Idiomatic Expression

I spent the majority of Saturday reading Dangerous Doses by Katherine Eban. The book explores the illegal and quasi-legal issues surrounding prescription drug counterfeiting, and gray market activities. Eban uses a string of cases researched, investigated, and finally prosecuted by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement: As a way to explain the failings and dangers of the current prescription drug business model and regulatory environment.

If you read this book, you will probably no longer be able to pick up a prescription without spending an extra couple minutes taking a close look at the packaging, and the medicine within.

Tired of partisan politics? Tired of candidates winning elections on promises of a free lunch? Tired of candidates who run campaigns based on defaming their opponent? Tired of dissenting voices being silenced by the mainstream political parties? If you are, you may want to check out Russ Potts who is running as an Independent for Governor.

He may not click 100% with my politics, but he is the front runner for my vote in November.

I was planning not to comment on the elections, until I was completely decided on a candidate, then I read this quote from Kilgore regarding the gubernatorial debates:

“I support . . . voters [getting] a view of candidates that can actually win this election,”

When pressed as to whether this meant this was a no to including Russ Potts in the debates Kilgore said:

“That’s a no.”

Apparently someone is scared of the public hearing Potts’ message.

I have a Mandatory training session next week that is partially based on the book Now, Discover your Strengths. Participants were required to take the Strengths Finder quiz to find our strengths prior to the training course, and in the interest of full disclosure here are my results.

• Input: People strong in the Input theme have a craving to know more. Often they like to collect and archive all kinds of information.
• Command: People strong in the Command theme have presence. They can take control of a situation and make decisions.
• Restorative: People strong in the Restorative theme are adept at dealing with problems. They are good at figuring out what is wrong and resolving it.
• Ideation: People strong in the Ideation theme are fascinated by ideas. They are able to find connections between seemingly disparate phenomena.
• Strategic: People strong in the Strategic theme create alternative ways to proceed. Faced with any given scenario, they can quickly spot the relevant patterns and issues.

Wow, I didn’t even know that ideation was a word. I have to admit that this is a decent description of how I behave in the workplace, but then because the results only focus on strengths most people will be inclined to see themselves in the results.

Unfortunately you have to buy one of these books to take the quiz, but you probably wouldn’t enjoy it anyway.

Anyone care to assess the usefulness of the training based on this information? I am looking forward to meeting the other first year managers in the firm and hanging out with the ones I already know; I am just skeptical of using a system like this as a basis for the course.

The full list of strengths is included on the next page.

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The past two weekends Katherine and I have managed to break our of our suburban rut, and make it in to the District for a late dinner. Last Friday Katherine and I went in to Adams Morgan to try Amsterdam Falafel. If you are going with a friend, you don’t need two large fries! Both the falafel and the fries were delicious, and this is one of the few truly cheap eats in Adams Morgan. Afterwards I NEEDED some of the nutella crepes and on tap Belgian beer from Chez Antoine. After thirty minutes of searching, we concluded that it was now the late Chez Antoine.

Last night we headed out to Georgetown to Cafe Bonaparte to satiate my craving for crepes. Used to the palty portions at the recently departed Chez Antione I debated ordering two of the savory crepes. Luckily I settled for an order of the Bonaparte Fries as an appetizer instead. The portions here are huge, the ten dollar crepes are entree sized, and almost spoiled my plans for multiple crepes for desert. Somehow Katherine and I managed to force an order of the bannana and nutella crepes, and the crepes suzette into our already distended bellies. Next time I go, I will have to remember to pass up the crispy on the outside soft in the center “European style” fries to save room for dessert.

The only disappointments were the over priced cocktails that we ordered while waiting for a table. The signature drinks were made entirely from low quality bols liquor and had an off taste; and the refusal of the host to transfer our bar tab to the table.

If the bruised tomatoes, wilted lettuce, and spoiled squash at your neighborhood grocery are getting you down, try your local farmers market for fresh produce. The USDA website here is a listing of . You can find a Farmers Market in your state here. They are not quite as nice as the numerous public markets in Vancouver, or even the single large public markets in Seattle and Columbus, but better than nothing. Yes I know about DCs Eastern Market, but it only has a large selection of produce on the weekends as opposed to the every day selection of the other markets listed.

I started listing all of the Farmers Markets in Arlington, Fairfax, and Alexandria, but quickly realized there were just too many to fit here! Check out the list; buy fresh produce, live longer.

For the grammar Nazis in the listening audience, shouldn’t it be Farmers’ Market(s) and not, as the USDA has it, Farmers Market?

According to faceanalyzer.com, I am 68% Korean/Japanese. This will come as quite a shock to my mostly Welsh father, and my mostly German mother! At least I have a new theme song! Apparently, my picture shows that I am very intelligent (which will also be a surpirse to my parents). Perhaps the diagnosis of intelligence is just because the analyzer believes that I am Asian.

If anyone else gets around to uploading a picture I would love to hear the “real” race the Internet assignes you to.

You are a long-term planner, diligent worker and avoid risk as much as possible. You are of above average intelligence and have the ability to focus on tasks that seem unimportant at present, but can lead to greater things in the foreseeable future. You are not keen to interact with others or make social connections. You would rather gain material wealth before putting yourself in a position to be judged. You are not confrontational unless someone directly opposes your intellectual beliefs. You are highly concerned with your social status. You are keen to avoid risks that could jeopardize your long-term plans. You take a calculated approach to life, working hard to control all aspects of it in order to not leave anything important to chance.

You tend to be a perfectionist and quite self-conscious. You sometimes wish you were less reserved and more like some others you see who are more bold and outspoken in social situations. But as much as you try to be like them, you cannot, because you care too much about the future to ever be comfortable taking risks in social situations.

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I have always enjoyed the sexual connotations of my name, Randy. Now I discover that according to www.randomhouse.com;

“The name Randy is not etymologically connected to the word randy ’sexually aroused; lustful’.”

I can go back to being the self-righteous puritan I was before I found out of the other uses of my name.

Bravo kicked off the new season of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy last night with a make over of some of the stars of last year’s World Series Champions, the Boston Red Sox. For once the guests on the show were able to upstage the hosts. The five victims fashion problems are described on the Bravo episode guide.

PROBLEM AREAS
…Johnny Damon’s hair is so long that, according to wife Michelle, it hides his dimples and makes him look older.
…although Tim Wakefield’s fingernails are well manicured, his facial hair is a bit too much for wife Stacy to handle.
…Doug Mirabelli’s loud Hawaiian print shirts provide a constant source of laughter and mockery from teammates.
…Kevin Millar’s “fungus issue” is made certain to be pointed out by Kyan.
…Jason Varitek’s wife Karen is quick to point out his body hair would be a starting point to his “make-better.”
…”communal soap” in the showers leave doubts on the minds of Thom and Kyan as to how clean the players really get after practice and games.

It was all in good fun, and they raised money to repair a Florida little league field destroyed by Hurricane Charley. If you missed this, catch the rerun it is interesting to fans of the Fab Five and fans of the Red Sox; if you are neither, I am sure you will enjoy watching the CSI Pungo reruns.

I finally made it to a Nationals game on Saturday. I was expecting RFK to be a poor place to watch a baseball game, which is one of the reasons that I have waited so long to take in a game. The seats we had in the 200 section were great. They were about 100 feet back from third base. Close enough to Byrd accidentally knock over an Umpire and Ohka turn his back on Frank Robinson. Close enough to read the names of the base-runners jerseys’. Not close enough to get a foul ball, although they hit ten rows up and ten rows down from us.

It looks like all of the seats in the 100, 200, and 300 sections will give you a good view of the game. The 400 and 500 sections are on a second tier and a bit further away, but the fans up there sounded to be having an even better time than I was.

Of course, it helped that the Nats won the game to pull with in a half game of the lead in the NL East. Sunday they completed a 3-game sweep of the Marlins to gain sole possession of first place!