A few items of interest —

• Had another movie night last night, with a theme of parodies.  Alaric, Sondra, Charlie, and Becca attended for a screening of Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story and Epic Movie. It was a good time, and we also availed ourselves of the opportunity to catch the final episode of The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien.
• I did my taxes online yesterday. Much to my regret, I had to pay a self-employment tax on my revenue from Gillikin Consulting; nevertheless, I do get a modest refund.
• I’ve been feeling much better after seven weeks into an eight-week prescription for Vitamin D. Yay.
• The post-holiday doldrums have been alleviated from the ongoing drama of the Massachussetts Senate election and the politicking over health-care reform. I was quite pleased with Scott Brown’s margin of victory, and am intrigued at the way he branded himself to the MA electorate. GOP, pay attention.
• The health-care debate irritates me. The plans put forward by the Democrats will not lower costs or improve quality.  More people may be covered, but this coverage will come at a steep price for the system as a whole. Health reform should not have mandates, and it should include tort reform. Limits on awards for alleged malpractice is essential to reduce expensive “defensive medicine” — the practice by many physicians of ordering tests and procedures that may not be necessary medically, but are more likely to avert a lawsuit.
• We have a new guy starting Monday in our department at the hospital.  Should be interesting.
• A few weeks ago Tony came to Grand Rapids for a weekend dedicated to business development.  This was a valuable exercise in priority-setting, allowing me to refocus and retool Gillikin Consulting away from a predominately writing enterprise into a general-business consultancy with an emphasis on development, communications, quality improvement, and ethics.  This feels more “natural” and makes GCG more marketable.
• Duane has lent me Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives, which so far seems to be an interesting book.
• Filming on the indie film Small Change by my friend Chris of Dogbyte Films is moving along well. Several scenes are set at my hospital office, and the boss in the film is using my workspace. Cool.

For the most part, things have been fairly quiet and routine over the last three weeks.  February, however, promises to be much more interesting.  Stay tuned.