Know Your Enemy

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Yes, it is war again.  My yearly battle with seasonal allergies has erupted again into violence.  Violent sneezing, gruesome coughing and a river of tears and clear liquid pouring from my eyes and nose.  I am sure many of you readers are fighting the same battle I am these days.  For some it is worse in the Spring.  For me it’s worst in the Fall.  Well, like any good warrior will tell you, “knowing your enemy” is of critical importance to winning the war.  And although knowing what these pollens actually look like (when viewed through and electron microscope) will not provide you any critical advantage, it will at least make you feel better about nuking these scary looking irritants with Claritin, Benadryl or whatever your favorite weapon of allergic destruction may be.  Grab a hanky and have a look at this interesting pollen slide show from the Telegraph UK.

States With the Lowest Unemployment

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The Business Insider released an article this week listing the top ten states with the lowest unemployment rates.  The lucky top 10 are: 1) North Dakota 2) South Dakota 3) Nebraska 4) New Hampshire 5) Vermont 6) Hawaii 7) Kansas 8) Wyoming 9) Minnesota 10) Iowa The article included information on the particular industries in each of these states that contributed to its position among the states with the lowest unemployment.  And although medical industry was not featured as a key driver of employment in any of these states, there’s no getting around the fact that wherever there are people, there will always be demand for medical services.  So if you’re setting out, new certificate in hand, looking for a new place to start your life and career, think about some of these places where the good employment outlook surely means the local economies are vibrant.

Friday Funnies – Quitting a Job Made Easy

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By now, the whole country has seen the story of the disgruntled Jet Blue flight attendant who literally pulled the cord and ejected himself from his job after a particularly stressful day.  I am sure he will be seeking a new job shortly.  If you’re about to graduate and ready to leave your crummy job behind to begin your new career in medical billing and coding, you might want to purchase this useful item – the Slipquit – when it’s time to tell your current boss, “sayonara”.

Unplug and Carve Out Some Free Time

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We’re all just so busy.  Working, studying, raising kids, planning for the future.  Sometimes, for those of us tethered to all these activities by the computer, it can seem like we just don’t get enough time to unplug – literally or figuratively.  Here are a few tips on how to reclaim the spare time you may recall having once had to spend on yourself.  These come courtesy of Kari Henley and you can read her whole article about Reclaiming Spare Time here.  Kari says: Email Self-Control — Declutter your inbox by unsubscribing to anything you don’t need or read regularly, and try not to continue long email conversations that aren’t necessary. One of Therese Borchard’s tricks is to take weekend breaks from her computer. Imagine! This is a great way to scrounge up a ton of free time — think of it as email Sabbath, (Reading this column, however, is an acceptable exception). Social Networking is junk food, plain and simple. Let’s face it — Facebook is the Doritos of friendships and Twitter is a super size box of Fries. Both are tempting, and both are ultimately not all that healthy. Take the time for some “slow food” — home-cooked friendships that require face-to-face time. If you are IM’ing someone in your office, get up and try walking over for a change. Facebooking your best friend? Pick up the phone or stop by; imagine how you look from space, hunched over terminals sharing the daily chatter. Find the “in-between” moments of the day to embrace as spare time. Driving is a great opportunity to do some deep breathing, turn off the noise in your head, and notice the scenery around you, rather than listening to talk radio, eating, or talking on the cell phone. Find the moments in the shower, doing dishes or walking the dog to flatten out as buffer zones of nothingness. Force yourself to be bored. Remember being bored? It is the MacDaddy of spare time. Kids today think five or six seconds of spare time equals being bored, and many adults’ tolerance for unfilled moments is not much better. Set aside several hours once a month with nothing particular to do and see how it affects you.

Never Give Up

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The old saying goes, “I used to complain I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no feet.”  Regardless of how tough your believe your circumstances to be, there is always a way to persevere.  If you’re struggling with unemployment and making ends meet while you study to get your medical billing and coding certificate, keep up the fight.  Take a cue from this courageous, young, Chinese man on “China’s Got Talent” (the Chinese equivalent of our “America’s Got Talent” TV program).  He plays piano WITH NO ARMS.  Yes, you read it right.  Pianist with no arms!!!  The English subtitles are a little jilted, but you’ll get the point.  This video will renew your resolve to overcome whatever challenges you face.

Are You a Bird Brain? You May Wish You Were!

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Alex the African Grey ParrotOn those days when you start to feel that your coursework is taxing your brain, take a moment to think about Alex, an African grey parrot, who was the subject of a thirty-year (1977-2007) experiment by an animal psychologist named Irene Pepperberg, initially at the University of Arizona and later at Harvard and Brandeis University. Before her work, scientists believed that a large primate brain was needed to deal with complex problems related to language and understanding and that birds were not intelligent and only used words by mimicking. Pepperberg’s accomplishments found that birds may actually be able to reason on a basic level and to use words creatively. She reported that Alex had the intelligence of a five-year-old human and the emotional level of a human two-year-old at the time of his premature death (from an unexpected catastrophic event associated with arteriosclerosis) when he was about thirty years old (the average life span for African grey parrots is fifty years). At the time of his death, he could identify 50 different objects and recognize quantities up to six and could distinguish seven colors and five shapes. He understood the concepts of “bigger,” “smaller,” “same,” and “different,” and was learning “over” and “under.” Among a number of his skills, he had a vocabulary of 150 words and appeared to have understanding of what he said. He could label an object when asked about its shape, color or material. He could also add to a limited extent, and understood the concept of zero, answering “none” when asked the difference between two objects if there was indeed no difference! When the bird was tired of being tested, he would indicate that he wanted to go back to his cage by saying, “Wanna go back.” If he said, “Wanna banana,” and was offered a nut instead, he would stare in silence, ask for the banana again, or take the nut and throw it at the researcher before requesting the item again! And talk about “famous last words,”Alex’s last words to Dr. Pepperberg were, “You be good. I love you.”

You Can’t Make it Up on the Weekend

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Like many people busy with life, work, studies, family and what have you, I frequently burn the midnight oil, staying up past my preferred bedtime to complete some obligation or another.  Yet, I still must awaken the same time the next day to go to work.  As a result, I am frequently getting less than 8 hours a night on weeknights.  Sometimes, I make up for the deficit by sleeping a few extra hours on the weekend.  But recent studies indicate that it doesn’t work that way.  Click here to read why it is important to make time for sufficient sleep on a regular basis and how “playing catch up” on the weekends is not the solution.

I Want One

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Ok, so this isn’t exactly cheap, but neither was the CD player, the cellular telephone or the personal computer when they first hit the market.  Once more and more people buy a new product and demand grows, the price of the item  drops for all consumers.  This product, a very simple renewable energy generator/converter (solar or wind) requires virtually no installation and makes electricity for your home.  I think I will save up for one and help drive the price down for everyone.  (It costs $600-$900 for the smaller ones and up to $3500 for the larger one.)  It is so simple, I cannot imagine that this product would not be in every home within 10 years.  Whattya think?  Could you plug your laptop into this and do your Allen School Online coursework?

Surgical Hand Transplant Technology Takes a Step Forward

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Did you know that more than 40 people have successfully completed surgical re-attachment of their lost limbs with new human hands provided by deceased donors?  Its true.  The French first accomplished this miraculous medical feat in 1998 and since then more than 40 have been given back the use of a lost hand or hands.  10 in the US alone. Well, it seems that UCLA has announced plans to open a hand transplant facility in the US soon.  They are seeking volunteers – returning war veterans or others who have recently lost their hands – to participate in this still very experimental procedure.  Click here to read more about this amazing medical story.

Five Online Job Hunting Mistakes

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Most of our reporting on how to succeed in the job hunt has focused on resume writing and interview skills/practices.  However, as many of you online students are all too aware, there is a lot of job hunting that goes on over the Internet.  Wouldn’t ya know it, there are etiquette mistakes to be made in the online job hunt just as sure as there are in the real world.  Here’s a link to a great article about how to avoid common online job hunting gaffes, SNAFUs and faux pas.