Jan. 27, 2012 at 11:26am View comments
travel
away we go

We are a few hours into our journey to Paris and Rome, hanging out at the Minneapolis airport before our flight leaves. I have decided the Delta Sky Lounge is today’s closest equivalent to Ten Forward, with a bar and furniture that attempts to be hip-modern and everything, but unfortunately no Guinan. I wouldn’t mind hanging out with her all day. (Look it up, kids.)

So far my biggest adventure has been attempting to operate on about four hours sleep and low reserves after a packed week. This has resulted in me spilling coffee on myself and (a little) on the dude next to me on the plane from Grand Rapids to Minneapolis. It also involved not understanding how the coffee machine in the Sky Lounge works and missing the obvious “STOP” button and watching milk overflow, in a state of mystification. (In other words, if you’re following the theme here, I couldn’t even be trusted with a food replicator right now.) 

Also, this airport has three arcades. And I am now ranked in the top five for a few races on California Driving. 

Anyway, the plane ride over was lovely. The sunrise was at our back. I discovered the sweetest note from Carl waiting for me on my iPad — that’s the only great part of traveling without him. The love notes. Otherwise, I hate that he’s not here. In a weird way, it’s like an injury that reminds you how important your limbs are. Like, hey that bruise really hurts, but wow, did I ever underestimate how deeply I care about my arm and need it to be whole. This will be the longest time we’ve ever been apart, can you tell?

Ok. This post killed all of about 15 minutes. Back to people-watching and hopefully not spilling or stumbling over myself too much more. 

Jan. 20, 2012 at 9:54am View comments
reading
“
Perhaps the ‘I don’t have time to read’ line is just a cover. A way that people excuse themselves from the uncomfortable truth that they do, in fact, have time but that they would rather do something other than read with that time (such as pretending to be a wood-elf). We exalt reading as ‘good’ like exercise and vegetables and so we are always making excuses as to why we avoid it.
—

In the Land of the Non-Reader « The Bygone Bureau

I’ve been reading much more lately and wondering about this excuse as well. Elsewhere in this post, the writer talks about reading in terms of empathy and new ideas. The irony for me has been that the more I read, the less alone I feel. Especially after days when I feel like I’ve been pitching ideas and concepts and language to varying degrees of success, there’s nothing like Jane Hirshfield or Henry David Thoreau or Virginia Woolf to convince me I’m not crazy and then challenge me to dig even deeper.

Jan. 19, 2012 at 2:42pm View comments
techworkculture
“
Just as companies create pop-up stores during the holidays or during certain promotional periods, P2P marketplaces for the exchange of services make it possible for individuals to create their own little pop-up human capital stores, wherever they happen to be, and for as long as they want. This concept can be especially empowering for any individual who is unemployed (or under-employed) – or even someone who is employed and is interested in trying out a new career path. We’ve been trained to think of small businesses as the driver of economic growth and new employment in the economy, but it might just be the case that this model of employment needs a good re-think.
— Pop-Up Human Capital: A New Employment Model? | Endless Innovation | Big Think