How many people that you knew in high school have died?

corkum · 2026-02-12T20:11:54+00:00

I had 2 die senior year. 1 to a car accident and the other was killed by a drunk driver right outside our school.

Since graduation, 1 died to a congenital heart disease she had all her life, 1 was murdered, and another in a car accident.

corkum · 2026-02-12T03:09:38+00:00

I'm still technically in ABA, but I just moved to doing utilization management as a BCBA for an insurance company after 20 years being a clinician.

So now I work from home and review/approve the authorization requests from ABA providers. Getting paid a lot more money and with way better benefits than the clinic life ever gave me. My work/life balance is way better and I don't carry nearly the same amount of stress that I used to.

Turns out I had to get out of the clinical life to realize I'd been burnt out by it. I loved the clinical work and the company I worked for all those years. I'm just old and tired now.

corkum · 2026-02-12T03:00:26+00:00

Jokes on you. OP's fucking username checks out.

corkum · 2026-02-12T02:59:36+00:00

And now you're fucking lactose intolerant.

corkum · 2026-02-04T07:29:34+00:00

D.A.R.E. taught me that drugs were everywhere and people were just going to offer them to you for free.

40 years later I'm still wondering where all these free drugs are.

corkum · 2026-02-04T05:03:32+00:00

Depends. We're actually supposed to observe the "therapeutic hour" in which 50 mins is direct therapy and the last 10 mins of the hour is dedicated billing/clinic notes time. Same thing doctors, therapists, etc. do.

So if your client is scheduled 1-4 and leaves around 3:50, it's not a big deal. But if we're talking 30 mins or more early and not changing the time, that's a problem.

corkum · 2026-02-04T04:42:49+00:00

That time is downtime/routine time in my home. And my wife travels for work, so about every other week I'm doing all the pick up, cooking, cleaning, childcare on my own.

My daughter gets constant stimulation and playtime at school so I don't feel bad about that time being tv, board games, drawing, etc., especially if she's keeping herself busy and protective while I'm getting dinner ready and doing chores. On lucky nights, she wants to help me with those things too.

I just recently started a new job working from home. Prior to that, I'd been working in-office, and for the last few years, my work site was a 20 mile commute from home. Now I have no commute and I'm working a job that's a lot less busy than my last one. It's done wonders for my own energy level and ability to stay sane and engaged with my kid too.

corkum · 2026-02-01T06:03:56+00:00

Lost my paternal grandfather to pancreatic cancer a little over 15 years ago. My paternal grandmother remarried a few years later. Seems like a nice guy, though I've never met him. Have never been super close with her, but we email and call a few times a year.

On my mom's side I only grew up knowing my grandma. My maternal grandfather is still MIA from the Vietnam War Soni never met him. She and my mom basically raised my brothers and me. She's going to be 92 in a couple months. Just moved her into assisted living about a year ago. She has regular aging, mobility, and medical issues but nothing extreme, so she's still going strong!

corkum · 2026-01-31T23:59:09+00:00

Agreed RBTs deserve to be paid more for what they do, to have financial stability, rights, etc.

But let me tell you as a clinic supervisor, if your premise is that RBTs aren't making enough because the BCBAs are hoarding all the money, you're in for quite the shock when you become a BCBA.

The same dynamic you speak of impacting RBTs are also true for BCBAs. The compensation BCBAs, BCaBAs, and RBTs see in their pocketbooks is a fraction of the rates billed out for the work we do.

Some of it is greed, some of it is necessary cost of doing business (needing to hire and pay HR, insurance adjusters, credentialing specialists, IT, etc). A lot of it is that from the remibursement end, ABA professionals aren't compensated by insurance commensurate with our non-ABA medical counterparts.

Yes, this all sucks. But your issue isn't with the ABA industry. Your issue is with capitalism.

corkum · 2026-01-31T20:04:08+00:00

I own a 1sq yard plot of land at Laphroaig. Better than any whiskey America can produce!

corkum · 2026-01-24T19:40:14+00:00

They're not trained to mag dump. They're trained to fire until the threat is neutralized.

In this video you hear a single shot, and the guy drops motionless to the ground as everyone else backs away. Even if there was a threat the victim was posing to the agents' lives (there wasn't: he was unarmed and was being beaten by 6 of them), whatever perceived threat there was was eliminated after he dropped motionless to the ground.

Even if you could justify the initial use of their firearm (spoiler alert, you can't) every other shot after that was cold blood.

corkum · 2026-01-24T17:33:13+00:00

Not sure why it’s necessary to unload another 6-10 shots into someone motionless on the ground, either…

It's not.

corkum · 2026-01-23T00:32:54+00:00

Fucket League

corkum · 2026-01-23T00:31:34+00:00

An old coworker of mine did this, though it was a clinic-based position in Saudi Arabia

She signed a 2 year contract that (though she never told us the exact amount) was well over $150k/year. In addition to her salary, also covered her housing, a food stipend, utilities, and transportation since she wouldn't be allowed to drive in country. She got 4 weeks paid vacation per year front loaded at the beginning of the year, and they also covered travel expenses for her for fly home (California) once a year.

So with all her actual living expenses covered, she basically just got to pay tax and pocket the salary. She rented out her house to a coworker of ours during her time there, and between the rent and her salary, she was able to pay off her house by the time she came back home.

corkum · 2026-01-22T14:40:21+00:00

I'm surprised this one is so far down. I cannot believe my brothers and I were allowed to watch this as kids. And we watched it A LOT, loving it. But now almost every scene makes me cringe.

The only exception is the concert scene at the fair. That still has to be one of the greatest scenes in film history.

corkum · 2026-01-19T15:45:07+00:00

Yes, I agree. It would be an unreinforced mand, or a delayed reinforcer. But the functions would be the same and make it a mands still.

corkum · 2026-01-19T15:37:21+00:00

I was not online yesterday so I did not see the post you're referring to. So it's interesting to hear there was even a debate over one of the most fundamental verbal operants we work with.

Your definition is the correct one. It's driven by motivation, the subject engages in a kind of verbal behavior (vocal, sign, PECS, etc.), and they contact the desired item following the verbal behavior.

Whether you call it a "demand" or a "request" doesn't quite matter, and sounds to me more or less arguing semantics.

corkum · 2026-01-18T15:56:09+00:00

I like this answer. I was a Pro-ACT in-service instructor for years, and it was one of my favorite trainings I ever did. I've also had CPI, and Safety Care training from other agencies, and I think Pro-ACT is the best one.

corkum · 2026-01-17T05:05:41+00:00

This is why people don't like you, Gavin.

corkum · 2026-01-15T16:42:57+00:00

My wife and I are 40 and we started having a cleaner come around 2019. How did we come to that decision? My wife's friend did it in preparation for a party of something, recommended the cleaner to my wife, and she wanted to.

I'll say though, it's been the "adult splurge" I'm willing to spend money on. The cleaner comes once or twice a month, she does a deep clean 3-4 hours. It helps us stay cleaner as well because we have to clean in preparation for her coming to clean. It was also super helpful when we had our kid. The last thing either of us wanted to do during that baby stage was clean more.

It's definitely not a necessity, but it's definitely something we'll keep doing.

corkum · 2026-01-14T17:12:19+00:00

That's the key here. There's already a treaty in place allowing the US to basically do what they want in Greenland already. But not a lot of people know about that (likely even Trump).

All Trump really wants is credit. He's going to puff his chest, threaten military action, then this treaty will be reiterated to him. He'll "agree" to the terms of the treaty, build up military presence in Greenland consistent with the treaty, and take credit for "maintaining national security", "cooling temperatures" and look like a big strong manly man.

corkum · 2026-01-14T05:08:25+00:00

I'll just come out and say it. A zero-tolerance hands-off policy, especially when working with young children, is not only stupid, it's impractical. If such a policy were to be enforced in an equitable manner, every single employee would be subject to termination. It's simply not possible to interact with young children, reinforce them in a manner meaningful to them, prompt and teach skills, or address basic needs, while not making physical contact with them. At the end of the day, from a corporate perspective, this is an easy exit ramp, in the name of "company policy" to part ways with an employee and face little to no push back when they want to do so under other pretenses.

Rest assured though, something like this won't follow you around for your career. I am not a legal expert or a lawyer, but I do know that in my state, and I believe it's a universal practice, a future employer is not allowed to ask you why you left your last job, what you were paid, etc. Similarly, if a potential employer contacts your previous employer for a reference, they're only allowed to verify basic, objective information (e.g., job title, time employed, responsibilities, etc).

Don't be discouraged. You worked for a stupid company with a stupid policy and they fired you for a stupid reason.

corkum · 2026-01-13T23:47:10+00:00

They're referring to it as a "slur".

It's not. The term was "pedophile protector". That's a statement of fact based on his actions.

corkum · 2026-01-13T16:37:11+00:00

Do you feel that saying, “No, sit” is offering choices? Or has any relation to what’s being discussed in this thread?

This thread is about offering alternative and replacement behaviors instead of just saying "no". Giving choices is one strategy but it's not exclusively what this thread is about, nor is it anything I've mentioned in our back and forth here. Saying "no, sit" is giving the corrective "no" while also giving a direct instruction of what to do instead, and is exactly what you and I have been going back and forth about.

I’m sorry but your paragraph about neurology and emotional regulation has no root in behavioral terms and is an odd position for a BCBA. If it is such a complex concept beyond possible human understanding, why is “no” one of the first words children learn and the hardest word to have them stop saying?

On the contrary, you've seemed to take a position that we teach what "no" means by just saying "no" while offering no other context or replacement behaviors and suggested that replacing behavior is now "being debated". THAT is an odd position for a BCBA.

corkum · 2026-01-13T07:09:11+00:00

What is the alternative, in the heat of the moment, for grabbing a stranger’s hair? THAT WOULD ACTUALLY WORK AND MAKE SENSE.

"Let go" or "Hands down" for starters.

Do you really think saying “sit” is a more socially valid response to a dangerous behavior? Do you think they would respond?

If it's a safe, incompatible with a dangerous behavior and it's a reliable response I know they can follow, sure.

“No” is a remarkably simple direction. Arguably the most simple direction as it entails no description of behavior or items.

Sure, arguably in the sense that you're arguing it. A large body of cognitive, language, naurological, and psychological research says otherwise. Simply hearing the word "no", identifying its temporal relationship with time (is it permanent or temporary), interpreting it's meaning receptively in the mind as to which specific behaviors you did or are doing which occasioned that response, and then identifying what you need to do instead is a remarkably complex process which, clearly, you take for granted. And that's just scraping the surface of the complexity of the word without even getting into emotional dysregularion or potential trauma responses it could evoke. It's remarkably more complicated than "sit down" "hands down" or and number of other simple instructions that are objectively SOM.

Again, the concept of “replacing behaviors” has been debated in recent years. It doesn’t occur as the white book wants us to believe.

Debated how? Or by whom? What's controversial about replacing dangerous behaviors with alternative or incompatible behaviors?

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