Imagine they had MBA degrees.

 

Just sharing a little something with everyone.

 

If you thought that bad management existed only in your own little world, check out this article from the LA Times of April 16, 2008. Span of control, accountability, delegation, expense reports, it’s all in here.

 

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-qaedaculture16apr16,1,4892591.story

  

For reference material to support this story, check out this report: http://www.ctc.usma.edu/harmony/pdf/CTCForeignFighter.19.Dec07.pdf  or http://www.ctc.usma.edu/

 

A Very Special Posting....

This has been an exciting spring for my oldest son and me. I assembled his first baseball bounce-back. I taught him how to make the alligator with his glove and his hand. Tomorrow I’ll take him to his first baseball practice. Actually it’s tee-ball. He is going to be six years old this summer. And I’ve been having those thoughts that parents have at this point in their child rearing years. “Where did that little baby that I brought home from the hospital go to?”

 

For me, this thought goes a little deeper. All of my children were born premature. My first one arrived eight weeks early. He spent 28 days in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. When we brought him home from the hospital we had an apnea monitor and a prescription for caffeine. That was to make sure that his heart was beating and he wouldn’t forget to breathe. That little boy needed to be held and walked around the room for fifteen minutes before he would fall asleep and stay asleep.

 

My second child, a girl, arrived three weeks early. She was the short-timer, spending only ½ a day in the NICU. She didn’t bring any extras home with her. She would hit me in the chin with her bottle when I fell asleep holding her. Today she is almost four years old. I think she is four years old, she acts likes an inquisitive fourteen year-old. I have some long years ahead of me dealing with her.

 

My third and final child, another boy, arrived four weeks early and spent 10 days in the NICU. This time my wife and I are old pros. The Pulse-Ox needs to read 95 or higher, the purple light is for the jaundice, turn off your cell phones when you come into the ward. He just turned two years-old. He thinks he’s six. He can eat an entire hamburger.

 

We were lucky. Our three children show no signs of being premature. The experiences we had serve as reality checks on a daily basis. There are a great many people who did not get or do not have any healthy premature babies.

 

Our family is actively involved with the March of Dimes. The mission of this charitable organization is to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality. Today roughly 12%, or 1 in 8, of babies born in the United States are born premature.

 

On April 27, the March of Dimes will have their yearly March For Babies fundraiser. I have provided a couple of links below for you to find out more information on this. I hope that you are moved to support their cause or take part in a March of Dimes event.

 

This isn’t for my children. My family isn’t involved for our own good. This is for someone else’s unborn children. Today, tomorrow, and after that.

 

Thanks for your time.

 

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The March of Dimes Home Page - http://www.marchofdimes.com/

The March For Babies Home Page - http://www.marchforbabies.org/#

Make a contribution to the March For Babies through our family’s involvement - http://www.marchforbabies.org/personal_page.asp?si=&w=201001652&u=team_ey

Check out this video for additional information about the March For Babies - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQ1CsZbjY0g

Facts about premature birth from Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premature_birth

 

 

 

 

 

Poetry Rocks !

I have a special announcement. Based on overwhelming feedback, the poetry page on my website www.robertraber.com will get its first posting on Friday April 4, 2008.

 

My poetry was launched the way most people’s poetry is launched: high school senior year creative writing class. The assignment was “write five original pieces of poetry.” Pretty simple stuff eh? Of course I got an A on the assignment. I was on the honor roll in high school.

 

Over the years I went back and created more poems. At one point I had enough to compile a book. Okay it was a half-inch three ring binder with a group of plastic sleeves holding a print out of each poem. I even went so far as to do some typesetting so each poem and a “look and feel” on the page. I titled it “Random Emotions From An Over-Worked Mind”.

 

Let me frame your expectations for this original poetry. None of this stuff is remotely Maya Angelou, Billy Collins, Robert Frost, or Henry David Thoreau. It will never be required reading along with Beowulf, the Divine Comedy, or The Canterbury Tales. Don’t look for a sonnet, a pantoum, or a villanelle. Some of it will make you snicker and most of it will make you say “Yikes I didn’t know Robert was such an emotional wreck”. I’ll include a brief snapshot of what, when, or who was the muse behind each submission. This way I don’t have to do any explaining later.

 

For me the biggest question I found in reviewing the pieces was “what happened to that guy?” I mean this in the sense of the things that you lose over time: innocence, adventure, improvisation, desire, courage. The feelings that you get when you listen to “Born to Run” while going over the Driscoll Bridge. (This reference placed to meet the requirements of residing in New Jersey. If I was living in Canada, I would have quoted “Red Barchetta”).

 

I don’t write near as much poetry as I once did. It’s been at least a year since any kind of new composition. Hopefully posting some items from the vault will bring about new inspiration. I promise to share it with all of you.

 

Feel free to send me any questions about the pieces. Hope you enjoy them.

 

(I did not provide any links in this posting on purpose. Go Forth and Search!)