Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Brand new bag

Howdy and a quick announcement. I am now writing generally about social services, human services and professional caregiving for Examiner.com. It's something slightly closer to a job than this blog has been. The new site will take most of the effort I've been putting into this site (roughly 1400%) and be less focussed on developmental disabilities. I'll keep this site so Andy and Stanley have somewhere to rant and I can get deep in the policy weeds from time. The link to my new page is in the title of this post.

You're all welcome to join the conversation there.

16 comments:

Andrew said...

Maybe you didn't realize, Douglas,the only reason I posted here, and not on the popular blogs, was because I was hoping (against hope) my name might someday achieve label-status ... as I've noticed both Paul's and Stanley's names have ... and quite some time ago ... even though I was here first!

Eighty-thousand words, and no label! Three-part posts ... and nothing! Just a, "see y'all over at examiner.com."

Are Stan and Paul keywords yet over at the Examiner?

Look, I don't begrudge you anything you earn from your writing (do they have a virtual nightstand on which they leave your money?)

Don't mind me--and why would you, I'm not labeled--I just find that "embittered sarcasm" is a better fit for me than "denial" in the five cycles of grief.

1. Seriously, thank you for hosting for so long, and everything else you've done for us. I wish you great success ... you certainly derserve every one of the 30 pieces of silver you'll receive as Miss Lonelyhearts to a bunch of thirty-something MSW's.

2. Damn you! Why now? Why when I'm so close to labeldom? Well, you'll have neither me, or my Republican cloth coat to kick around anymore!

3. Couldn't you come back every once in a while? No big commitment, or anything. Just stop by and chat ... post a topic, leave a comment ...and off you go. Ten, twenty, thirty minutes a week ... max! How hard would that be? ... I'll promise to post more often, be more to the point, and no more than 100 or so words per post.No baiting Stanley. No Latin words for Paul ... Whaddya say?

4. Oh, man, this is gonna be rough. I already feel tired all the time. If there's a spectre haunting Europe, Phil Spector is haunting me. Wall of Sadness. What's the point of turning on a computer any more?

5. Doug, I think I'm going to be okay. I'm going to make it through this. There's other blogs ... I just posted on one earlier in the week ... and shut down an entire lively thread of discussion, with one post! I can do this! Farwell.

Andy

Anonymous said...

[andy say] Seriously, thank you for hosting for so long, and everything else you've done for us. I wish you great success ... you certainly derserve every one of the 30 pieces of silver you'll receive as Miss Lonelyhearts to a bunch of thirty-something MSW's.

ditto

[andy say] Damn you! Why now? Why when I'm so close to labeldom?

Didn’t know i was a label...had i known would have protested...you know what they (who ever they are) say about labels...

[andy say] I just posted on one earlier in the week ... and shut down an entire lively thread of discussion, with one post! I can do this! Farwell

Way to go son...congrats...let me know when you get kicked off a blog-whatever...we’ll party like it’s 1999...

stanley seigler

Andrew said...

[Stanley say /andy say] I just posted on one earlier in the week ... and shut down an entire lively thread of discussion, with one post! I can do this! Farwell

Way to go son...congrats...let me know when you get kicked off a blog-whatever...we’ll party like it’s 1999...


Apparently I prompt such a degree of silence, that if I do get the boot, I'll never know about it. No one will post to inform me. I did receive two off-line messages of support for my post, by lurkers. Still, not a word from you or Latin Man.

I imagine you stayed home and went to bed early, on New Years, 1999.

Son of Seigler

paul said...

"I am now writing generally.."

Doug,

while your link works fine I cannot find your name under the MEET THE EXAMINERS tab. I am able to find another LA County Independent Examiner, David Acker, under the Los Angeles/Politics/

Have you been approved yet (surely they loved your writing sample)?

Did you pass the background check? (you were mean to Stan Lee a couple of times).

Have you contributed yet, or are we to take "now writing" quite literally. If so - sorry to disturb. get back to work



Should we send letters of recommendation?

Doug The Una said...

Andy, take your label. And I do intend to continue this blog and, to be honest, it seems unlikely that I will put less effort into it. Deep-in-the-weeds policy discussion of DDS will still go here when I have those thoughts, because I don't think the new thing will invite that. So, to point number 3, yes, of course. And thanks for wanting me to.

Thanks, Stanley.

Andy, I also stayed home and went to bed early New Year's Eve, 1999. Just out of pure contrariness, that's been my tradition since the 80s.

Paul, I put this up because I thought the column was live. I could see it, but that turned out to be because I'm me. The editor asked for a different article than the one I've written and I haven't written that yet.

The first post I wrote for them was something of an introduction to what I expect the column to be. Because Examiner.com a network of professional and semi-professional writers, that was considered too "first person." I think that's fair, I'll get to something else soon.

stanley said...

[andy say] I imagine you stayed home and went to bed early, on New Years, 1999.

you have an over active, accurate, imagination...soOKthenalready we'll party like it's something else...pompeii's final day, the apocalypse, maybe.

stanley seigler

Doug The Una said...

That sounds good, Stanley. The last days can't come soon enough to suit me.

By the way, the first post is now up on the examiner.com site. I am writing the second as we speak.

paul said...

“I do intend to continue this blog and, to be honest, it seems unlikely that I will put less effort into it.“

Doug,

I am glad to hear it.

Earlier I disagreed with your statement that this blog has some, “suggestions in the posts and comments on this blog which would, reasonably well implemented, provide real benefits….” I was wrong to disagree so unequivocally and without qualification.

Our problem is not the lack of theories, analysis, or methodologies but lack of ability to implement anything reasonably well. Earned Value Analysis, and other methodologies for measuring success and outcome are good ideas, but they are also not novel. Many of the ideas that have made your blog have been at the disposal of the regional centers for decades. However, for some reason, the regional centers have been unable to implement any of these tools reasonably well (if at all).

Your post Talking cents is a fair example. You “worked out a template, to be included in every progress report, that would answer all of these questions.” The template was not implemented by the Regional Center but by Doug. If implemented across the board “it might be that half a year of one person's work could be saved.” Has your template been implemented by other regional centers? If not – why not? There could be good reasons, there could be bad reasons, and perhaps no reason.

I think that the time has come to move beyond discussions of ideas, methodologies, and value metrics and begin to ask WHY the regional centers do what they do, and why they do not do what they do not do. How long do we need to discuss waterholes before we realize that the issue, and problem, is that our horse will not drink?

Unfortunately, I have learned that these questions are usually taboo, which is why the system, and its discussions, will never go beyond what is necessary to satisfy our need to feel like we are doing something..

OFF to Examiner.com!!!

“Mankind have a great aversion to intellectual labor; but even supposing knowledge to be easily attainable, more people would be content to be ignorant than would take even a little trouble to acquire it."
Samuel Johnson

stanley said...

“Mankind have a great aversion to intellectual labor; but even supposing knowledge to be easily attainable, more people would be content to be ignorant than would take even a little trouble to acquire it." Samuel Johnson

appropiate...but I like: “A cucumber should be well-sliced, dressed with pepper and vinegar, and then thrown out.” [sj say]

stanley seigler

Andrew said...

Thank you, Boswell, for the Sam Johnson quote ... but the man was a notorious misanthrope. Not a bit like anyone around here (i.e. blog host, readership, et. al.)

Doug, thank you so much for the label. I'm taking the family out to dinner at the fanciest place in town tonight (Tijuana Taqueria y Cosas) to celebrate!

I did eventually find you on the Exam dot com. But only after reading making my way through an article entitled, "The Forgotten Pioneers of the Medical Marijuana Industry" ... thought I had ended up at hightimes.com.

What a shock to see that half the "pioneers" are from Santa Cruz ... explains all the Conestoga's at the local campgrounds. Obviously the westward wagon of choice. The arched shape of the canvas allows for a good-sized hooka to help you get across the Plains ... whole villages of hostiles can enjoy the peace pipe without long lines forming.

I liked the 6 tips for getting what you need from RC vendors. I will certainly put most into practice at our next SPAC meeting. Especially the one about not being afraid to complain ...

Is there a difference between "not being afraid to" ... and "chompin' at the bit to" ?


Andy

p.s. (...and yes, I know the correct spelling is "champing at the bit. Sometimes I need to deny my inner Samuel Johnson ... lest I be labeled an 'elitist'.)

Doug The Una said...

Paul, I couldn't agree more. I think my push-back against your comment originally just came from the fact that we all have roles to play and we all need to get outside of them, but just putting out ideas for change ought to help those who want to make change not be stoned to death by the overwhelming majority. I like that quote of Johnson's. Maybe or maybe not coincidentally, it was on my little Google quotes app just the other day.

Stanley, I might like that one just as well.

Andy, there's a little Samuel Johnson in each of us that needs sedating.

Andrew said...

Someone or something sez: 陳陳廖淑娟詩蓁俊偉 愛,拆開來是心和受兩個字。用心去接受對方的一切,用心去愛對方的所

We believe your cryptic comments will be well-received, and possibly understood, at www.examiner.com.

Ask for Doug.

p.s. ... if you've got M-80's, I'm all ears, offline.

Doug The Una said...

Andy, that's funnyish. If I ever get my mitts on that dude.

Andrew said...

... glad to have made your day a little more brightish.

... though not sure if it's worth the verbal beat down I've surely incurred from the thuggish Seigler, for being cute-ish.

Andy

paul said...

"beat down I've surely incurred from the thuggish Seigler, for being cute-ish."

Andy,

You must be "too cute" by at least 1/2 to be honored with a beat down.

I try to stay around 4/7th myself

paulsmith198914@gmail.com said...

Howdy! Thanks for this announcement. I'm glad that you have shared this information with others. Why don't you visit this site to have your writings done by professionals? Keep in touch! Cheers!