Someday my nephew will probably hate me. On the other hand, I think his fixation with wearing a cape and spinning is fabulous!

Wonder Craig

Speaking of superheroes, I went to see The Incredible Hulk earlier tonight. It was fun and entertaining. For some reason, I enjoy Hulk as a movie character far better than as a comic book character. Norton did a good job and the action kept moving.

Posted: June 20th, 2008 under Mi Familia, movies.
Comments: 1

On my last day in Utah, aside from recording the video I posted earlier, I also gave the kids my digital camera for about an hour and let them run free. I ended up with a pretty awesome series of shots from the perspective of kids ages 2 to (almost) 5.

Kids’ Eye View Photo Set

As you can tell, I adore my nieces and nephews, including the honorary ones like Isabel and Sammy, two young people my sister has babysat for the past couple years. Jeanne is giving up the babysitting in August, though, as she gets ready to leave on her mission, and the older kids start kindergarten, and I’m trying to get into law school, so it’s a little sad to think that I’ll never see them quite like this again, and that by the time I’m done with law school they’ll all be in grade school.

Posted: June 19th, 2008 under Mi Familia.
Comments: none

Craig and Callie wanted to play with the webcam on my laptop, so we recorded this video with a message for Uncle Jared, Aunt Jayne and Alexia.

Pictures and whatnot coming soon.

Posted: June 18th, 2008 under Mi Familia.
Comments: 1

So far the visit home has been mostly uneventful. I spent the bulk of yesterday taking my last diagnostic exam (scored 173, I’m kinda awesome) and hanging out with my niece and nephew. I forget how there’s always drama of some kind brewing at home. This weekend has been a near trifecta.

First, my sister Jayne’s family in Iowa is coping with the flooding. Jayne has apparently lost her job because the office she works for is flooded and the lawyer who runs the practice doesn’t see how he’ll be able to keep staff on in the immediate future. Jared is also visiting Jayne, Brian and Alexia this summer. Luckily, their house is on higher ground and probably safe the flooding, but their jobs and neighbors aren’t doing so well.

Second, my sister Jasmine received news last night that the brother of her boyfriend (the guy on his Mormon mission for the next year and 9 months) was killed in a car accident. She was pretty upset, as you can imagine, and I’m sure Chris is taking it very hard, too.

Finally, the family made the front page of the Salt Lake Tribune today. Last time that happened, it was me in the story and it was about Utah Pride. This time, however, there’s a story on the ten worst nursing homes in the state - three of them belong to my uncle’s company. Yup, the good old family business, which has employed more than 50% of my extended and nuclear family at some point in time. Here’s the part where my mother’s family makes us all proud:

Not out of the cellar: No Utah nursing home had more overall violations than Infinia at Granite Hills. The home, which specializes in mental health cases, also had the second-worst record of deficiences where a resident was harmed.

And like Johnson, Infinia owner Scott Robertson lays much of the blame on the residents.

“We take the kind of patients that won’t go anywhere else - the complainers,” he said.

The Disability Law Center agrees that Granite Hills “tends to be the dumping ground.” But Eileen Maloney, an advocate for the center, said if Infinia markets itself as a company that can take care of those tough patients, then it should be able to follow the regulations.

Infinia’s problems, though, stretch far beyond Granite Hills.

Its sister facilities - Infinia at Ogden and Infinia at Alta - also ranked in the 10 worst performing homes in Utah. The company owns two of the worst homes in Arizona and a failing home in Minnesota, according to health departments in those states.

The Alta facility received the most severe deficiency given in the last two years for forcing a woman to take a shower against her will. Robertson replaced the administrator and the director of nursing.

Since then, the new staff has worked to fill in gaps in the medical records of patients and correct accounting errors, Maloney said.

All of the violations have cost Infinia customers and cash.

The Infinia homes have been fined more than $200,000 since 2000. That equals about $4,000 per actual harm deficiency, though the nursing home chain was not fined in every case. Infinia at Granite Hills was fined more than any other home, racking up nearly $139,000 in penalties.

The government set the fine amounts 20 years ago, capping the worst offense at $6,500 if a home doesn’t appeal, though some fines are assessed on a daily basis, adding up until the home fixes the problem.

That’s an inadequate enforcement tool, said Janet Wells, public policy director for the National Citizens’ Coalition for Nursing Home Reform.

“Often it is just the cost of doing business,” she said.

Wells supports a move in Congress that would raise fines as high as $100,000 in the most severe cases.

Infinia’s Robertson says that is ill advised. He thinks the fines as they are now only hurt residents.

“Who suffers because of fines and penalties? It comes out of the money that is supposed to go to patient care,” he said. The state association that represents nursing homes complains that increased fines make it harder for facilities to improve, especially when they are underfunded by Medicaid and Medicare. The association agrees, though, that bad actors should be punished.

Robertson recognizes that his homes have had problems and said his company turned a corner a year and a half ago when a messy business relationship between Scott Robertson and his brother Jon ended.

Jon took control of five Kansas homes, all of which have been labeled low-performers, and Scott Robertson took the 14 other facilities.

Their split followed a bankruptcy, numerous bad inspection reports and a federal audit that determined the brothers failed to adequately staff Infinia at Granite Hills.

Infinia’s problems in many ways were “a central leadership issue,” Scott Robertson said, that started at the top and trickled down to lax administrators and nursing directors.

The problems compounded as a bad reputation drew more scrutiny from the state and the Disability Law Center.

“We have had historical issues with our three Utah facilities, without question,” Robertson said. “But I think we are taking steps to improve the quality of the homes.”

He said he has replaced top people and hired a company* to conduct private inspections to root out problems. He has increased staff. And he is planning to remodel the buildings, which he leases.

He also has much larger changes planned for the future, including selling some of the homes outside of Utah, reducing the number of mental health patients and coming up with a new company name.

Disability Law Center staff may not like every change Infinia has planned, but they say the company has taken their concerns seriously and made improvements.

“There are some positive changes,” said advocate John Inglish. “But by no means would I say they are out of the cellar.”

* Full disclosure: after years of working directly for my uncles, my mom now works for the private company he references - and you can see looking at the charts in the paper that the number of problems have gone down at the facilities her company has worked with since the start of that relationship

Scott and Jon are my uncles on my mother’s side. Grandpa must be so proud to see his son publicly badmouthing another one in the state’s largest newspaper on Father’s Day (although, I don’t think there’s much love lost between Jon and almost anyone else in the family).

I just keep chanting to myself, “don’t specialize in health care law, don’t specialize in medical malpractice law” - although I have a feeling I’d never go hurting for business.

Anyway, I think I’m off to the gym and then a few more practice problems before family starts coming over to celebrate father’s day and the Tony Awards begin.

Posted: June 15th, 2008 under Mi Familia.
Comments: none

I just got a facebook friend request from my mother.

Since Mother’s Day is coming up, I went ahead and accepted that friend request.

My baby brother also got a cell phone last week. Between several members of my family starting blogs, joining Facebook, getting gadgets and embracing technology, I expect to see Craig on Twitter by the end of the year.

I completely forgot that it was Wednesday a.k.a. new comics day (although I still haven’t worked my way through the stack from last Saturday). I think there are too many radical changes in my life of late. I quit smoking, I’m working out with a trainer, I’m taking classes and studying most nights of the week, we’ve hired a bunch of new people at the office and my exact job duties have changed, I’m finally making enough money to build up my savings again, and I’m steeling myself for the end of the month when my best friends move away for about 6 months. All of this has thrown my old routines completely out of whack.

It occurred to me this morning that I always put my contacts in and take them out in the same order (right in, left in — left out, right out). It’s such a thoughtless routine that I don’t even realize I’m doing it most days. So this evening I did it in reverse, just to be a little more thoughtful about it. In general, I’m trying to take this opportunity to be more thoughtful about a lot of things.

Interesting political conversations today. I get the feeling that even the die-hard Hillary fans I know are done with it and want to her exit the race. Oh, there are still people standing behind her, but I spoke to 4 people today who were “If Clinton doesn’t get the nomination I’ll vote for McCain” types just a few weeks ago, who are now saying it’s time for the Democratic party to unite behind Obama.

Posted: May 7th, 2008 under Mi Familia, personal, politics.
Comments: none

I know I’ve been overdoing the YouTube videos instead of actual content this week. Sorry about that. It’s been a stressful one.

Here are a few of the stories that have been pissing me off.

• The gay panic defense is alive and well. In fact, arguing that a murder was motivated by unwanted sexual advances from a another man earned him a manslaughter conviction, instead of a felony murder. Steven Scarborough will spend, at most, 15 years in jail for beating Victor Manious with a bat and stuffing him (still alive) into the trunk of a car. Manious might have lived if someone had called the police once Scarborough’s hetersexual purity was safe from this evil predator. [via Pam's House Bled]
• The HRC is fully committed to doing right by all members of the queer community. Except when they aren’t. Or when you want to criticize them. Then they encourage police to escort you away from their functions. It was revealed this week that HRC contacted Houston P.D. in anticipation of a transgender protest of an upcoming fundraiser dinner. “HRC has also instructed the hotel security to ask us to leave if we attempt to pass out any written information or ask folks to wear our stickers,” reported protest organizer Phyllis Phyllabuster. I think, if the HRC can’t stand to hear what members of the community it represents think on the issues that matter to them, it shouldn’t be in the business of acting as the community voice. [via The Bilerico Project]
• You know what, I don’t like it when members of the queer community are confused or transphobic in their response to the Thomas Beatie situation (aka “The Pregnant Man”), but I can understand it. It’s never okay to suggest that Beatie should be put to death or encouraged to kill himself as the hosts of the Fox “news” program Red Eye did. Truly, watching the video clip of these terrifying assholes made me sick to my stomache. These are the discussions that get young gender-variant people like Lawrence King killed. [via Towleroad]
• Meanwhile, GLAAD (an organization I genuinely respect and admire) has been sickeningly silent. [via Queerty]

Finally, on a less “outraged” note, Flickr rolled out it’s video hosting service this week. I’m excited because I get to clear up hard drive space by putting several old video clips into my photostream. Unlike other video hosting services, I can later download the original if I need it. Last night, I started uploading video clips from the Giftmas trip home, including this adorable moment of Callie dancing…

Posted: April 11th, 2008 under Mi Familia, miscellaneous outrage and/or amusement.
Comments: none

Yes, yes, I know. I’m hilarious. For the record, I don’t remember the last time my work day was actually that slow. Now stop laughing at my superior wit and help me welcome another sister to the blogosphere. Jasmine Rebecca is already sharing tragic tales of rodent death (which are way more interesting than my lame-ass comic about why I’m fat).

Yes, they just keep coming. Don’t worry, sooner or later I will run out of siblings. Probably later, although we have reached a majority online now.

Coming soon:

• a post that isn’t about my family or Horton!
• Keys family blogging challenges (that everyone else is totally welcome to participate in).
• The harrowing tale of my battle with a sunburn all over my scalp and forehead that decides to begin peeling on the day I have to spend the morning in a room with 25 high-ranking corporate executives my organization is trying desperately to impress. Or not, that’s pretty much the whole story. Unless you want a detailed description of the way in which loose skin was peeling off my head.

Posted: March 28th, 2008 under Mi Familia, webcomic.
Comments: none

Benjamin

I have a new nephew. Kaitlyn’s little brother Benjamin was born at 2:30 a.m. this morning. He’s from the branch of the family I’m not allowed to talk to (or something). He sure is a cutie, though.

More of my family members have gotten blog/website happy. Jessi, Rob, Craig and Callie are over here. Joanna, Kaitlyn, Benjamin and that other guy are over here. And I already mentioned Jayne, Brian and Alexia over here.

That’s 4 of 9 Keys siblings blogging now (although, technically, Jessi and co. haven’t published a blog as of this posting). I’d love to see all my siblings online. You can sign up for a free blog at www.blogger.com. This is Google’s blogspot service. It’s really easy to get set up, and if you can work Facebook or MySpace (I’m looking at you Jacki and Jasmine) then you can handle this service.

Since I’ll be in Salt Lake this June (I booked my tickets yesterday), I can probably help y’all through this process if you want (after I take my test, before then I’ll probably be extremely anti-social). But it seems like everyone is figuring it out on their own.

Anyway, here are a bunch of recent photos of my nieces and nephews, the most adorable little angels in existence.

Callie and Craig

Bear and Kaitlyn

Alexia

P.S. Apologies to blog readers who would rather not read family posts, this is just exciting to me to finally see my sisters using the web to help us all keep in touch (rather than the old method - waiting for Mom to share the gossip).

Posted: March 25th, 2008 under Mi Familia.
Comments: none

I got a new phone today. I finally have a big boy phone. After years of using the cheapest phone on my family’s “friends and family” plan, I decided to upgrade. I’ve spent most of the afternoon adding music, picking ringtones, and generally playing with the new toy.

I have a new phone number, now, so if you didn’t get a message from me today, please drop me an email and I’ll give you the new number. Now if I can get my lazy ass down to the DMV for a California driver’s license, I’ll be a full-fledged citizen of the state.

I also set up a twitter account (twitter.com/jerekeys or just see the sidebar widget), which may just become the most annoying thing ever.

LSAT classes start tomorrow. I expect that will make it a long day, particularly because I already know how I’ll be spending the bulk of the morning working on an article that my boss found to be confusing and inflammatory.

I also had a long conversation with my sister Jacki yesterday (two and a half hours). She’s getting ready to try having kids and threatening to come visit sometime this summer. When we were both teenagers (me at the end of my teen years and she just beginning them), Jacki and I couldn’t get along at all. We fought about everything, constantly. Of course, now that we’re both adults, we have an amazing amount in common, to the point where we both have to shake our heads and question how it is that we’re related to the other people in the family with their strange prudish and religious hang-ups.

Posted: March 16th, 2008 under Mi Familia, links.
Comments: none

Alright, so I may not be a very funny comic, but at least this one is based on a true story. I also figured out that if I do the basic stuff on bitstrips.com, then save the image file and open it up in Photoshop, I can play a bit more and add a few details like the X-Men logo on my character’s t-shirt, or the tilted water in Jen’s cup.

I got a call from my little brother this morning. I was late for a meeting, so I didn’t have time to get all the details, but it seems he won a gold medal in bowling for the region of the Utah Special Olympics encompassing Salt Lake. He’s been training for this for years, and despite his cerebral palsy, he’s a better bowler than I’ll ever be, even if I skipped the drinking and socializing.

My other brother (the baby of the family) is getting close to earning his Eagle Scout Award. In fact, all he’s really got to do at this point is write up some notes and submit the paperwork. I’m hoping he can get his court of honor ceremony scheduled for the week I’ll be in Utah taking the LSAT.

Posted: March 14th, 2008 under Mi Familia, webcomic.
Comments: none