time makes more converts than reason

Little Grassy Island and the two hour paddle

2009-06-29T20:14:00.000-07:00

I haven't written for months so here is a new post. Summer has arrived and I find myself missing winter, what is wrong with me? I actually think that 80 degrees is rather hot and I prefer the afternoon rain that has settled here for the past 6 weeks, blood really does acclimate. I love the unpredictability of the weather and the views that are created by the clouds and light. Two weekends ago I took a camping trip to Little Grassy Island with 3 friends, it is about a two hour paddle from the shore of Jackson lake. The small island is at the base of Mount Moran, and with the snow still on it you could fool anyone to think it is in the Alps. It rained most of the day and all the night, but I have rarely felt more peace and tranquility watching the sheets of rain pour over the lake and through the dark forest against the mountains. This place truly casts a spell at times and I am always amazed to be looking at a scene that is picture perfect and to be completely alone in this vast wilderness. We are so blessed to be here.

Frost

2009-05-12T20:18:00.000-07:00

We are almost out of winter, but spring seems to bring a fair share of it's own snow. One of the most memorable days in winter was the "frost day" - the conditions were perfect to cover the barren trees with a layer of ice and frost and the morning sun was illuminating everything all over town. These shots are some of my favorite taken in Jackson. I found out later that this phenomenon is special to only certain places where it is cold enough to snow "ice"- the flakes are rectangular as opposed to round. We hit it just right to see it- absolutely beautiful.

My life is the extended, uncut version of Office Space

2008-10-25T16:17:00.000-07:00

I am stealing this extended uncut idea from a friend- kudos to her.
For the past 5 years, my life resembles Office Space for many reasons including these:

Most days the most productive thing I do is surf the Internet
I've come to realize that it's not that I'm lazy, it's that I just don't care
Someone just stole my (no joke) red swingline stapler
I say often,...ya, I'm going to have to get back to you on that
A better title for me instead of the highly regarded Assistant, Jackson Campus (were they serious when they came up with this? who has a comma in a title?) would be office grunt or the lowest living life form in the office and consequently must answer phone
I have an on-going case of the Mondays
I've been missing a lot of work lately. Well, I wouldn't exactly say I was missing it.
I generally come in at least 15 minutes late, I use the side door so no one sees me, and after that I sorta space out for about an hour, I just stare at my desk, but it looks like I'm working.
I have come to realize that it is not about me and my dream of doing nothing,... it's about all of us.
Often I do nothing, absolutely nothing, and it was everything I thought it would be.

The hutch-less generation

2008-09-28T19:04:00.000-07:00

I have noticed a trend in my generation, no one has hutches. You know, those old things that keep china you get when you are married – and who even has china anymore? Well, I do. I got it for my wedding 7 years ago and I can honestly say, I have never eaten off it once, not one time. I don’t even know exactly where it is, somewhere at my parents house in Big Bear. So is this just a random observation? I don’t think it is, I think it is saying something about our generation and how we are different from our parents. When our parents got married they settled down, bought houses (who can afford that anymore?) and used things like china, they had “colors.” I was asked so many times what my “colors” were going to be when I got married and to this day I still don’t know, I would call my “colors” and eclectic variety of random dishes and keepsakes that I was able to afford buying and haven’t broken in our 17 moves. I think there is more of a trend in mobility and being transient, a little college here, a little college there, a few years here, a few years there and when you live that way you never really set up house, you just acquire and get rid of furniture as disposable items from IKEA. I know very few people in my generation that have furniture that actually cost something of value and they try to keep nice. I hope to one day eat on my china, but given the chance I to go back I would have not registered for the china but for a trip somewhere exotic and I think most others my age would say the same if asked that question- a shift in priorities (good, bad or indifferent) formed by us and on us by forces in the economy, housing market and the ever increasing ability to be mobile for cheap. So to all my fellow same agers- keep traveling and enjoying being the hutchless generation.

Does it look like I need another phonebook?

2008-06-25T16:16:00.000-07:00

Ok, this is my beef with phone books, around this time of year (who knows why) I start getting phone books, in my mailbox, on my porch, at work, I am practically stepping over them, in fact I almost tripped over one last night due to inadequete lighting on my porch. I see stacks of them at the Post Office..stacks. What is the deal? Did a bunch of people decide to get together and find old, outdated, manual ways of doing business and then kill off all the remaning trees we have left on this planet to clog our poarches and mail boxes with gigantic books that take up space? And who uses phone books anymore, I'm sorry, but I don't...if that makes me a yellowpages.com snob than hand me a crown and I will be queen of the internet searches...let me think, it is faster, you can find what you want in a multitude of ways and it takes up NO space and it is not killing trees (if you are unaware of my feelings about trees please see blog below). So I started a new job and guess what was waiting for me 5, yes 5 phone books! And what is up with not ever being able to find what you are looking for in them anyway, you remember those tabs (also see... blah, blah, blah) it's another way for the phone book publisher to send you on a goose chase to find a simple listing. And what the heck is up with people who keep old phone books!?!? This makes NO sense, I recently moved into a new condo also and what was waiting for me but 4 old, outdated phone books, ya-those are gone. I know..I know, let's start collection, I will have all the phone books lined up in order from 1975 to today along with my old yearbooks and sports illustrateds in the front room, won't that look nice? Uh,....what? I don't know about you, but I agree with Ivan "The Terrible," I don't need another damn phonebook!

2008-04-02T09:09:00.000-07:00

Every year my family makes Casadil; it started with my great great grandmother who made the traditional Italian Easter bread every year and it has been passed down by generation. For the last couple of years I have made it with my Uncle David and Grandma in Palm Springs during the few days before Easter. I think I am comfortable enough with the recipe to try it on my own, we will see how the Wyoming air likes to rise my starter dough!

IronMan Race

2008-04-02T09:05:00.000-07:00

Nick finished his IronMan Race in a little over 6 hours, I am so proud! It was a beautiful day in Oceanside and we had tons of family and friends around to cheer him on :)

So what really is a CSR plan?

2008-01-28T12:18:00.001-08:00

I have read quite a few articles lately on CSR’s, at first I didn’t know what this stood for…Customer Service Representative?, California State Republic?, no it’s the very sad and deceptive topic of Corporate Social Responsibility. The first article I read was in the Harvard Business Review on companies purchasing renewable energy credits as a large piece of their so called and highly popularized “social responsibility.” It is the new hip thing to do…as one article stated in The Economist, “..you don’t want to be the only CEO caught doing nothing for Africa,” when speaking about CSR plans, but back to energy… The U.S. Department of Energy is encouraging the purchase of "Renewable Energy Credits", which has become a lucrative new business where people [or companies] purchase credits claiming to produce "green energy" to supposedly offset the purchaser's use of fossil fuels and other activities which contribute to the production of carbon dioxide. Part of the money from "Renewable Energy Credits" is invested in the construction of huge windmill "plants". Huge windmill "plants" require additional electricity production by reliable coal-fired plants or nuclear plants because the electricity produced by wind is not reliable and cannot be stored. Therefore, huge windmill "plants" do not reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
So back to the HBR article, what did they have to say about this, well, on average companies are paying millions and sometimes billions of dollars to “buy” (and I use that word loosely) these “credits” to help produce renewable energy which will have a much smaller carbon footprint than standard energy usage, but most of the time this money is going into a big black void. If you think about it, who is getting this money and what exactly are they using these billions to buy or produce? The answer is nothing they can prove. The HBR says companies usually have no idea who is really getting this money or what the heck they are using it on…so does this lack of solid information bother the companies who are spending these dollars on it, not really because CSR is a front for good corporate PR, no surprise there. Then came the batch of articles on CSR plans in the most recent edition of The Economist, which mirrors a lot of what the HBR said and basically summed up that until we really have a solid idea of where this money is going, maybe it would be better to spend that money in other ways where you can see a definable result instead of the just the bottom line dwindling, but at least corporations can say they helped the economy right? Or, they can say they spent some money somewhere to someone who said they were going to help with some part of the environment, err…..
See http://www.environmentalleader.com/2006/11/10/whole-foods-sells-wind-energy-credits/for a short piece on Whole Foods and this topic.
So post your comment and let me know if you think I am totally off my rocker… ~L

Wyoming Bound

2008-01-25T08:43:00.000-08:00

We are Wyoming bound! I am so happy to be able to say that :) After 6 years of living in San Diego which I never really enjoyed, we are taking off and going to have an adventure in Wyoming. We are planning on doing a bit of camping- which is why I love the pic to the left and kayaking. I think we will just love being away from the craziness of the city and being in some place so beautiful. We are planning on leaving in May and staying for 6 months to a year depending on how well we take the cold, I hear it is a special kind of cold.

A Whole New Mind

2008-01-24T08:31:00.000-08:00

I just got done with reading this book and really enjoyed it. It basically talks about how we are in the Information Age which is primarily made up of “L-Directed” thinking jobs, which means jobs that require a focus of attention from the left hemisphere of your brain as opposed to the right hemisphere. The left typically controls sequential, logical and analytical thought, as opposed to the right which typically thinks in non liner, intuitive and holistic ways. The author argues that this is about to change as we transition from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age where L-directed jobs will be a thing of the past due to abundance, Asia (outsourcing) and automation. Instead, R-directed thinking and jobs will be the new cornerstone of the market to counteract the three factors above. In order to change our norms and standards of working as a society who is built to act and rewarded by thinking in L-directed ways, we need to improve on 6 factors: design, story, symphony, empathy, play and meaning which stem from the right hemisphere and R-directed thinking. When we utilize these 6 factors we make ourselves unique as a worker because we offer something that can’t be duplicated by a computer or outsourced quickly. This is a great read, full of humor and remarks on interesting studies, pick up a copy – you’ll enjoy it :)

Crittercam- For or Against?

2007-08-08T10:29:00.001-07:00

From the picture to the left you can see the lovely little backpack this lucky penguin gets to haul around so that I can sit in the comfort of home and watch what it would be like to live, eat, hunt, swim in the Arctic as this penguin. The question comes up, is this right to do? The pro argument would say that these critter cams create insights into the worlds of creatures people would not otherwise know and this creates an awareness to conserve and protect these animals which now have faces since we have seen them swim around a bit. The against argument would say that these little cams, though no one who is involved in the them would admit to it, does create a strain on the animals natural life. I think it is a bit harder to hide and swim away from predators with the latest video technology strapped to your back. Also the animals bodies are not use to the (relative to size) huge machine now attached to them. Although the footage is amazing that I have watched, (one video was on an arctic sunset through the view of a seal, now when would I have EVER been able to see that if it wasn't for the seal?) I think that it isn't something that we should really be doing. Or is it doing more good than harm? Check it out for yourself.....http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/crittercam/

Let me know what you think.....

Becoming Jane

2007-08-06T16:02:00.000-07:00

I just went to see Becoming Jane, I am a huge closet Jane Austin fan....never read the books but I have seen all the movies, that's just how I roll. I love the romance of the era, but hate the rules and games that had to be played due to status and rank. This movie was on her real life romance, and it was incredible, right up to the point when as they were running away together to marry she found a letter to her fiance from his mother thanking him for the money he always sent to them to support the family, who depended on him alone. Since he was running away to be married he would lose his inheritance and the family would be in poverty. Jane, not wanting to starve her fiance's family to fulfill her love, leaves him and lives a life alone, until she dies. If I had known that I was signing up for the all depressing hour, I might have thought twice about going. But it is better to have loved and lost than not loved at all, I do agree. All her books end with the heroine getting everything her heart desired, the opposite of her real life. So much pain and long suffering for events entirely out of her control. I admire her for what she did, but somehow think that she gave up too quickly and did not wait for other events to unfold that might have made it all happen. Such a loss. I often think that to live in that time would be so much simpler, something that I am always longing for, but after this movie, I think I'll stay in my century just yet, they had complications too.

Ode to Trees

2007-07-30T14:37:00.000-07:00

I love trees, I mean really love. I feel like when I am standing under one that I am in the presence of God, part of His extravagance. That is why I can't understand these "people" in my neighborhood who constantly cut them down for no reason. I know lets just kill a 40 year old tree so we can get some more sun on this hotter than hell planet, whats 40 years? I know, lets just not have any trees or grass or bushes and just all live on concrete slabs and mark our property lines with chalk, it will be like one big party in a gigantic parking lot. Sounds like fun!!

I am professional at being umemployed

2007-07-30T14:30:00.001-07:00

I have no idea what went wrong in my long stream of terrible jobs, but looking back on the whole thing is some kind of special torture. If it wasn't the economy, hiring freeze or whatever it was some boss that had to be the stupidest person I ever met, then there were the ones who outright repeatedly and methodically manipulated me. So here I am, again, unemployed. I am just about ready to dump the whole "corporate" thing and label it for the horrible abomination it is.