Continuing writing about my North Korea trip… Now let’s see some pictures. Click on them for larger views. The view from our hotel window. The sky was bluer than this picture shows, contrasting with the overcast and polluted skies of Beijing and Shanghai, the other two places I visited on this trip. Nearly all the pictures I’ve seen online of Pyongyang include something about our hotel. It seems all visitors[…] Keep reading →

Continuing writing about my North Korea trip… Here are some basic observations I saw in North Korea without embellishment or analysis. When I looked out my hotel room the first night we arrived to see about half the city, because of their dearth of electrical power I could count the number of cars driving: two. Buildings outside Pyongyang were bunker-like concrete slabs, many unfinished. Many people appeared to live in[…] Keep reading →

Continuing writing about my North Korea trip… One of this trip’s major themes was the difference between expectations and experiences; also recognizing that expectations — Americans have wild expectations of North Korea — say things about yourself, not them. Experiences say something about the interaction between others and yourself. Americans, myself included, know little about North Korea and North Koreans. Our expectations tell us about what gets past the filters[…] Keep reading →

Living near what may potentially become a significant movement in the United States — Occupy Wall Street — I can’t believe I took over three weeks to visit the main site they’re sitting in, especially because a friend told me about the plans in the works several days before it started. That friend ended up interviewed on several national television shows. I finally visited today. I think the New York[…] Keep reading →

This post covers the first of several non-Method methods. People often try to improve their lives by changing or getting rid of something in their environment. By environment I don’t mean trees and lakes and streams, but anything that affects your emotional system, as described in my posts on the environment as part of the Model. Typically that thing is their house, car, job, or significant other, but could be[…] Keep reading →

I’ll get in trouble for this post in two ways, but people who get it will appreciate it. The first is how I view death. I’m overwhelmingly swayed by this passage from the ancient book called the Zuangzi (spelled Chuang Tzu in the translation below) on the death of a loved one. Chuang Tzu’s wife died. When Hui Tzu went to convey his condolences, he found Chuang Tzu sitting with[…] Keep reading →

People improve their lives in many ways. To give context to the Method, in my next few posts I’ll describe several common non-Method methods you’re familiar with. Then I’ll describe how the Method differs from them and why I believe it improves your life better and is more rewarding to do. So far I’ve only described the Method broadly: to choose the elements in your emotional cycles you can control voluntarily[…] Keep reading →

Continuing writing about my North Korea trip… Since returning I’ve found people incredibly interested in North Korea. For better or worse, many people ask what human rights issues I saw there, if any. People far more experienced than I have investigated and reported on North Korea beyond what I could observe. If you want to learn about their experiences, you can find them. See below for a short bibliography. I[…] Keep reading →

Continuing writing about my North Korea trip… If you read this blog regularly you know I don’t find value in people telling others what they should consider right or wrong, which ethics discussions usually do. I try to avoid using judgmental or evaluative language except when the criteria for evaluating are clear. Talk about visiting North Korea and you’ll find people want to talk about the rightness or wrongness of[…] Keep reading →