Author Archives: Deborah Drucker

About Deborah Drucker

I am a native of California who lives in Southern California. I have a background in healthcare and Special Education. Writing is a new adventure for me.

One Liner Wednesday-Yoga Stress Syndrome

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“It is hard when your yoga instructor decides to teach the class a bunch of new poses that you are not able to do very well.”

It is called Yoga Stress Syndrome. This is when you go to an hour-long yoga class and are unable to do most of the poses the class is doing that day and you leave there more stressed than before.

One Liner Wednesday is hosted by Linda G Hill. Featured image is from George Eastman House in Rochester New York on Wikimedia.

An AI-Written Novella Almost Won a Literary Prize

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via An AI-Written Novella Almost Won a Literary Prize

I have to stop reading these emails from Smithsonian.com. All right, I know, I just posted something about robots but this is starting to really get to me. For those of you that say a creative person has nothing to worry about with a robot taking your job…..

My question is why would you want a robot to write a novel?

When Robots Take Our Jobs, Should Everyone Still Get a Paycheck?

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“…. tech anxiety got a fresh jolt last month when the White House sent out a Council of Economic Advisers report including a projection that people making less than $20 an hour have an 83 percent chance of eventually losing their jobs to a robot. The odds for those earning up to $40 an hour are more than 30 percent.”

via When Robots Take Our Jobs, Should Everyone Still Get a Paycheck? | Innovation | Smithsonian

Like I didn’t have enough to be depressed about in the world today, I spotted this story in my email. It is not the first time I have read about robots taking over many jobs now done by humans. Science Fiction authors have written about this for a long time. In 1927, there was a film Metropolis, that depicts a class of poor workers , under the city, running the machines that keep society going and then a human like robot is created.

This idea of robots taking over so many jobs is creepy. I really don’t see robots being as good as or better at being human. There are certain jobs where I do not think they can adequately replace humans such as the caring professions. Would you want a robot caregiver, a robot Nurse?

The Smithsonian article also talks about Universal Basic Income ( UBI) where the government would pay everyone a basic amount to live on after the robots take over. Countries are doing studies now to see how this will work.

If you could be guaranteed enough to live on, what would you do with your life? The Universal Base Income would probably be a small amount of money, not like winning the lottery, just enough to meet your basic needs. I can see certain factions in the US not wanting to support the UBI. The same ones that want to abolish Social Security.

Read more about “The Fourth Industrial Revolution” from these articles posted on Drudge this morning:

LA Times

Wall Street Journal

The Real Reel

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In honor of the recent St. Patrick’s Day, my Irish heritage, and Linda G Hill’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt “real,” I looked up real reel music and dancing and found Cooley’s Reel by Dervish on You Tube:

Really makes you want to tap your feet and do a little jig or some step dancing. Enjoy!

Let’s Rock Age

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I feel a disturbance in the force…things are beginning to shift. Change is coming. In the UK we have AONR ( Age of No Retirement) that is working with older people and companies to “develop prototype programs designed to smash age barriers: to define “retirement” and “seniors” differently and to give older people a voice in new-product development.”

“The reality is that those who live longer are increasingly seeking work, not only to generate income but for a sense of purpose and fulfillment. Many people don’t want to simply retire and garden for 30 years. They’re looking for more.”-Jonathan Collie MD

Then in the US we have a new book by Ashton Applewhite , “This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism.” It is on my list to order from B&N.

I agree with Ashton Applewhite that we can feel alone in facing our ageing and that it would be very positive to have a dialogue about our experiences. At any rate, I am happy to see more light shown on this topic.

And I found this blog: The Radical Age Movement: Confronting Ageism. I enjoyed reading their posts. I like their New Year’s Resolution:

Continue to confront ageism wherever we see it
Create language that honors longetivity
Increase pride in aging
Work toward building an interdependent society
Speak up against age prejudice in our workplace, healthcare, the media, and among our friends and family

This movement is long overdue. I will not be sorry to see the negative stereotypes about ageing finally put in their proper place, (the trash).

Following My Own Path

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There is so much advice readily available from experts about how to live out the later years of our lives. I have seen different estimates of how long of a time we have left after say the traditional retirement age of 65. Wikipedia posted longevity charts from WHO and the UN that vary slightly. I noted that in poorer countries the life expectancy is much lower, closer to our traditional retirement age. So this third stage of life is a privilege of richer countries. And we are not all guaranteed those extra years.

One post I read said we should fill up our remaining years with giving back in volunteer work, others advice second acts, and new careers. I think this has to be a very individual decision. After all, it is the last years of YOUR life, not the experts lives. And you should be able to decide what to do with it and not feel guilty about it either. I liked this post by Dr. Bill Thomas, ( I know another expert), who says we are obsessed with this prolonged adulthood in our society that starts with trying to make adults out of our children when they’re still kids and ends with wanting to prolong middle age to forever because we think old age is terrible. Here is part of what he said:

“we find that older people are increasingly judged, and not according to the merits of age. Instead, the worth of an older person is determined by his or her ability to emulate a highly effective adult. People who still drive, still work, still run marathons and who still look, act and feel like young people are deemed to be successful. Those who can’t still do those things are… failures.”

I am in the process of looking at ageing and determining what I hope my remaining years to be. I have to look at my own abilities, passions, and limitations. I need to set my own course with what feels right to me. I have to know within myself that I have value even if I don’t run marathons, or look like my younger self.

Don’t Egg Me On

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“Don’t egg me on,” which means don’t get me started, don’t encourage me to do or say something. I can really get on my soapbox on several issues. Many times it is something I read in the online political and news sites that can set me off. One of my annual beefs is Daylight Savings Time. When my husband announced it was DST starting again this past weekend, I said, “Oh no, it’s not starting already? It seems like Standard Time is over so soon!” Actually, Standard Time is shorter since 2005 in the US when DST was extended by 5 weeks. It used to be from May to October and then our government, in their great wisdom, extended it from March to November. Now my excellent state of California is trying to abolish DST in California. Please make it happen! It turns out DST leads to more heart attacks, strokes and car accidents and doesn’t really save more energy. And our bodies do not really adjust to it. It just adds more stress.

And another thing:

I do a lot of reading about issues facing my generation. A big one is ageism and how it has impacted people’s lives. It is not just that you have to suffer society’s negative stereotypes and attitudes, it affects your ability to hold on to your job and to find employment. There are so many articles written advising people about jobs that may be open to them or suited to their situation, and stage in life. A popular recommendation is about “gigs,” or short term, part-time, temp work that does not offer benefits.

I have seen this recommendation more than once when reading about jobs for older people, drive for Uber. I wonder how many older women would want to drive a taxi. Actually, you use your own car which could be another headache. It seems that there would be more wear and tear on the car and greater chance of accidents,( especially if it is during DST.) So there goes your insurance rates. It would be pretty stressful in an urban area unless you like the challenge of driving crowded freeways and city streets with all the crazy drivers. It would be nice if job suggestions were in touch with reality.

This post is my contribution to Stream of Consciousness Saturday hosted by Linda G Hill. The prompt for today is “egg.”

Taxi image by Pixabay.com used to make this cartoon Angel and Egg image by Pixabay too.

A Quiet Kind of Life

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“You really don’t have to do anything.”

This is my contribution to One Liner Wednesday hosted by Linda G Hill. I saw this cool video shared by Quiet Revolution and wanted to share it. I am one who at times feels driven to DO SOMETHING, be more successful, (whatever that is), be a mover and a shaker, etc. etc. But it really is not my temperament. So for all of us who need to stop feeling a lack, or guilty about what we are not doing, I dedicate this video. We are OK just as we are, doing whatever feels right. xo

I Wasn’t Invited to the Ball

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I don’t know what happened. I expected to get it in the mail. Where is my invitation to the ball? I get one every year. What has changed? I know I am no longer the ingénue or the belle. Those years are long gone. But I still love to dance and am very skilled in all the steps. I am good at making witty repartee. I would not be a dull partner. Where is my invitation? I noticed that my gentleman neighbor received his invitation and told me he is getting his evening attire out of storage. He doesn’t even know all the dances that I do but it seems he is a more desirable partner. I asked my older woman friend if she got her invitation yet. She told me in a whisper that I should be aware that women of a certain age are invisible to society and must exit the social scene quietly. For heaven sake, don’t make a fuss. Accept the fate assigned to you. Don’t rock the boat. Take up feeding the birds or gardening.

If your over 5o and even starting as early as 35 your prospects of finding a job diminish as you get older. Think this is a fairytale? Watch the PBS video below. Ageism is alive and well. Especially for women. I know it happened to me. From Harvard Business Review, Older Women are Being Forced Out of the Workforce.

This post is my contribution to Stream Of Consciousness Saturday hosted by Linda G Hill. Featured image “Too Early” by James Tissot.

A Bit of This and That and Nothing in Particular

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This is a bit of this and that for Stream of Consciousness Saturday. I love words and like to dabble lightly in etymology. When I am writing I will sometimes look for new words and synonyms on Dictionary.com. I went there for this piece and got carried away with The Word of the Day Word List. I love these zany words and their meanings. Feel free to add them to your vocabulary. They may come in handy this election season. So hear goes:

bafflegab: slang, confusing or generally unintelligible jargon; gobbledegook.

This sounds like it could describe my writing sometimes. Bafflegab is a “portmanteau” word, a combining of two words, baffle and gab. I like gobbledegook too.

bissextus: no it is not referring to sexual orientation. This word refers to February 29th, the extra day added every 4th year to compensate for the 6 hours that our 365 day year falls short of the solar year.

cachinnate: to laugh loudly or immoderately

This sounds like a good idea, anything in immoderation especially laughing.

flumadiddle: utter nonsense, worthless frills. An Americanism, ( yay! This means we Americans made this up), combining flummery and diddle.

Sounds very sensible to me.

frabjous: informal, wonderful, elegant, superb. Coined by Lewis Carrol in Through the Looking Glass. ” O frabjous day! Callooh / Callay! / He chortled in his joy.

And last but not least, ( drum roll) :

quidnunc: a person who is eager to know the latest news and gossip; a gossip or busybody.

I have know a few quidnuncs in my day.

The Quidnunc Comes to Visit

Last week an acquaintance dropped by and I asked her, “Do you have any plans for Bissextus?”

“I am not bissextus”, she replied, looking suspicious.

“Bissextus is a word for February 29th. It is a Latin word,” I said.

“Why can’t you just speak English like everyone else?” she said.

” That reminds me, did you watch the Republican debates?” she went on.

” Yes I watched something but I don’t know if I would call it a debate,” I answered.

“What did you think of it?” she continued.

“I thought it was too much bafflegab, and flumadiddle,” I exclaimed.

She looked befuddled and said, “Can you repeat that? I think I did not hear you correctly.”

I said, ” Bafflegab, and flumadiddle.”

“Oh well now I see,” she said but she didn’t, looking wide eyed at me.

I began to cachinnate and fell on the floor as she scurried out the door.

After I caught my breath, I said, “Oh frabjous day! The quidnunc went away!

That is all I have to say on this.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday is hosted by Linda G Hill. Words and definitions are from Dictionary.com. Featured image of Alice Through the Looking Glass is by sammydavisdog on Flickr.