3.08.2018
3.07.2018
blind man can see it
So if you read this blog you know i am all about peak oil and fears of resource depletion. like the james brown tune in the blog title, the fact that we are depleting natural resources at a furious and unsustainable rate should be so obvious that a blind man can see it. we are banking on the fact that other fuels substitute in as we deplete the earth's oil and coal and natural gas but i worry that the scale at which the global economy operates may result in massive dislocations instead of a smooth substitution.
but perhaps equally important has been the sociological changes that have resulted in the last ten years with the advent of the smartphone. suddenly, we are constantly connected, constantly informed, constantly distracted. our necks now permanently tilt downwards towards a screen.
we might like to pretend that societal institutions like the family, religion, civic organizations, are still alive and healthy, but they're not. family, in the old judeo-christian sense, feels like an outdated construction along with it requisite morality.
my theory is that every piece of communication is a tie, or a bond. so if in the past (meaning pre-2007) our ties and bonds were in real life, with the occasional telephone call or email, now there are thousands of communication data points intersecting with our lives every week from many sources (facebook, instagram, texting, snapchat, 24/7 workaholism, etc.). the family, and the old school institutions, have been diluted to the point of irrelevance. everyone is constantly tired, because everyone is constantly on and working, even kids, to the point of screen addiction.
i say all this not to scare or bemoan, but simply to recognize that the sociological changes we are going through are so massive that a blind man could see it. i believe this is on par with the advent of the city in the 1800s and the attendant alienation and anomie that first was "discovered" as a sociological consequence by Durkheim and Simmel. we are different now, and i fear that short of trading your smartphone for a flip phone, there is no going back.
but perhaps equally important has been the sociological changes that have resulted in the last ten years with the advent of the smartphone. suddenly, we are constantly connected, constantly informed, constantly distracted. our necks now permanently tilt downwards towards a screen.
we might like to pretend that societal institutions like the family, religion, civic organizations, are still alive and healthy, but they're not. family, in the old judeo-christian sense, feels like an outdated construction along with it requisite morality.
my theory is that every piece of communication is a tie, or a bond. so if in the past (meaning pre-2007) our ties and bonds were in real life, with the occasional telephone call or email, now there are thousands of communication data points intersecting with our lives every week from many sources (facebook, instagram, texting, snapchat, 24/7 workaholism, etc.). the family, and the old school institutions, have been diluted to the point of irrelevance. everyone is constantly tired, because everyone is constantly on and working, even kids, to the point of screen addiction.
i say all this not to scare or bemoan, but simply to recognize that the sociological changes we are going through are so massive that a blind man could see it. i believe this is on par with the advent of the city in the 1800s and the attendant alienation and anomie that first was "discovered" as a sociological consequence by Durkheim and Simmel. we are different now, and i fear that short of trading your smartphone for a flip phone, there is no going back.
3.06.2018
always reachable
we are now in a zone where we are always reachable for work. i am constantly connected to work by phone, text, email, and Square dashboard. there is never a time when i am not connected. i have toyed around with the idea of shutting off my phone and just turning it on every hour to see what comes in. but i always have one foot in emergency mode because there is never a time when an emergency might not come in. i guess we have all become doctors on-call.
my phone was stolen three years ago and i waiting for a week while it was replaced. it was the best week. i felt so much less stressed, less neurotic. it's hard to imagine the 80's and 90's now, a time when i would only get news with the morning paper and the evening CBS news.
my phone was stolen three years ago and i waiting for a week while it was replaced. it was the best week. i felt so much less stressed, less neurotic. it's hard to imagine the 80's and 90's now, a time when i would only get news with the morning paper and the evening CBS news.
2.21.2018
2.13.2018
2.11.2018
1.19.2018
1.16.2018
1.07.2018
The Electric Power of Life
Having felt low on occasion, there are times when the surging breath of life has entered my body and left me with feelings of connectedness, happiness, and euphoria. But that is nothing like the feeling of falling off of a ladder and breaking my arm in a place that was highly protected by muscle and snapped the ulna in a way that sent me into shock. The amount of adrenaline that was released was as if I was shot through with energy and had tapped full bore into the electric power of life. It was like nothing I'd ever experienced.
To say that we live mundane lives filled with the endless arithmetic of grocery shopping, baby rearing, and trips to the library is to forget this intense animal will to survive that is the evolutionary product of millennia. Faced with the prospect of death (and going into shock really does feel like you may die, you feel as if you cannot breathe and may pass out at any time), we fight, and as painful as the experience was, to feel your life is in the balance is to know that you are capable of anything, and that the surging will propels us forward with an intensity that is equal to the nature of any situation.
12.07.2017
11.21.2017
10.29.2017
Hunger Plan
Fast between breakfast and dinner for 2 weeks.
You'll find after a couple days you won't overeat at dinner. The calories you would usually consume at lunch can be added to breakfast and dinner so you are not running a caloric deficit.
Hunger allows you to stay focused. Suddenly, you're not thinking about snacking all of the time. Snacking is an obsessive and neurotic behavior that has no basis in human history because typically the history of humans was characterized by longer bouts of hunger punctuated by insufficient amounts of food.
If you feel a little lightheaded, cloudy, ditzy, in the afternoon, have something a little sweet, like a coffee, a juice, or a piece of biscotti. Don't overdo it.
Otherwise just crush water all day when you feel hunger.
If you feel your electrolytes are running low in the afternoon (feeling of dragging, metabolic deficit, wooziness), try eating a dash of salt on the tongue. It will perk you right up.
You'll find after a couple days you won't overeat at dinner. The calories you would usually consume at lunch can be added to breakfast and dinner so you are not running a caloric deficit.
Hunger allows you to stay focused. Suddenly, you're not thinking about snacking all of the time. Snacking is an obsessive and neurotic behavior that has no basis in human history because typically the history of humans was characterized by longer bouts of hunger punctuated by insufficient amounts of food.
If you feel a little lightheaded, cloudy, ditzy, in the afternoon, have something a little sweet, like a coffee, a juice, or a piece of biscotti. Don't overdo it.
Otherwise just crush water all day when you feel hunger.
If you feel your electrolytes are running low in the afternoon (feeling of dragging, metabolic deficit, wooziness), try eating a dash of salt on the tongue. It will perk you right up.
10.11.2017
8.30.2017
8.25.2017
7.31.2017
7.17.2017
7.06.2017
5.17.2017
Smartphone Accidents
First there was the hazard of talking on the phone while driving. I would say this may have apexed around 2002-05. Next, there was texting while driving, say 2009-2013. Now it seems that everyone has their head down at traffic lights. I looked around at a traffic stop yesterday and saw three drivers surrounding me in three cars all doing the knowing tilt of the head to the lap. There is so much to do and keep up on on the phones, it appears to be addictive and neurotic to the point of self-implosion. Anecdotally, I would have to guess that accidents on I-40 are up 35% just in the last year based on the traffic and accidents I'm see on my weekly commute to Raleigh.
5.08.2017
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