Can’t Leave That Cell Phone Behind

March 19, 2011 – 7:43 am

So I’ve been on vacation in Florida visiting my parents and I must say that having a pool a two-minute walk up the street from their condo is mighty nice.  My daily routine has pretty much consisted of getting up, enjoying a lazy breakfast, and heading out to the pool to read and take a quick dip.

Personally, the last thing I would want to be doing while laying out in the sun and relaxing, is posting on Facebook, responding to texts, and making sure I keep tabs on everything happening in the world and on everything anyone I know is doing.  My cell phone is left behind to be by itself.

(I know, how irresponsible of me!)

I think it’s the hardest aspect of modern life for people to deal with- information overload.  For most of us, the response has been to live with the information overload.  Disconnecting and living in the present moment has become harder and harder to do.

The thing is, I feel so much better when I am away from my phone and computer, not checking email or worrying about what I’m missing out on.  It’s been utterly refreshing to be at the pool or at the beach without my phone, without being connected.  It makes me think back to the days where hanging out with friends meant hanging out with friends.

Today, friends hanging out with each other means hanging out with friends plus their cell phones.  How often have you gone to a meal or watched a movie with a friend in which neither of you opened up their cell phone?

Even in sunny Florida, sitting at a pool, most people were checking their phones every few minutes.  The sun wasn’t enough for them!

Maybe I’m in the minority, but I think it’s unfortunate.

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The Story of Stuff

March 18, 2011 – 8:16 pm

This is an amazing website, consisting of short and informative animated videos which all relate to the story of stuff.  Aka, where does all of our stuff come from, and where does it end up?  What is the ultimate cost to the environment?  What can we do?

I found the videos on bottled water and electronics to be especially interesting and applicable to most of our daily lives.  It’s a scary situation for sure…

I will let the videos speak for themselves- ENJOY!

http://www.storyofstuff.org/

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RSVP?

January 5, 2011 – 8:02 pm

I recently read an interesting article (see link below) about the new(ish) phenomenon of people refusing to RSVP for parties, events, etc.  Remember the good old days when “evite” first came out?  It felt special to get an invitation and at least in my experience, far more people responded to the invites than they do today.

I especially enjoyed this paragraph in the article:

“What’s clear is how hard the R.S.V.P. rubs against the grain of contemporary life. In requesting people to anchor a plan in the distant future of a month hence, you are demanding a kind of navigation that Americans increasingly do not practice. We prefer to remain flexy, solidifying our plans incrementally as the date approaches. Let’s talk tomorrow. I’ll call you when I’m on the road. Cellphones in hand, we microadjust our schedules as they unfold around us. We’re like the air traffic controllers of our own lives.”

I definitely think many people don’t respond because they are microadjusting their schedules every minute.  And perhaps it’s also a case of people always looking for something even better and “cooler” to do.

Among the most frustrating aspects of our society becoming more disconnected, all while we become more “connected” virtually, is the lack of providing the common courtesy of an RSVP when asked.  And even more frustrating is I don’t see a readily applicable solution.

Let me know what you think:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/15/opinion/15cooper.html

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Do You Know What Your Food Eats?

December 22, 2010 – 7:17 pm

Here’s another stimulating article that really gets you thinking about the food industry and the good old FDA.  You just gotta love how much the folks at the FDA care about what we eat, eats.  A few of the interesting components of animal feed: bone meal, slaughterhouse wastes, arsenic (YES ARSENIC), and poultry manure.

Nicolette Hahn Niman and her husband Bill Niman are at the forefront of trying to produce meat the healthy way, both for the animal and for the human consumer.  I recently heard them speak about their heirloom-breed turkeys, which I have purchased for Thanksgiving the past couple of years.

I hope you enjoy the article:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nicolette-hahn-niman/contaminated-feed-you-are_b_767065.html

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And… I’m Back!

December 21, 2010 – 10:30 pm

I know, I know.  It’s pretty lame that I simply stopped posting, but the good news is that I am ready to post once again and I have some interesting thoughts and ideas to share with you over the next few days.

The first is an interesting article I came across written by a former lawyer, turned psychotherapist.  He realized that law wasn’t where we wanted to be and had the courage to get out.  This first step to getting away from a job/situation that is making you miserable can be an immensely difficult one for many people.  I’ve been there myself and I can attest to how intimidating it is to take that leap of faith.

I hope you enjoy and I hope it helps you to take a step back from your life to see if you’re really doing what you want to be doing.

http://thepeoplestherapist.com/2010/12/15/i-suck-at-law/#more-2991

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Some Food Thoughts

July 27, 2010 – 4:16 pm

The idea that the local/organic/sustainable food movement represents a form of elitism could not be further from the truth.  While this topic could fill an entire book, I though I’d make a short and succinct case as to why this is ludicrous.

For me, there are three tenants at the heart of this growing movement.  The first is to put our food dollars back into farmers’ pockets, as opposed to the pockets of the corporate giants of industrial agriculture (Monsanto, Cargill, Archer-Daniels-Midland).  The second is to stop the inefficiency of using more energy (fossil fuel) calories in the production of our food than actual food calories created, and to stop dousing our farmland with synthetic fertilizers and pesticides.  The third is to treat the animals that we eat with a certain measure of respect and humaneness, which includes letting these animals live the way they were evolved to live.  This includes the apparently difficult-to-understand notion of letting a cow graze on grass, rather than pumping it full of corn.

A large consequence of ensuring the above is that, yes, your food will cost more, though now you will actually be paying a price for your food proportional to the costs it took to produce it.

Often, farmers are getting paid less per bushel of corn than it cost to grow it.  Another example is that for every $1 of corn sweetener produced, the farmer only gets $0.04.  Our food dollars are flowing to the “producers” of value-added products like the chicken nugget, instead of to the growers (the farmers).

The farmers that I have met and whose farms I have also visited are the hardest working people you will ever come across.  To complain about paying a FAIR price for your eggs, produce, poultry, beef, etc., and then turning and blowing $60 on a night of drinking, or even more on the newest iPhone/other gadget is the height of chutzpah.

Naturally there are families out there for whom the increased cost of local/organic/sustainable food represents quite the burden, but I would argue that most of the people I have spoken to on this topic do not fall into this category.

The problem as I see it is a lack of basic knowledge of where one’s food comes from.  I challenge anyone to take this first step of tracking or at least trying to track the food they eat on a daily basis, and to examine the consequences of eating meat and produce grown using industrial methods.

Just start there.  And then please tell me what’s elitist about local/organic/sustainable.

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Superstitious? Me?

July 23, 2010 – 11:58 am

So it’s been a little over a month since the Boston Celtics lost in heartbreaking fashion to the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 7 of the 2010 NBA Finals.  The  not-as-mature me of a few years ago would have dwelled on this loss for months.  The somewhat-more-mature me of today has only dwelled on this loss for a month.  Hey, at least I’m improving!

Looking back on my (even by my standards) erratic behavior that night I have decided I am shameless enough to share it with you, my loyal readers.  I am at best mildly superstitious, so I definitely surprised myself with the extent to which I jumped off the deep-end as tip-off approached.

This version of the Celtics had had a fairly lackluster year and then proceeded to surprise its fans with a spirited and highly entertaining playoff run all the way to the Finals.  The first six games were extremely hard fought and with the Celtics getting blown out in Game 6 in LA, everything came down to a final game.  I had a bad feeling from the minute I woke up on the day of the game, though on my walk to work that morning I found a $5 bill.  For whatever reason, I took this to be a good omen.

The second good omen of the day was when I found out that the Ferry Building Farmer’s Market was going to be selling sour cherries, my all-time favorite fruit.  It’s only around for a few weeks each year, so I am always thrilled when they are back in season.

So how did I get from a couple of good omens, to superstition?  I don’t actually know.  The idea just kind of materialized organically in my head.  All I can say is that I decided all of a sudden that the only way the Celtics were winning this game was if I did my part.  Which meant what you may ask?  Here goes nothing:

I first decided that I needed to display my first good omen of the day (the $5 bill) on my coffee table in the living room.  Then I decided that I would drink exactly 2 Sam Adams Summer Ales during the first half.  Thirdly, I decided to eat some of my second good omen (sour cherries) throughout the game.  Lastly, I decided to bring back a mini-tradition from college.  When the Boston Red Sox came back against the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series in 2004, I spoke with my friend Derek during every commercial break after every half inning.  Thus it would also be for Game 7.  I would call him (not the other way around) during every commercial break to discuss how the game was progressing.

So the results were promising, at least for the first half.  The Celtics had chances to pull away, but failed to put much distance between themselves and the Lakers.  They were leading, though, at half-time of a Game 7 in LA.  Not bad at all.

For some reason I wasn’t very comforted by this fact and was even more nervous than when the game had started!  I felt like I had plenty of work left in order for the Celtics to come away with banner number 18.

As I was pacing back and forth like a caged, half-crazed, wild animal, I shockingly noticed that I was out of my Sam Adams Summer Ales.  And to make matters worse, I couldn’t allow myself to leave the apartment (yes, my level of superstition was increasing by the very minute) because that would disrupt my continuous presence in the apartment, which could potentially have a negative effect on the game.

What to do???

Luckily my girlfriend walked through the door at this very moment of realization and I hurriedly explained to her that I needed to drink 2 more Sam Adams during the second half, but I couldn’t leave the apartment for fear that this may upset the good karma I had developed during the first half.  Though she looked at me like I was completely crazy she came through for me and took a trip to the corner store.

As the third quarter progressed, all of my hard work seemed to be paying off.  The Celtics built up a lead of as much as 13!  With just one more little spurt they would be able to pull away for good.  I couldn’t believe it.  With the year they had had and the difficult road they had faced in the playoffs just to get to this point, it was almost unthinkable that the championship trophy was almost theirs.  I happily worked my way through the 2 beers and kept on eating those sour cherries, all while looking at my proudly displayed $5 bill.

And then, as the third quarter came to a close and the fourth quarter got underway it all collapsed.  Damn it all, my efforts had been in vain.  The Celtics never quite gave up, but they certainly ran out of gas.  Even with Kobe Bryant on his way to a 6-24 shooting night, with a 13-point lead, and perhaps one or two defensive stops away from taking the title it was simply not to be.

If this was a post about the game itself, I would now talk about how close Bryant came to an off-season filled with rants about his inability to beat the Celtics.  Or how close the Big Three of the Celtics came to a second title in three years.

But this post was more about the power of superstition, so I will end with a final thought.  Do I truly believe that superstition can lead to an impact on a sporting event?  Probably not.  But I certainly felt its power over a one day period and let me tell you, all rationality quickly disappeared.

Maybe I should try again during the baseball playoffs?

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Results: First BMDC Job

July 11, 2010 – 8:02 pm

I am pleased to announce that my first job as a Bernese Mountain Dog Consultant (BMDC) went extremely well.  I was able to draw upon my years of experience throughout the ten days that I spent with Moby.  I can confidently say that I lived up to my Level 3-c certification.  My girlfriend also obtained a measure of success.  She executed her “Pooper-Scooper” duties flawlessly and I am proud to say that she is now in line to achieve a Level 1-b certification.

As a result of a confidentiality agreement I have with Moby’s owners I am unable to delve into the details of the project (standard in the field), but rest assured the results were nothing short of spectacular!  I am excited at my future as a BMDC and at what will certainly be a successful and rewarding career.

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Bernese Mountain Dog Consultant

June 8, 2010 – 3:59 pm

After a lifetime of experience, training, and study, I am proud to announce that I have recently decided to become a Bernese Mountain Dog Consultant (BMDC).

Yep, that’s right, my first consulting job as a BMDC starts tomorrow.

There aren’t many BMDCs out there (at least in America) that can match my skill-set.  Over twenty years of experience give me the confidence that there isn’t a situation I haven’t encountered with these most majestic and complex dogs.

I have been hired to lead a ten-day project, with my girlfriend as my associate.  She is a relative novice in the field, not yet having achieved her level 1-a certification, but she is indeed qualified for “Pooper Scooper” duties.  She has a ways to go before achieving the top certification within the BMDC field- Level 3-c.

Moby will be the first Bernese Mountain Dog that I will be working with and I have high hopes for what we will be able to achieve over these next 10 days.  I will post results after my time with him is done.

In the meantime, I will be offering a special ten percent discount on my services throughout the month of June.  I look forward to helping you with all of your Bernese Mountain Dog needs.

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The Big Ticket

May 20, 2010 – 4:34 pm

Forget about Tom Brady, Wes Welker, or Roger Federer.  My current man-crush is solely focused on Kevin “The Big Ticket” Garnett, also known simply as KG.  Being a Boston Celtics fan, I have only truly appreciated the effort that KG plays with on both the offensive and defensive ends for the past few years.

When the Celtics traded for KG in 2007, I immediately thought of a story I had read about KG being the best player on the 2000 Olympic gold-medal winning team.  On BOTH ends of the court.  From opening night of the 2007-2008 season on, it was incredible to see the energy he brought night in and night out.

Many who know me consider me to be quite the intense personality and I’d like to think that if I were a professional athlete I would also play with more energy and passion than most.  But I don’t even come close to KG’s intensity level.  Practice, pre-season, regular-season, or post-season, you better believe KG is bringing it at 200%.  Just watch him play for a few minutes and remember, this is the tail end of his career.

The man pumps himself up more than any other athlete I have ever seen (though Ray Lewis certainly comes close).  My girlfriend has often shaken her head in amazement after watching KG muttering/screaming to himself after a big bucket or while shooting free-throws.  And she lives with me- I go from sleeping to wide-awake and energetic in about 5 seconds in the morning.

I can only imagine what it would be like to see KG’s intensity on display while grocery shopping or doing any other simple daily activity.  It would probably be mildly disturbing to say the least…  But it certainly is incredible to see him play the game of basketball the way it’s supposed to be played.  It’s exhausting simply watching him!

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