Mammogram Policy

Recently the Federal Advisory Board decided to change their recommendation on when women should get routine mammograms. They want women in their 40's to avoid routine mammograms. Insurance companies look to the Federal Advisory Board for guidance on preventive care services. How many insurance companies will start refusing to pay for women's mammograms if they are in this age group? The Health and Human Service Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has told women, "Keep doing what you have bee doing for years". At least someone is telling women to continue getting mammograms every year while in their 40's. This hits me personally, my sister at age 40 found out she had breast cancer from her mammogram. The cancer was very small in size and would not have been found any other way. With my mother also having breast cancer it puts me in the most unwanted category of being "high risk". No matter what the board says, I will, along with my mother and sister (both survivors) continue to get our mammograms every year! I suggest all other women do the same!



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Facebook Ads

It was much easier to write an ad for Facebook even with the limit of words you can use than understanding thier billing system. I had Facebook ad credit from my wonderful site host, GoDaddy. I think you have to be straight and to the point with keywords in your ad.

Water on the Moon and 2012

Struck up a conversation with my son at dinner this evening, asked him if he heard they found water on the moon today. He said it didn't surprise him at all. He said there is ice all over in space. He said he has been following all the hype and theories about the coming of 2012. Of course we all know the movie 2012 is mostly "Hollywood", but there is actual scientific proof that things are changing all around us and the earths axis are moving. Fear is setting in, some people are trying to prepare by building shelters underground. He bought up one of the theories was our government was going to set up station on the moon to prepare for 2012. I told him it is strange to me that we are now going back to the moon after all these years. He agreed. Back in the late 90's we went to space camp with his "Young Astronaut's" group. While we were there, NASA's, Marshall Space Flight Center was having an open house. We were told by employees that the USA would never travel to the moon again. I guess none of us know what tomorrow will actually bring.

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Interview with a Tech Writer

My name is Bob Wyen and I am a Technical Writer and Illustrator for Midmark Corporation.

The reason I wanted to get into the technical service and writing field was I found a need to simplify how to test and determine if a control was operating correctly, and if there was a need to replace a part or parts. Most instructions were produced by the engineering department and in many cases written in too complex of a manner for the field technicians to understand or even have the time to read. I wanted to help the people in the field as they were on the front lines and I knew what that was like.

Well as far as my education goes, I graduated from a 2 year Technical College in Minnesota and experience wise been in the service, engineering, and training field for 46 years.

I worked in an Engineering Lab and had to write many technical documents concerning testing, etc. on the products we manufactured. I also worked in Field Engineering, covering 5 states, dealing with users, installation, and service related problems for two companies. During these times I had to develop and hold training sessions for the Technicians. At Midmark, I worked in the Technical Service Department dealing with service and customer problems, traveling quite extensively all over the U.S., Canada, and Japan.

The place I started at prior to having a 2 year stint in the U.S. Army was Chrysler AirTemp. They manufactured commercial, domestic, and automotive heating and air conditioning equipment.

I started out in the Engineering Lab as an Engineering Technician, from there into field engineering, and eventually to manage Customer Relations for the division.

We used various meters, test stands, slide rules, and related hand tools to perform various test for certifications and calculations. Slide projectors, easels, and short instruction booklets were used to instruct technicians during training.

The next job I worked was at Hobart Corporation in Technical Writing. We used a camera for black and white photography, wrote instructions long hand, did drawings on a drafting board, typed up the instructions and then had them placed in a galley format at the print shop. We would then take the photos, and gallery formats paste them into graduated lined papers. These were then brought to the print shop for shooting a negative plate and printing.

Later, as the company grew, we began producing training videos which I did all the graphics using drawings and different colored paper media to produce animation for the video cameras.

I have been at Midmark for 22 years, over 9 years in the Technical Service department and the rest in Technical Publication. I will be retiring in February of 2010.

Now, everything is in electronic form and we rarely tear equipment down but do it electronically in many cases using ProE software.

We use different writing software such as Framemaker, Pagemaker, InDesign, & Microsoft Office Works.

We also use drawing software’s such as Product View, ProE, Freehand, ISO Draw, Illustrator, and Corel Draw. Photoshop may also be required in some instances.

There is quite a bit of difference from today to where it used to be in the early career of my writing. You need to know a variety of various software’s as everything has gone to electronic generated materials. You must be flexible as you may be working on new literature that uses the latest software the department is using one day and the next updating older material that was produced using the older software that was used in earlier productions.

You must also be able to become prolific in the various drawing software’s for producing electrical, hydraulic, and tubing diagrams, various artwork for the manuals including some very sophisticated exploded views for the parts section.

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Ohio - Issue 3

Usually I don't get so opinionated with political issues but with the passing of Issue 3 that will allow casinos in Ohio, I was a bit disappointed. I think the promising of so many new jobs is not all it is cracked up to be. First of all I am sure they will bring in their own professional dealers to work the gambling tables. A family member told me, but they will hire Ohioans for cleaning positions, cooks, etc... These types of jobs are not what Ohio needs. We need good paying jobs with good benefits and full time positions. Most of the jobs will most likely be part-time with no insurance.

And then there is the tax issue. The casino will pay a 33 percent tax on gross revenue which is below the average paid by casinos outside of Nevada and Atlantic City. It is also below the rates paid in West Virginia and Pennsylvania.

The licensing fee to be paid to Ohio for the right to operate a casino is only going to be $50 million per casino. Illinois is going to charge $400 million for one in the planning stages. Two Indiana racetracks paid a one time casino licensing fee of $250 million each.

Come on Ohio, are we really doing so well we don't need to have a higher tax and licensing fee?

And lets not forget the children, yes the children of all the gamblers that will lose everything because they have never had it so easy to gamble their entire savings away. We the Ohio tax payers will be paying for their housing and medical care while their parents struggle to get their lives back in order after losing everything they own.

I think Ohio just got dealt a bad hand.