Compass spinning wildly…

...lost.

And so the days go slipping by…

Another year nearly finished.  Strange to consider. 

... I’m not entirely sure of my reasons for continuing - even occasionally - to post to this blog.  I mean, there’s a lot that I could talk about, but won’t, either because it’s not interesting or too emotive or not suitable for all the potential readers of this page or too much of the same thing that I always talk about.  The Big Questions are all about things that are pretty much just mine to figure out and/or involve a chain of problems that have to be unpicked one at a time, in a very slow process.  I mean, my brain at any given moment is almost certainly going to be some variation on a Venn diagram of:

- missing of family and friends, both those that I haven’t talked with in months and those I have talked with in the last few days
- homesickness for Portland
- financial worries
- worries for the well-being of various people
- frustration with… well, mostly myself
- awareness of the unoriginality of 99.99% of my thoughts
- guilt for even feeling like I need to talk about any of this
- awareness of the “#firstworldproblems” nature of most of my concerns
- the everyday interactions & public face

... all of this sloshing around to some form of musical soundtrack, increasingly repetitive as my mental obsessing increases (right now, obnoxiously, thanks to work and my brain cycles, “Frosty the Snowman” is on heavy rotation).

::annoyed sigh:: In short, I bore myself AND see little likelihood of any of this changing significantly in the near future, for a whole host of reasons.  And I see little point in talking herein about the 1% of my mental obsessing that I would feel comfortable talking about freely.  So I guess the best thing for the tiny number of you who check here at all to do is to assume that, if you haven’t heard from me in a while and I haven’t posted anything here in a while, that the last conversation we had together was probably a pretty fair representation of my current mental/emotional state, and that any major changes will be communicated accordingly.  Since you are a reader of this blog, it’s also probably safe to assume that you are amongst the “family and friends” in the first bullet point up there, and that you are therefore in my thoughts.

Over and out.

Wow

How can it be nearly Thanksgiving already?  The speedy passage of time worries me somewhat…

Thank goodness for autumn.

A chilly, blustery day, bright with blue skies and warm sun…

Wow

Happy fifth anniversary, love.  :-)

Oh yeah, FYI

I did the Bristol Half Marathon this past Sunday.  I finished in a slowish 2:47:51, but hey - at least I finished!  I was having cramps in my lower left calf from about mile 10 onwards - cramps so bad that my toes curled up and I couldn’t uncurl them without stopping and stretching.  Which I did, several times, and then, about halfway through mile 12, decided I’d had it, and just ran with curled toes.  They uncurled themselves eventually, but it wasn’t the most comfortable running I’ve ever done.  ::shrug::

True, but…

I read this op-ed on NY Times the day it came out, but then lost track of it before I was able to post about it.  In it, the author talks about the futility, really, of individual eco-action.  Which is true, when you get right down to it.  But what is the point of being so combative about it?  The collective action the author touts has to begin with the individual.  So getting someone into the habit of recycling, or the habit of cycling to the grocery store, seems to me to be the first, tiny step towards getting them to support the kind of collective action or resolution that can effect real change.  My friend Andy and I argued about this frequently during the two years at Tufts - incrementalism vs. paradigm shift.  He was adamant that massive change is the only way that things can be fixed in time to avert catastrophe, and he is very likely right.  But who is more naive: the person who argues for incremental steps as being (without the impetus of catastrophe) the only steps likely to be able to be effected, even if they likely aren’t moving fast enough?  Or the person who argues that the only way forward is to make drastic changes and refuses to admit the validity of smaller steps, even though drastic changes are exceptionally unlikely to be acceptable to enough people to get democratic consensus behind them?  Can we expect someone to go straight from blithely driving a Hummer to voting for full-cost accounting to be enshrined in economic policy? 

I agree that full-cost accounting needs to be put into official policy, since self-interest does tend to be a much greater motivator than self-sacrifice (as the author says).  And that collective action is needed.  But rather than being dismissive of the things people do already, why not approach it from a good-first-step, encouraging point of view?  I don’t think that individual action is incompatible with the push for drastic change, nor do I think that it necessarily “distracts us from the need for collective action.”  We should reframe our individual actions as the first step in a marathon, rather than as the completion of a very short race, and rather than as a pointless waste of personal energy.  In general, we’re not very good with marathons; what we need more than hecklers is encouragement. 

I’m guessing that there are very few of us who can’t be dinged for hypocrisy on one point or another.  The amount of plane travel I do, for instance, does call into question my so-called environmentalism, something of which I am well aware and puzzle over a lot.  The fact that I am far from most of my family and friends and miss them all constantly is a major factor in my internal equation, although I know full well that that doesn’t account for all of my international flights.  It is, however, a factor, and one which would likely still lead me to take at least one international plane trip per year, even were full costs brought in.  Does that make me selfish?  Well, yes.  But frankly, I don’t know how else to reconcile some of the major conflicting aspects of my life.  I couldn’t help falling in love with an Englishman.  I can’t help that most of the rest of the people I love are scattered across the United States.  There is nowhere I could be that there wouldn’t be someone I was missing, terribly, somewhere else.  So I fly, and try to make up for my flights by choosing well in the rest of my life, as best as I can.  Even knowing that it’s not enough.  I’m not giving myself an out - I’m just saying that I have run up against a problem that I can’t solve, given who I am, and for which I have chosen a compromise that, like pretty much any decision, is open to criticism.

Full-cost accounting will shift people’s choices.  But it won’t mean that they always make choices that you’ll agree with; I’ll still fly.  So why not encourage good habits, however small in impact, which contribute something toward balancing out the selfish choices that will still be made?  Of course recycling is not a solution in itself.  Nor is cycling to the grocery store.  Nor is growing your own vegetables, or line-drying your laundry, or installing a low-flush toilet… or full-cost accounting.  It ALL contributes, however, to what will necessarily be a complicated solution to a complicated snarl of problems.  So why not reserve some praise for small actions?

Of course, the author that prompted this diatribe did, to be fair, finish up his op-ed by saying that his readers shouldn’t stop recycling.  He’s encouraging extra action.  So, really, he and I are saying the same thing.  We’re just saying it in different tones.

Getting there

Tuesday, August 2:  2.75 miles in 33:24
Tuesday, August 9:  5 miles in 1:00:42
Monday, August 15:  5 miles in 1:01:41
Wednesday, August 17:  5 miles in 58:44

I may not be like some people that I could mention, nonchalantly completing ultra-marathons and enormous bicycle rides.  But I’m gradually getting back into some semblance of shape, after the mostly-sedentary two years of grad school.  (I did a lot of walking and bicycling for commuting purposes during that time, but my body’s used to that, and it didn’t really help my fitness.)

On the downside, my knees are now clicking when I go up and down stairs.  ::sigh::

Crossing against the flow

Just thought you might be interested in reading this short article about the difficulty pedestrians have in many places - this article focuses particularly on Florida - in getting from Point A to Point B in cities designed around the car.  It ties in with the book that I’m reading at the moment, Anthony Flint’s “Wrestling with Moses”.  You know, I’m not explicitly an urban planner - my interest lies primarily in parks/open spaces/wilderness, both in the city and out of it - but it’s hard not to get caught up in puzzling over what makes liveable, workable cities tick.  And it really is a puzzle - thousands of little pieces.  Some work in one setting, others work in another, but hopefully there is an underlying logic, themes that can be adapted to each setting, so long as we stay observant and keep questioning processes and results.

Well, now that’s a surprise…

I never thought I would find myself saying anything like this, but… go, Warren Buffett!

The Golden Road

“To learn the age-old lesson day by day:
It is not in the bright arrival planned,
But in the dreams men dream along the way [...]”

~ James Elroy Flecker, The Golden Road to Samarkand

Wandering Boston

Dustin and April may or may not be visiting Boston in the near future, and they asked me for any recommendations I might have as to places to go, things to see, etc.  As is often my way, I went way overboard and put together a map of the walking tour I would take them on were I there in Boston with them.  It hits many of the highlights of the area, and I think balances touristy with less-touristy things.  And, having put it together, I thought I’d share it with all of you.  This is by no means everywhere that I would take you if we were in Boston together - this is (omitting the Aquarium) a one-day, fly-by introduction to Boston-as-Julia-sees-it.  More days and I would take you to more places, lowering the overall touristy percentage of your visit.

Anyway, I hope that you find this interesting!

Overall map:

First half of the walk - downtown:

Second half of the walk - Cambridge:

Detail map - Inman Square:

Julia’s walking tour of Boston

Walking map 2 - downtown

1.) New England Aquarium
Truthfully, by the time you finish with the seals and penguins and sharks and turtles and fish and coral and anemones and everything else, it’s unlikely you’ll have the time to continue on the walking tour.  So perhaps the Aquarium one day and the tour the next.

2.) Faneuil Hall
It’s on the way from the Aquarium to everything else.  Might as well swing through it on the way, just to say that you have.

3.) Granary Burying Ground
Adams, Revere, Hancock and other Revolutionarily-interesting people are buried here.  Worth a peek.

4.) State House
Shiny!  (No need to go in.)

5.) Beacon Hill
One of the oldest parts of Boston.  It’s fully of lovely red brick houses, a couple of cobblestone streets (Acorn St. in particular), and is a nice place to wander around.

6.) Boston Common
Big.  Green.  Old.  Nice.

7.) “Make Way for Ducklings” statue and the Public Gardens
Swan boats and cheeky squirrels, cute statues and tourists.  A nice place to wander through.  In the winter, you can walk on the frozen pond, if you are brave or foolhardy.  :-)

8.) Boston Public Library - Galahad murals
I thought they were done by Sargent, but he did the murals in the rest of this lovely building.  The ones I like are by Abbey and are of the life of Galahad and the quest for the Holy Grail.  The entire building is lovely, and when you’re done, you can stop for a cup of coffee and a snack at the cafe in the courtyard - an amazingly quiet place for one smack in the middle of Boston.

9.) Back Bay
Just another old portion of Boston, conveniently on the way to the waterfront.  Follow the route that I’ve laid out and you’ll end up near a pedestrian walkway from Back Street over Storrow Drive - a necessity!

10.) Charles River Esplanade
Joggers, sunbathers, dogs, kids running around, sailboats, kayakers, and the Charles at its most stately.  :-)  Follow the path away from downtown, then zigzag up the access ramp to the eastern side of the Mass. Ave. bridge.

11.) View from the Mass. Ave. bridge - my second-favorite view towards downtown Boston.
Note the measurement markings on the sidewalk: smoots.  But don’t forget to look back towards downtown, towards the golden dome of the State House and the Salt-and-Pepper Bridge (aka the Longfellow Bridge), the Museum of Science, and everything else.  Oh, and turn around to take in the view of the Citgo sign in Fenway - another landmark.  FYI, if you are doing this walk at dusk, the Old Hancock building may have its beacon on.  The light is actually a weather forecast and Red Sox game teller, complete with a poem for a mnemonic device.

12.) MIT
Home of the Great Glass Pumpkin Patch.

Walking map 3 - Cambridge

13.) Flour
Scrumptious pastries!  Good for giving that needed energy boost.  :-)  What, me - food oriented?  How could you possibly suggest such a thing?

14.) Cambridge City Hall
Mostly just a landmark to show you where to turn right (onto Inman Street).

15.) Antrim Street
It’s just nicer to walk down than Inman Street.  A good example of a nice, quiet, residential street in Cambridge.

16, 17, 18, 19…)  Inman Square
My old stomping grounds.  This merits its own detail map, which I will write a guide to later on this page.

20.) Cambridge Public Library
It’s only been reopened, after a major renovation, for about a year or so.  It’s a really cool building - and there are some neat eco-features that you can find out about if you ask.  Large chunks of my thesis were written here.

21.) Harvard Yard
It’s fun to wander around.  I wanted so badly to go here when I was applying to college.  Thank goodness I dodged that particular bullet and went to Reed instead!  ::grin::

22.) Harvard Science Center
Just thought you might be interested.  (This was for Dustin, mostly.)

23.) Tealuxe
More than 100 teas, and baked goods from The Biscuit, a bakery down the road from where I lived in Inman Square.  Sit and rest your weary feet before catching the #69 bus back to Inman Square for dinner, or the #1 downtown to the Newbury St. stop to go to Top of the Hub for pre-dinner drinks and a gorgeous sunset view of the city.  As you walk from Harvard Yard to Tealuxe, crossing the melee of an intersection by the Harvard Coop, look up to the third floor of the building in the wedge.  Note the sign for “Dewey, Cheatem and Howe.”  ::grin::

Walking map 4 - Inman Square (detail)

This map is mostly useful if you want to get something to eat - something substantial.  Like, say, dinner.

City Girl Cafe
Lovely, tiny restaurant with fantastic pasta dishes and even better handmade pizzas.  Oh, and the pumpkin bread panini is a dessert not to be missed!  Be aware - they only have seating for about sixteen people, so it can fill up quickly.  Closed on Mondays.

S&S Deli
An Inman Square institution.  Breakfast all day, enormous salads, burgers, an assortment of Jewish dishes… and HUGE portions.  I mean, the kind of portions that you could probably only finish had you not eaten anything else all day long.

Punjabi Dhaba
Delicious Indian food, and Bollywood music videos playing while you wait to order.  Cash only.

1369 Coffeehouse
I was here pretty much every single weekday morning from February to May, writing my thesis.  The drinks are yum, the food is yum, and the staff is wonderful.  This is where I came to feel, finally, at home in Boston.  Only to leave again.  ::sigh::  Cash only.

Christina’s Ice Cream
Oh, so good.  I love their rice pudding ice cream, when it’s available, or their malted vanilla.  Or pretty much anything they make.  Although I have to say, I haven’t had the courage to try the avocado ice cream.  Cash only.

Lorem Ipsum books
Great used book store. You know, in case your bookshelves needed plumping up.

Grey clouds rolling in

It looks like summer is perhaps winding up for us here in GB.  It’s blustery, overcast, and chilly outside - in the mid-60s, I would guess.  Not that it really matters, because our house stays in the mid-60s, inside, pretty much all summer long.  (Don’t ask about the winter.)  I wear wool socks most summer days, because my arteries don’t work, as far as I can tell.  (No, seriously - my feet fall asleep while I’m running, for goodness’ sake!)

But hey - autumn coming on means that soon I will be able to wear the wool cardigan I’m knitting.  As soon as I finish it.  By which point it may be summer again.