in the doctor's office

tree in bloom

white flower

willow

health insurance, again

I went to see my oncologist today. (And isn't that a sentence you don't think you'll ever write.)

I like her. She's a good doctor. Click here if you want to see her picture.

First I have to go the lab downstairs. You sign in, they check your insurance card, and the second you sit back down again they call your name. Very efficient.

When I had had my blood drawn I went upstairs and paid the $10 copay for the doctor's visit. I waited 15 minutes, then I got called in and the nurse took my blood pressure, and weight, and temperature.

She put me in a room and I waited another 15 minutes before the doctor showed up.

The visit took ten minutes. Maybe 15. Everything seemed OK.

Anthem Blue Cross is the largest health insurance company in California. I heard on the radio today that they are proposing to increase the rates for private insurance holders (people who buy their insurance on the open market, and don't get it through an employer) with up to 39%. Why? Because the company's costs have increased. In the recession young, healthy people drop their insurance when they loose their jobs. So Anthem Blue Cross is left with the older, sicker, people to insure, and fewer young healthy ones to help offset the costs.

So, yeah.

spiky red flowers that come out in the spring

maybe I shouldn't have told you this

American public bathrooms, in workplaces and movie theaters and restaurants, often have several separate stalls with doors and walls that are open at the bottom and open at the top. You don't have a lot of privacy.

Years ago I was in such a stall. I couldn't help identifying the sounds as the woman in the stall next to me flushed the toilet, pulled up her pants, and got out.

I couldn't help hearing that she left. And I couldn't help hearing that she didn't wash her hands before she opened the door and got back to work.

I never told anyone.

Months later I overheard her offering to cook a meal for a colleague's sick daughter.

I never told anyone about that either.

The other day I was back in that same stall again. And I couldn't help recognizing the same woman's shoes in the stall next to me.

I waited.

She left.

No, not this time either.

Feb. 18, 2010

Students have held a theme party at UC San Diego that mocked Black History month. Here is a link to the Los Angeles Times story.

From the story:

History professor Danny Widener, who directs the university's African American studies program, said he was outraged but not surprised by the party. He said African American students comprise less than 2% of undergraduates at UC San Diego, which he described as inhospitable to them.

"The campus climate is one in which you are constantly regarded as a statistical anomaly at best," he said.

Widener also criticized [UC San Diego Chancellor Marye Anne] Fox's response as "tepid" and urged strong action against the party organizers, including expulsion if they are found to have used UC computers or facilities to send the invitation.

Chris Strudwick-Turner, vice president of the Los Angeles Urban League, also urged a tough response.

"If campus climate is important, a message needs to be sent that this is not acceptable," she said.

In Sacramento, Assemblyman Isadore Hall III (D-Compton) said leaders of the Legislature's black, Latino, Asian Pacific Islander, gay and women's caucuses would gather outside the Capitol on Thursday to condemn the party.

this is funny

I liked crazy heart, the movie

the sun set just as I left work to go home

sometimes when I have nothing else to do at work I take photos of the orchid

salinas, calif.

'the kitchen had been the source of so much unpleasantness'

This is a very funny blog: unhappyhipsters.com.

suck it

When I was in my twenties in Sweden all of my friends, or almost all of my friends, and I, smoked. You were allowed to smoke in bars, restaurants, and coffee shops, and there were designated smoking areas in university buildings, work places, and in every public waiting area. People smoked everywhere. Waiting for the bus, driving, and at home. You could smoke in air planes. One of my former boyfriends commented years later that I had been the only one able to smoke while riding my bike. I don't think that was true. I saw lots of people do it.

Yesterday I went for a walk on the trail in my little California town. I walk most days. Lots of people use the trail, most of them doing some kind of serious exercise. Biking, running, hiking. The trail goes to the mountains and you can get a good workout.

I met this couple. We didn't talk, they just came towards me on the trail. They were ordinary enough, dressed in exercise outfits, walking briskly. The man held a cup of coffee in his hand. You see that a lot, actually. People get coffee at one of the cool downtown coffee places, and take it on the trail. It looks weird to me. How do you keep a decent pace while handling hot coffee? And why would you want to walk and drink out a cup at the same time?

Then it hit me. Coffee is the new smoking.

Coffee drinking fills the same emotional needs as smoking does. It's something to hold onto in life. Like a teddy bear. And, it's something to suck on, like a pacifier or a mother's nipple. I think that's why those plastic containers, or the straws, are so popular.

It's also something to help build your own personal brand. Your identity. People's coffee orders are complex and specific because we think that is a way of knowing who we are. Just as smoking Marlboros or Camels made my friends and me into who we thought we were. People know turn into "Peet's People", or "vanilla soy latte", "tall" or "short".

I did a little googling, and here is the most complicated Starbucks order on the interwebs: "a tall half-skinny half-1 percent extra hot quad shot (two shots decaf, two shots regular) latte with whip".

That kind of reminds me of my 27 year old self, rolling my own cigarettes from a specific brand of Norwegian tobacco, and smoking them in 1950s cigarette holders.

purple and pretty

the smell was lovely

madonna and child

yesterday was a sunny day

I need to go outside

This is getting out of hand. I've learned this morning that there are Cloud Appreciation Society, Cloud Junkie, and Cloud Porn pools on flickr.

angry mother

I remember visiting one of my friends years ago when her kids where young. She had a newborn girl and a two or three year old boy, and she was wasn't happy. She was newly divorced. She was tired. She said there were times she was ready to throw her daughter out the window.

Another friend, she's an online friend but it feels as if I know her, has a blog for frustrated mothers: Angry mother hits back.

someone said it looks like a ghost is living here, but it's really just the secret teacher stairs at work

it took for ever to get home the other night

drama

working late

quit smoking, eat your veggies, minimize the alcohol, and take your vitamin d

Today's World Cancer Day. According to Wikipedia, cancer causes 12.5% of deaths in the world. Cancer is preventable, in some cases curable, and almost always treatable.

National Cancer Survivors Day is celebrated the first weekend of June in North America. In 2004 there were 9.8 million cancer survivors in the US.

yeah, really

I'm a member of a site for expat Swedes. Sometimes there are interesting discussions on the forums, but most of the time there isn't much activity.

One topic gets people going, though. Television. There is a flurry of messages anytime someone asks for the best ways of accessing Swedish TV from somewhere.

OK, I'll be honest. I think that's a little pathetic.

mimosa everywhere

And the allergies are here, so it must be spring.

the mission

dan and I drove to monterey on sunday

it's spring but the maple is still in fall

this is the side entrance to the business school

so yeah the weather cleared up. this is the backdoor to the administration building.

thanks, kjelle

Click because it's Friday.

I am still amazed I get to live in california where winter looks like this

yeah, it's funny

reflection

fall in winter

one year later

like I said: rain

whatever it is in the middle of that tree, it looks like a bird in flight

it's been raining a lot lately (II)

orchid

this is from moss landing too, but on the beach

Another thing: I just got myself an account for Photoshop.com. It's free. They let you store photos online, and you can also do basic editing right there on the same site. That's really practical if you want to resize images for posting somewhere, like on your blog.

I'm back, sort of

So, I've been a bad blogger recently. The quarter started, and I've been busy with that. And I've spent most of my computer time updating my photo sites. I'm obsessed with the Hipstamatic application for the Iphone, and I post photos on my homepage, on Flickr, and on my smugmug pages daily.

I love the quality of the hipstamatics, and the fact that you don't have complete control over what you're doing. I've had to unlearn always angling for the pretty framing.

The photo above is from a cemetery in Moss Landing, Calif. Moss Landing is on the coast, north of Monterey but south of Watsonville. Lots of Italian, Portuguese, and Mexican immigrants around there have been, and are, working in farming and fishing. There were lots of Catholic gravesite traditions: fake flowers, angels, and madonnas.

dreary

spring is coming slowly

wild wood

thursday, 1pm

The other day I stopped by 7-11 on my way to work to get some gum. As I parked I noticed a man getting out of his car next to me. I pegged him as some sort of business guy: Dress pants, dress shoes, shirt and tie.

We walked into the store. He headed for the refrigerated section, I for the gum aisle.

We reached the check-out line at the same time. He was getting orange juice and breath mints. Healthy habits, I thought.

Then I realized that there was an air of booze and cigarettes around him. He smelled like a bar.

He probably keeps the vodka in the car.

california in january

Girls I meet walking across campus:

flip-flops, t-shirts, no jackets

Me:

thick wool winter coat

big wollen scarf

doc marten's boots

cambria

So, Dan and I went on a road trip the week before Christmas. We took off from the Bay Area, and drove south. Our first stop was Monterey, where we stayed at a hotel with a fireplace in each room. That was pretty much all I wanted from the vacation.

It didn't rain, we walked a lot and had a lot of good food. They sold tamales in the street at the farmer's market.

From Monterey we drove further south, and ended up i Cambria, Calif. It's a cute little town where you can easily imagine yourself living. It looks like a lot of people run little businesses out of their houses. There are artists, and designers, coffee shops and restaurants.

Main street runs parallel to Highway 1, and that's where all the restaurants are. We had a super breakfast, and a cozy dinner.

There are lots of hotels in Cambria. We stayed at one called Cambria Palms. It wasn't a random choice, we had actually been invited to come and check it out, and we didn't pay for the two nights we stayed there.

The place is owned and run by a young couple from Santa Barbara, and they are renovating and updating a classic California motel. It's cool, and it's going to be even cooler as they keep working, you can tell.

Hearst Castle is close by, so we went there. The view from there is amazing, and the house is crazy.

While on the trip I became obsessed with the Hipstamatic app for the iphone. Hence the photos. It's all I've been doing since.

new times, new brooms, as the swedes say

So, it's a new year, and I thought it would be fitting to overhaul my homepage. I've had some major issues with PC to mac web hosting compatibility, so for now the homepage is here: http://web.me.com/charlottakratz/homepage/front.html. It's not the most elegant of URLs, but hopefully I'll get it sorted out. Let me know what you think, and let me know if you spot any weirdness. (And please please let me know if you can help with getting the iweb page to use my charlottakratz.com domain name.)

iphoneography

Here is a cool photo project, where people were invited to manipulate the same image, using their iphones.

at the movies

before it started raining

by the safeway on winchester in campbell, calif.

christmas eve sundown

san simeon

85 north

hipstamatic

I got the Hipstamatic app for my iphone recently, and I'm completely hooked. The app mimics the look of photos taken with 1960s Instamatic cameras, and it's the most fun thing ever. I've set up a flickr account to show them, here, and I've added galleries to my smugmug pages, here. There is also a flickr group, here.

And look them up on Twitter, or the Facebook group.

come to think of it google, that's what I think of YOU

When someone leaves a voice message on Google Voice the service will transcribe it and send it as a text message. It's cool, and practical, because it's easier to scan a text than listening to someone talking.

Some words stump the software, though.

So, this is the reason I had a text message from a student that began, "Hi Professor crap, this is Laura...".

Thanks Google. If that's what you think of my last name.

I am the captain of my ship

I liked Clint Eastwood's Invictus. It's uplifting, and it's an interesting comment on reconciliation.

Matt Damon plays the captain of the South African national rugby team. He's good. But you have to wonder, why him? I am sure there are hundreds of accomplished South African actors, who would have been able play the same part without having to spend all that time practicing the accent.

Someone did the math and figured that Americans wouldn't watch a movie set in South Africa if it had actual South Africans in the lead roles. Or, using American actors is a way of saying that the themes of racial tension, reconciliation, and forgiveness, have bearing on American society too.

from my two favorite girls

Click here for a very merry Christmas.

or, I could just 'unfollow', I guess

I am following Sarah Palin on twitter. I think for every time she mentions 'Wounded Warriors' I will mention another professional group that unselfishly spend their lives serving others. I'll start with nurses and janitors.

the angry chicken

Here is a link for anyone interested in cool, creative stuff you can make yourself. Cooking, sewing, baking, crafts. And making your own deodorant. I love this blog.

had to go twice to the fed ex warehouse, but who cares

I got a MacBook Pro.

I'm pretty ecstatic.

The end.

I am sorry, but this is just silly

Bill Cosby must have an honorary degree from somewhere because now he is being addressed, and referred to, as 'Doctor Cosby' on morning television. (Yeah, they are all serious about it too.)

so that's a first

There was snow on the mountain peaks this morning, and then in the afternoon - hail!

- Posted from my iPhone

the snl tiger woods skit

Watching this you also learn what a Swedish accent sounds like to the Americans. Turns out it sounds just like a German accent. But who cares.

Oh, wait. I do care. I don't like stereotypes any more than anyone else. And I have to admit it's a little bit startling to see strength and independence portrayed like this.

I hope she leaves him.

Something else, a very funny bit from Andy Borowitz, the Huffington Post:

In one of the largest mass demonstrations in recent history, over one million women claiming to have had sexual liaisons with Tiger Woods marched on Washington today.
/.../

Shandy Shanoyne, a 22-year-old thong publicist who had an on-again, off-again relationship with Mr. Woods, said that she organized the march to demand benefits, such as health care and workmen's compensation, for the golfer's many girlfriends.

"We are sick and tired of being told to take our names off our voicemail greetings," she said. "We have demands and they must be met. Quickly. Huge."

from babs

skin deep: cosmetics safety database

One of my students mentioned the cosmetics safety database the other day. It's a website with a database that allows you to check the toxicity levels of your cosmetics and body products.

The skin lotion I like: 8 out of 10. Woops.

Thanks MacKenzie.

Dan, who reads fine print, suggests checking the info on the rating system, here. An excerpt:

The hazard score represents a synthesis of known and suspected hazards from more than 50 definitive databases. The hazard rating of a product can be higher than for its individual ingredients — it adds up the hazards of all ingredients, and is scaled higher if the product has penetration enhancers or other ingredients that increase skin absorption.

The "data gap" rating is a measure of how much is unknown about an ingredient. Not all ingredients have the same amount of safety data. For example, some ingredients may appear to have low hazards, but this may be due to the fact that they have not have been studied or assessed completely. Other ingredients may appear to have low hazards and have been thoroughly studied or assessed. This score helps differentiate between ingredients and products that have been studied to different degrees.

the way we think out here in the un-real america

I am following Sarah Palin on Twitter. At 8:45 on Thursday night she has this to say:

Flying 2 Dallas now where bus meets us 2 get early start tomrrw w 1000s of good Texans who are lot like Alaskans:independent/bold/patriotic.

I like to think that I am pretty independent, and sometimes bold too. But I am also a bleeding liberal, and I was raised to believe that international solidarity is healthier than patriotism.

I still think international solidarity (or any solidarity, for that matter) is healthier than patriotism.