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Ideas

Selling Out

Celebrating Democracy

During the election season candidates put up signs on public right of ways to get your attention. Most people hate these signs. I have learned a way to like them and so can you. Just start seeing them in the same way that you see Christmas lights. They are a celebration of the Christmas season, Think of election signs as a celebration of the First Amendment and the election season. That these signs can exist at all is a testament to our democracy and the… Read More »Celebrating Democracy

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Foolish Ideas

“Some ideas are so foolish that only an intellectual could believe them, for no ordinary man could be such a fool.” George Orwell

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Lessons from History

“That people do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of the lessons that history has to teach us.” Aldous Huxley

Grey Cars

If you are not different you don’t exist. If you are too different you are scary. Battleship grey is the trendy color in cars Why ask why. Fashion is unpredictable.

Writing Well

“When I am writing well, it’s as if nothing is going on at the intellectual level. It is all happening at the emotional level.” George Saunders, from A Swim in a Pond in the Rain

Traffic Circles Part Two

Last week I wrote a blog entry about traffic circles and my discovery of why I dislike them. Alert reader Andy B. Directed me to a podcast on this very subject on FreakonomicsRadio. It was packed with real data and information. For instance did you know that traffic circles save lives, because they make you drive slower, but increase property damage because there are more small crashes at them. After a week of navigating the traffic circles here in Bend and listening to the podcast… Read More »Traffic Circles Part Two

Traffic Circles

Bend, Oregon might be the traffic circle capital of the United States. We are in Bend so I’ve been driving through dozens every day and thinking why I don’t like them. I have never been a big proponent of traffic circles. Mostly it was opposition to the new. It seemed like traffic signals and stop signs work fine. Now I have discovered a real objection to traffic circles vs traffic lights. At a circle you don’t have a chance to wait, regroup and relax. You… Read More »Traffic Circles

Email Zero

Sometimes an impossible sounding idea becomes a wonderful reality. eMail Zero is such an idea. The idea is to get your eMail inbox down to zero every day. How is this possible? There is a limited range of options that you can do with an email: trash it forward it respond to it file it or schedule a time to respond by adding it to a calendar. Thanks to Rebecca for convincing me to try this. It makes me feel much more organized and less… Read More »Email Zero

Group Think

“If you only read books that everyone else reads you will only think what everyone else thinks.” Fran Lebowitz

A Door

“A book isn’t supposed to be a mirror. It’s supposed to be a door!” Fran Lebovitz