Involves living in a city that does not require me to own a car. I hate driving. The city I currentlly live in is for all intents and purposes a pretty walkable city. Except that it's not. There are huge patches of dead zone. There is no pedestrian culture. And I bike sometimes, but because it lacks a pedestrian culture, I also think it lacks an understanding of bike culture. (Also, I am getting lazy in my old age, and this city is surprisingly hilly...not SF hilly, but more like long continuous hills. At least in SF I could figure out a route with the fewest and shortest hills. And if I got really daunted, I would get off and walk.)
Anyway, this site is cool, though its measurement of what constitutes making a neighborhood walkable is a bit different than what I would use as a measurement device. But then, I am a social science nerd who is constantly trying to show why data are faulty. (For example, the site includes items like Starbucks as markers of things that are within walking distance. I do not consider Starbucks' proximity to my home an attribute.)
Still, for future moves it may be useful. Though the truth is, I'm not sure I need an online tool to help me figure out if my neighborhood is walkable. I don't plan on living in the suburbs anytime soon...hell, NEVER. (Yeah, I fear famous last words...)
8.09.2007
8.05.2007
A comfort-food kind of blog
I'm sure no one else will find this blog that relevant or comforting, but it's one of my favorite things to read from someone I do not know at all. I'm not a big fan of other people's blogs, and I don't quite get why anyone would read other people's personal blogs (yes, I realize this is deeply inconsistent with the fact that this mini-insignificant blog even exists). But I love Jill's blog. I think partly because her reflections on the world feel and sound so familiar. It's like she's me in a decade (or so). And even though she admits her limitations and foibles, she sure makes it sound like she has her shit together. So, I think she might be my hero. (Not to mention she's a philosophy professor, but in a cool way, which gives me hope. I could never hack it in the academia of philosophy...I ran away to the social sciences.) I realize this could be border-line weird and creepy, but maybe those who have been blogging more consistently and longer than me, are used to strangers' fascinations and obsessions.
In other news, a panel I submitted a paper for was accepted for the annual academic conference. Strange how it actually made me feel bad instead of elated. This is a problem I've been having with my successes, that I end up feeling incredibly ambivalent, when I should be proud and excited...right? Ambivalence seems to be my mainstay emotion these last six months. It's like I can't handle emotions, so I seesaw between them, rather than just choosing one. It's exhausting, and sort of stupid, too. I used to think I was a cynical optimist, but I'm starting to think I'm just a pessimistic pessimist.
In other news, a panel I submitted a paper for was accepted for the annual academic conference. Strange how it actually made me feel bad instead of elated. This is a problem I've been having with my successes, that I end up feeling incredibly ambivalent, when I should be proud and excited...right? Ambivalence seems to be my mainstay emotion these last six months. It's like I can't handle emotions, so I seesaw between them, rather than just choosing one. It's exhausting, and sort of stupid, too. I used to think I was a cynical optimist, but I'm starting to think I'm just a pessimistic pessimist.
8.03.2007
arrrggghh
Really, when will it end? Stupid pharmaceutical ads that reduce women to inane stereotypes to get their "message" across. Seasonique's recent ad
Found this on the well-timed period, whose website I greatly appreciate. I don't always agree with her feelings about menstruation, but I am glad she's stirring up the debate a bit. She objects to the insistence of pharma and media that the placebo week of bleeding is still being called "menstruation" -- I object to the grab to keep hold of the contraceptive market by introducing "new" pharmaceuticals. I wonder if insurance companies agree to cover Lybrel (the no-withdrawal bleeding pill just approved) or Seasonique (4x a year bleeding). If so, then shouldn't they also cover more than 12 months of other oral contraceptives? (You can accomplish the same no-bleeding effect by taking any contraceptives without their placebo week, which a number of sources have pointed out.)
Malcolm Gladwell's article "John Rock's Error," from a number of years ago (2000), is an interesting explanation of how the Pill was developed and why certain attributes (28-day cycle) were standard for so long.
I have lots to say on this, but no time right now -- trying to finish the exams!
Found this on the well-timed period, whose website I greatly appreciate. I don't always agree with her feelings about menstruation, but I am glad she's stirring up the debate a bit. She objects to the insistence of pharma and media that the placebo week of bleeding is still being called "menstruation" -- I object to the grab to keep hold of the contraceptive market by introducing "new" pharmaceuticals. I wonder if insurance companies agree to cover Lybrel (the no-withdrawal bleeding pill just approved) or Seasonique (4x a year bleeding). If so, then shouldn't they also cover more than 12 months of other oral contraceptives? (You can accomplish the same no-bleeding effect by taking any contraceptives without their placebo week, which a number of sources have pointed out.)
Malcolm Gladwell's article "John Rock's Error," from a number of years ago (2000), is an interesting explanation of how the Pill was developed and why certain attributes (28-day cycle) were standard for so long.
I have lots to say on this, but no time right now -- trying to finish the exams!
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