IPOD
RADIO
Finally used my Kiva gift certificate (thanks again, Oryx!) after paying off the last of my nagging credit cards with my generous annual bonus. Clearing the debt and dabbling in the world of microfinance are in fact not directly related events, though there is something about getting a loan paid off that makes the world look full of possibility. I don't regret going from engagement to wedding in 6 months (even with Christmas landing the week after the wedding) but it's nice to get to the 1 year anniversary of the start date with our heads above water.
Also, it's nice when the word "microfinance" doesn't make you think of our own bank account.
Also, it's nice when the word "microfinance" doesn't make you think of our own bank account.
Back from BEA. Things I learned included how to nap in a chair, what goes on at the Audies, that my effusive affection for McSweeney's is tragically out of proportion to their size and impact as a publisher, how best to pack several suits in one suitcase, at conventions you run into the damnedest people, why reading the scale of a map of LA is critical before setting out for a stroll, that a cab ride in LA from point A to B is $50 regardless of the actual coordinates of either point, that I'd rather not go back to LA if I can help it.
Someone once said that the thing about turning 30 is you'll spend a lot of time from then on doing whatever you'd been doing in your 20s. So for me that's a lot of school and selling books and walking dogs and watching movies with chickie.
Hm.
I don't really sell books these days (as chickie is quick to point out, now that "didja sell some books" has long since been replaced by "didja buy some books" as the standard after work greeting). And school is done. Though I would like to get through the Personal MBA reading list. The dog's going to need lots more walking, that's a given. But sitting around watching movies feels increasingly like an endangered activity, what with chickie at school part-time, and the whole point of that being for her to pick up the skills she feels she needs before we make that big leap that puts all ambitions on hold for 18-22 years.
Such are the reflections of the no longer young.
Hm.
I don't really sell books these days (as chickie is quick to point out, now that "didja sell some books" has long since been replaced by "didja buy some books" as the standard after work greeting). And school is done. Though I would like to get through the Personal MBA reading list. The dog's going to need lots more walking, that's a given. But sitting around watching movies feels increasingly like an endangered activity, what with chickie at school part-time, and the whole point of that being for her to pick up the skills she feels she needs before we make that big leap that puts all ambitions on hold for 18-22 years.
Such are the reflections of the no longer young.
Discovered this week: Podcasts.
Favourites: BBC documentaries and This American Life. GQ was good last week, but this week they seem to be discussing baseball.
I'll get started on the 21st century anytime now.
Favourites: BBC documentaries and This American Life. GQ was good last week, but this week they seem to be discussing baseball.
I'll get started on the 21st century anytime now.
Tonight between the hours of 8 and 9 pm wifey and I will be doing... whatever the hell we want with or without electricity. Fuck Earth Hour.
I'm not against energy conservation. I'm all for independence from fossil fuels for political and economic reasons. I'd like cleaner air in cities and I'm all for government subsidizing the research and development of energy harnessing technologies, and I'll tolerate taxation to pay for it. I like how wind turbines look and I'd like to see a lot more of them on Toronto's waterfront.
And I realize that the sort of change we need to effect will come about through adjustments in the domestic sphere. That's why, although we don't see the utility bill for our apartment, we still employ compact fluorescent lightbulbs in every non-dimmer lamp and fixture. We unplug cellphone chargers and the like when not in use. When the weather turns warm we open windows, close blinds, and employ small fans to generate a breeze, not touching the AC until bedtime (and we hate that homes being built now don't have windows that open).
My beef with Earth Hour, the cult of Gore, and climate change hysteria, is that the most fervent believers seem to have in common a hunger for doom & gloom prophesying, which they sex up with a labcoat and call science. I'm not saying that global warming isn't happening. I'm not saying it is. I'm just not happy being preached at about climatology by people who can't explain why it's colder in winter and warmer in summer, just like I never liked priests telling me who and when to fuck.
I've had the luxury of learning a thing or two in my nearly 30 years, and what I've come to understand most of all is when I don't understand something. For example, I don't understand the science of climatology. It's not, as W would have us believe, that "the science is fuzzy". I'm certain that the science is no more or less fuzzy than in any other crowded field. I'm sure there are deep disagreements among scientists who lazy newspaper writers would lump together as being in support of the theory of Global Warming, and very likely there are substantial areas of agreement between labs whose studies suggest that the planet is heating up and those whose work says otherwise. The thing is, I don't understand the myriad aspects of their work so I'm unable to throw my conviction behind one camp.
Money I get. So I expect that I should be charged more for power use during peak times. And that war is inevitable when the world's economy is dependent on a finite and highly localized resource. Sure it's ultimately more complicated than that, but the issue can be boiled down to supply & demand. Not so with climate change. I don't know why when the summer is cooler than usual that Global Warming gets credit, or how Toronto's snowiest winter in decades confirms or denies GW hypotheses. But I do know that salt supplies ran thin in the last few weeks and the budget for snow removal was tapped, so it's probably in the city's best interest to fund more robust public transit so we're not held at the mercy of snowplow schedules when the white stuff comes down. Yes, that would reduce the burning of fossil fuels, but I don't know what that means for the planet. I expect it'll make my city a bit nicer in a number of ways, though.
Earth Hour is a stunt. For 60 minutes on a Saturday evening people will try to live in a way they couldn't sustain for 10 minutes any other time of the week. By 9:01 they'll either be asleep or have the TV back on. Will they have unplugged the VCR they haven't used in a year? Probably not, because weeding out the little bits of waste isn't the point. Earth Hour is all about staggering around in the dark or burning candles or something, and I expect they'll be at my door with pitchforks and torches when they see that we've got the lights on.
I'm not against energy conservation. I'm all for independence from fossil fuels for political and economic reasons. I'd like cleaner air in cities and I'm all for government subsidizing the research and development of energy harnessing technologies, and I'll tolerate taxation to pay for it. I like how wind turbines look and I'd like to see a lot more of them on Toronto's waterfront.
And I realize that the sort of change we need to effect will come about through adjustments in the domestic sphere. That's why, although we don't see the utility bill for our apartment, we still employ compact fluorescent lightbulbs in every non-dimmer lamp and fixture. We unplug cellphone chargers and the like when not in use. When the weather turns warm we open windows, close blinds, and employ small fans to generate a breeze, not touching the AC until bedtime (and we hate that homes being built now don't have windows that open).
My beef with Earth Hour, the cult of Gore, and climate change hysteria, is that the most fervent believers seem to have in common a hunger for doom & gloom prophesying, which they sex up with a labcoat and call science. I'm not saying that global warming isn't happening. I'm not saying it is. I'm just not happy being preached at about climatology by people who can't explain why it's colder in winter and warmer in summer, just like I never liked priests telling me who and when to fuck.
I've had the luxury of learning a thing or two in my nearly 30 years, and what I've come to understand most of all is when I don't understand something. For example, I don't understand the science of climatology. It's not, as W would have us believe, that "the science is fuzzy". I'm certain that the science is no more or less fuzzy than in any other crowded field. I'm sure there are deep disagreements among scientists who lazy newspaper writers would lump together as being in support of the theory of Global Warming, and very likely there are substantial areas of agreement between labs whose studies suggest that the planet is heating up and those whose work says otherwise. The thing is, I don't understand the myriad aspects of their work so I'm unable to throw my conviction behind one camp.
Money I get. So I expect that I should be charged more for power use during peak times. And that war is inevitable when the world's economy is dependent on a finite and highly localized resource. Sure it's ultimately more complicated than that, but the issue can be boiled down to supply & demand. Not so with climate change. I don't know why when the summer is cooler than usual that Global Warming gets credit, or how Toronto's snowiest winter in decades confirms or denies GW hypotheses. But I do know that salt supplies ran thin in the last few weeks and the budget for snow removal was tapped, so it's probably in the city's best interest to fund more robust public transit so we're not held at the mercy of snowplow schedules when the white stuff comes down. Yes, that would reduce the burning of fossil fuels, but I don't know what that means for the planet. I expect it'll make my city a bit nicer in a number of ways, though.
Earth Hour is a stunt. For 60 minutes on a Saturday evening people will try to live in a way they couldn't sustain for 10 minutes any other time of the week. By 9:01 they'll either be asleep or have the TV back on. Will they have unplugged the VCR they haven't used in a year? Probably not, because weeding out the little bits of waste isn't the point. Earth Hour is all about staggering around in the dark or burning candles or something, and I expect they'll be at my door with pitchforks and torches when they see that we've got the lights on.
All my v-neck t-shirts were in the wash and it was too cold to go without anything underneath my shirt (and I don't like doing that anyway) and I really didn't want a white crewneck peeking up into view, so I decided to wear a tie to work.
That was a couple of weeks ago and I've kept it up for the most part. Today I fully intended to forgo the tie, but when I looked in the mirror I thought I looked like I was missing something. So I put on a tie. My knot is the half-windsor; substantial, nearly symmetrical, but less imposing than the windsor.
And you know what? It's working.
That was a couple of weeks ago and I've kept it up for the most part. Today I fully intended to forgo the tie, but when I looked in the mirror I thought I looked like I was missing something. So I put on a tie. My knot is the half-windsor; substantial, nearly symmetrical, but less imposing than the windsor.
And you know what? It's working.
AUGUST 2008
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JULY 2008
MAY 2008