Mail delivery

Does anybody really care that the Postal Service is saying that, due to costs, they may have to change delivery from 6 to 5 days a week? Where I grew up, I think there were people who didn't even get delivery they were so remote. They just visited the post office there in town and collected a week's worth of mail. In fact, I don't think it would negatively affect me if I just got a week's worth of mail at a time. Anything less frequent than that, I could imagine might cause problems. I get so little important mail as it is right now.

Under/Over

It's an interesting situation for me. I'm not sure whether there is causality, correlation or coincidence. I need to dwell on this more.

It seems like whenever I am considered "successful" in my work (whether I feel successful or not does not seem to matter), I feel like I am under-challenged, underwhelmed and/or under-stimulated by the job.

My boss seems to like me and my work but I feel like I'm not doing enough. I feel like I'm failing. I frequently wonder if I'm going to be fired or "let go" because I'm not doing enough or due to some slightest of miscue.

The word "may"

I think the use of the word "may" should be outlawed.

Yes, things may happen but they may NOT. What probability do you assign to this occurrence? Yeah, the world may change but it may not. Somebody may do something or absolutely nothing may change.

TRAINS

I was thinking about trains this morning. I still think it is an insult to civilized living that we have to take planes or drive our cars so much. I was reading about the high speed rail network in Europe, how it's expanding yet again into more of Spain and Italy.

In my ideal train dream world we'd have (at least for stage 1) the following routes:
BOS->NYC->PHL->BAL->WDC (to points south in stage 2)

maybe NYC->Montreal, NYC->Buffalo->Toronto, DET->Toronto, Buffalo->PIT->CLE->DET->CHI, CHI->Milwaukee->Madison->Minneapolis ...

I don't know how you'd hookup Indianapolis, Cincinnati to St. Louis but definitely CHI to St. Louis.

Maybe DC->Raleigh->Charlotte->ATL, ATL->New Orleans->Texas and definitely hookup
SF->LA->SD and maybe LV->LA and PHX->SD and maybe hookup the California routes with Portland and Seattle into Vancouver.

Thoughts

Are my eyes tearing up with joy and hope or is that my cynicism melting?

Obama means King's dream realized?

There's a survey out today that says some high percentage of African-Americans say that through Obama gaining the presidency, Martin Luther King's dream has been realized. Also there's a lot of writing amongst the punditocracy equating the two.

I dunno. I'm not an MLK scholar or anything but I would think that MLK would not want to denigrate or lower the value of Barack's achievement but also speak to the poverty, lack of opportunity, lack of EQUAL access to all that the US has to offer that African-Americans currently experience. He might also speak to the violence, the social conditions, the police oppression, the environmental racism, and the racism in general that still permeates society.

I don't think MLK's dream is a reality yet.

Rewilding America

I was reading an article over lunch today about a concept from some radical conservationists known as "rewilding". Basically what the idea is to introduce or reintroduce animals into habitats where they don't exist now (for many reasons) but could exist. Mostly this is thought of for species who are tremendously endangered or could be endangered by climate change and global warming. So take a "colony" of these animals and move them to a more hospitable place where they may survive and thrive.

This is interesting to me, especially living in such an urban area, because I wonder what used to be here before all of this urban activity. I wonder what it would look like to have many more animals, maybe even some more dangerous ones, living amongst us. Currently we do have mountain lions living in the hills of both the Peninsula and the East Bay. They may be in other nearby locales, too, but I can't remember.

Green needs to be more!

We need to make sustainability or "green"-ness more than what it is now. It needs to encompass efficient design and manufacturing, cradle-to-grave-to-reduce/reuse/recycle-to-cradle responsibility, efficient supply, efficient distribution, efficient use.

Suicide numbers at the Golden Gate Bridge

According to today's SF Chronicle (who got their numbers from the Golden Gate Bridge District), suicide numbers at the Golden Gate bridge are going up.

2004 20
2005 21
2006 29
2007 33
2008 34

Are people trying to get their suicides in before the suicide protection barriers are built?