In the sanctuary of shower flow, I walk into the river of my brain. I net a gleaming thought, yet stand flummoxed by the tantalizing school that swam by. On my wish list: a brain freeze to overturn Heraclitus.
[thanks to editorial suggestion by my Sweetie.]
After watching T. Boone Pickens on The Daily Show last night, I would like to learn more about the Pickens energy plan. From what I can gather watching the interview, Pickens wants the U.S. to shift to consuming natural gas produced in the United States, which he says is owned in great supply by the US. Pickens argued that electric hybrid technology is a good thing for passenger cars, but inadequate for large trucks. Does his plan make sense? What are the greenhouse gas implications of his plan?
One way in which I knew Laura and I were in Toronto last weekend is the presence of poppies to commemorate Remembrance Day. I wanted to get my hands on a poppy to take back to the States, where wearing poppies is very uncommon. (Photo by Alana Elliott)
While we don our scarves, trees reduce to their essential lines. Not first without that striptease of rainbow reds and yellows, transubstantiated from the memory of living green.
I spent this morning volunteering to make “get the vote out” phone calls for the Obama campaign. Laura and I are living in Pittsburgh, PA this fall, so we feel the tension and excitement of being in a battleground state, something I didn’t get all those years in California. I will admit to being nervous about making political phone calls — even though I have spent years making phone calls for a (non-political) good cause. It made a big difference though to show up at the home of an Obama supporter where I was trained and where I drew encouragement from my fellow callers. I wish I had managed to work up the courage to participate in phone banking earlier but it’s important to take those little steps.
During the summer Olympics I got hooked on the song Beijing Welcomes You. See one of several YouTube versions: YouTube - 2008 Beijing Olympics, Beijing Welcomes You [High Quality MV English Sub Pinyin Sub:
I’ve been in playing it often, trying to learn the lyrics, even though my Mandarin is extremely basic. Tears off until my sentimental eyes when I listen to the song; I find it hard to believe how it taps into some deep, not fully understood, ties I have to China, even as a Chinese-Canadian living in the USA.
Some other references to the song on the web are:
Although I always suspected that I was a political junkie, I only had unmistakable confirmation of my obsession these last couple weeks. Laura knows how much like to talk about politics. One of the fascinating aspects about political culture is that everyone seems to have an opinion, whether it is well-founded or not. I also have opinions, some of which are based on deep thinking and care for the reality of the world — and others that are probably just unexamined prejudices. I do tend to be reticent about expressing my opinions about things that I’ve not through very carefully. Overall, I’m pleased with my disposition towards careful, thoughtful expression.
The downside though is that you can learn a lot by actually just saying what you believe, without worrying primarily about whether you have all the facts and reasoning straighten out. I find it difficult to say what I feel in my gut to be true if I haven’t had a chance to carefully think everything through. The problem is that some matters are so complicated that it’s difficult, if not impossible, to reason everything through Before saying anything at all. The end result would be confused silence.
The upshot of this musing: make a prediction on something relatively minor and then to see how my prediction bears out. OK — I’m pretty keen to watch tonight’s vice presidential debate, wondering how it will affect public perception of Obama/Biden vs. McCain/Palin. Let me guess what will happen:
This is what I think will happen, though I’m far from confident that I’ll be correct. I may have to eat my words! I’m struck by how much my expectations for this debate — and my whole framing — have been strongly influenced by media coverage and analysis. The interesting thing for me will be to compare the predictions with what actually happens and analyze where and how I predicted correctly and where I didn’t. (The outcome of tonight’s debate isn’t necessarily the most important thing for me to be pondering today but it was the first thing I reached for as the subject of my amateur punditry.) I hope that this process of making predictions and seeing how I do will help me become a more insightful — and humble — analyst of the world.
P.S. I’ll have to compare my views with something like Cue The Comeback:
Deciding which of the candidates running for president of the USA must surely be one of the most important decisions as an American citizen can make this fall. As a Canadian living in the US as a permanent resident, I don’t have the vote. However, I would urge anyone reading this blog who can vote to vote for Barack Obama in November. I won’t attempt to make an argument today for why you should vote for Obama. Instead, I’ll simply express my support for Obama and follow my friend Lloyd’s lead by embedding one of Obama’s latest political ads (”Plan for Change“):
Lloyd quotes the text of the speech, which you can find in many places, including an analysis of the speech in the NY Times today, which concluded that the ad “is substantive, providing a simple, easy-to-follow outline of Mr. Obama’s campaign promises, but its length and monotonous visuals could lose the viewer’s attention.”
One of the first pieces of official business for me upon relocating to Pittsburgh this fall was to obtain a library card. I’ve been very happy with the Squirrel Hill branch of our public library (the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh). It’s not a large building, and there are not a lot of books at the branch — but the selection and decor are winning. Moreover, the reading chairs provide a nice view of Forbes Avenue while you immerse yourself in your book or magazine.
The talk I gave recently at the Library of Congress on web 2.0 mashups might be of interest to you all. The recording of the talk is available now from the LC site:
http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=4346
I tried not to be to be too technical while working in some technical details on the side for those in audience who wanted to know more.
