This week I finished: Citizen Kane, starring Orson Welles: Regular readers of my Sunday posts know that since a few movies led me to find art and expression in the medium that I had missed before. Mainly I enjoyed the subtlety, nuance, and complexity that got me thinking about life, society, myself, and art in general. Besides Yi Yi and A Brighter Summer Day, I found movies I considered masterpieces,[…] Keep reading →

I read Julian Simon’s book The Ultimate Resource 2. I share his belief in the capacity for people to improve the world, both each other’s quality of life and the natural world. I think he misses some important points. I know of his bet with Paul Ehrlich, who may be a talented scientist, but I don’t think a talented or effective leader. I’ll comment on some quotes of Simon. I[…] Keep reading →

On this day in 2011, I wrote the first post of a streak that continues to today of posting to this blog daily. I didn’t know that it would lead to discovering the freedom and calm of discovering deep values and living by them daily. Discovering the sidcha concept helped bring about self-awareness, health, stewardship, self-expression, patience, humility, independence, and more. Now I have several sidchas and standard operating procedures.[…] Keep reading →

My building’s routine maintenance project that began keeping residents from roof access last March is now extended to this March, as my building manager informed residents earlier this month. The delays mean I have to keep walking ten or fifteen minutes each way to Washington Square Park to charge. Argh. The building manager wrote me in early December, “The plan is for the work to be completed in December.” So[…] Keep reading →

This week I finished: Land Power: Who Has It, Who Doesn’t, and How That Determines the Fate of Societies, by Michael Albertus: As a podcast host, I receive many promotions of books, companies, etc from publishers and others. This book came to me in one of them. It comes out next month. In my book I explore how our culture came to be how it is, in particular, how we[…] Keep reading →

This week I finished: Meditation for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts, by podcast guest Oliver Burkeman: I loved his book Four Thousand Weeks and I loved this book. I see it describing how to look at and respond to our culture and my life without getting caught up in its pressure to make me feel like I’m not enough, that I don’t[…] Keep reading →

People erroneously contrast individual action with systemic change, like doing one hampers you from doing the other. Do they think musicians practicing their instruments prevent the orchestra from practicing together? Systemic change is not the opposite of individual action. If you rationalize and justify living against your values because in some way you’re doing what culture around you does, you’ve been corrupted. If you don’t live by your values, you’ve[…] Keep reading →

I don’t think I’ve seen a sign with this phrase: “Pollution makes me sick,” but I think it would work. The most popular one seems to be “There Is No Planet B.” I just thought the words and realized they carried more meaning than just their immediate meaning. Then I started thinking of alternative phrasings. I think they all work to some degree: Pollution makes me sick Pollution is sickening[…] Keep reading →

I haven’t heard anyone in medicine question the effects of pollution from our medical system on people outside the care facility. What about people harmed by plastic, emissions, and other pollution? They may be affected for centuries and all over the world. I don’t know anyone who calls America’s medical system unwasteful. Every time I walk into a doctor’s office I expect to see each care-person use half a dozen[…] Keep reading →