this week i

think fuddruckers $10 veg/$12 salmon burgers w/ sweet potato fries will win my repeat business.

burned a day examining the relationship between chronic diseases and high spending/utilization. though we can say a lot about people who have certain diseases, doing so would be misleading since comorbidities confound our results. when we look at, say, people with high blood pressure who lack any other chronic conditions, their spending doesn't differ significantly from average.. people with only diabetes also show nothing.. people diagnosed with arthritis but only arthritis actually spend less.. heavy hospital usage and high cost burdens only come into the picture after three or four chronic conditions advance on an individual. unfortunately, i'm unaware of any health data sets with a large enough sample of people with (for example) diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart arrythmia, but no other chronic diseases -- so we can't link discrete disease combinations with high spending. fuck.

hosted a successful sushi+beer+donuts dinner. apparently no one else likes donuts, more for me.

smoked a hookah in view of the monument.

may or may not have hit the 'record' button after telling a friend to balance for a picture.


want to name my children like george washington carver or benjamin franklin stephenson. albert einstein damico has a nice ring to it.

hope our politicians watch jon stewart (1) (2).

kept guessing throughout revanche. an entertaining movie.

dodged tourists.


visited the library of congress. my favorite display.


enjoyed the first draft of the declaration of independence (better version). 'we hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable'? glad they brought out the red pens.

saw a paraplegic homeless man just south of dupont circle recline his wheelchair seatback to arc his piss so less of it hit him on its way out. can we raise my taxes, please?

6/4/09

this week i

saw chief joseph band at chief ike's, nice to be there without the sweaty hordes.

dragged my father to a prairie home companion at wolftrap, then late-night cheesesteaks & subs.

exchanged e-mails with cms regarding the best way to identify and categorize expenditure and utilization trends among long-term care facility residents in mcbs data; the results of this analysis should supplement our ongoing examination of high spending medicare beneficiaries.

preferred nabokov's observation that 'our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness'.

agreed. strongly agreed.

replayed those first six words. perfect.

celebrated graduation..

remembered the job market.

admired a t-shirt.

spotted tadpoles.


caused trouble.

watched nighttime volleyball.

ate bertha's mussels..

..game.

set.

match.


5/28/09

this week i

read about the best iphone feature.

strengthened my disgust at our media.

earned an mhs in health policy.

enjoyed a talent show.


attended the graduation formal. hope my outfit looked this good.

returned to assateague. grilled..

..whittled for kindling..

..rebuilt stonehenge..

..then cut the vacation short after the howling wind and cold rain imploded our (old, sand-anchored) tent.

would do it again in a heartbeat.

rebounded with an urban picnic at druid hill park, then kiwi margaritas, not bad.

thought...
it would probably taste better

tough to find a buyer

3012977237. 3012977237. 3012977237. 3012977237.


5/21/09

this week i

ventured to virginia for the washington shakespeare company's tennessee williams' small craft warnings. $80 for season tickets might be a good deal.

had a nightmare. and another. max baucus was also in my dream on tuesday night, too much c-span.

feasted on four courses in the home of some friends. the chef documented the deliciousness on his blog.

finally understood the insanity of our financial sector.

calculated percent of poverty for individuals in meps. the downloadable main data file already contains a categorical variable (1 = below 100, 2 = 100-124, 3 = 125-199, 4 = 200-399, 5 = 400+), but much of the health reform debate centers around those below 150% of poverty. now we've got a precise linear variable, in case you were interested. it's a lot of fun.

guarded my optimism.

toured the luxembourgian, romanian, british, spanish, latvian..


..italian..

..and swedish..


..embassies during dc's eu embassy open house day.

saw where some of my work data is born.

ducked into the house of worship closest to my home. the chandelier beats church stained glass. but kiddo (zoom in), mecca's thataway.

caught national geographic's visceral lions & leopards exhibit.

attempted harmonica repair. no luck.

5/14/09

this week i

captured an oberlin albino squirrel in view of the white house. must be our alumnus mayor fenty's good work.
pooled three years of meps data, compared chronic condition prevalence and access measures in the working-age uninsured to those with public or private coverage by poverty level, watched some of it end up in senate finance testimony.

saw barack obama picking his daughter up from a dance recital (rear window after zoom-in). talk about an intrusive press, i can't believe this article exists..

..and yes, there's a big difference between electronically telling your friends that you were in a crowd waving to the president, and publishing obama's every waking step on a news site like huffington, csmonitor, or the post. decided to reduce my news consumption to ft, nybooks, lrbooks, a lot less bullshit.

think this proves arlen specter the true maverick.

know the feeling.

couldn't shake assateague...
(horse @ u & 14th)

(urban smores @ cosi bethesda)

5/7/09