Most bloggers have a blogroll. I am nine months into blogging and this will be my 210th blogpost and have now picked up #207 bags of ocean bound plastic. There was a blog I read briefly called No Harvard Debt which had only 113 blog posts, but made it onto multiple sites like Wall Street Journey and CNNMoney https://nomoreharvarddebt.com/media/. I remember thinking that the Harvard MBA grad really capitalized on a very catchy name, but in the end he seemed to be sincere in his journey. The site is quiet now and his transformational story is inspiring. He paid off his debt and found meaning in life outside of money. I began reading blogs when I was going through our personal finance journey, and I read mostly personal finance and FIRE bloggers. Even after we reached our FI number, Mr. Plastic Picker and I still work. And instead of starting a personal finance blog (although I have some of those type of posts included), I started this personal ocean plastic picking blog and environmental journey.

The blog is a based on a character and an avatar really. The character is real, the author behind the blog – but some of the parts of that person is amplified in a blog. A real person is more nuanced. And with that I am this real life character, almost a caricature. But the amazing thing is that caricature of Dr. Plastic Picker can get real environmental work done. I know that instagram friends are picking up litter, and readers have made little and big changes for the environment.

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June 13, 2020

by drplasticpicker

Blogging as Dr. Plastic Picker has helped my career. I was not looking to advance beyond Assistant Boss, but it’s amazing that being able to think aloud on the blog has helped me organize several important work projects. Above is the picture inspired by Dr. Seuss’s characters, and we finished a leadership document entitled “Thing One, Thing Two, Thing Three” about the Assistant Boss positions. The actual document was only two pages, but summed up succinctly some fundamental shifts we wanted to make in our leadership structure. Many of those ideas I pondered in three separate seemingly tangential and unrelated blogposts on leadership, “Leadership opportunities are everywhere. Don’t just go to the blue light special” https://drplasticpicker.com/leadership-opportunities-are-everywhere-dont-just-go-to-the-blue-light-special/, “Raising Leaders: Random Thoughts About Work, my Kids and my patients” https://drplasticpicker.com/raising-leaders-random-thoughts-about-work-my-kids-and-my-patients/ and “Let 2020’s Failure by a Reminder of you, You are the Leader our World Needs https://drplasticpicker.com/let-2020s-failure-be-a-reminder-for-you-you-are-a-leader-our-world-needs/. The blogs were indeed related. I’m not sure how many people read the blogposts. The blog analytics showed they were decently popular. But the best part of writing the three posts is that it helped me with several work projects. So much for running from work and picking up plastic on the beach! I’m still doing that work which is my passion, and I’m “Thing One” of the three things LOL. “Thing Two and Thing Three” are pretty amazing as well.

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June 12, 2020

by drplasticpicker

One of the proudest professional moments of my life was during the year I was chief resident, the pediatric senior class at Man’s Greatest Hospital had a 100% pass rate on the pediatric boards. It never made sense to me that the hallowed institution that I trained at did not have 100% pass rate. Indeed the occupants of the chief residency position were known to make markedly less than 100%. But the year I was Chief Resident, the senior class had a 100% pass rate and I passed well over a few standard deviations as well. This was in large part because I had to delay my boards because I had a baby during Junior Year and made up some rotations. I took my exam with the senior class which was below me. So I studied with them. While I had more time and was studying and completed four years worth of PREP questions sitting in the the chief residency office, I created Pediatric Board Review power points from my notes. When there was any empty lecture time during Morning or Noon conference when the lecturing attending showed up late or the admitting team was stuck on the floor, I had multiple power points ready to go. I am proud of the legacy of that 100% pass rate.

But can you believe that in the entire 2015-2019 AAP Prep Questions there is only 1 question about iron deficiency anemia? This is the most common issue we encounter as general outpatient pediatricians and there is one question! Well this former Chief Resident and current Assistant Boss and now eco-warrior Dr. Plastic Picker is going will rectify this situation.

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June 11, 2020

by drplasticpicker

The beach was a mess with morning. I had not been out near our stretch of Pacific coast for a few weeks. When our city lifted some of the COVID-19 restrictions, the beach was flooded even in the early mornings. Since I still have to work in patient care, I didn’t feel it was appropriate to expose myself. I have been doing litterpicks around my neighborhood instead. I’ve wandered over to the elementary school and the Mormon Temple which is a good hike from our house when I was looking for adventure. I started traveling to find certain flowers like the fried-egg poppy as a destination for my litter picking walks https://drplasticpicker.com/dr-plastic-pickers-thoughts-the-age-of-in-betweenness/. I have noticed more backyard birds like the Yellow Warbler or it may have been a lesser finch perched high on the electrical wires with a beautiful blaze of yellow against the blue sky. I was walking with Mr. Plastic Picker at the time.

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June 10, 2020

by drplasticpicker

Yesterday I was at home like millions of other people, working remotely. I finished the Assistant Boss Leadership Manifesto and the end product was collaborative and well written. I reread it several times last night and there was only one minor error. My old undergraduate instructor Dr. Amy Slatton would have been proud https://drplasticpicker.com/blacklivesmatter-the-stain-of-slavery-colonialism-apartheid-extends-to-science/ and https://amyeslaton.com/. She always admonished me to edit edit edit. If you are a reader on this blog, you know that is not one of my strengths. I mostly finished the Girl Scout Financial Forms yearly submission. I always turn it in about a week late without shame. I think interacting with Girl Scouts management is the only time I ever pull the working mother card https://drplasticpicker.com/leadership-opportunities-are-everywhere-dont-just-go-to-the-blue-light-special/. I think my fellow Girl Scout Troop leaders and those at the central office are used to dealing with prima donna mothers and just humour people like me. It is all volunteer of course. And yesterday and this morning my sister is sad because one of her close friends has a very sick child going through complicated abdominal surgery. My sister is an empathic person. Likely in that pediatric intensive care unit that child is dying. I texted back to my sister what I hope was words of comfort. When a child is dying there are waves of grief to all those adults that surround that child, and all those adults that surround those adults. My sister is caught in that cocentric circle of grief.

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June 9, 2020

by drplasticpicker

Am I dating myself? Does anyone out there remember K-Mart and the Blue Light Specials? K-Mart was a store very much like Target or Sears. Middle-class families would shop there. I remember my mother would take us there sometimes, and they had a food court that served American food. At home we ate our traditional plastic-free home-made cuisine. My mother has always been a phenomenol cook but as a child I took her cooking for granted. Like many second generation Americans, the K-mart food-court was when we felt so American. Cherry slurpees and french fries! Eating at the food court there just like the rare trip to McDonalds and was a treat for us.

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I find it odd how seemingly disparate parts of my life tend to come into rhythm. I am Assistant Boss in our Department, and there are two other Assistant Bosses. I am also Co-Troop Leader for our Girl Scout Troop, and I also serve as the Troop Treasurer and Troop Cookie Manager. I am Co-Chair now of the American Academy of Pediatrics Climate Change and Health Local Chapter. I signed on to be on the Public Health Advisory Board of the Climate Action Campaigns, which is a very effective non-profit which has been moving our area closer to our climate goals. There are also the many responsibilities as part of my Assistant Boss role that I am responsible for. Plus I’m Dr. Plastic Picker, head litter-picker and sole-writer of my blog! Other than Dr. Plastic Picker, it is time for me to re-evaluate the leadership structure of our department, our Girl Scout Troop and the environmental advocacy groups.

I had taken most of Saturday off and did not think too much about work or leadership. I wrote a blog post and went litter picking in the morning. The rest of the day, I binge-watched the four Hunger Game movies with my daughter out of sequence. The binge-watching was mostly on Saturday, but we did watch the last movie last weekend and part of one of the movies Friday night after Sponge Bob the Musical. Our daughter has read the series at least three times, and she is now reading it aloud to herself or whoever will listen. She has the just published prequel ready as a treat to herself to read. I think she is delaying reading the book because she wants to savor it, just like she savors the last bit of food at dinner. She waits until everyone is done eating, and she always has the best bite to eat when everyone is done. Isn’t that interesting? I just realized the connection now.

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June 7, 2020

by drplasticpicker

We are living through a historic moment. Mass peaceful demonstrations for #blacklivesmatter dovetailing with the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our nephew, niece and brother-in-law in New York City participated in the demonstrations. They wore masks. I have already written my thoughts about the stain of racism on the health field as well https://drplasticpicker.com/blacklivesmatter-the-stain-of-slavery-colonialism-apartheid-extends-to-science/. The world has a lot of work to do. As America moves toward addressing the concerns of the #blacklivesmatter movement, #environmentaljustice should also be addressed because communities of color bear the greatest burden of climate change. Yet these same communities also bear the greatest burden of this pandemic. What a complex situation.

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June 6, 2020

by drplasticpicker

It was a heavier mood in clinic today. Mostly babies and a smattering of tweens-teens in for the well child checks and vaccines. I asked everyone through double masks and faceshield how they were doing. Most of our clinic families were staying home and avoiding the demonstrations. Since our clinic serves the diverse community of the South Bay, there was a sense of darkness that hung over us. We talked in quiet and sad voices about the state of racial politics in the United States, and one father who is black said these demonstrations are making his life more difficult. Another excuse he said for police to pull him over and harass him. But I was able to welcome a beautiful newborn baby boy to our practice, who is a beautiful amalgamation of many races including Apache. And in that beautiful baby boy I see hope. Like the half-Vulcan half-Human child of T’Pol and Trip in Star Trek Enterprise, we must celebrate IDIC – Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations. T’Pol in one of the final episodes was confronted by Terra Prime, the xenophobic human terrorist movement. It’s leader asked T’Pol whether she was worried that interspecies breeding would destroy the Vulcan race. T’Pol with her elegant Vulcan poise replied fiercely that Vulcans were not what they were 1 million years ago, and the only constant in change. In her words, I find hope. The same hope I see in the face of the beautiful baby today that represents IDIC (infinite diversity in infinite combinations) in my clinic.

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