1. Democracy (yes, but we’re really not a democracy…)

2. Representative democracy (that’s better)

3. Of the people…

4. Free market (hate to break it to you folks, but that’s not a form of government…)

5. Two party system

Let’s focus on number five. America doesn’t have a two party system. A two party anomaly, two party problem, two party rule, any of those are a better way of putting it. But don’t refer to our governmental process as a two party system. There’s nothing inherently two party about our constitution, culture, or way of life.

Trouble is, when we think of ourselves as ‘two party’ it’s easy to believe that partisanship is a problem. It’s almost impossible to listen to the news today without hearing pundits or politicians complaining about partisanship. If the talking heads are to be believed, partisanship is the cause of every congressional deadlock, economic downturn, military death, etc… Politics has become a game where the players keep saying “they are doing it wrong, so let us do it.”

What’s wrong with this picture? If voters fall into this trap, we allow anti-incumbancy to become the modus operandi of our government. And anti-incumbancy is not a useful dialectic. It’s not a dialectic at all. It’s akin to that childish effort to shove that square in the round hole, and then the circle in the square hole. Otherwise known as the that-didn’t-work-so-let’s-try-the-other-way approach. Let me suggest something different. Let’s try finding all the pieces to that puzzle, and put them in their corresponding holes. In this way, partisanship isn’t the problem; rather, partisanship becomes the solution.

When was the last time you had a conversation with a pure Democrat? Or a pure Republican? There’s no such thing any more. We’ve had to shift our language to try to keep up with the disconnect between the people and those who represent them. We talk about leftists, and progressives, centrists, neocons, the Christian right, tea partiers, etc. Yet, we still go through the motions of voting along party lines that are not represented in our culture. What’s wrong with this picture? It has stripped out the ‘of’, ‘by’, and ‘for’, leaving its ‘people’ naked.

What we need is a more radical partisanship. One that allows for the many voices present in our culture to find a representative voice. Americans can’t be broken up into the categories of Democrat and Republican. Should our government?

See, in two weeks I’ll graduate from my master’s degree program, which has taken longer, and cost more than I would have imagined when I started in the fall of 2007. This degree was supposed to be a stepping stone to a PhD, and then a cushy–albeit discursive–ride into tenure at a university. Not surprisingly, that seems to be the same plan that millions of other 30 somethings had in about a five-year span. The market is flooded with over-qualified, scrappy, somewhat desperate, and really bored folks who are currently working part time jobs as their “in-the-mean-time” extends into a career of fragmented attempts to pay the bills.

Having just received rejections from the two law schools I applied to (yes, I only applied to two…no I wasn’t willing to move to go to law school), I’m plotting my next move. But what sort of metric do I use to plot this kind of course?

I find myself torn between all the non-sense, platitudinal advice that presents itself in our multivocal culture. Here are some common phrases (in no particular order):

-Uber-practical: Starbucks (they offer medical insurance…plus, with your experience you could work your way up to manager)

-Practical: Technical/para-Medical school (the market according to jobs available on craigslist)

-Professional: Apply to a Phd (you just need to find your niche)

-Connections: Whatever you’ve heard about through friends or family (It’s who you know…)

-Disney: Follow your dreams (in other words, if you do what you love long enough, someone will pay you to do it…)

-Paycheck: Research the highest paying jobs and head that way (it’s just common sense, dummy)

Trouble is, as much as I love advice, I’m not good at taking it. After all, my Natural Cures app told me that drinking coffee only makes you more anxious. It recommends switching to green tea (green tea makes me sick to my stomach), which brings me to my final question. How does one choose between a series of cliches? Or, to say it another way, if coffee makes you anxious and green tea makes you sick, what on earth do you drink?

Now, she has to win the nomination before she can face him, but with 50 million to spend on the campaign, there’s about as much left to chance in the primaries as there is in the WWE. The way this story is shaping up, I’m not sure if I need to tune in to CNN or Pay-per-View to keep up on the antics.

In the blue corner we have the draft dodging Blumenthal, in the red, we have the tough as nails McMahon who’s just about as likely to filibuster as kick you in the gonads. She is the same spokesperson who claimed that wrestling was “one of America’s greatest exports.” After everything we’ve heard in recent years about exporting democracy, it’s almost a relief to hear someone cut through the finer points of misdirection and tell it like it is. That a fan-base can forget that they’re participating in a satire of a satire.That in America rarefied irony is not only entertainment, it’s a commodity.

What does it say about the state of American politics that a career in the WWE has become a stepping stone to the United States Senate? Is it that we’re comfortable with the poor production? The cheesy outfits? The paper-thin story lines? Is it that we’re too squeamish to see actual conflict in politics?

Whatever the case, it’s getting harder to know if I should head to the voter’s booth to cast my vote, or to the bookie to place a bet.

Dear friends,

I love video games.

If one of the primary purposes of art is to punctuate our existence with compelling experiences, then video games, in my opinion, take the cake!

I think we are on the cusp of a remarkable evolution in gaming and that the next two decades will be to video games what the 1940’s and 50’s were to cinema. The first real flowering of a fully matured art.

But…

To realize that potential you, intrepid designers, are going to have to make a few tweaks here and there. Possibly a broad, sweeping change or two. Trim the hedges, clean things up a bit.

Don’t worry. I’m here to help.

Five ways in which video games could be fundamentally improved:

1 – Cut Scene Kill Switches

We can be honest here, right?

Cut scenes are frequently the worst part of a game. I know you put a lot of work into them. You need a device to forward storylines and transition between levels or phases of a game. I understand. But more often than not they simply feel like interruptions to the action.

I’m not asking you to do away with cut-scenes altogether nor am I telling you to ‘do them better’. What I want is quite simple.

I want the option to skip them.

Poor voice acting, wooden character expressions and a complete lack of anything remotely like cinematography are bad enough the first time around. But nothing kills my desire to give a decent game a second playthrough than sitting through cut scenes I have already watched! I want to play your game!

So that’s tweak number one;

Cut scenes should always, always, ALWAYS be skippable.

Always.

And, I will admit, sometimes I want to go back to a cut scene, to clarify a plot point or to show my wife how damned awful the voice acting is. Cut scenes should ALWAYS be catalogued somewhere in the menu for later, on-demand re-viewing.

Always.

And while you’re at it, friendly game designers, could you possibly add a pause button as well? Because sometimes cut scenes can be really, really interesting. And when they are, I ALWAYS need to use the bathroom.

Always!

(Next time: Open letter, Part 2 – Always Two There Are… )

In this country, a republic, I have been taught that my vote is important, that my health is up to me and my doctors and pharmacists pocket book, that I shouldn’t pay “high” taxes. That I deserve to have a house, 2.5 kids, a dog and two vehicles; one suv, one sedan. A summer house, a yearly vacation, and tax free luxuries. That I shouldn’t have to pay for criminals to stay in jail, or lazy women to go on welfare. That I should work a 40 hour work week to get by, an 80 hour work week to succeed. And that I should accept the GMO, pesticide sprayed food that the government provides me to keep me voting, paying low taxes and working my 80 hour work week so I can take an 80(?) hour vacation week while thinking about my 2.5 kids, house and the cost of gas for my suv and sedan. Did you follow that?

Me either. Here’s the thing. I used to feel strongly about voting. Especially in this last election. As a US expat who has returned to the states and been living here for almost ten years, I felt it was my patriotic duty and an honor to vote in every election that I have received a ballot for. Spending up to two or three days researching every candidate and issue that was to be voted on or for. But I must admit, I’m feeling very jaded.

Not that I am disappointed in our president. Or that G.W.’s office time suddenly turned me against government. My disenchantment with our political system has been a slow process starting with my father’s stories of being drafted to the current state that our socialistic, tea throwing, democtratic country has become.

And to be perfectly honest about it I’m the one to blame.

Now before I get to what I am going to do about it let me ask you one question? How often do you vote every year? For me the answer is about once or twice. That is 0.0054794 times a day. (If I am generous and go with the two times a year.) Okay, I lied. I have a second question. How many times do you go shopping every year? Not sure? How about every week? My week consists of at least one grocery store trip. Often two because I forgot something. How about clothing, movies, dinning out, gas, coffee… The list keeps going. So I’m going to say that I probably shop at least 4 times a week.

Ready to hear how that plays into my new way of thinking?

I may live in a country that is a republic, and it may go by the nick name of democracy, and some people are afraid that it is on the verge of being a transpolitical sociopublicrat. And, whatever this country may be to some, there is one thing that I know about it for sure. It is a capitalistic country. You know how we can tell? We stayed the same during republican and democratic president alike. We have withstood wars, and mother nature. But the one thing that scares us all, that really changes how we live, the identity that when ripped away causes us to forget who we are and have to figure it all out again is a RECESSION. Yup, we can fight about politics all we want, but the one thing that really gets our patriot hats, burnt bras and rubber band cause bracelets in a twist is money.

So what does that mean for me?

It means that instead of putting so much stock into my vote and so much worry into the aftermath I have moved on to something that makes a difference. Shopping.

I’m not talking about racking up debt or silly spree’s. I’m talking about my day to day spending of money. Who is it going to? Is it going to support a cause that I agree with? Is it going to further a company that lines up with my ideals? Is it going to support the local economy? Is is going to a product that is kind to the earth and animals? Each one of these decisions is a vote. Each dollar I (and you) spend is being marked on giant ballots somewhere behind the economies doors. And what I think about now is that I vote 0.569863 times a day. At least. That can make a difference. And that is what I want to do.

How do you decide where you shop? Does your social paradigm factor in? I’d love to hear your thoughts on your shopping habits.

As for me, I’m handing over my dollar bill and yes, I would like change.

I often work long hours. Lunches and breaks aren’t scheduled and certainly aren’t guaranteed. The pace is generally fairly hectic. Some months require me to work weekends and frequent 30-hour shifts. It is not particularly rare for me to forget to go to the bathroom in the midst of it all. I love it. What I love more? SLEEP.

This month I get the best of both worlds: Shift Work!

This means that I know when to show up and I know when I get to leave. I’m working four 8-hour shifts/week and life is good! Busy shifts with interesting things going on, but still plenty of time to sleep. Plenty of time, that is, in theory!

Today I stopped to reflect on all I have to be grateful for in my life, and I found myself completely overwhelmed by the sheer number of beautiful and positive aspects of my life. From the simple to the profound, from the warm weather today to the love of family and the satisfaction of being in a career that I love – life is good and I cannot deny that I have been blessed. It got me thinking, how does my gratitude for these blessings show up in my life? What does gratitude look like, day in, day out?

It strikes me that one way to put gratitude into action is to respect the things that I have been given. When I receive a gift I am truly grateful for, I put it to good use and I take good care of it.

It has come to my attention that I have not been taking very good care of my sleep hygiene. Even when given this beautiful opportunity to get enough sleep, I just don’t. My time schedule unfortunately ends up looking quite similar to that of the poor schmuck in the cartoon above.  And I have no excuses! No kids, no pain, no true insomnia, no loud neighbors, nothing … just a love of staying up late.

Am I alone out there? Do you get enough sleep? Could you if you tried? If you do, how do you go about it? Does it come naturally? If you don’t, what gets in your way?

I cannot say how long it will last. But today I am going to make a commitment to show my gratitude for this beautiful schedule by taking advantage of this wonderful opportunity to do what I love … SLEEP.

My Wednesday reflection on service and my recent experience in the ER (from both sides of the curtain) got me thinking about pain.

Simply put my job as a physician can be boiled down to two primary objectives – 1. To treat treat/cure disease, and 2. To alleviate suffering. And, of course, in the application of each of these there is the ever present imperative to “benefit and yet not to harm.” Based on my observations thus far, there are three primary reasons people come to the ER – 1. They come for treatment, 2. They come for reassurance, 3. They come for pain pills.

PAIN PILLS: THE BANE OF AN ER PHYSICIAN’S EXISTENCE

It sucks to feel used, it is no fun to be lied to. It sucks to be in pain, it is no fun to be ignored. And thus the conflict that gets played out hundreds, nay thousands of times in American emergency rooms each day. The classic dilemma of distinguishing between those who are “drug seeking” and those who are in “real pain,” begs any number of questions. Who is to say they are different people? Whose right is it to determine or judge the level of pain another individual is experiencing? Is all pain bad? Does pain always need to be treated? Are narcotics over-used? Are narcotics under-used? Is it a doctor’s job to relieve patients of all pain and at what cost?

These questions and more have led me to a broader reflection on the meaning of pain in our culture. What follows is a collection of scenarios, quotes, and common sayings related to or inspired by pain. I am curious to hear what the topic brings up for you.

• “No pain, no gain.”

• Narcotics: Illegal, Prescribed, Controlled, Addictive, Pain-alleviating, Sleep-inducing, Potentially-lethal, Expected.

• The brand name of prescription narcotics and muscle relaxants are also household names: Vicodin, Percocet, Flexeril.

• Most people I know have been prescribed a narcotic for one reason or another at one point on their life.

• The juxtaposition of a sweating writhing man passing a kidney stone rating his pain at a 6-7/10 and a young woman with a sprained ankle resting comfortably in bed rating it at a 10/10 and demanding narcotics.

• “A lot of people run a race to see who is fastest. I run to see who has the most guts, who can punish himself into an exhausting pace, and then at the end, punish himself even more.” -Prefontaine

• An elderly woman is dying. Her disease causes her severe pain even at rest and makes her feel as though she is suffocating. Morphine could help alleviate both, but she refusing saying, “I don’t want to get addicted.”

• The husband of a young woman with chronic headaches threatens to kill an ER physician for not giving his wife more Dilaudid stating,”You are obligated to treat her pain.”

• “Cutters” – inflicting physical pain on themselves to relieve existential, emotional, psychological distress.

Merely the body’s messenger of injury and imbalance?

Perhaps a villian to be slayed at all costs?

Or is it a virtue to be endured and even relished?

Discuss.

Two weekends ago in yoga training we discussed the Yamas, the five Moral restraints. The first one is Ahimsa, or nonviolence. Of course this brought up several questions and discussions as to what nonviolence actually means.

To go veggie or not, to go organic or not, to be a fruitarian, to sweep the ground in front of you as you walk so as not to kill any insects, to buy only items and clothing that are made in people friendly work environments. And that is just a few of the concepts that automatically spring to mind.

So I’m curious. What does living a nonviolent life mean to you?

…a blessed distraction from the hours of studying I have been involved in. After hours and hours of the calm and meditative music I’ve been listening to while trying to soak in pages of anatomy this list is my happy escape. Every hour I give myself a one song break, plug into my nano (Lola) and dance and sing away the mind haze.

February Music

The Hill – Bombay Bicycle Club

I like the hint of accent he has while sing/talking. You don’t usually hear peoples accents in songs and that’s what makes this sound different to me.

Painter In Your Pocket – Destroyer

Transom swears he’s heard this song before performed by someone else, and I just feel like I’ve heard it before. Which is why I like it. I think it has some Paper Astronomer sounds to it.

If Nothing Happened – PaperDoll

Yup. Another commercial song. The only thing good about t.v. ads lately is their music. This is from the Vicks sick day commercial if you were wondering.

Poster of a Girl – Metric

A great Canadian group. Go Canada! (That’s for good music and the olympics.) These folks used to work with Broken Social Scene, which I had on my last list, but decided they wanted to produce a different sound. And it’s awesome. They also sing the song “Help I’m Alive” which I had on a list last year. And I would highly recommend it as well.

Use It – The New Pornographers

I’ve never been a fan of this group (however always been a fan of their name). But this song totally caught me by surprise. I love it.

Follow the Arrow – Human & Rosi Golan

Just a happy simple song. Feels like it belongs in a commercial or indie movie.

Vertigo – Anya Marina

Another song that sounds like it should be on a commercial. Probably a phone ad.

Horchata – Vampire Weekend

Love Vampire Weekends last album. Happy this new album is still fun and playful like the last. Taking everyday things and making songs around them makes me happy.

Pursuit of Happiness (Nightmare) [feat. MGMT & Ratatat] – Kid Cudi

I’ve liked this song since it came out, but just haven’t put it on one of my mixes yet. So here it is. It seemed personally relevant. Socio/economically relevant too.

Glitter In the Air – Pink

Another Pink song. She really put something good, real, and amazing together with this last album. And if you haven’t yet seen her Grammy performance please youtube it immediately. It was mind blowing and awe inspiring.

Hey Baby – Stephen Marley featuring Mos Def

Offspring of Bob. I listened to a lot of Bob Marley music in highschool and this brings back some of the same mellow vibes with a more refined sound. Definitely a good “romantic moments” song. And Mos Def is great too.

Major Tom – Shiny Toy Guns

I first heard this song on a Lincoln commercial. I had to have it. I searched for months. Not available on itunes. No one even knew who performed it. There were rumors of Cat Power. And then finally, a light from heaven and it was available on itunes! And performed by Shiny Toy Guns. I love them. (Missed their $5 concert here a few years ago by a day. Poster misprint!) This song is by far my favorite on this mix. Close your eyes while dancing to this one.

Bad Romance – Lady GaGa

Yup. Also a big Lady GaGa fan. And no, she isn’t the next Madonna. GaGa does for music and art what Madonna did for music and sex. So while she does push the boundaries and she is sexually inclined she is not removing the musical virginity of the “like a virgin” masses. She is opening our eyes to personal expression, oddity and the fame game and I love it.

Home – Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros

I had to end the mix with this song. It’s so goofy, happy and sincerely romantic. I dedicate this song to Transom. And the lyrics are awesome. “Well hot and heavy/pumpkin pie/chocolate candy/jesus christ/there ain’t nothing please me more than you”. Fabulous!

Well, that was a 14 song break. Now back to empowered thoracic inhalation, constricted thoracic inhalation, paradoxical inhalation, abdomino-diaphragmatic inhalation, and thoraco-diaphragmatic inhalation. But maybe just one more one song break first. .

So popupstorybook and I are having a baby. One of the many awesome/crazy/weird things we get to do together is name our baby. What does it mean to name a human? How do you choose a good name? I have no clue. The criteria that I have been using include: a name I like, a name that doesn’t remind me of someone stupid, a name with significance (family or otherwise), and a name that is within certain social parameters (i.e. a name that doesn’t invite ostracizing).

One thing I have discovered in this whole naming process is that people love to name! One of the first questions we get when people find out we are having a baby is, “Do you have a name picked out?” When that question is on the table we have a choice. We can a) deflect and say we haven’t narrowed it down or b) offer up a couple names on the shortlist and watch the person struggle to react in an appropriate way. [Side note: being pregnant affords all kinds of opportunities for social experimentation, like observing how many people will touch a stranger's belly without asking].

Whether we go with option a or b, 90% of the time the person throws in their two cents. “I’ve always liked the name Chopper.” “Bukelele is such a cute name.” etc.  Why is naming such a kick? Even when I was a kid I was always jealous of Adam in the biblical story when he got to name all the animals. BTW, I think I would have done a better job–the deer mouse!? At least Spanish Adam had the sense to name it ratón ciervo.

I’m all up in it. So I thought I’d throw some of it into the cyber womb and see if it gives birth to any other ideas . . . Your thoughts?