Today is Earth Day

Today is Earth Day, and I found that the least gay picture out there is simply a picture of the planet. It's amazing how many people try to be creative all the same way. There are earths shaped like hearts, there are earths surrounded by recycling arrows, and there are simply the I HEART EARTH pictures.

I'll go with simplicity.

I'll also be riding my bike to work today. I used to ride to the main campus which is 7.5 miles from my house, but I haven't taken it to work since I moved campuses down south. 11.5 miles now. Wish me luck!

A Great Class

I should have put this up last night, but I was exhausted.

I have a class that runs from 7 to10 on Tuesday nights. Composition 2. A lot of people have to take it, but nobody would if it wasn't a requirement. For some reason, most people don't like being forced to write essays.

Last night, I really didn't have anything planned. I had imagined I might give them an in-class writing assignment and take them out one at a time to talk about their grades and the proposals for their final essays. But one student had the idea to talk about the proposals in class. Normally I wouldn't, but this class is perhaps the best one I have ever had as far as consistently intelligent discussions.

With seven proposals, we took up the entire class period--even having to cut the last student's proposal a little short--giving each student ideas, helping narrow thesis statements, and all in all proving that each topic was a good topic for an argumentative writing since between the eight of us, we had about eight different points of view.

Topics: Global Warming, Anti-depressants, Vitrualization of a company's computer network, Historical accuracy of the Bible, Long-lasting effects of the holocaust on the Jewish community, the nature of love, and Theraputic Cloning, ie, stem cells.

Every student left with a better understanding of the needs of readers and possible outside points of view. I wish I could do this in every other class, but not all classes are that open to discussion.

I also wish I could do this in every meeting I attend. Even in an educational setting, you might be surprised how much people beat around the bush and try to play the politics game. My students know that they have no chance of promotion or getting fired, so they were very open with their own ideas and open to each other's. I wish that for everybody.

Black Friday...Bwa-ha-ha-ha

Okay, so "experts" out there are expecting this holiday shopping season to be one of the weakest in decades. They say it with an aura of doom surrounding them, like not buying a Wii is one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse.

I couldn't resist.

But the thing is that this shopping season should be one of the weakest in decades. Not as a matter of predicting the collapse of the American Empire, but as a matter of common sense. Last quarter's GDP went down, the unemployment numbers were larger than expected, and layoffs are occurring every day. People simply can't spend money they don't have.

So forget the big expensive toys this year. Don't assume this is the last chance you'll ever have to spoil your kids at Christmas and go blow all your savings. Explain that you may simply have an "Imagination Christmas" this year or buy simple toys. When you don't have the cash to shell out on a big screen TV or whatever the new Disney Princess toy is, then don't. Cliche alert!!: You might just find out what holidays are really about.

Who Killed Creativity?

If this video isn't working, click on this link: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

I like to think of myself as fairly creative, and I believe my job and hobbies allow me to use that creativity. I encourage my students to use their creativity. My daughter is on the creative side. She picked names for her new cousin to be born in February: Leaf for a girl, and Door for a boy. She draws and loves to dance.

I hope that her creativity never gets educated out of her. May she always be prepared to be wrong. I hope I can encourage her whole creativity rather than see her get educated only in the head and slightly to one side.

The Ubiquitous Economy Blog

Okay, everyone else is saying it, so you'll find it here too for citation purposes. The economy sucks. Blame has been passed around generously from insurance companies, to mortgage companies, to people who took advantage of sub-prime mortgages, to President Bush. ("President" is now apparently synonymous with "Scapegoat".) It may belong to everybody, it may belong to only a select few. I had an adjustable rate mortgage on a house that--thankfully--got sold nearly two years ago. Does that mean that I'm partially at fault here? (Hope not.)

But the way of handling a slumping economy that borders on everybody's definition of a recession is not to throw money at people who already have it. In an episode of Family Guy, Chris (the fat son) joined the Young Republicans club and asked what they do. To which the girl he was really interested in replied, "We help those who already have the means to help themselves." This is the mentality that got us into this situation and now we're counting on it to get us out?

Here's the beef: Part of the risk of starting and/or operating a business is, believing it or not, going out of business. Few people notice when a small grocery store goes out of business, or when a small shipping industry goes out of business by virtue of gas prices alone, few notice. But when a large investment band or auto maker goes out of business? We just can't have that, can we? In the cases of the banks, the nature of their business keeps money flowing through the economy. I've come to the opinion that we don't really make money, we just launder it for everyone else with whom it comes in contact. This constant movement, often based on irresponsible spending on things we really don't need, keeps the economy moving. (Not spending is bad for the economy, but great for building personal wealth.) So there is some extended interest in keeping these banks going. I personally was not for the bailout, and apparently neither were my congressional representatives, but apparently we're all the minority.

But for the auto companies? How do we justify a bailout for those? (As of this morning, an auto bailout looks less and less likely.) I can't justify it. Yes, we posted a negative growth in the economy last quarter--before the October kerfuffle--and recently posted a 240,000 loss of jobs. The aircraft company--which keeps the economy of Wichita going--has recently announced nearly a thousand layoffs.

This is unfortunate, but it is also a big part of running a business. These misplaced workers may have to find other career paths. My generation does not have the job security of my parents' at all. The average person of Gen Y or Gen M will have an estimated 8 careers by the time we retire. Job security doesn't exist anymore except, apparently, where I work.

When the economy goes bad and people have to find new careers, they often turn to college. In Boeing Wichita's layoffs after 9/11, enrollment at community and technical colleges exploded. The very same could happen again. The economics teacher at my school likes to say that education is imperveous to a bad economy.

I sure hope so.

Knowing is Bliss

There's a great scene in The Matrix when we find out that Cypher (Joe Pantoliano) is going to play Judas and hand over Morpheus and everyone aboard the Nebuchanezzar--including Neo--to the agents. In exchange, Cypher will be plugged back into the matrix to go about his merry way. We see Cypher and Agent Smith sitting at a table in a fancy restaurant, Cypher devouring a bloody steak and he gives this great line:

"You know, I know this steak doesn't exist. I know that when I put it in my
mouth, the Matrix is telling my brain that it is juicy and delicious. After nine
years, you know what I realize? [he takes a bite] Ignorance is bliss."

Sure it's a bit cliche, but it's also an attitude reflected by every one of us on some scale or another.

I'm currently reading Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma, a book that traces four meals from harvest to stomach, including everything in between: chemicals, pesticides, soil additives, additives to corn before it's fed to cows (which are not made to eat corn), antibacterials, manure, rare strands of E. coli, diseases, bacteria, phages, and a number of other ingredients I won't try to pronounce. Some people who have seen me read it have laughed at the title, the followed with the perfunctory, "What's it about?"

"It's about all the processing that goes into what we eat," I say, to which they scrunch up their noses, furrow their brows, and ask,

"Why would you want to know about that?" Is this some kind of taboo? Is this a lesser-known part of Don't Ask, Don't Tell that nobody told us about?

This simple question implies the acceptance of the Ignorance is Bliss premise. True, it's not a happy story, the Big Mac, nor is an organic frozen television dinner (I never thought I would see those words together, either). But if we are what we eat, another cliche gem, then I would prefer to know what I'm eating. Here are some things that I've learned from the book already:

• Most corn harvested is never sold as corn. It is actually a low-grade starchy product that gets processed into nearly half of the chemicals you will find in pre-packaged supermarket food--including all the ingredients in soda (except the water).
• It takes about 10-15 acres of pasture to raise a head of cattle (1 bovine); this number is not an issue when the cattle stand at milking stalls all day and have corn dumped in front of them.
• Virtually all health issues of cattle--from stomachaches to infections--are as a result of a diet of corn; grass-fed cattle are much healthier animals.
• The USDA regulations for "Organic" actually set a very low bar. The fact that it's now a government word should be some hint to this. As a result, large-scale organic farms have very few differences from commercial farms that produce the cheap stringy stuff sold at Wal-Mart.

There are, of course more disturbing facts to go around, and much more disturbing, but here's the point: Who wants to know this?

Well, I do. I'm an academic by nature and have never been happy settling for That's Just the Way Things Are. I don't think ignorance is bliss; ignorance is ignorant. Knowing lets us make much more informed decisions about what we eat (instead of going for a Whopper every other meal), what we watch (instead of sitting in front of the TV for hours on end), who we vote for (instead of going straight down a party line), and a number of other decisions. The supermarket has literally hundreds of varieties of crackers. How many know the differences? How many know the difference between Big Organic farms and a local organic farm?

It's this not knowing that people count on, because most of us don't bother to know little things that nobody wants to know for sure. If we did, God forbid, we might be required to think as individuals instead of being hard-wired into a Matrix of ignorance.

So go on out and find out something you never knew about. The worst that can happen is that you come back a little bit more informed. You may never look at a steak the same way again.

I wonder if Cypher's digital steak came from a digitally organic farm where it was fed digital grass...

Common Sense Home Ec

Like most people, I had to take Home Economics in middle school. The class was mostly worthless. We learned how to cook things I could already cook, and we learned how to sew a pillow, a skill I have not since been called upon to use. (Sewing a button back on a shirt would have been infinitely more useful. And I can do that, too.)

But that's middle school. They teach the "Home" part of Home Ec without messing too much with the "Ec". The Ec is required in Kansas only for a semester during senior year. That's just enough time to learn to balance a checkbook, play a stock market game, and figure out that a home mortgage--even without an adjustable rate--is the equivalent of bending over, grabbing your ankles, and taking it in the wallet.

There has lately been an online boom of stay at home moms (SAHM's) who are connecting via the internet and blogging. They are looking up deals at supermarkets, finding coupons, and compounding coupons on top of coupons on top of money back rebates. My wife is one of these and today got over a hundred dollars worth of groceries for fifteen bucks. Be sure to check out her blog here.

To solve the problem of too many bills coming in, most families do only one thing: mom goes to work. It's actually considered a matter of equality, proving that a woman can do just as much as a man. Well I could have told you that without all the protests and women's books. But how much do two incomes actually help families?

The kids get raised by someone else; There is always a battle for who gets which car on which days; School plays and field trips get missed; The home is more of an apartment than a domicile; The home garden is replaced by a lawn that is seen as more of a status symbol than a piece of nature; Meals are prepared in a hurry or eaten out, negating the ideas of home cooking and family time. (And anybody who's been to Applebee's with two kids under age 3 can attest that it is more stressful than quality time.)

Okay, so most of these are more emotional reasons for staying home, but that's where this SAHM movement comes into play. Being a SAHM isn't about just being around for the kids. This is where the real world picks up to provide that missing link lost between sixth grade Home, and twelfth grade Ec. And too many people miss it.

These women could actually be called Home Economists, if that title would not require a degree of some kind. They actually make it possible for a family of 4 on a teacher's salary to pay off all debt, including the house, early. They do all the tasks of a 1950's mom, as well as all the tasks of a 1980's CFO, minus the need for greed (A visual: give Gordon Gecko a spatula). They re-define home cooking by trying some very tasty and healthy new recipes that have nothing to do with a casserole dish. I can eat well for a month without having anything come out of the microwave. And it's done on a dime. The kids are happy, I'm happy, and I notice my wife has done a job.

It seems that an easier way of making this link--aside from figuring it out one family at a time--would be to start the Ec part earlier in school. I came to this realization not only in conjuncture with the Homemaking activities, but if I had had any real concept of money and understood the value of what professional athletes make, I would have practiced so much harder.