Todd P Paul

Recycling the Financial Times

On of my chores around here, is to load up the Burley Trailer and take the recycling to Uptown Recycling Center. I was over there sorting out my colored glass from my newspapers the other day and another couple drove up to drop off their recycling as well. The lady and I were both at the newspaper/ magazine recycling bin when she said, "I didn't know people who read the Financial Times recycled." I laughed to myself and responded, "Yea, we're a strange breed." She proceeded to comment on my other newspaper recycling, the Wall Street Journal, with, "I hope you don't read the editorials." I was a little thrown off by the whole conversation I was having with this total stranger. Your recycling is a personal thing and here this lady was giving me a running commentary on my reading habits. I respond, "Yea, I generally do everyday, mostly online. I think it's important to be well-rounded." She didn't respond for a while, so I finished up at that station and moved over to the cardboard bin. I was about halfway through putting my cardboard products in the bin when she came over with hers. Her husband/ boyfriend/ life partner joined her to help her finish up. I was throwing stuff in the bin right and left, when I came to a condom box. So, I threw it in the bin and said, "Yea, readers of the Financial Times and Wall Street Journal also have a lot of sex." Her husband/ boyfriend/ life partner laughed and she turned about 4 shades of red in about 2 seconds. Nobody responded and they quickly finished up and left in their car. It was all a rather surreal experience compared to my usual conversations at the recycling center with the men working there about bicycles and the Cubs. Stereotypes are fun things sometimes.

The Self-Sufficiency Handbook

The FT has a interested article, “Living off the Land” in the weekend edition. It is written by the author of, The Self-Sufficiency Handbook Alan Bridgewater. The little article talks about his family's 30 year desire to live a self-sufficient life. It is a worthy advertisement for the book.

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Technorati Tags: Financial Times, Books, Sustainable Living

God without the godfather

Interesting social commentary from this weeks Economist.

Strategic Self-Investment/ Self-Development - Part II

Building is an active process.  I cannot do nothing and expect a well-equipped toolbox.  I think this is a common thought.  Passive learning does happen but it is very haphazard and slow.  Passive learning happens by random experience and unenlightened trail and error.  One keeps running into walls until a wall falls down.  One then dusts themselves off and progressive into the next series of walls.  Once they have healed from the pain of the last brick wall, they start running into walls again.  Alternatively, they may decide they have had enough pain and stop running into brick walls.  At this point, they settle into the pattern and rhythm of life confined within the walls around them.  They explore the wall’s boundaries slowly and careful, so not to get hurt.  This type of process is often called lazy or other words. However, in reality it is an overarching orientation toward life and personally.  I like to think of it in terms of a reactive orientation.  Reactive versus proactive. Both are choice patterns and require activity. The difference is whether one is acting on the environment (walls) or acting in response to the environment.

Laziness is not reactive, it is inactive.  Reactivity is the response orientation to one’s surrounding environment.  It is the problem/ response cycle.  A.) Problem: Coworker’s are controlling and poor communicators.  Response: Get defensive and hoard control.  I can think of numerous other examples but the point is that our environment is the dominating force acting on us.  We feel constant pressure from our surrounding and feel always in an environmental defense mode.  Some form of defensiveness is our primary mode of operation.  Need more teasing out? Make Sense?

The other option is proactivity.  This is just the opposite.  Proactivity is acting on one’s surrounds and shaping the environment.  It is an action / response cycle.  I want “C”; therefore, I will do “A” and “B.”

Back to the above analogy, I am surrounded by brick walls, which are blocking me from a successful (self-defined) integration into my work environment. I want a successful work environment; therefore, I will learn how to understand the culture, enculturation, and communicate with my coworkers.  So in order for the walls to be removed, I must educate myself on understanding work cultures and learn about new communication styles.

Maybe this is better worked out as a change orientation?  How does one respond to the need for change? Building one’s toolbox is a change process, so maybe that is a better framework. One is either actively changing the environment by strategically developing their skills to adapt, or one is seeking the environment to change independently from and without their actions.

Thoughts??

In hope for tomorrow!

I just read Ryan's Good Friday blog post, and it made me think about what life would be like without the hope tomorrow brings (Easter!). Life overall is pretty shitty, and I have it better than 99% percent of the global population. The grand world is full of much to despair about.  In the overall grand world, my wants are few and frivolous. I have WAY more than I need and never go without in any real sense. Yet, I still can not imagine living without the Hope of Easter morning.  A hope toward the kingdom coming to earth and a hope that ushers in new life (a new friend was born this morning, Asher Koch!) without despair. A hope toward a better life in heaven and a hope to engage change in my (new) neighborhood.  A hope that gives others hope for real change in a very real, unsavory world. This is the hope we wait patiently for tomorrow.

Web 2.0 - Over It?

As you can imagine things are more expensive in Chicago as compared to Lexington. I have been working to get things setup there and transfered over from Lexington to Chicago. One of those things is Internet. So I am calling around getting prices. I call three companies and only one of which services our street. The other two service the streets on either side of ours, but not ours. So my only choice is Comcast and they want $60 for Internet in my house. Okay, If I lived one street over it would be $30, and I would have two other choices. I think this is ridiculous. It is impossible that it cost $30 more dollars per user to get Internet one block.
So as a result, I decided I am over the Internet. It is such a time abyss( plus I am a man of principle and a tight ass who is not paying $60 a month for Internet) . So we are going without home Internet. We will both have it at work and it is free at the library one block up the street.
One a side note, Chicago has started to build a free wireless network throughout the city. See articles here.

The greatest time of the year?

Thanksgiving is it for me. You can have the rest of the holidays and I'll take Thanksgiving. You don't have to hassle with gifts and the emotional let down of Christmas. New Year's is just depressing, because it reminds you time is passing, Easter is okay. It would be better if I was around family. Easter is a close second. Memorial day and Labor day only give you a day off. But with Thanksgiving, families and friends make an extra effort to get together. It involves hospitality, good food, and good drink. On top of all that, you get a day full of nothing. Store are closed and the whole culture comes down to a slow murmer. Hard to beat in my book!

A Little Friday Treat - I Feel the Truth at You

When in Doubt..... Regulate

Why do we feel the overwhelming need to protect people from themselves? Seat belts, helmets laws, SOX, etc... Why is the response, regulate? The WSJ has a free article, today that says private economist think there should be more regulation of hedge funds. Why? Are their people out there investing in hedge funds that do not know they have an above average risk? Is the added volume and market presents in equities that bad?

This reminds me of a conversation I had with my mom a few months ago. My parents like riding motorcycles. A few months ago, we where talking about people not wearing their helmets. The state they live in does not regulate helmet wearing on a motorcycle. My mom thought they should be wearing helmets and I respond to her with this.

Think of it as evolution. Let the people who don't want to wear helmets have their fun. When they kill themselves because of their actions, it means more social security and scarce resources for the rest of us. Maybe a little insensitive, but true?

News From Home - Only In Mississippi

Every once in awhile, I come across good news from Mississippi (where I spent most of my life). This little nugget is courtesy of WLBT and the fine folks of the Lester Elementary school PTA (The Parent Teacher Association) in Jackson, MS.
These fine folks on the PTA decided to hand out a survey, so parents could have the opportunity to help out with the local school PTA (great idea...get involved with your kids education....). The survey that two response options. 1. Yes, I want to get involved. 2. "No, I do not want to get involved. I want my children to be thieves, drug addicts and prostitutes."
They want to make sure they get the point across.