I have grave difficulty thinking about more that one thing at once. I can’t use age as an excuse (31); it’s just difficult to focus clearly on multiple things simultaneously. My girlfriend is a corporate secretary, as such, she is a central “hub” for her organisation. There are always three people handing her stacks of papers while the phone is ringing and the German businessman wanted cream but the Dutch man wanted his black. (And she is doing all this in Czech and English and Dutch and German!) Thus, she is bewildered when I can’t seem to comprehend what she is saying if I am typing or reading when she says it. I can focus intensely, but I have a shallow depth of field.
Read MoreFast Food Nation II
I saw the film version of Fast Food Nation last night (with a Czech audience of about 10). It was patently disappointing; after reading the book, I felt informed and indignant. After watching the film, I felt utterly bored (actually, boredom set in about 30 minutes into the experience). The film just didn’t bring out the strong messages of the book. Structurally, it opened up multiple storylines without satisfying resolution; also, for a topic that was covered so comprehensively in the book, the film felt very confined and contained. It was as if we were trying to view Australia looking down from two meters off the ground.
I thought Linkletter’s Waking Life was excellent; however, A Scanner Darkly was lacklustre and this third film was just forgettable. All three films consisted of people standing or sitting around talking. Which, for Waking Life worked perfectly; in Fast Food Nation it felt like a parody of old PBS documentaries (it would have been a much better use of resources if he had made a documentary that had the liberty of traversing more time and space). The dialogue was forced out upon the audience in a very “we have something important to say so let’s just have everyone exposit as much as possible” fashion. Especially bothersome was the cliché student activist group!
This was an important topic that should be opened up to public debate; however, mediocre elitist drama is not the way to accomplish any such goal. I would imagine many audiences were drawn to the film from the trailer (which erroneously leads one to believe the film is a comedy), then forced to sit through a ponderous two hour exposition on what’s wrong with everything. This, I would imagine, has not endeared many people to the cause.
(I thought it ironic though that the film was set in Cody, Wyoming. This was were I first had food poisoning.)
Visit to Center for Human Ecology
I returned on Monday night from a several day stay in Glasgow; I was there to check out the Centre for Human Ecology at the University of Strathclyde as I’m looking into a Masters in Human Ecology (would be a two year commitment).
From the CHE website:
Human Ecology is about uncovering and understanding the connections between personal action, social systems and the ecology of the planet of which we are part. The challenge is to critically examine the way things are and to ask why and how they could be different; to find new and better ways of arranging our lives, our businesses and our societies; ways that reduce poverty and inequality, reduce the amount of resources we use, restore the environment and improve quality of life for all – now and for generations to come.
So, as you can see, that covers about everything! They are covering topics as diverse as agriculture to the workings of spirituality in societies. The classes meet in solid blocks over long weekends. From the brief time I was able to spend with the students and lecturers, I was greatly impressed with the topics they are discussing and the people involved. Class time is divided between weekend sessions at the university in Glasgow and longer (one week or so) sessions at various locations in the UK (field research trips in different cities, etc.).
I interviewed for a position in next year’s cohort; this is a very exciting opportunity for me (on a personal level, I’ve had a lingering interest in environmental studies for some time now; at the professional level, this is really a training centre for BuildaBridge. I heard arts-integrated language left and right through the weekend). On Friday evening, we had a group of former graduates speak (the centre has been in existence since the early 70’s) on what they are doing currently. There is much practical application of the skills acquired there in the social service sector (The UK seems especially welcoming of environmentally friendly design and planning).
So, the next big barrier (or, just the big barrier period) will be finding funding; the program itself is only about $14,000 USD for the two years; however, it’s significantly more expensive to live in Glasgow than where I am in the Czech Republic. Alternatively, I could live out in the countryside for a good bit less; however, that would not afford the community and networking connections available in the city. So we’ll have to see where that all balances out.
Absence
I apologise to all for my lack of recent updates; I’ve been, for the past two weeks, in the US training for a team I will lead in the Czech Republic this summer and spending some time at the BuildaBridge offices catching up on “administrative tasks” and “concept development” (which, mostly, consisted of chatting with Nathan Corbitt by a woodstove).
Right now I’m visiting my parents for a few days; then it’s off to Glasgow for a visit to the Centre for Human Ecology at the University of Strathclyde (more on that later).
Blessings
I remembered an occurrence today; it happened a few years ago when I was leading a cross-cultural team in Bulgaria. We were waking through a mountain town on a very hot day and came upon an old Moslem woman. She brought us all cold water and chatted a bit with Vlady (our Bulgarian logistics fellow).
As we left, she said something that returns often in my memory:
“May all your villages be blessed.”
I’m giving some thought to the power of blessings; in many cultures the hex or curse is considered a powerful statement. However, I think a blessing must be the most potent words any human can speak.
Dinner
I’m working into the evening and ate dinner whilst editing a document. Earlier, I picked up a dish of (what I thought) was egg salad at the store.
When I went to wash my plate and rinse out the little plastic tub of egg salad, I found, not eggs, but fish heads in the mix. I should have thought those were odd tasting eggs. This either states that I pay absolutely no attention to what I eat or, alternately, I am able to completely focus on my work. (Not that I mind little dead-eyed fish, just not when I thought I was eating eggs—it’s a matter of principle.)
This was a much better finding than the time I discovered I’d eaten most of a [name withheld] sports-snack bar that was riddled with an exotic moth larva (reading the newspaper at that time).
The Interface
This is my take on Ubiquitous Computing.
For the past several weeks, I’ve mused on some sort of system that would allow collaboration between urban planners, politicians, and citizens of large cities. This would be a system that would allow people in a given city to readily reference what they are doing to address any one issue; people in other cities would have open access to this knowledge and would work collaboratively on shared solutions.
Originally, I had thought that a well-planned weblog could address this; however, on further reflection, no weblog (as we understand them now) could handle this much traffic and information. Imagine if every city planner in the world attempted to simultaneously discuss wastewater treatment and determine a collaborative plan of action. It may be almost possible with the systems available; however, what if the citizens of each of these cities also offered input? What if all the articles, abstracts, and past research were cross-referenced? It would quickly become a mass of unmanageable information. The next thought was a cross between Google News and . But even that would not be “intelligent” enough to collate such information. So, obviously, such a discussion would have to be moderated; but by whom? No one person could possibly moderate such massive discussions; beyond that, the discussion would be taking place in every major language simultaneously. Someone would have to translate everything—into everything else—in real time.
Read MoreWaste
Three Thousand Dollars!
I’ve been considering ways to reduce waste in my everyday activities (and, concurrently, trying to economise where possible). When I last bought shaving cream, I picked up a bottle of the Tesco generic brand rather than the kind I usually use (which, here in the Czech Republic, is rather expensive). The Tesco brand set me back about $1; however, it’s not a very satisfying shave. Also, the disposable razor refill I normally use is even more expensive here than in the states (about $14 USD per 8 heads). I have, apparently, rather course beard hair and can only get about four or five shaves out of one of these heads before it starts chafing my skin or skipping and cutting. So, I go through a lot of these.
As I was falling asleep last night, I considered this. I’ve been shaving now for some years. How many razor heads and bottles of shaving cream have I used in that time? Many. Multiply that times all the men who shave using the same system; how much waste is that! On the back of the razor package there is even a pathetic little icon with a man tossing bits into a rubbish bin. This morning, I went a step further; how much have all those bottles of shaving cream and razor refills cost? With some estimating and averaging, I’ve come up with a figure around $3000 USD. When one derives a number (for anything) that is more than many people in the world make in a lifetime, it ought to call for some pause.
I have used these things because I was largely unaware of other options. I was bombarded with advertising stating that The best a man can get is basically the only thing a man can get if he wants a clean shave and wants women to walk up and stroke his face suggestively. There are, of course, other options. Men have shaved for all recorded history without paying such significant sums. I can reduce cost and waste hundreds of times by using some of the older, tried and true, methods. Of course, I’d have to learn to use them properly and it might not be as convenient. But how often do I need to shave in three minutes rather than five and a half?
It makes me wonder, to an even greater extent, what other waste (both in physical and financial resources) I regularly produce. Toiletries are obvious. I go through toothbrushes like nobody’s business; but, of course, I just wear out the head. Does someone make a toothbrush with a replaceable head? When I was in the Netherlands, I was given a bottle of “shower gel.” It was convenient; I bought several bottles and used them for the time I was there. However, one day it struck me: this stuff is expensive; it lasts for a relatively short time; every time I finish a bottle it goes back to the recycling facility to go through a whole energy-wasting process of re-use (or, many go to the landfill). On the other hand, a bar of soap comes in a paper wrapper (or some stores carry them unwrapped); is cheap; and it lasts for some time. However, according to the shower gel ads you won’t really be clean and manly unless you use our shower gel. . .which we’ve cleverly named after a tool that sounds all manly as well. Axe for it at your local retailer.
If you take a step back from the consumer everything mindset and look at it objectively, it’s really rather sad.
Word of the day
I’ve been studying Czech with my girlfriend’s mother (who speaks no English). In our most recent lesson, I learned the word police which, in Czech, means shelves. The word for police is policie.
I am glad I have learned this distinction before having to call for the police in a crisis situation. I can see the terrible humour in my potentially running down the street shouting “Shelves! For goodness sake, somebody call for the shelves!”