For the past couple of months, I've caught myself talking to myself. It's bothered me a little bit because I think only crazy people talk to themselves.

Just a few moments ago I walked into the restroom quoting the time of day to myself...and to the guy who was in the restroom washing his hands.

I've done some research and found an article in a local paper quoting psychologist Edward Charlsworth who wrote the book Stress Management--A Comprehensive Guide to Wellness. He says it's OK to talk to yourself and says everybody talks to themselves to some degree.

Self-talk is said to be unhealthy only if it becomes a crutch, or helps you avoid contact with others.

I guess that means the best time to talk to yourself is when you see somebody you'd rather not talk to.

Every kid, it seems, wants to jump from as high as possible into a swimming pool.

This college sophomore in Colorado, apparently drunk or stupid or both, jumped off the third story roof of an apartment building into a 6 foot deep pool over the weekend.

Even if he would have made it, he would have been hurt when he hit the bottom of the pool.

But he didn't make it. He hit the concrete before he went into the pool.

His brother says Ian Smith broke both ankles and heels and some vertebrae in his lower back.

Saw a maxillofacial surgeon on Monday.  He poked around in my mouth, looked at my X-rays and decided to remove the tumor/cyst on June 5th. He used the term "scrape." 

The thing doesn't hurt. But taking it out will. The surgeon says I'll be black and blue and probably won't want to talk for a week.  People here are happy about that.

I'm just looking forward to the narcotic pain killers.

Like the rest of the most of us, I was fascinated by the slow speed tow truck chase through LA yesterday afternoon.  And though I wanted to, I just couldn't turn away.

TV stations are similar to people. And they just don't know when to turn away. One of the dumbest things they do is put people on the air who call in to talk about breaking news that really isn't earth shattering.  When they do that, they run the risk of something entertaining happening; entertaining for you and me but embarrassing to them. 

It used to happen to CSpan and CNN a lot.

This time it was KTLA's turn.

Apparently Channel 5 thought we needed some perspective on why the guy driving the tow truck wouldn't stop.  I don't need to tell you this, but we're not that interested in perspective in police chases.  We're watching for the same reason we like nascar races and bar fights: We just want to see people get hammered by a force they can't reckon with.

The highlight of the chase came when some guy named "Dave" was put on the air.  As a former audio guy for Wally George's Hot Seat Hotline, I know how to spot a dope a mile away.  The moment "Dave" introduced himself as "Dave Hildebrand," I knew we were in for some fun.  People almost never say, "Hi. My name is..." and go on with the story. That's warning #1.  Next, when "Dave" tells us where he works and says "Off of 4-3-5 and John Jolly, that kind of thing," that's warning #2.  It's what we consider nonsense.  But they let him continue. 

And here's how it went.

On Tuesday I was referred to a head and neck surgeon so he could have a look at my x-rays.  Neither one of us knew why I'd been referred to head and neck surgery.

The doctor said the situation is serious but not urgent, urged me to relax and then referred me to a maxillo-facial surgeon.  I see that Dr. on Monday.

That's the tumor update.

I've been looking for something to blog about and I think I've found it.  It's something we can go through together, as cliché as that sounds.

I've been diagnosed with a tumor in my maxillary sinus.  Supposedly it is not cancer.

The diagnosis came on Monday after I told my dentist about a bump in my mouth above my molars on the left side. But because I have Kaiser Permanente, I need to be referred to a specialist within Kaiser.  We are now in that  long, drawn out, painfully irritating, bureaucratic, cost-saving, managed-care process that many compare to the socialized medicine model.

The Dr. who diagnosed the tumor, a non-Kaiser maxillofacial surgeon, is willing to take the tumor out for $3800 on an out patient basis.  But it'll cost me zero dollars to have Kaiser do it.  Interestingly, the same surgery, by the same guy, is $9,800 at a different hospital. And no, the first hospital is not a veterinary hospital.

Here's the cost breakdown:

Hospital:            $1,200

Dr. travel fee:     $1,000

Dr. surgery fee:   $1,000

Anesthesiology:      $500

Tooth extraction:     $100

If I live to see Kaiser approve my surgery, my total out of pocket expense will only be the $250 I spent on the CT scan of my face and head.

I may pay the $3800.

More to come.

YouTube has apparently released 100 new channels.  I hadn't heard about it until I got a tweet about it today. 

Now you'll have another place to go for your overwhelming dose of information overload that you can't live without.  Just what you needed.

Read more.

In the KFI newsroom, we (two Hispanics and myself) were trying to figure out how George Zimmerman, the man who killed Trayvon Martin in Florida, could be a racist, as has been implied.

Zimmerman's mother is Peruvian and his father is white.  He's considered white Hispanic.  Or is it Hispanic white?

Zimmerman's dad says his son is Hispanic. Zimmerman considers himself Hispanic; at least that's what he put on his voter registration card.  But if he's half white, how can he be Hispanic?

A woman in the newsroom here at KFI is Mexican.  Her husband is white.  She says her son is white and Hispanic but you can't say he's not Hispanic and you can't say he's not white because he's both.  The boy describes himself as white and Mexican.

If you're a racist, you believe your race is superior to all others.  Or to be more specific, you assume psychocultural traits and capacities are determined by race and that races differ decisively from one another. Further, you probably believe in the inherent superiority of your race and its right to domination over other races.  

If that's the case, then what race would Zimmerman claim as the superior race, white or Hispanic?  Let's say he's Hispanic, as he claims. Then we could surmise that Zimmerman believes Hispanics are superior to all other races. If that's the case, then he'd have a problem with his dad who is white.

Sure, it's possible only the Hispanic side of him is racist.  It's also possible he claims to be Hispanic but he really believes he's white and it's the white part of him that's racist.  And, yes, it's possible that a half-this and half-that person can be racist and pick and choose the races he or she has superiority over.

In this case, it's likely that George Zimmerman is just a zealous neighborhood watch captain who happens to be a paranoid nut who shouldn't have been allowed to carry his Kel Tek 9mm semiautomatic handgun. 

Over the years, Zimmerman's scores of calls to police showed he pursued shoplifters and bad drivers, reported pit bulls, potholes, kids playing in the street, a man driving with no headlights, a motorcycle popping wheelies on the I-4 freeway, open garage doors and "suspicious" teens - usually black males - loitering in the area.

Zimmerman definitely does not appear to be a model citizen. He had been arrested in the past for assault on a police officer and resisting arrest. The charges were later dropped. He was confrontational and suspicious of blacks in his neighborhood. He apparently followed Martin for no apparent reason other than Martin was black.

Being suspicious of black people doesn't necessarily mean one is a racist.  It's probably closer to bigotry than racism.

NO, bigotry and racism are not synonyms, as some would like you to believe.  A bigot is someone who is obstinately and irrationally, often intolerantly, devoted to his own church (religion), party, belief or opinion.  All in the Family's Archie Bunker was considered a bigot. Hitler was considered a racist.  

It's a horrible thing to be killed because of the color of your skin. But it's also unfair, nasty and divisive to throw around such a strong word like "racism" without knowing the motivation or beliefs of the person being labeled. Racism is a pretty deep-seated infection which isn't always easily illuminated by a single act of violence.

Is Trayvon Martin dead because he was African-American? Probably. Was his killer a racist?  You can correctly answer that once you know what Zimmerman was thinking and what he believes.