March 30, 2010

           Be darned if a database dude who knows FileMakerPro didn’t walk in today. Like all programmers, he is weird, idiosyncratic, works alone and does not easily suffer fools. Finally, somebody I can work with. Admittedly, he knows FileMakerPro, but so do I. What he has is the ability to place this database on the Internet. We struck a deal that he can work for free on computer 1, including his own work, for a month or so and we’ll look at the progress. Meanwhile, here is Mickey at the entrance to the Disney store.
           I got some more lawyer disks to copy, the only money I made today. I did a lot of background downloads for new bingo music. Reading through the top 100 hits of every decade, I confess that after around 1999, I stopped recognizing the majority of groups. This is not totally just because I am no longer a teenager, or my changing taste in music. But I do not like over-produced studio music, particularly slow, sonorous ballads.
           Also, I tend to be a fan of bands or performers who make it on their own. Thus, I don’t care for groups like Lady Antebellum, since the singer is the daughter of a famous singer. I have yet to see talented people produce talented offspring of the same caliber, and my point is that there is only so much room on the charts. When people elbow their way in using their parents name or connections, it means that much less room for newcomers with better material. Maybe I’m wrong, but maybe I’m right, too.
           Another aspect I don’t care for is the techno beats. Occasionally a group like U2 can make a contribution, but for the most part, studio drum machines sound terrible. I tout the economy of a drum box on small stages. That does not apply to a studio where one could suppose there are an unlimited supply of unemployed drummers. I never was a fan of disco music for a similar reason. I found 41 of the top 100 hits of the 2000s to have disco-like beats. And when Europe produces whacked-out psychos, they go all the way.
           New directions from my cardiologist. Zero salt diet, I am to exist only the salt naturally found in foods on my new list. Crackers, canned soup, canned vegetables are all out. This apparently has to go on for three months minimum, preferably forever. And no salt substitutes. That last one doesn’t bother me after I learned that forty years ago or so lithium was being sold as a salt alternative until the FDA stepped in and banned it. Lithium, folks, is radioactive. And I have to go in for more scans. The new health bill hasn’t improved a thing for me.
           In fact, I can’t find any evidence the health bill has changed anything. Previously, the uninsured would walk into a charity hospital, and so would those who could pay but didn’t want to. Jackson Memorial downtown was little more than the private gunshot wound clinic for the local drug runners. Recently Jackson was almost shut down due to deficits in the hundreds of millions. Yet it is common knowledge in Dade County that the hospital would show a profit if they would just shut down that emergency room.

           Author's note 2015-03-30: The above passage is NOT meant to discourage anyone from a low-salt diet. I now know it just takes time. I was eventually able to reduce salt usage to nearly zero and make up for the iodine-poor American diet by learning to like raw seafood. Don'g give up, because there is no going back. Ever.

           Either way, these deficits sooner or later get passed on to the working poor. And that is what I mean that the health bill will likely change nothing. It will surely increase moral hazard, for when you take away those who simply can’t afford coverage, what’s left over would tend to be the irresponsible. Myself, I would tend to address the outrageous costs that insurance companies pay for things, like the $275 bandaid.
           Many people say doctors have to be paid more than anywhere else in the world to attract top quality practitioners. I’m not so sure. This is the same argument that industry uses to justify huge salaries to executives. In reality, it has never been put to the test. Neither does it explain why so many executives have been arrested in the past little while. I personally think very few doctors would quit if their income was cut in half tomorrow. They would still make twice as much as they could anywhere else.

           Last, while downloading, I came across a truly stupid version of the lyrics for Iko Iko. Leaning back to laugh, it brought back memories of the phone company. Have you ever talked to a room full of people so incredibly thick-in-the-head stupid that you just know they aren’t hearing what you are saying? Their level of basic education is so low, as a group they all would swear you said something you did not say. Well, same here, the person writing those lyrics didn’t have a clue what was going on and wrote what he (always a he) thought he heard. He hears not only what he wants to hear, but also what his limited brain power permits him to hear.
           I won’t get into it, but the song was written in Louisiana, not Africa. It is about a scout from one Indian tribe trying to catch a scout from another and set his flag on fire, an insult in those days. And it isn’t Jock-o-mo, it is Chock-o-mo, but when I listen to the song, it is evident the vocalist didn’t know much either. I remember my older sister and her friends singing “Jug-a-mo”, but from them it was expected. Duh, yup.

           Author's note 2015-03-30: Chock-o mo is Choctaw for "John", literally, "his name is John". Having said that here is the most true-to-roots version I can find.