Category: Uncategorized

October 13, 2020

by drplasticpicker

One of my favorite bloggers is LenPenzo. He’s one of the original personal finance bloggers and sometimes writes nonsense and talks a lot about the gold standard. He’s from Southern California as well, and represents a conservative financial and political outlook that I’m very comfortable. I grew up in that kind of culture, although I am more politically left now. It’s hard not to be when you take care of children as a pediatrician in an underserved area. But LenPenzo has been blogging forever and he’s still my internet hero. I stop by his blog now and again, and leave comments. Len’s dad passed away recently and he left a short post on his blog https://lenpenzo.com/blog/id63332-black-coffee-10-oct-2020.html.

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October 9, 2020

by drplasticpicker

Our tween daughter and I finished watching the documentary “RBG” yestserday in preparation for our Cadette Girl Scout Meeting. It was a special night to have the time to watch it with her and answer her questions, and watch her expressions. It was meaningful for so many reasons. As someone who considers myself of a historical bent, I did earn my undergraduate degree in History of Science, I am always curious as the origins of quotes. The original quote that RBG credited but is often forgotten by our modern society comes from Sarah Grimke https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Moore_Grimk%C3%A9.

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August 23, 2020

by drplasticpicker

We are settled in our first night of a short likely two night stay in Palm Springs. Like most of the world, travel plans the last six months due to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic had to be changed. It was the first time in six months we have left the confines of our Southern California county. I felt slightly embarassed about needing to leave, but mentally I felt the entire family spiralling into irritability. Pre COVID-19, we had planned on visiting my sister in Northern Virginia. Our traveling compared to our same-income cohorts in the US is very limited and we spend considerably less just hearing what my friends tell me anecdotally. We usually visit family in New York and Virginia and then stay with them a few nights and drive a few nights somewhere else. We usually take one western US domestic trip as well and maybe every other year one big international trip. But even that amount of traveling is not sustainable for the world. I’ve always bought carbon offsets the last five years, but even that – does it even make a difference?

But we are here now in Palm Springs, an easy 2.5 hour drive from our hom We drove our trusty Prius that gets 50 MPG. I never truly appreciated this area growing up. Being from Coastal Southern California, I wanted trees and history. I preferred Yosemite, San Francisco, and the East Coast. This is probably why I lived in Boston for 15 years. But with age comes wisdom. And I’ve come to love Palm Springs.

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July 18, 2020

by drplasticpicker

Yesterday morning began with a plogging session and a bag of trash. I was feeling hopeful as I had eyed a large clear plastic single-use cup from 7-eleven sitting on the curb and circled back after my run to pick it up. Someone else had picked it up. It was a neighbor a bit older than me with a mask, an orange bucket and a grabber. I waved to him across the street with my own two plastic bags and said, “Are you part of the Street Stewards? We have a Facebook group.” He replied, “No. I just started picking it up recently.” I said thank you.

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July 11, 2020

by drplasticpicker

There are times when you know you have made the right decision and that you are in the right place. I remember being six months into categorical pediatric residency and working an evening shift in the Pediatric ED at Mans Greatest Hospital (MGH). It was a normal shift. I knew what to do. Who to consult. What orders to write. I was walking down the narrow hallway that separates the two bays of exam rooms when a toddler peaked her head out and saw another toddler. This toddler said in her high-pitched very friendly voice, “Hey baby.” I think she was looking for a playmate. I stopped what I was doing. I paused and I thought “They ARE both babies and that is so incredibly cute.” I was in the right place.

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July 3, 2020

by drplasticpicker

The medical training process can be brutal. Even in pediatrics after the 80-hour-work-week restrictions and in a more “benign” supportive program, it was hard. I think all of us tend to forget as we get older and are professionally and financially and psychologically in safer places. I wrote this post about the culture of bullying in medicine and physician burnout, which I thought was decent https://drplasticpicker.com/stop-physician-burn-out-there-is-no-house-of-god/. The other byproduct of being a doctor is that I’ve fallen asleep in odd places.

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June 24, 2020

by drplasticpicker

Above is a screenshot of an instagram account by an environmental advocate in Nepal. Harish Joshi was interviewed on our blog several months ago https://drplasticpicker.com/introducing-harish-joshi-thursday-trash-reflections-from-nepal/. He is busy with his environmental advocacy and I find his account inspiring, as I find many teen environmental activist. This image he created reminded me that those everyday voluntary actions on behalf of a greater good, whether it be the environment or another cause, are incredibly powerful. I have written before about the power of agency and free will, and that although I believe society needs to systemically change and enact laws that benefit the environment – right now we also can help determine our future https://drplasticpicker.com/you-have-agency-you-have-free-will-you-are-your-own-determinant/. And this Hopeful Wednesday post is a voluntary act of gratitude and hope. I have a great sense of wellbeing this morning, that as a small person in a chaotic world – I am helping to calm the winds and reduce the heat and suck up more carbon than I am producing. By refusing a plastic bag at the store, this is a powerful first step to combating global warming.

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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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