The driver of tomorrow is not thinking Green...

The driver of tomorrow is not thinking Green...
He's thinking Classic. (click on photo)

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Mar 31, 2009

Bree's Story

This is a friend of McKenna's - an absolutely amazing beautiful girl. If you have a daughter, you may be interested. If you think your family is immune, think again.

Here's her mom's story:

http://web.me.com/dslatton4/Timbercrest_Counseling/Inspiration_from_a_Former_Student.html

The following is a story about a former Timbercrest student and her battle with anorexia. A heartfelt thanks to Bree and her mom for sharing it with us. If you are struggling with an eating disorder you are not alone and help is available.

Mar 29, 2009

Hide His word in your heart

A moment in our sermon:

Hide His word in your heart so that you may not sin against Him. (yes I know this is not the exact phrase of Psalms 119)

Not hide His word in your heart so that you can quote it eloquently and judge others with it.

Hide it for yourself and your own spirit. So that you may not sin against Him.

Galatians 5:22-23

When the Holy Spirit controls our lives, He will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, self-control.



- I have much to learn and much to render to The Spirit - Rebecca

The Art of Manliness: Manvotional Reveille

Manvotional: Reveille
Posted: 28 Mar 2009 09:35 PM PDT

"I think we all have gone trough periods of our lives where we feel like we’re stuck in neutral. Sometimes too much stress and pressure or just too much laziness can push us into a rut that seems impossible to get out of. The hardest part of getting out of a rut for me is taking that first step. Every part of myself will resist it. It just takes some good old fashioned self-will to get past the initial resistance. It also helps to get some motivation from an outside source. AoM reader David Wells suggested a fantastic poem by A.E. Houseman that’s the perfect motivator when you feel like you’re in a rut. It’s called “Reveille,” and it’s about an unnamed lad whose being roused to action. My favorite line is the last: Up, lad: when the journey’s over there’ll be time enough to sleep.

Damn straight.

Enjoy the poem."

Reveille by A.E Houseman

Wake: the silver dusk returning
Up the beach of darkness brims,
And the ship of sunrise burning
Strands upon the eastern rims.

Wake: the vaulted shadow shatters,
Trampled to the floor it spanned,
And the tent of night in tatters
Straws the sky-pavilioned land.

Up, lad, up, ’tis late for lying:
Hear the drums of morning play;
Hark, the empty highways crying
‘Who’ll beyond the hills away?’

Towns and countries woo together,
Forelands beacon, belfries call;
Never lad that trod on leather
Lived to feast his heart with all.

Up, lad: thews that lie and cumber
Sunlit pallets never thrive;
Morns abed and daylight slumber
Were not meant for man alive.

Clay lies still, but blood’s a rover;
Breath’s a ware that will not keep.
Up, lad: when the journey’s over
There’ll be time enough to sleep.

Mar 26, 2009

GOV: Middle Class Task Force Releases Report on ARRA's Impact on Middle-Income Families

Thursday, March 19, 2009


A central goal of the Middle Class Taskforce is to identify public policies that will help middle class families by improving their living standards. This taskforce goal is an especially important one, because even in normal times of economic growth in recent years, the middle class has not gotten very far ahead. In fact, even during the economic expansion of the 2000s, as we show below, the real income of working-age, middle-class households actually fell by about $2,000. In this current period of widespread economic hardship, a key tool for helping these families is the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or ARRA. The Middle Class Task Force released a staff report today focusing on how the ARRA helps middle-income families. Some of the key findings from the report include:

Jobs created by the ARRA are predicted to lower the unemployment rate by about two percentage points. We expect this change to increase middle-class incomes by $1,300, or 2.3%;

Depending on family-type and circumstances, the tax benefits from the ARRA provisions can add $2,000 or more to after-tax family income;

Combining job and tax effects, the ARRA will lift incomes by around $3,000 for many middle-class families, significantly offsetting their income losses over the recession; and

For middle-class families hit with spells of unemployment, tax credits and safety net expansion in the ARRA, combined with existing unemployment insurance programs, can replace much of the income loss that occurs when a wage-earner in the family loses his or her job.

The full staff report is available here. (go to website)

http://www.recovery.gov/?q=node/265

www.recovery.gov - citizens/goverment site to track ARRA

http://www.recovery.gov/

Welcome to Recovery.gov
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is an unprecedented effort to jumpstart our economy, create or save millions of jobs, and put a down payment on addressing long-neglected challenges so our country can thrive in the 21st century. The Recovery and Reinvestment Act is an extraordinary response to a crisis unlike any since the Great Depression. With much at stake, the Act provides for unprecedented levels of transparency and accountability so that you will be able to know how, when, and where your tax dollars are being spent. Spearheaded by a new Recovery Board, this Act contains built-in measures to root out waste, inefficiency, and unnecessary spending. This website, Recovery.gov, will be the main vehicle to provide each and every citizen with the ability to monitor the progress of the recovery.

Quote of the....

"We have no government armed in power capable of contending in human passions unbridled by morality and religion… Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

-- John Adams, 1799

Mar 24, 2009

U.S. seeks expanded power to seize firms

This makes me squirm in my seat a bit. I feel like as a nation we need to wake up and pay close attention to how much control this administration is giving itself. And each step is under the announcement "we must act fast!" and fear to get the American people to support these changes. And the issue of AIG's bonuses are being used to pull people over in agreement of government control. Very uneasy. I think I'd rather see them not bail out these companies and see the US recenter itself, then find outselves on the other side of the door with the government in control. When I read that the President is asking Congress to give the Treasury more control in this area below, I wonder how much a Democratic Senate or congress is going to stand in a President's way to say no and limit the power of control here? Regardless who the president was, or what party involved, I am concerned.

Goal is to limit risk to broader economy
By Binyamin Appelbaum and David Cho
The Washington Post
updated 12:10 a.m. PT, Tues., March. 24, 2009

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration is considering asking Congress to give the Treasury secretary unprecedented powers to initiate the seizure of non-bank financial companies, such as large insurers, investment firms and hedge funds, whose collapse would damage the broader economy, according to an administration document.
The government at present has the authority to seize only banks.

Giving the Treasury secretary authority over a broader range of companies would mark a significant shift from the existing model of financial regulation, which relies on independent agencies that are shielded from the political process. The Treasury secretary, a member of the president's Cabinet, would exercise the new powers in consultation with the White House, the Federal Reserve and other regulators, according to the document.

The administration plans to send legislation to Capitol Hill this week. Sources cautioned that the details, including the Treasury's role, are still in flux.
Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner is set to argue for the new powers at a hearing today on Capitol Hill about the furor over bonuses paid to executives at American International Group, which the government has propped up with about $180 billion in federal aid. Administration officials have said that the proposed authority would have allowed them to seize AIG last fall and wind down its operations at less cost to taxpayers.

Two pieces to proposal

The administration's proposal contains two pieces. First, it would empower a government agency to take on the new role of systemic risk regulator with broad oversight of any and all financial firms whose failure could disrupt the broader economy. The Federal Reserve is widely considered to be the leading candidate for this assignment. But some critics warn that this could conflict with the Fed's other responsibilities, particularly its control over monetary policy.

The government also would assume the authority to seize such firms if they totter toward failure.

Besides seizing a company outright, the document states, the Treasury Secretary could use a range of tools to prevent its collapse, such as guaranteeing losses, buying assets or taking a partial ownership stake. Such authority also would allow the government to break contracts, such as the agreements to pay $165 million in bonuses to employees of AIG's most troubled unit.

The Treasury secretary could act only after consulting with the president and getting a recommendation from two-thirds of the Federal Reserve Board, according to the plan.

Geithner plans to lay out the administration's broader strategy for overhauling financial regulation at another hearing on Thursday.

Priority following failure of Lehman Brothers

The authority to seize non-bank financial firms has emerged as a priority for the administration after the failure of investment house Lehman Brothers, which was not a traditional bank, and the troubled rescue of AIG.

"We're very late in doing this, but we've got to move quickly to try and do this because, again, it's a necessary thing for any government to have a broader range of tools for dealing with these kinds of things, so you can protect the economy from the kind of risks posed by institutions that get to the point where they're systemic," Geithner said last night at a forum held by the Wall Street Journal.
The powers would parallel the government's existing authority over banks, which are exercised by banking regulatory agencies in conjunction with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Geithner has cited that structure as the model for the government's plans.

© 2009 The Washington Post Company
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29847658/

Mar 23, 2009

Disappear - Bebo Norman

Writing is my outlet from the ongoing or inner goings of my overactive mind. Lately I'm struggling (don't call, I'm fine). Sunday's message in church hit me so deeply. Such a burning desire to go in to ministry - to speak for The Lord. Our pastor shared a story of a meeting with a pastor from Russia this past week. He was asked what his deepest concern was. Our pastor's answer was to the effect that christians in the US will not be able to stand if religious persecution came to this country. The russian pastors answer - that he his own faith could not stand as he faces the death of his 17 year old son. What am I doing in my own life to show Jesus' love to those I'm called to minister? My children, my family? Nothing. I am too caught up in my own crap - excuse me - my own selfishness. As I work through my thoughts today with God, a few songs came up in concession from Bebo Norman as I worked out tonight. This one is powerful (good guitar Pete :) ) - hope it helps or touches your soul today. I am working on change - it won't be overnight, but He continues to work on me.

Bebo Norman - Disappear (I can send you the file - or it'll be on my facebook)

On a day like this I want to crawl beneath a rock
A million miles from the world, the noise, the commotion
That never seems to stop

And on a day like this I want to run away from the routine
Run away from the daily grind that can suck the life
Right out of me
I only know of one place I can run to

I want to hide in You
The Way, the Life, the Truth
So I can disappear
And love is all there is to see
Coming out of me
And You become clear
As I disappear

I don't want to care about earthly things
Be caught up in all the lies that trick my eyes
They say it's all about me
I'm so tired of it being about me¦

I would rather be cast away
Separated from the human race

If I don't bring You glory
If I don't bring You glory
If I don't bring You glory

Mar 19, 2009

MSN:At foreclosure auctions, the hunt is on

Mortgage meltdown sends newcomers and old hands in search of bargains
By Mike Stuckey
Senior news editor
updated 3:16 a.m. PT, Thurs., March. 19, 2009
BELLEVUE, Wash. - Opportunity is knocking in the chilly winter air of this Seattle suburb, and Rock Harrison intends to answer it.

Built like a linebacker and sporting a mustache-goatee combo, Harrison, 37, is one of three dozen people who have gathered around an aluminum picnic table outside an office building in a strip mall for one of two weekly public foreclosure auctions in Washington’s King County.

Harrison and four competitors have qualified to bid on a 3,300-square-foot McMansion on an acre lot in the south county town of Auburn. The house last sold for $470,450 more than four years ago, the county assesses it at $577,000, and well over $600,000 is owed against it on a pair of loans.

But the foreclosing lender, trying to recoup what it can in an area of plummeting real estate prices, has set the opening bid at just $267,000. Interest is high because most would-be buyers figure the house, currently vacant and in decent shape, can be quickly resold for about $500,000.

A short, bespectacled crier presides over the auction from one end of the picnic table.

The bidding quickly leaps over $300,000, going up $3,000 and $4,000 at a pop, with offers from all participants. Above $320,000, where Harrison drops out, it becomes a two-man contest, each new bid often just $100 or $200 above the last. After more than 10 minutes and 75 bids, the property finally sells for just under $371,000.

Harrison tosses his bidding card on the table, tugs on his baseball cap with its Skidoo logo and awaits his next prospect.

The Bellevue bidders are participating in what is one of the few growth areas in the battered U.S. real estate industry. While savvy investors have long profited from dealing in distressed properties, the soaring rate of U.S. home foreclosures over the past few years has attracted mainstream interest and crowds of new bidders.

“We’ve seen a sea change over the last three years,” said Rick Sharga, senior vice president of marketing for California-based RealtyTrac, an Internet service aimed at participants in the real estate foreclosure market.

On track for 3 million?
Sharga’s company, one of the most oft-quoted sources of nationwide foreclosure data, predicts that up to 3 million U.S. homes will face foreclosure proceedings this year — three to four times the normal number. Properties in foreclosure, “a niche market for so long,” have become so numerous that “now, conservatively, at least 50 to 60 percent of people who are in the market to buy a house are at least considering a foreclosure purchase,” Sharga said. “Historically, that simply hasn’t been the case.”

Foreclosure, or the threat of it, can lead to the disposal of real estate in three basic ways: a pre-foreclosure sale, often done as a “short sale,” in which the lender is willing to accept less than what is owed on the note; a trustee’s sale at public auction on the proverbial “courthouse steps,” with the property going to the highest bidder, often the lender itself; or post-foreclosure sales of properties that have reverted to the lenders, sometimes called REOs for “real estate owned.” And trustee sales should not be confused with giant auditorium “foreclosure auctions,” in which banks and other property owners dispose of portfolios of land and homes that they have taken back in earlier foreclosure procedures.

There’s no way to know how many foreclosed homes nationwide are actually sold to third parties at trustee sale auctions, said Sharga, who is probably in a better position than anyone else to know. Conventional wisdom puts the figure at about 20 percent, but “everyone’s estimate right now is that there are a much smaller percentage of properties being bought that way and a huge number are being taken back by banks,” which are entitled to set a minimum bid of what they are owed on a foreclosed note.

Spot figures confirm the lower rate. In California last year, just 3.6 percent of 249,940 properties sold at trustee auctions went to third-party buyers, according to the Web site ForeclosureRadar.com. In King County, Wash., where Harrison was bidding last week, just seven of 125 properties scheduled for auction were bought by third parties.


While short sales and REO homes are often listed and advertised for sale in ways identical to non-distressed property, generating commissions for agents who list and sell them, such is not the case with property destined for a trustee-sale auction.

“Realtors have absolutely zero interest in a trustee sale,” Sharga said. And investors who have been attending auctions for years have little interest in new competition. As a result, the process often remains shrouded in mystery. “It’s sort of a secret society without formal membership dues,” Sharga said.

For most first-timers, uneducated in advance, the action at a typical public auction would be impossible to follow. At most, there are no signs, no official programs, no helpful public employees. The auction criers are nothing like the mile-a-minute-talking, spittle-spewing, gavel-banging auctioneers who preside over livestock sales. They generally speak calmly and softly, heard only by the crowd in their immediate vicinity. It can be hard to tell from just a few feet away when an auction has started or finished. The only clear signal is when money changes hands.


But the regulars — who often appear to be dressed more for a ballgame than a high-stakes financial transaction as they shuffle papers and communicate furtively with partners and investors via ubiquitous Bluetooth earpieces — know exactly what’s going on. They are bidding on houses to hold as rental properties, to renovate and resell, or, less often, to move into themselves. Some are bidding for clients who don’t want to attend the auctions in person.

The most important thing to understand is the terms of payment, said Duane Harden, a Manhattan-based investor who has bought a couple of dozen foreclosed properties at auctions in several states since 2001. In New York, winning bidders must immediately fork over 10 percent of the purchase price and pay the balance within 30 to 45 days, he said.

“Do your homework,” he stressed in an interview with msnbc.com. “Know if they are going to deliver a clear title, know your redemption rules” which protect the foreclosed homeowner’s right, if any, to buy the auctioned property back.

In Washington state, bidders must pay the full purchase price on the spot with cash or a cashier’s check. In fact, they must “qualify” for a maximum amount for each property they want to bid for by showing the auctioneer their money.

There are plenty of other potential pitfalls when it comes to buying real estate at auction, which Sharga of RealtyTrac called “the highest-risk way” of obtaining distressed property. Bidders must be sure of what they’re getting, or they’ll “wind up buying a lemon,” he said. “There’s no recourse once you buy a property at an auction. If you didn’t realize all the wiring had been ripped out, if you didn’t find out there were two tax liens and three mechanics’ liens, that’s your problem, too.”

Hundreds of specialized firms
To help investors avoid those problems and deal with many other challenges of buying distressed property, both at auction and not, hundreds of specialized companies have sprung up, from local real estate offices to RealtyTrac and its 1.9 million foreclosure listings at the national level.

“There’s traditional real estate, which is 99.9 percent of what’s out there, and then there’s us,” said Harley Dufek, 34, a partner in Real Estate Investment Firm of Redmond, Wash. A key part of the small company’s business is advising clients on buying at auction. These days, the company is using the public auctions as a marketing opportunity, handing out free packets of information on the properties that will be offered as a means of enticing auction newcomers to a weekly seminar where they can sign up as clients.

At the seminar, company founder Matthew Steel explains how his partners and employees pore over lists of homes scheduled for auction, drive through neighborhoods, peer into back yards, try to legally see inside houses wherever they can, and research mortgages, title status, tax liens, building permits and zoning.

He shows off the Web site where the firm’s registered clients can access all the data if they are willing to agree to pay a 3 percent commission on any properties they buy at foreclosure auctions. Becoming a client also gives an investor access to short-term financing and the luxury of having someone with Steel’s firm handle the actual bidding. Since investors often must bid on many properties to actually buy just one, such services can eliminate the need to shuffle funds from one cashier’s check to another and take time away from other tasks to attend the auctions.

Big risks, big rewards
Steel, 32, who has operated his own businesses since he was a high school senior, exudes enthusiasm about foreclosure auctions but cautions that “it takes work.

“There are extra liabilities. That’s why at a foreclosure auction you can get such good deals,” he said.

To Steele, a good deal at a foreclosure auction means buying a property for about 70 percent to 80 percent of its current value.

Christopher Hall, founder of Vestus, which he says buys 40 percent of all properties that sell to third parties at Washington state foreclosure auctions, said the prices paid by his firm at recent auctions range from 67 percent to 71 percent, down from 78 percent to 82 percent a year ago.

RealtyTrac advises its members that “a reasonable purchase amount at auction is at least 20 percent below full market value, and much better deals are often possible,” but Sharga notes that some buyers have unreasonable expectations. A recent survey by his firm found that 30 percent of consumers think they ought to get a 50 percent discount on a home bought at auction.


“People pay too much attention to infomercials,” Sharga said. “There is a myth and a misperception that you’re going to go to these auctions and buy properties for nothing. There are those properties. Go to Cleveland, you can buy a property for a few hundred dollars, but it’s in Cleveland, probably a part of Cleveland you don’t want to live in, and you’re not going to move your family there.”

Still, every serious player in the foreclosure auction game has stories about deals that seem almost too good to be true. For Harden, the Manhattan investor, it was a property mistakenly listed as a single unit. “It was two,” he said. “I got two for the price of one.” Likewise, Harrison, the Bellevue bidder, learned through extra homework that a house on an island in Puget Sound sat on two acres, not one, as listed in foreclosure documents. He was the only bidder who knew that.

And the insiders also have plenty of auction horror stories.

Recently, Steel said, an auction newcomer bought a home in a neighboring Washington county for $200,000. By all appearances, the home was easily worth twice that amount on the open market. However, “he bought a second-mortgage position,” said Steel, which meant that there was a first mortgage, likely for more than $200,000, still owing on the home. To make matters worse, the buyer was probably the only person at the auction who didn’t realize what he was doing. Some of the regular auction-goers were happy to see new competition so quickly derailed.

“If we see that kind of thing, we point it out,” Steel said, but “if you’re at an auction and think you’re getting something for 50 cents on the dollar and everybody else is standing around watching, something is wrong.”

That’s why Steel and everyone else on the bidding side who spoke with msnbc.com stressed education, information and patience when asked how they would advise newcomers to prepare for auctions.

A ringside seat
When Manhattan investor Duane Harden’s mother, Rose, wanted to try her hand at foreclosure auctions, her son “told me, ‘Mom, just go to the courthouse and learn how to do it.’” So Rose Harden, a resident of Georgia at the time, did just that: “I took me a folding chair, and I learned the rhythm and the recipe of it.” A short time later, she and her son bought three homes at an auction in Savannah, Ga.

Some auction participants said newcomers should be aware of the stigma associated with being a party to proceedings that can ultimately force families from their homes, whether they were owners or renters. In some cases, the new owner must actually evict them. But Dufek points out that his firm works with troubled sellers just as earnestly as with opportunistic buyers, and he said win-win situations can sometimes be created through short sales or leasebacks.

Dufek said it is important for bidders to know their “exit strategies” when buying foreclosed homes. While more and more auction buyers are seeking a one-time good deal on a primary residence for themselves, many regulars are still looking for rental properties or “flips,” homes they can quickly resell.

Steel finds current conditions unattractive for flipping, although his firm still works with clients who want to speculate that way. “I’m absolutely against it,” he said. “This is a great time to buy and hold.”

The Hardens strictly seek rentals, meaning any properties they buy have to “cash flow” immediately. “Equity investing” in real estate these days, or counting on appreciation, “is gambling,” Duane Harden said. “You might as well go to Atlantic City.”

But Harrison, who bowed out of the bidding on the big vacant house in Auburn, Wash., still sees lots of room for cautious speculation, especially for a contractor like himself who can accurately size up what a house needs to make it market-ready and then get the work done quickly.

The value of uncertainty
“I personally like massively trashed places,” he said. “They really scare people. The look horrible, but I’m going to strip all that out anyway. A vacant house that has little fix-up goes for a premium. The houses that are occupied, trashed or with question marks or permits or zoning, those are very intimidating to people.”

After losing the first house, Harrison bid on and picked up another on a good street in the popular Greenlake neighborhood of Seattle. He paid $330,000 for a 1,740-square-foot, three-bedroom home that was built in 2000 and is valued by the county at $509,000.

Far from “massively trashed,” the biggest problem with the house is that “it’s really plain.” He’ll fix that with some stone work outside and paint and carpet on the inside and quickly have it on the market.

Asking price? “Around $425,000,” Harrison said with a smile.


© 2009 msnbc.com Reprints
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29744491/

Mar 18, 2009

Actress Natasha Richardson dies after skiing accident

http://www.latimes.com/news/la-me-natasha-richardson19-2009mar19,0,2874647,full.story

Natasha Richardson, the luminous British actress from one of the world's great acting families, whose performances ranged from the high-brow drama "The Handmaid's Tale" to the lightweight comedy "The Parent Trap" and the Tony-winning Broadway production of "Cabaret," died Wednesday. She was 45.

The wife of "Schindler's List" actor Liam Neeson and the daughter of actress Vanessa Redgrave and the late film director Tony Richardson died at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York. The cause of death was not announced but she had been hospitalized after suffering a devastating brain injury while skiing Monday.

Liam Neeson, his sons, and the entire family are shocked and devastated by the tragic death of their beloved Natasha," said a statement released by publicist Alan Nierob. "They are profoundly grateful for the support, love and prayers of everyone, and ask for privacy during this very difficult time."

Richardson was injured at Mont Tremblant, a luxury resort in Canada. The actress was taking a lesson on a beginner's run near the bottom of the ski area and was not wearing a helmet in what first appeared to be a minor accident.

She initially reported that she was well, but soon started to complain of a headache. Hours after the fall, the star of a number of acclaimed stage plays -- including roles in "Anna Christie," "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "Closer" -- slipped into unconciousness, and she was transported Tuesday from a Montreal hospital back to New York on Tuesday, where she was surrounded by family and friends.

The actress' most recent film credits came in last year's "Wild Child" opposite Emma Roberts and 2007's "Evening" with Meryl Streep, Claire Danes and Redgrave. The "Evening" part was one of a number of recent roles Richardson had had with her closest relatives. On television, she appeared as a guest judge on the just-concluded season of the cooking show "Top Chef."

Richardson was born in London on May 11, 1963, into a theatrical family. and in addition to marrying Neeson, her second husband, in 1994. In addition to Redgrave, other actors in her family include sister Joely Richardson, a star of the television series "Nip/Tuck," and aunt Lynn Redgrave, whose film credits include "Georgy Girl" and "Gods and Monsters." Her Richardson's grandfather was legendary Shakespearean actor Michael Redgrave.

Her father was an acclaimed writer, director and producer who won the directing and best picture Oscar for 1963's "Tom Jones." Tony Richardson, who died in 1991 at age 63, also directed "Look Back in Anger" and "A Taste of Honey."

The actress' 72-year-old mother, who won the supporting actress Academy Award for 1977's "Julia" still acts in theater and in film.

Just before the skiing accident, Richardson was considering a Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim's "A Little Night Music" with her mother, following a highly praised one-night January staging at New York's Studio 54.

While Richardson may have come from royal show business blood, she did not try to use her ancestry to advance her career, but rather saw her family's creative business as something of a classroom.

"I know the pressures of being the daughter of a great actress," Richardson said in a 2005 interview with London's Independent newspaper. "But it's inspiring. You learn so much that other people don't get to learn until later on. My father being a director, I [learned] a real work ethic. You think: 'One day, I'd like to be as good as that.' But when I was starting out professionally, I had a level of attention put on me that I didn't deserve or wasn't ready for. And it was hard, particularly in England, to make my way."

Richardson trained at London's Central School of Speech and Drama, hiding her family connections, and subsequently picked up minor parts in little-known theater and television productions. In 1985, she made her West End debut, playing the troubled young actress Nina in Anton Chekhov's "The Seagull." A year later, Richardson was cast in her first prominent movie role, starring in director Ken Russell's "Gothic" as "Frankenstein" author Mary Shelley.

A variety of more prominent movie and stage roles followed, but Richardson often gravitated toward artier film productions, with mainstream movies more exception than rule. Despite her British roots, she often played iconic American characters -- including Patty Hearst (in a movie of the same name), Blanche DuBois in Tennessee Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire" and the title role in Eugene O'Neill's "Anna Christie."

With a gravelly, seductive voice (once compared to a combination of honey and iron filings), Richardson frequently was willing to play emotionally vulnerable roles. "I just feel for her," she told the Times in 1993 about Anna Christie. "Her anger and her loneliness and her pain."

Richardson's movie choices in 1990 exemplified her creative taste. That year, she starred in "The Comfort of Strangers," a drama about a couple (Richardson and Rupert Everett) trying to repair a failing relationship, and "The Handmaid's Tale," an adaptation of Margaret Atwood's novel about a future theocracy. Hinting at her growing interest in theater, both movies were written by the playwright Harold Pinter.

Richardson made her Broadway debut in 1993, playing opposite her future husband, Neeson, in Eugene O'Neill's "Anna Christie." She was married to producer the actor Robert Fox at the time; he and Richardson divorced that same year and she married Neeson in 1994. The couple had two sons together, Micheal and Daniel, and Richardson left acting for three years when they were born.

"I have a famous mother and it took me years to get over that," she once told London's Mirror. "Now I have this really famous husband. I definitely feel a loss of confidence. Perhaps that's partly why I love living in New York, being free of all that family baggage, being open to all sorts of possibilities."

Richardson continued to appear in movies, with the highest-profile roles coming in the 1998 remake of "The Parent Trap" opposite Lindsay Lohan and Dennis Quaid, and 2002's romantic comedy "Maid in Manhattan" with Jennifer Lopez.

But Richardson's most distinguished work was delivered inside London and New York's theaters: as Sally Bowles in director Sam Mendes' revival of "Cabaret" in 1998 (for which she won a Tony and a Drama Desk award); a year later in the Broadway production of Patrick Marber's "Closer"; reprising a role once played by her mother in the 2003 London production of Henrik Ibsen's "The Lady fFrom the Sea"; and 2005's Broadway revival of "A Streetcar Named Desire."

"Wearing a slip, torn stockings and dirty hair, she dazzles simply by lifting her huge, wondrous eyes -- lined in yesterday's stained makeup -- tearfully to the theater's low balcony," Los Angeles Times reviewer Laura Winer said of her performance in "Cabaret."

In his Times review of "Closer," Michael Phillips wrote: "On stage, the unglamorously glamorous Natasha Richardson has a wonderful way of asking a question as if it were a statement, as if the question mark were extraneous and obvious. She does that in a way that reveals, warily, a bit of her character's insides."

Richardson was often drawn to stories that illuminated a character's deepest -- and sometimes darkest -- secrets.

In a movie she spent seven years getting made (taking an associate producer credit to help movie it forward), Richardson played Stella, the unhappy wife of a psychiatric hospital doctor, in 2005's "Asylum." The movie, in which Richardson's character is drawn to a mental patient, failed to attract an audience in the United States but it did bring the actress several British honors.

"One of the reasons I related to Stella, and why I think a lot of women relate to her, is that we've all had moments in life when you look at the edge of the abyss and think, 'Am I going to throw caution to the wind?' " she said in a 2006 interview with London's Evening Standard. "Most of us decide to pull in the reins. Stella doesn't."

In addition to the revival of "A Little Night Music," Richardson in recent years performed in several projects with her closest relatives. She reportedly had been considering a Broadway revival of "A Little Night Music" with her mother, following a well-received one-night staging they did of the Stephen Sondheim musical in January at Studio 54 in New York.

In the 2005 film "The White Countess" she appeared opposite Lynn and Vanessa Redgrave. Two years later, she and her mother played a mother and daughter in "Evening."

Mar 13, 2009

MSN:Helping kids with ADHD handle difficulties with inhibition.

When I was a school counselor, one of my favorite students was bright, funny and full of life. She was motivated to work on her school problems, but she also frequently voiced frustration. She'd say things like "I know I'm smart, and I work hard, but nothing works! " or "I'm always in trouble. My teachers hate me. They're always yelling at me, and it's not fair!"

Julia (not her real name) felt overwhelmed with homework, and couldn't handle getting blamed when she didn't finish or had the wrong answers.

I met with Julia's parents and recommended psycho-educational testing to see if she had ADHD or other learning disabilities. Unfortunately, they took the referrals but didn't follow up. Her mother believed Julia could focus—if she only wanted to. She saw Julia as a difficult child who refused to do her homework and who had no respect for her mother or her teachers.

Julia was misunderstood, and because of that she didn't get the help she needed. One day, after being scolded at school, she threw a book across the room and was expelled. But expelling children like Julia doesn't solve their problems.

An empathetic approach to ADHD


ADHD traditionally has been seen as a disorder of attention span, but inattention may be just the tip of the iceberg, says Martin L. Kutscher, M.D., a pediatric neurologist and author of ADHD—Living without Brakes (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2008).Just focusing on attention span doesn't address the wide range of difficulties faced by those with ADHD and their families. Kutscher believes that it's because of this misunderstanding that kids like Julia are often labeled "bad," "disrespectful" or "selfish."

In fact, according to Kutscher, people with ADHD are struggling with real deficits in their executive functioning (EF) processes, which occur in the frontal and pre-frontal lobes of the brain. Understanding this is the first step to gaining empathy for the child with ADHD and developing a plan that will help.

The brain's executive functions include:

Inhibition (the ability to stop or filter oneself)
Orchestrating the brain (organizing yourself)
Self talk (talking yourself through a situation)
Working memory (the ability to access and juggle thoughts about past, present and future simultaneously)
Initiation (the ability to start something, like homework)
Hindsight/foresight (the ability to think about past and future consequences)
Shifting agenda (moving from one task to another)
Separating emotion from fact (every event has an objective reality and an emotion attached to it; this is about accurately judging the significance of an event)
Adding emotion to fact (the ability to remember and connect a feeling to an event; for example, remembering how a success makes you feel helps you stay motivated)
No brakes

Of these executive functions, the most important one is inhibition. Unless we can stop our impulses we can never use the other EFs, such as learning from mistakes. And kids with ADHD are "brakeless." They cannot keep from being distracted, impulsive or hyperactive. They're also so stuck in the "now" that they are unable to think about the future.

For example, imagine not eating all day and coming home starving. You have a choice. You can eat an apple, or dive into that bag of potato chips. If you're hungry enough, you probably will reach into that bag of potato chips, and once you start you'll finish the whole bag. The part of you that says "stop" has completely turned off. But for kids with ADHD, the "stop" message is always turned off.

Think of the child who keeps grabbing the phone out of your hand because she wants to talk to daddy now, the kid who chases the neighbor's cat and never learns that it makes the cat run away, or even the child who can't stop watching "The Simpsons" when you need to go somewhere.

Such kids may not be trying to be difficult—they may instead be having trouble with the braking function.

Chemicals behind the chaos

Studies show that children with ADHD have a lack of the neurotransmitters norepinephrine and dopamine in the frontal lobe and pre-frontal lobe regions of the brain—the areas responsible for executive functioning.

When there is too little norepinephrine operating in the frontal lobes, the brakes don't work at all. If there's a lack of dopamine in the frontal lobe area, the brakes are weak; it's like the brake pads are worn down. Without both neurotransmitters working fully, you have a brain with weak brakes that are asleep. The reason that children are put on stimulant medication like Ritalin or Adderall is to both "wake up" and strengthen these frontal-lobe brakes.

A combination of the correct medication to stimulate the frontal lobe brakes, plus using strategies at home and school that take the blame out of the disorganized behavior, can work to help the child as well as the entire family.

Strategies that work

Keep it positive.

It is important for parents to be positive. Reframe the outlook from the child being "bad" to the child having a condition or disability. Kutscher says, "The child is going to be labeled one way or another. 'ADHD' leads to empathy, 'bad' leads to an attempt to squash the kid into submission."

Use punishment only if it helps. The purpose of punishment is to change future behavior. If the child can't stop him or herself long enough to make a decision about consequences, then he or she can't learn from the punishment. Furthermore, it does nothing to fix the underlying problem. (If a child breaks the rules, you can still enforce the consequences; just stay calm and positive as you do it.)

Keep it calm.

Kids who have ADHD get easily overwhelmed. An overwhelmed child can't use any of their executive functions. If things even start to escalate at home, take a break to cool down. "When a car is speeding out of control, the last thing it needs is a push from behind," says Kutscher. Stop and announce a 10-minute chill-out time. This will allow time for the EFs to start working again. Then, start a calm negotiation.

Keep it organized.

The more organized you are at home, the easier it will be to help your child stay organized. Remember, the child knows what to do, but has trouble doing it. Organizational skills will need to be taught and encouraged. Try to break down responsibilities into smaller steps. Warn and prepare the child for transitions. And provide help at the moment it's needed, not after it's already too late.

Keep it going.

Keep doing rules 1 through 3. This is a long-term plan. Don't give up.

For further information on ADHD resources, visit www.thehelpgroup.org

Mar 12, 2009

MSN:Boomers face stark choices in bleak economy

Prolonged economic collapse leaves little time to reinvent, recover, rebuild
updated 2:29 p.m. PT, Wed., March. 11, 2009

It wasn’t supposed to happen this way.

The Me Generation’s twilight years were supposed to be a bookend for the Golden Age of the American Dream they inherited after the country triumphed in World War II. For all but a few, that dream is fast slipping away, as a surge in layoffs and the collapse of the housing and financial markets leave them with few options and little time to recover and rebuild.

“I don’t think there’s any way around it: The baby boomers are going to be in bad shape,” said Dean Baker, an economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research. “The only way that they're going to be able to come out OK is if they can work later in their lives. Even then it’s going to be tough because very often it’s going to be at considerably lower wages.”

The statistics are bleak.

The housing market collapse has wiped out some $3 trillion in home equity that once formed the bulk of most boomers' life savings. The incineration of another $11 trillion in stock market wealth has cut a wide swath through the individually managed accounts that have largely replaced the employer-managed pensions that supported their parents’ generation in retirement.

Some 3.8 million workers 45 or older were unemployed as of February — up from 2 million when the recession began 15 months ago, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Many are now burning through what remains of their savings and raiding retirement accounts to pay college tuition or to meet basic household expenses.

As the economy and stock market continue to spiral downward, some boomers who have fallen off the track they spent decades pursuing are angry and searching for clues as to where they went wrong. Those who followed the rules, climbed the ladder or just showed up at work every day for 30 years assumed they were assured of a solid middle-class life.

That’s what Bruce Hosking, 61, expected when he retired two years ago after 40 years as a photojournalist, the last 20 at the Tampa Tribune.

“Retirement to me never meant kicking back and playing golf or any of that nonsense,” he said. “Retirement meant doing what I want to do rather than someone else telling me what to do. I was looking forward to actually sitting back and enjoying the fruits of my labors. We were OK, but we weren’t going to be taking world cruises. And we’re not OK now. Like lots of people.”

Hosking says business is slowing at the commercial construction company where his wife has worked for 18 years as an office manager. He’s been producing videos to stay busy, but heavy losses in his retirement account have forced him to look for another source of income.

“My nightmare would be (that) I’d be at the end of the checkout line asking you, ‘Paper or plastic?’” he said. “This year is either going to make or break us. If the economy doesn’t turn around, we’re going to be with the rest of the people who face the possibility of starting to sell off our valuables to stay alive.”

Hosking is part of a wave of retired or part-time working boomers who thought they were free to enjoy deciding how to spend their remaining years. With retirement accounts shredded, many once-retired boomers are returning to the work force. Some may have to continue working as long as they are physically and mentally able.

“We rarely saw job seekers who were 68, 70, 72, and now we’re seeing them with some regularity,” said Bob Skladany, a career counselor and head of research at RetirementJobs.com, a site that caters to older workers. “They report that they cannot afford to live.”


Millions of younger, still-employed boomers, who thought their retirement plans were on track, also may have to abandon the idea of ever retiring.

In past economic downturns, many 50-something workers faced a decision about accepting “early retirement,” complete with a financial package designed to tide them over to their next job or top off a retirement account. With corporate profits tanking, many employers have simply dispensed with the niceties of severance pay.

“They gave me no help. Nothing. Just ‘Have a nice day,” said Joanne, 51, who asked that we use only her first name. “It was a horrible way to treat people. It was unbelievable.”

Joanne said she suspected her job as a technology consultant was at risk when she was asked to train someone else to do the work who was “half my age, with half my qualifications. The clients will suffer, but that’s not my problem.”


Barred by a non-compete agreement from contacting former clients and unable to sell or rent her condo, Joanne has been looking for part-time assignments to replace her $60,000-a-year salary.

“All I’m asking for is 10 hours to get me through next week so I can pay my COBRA (health insurance),” she said. “That part is very is very frustrating. I’m not asking for a whole job.”

It’s a stark turnabout for the generation born to postwar families in tracts of newly built suburban cocoons, with new cars in the driveway and “space age” appliances in the kitchen. Watching their country land a man on the moon in the 1960s, it was a time of seemingly endless possibilities.

Early in their careers, boomers survived the financial upheaval of the 1970s. Then came the great wealth creation of the 1980s and 1990s, the Internet bubble and bust and the biggest housing boom in a century. Those who stashed savings in IRAs and 401(k) accounts largely took the advice of financial services professionals to buy and hold stocks for the long term. Spurred by the real estate industry’s exaltation of the American Dream of homeownership, they plowed money into buying, improving and expanding their houses, confident that it was the best investment they could make for their families and their future.

Now the collapse of the job, stock and housing markets is breaking this generation’s grip on all rungs of the economic ladder. Since they entered the working world, boomers have been conditioned to believe that recessions last no more than 16 months; the return to prosperity is always just around the corner. Economic reversals are temporary — a furlough from the plant where you will eventually return to work, or a brief hiatus “between jobs” until things pick up again. To be sure, many of those who lost jobs in past downturns suffered emotionally and financially. But for most, it was a temporary setback.

This time feels different. Many of those now coping with unemployment are confronting the prospect that the career they spent 30 years building may be ending prematurely. And the salary that fully valued their lifetime of skills and experience may represent the high-water mark of their earning power.

“It feels different because it is so widespread, and is affecting almost every industry,” said Deborah Russell, director of workforce issues at AARP, the advocacy group for the over-50 set. “For people like blue-collar workers in the Midwest — these folks have not just lost their jobs, even the function of what they did no longer exists. So even being able to transfer those skills to, say, another employer in the auto industry — it just doesn’t exist.”



White-collar boomers, including those with advanced degrees, top credentials and decades of carefully groomed resumes, are confronting a job market they’ve never seen before. Mark Cendella, founder and CEO of TheLadders.com, a job service specializing in positions that pay $100,000 or more, says subscribers have become increasingly apprehensive as the pace of layoffs continues to rise.

“In the last 12 months we're seeing the anxiety level and the stress that comes through in e-mails have gone way, way, way up,” he said. “The uncertainty has skyrocketed.”

Despite the global impact of the downward economic spiral, some boomers report they have a tough time discussing their plight with co-workers, family and friends. A neighbor’s financial setback often isn’t evident until the foreclosure sign goes up on the front yard. That isolation can only make matters worse, said Russell.

“There’s a personal pride in working,” she said. “And losing your job is embarrassing — even it if it’s beyond your control and has nothing to do with your performance. If people isolate themselves and don’t reach out for help that can be a real issue.”

Though the recession officially began in over a year ago, the pace of job losses began accelerating in October. As the number of job seekers has risen, the number of openings continues to shrink – down some 50 percent from when the recession began in December 2007. That means nearly five people are competing for each opening, up sharply from a ratio of less than 2-to-1 little more than a year ago.

That’s left some boomers stunned by the speed at which their jobs and careers seem to be melting away.


It's also left them startled by the chilly response from employers to the lifetime of skills and experience they’ve accumulated, a portfolio many assumed would be their biggest asset in a job search. With employers' profits shrinking, those years of experience turn out to be a liability to hiring managers who associate older workers with higher cost. In response, many boomers have begun paring back their resumes, dropping mention of decades-old accomplishments and advanced degrees as they reach further down the employment ladder.

Wes Masterson, 47, of Spokane, Wash., lost his job late last year as a salesman for a Mississippi company that makes uniforms. He said business began to slow last year, but his sales results were only down by single digits when he got word that the company was eliminating his territory and moving his accounts in-house.

“It just kind of hit me in the face,” he said. “In November, out of nowhere, the V.P. of sales called me up and came out and told me they're going to eliminate the Pacific Northwest position.”

Since then he’s been pounding the pavement and has surfaced a few leads. But even though he’s willing to take less than his former $80,000 salary, he’s finding employers balk when they find out how old he is. A car rental company recently turned him down flat when he applied for an entry-level opening.

“The day I filled out the application it was, ‘Sorry, you don’t fit into our scheme,’” he said. “With all the experience I have, and willing to work for less money, it just kind of blew me away. If you look on the job boards, everything is two to five years experience. They feel the younger kids are easier to train and aren’t going to cost them as much in health care and benefits.”

As he widens his search, Masterson is considering going back to school part-time for his MBA to increase his options and his appeal to potential employers. It’s a shift that employment professionals say is picking up speed as more boomers realize the need to “recareer” and embark on a late-in-life second act.

Two-year community colleges and specialized trade and technical schools report a surge in enrollments, in part due to an influx of laid-off, older workers, forcing some schools to turn away applicants.

Trying out something new is something boomers are supposed to feel comfortable with. This is, after all, the generation that came of age amid the turbulence and exhilaration of a decade of wrenching social change. The boomer generation's current search for “reinvention” is not without success stories.

After a career as an administrative assistant for several large corporations, Lynn Gorham, 51, decided to stay home and help her husband with his home remodeling business and raise their two daughters, 16 and 13. Last year, when the family's business began to slow, Gorham decided she needed to go back to work after a 13-year hiatus.

But after eight months of looking full time, she had landed just four interviews.

“You can send out your resume all day, but it’s that interview that counts,” she said. “I had to be careful with the word ‘experience.’ You don’t want to make it sound like you’re older than you are. So the interview skills are really critical.”

To better target her job search, Gorham spent time taking stock after a potential employer had her take a personality test and skills assessment.

“I had to research to find out where I really needed to be,” she said. “It focused on my customer service skills and my math ability. Are you flexible, are you a morning person? That kind of thing. It made me stop and think, 'I really do need to be looking at jobs like this one.'"

After interviewing in July with a local company that arranges housing for students at local trade schools, she was one of three finalists but didn’t make the cut. But in January, when the position opened up again, she landed the job — just in time.

“We were just about down to our last dime; we were borrowing from my kids’ savings accounts,” she said. “I think this is where I’ll be for awhile. I think it’ll be a new career path.”

Still, the path to reinvention is not an easy one.


“Re-education is just not an option for many people,” said Skladany, at RetirementJobs.com. “It costs money. It may preclude you from being able to work. And frankly, not everyone wants to do the kind of occupation that these certificates provide. A lot of older workers don’t want to go back and become an auto body specialist.”

That’s left many boomers facing what Skladany calls “Plan B,” which translates as “any job I can get.”

“But a lot of the plan B jobs have evaporated — like retail, financial, clerical,” he said. “So these people are going into non-traditional jobs: home personal care aids, customer service, telephone-based positions. These are high turnover, undesirable jobs that a lot of older workers are going after.”

“Plan B” used to involve tapping a financial cushion that was too thin for many boomers even before the economy collapsed. But the swift destruction of trillions in wealth has exposed the massive shift of risk from employer to employee that came with the decades-long phase-out of traditional company-managed, defined-benefit retirement plans to individually managed, defined-contribution plans.

“It’s a real rude awakening,” said Baker, co-author of a report on the impact of the housing bubble's collapse on the wealth of baby boomers. “An awful lot of people just didn’t think this was possible. Everyone appreciated that there’s more risk with defined-contribution accounts. But this is bringing it home with a sledgehammer.”

Many boomers are now taking a hard, second look at the relentless advice of the financial services industry to stash savings in IRAs and 401(k)s and buy and hold stocks for the long-term. As financial planners and stock brokers confidently pointed to the stock market’s decades-long track record of solid gains, others warned that boomers face risks that their parents’ generation avoided through reliance on a professionally managed, employer-guaranteed pension.

The lesson may be that that planning, accumulating and managing a retirement fund is a full-time job best left to professionals. Most people just don’t have the skills or temperament to pull it off, according to Alicia Munnell, director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.

“Evidence indicates that people make mistakes every step of the way,” she recently told a congressional panel. “They don’t join the plan, they don’t contribute enough, they don’t diversify their holdings, they overinvest in company stock, they take out money when they switch jobs and they don’t annuitize at retirement.”

As even the most seasoned, professional money managers lick their wounds from a historic market collapse, boomers approaching retirement are facing the biggest risk of all: that the market collapse will leave them without enough time to recover and rebuild their savings before they lose their job or their health.

For many boomers, homeownership was supposed to be the final fallback, a financial backstop that would help make up for any shortfall in retirement savings. As the housing boom picked up speed, buyers and sellers were assured by the real estate industry — from homebuilders to real estate agents — that house prices had never fallen, year-over-year, since the Great Depression.

Now, with housing prices down nearly 20 percent nationally and still falling sharply in many areas, that fallback plan has failed millions of boomers. Though some clearly reached too far, the housing collapse has destroyed the savings of millions more who were prudent borrowers.


“I know people who went for those interest-only loans. I know better. I have an MBA in finance,” said Joanne. “I actually went way under my head on buying something. It’s very, very upsetting. ... I’ve lost almost my life savings. And how was I supposed to know that? That part is probably the hardest.”

With few signs of an upturn, policymakers in Washington are pinning their hopes on the economic stimulus package and the ongoing effort to shore up the battered financial system. But those offer little comfort in the short run.

“I’m very pessimistic about it,” said Masterson, the former salesman. “I think the stimulus plans that they’ve come out with are full of pork. I don’t think they're the right thing to do. The tax cuts don’t help me because I don’t have a job.”

But with few alternatives, and time running out, boomers are left with little choice but to soldier on in their job searches.

“Just keep looking,” said Gorham. “It’s a numbers game. After so long, it’ll happen.”


URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29535417/

Mar 9, 2009

MSN: Helping kids with ADHD handle difficulties with inhibition

FROM MSN.COM:

When I was a school counselor, one of my favorite students was bright, funny and full of life. She was motivated to work on her school problems, but she also frequently voiced frustration. She'd say things like "I know I'm smart, and I work hard, but nothing works! " or "I'm always in trouble. My teachers hate me. They're always yelling at me, and it's not fair!"

Julia (not her real name) felt overwhelmed with homework, and couldn't handle getting blamed when she didn't finish or had the wrong answers.

I met with Julia's parents and recommended psycho-educational testing to see if she had ADHD or other learning disabilities. Unfortunately, they took the referrals but didn't follow up. Her mother believed Julia could focus—if she only wanted to. She saw Julia as a difficult child who refused to do her homework and who had no respect for her mother or her teachers.

Julia was misunderstood, and because of that she didn't get the help she needed. One day, after being scolded at school, she threw a book across the room and was expelled. But expelling children like Julia doesn't solve their problems.

An empathetic approach to ADHD


ADHD traditionally has been seen as a disorder of attention span, but inattention may be just the tip of the iceberg, says Martin L. Kutscher, M.D., a pediatric neurologist and author of ADHD—Living without Brakes (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2008).Just focusing on attention span doesn't address the wide range of difficulties faced by those with ADHD and their families. Kutscher believes that it's because of this misunderstanding that kids like Julia are often labeled "bad," "disrespectful" or "selfish."

In fact, according to Kutscher, people with ADHD are struggling with real deficits in their executive functioning (EF) processes, which occur in the frontal and pre-frontal lobes of the brain. Understanding this is the first step to gaining empathy for the child with ADHD and developing a plan that will help.

The brain's executive functions include:

Inhibition (the ability to stop or filter oneself)
Orchestrating the brain (organizing yourself)
Self talk (talking yourself through a situation)
Working memory (the ability to access and juggle thoughts about past, present and future simultaneously)
Initiation (the ability to start something, like homework)
Hindsight/foresight (the ability to think about past and future consequences)
Shifting agenda (moving from one task to another)
Separating emotion from fact (every event has an objective reality and an emotion attached to it; this is about accurately judging the significance of an event)
Adding emotion to fact (the ability to remember and connect a feeling to an event; for example, remembering how a success makes you feel helps you stay motivated)
No brakes

Of these executive functions, the most important one is inhibition. Unless we can stop our impulses we can never use the other EFs, such as learning from mistakes. And kids with ADHD are "brakeless." They cannot keep from being distracted, impulsive or hyperactive. They're also so stuck in the "now" that they are unable to think about the future.

For example, imagine not eating all day and coming home starving. You have a choice. You can eat an apple, or dive into that bag of potato chips. If you're hungry enough, you probably will reach into that bag of potato chips, and once you start you'll finish the whole bag. The part of you that says "stop" has completely turned off. But for kids with ADHD, the "stop" message is always turned off.

Think of the child who keeps grabbing the phone out of your hand because she wants to talk to daddy now, the kid who chases the neighbor's cat and never learns that it makes the cat run away, or even the child who can't stop watching "The Simpsons" when you need to go somewhere.

Such kids may not be trying to be difficult—they may instead be having trouble with the braking function.

Chemicals behind the chaos

Studies show that children with ADHD have a lack of the neurotransmitters norepinephrine and dopamine in the frontal lobe and pre-frontal lobe regions of the brain—the areas responsible for executive functioning.

When there is too little norepinephrine operating in the frontal lobes, the brakes don't work at all. If there's a lack of dopamine in the frontal lobe area, the brakes are weak; it's like the brake pads are worn down. Without both neurotransmitters working fully, you have a brain with weak brakes that are asleep. The reason that children are put on stimulant medication like Ritalin or Adderall is to both "wake up" and strengthen these frontal-lobe brakes.

A combination of the correct medication to stimulate the frontal lobe brakes, plus using strategies at home and school that take the blame out of the disorganized behavior, can work to help the child as well as the entire family.

Strategies that work

Keep it positive.

It is important for parents to be positive. Reframe the outlook from the child being "bad" to the child having a condition or disability. Kutscher says, "The child is going to be labeled one way or another. 'ADHD' leads to empathy, 'bad' leads to an attempt to squash the kid into submission."

Use punishment only if it helps. The purpose of punishment is to change future behavior. If the child can't stop him or herself long enough to make a decision about consequences, then he or she can't learn from the punishment. Furthermore, it does nothing to fix the underlying problem. (If a child breaks the rules, you can still enforce the consequences; just stay calm and positive as you do it.)

Keep it calm.

Kids who have ADHD get easily overwhelmed. An overwhelmed child can't use any of their executive functions. If things even start to escalate at home, take a break to cool down. "When a car is speeding out of control, the last thing it needs is a push from behind," says Kutscher. Stop and announce a 10-minute chill-out time. This will allow time for the EFs to start working again. Then, start a calm negotiation.

Keep it organized.

The more organized you are at home, the easier it will be to help your child stay organized. Remember, the child knows what to do, but has trouble doing it. Organizational skills will need to be taught and encouraged. Try to break down responsibilities into smaller steps. Warn and prepare the child for transitions. And provide help at the moment it's needed, not after it's already too late.

Keep it going.

Keep doing rules 1 through 3. This is a long-term plan. Don't give up.

For further information on ADHD resources, visit www.thehelpgroup.org.

Mar 7, 2009

The Watchmen Movie Review

We had free movie tickets. We've had them for awhile. I suggested to Matt that we go see Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino. I am not only a long time Eastwood fan, but a fast car fan as well and what couldn't be good about this movie on the big screen?

Matt found out that The Watchmen was out & suggested that movie. Said the reviews were good. I said "it's not scary is it?". I am NOT a scary movie fan. He said no.

After 2 hours of being emotionally and mentally assaulted, I was the only one in the audience of a packed theatre - to leave. When I went to the bathroom and didn't return, my kind partner joined me in the lobby - apologizing. He had not read the reviews in full.

I was shaking. Felt like crying, sick to my stomach. And I turned my eyes, at one point covered my ears, at every sickening thing coming, except for the scenes that blasted the viewers unexpectedly. I sat through the attempted rape scene (2 of the "good guys" beating the crap out of each other, until the woman was beaten), the murderer of a small child being beaten with a meat cleaver, the dogs being beaten & then skull cut open. But when the guys arms were being held through jail bars by another guy and then his buddies cut his arms off with some sort of machine grinder - I couldn't take any more. This is where I covered my ears - then I left.

I understand there have been slasher movies for years. However, movie technology has improved if you haven't noticed, bringing the ability to make horror very very lifelike. This wasn't a slasher movie. But there have been a few movies over the years that have left me soulfully scarred because I felt like such evil was emanating from the screen. I sat there last night, looking around at the audience, thinking of the thousands of people that will be- or have - filing into this rated R movie, enraptured by the filth and mutilation on the big screen. I wonder about the sanity of our minds as we are bombarded by image after image after image.

I wonder about the kids that sneak into a rated R movie. Do you remember doing that as a teen? This particular rated R movie could scar a child for life. Seriously. It should be rated 35. IMDB asks you, as user, to be careful about your parental rating reviews you give and that parents have different standards for their children. I understand all of this tolerance & openness to different viewpoints but at some level, wrong is wrong and such vile material - I am disheartened that we are becoming so numb that a movie like this would be mainstream. Good graphics or not - content is important and we are feeding the generations with it.

Did I mention the porn? The time of married couples sleeping in twin beds onscreen is definitely gone. Er, sorry - wrong generation. The time of "sex" being portrayed under the covers - gone. Ooops, wrong generation. The time of sex happening on screen, under partially clothed people, as in "you get the idea" - GONE. I told Matt it's one thing to be in the privacy of our bedroom watching sexual scenes as they are portrayed today - it's completely different to be in the middle of a full theatre. Where is our privacy in these issues? Is nothing sacred? (a rhetorical question).

I also commented to Matt that it bothers me that you have all the characters, even the ones that are suppose to be the "heros" committing these evil acts but the good guys, are doing it for the good. So it makes it okay somehow. What does that reflect in the young impressionable psychies that are drinking this stuff in? If we are older and don't think this stuff still effects us, we shouldn't fool ourselves. We may have more self control but it is like a slow release time capsul that over time, eats at the foundation of our mental & emotional consciousness.

And for those of you that are religious and have end time beliefs who may shake your head and say it's par for the course of the end times. I understand that however, it still pains me to watch the human spirit being turned, slowly, into such a deranged state to where nothing is sacred and all things, no matter how vile (the word that keeps popping into my mind), are acceptable. I had that thought in The Dark Knight, (which I did like), the latest Batman movie. Harvey Dents face at the end, making him Two Face, was horrific. A site that only those in war or Hell should probably see and probably, never recover from. That was the first time I thought about looking around during the movie and watching other people's reactions. I think I was the only one NOT looking on the mangle. Very sad indeed.

Mar 3, 2009

It's all about money

Just today I read on my facebook page, a connection someone put on there for this baby in Portland, Oregon who needs a heart transplant and Children's Hospital in Seattle would not care for him without 1.5 million dollars up front. (see KATU.com). The family has health insurance but it does not cover transplants. The baby was born at 36 weeks. As of today, it looks like the baby was transferred to Children's in Pittsburgh.

This is the clip from the article on Seattle Children's reason for not taking this child:

The hospital released the following statement about Laith's case on Tuesday:

"It pains us to be in a position where we cannot provide health care services to all children who need them. We receive requests for financial support from families throughout the world and unfortunately do not have funds to care for every child in need.

We are committed to providing health care to children in the WAMI region (Washington, Alaska, Montana and Idaho) regardless of a family’s ability to pay. Unfortunately we do not have the funding to make the same commitment to children outside our four-state area. Patients who live outside our region are encouraged to work with their insurance company and members of their communities to raise the money needed to be seen at Children’s.

Children’s provided more than $86 million in un- and under-compensated care in FY 07/08 and that number is expected to grow to more than $100 million in FY 2009."

********

I'm surprised someone from Children's actually let that statement be released because it comes across as incredibly cold. No we can't save the world but when you stop just because of money... if the baby had been born just over the other side of the Columbia in Vancouver, they would have done it for free... doesn't it just come right down to money for a life?

How to Raise Stress-Free Kids - Parade.com

http://www.parade.com/healthystyle/2009/01/raise-stress-free-kids.html

Parade.com

Kids have plenty to get stressed about: homework, cliques, sibling rivalry. And as news about the economy, natural disasters, and terrorism fills the airwaves and dinner-table conversations, it's almost impossible for children not to pick up on their parents' stress as well.

"I have kids tell me that they're worried about the environment and the economy," says clinical child psychologist Mark L. Goldstein, Ph.D., an adjunct professor at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology. Children have a different reaction to stress than adults. They may lose concentration and get stomachaches and more frequent colds. A study done at the University of Rochester Medical Center found that children whose families are under stress experience more fevers. But there are concrete ways to help them—and you—get a grip.

1. Troubleshoot your own stress

Eight out of 10 Americans say the economy is a significant source of stress in their lives, according to an American Psychological Association survey. Those fears can spread to our kids. "Children turn to parents in order to get a sense of what's going to happen," says Deborah Belle, director of the human-development doctoral program at Boston University. Taking a time out, whether it's a walk or a long hot bath, will calm you down and offer an example of a healthy reaction to stress. Put off difficult conversations with your spouse until after your kids have gone to bed.

2. Be firm about activity-overload

Kids are way overbooked these days. "I met with the family of an 11-year-old who was in a dozen different activities," says Dr. Goldstein. "She wasn't sleeping, her nails were bitten, and she was wetting her bed." When he recommended that she drop some of the activities, her parents protested that she loved them all. But parents have to make the decision of what's best. His rule of thumb: "One sport, one other activity, plus any religious education your child may be taking."

3. Bump bedtime up by half an hour

A 2006 National Sleep Foundation poll found that children hit the sheets about 30 minutes past their official bedtime. Plus, they may need much more sleep than you think, says Jodi Mindell, Ph.D., associate director of the sleep center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Preschoolers need 11 to 13 hours a night, 5- to 12-year-olds require 9 to 11 hours, and kids 13 and up need about 8 1/2 to 9 1/2 hours. If there's a TV in your child's room, yank it, says Dr. Mindell. "The light suppresses production of relaxing melatonin and makes them less sleepy."

4. Encourage kids to move more

Children in America are exercising less than ever before. This inactivity decreases production of the hormones that help regulate stress. If your children don't play team sports or run around outside with friends, institute family activities such as an after-dinner walk or a weekend bike ride.

Mar 1, 2009

Manvotional: The Man in The Arena by Theodore Roosevelt

From The Art of Manliness:

"If you’ve been reading AoM for awhile, you’ll know that we’re big, big fans of Theodore Roosevelt. TR’s life shows us that hard work, tenacity, and a desire to do the right thing can get you far in life. In the most memorable section of his “Citizenship in a Republic” speech, Roosevelt captured his life philosophy in just a few sentences. “The Man in the Arena” tells us that the man we should praise is the man who’s out there fighting the big battles, even if those battles end in defeat. In our day, when cynicism and aloof detachment are considered hip and cool, TR reminds us that glory and honor come to those “who spend themselves in a worthy cause.”

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

Art of Manliness Homework: Print and memorize this quote. Recite often. It will put hair on your chest.

Hat tip to AoM reader Tyler for suggesting this Manvotional.

Got a speech, poem, or essay that you think would make a good Manvotional? Share it with us through the contact form.
 

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