What is with all these suicidal drugs???!!
I am amazed at the countless TV commercials for various prescription drugs. The commercials spend maybe 5 seconds telling what the drug is for and then 25 seconds hurriedly reading a long list of horrendous side effects such as liver failure, edema, coma, death, mood swings, elevated blood pressure, weight gain, and suicide. And suicide is what they all have in common! There are various drugs- antidepressants, drugs for arthritis, bipolar disorder, anti-smoking and more. And suicide is a possible side effect of all. One's distinct impression is that the side effects far outweigh the benefits. Are they really hoping to boost their sales??? Or is there some other purpose for these “ads”??? Creepy!!
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Friday, December 18, 2009
Is your laptop overloaded?
According to an article I read recently:
Plus there is a lot going on right now politically that even Congress seems unable to keep up with (and it is their full time job!)
Advertising in this country bombards from all directions. Even people like me that try to avoid TV still find our mailboxes loaded with ads. Everything you buy from groceries to electronics comes complete with more coupons and ads trying to get you to buy even more.
As I near the end of my time here I am starting to think about the details of packing and departure. With email and cell phones you are only a text away from issues and events on the other side of the globe. A recent email regarding future visa options has sent me scrambling to collect and “authenticate” some documents.
And I did notice that it is Christmas season which adds a certain amount of time constraint to finish certain things before the holidays.
So I do feel somewhat fragmented and distracted as I think about details of packing and shipping, work plans for the next few months, national and international trends and crises, visa stuff, and whether I should even bother trying to do Christmas cards or just make it New Years’ cards, and Christmas preparations. All of that interspersed with thoughts of the people I wanted to see, books I had wanted to read, events back in the second and third of my worlds, etc.
My “laptop” does sometimes feel like it’s overloaded!
The wealth of media in modern life means the average person is bombarded with enough information every day to overload a laptop computer, a study has found.Yes, I am feeling that bombardment! Being in my home country for a short visit I am playing catch up with a lot of people. When you don’t see people very often you have a lot to catch up on. And so you are taking in all the latest on what people are up to, their kids, their jobs, spouses, health, hobbies, etc.
Plus there is a lot going on right now politically that even Congress seems unable to keep up with (and it is their full time job!)
Advertising in this country bombards from all directions. Even people like me that try to avoid TV still find our mailboxes loaded with ads. Everything you buy from groceries to electronics comes complete with more coupons and ads trying to get you to buy even more.
As I near the end of my time here I am starting to think about the details of packing and departure. With email and cell phones you are only a text away from issues and events on the other side of the globe. A recent email regarding future visa options has sent me scrambling to collect and “authenticate” some documents.
And I did notice that it is Christmas season which adds a certain amount of time constraint to finish certain things before the holidays.
So I do feel somewhat fragmented and distracted as I think about details of packing and shipping, work plans for the next few months, national and international trends and crises, visa stuff, and whether I should even bother trying to do Christmas cards or just make it New Years’ cards, and Christmas preparations. All of that interspersed with thoughts of the people I wanted to see, books I had wanted to read, events back in the second and third of my worlds, etc.
My “laptop” does sometimes feel like it’s overloaded!
Shooting trouble
In this the first of my worlds, government and business procedures and processes are usually clearly spelled out. You are given an exact list of requirements, documentation, etc and told that the processing takes 5 working days or 10 working days or 6 weeks or whatever. And mostly it does. But in my other two worlds things are much more fuzzy. I have had to develop a technique of on-the-fly problem-solving and trouble-shooting where I don’t wait around for complete understanding because things are only completely understood in hindsight if even then. Just muddle your way through it and figure it out as you go and have no expectations as to time constraints.
Imagine my surprise when I suddenly am in such a situation here! I am supposed to switch to a different kind of visa. The consulate requires “document authentication” of things like transcripts, diplomas, birth certificates, etc. The first step is to get the documents notarized. Sounds simple. Weeeeeeeeell, not according to the 4 notary publics I talked to yesterday! Somehow the list of requirements given by the consulate does not communicate enough to me or to the 4 notaries I have talked to so far, nor to some colleagues who are also spending their Christmas season gathering documents to authenticate. I spent a couple of hours on the internet trying to get some clues plus a couple of hours on the phone and emailing colleagues to see if anybody else has come up with ideas. So far it seems that I am out in front trouble shooting on my own.
But I am not too stressed out. Annoyed, yes, but not stressed. After all, I am used to this. I just have to resign myself to spending a fair amount of time on the phone and internet and running around and just hope most of it is done before Christmas! Who knows, the answer might be just around the next corner or in the next phone call!
And if it doesn’t get finished by the time I leave? Then I guess I keep working on it from a distance!
Imagine my surprise when I suddenly am in such a situation here! I am supposed to switch to a different kind of visa. The consulate requires “document authentication” of things like transcripts, diplomas, birth certificates, etc. The first step is to get the documents notarized. Sounds simple. Weeeeeeeeell, not according to the 4 notary publics I talked to yesterday! Somehow the list of requirements given by the consulate does not communicate enough to me or to the 4 notaries I have talked to so far, nor to some colleagues who are also spending their Christmas season gathering documents to authenticate. I spent a couple of hours on the internet trying to get some clues plus a couple of hours on the phone and emailing colleagues to see if anybody else has come up with ideas. So far it seems that I am out in front trouble shooting on my own.
But I am not too stressed out. Annoyed, yes, but not stressed. After all, I am used to this. I just have to resign myself to spending a fair amount of time on the phone and internet and running around and just hope most of it is done before Christmas! Who knows, the answer might be just around the next corner or in the next phone call!
And if it doesn’t get finished by the time I leave? Then I guess I keep working on it from a distance!
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