Month: December 2020

December 12, 2020

by drplasticpicker

The brute force cyber attacks from a French IP have stopped, for now. I’m being more careful with the security of this site, because this blog and my work is important. Greta Thunberg posted on her Instagram Account a picture in Berlin with the following hashtag illuminated with candles, #fightfor1point5 . That reminded me that ultimately that is the goal. We are fighting to keep global temperature rise below 1.5 degrees. We certainly have hope with the Biden/Harris administration, but there is still much to be done. Cyber attacks from France. All Non-Vegetarian and Non-Vegan lunches yesterday from Panera at our clinic meeting (I need to talk to RN Plastic Picker). At least here were no plastic water bottles. Two steps forward and one step back.

Mr. Plastic Picker took our son to a long awaited specialty appointment for a minor private issue. I had made the diagnoses for my son already (I am a pediatrician) but he wanted to see the pediatric surgical specialist, who happens to be a boy I grew up with in the South Bay and know from high school days. Mr. Plastic Picker was effusive about said former boy I knew from high school now pediatric surgical subspecialist, and my son told me when I got home, “It was good to have a professional examine me.” This is all parts hilarious for various reasons, and especially that Mr. Plastic Picker was effusive in his praise for said specialist. I’ll keep the backstory to myself, but let’s just say its one of those innocent highschool moments and memories that I hope my children have as well. I hugged my very handsome Mr. Plastic Picker yesterday and I love the two men in my life dearly. I live in my own internal world at times and find humor in the running storylines that I see everywhere. My family knows that about me now.

So for now Dr. Plastic Picker has eluded further cyber attacks, and a high school friend was able to reassure my son about his good health because said high school friend is “a professional” unlike Dr. Plastic Picker, who is Assistant Boss of Pediatrics. But we will leave it at that. It felt very nice to have my teen son reassured. At the end of the visit with Mr. Plastic Picker and Pediatric Surgical Subspecialist, my teen son did say to them both because Pediatric Surgical Subspecialist asked my son what his favorite subject was. He said to those two upstanding men, “Oh Dad. I forgot to tell you I also got the English Pin last year.” Our son had been awarded several academic distinctions but his favorite subject is English like his father. And with that the two men in my life left that office, and I felt good knowing a kind boy I grew up with cared for my son. And that same boy has a beautiful wife and family that he is going home to as well.

I’m definitely going to the beach this morning to get a big bag of trash! Its 526am and it’s pitch dark outside, so I just have to wait until there is enough light.

December 11, 2020

by drplasticpicker

Yesterday was kind of a mediocre day (or so I thought). I had done a lot of work in the morning when I was up at 430am, sending emails and sorting out the premed interns and their work. But no special baking projects in the morning. I went to work and tried to see patients, and spent time with them in a fundamentally real way and tackling issues about food and diabetes and true wellness. Trying to practice the way I think I ought to practice, and not what the modern heatlhcare infrastructure tells me how I should practice. I was also trying to dodge COVID-19 and was upset for one moment when Nurse L wasn’t wearing an N-95 for a patient that had a parent that was positive at home. It was a scary moment for me, as I really do care about him. He was masked and had a face-shield on, and it was for a very brief moment. I had made sure he was not in the room with high risk patients longer than necessary.

December 10, 2020

by drplasticpicker

Dr. Plastic Picker is under attack! Yes my blogsite is under attack by a random brute force attack outside of the US (actually it looks like France). I was very upset about this, but I did more research and talked to my brother (also voluntary web consultant). I learned that this is just a random brute force attack. The danger is that getting into our site they could infect others. But Dr. Plastic Picker when I am attacked, I WAKE UP!!! I started researching online about how to parry this attack and made some simple changes. I’ve made some changes to increase the integrity of this site. And in the end, what are you attackers from France going to gain? This site is about picking up trash and I don’t store any data. But I do have my beloved blogs I’ve written, so I’ll work in the next few weeks to back everything up. This attack made me so mad, but I guess it was meant to be because I WOKE UP EARLY TO PROTECT MY SITE and I also did more environmental work because of it.

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December 9, 2020

by drplasticpicker

This blog has always been about helping us live a more sustainable life. I had a particularly creative day yesterday making four mini-figurines partially from gathered ocean plastic waste. I had made them during one of our middle management meetings, along with a tofu container turned soap dish, an iPhone cradle (actually two), and a robot with a plastic brain. I was really pleased with myself and sent pictures of my mini-figurines to everyone and posted in everywhere on Facebook. I got some reactions from folks, and hopefully raised some awareness about plastic waste. I was creative at breakfast and sauteed some bell peppers and placed it in a warmed pita bread with a bit of real mozarella cheese for our teen son. I used to give him so many Eggos, and it is satisfying to give him something wholesome, vegetable-filled and non-processed after all these years.

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December 8, 2020

by drplasticpicker

Lots of thoughts this morning. Figured out why I’ve had some long-standing thought patterns about working-mothers versus stay-at-home mothers, and it has nothing to do with my fellow mothers. Like most working mothers, I’ve had some resentment of stay-at-home mothers who is actuality don’t really exist. There are very few fully stay-at-home mothers. It has to do with a little bit of resentment I had when I was eight-years-old. I started working at my father’s accounting office at 8 years of age, helping in the family tax business. We all worked and helped from 8-14 years of age, and also at my uncle’s All-You-Can-Eat Chinese Buffet (eventhough we weren’t Chinese). Soon after that I began doing a lot of extracurriculars in high school and worked in research labs afterschool. The entire time one of my male cousin was living a more idyllic life and had piano lessons, surfing, and never really worked. I had really wanted to be on the soccer team, but who was going to drive me to soccer? But now I realize I am who I am because of those early experiences. Indeed I think my college or medical school essay was exactly on that topic of hard work. My cousin is now a cosmetic dental surgeon and has a younger former beauty-pagent wife with three kids who all sing. He is an upstanding citizen and who am I to judge his life? I am a pediatrician and Assistant Boss and married the college sweetheart who probably could have been in a beauty pagent if there had been one for men back then, and I am an environmental advocate who picks up litter. I have two kids, and that they are alive and healthy – as a pediatrician I know that is the greatest gift of all. But I resented him when I was eight years of age, and some of it was probably because he was a boy and in our culture boys got everything. Eventhough I was top of my highschool class, by mere virtue that he was a boy everything he did was oooh and aaahed about more. I’ve since set aside that resentment, as I realize it was a byproduct of a useless patriarchal cultural system that I no longer adhere to. Now I know why I didn’t marry someone of my own actual national identity. Wow.

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December 7, 2020

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December 7, 2020

by drplasticpicker

Mr. Plastic Picker was sitting at the dinner table last night. He had worked another 12 hour overtime shift on the weekend. He was able to work from his home-office and the shift was not bad. I did not work other than catching up on a few messages and results. I’m really good about turning things off on the weekend now. Between Friday night at 530pm and Sunday at 4pm, really as an outpatient pediatrician I should not have to check my inbox. So I haven’t and it’s been fine. When I do check it, my brain is more efficient and I’m able to close charts and deal with clinical matters more efficiently. A good and focused brain is a really helpful thing. Plogging, eating a plant-rich diet mostly home-cooked, making trash art and sleeping better has really healed my brain. I was part of a UC Berkeley Premed Honor Society Career Panel yesterday, and I knew I was almost as smart as their undergraduates doing MCB (their acronym for Molecular and Cellular Biology). Super nice kids.

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December 6, 2020

by drplasticpicker

Thirty-three facebook engagements on the blogpost “I send my kids to private school.” https://drplasticpicker.com/i-send-my-kids-to-private-school-and-thats-ok-i-didnt-know-how-to-cook-and-they-got-organic-food/ OMG. Over 500 views on the blog itself. I try to write my truth and this blog helps me process things, but it’s a delicate balance. Mr. Plastic Picker loved the blog and if he approves I know that it’s appropriate. I do have to correct the mileage on his Prius which is only 100,000. Two-hundred-thousand-miles sounded more dramatic, but he corrected me in my error. But it’s good to have a more standard blogpost today. I try to share bits and pieces of our journey if I think it will help especially to younger MDs. In the end this blog is for the people in our lives and they are real making these decisions about public versus private, where to spend their money, and hopefully making some thoughtful decisions with the earth in mind.

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December 5, 2020

by drplasticpicker

Can I tell you a Dr. Plastic Picker secret? It’s not that our two children go to private school. Most of my patient families know that as I’m open about that when they ask me questions. I myself went to a stellar suburban public school, and had mixed feelings about sending them to private school. From my suburban public school I was probably better equipped then most of my prep school classmates at Crimson University. Dr. Plastic Picker’s secret is that I don’t really like many of the other parents who have also send their kids to our same private school. About a quarter I really like, but three-quarters I can’t stand. When I have to interact with those parents as a fellow parent, I sometimes question our choice. But it’s the price I pay to send my kids to private school. But now that I think about it, I’m sure every parent at any type of school probably feels the same way about our fellow parents. So maybe Dr. Plastic Picker’s secret isn’t much of a secret?

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December 4, 2020

by drplasticpicker

I don’t know why the salmon was particularly amazing yesterday. I didn’t intend to make something special. I pulled into our garage at 230pm. Yesterday was a half day of work and I actually left the office semi-on-time. I had talked to Mr. Plastic Picker earlier in the afternoon and told him to not order out. Since Fridays are usually busier days for us and take-out is a treat, I could figure out something for dinner on a Thursday. I pulled into the garage and plugged in my plug-in hybrid. We have an extra freezer and frigerator/freezer in the garage. There are a lot of people who live in my house, and it’s mostly my parents-in-law who store their bulk food there. I used to feel guilty about all the appliances but they are sunk cost, and they are powered by our solar panels anyway. There is not much of our food there, but sometimes I’ll store some frozen Costco bulk food. Thinking about dinner, I shopped in my own garage and found a packet of salmon fillets from Costco.

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