Archive for June, 2010
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010
Hard deadlines and Soft deadlines
I took Russian in high school. It was a small, intense program, whose one teacher was passionate, tough, and kept the tight-knit program together with a strong personality. I did pretty poorly in the classes, but I still placed in an international essay contest. Several of my friends won national contests and got to travel [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in Uncategorized by Alex
Tuesday, June 29th, 2010
America: Day 30 – The beginning of Portland
Today I drove from Portland out to Eagle Creek, in the Mt Hood National Forest. It was really gorgeous, with well-maintained trails that rose above the creek until there were sheer cliffs going up on one side and down to the creek on the other. At one point there was a sprinkle coming off an [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Uncategorized by Alex
Monday, June 28th, 2010
America: Days 22-29 – Seattle
I have spent the past week in Seattle, and it’s been a really lovely stay. On Tuesday, I went for a walk along a lake in the city’s arboretum, and then had dinner and games with two good friends. They gifted me with a lovely mandolin, which I have since started to learn. On Wednesday [...]
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Sunday, June 27th, 2010
Ruthlessly say no to to-do items
Today I’m feeling exceedingly unproductive. I’ve gone over my to-do list several times, but I just don’t feel like doing the things on it. I’ve decided that that’s okay. This is related to the One Thing strategy for dealing with overwhelming to-do lists, except it allows for avoiding your responsibilities entirely (as long as they’re [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Uncategorized by Alex
Saturday, June 26th, 2010
How do you tell someone they did a bad job?
Recently I went to a contradance where I really didn’t like the caller’s style. She exuded a sense of stress that I think made it much harder for the many beginners to learn. She made contradancing seem hard rather than fun. There were also many specific things she said that seemed more controlling than I [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in Uncategorized by Alex
Friday, June 25th, 2010
The Workings of Government, Part I
It was suggested to me that I write some blog posts about the basic workings of government and politics. I follow such things relatively closely, and I’d love to share with you some of my perception of how things work in Washington.
The Basics: The House of Representatives passes a bill. The Senate takes a look [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Uncategorized by Alex
Thursday, June 24th, 2010
Different Trains
Recently I spotted a review of cross-country travel on Amtrak in the LA Times. I recommend checking it out, though it’s not at all my experience. The writer, Karl Zimmerman, took pretty much the most posh train trip he could, whereas I’m taking a lower-budget, lower-key trip, with my only on-train splurging for meals in [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Uncategorized by Alex
Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010
Weatherize your community
Today I got lunch with one of my favorite bloggers, David Roberts of Grist. We talked about a lot of things, but one of my takeaways from the meeting was that there need to be more community-based efficiency and alternative energy programs. Making it easy for individuals within a community and a community itself to [...]
2 Comments » - Posted in Uncategorized by Alex
Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010
The Benefits of Stress
Generally, I’m a pretty anti-stress person. I endeavor to make my life simpler and calmer, eliminating or circumventing sources of anxiety. But although I still roll my eyes a little every time I hear someone distinguish between “distress” and “eustress“, I wish to write here about positive and negative stress.
There isn’t necessarily a sharp dividing [...]
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Monday, June 21st, 2010
Transitioning off of oil and federal impotence
If there’s one lesson which the healthcare legislative battle taught the American public, it’s that even with huge Democratic majorities, the federal government (in its current power structure) is very inefficient and ineffective at doing good things. As always, this is in large part due to our political complacency and visceral disengagement (feedback loop anyone?) [...]
