The Internet is Helping Us in Natural Disasters, But Not Enough

I just published a new post on the Silicon Valley Moms Blog about what's now being called the "Summit Fire" in the Santa Cruz Mountains near Watsonville. As a kid who grew-up in tornado country, I was completely clueless about wildfires until yesterday. Now I've been studying everything available online to track the blaze because it's just a few miles from my sister's dream home, her animals, and one of the most beautiful pieces of property I've ever seen in my life. I don't know if I'm at liberty to describe it, but even if I did, still, it's one of those places where you have to see it to believe it.

In any case, what I learned over the past 24 hours is that although we have 2700 firefighters on the scene to battle these fires, we only get semi-accurate updates about once a day about where the fires really are. People are in their homes waiting for calls or knocks on the door to evacuate. The neighbors who may or may not have phones or power communicate to the best of their ability, but they're still not certain how far away it is. They see the smoke or possibly the flames, but it's difficult to discern the distance. I found one live blog site where there was some minimal conversation via locals about what was going on to help sift through the mystery, but that was it.

So what I want to know is where do we go from here? What is the future of emergency response online? It has to be better than a few news sites and links. I'm not saying what we have now isn't good. I'm happy we have the resources we do. But I know from my technology background that we can do better. We've put together phenomenal outreach programs and online activism to raise money and repair devastated areas. Why not create a place where communities can create ad-hoc emergency response sites as they arise? It's possible something like this already exists, but not enough of us know about it.

What I found was one site for firefighters that said how to listen on short range scanners, some articles on the local newspaper site, a few maps that are only updated daily, the state fire site with data updated periodically (like every day or half a day), one satellite image of the fire, brief TV and radio coverage, a state road closures page, one live blog on the local news station web site where people exchanged notes, and a totally overloaded fire detection map at noaa.gov that nobody can use because everybody's trying to get to it. And when watching the news and hearing from locals, it seems that the firefighters and police are keeping things barricaded for safety and not allowing any information transferral during the process.

Fires are dangerous, but if people can use personal weather stations and webcams like linked on the Weather Underground, why not have a system that applies locals as information centers online and includes what's coming across the waves from emergency support services? Anyone out there have an idea of how to do this?

Iowa Caucuses and the Zone Diet

40/30/30 is how the Zone Diet reads - 40% carbs, 30% fat and 30% protein. That's how the Iowa caucus results came across for the Democrats. 38% for Obama, the sugars - what brightens our eyes, what gives us energy and motivates us. 30% for Edwards, the fats - buttering us up, telling us what we want to hear about change. 29% for Clinton, the proteins - for substance, strength and stability.

The truth is we need all of these things. Every diet is different and you can agree or disagree with them, but the Zone Diet immediately came to my mind when I saw the results tonight from the caucuses because the Zone Diet prescribes the ratio of 40:30:30 to keep the human body working. Iowans showed us tonight that they want a mix too.

Whomever will win the Democratic nomination (and from my POV, hopefully the general election) needs to come across with some sugar - inspiring speeches, some fat - issue substance, and some protein - concrete plans for how to achieve the change so craved by the majority of American voters. (I'm just projecting here based on polling, turnout thus far, and the current administration approval level.) I know it sounds silly comparing politics to dieting, but our country has been yo-yo'ing for a while now and we need to stop.

Also posted at here at BlogHer.com.

BlogHers Act for MOTHERS Act

We've all heard the stories - moms who are incapacitated by depression, launched into this state of anxiety, sadness, loneliness that they can't seem to break out of - it's called Postpartum Depression. But what many people don't know is that this disease is much more complex than it sounds. In fact, one thing I haven't seen mentioned in other posts about this is that depression related to pregnancy and childbirth can actually begin while you're pregnant, and can affect the pregnancy itself. An important issue, to be sure, and I applaud the BlogHers Act organizers for choosing to endorse this.

The Senate is now reviewing an act, called the MOTHERS Act ("The Mom’s Opportunity To Access Help, Education, Research, and Support" for Postpartum Depression Act). This is one of those bills that just says - hey, let's address this problem in a more cohesive fashion. I haven't had a chance to read the text of the bill in detail yet, but from everything I've heard, it's a worthy effort.

Rather than going on about this, I'll direct you to Glennia Campbell's post at the Silicon Valley Moms Blog where she goes into a bit more detail about the bill itself. Also, there are several other great personal stories on the Silicon Valley Moms Blog that I highly recommend reading, and of course at BlogHer.

Hillary in Hillsborough

How could she not open her speech by talking about the weather on a day like yesterday? I could see across the Bay from this amazing property in Hillsborough - Redwood trees, gazebo and terraced gardens overlooked a tented lawn and the most perfect pool setting I've seen outside of Italy. Hillary Clinton, hopeful first woman president of the U.S. (applause please, everyone always applauds when this is mentioned and she's in the room), came to speak to 200 people. She sparkled as she came out into the sun before entering the tent.

This was my second time to see Hillary Clinton in person - my first was in the spring at a much greater distance. This time she was 10 feet from me, close enough to see the expressions on her face and notice the details in her jewelry. As she spoke - about the economy, energy policy, healthcare, education, innovation and terrorism - I felt both humbled at the opportunity and awed by how one woman, her voice hoarse from speaking around the country, can persevere through so much to achieve this simple but incredible goal of leadership.

Although most people in the group I'd peg as moderate Democrats, we had a significant share of Republicans at the event, which made the discussions during and after the event a little different than when I saw Senator Clinton last in San Francisco. There was more talk about bipartisanship and incentives for businesses, more discussion about making college affordable for everyone, and encouraging innovation while simultaneously bringing down prices in the healthcare and energy sector.

Senator Clinton spoke at length about her top priorities both now as a senator and for the future as president. She emphasized the need for a new energy policy "for our security, our environment and our economy." She jabbed at George Bush - "you cannot be a leader if no one is following." She discussed how in order to make the sweeping changes that are necessary, we will have to "reform the government."

When asked about how she would proceed in the "war on terror," she had a 3 point plan beginning with regaining the "moral authority that we've lost." "We're now seeing the results ofthe deterioration in Pakistan," she said. She thinks it's the most dangerous place in the world right now, and she thinks they have nukes. "We've got to be vigilant - not fearful bit vigilant."

On the environment, she said "it's not going to be easy (major environmental progress) but we are making some positive changes," talking about the time we have before the election. She lauded former Vice President Gore for his Nobel prize and for his efforts, but she said "I think Al would be happier with a policy than a prize," knowing there is much work that needs to be done on her part in order to make the necessary changes.

About healthcare, Hillary brought out her vast knowledge of that area and cited several related statistics. "We can't continue to spend more than anyone else in the world and not cover everyone." She also advocated on behalf of electronic medical records, saying it would save us $44Billion/year. That figure I find staggering, but I've often wondered at the disorganized fashion of most medical records as a technologist. This could build and expand businesses too, from what I know of the industry. She talked about creating new jobs and coming to agreements with everyone in biotech, insurance, "big pharma" and the rest of us and how it's unlikely the first step will be much more than a lot of compromise for everyone, but she indicated that may be the only way we can get everyone covered.

Senator Clinton spoke at great length about the challenges we have in education. She wants to provide pre-Kindergarten in 50 states. Because there's a huge drop-out rate by the third grade. Third grade! It makes me sick to think about it. She thinks it's deplorable what's happening with the cost of college education. "A lot of people in mortgage crisis are there because they took out second mortgages to send their kids to college," she said. She told stories about some of the people she's met in that situation. She also said that the U.S. is declining in the percentage of people who are going to college now, compared to many other countries.

The senator and former first lady spoke for over an hour and took Q&A for at least 30 minutes more before being whisked away to catch a flight to her next event. Hosted by Cynthia Shuman and Dan Banks and Chaired by former California State Senator Jackie Speier, the lunch event lasted longer than I expected. Jackie Speier, as always, was radiant in her introduction and shared personal stories that illustrate why she's supporting (and speaking on behalf of) Senator Clinton. There was some buzz as well about when Jackie will run for office next. Everyone in the room, of course, will be rooting for Jackie in her next race.

My mom, who happened to be in town this week, kindly sponsored my attendance to the event, since intimate political fundraisers (yes, 200 people is "intimate") tend to cost a pretty penny. She came along with me, and I was able to find one friend at short notice who came as well. She's one of the registered Republicans and she was impressed by Hillary's knowledge of the issues, but she's a tough sell (in this case because she knew one of the Republican candidates personally).

There's still a lot of talk among women and men about whether Hillary's electable - I thought that was past - but I guess not. The truth is we'll never know until it happens. Polling results say it's possible. I keep pointing-out to people that several of the first milestones in women's political history were in cases where women took offices their husbands previously occupied, so there's actually a strong precedent for this. People talk about her baggage, the smear campaigns against her, etc. and all I can say is it's sad how much of our tax money has been wasted to turn the American public against one woman - a smart, dedicated, driven, amazing person - who can and is making a monumental difference in the state of our world.

These are not simple problems Senator Hillary Clinton faces and they don't have simple solutions, nor is her list of adversaries small, but as I study her - through the debates, seeing her in person, reading what she writes, learning about her character from those who know her - I just can't help but feel that we would be in good hands if and when she becomes president. She's not sugar-coating what needs to be done and she's not making promises she can't keep. It's refreshing to me both to see a woman and someone who presents a realistic perspective on our situation as a nation, but who brings people together in a problem-solving fashion to address these issues in a proactive, insightful way. At one point during her speech, she rebuked Bush's choices as president and rhetorically asked, "how about appointing qualified people [to their posts in our government]?" Let's start by electing one.

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Also posted on the Silicon Valley Moms Blog.

Hillary Hopes to Breathe Life Back into Work-Life Balance

I used to think creating work-life balance was a matter of just taking control over your own life. And to a certain extent, it is. But there are factors in our society as Americans that have really gotten out-of-control. In other countries, new mothers have an opportunity to take real time off to spend with their new babies. New fathers can spend a little time at home too. And without fear of losing their jobs or taking pay cuts for doing it. Here, that's hardly ever the case. After I became a parent, I realized work-life balance is actually very hard to come by here, especially in California where so many families need to have both parents working in order to just pay the mortgage.

Hillary Clinton, in a week of initiatives focused entirely on women, released a proposal to provide greater family leave options. The press release listed key components of the plan as creating a new State Family Leave Innovation Fund that will "expand paid leave across the country". She also proposes extending FMLA to 13 Million more Americans and requiring sick leave of at least 7 days a year. (How does this work with lame PTO programs that lump vacation and sick days all into one, I wonder?) She's promoting model workplaces and a federal telecommuting initiative (woo-hoo!), she has an affordable childcare component (no details here), and she's working to prevent discrimination, particularly in the case of pregnant women.

This week, Hillary Clinton has also spoken on a number of women's issues and for women's organizations. This is a key component of her campaign, of course, since she's the first viable woman candidate for president, but I personally believe it is much more than that. Having read a great deal about her now and having talked with and read stories about people who have known her well, it is clear to me that she has a deeply rooted commitment to women and families. This is a big part of why I support her candidacy.

It's not just about Hillary Clinton being pro-choice, a woman, a mother, or particularly vocal on key issues generally identifiable as women's issues like healthcare. Reading accounts from former staffers, she walks her talk. When she was First Lady, she allowed some of the people who worked for her to take long leaves for medical, pregnancy, post partum and childcare purposes, work flexible hours and in one rare case, bring a child to work.

If someone had told me all of that before I became a mother, perhaps I would have thought it was a weak policy or unprofessional. But now I realize how hard it really is to balance work and family in a way that is both satisfactory in allowing children to be properly nurtured and cared for while allowing parents to develop meaningful careers. Work-life balance is not some pie-in-the-sky idea that can only happen for the uber-wealthy or those who make major sacrifices. Look at Europe - it is possible. Hillary's plan is just a first, much needed major step.

I am lucky to be able to attend a lunch this Monday in California that will be hosted by former California State Senator Jackie Speier, a woman who has been a long-time champion of women and families. I won't go into too much detail here because I've blogged about this before, but Jackie Speier herself is admirable in many respects through all she's been through personally. I worked for her briefly before I had to go on bed rest in my pregnancy and she was so understanding; I never would've expected that, but she knew I made the right choice in resigning my post so I could make sure my pregnancy was sustainable and that my daughter would be born healthy. I think it's very fitting that she is hosting this event for Senator Clinton after a week of women's initiatives. It shows the real commitment that Hillary has to these new proposals and I have no doubt we will make tons of progress in this area if she becomes president.

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Also posted at BlogHer.

Connecting With Elizabeth Edwards

The Silicon Valley Moms Blog and sister sites (via conference call) Chicago Moms Blog and DC Metro Moms Blog had a unique opportunity to meet with Elizabeth Edwards in San Jose yesterday. As I've been contributing to the blog now for over a year, this was my second chance to meet with this remarkable woman, with whom many of us feel a connection. Except this time was different - she's no longer on a book tour; she's the wife of a presidential candidate. And while the discussion shifted to more specific policy issues than personal, it was still intimate and inviting.

As you can see from my liveblogging, we covered topics from tax brackets to math education to healthcare translators. And Elizabeth Edwards still loves us. (After one of my fellow contributors challenged her parenting choices a few weeks ago, there was some heated exchange that got picked-up by "Good Morning America" and taught our blogger and many others a lesson in taking care of what they post. Eventually Elizabeth and Rebecca made up, but it was an interesting few days for the blog.) And we still love her. Even if some of us won't be voting for her husband.

In my case, as much as I really like Elizabeth and John Edwards, Hillary Clinton's experience and her deep grasp of the issues is holding me strongly in her support. When it comes to national security, our place in the world, healthcare and the economy, I believe Hillary Clinton is our best choice. I like John Edward's proposals and I especially like the fact he's willing to talk about the environment and poverty more than most of the other candidates, but at the end of the day, with terrorists striking, hurricanes flooding and children dying all over the world, I'll sleep better at night knowing Hillary and Bill Clinton are in the White House than John and Elizabeth Edwards. That said, I would still sleep very well knowing John and Elizabeth Edwards were in the White House, and if John Edwards wins the nomination, I will work extremely hard to make sure he wins the election next November.

So what is it about Elizabeth Edwards that makes us all like her so much? As we noticed when we met with her last year during her book tour, she has this down-to-earth quality that shows both her intelligence and her kindness, without any superficial attitude or put-on interest. She genuinely likes to meet new people, she has a wonderfully light way about her, and she sat down with us like we were all old friends. She's also a little bit of a geek, hanging out on the blogs late at night in hotel rooms while traversing the campaign trail, which I find endearing. And she has dealt with major life challenges with the death of her son and her breast cancer, both of which have only added more depth to her persona and more commitment to the causes meaningful to her. I find her both incredibly inspiring and acutely insightful.

Where do we go now? Well, she's promised to meet with the DC Metro Moms Blog and the Chicago Moms Blog as well, so hopefully that will transpire. The SVMoms still seek to meet with other candidates and their spouses, regardless of party, and I hope to help facilitate that. Although I realize it is a long shot because Elizabeth Edwards is unique in her connection to mommybloggers, I think the other candidates could benefit greatly from the discussion with the women in our network - all of whom are highly educated, qualified people in their own right, not just moms, and all of whom represent a key group of women voters.

Some of us from the SVMoms Blog spoke today with various members of the press about our meeting, and one of the points brought up was that this event really has no precedent. The reporter in one case couldn't recall another time where a group of bloggers was given such intimate access to a candidate or candidate's wife. I think this holds great promise for blogs to provide another vehicle for kitchen table and New Hampshire-style living room meet-and-greet democracy. If we can take these small conversations taking place in person and somehow transmit that feeling through the web, we might all feel a little closer to the national political process after all. Thank you Elizabeth.

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Also posted here on the BlogHer site.

Liveblogging SVMoms Meeting Elizabeth Edwards Today

Today, I had the opportunity, along with the Silicon Valley Moms, to meet with Elizabeth Edwards again, wife of presidential candidate, John Edwards. Last fall we met with Mrs. Edwards and we all really enjoyed that experience, so we worked hard to make it happen again.

This time, we decided to live blog the meeting and since I'm the tech politics mom, I got that exhausting, but exciting job. (Carpal tunnel, what carpal tunnel?) Elizabeth Edwards talks so quickly and brilliantly (and often tangentially), it can be difficult to follow her threads, but it turned out well. We discussed a variety of issues from healthcare to education to the US's place in the world. We all felt honored she was willing to share her precious time with us.

Here's my liveblogging post. There will be more follow-up on the SVMoms blog about the meeting over the next few days.

Cows vs. Cars - Is McDonald's More Toxic for the Planet Than GM?

This is an article from late last year, but it was forwarded to me this week and really gives an interesting perspective on air pollution and the environment. Not that auto pollution isn't awful, but this article explains how livestock growth actually emits more greenhouse gas emissions. The solution? Consume less meat. I'm not saying go all-veggie necessarily. I've tried and failed. (I'll save that story for another time.) But reducing meat in the diet is generally considered healthier anyway, so why not give it a try for the sake of the environment?

Vote in BlogHers Act Poll on Global Healthcare

BlogHers Act is taking on a year-long initiative to make an impact in an area selected by BlogHer members. We voted and the topic selected was global healthcare, but since that is so broad, we're trying to narrow it down some. Here's a poll on sub-topics. You can select more than one...




Here's the related post. My choices were clean water and training healthcare workers. I'm very passionate about the maternal healthcare issue, but I think that clean water supercedes it - if you have a bunch of babies that can't drink clean water...

I think 3 action items for the campaign would be great:
1) Clean water campaign
2) Train healthcare workers
3) Provide birthing kits to communities

I think these could all 3 go together - the clean water is harder because it's related to infrastructure, but the other two are more easily achieved... anyway this may be biting off more than we can chew, but raising awareness is the first step.

BlogHer Politics Break-out Session: What Questions Do Women Bloggers Want Candidates to Answer in Election 2008? SubGroup - Iraq

I was asked to liveblog during the BlogHer politics break-out session Saturday entitled "What Questions Do Women Bloggers Want Candidates to Answer in Election 2008?" when we broke into subgroups. I sat in the Iraq subgroup and there were some really interesting women in my group (as with all of them) who put together a great set of topics and questions, chronicled here in the comments, along with the liveblog about the entire panel.

The three main issues we came up with were: leaving Iraq (timeline and logistics), financial support through the transition and infrastructure rebuilding, and status of the VA/Healthcare system for our military veterens.

Relaunched bcomfy.com as a Resource Site

Some of you may remember that I had a company back in '99-2000 that focused on helping companies and individuals "ergonomize" their work spaces - bcomfy.com was the site and it was to be an online resource. I launched it right at the peak of the dotcom boom and learned a lot through the process, getting a ton of help from the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs", the Software Development Forum, and the Womens Technology Cluster. Funding began drying up and nobody wanted to work two jobs simultaneously any more, so I joined another startup and put bcomfy on hiatus...

Yesterday, after a lunch discussion with another local serial entrepreneur where we discussed how easy it was to launch web sites these days, I decided it was time to relaunch bcomfy as a blog. I won't be writing much there on a regular basis, but it's an easy framework to put up news and information and it has a nice linkable interface for resources. I tried out the new Blogger interface as the site redirects to Blogspot and it works pretty well. There are a few little bugs like I couldn't for the life of me get it to put up an image that I had but it looks pretty good otherwise.

The idea behind the site is to be a helpful resource for people with injuries, disabilities and illnesses making ergonomics painful and/or difficult for them. So please - if you know people with carpal tunnel syndrome, tendonitis, chronic pain syndrome, trigger finger, paralysis, numbness, ganglion cysts or other repetitive strain injuries or symptoms, please direct them to the new bcomfy.com site if they are seeking resources. Thanks!

What I Learned Last Night From Bill Clinton

Last night in San Francisco was the Clinton Foundation Millennium Network Launch Reception - an event which intended to attract philanthropic leaders under 40 to get involved with the Clinton Foundation. The pre-event organization and mobilization effort online was impressive and it was a great opportunity to see Bill Clinton live locally, a great cause, and a fabulous group of people.

Let's start with the stats. The event raised $200,000. That means the Clinton Foundation now has $200,000 more to use in their efforts in saving lives around the world - particularly in their efforts working with those suffering with AIDS and from terrible poverty. It sounds like they have had some real success in places like Rwanda from what former President Clinton said in his short speech.

As to the event itself encompassed 1500 people standing room only in a mid-sized ballroom in SF. Before that, I was in a room for the host reception with about 75 people. Having heard how charismatic and impressive he can be in person, I expected to be wowed by being in the same room with him and I expected a grand entrance, but there was no fanfare - he just came in to take photographs and shake hands before going down and speaking to the main reception. In the main ballroom, people were waiting patiently for the speech - many of them who had never seen President Clinton (like me).

Once Clinton entered the main ballroom, he was greeted by an excited crowd and his speech included a lot of wonderful information about the work of the Clinton Foundation. Although I have worked in online fundraising and online marketing for campaigns for many non profits, I learned from Bill Clinton's speech. He said that online fundraising does make a difference and he cited examples as to how small donations with the tsunami and Hurricane Katrina made a huge impact. I hadn't heard that angle before. And the event itself proved that point very clearly. We all learned in 2004 how online fundraising can make an impact in elections, but this really showed the grassroots, ground level impact. More importantly, I was impressed that he was up there emphasizing this fact. Many politicians give it lip service, but when Clinton gives his stats, people listen.

I learned after the fact that the Clinton Foundation hopes to expand the Millennium Network to several cities around the country and get people under 40-45 involved globally. I know a lot of people who attended the event are looking forward to hearing more about how we can be active not just in fundraising but in ground level work, grassroots organizing, etc. so when I find out more about that, I will post about it and let people know. They will be holding more events - starting with New York City - soon and this is the beginning of a lasting effort to get a more active, young professional membership for the Foundation and to continue fighting big problems like AIDS, poverty, global warming and childhood obesity.

Clinton Foundation's Next Generation of Philanthropic Leaders

If you've never seen Bill Clinton speak, this is a relatively inexpensive way to do so. It's a nonpartisan, tax-deductible event and benefits some wonderful causes. Please join Chuck and I at the event. Let me know if you would like to attend (post a comment or email sairy[at]sairy[dot]com) and we'll get an official invitation sent your way. Normally I wouldn't post full event info, but since there's no web page yet to submit RSVPs, this will have to do for now.

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Millennium Network's Inaugural Reception Benefiting the William J. Clinton Foundation
with President Bill Clinton

Saturday, April 14, 2007
6:00pm-9:00pm
Fairmont Hotel
950 Mason Street
San Francisco, CA

Tickets: $100 (Tax-Deductible)

“President Clinton's vision is to encourage the next generation of leaders and philanthropists to address the challenges of global interdependence through the Clinton Foundation Millennium Network, which seeks to engage under 40- year-olds in the work of the Clinton Foundation. The Clinton Foundation delivers tangible results to meet pressing issues in the United States," such as:

- Fight Against HIV/AIDS
- Poverty
- Global Warming
- Urban Development
- Childhood Obesity

All Contributions benefit the Clinton Foundation, which are also tax deductible. If you are unable to attend, you are encouraged to donate in support the organization.

Vogue Letter & Linking Pain With Depression

According to a number of research studies, there's a link between depression and pain. Essentially they get into a vicious cycle and as a result of the trauma to the nervous system in both cases, they effect each other. I'm no expert on this topic, but I thought it was impressive that Vogue magazine covered it in a riveting personal anecdote. So I wrote a letter to the editor that was published in this month's (March) issue thanking them for shedding light on the subject. As a popular womens' magazine, it's important they feature issues like these in addition to fashion and lifestyle pieces.

While recovering from nerve trauma resulting from my daughter's birth-delivery and previously with repetitive strain injuries, I suffered from depression. It's no surprise that it can cause a person to be blue when s/he can't get out and do normal activities for whatever reason, but when I learned from doctors after my recent bout about the relationship between pain and depression, it made more sense as to why it's difficult to heal and break that cycle for many people - particularly those with chronic problems like back pain. For anyone who suffers from either chronic pain and/or depression, I recommend they learn more about the relationship between the two.

More Women in Politics; Less in High-Tech

It's great that we have a woman as Speaker of the House and finally a financially viable woman candidate for President, but in another area that has always been male-dominated, technology, women are on the decline again, according to a silicon.com article by Steve Ranger (sounds like he should be a relative).

An organization called Intellect conducted research that shows women now fill 16% of tech jobs vs. 18% two years ago. Ouch. I really thought it was higher than that by now. Supposedly a lot of the attrition is at the executive and upper management level. I don't doubt that. Supposedly Intellect is working on an action plan to develop better industry practices that foster things women want like a more flexible workplace.

I'll admit it - I work for myself mostly because I've had a difficult time finding a flexible enough workplace to suit my needs. Some of it is because I've suffered from repetitive strain injuries (carpal tunnel, tendinitis, etc.), but now that I'm a parent, I have other needs that match those of many other women. And although I enjoy being self-employed and choosing clients myself, I can't help but wonder what other avenues my career might have taken had there been more flexible opportunities at larger organizations - in or out of high-tech.

Springtime, Sleeping Lions & the Earworms Phenomenon

I've had a lot of show tunes stuck in my head this past week - not sure why - but the coup de grace was "Springtime for Hitler" from The Producers. So I decided to do a search and see what other people have said about this phenomenon (not the show tunes per se but songs in general.) Here's the scoop:

They're called 'earworms' and they happen to women and musicians most. (No wonder - I'm both...) WebMD reports that 98% of people have had this happen to them at one time or another. James J. Kellaris, PhD, of the University of Cincinnati did a study in 2003 of 559 students and on their list of most common earworms were songs like "YMCA", "Who Let the Dogs Out" and my personal favorite, "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" that played repeatedly on hold music for this hotel I was to stay in once and I recall being stuck listening to that song for hours. No wonder I was traumatized by that trip.

Just yesterday, someone on Fazed mentioned getting "We Belong" stuck in his/her head after having not heard it in years. That happens to me all the time - I always wonder where my brain digs this stuff up. No one seemed to respond with any intelligent scientific info on that though.

For those cases where we find ourselves "tortured" by one annoying song that just won't get out of our heads, Alison McCook wrote in '03 that "people most frequently plagued by this phenomenon are those with slightly neurotic tendencies, and people who enjoy and listen to music often."

For those people, rumor has it that chewing on cinnamon sticks will help make the song begone. I'll see if that works. All I know is that by the time I'd finished drafting this post, "Springtime For Hitler" had been replaced by "The Lion Sleeps Tonight". (Trivia tidbit: I looked up the lyrics and all of those "haweemowah" type sounds in the song are mostly Zulu for phrases like "the lion's in peace" and "the lion sleeps." Kinda boring for how exotic they sound...)

As for tonight, my guess is "Auld Lang Syne" will get stuck in my head fairly soon. Happy New Year!

RSI Resources

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, Menial Epicondilitis, Tendinitis, Cumulative Trauma Disorder - they're all repetitive strain injuries and they all sound menacing, but really they're just a function of the human body not being well-equipped for modern living.

I was diagnosed with a whole host of RSIs in 1997 and spent the better (or worse, as the case really was) of five years relearning how to do things like type, drive, and drink (not together, of course). And once I got a little better, I spent 2 years researching RSI and ergonomics and building a company (bcomfy.com - put indefinitely on hold for a couple of reasons) to help people and companies respond to the dangers of computer-related injuries.

During that time, I found some good resources for RSI and the last couple of weeks, I've been sadly reminded how important it is that people be able to find these resources. As a new mom, I'm meeting more women who suffer from CTS, tendinitis, etc. and it's heartbreaking to see people who can't even pick up their kids. So for anyone and everyone who may be concerned about ergonomic injuries, don't waste time. Get help - and make sure it's the right help.

Top priority is the best doctor possible. I know of several really good ones now, so don't hesitate to ask. Second priority is a good physical therapist. And from there, massage therapists, chiropractors, nutritionists, and personal trainers can be incredibly helpful as well as occupational and psychological counselors. Trying out a variety of keyboards, headsets, chairs and pointing devices can make a world of difference as well. I could write a book on this subject and maybe someday I will, but for now, I'll recommend three: Repetitive Strain Injury, by Dr. Emil Pascarelli & Deborah Quilter, The Repetitive Strain Injury Recovery Book, also by Deborah Quilter, and Computer-Related Syndrome, by Dr. Richard Dean Smith & Steven Garske.

Many of the resources I found while doing my research are in a box somewhere, but for now, here are some good places to start: Working Well, Typing Injury FAQ, ErgoWeb, Office-Ergo, and University of Michigan Center for Ergonomics.

Good vendors include Relax The Back Store, Hello Direct, Remedy Interactive, Levenger, and The Ergonomic Resource.

Recent Writing

For a writer, there's nothing like that first time you see your own byline. I've had that opportunity online and in print magazines, but I had yet to see it in a book until recently. One of my articles, "Social Engineering Fundamentals," has attracted a lot of attention over the past few years and an editor in India asked to publish it in a new book - Ethical Hacking - An Introduction. Mine is the third article, part one of the series - "Hacker Tactics." Here's one place you can buy it - Bagchee.com. It doesn't affect my pocketbook, but it's a good compilation. Mostly, it's a great motivator to get me back to work on my book proposal. ;)

A few months ago, while still in the postpardum haze, I wrote a followup piece for Security Focus - "Social Engineering Reloaded" - to continue where I left off in the original series. It was fun revisiting the topic, particularly in light of how much has changed during that time.

As of yesterday, I'm now blogging for the Silicon Valley Moms Blog. My first post, Apple's Next Generation Challenge, looks at why Apple Computer doesn't have an educational discount for kids before college. The SV Moms Blog is a really interesting collection of women and I'm proud to be associated with them.

I've updated dotblog with Julia's URL and a photo so people at the March of Dimes' ShareYourStory.org, who were following the latter days of my pregnancy can see how well she is doing. I may begin using that blog again as a place to vent my frustrations about recovering, rather than posting that here. For anyone facing preterm labor and preemie problems, ShareYourStory.org is a comforting community.