Just so you know.

It’s been a real adjustment to finally finish school. Since it’s only been a month, it still hasn’t sunk in. I’m definitely half-ready for my June class to come up in the next few days….but of course that isn’t going to happen. Mid-June, it should seem more real.

I’m a Licensed Social Worker in the state of Ohio, now. That’s nice, and extremely validating. And it means that I can start accruing my 3,000 hours toward my independent license. Which began last week. I actually had my first LSW supervision session last night, and it was extremely affirming and made me feel like I’m in a really good place, personally and professionally.

What am I looking to do with all my extra time, you ask? Well, revisions on the second draft of my first novel officially begin today! That’ll take a bit of time. Musical instruments, crafty things, reading and video games, cooking, movies, and writing other things will take a bit more. It’s all about balance, so now I have to fill a big chunk of my life with something else. Stay tuned, I guess.

I resumed my walking regimen last week with three miles per day. The nasty weather in these parts has prevented me from doing it daily, but I’m ready for the weather to clear up so I can get back to my 5-mile route from last year. I’m also investigating exciting new technologies in shoes. Interesting subject, that.

I started out this post full of all the wonderful things I had to say here, but I guess it didn’t turn out all that fascinating. It’s a start, though. Have a nice day, all.

I know, you’ve heard that one before.

All assignments are done and turned in, for better or worse. Now it’s just waiting for graduation day! Relief pretty much covers the emotions there. I love being done. Love it.

Work is good. Busy, what with planning to expand our program in the fall. Every fiscal year carries with it a certain amount of planning and next year is even more complicated than usual. Staffing, programmatic changes, and keeping principals and teachers happy is never an easy thing. It’s a lot of variables, but I love working with the other Team Leader and our boss to run things as smoothly as possible. Anyway, that’s work.

And now, a comment:

Found out today that someone I worked with a decade ago, while they were a child, committed a pretty serious crime. It was disappointing, largely because of the innocent victim, but also because I know what this child’s potential was. It was a pretty special kid, that deserved more of a chance in life. And now this kid has done something that will negatively impact another kid’s life forever. I had a few conversations with people today about this subject, and I keep hearing “Sorry, but I have no sympathy for someone who could hurt a kid like that.” I can’t help but think that this is such a simplistic way to view the world. People make mistakes, even incredibly horrific mistakes. That shouldn’t make them fall into an “evil” category that makes us ignore their basic human-ness forever. Can’t people do evil things without being inherently evil? You can’t tell me that every person involved in your typical fascist regime is evil and doesn’t count as a human being anymore. You also can’t tell me that “anyone who would hurt a kid deserves to be killed”. Really? No, they don’t. If nobody can stand to be around a person who has done horrible things, what happens to them then? If you work in a profession that requires a basic understanding of human development and mental health, don’t tell me it only takes five minutes of bad decisions to make you want to murder your client. Period. It’s called empathy, morons.

On a separate (but apropos, I think) note, if a child has a mental health issue, they aren’t going to be easy to handle 100% of the time. I don’t care how cute they look. Don’t tell me that the child’s issues are all due to their parents “babying” them. Don’t tell me they “just need discipline” and their MENTAL HEALTH ISSUE will go away. Don’t tell me we should “just give up” on them after five or six days of having them in our program. Five or six days doesn’t constitute “a chance”, no matter what you say.

The moral of the day? People deserve respect, even if they’ve done bad things. Also, kids who are mentally ill might need a little respect (and patience) as well. If you aren’t capable of respect and patience, you shouldn’t be working in community mental health.

That is all. (And thanks to Michael Bolton for the title. Yes, he rules.)

Stayed home sick from work today, and I’m not feeling much better than I did this morning. Blech.

Had an awful day. K did some laundry, and when it drained, the water from the washer appeared in our kitchen sink… Handyman came over, called Roto-Rooter. Roto-Rooter arrived, and the guy put his horrible machine into our drain. When he got done, he left mud and dirty water throughout our kitchen and laundry room, and muddy footprints across the living room carpet. It was awful. We then spent a couple of hours cleaning up HIS mess. Yick.

If I’d had more time to rest, I’d probably feel better. But I didn’t get to rest, thanks to him. Thanks again, guy.

Throat hurts, congested, and feel achy.

Messed around a little bit with some HDR photography software I’d bought a couple of years ago and left untouched. Posted those pics here:

done

Three years of grad school seems like an eternity, either when looking at it from this end or from the beginning of it all. My mentor likes to say that I was born a social worker, and she’s got a point. Still, these three years have molded me and forged something…new? I feel like I belong in this profession, that I share this profession’s values, and that I’ve earned the right to be a part of something that it’s doing, right now, all over the world. My test is passed, which means that I just have to officially get my degree and I’m a Licensed Social Worker in the state of Ohio. This license took some money and a lot of effort, but it’s mine (well, it will be) and I’m incredibly proud of it.

I did write a pretty vitriolic post a couple of weeks ago, but erased it before anyone had the chance to read it. Work has involved ups and downs, but things are on a mostly positive course there. I’m doing great, I think, and I’m working toward a good place within my agency. Counseling agencies are like any other workplace, to a certain extent: they go through just as many organizational changes as anywhere else. We’re having some growing pains at the moment. I do tend to get impatient with people not willing to grow, to do a BETTER job than the bare minimum, and not as interested in our clients’ welfare as I am. Still, that’s part of my being a social worker, and the fact that it bugs me is a great sign that I’m not even close to being burned-out. You have to keep taking your mental temperature when you’re in this field, constantly assessing and trying to make sure your stress levels and personal life are being managed so that that stuff isn’t affecting your quality of work.

So we got tickets to an advance screening of Kick-Ass in Cleveland for last night, which was an entire week before it’s out in theaters. It was fantastic. If you have any interest in superheroes at all, you should see this movie. Unless you’re too young (or too silly) to enjoy all the blood and violence. Keep in mind that it’s R-rated, and you’ll enjoy it. The sense of humor within this film was wonderful, and as far as action movies go it’s pretty high up my list. Really, you should go and see it.

I’ve also been reading a lot. I can’t wait for the warmer weather to come (and stay) so that I can start walking again. I miss being outside for a couple hours every morning. I’m sure I’ll be back to a 4 or 5 mile route pretty quickly. I thought it was warmed up, but then the rain came, and today it actually snowed. So I’m still waiting for the weather to settle the hell down.

That’s all for the moment. At least you got a coherent blog out of me for once, right?

So my throat is killing me. I have a prescription for a Z-pack, but the Dr. said to wait a couple of days to fill it, since he thinks it’s a viral infection and antibiotics won’t help anyway. And…that means I suffer. I have cough syrup and nasal spray from the Dr., but they cost $38. Doesn’t that just suck? I’ve tried the cough syrup twice, once last night and once today after work. Both times, it put me to sleep within about five minutes. I don’t LIKE being put to sleep. So I suffer.

Three assignments left in my last class of grad school. Well, plus an outline for the third assignment, so maybe kinda four. I’m going to say three, since it sounds like less. Three days of school this weekend, then two days of school in April. And that’s it!

Reading What The Dog Saw, by Malcolm Gladwell. It’s been lying around here for a few months, and I finally got into it quite a bit this week. If you’ve never read Gladwell, pick up something he’s done. The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers, any of them are great. He’s a writer of excellent nonfiction. The Tipping Point is about that nudge that causes big shifts in societies, trends, etc. Blink is about split-second decision making, and Outliers is about people who are out of the ordinary or really good at something. What The Dog Saw is a collection of Gladwell’s essays from the New Yorker over a substantial period of time, and it’s really fascinating. There’s something for everyone here, from an examination of the reasons why frequent mammograms might not be such a good idea to a profile of Ron Popeil that won him awards. If you’re a fan of nonfiction prose, pick this up somewhere and check it out.

Also read My Dead Body, by Charlie Huston. Amazing finale(?) to the Joe Pitt series from Huston, who I love. The Joe Pitt books are noir as hell, about vampires and death and wounds and detectiving and such. A fun read, as were all the books in the series.

Work yesterday was fairly uneventful…a bit of counseling, a bit of paperwork/organizational stuff, and I spent some time thinking about my first paper for Mental Health Policy, my last class. Why is it that I put more effort into the ungraded assignments? Hard to say, but maybe because I’m trying to impress a professor during our first interaction? If you figure it out, let me know.

Today’s my last group therapy session. It’s too bad, really–I’ve really enjoyed getting to co-facilitate it, and I’ve learned a lot about drug and alcohol treatment, but it’s really difficult to work it into the hours I have in a day to do my job. Since I don’t need the practicum hours for doing it anymore, it only made sense to stop. And today’s the day. I started it five? Six? months ago, and it’s been a good experience. Yet another thing that’s going to give me extra time in my life–I’m going to have more time than I know what to do with, awfully soon. And in May, I’ll have even more time. I swear, I’m going to feel like a retiree when I only have to do my job. Maybe I should work on my golf game?

Whoa. MIT says the multiverse is a real possibility. I wonder if my evil twin ended up still working at Radio Shack? (Thanks to scifiwire for the subject line.)

I finished Horns a couple of days ago and started (and finished) a book called The Boy Who Couldn’t Sleep And Never Had To, by D.C. Pierson. I really enjoyed it. It’s about a high school geek who is interrupted during writing/drawing his magnum opus movie trilogy/graphic novel series when he makes a new friend… After the friend reveals to the protagonist the fact that he doesn’t ever sleep, things get a little crazy. This is a great geek coming-of-age novel, and anyone into fantasy/sci fi would probably see a bit of themselves in these characters. Plus, it’s got roofies. I enjoyed it enough to finish it in a day (and a work day, no less). Check it out.

Next up on my reading list is….well…I just realized that I don’t have a clue what to read next. Let me get back to you on that. I always go into a minor depression after I finish something great, until I happen upon my newest find.

I do have two papers due over the next week…maybe I should work on those at some point.

This weekend, I also read an amazing graphic novel called Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse.  Talk about some weird stuff…it was amazing!  The main character is a maggot living in the eye socket of a corpse and animating its body.  He has a robot sidekick/drinking buddy with a ZZ Top beard, too. This is a great example of dark, Cthulhu-type subject matter with a comedy backbone, and the artwork is genius. It’s written and drawn by one guy, Ben Templesmith, and he has to be an interesting man to sit down and chat with. Gruesome, but laugh-out-loud funny at the same time. Really something unusual. If you spot it somewhere, give it a try. And please don’t think I’m all that strange for liking this stuff–it’s got quite the following. Because it’s fantastic.

I knew (sooner or later) that I’d have to write a post about comics. Probably a lot more to come in the future, too. This is the first one, though, as far as I know. Confession time: I’m apparently now a comic book nerd. So is K. I can tell you exactly why and how it happened: The Walking Dead. I read some post somewhere about one of its collections, and asked for it for Christmas a couple of years ago. K bought it for me, and I read that one in about two hours. My addiction to this comic book only grew worse from there.

Here’s the concept: a story about the zombie apocalypse that doesn’t conveniently end after 90 minutes or so. A story that keeps going, and going…the thing about zombie movies is that they’re done so quickly. The helicopter comes, or the survivors reach the safe zone, or everyone dies, or some other deus ex machina. Nobody’s ever shown characters living in a world like that for years, losing loved ones and having to keep on managing the best they can. The Walking Dead is that story, and it’s fantastic. The comic is at issue #70 right now…that’s 70 monthly issues worth of trials and tribulations, betrayals, love, and a look at the hard realities of a world overrun. This is a truly open-ended story, and that means any number of things could happen. The characters and art are both great, and this comic showed us what we’ve been missing out on in the world of comic books over the past twenty years or so. Do me a favor: Click on this link, buy the first collection of The Walking Dead on Amazon (jeez, it’s only ten bucks!) and let me know what you think of it. If you have any interest in zombies whatsoever, or the human condition, or like stories where the outcome is uncertain, I’d imagine you would love this comic book. Check it out. Would it kill you to sit down in a bookstore and read for a few minutes, even? Get a feel for it and then make up your mind.

I’ll expand more in the future about other comics we’ve latched onto as of late, but I figured I’d start off on this topic by discussing the book that brought us into the comic world to begin with. So there it is. Read The Walking Dead.

Yes, I technically started studying last April. Still, this every day stuff didn’t begin until December, and a month of anything that intensive can be quite a drain. Just ask anyone else who’s participated in NaNoWriMo….that gets tough too. All of that is to say that I feel like a huge weight’s been lifted now. I now am able to do a lot more personal reading, I’ve beaten a few games I was messing with previously, and I’m able to focus on my work (while at work) for a change. This paper isn’t anything that intensive, and I’d finished three pages of it already by the time I got the e-mail, so I’m going to dabble with it here and there over the next week and not kill myself over it.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t really stress all that much about assignments hanging over my head. I know it physically wounds some people to have something due out there, somewhere, that you haven’t tackled. I’m not lording it over you, really I’m not, but I just don’t have that emotional connection to having a paper that I haven’t written yet. When I decide to get to it, I will, but for now I’ll just do other things I enjoy more. And feel no guilt or stress whatsoever.
Maybe the whole “prepping for the test” thing burned out my anxiety reflex? Dunno.

Today, I read about 250 pages of Joe Hill’s new book, Horns. We really adore this guy…this is only his second novel (he does have a short story collection as well) and he’s writing a comic book that we love as well. Horns is interesting. Basically, the premise involves a man waking up with devil horns sprouting out of his head one morning. He’s also developed the power to control other people in an unusual way… It’s a good read. Mr. Hill is very easy to digest, much like his dad. I like to see authors developing their skills and progressing toward being even better authors, if that makes any sense. Reading someone’s first book ever and following their career is lots of fun for me, just like following a band from their ignominious roots. Anyway, I’m enjoying it.

The last book I finished was probably Pandemonium, by Daryl Gregory. Strangely enough, another demon-related book. It’s Mr. Gregory’s first book, and I found it to have some very interesting ideas…it’s kind of an alternate history, in a world that started having lots of demonic possessions in the 40′s. Each demon does specific stuff before leaving its new host, so that they’ve been individually identified by society..for example, The Truth takes over someone and murders a person who’s being dishonest…it was a great take on the idea of Jung’s archetypes, plus in this world, Eisenhower gets killed by a demon. So there’s that. Spoiler alert (though it doesn’t matter to the story one bit).

We also had a birthday party today for K’s grandfather, at the nursing home where he’s just moved. That was…a bit awkward. You never know what it’ll be like to hang out with family members you haven’t seen in years…and especially these family members. Some good interactions, some arguing over whether Disney should compensate families who go to Disneyland during “Gay Week” and whose kids have to be exposed to “half a million of THEM” without being prepared for the trauma. You can probably guess which side of the argument we came down on. K mostly ended things by saying “No offense, but we’re the liberal ones in the family. We’re probably not going to agree with you on this.” Anyway. It was truly nice to see some of the people there, and mostly a non-event to see others. Isn’t that what birthdays are all about?
Also, someone’s new son-in-law, we were told, wore a turban at his wedding and “looked just like Obama”. Hmm.

TV cop shows have been around for a lot of television’s history, haven’t they? An hour (or half that) of a crime, clues, wise-cracking, and a tidy denouement. Boring. Some have been better and some have been worse, but few of them have been original. The Wire is the exception to the rule.

This show didn’t focus on tidily wrapping up a story line within a single episode. You could argue that it followed one case, more or less, throughout all five seasons. It’s easy to care about these characters, much easier than with the typical “go shoot some bad guys” police procedural. These characters could be real people, for all their triumphs and flaws…and I miss them now, which sucks. This show focused on the police, but also the drug dealers (not to mention various kids, teachers, dockworkers, hit men, reporters, and politicians). It’s a show about Baltimore. There are cops in it, but they’re just part of the story. It’s a show about poverty, about the sociological roots of crime, about trying to change the system…it’s about all of these things and more. My only quibbles with The Wire were to do with specific plot points that I wish hadn’t happened, but I can’t change those. And that fact only speaks more strongly to the power this show has had over my imaginatio

If you get the chance, do your brain a favor and watch it. It’s on Netflix (though not streaming, yet), so you really have no excuse. No matter whether it’s cool to watch TV or not.