Getting more out of life

Enjoying one's work seems to be part of it.

MIT OpenCourseWare: Sloan School: System Dynamics Self-Study Readings

The kids here enjoyed their work with complex systems, staying late after school to see how the simulations turned out.

TweetStats are awesome.

Movie websites courtesy of Henry Jenkins:

• Documentaries at Snagfilms.com, including a three-minute newsreel on the Moscow Cat Theater
• The Auteurs
  

Mindtangle, category "brains:" Blue Monochrome, African fractals, moving in time to repetitive beats makes you smarter, and more.

Concussion

Gaaah.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concussion

"The forces involved disrupt cellular processes in the brain for days or weeks."

I think I have a mild one. The feeling is really weird, and subtle. I thought I was "hazy" all last week because I was just returning from vacation. I have historically had difficulty concentrating when just back from vacation, especially the second day. This lasted all week and was different somehow. Caffeine didn't do anything for it. I struggled hard to function. I have also been experiencing mild intermittent nausea.

My neck and lower back were hurting too much last week for me to really notice anything else, though. I got some bodywork on Wednesday, then Friday afternoon went to a chiropractor. After the chiropractic appointment, I felt totally relaxed, neck and sacrum felt aligned, and my brain felt like it was in a pea soup fog.

Saturday I had a relaxing day and did very little thinking. Sunday I went to the Huntington Gardens with some friends, which was fine -- again, very little thought required, and it felt like therapy to be around all the plants. Monday morning I went jogging, then to work, where it finally occurred to me that haziness plus nausea equals probable concussion.

At the urging of coworkers, I went to see an MD, who had me get a CT scan. The results come in tomorrow. While driving, I felt like I shouldn't have been driving; my concentration was affected. When I got home, I felt very groggy and actually fell asleep in the car outside my house, waking up half an hour later covered in drool. I went to bed at 4:30 PM and slept for the better part of the next sixteen hours.

Why am I suddenly knocked on my ass now, after a solid week of non-knocked-on-ass-edness? I'm staying home from work today. My head hurts and my cognitive functions feel disjointed somehow: they're all there, I'm all here, but there have been lots of tiny blips and glitches and slownesses, like losing track of time or forgetting to prepare for a meeting or having a hard time making a decision. This is not normal. It's like I'm not sober, except I haven't had anything to drink.

When I fell, I landed on the back of my head, which I think means the main impact to my brain would have been from the prefrontal cortex, the front part, knocking into my skull. I have indeed noticed a little bit of degradation in planning and decisionmaking abilities, which reside there in the front. The overall "haze" or "pea soup" effect is hard to describe, to the point where it's hard to believe it's even there. It's like one of those optical illusions where you try to look at the gray dot and it disappears, but it's the most specific thing I can point to as far as a symptom. That, and the occasional nausea, and the feeling that as long as I stay put, I'll be fine.

Music acquisition: effects of enculturation and formal training on development

"Enculturation of metrical structure, they argue, results from biological connections between movement and auditory areas of the brain."

And the vestibular system gets the credit for that.

Very important study, very cool.

I Love You, Music Brainer Blogger

Comunidad Segura

"Networks of ideas and practices in Human Security"

http://www.comunidadesegura.org/index.php?q=en

Protecting us from ourselves.

DFA and Vanguard Funds

Here's a guy making the case that Vanguard is better for investors than DFA.

Here's a more detailed analysis from Altruist FA. AND they have a fantastic page on the benefits of fee-only investment advisors!

Mistress Jezebel

I love this lady, and I don't even know her. I have only seen her a few times at the gym. First impression: who's that?! Dayam, mama! Second impression: this poster from the locker room:



Lastly, the Google: her ModelMayhem and Myspace profiles, and a nice shot of her at Easton Gym.

I have only to go and talk to her. I think I get two free personal training sessions with my gym membership. My trainer has arrived.

Tumblr?

It's been brought to my attention that what I am doing here may not be blogging so much as Tumblelogging. Hmmm..... that may indeed be the case. Luckily, only two people know about this blog, so it shouldn't be too hard to convert it. I'm thinking about it.

My tumblelog. TBD!

The Smoke Fairies

What a cool band name, and a lovely little bit of music writing, including a discourse on women guitarists.

Music Brainer Blogger, Toronto

Yes, yes, yes. I think I'm in luuuurve AGAIN!

Music Brainer Blogger

I want to read every single thing on here. Awesome.

Event: Voce

I'm excited to be attending the Voce program of chakra toning tonight with Frankie Lee Slater, author of Art of Living and Circles Uniting. Not clear whether Mark Pesce of Future Street Consulting is going to be there too. I'd like to meet him if he is.

-------Addendum, Post-Event

Well, Mark Pesce wasn't there, but Steven Coates and Phil Harrington of YOUBLOOM.com were.

The event was pretty good. My favorite part was the chakra toning. Picture fifteen people seated in a circle in a darkened living room high atop a hill in Hermon. We begin with the root chakra, and sing "Ah" for seven breaths while visualizing the color red and bringing our awareness to that area of our bodies. On up through the colors of the rainbow:



And it's pronounced "vo-chay." Italian for "voice."

Obituary: Henry M.

H. M., an Unforgettable Amnesiac, Dies at 82

We studied this guy relentlessly in MIT BCS. Suzanne Corkin was my UROP supervisor.

Rest in peace, Mr. Molaison.

Music and the Developing Brain

Ooh! Ooh! The Developing Brain: Birth to Age Eight by Marilee B. Sprenger. Whole book available free. Looks like a good one. Very important. I want to come back here and read more of it.

The Developing Brain: Nurture And Nature by philosopher Martin LeFevre. I like how he reminds scientists not to get too hung up on the "nature" side.

"A happy friend is worth about $20,000"

Don't know how I feel about that... Happy, I guess?

Happiness is contagious, study finds

Don't Try This at Home! Self-Directed Investing

This guy pretty much kills it. Awesome video, awesome quote.

"No one in his right mind would walk into the cockpit of an airplane and try to fly it, or into an operating theater and open a belly. And yet they think nothing of managing their retirement assets. I’ve done all three, and I’m here to tell you that managing money is, in its most critical elements (the quota of emotional discipline and quantitative ability required) even more demanding than the first two." - William Bernstein

Playing for Change

Mark Johnson's beautiful international versions of Stand By Me and One Love. Go Mark go!

(He went all around the world recording street musicians performing these songs, then mixed them together so they're all playing in harmony. I cry every time I watch these things.)

Stand By Me:



One Love (song starts in the last two minutes):

Lisa Ann McCall

Where can I go for massage education in Austin?

Lisa Gold recommends Lisa Ann McCall in Dallas, 3.5 hours away.

To be continued/researched.

Pandiculation

Word of the day!

Definition: the act of stretching and yawning.

The image, from baillement.com.

Thanks, Lisa.

Scott MacLeod's Anthropology of Information Technology & Counterculture

A kindred spirit with ties to Harbin Hot Springs: Scott MacLeod.

I'm particularly interested in his guidelines for practicing loving bliss vis-à-vis practicing a musical instrument.

Memories May Be Stored on Your DNA

Oh God, that's beautiful.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20026845.000-memories-may-be-stored-on-your-dna.html

Humanizing the Management Profession

I am in luuuuuurve!

The Social Science Research Network presents free abstracts of papers from the IESE 1st Conference on "Humanizing the Firm & the Management Profession" 2008.

The titles alone are enough to make me very happy.

A word I like:

SCANDALOCIOUS!!!!!!!

Although I'm not necessarily gung ho on the concept it represents.

The Latest from Paul Graham

On the fall of large organizations and the rise of startups.

http://www.paulgraham.com/highres.html

Makes me ask myself, why do I want to start my own business? What is "my own business"? When I try to picture it, I see a combination of two things:

1. Chellie Campbell's "dolphin" idea, based on Douglas Adams: muck about in the water having a good time. Being surrounded by "my people," the "dolphins." Those who propel and inspire me, whose energy I enjoy, who are generally smart, helpful, competent, and productive.
   
2. The "handler" idea: if you want something done, give it to a busy person, and they will handle it. Relates to the OHIO principle, Only Handle It Once.
   

I like the idea of handling things productively and being in fluid, bouncy, mucking-about-in-the-waves-like communication with people I love. That's all I've got so far.

One for the Hire List: Imagistic

The best business advice Michael Weiss ever received: Get More Business Than You Can Handle. Based only on brief phone contact with Michael, I would definitely hire him (a.k.a. do business with his company) given the opportunity.

Today's Farmers' Market Haul

Fruit:

• Red supersweet watermelon
• Mutsu and Granny Smith apples
• Thompson seedless grapes
• Persimmons

For dinner:

• Rocky Canyon Farm bratwurst
• Sauerkraut
• Brussels sprouts, potatoes, and torpedo onions (to be roasted together)
• Mizuna greens (to be added to these: cheese from Whole Foods, maybe a goat cheddar)
• Whole wheat rye bread from teh Bezian (to be served with raw butter from OPDC)

Why Poor Countries Are Poor

Corruption and an astonishing series of negative feedback loops, it turns out.

http://www.reason.com/news/show/33258.html

The system dynamics folks over at PA Consulting would have a field day with this one. Too bad Cameroon can't afford them... maybe that's where the World Bank should step in.

(thanks, globalchange.umich.edu, for the spaghetti diagram image)

Work That Doesn't Feel Like Work

I decided that's going to be my attitude today (and indefinitely). Just because I am at work doesn't mean it has to feel bad.

Things for my Someday List

Learn to identify constellations in the night sky:

http://www.quietbay.net/Science/astronomy/nightsky/

Figure out how to be a Twitter power user (is that pathetic?):

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/hiner/?p=770&tag=nl.e101

Most Generous Philanthropists

BusinessWeek's Top 50 list. David & Suzanne Booth come in at #34.

Henry Jenkins Is Moving to USC

Here's his goodbye letter to the MIT community.

http://henryjenkins.org/2008/11/professor_jenkins_goes_to_holl.html

Explaining Austin to a Frenchman

"As long as you don't buy a ranch and play around with guns," says my Parisian former colleague.

Cute. Provincial. Earthy. Vibrant. All words I've used, or heard used, to describe Austin.

Part of me wants to say, "What's wrong with ranches and guns? Bang! Bang!"

Part of me wants to send him some links as counterexamples, but all I've got right now are Austin del Sur, Mary Street, Willie Nelson's bio page, and Austin Live Music dot com.

Sooner or later I am going to cry. But first, I will go read up on SXSW.

"The music that we make will heal all our mistakes and lead us.
The music that we hear is always standing near to feed us." - Morcheeba

So, yeah. I think I am going to move to Austin.