sábado, 30 de marzo de 2013
viernes, 22 de marzo de 2013
Wrapping up. Again.
It's the end of another season here at the ranch. Guests left yesterday, all the cabins are closed down, and the bulk of the staff will leave today or tomorrow. Good-byes and transitions always feel odd, no matter how much I think I might get used to them.
There's also a sense of closure and completion in seasonal work that I like. The winds of change blow every 3-6 months max. It's inevitable. I like the flow of different energies across seasons.
That said, this round of closing down and good byes has me thinking about a note I wrote to myself last August 4th as my friend Evan left the ranch.
"8.4 Evan just left. I just realized that I'm a little too tenderhearted to work in seasonal positions for the long term. It's much easier to be the one leaving, but it's maybe better to not say good bye to such good people every few months. It's okay for now, but it's too hard for me to be sustainable. Every time good bye feels equally devastating. Too bad. I like to fancy myself a nomadic soul."
There's also a sense of closure and completion in seasonal work that I like. The winds of change blow every 3-6 months max. It's inevitable. I like the flow of different energies across seasons.
That said, this round of closing down and good byes has me thinking about a note I wrote to myself last August 4th as my friend Evan left the ranch.
"8.4 Evan just left. I just realized that I'm a little too tenderhearted to work in seasonal positions for the long term. It's much easier to be the one leaving, but it's maybe better to not say good bye to such good people every few months. It's okay for now, but it's too hard for me to be sustainable. Every time good bye feels equally devastating. Too bad. I like to fancy myself a nomadic soul."
lunes, 18 de marzo de 2013
martes, 12 de marzo de 2013
Well-being month
I had planned to continue with my 30-day goals by having a well-being month, completely one "well-being" oriented task a day plus oil pulling daily. I've been more consistent with oil pulling than thinking of a "well-being" task.
The days I have followed through on a "well-being" task, I've been struck by the length of well-being product names. It seems like the more plant names, adjectives, and qualifiers you can stick before the name of the product, the more "natural," "detoxing," "cleansing," and even "enlightened" it will make you feel.
Some days I've stretched or skied or taken a bath, but experimenting with different health and cosmetic products has definitely been a part of it all. Another day, I read clips of Nature's Medicine: Plants that Heal, a book by National Geographic.
Here's an incomplete list of what I've been playing with:
Nordic Naturals Omega-3 Purified Fish Oil supplements (Great lemon taste!)
Organic India's Tulsi Chai Masala Tea
Triple Leaf Detox Tea (Cleansing and Revitalizing)
Kombucha: High country and GD Synergy Brands.
- High Country Elderberry Hibiscus
- GT's "Enlightened Synergy" Kombucha: Guava Goddess, Raspberry Chia, Black Chia, Gingerberry
Facial exfoliating brush from $1 store
Dr. Woods Daily Exfoliating Facial Cleanser
Nature's Gate Avocado night cream and Grape Seed eye cream
Mary Kay "Satin Hands and Body" 4 step hand treatment
Hand night cream plus gloves to sleep
Oil pulling with Now Healthy Foods Certified Organic Virgin Coconut Oil - Cold Pressed and Unrefined
Evamor Natural Artesian Water - rare alkaline source; 64 fl oz of pH 8.8 water
Planetary Herbals "Ginseng Revitalizer" supplements
Aveeda Rosemary Mint Moisturizer
Himalaya LiverCare Herbal Supplement
Dermae Natural Bodycare Microdermabrasion Scrub Exfoliant
The days I have followed through on a "well-being" task, I've been struck by the length of well-being product names. It seems like the more plant names, adjectives, and qualifiers you can stick before the name of the product, the more "natural," "detoxing," "cleansing," and even "enlightened" it will make you feel.
Some days I've stretched or skied or taken a bath, but experimenting with different health and cosmetic products has definitely been a part of it all. Another day, I read clips of Nature's Medicine: Plants that Heal, a book by National Geographic.
Here's an incomplete list of what I've been playing with:
Nordic Naturals Omega-3 Purified Fish Oil supplements (Great lemon taste!)
Organic India's Tulsi Chai Masala Tea
Triple Leaf Detox Tea (Cleansing and Revitalizing)
Kombucha: High country and GD Synergy Brands.
- High Country Elderberry Hibiscus
- GT's "Enlightened Synergy" Kombucha: Guava Goddess, Raspberry Chia, Black Chia, Gingerberry
Facial exfoliating brush from $1 store
Dr. Woods Daily Exfoliating Facial Cleanser
Nature's Gate Avocado night cream and Grape Seed eye cream
Mary Kay "Satin Hands and Body" 4 step hand treatment
Hand night cream plus gloves to sleep
Oil pulling with Now Healthy Foods Certified Organic Virgin Coconut Oil - Cold Pressed and Unrefined
Evamor Natural Artesian Water - rare alkaline source; 64 fl oz of pH 8.8 water
Planetary Herbals "Ginseng Revitalizer" supplements
Aveeda Rosemary Mint Moisturizer
Himalaya LiverCare Herbal Supplement
Dermae Natural Bodycare Microdermabrasion Scrub Exfoliant
viernes, 1 de marzo de 2013
miércoles, 27 de febrero de 2013
Clips from Blink
I've just finished my third Malcom Gladwell book of the month. The Tipping Point was my favorite, followed by Blink, and then Outliers. After my Plato phase last summer, these books were refreshing, quick reads that blend sociology and statistics into a compelling narrative.
Here are few clips I particularly liked. Hope you do, too.
Summing it up in a sentence
"We have come to confuse information with understanding" p264
On Improv
"One of the most important of the rules that make improv possible, for example, is the idea of agreement, the notion that a very simple way to create a story - or humor - is to have characters accept everything that happens to them. As Keith Johnstone, one of the founders of improv theater, writes: ' If you'll stop reading for a moment and think of something you wouldn't want to happen to you, or to someone you love, then you'll have thought of something worth staging or filming. We don't want to walk into a restaurant and be hit in the face by a custard pie, and we don't want to suddenly glimpse Granny's wheelchair racing towards the edge of a cliff, but we'll pay money to attend enactments of such events. In life, most of us are highly skilled at suppressing action. All the improvisation teacher has to do is to reverse this skill and he creates very 'gifted' improvisers. Bad improvisers block action, often with a high degree of skill. Good improvisers develop action.'" p 114-115
On Management
"This kind of management system clearly has its risks. It meant Van Riper didn't always have a clear idea of what his troops were up to. It meant he had to place a lot of trust in his subordinates. It was, by his own admission, a 'messy' way to make decisions. But it had one overwhelming advantage: allowing people to operate without having to explain themselves constantly turns out to be like the rule of agreement in improv. It enables rapid cognition." p 119
On Taste
"Jam experts, though, don't have the same problems when it comes to explaining their feelings about jam. Expert food tasters are taught a very specific vocabulary, which allows them to describe precisely their reactions to specific foods. Mayonnaise, for example, is supposed to be evaluated along six dimensions of appearance (color, color intensity, chroma, shine, lumpiness, and bubbles), ten dimensions of texture (adhesiveness to lips, firmness, denseness, and so on), and fourteen dimensions of flavor, split among three subgroups -- aromatics (eggy, mustardy, and so forth); basic tastes (salty, sour, and sweet); and chemical-feeling factors (burn, pungent, astringent)." p182
On Microexpressions
"Paul Ekman has developed a number of simple tests of people's mind-reading abilities; in one, he plays a short clip of a dozen or so people claiming to have done something that they either have or haven't actually done, and the test taker's task is to figure out who is lying. The tests are surprisingly difficult. Most people come out right at the level of chance. But who does well? People who have practiced. Stroke victims who have lost the ability to speak, for example, are virtuosos, because their infirmity has forced them to become far more sensitive to the information written on people's faces. People who have had highly abusive childhoods also do well; like stroke victims, they've had to practice the difficult art of reading minds, in their case the minds of alcoholic or violent parents. Ekman actually runs seminars for law-enforcement agencies in which he teaches people how to improve their mind- reading skills. With even half an hour of practice, he says, people can become adepts at picking up microexpressions. ' I have a training tape, and people love it,' Ekman says. 'They start it, and they can't see any of these expressions. Thirty-five minutes later, they can see them all. What that says is that this is an accessible skill.'" p 239
Here are few clips I particularly liked. Hope you do, too.
Summing it up in a sentence
"We have come to confuse information with understanding" p264
On Improv
"One of the most important of the rules that make improv possible, for example, is the idea of agreement, the notion that a very simple way to create a story - or humor - is to have characters accept everything that happens to them. As Keith Johnstone, one of the founders of improv theater, writes: ' If you'll stop reading for a moment and think of something you wouldn't want to happen to you, or to someone you love, then you'll have thought of something worth staging or filming. We don't want to walk into a restaurant and be hit in the face by a custard pie, and we don't want to suddenly glimpse Granny's wheelchair racing towards the edge of a cliff, but we'll pay money to attend enactments of such events. In life, most of us are highly skilled at suppressing action. All the improvisation teacher has to do is to reverse this skill and he creates very 'gifted' improvisers. Bad improvisers block action, often with a high degree of skill. Good improvisers develop action.'" p 114-115
On Management
"This kind of management system clearly has its risks. It meant Van Riper didn't always have a clear idea of what his troops were up to. It meant he had to place a lot of trust in his subordinates. It was, by his own admission, a 'messy' way to make decisions. But it had one overwhelming advantage: allowing people to operate without having to explain themselves constantly turns out to be like the rule of agreement in improv. It enables rapid cognition." p 119
On Taste
"Jam experts, though, don't have the same problems when it comes to explaining their feelings about jam. Expert food tasters are taught a very specific vocabulary, which allows them to describe precisely their reactions to specific foods. Mayonnaise, for example, is supposed to be evaluated along six dimensions of appearance (color, color intensity, chroma, shine, lumpiness, and bubbles), ten dimensions of texture (adhesiveness to lips, firmness, denseness, and so on), and fourteen dimensions of flavor, split among three subgroups -- aromatics (eggy, mustardy, and so forth); basic tastes (salty, sour, and sweet); and chemical-feeling factors (burn, pungent, astringent)." p182
On Microexpressions
"Paul Ekman has developed a number of simple tests of people's mind-reading abilities; in one, he plays a short clip of a dozen or so people claiming to have done something that they either have or haven't actually done, and the test taker's task is to figure out who is lying. The tests are surprisingly difficult. Most people come out right at the level of chance. But who does well? People who have practiced. Stroke victims who have lost the ability to speak, for example, are virtuosos, because their infirmity has forced them to become far more sensitive to the information written on people's faces. People who have had highly abusive childhoods also do well; like stroke victims, they've had to practice the difficult art of reading minds, in their case the minds of alcoholic or violent parents. Ekman actually runs seminars for law-enforcement agencies in which he teaches people how to improve their mind- reading skills. With even half an hour of practice, he says, people can become adepts at picking up microexpressions. ' I have a training tape, and people love it,' Ekman says. 'They start it, and they can't see any of these expressions. Thirty-five minutes later, they can see them all. What that says is that this is an accessible skill.'" p 239
miércoles, 20 de febrero de 2013
Monthly Vehicle Maintenance
No, that is not technically my car. It's the housekeeping truck, Whitey, which is ancient and has a number of problems including water in the oil. Now I know more about it than I've known about any vehicle in my life.
A few days ago, inspired by a handy coworker (see above) and my computer maintenance checklist, for my "thing of the day," I learned how to go through a basic monthly maintenance check on a car with Rucker.
Here's a summary of what we went over and a few things I learned along the way. My notes are in italics.
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Vehicle Maintenance Report
Always check owner's manual before adding fluids to make sure you use the right kind!
Vehicle ______________
Date ________________
Mileage ______________
Oil Level - Check and refill if necessary
Change your oil every 3000 miles or every 3-6 months. Since front tires take on more wear than back tires, rotate your tires every other oil change.
Coolant - Add more if low
Fill to between min and max line.
Transmission Fluid - Add more if low
Fluid starts red and becomes more brown through time. Generally you should change the fluid and filter around 100K miles. Take it into a shop -- transmission fluid is finicky. Always check transmission fluid while car is running.
Power Steering Fluid - Add more if low
The power steering fluid cap looks like a bottle cap (in case it's not well labeled.) The car will either take ATF or Power Steering Fluid. Check the owner's manual.
Brake Fluid - Add more if low
Always located near the back on the driver's side.
Wiper Fluid - Add more if low
Belts - Replace if worn, frayed, or glazed
Look for cracks on the ribbed side of the belt where it bends. Car will often squeak if belts are loose or bed. Cars have either one or two belts.
Hoses - Replace if bulging or brittle
Make sure to to check the ends of hoses for coolant leaks, etc.
Tires - Add air if low (<32 p="" psi=""> Inspect for damage, bulges, uneven wear
Check driver's door for PSI and tire size. Look for uneven wear on rear v front tires. Also check for any signs of dry rot.
Shocks - Inspect for oil leaks and wear
These are vertical, cylindrical parts underneath the car near the tires.
Battery Terminals - Clean if corroded
Batteries generally have approx 5 years of life. Corrosion looks white and powdery. Scrape or brush off with a hard metal brush, making sure not to touch metal with a wrench if it's attached to the +/red/"hot" terminal. Batteries can die because of old age, being run down by leaving lights on etc., or being attached to a bad alternator. The alternator charges the battery. If your battery keeps dying and is relatively new, it may be an alternator problem. Get it checked out.
Wiper Blades- Replace if worn or brittle
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