Friday, December 13, 2019

Weekend Reading: The Very Hectic Season Edition

I didn't intend to take two weeks off from posting here! I also have a post about our first long roadtrip with the Tesla that is probably 75% written. It will go up over on Adjusted Latitudes... when I get it finished.

But time to write has been in short supply. This is a very hectic time of year, both at home (we haven't even started sending out Christmas cards yet....) and at work. I now work for a company that sells software to other companies, and all of my customers have end of year goals, remnants of 2019 budget to spend, planning for 2020 projects to do... so I am extra busy trying to get everyone what they need. I had a cold at the start of the week (thanks, Petunia!) and worked from home on Monday thinking I'd take it easy and maybe work a reduced day. Instead, I sat down at my computer at 7:30 and worked through until 4:30.

Anyway, I didn't want to let another week go by without at least saying "hi," but I don't have a lot of time for a post and I didn't have a lot of time to read things... so this isn't a long list this week. Maybe next week I'll at least finish my post about our road trip!

If you read only one thing, read Dahlia Lithwick on speaking truth to nonsense.

I really like this essay about how we need to redesign life for longer life spans.

How to cut solo car commutes: charge for parking by the day.

I read this article about the zero-waste movement and... yikes. I'm not sure what I think, other than that more people should adopt my mantra of not letting the perfect be the enemy of the good.

If Jane Austen got feedback from a guy in a writing workshop.



In recommended listening:

I really enjoyed Ezra Klein's interview with linguist Gretchen McCulloch about her book "Because Internet" - I've had the book on my "to read" list for awhile and this podcast just reinforced that.

And my representative, Scott Peters, was on The Weeds talking about his bill to encourage more housing near transit.

Bunny!


Herd of bunnies!

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous7:51 AM

    THANK YOU!!!!
    You are appreciatd.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Reliable public transportation that worked with my schedule. That's what kept me from being a solo driver. When my schedule changed and public transit no longer meshed with it? I became a solo driver. So I get why daily parking would work, but it only works if there is a viable alternative.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous3:02 PM

    Thanks for checking in, we understand how busy it gets now, but your contributions, as Anonymous noted, are appreciated.
    Every year I find the Christmas holiday harder than the last, even though there are in some ways fewer demands on me (us). Because time goes by and the resources to bring to bear on the effort diminish, so there’s not necessarily an improvement in how it feels. But the aesthetic and the fellowship of the winter holidays are still beautiful so I try not to give up.
    As for zero anything-I tell myself someone will always do better than you at anything; a sustained good, not perfect, effort is worth a lot. Maybe more.
    And it has broken my heart to learn that a lot of our recycling isn’t actually being recycled after all. There has to be a market for theses materials and a concerted effort to create new uses for them. And, a truly, really, major aim to invent a truly, no lie version of a vegetable sourced, completely decomposing plastic.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I went to a community health meeting and learned that, according to CA DMV data, women lose their driving privileges earlier than men & live longer. They spend twice as much of their life unable to drive. That's why AARP has joined the SB50 coalition to develop more dense housing near high-frequency transit.

    Moreover, 25% of Angelenos (mostly women, often single mothers) are too poor to own cars. Building medium to high-density housing near high-frequency and reliable transit, in walkable neighborhoods, will solve so many of our problems, I can't believe there is so much opposition to it. E.g. climate change, pollution, congestion, obesity, stress, economic inequality

    ReplyDelete

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