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May 25, 2005
50 Little Things To Build Up Karma
1. Let a waiting driver into your lane.
2. Give other people books that have inspired you.
3. Decide to smile at everyone that you pass today.
4. Find at least one thing to laugh about every day.
5. Appreciate art.
6. Write down your loftiest goals and dreams. Then write down one baby step that will bring you closer to them.
7. Make breakfast for someone you love.
8. Eat colorful, healthy foods.
9. Send postcards to friends and family that are far away--for no reason.
10. Keep flowers at your home and/or on your desk.
11. Back all your actions with good intentions.
12. Personally thank the cook for your well-cooked meal.
13. Listen to your intuition.
14. Recycle.
15. Help someone before they ask.
16. Spend one day thinking positive thoughts about everyone and everything, including yourself. Try again the next day.
17. Be loyal.
18. Donate to charity--anonymously--in any amount.
19. Get rid of junk and clutter.
20. Cheer on a coworker or a friend.
21. Clean up your messes as you make them.
22. Take a friend or a loved one to a free concert, poetry reading or play.
23. Throw an extra quarter in the parking meter before you leave--or if you see a car with a meter that has run out.
24. Sing in the car, as loud as you can.
25. Take your neighbor's empty garbage cans/bins off the street for them.
26. Look at problems as an opportunity to be creative.
27. Respect others' traditions and beliefs, even if they don't align with your own.
28. Stop questioning your own happiness.
29. Leave little notes in unusual places for people you love.
30. Pay attention on conference calls or in meetings--listen as attentively as you would want and expect people to listen to you.
31. Write anonymous poetry and leave it in a public place.
32. Spend more time in nature.
33. Take a favorite friend to lunch, for no reason.
34. Thank your partner/spouse for the things they do, even the little tiny things.
35. Cut toxic, vampiric people out of your life.
36. Enjoy dessert once in awhile--without guilt.
37. Play--make snow angels, get out the color crayons, bounce a ball, play catch, ride a playground swing...
38. Bring back silly toys and mementos from far away places for your coworkers.
39. Start a collection--postcards, martini shakers, matchbooks, stamps, animal items (my mother-in-law has 120 mice in her house!), beach glass, vintage linens...I once knew a guy who collected sand from beaches around the world.
40. Learn a new word everyday.
41. Wear something colorful and unexpected.
42. Get enough sleep.
43. Give up your seat on the train or bus.
44. Fill out the dining experience cards and compliment your server.
45. Support local businesses over monster retailers.
46. Be an organ donor.
47. Don't eat meals in front of the television or computer--and don't answer the phone.
48. Do what you say.
49. Don't litter--and that includes cigarette butts ANYWHERE including out of a car (why on earth do people think that's okay?)
50. Strive to learn something new everyday.
Posted by crystallyn at 07:13 AM | Comments (1)
May 24, 2005
MUST HAVE
GOLD PANTS!
All right--maybe the sweaters are hot too! Leslie Hall, student at Joe's alma mater, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts (or usually Museum School), demonstrates the glory of the Gem Sweater!
And if you think those pants are as fab as I do, you must check out the latest album cover by her band, Leslie & the Ly's: Gold Pants. Too bad they're playing in Brookline on the 3rd--graduation for me (M.A. in Critical & Creative Thinking at UMass)...I'm sure I could have had a blast thrift shopping for my own Gem Sweater so I could get in free!
Posted by crystallyn at 07:52 PM
May 18, 2005
what do you do when the sun turns blue?
Twenty-five years ago, I went outside our house in Nine Mile Falls, WA and looked at the sky. No, I looked at the sun...and it was blue--a strange electric blue. I'll remember that for the rest of my life, staring straight up at that freaky blue sun. It was about 3PM. Then the strange gray snow started to fall and I had to go back in because we had heard that breathing it in was bad--flecks of glass. There was very little light because the cloud above was so thick and black. We sat on the back of the couch and stared out the window to watch it fall and layer up, turning everything a powdery puffy gray.
We had an early heads up though. We were out weeding the front lawn earlier that morning. On the horizon was a dreadfully ominous storm cloud. I was excited because I really love thunder storms and that cloud looked to be the blackest I had ever seen. My grandmother called--she had heard the monstrous boom that morning at 8:32 AM. She told us to get the cars in the garage and bring the cats in. We spent the next couple hours moving things around in the garage so we could move the cars in before the cloud was upon us. We were so excited and scared at the same time. The cloud was such a mystery and to my 9-year-old imagination it was an incredible adventure, I was sure.
We didn't realize that we would be staying indoors pretty much for the next week. My mom's birthday was the next day so we celebrated with her sans dad--he was stranded in Montana on a sales appointment and couldn't get home because the roads were all closed. It took him two days to get back home to us. When we finally did go out, we had to wear free surgical masks provided by the fire department. School was cancelled for three weeks. I think my mom was ready to kill herself by the end of that time, cooped up in the house with a 9-year-old, 7-year-old and a 5-year-old. Our typically outdoor cats were unhappy. They were stuck in the garage for at least a month. We just didn't want them outside walking around in all that muck.
When my father made it home a few days later, he climbed up and washed the roof off. Something about how it wasn't good to let it sit there and ruin the shingles. I'm not sure why I remember that, but I do. It was strange how it accumlated. For many months, you would travel across the state of Washington and see piles and piles of the powder along the sides of the road, almost like snow but a weird dirty gray color. And I remember that it took well over a year for all the signs to dissipate. For a few years when driving through Ritzville, WA you could see whitish gray smears along the edges of the tarmac.
Best yet, when we went to see my cousin in Twin Falls that summer, who was the same age as me, he implored us to bring jars of it down for him. He put it all in baggies and sold it to his friends for a dollar.
Posted by crystallyn at 06:28 AM
May 17, 2005
winos rejoice!
Joe and I were highly pleased to hear that the Supreme Court struck down the ban on purchasing wine directly from out-of-state wineries.
It will be interesting to see how it affects the wine business in general. The wholesalers are understandably upset, but many in the wine industry don't think that it will change things all too much.
According to an AdAge article (free signup required):
A spokeswoman for the Wine Institute said any impact would be felt most on wines that sell at more than $20 a bottle because shipping of less expensive products isn’t cost efficient.
And wine.com, the country's only legally operating Internet wine retailer feels like it won't change much at all.
"There is a widespread misunderstanding of the issues at hand here," said George Garrick, CEO of San Francisco-based Wine.com. "These cases will not result in a free-for-all for retailers to ship direct to consumers who order via phone or the Internet. In fact this is not about retailers at all. State laws governing retailers are different than those governing wineries. The strict state-by-state regulations on retailer direct shipments will remain in effect regardless of the rulings."Garrick continued, "The vast majority of the industry will continue to sell through the three-tier system whereby wineries sell to wholesalers, who sell to retailers, who sell to consumers. In reality, these cases will only affect a very small level of industry sales, and we do not anticipate the general structure of the industry changing at all."
But really, wouldn't it mean that wine.com could also purchase directly from wineries in certain instances, for very popular or perhaps hard-to-find wines, thus lowering both their own costs and their customers?
In fact, I think what is really exciting about it is if smaller wineries that have a following decide that they will work through direct mail or Internet shipments. I'm anxiously looking forward to two wineries in particular opening up their business for Internet shipments:
Bainbridge Island Vineyard and Winery, who don't even sell to retailers, so if they open up their business for customers to purchase via the Net or mail order, it would be absolutely wonderful. Their late harvest Siegerrebe, when available, is heavenly.
Dr. Konstantin Frank Vinifera Wine Cellars, which we first learned about when we were in Montreal and had an excellent bottle of Cabernet Franc. They currently do sell their wines online but up until now, Massachusetts didn't allow shipments across state lines. A big bonus, they are not expensive at all.
I can always hope that Inniskillin will open up an online shop too...and that cutting out the middle man will drop prices for consumers who choose to buy that way.
And another that I am rather partial to, this one just a town or two away from where my family still is, Ste. Chapelle, in Caldwell Idaho.
I'm hoping that it will be the wine lover who ends up ultimately benefiting from this--the ones who are true patrons of particular wineries but have been limited in how they can get their happy tasty bottles. I'm looking forward to see the next Wine Spectator and Wine Enthusiast mags.
Posted by crystallyn at 07:49 PM
May 14, 2005
Critical Thinking for Managers: A Manifesto
I just ran across this in my files and hope that someone else will be able to benefit from it. I created this manifesto as one of my tasks in my Critical Thinking class when I was working toward my M.A. in Critical & Creative Thinking. I wanted a manifesto that would be useful for me throughout my working life.
CRITICAL THINKING FOR MANAGERS ~ A MANIFESTO
Introduction
Smart companies around the globe are dependent upon active critical thinkers in order to develop, produce and disseminate their goods and services. Managers in a position of creating change within their organizations need to learn, exhibit and teach critical thinking skills to their colleagues and employees.
Learning without thinking is labor lost; thinking without learning is dangerous. ~ Chinese Proverb
The Manifesto
1. Development of positive thinking dispositions is key.
a. Be curious and questioning
b. Think broadly and adventurously
c. Reason clearly and carefully
d. Organize one’s own thinking
e. Give time to thinking
f. Pose and explore problems
g. Critique and test theories
h. Seek multiple perspectives
i. Be judicious and reflective
2. Actively cultivate these thinking dispositions among your colleagues and employees.
3. Create a safe environment where employees feel that their opinions, ideas and the work that they generate is valued.
4. Consistently engage in metacognition—thinking about your thinking and related actions.
a. Reflect upon your actions, thoughts and plans, both task-oriented and strategic
b. Practice constant evaluation of projects and goals
c. Be ready to change based upon new input and reflection
d. Learn from your mistakes and your triumphs
e. Recognize your emotions and their effects on thought and action—both your own and on others
5. Encourage employees to reflect on their work and behavior, encourage individual accountability and expect people to make decisions at their own level. Help them to choose and explore problems of their own choice.
6. Embrace and foster an attitude of strategic spirit.
a. Build and use thinking strategies to solve problems and achieve goals
b. The ability to plan and set goals is crucial. Identify and recognize challenges, create a strategy and carry it out. Do it again.
7. Empower your employees to do the same.
8. Set standards by which to measure results. This helps bring focus, formulate plans and goals.
9. Recognize and rely upon higher order knowledge. Go beyond the facts, look for evidence, do further inquiry.
10. Always look for opportunities of transfer—the ability to take existing knowledge and strategies and apply them from one context to another. Identify connections and reusable components.
11. Become a model of critical thinking for colleagues and employees. Your examples and demonstrations of good thinking techniques will drive awareness and help foster change in attitude and behavior.
12. Look for opportunities to explain your method of thought to employees. Help them understand the bigger picture, the challenges faced and the steps in creating the plan and in execution of that plan.
13. Actively seek interaction with other departments and members of your organization in order to gain new insights, ideas and critical feedback.
14. Encourage both positive and negative feedback from colleagues and employees on your plans and actions. Seek to understand and incorporate their point of view. They have personal, practical knowledge that may prove invaluable.
15. Understanding is often acquired through practice. Sometimes lots of practice.
16. Encourage collaborative thinking and multiple sources of input for yourself and your employees. Engage in brainstorming activities, team projects and involve yourself in committees.
17. Become a model for open-minded thinking. Look at the big picture—beyond the situation at hand. Engage in synthesis. Draw connections and analyze a likely string of events. Look for multiple perspectives.
18. Provide opportunities for your employees to contribute and have influence in new projects and in other areas of the organization.
19. Emphasize facilitative questioning for yourself and your employees. Take a step back from your own agenda. Listen carefully and work to genuinely understand what the other person is experiencing. This will help you look closer at beliefs, values and assumptions that may underlie and drive behavior. Paraphrase and reflect ideas back for the best understanding.
20. Nurture key problem solving skills:
a. focus on the question or problem
b. analyze arguments, ask and answer questions of clarification and challenge
c. make observations and judge reports
d. deduce and judge whether arguments are valid
e. make and evaluate judgments
f. engage in suppositional thinking
g. define terms and judge definitions
h. attribute unstated assumptions
i. integrate other critical thinking dispositions in making and defending decisions
j. proceed in orderly manner appropriate to the situation
k. be sensitive to feelings, level of knowledge and degree of sophistication of others
l. employ appropriate rhetorical strategies
21. Understanding there are a variety of thinking styles:
cognitive, attitudinal and emotional aspects
and multiple intelligences:
visual/spatial
bodily/kinesthetic
logical/mathematical
naturalist
musical/rhythmic
verbal/liguistic
interpersonal
intrapersonal
will help with metacognition in addition to fostering better relationships with colleagues and employees.
22. Be aware that cultural differences can affect how people think critically and solve problems.
23. Instill in yourself and in others Costa’s 16 Habits of Mind :
i. Persisting
ii. Manage impulsivity
iii. Listen to others with understanding and empathy
iv. Think flexibly
v. Engage in metacognition
vi. Strive for accuracy and precision
vii. Question and pose problems
viii. Apply past knowledge to new situations
ix. Think and communicate with clarity and precision
x. Gather data through all senses
xi. Creating, imagining and innovating
xii. Respond with wonderment and awe (enjoy! Be curious!)
xiii. Take responsible risks
xiv. Find humor
xv. Think interdependently
xvi. Learning continuously
24. Cultivate a positive and determined attitude toward your life and work. Demonstrate persistence in the face of failure and confidence despite uncertainty.
25. Outlaw the idea of “I can’t.”
RESOURCES
Some of the findings and ideas behind this manifesto can be gained from the following texts:
Shari Tishman, David N. Perkins, and Eileen Jay, The Thinking Classroom: Learning and Teaching in a Culture of Thinking (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1995)
Arthur L. Costa (editor), Developing Minds: A Resource Book for Teaching Thinking, 3rd edition (Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2001)
Posted by crystallyn at 09:09 AM
May 11, 2005
tiddly widdly
So I've become a convert to the latest craze that is going around the web... Getting Things Done (GTD).
The book, by David Allen, is being talked about all over the place. If you check out Technorati, you'll see that there are 335 posts from 102 blogs that match the GTD tag. Going through the del.icio.us GTD tags could take you all day. Normally I'm not a total bandwagon jumper but all those people are really onto something here.
What is it? There are lots of sites that explain how GTD works. So I'll just sum it up--it's an incredible organization system for tasks and projects.
The cool thing--it's completely changing how I work. Working in marketing, I usually have a gazillion projects with numerous tasks that are associated with those projects. Keeping track of them is a constant challenge and I always live in some fear that something is going to fall off the huge plate that I'm juggling around. No more! Well not as much anymore at least! GTD is such a smart and easy way of understanding what lies in front of you. It's a nonlinear way to organize, which is perfect for the massive multitasker. It took me a few hours to put it all together at work but now everything is so fluid it is freaky!
There are a lot of great tools popping up everywhere that are making GTD fans happy--Backpack, Airset, Trumba and others, none of them even come close to what the GTD Tiddlywiki is doing for the way I'm working. It's absolutely phenomenal. I've tweaked it all around to suit my GTD needs, changing some of the categories and the menus. One thing I am doing is creating a dump file organized by month so that once a major task is complete I can archive it so I have a list to look back on for my monthly reports. I love that it is an offline tool and that I can take it easily with me on my USB stick (i.e. WikiOnAStick). I didn't even have to install any software, which means that my IT department won't flip out.
It's a really nice feeling to be able to know exactly all the work I have in front of me. I feel more proactive and even more excited about what I'm doing than I was before. The pressure of remembering everything is gone. If you, like me, have looked into countless methods of organizaiton for your crazy worklife and have never been able to quite find something perfect--pick up this book. And yes yes yes, check out the GTD version of the TiddlyWiki. Nathan Bowers and Jeremy Ruston have drastically improved my life within the space of the two days I've been using the GTDTiddlyWiki!
Posted by crystallyn at 06:01 PM
May 10, 2005
meatspace iPod shuffles
Mike Davidson recently ran his first "Mike Industries iPod-A-Month Creativity Competition™" where entrants tried to re-create the iPod shuffle out of food. The results are absolutely brilliant!
The winner was Davin Risk, who entered a banana spaghetti shuffle:
Of equal wonder is Stephen Lodefink's spam shuffle:
and Nikki Sevcik's Morning Shuffle:
Definitely check out the rest of the entries on Mike's site. He also has an ultracool webcam banner of Alki in Seattle, which makes me terribly homesick.
Posted by crystallyn at 06:19 AM
May 09, 2005
drunk on cachaça
or at least I think that the Wine Enthusiast cachaça reviewer in the May 2005 issue must have been.
For those of you unfamiliar with cachaça, like me, Joe says it tastes like a mix of vodka and tequila. It's sugarcane liquor from Brazil.
Anyway, I was checking out Joe's latest issue and got to the cachaça reviews. Here's one of particular interest:
Beleza Pura Super Premium Cachaça (Brazil, Excalibur Imports, New York, NY) 40% abv, $28. An amazing experience of aromatic waves of beans, then raw sugar cane, burning tires, black pepper, hemp, steamed asparagus, celery salt, and tar. Taste strongly of ash, soot and burning rubber at palate entry; at midpalate, a sly sweetness acts as a foundation for smoke and tar. Finishes semisweet and smooth. Best Buy.
Mmm sounds appetizing, huh? In general cachaça seems to smell or taste like pickle brine, cat-pee, escarole soup, fried egg, meringue (I didn't even know meringue smelled!), clam sauce, prickly pear, creosote, paint thinner, and stone. I'm not sure what it means that this is one of Brazil's favorite drinks.
I think it is, however, an excellent example of how loaded and overblown that wine and spirits terminology can be. Joe is always moaning about them but now I understand why. He knows one of the senior editors at the Enthusiast and is ready to give her a wonderfully bad time when they speak next. :)
Posted by crystallyn at 07:41 PM
May 08, 2005
checked out MASS MoCA this weekend
and Cai Guo-Qiang had a big presence there. Took some cool pics--check out that link for all the pictures.
Posted by crystallyn at 04:46 PM
May 04, 2005
Brazil rejects Bush's faith-based AIDS money
From Boing Boing:
Brazil has rejected Bush's AIDS-relief money because it came with strings attached: a requirement to condemn prostitution, rather than working with sex-workers to promote safe sex. The Bush AIDS money comes with requirements to block abortion, birth control and sex-ed in favor of abstinence programs. Developing countries can't afford the luxury of hypocritical "faith based" HIV/AIDS prevention (e.g., if you believe hard enough, prostitutes will stop plying their trade), but Brazil is the first country with the guts to stand up to America's extraterritorial bullying. This is gutsy as hell -- bravo, Brazil!
Yesterday Pedro Chequer, the director of Brazil's HIV/Aids programme, said the government had managed to resist US pressure during negotiations on the Aids funding to focus on promoting abstinence and fidelity rather than condoms - another ideological battle being waged by the religious right. But the US negotiators insisted that the clause on prostitution had to stay."I would like to confirm that Brazil has taken this decision in order to preserve its autonomy on issues related to national policies on HIV/Aids as well as ethical and human rights principles," he told the Guardian.
I second that, WAY TO GO BRAZIL!
Posted by crystallyn at 07:05 AM | Comments (2)
May 01, 2005
useful things
In Harvard Square, there is a great little store called the Museum of Useful Things (MUT) (which is nearly as cool as its sister store, Black Ink). In the store you can find all sorts of great things that are, yes, highly useful. Kitchen gadgets, cool cleaning tools, little things to organize your office, etc. Last time I was there I picked up this great little thing that keeps your kitchen sponge in one place.
So in the spirit of the MUT, here are some things that I consider highly useful...
everyday gadgets
The Drop Stop is awesome for keeping wine from dripping.
This bracelet fastener has saved me OODLES of time.
Joe gave me this wicked little Cross Ion pen for Christmas. I keep it on a keychain with my memory stick. Very handy in a pinch and it writes beautifully.
Super Cool/Handy Websites
43 Things ~ Map your goals out with this great community tool.
And another 43, this time Folders. Tips, tricks and "lifehacks." And the wiki (I recently added my coffee hacks--cleaning your coffeepot and novacaine)
And the excellent Lifehacker.
Also can't quite say enough about del.icio.us. You'll notice I streamlined my left nav and cleaned it up a bit. Now you can just click on my list of links to see what I'm checking up on here and there. Let me know if you are a del.icio.us user--I'm always curious to see what my friends are up to. Funny how links can say a lot about a person.
And Angela, you asked about Flickr...yes, its great! It's easy to use, great display capabilities and I like the community aspect--seeing when friends have new pictures and the like.
I'm also excited about the possibilities of Trumba...
I much prefer gMail these days. I have a ton of extra invites if anyone wants one. It is infinitely better than Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.
The Mentat Wiki which is right up my alley as a recent MA grad in Critical & Creative Thinking. Tools, articles and information galore.
Software
Well, I have to give a strong plug (and yes, yes, I'm probably biased here) for AvantGo. Simply put, the best mobile web content provider around. They just keep improving. Now available for BlackBerry too so if you have a mobile PDA or a smartphone you don't really have an excuse. It's the best way to keep up with news and information when you are on the go. Even better, it's free!
Firefox ~ If you are still using Internet Explorer as your web browser, all I have to say to you is STOP! If you don't have tabbed browsing, you are missing out on the best way to quickly and easily use the Internet to your best advantage.
Open Office ~ The best free productivity suite you can find. If you can't/don't want to shell out $400 to Microsoft for its Office Standard Edition, check out Open Office. I use it for my writing--I like the organization of multiple chapters better than the way Word does it. It IS compatible with Microsoft, however, so if you create a spreadsheet in Open Office and send it to a friend who has Word they won't have a problem opening it. All in all a great, cool software suite and the best part is that it's free.
Picasa ~ Google's free picture album/sharing/editing tool. Best free software for quick fixes and the way it organizes all photos on your hard-drive is awesome.
The A-9 Toolbar ~ Amazon's search tool which is based on Google. You can easily search Google, Amazon or A9. The way it displays your searches is especially helpful, with thumbnails of images and other related searches that you can set up. Quickly search for your results on Creative Commons, NASA, Flickr, Feedster and a host of other great sites. One great thing about the toolbar is that you can easily track bookmarks between computers if you have a toolbar on each machine and are logged in. I keep a lot of my private bookmarks (bank, journals, etc) here--that I wouldn't want on del.icio.us.
iPodder --software to quickly subscribe and download Podcasts into your iTunes. Check out PodcastAlley to find podcasts galore. My current favorite? >Grape Radio.
Posted by crystallyn at 04:05 PM | Comments (1)