Better Bryan X - update

Well, its the end of April. Spring is here. I'm 34 years old this month. And we are one third of the way through the year. Good god. Anyhow, its a good time to look at how I've been doing on Better Bryan X, and where I need some work. So here goes...

1: Donate or volunteer more often than in 2009
Not too bad. I volunteered on Earth Day (April 21) and have donated some money already. (Success!)
2. Be lessy petty/condesending
This is really a stupid ... j/k. Actually, I think I'm doing well on this one. Compassion and all that.
3. Cut out the sighing at R.
Mission, as they say, accomplished.
4. Keep the house more clean, more often
Uh, I'd say "I'm working on it." R. would probably say "really?"
5. More focus at work
More. Not a lot; but more. If you ignore that I'm doing this during work hours.
6. Spend 15 minutes/week in meditation/silent
If you count the minutes before I nod off at night, then check. If you don't, well, F-.
7. Talk less/listen more
Sure... what was that you said?
8. Stop singing so many bastardized songs, especially to the dog
I was doing so well. Then I wasn't.
9. DLCAMMSM (Not for publication goal)
If only becaus I'm not putting myslf into this situation as much, I suppose. Still, that counts, doesn't it?
10. ERA goal (Not for publication goal)
100% accomplished!

Sprout!

I received the following message in my email this morning:

Your tea tree has sprouted Congratulations! Your tea-tree has been selected & is being raised in an indoor nursery until it is ready to begin its outdoor journey. In the next few weeks we will update you as to its status & provide instructions on how you can help to take care of it along the way.In the mean-time, please enjoy the glimpse of what your Earth Day contribution has done thus far!

Yeah!

I like to think my plant is pictured in the second photo (the lowest picture) and that my plant is the tall one.

I'm not F'n around

Seriously.

I've about had it with asshats trying to run other peoples' lives. Its gotten to the point where I'm kinda bitter.

And, shhhhh, I'm not gonna file my Census form in protest. Oh, I may eventually. But I'm going to prolong it as long as possible.

Like I said, I'm getting bitter.

A nice vacation may be just what I need. Oh, and I think I need to stay off the Libertarian posting boards. Little too much echo, if you catch my drift.

The good news is that I've finally scaled a year-long writer's block. Chalk the delay up to my fear of heights. Chalk it up to being a crappy writer. Chalk it up to laziness. Chalk it up to my habit of never really finishing anything. Heck, chalk it up to the Man in the Sky for all I care.

Tonight I wrote - for the first time really - towards the ending of Falsley Accused. About half way, maybe 30% of the way towards the end of the road that remains. I actually know - for the first time - the "how" of how it will end. Sorta. More like I know the road I'll take, that the road heads East, and that it passes through 3 towns. Where exactly I'll end up, well, that's the exciting part.

Hoping to take the rough draft on vacation with me for review and light editing, notation and rewriting of the crappy parts.

So... the entire thing.

Everybody Draw Mohammad Day

By way of a little back story, Islamic extremists threatened South Park-creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker for using a representation of Mohammed in their cartoon.

So, someone with just my sense of humor, passive-aggressiveness and ideals has named May 20 as "Everybody Draw Mohammad Day" in support of Stone and Parker. Genuis.

I plan on posting a drawing. I'll do this despite the fact that - my former incarnation as a graphic designer for a newspaper not withstanding (Photoshop/FreeHand/Adobe can do wonders) - I'm not a very good artist I'm no Darby Conley.

As a journalist, I kinda feel its my professional duty to the First Amendment. As a human being I kinda feel its my obligation to my fellow man. As a rationale egoist, I kinda feel its my obligation to myself.

I'm all for believing that such an image is against the will of your Man in the Sky. I'm all for forgoing such conduct yourself. I'm all for barring such conduct from fellow followers. Where I draw the line is dictating adherence to such a policy to nonbelievers.

If you don't want to curse the Man in the Sky, fine; but you can't ask someone else to forgo the same.

If I end up in hell, I won't send you a postcard.

I only ask that if you end up in hell, you return the favor.

Life without the Web

This guy here is doing what all of us have probably wondered about but would never really ever be crazy enough to dare to do: Go without the internet.

Not just for a day.

Or a week.

But for more than a month (he's cheating somewhat, in my estimation, but that's a discussion for another time).

Its a well written piece, and if you have the time and the inclination, I suggest you take 10 minutes and read the first piece in the series. As I said, well worth your time.

Anyway, this was originally intended as just a "what I'm interested in RIGHT NOW" post, but it got me thinking. Over the last year or two or three, I've gone from reading large quantities of books, to being a voracious reader of online content. Most of its news. Probably about 55% straight news, actually. Another 20% is political news or analysis.

But the remaining 25%, like the piece discussion above, is only news adjacent. Its more of a feature. Sort of a short story, almost. Or a series of short stories. Is that the result of immersion in the InterTubes? Or is it just a change in reading habits that accompany age and the nature of my life at this point in time?

Good question.

GREEN!

Green. Because it was Earth Day Wednesday.

Yes, I'm a day late. UDATE: Turns out, I'm right on time, actually.

But I have a very good excuse.

You see, I spent my Wednesday hiking through Valley Forge National Park slicing, dicing and chopping through non-native species of plants and vegegation in honor of Earth Day. We get two volunteer days per year, and this was the first of mine. It was a pretty good time. I'm pretty sore today, however.

The coolest thing was julienning the grape vines. They varied in size from walking stick size to the size of moderate-sized tree stumps. But the cool part was that when you cut them, they leaked. And not the thick, gooey sap you might associate with trees. This was clear, quick-flowing liquid. Some of them were like a shower head with the supply turned to on ever so slightly.

We were told that as a survival method, if you are ever lost in the woods (and apparently have a saw) you can drink the liquid. I didn't. Drinking something for survival and for the mere sake of drinking it are two differen things, in my mind.

Anyway, that was my Wednesday. And my other good Earth Day deed. As an added bonus, I direct you to the The Four Things You Should Be Focusing On This Earth Day.

Tea tree for me; tea tree for thee?

So, Adagio has this pretty neat thing going on for Earth Day. You can plant - i.e., reserve space - a tea tree on a tea plantation in one of three locations. An area of China - known for its white teas; and area of India - known for Assam; or an area of Sri Lanka - known for its Oolong.

Click here, Captain Planet, to save the world - one tea tree at a time.

Now, I'm pretty sure the farmer/Adagio would plant the tree anyway. They let you pick the spot in the field you want to plant the tree, but something tells me if you pick a spot way in the far corner and no one picks the ones near you, they aren't just going to forego planting in the rest of the spaces and then go out and tend to your tree standing 200 yards away by itself. My hunch is the whole field is going to be planted anyway - probably with or without you and possibly it already has been.

So, from an Earth Day stand point, its might really be a wash. If the tree is going in the ground anyway, my selection isn't really doing very much. But it seems like it couldn't hurt.

Oh, and you have to digitally care for your tree. Like a Digipet, except its a Digiteatree. I assume that means watering and weeding, probably along the lines of the god forsaken Farmville crap that is on Facebook, but whatever. The actual instructions weren't all that clear. But hey, its not actual weeding and watering, which is kinda hard work, so again, no harm, no foul. Or at the very least, little harm, little foul. Certainly little enough to ignore.

And last but not least: If you ditigally care for your plant to maturity, they will send you four free ounces of tea from your plant.

This last part is just not believable, and is somewhat makes me question the whole program, even if it is for a good cause and blah blah blah. I can believe the tree will be planted. But am I really to believe that a poor/poorish farmer in a little regulated tea plantation in India os going to label my tree and keep track of it and then when it comes time for harvesting seperate my tree's leaves from the others to ensure that I get tea from - again - my tree?

Sure, why not.

Anyway, I planted a tree. Its in India. Its the third plant from the left in the first row in the second field. If you want to know why I chose the third planting spot, you haven't been paying attention. Three. Triangles. Pyramids. Strongest, least likely to tip over? Ringing a bell? Don't get it? Ask in the comments and I'll explain.

A tea tree takes 3 years to reach maturity. Which means in all liklihood I will have long since forgot about digitally nurturing my little tree and foregone the free tea. But I thought it was neat, cool and worth a try.

Would you go back? Or forward?

During a great speech, Michael Specter at TED asks the question. The answer you give might tell me more about you than you really want me to know.

But in a speech well worth your time, he goes further than that. When I've gotten worked up about issues in the past, I've been asked "why worry about what people want to do. Let them make their choice, even if they are silly." Specter gives a great response.

I won't spoil it, you'll have to watch to see the answer.

Happy Birthday!

No, not to me. You're a little late if you are thinking that.

Today (April 13) is personal favorite/hero Thomas Jefferson's birthday.

From whitehouse.gov:

"Freckled and sandy-haired, rather tall and awkward, Jefferson was eloquent as a correspondent, but he was no public speaker. In the Virginia House of Burgesses and the Continental Congress, he contributed his pen rather than his voice to the patriot cause. As the "silent member" of the Congress, Jefferson, at 33, drafted the Declaration of Independence. In years following he labored to make its words a reality in Virginia. Most notably, he wrote a bill establishing religious freedom, enacted in 1786."

Jefferson was a year younger than I am now when he drafted the DoI.

Quote of the day

"The kind of man who wants the government to adopt and enforce his ideas is always the kind of man whose ideas are idiotic."

- H.L. Mencken

My hat, is a very very fine hat

The headline has to be sung to the tune of Our House by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young to sound anything but arrogant.

So, as promised, here's a look at my new hat!

And from a different angle:

Hate it? I don't much care.

Maybe this is more your flavor: I also bought myself a kind of birthday present/necessity item (if you define necessity as the need to have like 100 of an item). A new tea cup.

It was the second one I picked out, after worrying that first one was too feminine. Tea stuff can be so girly sometimes. But this seemed masculine enough. Masculinish, at any rate, I suppose. And I like it; despite the fact that it appears to have, for no discernable reason, a Maple leafesque leaf on it. I'm familiar with tea leaves, and this one would be something I'm not all accustomed to seeing as a tea leaf. Maybe it is and I am just not aware. You can kinda see it above the large "a" on the cup. Its not the single, slender leaf that I usually associate as a tea leaf.

Anyway.

Just thought you should know

So, I was driving to work the other day. It was a normal, every day trip: I proceeded onto the ramp that takes me onto Rt. 422. Now, 422 at rush hour is a bit of a mess. Traffic on 422 itself can be heavy or light. But the ramp is alwasy bumper to bumper as people try to take the 270-degree ramp into the speeding traffic of the road.

It was then that I heard the siren.

Now, the ramp to 422 is pretty isolated, so I had a hunch the siren was coming my way, but a quick check in the old rear-view confirmed - ambulance.

I wasn't sure of the protocal. Do you go toward the inside of the ramp, or the outside? I apparently wasn't the only one, because we split about 75/25, with 75 going outside with me.

I watched the ambulance weave its way through the completely stopped and scattered traffic, pass me, and weave again. Then, on refocusing in front me me, I saw it: The entirity of traffic on 422 had come to a complete stop.

Now, 422 curves at the point I'm talking about, which adds to the traffic nightmare, I think, and made it tough for me figure out just how many cars had stopped. And the wonder of it all shocked me enough that I didn't pay as good attention as I know wish I had.

Still, trust me when I say it was probably 40 cars lined up on 422.

Maybe not all of them wanted to stop. Perhaps some guy 5 cars back was peeved and wanted to still be going 60 but couldn't because the guy in the front stopped. I don't know.

All I know is that, on this particular day, some 50 or 60 cars pulled off of ramps and stopped cold on a highway to allow an ambulance as clear a path as possible.

Next time someone (or you) doubts human nature/kindness, just keep this this in mind.