Topic: Sinatra

In an effort to better know my parents and their generation, and to discover what all the hype is about, I went to the library and got some Sinatra cd’s…and let me say, they’re pretty damn good.  I think I’d kind of like to have a big band at my wedding, and by then I’ll have learned to sing a few of Old Blue Eyes’ favorite tunes.

While at the library, I ran into the mother of a girl I went to school with.  I’d last seen her when I was a kid, and I don’t think I ever spoke to her in my life, but she knew all about me from my mom, and I knew that my mom had run into her.  We chatted a bit, her daughter is a bit altruistic like me, and is strugglign to figure out what to do with that altruism w/out having to live out of a dumpster (which I basically did for some time…sleeping in car washes and such).  She’s now at law school…feeling the pressure there, the same pressure she probably felt at Dartmouth and competing for grades in h.s.  Sigh

So…riots continue in France for a 2nd full week now, for those who haven’t read or saw.  Two Arabs were  killed outside of Paris while fleeing police, which has lead to thousands of frustrated and impovershed French Arabs all over the country, to burn cars and cause all sorts of trouble for the police there.

I’ve been thinking a bit about how we talk to younger people about the world.  How we help create cliches like “I want to help create world peace.”  I was tutoring a young 7-yr. old to read on Mon, and I asked her, “What do you want to do when you grow up…” hoping that maybe she’d have some advice for me!  Her response was, “What job makes a lot of money!”  I paused…not wanting to be falsely idealistic and tell her money isn’t important, because, she’s exactly right to want to be comfortably wealthy as she ages, especially growing up in what I believe was Section 8 subsideized housing.  I end up saying, “Why don’t you become President,” and quickly realized how stupid that was.  Why set unrealistic expectations for a child, especially knowing what I know now about politics.

Thinking further, I decided a good response would be, “be a writer,” especially since we were teaching kids to read.  That would probably encourage them to read more, and writing is certainly a life long skill.  As far as professions go, growing up with the desire to be a writer, and lead to many professions, from an author, journalist, politcal speech writer, teacher, editor, legal writer, grant writer.  It’s something even a 7-yr. old can dream about and begin to pursue, while dreams of being a politician, firefighter, etc. while attainable, are very limited in scope.  How’s that for parental advice!

But back to the issue of “achieving world peace,” I think we promote naiivity in people.  OK…so you want world peace, let me ask, “where is there currently conflict?”  Peace is not an abstract idea, it’s the end of pain and suffering.  But pain and suffering and conflict are almost infinite on this planet…the best we can do is try to calm the pain of major sources of pain and suffering.  Promoting diplomacy over war.  Raising the standard of living for the poor.  Trying to rid the world of unecessary causes of death, such as malaria, AIDS, hunger, lack of clean drinking water, etc. 

The riots in France have been said to be caused by a failure of the French gov’t to adequately integrate the Muslim community into the country.  To allow a culture of racism to evolve.  This is not a problem for a Ms. America to tackle. 

I’ve been thinking a bit also about what I view as political and social issues that are somewhat complex and difficult to understand, but are made cloudier because of their apparent irrelevance to avg. people.  I’ll never forget my skepticism of all things academic.  Free trade, colonialism, cold war, watergae, Valerie Plame.  Just words.  Boring words.  Irrelevant words.  1929…1941…1948…just numbers.  Old numbers, meaningless, outdated.   BORING!!!

So…in the next few months I hope to accomplish two things.  To continue to educate myself further about local, national, and global history, as well as following local, national, and global current events.  While doing that, I hope to find ways to show how these issues are in some way interesting and relevant, and how they might be explained to someone as young as 7 years old.  Because I believe that 7-yr. old is old enough to read about, understand, and try to grapple w/ what is happening in France today.

In other news…Giants, 6-2!!!

I hope many of you recognize these people…Tony Micelli, Angela Bower, Mona, Jonathan Bower, Samantha Micelli…the cast of Whose The Boss!

I was watching the show on UPN this morning while doing my morning eliptical machine thingy…and I remembered how sweet 80′s television is.  Sam wanted to go on a ski trip, but couldn’t afford it. Tony, feeling guilty because the salary of a housekeeper isn’t all that high, decides to sell his autographed 1962 Mets baseball to raise the money…now that takes guts.

One thought that struck me like a ton of feathers (because a ton of anything is going to hurt!), is…man, I’m almost old enough to go out w/ a woman like Angela Bower.  Yeah…she has kids and is in her late 30′s, probably early 40′s, but if she were to look for a younger guy, that younger guy could be me (not that I’m interested in a woman in her 30′s).  But…it’s just strange that all those tv parents I grew up watching, are now people I could sit down and have an adult conversation with, and all those teens like me who I grew up watching, some dreaming about

are now teens I could be leading on a summer trip, or advising them about school and personal issues.  Although the real people have grown up, it’s nice to know that in those shows, we’ll have preseved forever an 80′s teen, and an 80′s parent.  Just as Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Glenn Miller will always be able to share w/ me a good early to mid-20th century tune.

It’s like reliving my childhood, and the childhood of my parents.  Next up…

 

Topic: update

On Fri. I took a day off from work to drive down w/ my parents and one of my sisters to Virginin, for my cousin’s bar mitzvah.  This is a side of the family I don’t see very often because of the distance, but it was a great weekend.  Not only a fun family road trip, but very enlightening about my roots.

The Bar Mitzvah is the Jewish coming of age ceremony, in which a boy (a bat mitzvah is for girls) reads a portion of the Torah, which is a scroll containing the 5 books of the Old Testament.  After reading the Hebrew, they then give a brief explanation about the portion.

This portion was about Noah and the Ark, followed by the story of the Tower of Babble.  My cousin, in his speech about the Tower of B., explained, “The reason we have so many different languages today, is because God was angered by the desendants of Noah who were trying to build a tower into the sky to dethrone God.  He turned their one language into many, so they couldn’t understand each other, hence, the Tower of Babble.”

He continued: “I think communication is very important.  In fact, I think it would be cool if all the people in the world spoke only one language, so we could all communciate together, and so I wouldn’t have to take a foregin language in school.  But then again, we wouldn’t have so many different accents, and translators wouldn’t have jobs.  So I guess it’s ok.”

Bloody brilliant!!!!!

Topic: School

On Thur. I went to go see a speaker on the topic of progressive education.  The speaker was Alfie Kohn, who is considered the leading critic of standardized testing in America, and has written and spoken extensively on topics such as testing, parenting, developmental psych, and several realted topics.

The talk took place at the Calhoun School, located around 83rd st. and the West End.  It was my first time inside a Manhattan NYC school, and the building was beautiful.  The school considers itself to be progressive, which comes from its policy of written evaluations and no grades, as well as a general philosophy and practice of class collaboration vs. individual competition, and learning about topics in an interdisciplanary manner, rather than isolated and unmemorable subjects.

Speaking to just a few parents re-ignited my passion for the subject, as these parents, in their mid-to-late 30′s, we overjoyed w/ how their children were thriving in this school setting.  I’m fortunate to have found out about this event through a friend who I was fortunate to have met at a conference for an AERO (Alternative Education Resource Org) meeting this summer, which was supposed to be the last time I thought about progressive education or the things I had written about the topic, because I had just become so burned out and frustrated by it.  But…one person, Roger, who read my book, fell in love w/ it, and he happens to have several good connections in the NY area. 

For starters, my book is now being used at Ithica College, a course about academic writing.  One section of my book in particular, which highlights the book Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, discusses what college would be like w/ no grades and no degree. “BUT THAT’S WHY WE’RE HERE!”  Wrong.

Roger is also working on a project to faciliate exchanges between mostly wealthy white students who attend private schools, and their counterparts in the public school system.  He has students from the different schools write essays and exchange them to learn how things are different for people in a different situation to their own, but living and attending school almost right next door.  Really interesting project, and there is talk about running an elective at the Fieldston School, an “elite” private school in Da Bronx (Riverdale), about all issues education and college…such as rankings, prestige, gap years, majors, etc.

If you do a goodle search on “College Daze” what you’ll find is a link to Suze Orman’s website YOUNG, FABULOUS, AND BROKE (known as YF&Bers).  Until recently, I didn’t even find her show relevant to me.  But personal finances is an enormous part of life, not meaning you need to be rich, but meaning your ignorance of knowledge of the subject can have a great affect on whether or not you can live the lifestyle you want to live. 

She has a whole blog which, like myself, argues that college is failing to prepare students for the real world.  And in her case, it’s in a very practical way.  Colleges are not ensuring that its paying students are graduating w/ a working knowledge of personal finance.  Recognizing this, some states are adding personal finance to hs curriculums.

Some of the posts people left on her site are interesting.  They talk about the need to learn something useful like personal finance, “instead of something like geography.”  Well…since I’m interested in geography, I’d say, let’s teach both, since they’re both relevant.  When you invest in a home, what’s the #1 lesson? Location, location, location.  Everything can be shown to be relevant in our lives.

On another note…further reading of Thomas Friedman’s book, “The World Is Flat,” has made me more interested in technology than ever before.  In the next few weeks, I will make efforts to read those who are concerned by the effects of globalization, but I think Thomas Friedman does a good job reporting what is going on, and pointing out pros and cons of varoius things.

For example, in discussing the proliferation of technology, he makes note of how it can negatively affect individuals and communities.  People can spend all day on a computer playing games, just as easy as they can spend it soaking up knowledge on wikipedia.  People can spend all day having “lol” conversations with friends, just as easily as then can exchange ideas w/ caring people on Xanga.  People can become isolated and computer dependant, as well as they can strengthen relationships w/ friends abroad through skype, a program that allows you to make phone calls through the internet for free.

And, the reality is, this is the direction things are heading.  So…while I want to be informed about the negative effects of globalization, I don’t want to be a ludite, criticizing technology or waxing nostalgically about “a better time,” when we didn’t have all these gadgets and gizmos.  Instead, I’ll embrace technology, and use it to bring nostagia back into our lives, burning cd’s of old music, reading the history of my roots, etc. 

Of course…I do appreciate time w/out technology.  Winding down the day, I like at least an hour, alone, with a book, and dim lighting.  I like getting together w/ friends and having good conversation.  Just today…while crammed like sardines on the Long Island Railroad, I was treated to an entire conversation between two men in their late 40′s, talking about their old neighborhoods in Da Bronx and Brooklyn, talking about the architecture and design of their homes, talking about local schools.  Simply because the way we do things has changed, does not mean we’ve become any more or less human than in the past.

The people of Argentina are ready to welcome President Bush

Moving to another Spanish speaking country, CNN did an interesting report on Spain, post-Madrid bombings.  They’ve taken an approach to terrorism opporiste that of the U.S.  First,  they pulled troops out of Iraq, which some criticized as “being soft on terrorism,” although I see that viewpoint true only if you believe going to war in Iraq was the “best,” “right” or “one true way” to combat terrorism.  The belief that it takes real cajones and the will to fight a war in order to combat terrorism.

Perhaps Spain doesn’t have the cajones.  Perhaps they are soft.  Perhaps they don’t want to have headlines reading, “2,000th Spanish soldier killed.”  Perhaps they see the clash between radical Islam and the rest of the world not simply as a clash of civilizations, a clash of good vs. evil, but of a clash of a different sort.

I need to explore that further…but, the second approach to terrorism that Spain has taken may reveal a bit of what I think is at the heart of the different responses to terrorism between Spain and the U.S.  They have loosened their borders.  They have welcomed the Arab world, at least, they have made a point to show their country is not anti-Arab, not anti-Islam.  This is a bit of a generality and I need to read more on the issue, but, clearly, the US has embraced “a tone” in which we choose not to understand the Arab / Muslim world.  Our national leaders have not made it clear to us Americans that what we are at war w/ is radical Islam, not Islam itself.  Our national leaders have made us think, “if a country is in the Middle East and the leader is in many ways evil, we should oust them because they might be terrorists.”  They have done nothing to make it clear that we are not simply anti-Arab, and not simply using the tragedy of 9/11 as an excuse to go after oil and settle old political rivalries.

This is important…because Sadam Hussein should have been dealt with.  It’s important because the Pres. of Iran who has made an anacrhonistic (what a word…) call to wipe Israel off the map needs to be dealt with.  But…we need to make it clear that we’re not simply anti-Muslim and anti-Arab.  We need to deal with Mugabe in Zimbabwe and other political leaders who are a threat to their own people and to the security of the world.  We need to make it clear that we’re not just in it to stick our finger in the Middle East for oil.  But…oil talks.  Soon…we might learn that our military presence in the Middle East. is in fact all about oil, as Bush’s facade about the reasons for war slowly gets chipped away at.  Barbara Boxer, Sen. from Cal. was on the Daily Show, and made a point that she was the only senator to oppose the war.  

Now that took cajones…to oppose the war!  That was being strong on terrorism, in the face of 99 Senators and the President.   

Now…almost 3 years later, we’re starting to see the rest of D.C. getting a bit roused that they should have never let this thing start in the first place.

In other news…my office has brought in a new employee, who is a Republican.  I haven’t really spoken to him yet all that much, but he’s certainly intelligent and friendly.  From what I gather…his republicanism comes from a support of right-of-center economic views, or libertarianism.  Which…as I’m learning, I do have some support for.  I think capitalism drives innovation, and despite our country’s flaws, there is much to be said for the strength of our country in creating ideas and technology that are not flourishing in countries that have kept business under state-control.  As my company deals w/ U.S. companies bringing in foreign works for training purposes, there is a reason this is happening in such large numbers.  Foreign countries want to learn how to do business as efficient and productive as it is done in America.  Or…as my co-worker put it, “There’s a reason the lightbulb was invented in New Jersey,” or something to that extent.  But…as many people may already know, we don’t live in a truly capitalistic country of world, and there lies many of the problems.

Also…as I read more about personal finance and retirement, I can sympathize with people not wanting .30cents or more of every dollar being taken away, and given to gov’t programs, both good (public schooling) and bad (military build-up).  I don’t know a single person who looks forward to having money taken out of their paycheck in quite the same way they will feel good about giving money to charity (although most people give to charity with the knowledge that doing so will allow them to keep more of their paycheck from being taxed!) 

While tax laws may be written up in a way that are skewed to favor rich vs. poor, personal finance in general is somewhat politically neutral.  You do what you have to do given the rules in place, to make your money work for you and grow.  Trying to hold onto your money and become rich, I believe is a good thing (especially since many wealthy people will in turn use that money to help the poor and to come up w/ new ways to improve society).  Not sure how this paragraph fits into my bigger picture about pro vs. anti conservative economics…but moving on…

…I do recognize that gov’t programs such as public schooling, socialized health care for the poor and elderly, and other programs designed to maintain some amount of serenity in the face of an economic system that does not always produce calm in our society, are necessary and good.  I believe the gov’t must tax and should tax more as people earn more in order to guarantee those programs that we as a society deem necessary to raise the quality of life for all.  There’s obviously many specific and complicated issues at play here that I am not prepared to discuss at the moment, but right now I just wanted to tackle the general ones.

In other news…saw Movin’ Out last night…phenomenally entertaining.  Ballet never looked so cool.

 

3-0 to the Gunners!!!

Topic: just want to write

I don’t have anything particular to write about, no specirfic commentary to make, but I just am in the mood to write.  Kind of like going to the gym, or going for a walk, or watching tv, it’s just a comforting way for me to kill a bit of time, and to let words just flow through my fingertips…which usually leads to all kinds of topics.

Saw the Colbert Report last night…the guy is hysterical and incredibly friendly.  Very easy to get tix, just go to their website and e-mail…they film at the Daily Show’s old studio “where you can still smell the irony” as Colbert put it. 

Tonight i’m going to see Movin’ Out, which is a Broadway Show putting the tunes of Billy Joel into a story…although I hear it’s a lot of ballet and will I’m not sure the tunes will be exactly as Billy used to sing ‘em, but still, an experience to be had.

Tom. might see Alfie Kohn speak again at the Calhoun School, a private school on the upper west side of Manhattan.  Never been inside a city school, so that should put a picture to the many things I’ve read about.

Arsenal play Prague today…a chance to go 4-0 in Champions League play and secure themselves a spot in the final 16.

If the weather stays nice…my kayaking season might be revived for a day, this Sun.  What a treat that would be.

Been reading up on retirement accounts, which has just been good learning, but also good to make life a bit more real and exciting.  I will likely open a Roth IRA soon, which is best for tax purposes, and I can’t touch the money till I’m 59 1/2, 35yrs. from now, 2040.  What the hell will the world look like when I’m finally able to draw on my retirement funds?  Will we still be dealing w/ Islamic extremists?  Will we have made any progress on 3rd world poverty and disease?  Will my teams, the Mets, Rangers, Knicks, and Giants, have won several titles? 

There was a question on an “investment calcluator” that asked you to approximate how many years you plan to live.  Creepy!!!  But real…god willing (I’m not religious, but I guess there’s no athiests in foxholes, unless you can come up w/ a better expression), I’ll live into tripple digits, and still be physically and mentally strong.  But…all we get are years, really.  X # of years…no matter how smart, strong, famous, idealistic, good, and friendly you are (or…how much of a trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, curtious, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent Boy Scout you are).

But…while depressing, it’s not something worth dwelling on for very long.  It’s worth reflecting occassionally on the short period of time we have, but only in order to help us maximize that time, to live our lives so that we don’t need to fear death (read Tuesday’s With Morrie by Mitch Albom for a short well-written book on the subject).

In one day…you can make an incredible bond w/ a stranger.  A few weeks or months can change a relationship between people.  In under a year you can find your life completely change directions, to a new major, school, location, job, friends, etc.  A short period of time can produce new and healthy habits, eating smarter, being physically active, taking care of your body to increase the potential for long and healthy living.

New Year’s resolutions start today…with the making of lists, long and short-term goals.  General and specific goals.  General life goals, spiritual / existential goals, lifestyle goals, and personal achievement goals. 

Well…i guess my writing has led me down the usual route of optimistic and youthful energy, along with big-picture seriousness.  Need something lighter…

OK…I’ll end with this…click on the link, pretty cool.

-dan

Topic: Bubbling w/ energy

I want to dig up pictures and make this post creative…but my energy is racing and there’s much I want to read…so don’t have the time right now.

Sat. – went to the Breeder’s Cup, watched my first horse races in the bitter cold.  A great experience, picked the winner in the first race, lost the next three (I was betting $1 each race).  Went home to watch the rest because it was so damn cold.

Sat. night – an evening of wine, friends, music, comedy, talking politics and history.

Sun. – went for a 4-5 mile run…felt good.  Watched the Giants dominate the Washington Redskins 36-0.  Threw the football around.  Nice dinner w/ the family.  Assorted reading.

Mon. – That’s today…happy halloween.  My costume?

I’m wearing a suit…w/ a clown tie and clown hair.  I’m a “corporate clown!”

Lunch – met up w/ a friend from h.s. for lunch who I haven’t seen in too long really.  It was about 65 degrees and beautiful in NYC today.  Then…got asked to deliver something all the way over on 2nd ave (I work on 6th), so I spent the next hour walking over to an Armenian Church which my company is renting some space from for a conference…probably my first time speaking w/ an Armenian.  What fun!

Job – I’ve promoted myself…well, what I mean is I’ve essentially figured out enough about what my company does to find a way to give myself more job responsibility.  I’m having lunch w/ someone at Baruch college this week to learn the ins & outs of how we help people get work abroad!!!  I want to soak up as much of it as I can.

Volunteering – I’m planning to volunteer starting next week hopefully, reading to kids at homeless shelters.  I’m going through an org. called Makor, which is a Jewish org. as I’d rather meet a Jewish girl in a natural setting where there’s a natural screening process (if I meet a girl volunteering, that’s likely to lead to a successful relationship more than meeting a drunk girl at a party…not that I’ve been to a party since college!)

Staying current – I’ll be honest…this has been the cure to my mental well-being recently.  Staying current.  Staying current with the news, sports, happenings w/ friends and family.  And this has been the most fun, and the most work.  So…I’ve been reading like crazy the news, then using wikipedia to fill in my gaps in knowledge. 

Dream – my dream now is to have a college year again.  A year where my #1 responsibility is to learn.  Instead of 9-5 or 10-6, I could spend all those hours reading and talking to people about various topics.  But…a lot of my job allows me to learn, so I feel somewhat like I’m experiencing a heightened sense of intellectual growth that I wasn’t ready for at Wash U.

Wash U. – I’m in the end stages of making complete peace w/ my past.  I understand now that for me…Wash U. was not the best place for me at the time, but it was still a good place.  And…while it wasn’t best for me at the time, I think it did planst seeds in me that are now starting to grow.  I now have many friends as resources, and the exposure to various things I had at that school, I’m now starting to understand.  The books I never really read, are now turning into gold for me.

And the book I wrote about the experience…the bitterness from it has all faded, but at least one seed might be able to grow.  One book has landed in the hands of a college professor who I’ve been told is using his book in his class. 

Tonight…going to see Madeski Martin & Wood, jazz/funk.
Tom…Colbert Report
Wed…Movin’ Out (Billy Joel made into a Broadway show)
Thur…might go see Alfie Kohn speak again, the country’s leading critic of standardized testing
Fri…cousin’s bar mitzvah in Va.

1st up…good beer, music, and Halloween cheer.  Be well everyone.

Topic: music, movies, life, culture, work, play,

Many thanks to my friend Greg B. for “entroducing” me w/ this cd…my first taste of “trip-hop.”  I’ve never been much into aggressive sounding music, rap, punk, etc., but this is actually one chill-cd.  Music reminds me a bit of being in a game of Zelda or some other fantasy-type video game.  Thumbs way up my friend!

Had a good experience at work today…girl from Penn St. called looking for info about going abroad.  Fortuantely…she just started talking before I went to the usual “here’s who to contact routine.”  It was great to hear the passion in this girl’s voice for wanting to go back abroad.  She had studied in London and fell in love w/ Spain when she was there, going almost every weekend she could.  Now that she’s approaching graduation in Dec. she’s been doing all sorts of research into programs.  Her career center and study abraod office were of no help to her (hmmm…sounds familiar), and even the other orgs. similar to mine weren’t of much help, and many charge an arm and a leg for the privilage, NO, the right, NO, the responsibility to go abroad!!!

So…after chatting for a while, this girl says, “Dan…you should get a raise!”  Yeah…you work for moments like those…and I realize that in time I will be able to handle more of the responsibility (and privilage) of assisting people looking to go abroad!

In the news today…the Pres. of Iran was calling for the complete anhilation of Israel.  I’m still a few pieces of history away (more than a few) from giving an opinion, but radical Islam is starting to scare me a bit.  I guess it’s the whole ignorance is bliss thing…now, the more I read, the more I have reason to fear what these people want to do.  There is a movie out…(i’ll find the name soon) about Palestinian suicide bombers, that attempts to humanize them…not to justify what they do, but to give some more to the picture.  I’m looking forward to watching it when it comes out. 

I’m beginning to sort out my Jewish identity a bit.  I think it’s important for me because it’s important to my family, and I also think it’s just good to know what it’s all about.  In that sense…I hope to learn more about the identity of Muslims, Christians, and various other faiths and cultures.  I don’t want to become obsessed w/ anti-Semitism because I’m Jewish, but because I oppose racism of all kinds.  I don’t want to look at Jewish issues and fail to see them in the context of the world at large.  For example…while Israel is certainly threatened by those who support radical Islam, including groups with the term “holy war” in their name (Islamic Jihad), one should not ignore that radical Islam also struck in Thailand yesturday, that radical Islam struck the melting pot of NYC on 9/11, that radical Islam has been driving Christian Sudanese into Ethiopia for years, that radical Islam is responsible for the two bombings in Bali…the list goes on. 

And I think it’s important not to equate radical Islam w/ Islam in general.  Or with the Arab world in general.  Just as those who oppose U.S. foreign policy should not equate that hatred for our gov’t with hatred for U.S. the people.

In other news…I am officially excited for the next 3 years of my life.  I am 24 now.  I’m officially in my mid-20′s.  The summer of ’06 I will be 25, and the summer of ’07 I will be 26.  Once I turn 27…I’ll be on the verge of my late 20′s. 

I say all this to put my life in perspective a bit.  I’m sure most of us have forgotten how old we are, and that’s ok.  I hope to keep feeling like I’m 18 or 19, but I want to also keep reality in perspective.  I’ll be 24 years old, and living in NY for another 9mos. or so, and they’re going to be a memorable 9 mos. or so.  I’m going to meet some new people, do some new things, learn a lot, and prepare for year 25.

Year 25 will be spent abroad…that’s pretty vague now, but it’ll naturally be exciting.

Year 26 is up in the air…but i’ll be confidant by then, smarter, know more people, and be more skilled.

By the time I’m in my late 20′s, at 27…I should be moving a bit more into something…but that’s 3 years away, which is a lifetime in reality, and when I reach that stage of my life, I’ll be ready for the new pressures that come w/ being at that age….which will involve setting new goals as I enter my 30′s…fortunately, I think you only need to tackle 3 years at a time. 

I think school gets you thinking more about what grade you’re in.  “I’m in high school”  “I’m in college”  Suddently…you’re 22, and you don’t know what you are, or where you’re heading…but you’re always heading towards a new age for yourself.  You don’t need to be where “people your age are supposed to be.”  It still seems weird to me for people in my age range, the mid-20′s to be getting married…but that’s because I’m several years away from that stage of my life.  Same thing goes for job and finances.  The important thing is not to compare…but to assess yourself, where are you at now, and where do you want to go.

I now carry in my wallet several lists.  My 6mo. goals, my shorter term goals, and my more details weekly goals.  Recently…I also put together my 2 year goals, which are very vague, and deal more w/ gernearlities and the state of mind I want to be in…which I will be amending because I think it’s important to have specific goals in mind. 

Not just “climb mountains,” but “Climb Mt. McKinley”
Not just “find a job I like,” but, “find a job where I’m helping people have wonderful adventures”
Not just “find a girl,” but, find a girl who I can’t stop looking at because she’s so damn beautiful, and can’t stop listening to because she’s so damn interesting, and can’t stop talking to because she’s so damn easy to talk to and laugh with.

“Hey there world…YOU SHALL KNOW MY VELOCITY!!!”

Topic: A PERFECT PLAN

So…for 24 years now, I’ve driven by one of the premier race tracks in America.  After catching an ad on the NY channel this morning, I decided it might just be time for me to take part in the history of this race track.  What I’m referring to is this weekends Breeder’s Cup Championship horse race at Belmont Stakes.  Only a $10 admission…($10 to park), a few dollars on bets and Guinness, and you’ve got yourself a potentially memorable afternoon.

 

Watched Citizen Kane last night…trying to catch up on the classic movies from the 40′s era.  I must say I really enjoyed it, good story, great acting, might even need to see it a second time before I return it.  And now I can identify w/ some of those classic movie posters you sometimes see.

More to come…stand by

 

Topic: tear

I just finished writing an amaizng post…and it all vanished. In an instant.  I don’t have the time to re-write it, as it was largely about the topic of time management,

and i have little time to waste.  I want to quickly hit on the highlights though:

1) I began writing about the need to set long-term goals.  After setting a long-term goals at 6mo. goals, we must then use our 24hr. days efficiently in order to add up to our 6mo. goals.  For me, some of those goals include increased fitness, reading more books, keeping up w/ the daily events of the world, spending more time w/ friends and family, securing future plans, and all of this while maintaing a sense of calm.  On an Outward Bound course, I learned quickly the importance of managing time in order to get to a site and set-up camp in the daylight.  Now…I need to manage my time so I can read all the news, have time in the morning for breakfast, to work-out, to have some social time w/ friends and family in the evening, and time to unwind alone before falling asleep.  Lots to do.

2) I then got onto the topic of Wikipedia…the online encyclopedia where there is 0 barrier to entry.  Anyone can share and edit the content.  Thomas Friedman writes about its founder Jimmy Wales:

“He said he has one simple goal: to give every single person free access to the sum of all human knowledge.”

Beautiful!!!

In the morning, I read in the NYT about bankruptcy law, briefly talk about the relationships between banks, credit cards, products, and people w/ my dad, then can use wikipedia to read more about it, and learn about the banking system, the federal reserve and its history, the Great Depression, films relating to the Great Depression, Tim Robbins and his left-leaning political films like Bob Roberts, and then go on to rent it immediately through Netflix.  So many things…tying together

 (sheepshank…used for tying to ropes together)

4) Outsourcing my social life:

In the spirit of building community, and in the spirit of embracing a flattened world where simple tasks can be outsourced to others to maximize efficiency, I would like to outsource a piece of my social life.  If anyone has any ideas for activities, gatherings, speakers, cultural events, in the NYC, Brooklyn, Queens area, for this weekend, any coming weekend, or any weeknight, please let me know.  In return for your service, I will continue to provide this service to you free of charge, and will also make attempts to leave comments on your site as well.

I’ve decided that this digital age does not have to leave us feeling nostalgic for a simpler time.  Nor do we need to cry that it’s dumbing us down and isolating us from real people and real communication.  What we make of this digital age is up to us.  In this spirit, I hope to make this digital community, the nostalgic quaint community we all long for.

Topic: My new site

I’ve decided to enhance my posts w/ images:

Someone asked me why…i don’t quite know why.  I think my site was getting dull, and I want to start increasing my readers again.  Besides using my site as a form of personal expression, I want it to be a community of ideas…not theoretical ideas like “how to change education,” that’s how this site began.  I’m thinking much smaller…ideas like, who has a good idea for a daytime snack?

For me…GORP (good ol’ raisins and peanuts) helps get me through the day.

Anyways…enough about that.  What’s new?  I’m starting to pay attention to technology and finance, two things I’ve kind of allowed to go over my head for too long.  For most of my life, a computer was a computer, a car was a car, a dollar was a dollar. 

Now that I have a job, and I’m making some money (not a lot, but more consistantly than I was making as a panhandler…where my only business came from mom and dad).  And, so I’m beginning to think, money is awesome!  Money provides a sense of security.  Money actually does achieve many things that you’d have to be an idealist hippy to ignore.

All things being equal, an increase in your personal finances is an important thing and can improve your life…now let me tell you, this is certainly the first time I’ve ever felt inspired enough to support the pursuit of wealth…but, let me remind everyone, that wealth is good, with “all things being equal.”  By this I mean keeping all the other priorities in your list just as high.  All I’m doing is adding one more variable to the other things one should value in life…

So…what do I think about money?  The first thing, is that I want to have money so I can buy new technology like a laptop, a touring bicycle, a kayak, and…my newest addition and still figuring it out, would be a a flight to Bueno Aires.

I also want money so I can have peace of mind as I grow older.

So I don’t have to worry about unexpected medical costs.  So I can raise a family.  So I can one day afford a place to house this family.  And…so I can afford a lifestyle in which I can work a job in the field that I love (adventure, tourism, education, cultural studies…) without feeling like I’d be better off doing something of less interest to me (financial planning, corporate lawyer, professional assassin).  It’s all a lifestyle thing…really.

So…now I need to figure out how to make my money grow. 

Which means starting to pay attention to these sorts of things…

Now…I don’t want financial matters to be the focus of my life, but…remember, we’re not idealist hippy guy anymore.  We need to start getting serious about our finances, because it’s not just the case that “time = money,” but it’s also true that “money=time.”  I don’t know why I’m really trying to tackle this…but it’s a topic that’s on my mind right now.

I think being a hippy idealist has skewed me from having a more objective undersanding of the business world.  It’s only by embracing the capitalist and digital world I inhabit, that I’m able to see the different forces at play.  I now look forward to asking the customer service agents where they’re from (I called Orbitz today to cancel flights due to hurricane Wilma…and the agent was from Mauritius…)

So…I’m learning to like money.  I’m also learning to like technology.  Blogging…what an amazing resource!!!  I’ve befriended someone who now lives in NYC through the aid of xanga, i can get advice on books to read, and how to prepare for running a marathon.  I sort of see blogging as the 21st century version of having a pen-pal.

As I wrote in my last post…there’s probably some nostalgia for the old way of writing letters…and nobody is saying we can’t still do that.  But the world wide web allows us to connect to people in the world in ways that can enhance our quality of life like never before.  It is my hope to get a computer w/ a camera and find a program (i know it’s out there…just need to dig), that will allow me to finally move beyond the shallow nature of instant messenger, so I can have a face-to-face telephone conversation through the internet w/ my friends from London, Israel, S. Africa, and Australia…likely for cheaper than w/ my cell phone.  That to me is the beauty of the digital age.

One last point…while it’s easy and reasonable to criticize society at large, to criticize the mass media for dumbing us down, to point to mass advertising as turning us all into mindless consuming zombies, to point to an image of a child in front of a video game system and cry how we’re being dumbed down and isolated from people, to read about parents trying to limit children’s IM time…I believe that we too often generalize the ills of our time, and it is up to us as individuals to decide how we shall live. 

If this post leaves you feeling confused..that’s ok.  my thoughts weren’t all organized on this one.  but…i enjoyed trying to put it together for your amusement.

 

 

Good morning everyone

Well, the work-week is winding its way on down.  Last night was pizza night, I’ve had pizza every Thursday since I was a little kid, and nothing beats N.Y. pizza.  Even when I was in school in St. Louis, I’d go to the one decent pizza place, Racanelli’s, which served New York style pizza at its best!

My oldest sister had some friends over…was a pretty good time.  She has become quite religious in the last few years, Judaism becoming more and more and important piece of her life.  I have relatives who are on varoius spectrums of orthodox Judaism

Not quite black hat…although closer to that end of the specturm than me, for sure.  I’m more in it for the food, the holidays, and the summer camp experience…

which is probably what has influenced me most in my interest in foreign countries.

And speaking of the global world and I-pods…Thomas Friedman had an article about just that thing in today’s NYT (which can’t be accessed online because they just made it a “special feature” for certain articles).

I’m currently reading his book, “The World is Flat.”  His main argument is that the world is entering a new phase in which virtually any job can be done in any corner of the globe.  Global economics has become one giant interchangable part, where anything from service jobs, to intellectual jobs like research and development, can be done anywhere (but will be done wherever it’s cheapest and most efficient).

He gives some interesting examples of this.  Some are well-known, such as call-centers in India.

When you have a problem w/ your computer, the person you speak to might be someone in India, who can answer all your questions, and do it w/ an American accent (they actually have accent training for these people). 

Another example he gives does not involve jobs going oversees.  McDonald’s now has drivethroughs in places like Missouri where the person taking your order is actually in Colorado. 

JetBlue reservations are done by mormon mothers in Utah, who work out of their homes.  These things save costs, and in some ways, improve efficiency.  The person taking the drive-through order has a picture of the driver and sends that picture and the order to the food-line to ensure the order is taken right.  The mormon mothers taking your flight reservation are happy and chipper because they can both stay at home to take care of the kids, and bring income into the home.

Just think…20 years ago there were no cell phones, no internet, no websites, no e-bay.  Technology is just going to continue to get better and better, which can be argued to be both a good

It helps this guy build his global terror network

And it helps these people help us so we can live longer and stronger

There a question I want to pose about technology, and economics.  Friedman argues that this form of capitalism, creates a lot of wealth that is distributed unevenly.  The alternative form of economy that puts clamps on parts of the economy makes everyone equally “poor.”  What do you make of his analysis?

Another thing I’ve been thinking a lot about is foreigners and work (since that what my job involves).  The cleaning lady in my office is from Guyana, in S. America, the man who delivers my DHL is from Guinea, in W. Africa. 

They have most likely come to America for freedom.  Freedom from domestic war, from domestive poverty, and the freedom to imagine and actually obtain a life (a materialistic life?) that could not be obtained in their home countries.  So, they leave their pastures behind in hope of something better in the big citty.

Many Americans have never had to worry about the problems that one might face in Guyana or Guinea, but we certainly have a wide range of opinions about these foreigners.  Some are purely racist and xenophobic.  Some see them as out of place, because of their failure to fit in w/ language, dress, attitude, etc. This morning I saw an Asian man on an old bicycle and I thought he looked out of place because it looked as if he “belonged,” in a more rural, old-world setting.

BELONGED.  Where do people belong?  What kind of work to people belong in?  My emotions in S. Africa seeing black S. Africans working in fast-food saddened me.  “They didn’t belong in this kind of lifestyle,” is what I thought.

That’s because I saw how many of these people used to live, meaning their parents or grandparents.  In the eastern part of S. Africa, I saw how they still live today:

What I saw was tradition.  What I saw was nostalgia for a simpler way of life.  And…I think it’s beginning to dawn on me…that change is inevitable.  Just as my parents, their parents, and their parents parents lived in a world far different than the one I live in, and may have resisted watching things change or frown upon the life of me and my generation, the reality is that change happened.  Change is inevitable. 

For those Africans, working in fast food means big money.  This means the ability to one day go to college, which for many is an essential stepping stone to many jobs, higher salaries, and the opportunity to live w/out the fears the poverty breeds.  I cannot argue that this track leads to a better lifestyle, that is up to the individual to pursue and decide as quality of life judgements are subjective in every way, however, this track for many does mean not having to worry about food, doctor’s visits and medication, and also allows for people to become more politically involved.

How sad…to have all those people from India working for $200/mo. in call centers.  Right?  For some…the work is bearable, and the ends for the means is more than worth it.  In what ways do you think this global economy is good, in what ways harmful to the general well-being of humanity?