Month: January 2007

Many people today struggle with food and eating and dieting.

Many people today struggle with money and finances and debt and saving.

I’ve long noted that the simple tools that help people overcome problems with one of these problems, can help solve the other, as well.

I’m not the only one who has noted this: Ramit Sethi blogged about this, too.

To lose weight, you can try a bunch of radical fad ideas. Or you could just eat less, and exercise more. Your body needs fuel, a certain amount every day, more when you’re working hard, less when you don’t. Eat this much and no more.

To save money, you could try a bunch of “get rich quick” schemes, or wait until you win the lottery. Or you could just spend less than you earn. Your income is a resource – save as much as you can. Reduce expenses whenever and wherever you can.

The basic tool that helps us do these things is something that I feel is lost these days: pay attention. Pay attention to what you spend. Pay attention to what goes in your mouth. Document, track, observe.

The barriers to doing these simple actions are all around us; there are billion-dollar industries that have developed in order to convince you that these simple things are beyond you. They’re there to confuse you, and when they succeed you find yourself out of balance in one way or another.

Your friends and close family may also be an unbalancing factor. They may also be listening to the voices of the billion-dollar industries. Don’t blame your friends, don’t hate them, don’t pity them. Just learn to listen to your body and your checkbook. You only have this much money. You only burn this many calories in a day.

Last night I dreamed… I was in a house in Austin, Texas, in a dorm situation with three other guys, one of whom I did not know.

We had a shared toilet, shared washer and dryer (in separate rooms) and a shared dishwasher. But each had our own kitchen.

The house had huge windows that looked out on the street. I could see the beach from my bedroom. And the moutains to the east.

I was starting a new job and remember digging through my luggage looking for a pair of black slacks and a black t-shirt to wear. They weren’t in there. Did someone steal them from me?

As of last night, I’ve seen four out of the five movies nominated for a Best Picture Oscar: “Little Miss Sunshine”, “The Departed”, “The Queen”, and last night’s movie, “Letters From Iwo Jima”, directed by Clint Eastwood.

“Letters From Iwo Jima” is an compassionate, moving story, told almost entirely from the perspective of a young Japanese solidier, Saigo, who is helping to defend the island against an imminent American attack. Wait – Saigo doesn’t think of himself as a soldier. He’s just a baker, whose wife is raising the daughter he has not yet met. In a flashback, Saigo makes a promise to his then-unborn daughter that he will come back for her, despite his wife’s conviction that none of the soldiers that the Emperor has dispatched has ever returned.

Kazunari Ninomiya is amazing to watch. The wry humor that he sees in the situation in which he’s found himself comes through, as does his determination to survive in spite of the feared American advance, as well as the fatalistic sense of honor that drives his superior officers, often to suicide.

But the general that is in command of the island, Kuribayashi, played by Ken Watanabe, realizes that a dead soldier does not defend very well, and struggles with his officers to set up a novel defense and to get them to see that he intends to win.

I very much enjoyed this movie. It’s not a surprise to me that Eastwood has pulled it off; so many of his movies have this same sense of humanity in the face of violence or death.

However, now having seen almost all of the Oscar-nominated films, I think that the one I most enjoyed was “The Queen”, with “The Departed” being a close second. I don’t think I’m dismissing “Little Miss Sunshine”, though, and it would be great if a comedy could win for Best Picture – that hasn’t happened since 1977’s “Annie Hall”, I believe.

Oh, and “Babel”? I’ve heard such mixed reviews, and there’s so many other movies to go see, that I probably won’t see it before Oscar night. Which means it’s probably going to win.

My apologies to Kevin for the title of this post; he’s seen the joke before.

He and I got together tonight for a movie and dinner. He chose “The Queen”, which has been nominated for an Academy Award, as well as Hellen Mirren for her performance as, well, the Queen of England.

All I knew was that it had racked up some awards, and was about the Royal Family’s reaction to the death of Diana, Princess of Wales.

I have to admit, going in, that I wasn’t sure about this movie. I thought it would be dry, and talk-y, and boring. But less than a half-hour into the film, I realized that i was absolutely riveted by the tension, and drama, on the screen. No explosions, no gun fights, no car chases (OK, well, one, but it was handled very tastefully and with dignity).

Absolutely stunning performances by Michael Sheen and, of course, Hellen Mirren. In fact, my preconceived notions of who these people are may have made the story that much better. Who would have thunk that Bush’s Poodle could be made a sympathetic character full of depth and compassion? Who would have thought that the Queen of England could show such courage and expression?

Amazing. I’ve seen three of the five Oscar-nominated films this year: The Queen, The Departed, and Little Miss Sunshine, and as much as I loved the other two, “The Queen” might be my favorite.

In my last post I talked about getting a fat refund from Uncle Sam this year, and spending it on a nifty new HDTV.

I have an unpublished draft post that talks about my goals and resolutions for 2008. Several of the items on that unfinished list are about… owning something of value, something that will increase in value. Of increasing my net worth, rather than decreasing it.

Today, I used the best time machine available (namely, a spreadsheet filled with my incomes and outgoes for the coming year) and took a look at what I wanted to achieve.

My first goal is to set aside some money as an emergency fund. On J.D’s advice, I’m going to start with just $1000.00, locked away somewhat, earning a good but modest interest, for my rainy-day money.

My second goal… is to own something real. Like a house, or (more likely for me, being single and a first-time buyer), a condo.

And when I put those two goals into my spreadsheet, and tried to reconcile those, with my other goals of paying off my credit cards (which I need to do before buying a house), along with plunking down over a grand on a second TV… I just couldn’t make the numbers come out right. It pushed my potential mortgage off into the future, not an impossible task, just farther than I would like or was entirely comfortable with. I’d rather it be sooner, than later.

So the dream of having a giant TV to watch the 3-4 hours of TV or movies I watch at home seemed… silly. Frivolous, even.

So I set that one aside.

I’m not going on about it like it was the end of the world. It wasn’t a particularly difficult decision. Once I saw how all my goals interacted, it was actually easy. I could do it, and still pay for a nice Christmas vacation next year, and have a small down payment for the house, and still be able to afford a car down the road, and not have to collect more unsecured debt than I already have.

Now I have a new dream: putting a nice home theater system, that is paid for, into a space that is truly, legally, mine.

And sooner, rather than later. And safely… with a cushion to fall back on.

On Saturday, I got my W-2 form in the mail. Did my taxes. What? No, it really was that simple – I don’t own a house, only own one stock (a single share of AAPL I bought a few years ago), and have no dependents, so my taxes are easy-peasy, puddin’ pie.

Turns out I’m getting a substantial refund this year; it’s about the equivalent of one month’s net pay, actually. Nice!

I’m going to use most of it to buy a nice, big, widescreen HDTV. I’m thinking about this one, the Samsung HL4266W, a DLP rear-projection model. Yes, true, the DLP sets need a bulb replacement every couple of years, but I’m OK with that – for the same money I would be hard-pressed to find a quality LCD or plasma set that large.

I don’t watch a lot of TV, but I love movies, which is why I want a home theater setup. I know I’ve talked about this before…

But I don’t have the Big Screen just yet. What I have now is a decent small screen.

Saturday night, I felt a bit anti-social so I wandered down to the corner non-corporate video store in search of “Idiocracy”, a movie starring Luke Wilson and directed and written by Mike Judge, the genius behind “Office Space” and “Beavis and Butthead” and “King of the Hill”. I’d read reviews of the movie last year, but Fox was playing games with its release and to the best of my knowledge, it never played in a theater in Portland, so I was resigned to wait for the DVD release.

I got that, and while I was there, I picked up “Bottle Rocket”, too, which gave me a mini-Luke-Wilson-fest, along with a dose of his brother, he-of-the-weird-nose, Owen Wilson.

Both movies were perfect for the smaller screen. “Idiocracy”, while technically a comedy, was a little too pointed a satire for me. The basic idea is that stupid people are having more babies, and over time, that will lead to people in general getting dumber and dumber. Luke Wilson is suspended in animation and, through a mistake, wakes up 500 years from now, where he discovers he’s the smartest person on the planet. All entertainment is aimed at the lowest common denominator; movies consist of nothing but a picture of an ass, which occasionally farts – for two hours; Starbucks offers hand jobs; and the hit TV show is called “Ow, My Balls” and features a guy who gets kicked, hit, or injured in the groin, over and over and over again. There’s no food because a sports-drink company convinced everyone that their drink is better than water – for everything, including irrigation of plants.

Ow. Watching that movie was painful. Afterward, I spent at least an hour coming up with reasons why that couldn’t happen, and then I read a book on cognitive science and philosophy for a while. That made me feel better. And yet, I’m not passing along whatever genetic traits might lead to a higher intelligence… aahrgh.

“Bottle Rocket” was a much more watchable movie, and made better use of Luke’s low-key-ness and his brother’s easy con-artist personality. In fact, I don’t think that either of their screen presences have evolved much since this movie. Although this is the only film I’ve ever seen Luke Wilson genuinely smile… and for a great reason. Just see the damn movie already.

At any rate, I’d planned on seeing “Pan’s Labyrinth” (El Laberinto del Fauno in the director’s native tongue) at the Cinema 21 on Sunday… The movie had been playing in New York when I was there over the holidays, and seeing it had been on my B list of things to do (“See a movie that isn’t playing in Portland”) but I didn’t get to. So I had been waiting weeks to see this movie, and this was it’s opening weekend in Portland.

But even though I was there for an early showing (2 PM) and was a half-hour early, I discovered a huge line snaking around the corner. It wasn’t moving very fast and so I bailed on it. I’ll try to see it this week, or the next weekend – it’ll be at the C21 for two weeks.

Movies, movies, movies…

Here, first I’ll quote The One True b!x’s introduction and statement of purpose:

It’s not completely unwarranted to view the potential revision of the City Charter to replace its current commission government with a strong mayor form as a kind of re-founding of the City of Portland. That makes Charter review one of the single most important decisions the City’s residents can face. With the work of the Charter Review Commission complete, this is the real deal. Whatever your views, the time to speak up is now.

…from the new group site, Portland’s Future Charter.

…and to note that I will be a contributor to the site, along with the b!x; Amanda Fritz, registered nurse and former City Council candidate; Mark Oliver, an Indonesian and Javanese-language translator; and Chris Smith, a citizen member of Metro and publisher of Portland Transport.

I agree with b!x – this seems important, at least on a local scale. Going into it, I don’t have any pre-formed notions about what Portland’s charter should or should not be. Although if I’m being honest, I do mislike and generally mistrust authority unless they demonstrate themselves to be trustworthy and honest.

On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, I was regretting my own ignorance when it came to men and women of color who served as examples of the ideals I hold dear; rational thought, outspoken in defense of honesty, humility in the face of their mistakes.

Fellow blogger Ken, of Emerging Worshiper, suggested that I take a look at Neil deGrasse Tyson, a noted astrophysicist.

And so I did. I have to say that my life was the poorer for not having known about Dr. Tyson prior to this week. Tip of the hat to Ken!

Let’s look at what I’ve found in just an hour or so of research. First, apparently another intellectual hero of mine, Carl Sagan, attempted to recruit Tyson to Cornell, but Tyson chose Harvard, instead.

Dr. Tyson is currently the Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the best science museum in the world, the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in New York City.

And apparently Dr. Tyson is critical of “string theory”, which he views as not having any predictive ability, and so, not being true, falsifiable science, a stance that I find personally satisfying if only because it shows healthy skepticism and a conservative view of the philosophy of science.

I have to be honest, when Ken, an outspoken Christian, brought my attention to Dr. Tyson and his work, I wondered if Dr. Tyson would be someone who abbrogated his rational and scientific views in favor of more religious views. I am pleased to find two essays by Dr. Tyson in wihch he discusses his views on spirtuality, “The Perimeter of Ignorance” and “Holy Wars”. In them, and especially the latter, he follows Stephen Jay Gould’s concept of Science and Religion having separate purposes for humans, which is a view I can argue against but still respect.

Tyson, however, gives me, at least, the impression that he does not necessarily see those spheres of influence as being exactly equal:

“My personal views are entirely pragmatic, and partly resonate with those of Galileo who, during his trial, is credited with saying, “The Bible tells you how to go to heaven, not how the heavens go.” Galileo further noted, in a 1615 letter to the Grand Duchess of Tuscany, “In my mind God wrote two books. The first book is the Bible, where humans can find the answers to their questions on values and morals. The second book of God is the book of nature, which allows humans to use observation and experiment to answer our own questions about the universe.”

I simply go with what works. And what works is the healthy skepticism embodied in scientific method. Believe me, if the Bible had ever been shown to be a rich source of scientific answers and understanding, we would be mining it daily for cosmic discovery. Yet my vocabulary of scientific inspiration strongly overlaps with that of religious enthusiasts. I, like Ptolemy, am humbled in the presence of our clockwork universe. When I am on the cosmic frontier, and I touch the laws of physics with my pen, or when I look upon the endless sky from a observatory on a mountaintop, I well up with an admiration for its splendor. But I do so knowing and accepting that if I propose a God beyond that horizon, one who graces our valley of collective ignorance, the day will come when our sphere of knowledge will have grown so large that I will have no need of that hypothesis.”

Finally, one thing that I like to look for in people I call “heroes” appears to be lacking – the quality of humilty, of being able to admit mistakes. Dr. Tyson comes close to that in his above quote, in that he admits that he does not and may not know everything… and he hints at that quality as being important in the pursuit of science, as when he discusses the tendency of scientists at the very edge of knowledge to either invoke God, or to press on and push back the boundaries.

I fully admit, though, that I have only read a few essays and done less than an hours worth of surfing to introduce myself to the man, so the lack is my own lack of knowledge. Certainly Neil deGrasse Tyson is a scientist and educator who bears further reading and research.

I have a playlist on my sexy iPod that is nothing but “Happy” music. It’s all either up-beat or just puts a smile on my face. I was listening to it this morning on my way in to work.

Some of the songs, though…

Why is:

“Seems I’m not alone in bein’ alone…”

…a “happy” thought, to me?

Thanks to Rusty for reminding me why I need to take Portland Metroblog off my list of “must read” sites.

He didn’t expect a flame war after insulting people. That’s… um… fascinating.

Shorter Rusty: “People who do things I don’t like are bad! Generalizations are good (when I agree with them)!”

o…k