Life

Jam Nights, Potlucks, and Parties

I went to a house potluck-party-social gathering thing tonight after work. It’s hard to describe because, well it just is.

A friend I’ve been hoping to hang out and jam with gave me an invite that I couldn’t resist. The 9-hour workday tempted me into bed, but I didn’t succumb. I grabbed the wife, a loaf of bread, a sweet potato and headed out the door.

It was at an old house in the middle of downtown, only a few blocks away from where my wife and I live. I never got a home address but I knew the general area and I knew what to look for: a picture perfect produce department VW Bus. And lone behold, there it was—parked on the corner of a picture perfect produce department house. As I parked, live music bled into the street and serenaded the surrounding houses. I had a feeling this would be fun. (more…)

The Sufferings of Math
Warning: Unless you are particularly interested in math, education reform, or something of that nature, you might not enjoy this particular reading. It is a little long and I don’t expect many people to read through it. However, I thought it necessary to post since so many friends thought it an interesting topic. To make the reading more fun, I’ve posted some Simpsons pictures along the way (apparently they reference math all the time). As usual, I’d love some feedback. 
 

The Sufferings of Math

           It would be too easy to suggest that if most college students could live without math, they would. Though not a favorite course to many, the benefits for learning basic principles, building upon those principles, and challenging the brain to give solutions can be easily seen. While it is healthy to challenge the brain, these “exercises” are often assigned far past their initial usefulness and far into exhaustion. The problem isn’t the math itself but the obsession with it, not the usefulness, but the focus. Will students actually use the math they are studying, or will they easily forget it as soon as they stop applying it? If so, is it all for nothing? Since the breach of our modern college system, these reoccurring questions have been inflicting suffering to almost as many students as there are degrees. To find a true usefulness of math, I suggest that we stop solving for x, and start asking why. When we do, the society of math will have answer to the cold fact that there really is no long-term benefit for the students invested in these higher-level classes. That really, most post college jobs only require basic math principles. Instead of having students endure through the current math system, the concentration of college math should be better tailored to the end result of the student’s degree, the job field. (more…)

Taking a Local Day

How formulaic do our lives become? It’s both good and bad, I suppose. We take vacations from the norm, only to get sick of the vacation and return to our norm.

I heard this statistic the other night and I can’t get it out of my brain:

96% of all Americans spend, on average, their whole lives indoors.

Upon hearing this, I wanted to run outside and skip through a field of daisies; I don’t even like daisies. I wanted to dig a garden, walk to work, and ride a hot air balloon around the country with a monkey named Charlie.

I decided that I needed to prove this statistic wrong.

So the next day, I went on vacation in my own town.

Extraordinarily, I was free from work and school. After an invitation, I made my way down to Doma Coffee and partook in my first ever “cupping.” The perplexities of smelling, breathing, and tasting coffee for hours on end was unusually delightful. For the first time in my life, being a “sipper” actually came in handy.

I learned how to pick fragrances out of coffee like apples, leather, chocolate, and “corn flakes.” I got to know the Doma guys a little better too. We talked about current coffee markets, espresso machines, and good beer. It was great.

After overstaying my welcome, I traveled back downtown to The Long Ear, a local record store (yes kids, those still exist). I traded some CDs in hopes of stocking up store credit for the upcoming Record Store Day. While there, I searched through the vinyl bin and “smoozed” a bit with the staff.

I was reminded me of the hours I’d kill at Boo Boo Record’s in Grover Beach, CA (RIP), where I’d search endlessly through the used CD bin and sticker bucket. Oh the days of my youth…

After The Long Ear, I went back home, recorded some music, waited for my wife to get home and then did a little shopping at my work, Pilgrims Market.

As the day grew late, I reflected upon my day. It was unique and more than usual. There were two things that made it different:

*I made time for myself

*Every business I entered was locally owned

So take from that what you will. Do you feel that you need a break from the norm? Take a local day for yourself and discover what your town has to offer.

Stay out of Albertsons, keep away from Wal-Mart, and for God sakes avoid McDonalds. Corporations and franchises exist only to capitalize off of consumer’s fear of the unknown. It’s funny, but the more I stay out of these businesses, the more I seem to enjoy the area I live in.

Try supporting only local shops for an entire day; take a walk and get outside. Maybe, you wont even need a vacation after all.

My goal this spring and summer is to get outside more, shop locally, and continue to discover my town. Why else would I live here?

In-Rainbow Trout Dinner

I usually don’t do food blogs but I made one heck of a dish a couple nights ago I thought I’d share it.

Basically, it’s a pan-fried rainbow trout with some sautéed mushrooms and a nice salad. So I’ve called it In-Rainbow Trout.

Despite the name, the mushrooms are actually what make the dish special.

Here’s what I do: (more…)

Boys in da Mt. Hood?

I’m taking a class this semester called Mountaineering. It’s probably the most intimidating thing I’ve done in a long while. We are supposed to climb Mt. Hood at the end of the semester. If you’re not familiar with Hood, it’s the 2nd most climbed mountain in the word and 2 people die on average per year.

I didn’t really know what mountaineering was until I joined this class. Honestly, I thought it would just be a mixture of backpacking and wilderness survival at a beginners pace. It’s proving to be a lot more than that. (more…)

iPods, Pawn Shops, & Thieves

Last week my 80GB iPod put a thief in jail. Let me tell you about it.

A month or two ago, my wife, the most beautiful person in the entire world, left our car unlocked. You could imagine my surprise as to how someone so intelligent could do such a thing. Well anyways, some guy (or girl… I don’t want to assume anything) walked by our vehicle, saw the machine, and took it.

(more…)