Wild Dingo

Not too long ago, a colleague asked me to review her client’s web site from both a marketing and web design/development perspective and to come up with a site architecture and some ideas on how to improve it. Naturally, I resisted, citing that it was intellectual property and that I didn’t have time to offer free consultation. Very quickly she responded, “I want to hire you to consult on this project, pay you for your critique and ideas.”

I shook my head in disbelief. Someone wants to hire me to criticize their web site? You mean, they want to hire me to be…mean? Surely this can’t be. Being mean is one of my favorite things to do. I like being mean so much that I even married a mean guy. No, he’s not wife-beater mean. He’s mean like, “Jules, your mouth RPM’s are going faster than your pedaling-RPMs” mean. Or mean like, he tries to make me give him my heart rate monitor when I’m riding my bike to make sure I’m working hard enough. And mean like, when he sees a neighbor with trash decorating his front yard, he’ll comment so sarcastically, that I can’t help but gush with love.

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Sometimes I wonder why I work on the Internet. There is so much drek on the ‘Net these days that I inevitably find myself consumed with it. Not only does the Internet completely consume my work day in terms of design and programming (only for useful and informative sites of course, I have some standards you know), but most days, when trying to use the ‘Net for function only, I stumble upon sites that inevitably lead me to a huge time-sink. Sometimes, I get to the end of the day, my to-do list remains untouched and I feel like I’m no smarter than if I had just read a Star magazine. Is the vacuous information on the ‘Net outgrowing useful information?

If you’re reading this blog, I’m sorry for you. It’s not all that entertaining and sadly, contributes to the vacuous. For a web developer, it took me an embarrassingly long time to join the blog world. But I suppose that’s because I refuse to join any organization that would have me as a member.

Still, there are some sites that are extremely informative yet, considerably, a huge time-sink. Here’s a site that looks promisingly informative:

I could get lost at looking all the “stuff” on this site. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m so sick of seeing this damn turkey, I’ll even write a post about nothing to move it down. O.K. Wild Dingo has been holed up, in geekland, programming away. Working on a top secret document. This is all you get for a clue:

Now, back to your regular programming.

Darn, that didn’t move that turkey down too far, did it?

I’m just sitting here, at my computer, minding my Ps and Qs…programming away… when THIS Guy fly’s in and lands on my driveway.

Ok, so EXCUSE my horrid picture taking skills. I had all about 20 seconds to take these shots and the damn flash was on and I had to reconfigure for using the memory stick instead of hard storage…

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Our friend Hilary (Maggie’s veterinarian and acupuncturist who helped Maggie live the last 6 months of her life with dignity and in less pain), has two children, a son and a daughter. Her daughter, Carisse, had been born with some health difficulties; mainly in digestion which later led her to have some developmental delays in both motor and speech skills. By the time Carisse was one year of age, it was obvious that something was wrong and after numerous unsuccessful medical and physical therapy interventions, Carisse was diagnosed with mild hypotonia. Hypotonia is typically seen in children with cerebral palsy. Hilary and her husband are thankful that Carisse’s MRI did not show lesions which would indicate CP, however, they had to find a way to address her developmental delays as they were finding it difficult to communicate with Carisse and teach her. Luckily, they found a state-funded program for Carisse, Beginning Steps to Independence in San Jose, which provided therapy and services targeted to both her motor and speech delays.

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Our old house closed escrow today. It seems sort of a un-exciting end to an 11-month tornado of heartache, stress, frustration, anger and fear. If you don’t want to read a mudslinging aching outpour of self-pity, you can skip this post. But if you want to know why Wild Dingo had been recluse in 2007, then read on. The story is intriguing and home owners can learn a lot from it.

You read it right. Free. As in no money. I’ll be instructing a Free Power Yoga class at YogaSource Los Gatos, Saturday, March 22, from 2-3:30 PM. No, it has nothing to do with Wild Dingo, or Web development or anything like that. Its just yoga. And its free. And I’m offering it, so I’m posting it here. All levels are welcome.

Clickity Clack the flyer here.

DEETS:
Saturday, March 22, 2008
2:00-3:30 PM  (Ride or Run first if you like!)
Location: YogaSource Los Gatos

This is better than finding a rare image of Jesus in a piece Ciabatta bread. Check out how this little fella wears his heart on his fur. The only thing that would rock the very foundation of my own belief system would be if this little cutie was born on February 14.

Alas, he was born last May to a breeder in Japan, who named him “Heart-kun.” Although I think the name “Cupid” suits him. Still, who wouldn’t heart this little fella?

Ok, I know I’m a wee bit late on commenting on the Whitney “Crack is Whack” statement (6 years), but I have to admit, I love to use it as fodder.

Last year, Wild Dingo took a 6-month hiatus to address an unexpected life stress that needed my undivided attention. I turned down projects and did only the minimal to maintain current clients’ web sites. I even, to my embarrassment, had to terminate a big project that I had started. So needless to say, Wild Dingo’s household contribution was meager.

After coming home from a very much needed vacation in Hawaii, we were complaining about our clean but wrinkled clothes and wishing we could send them to the dry cleaner just to press them and not clean them.  I used the opportunity to bestow my new-found pearls from Whitney, and pointed my index finger at Mr. Wild Dingo and claimed, “Let’s get something straight. I make too much money to iron. Ironing is whack.” The irony nearly killed him.

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Google to Store Patients’ Health Records

Hey, how about this? How about we individuals take a wee bit accountability for our own health and maintain our own health records? Maybe, just maybe, we’ll get a little bit better healthcare when we trust ourselves instead of “the system.” It’s not hard. Every time you visit your doctor or get a test done, ask for a copy. Scan it at home if you want to keep it digitized. But for dog’s sakes…don’t trust the “system.”

You have to love how the article ends with:

“It’s not clear how Google intends to make money from its health service. The company sometimes introduces new products without ads just to give people more reason to visit its Web site, betting the increased traffic will boost its profits in the long run.”

Would you jump off a high diving board not knowing how much water was below? Come on! Let’s see…hhhhmmm… how could Google make money off of this noble idea to empower people to access their own medical data? Hhmmmm… Here’s a hint: go to your junk mail folder and look at all the SPAM you’re getting for male enhancement, quick weight loss pills and make-me-happy drugs.

And how scary is it that it’s easier for the government to access individual medical records if an individual uses a third party system like Google to transfer medical records? Oy vay. It gives me agida just thinking about it.

Our problems in healthcare do not revolve around getting access to our own medical records. In fact, a system like this will doubtlessly open up more marketing channels for patients seeking a quick fix, asking for specific drugs from their general physician, who is equally pressured to make them better fast, rather than seek the real cause of their health challenges.

Yesterday, on my way to yoga class, I heard part of an interview on KGO from Charles Barber, who wrote Comfortably Numb: How Psychiatry Is Medicating a Nation. Barber reveals today’s zeitgeist of the increased pressure for Americans to medicate themselves from direct-to-consumer advertising, fewer nondrug therapeutic options, the promise of a quick fix and the blurring between mental illness and everyday problems. I haven’t read the book yet, but I sure dug what he was preaching.

Maybe I’m short sighted. I love technology. Don’t get me wrong. I’m a geek. But I love my privacy and my ability to manage my own healthcare more.