Plowing ahead towards a bajillion posts!

Dragon Mood? -- early morning superstitious?

Sometimes, the best thing you can do is PLOW AHEAD. That's what this achieves. Now, I'm at 667 posts!

volunteering

Dragon Mood? -- liking it

Volunteering is something , sad to say, that I've steered clear of since I left my Lutheran congregation over ten years ago. Between feeling a bit burned out and religious peoples' dithering on whether gays are or are not welcome in their community ... well, I'd had enough.

Just this past week, however, I began volunteering at a local career center. It's a place I've been visiting weekly for the past two months or so, attending workshops, meeting people, gathering resources and giving my bruised self-confidence a welcome boost of you-can-do-it!

I'm currently working on one project, spiffing up and adding some graphics to a PowerPoint presentation that is used in a experienced worker seminar. Not surprisingly, I'm thoroughly enjoying myself. And hearing appreciative comments from the instructors and facilitators at the center are balm for my soul.

Can you still call it volunteering when you feel like you're getting more than you're giving?

A sign of the times

Dragon Mood? -- welcome to the club!

The photo says it all. It shows a line of people, standing on a sidewalk that wraps around a city block, waiting to apply for a job.

The local MGM casino announced several weeks ago that they would be hiring 1000 people for jobs. The Detroit News announced that over 26,000 people applied for those 1,000 jobs.

Michigan Smile

Dragon Mood? -- mmmm, like Pewabic!

Downloading some Photoshop work of my own, I did a search on the word, "Pewabic," a famous tile created in Detroit. Evidently, pewabic means "clay" in the Ojibway language.

Anyway, I found this photo by useful_fiction at flickr and simply liked it.

Michigan Smile
Originally uploaded by useful_fiction

Where did you say you're from?

Dragon Mood? -- recalling an unexpected encounter

While you always hear about the advantage of meeting interesting people when traveling, I didn't think it would happen so readily and fully to me.

After riding the Metra train from north Chicago to Union Station, I had time to kill. The waiting area was more crowded than I had expected, so I had to hunt and search for an open, available seat. I found one near a gate, where the rigid, plastic seats were rather mashed together. There were two women seated to my right. I thought they were traveling companions, because they were talking.

Shortly after I sat down, the first woman asked if she could borrow a pen. I lent her one which she then passed to the second woman who I'll call Beret Woman. Upon receiving my pen back, Beret Woman got up and slowly, arthritically hobbled away. The first woman turned to me and said, "She's making a mistake." She shook her head for emphasis. "She's gonna ride the train for two nights in coach. Two nights! That's too long. She's gonna ride all the way to L.A. in coach."

I asked her where she was headed and she replied, "Alburquerque."

"Which is home," I asked, "Chicago or Alburquerque?"

She smiled and said, "I live in Hawaii." I chuckled at her unexpected answer.

This woman, I never did find out her name, told me she has traveled to Alburqueque, oh, at least 30 times. Wow! I never got a clear answer as to why she visited there so many times. She did refer a couple of times to traveling only in the winter. She has a job from April until September or October. Hmmm.

She showed me her Hawaiian driver's license so I could see the fingerprint that only the state of Hawaii requires. Stupidly (now, in hindsight), I never thought to look at her name. Duh! We talked about train travel, sushi, living in Hawaii, why do people rush around, her distaste for television and computers, among other things.

Finally, I couldn't stand it any longer. "I'm sorry if I appear nosey, but my curiosity has gotten the better of me. What kind of job do you have that you work six months out of the year?" I asked.

She smiled again and said simply, "I work for the Chicago Cubs."

The light of day must have dawned on my face. "What do you do?"

"I'm an usher. I stand around and make sure people get to their seats."

April to October. Of course! Asking more questions (I must have come across as incredibly nosey), I found out that her husband had died about ten years ago, after the two of them had lived in Hawaii, very simply, among the Hawaiian locals, since the 1970s. She referred to the tourists as "hollies." I kept googling until I found this:

... that most “haoles” (a pejorative term used by native Hawaiians to describe Caucasion tourists) ...

Here's another, more formalized one.

According to Intrepid Hawaiian Traveler, you never want to hang out with haoles when in Hawaii. Seek out the locals and you'll experience a completely different Hawaii.

Back to her story. After her husband died, one of her children, a daughter who lives in Chicago, happened to see an ad seeking ushers for the Chicago Cubs. Intrepid Hawaiian Traveler came to Chicago, applied and got the job. That was nine years ago. Every year, she lives with her daughter in Chicago, spends time with her grandchildren and works for the Cubs for every home game. She smiled the entire time she spoke about it, so I can only conclude that she's happy with the arrangement.

Intrepid lives on Maui ... only in the winter, of course. And only when she's not traveling. Her parting words to me were, "If you're ever in Maui, look me up."

What did I take away from this encounter? (chuckling) A whole lot! The universe sat me down next to a woman who travels alone, sees things for what they are (haoles vs. tourists), has created a life that's full and enjoyable (and works for the Cubs, on top of it!). What an inspiration! Yup, I definitely feel like the universe sent me a gift, a vision of what-could-be in Intrepid Hawaiian Traveler. Thank you, God.

FORTRAN and me

Dragon Mood? -- remembering

Perusing MSNBC's website this morning, I noticed a death notice for John Backus, creator of FORTRAN. Wow, FORTRAN! I haven't thought about that in a while.

For those of you who may not have majored in computer science in college, FORTRAN stands for FORmula TRANslation. It is (was at that time) a high-level computer programming software.

When I was in school at Michigan State, we coded FORTRAN on data cards that were submitted to staffers at the Computer Science Center for batch runs at night. Data cards were lined up in cardboard boxes, hundred of data cards, each card corresponding to a line of code, from the first line of a program to the last. Imagine that! I wrote a whole damn compiler in FORTRAN on data cards.

The computer we used at that time was a Control Data CDC 6500, a large CPU that occupied an entire room, an environmentally controlled room, on the second floor of the Computer Science building, in the middle of campus. I could see the rows of CPU boxes, on a raised floor, with blinking lights and all that computing power contained within. (chuckling) Wow, have times ever changed!

(This is a bit off topic, but I also remember a long-haired woman who worked there in the computer lab. She always wore jeans that looked poured on her and a figure to handle that "poured" look. She had beautifully full breasts and the flattest belly I could ever imagine coveting. She wore a long-sleeve knit top with a flannel shirt over it, all tucked into those tight jeans and still her figure looked sleek and trim. Oh, do I remember her!)

Back to my original reason for this posting: here's an excerpt from MSNBC's article on John Backus's passing.

John Backus, whose development of the Fortran programming language in the 1950s changed how people interacted with computers and paved the way for modern software, has died. He was 82.

... Prior to Fortran, computers had to be meticulously "hand-coded" — programmed in the raw strings of digits that triggered actions inside the machine. Fortran was a "high-level" programming language because it abstracted that work — it let programmers enter commands in a more intuitive system, which the computer would translate into machine code on its own.

The breakthrough earned Backus the 1977 Turing Award from the Association for Computing Machinery, one of the industry's highest accolades. The citation praised Backus' "profound, influential, and lasting contributions."

Backus also won a National Medal of Science in 1975 and got the 1993 Charles Stark Draper Prize, the top honor from the National Academy of Engineering.

... Backus' early work at IBM included computing lunar positions on the balky, bulky computers that were state of the art in the 1950s. But he tired of hand-coding the hardware, and in 1954 he got his bosses to let him assemble a team that could design an easier system.

The result, Fortran, short for Formula Translation, reduced the number of programming statements necessary to operate a machine by a factor of 20.

Remembering John Backus, FORTRAN and my days of coding with it.

First day of S-P-R-I-N-G-G-G-G-G!

Dragon Mood? -- excited about spring colors!

Today is the first day of spring! Whoo-hoo! Like many others, I thought that spring started tomorrow, March 21st, but that's not true. Curious about the why? Read on.

From an MSNBC article:

... in America, spring no longer falls on March 21. In 2005, for instance, the vernal equinox, the first day of spring for the Northern Hemisphere [came] on Sunday, March 20, at 7:33 a.m. ET.

Now this doesn’t seem right. I mean, when we were all growing up, the first day of spring was always on March 21, not March 20, right? Now, all of a sudden, spring comes on March 20.

How did that happen?

While it’s true that we’ve traditionally celebrated the beginning of spring on March 21, astronomers and calendar manufacturers alike now say that the spring season starts one day earlier, March 20, in all time zones in North America. Unheard of? Not if you look at the statistics. In fact, did you know that during the 20th century, March 21 was actually the exception rather than the rule?

The vernal equinox landed on March 21 only 36 out of 100 years. And from 1981 to 2102, Americans will celebrate the first day of spring no later than March 20.

In the years 2008 and 2012, those living in Alaska, Hawaii and the Pacific, Mountain and Central time zones will see spring begin even earlier, on March 19. And in 2016, it will start on March 19 for the entire United States.

There are a few reasons why seasonal dates can vary from year to year.

• A year is not an even number of days, and neither are the seasons. To achieve a value as close as possible to the exact length of the year, our Gregorian calendar was constructed to give a close approximation to the tropical year, which is the actual length of time it takes for Earth to complete one orbit around the sun. It eliminates leap days in century years not evenly divisible by 400, such 1700, 1800 and 2100, and millennium years that are divisible by 4,000, such as 8000 and 12000.
  
  
• Another reason is that Earth’s elliptical orbit is changing its orientation relative to the sun (it skews), which causes Earth’s axis to point progressively in a different direction — a phenomenon called precession. Since the seasons are defined as beginning at strict 90-degree intervals, these positional changes affect the time Earth reaches each 90-degree location in its orbit around the sun.
  
  
• The pull of gravity from the other planets also affects Earth's location in its orbit.

So, looking beyond all the scientific wheres and why-fors, spring means rain and fluorescent new-growth green and birds singing and flowers poking up through the mud and WARMTH. Yippee!

My hotsy-totsy train ride

Dragon Mood? -- dragonly frustration

My return trip from Chicago to mid-Michigan on the train was not quite as idyllic as the trip down. In two words, it was LONG and HOT.

Because Amtrak is a governmentally-owned organization, it doesn't own railroad tracks. The federal government leases track from companies like Canadian National (CN), CSX, Norfolk Southern and the like. As a result, Amtrak passenger trains are at the mercy of freight trains and their schedules ... perhaps, unpredictable schedules? We had no more left Union Station and made the eastward turn across I-90 when we came to a stop. STOP ... for 20 minutes or so. I was sitting on the right-hand side of the train, which was facing south toward the sun. Our railcar became increasingly warm. I tried to ignore it and plowed on, finishing my book.

The train began moving and sped along until we got to Gary, Indiana, and the Mittel steel yards (which I believe used to be U.S. Steel). The train ground to a halt. We sat there, with no movement and no ventilation while the temperature rose even more. The interior of that railcar felt like it hit 80 degrees. People were fanning themselves, their faces flushed and perspiring, moving to other cars looking for some relief. Unfortunately, there was no real relief available.

I talked to one of the conductors. Several other people in close vicinity did also. He cranked up the ventilation fan, but I don't think the hot air had anywhere to go. We sat there for well over another 30 minutes, evidently waiting for a freight train in front of us to move.

And now an aside. As we sat there, unwitting victims to this crazy train gridlock, there was plenty to see. Here's an excerpt from a professional magazine writer who does a far better job describing the hellish zone where we sat and sweat, these Gary steel yards:

Somewhere out there among the industrial sprawl was the Mittel Steel factory ... With the crepuscular twilight creating wild shadows and exaggerating the color scheme of black, gray, and rust, this grimy, dystopic landscape was beyond the imaginations of even the most visionary filmmakers and harebrained futurists: an Erector set gone haywire; everywhere towering, architecturally inexplicable structures. There were flame-throwing smokestacks, giant, iron-spoked wheels, huge cables, rusted corrugated tin towers and sheds, and miles of black and ochre trellises, girders, and catwalks; blunt, phallic silos and sinister-looking networks of ducts and pipes and elevated train tracks along which crept a steady procession of piecemeal contraptions that looked like crude armored vehicles from the Mad Max movies. Despite the constant scuttling of these strange machines, there were no actual humans to be seen anywhere on the landscape.

Yep, that's where we sat and looked and roasted.

We were well into Michigan, the railcars still heated up to temperatures that felt oppressive. The conductor eventually used a special key to unlock all the sliding doors, locking them in an "open" position and cool, outside air finally, finally pushed out the stale, hot air inside the passenger cars.

We were supposed to arrive around 8:30 p.m. We didn't arrive until well after 9:30 p.m. And then I got in my little car, zipped through the cool, dark night and drove myself to Detroit, home to our pied-a-terre and my awaiting honey.

It was a long, hotsy-totsy ride.

Naturally dyed Easter eggs

Dragon Mood? -- dyed-in-the-wool Easter egg lover

While hanging out yesterday, awaiting my departure time, I happened to catch Martha Stewart's daytime show. She was demonstrating with Olivia Dukakis how to dye Easter eggs with natural food items.

The food that most intrigued me was onion skins. Martha wrapped loose onion skins around each egg, wrapped it again with cheesecloth and hard-boiled it. After the egg had cooled, she removed the wrappings and the egg had a lovely, natural marbleized appearance.

Celestial Seasonings also has an article about naturally dyed eggs here.

Nine-year old dreams

Dragon Mood? -- feeling dragonly young

Last night, I had the pleasureable experience of being nine years old again. I had a dream right before I woke up this morning; the dream was fresh and vivid in my mind.

S and I were standing out in the front yard of some unknown house. There were other kids our age standing nearby. It was that evening time when the sun is going down, light is fading and you're having so much fun, you don't want it to stop.

I felt like my pre-unemployment self, a supremely self-confident know-it-all(!) I called all the kids to gather around me. They started moving towards me, gathering in a group. I suddenly realized that I had no idea why I had called them to me, nor what I was going to say. Oops!

Attempting to cover my leadership gaffe, I mustered my most authoritative voice and told everyone to go home and tell their parents, "We're gonna play for 15 more minutes and then we'll come in." Everyone scattered, running home. My dream ended, my control over the situation well in hand and my self-confidence solid as a rock.

Never saw it coming

Dragon Mood? -- mystified

Yesterday, something happened to me that I never saw coming. (chuckle)   Yup, never saw it coming. And, in reflecting back on how it actually unfolded and evolved, I can't even recall the chronology and steps that led to its happening.

My entire life, since puberty anyway, I have had hair on my upper lip. Hair that grew in dark and plentiful to my complete horror as a teenager. I can remember my mother driving me to an electrolysis "salon," this small, dingy house in a depressed area of town to have the excess hair "burned" out by small needles. I was scared witless, as you can imagine; thank God, my mother was compassionate and willing to go through this exercise with me.

Since then, I've tried more electrolysis in high-priced salons, bleaching with commercial products and home-grown recipes, and plucking, plucking, plucking, all to no avail. The hair on my upper lip (I never refer to it as a mustache -- I can feel embarassed just typing it) continued to grow in, healthy and thick. ArrghhH!

This weekend, somehow, SOMEHOW, my sister, my niece and my daughter all conspired and plotted (in the fullest sense of both those verbs) to cajole, wangle and strong-arm me into agreeing to remove the hair by means of a new product. They returned from a trip to Target, sat me down, applied ice in a bag to my lip, Ruth held my hand, Jess warmed the plastic strips and Lina applied them, one after another, to my poor, defenseless upper lip. It HURT! I swore after each one was ripped off! Lina held them up to the light, examining the success of her efforts. After six or eight of them (I lost count), she looked at my lip and pronounced us DONE! Thank goodness!

This new product provided some liquidy salve to apply to the affected (assaulted) area which felt cool and soothing. I applied more ice to prevent swelling. I gingerly felt my upper lip. It felt naked and strange and unfamiliar. Weird!

That's what happened to me yesterday.

Hasta la vista, Alberto?

Dragon Mood? -- chagrined

George Stephanopolous' show, This Week, on ABC, is on right now and they're talking about Alberto Gonzalez and the furor over his firing of eight federal prosecutors.

And here's an excerpt from an ABC News article:

"The chances of the attorney general surviving this, I think, are slim to none — and slim just left the building," said Norman Ornstein, a political analyst at the American Enterprise Institute.

Gonzales faces what could be the most challenging week of his career. On Monday, the Department of Justice is expected to release some 200 pages of potentially damaging e-mails to address accusations he fired eight U.S. attorneys for political reasons on behalf of a White House that felt they were not — in the words of Gonzales' former chief of staff, Kyle Sampson — "loyal Bushies."

Sampson lost his job earlier this month. Now it is Gonzales' own job that's on the line.

Sunday morning

Dragon Mood? -- quiet

What does your Sunday morning look like? This morning, I'm in Chicago, at my sister and brother-in-law's house, spending time with them, their kids and my kids during March Madness.

Ruth, Paul and Jess have headed off to church. Lina, Josh and I are here at their house, watching the Sunday morning news shows. I fixed a pot of coffee and am sipping on a cup as I blog.

We watched the Spartans lose to North Carolina last night ... so close and yet they couldn't finish it. Yet, it was a solid effort and we're proud of our Spartans. Afterward, we played Spite & Malice until midnight; Ruth went to bed and we finished up playing Euchre, Josh watching on the sidelines.

I don't know what we'll do today, other than watch more basketball. We may go over to Aaron's place for a bit and check out paint swatches. All the kids will head back to their respective homes today, hopefully later. Jess flies back to Philly tonight. I will hang out until tomorrow midday. Then I'll take the Chicago Metra down to Union Station and catch my train back to East Lansing.

I'm missing S and looking forward to seeing her. I'll be home soon, baby.

New reading

Dragon Mood? -- dubious dragon-y perplexity

While I'm traveling and enjoying the complete, familial insanity of March Madness, I'm also reading a new book, rather a book new to me called The Way the Crow Flies: A Novel by Anne-Marie MacDonald. I'm totally engrossed in it and now facing the perplexing dilemma of wanting to read it as quickly as I can while also wanting to stretch it out at least through my travels. Yikes!

from Madison via train and memories

Dragon Mood? -- relaxed, sentimental and remembering

Chillin' out in my PJs, I'm here in Madison, at Caroline's house, enjoying a quiet, lazy day. Lina is finishing up her work week with a "Friday" Wendishday.

This evening, we've got plans to drink a loaded-up Bloody Mary at a local pub. Dinner plans are still evolving.

Tomorrow morning, we have a breakfast date at a local eatery called Lazy Janes and then we're hitting one of Caroline's favorite spots, St. Vinny's. Tomorrow afternoon, we'll grab up the dog and head down to Chicago to join Ruth, Paul, Josh, Aaron and Jess for some serious March Madness basketball watching. Oh yes, and maybe a little drinking and painting and cooking and kitchen-planning thrown in there for variety and amusement.

I thoroughly enjoyed my train ride yesterday ... my FIRST train ride in probably over 20 years! The ride was smoother then I remembered them being. I rode "backwards," ... facing backwards, that is; it was only until we were in Indiana, did I realize that half of the railcar's seats face foward and half face rearward. I had plunked myself into the first available seat, never realizing I had a choice!

Riding in a train, listening to the muted "whoo-whoo" of the whistle as we crossed one road after another, evoked many, many memories, young child memories of my grandmother, Nana, and her traveling on train to visit us. We would drive to Des Moines to pick her up at the train station.

I remember being afraid of the immensity of the train itself, its noisy clanking, the hiss of steam brakes (I presume) and this unfamiliar metallic smell that I disliked. I also remember being totally exhilarated at the prospect of Nana's visit. I can see her being helped down off of the train by a porter, all decked out in a dark suit, her little fox fur capelet draped around her shoulders. She had on a little hat that included some artfully-arranged netting on her permed hair and she wore makeup and lipstick. She exuded the fragrance of Chanel No. 5.

Ruth and I couldn't wait to sit next to her in the backseat of the car on the ride home to Ames. Dad drove while Mom sat next to him, although she spent most of the trip turned around, talking to her mom. They exchanged news and local gossip of LaGrange and the surrounding area. I remember feeling lulled by the rhythms of their conversation, a familiar give-and-take, that gave me a fulfilled sense of joy, safety and "all's right with the world." Nana was here!

Such wonderful child-memories, all from a simple train ride!

Color Vocabulary

Dragon Mood? -- green with envy

Sitting on my keyboard awaiting my attention, I ripped this page out of some magazine a while back. I'm finally going to post these Color Vocabulary definitions. They're short, sweet and pretty easy to understand.

VALUE: The lightness or darkness of a particular color. Light blue, medium blue and dark blue have the same hue but a different value.

SHADE: Those colors with values nearest black such as the darkest blue and the darkest red. (Easy-to-remember hint: Imagine black with a shade of red or blue.)

TINT: Those colors with values closest to white such as the lightest blue and the lightest red. (Easy-to-remember hint: Imagine white with a tint of blue or red.)

HUE: Lighter or darker variations are of the same hue. Thus, a light red and a deep red are of the same hue. The hue [or color] of this square is aqua.

TONE: A color's intensity, brightness or dullness. When gray is added to a color like red, for example, it dulls the intensity and renders it a darker tone.

Insomnia

Dragon Mood? -- not sleepy now!

Recently, I've been jumping into bed between 10 and 11, falling asleep almost immediately and not waking up until S's alarm goes off at 8 o'clock. And rather than feeling rested, my body stills feel tired, longing for more sleep. What's going on?

Well, I don't have an answer for that yet, but I see my doctor Friday afternoon, and you can bet, I'll be asking her.

I just got the results from my labwork today in the mail and one possible culprit has been eliminated. It isn't my TSH, thyroid stimulating hormone. That's in the range considered normal.

My hemoglobin is actually a bit high. How ironic (yes, pun intended)! Amazing what no monthly bleeding will do for you! Two other components of my white blood cells are out of the normal range, one high and one low. I'll find out more about with Dr. Wendy.

(heavy sigh) And yes, my glucose is still slightly elevated: 110. Normal range is between 65 and 99. Damn! I can already hear the doc and my kids singin' their favorite song: "Exercise!"

Testing the drop cap color

Dragon Mood? -- scratchin' her head

Once upon a time ... well, this is no fairy tale. I'm trying to include the drop cap background into the template colors that are defined under the Template tab. I have successfully added the two lines of code for that in the template file. I just don't know how to refer to it here.

And I've also updated calypsoDragon13's background color and all attendant colors. It is March, March Madness is ALMOST upon us, St. Paddy's Day is just around the corner and I must fly the SPARTAN GREEN!

..... previous: #660000 ......



....... current: #11593c ........

Big Ten Tourney

Here's the schedule:

At The United Center, Chicago

First Round
Thursday, March 8
Michigan vs. Minnesota, Noon
Michigan State vs. Northwestern, 2:30 p.m.
Illinois vs. Penn State, 5 p.m.

Quarterfinals
Friday, March 9
Ohio State vs. Michigan-Minnesota winner, Noon
Iowa vs. Purdue, 2:30 p.m.
Wisconsin vs. Michigan State-Northwestern winner, 6:30 p.m.
Indiana vs. Illinois-Penn State winner, 9 p.m.

Semifinals
Saturday, March 10
Ohio State—Michigan-Minnesota winner vs. Iowa-Purdue, 1:30 p.m.
Wisconsin—Michigan State-Northwestern winner vs. Indiana—Illinois-Penn State winner, 4 p.m.

Championship
Sunday, March 11
Semifinal winners, 3:30 p.m.

G O    S P A R T A N S !

Saturday and a FULL MOON!

Dragon Mood? -- excited!

Whoo-hoo ... I just checked out the phase of our lovely Moon. It's gonna be FULLLL this weekend! Everybody, it's gonna be FULLL! Get your howlin' voice out and WARM UP! Ah-WOOO-oo-OOOO!

Pre-diabetes Panel Report

Dragon Mood? -- dragons & glucose?

Attempting to be an informed consumer and personal health advocate, I subscribe to a regular email newsletter from the American Diabetes Association. Here is an excerpt regarding pre-diabetes (my current and hopefully only diagnosis) from an article:

Panel Agrees on Whom to Test, How to Treat Pre-Diabetes

People who have pre-diabetes should undergo intensive lifestyle interventions, and possibly drug therapy, to reduce their risk of developing diabetes, as well as their long-term risk for developing diabetic complications, according to a consensus statement being published in the March issue of Diabetes Care.

A seven-member panel of experts convened by the American Diabetes Association last year developed these guidelines and others geared toward people who exhibit early metabolic abnormalities. The panel's report grew out of concerns arising from the growing epidemic of type 2 diabetes, which now affects more than 20 million Americans. The disease is expected to continue increasing dramatically worldwide over the next two decades.

Type 2 diabetes is frequently preceded by one of two conditions together thought of as "pre-diabetes." These conditions -- called impaired fasting glucose (IFG) and impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) [I have IGT] -- are similar in that they represent a state of abnormal glucose regulation that is not yet high enough for a diagnosis of diabetes but is too high to be considered normal. While these two states may affect different groups of people, both ultimately lead to type 2 diabetes in the majority of cases. However, previous studies, including the Diabetes Prevention Program, have demonstrated that lifestyle interventions aimed at weight reduction and increased physical activity, and medications, can substantially reduce the development of diabetes.

The panel convened over a three-day period in 2006 to answer questions such as how IFG and IGT differ; whether they should be treated (and how); and who should be screened for these conditions. The answers to these and other questions are included in the 7-page consensus statement.

The report's recommendations include:

• Lifestyle interventions (losing 5-10 percent of body weight and moderate intensity physical activity for at least 30 minutes per day) for any person exhibiting IFG or IGT, to prevent/delay the onset of diabetes and to help reduce the long-term risk of developing diabetic complications.
  
  
• Making weight loss and obesity prevention priorities in the United States because of the strong association between obesity and type 2 diabetes. The panel advised intensive weight-loss counseling for those who need it; changes in school-based meals and exercise programs; community infrastructure changes that are conducive to frequent exercise; and legislation that promotes a healthy lifestyle.
  
  
• The use of metformin as optional drug therapy, limited to those with both IFG and IGT who also have one or more additional high risk factors, because it has been shown to be most effective for these populations.
  
  
• Screening for IFG/IGT for anyone who is at risk for diabetes.

Puzzled

Dragon Mood? -- puzzled

For whatever reason, suddenly my drop cap stylin' has not worked on the previous two postings. I can't figure out what has happened in the HTML to 'break' them. Hmm? Anybody out there in the World Wide Web, you got any suggestions?

Hunting and storytelling

Dragon Mood? -- a natural born fireball, not so natural at storytelling

This week has been full of workshops, learning new job hunting skills and interaction with many, many other people who are also seeking jobs. It's been a positive and healthy interaction for me, interrupting my long periods of aloneness and isolation.

My biggest surprise this week has been how incredibly poorly I'm prepared for so-called "behavioral questions" in a phone or face-to-face interview. Behavioral questions are the sort like this:

• Describe a situation in which you were able to use persuasion to succesfully ....
• Give me a specific example of a time when you used good judgement and logic in solving a problem
• What is your typical way of dealing with conflict? Give me an example.

According to Heather, our instructor/leader/mentor at the workshops, these behavioral questions are all about identifying and codifying a story from one's own work and life experiences. Once you have identified five or six stories from your past, you can push, pull and morph the stories to answer the questions in a manner that highlights and positively showcases your talents, skills and abilities.

I guess my storytelling skills need a bit of polishing. *sigh*

Differently?

Dragon Mood? -- wiggling and squirming, wondering how I'm gonna answer this question

In a post celebrating her sixth blog anniversary, Dooce says this: "Is there anything in my life that I wish I could go back and do differently? Yes. One thing. I wish had worn more sunscreen. You?"

So, here's my answer, Heather ... and the rest of the world:

• I definitely should have continued working on my art after ninth grade
  
  
• I definitely should have worn a Giant Maxi-Pad to my commencement instead of that skimpy little tampon ... what with wearing a white graduation robe and all!
  
  
• I definitely should have told my dad to take a hike when he "strongly encouraged" (read "pushed") me into studying computer science instead of commercial art in college.
  
  
• I definitely should have drunk more at my wedding reception.
  
  
• I definitely should have learned how to fight more fairly with my then-husband. Storming out and not returning for hours on end is no way to resolve conflict.
  
  
• I wish I had studied lots more history in my earlier years.
  
  
• I wish I would have taken photos of all the calendars I made over the years for ELFCO, the East Lansing Food Cooperative. Damn, all that creative energy undocumented!
  
  
• I wish I would have watched my children as they slept more. I was usually so tired myself or craving some quiet, I would find a place to curl up and replenish.
  
  
• I wish I would have sketched and doodled and kept all those remarkable sketches and doodles in cool sketching notebooks like Moleskines all these years!
  
  
• I wish I could have taken in the fact that I am a physically beautiful woman and not internalized so many shaming comments I heard my mother say about her own body as I was growing up. Now, when I look at earlier photos of myself, I see a woman who was generally trim and healthy-looking. So much wasted energy agonizing over my appearance!
  
  
• In the same spirit of energy conservation, I definitely should quit obsessing about death. When it's time, it's time. When my time comes, ready or not, here I come. And changes or no changes, regrets or no regrets, it's been and continues to be a wonderful life!