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Sunday, 24 September 2017

Wrong Reality

It's been rough. I worked half a month without having a day off. For now I decided it would be best not to take any extra work or I might die. The thing is, I just don't need all that money.

I mean sure money is nice and I love buying new clothes, games, books and such. But it's also kinda depressing that I have no time to wear, play or read anything.

I used to love dressing up even if I was just going to the store or lounge around at home. Now it kinda just feels like when I do it, that I could use that time to sleep or just rest. Hence the dramatic decrease in blog posts. We have work clothes at work and I have to keep my hair tied or I will get glue all over it. So there's really nothing much to see.

You might think it's a easy life. Not having to take care of my looks. But the truth is also that it makes me so depressed. I have the need to express myself. I have no time to dress up, not to paint, not to draw, no nothing. It's making me sad and unsocial... Even more than usual.

I'll try to balance this somehow so I could also blog more. Because I really want to do that. At least no more working overtime this year.

Anyways, now we have at least a few days off so I decided to dress up. Even tough I almost gave up half way through. I got this vintage velvet dress from etsy. Isn't it magical? It even got it's own cape sewn on it.

Taking pictures on the balcony has been impossible lately. Either the sun is all wrong or it's way too windy. Our apartment is a bit cramped and it's so annoying.

My boyfriend decided to splurge a bit and buy the VR headset for PS4. I had such a fun time watching him play with it yesterday and I'm hoping I will have a turn today or tomorrow. I also bought the drinks for an extra fun VR time!

Saturday, 5 August 2017

Velvet wings

My short summer break is already ending. I'm going to have to start my next work week tomorrow with a night sift. I have never had a night sift before and I'm kinda sure I'll just fall asleep at some point. We'll see. At least I have to stay up until the early morning tomorrow so I can try to adjust a bit, probably just gonna end up falling a sleep on the couch with a controller in my hand.

This vacation time I have mostly just been loitering. Like always.
Playing Witcher 3 still.

Took our cat's and we went to visit my mother-in-law in Pori. I finally got the time to go around the flea markets over there after a half a year break. I cycled 20 kilometers that day and found only a few things, nothing exiting. Kinda have to admit I was disappointed. Anyway, flea markets are what they are, they aren't always full of goodies. Maybe next time.

Velvet Shrug - Kitsune Couture, Dark Market
Velvet skirt - Tokmanni
Leather top - Flea market
Belt - Ebay
Shoes Second hand
Gloves - Ebay

I got this velvet shrug from the Lumous Gothic Festival's Dark market. The seller's business was called Kitsune Couture. Always so happy to support Finnish small businesses. But oh my, it was the fabric that drew me in. Velvet with floral patterns, can I just have everything in this fabric.  And anyways I was looking for a shrug like this so it was just perfect!

I ordered a few shirts from La Decay / Bat-cave Productions. There is sooo many I would had wanted but I just had to settle in these for now. For some reason I ordered them in men's size M. I thought maybe I would diy them somehow, but I just can't get my mind to decide how.

I think I forgot to show you these things I got from the medieval fair in Turku Some time ago. The Mallevs Maleficarvm also called the "hammer of witches" has been in my to read list for ages and I'm so glad I finally got a copy! The rune book also called out to me, as well as many other books there, but I just couldn't take everything, choosing is hard. I also got a poison bottle, a belt bag and a carved bone pendant.

Hope everyone has had a great summer. I'm so glad about fall approaching too, and Samhain times!

Friday, 21 July 2017

Lumous Gothic Festival 2017

Once again we ventured to the Lumous Gothic Festival in Tampere! My boyfriend was supposed to join me and my friends but he ended up being stuck at work after all. Anyhow it was pretty cool to have a hotel room all to yourself. I could spread all my stuff all around and no one cared, ahaha.

This year I also was somewhat lazy at taking photos, but here's some anyway.
For the first time in ages I also wasn't wearing a wig while going out! My hair's gotten pretty long.

Chain Harness - Aliexpress
Leather top - Flea market
Bondage belt - Ebay
Shoes - Demonia, Second hand
Skirt - Flea market

Here's the outfit for the Friday club night. And it was taken afterwards, just before going to sleep. Tipsy and stuff. The bands this night were not really in to my taste but oh well. At least Spiritual Front was decent for dancing.

Photo by Tomi Vitikainen
 Saw Leena!

Photo by Tomi Vitikainen
Also hang out with Miss Chaos for a while. Not enough though. :'(

Photo by my friend.
On Saturday morning before the Dark Market, we decided to visit the Sky Bar, which is a bar on top of a Hotel. The view was nice, the drinks were on the expensiveish side but not so expensive as at the Lumous club...

I can't for the sake of my life remember what was this drink called but it was good.

It's weird being so high up. Brain constantly sends mixed messages, wtf you doing, dis not right.

Photo by Tomi Vitikainen

All melted and messy at the Dark Market lol.

This is most of the loot I got from the Market. I also got some tops but I'll show you those in good time. The rune necklace I actually got form a Pagan market that was partly happening in the same time as the Dark Market. I found my favorite album form Siouxsie and Banshees and I'm so happy about it!

Pvc Corset - Second hand
Collar - Etsy
Skirt - Moonmaiden Clothing
Bracelets - Ebay/Flea markets
Gloves - Ebay

Saturday club outfit! This was also taken afterwards so I'm a bit of a mess. Messy mess all around!

The band I was really looking forward on was Nachtmahr. They did a great show and really knew how to keep the audience alive!

We didn't stay for the The End club on Sunday on this year either. I had to get up really early on Monday for work. But anyway I had a really nice time and I'm really looking forward on next year!
Lately things have been changing around at work and it has been exhausting really. I'm still suffering from sleep deprivation and staying up late last weekend really didn't help much. Not to mention I have to work tomorrow, on a Saturday. Hooray.

Also this post is a bit of a mess since I'm so sleepy, I can't think even. I should be sleeping right now too. BAH!

Sunday, 18 June 2017

Skinny Puppy, Cat Café and Shopping

Few days ago on Friday, me and my friend traveled to Helsinki to see Skinny Puppy. They were just amazing live and I'm super happy we got to see them so close. A bit sad that they didn't allow even digital cameras on the venue so I had to leave mine to the cloakroom, but if that's what the band wants I suppose it's only fair.

I was really super sleepy the whole Friday. I had to wake up to work at 4am and right after work I had to hurry to the bus station and sit in the bus for 3-4 hours. Then hurry up and get to the hostel and get the makeup on and the clothes on and then navigate to Tavastia. I'm also forever sad that I forgot to get some cash so I could had bought the tour shirt, but I suppose I'll live.

I had a really nice time in Tavastia. If you don't mention some crazy people who really didn't seem to take other people in consideration at all while they were in a fanboy high or something. But I eventually found a calmer spot where I could just enjoy the music and performance, and not have to worry about people's elbows in my face.

On Saturday we had some time before our bus and train would leave so we did a bit of shopping around Helsinki! I was so happy to do this since I live in a tiny city now, and you just can't shop here. Not even second hand shop, it's terrible. But after some second hand shops we ran in to the cat cafe Helkatti! First we thought that you'd probably need a reservation to get in there, but we tried anyway. So luckily they had some space as we arrived and we got in!

They have 8 cats and they were adorable. Though we didn't really manage to see all of them. We mostly played with this girl, I think her name is Tuli, super playful and friendly but not really keen on petting. I ordered a club sandwich, and you can choose two topping for it, and so I chose mozzarella and marinated red onion. I have to say, even though it was the most expensive sandwich I have ever eaten, it was also the best one!

I do highly recommend the Helkatti cat cafe but definitely make a reservation. I saw so many people get turned away at the door because they were full. It's also a cafe you want to take your time with, at least an hour.

After the cafe my friend spotted a record store. I just had to get in there to browse the used cd's section. I took a while but I found these gems among the clutter. There were also so much LP's I would had loved to browse all of those too but our time kinda ran out. Maybe next time.

Earlier in the day we browsed some mainstream shops like H&M and Gina Tricot and I picked up these items. Pusheen payjama pants (shuddup, I love pusheen D: )and the laced up crop top are from H&M. The waist belt and the lace crop top is from Gina Tricot.

I did also do some amazing finds from a flea market we went to. I found a Spin Doctor jacket and a HUGE FLUFFY Victorian'ish skirt from Sinister. Which I love to bits, tho I can't fit it in my wardrobe and it was a real pain in the ass to haul all the way home. But you'll see pictures of those pieces eventually, maybe around Lumous Gothic festival..? :')

Sunday, 11 June 2017

It's Okay To Be You

What's this now? Two posts in one weekend? I might have gone mad.
Well I guess I just liked today's outfit.

I adore this vintage leather bodice, or whatever, I found from the flea market a long time ago. I would love to wear it all the time. Only the problem is that it was a bit too large and the front plastic boning was crazy warped. As you can even make out from this picture I took this morning.

I took it in some time ago so the fit is much better now, but the bones were still warped. So this evening I decided to do something about it. I took out the two front bones, and now I can't wait to wear the top again soon since it looks so much neater and smoother! Would hate to waste good leather.

Vest - diy, flea market
Bodice - Flea market
Belt - Ebay
Skirt - Second Hand
Undershirt - H&M

Lately I have found the love for bodice/bustier type tops. But it's so damn hard to find ones that go with my body. The other clothing thing that I have fell in love with recently is mermaid/fishtail skirts! At the moment I only have one velvet one what I bought recently. Need. more. Gimme,

But anyways, this was a chill day. Played a ton of Stardew valley, busted out ye olde sewing machine, watched some youtube videos... Just trying to get a little bit of the stress off before work starting again very early tomorrow, ugh.

I haven't done Magical Unicorn Oracle card draws in months, but today felt like the day. And I feel like this was a good draw, just what I needed.

"It's Okay to Be Different - You don't need to be like everyone else. You're perfect just as you are!"

Saturday, 10 June 2017

Wine Night

I have been drinking slightly so excuse me for weird text or mistakes, thanks!
So yeah I brought some vine because my boyfriend told me that's the wine that was supposed to be amazing but it ended up not being that wine he remembered. It's not that good. Going to drink it anyway.

And doing that while the neighbor blasts their churchy music from their television or radio and I can hear fucking everything. It's beyond annoying.

Shirt - Flea market
Skirt - Lindex
Collar - Etsy
Shoes - Demonia, Second hand
Tights - Ebay
Cuffs - UFF

Today's outfit was really supposed to be for my cousins graduation party but it ended up being too cold then, so I wore something else. But I thought this outfit goes for everyday wear just as well.

Lately work has been odd. I got a intern to teach. He seems nice and learns super quickly, I am slightly conflicted tough. Since when he knows enough to somewhat work alone, I can start learning the harder side of my work station and it scares the crap out of me really. Also it's terrifying that I am now the one that has been there the longest time. (in our station). So the other ones kinda look for me for help and stuff when things go wrong, and yes, things go wrong a lot in that station. Whyyyyy.

Sometimes it just feels like I can't do anything.

But anyways. My summer plans are filling up real nice! I am going to have 2 weeks off instead of the 1 I thought. Next weekend will be my first adventure and it's going the be seeing Skinny Puppy in Helsinki! I have already mentioned this many times, but... So exited! I just need to figure out what to wear. I have some outfits partially planned for Lumous Gothic festival and I kinda thought if I would steal one of those for this, but I just don't know.

Also I took a nap today. But it was a super weird nap. I was dreaming that I was crying my eyes out. Like super intense crying. I don't remember anymore why was I crying in the dream, but when I woke up I noticed I was still crying and I couldn't stop it for like 5 minutes afterwards. Has anything like that ever happen to you? It was so odd.

Sunday, 21 May 2017

Summer shoes and planning

The summer weathers have even reached Finland. It kinda put you in the mood to start planning and shopping for summer. Though I am not sure how much I can plan since I'll probably have to work most of the summer with a few weeks of leisure time at least.

(If you don't want to read a icky story about tooth removal and hospitals, please skip from here to below the first picture.)
Last week was not very sunny though. 2 weeks ago Tuesday I got one of my wisdom teeth pulled once again. At first it seemed like it went well, even thought I had problems with opening my mouth and it kinda hurt to swallow. But I went on with my life with painkillers and just thinking it will pass. It didn't. On that Saturday we had a work day and I was really hating it. Not to mention the swallowing pain got so intense that I just wanted to die. It was even painful to talk, and you can imagine how horrible it was to be at work where you have to talk all the time.

On the first break I went to the bathroom and tried to glance at the back of my mouth through the mirror. It was hard but I saw a big yellow lump in there and I poked it and it hurt like fukkin hell.

I decided I needed to show it to a doctor or a dentist so I left in the middle of the day. So to keep it short, that night I ended up in the hospital ward in Turku, crying while the nurse tried to comfort me and give me painkillers. I stayed there for 3 days. On Sunday the operated on the lump and the pain pretty much was gone after that. But apparently there was a some sort of infection so they wanted to keep me there for few more days.

I had never been on a ward before and it was horrible. Tubes going in your wains, no privacy, just laying there all day, interesting food that I couldn't even eat and on the top of that, sleeping was hard as hell. If the nurse had not brought me a phone charger when I first came there, I would had gone bonkers.

But anyway I feel better now. I got some antibiotics. However I can't quite open mu mouth all they way yet. Though it's getting a slightly better each day and I hope it will fix itself in time.

So warm today!
Shoes - Fantasy Shoes, second hand
Skirt - H&M
Top - Flea market
Belts - Flea markets
Gloves - Ebay
Undershirt - H&M
But enough of that! I have been trying to plan this summer a little. Reserving some hotels and buying some tickets.

First thing would be seeing Skinny Puppy 16th of June in Helsinki!
And then the medieval fair in Turku 1st to 2nd of July
 and then of course the Lumous Gothic festival 14th to 16th of July.

That's what I have for now anyways. Of course I want to do even more stuff since it's going to be my first summer when I actually have decent money. Not decent enough to go to WGT in few weeks though. Which made a bit sad. But now it should be easy for me to save for next year. *sigh*

But anyways, I noticed a lack of sensible and usable summer shoes in my closet. I usually just use my combat boots all year around but this year I wanted to have some more options so I went a bit crazy with it.

First off I got these Demonia Kera -08's from Boutique Lou Lou. I had been eyeing them for a while and it seemed like the cheapest place to order them.

Then I got these Demonia Stomp-16's. Which I weren't really planning on buying, but they jumped out on me on a facebook flea market page. And they're brand new!

 And then another pair from the facebook flea market. Demonia Ranger 301's. These have some slight ware on them but nothing major. Still in great condition!

At least my feet wont run out of stuff to wear this summer!

So, have you already made plans for this summer?


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Things to do in Silver Spring Maryland

Things to do in Silver Spring, Maryland

Downtown Silver Spring –

This vibrant attraction offers a full-force combination of dining, shopping, and fun entertainment, with top name retailers, eclectic restaurants and family friendly activities like concerts, art displays, festivals, and a weekly farmers market.

 Fed Ex Field –

FedEx Field is home to the Washington Redskins professional football team, and includes over 91,000 seats, a deluxe club level and luxury boxes, an exciting sports bar and a Hooters restaurant, as well as a special fan zone section where visitors can relax with food, live entertainment, video games, and prizes before each game.

 George Washington University –

Established in 1821 George Washington University offers a high quality education to more than 20,000 students in degree programs ranging from creative writing to engineering, international affairs to law at its three campus locations.

Smithsonian National Zoological Park –
Founded in 1889, the National Zoo is home to over 2,000 different animals, such as giant pandas, monkeys, alligators, gorillas, elephants, and tigers. Open daily, from 10am-6pm. Admission to the National Zoo is free every day.

Verizon Center –
The 20,000-seat Verizon Center sports arena is home to several pro teams, including the Washington Wizards basketball team, the Washington Capitals ice hockey team, the WNBA Washington Mystics basketball team, and the Georgetown University men’s basketball team. In addition to live sports games, Verizon Center also features live concerts, religious events, and other events throughout the year.

Union Station –
Completed in 1907, Union Station is a working train station that offers visitors and residents access to a combination of Amtrak trains, area commuter trains and local Metro system trains. In addition to the trains, historic Union Station is home to a variety of restaurants, shops, tourism companies, and an outdoor market.

University of Maryland (UMD) –
Established in 1856, University of Maryland is the largest college in the state of Maryland. Located in College Park, near the city of Baltimore, historic UMD offers a world-class education to more than 37,000 students each year.

Howard University –

Established in 1867, Howard University is a historically black college offering a full education to undergraduate and graduate students. Howard offers a range of degree programs, including graduate studies in the areas of pharmacy, law, medicine, dentistry and divinity.

Montgomery College –

Founded in 1946 as the Montgomery Junior College, today Montgomery College offers a variety of academic programs with two-year associate’s degrees and a variety of professional certificates to its 60,000 students each year.

Smithsonian Institution Museums –
The Smithsonian Institution is home to more then 19 museums located in and around Washington, D.C., including the Natural History Museum, the National Air & Space Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, and the American Art Museum.

World Building –

Built in 1964, the 10-story World Building offers 70,000 square feet of office space and is home to both the WGAY and WRC radio stations. Open Mon. – Fri., 9am-5pm. Closed Sat. and Sun.

National Museum of Health & Medicine –

Originally founded in 1862 as the Army Medical Museum, this unique attraction was once located at the Walter Reed Army Medical Garrison. Today, it is located in Silver Spring, Maryland and boast a collection of more than 25 million artifacts, including skeletons and bones, preserved human organs, medical equipment, and items related to President Lincoln’s assassination and autopsy.

Westfield Mall Wheaton –
Shopping enthusiasts will appreciate this large indoor mall that offers 30 restaurants and food stands, a movie theater, and over 190 retailers, including Macy’s, Target, DSW Shoes, Forever 21, H & M, Old Navy, and JC Penney.

Tidal Basin –

Created in the late 1800’s as a means of draining the Washington Channel after high tide, the Washington Tidal Basin is also a scenic backdrop for the Jefferson Memorial, the FDR Memorial, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial and the annual National Cherry Blossom Festival. More than 3,000 cherry trees are planted along the Tidal Basin.

Cherry Blossom Festival –

Held along the Washington Tidal Basin beginning on the last Saturday of March, the National Cherry Blossom Festival is a month-long event that celebrates the gift of more than 3,000 cherry trees given to the United States by Japan in 1912. Events include a kite festival, parades, a kimono fashion shows, art exhibits, and more.

Georgetown University –
Established in 1789, this private research university is the oldest catholic college in the U.S. and offers more than 180 academic programs for 15,000 undergraduate and graduate students each year.

Holy Cross Hospital –

Founded in 1963 by the Sisters of the Holy Cross, Holy Cross Hospital is a non-profit teaching hospital and the second largest hospital in Maryland. With more than 1,2000 affiliated doctors and 448 beds, Holy Cross offers state-of-the-art medical services to more than 180,000 patients each year.

Jefferson Memorial –

Dedicated to founding father and former President, Thomas Jefferson, this monument, located overlooking the Tidal Basin, was completed in 1943 and features circular marble steps, Ionic columns, a dome, and a stunning, 19-foot-high bronze statue of the former President. The Thomas Jefferson Memorial is open 24 hours a day. Rangers are on duty from 9:30am-11:30pm daily.

National Mall –
This two-mile-long park in the center of Washington D.C. is home to the city’s most famous landmarks, historic buildings and museums, including several Smithsonian museums, the historic Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the National Gallery of Art, and the World War II Memorial.

Mormon Temple & Visitors Center –
Completed in 1974, this working Mormon church (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) features a marble exterior, impressive stained glass windows and massive spires coated in 24-carat gold. The temple is open only to members of the Mormon Church. Visitors are welcome at the Visitors Center, which offers exhibits highlighting the history and teachings of the Mormon Church. Open daily 10am-9:00pm.

Lincoln Memorial –
Erected in 1922 to honor former President, Abraham Lincoln, the Lincoln Memorial features impressive neoclassical architecture and a 19-foot-tall marble statue of Lincoln who overlooks the reflecting pool towards the National Monument. Open 24 hours per day, with rangers on duty daily from 9:30am-11:30pm.


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Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Grown Ups 2 (2013)

[one of the worst movie ive seen in years]

Grown Ups 2 (2013)
IMDB- 5.2
Rottentomatoes- 08%
RJG Ratings- 0

story - (empty)

Starring- Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade
Director- Dennis Dugan

[A small disclaimer before i start:I sort of enjoyed Grown Ups 1.If a guy who thinks GU1 was ok ,and considers GU2 terrible ,you can just imagine how bad GU2 truly is.Back to the review...]

Grown Ups 2 is just terrible.Ive never seen such an idiotic movie with so many A-list actors.Everyone sucks.Be it Adam Sandler ,who just walks through this movie without a sense of character or anything.Its just him being him ,but with added stupidity.Its also strange that this is his first sequel in his 20+ long career.
Kevin James proves once again he doesnt know anything ,when it comes to acting.Its pathetic to watch anyone from this movie show their face on screen.Out of work actress ,Salma Hayek ,doesnt manage to add anything into this mess.Chris Rock has some moments ,but its all wasted effort.

The story! I kid you not ,theres NOTHING!Its so blank ,that i forgot i watched this movie the next day!The movie just rambles on with mini skits which are utter lame.Whatever main plot the writers think they had in mind is nothing but stuff that lasts for just 5-10min of screentime.Its interesting it took 3 people to write this half page story.Theres no driving force that warrants a sequel.Each character is given some small dilemma ,and with that in the background ,they add all sorts of lame jokes.From start to finish ,its plain STUPID.

The comedy is pathetic and are at the heights of lameness.There is no excuse for this sort of crap.The first scene is of a deer who urinates on Adam.I hope it happens to him in real life.Theres absolutely nothing even remotely funny in GU2.Stuff like 'Burp Snart' (burp-sneeze-fart) and other toilet humour is the only type jokes you can expect from this movie.

Dennis Dugan ,the director who keeps Adam Sandler's career alive, is one terrible director.GU2 is even worse than his previous bomb ,Jack and Jill!The movie doesnt even have one link between it that connects the story.I have seen 20min TV shows that have more story than this movie.

This is one of the most obvious cash grabbing movies ive ever seen.Just take a look at that poster!Its as if Sandler himself made it.The movie reaks of cheapness.

Overall ,GU2 is terrible.Even if you liked movies such as GU1 or Zohan or any other usual crap from Adam Sandler ,GU2 is worse than all of them.Its that bad!

Acting- 0/5
Story- 0/5
Direction- 0/5
Comedy- 0/5
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Category Archives: Company News

Are you weighing the decision to enforce an NDC mandate on ALL Medical Pharmacy Claims? RJ Health’s Analytics team shares the pro’s & con’s of NDC mandates across Pricing, Formulary, and Network Quality Considerations. Here are some practical examples to help illustrate how, at the end-of-the-day, RJ Health believes the answer to the NDC vs. […]

On August 3, 2017 the Food and Drug Administration approved a liposome-encapsulated combination of daunorubicin and cytarabine (VYXEOS™, Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Inc.) for the treatment of adults with newly-diagnosed therapy-related acute myeloid leukemia (t-AML) or AML with myelodysplasia-related changes (AML-MRC), which are two types of AML having a poor prognosis. VYXEOS is the first agent that […]

In an effort to contain growing healthcare costs, Congress enacted the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990 (OBRA’90) and created the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program. Pharmaceutical manufacturers’ participation in the program became a prerequisite for Medicaid coverage of outpatient prescription drugs. Since then, states have been required to collect associated drug rebates to receive federal […]

Biosimilars are intricate in their makeup and the process for FDA approval is even more multidimensional.  Todd Cooperman’s (PharmD, MBA, R.Ph.) recent whitepaper provides insight into biosimilars in the U.S. healthcare marketplace.  Below is a caption from the introduction of the whitepaper. Initial Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidance on the biosimilar pathway was intentionally vague, […]

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Setting a familiar tone for the Specialty Drug landscape, the presentation by Express Scripts during AMCP’s opening session (Speaker: Aimee Tharaldson, PharmD) included staggering cost increases within both the medical and pharmacy benefit, however encouraging news of emerging treatments.  Beyond that “given” (and the fact that oncolytics represent their industry), here are ten (10) observations worth […]

RJ Health Systems is hitting the road this spring! Our team will be attending and exhibiting at several conferences to share our solutions with Payors, PBMs, Specialty Pharmacies, Infusion Companies, Medicaid Organizations, Physicians and Medical Billing companies. Visit our booth to learn how we can help you save time and money managing specialty drug trend. […]

Gain insight on how your organization can apply modest policy adjustments and some straight-forward network engagement tactics to achieve 6% to 10% in savings on Specialty Drug spend. Take the first step to improving medical drug management controls.

Clinical Drug data, which includes Min Max Dosing, Diagnosis Codes, and Age and Gender data, tends to be overlooked on medical drug claims. Health Plans will primarily analyze and review coding and pricing errors because they are directly connected to pricing and their bottom line. However, clinical errors on claim forms can be just as costly. […]

Having personally dismissed 99% of these CEO missives, I wrestled with the need, never-mind the value of this communication. My objective since taking the reins of RJ Health Systems in 2015 has largely been to distinguish us from the jargon-filled, oftentimes frenzied industry heavyweights we operate alongside in service to Payors and Providers in the […]


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Sunday, February 24, 2013

Being an indie author is a tough job...

Ever since I decided to become an Indie author, I've started living a double life, just like Superman, Batman and Spiderman - only, without the superpowers. And I have to say, it can get a little exhausting and overwhelming at times. I'm a normal person working full-time during the day, and then at night and over the weekend I shed the mask, and turn into Superindie, the writer. Well, I don't know how Clark Kent, Peter Parker and Bruce Wayne managed - I have to say having a double life really is a tough job!

When I decided to self-publish, I guess I didn't think of all the aspects that would go with it. I didn't want to wait for one agent among millions to like my manuscript and give me a chance; I had tried the traditional route but it didn't work, and I was running out of time - I wanted people to read my story and get feedback, because I needed to know if all the sweat, the tears and the weekend cooped up in my room, typing franctically on my computer had been worth it. Yes, I guess I could've simply joined a critique group or found beta readers, but I just couldn't wait any longer. I'd been working so hard on my novel, and I wanted the world to meet my baby; even if I found an agent, he/she would have to find a publisher, get a contract, organize everything and it would take at least another year.
Let me tell you straight out that patience is definitely NOT a virtue I possess. I'm more like what Freddie Mercury sang: "I want it all, and I want it now" - so... no, I couldn't wait for a traditional publishing contract.

But I hadn't really thought of all the other aspects of self-publishing that I would have to take care of myself. What was so hard about it? I'll get my book edited by a professional, I'll upload it, choose a cover (the fun part) and bam! It's online and on Amazon. How easy is that?
I know I've always said I'm a dreamer, and I guess that writers are that at the end of the day (or is it just me?) but I thought I wouldn't have to do much more than shout out "My book is available, world; go grab a copy!" and people would buy it and the next thing I knew, I could quit my day job (which I hate, just so you know) and be a full-time writer and reader. Wow, wouldn't that be awesome?

Well, sorry to disappoint you, Roberta, but this ain't gonna happen any time soon! Okay, that was my own Jiminy Cricket taking hold of my keyboard - sorry about that.

Anyway, in spite of all the efforts being an indie author requires, there are  good things about it. The first one is that I've learnt a lot about blogging, book tours, giveaways and stuff. A whole new world has opened its doors to me and I'm loving it - it's just what I love doing!
The downside though is that I've really had to work hard to get people to know that my book exists, to create a buzz around it and get people to read it. I'm just not good at marketing, and I definitely don't like boasting (I guess an author should do that, too to convince people that the novel is really good and they should give it a try - but I'm just too shy to do that!)

Being an indie author also helped me discover a wonderful world - the Indie World, which is made of struggling writers who, just like me, are keen to get their works out there, but are also happy to help one another, just because they know how much work is involved in writing a good novel and getting it published.
I've met great writers who, in my opinion, should have been asked to sign a contract by a publishing house, because their novels were really good. I've met people who helped me promote my book, even though they'd never heard my name before, and who didn't ask for anything in return. I've been glad to help other authors with my Indie Author Interview Corner, and I've met lovely people in the process of marketing my book.
Would have I met them, had I gone down the traditional publishing route? No, probably not. Maybe I would've made more money out of my book, I would have become a famous writer (doubt it! - aww, shut up Jim and let me dream for once!), but I would've probably missed all the good parts, like the happiness of belonging to a community, of not feeling like a black sheep in a flock of milky white ones (like I always do, being the only writer in my family), while sharing the same fears, doubts, expectations and dreams of hundreds of people out there, whom I would never have met otherwise.

So even if I'll still have to go to my boring office on Monday, and I'll have to use every spare moment in the week to write and promote, with hindsight I can say I'm proud to be part of the Indie World, with or without superpowers.

Are you an indie author, too? Please do leave a comment and share your thoughts!

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Book review: Where she belongs - by Cindy Procter-King

I always thought I would never in my life buy an e-book reader and surrender to e-books. I've always loved the feel of paper, its smell, the joy of holding a book in my hands and staring at its beautiful cover. But in the end I bought a Kindle, although I still buy my favourite books in the paperback version.

Anyway, since surrendering to the power of the Kindle, I've discovered so many new authors that I would probably never have discovered otherwise, either because they're not available in my country or because being authors I'd never heard of, I probably wouldn't have bought a paperback version of their books (I've had a few bad experiences since discovering Amazon, and now I have books sitting in my bookcase, half finished because I didn't like them). But I will have to thank my Kindle for helping me discover this book, which I downloaded totally by chance.

It seems lately bad guys are quite trendy as the main male characters in a book. Well, for someone like me growing up watching Disney movies and waiting for gorgeous Prince Charming to come trotting on his white horse and take me to his castle, this has been a little hard to accept. Sexy as they may be, all these tattooed rough guys who get a kick out of breaking women's hearts just for the sake of it made me feel quite uneasy to say the least, and made me think that maybe Disney got it all wrong; or perhaps Prince Charming got extinct some time during Ice Age and nobody bothered to inform us about it.

So I'd been convinced by these books that bad boys had become the rule now - it's either them or nothing, and I'd lost all hope of finding a male character who was sweet, mature, didn't do drugs, and didn't enjoy stomping on women's hearts - a family guy with roots and principles had gone out of fashion, simple as that. Then here comes Adam Wright, and I'm swept off my feet. He's everything - and I mean EVERYTHING - a hopeless romantic like me dreams of in a man: He's gorgeous, sweet, romantic and mature; the family guy every woman could wish to be married to - well, at least I do. And so my faith in Prince Charming was restored after the first chapter, and the world didn't seem so gloomy anymore.

It's been a while since I found myself so engrossed in a book that I kept thinking about it (and him!) days and weeks after I've read it, and I have to admit I'd forgotten how good it feels. At unexpected moments of the day, a scene from the book would come back to my mind, and I'd find myself wanting to read it all over again. Weird, but good. Especially since it's coming from an author I didn't know - it's easy to fall in love with a book from your favourite author, because you know what you can expect, but it's not so easy with a new author you've never read anything by. And I was definitely pleasantly surprised by this author.

What made me love this book so much? Apart from Adam, I mean? It's the wonderful ability of the author to describe places, people, feelings in such a realistic and perfect way that I felt as if I'd somehow been sucked inside the book and was living every single moment Jess and Adam were living.

Where she belongs is a beautiful, romantic and emotional love story, but it's also about the inner struggle of the main female character, Jessie, who finds herself torn between wanting to belong in the place she grew up in, and needing to be away from it and live her own successful life in Toronto.

When her stepfather dies of a sudden heart-attack, Jess takes some days off her crazy work schedule as a shoe buyer in Toronto, to spend some time with her grieving mother. As she goes back to her childhood home, and meets people from her past, memories start crawling back and she suddenly finds herself wondering whether her life is really that happy. She's successful, has a good job and a thriving career, but after spending time in Destiny Falls with her mother, and getting closer to Adam Wright, her teenage crush, she starts reconsidering her priorities, although it's not as easy as it seems.

Where she belongs is an absolute must-read if you belong to the old-fashioned category of women (like me) who love a Disney Happily-Ever-After kind of story, with a "Disneyish" Prince Charming and a strong, independent heroine. If you like a good romance book, go grab a copy. You'll love it.

Have you read “Where she belongs” already? Leave a comment and let me know what you thought of it.


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Sunday, February 2, 2014

It's Been A While

It's been a while since I last posted anything in this blog- almost a year.  Well, lets catch up a little.

In the spring of 2012 I got a third hive and filled it with a package of Russian hybrid bees.  They turned out to be not what I had hoped for.  The were very aggressive whenever I worked with them and never even built up enough to add a honey super.  That fall I did not feed them and reduced the hive down to just a handful of frames with any honey on them.  I assumed they would die out during the winter months. I was going to split one of my other two hives to repopulate the hive the Russians were to have left vacant.  To my surprise, they were still going strong the next spring (last year, 2013) and the queen was laying like gangbusters.  I decided to get rid of the Russian queen and replace her with an Italian queen I had ordered from a supplier.  It looked like all was going well with the new queen when she suddenly disappeared- maybe the Russians ended up rejecting her.  In any case the hive ended up dying out before the end of the summer and, of course, I harvested zero honey from that hive.  The other two hives, on the other hand, performed well all through last summer and I harvested 25 gallons of honey between the two of them!

So as of right now my little apiary consists of two hives with Italian bees and one hive sitting empty.  This spring I plan on splitting whichever of the two is building up the fastest and repopulating the empty hive.  I will queen her with an Italian queen I will order from a supplier.  If I can get all three hives healthy and producing all summer long, the honey ought to come pouring in!

So here we are in February 2014.  It doesn't seem as though our winter has been particularly cold- we did have one stretch of bitter cold back in December but that has been it so far.  We here in Wyoming just missed the polar vortex that froze so much of the nation in January.  But we have not had any of the winter thaws that we usually get form time to time.  It seem like sometime in January I can usually count on some days when the temperature gets up above 40 degrees and I can get some supplemental feed out in the bee hives.  That has not happened this year.  In fact, we will be down in the negative teens to negative 20 this week.  I did take some time to make some bee candy this weekend.  I can't put it out in the hives yet, but when the temps allow it I will be ready.

You can find lots of recipes for bee candy on the internet, but here is how I do it:

1. In a large sauce pan or heavy bottomed stock pot add 1 part water to 5 parts sugar and 1/4 teaspoon vinegar for every pound of sugar you use.
2.  With a candy thermometer attached to the side of the pan and stirring occasionally, bring the solution to a boil and continue cooking until the syrup reaches 235 degrees (or the soft ball stage- at least that is what it says on our thermometer.)  Continue boiling at this temperature without stirring for three minutes.  Remove the pot from the heat and wait for it to cool down.

3. While the syrup is cooling, line some kind of mold with waxed paper that has been sprayed lightly with cooking spray- this will allow the finished candy to release more easily from the waxed paper.  I used a couple of Pyrex baking dishes.

4.  When the syrup cools to about 175 degrees you can pour the syrup into the waxed paper lined dishes.  Some recipes say to beat the syrup with electric beaters first to start some sugar crystallization.  I don't know how necessary that really is.
5. Let the candy cool overnight, remove it from the dishes, and peel the waxed paper off.
The resulting sugar cakes should not be too hard and can be broken into smaller pieces easily.
As soon as the weather permits I will add an empty super on top of the deep hive bodies of each hive and place the bee candy inside.  This should keep the bees from starving until the pussy willows bloom around the end of March or beginning of April.  The dandelions should follow soon after that.

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Amazing Race 27

The Amazing Race 27 | And You May Ask Yourself, Well, How Did I Get Here?

In thinking about how I wanted to kick off my blog coverage for Season 27, I realized something kind of germane to the process of blogging about this show: namely, we don’t really know a lot about these racers yet. The first episode of every season of this show is always crowded with team intros, a rush to the airport, and then 22 people all tripping all over each other not to be the first ones out.

But we can start to figure out, from watching them out on the course, what they’re doing here in the first place, and that might give us a look into what we’re going to see from them in the coming weeks.

When it comes to motivation, I think there are three distinct buckets into which you can put most, if not all, racers: are they here because they love competition, because they love the show, or because they love the experience? And obviously this is a vast overgeneralization — certainly two or even all three of the things are probably at least a little bit true for everyone on the show — but let’s start from here.

It’s harder to guess each team’s primary motivator than you’d think — for instance, who had Season 26 champ Tyler Adams pegged as a superfan? I sure didn’t until round about Peru when he started spouting strategy and making the types of observations that one can only glean from watching hours and hours of the show. But I’ll take a stab at it:

Something in their celebration style tells me they've come to compete. Something in their celebration style tells me they’ve come to compete.[/caption]

Folks who love competition: Tanner and Josh, who were allegedly recruited via social media, seem most motivated by racking up first-place finishes, and not just because they’ve racked one up already. I’d put elite athletes Jazmine and Danielle here, and Tiffany and Krista (although there’s a strong possibility that at least one of them is a big fan of the show as well). Yeah, the cheerleaders had a bit of a lackluster leg this week, but something in the way they celebrated finishing the puzzle tells me they are hungry.

I don’t mean to imply that the prospect of a million-dollar paycheck is the sole motivator for anyone, although you do frequently hear these teams talk about how they can taste the million dollars. But you also hear them talk about winning each individual leg, striking up rivalries, and how they’re tackling challenges.

Obviously teams who come to play are, generally speaking, the biggest threats to win, although it’s by no means a given that the competition will be dominated by people who compete for the sake of competing.

Folks who love the show: Obviously, you don’t propose to your lady with a fake version of a show you only kinda-sorta like, so Justin and Diana certainly fall under this category. Alex and Adam, James Earl and Denise, and the Chacs are also avowed superfans.

Is it unusual that more than a third of this cast are avowed TAR-aholics? You’d be surprised, actually.I’ve heard over and over that of the big three CBS shows, this is by far the most applied-to, and the one that people most want to be a part of, but that’s not frequently something we see the teams who are cast saying. This may be the first time this many teams have been shown effusively praising the show itself, which I find interesting in and of itself. Usually CBS reserves those soundbites for teams who don’t have any other story to tell. “Well, you’re the flirty girls, you’re the folks who’ve never been out of the country, you’re doing it for your loved one with a sob story, you’re the frontrunners…you guys? You can be the people who like the show.” And we’ve definitely discussed this before: this is why it appears that there’s a curse on superfans.

The one team I don’t get a great read on yet as far as whether they’re in it primarily for the love of the game or for the love of the show is Joey and Kelsey. So far they don’t seem quite as driven as the driven teams, but I don’t have a clear picture yet on how well they know the show, either. Certainly the two aren’t mutually exclusive; it could certainly be both things at once. Given their slightly gimmicky hook, there’s also a very VERY outside chance that they’re the third type…

Folks who are in it for the experience: Whether it’s the idea of a free trip to parts unknown or a bunch of great exposure on national TV, there are definitely some folks in the mix every season who wouldn’t have been able to pick Phil Keoghan out of a lineup six months ago, but who are along for the ride because it sounded like it’d be pretty cool (because obviously, it is!). Some of them talk a good game about the million dollars, but the money is secondary to the idea that they’re going to be racing around the world on a major network. Whichever half of that statement — racing around the world or on a major network — is more important to them.

Nobody likes being out first, but I think Team TMZ probably got what they came for out of the experience.

Nobody likes being out first, but I think Team TMZ probably got what they came for out of the experience.

I think you know where I’m heading with this. Kelly and Shevonne seemed far more concerned with getting in every last edgy soundbite, and with reinforcing their brand identity, than with actually competing. They never intended to win, although I’m sure they thought they’d go a little further than they did. (Nobody WANTS to be the first out, of course.) I’m guessing that this show was, for them, all about a great trip and a chance to show their snark off to a new audience. Unfortunately, this is probably the kindest and gentlest reality show on a major network, and their judgey comments kind of landed with a thud, if Twitter and message boards are to be believed. Most fans seem to be chalking their ouster up to karma in one way or another, leaving them with neither a boastworthy performance nor claim to the title of “fan favorites who went too soon.” No wonder they weren’t keen to do exit press.

I don’t feel great about Ernest and Jin’s chances either, mostly, at first, because I noted that they aren’t exactly dressed for an intense sprint to the mat (remember Season 25 Dennis and his jeans and button-down? that guy was a superfan, but he sure didn’t dress the part). They really feel like style over substance to me, and this was only a hunch on my part until I learned this week that this is not E-Knock’s first reality show. It’s not even his second. And he’s already training hard for his fourth. What should I conclude from this, other than that The Amazing Race is just another whistle stop on the dancers’ climb to fame?

Which isn’t to say that they can’t be entertaining in the process (I mean, all three of those videos are pretty amazing), or that a team like this can’t go far. Certainly many of them do, and many of them are great characters. And it isn’t to say that I, personally, don’t find the dancers entertaining, because I certainly do think they’re good television. I think that like all fish out of water teams, they have the potential to offer a really unique perspective on the new parts of the world that they’re about to experience. But despite their soundbites about what the money would mean to them, I just don’t believe that winning the whole shebang is their first concern.

I’m very much looking forward to getting to know these teams better and finding out if I’m right or wrong about them. Being right is vindicating, but being wrong just makes things that much more unpredictable. Really, it’s a win-win.

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Friday, March 21, 2008

What's so Good about Friday?

Good Friday. What an ironic term. It's a term used to commemorate the day Jesus was brutally tortured and murdered by Roman soldiers. Now, some might say that brutal is a bit too harsh of a term to use when speaking of Jesus, but let's review what really happened.

Very late the night before He was crucified, Jesus went to the garden of Gethsemane to pray. The Bible says that "being in anguish, He prayed more earnestly, and His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground." (Luke 22:44) This means Jesus was under the most extreme amount of stress imaginable. He knew what was about to happen and didn't want to go through it, but He knew He had to. As He was going back to pray more, after waking up the sleeping disciples to tell them to pray, Jesus was arrested and wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death. When a criminal was convicted of a crime punishable by death, that person would undergo some of the most horrendous treatment ever known to man. Roman soldiers knew how to kill a man and make it last for a very long time. It began with a scourging. A mob of men beat Him and pulled out His beard, which was an enormous insult in that culture, not to mention painful. Then they stripped Him naked, shackled His hands above His head, shackled His feet to the ground, and began to beat Him with a "cat-of-nine-tails," which is basically an ancient meat tenderizer. A handle with strips of leather that had metal balls and hooks made of metal or bone attached to the leather that would pulverize and rip His flesh from His body. This would send Him into shock. Many men died from the scourging and did not even make it to the cross. Such was not the case for Jesus.
The soldiers strapped a large log of Roman timber to Jesus' exposed back and expected Him to carry it up the hill to be crucified, but the weight and the splintering wood was just too much to bear. He collapsed under the strain, so one of His disciples helped to carry the cross to the place of His crucifixion. The soldiers placed a crown of thorns into Jesus' head which made Him bleed even more. They posted a placard above His head in mockery that said "King of the Jews," in Aramaic. He was already unrecognizable from the beatings and scourging. This just added more insult to more injury. They took long spikes and drove them into His hands (probably at the wrists) and feet. They fixed the log He had carried to a cross-bar, raised Him up, and dropped the whole cross, with Jesus nailed to it, into a hole in the ground. Surely, the impact jarred His body significantly.
As Jesus hung there, gasping for breath, bleeding, sweating, dying, one of the thieves who was crucified with Him mocked Him loudly. "But the other criminal rebuked him. `Don't you fear God,' he said, `since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.' Then He said `Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.' Jesus answered him, `I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.'" (Luke 23:40-43) Jesus remained pure, holy, faithful, loving, compassionate even up to the point of His death.
As He came to the end of His life, He felt for a brief moment what it was to live without God. The Father turned His back on His Son, allowing Him a glimpse of Hell. "Jesus cried out in a loud voice, `Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?' --which means, `My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?' With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last. The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, heard his cry and saw how He died, he said, `Surely this man was the Son of God!'"(Mark 15:34, 37-39)
The temple curtain being torn in two was so significant. It meant that there was no more waiting room to get to God. Before, only certain people (Levitical priests) were allowed to enter into the inmost part of the temple at certain appointed times to be in the presence of the glory of God and to offer sacrifices for atonement from sin. Now, we are all invited to approach His throne as often as we please. Jesus became our sacrifice when He was crucified and died. He became our Savior when He fulfilled the rest of His prophecy and rebuilt the temple three days later by rising from the dead. He is now our temple, the Savior of the world, our risen King!

So what's so good about Friday? Sunday! That's the day my King rose from the dead, defeated the grave, and brought hope and salvation to the world! Jesus was crucified, died, was buried, and arose on the third day for the remission of our sins. That's the gospel truth! If you don't believe it, I'ma keep praying for you. Jesus wants you to seek Him so you can receive His grace and His salvation. He wants to take you to Heaven for all eternity. There is no better time than the present to let Him do that. Right now! Let Him be your Savior! If you need to talk about it, come find me. I'll be around. I know from experience that it's the greatest decision you could ever make, but the choice is solely yours. No one Else's. I'm begging you, if you haven't already made the choice to follow Christ, please consider what He went through for you and me. He loves you so much more than you know.

Peace, Love, and Chocolate


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cojonesLast week I had the pleasure of participating as a “mock interviewer” (Lord….how many times have I done this in my HR career?) for a batch of fresh-faced interns in the Baton Rouge Area Chamber’s InternBR program.

The goals of the program are, through a series of workshops and training sessions, to enable participants to (1) develop professional communication and leadership skills, and (2) engage in the Baton Rouge community through service and social events.

Let me tell you…this was week seven of the eight week program and these kids (yup…they’re kids to me) were first-rate!

During the course of several hours (we had lunch! and social time!) each intern went through a very brief “mock” interview with a local business or HR leader. We, the interviewers, received resumes earlier in the week and had the chance to run the process however we saw fit for the 3 interns we were assigned. They were expected to give feedback to each other as well so all four of us (my 3 interns and me) sat in a room together and dove into the artificial chaos and madness of the job interview,

In my room I ran a panel –peppering each of the interns with questions in turn. (I thought it was fantastic of course – I was like the host of my very own HR game show!). While I switched up some queries, one question I asked of all three candidates was “Describe your ideal job?” I like that question; in my estimation it helps me understand motivational factors and provides a jump off stage that leads to a conversation about organizational expectations and culture.

All three of them – a Mass Communication/PR student, an Accountant (B.S. in Accounting and an MBA), and a Computer Science student (software developer) – said pretty much the same thing (and I’m paraphrasing here):

“My ideal job is flexible so I can spend time with my family. I want a job that provides me the opportunity to work from home. I want to work for an organization where I am respected and valued.”

Anything wrong with that answer? I didn’t think so. I quite liked it.

But, as I told the group, while “I” like it (and explained to them why I ask it – as pointed out above) not every hiring manager or recruiter they meet with will view their response positively.

Total crap of course…but also the reality.

An answer such as theirs is what keeps middle-aged folks clutching their pearls and bemoaning the state of the current workforce. It’s this sort of answer that causes endless debate amongst the dinosaurs on the HR Talk Bulletin Boards and at my local SHRM meetings as they kvetch and moan – “these kid’s today don’t understand about paying their dues” and “it’s not all about them.”

As sick as we are talking about generational differences (KMN) it never seems to end; we had a heated discussion about this at #truNOLA the other week. (REALLY HEATED!) And just yesterday I attended an event discussing talent and recruiting in the Baton Rouge community and a roomful of recruiters and talent leaders tossed about clichés and generalizations about you-know-which-generation left, right and center.

So yeah…this is an anecdotal tale based on my sitting down with three individuals. Nary a statistic in sight. But anecdotes lead to stereotypes, don’t they?

Guess what though? Once upon a time when I was a single mother with a young daughter I wanted the same thing as these graduates in 2016. I, quite frankly, needed the same thing. I had to find a job that allowed me to leave by 5:15 PM so I could get to the day care center before it closed at 6 PM. I needed a job that provided flexibility on snow days. I needed the opportunity to work from home when my daughter was sick because I had no other resources or options. Also note – we worked from home in those pre-PC days; I took stacks and stacks of paper home to compile reports or sort through resumes and call candidates, via my landline-home-phone, in order to conduct phone screens or schedule interviews.

I wanted meaning and a higher purpose as I grew my HR career; I chose to work for a non-profit agency (with incredibly low pay) because not only did I believe in the mission but it also provided a warm and nurturing work environment.

I’m far from being a fresh-faced grad but I’ve searched for all of those things… and I bet you have too.

We just didn’t have the courage to ask for them.

Anecdotes, Stereotypes, and Hiring Cojones
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2 thoughts on “Anecdotes, Stereotypes, and Hiring Cojones

  • August 4, 2016 at 4:15 pm

    It’s funny that a group of seasoned professionals would talk about “millennial/these kids” stereotypes while Millennials may be talking about stereotypes of their generation. But, like you said, it’s not really a stereotype about the generation as much as it is about their experience level. Also, what a super fun HR gameshow 🙂

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Thursday, November 17, 2005

Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction

...the book is by Patricia Highsmith. You may recognize her name...she's the author of "The Talented Mr. Ripley". So you can imagine how excited I was to get this book and read it. When I finished devouring the book, I set it down and stared at it. Didn't help me a bit! I was SO disappointed. Then I looked at the copyright date....1983! So much has changed in the writing field in 20+ years! While the book has some amusing ancedotes, IMHO, it isn't a "writing" book. I gained no insight, nor any inspiration.

Hey...anybody want a used book?

CHickey said...

Uh, no. Got plenty of those "type" of books, thank you very much!Give yourself a pat on the back for actually reading the entire book!

Dineen A. Miller said...

I can't even get through what I've got! Can't you just read them and then pour it all into my brain. Please?

Robin Caroll said...

LOL, D....well, here's one less you need to read. I would NOT recommend this book to anyone! LOL


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Outlining Methods

The Snowflake Method– A systematic method of outlining, this one starts with characters and eventually leads to a spreadsheet list of all of your scenes. (Speaking of which, here’s a Scene List Spreadsheet in Google Drive to use with the article, you can Make a Copy to your own Google Drive, or just plain download it in whatever your Spreadsheet format of choice is.) Here is a video of Randy explaining it.

Libby Hawker’s Take Off Your Pants Method– Libby wrote a whole book about becoming a plotter instead of a pantser, and her methods are pretty impressive. Ultimately I find her to be a variant of Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat story beats, but she has some interesting ideas of her own and this one is highly recommended.

Michael Moorcock’s How to Write a Book in 3 Days Method– Is basically a more detailed version of my “Chinese Method“. Moorcock’s approach is to assemble everything you need beforehand, even lists of equipment, characters, places, and random stuff, have a rough outline based on the Lester Dent formula, and then attack your keyboard with the fury of a great typhoon until your book is finished. Fantasy writers should definitely check this one out.

25 Ways to Plot, Plan and Prep Your Story– This should be your first stop in trying to find an outlining style that works for you. While irreverent and profanity laden, Chuck Wendig does a great job of laying out the most common methods of story prep. The only flaw with this otherwise beautiful piece is that his descriptions of the methods are pretty bare-bones, so you’re going to have to go looking for more detailed examples in some cases.

The Phase Method– A unique method where you turn your story into a series of mini-beats and write them up in stream-of-consciousness point-form based around key ideas. It sounds weird, but if you’re a more visual or dialogue-based person, or a poet, this might be a method that could work well for you

Speaking of Mind Mapping, I’ve found two noteworthy approaches to using mind mapping to plan stories. Paul Donovan Campos‘ method and this one from No Wasted Ink. I should note that most mind-mapping methods are more brainstorming and less about organizing, but the No Wasted Ink approach is a step by step one for putting together a solid book foundation.


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Friday, May 29, 2015

Which Winchester Will Win?

After our auctions we've been writing articles to let you know what the top dollar guns are in their respective genres, as well as other information like the best performing guns, best performing genre, etc.  As I was looking at the highest estimates in our upcoming 2015 June Regional sale, I realized that a good number of them are Winchesters or pre-Winchester lever guns, and by "a good number," I mean 7 of the top 10 highest estimates.  Go a little further and it turns into 14 of the top 20.  With numbers like those it's easy to see that this auction is headlined by Winchesters and its predecessors, but which will be the top performers when the smoke clears?  This is one of my favorite parts about an auction!  Will the "big dog" bring in the price it's slated to?  Will it be edged out by a close competitor that has been driven to a higher price by two determined collectors?  Will a dark horse swoop in a steal the show completely?  These are all very real possibilities, and in the end only one can claim the crown.  Which of these Winchesters and Henrys do YOU think will bring the top sale price?  Let us know in the comment section below.

Contender #1:

Estimate: $27,500 - $35,000

If another rifle plans on unseating this Henry as the top gun in the auction, it's got its work cut out for it.  Henry rifles are always desirable, especially when they're finely engraved, such as this model.  Combine that with some gorgeous wood and you've got yourself a true contender.

Contender #2

Estimate: $18,000 - $25,000

Special order Winchesters are getting rarer all the time.  Not only because some are inevitably lost each year to time, housefires, theft, rust, and the like, but because those that are available are snatched up by collectors and generally not seen for years thereafter.  The more special order features on one gun the better.  That would have resulted in a high original purchase price after it was manufactured, and that high price made rifles with many special order features rare from the get go.  This Winchester is no exception.  It's the lone Model 1873 in our list and has plenty to show off: deluxe, "fancy" walnut stock, checkered grip and forearm, casehardening, 26" round barrel, and set trigger.  Can it make up the ground and take up the spot as the #1 lever gun?

Contender #3

Estimate: $18,000 - $25,000

Not only does this rifle enjoy a "pre-Winchester" heritage, but some Civil War provenance as well.  It bears military inspection marks of "CGC" for government inspector Charles G. Chapman, and is in the correct serial range for the 1,731 Henry rifles purchased by the Union.  Considering most Henry rifles that saw use in the war were purchased personally by soldiers for their own use, a government bought Henry would have almost certainly seen service.  Both the 1st Maine and the 1st District of Columbia cavalry regiments are documented as having been issued the famous repeater.

Contender #4

Estimate: $16,000 - $25,000

Now how could a Henry rifle without a known Civil War history have a nearly identical estimate to one with said history?  One word: condition.  This Henry's slightly superior condition draw it nearly even to the prior contender.  Which do you think will win out and more importantly, which would you rather have in your collection?

Contender #5

Estimate: $10,000 - $15,000

Here's a Henry that has lived a tougher life than the previous two, so what would make anyone think that it could outprice them?  Well, many historians believe that  the majority of the Henry rifles manufactured during the Civil War were privately purchased by individual Federal soldiers willing to pay for the firepower provided by a 15-shot, lever action, repeating rifle.  Often using their enlistment bonus to purchase the rifle, these soldiers believed the rapid firing rifle could save their lives on the battlefield.  With that information, many collectors see guns with honest wear as more likely to have been actually used in battle, making the item an even more valuable piece of history.  It can also be seen as "more authentic" than pristine versions, since the items showing wear would have been actually used and taken part in the history that so many find fascinating.

Contender #6

Estimate: $8,000 - $12,000

Finally we get to a Winchester 1866 on the list!  The first gun to be produced under the Winchester name will always hold a special spot with collectors, and I'm sure the improvements over the Henry such as the sealed magazine tube, new fore stock, and loading gate (a.k.a. "King's Improvement") were deeply appreciated by those who depended on it.  This particular rifle was shipped in 1876 according to its factory letter and is in the desirable "saddle ring carbine" (SRC) configuration.  It remains in better condition than others on this list, but can it overcome the Henry's rarity? Approximately only 14,000 Henry rifles were produced, while SRCs accounted for 127,000 of the roughly 170,000 Winchester 1866 rifles ever made.  Perhaps this rifle's biggest advantage is time.  Right now could be the perfect time to buy a Model 1866, before next year's almost certain rush to snatch up the rifles during their sesquicentennial anniversary.  Luckily, there are 14 total 1866 rifles in the the June 2015 Regional Auction.

Collector friends, those are the top 6 highest estimated Winchesters and pre-Winchesters in the upcoming sale.  Which do you think will receive the warmest welcome?  Are there other things you think will affect the value that I failed to mention? Something else entirely you think will run away with it all?   Please feel free to use the comment section to tell me how absolutely right or miserably wrong I am.  I look forward to hearing from you!

-Written by Joel Kolander

  1. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder ! I pick Lot # 3

  2. To whom it may concern, it was at a minium a "War between the States", or my choice, "War of Northern Agression". There was no civil uprising. "civil war" is a rewrite of history.
    By the way Contender #2 would look great over my fireplace.

    1. Or even better "a war to preserve slavery"

  3. While I really like #2 since I shoot a replica in SASS matches it would be hard to beat #1, the engraving looks great.

  4. these are really good guns. they surely expensive and really amazing. this would be good for shooting.


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Monday, April 5, 2010

Chef Kevin Argentsinger's Recipes

For those of you that attended the 6th Rockport Herb Festival, here are Chef Kevin Argentsinger's cooking demonstration recipes. Enjoy!
Chef Kevin Argentsinger's Recipes

1 - 9 oz Bag of Baby Spinach Leaves
1 - qt Heavy Whipping Cream
2 - tbs Knorr Caldo de Tomate con Sabor de Pollo
Salt to taste and fresh ground black pepper to taste

Pour heavy whipping cream and Knorr into a medium saucepan. Heat cream until it comes to a steam. Salt and Pepper to taste. Put spinach leaves in the steaming cream until slightly wilted. Take wilted spinach out of cream and let drain, serve.

1 - whole Pineapple cored peeled and diced in small chunks
6 - whole ears of Sweet Corn cut off the cob
1 - Pint Whole grape Tomatoes cut into small peaces
1 - Bunch of Cilantro diced
Juice of Limes to taste
Chipotle pepper spice

Take corn and tomatoes combine in a bowl and Chipotle pepper spice, salt, and sugar to taste. Roast in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until roasted let cool. In a large bowl combine everything and mix well. Taste and adjust.

1 cup of white rice
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup sliced almonds
4 tbs butter
Salt to taste

Melt butter in a saucepan add almonds when lightly browned add rice stir until roasted brown. Add chicken broth, bring to a boil, turn down to a simmer, cover and cook for 25 minutes then fluff with a fork.

Brine Chicken
1 gallon cold water
1/2 cup kosher salt (reduce to 1/4 cup if using regular table salt.)
2/3 cup light brown sugar

Mix brine together well with a whisk. Place 1 whole chicken (thawed or frozen-You may also use chicken parts.) in brine for 2 hours up to overnight. Cover and store in the refrigerator.

Cook Chicken
1 Brined skin on boneless chicken breast
1 sprig pineapple sage fine diced
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 sprig fresh rosemary

Spice Blend
1 part salt
1 part fresh ground pepper
1 part chipotle pepper powder
1 part diced onion flakes
1 part diced garlic flakes

Coat chicken with some of the oil. Rub chicken with spice blend. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat oil in a sauté pan until just before smoking. Put chicken in skin side down until nice and crispy brown. Turn over to seal chicken. Take out of oil and place on a baking pan. Put in oven until chicken reaches an internal temp of 165 degrees. Take out and let rest for 10 minutes before serving.

1 comment:

Herbie said...

Here is some more information about Salvia elegansPineapple Sage from The Herb Companion.


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APR 292016

Punchlist Resumes

Rollins Road Gateway Construction

Work on the punch list has resumed on the Rollins Road project. Landscapers are planting the trees and bushes that will make up our final landscaping. Many of the plants have seasonal restrictions, so they could not be installed until this spring.

The decorative work on the Rollins medians continues. There are two tones to the concrete borders around the landscaping, a dark, pebbled surface and a brick-like design with colors similar to the retaining walls on site.

In the next few weeks, the contractor should be completing the remaining punchlist items, repairing damaged spots, touching up landscaping, replacing faded pavement markings, and other miscellaneous cleanup. There shouldn’t be any more big items like the pavement patching last fall, but there will be occasional lane closures so the contractor can access the work.

If you have any questions or need more information, please Contact Us.

To connect to the Work Zone Camera, click the image below.

Camera 1 linkCamera 2 view

Previous Project Updates


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Brookfield Show

We decided to go to the Brookfield Show although it was as much about giving our new cameras a test as it was about a day out.

Rosemary has the Fuji 100s and I the Olympus OM-D EM-5. Perhaps wide angle lenses were not the ideal choice, especially for the show jumping however their unobtrusiveness and light weight meant that no one paid us any mind and we could carry the cameras all day without any issue.

Both bodies were quick to lock focus and fire the shot. The images were sharp and the EVF refreshes quickly enough not to cause any concern. The Olympus occasionally took a little while to wake up although perhaps this is an unfair comparison with the high end DSLR’s I am used to.

Image Quality

Both cameras produced excellent image quality. Images were sharp, generally well exposed with good contrast and highlights and shadows controlled. We had set both to record both jpeg and raw. The jpeg’s were very good and for general photography there was little to be gained by processing the raw file.

Overall it was a very pleasant day out and the cameras were unobtrusive and generally a pleasure to use.

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Monday, June 12, 2017

Updates To Stories

There are many recent updates to my last few articles, but the biggest one is to a December 1, 2015 story I published called "New York Times journalist Michael Schmidt wrongly reports on Hillary Clinton emails again."

Although the original article should be read to learn more about Schmidt's misreporting, this is the entire new update I added over the last few days due to recent news events and more research I completed. If you appreciate my hard work, please contribute to my PayPal account, since I keep working hard on this story - for years - but have never earned a dime for it.

(Updates added from June 8 to June 12, 2017, in light of recent news events.)

6/8/17 Update: Why is the following significant? Essentially, the adviser to former FBI Director James Comey - who once worked with him in US Attorney's office - has been a source for New York Times reporter Michael S. Schmidt for at least nine years. Schmidt reported many things incorrectly about Hillary Clinton during her unsuccessful 2016 presidency campaign, but he also got a lot of great scoops. Some Clinton supporters believe Comey may have violated the Hatch Act just before the election, and - one of the reasons - he was fired by President Trump as FBI director was due to wrongful testimony regarding her longtime aide, Huma Abedin.

On November 2, 2016, a NYT article - Schmidt co-wrote - reported, "Daniel C. Richman, an adviser to Mr. Comey and a Columbia University law professor, argued that despite the backlash, Mr. Comey’s decision to inform Congress preserved the F.B.I.’s independence, which will ultimately benefit the next president."

Defending Comey, Richman told the paper: "Those arguing that the director should have remained silent until the new emails could be reviewed — even if that process lasted, or was delayed, until after the election — give too little thought to the governing that needs to happen after November. If the F.B.I. director doesn’t have the credibility to keep Congress from interfering in the bureau’s work and to assure Congress that a matter has been or is being looked into, the new administration will pay a high price."

Schmidt and Richman appeared as guests during alternate halves of a PBS NewsHour broadcast last Halloween, three days after Comey sent his October 28 letter - to eight Republican chairmen of Congressional committees, seven Democratic ranking members and vice chairman of the Select Committee of Intelligence Sen. Dianne Feinstein - in order to "supplement [his] previous testimony" that the FBI had "completed its investigation of former Secretary Clinton's personal email server." The letter was very brief, but reverberated at the end: "I believe it is important to update your Committees about our efforts in light of my previous testimony."

"In connection with an unrelated case, the FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation,” Comey wrote. "I am writing to inform you that the investigative team briefed me on this yesterday, and I agreed that the FBI should take appropriate investigative steps designed to allow investigators to review those emails to determine whether they contain classified information, as well as to assess their importance to our investigation."

On May 3, 2017, editor-in-chief Nate Silver claimed at FiveThirtyEight - which is now owned by ESPN, but had a "partnership agreement" and was published at the NY Times from 2010 to 2012 - that this letter "upended the news cycle and soon halved Clinton’s lead in the polls, imperiling her position in the Electoral College." Silver also noted, "The article that led The New York Times’s website the morning after the election did not mention Comey or 'FBI' even once — a bizarre development considering the dramatic headlines that the Times had given to the letter while the campaign was underway."

On the October 31st NewsHour show, New York Times reporter Schmidt - who was criticized a few times by the Clinton campaign for misreporting that had to be corrected - brought up the "classified" word first, and didn't note that there weren't any emails that were marked classified before they were sent by the Democratic presidential candidate and her former State Department staffers to private accounts. "That’s the real question here, whether any of the e-mails they’re in possession of are ones they had before that they know are classified or they know they looked at or if these are entirely a new batch," Schmidt said.

Schmidt defended the letter and wrongly predicted: "I sort of find it hard to believe that the FBI would go with such an aggressive step of telling Congress without really having some idea of what is truly here. If these end up to be just a bunch of duplicates, then this will have been a big hubbub over nothing." Politico's Josh Gerstein countered that "Comey might have violated Justice Department policy," and said, "We know from our other reporting that Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates strongly advised Comey against sending the letter, but he felt he needed to, so he did it anyway."

Without realizing that her next guest had been a Schmidt source for many articles, host Judy Woodruff asked him, "Is it your understanding from your reporting that FBI officials already know what’s here or are they truly looking for something unknown?" The New York Times journalist responded, "If you look at Director Comey’s letter to Congress, he basically says, we haven’t had a chance to look at these I wonder what the FBI really knows here. And did that lead them to push as far as they did?"

When asked if "Comey acted because of pressure of some sort from FBI agents who felt that he wasn’t being tough enough on Hillary Clinton", Schmidt said, "I find that hard to believe."

"I think that the line FBI agents who really knew what was going on with the e-mail investigation understood why Director Comey came out and said that the bureau wasn’t recommending charges," Schmidt said, before adding, "I think they realized that there wasn’t criminal intent there," and "So the idea that Director Comey would do this facing some insurrection by FBI agents, I think, is probably not true."

In the following half of the NewsHour broadcast, Woodruff welcomed Richman, introducing him as a "professor at Columbia Law School...a former federal prosecutor, himself, and current policy adviser to Director Comey." Richman sounded much like Schmidt, when he said that Comey was "protecting the credibility of the organization and of his own credibility with Congress," and had been "confronted with very little notice with a trove of e-mails that appeared to be pertinent."

Woodruff's other guest, Arent Fox attorney and partner Peter Zeidenberg - who "spent 17 years at the Justice Department as a federal prosecutor" and "also joined 100 others in an open letter critical of Comey’s actions" - said he thought the then FBI director was "premature to notify Congress before he had had a chance to actually examine these e-mails," that "it was a mistake," adding, "And, frankly, I think it was irresponsible to do it and drop this bomb."

"And, as Josh Gerstein mentioned, it’s very possible, if not likely, that all these e-mails have been looked at already," Zeidenberg told Woodruff. "They could all be duplicates."

Woodruff asked Comey's spokesman if there was "inconsistency", since, that day "the Clinton campaign and others pointed out that there is now new reporting that Director Comey didn’t want it to be known that the administration had confirmed that the Russians were behind the hacking of the Democratic National Committee, arguing that it was too close to the election, that this would influence the election."

Five months before Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway would catch heat over "alternative facts", Richman said, "There is only inconsistency, in the sense that there are really different facts."

Richman added: "And I certainly don’t know all the facts with regard to the internal deliberations with regard to the Russian hacking. But, yes, it certainly is the norm that the department doesn’t confirm or deny investigations and doesn’t confirm or deny the focus on any particular party."

"James Comey told a Senate committee on Thursday he was behind the leak of a memo he wrote that said President Donald Trump asked him to stem the FBI’s investigation to former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn," Max Kutner reports for Newsweek. "The account appeared in The New York Times in May, days after the president fired Comey as FBI director."

Kutner adds: "Comey did not name the friend, but Columbia Law School professor Daniel Richman reportedly confirmed he is that person to the Financial Times and CNN. In an email to Newsweek, he declined to comment."

"Richman’s faculty webpage says he is 'currently an adviser to FBI Director James B. Comey.' The New York Times previously quoted Richman in multiple articles about the former FBI director, around the same time the newspaper published the Flynn article. A New Yorker article in May quoted him and described him as Comey’s 'unofficial media surrogate.'"
"The professor is a former federal prosecutor and served as chief appellate attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, where Comey also worked," Kutner notes. NBC News adds: "Richman and Comey’s ties run deep, and the pair has been friends for 30 years, the law professor told NBC News last fall."

Schmidt's byline appears on multiple Comey stories that quote Richman, including "F.B.I.’s Email Disclosure Broke a Pattern Followed Even This Summer" (1/11/16), "Comey Tried to Shield the F.B.I. From Politics. Then He Shaped an Election." (4/22/17), and "‘Enough Was Enough’: How Festering Anger at Comey Ended in His Firing" (5/10/17).

Schmidt has cited Richman as a source - on the record - for his New York Times articles going back at least nine years to 2008, when he reported many stories related to drugs and baseball.

Some examples include: "Canseco Is Said to Seek Favor to Omit Name" (1/24/08), "Motion Would Take Aim At Clemens's Top Lawyer" (2/26/08), "Balco Prosecutors Target Trainer’s Wife" (2/20/08), and "Contradictions in Kirk Radomski’s Book Could Benefit Clemens" (1/25/09).

Schmidt has apparently ducked questions from multiple media organizations regarding his outed relationship with Richman, but he probably isn't the only journalist at the Times and other outlets that has used the former FBI director's friend, colleague, advisor and spokesman as an unnamed source for articles that have been published regarding Russian interference in the 2016 elections, Clinton and Abedin controversies surrounding the use of a private email server, and the presidential race itself.

However, Schmidt got a lot of things wrong in his reporting for the New York Times and in other media appearances, such as the PBS broadcast, but doesn't seem to care or ever apologize for his role in creating - arguably - "fake news". Despite being part of the story, on June 8th, Schmidt conducted a Facebook Live discussion video for the New York Times called "Key Takeaways From Comey's Testimony." One reader asked if Comey would face any "legal repercussions" for "leaks" from himself and "friends" to the media. Schmidt never mentions his source by name.

"Comey explained today how he had instructed one of his friends to put out to the media the contents of one of these memos," Schmidt said, then placed both hands against his chest to add, "I was the recipient of that memo." On May 16, Schmidt had reported, "The New York Times has not viewed a copy of the memo, which is unclassified, but one of Mr. Comey's associates read parts of it to a Times reporter." Schmidt said he didn't think Comey would face any "legal jeopardy" because the "contents of the memo were not classified."

Schmidt claimed "Comey went to great lengths to make sure that the memos were not classified I believe, in part, because if he ever needed to get them out there, that made it much easier." He added, "If they were classified it would have been very difficult to declassify them and get information from them out."

As noted above, the original article can be found at this link.

Wednesday, June 7, 2017

Trump FBI Director Nominee Christopher Wray Defended Library Record Probes

During an October 21, 2003 Congressional hearing concerning US Terrorism prevention efforts, President Trump's FBI Director nominee Christopher Wray defended the controversial Patriot Act section related to library record borrowings.

According to a 2003 Congressional Quarterly Press article referring to the (perhaps now revised) Section 215 of the Patriot Act, Kenneth Jost wrote, "The section has been dubbed the 'angry librarian' provision because it could be used to obtain records of a person's library borrowings," and that "Justice Department officials appearing as witnesses at the hearing also rejected criticisms of the law."

"The various misperceptions that have been perpetuated about the Patriot Act are disturbing and simply wrong," Jost noted Christopher Wray, who was then the "assistant attorney general for the criminal division", said at the hearing.

Declaring, "We should not allow libraries or any other businesses to become safe havens for terrorist planning, financing, or communication," Wray told Congress in his opening statement that day:
"As you know, several groups including the ACLU, have claimed that Section 215 of the Patriot Act allows the government to investigate the library habits of ordinary citizens. This misinformation has apparently led a number of librarians to warn patrons needlessly of possible government monitoring. This overreaction has only led to further public confusion and misunderstanding about the scope of the Patriot Act.

The suggestion that federal agents are snooping on innocent citizens' reading habits is inflammatory and simply untrue. First, the Patriot Act explicitly protects Americans' First Amendment rights by providing that an investigation may not be conducted 'of a United States person solely upon the basis of activities protected by the first amendment to the Constitution of the United States.' Second, terrorism investigators have no interest in the reading habits of ordinary Americans. As the Attorney General pointed out recently, as of September 18, 2003, this provision had never been used. The House Judiciary Committee also concluded in its October 17, 2002, press release that its 'review of classified information related to FISA orders for tangible records, such as library records, has not given rise to any concern that the [government's] authority is being misused or abused.'

But historically, terrorists and spies have used libraries to plan and carry out activities that threaten our national security. For example, Brian Patrick Regan, who was convicted last February of offering to sell U.S. intelligence information to Iraq and China, used a computer at a local public library to look up addresses for Iraqi and Libyan embassies overseas. Similarly, in a recent domestic terrorism criminal case, a grand jury served a subpoena on a bookseller to obtain records showing that a suspect had bought a book giving instructions on how to build a particularly unusual detonator that had been used in several bombings. This was important evidence identifying the suspect as the bomber. We should not allow libraries or any other businesses to become safe havens for terrorist planning, financing, or communication.

The Patriot Act ensures that business records can be obtained in a national security investigation with the approval of a federal judge. Under the Patriot Act, the government can now ask a federal court to order production of the same type of records available through grand jury subpoenas, but only after the government shows that the records are sought for an authorized foreign intelligence investigation or to protect against international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities. Moreover, Congress also exercises careful and ongoing oversight: Every six months, the Attorney General must 'fully inform' Congress of how Section 215 has been used."
Jost's article added: "Echoing Attorney General Ashcroft's speeches in defense of the law, Wray pointed out that the law required judicial approval for records searches and delayed notification search warrants. He also noted that no library borrowing records have been sought under the law, but said that such information could be useful in some cases in identifying and thwarting suspected terrorists."

"For example, you could easily have -- and this is a hypothetical based on the kinds of things that come up on a day-to-day basis at the FBI and the Justice Department, CIA and other places -- you could have a foreign intelligence service that has a raid in a safe house overseas somewhere, and in the course of that raid, comes up with records that -- for example, there might be rental-car records or job applications, tenancy documents of some sort," Wray said at the hearing (which can be viewed on the CSPAN clip below). "There might even be a library book, for example, from the DC library."

CSPAN video from the same hearing shows former Democratic Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold noting, "Secondly, I do acknowledge that the administration has indicated that they have not used the Section 215 library provisions, provisions that they describe as essential to the fight against terrorism."

But Feingold wondered: "Now, which is it? That they never used them or that they are essential? And what is the objection then to reasonable modifications if they haven't even been used?"

Reporting for ProPublica in 2013, Justin Elliott wrote, "Civil liberties groups and librarians’ associations, which have long been fiercely protective of reader privacy, quickly raised fears of the FBI using that authority to snoop on circulation records."

Elliott added, "Even before the Patriot Act passed, the American Library Association warned members of Congress that the business records provision under consideration would 'eviscerate long-standing state laws and place the confidentiality of all library users at risk.'"

"So has the government ever used Section 215 to get library records?" Elliott asked, before answering his own question: "We don’t know."

Elliott's 2013 story continued: "Testifying before Congress in March 2011, a Justice Department official said Section 215 'has never been used against a library to obtain circulation records.' But as with so much else about the Patriot Act, how often or even whether the government has obtained library records is secret. Section 215 imposes a gag order on people or businesses who are compelled to produce records."

"The FBI has also used a separate Patriot Act provision, issuing what is known as a national security letter, to seek library patron records," Elliott reported in 2013. "One such episode prompted a successful court challenge by Connecticut librarians in 2005-06."

In his April 7, 2003 New York Times article, - "Some Librarians Use Shredder to Show Opposition to New F.B.I. Powers" - Dean E. Murphy wrote, "In a survey sent to 1,500 libraries last fall by the Library Research Center at the University of Illinois, the staffs at 219 libraries said they had cooperated with law enforcement requests for information about patrons; staffs at 225 libraries said they had not."

On June 7, 2017, after Trump tweeted about picking Wray, Reason's Scott Shackford blogged: "On the negative side of the ledger, Wray has been a major defender of the Patriot Act and the expansion of surveillance authority that it granted the federal intelligence community. In Senate Judiciary Committee testimony in 2003, he praised the act as a tool for fighting terrorism and pushed back against 'myths' that the law would be used to authorize surveillance against U.S. citizens. It's interesting to read that old defense in light of what we know now. Remember when one of the bigger worries was that the feds would use the Patriot Act to track what library books we were checking out?."