| What I Am Reading |
[Feb. 9th, 2010|10:04 pm] |
Agatha Christie, Jim Butcher, Charles Palliser, Jasper Fforde
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| Giant Blocks of Ice |
[Feb. 4th, 2010|03:10 pm] |
Giant blocks of ice on Church Street, Burlington, VT.
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| Giant Blocks of Ice |
[Feb. 4th, 2010|03:10 pm] |
Giant blocks of ice on Church Street, Burlington, VT.
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| Giant Blocks of Ice |
[Feb. 4th, 2010|03:10 pm] |
Giant blocks of ice on Church Street, Burlington, VT.
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| Birthday Presents and Charitable Giving |
[Feb. 2nd, 2010|05:35 pm] |
I am bad at presents. I don't give them at the right times. I am awkward at opening them. Scotch tape and wrapping paper, like my wife, simultaneously intimidate and seduce me.
Someone asked me what presents I wanted for my birthday, so I am posting a brief description of the charitable organizations to which I give.
Recent favorites, in no particular order:
Vermont Campaign to End Childhood Hunger (http://www.vtnohunger.org/info/home.php): They actually coordinate a range of smaller projects, and they do a good job of applying resources in targeted ways. My friend Lillie works for them.
Spectrum Youth Vermont (http://www.spectrumvt.org/): The universe has not allowed me to become a father, yet. Until I can, I will support folks like this in any way that I can.
Everybody Wins Vermont (http://www.everybodywinsvermont.org/): When you read about what Everybody Wins does, you will cry. I volunteered for four years with them.
Young Writers Project Vermont (http://youngwritersproject.org/): It is so easy to turn school into something that doesn't suck. But the good ideas and good intentions get mired in the brains of grownups. YWP uses tech to make writing, and writing in school, suck less. The tools and the attitude of the project shifts writing from an assignment (or painful chore) to a transformative experience.
The Peace & Justice Center (http://www.pjcvt.org/): They support a grab-bag of local and national/international causes, some of which I am thrilled about and some of which I am not. Their core philosophy and some of what they do, however, is amazing and powerful. I sponsored a kid's ride to D.C. for a protest, and I use their newsletter to learn more about how I can re-localize what I consume, as examples.
That-Cause-Your-Friend-or-Co-Worker-Is-Walking-For (Check Your E-Mail):
That last one is my most important advice to anyone who wants to do something good with their money. What causes are your friends or family working on? Do they volunteer for the Humane Society? Give to the Humane Society! A community cares for its members, and it also cares for the things that other parts of itself care for. That is a tremendous act of love, whether the specific cause pulls at each individual member's heart strings or not. Love requires trust, and by trusting the decisions and the hard work of those you love, you are loving them.
Okay, that's possibly the most confusing paragraph I've ever written. Oh yeah! This is a blog/Notes entry! I can be confusing with abandon.
Anyway, if you have a co-worker who is biking for diabetes research, or a friend who is walking for the homeless or marching against war, you can support them with your encouragement and your donations. Pledge them. If your office is adopting a family and buying gifts for Christmas, contribute. Be smart, of course... canned-goods donations are great, but a well-run non-profit can use your $3 far more effectively than your box of cereal... but the important thing is to give.
Another Tip: Whenever you are making a donation yourself, try to do so as anonymously or quietly as possible. Or give the money in honor of someone else. Giving money in your own name for your own recognition (i.e. to get a brick in your honor) certainly seems like a good idea, but it has a dark side. You can quickly forget what you are doing and why. Anonymous = best. By all means, be official with the donation and claim it from Uncle Sam, but try to stay off the pretty lists.
The Shovel Rule: If you want to make a difference, go pick up a shovel. If you are concerned that the money you give will be squandered or used poorly (by those darn hippies who devote their LIVES to not squandering), then just go work with them for a while. Your donated HOURS may be worth a lot more than your dollars. |
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| Sweeeet Potatoes |
[Jan. 31st, 2010|06:18 pm] |
I didn't like sweet potatoes until I turned 30.
Up until then, I had probably only ever had highly-mulched sweet potatoes. That would explain it. Or perhaps my infatuation with savory potato concoctions and garlic-mashed kept me away. Dessert should be sweet! Potatoes should be salty and covered in gravy!
Then, sometime around 30, I read an article about how sweet potatoes were insanely healthy. And maybe I tried sweet potato fries. And maybe Jana brought some home and now WOW do I like sweet potatoes. You can wash them (leave them WET), wrap them in a paper towel and nuke them. No mess, no worry, no fuss, perfect potato. Don't forget to stab them with a fork a few times, however.
City Market in Burlington has about five varieties of sweet potato, including some strange white things. (Root vegetables popular in January? Surprise surprise.) This past Friday, I held a SWEET POTATOES AWESOMENESS CONTEST TASTE TEST. Participants included Kristin, Chris, Althea, Dan, Jen, Ashley, and probably some other people but my brain is kind of fuzzy right now.
Varieties (top to bottom in picture):
Beauregard: Various oblong shapes, a faint red color on the outside.
Red Garnet: Bright red, bulbous, the richest and most desirable color of any of the sweet potatoes. (The picture does not do it justice.)
Jewel: Longer and thinner, pale in color. An interesting, starchy taste.
Results:
Beauregard, Beauregard, Beauregard.
Everyone was in agreement. Yes, the rich color of the Red Garnet was fascinating and beautiful. Yes, the Jewel was intriguing. Yes, ALL OF THEM were tasty in their own way, particularly with lots of real butter. You are not going to suffer for bringing home some Jewels for your family side dish.
But the Beauregard sweet potato was the best.
And now you know. |
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| How to Be Awesome |
[Jan. 22nd, 2010|09:21 am] |
From Frank Chimero:
How do you promote yourself?
Unsexiest answer ever: be better.
Do something interesting and do it really well. This is way harder than promoting yourself. Service your clients really well. Come up with damn good work that has thick value.
Do something compelling. There’s a trillion people writing blogs that need something to write about. There are magazines hungry for content. There are hundreds of thousands of people bored on the internet wanting something to look at or do. For the most part, people have exceedingly low standards on the internet. But, I think people are hungry for better. Make something better. People will notice.
The number of people that are consuming creative work keeps growing (because it’s fun and nourishing). The number of people doing solid, compelling creative work is staying the same (because it’s hard work). You do the math. |
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| Smarts |
[Jan. 8th, 2010|10:40 am] |
My dad gave me "Flowers for Algernon" when I was very young. It's a 1950s science fiction short story in which an experiment to increase someone's intelligence goes wrong. It's a classic, and most serial shows (like the Simpsons) do a riff on it, eventually. My dad is a cognitive psychology professor and my mom has a PHD in neuroscience, so Charlie and Algernon were occasional characters at our dinner table.
I used to want to increase my intelligence very much, and I had a series of fantasies about how it would work and what the result would be.
Being smart was the gold standard in our household, I think. It was what we strove to achieve. My parents spent plenty of time teaching us to be kind and generous and other good things, but there was always a general pressure to be "smart." We were taught that we were smart. We got lots of encouragement and support around doing well in school. Today, I'm the only one in my immediate family who doesn't have a whole bunch of letters by their name.
I remember when we rented "Lawnmower Man"... a Flowers-for-Algernon type story that is a low-budget science-fiction/almost horror movie. I was fascinated. I desperately wanted the technology to make myself smarter, and I had a feeling that just being smarter would solve everything.
I think my high school experiences actually reinforced this belief. I have always loved people intensely, even strangers--I still do--and it was through reading and studying that I figured out how to express that love, and how to win friends and influence people. I performed experiments, I studied people's reactions. I used my intelligence to make friends. I learned how to be almost likable. Intelligence seemed to be the key to everything.
Movies like "A Beautiful Mind" and "Good Will Hunting" certainly try to show the dark side of above-average intelligence. Even Dustin Hoffman's "Rainman" has a sort of, "it's only fair" feeling to it, whereby if you have some tremendous mental gift, you must by consequence suffer a great lack in some other area, or be ill-fated in some regard.
Somewhere along the line, I learned that smart people aren't happier than people of average intelligence. This has been one of the stunning, surprise lessons of my life that I learn over and over again.
Sure, maybe smart people save money and thereby have a higher standard of living, and a higher standard of living really does lead to a higher general happiness level (they did a big study on this, a few years back)... but that's not direct causation. Smart people are not necessarily more successful. Really dumb people get to be president. Smart does not equal happy or successful. Douglas is very clever, but he is not clever enough to figure out how to be rich, or happy, every day.
Most importantly, I have discovered that really smart people are not more moral or good-hearted than foolish people. They don't love more, or better. They aren't less self-obsessed, or less likely to get divorced, or more likely to be good parents. Intelligence can help in these areas, but it might not. Being smart could make you a better lover or a worse lover. There's no correlation.
Despite knowing all of that, and despite Flowers for Algernon, I still have "Douglas gets super-intelligence and telepathy!" fantasies all the time.
There is some part of me that still thinks that if I were just SMART ENOUGH, I could fix everything. I could fix all of my problems, and all of world's problems, too. Give me enough brain power, and I would single-handedly bring about world peace. Cure all diseases. Break the speed of light. And be really, really happy. Somehow.
(Yadda yadda yadda, insert tangent about the difficulties in defining what "smart" means, how intelligence can even be measured, how "emotional" intelligence and social intelligence are also part of the spectrum, yadda yadda yadda tangent.) |
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| Missed Connections |
[Dec. 30th, 2009|01:01 am] |
This telephone is going to wake me up in about three hours and 45
minutes.
ADVENTURE!!11!
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| Airports |
[Dec. 29th, 2009|03:53 pm] |
I love how all the monitors in the terminal here (VT's downstairs) are
off, and there are no attendants on duty.
That's very useful. It certainly prevents worry about delays and
connecting flights. (no information= you can't worry)
Perhaps we should employ a similar technique with my company's medical
software. If we don't tell users about missing immunizations, then
they can't worry about them! Genius! Also, if you close your eyes
really tightly, it is impossible to get tuberculosis.
I am Continental 3285 and 3153. But the sun is SHINING, so I'm sure
everything will be wonderful.
>>
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| Mournful |
[Dec. 29th, 2009|02:36 pm] |
Sully and His Alien Love, Mournful that the Big Mac Does Not Come With
Bacon
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| Please |
[Dec. 29th, 2009|02:35 pm] |
Please do not tear down Mother Tree and destroy our culture! ...
Unless you are planning on putting in a McDonald's. 'I See You...', I
also see golden fries.
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| Blog and FB Link |
[Dec. 21st, 2009|10:40 am] |
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All of Douglas's new public posts on his old Livejournal blog will now be synced and appear as "Notes" posts on Facebook. Is this working? And... is this a good thing? Can't decide... |
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| On Getting High |
[Dec. 13th, 2009|03:53 pm] |
So, first I wrote: "We can make the brain do all kinds of things with drugs, both natural and unnatural. The consequences, for our species, will never be better than what nature has given us. Other than for those with injury, illness, or disability, I do not believe that brain altering substances are going to somehow make the human race better or happier."
Can I imagine a case where this would not be so?
I'm not sure. I'm trying.
If I could give every 5-year-old an enzyme that would make them 25% smarter, for the rest of their lives, would I?
No, I would not. For who is deciding that "smartness", however you measure that (as if you could), is somehow better for the human race? Maybe we are smart enough. Maybe increased intelligence would actually decrease overall happiness, the ability to work together, the survival of the species, or whatever other benchmark you are measuring for "success".
The same goes for longevity, or even for happiness itself. Maybe the human race is as happy as it should be, and the remaining fears, depressions, and ongoing mental challenges are a necessary part of what prompts us all to action. In other words, cure the disease of depression, and maybe the human race would die out in a thousand years.
I doubt it. But I can't know. So while I encourage us to mess around with the human brain, with tweaking our genetic code, and with other awesome corners of science, I am very, very skeptical about the long term benefits. Yes, let's unravel the mysteries of nature. But let's not get all excited about getting high. Getting high might be a really, really bad idea.
We can't know what the long term effects will be, first of all, and second of all... well, we haven't really figured out how to define "benefit" yet. Our dominant moral philosophers keep crumpling up the pages and starting over. We don't even know what "good" is, from moment to moment.
It makes effective arguments about these issues maddeningly difficult. |
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| NaNoWriMo |
[Nov. 30th, 2009|10:34 pm] |
Anyone who loves novels should write one. Even a bad one. I don't think this rule applies to houses or children, but it definitely applies to souffles and movies. If you love books, create one for yourself. Your love will take on new levels and a new depth, and every myth, story, or song you hear will be more powerful for it.
(I finished my novel-writing November, with words to spare and much more story to tell.) |
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| My Three Wishes, for the World and for Myself |
[Nov. 16th, 2009|02:43 pm] |
For the World:
1. I wish that human beings had more empathy with their fellow humans, something I believe would cause them to lean just a little more towards a communal answer to a problem instead of a combative one.
2. I wish that the alleviation of suffering was within the grasp of the sufferers, and not tied up in the power distribution of those who do not suffer.
3. And heck, since I'm dreaming, I wish that we had access to infinite energy at no environmental cost, or an infinitesimal cost, therefore limiting what humans decide to do with themselves to their creative, spiritual, social, and exploratory endeavors.
For Myself:
1. I wish I had more self-control, the ability to focus on what I chose for as long as I chose.
2. I wish I were a father.
3. I wish I were immortal, and therefore had enough time to live many different lives, learn several lifetimes worth of knowledge, and experience all of the universe's tastes and sights and sounds a thousand, thousand times.
4. Finally, I wish I had the time and the power to love all human beings directly, in a focused and specific way.
p.s.
...especially your mom. |
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| Not Quick, Not Quirk |
[Nov. 9th, 2009|01:12 am] |
In my writing, I have a penchant for picking the quick and easy, for seeking the simple path to a story: a clever premise, a quirk or detail, and not a well wrought, deeply felt character.
I have a maximizing brain... for sorting, playing, shopping, saving, anything. I maximize time, food, work, play... I try to sort the senses, balance all the factors, manage the resources, in order to maximize the outcome.
In writing, however, this is a mistake, and completely untenable.
The most expedient route in writing: do not write at all. If I can get just as much joy from a computer game, a conversation with a friend, a well-crafted meal.... then it would be easiest not to write at all.
I've understood this well, and I have lived it out in practice, seeing time with friends replace the urge to write... I have found that as long as I am creating something, I can be okay. But I always miss the easy flow of words, and I am always happiest when writing successfully, feeling the clever turn of phrase or the idea that is fresh and plump and round. Even if it is drivel like this.
I wish to balance the forces in my head, to answer the words, when they come, and not seek the simple answer.
For the simplest answer is not to write at all. |
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| Beautiful Jessica Glasses Competition |
[Nov. 8th, 2009|06:38 pm] |
Step right up and vote in the Beautiful Jessica Glasses Competition!
Which are the cutest and/or sexiest and/or trendiest and/or best glasses for the beautiful Jessica?!
Make your opinion known!
or
or
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| Cute, Wise |
[Oct. 28th, 2009|03:03 pm] |
My old girlfriend's 3-year-old son, who likely just learned about calendars, made an announcement at breakfast:
"Next week starts a new month. But I'm not going to tell you what it is because today is TODAY."
Children are the best philosophers. |
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beagley's journal
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