Dr. Robert's Feel-Good Variety Blog

Diagnosis: D.C. Disillusionment Prescription: Hope Last week, all I wanted for Christmas was cloture. I just wanted the Senate health reform debate to be done and over with. Now I’m trying to figure out how I got to this point. When I first came to D.C. a year or so ago, the sentiment of Hope and Change had swept the nation through Obama’s presidential campaign. As a pre-med kid fresh out of college and new to Washington, I let myself get swept away with it. Naturally, my hopes were pinned on the prospect of historic health reform legislation that would be sure to be enacted with Obama in the Oval Office. The Obama campaign message about the reforms to our health care system excited me. I envisioned passionate speeches that lambasted our health care system’s free market ideals that treated a person’s health as a commodity that could be bought and sold. I looked forward to the beginnings of a greater perception of health as an innate, human right. I found myself going into

(Author's Note: So I had the full intention to have completed a couple more posts by this point, but what can I say, I got distracted. Due to $$ and vacation time and other reasons, I was in the district for the holiday. So to keep from catching cabin fever I forced myself to get out of the house (and subsequently away from blogging) as much as possible. I did get a chance to check out some of the films from my holiday movie preview though, so it was sorta blog-related...) Anyways, now for today's post: Diagnosis - Holiday Hangover Monday Prescription - ReeeeeeMiiiiiixTape Monday For many of us working Joes and Janes, it's time to get back to work after the long weekend from the holidays. In the grand scheme of things, there are plenty of worse things than coming back to work after a long weekend, but right now the thought of going back to the office probably seems like the worst.thing.ever. Working a 9 to 6 job five days a week involves getting into a routine and stickin

Diagnosis: Case of the Mondays Prescription: Monday Morning Mix Tape! If you have seen High Fidelity starring John Cusack, then you already recognize the meaning of the title for this post. If you haven’t seen it, kindly get up from your chair, slowly back away from your desk area, and then turn and run. Sprint down the hall dodging co-workers and flying past your boss. Take the stairs, there’s no time for the elevator, this is an emergency. Get out of the building, but make sure you say a kind "hello" to the doorman, he works hard and deserves recognition. Then find the quickest route to the store and go buy this movie. It’s just that good. Or I guess you could just buy it online at your computer... ...Anyways, one of the best parts of the film is the outstanding performance by Jack Black as Barry, one of the co-workers and fellow musical snob at Championship Vinyl, the record shop owned by John Cusack that “attracts the bare minimum of window shoppers.” Not only does Jack

Diagnosis: Holiday boredom Prescription: Holiday movie season! So the holiday season is a wonderful time to see family and old friends and enjoy all of the festivities. But let’s face it, there’s only so much of that you can handle before you start to get a little bored with it. You need some distractions, some high-quality entertainment. So I took a quick gander at the upcoming movies for the holidays, and here’s what I could make out of them: Avatar This is supposed to be the huge blockbuster of the season. To be honest, I wasn’t impressed at first. A few months ago, I saw one of those shorter teaser trailers for it, and my initial thought was “why are people going to pay upwards of 15 bucks to see crazy blue CGI characters run around for two and a half hours?” The thought still lingers in the back of my mind, but I don’t think that kind of rational questioning can overcome the insane amount of money that went into the production and promotion of this movie. This is bou

Diagnosis: Flippin' Cold Ass Winter Prescription: Roll up your sleeves Winter's fast approaching and it's starting to get colder than a witch's teat up in this mother Ucker . So what's a young kid from the southwest lost in the bitterly freezing temperatures of the east coast to do? Well, you might suggest busting out my winter clothes, investing in a pea coat, perhaps even hibernation. Though that last one is tempting, and the second one could certainly enhance my style, I'm instead taking a different route: mind over matter. But I don't have enough mental fortitude to just overcome the elements on my own. I need a little help. Which is where my itunes usually come in handy. For this task, I'm enlisting the help of Scottish indie band We Were Promised Jetpacks and borrowing the track "Roll Up Your Sleeves" from their debut album These Four Walls . The song sounds sort of like a combination of Frightened Rabbit (who have their own theories abo

Diagnosis: Need for a break from the routine malaise of work through creative writing Prescription: Start a Blog So that's what I've decided to do. I'll be keeping a blog and using it as a space to share thoughts on music, movies, TV, politics, probably some stuff about health care/medicine, and just life in general. As the title suggests, it'll cover lots of topics and probably plenty of shameless corny math and science nerd-type jokes along the way (such as the "diagnosis/prescription" headings that will inevitably accompany most of the posts). I should also mention its reference to a Beatle's song that could have been the single most important song of my young adult life. As the song suggests, I hope that reading along to this blog will leave you feelin' fine . -DR