pastry than trying to listen when their physiology is in “un.listen” mode due to perceived conflict.

One of my favorite quotes is

“There are only two ways to live your life.  One is as though nothing is a miracle.  The other is as though everything is a miracle.”  Albert Einstein

It is a miracle we can drive across the Golden Gate Bridge with ongoing traffic a mere 3 feet from us.  No barrier and 50 mph.  It is a miracle that more people do not jump.  It is a miracle that you can read my journal right now because some military-funding helped to create this thing called the internet.

The video below says that with a sardonic wit that I applaud!  Said by Louis CK.  I had never heard of him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoGYx35ypus

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-02-15-nursing-shortage_N.htm

What do nurses do all day for a living? Nurses watch people. Their external awareness is very high. They notice things that most of us do not- they are not in their head thinking about themselves - they are searching the physiology of the beings in front of them.

High external awareness makes for an excellent communicator. It also can trigger stress and dismay if the leadership surrounding the nurse is inconsistent and in internal awareness. Add to this awareness challenge the fact that health care is front page news everyday resulting in a patient vs health care provider communication gap. Working within poor communication and leadership results in the loss of people truly meant to care for others.

A strong leader who builds people and mentors new nurses - someone who makes it their job to be the “steward” of the nurses career -will attract and retain the right nurses for the job. Internal culture is critical to face the challenges of the nursing shortage.   Nurses watch people for a living - I wonder what they see when they look at their leaders?

Found it!  The gin quip from Obama’s first press conference.

See bolded text:  the Obama I fell in love with on the campaign trail peeked his head out of all this seriousness.   “Ginned up”

Nice!
Question: Thank you, Mr. President. In your opening remarks, you talked about that, if your plan works the way you want it to work, it’s going to increase consumer spending. But isn’t consumer spending, or overspending, how we got into this mess? And if people get money back into their pockets, do you not want them saving it or paying down debt first before they start spending money into the economy?

Obama: Well, first of all, I don’t think it’s accurate to say that consumer spending got us into this mess. What got us into this mess initially were banks taking exorbitant, wild risks with other people’s monies based on shaky assets and because of the enormous leverage, where they had one dollar’s worth of assets and they were betting thirty dollars on that one dollar, what we had was a crisis in the financial system.
That led to a contraction of credit, which, in turn, meant businesses couldn’t make payroll or make inventories, which meant that everybody became uncertain about the future of the economy, so people started making decisions accordingly, reducing investment, initiating layoffs, which, in turn, made things worse.
Now, you are making a legitimate point, Chuck, about the fact that our savings rate has declined and this economy has been driven by consumer spending for a very long time. And that’s not going to be sustainable.
You know, if — if all we’re doing is spending and we’re not making things, then over time other countries are going to get tired of lending us money and eventually the party’s going to be over. Well, in fact, the party now is over.
And so the — the sequence of how we’re approaching this is as follows. Our immediate job is to stop the downward spiral, and that means putting money into consumer’s pockets. It means loosening up credit.
It means putting forward investments that not only employ people immediately, but also lay the groundwork for long-term economic growth.
And — and that, by the way, is important, even if you’re a fiscal conservative, because the biggest problem we’re going to have with our federal budget is if we continue a situation in which there are no tax revenues because economic growth is plummeting at the same time as we’ve got more demands for unemployment insurance, we’ve got more demands for people who have lost their health care, more demand for food stamps. That will put enormous strains on the federal budget, as well as the state budget.
So the most important thing we can do for our budget crisis right now is to make sure that the economy doesn’t continue to tank. And that’s why passing the economic recovery plan is the right thing to do, even though I recognize that it’s expensive.
Look, I — I would love not to have to spend money right now. I’d love — you know, this notion that somehow I came in here just ginned up to spend $800 billion, you know, I mean, that wasn’t — that wasn’t — that wasn’t how I envisioned my presidency beginning. But we have to adapt to existing circumstances.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/09/obamas-opening-remarks-at_n_165440.html

My sister tells me Obama made a comment Monday about gin… anyone catch it? I have searched and can’t find the quote. ??

http://www.womenentrepreneur.com/2008/09/overcome-stage-fright.html

Nice gams.  4 minutes long.. worth watching to the end….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksBTasD6YN8

Sebastian is three.   He has a kitten named Tigger and three fish.  This morning we fed the fish as usual.  He counts the fish (two neon tetras and a freaky looking clear fish)

“Mom, there are only two fish - not three.”

I’m thinking.. Oh no.. the floating belly fish moment with a three year old.  I search the surface.. unable to see any fish tummies.

“I’m sure the other fish is just hiding.”  (We should really clean out the tank.)

“No, momma, there are just two fish left.. and that one looks guilty.”

I swear.. I am not smart enough to make this stuff up.

It made me realize how, since getting the new kitty, I use the word guilty in trying to teach Sebastian how to treat the kitten.  I’ll come racing downstairs if it is suddenly quiet and Sebastian will be sitting there with his hands behind his back and the kitten no where to be found.. “Sebastian.. you look a little guilty.”

Sigh.  So this is how they learn….