Jim Grisanzio

Interesting talk from Nicole Foss on how she prepared her home and her family for a resource-poor future. Are you self sufficient? Are you part of a community producing the basics to sustain life? I most enjoyed the bits of Nicole’s talk at the end where she prepares her kids for their future. You will acquire practical skills. You will not go into debt. And you will only go to college if you get a full scholarship. Debt is a big deal to Foss. You don’t do it. Period.

“Before 3/11, we were totally unprepared.” Former Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Fukushima.

Glenn Greenwald talks with Noam Chomsky about American justice. The discussion is disturbing. Clearly, it’s upsetting watching politicians gut civil liberties on a daily basis in the United States, but even darker is the pervasive and care free support those politicians get from the general population. It’s remarkable. Americans no longer seem capable of even questioning this stuff any longer. Some people have checked out, granted, and some actually believe the propaganda in the media. But I have a feeling many others are simply afraid. And in a country where it’s perfectly legal for the president to kill you without any due process whatsoever, I guess I can understand. Where all this leads is obvious. The only issue is time.

Some images from Mobile Monday Tokyo this week …

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A quiet and lazy night on the streets of Tokyo tonight …

Some days in Tokyo just feel very dark …

Using violence against oppressive regimes specializing in violence is stupid. Gene Sharp.

“It’s not just that the government is strong. It’s that the people are weak. People have to learn how to regain their power … If the people are weak, if they don’t know what the hell they are doing, if they make major mistakes, if they are intimidated by the first threat or use of violence, they they are going to fail. It’s not all under the control of the dictatorial regime. It’s heavily under the control of the population.” Gene Sharp

They sport fashionable masks in Taipei …

I was in Beijing last week and was happy to find the hotel serving wheatgrass juice. Shocked, actually. I’ve never stayed at a hotel that had a ready supply of wheatgrass juice. So, I drank lots of grass. The juice was clearly cut with water since it was a bit weak, but it was better than nothing. No need to cut wheatgrass juice, though. Drink it full strength. And, yes, I know the grass below is rice. Close enough.

“To change society we have to transform ourselves. All the evil is not on the other side.” Grace Lee Boggs

Live long enough and you accumulate a few close calls. That’s life. I’ve certainly had more than a few of my own over the years. Tonight was my latest. One foot to the right and I’d be dead. Or at least seriously injured. At best, really pissed off.

I was walking home from the pool. I had a great swim. And it was a nice, quiet, cold night. I was on the sidewalk and had plenty of space around me. Just as I was about to start jogging I heard a car coming fast on my right. The next moment I heard a crash as the car jumped the curb. I turned in reaction to the sound and the car was right there. Just a foot away. Going fast. I quickly jumped to the left and hoped I could move fast enough. A moment later the car slammed into a tree right in front of me. The entire thing took seconds.

The elderly women driving survived but she was in a great deal of pain. She was taken away on a backboard. The car just sat there. Totaled. Smoldering. After the police and fire truck left I started walking home. The only thing I could think of was that I almost died. This could have been my day. Had she hit me she would have thrown me into a concrete wall. Or perhaps run over me entirely. Or crush me between the car and the tree. Not a good way to go. Can’t get it out of my mind. Your life can be gone in a moment …

It’s remarkable how just an hour of breathing mindfully each day can change your entire physiology. Try it. Sit in a chair for an hour and just breathe. Don’t think. That wrecks everything. Just breathe and focus your mind on your breath. In. Out. In. Out. See how subtle you can get. Now, the self discipline needed to actually do this is a big deal. In fact, most people can’t. They give up after a few minutes. For instructions, listen to Thich Nhat Hanh. He knows all about breathing. See the 16 exercises of mindful breathing (starting at the 56:45 mark). Also, after a while you’ll realize that in addition to sitting meditation you can breathe mindfully all day long. Sound silly? Not at all. Breathing is unconscious. People pay it very little attention. Make it conscious and things change. A lot.

WSJ: No More Angling for the Best Seat; More Meetings Are Stand-Up Jobs. Interesting article. How some companies are changing how they meet — by standing up! I like it.

Not many companies manage meetings well, though. I’ve worked at companies where managers started meetings at 5 p.m. and ran them for 3 hours and still made no obvious decisions. How that’s possible I’ll never know. No agendas, no notes, no AIs. Just people strolling in late, chatting on phones/pads, sucking on bowls of lattes, and ignoring people on conference calls. Just a pile of wasted time. One wonders where all the cash comes from to support such sloth. And why are these things always booked for an hour, too? Why not 20 minutes? Why not 40 minutes? Why not 10 for that matter? Also, sleeping in meetings tends to distract from efficiency, too. Now, I’m all for a quick mid-day nap to improve health and productivity, especially if you work around the clock on globally distributed teams, but dozing during meetings? That doesn’t work. Seep at your own desk.

Of course, all this sounds silly when compared to people doing more traditional work where the value of time is measured directly in physical labor and the visibility of stuff being built. Back when I was in the construction business digging holes for buildings (real buildings, I mean, not virtual ones), meetings were generally done standing up in the field in sorts of weather arguing with union bosses, vendors, inspectors, and customers. The mix of characters was always fascinating. Or you’d meet prior to going into the field in a dirty and drafty garage with trucks driving in and out. You had to focus because the ramifications were serious. In all my construction experiences I can only remember that wasting time was considered an extremely expensive exercise. However, in many of my tech experiences, I found it rare when people cited wasting time as wasting money. But I once knew an engineer who calculated the cost of each meeting based on who attended and the value of the subjects being addressed. He was the exception, though, not the rule. He always used to say that he’d prefer his engineers to be home sleeping instead of wasting time in pointless meetings. And I knew a CEO who’d dart into meetings and ask, “Who’s got the agenda? Who’s taking notes?” No response and he’d walk out. I like that. A lot. So, there are exceptions. Anyway, it’s good to see some techies standing up in the WSJ article. It’s good exercise.