Opt-in / Opt-out – I can’t keep them straight. I think opt-in is the one I prefer, since it means the vendor won’t send me junk mail unless I ask for it? Maybe it’s the other way?

Any direct mail marketers out there who can authoritatively answer? I tried to Google it, but when I got to Google’s home page I found a website about Topeka, Kansas instead.

Now I want to visit Topeka. If you are a direct mail marketer, feel free to send me junk mail about Topeka.

The Possibilities

There are many possibilities when it comes to privacy policies. First, I would like to note that it does seem like every company nowadays has a link to a privacy policy at the bottom of every page. There must be a law about it, or something. Or maybe they are all just trying to be like Facebook, who seems to always be needing to explain their privacy policy.

In brief, I’d sum-up the types of privacy policies as follows. Please note that the various (paraphrased and non-lawyerly) clauses below would typically be strung together in some way to create a coherently abstruse privacy policy.

• We don’t share your information, ever.
• We may share your information with select partners and subsidiaries.
• We knew all about you before you knew about yourself. You are who you are because we implanted a life into you. We made you.

During my recent quest to reduce the amount of junk mail I receive, I discovered quite a lot about how not forthright most organizations (both for-profit and non-profit) are about what their marketing policies are.

And the bizarre part is, I truly appreciate a company which can place exactly the right product in front of me at exactly the right time. It saves me the trouble of having to realize what I need. Some companies are great at doing it – I have no beef with those companies.

But most companies just put in the half-hearted effort of collecting your data and then showering you with offers to buy stuff you don’t really care about.

At least that’s been my experience.

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Health care is great. Great health care is great. Some of it is.. not-so-great.

I’m not talking about the type that is necessary, usual, or emergency. But do you really know when there is a difference? Are you getting the right information, at the right time, from the right people? Does it matter if you are?

Boyhood at the Pediatrician

Used to be, in my recollection as a wary youngster who occasionally visited that scary guy in the white jacket, that the point of going to the doctor was to get taken care of, and get the feeling of being taken care of.

The Trusted Triumvirate

I want my doctors to be like my gods, network administrators, or ice-cream vendors – they should all instill the utmost confidence that whatever mysterious things they are doing are causing the World to be a better place, for you, for me. Same goes for my cats’ doctors – you know, their vets.

In Reality..

It doesn’t seem like that anymore. I goto a general care doctor who awkwardly suggests that there might be something wrong with my heart. But it is the sort of thing we would really not worry about if we were not sitting here with good health insurance on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. “Whatever!”, I think to myself. Maybe I should just try Happy Hour instead of the echo-cardiogram. The visit checked all sorts of things, and then sent me on my way with a bucket of mild anxiety slung over my shoulder, wondering whether I should get a most-likely-unnecessary heart test. It left me straddling annoyance and unconfidence.

Heroic health care. Going beyond necessity. Straddling a strange sort of something.

I goto a dentist who, after jabbing quite furiously with sharp metal tools for nearly an hour, producing all manner of “bleeding” in my gums, then suggests a litany of behavioral and lifestyle changes. True, I am getting older and may need more oral care. True, I should probably cut down on the sugared coffee and cut UP on the brushing time. The fact that I’m a mouth-breather likely does not help matters – eternal dry-mouth, you know. But there’s very simply a limit to the number of changes I can make in my life in order to improve my dental health (or any of my health, for that matter). If the worst that can happen is that I will eventually wear false teeth.. well, that’s actually not too terrible a thing! Used to be that lots of people wore them when they got old, right? Not ideal, but just not terrible. False teeth give you character.

And.. true, the lifestyle changes suggested are also all good for me in other ways. Maybe it was the “manner” of the dentist, which I found very off-putting, which caused some of my bristly reaction to his heroic health care. But I have to wonder why this is the first dentist I’ve ever been to where an ordinary cleaning feels like a deep-mining expedition.

The Vet

Enough with humanity. I took my cat(s) to the vet.

Now, the hard thing about providing health care for a cat is that you can’t asked the d*rned animal how she feels. So if you think something may be wrong you have to draw blood, perform ultrasounds, do x-rays, and often give the poor cat some anesthesia to keep it calm during the poking and prodding. You perform all these tests in order to find things that might be found by simple observation and conversation if the cat were a human. And then, after your very clinical, data-driven diagnosis (which always ends up being diabetes….) you prescribe a treatment plan. Now, diabetes is a bad example, because that is actually easily treatable, once you get the gumption for it, since you just stick the medication in with a needle.

But, may the kitty-gods help you if your cat has a problem that requires drops, ointments or pills. Well, again – pills are not so bad once you get used to how your cat wrestles. But I have still never successfully administered oral or aural drops to a cat. She just won’t have it. And I have to wonder how beneficial it was, after all, to spend $600 to find out that really the appropriate treatment for my cat is to wipe her d*rned ears out with a cotton ball occasionally. And then let her have itchy ears some of the time.

She’s a happy-healthy cat, as I have been told by a professional more than once in her happy-healthy life.

And there’s, very simply, just a limit to what you can do about things sometimes.

And this is a problem.. how?!?

You may think I am crazy. I’m saying we should cut corners in health care.

Yes. I am saying we should cut corners in health care.

But here’s the trick. Find the right corners to cut. If you don’t do that, you’re not helping matters. And finding the right corners is far far far tougher than most folks would have you think. D*rned near impossible, unless you’re quite determined. That’s why we all go for the heroic form of health care, where every problem is worth solving.

But:

You wouldn’t have so many problems, if you didn’t have so many solutions.

Anyway – it’s just a blog. These are just my opinions. You like ‘em, then take ‘em to heart. Else, do what you do like.

Cheers!

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Apparently, Pennsylvania Senator Lisa Boscola has decided to escalate the “My State First” war with New Jersey by proposing a similarly protectionist piece of legislation:

• State Sen. Lisa Boscola drafts Pa. version of residency requirement for public employees
• Letter to Governor Chris Christie from Senator Lisa Boscola

This is unfortunate, in my view, though her support against the proposed New Jersey law is much appreciated (by me).

Oh, and they are indeed going to build a moat around Harrisburg and Scranton, just in case.. Trenton’s SEPTA service will also be re-routed back to Philadelphia, in an effort to “trick” Philadelphia residents into working in their own d*rned state. The new SEPTA “Loop-a-Round” is expected to leave thousands of befuddled commuters stranded in the first few days of implementation, giving them time to ruminate on their past actions.

Just kidding.

Of course, since the NJ bill is called the “New Jersey First Act”, Pennsylvanians will have to be content with the less compelling “Pennsylvania Second Act”.

Again, just kidding.

Good luck to all who are directly affected by the political sniping! My apologies that my newly beloved state has chosen to participate in it, with virtually no public debate, media coverage, or explanation.

Seriously. really.

As always, my half-hearted apologies in advance for mild sarcasm, and any sweeping generalities or unfairly “opinionated” opinions I may have expressed.

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I met a lady today who thinks in 50 years nobody will remember what a book smells like.

Hmmm..

I guess that would be unfortunate, if it happens.

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It was an strange experience, the first time I saw it. It actually kind of spooked me.

I had been experimenting with a mailing list service provider called AWeber. I had a question about something or other, and decided to send an email to them via their web form.

So I start typing my question – the form takes up most of my laptop’s screen. And I didn’t realize until I scrolled down a bit to hit the submit button that there was a text area down there that was apparently parsing my question as I typed it and – lo and behold, the d*rned thing went out and searched their knowledge base and provided an answer in a convenient link.

Not only did I never hit “submit” on that question, but I walked away from the experience feeling like AWeber had the most amazing and.. “helpful” help system I had ever used.

Totally cool.

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Some days, I feel like I live in Heaven. I know that’s arrogant to say. But I’m just describing my feeling, and that’s how I sometimes feel.

It’s a nice feeling.

I know I’ve had my share of complaints about the cell phone talkers during my train commute, and I’ve grumped about the occasional horn-honker who seems intent on running down pedestrians on Metuchen’s Main Street. There’s also been the ongoing war against snow, mild flooding, autumn leaves, and the army of squirrels who besieged my lawn this morning. And don’t get me started about the bird sh*t that is recently raining upon my Corolla each morning in our tree-lined driveway.

But aside from that, I’ve having a grand old time in my new neighborhood.

I started writing this post a few months back, on a weekend when my wife was out of town, and had taken our one car with her. In many a suburb, that might be a problem for the husband stranded at home. We are fortunate enough to live in a town that has a marvelously interesting Main Street (yes, it’s called “Main Street”), and to live a mere five-minute walk from the town center. So on a weekend without a car available, I have access to every bit as much neat stuff to do as I did back when we lived in Brooklyn, all within walking distance. Or, if I want, a reasonable train ride back into Manhattan on my monthly commuter pass.

It’s like a new kind of urban. Or, as I said, like Heaven, at times.

That particular weekend, I believe I had spent most of my day around the house, perhaps doing some yard work. By late afternoon, I was getting a little bored at home and I walked into town.

Here are some of the fun things I did:

• An hour on the wireless at our local coffee shop – Brewed Awakening
• A walk over to one of our local pizza places – Antonio’s Brick Oven Pizza – to pick-up some take-out food.
• A quick stop in across the street to pick-up a quart of my favorite soup – a delicious New England clam chowder from Dick’s Dock.
• Then, a leisurely walk home on a quiet, tree-lined street, to enjoy a movie at home.

Other options I could have taken on that particular weekend evening:

• Catch a movie at the Forum Theatre Arts Center.
• Spend some time browsing the used books at The Raconteur.
• Take the NJ Transit train to New Brunswick or Princeton (people seem to do that sometimes).
• Stop by our local martini bar – Novita (which also happens to be a fantastic bistro and restaurant, with live sax/piano music every Friday night.
• Stop by our local Irish bar – Hailey’s Harp & Pub, for a.. Guinness and burger!

So.. Heaven I say. I am arrogant, I guess – perhaps superficial. But I gotta tell ya’, I sure like my new neighborhood.

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