Taking stock (12/29/2016)

On January 3, 2016 I posted a New Year’s resolution on this blog.  I decided to bring more culture in my life.  Well, I can report that although I am bookending 2016 with museum visits, I failed miserably.  But then 2016 failed me miserably, as well. 

First my latest museum visit.  I had the pleasure to go to the Richmond Fine Arts Museum and visited the “Jasper Johns and Edvard Munch: Love, Loss and the Cycle of Life” exhibition.  It was an impressive exhibit, an eye opener that show the interconnectedness that we all have; whether it is conscious or subconscious, as we later discovered.  For example my wife is a painter and as a 16 year-old she visited the Munch museum in Oslo.  Now finally, more than 45 years later looking again at Munch’s work does she and I realize his influence on her work, very much like Munch’s strong influence on Johns’ work.  But then there is no way of living in a bubble and escaping extraneous impressions we gather throughout our lives. 

I am sure I have all kinds of extraneous influences that have guided me through my adult life and are still guiding me.  It probably ranges from what I saw at home and what I saw around me as a child and teenager, to the things I experienced later on in my life, but in particular when living and working in Uganda.

I do not think that this why I failed my resolution of 2016.  But I do think these things are part of the reason why I write this blog and the philosophy I try to put down in words.  I want to bet that my love for nature was formed by my wandering in the kunuku or the bush almost every day after school when I was a kid.  I was observing and looking at things; the cacti that were blooming, the lizards, the humming birds flying from tree to tree, the troupial birds calling out, you name it.  When I was not there, I was either sailing or snorkeling at the beach.  I can still vividly remember the angry protest demonstrators (black minimum wage laborers) marching by our high school on their way downtown and later that day watching the smoke rising from above town when it was burning, set aflame by the rioters.  The island was under marshal law for a week and the whites were panic stricken.  We were among a group of white settlers who eventually left the island, remembering what happened in Congo (the country of my birth) a few years earlier.  It never happened on the island and from what I hear it is still pleasant there.  I did not understand the fear of my parents, it fascinated me and I resented them for having to leave the island.  It all made me who I am today and the one I'll be tomorrow, not only as a person, but my hobbies, my interests and my passions. 

So what was 2016 like?  I visited the two museums, but for the rest I did not do much more culturally.  I went to one opera and two classical concerts.  As I mention in a previous blog, I try to read, but that is difficult after a hard day’s work, after a commute, with tired eyes and tired mind, and a slight case of dyslexia.  I did finish one masterpiece of literature: Hemingway’s: The Old Man and the Sea, and boy that was a thick book (just kidding), but a masterpiece none-the-less!

At least that is what I can remember of my great cultural effort of 2016.  To me a walk in nature, being one with nature, soothing my nature deficit disorder, that is what I needed most in 2016.  Yes, it can be the same old trail every day, that does not matter. 

This gate symbolizes the entry to 2017 which I am going to enter with great apprehension and with the promise to myself to work more on myself and my personal projects.  To read more, be more cultured, work more on bettering the world and less on just sitting on my ass and being passionless.

This past year failed me as well.  Promises were given and broken.  They ranged from raises; to oh, we would never get this person as president, and now we going to be stuck with him for four years.  It is a year which is showcasing the great divide more than ever.  We have been made more aware that there still is a divide between rich and poor, black and white, and that black lives matter; it is almost becoming increasingly dangerous to admit to be educated or cultured.  This schism in our country and culture is unbelievable, but it feels like the middle ground is lost; it is nothing this blog can solve.  Maybe it is time for me to keep going on my cultural quest and read Huxley’s “Brave New World” again, or some other great novel on how to react or deal with what we have right now.  I am taking suggestions!

A walk in the woods, the naturalists have it (Yorktown, 12/22/2016)

I have been reading a lot about nature.  In fact , as a biologist I consider myself a naturalist, or maybe an amateur naturalist.  I write a lot about nature in my blogs; it often revolves around the interaction between us humans and nature, or what I have started calling “nature deficit disorder.”  It is a term I stole as most of my readers are aware (there are now 30 posts on this blog where I talk about it).  

In the distant past I have wanted to become a naturalist writer.  But I am not sure if I have the quality to be one or to become one, so this blog will have to do, at least for now.  Among my favorite naturalist writers are John McPhee, Gretel Ehrlich, Sue Hubbell, and Edward Hoagland, among others.  Naturally, I devoured writings by Henry David Thoreau and Aldo Leopold. 

The last quick read I had was Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea.”  A friend of mine tried to convince me that it was Hemingway’s way of telling us that a man can be defeated but not be destroyed, or as he said, maybe that it is a metaphor for Apostle Paul’s writing when he describes that outwardly a man can waste away but inwardly he is being renewed.  Santiago was reborn as a legitimate fisherman; the book ends in him regaining respect from his colleagues and of course having respect in him self.  Hemingway himself claimed there was no symbolism in the story.  I mostly read the story because it is on a list of the top 100 books, as a lover of the water, a sailor, for entertainment, and as a naturalist (I used to fish when I was a teenager).

I have so many unfinished books.  That is not because I don’t like them, but it is partially because of my varied interest and because the only time that I can read is in the evening after work when I am tired.  I usually do not read novels, but read, you guessed it, naturalist and non-fiction books.  Right now I am trying to concentrate on a book on human psychology (Thinking Fast and Thinking Slow by Daniel Kahneman) hopefully it fits in with my study of humans and the idea of nature deficit disorder.

To me nature is very important for the human psyche; whether it is that freshly fallen sassafras leaf in the fall; the timing of the pine pollen in spring (mostly on my Instagram Pictures); my frequent walks along the New River Trail in far Western Virginia (7 entries); being out on the water in my kayak or my sailboat (too many to count); or examining a pine tree that apparently snapped in a recent storm (during my latest walk).  I like it all and I need it!  I like to take my time and enjoy taking it all in; the sights and sounds; the feeling of just being immersed in nature, being one with it.

Sunrise on the trail in the woods behind our home.

Take this past Sunday.  It promised to be one of those rare early winter days when the temperature was going to be above 70 degrees Fahrenheit.  We decided that there was no better way to get our spirituality that day then to get out in nature and we went for a two hour hike in the woods behind our house (no church for us).  We went off the beaten track on a trail that is not traveled on by many people.  

The trail leads from our home by some ephemeral ponds that so often write about.  This time of the year they are not as full other years.  They were fuller a month ago, and the water level has slowly been dropping.  These ponds are groundwater fed, meaning the water level in the ponds are as high as the groundwater and we've had a dry month and a half.  Groundwater levels usually rise in the winter and reach their highest level around the middle of February.  All trees are dormant at this time and throughout the winter.  There is little transpiration from plants and the evaporation is at its lowest as well.  By early April the groundwater levels and the levels in the ponds start dropping and the ponds dry up completely by mid to late June.  By that time the water level has dropped almost 6 feet.

Examining a pine tree that must have snapped during a recent storm this past Sunday.  This was on the trail.

The rest of the walk takes us by very young pine forests where the woods were cleared in 2003 after Hurricane Isabel devastated a certain area, through a shallow stream valley, back up to what is my favorite area: a wooded section with huge tulip popular trees.  I would estimate that these trees are close to 300 feet tall and probably more than 100 years old.  After that the trail descends into a mixed forested wetland that is often difficult to cross.  It is wide, dark and wet and often has shallow running water in it.  After passing through the wetland it becomes a fun trail and passes by a heron rookery that appears to have been abandoned in the past two years, and a large swamps where we love to watch redheaded woodpeckers and all kinds of ducks.  Eventually the trail end up in the Battlefield National Historic Park and from there the hiking and biking choices are limitless, but well defined.

A piece of broken off bark covered with lichen that I found lying on the forest floor.  I just loved the color contrast between the bright green and the leaves.  I want to bet it was knocked off by a woodpecker of some kind.

It was a great day for a hike!  Walking around you find all kinds of treasures, large and small, up high and down low.  Getting back from the hike I had my daily 10,000 steps, but the exercise was not the most important.  I felt mentally and spiritually recharged.   

Try it yourself, get out.  It is not scary out there; if you have not done it in a while, start in small doses or just go for a walk in your neighborhood and observe people's yards, the plants, trees and birds.  Take it all in.  Cure your Nature Deficit Disorder!

Just standing still and looking up in the woods is nice!

Having flow, I can fake it with the best! (12/12/2016)

Last week I experienced flow again.  It was a crazy couple of days.  I was on the road for six days, two three day stretches, with a Friday and Saturday of relative rest (home chores) in between.  I put over 1000 miles on the vehicle that I got from our motor pool that week (thank goodness it was not my own car).  

When I was a young kid, driving large distances really did not bother me, I remember that day that we drove from just outside Little Rock, Arkansas to Wilmington Delaware (1,100+ miles) in one day, and the next day we went for a large hike.  This last time, I had to drive back at night in the dark in the pouring rain; at times I had zero visibility.  The day after, I was sitting in the office feeling like a zombie; it was an almost completely unproductive day.

You would think that after driving to the location where I teach, followed by a rotten (first) night in a different bed (motel room), I would be out of it.  I might feel like it, but the moment I step into the classroom, it is like a switch is being flipped. 

Ready to start my day of teaching this past Monday 12/5/2016.  Boy, I have never used that many selfies in my blog!  But you can see, I was kind of out of it, not yet ready to get going, but it changed once I opened my mouth. This picture was manipulated with a small program called Prisma; I used the Mosaic option.

I have this ritual when I teach and it really helps me get my stuff together.  I can be in the crappiest mood, or tired; drag myself out of my motel bed and into the room where I will be teaching, but when I get in there, I forget about it all.  I can literally solo teach for six or seven hours; be on; be engaging; feel great; and simply do not let on what’s the matter with me.  I give it my everything!  Oh yes, I can fake it with the best!  But when when the class is done and the last person leaves the room, I am done for, I am exhausted.  As a fellow teacher of mine and I once compared: "Good teaching is like good sex, you are exhausted after that."  Hopefully I am teaching a second day and I can go back to my motel room and go for a nap.  Having to drive back to the office and then back home is tortuous at times.  

No, I am trying to show off or complaining.  I am just sharing my technique; my way of doing it.  I probably take it too far and exhaust myself too much, but I made a promise to myself to never give a boring class.

My morning ritual is really simple.  I get to the room where I teach about a half hour early, set up, put out the sign-in sheet, and then I try to make small talk.  I talk with people (I think) I know.  I ask them about their life, make small talk, and I am personable.  It is a one on one link that I establish with a few that helps me teach, it allows me to search them out later and make eye contact.  Being an introvert, this is my way of drawing me out of my shell, and getting me in that mindset of putting myself out there and teach; of focusing of the task at hand.  I learned this a long time ago; I need to socialize to get the juices flowing.  Even during the breaks I give people; I don’t even get to go to the restroom, but I am in front of the class answering questions and talking to people.  Usually I am on all the time, with just enough time for lunch.  That is often the only time when I don't mind being on my own, that is my time to recharge for the afternoon session.

For me it is all about being in the zone, having flow.  As I mentioned in my post on how sailing meditates me, flow is important.  When you have flow you forget the bad things that surround you.  You forget that you are tired, you live on adrenaline, you are in the zone.  You fake it with the best!  Or do you really?  Maybe it is genuine; I really genuinely care about what I teach and I care about my students; otherwise I would go through the motions and not achieve flow.

So how do you achieve flow?  To each his or her own, but as I mentioned, I have somewhat of a ritual.  Owen Schaffer mentioned that there are seven conditions for getting, being and staying in flow:

• High perceived challenges
• High perceived skills
• Knowing what to do
• Knowing how to do it
• Knowing how well you are doing
• Knowing where to go (where navigation is involved ... or maybe my ritual)
• Freedom from distractions

This is how I am when I sail, teach, kayak, bike, work on my bonsais, and when I go for a nice walk in nature.  Interesting isn't it?  To think that I am not even that good at some of these things or really do not know what I am doing, I get to that state of flow.  Enemies to flow are boredom, apathy and anxiety.  Flow keeps you alive, boredom, apathy and anxiety are killers.

Nothing better than a morning hike through the woods, exploring life and death around you.  Here is where I experience flow, forget about it all and take photographs to document nature's beauty, even a dead tree that is slowly decaying.

You are not alone (11/30/2016)

It sometime takes strange circumstances to realize things in life.  After "unfriending" someone in Facebook (I'll write about him a bit later), getting a text from a friend, and listening to the radio on my drive back home, I realized something during my meditation session in yoga: "I am not alone." 

I have been interested by that concept of being alone in the world for a long time; as a young boy my favorite book was "Nobody's Boy" by Hector Malot (free download on Kindle). The title in Dutch is "Alone in the world" and in it's original French is "Without a family".  You get the drift, I remember reading the book over and over and sitting there crying over the pages.  I read a few disappointing reviews on English translation, but others say it is still worth the read.

As a teen I have felt alone in this world.  It was a combination of circumstances, doing a lot of moving as a child, having parents who did not seem to care about us children, being shipped off away from the family for a half year to a different culture, getting to a high school where everyone had their own established groups and clicks, you name it.  I felt different and alone.  I mentioned it before, as a young budding photographer, my favorite hobby was taking pictures of empty park benches.  About a year ago I heard the same thing from an old friend who I grew up with on the islands in the Caribbean.  She felt different and alone as well after being transplanted to Switzerland.  

The latest empty park bench picture I took (yes I still take them).  I took this one May 19, 2016 in the Norfolk Botanical Gardens when I visited it with my wife and daughter.  So no I was not alone and I did not feel alone!  I liked the composition.

So here we are at a time in our culture that we surround ourselves with artificial friends on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (I do not have a Twitter account), and many more, but you get it.  I have written before about on how I rely on them during my travels <here> and <here>.  But it really hit home during this past year during the elections.  I have my political preferences, and I started wondering why I put up with the crap put up by the people that were opposing my candidate.  But I let it slide, I believe in the first amendment, right?  OK, my candidate lost, and I am part of the sore loser crowd.  I have a right to complain.  That's fine.  But the guy I unfriended, now more than a month later, is still trying to bash my candidate.  He is like a sore winner, get over it dude, your candidate won.  For one, he is just a distant acquaintance, a guy I supervised nine years ago, and then I have to look at that crap he keeps posting?  He should be celebrating that his candidate won, and not still try to trash my candidate.  It was then that I decided that I needed to surround myself with my true friends and not with fake friends.  Why anger myself over something like this?  At the end of the day those fake friends make you actually feel that you are alone, they are not there for you, they are there for themselves to accumulate friends and to aggrandize themselves; they are not worth your attention.

This realization together with a text message exchange with a true friend and lunch with another, culminated in that realization that I am not alone, but that I need to make a concerted effort to purge myself from the negative people that surround me (sorry Bob ... nah, not really sorry at all ... good riddance) and cultivate my current friendships and enjoy the people who have the political, cultural and social values that I have.  I know I have started this process in the past and will continue to do so (and at times when I let those toxic people back into my life, they turned toxic again; it is just a matter of time).  I am not purging myself from people who think different but only from those who are obnoxious about it and toxic, we need a healthy discourse and friendship.

These are my baby steps to my independence from toxic people around me and embracing of friends and like minded people. (Photo taken on 11/29/2016 at the Virginia Arboretum during one of my favorite things to do: a walk in nature). 

Laws and regulations suck (no they don't) (11/18/2016)

It should not be a surprise that as a teacher of regulations it helps me to spend time out in the field to see how regulations that I teach are interpreted, implemented, and enforced.  So last Monday I spend a day with an inspector in a locality that will remain unnamed looking at construction sites in town to look at what the builders do to comply with our regulations.

Inspector Jan

I came away from a day in the field amazed by the huge difference I saw between individual projects.  Be assured the inspector was great and the town I was inspecting in was really good too; I had issues with the builders/contractors.  In one project the foreman was cooperative, friendly and wanted to work with us, while in the other project we were definitively his adversary and he just looked at us from a distance with angry face.  Later on I learned that our angry player treated others the same way; he does not cooperate and you need to threaten him with shutting down his project, before he grudgingly cooperates. His project looked horrible and was littered with violations.  When we visited they had just torn out some concrete because it had not been pored correctly, even there he had done a shitty job. 

This is supposed to keep the sediment in the next time it rains (and it was supposed to rain the evening after we visited).

It is amazing the difference between these individuals.  Some are so against the government telling them what to do, and they fight it all the way.  The result is that they have to comply anyway, but all the fighting will cost them project time and most likely money.  For one, time is money, but all the after the fact clean up, the slowing down of the project because they have to correct or repair things, and so on, will all cost them money.  It is all so short sighted, but they are all standing on their principle!  In a previous post I wrote about catching flies with honey, this guy just acted like an asshole, and that attracts attention too, but not the long-term attention he would like.  He will have a reputation with inspectors for the rest of his career.  He will have cost overruns and it will never be his fault; always those damn regulators; it will always be the government's fault, those laws and regulations.  

So why do people hate regulations?  If you believe in the Bible, it was Adam and Eve who were the first people that did not believe in the regulations that God put in front of them and gosh darn it, they took a bite from the apple.  This famous bite still reverberates all over and we are living with the consequences.  But from what I see some people have been against laws and regulations throughout history.  Revolutions have been fought over this problem.  I am no philosopher, but I think a lot of people feel that they are put in place to control them.  Wake up call, the laws and regulations have no one specific in mind.  But without them society would probably be chaotic, there would be no traffic rules, there would be pollution everywhere, there would be no one checking who was bringing what on to airplanes, you name it.  As you can see I can give plenty of examples of laws and regulations that are essential to our safety, our life and health. 

Ruben's depiction of Adam and Eve's temptation (this picture is hanging in the Prado Museum in Madrid)

In our current political climate you hear conservative saying that we need to get rid of regulations; and that is what that one foreman’s behavior essentially was pointing at.  He did not care about environmental regulations and you had to force him to comply.  But these conservatives are the first in line to pass stricter and heavier regulations on the use of marijuana, on abortion rights, on euthanasia, or the death penalty. 

So now you say: "I hate bad laws and regulations, but I like good ones."  But who is the judge?  It all depends on who we listen to.  It is often said that if a lie is repeated often enough we will start believing it is true.  So it is the political pundits that we listen to on the radio, on TV, on the internet and maybe even in those books that we read; they will eventually convince us what laws and regulations are good or bad for us. 

Brooke Berger wrote an interesting article in U.S. News and world Report in 2013 entitled: “Yes, Regulation Can Make Government Better.”  Regulations often fail because they are so complicated.  People don’t understand them or the reason behind them.  In my teaching, I have been a huge proponent of explaining why we have certain regulations and I still find resistance.  “Just teach the law and tell them to follow it,” I am told.  To me this makes it: us the educated elite versus the non-educated masses, much like what we have seen in the recent election.  Simplification and explanation of the intent of the laws and regulations should not be a partisan thing; I believe that you get better buy-in when people understand how things affect their life and wellbeing.  However, repeated lies and biased interpretations are not constructive; they pin us against each other and don't help society grow.

Elections (11/8/2016)

So the election is over (for me), and yes I voted.  As of this writing, we do not know the outcome yet, and contrary to many predictions, the sun will rise tomorrow and the world will continue to revolve around the sun.  The problem may be that this country may be even more divided than when President Obama was elected president eight and four years ago, regardless who the president elect is.  That is scary to me.

I am sorry, another selfie.  But this is proof I have voted.  Here in Virginia I am wearing a shirt that I bought because I liked it, but people will stop me on the road complimenting me on my choice of supporting the University of Virginia.  It seems that this is their team's colors.  I was not aware of this when I bought the shirt, but now I get Virginia Tech alumni mad at me for not wearing a maroon shirt which is their color.  The world is so polorized it drives me crazy!

I turned U.S. citizen in 1994.  I have the correct skin color and if I keep my mouth shut, I can pass as any good red blooded (white) American (yes, I still have a funny accent).  I have not missed any election since turning citizen, and honestly I am fascinated by U.S. politics (often to my wife's chagrin).  I think a lot of immigrants can tell the same story; however, some are not as lucky, being of different ethnic background as I am.  These guys have been in the center of the attention, whether they liked it or not.  This election has pitted friends against each other; the educated “elite” against the working class white men; women against men; husbands against wives; black against white; it has polarized our entire society. 

I am afraid it is something that will not go away when the last vote has been counted.   Truthfully, I am not sure how we can heal; politicians in Washington are already promising obstruction and pigheadedness instead of compromise who ever will win.  I just hope civility and tolerance will win.

Having lived all over the world, I can attest to how important democracy is; how it is valued and how horrible it is to live under a dictatorship or under a military regime.  My parents grew up under the dictatorship of Hitler and I saw fanatics of both political parties claiming on Facebook that the candidate of the opposition was just like Hitler or would be just like Hitler.  They don't know what they are talking about!

I lived in Uganda under Idi Amin, where if you said anything bad about the president you ended up becoming alligator food somewhere along the Nile River.  The standing joke (or threat) was that the alligators had never been so fat as during Amin’s reign.  There was no opposition, discourse or democracy.  In Nepal, the King was a reincarnation of God and try to question God!  The dictatorship in Yemen where I lived was not much better; although there the local villages always seemed to rebel against government rule.  There was little compromise in all three countries that I worked in; it was always the dictator's way or the highway (or worse).

Where are all these countries now?  They are still in political turmoil, in civil war, poor, you name it.  I am a strong believer, that democracy, literacy, science and education in general is the only way out this vicious circle.  That is what made us what we are right now.  I am just afraid that in the current political climate we are descending to the same level as those countries I worked in.  Let’s prove me wrong America, let's compromise and work together!

You gotta please yourself ... on Training and Teaching (Part VIII) (10/26/2016)

This morning I had to think about the Ricky Nelson tune entitled Garden Party and the refrain:

But it is all right now, I learned my lesson well

You see, you can't please everyone, so you gotta to please yourself

and no I do not hide any overt sexual message in this quote and I do not think Ricky Nelson did either.

Going through the evaluations of the courses that I teach there is always one or two persons that misunderstand your intentions.  This last time an introduction and update of our program was seen as small talk and stalling until all the students were in.  I find it very important to let people know what is going on.

A few weeks ago we got these answers on course review questions:

3.  What did you like best about the course?  When it ended.

4.  What did you like least about the course?  Too long for value it serves for recerts.  Just another political example of ... <our agency> swinging their small sword with massive force.  Wasted hundreds in tax payer’s money for instructors + thousands in salaries and time of certified professionals.

5.  My comments or suggestions to better improve the course are: Do away with 18 credit nonsense of self-indulgence.

Thank goodness against that are 88 satisfied customers (aka students) so I am not worried, but in those cases Ricky Nelson's tune is very appropriate, and yes, the night before the class I pleased myself with a walk on the boardwalk of Virginia Beach following a pleasant dinner.  As many of you know, I am a "child" of the sea and nothing better than walking along the ocean.

I generally shy away from selfies on my blog, but what the heck.  I should try to laugh more or make crazy faces, but here you have it, wind blown and really having fun.

But I think there is a valuable lesson to be learned here.  No, you can't please everyone, and that is a good thing.  When I was in the public radio business (yes, I dabbled in that too ... <this> was the station we started) we always said that if we did not at least got one complaint per hour, no one was listening.  So having someone complain about the class means that at least that person was paying attention.  Honestly, you can do things to the best of your ability and feel good about it.  You gotta please yourself.  If you are not happy with yourself, you do a shitty job.

Social networking, booze and politics (10/18/2016)

Social networking is fun and as a family we participate heavily in it.  We share our daily life and we all like to show off and tell people how great we have it.  Even to day on Doctor Radio (SiriusXM) they were talking about it, and telling me that boys show the sports they participate in, their vomit; while girls show selfies or themselves with a group of girls smiling and they are more inward looking.  But regardless, we have it absolutely much better that all you out there.  

Not many of us share our grief or anxieties.  So now and then a friend post "I can really use your prayers today" or something like that, and then you know they are in trouble, but they really do not share much else.  You just have to guess.  Some do share more, but often do that in blogs such as this.  

I regularly follow a blog written by a woman who bares her soul.  It is sometimes gut wrenching and there is really nothing you can do but to read it, like it (as moral support), and maybe make a comment.  Most of these blogs are a form of self therapy (naturally they are an attempt of education and sharing as well); they can be and are mostly anonymous, in particular when published under a pseudonym; a few of your friends may know it is you, but many of your other readers do not know you from Adam or Eve.  I rely on social networking during my travels throughout the state and I like it in a lot of cases.  I even wrote about it almost a year ago in this blog posts <click here>.

But why am I talking about this today?

Going through my Instagram pictures, twelve of the 220 pictures I posted feature the booze (mostly beer) that I was consuming at the time.  People that like these pictures often feature pages with only beer postings.  

My Facebook postings aren't much better.  Although I do not post many drinking or booze picture, my latest picture is one of our visit to a microbrewery in Hampton this past Sunday (see the picture below).  Even on this blog, I wrote a number of wine reviews (I need to do a Virginia brewery review one of these days).  Yes, I consider myself a responsible drinker, but darn, I do advertise my drinking quite a bit.  

I took this picture this past Sunday when vising the Oozlefinch brewery at Fort Monroe in Hampton, VA

For young people they say it is bad for you to post all these things on-line, because human resources will find it when you are looking for a job and it may jeopardize getting hired when it shows you are a party animal or boozer.  They are probably correct, but that is not what is bothering me.

I am so amazed about the booze oriented society we live in and that we participate in.  Our family learned the other day that a dear and close friend of ours who we suspected of being an alcoholic was arrested for at least one DUI, had her license suspended and was caught driving without a license.  We are not sure if she was drunk at the time, but we know she is probably looking at jail time.  Last time we talked was month after her arrest and she was out on bail and she did not tell us anything.  So it looks like she does not want us to know or is afraid to admit to it; the only thing she told us was that she had lost her job but sounded very positive.  We did not know it then but we do know it now and are not sure what to say and what to do.  She does not believe in Facebook or any other social network and there is the rub.  She did not answer her phone calls and her only email address we had was through the job that she lost so we looked on line to see if she had another email address, but instead we found her mugshot and arrest record.  We are stunned and have been worried sick, but again we do not know how to approach her. 

I like my beer, my glass of wine, my single malt (not all at the same time or on the same day), but I do think publicly we are way too booze oriented.  Is social networking part of this increase focus on booze, is it a little like I have it even better than you; I drink booze that is more expensive than the stuff you are drinking; or I have more fun than you?  What ever!  But is it feeding our dependence on alcohol?  I wonder.  Also remember, one DUI and you could be without a license and that could mean without a job.  

OK people let's stop trying to poke each other's eyes out, but let's be genuinely social, interested and concerned with each other; instead of just indiscriminately liking what your friends post on Instagram or Facebook (sorry I do not do Twitter although I am being tempted in this political season).  It has already been a rough season of liking things or fighting with what were friends but now all the sudden you don't like them anymore because they are trying to push their brand of politics.  That is almost enough to push me to drinking.  So let's stop and be interested, supportive and nice to each other and have a real social network.

I promise that I am going to be less booze oriented on my social social networking sites and more supportive of my true friends.  An by the way, if you have suggestions on how to be supportive of our other friend in need let me know (but again we are not supposed to know)!

On Training, Teaching (Part VII) and Performance Reviews (October)

One performance review down and how many more to follow?  Not that it was a bad review; actually the review was pretty darn decent and I should be proud of it (yes I realize … some shameless self-promotion here), but you wonder what the use is of these annual rituals.  I always come out of these things with a bad taste in my mouth.  In private industry they were tied to promotions, raises and bonuses, and I did not believe in them back then; and let’s not talk about raises for State employees.

In a 2012 article in Forbes Magazine 2% of 645 human resources managers thought that performance reviews accomplished anything useful.  It got better, 57 % of the CEOs thought that their employees were regularly recognized for their hard work and contributions versus 9% of the employees who agreed with the CEOs.  In 2014 Josh Patrick wrote a blog in the New York Times entitles “10 Reasons Performance Reviews Don’t Work.”  Yes, I see myself in that.  I managed people and I had to review them, and it was very difficult to be honest without upsetting people or making them angry (No. 9); buy-in was always an issue (from them and from me in reviews of me) (No. 8); what follow up? (No. 6); I was never trained or given any guidance by HR in doing performance reviews (No. 3); and let’s not talk about results after a performance review (No.1).  The others did also apply, but you get the idea. 

This is a copy of a picture from an interesting article for people stepping into a performance review.  Guess what?  This is not what you do, although like me you might have felt like flipping it.

So what should be done?  I am in no way an expert or a human resources manager.  I only know what motivates me, that is: I would prefer regular feedback.  Moreover, that is regular positive or maybe constructive feedback and compliments on achievements.  But isn’t this the case for everyone?  But the forced ranking that is being done everywhere just does not work, even if it is hidden in a nice essay; you still have that ranking somewhere on the side. 

I have always been a strong believer in doing everything to the best of my ability and giving it the full 110%, in particular in my current job, where I get to teach and help to protect the environment.  I teach with the attitude that I succeed in my job today if I really educate one of two persons in my class today and they take what I taught  home and spread the word (or be a changed person).  Yes, I probably have 36 other students looking at Facebook on their phones while I teach and the remaining two probably cruising porn sites, but so be it; if I can really motivate two in a class of forty, I am happy.  That keeps me going and that is why I do the best job I can do.  I don’t need any performance reviews for that, my students write reviews of my classes at the end of the day and those are important to me.

Nature Deficit Disorder III (9/30/2016)

This weekend I am doing a presentation on Nature Deficit Disorder at the Adult Education Classes or what is called the Forum at my UU church, so I decided to put a summary of my interest/research in words in this blog.  This is the third entry on my blog with this title and if you look at the labels (keywords) there are 29 posts where I either mention the concept or somehow deal with the concept (that is including this post).  So here it goes.

Our church used this photograph of me in their announcement of my talk.  This picture was taken by Donna Briedé during our hike in Maine earlier this spring.

I guess we all know what the definition of nature is. But just in case, it is: "the physical world and everything in it (such as plants, animals, mountains, oceans, stars, etc.) that is not made by people" (Merriam Webster online dictionary).  So this includes the green and blue nature that I so enjoy and need!

On a recent morning on my way to work I drove by this lovely scene in Yorktown.  It is emblematic of the juxtaposition of the natural world and the man-made world to me.

Earlier readers of my blog know that I need to get out in nature to recharge, to get my sanity back, to get inspired, to meditate, you name it.  I am not the only one who needs it.  In the 1850s Henry David Thoreau wrote about the need to recharge (recreate) himself:

"When I would recreate myself, I seek the darkest wood, the thickest and most impenetrable and to the citizen , most dismal, swamp.  I enter a swamp as a sacred place, a sanctum sanctorum."

In the first paragraph of Moby Dick Herman Melville writes:

"Call me Ishmael. Some years ago - never mind how long precisely - having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off - then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me."

Reading this paragraph you see that the only way he can keep out of trouble or from killing himself (pistol and ball) is by taking himself to a ship and going out to sea!

So whether it is the green nature of Thoreau or the blue nature of Melville it does not matter nature helps with sanity.

This principle was known for a long time by man-kind, but first articulated by Richard Louv in 2005 in his book "Last Child in the Woods" as Nature Deficit Disorder.  The author related it mostly to children, but later on and in subsequent books also relates it back to teens and adults.  The premise of the theory (book) is that we are spending less and less time in nature as civilization has progressed.  This has led to some of the ailments in society that we are currently experiencing according to Louv, or maybe we could cure some of the problems by bringing people into nature or nature to the people.

Naturally, the world is much more complex than Louv describes it in his books and I try to make it out to be, here in this blog.  But every little bit helps, at least on a personal level.  For example, Louv describes how he saw an almost 180 degree change in a gang leader from west LA when he took him for regular hikes in the nature of southern California.  Studies abound on hospital patients that heal faster when their window looks out over a natural scene as opposed over a city/non-natural scene.  Office buildings now have atriums with plants.  People with nature scene wallpaper and screen savers on their computers appear more productive at work than those who do not.  So maybe there is something to that movement that tries to fill those empty inner-city lots with pocket parks and vegetable (victory) gardens. 

In his book "Blue Mind" Wallace Nichols writes about how science now shows that being near, in, on or under water can make us happier, healthier, more connected and better at what you do.  I wrote a previous post about it called "Sailing meditates me" (Yes you can click on the text and it will send you there).  Blue Mind is a fascinating book that takes you on a trip in neuroscience, ptsd, health, you name it, it is a fun and informative book to read.

But all shameless self promotion aside (and I do not consider myself a great writer or thinker), nature really does meditate me; in fact being in any type nature meditates me, like for so many others.  Some do it in groups or alone like walking meditation (click <here> for a great description of a walking meditation), or you can practice nature meditation <click here>.  Interestingly nature meditation can be done sitting or walking and I think it is nature meditation that I do when I walk in the woods or even when I sail.  My mind is usually empty or when I think of what is troubling me, I can easily divert it and go back to being in the moment and experiencing what is around me.  I have even read of guided nature meditation groups, but somehow I am not a group kinda guy. 

So lets stop being afraid of nature and embrace it.  If we cannot get out in nature lets bring it to us.  Lets push for the greening of our inner-cities, it will not stop the crime, but what do we have to loose?  As Louv puts it in a summary of his book "The term Nature Deficit Disorder refers to behavioral problem that has been seen in children and adults that can be almost directly related to the lack of exposure to nature.  A lot of these problems can be reversed by taking persons with these issues out into nature."  Maybe by bringing nature back to the people we can reverse some of the problems as well.

Roots (2) (9/18/2016)

Of late I have been fascinated by roots.  I wrote about it earlier in the year, and today I would like to revisit it.  That blog of earlier this year had more to do about how our present is rooted in our past, not bad for a biologist turned amateur psychologist I would think.  In the real world I hear they have remade the TV series called “Roots” and I constantly hear about the genetic testing to see what your roots are, but that is not where I want to go with this post.

Today I am really interested in the real roots, the things that feed plants.  Those are the ones that have fascinated me for a long time, and the interest has grown even stronger.  What has happened that sparked this interest?  Well, for the past 30 years I have wanted to grow bonsai trees.  I have had trees in training since that time or should I say I have had trees that I kept in benign neglect.  I have not managed them probably for the past 10 years, just kept them in their pots and they have not done much.  Finally this year, I somehow figured it was time that I spend some time with them.

My 30 year old Japanese Black Pine, as you can see the trunk is still really small.  The tree had almost died this spring, I root pruned it pretty severely and planted it in a new pot.  It seems to be doing well.  I wonder what next year will bring.

Well the plants were root bound.  It was surprising that the plants were still alive.  Moreover, it was not surprising that they had hardly grown and still looked like seedling after the 30 years.  After untangling the roots, I cut them some and repotted them in what I thought was a very loose soil mix and yes they are growing great (that is, compared to the past 10 years).  They really seem to like what I did to them.  Then I started to look on YouTube at various Bonsai channels and was amazed how others hacked at roots, combed them out, arranged them to make them look like a “natural” tree with spread out roots, you name it.  I hurt and I cringed when I watched them hack at the roots.  But the plants recovered and did great!  (Here is one of the channels I watch).  I was way too gentle. (And wow I just realize, going back to my first post on roots that I mentioned above, maybe cutting all or most of your personal roots may be OK in some cases; you can grow new ones and be fine).

An overview of my selection.  A lot of these plants are close to 30 years old.  I need a bigger table and bonsai pots, but we are getting somewhere.

We all know what roots do; they anchor plants and take up water and nutrients.  Well, there is much more than meets the eyes.  In my teaching I tell my students how roots assist with the decontamination of polluted stormwater.  It seems that the root tips shed sacrificial cells (a.k.a. root cap) as they push through the soil.  These cells serve as nutrients for microorganisms which in turn absorb the pollutants that are in the water and break them down.  The roots will grow longer and the microorganisms will run out of these sacrificial cells to live on.  Eventually they will die and now these pollutants that have been broken down by the microorganisms will be released and become available as  nutrients for the plants and be taken up by the roots that fed them in the first place.  Pretty cool eh?

So it is understandable that combining my interest in roots, my interest in bonsai and my background in botany with a vacation that included hiking in the woods resulted in some photographs of some cool root structures.  In bonsai we are always interested in roots over rock, or showing a nice radial root structure over the ground.  When working with ficus trees, it is fun to get aerial roots.  In other words, I have been walking in the woods being aware of roots.  Here are a few pictures of some roots I have seen lately.

We found this root in Bigelow Hollow State Park in Connecticut.  The soil must have eroded quite a but to expose this much root since roots do not typically grow like this over the air.  You only get to see them when the soil erodes away.  This tree does not look very old, which leads me to the conclusion that erosion was very fast in this area.

This photo was taken along the Appalachian Trail in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area (where we went for a 7.3 mile hike).  This one looks somewhat older but again the soil has eroded quite far.  Grated this is on a ridge, but still.  I love it the way this root has found its way in and around the rock.

During our visit to Pittsburgh in July we went for a hike on the Trillium Trail and tripped over this root structure of this massive beech.  Here again, soil erosion is very evident.

Catching flies or on being nice to people (8/22/2016)

Of late I’ve seen very little civility in public life.  I’ve written about it before in various blog posts <here>, <here>, and <here>, or look at my label section under tolerance.  Right now with the presidential elections in full swing there is at least one presidential candidate who’s every word is being followed; journalists are trying to figure out what outrageous thing he has said today or who he is making fun of.  His allies are desperately trying to urge him to stick to the teleprompter, but he is telling everyone that he is not going to change, that the people like who he is, as abrasive and uncivilized as ever.  I don’t need to use names, everyone knows who I mean, whether you like him or not.

While privately I may need to blow off steam so now and in public I try to be civilized and well mannered.  That is partially because I am in front of so many people.  Most of my readers know what I do for a living, or at least you think you do.  I am a teacher, an instructor; I develop courses and I travel throughout the state to teach them.  Hopefully I am a nice guy when I do that (actually, I am told I am an OK kinda guy).  

Ah, but I do more.  We have a certificate program and people need to pass an exam.  Once they are certified, they need to take classes that are relevant to keep up their certification and submit them to us.  I have the unlucky task to make sure that these courses are relevant.  This is where I often cannot be Mr. Nice Guy, and that bugs the hell out of me.

We have almost 4000 certificate holders and so there are a lot of courses to track.  Thank goodness we do this with 3 people, but I have to email the certificate holders when there is anything amiss.   I am finally at the end of 350 questionable courses that were submitted for review these past few months and let me tell you, for me this was the worst job I had in a long time.  Don't you just hate looking for things people do wrong?  Well I do!  I rather look for things people to right and compliment them for it!  I finished the other day and had three aural migraine attacks in one day after being migraine free for months.  Just coming down from the stress of it all.

So when I have to email them and deny them credit for a class, I try to do this with a smile on my face or at least in a nice email. (It still stresses me out.)  Why make them feel bad?  Some people don't care, like an ex-colleague of mine.  He was very hard nosed and  I'll call him Harry.  "Harry" I said one day, "be nice to people, it is easier to catch flies with honey than with vinegar." Harry looked at me and said: "But Jan, I don't want to catch flies."  The metaphor went completely over his head, he did not understand I actually meant people not, really flies.

The ultimate bug catcher, although he looks pretty docile, relaxed and friendly, he's a pretty fierce predator when you see him moving at night on our sliding door window.  This is how I see myself auditing people's re-certification efforts.

This is another way to catch flies.

But Harry is not alone, there are so many Harry-s out there.  The world is more and more lacking compassion.  Why is that?  Maybe part the explanation lies in what I read in this article about ecological economics.  In it Robert Costanza argues that the larger to difference is between income groups, the less cooperation we have between the groups, more competition, and less productivity.  The groups are spending a lot of resources on preserving what they have (sounds familiar, doesn't it? Our politicians are for sale to the highest bidders trying to preserve their wealth and class status.).  I think you could also conclude then that this is why we probably also have less compassion between groups, or just generally in this world.  We are more interested in protecting what we have than in helping each other.

Vinegar anyone?  It is an amazing world we live in, isn’t it?  

Is our blue marble turning green? (8/4/2016)

"Far above the world, Planet Earth is blue, and there's nothing I can do" 

- David Bowie -

This was the view from our cockpit the other morning watching the sun come up over the horizon during an early morning sail on the Chesapeake Bay.  The water in the Bay this winter was remarkably clean and clear.

But here on earth there is a lot we can do to keep that water blue and healthy.  Although it seems to get more and more difficult.  This week's newspaper reported that the drinking water in our area stinks and tastes bad.  Our water works blames the hot weather and the algae bloom in the lakes that supply our water.  It seems that the algae give the water a bad taste and smell.

The next questions hot weather and algae bloom, what can we do about that?

By now we should have all heard about global warming; it is real and there is probably not much we can do about in the short term.  But in the long term, yes we can.  We need to get serious about energy efficiency and renewable energy; it is not only good for the planet, but also good for our pockets.  But yes it is an expensive investment in the short term and the returns are slow to materialize (it will pay you back in so many years).  For example, we are saving $15.00 every two months on our water bill since we installed two $180 low flow toilets.  This means it will take us 48 months or 4 years to break even.

The hot weather has warmed up that wonderful nutrient rich water and made it the perfect breeding ground for all those algae.  Note the words nutrient rich!  How does the water get nutrient rich?  Oh yes, blame those farmers!  Well, not so fast.  We are to blame as well.  We over-fertilize our yards, or put fertilizer where it does not belong; people don't pick up after their animals; don't maintain their septic systems; dump their fall leaves in a ditch or in the woods where they don't belong; wash their car in the street and not on the lawn or at a car wash; or poor chemicals down the storm drain.  All that stuff eventually ends up in the streams and rivers where we all get our drinking water from or that end up in the Bay.  And the algae love it!  Look for the word eutrophication that's what scientist call it.  It means enriching the water with nutrients.

Last September we went on an evening sailing trip to watch the algae at night in their phosphorescent state.  It was quite the adventure and I wrote about it in this blog posting.  Who knows, I promised a few friends to take them out if it happens again, and I secretly hope it does not, although I love to sail at night.

But lets get back to the question, is our blue marble turning green?  The earth was first called blue marble by the space program on December 7, 1972, by the Apollo 17 astronauts when they took a picture of the earth on their return trip from the moon.  Subsequently, other satellites that flew much further from earth also looked back home and took pictures of the blue marble floating in space.  (I learned about this term from Wallace Nichols' book "Blue Mind" he actually started the Blue Marble Project). 

This is a copy of the original photograph taken by the Apollo 17 astronauts.   Picture was downloaded from NASA.

My question is with global warming and eutrophication, will the blue marble stay blue or will it turn the oceans green with algae, or will it turn the world green with people who think green and want to help save and protect the environment?  

That choice is ours isn't it?