journal.melendez.org

Lately, I've been very alert to people who are checked out while doing their job. It's fairly obvious with people who have service jobs, or office workers. It's not always so apparent when I'm observing professionals with high requirements for safety: doctors, first responders, truck drivers, etc. But if at least some percentage of these folks are checked out (or distracted by their phones, their own thoughts or otherwise not fully present), this has incredible ramifications for the people they serve, i.e. all of us. There is so much competing for our attention all the time. I'm certainly not immune. I'm one inch of finger movement away from checking Facebook RIGHT NOW. What if I'm driving a car at the same time? What if I should be making an important decision at work? Pay attention.

Reforming health care? Teddy Roosevelt was the first president to come out as a proponent for universal health care coverage.  Roosevelt, running as a third party candidate, announced his support for this during a time of Progressivism in American politics (great reading, the history around the late 1920’s and 30’s, by the way). Given the mood of the country, this idea had HUGE likelihood to actually be enacted when Roosevelt was elected. In fact, the American Medical Association was supportive of it as well as many influential lawmakers. It wasn’t partisan politics that led to its demise. It was the ultimate bummer, World War I that was one of the primary reasons for universal health care to be scuttled.  Roosevelt had actually borrowed the idea from Germany, whose head of state Otto Von Bismarck had actually enacted this type of coverage in Germany. However, the United States’ mood towards Germany even before its entrance into  the war made it quite unp...

It was most certainly anti-climactic to emerge from the woods on a cool Sunday morning and walk into a well-appointed campground bustling with car campers making breakfast over Coleman grills and disheveled children wrapped in Disney character blankets, quietly playing with IPads. In that moment of familiarity and habit I almost forgot what I had been doing for the past few days as I picked at the continental breakfast laid out by our instructor to welcome us back to civilization. I wanted a shower, a change of clothes and much more than a grocery store muffin (which I ate anyway). I wanted my foods: the nut butters and trendy high protein "superfoods" I am so used to and have come to expect.   Three days before, I was skinning a garter snake, awkwardly and squeamishly removing its guts, cutting it into one bite-sized piece for each of my classmates and adding it as the main part of a stew made up of pond water, wild garlic, a handful of tadpoles, a slug, a cricket, multipl...

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New Orleans fog. , a photo by Edward Melendez on Flickr. New Orleans fog.

Things That Have Kept Me From Going Crazy at Work Meditation I try to do it 20 minutes a day. I probably only get it done about 75% of the time and I know I should do it longer, but that's about the most time I'm able to get in the morning before everything starts popping. I became a big fan after reading the Happiness Hypothesis and it is the best thing I have ever done for my brain. Exercise I work out at least five days a week, often more. It's great to get out of the office for an hour, hit the gym and if I have time, the steam room. I do concentrated interval training three times a week and have started doing weights one day. I'm trying to figure out when to do some sort of stretching or core class like yoga or Pilates , but it's still hard to come up with a regular schedule. I'd also like to try doing cross fit or something like that, but again, it's a challenge to come up with a predicatable time. Improv Whew, what can I say about improv ? Sa...

Dr. Doctor from July. We're playing another show on January 26, 2011.

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Oh, Science! gets some publicity shots!

We acquiesce to the visit with Santa Originally uploaded by Edward Melendez

Hugaday! Originally uploaded by jonbolden A fun, ad hoc troupe that just had its run at Salvage.

This is a test

Curious George Visits a Horse Farm by Santiago M. Melendez Curious George runs behind a horse. Curious George gets hit by a horse. Curious George sees a Mom horse. "It is actually a Dad horse," his friend says. Curious George sees a Dad horse. "It is actually a Mom horse," his friend says. Curious George sees a tin of Altoids. "It is actually a horse shoe," his friend says. "A horse must have dropped it." Curious George leaves the horse farm and goes to a cow farm. Curious George climbs over a fence. Curious George runs behind the cow who chases him. It is actually his friend who is eating a peach. Curious George goes to the Johnson Space Center. Curious George sees everything for one day and then goes to the Kennedy Space Center. Also, Curious George goes to an owl farm. Curious George sees an owl. He tries to wake one up but it is still fast asleep. His friend does that too. They go back to their apartment and go to bed. And th...

And does his best NASA Mission Control imitation.