Journalism, Our Biggest Export?

I'm a bit tired so this is going to be a short entry today.

But I had to write because I'm getting the sense that a lot of journalists are leaving, not the business, the country.

At my last count, former Sun Sports columnist Paul Oberjuerge went to United Arab Emirates (Abu Dhabi); former Daily Bulletin reporter Todd Ruiz works in Bangkok; former Daily Bulletin editor Rob Wagner writes and teaches in Saudi Arabia; former PE staffer Tom Griggs, left to Japan to join Stars and Stripes (though I'm not sure he is still with them.)

Now I see that John Miller, a city editor from the Los Angeles Daily News, is leaving to teach high school English in Kuwait.

Are we all that fed up? I think most of us are. I know that if someone offered me or Bill a job in Costa Rica, we'd start looking at the cost of airfare.

Am I thinking of leaving? Well not right now. Patch seems to be holding its own much to the disgust of members of the news hierarchy.

So where does that leave us? Becoming a more generic form of media rather than members of the press. That's my fear. We're moving out and money makers like TMZ (Michael Jackson story,) The National Enquirer (John Edwards story) and even Facebook (viral video of a cat playing the piano and a woman weeping over an In & Out burger) are moving in.

That's an exaggerated fear, perhaps. But it just feels like all the of journalism we molded and created in this country is better appreciated and welcomed elsewhere.

To me that's a sad thought.

Side effects include funeral costs?

I had a funny experience recently with my asthma medication.

As most of you know, I've had a life-long battle with asthma. We all know that the illness can kill. But I've always been one of those sufferers whose life was never quite at risk. I have two inhalers, Symbicort, a maintenance inhaler, and a Xopenex emergency inhaler (which I was told was better for the environment than other aerosol inhalers.)

My health is fine.

Recently I started working with a young man who deals day-in, day-out with a serious condition. He's open about it in his blog so I won't go into it here. But on his most recent blog entry, he listed the side effects of one of his medications.

They included:

• Diarrhea
• Dizziness
• Drowsiness
• Indigestion

(snip)

• Severe allergic reactions (rash; hives; itching; difficulty breathing)
• Tightness in the chest
• Swelling of the mouth, face, lips, or tongue
• Bloody stools
• Blurred vision

(snip)

• Blistered or peeling skin
• Ringing in the ears
• Seizures

"Geez," I told the husband. "Are these medications even worth taking?"

"All medications have side effects," he said.

That's when I started thinking. He was absolutely right. So, obviously my medications do too!

I called up Google, where everyone else gets their medical advice, and looked up Symbicort. Here's what I found:

Long-acting beta2-adrenergic agonists (LABA), such as formoterol one of the active ingredients in Symbicort, increase the risk of asthma-related death.

Ok, it's a warning. I kept looking but kept finding the same darned warning. Now they're bumming me out.

I told Bill, "Either I'm about to die or I suck at Googling."

I obsessed over finding something. Then it occurred to me, the medication guide! There, for the world to see, were the side effects. The first of which was "death from asthma problems."

BUT that was followed by the full compliment more common side effects including throat irritation, fever, headache sinusitis, flu, back pain, stomach discomfort, vomiting, thrush, increased blood pressure, nervousness, tremor, a fast irregular heartbeat, chest pain and all sorts of allergic reactions (hives, rash swelling.) My favorite side effect is "increased troubles breathing."

Nice. Can't breathe before, can't breathe after.

Trust me when I tell you that NONE of the side effects I listed COME CLOSE to the ones my fellow journo listed. But it is interesting. I can say that when I'm in the midst of an asthma attack, nothing else flipping matters than sucking on that inhaler, so I guess it's worth it.

Whaddya gonna do but pass the prescription pad.

How do you make a couple thousand in a few weeks? Seriously? My grandmother turns 102 in July. She lives in Costa Rica. We just lost my father. We could soon lose my grandmother. How the hell do you raise enough money to pay $350-$400 in plane tickets for three people? We really need to see my abuelita!

Hee hee Where have you gone?

I've been trying to recruit bloggers for my site. The Patch. For those of you who had forgotten about this blog, believe me, I don't blame you. I disappeared.

I have been all sorts of annoyed that people have not been committed too their blogs. Then I logged on and checked to see the last entry on mine.

Right! I think I'll be dropping by as often as I can. To at least throw in a couple things.

27 Days: Lessons from a day at the park

On Saturday, Lucky finally conquered the slide.

The pesky playground slide had thwarted my 2 and a half year old for, well, for as long as he’s been old enough to use a playground slide. The very first time he slid down, he turned around and tried to scramble back up the slippery slope.

It was his Everest. It usually ended win Lucky surrendering and going around to use the steps to get back on.

But not on Saturday. Not only did he conquer the little slide. He managed to climb up the 6-foot twisty one.

And to think, it almost didn’t happen … because his mommy almost stopped him

As I begin my countdown to 40, I thought it would be appropriate to do some writing. I might look back or I might try to look forward. But hopefully, I might discover something about myself. On March 27, I will have lived 40 years. It‘s time to take stock.

The best subject to start with is Lucky, who has helped me grow more than anyone in my life. Children just do that. You want to keep them from harm.

Truth be told, there is a part of me that wants to wrap all but his face in bubble wrap when we hit the playground. Especially when he tries to climb things that take him several feet off the ground. On Saturday, my son discovered that by going up the slide bum first and using his hands to push himself up was the way to go.

However, this position sometimes caused his head and a shoulder to lean out over the edge. I pictured him losing his grip and falling to the ground. My heart jumped into my throat when I realized what he was doing. And I blurted out, “Stop! Stop it now!”

He looked at me and paused. I realized he was facing a choice, lose the ground he worked so hard to gain or risk making one very panicked mama angry.

I’m not sure what other parents might have done. I’m sure there are a bevy of answers I would get if I asked around. But I was acting on what I was taught in childhood. And that experience wasn’t exactly a good one.

My childhood was one big “BE CAREFUL.” And I was shielded in ways you couldn’t imagine. There was the time I asked about joining Girl Scouts. Mom said no. Someone might molest me. During my classes for First Communion, I was the only child who did not go on a field trip to a farm because farms are for adults. They’re dangerous. I was not allowed to climb trees. Oh and a parent had volunteered to drive the children. NO WAY my mom said. What if that parent crashed the car. I might die.

I was not allowed to do much. I secretly did a lot - I even smoked as a pre-teen a few times - but I was always in fear when I did it.

This is how I started life. Afraid of everything. I realize a long time ago that I still fight back the idea that I can’t do something, physical (and otherwise) because it’s too much for me. And I’ll get hurt.

Back to Lucky and the park. For a split second, he looked at me, then tested his limits by taking a slight step and continuing his climb. And I realized the boy didn’t need a lecture, he needed a spotter. With hands up, to catch him in case he came tumbling down, I watched him make the climb. He made it … five times. And I cheered every time.

When he got bored, he moved on to something else.

I’m still not sure if I was right to let him do it. Worse yet, here I am cheering his little achievement. What have I done? Given the kid license to do something crazy? Like Shaun White or Bode Miller or Apolo Ohno? Lucky may never be an Olympian or an NHL player. If ever someone told them “Don’t. You’ll get hurt,” I’m glad they didn’t listen.

So maybe this means I’m going to standing under a lot of slides with my arms up for a long while. And you know what? I don’t mind that at all.

One in a Mega Million

How much is $207,000,000 divided into, say 15?

(More than my cell phone calculator can compute, apparently).

It actually works out to $1,380,000. Before taxes and all that.

Of course, I didn't need to calculate it. It's been calculated more than a dozen times by several participants of our office lottery pool.

The publisher's secretary started one Tuesday to go after that night's Mega Millions drawing. In the course of collecting the money, the math was done. Over and over and over and ...

We learned our fate today. We got a $16 return on our $77 investment (which considering the odds you're talking about, isn't completely a bad thing).

But I think I'm more amazed at the reaction. We all had it spent.

One co-worker wanted to quit her job and become more of a freelancer. Everyone wanted to pay off their debts. Another one was ready to jet off to Europe.

Of course, the money won has been reinvested. And those who didn't play before, now want in.

Is it desperation, wishful thinking or both? What is it that's driving this mini-frenzy?

I can tell from my office that people are tired. Maybe this isn't about the money. Maybe it's about hanging on to the hope that we're all going to find a way out. That, despite the huge job losses and the amount of added work being piled on to the remaining workers, maybe, just maybe, luck will smile upon us and we'll find an exit.

Isn't that what we all want? We're all on this wild roller coaster ride called recession where we've been plummeting for a long time. And now we just want to stop and get off. Not even take the ride to the top again - just get off.

The conversation about the lottery has been fun. Watching people's growing enthusiasm for something that is a 1-in-a-billion or so chance is fascinating. But for me, there's this undercurrent of financial urgency to everyone's escapist fantasies.

But wouldn't it be nice if we won?

Commentary: How insurance firms drive debate

(CNN) -- Having grown up in one of the most conservative and Republican places in the country -- East Tennessee -- I understand why many of the people who are showing up at town hall meetings this month are reacting, sometimes violently, when members of Congress try to explain the need for an expanded government role in our health care system.
I also have a lot of conservative friends, including one former co-worker who was laid off by CIGNA several years ago but who nonetheless worries about a "government takeover" of health care.
The most vocal folks at the town hall meetings seem to share the same ideology as my kinfolks in East Tennessee and my former CIGNA buddy: the less government involvement in our lives, the better.

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