Mr. Plastic Picker thinks she looks like Rosie from the Jetsons!
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.
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.
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.
One of my friends bought one. I thought about getting one. But do we really need one?
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.
Bag #341 Total, Bag #20th for the month! The other is the recyclables.
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.
Braided hair of the tween who goes to private school. She is a nice kid.
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?
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.
I used to think Costco was the answer to life. Costco wanted us to think that it was the answer to life. Costco is still a great place, and pays good wages. But I am reminded that Costco is not the answer to life. It’s just a warehouse store that generally runs an ethical business but usually pushes us to overconsume and has too much plastic packaging. I have a lot of self-control these days and I can walk into Costco without leaving with three giant Olaf plushies. Yes, we once did that. The last plushie went to a good highschool friend who also re-homed/bought our extra care. No one needs an extra car. I was trying to find that bloglink, but can’t find it. I’ll try to link it later.
Anyway, last weekend my college sweetheart and only ever boyfriend now husband of almost 20 years Mr. Plastic Picker and I went to Costco. It was very romantic. We bought mostly things in bulk but I was tempted by a crate of mangos. I have family in our southeast Asian homeland that has a mango tree farm, and mangos ripe from the tree are delicious. Here in southern california, we make due with Costco. But do we really need to? The mangoes on the outside looked decent, and I am well aware due to my ethnic heritage how to judge the ripeness of a mango. The ripeness was about right to eat the next week. Our daughter loves mangos. So we bought a crate. Last night I had a semi-tiring day at work. Mostly dealing with some adminstrative things again in my non-adminstrative off time. When everyone has left the office, I was still sitting there. But I also had a conversation with someone I care about and the conversation was very similar to conversations I’ve had prior to becoming Dr. Plastic Picker. Filled with gossip and some catching up, and some pettiness. I felt myself reverting to pettiness. It’s funny that when I join again with old intermittent acquaintances that have not been with me on this journey, I get to starkly look back at who I was before this blog – before I just decided to really care. I did not like that version of myself.
Mr. Plastic Picker is on his own journey. He was showing off his fancy coffee grinder. It’s German. He studied German in high school.
December 2, 2020
by drplasticpicker
Today I’ll reach my monthly goal of 20 bags of trash picked from either the street or the beach. Since I live just a few blocks from the Pacific Ocean and concentrate on the storm drains, I know that 100% all that litter would eventually end up in the ocean. I arbitrarily extended November into a few days into December, because this is a virtual world with my made-up rules and I just do it to keep myself accountable to the earth. I just looked at my excel spreadsheet, and I’ve picked up now 340 bags of ocean plastic pollution! Wow! That is a lot. I’m really excited to get to 500 bags eventually. I once won first place in my elementary school Olympics jump roping contest and I think got to somewhere in the 300s. It’s all about consistentcy, pacing oneself and rhythm.
