Nartai

"Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow"
- Helen Keller

According to your favorite local forecaster, this weekend may have just been a teaser, but it was a GREAT one! Sun sun sun sun sun, I love you sun! I picked up two or three new freckles. I had to purchase sunglasses as necessity, not out of vanity. We got cute little ski-burns up on the mountain. I used my porch for activities other than wiping mud from my shoes. I cracked the window on the car AND I turned the seater heater down to 4, instead of winter's permanent 5 setting. And don't people just look happier under a little UVA and UVB instead of H2O?

I had Raffi in my head all day -
anybody remember his sunny song?
"Oh mister sun, sun, mister golden sun,
please shine down on me!"

How did YOU spend your sunshine?

Decision By Numbers

When I was recently explaining to someone that I had a tough choice to make they said "hey this is what you need to do, take your two options, write them at the top of a piece of paper, one on each side and then write the benefits of each underneath, assign a number value to them and then presto, all you have to do is total up each option and... DECISION MADE.

I'm sure you've heard of this scenario, too, and honestly it feels a little like what a "life coach" might tell you to do. I can recall shortly after I learned this formula at a young age it became quickly apparent I could simply twist the numbers to alter the outcome, heck I even remember totaling up the numbers before and then simply realizing that's not what I wanted and doing the opposite.

So if it's not already obvious, I'll come out and say, I find this formulaic like system for making decisions lame and weak. It's akin to those secret stock pick formulas you can buy from infomercials, if it was ACTUALLY revolutionary and useful it would be THE WAY. I don't use it for two reasons, first it pretends, or rather I should say people use it to pretend

to be objective because they've applied arithmetic to their decision and somehow we think anything that has a number value associated with it is objective. Second, it supports the concept that every decision "should" or even can be objective.

Let me explain what I mean with an example, someone was recently talking to me about how they've seen this system used in an candidate selection process during interviewing. Let's say you interview a guy named Seamus who stinks. A saavy number decisioner might conduct their assessment assign their values and pretend to be objective ignoring the fact that secretly their entire assessment is shaded by their utter abhorrence of stinky people, while if you start with the idea that subjectivity and irrational biases play an active role in the decision process, whether or not you choose to recognize them, you can begin by identifying and evaluating them: "this guy reeks so bad I can barely breath, so I know it's going to be hard for me to accurately assess him" and move on, or at least be aware of every influencing factor on the process as well as making those around aware of it.

Making a decision isn't clean or neat. It's surely not a science so pretending to be able to plug your options into a formula and just come out with an answer is absurd. It's a complicated, messy, subjective and organic. We should definitely keep that in mind when we're looking for the "right" decision.

the blazers are en fuego

Two days this week that made me so happy to live in this city. Tuesday night was Ignite Portland (or en fuego as Adam kept referring to it). If you're not familiar with this it was described as ADD Toastmasters because it consists of a set of presentations in which presenters are only given 5 minutes to fly though a set of timed slides. If you missed it you can go to their site to catch videos, but they really don't do justice. my top three:

• Why Deutschland Loves David Hasselhoff - Mario Schulzke
  
• Where Does Imagination Go? - Chet Fiedler
  
• and How to be an Undercover Hooker - Jessica Bruder (this one
  was awesome because it was simultaneously absurd funny yet built from actual authentic Police education materials.
  

Wednesday the Blazers beat the Bulls. Rip City is rolling again because we're back to the trifecta of Blazers not sucking, the Blazers not going to jail, and the Blazers being an awesome and exciting team to watch. Being a Blazer fan I've seen some seriously rough times, and they just make this renaissance all that much better!

Cancun, here we come (with a little help from our friends?)

The Oregonian is holding its annual travel photo contest. The grand prize winner gets an all expense paid trip for two to Cancun. If you'll help us pick THE grand prize winning picture, we'll promise you a souveneir. Well, at least a postcard.

Let us know which picture you find the most compelling, the most amazing, the one that's sure to win. Or, if any are particularly underwhelming, please share that too, so we don't embarrass ourselves.

Pic 1: The Temple Door at Harhorin, Mongolia - (Chingiss Khan's ancient capital)

Pic #2: Blizzard at the Masoleum of Khoja AhmedYasawi, built 1389, in Turkistan, Kazakhstan

Pic #3: Ankor Wat, Cambodia

Pic #4: Mosque in Buyant Soum, Olgii Province, Mongolia

Pic #5: Frozen horse at -45 in Uvs, Mongolia

Pic #6: Bar in Mandalgovi Province, Mongolia

Want to enter your own? Check out contest details at http://www.oregonlive.com/oregonian/stories/index.ssf?/base/travel/120061771892190.xml&coll=7

Click on comment and tell us which one YOU would vote for if you had the power to send two Gardners, I mean people, to Cancun :)

Ruff, that's how I blog it

Honestly, dog blogging, or dlogging as some pups are referring to it these days, is in a sad state. Is it a result of the current administration? Possibly yet another fallout from the Bush's feline like tendencies?

If I read one more blog about the pleasure of gnawing through leashes, barktarding at your reflection in the window or summarily ripping stuffed animals and lying around their soft cottony entrails I'm going to pack up my doggy toys and hitch a ride to Canada.

Apart from being a pathetic excuse for Josh and Nicora to show my impressive photogenic qualities I want this dlog to really bring people back to the heart of the world from a dog's perspective.

Humans, take it from a dog, through a dlog - the heart of the world is in relishing the little things, the plain little things. Simplicity. One toy. One soft bed. One type of food and one drink. Two humans to give you a little love now and then. The softness of grass, and the squishiness of mud between the toes. Or claws. Whatever you happen to have.

Barking at nothing, slashing through innocent stuffed animals - that is a subject for the idle minded. Come now, dogs of the world, let's dig a little deeper, ponder the truth, and share it with our fine two-legged friends.

If you spend your time on four legs or two or maybe even try and split your time equitably, hit that little comment link below and post a little something from your perspective. I especially want to hear any ideas from my pawed friends on how their e-life is going.

ruff!

Night Skiing Doesn't Suck

This week was pretty rockin. Saturday my buddy from college, Mike took Amtrak down from Seattle. We met up with Bob and chatted primary politics and the free market at World Cup, hit the ridiculous car show and then caught some local bands at The Doug Fir.

On Wednesday Brandon, Grace, Nicora and I went night skiing up at Skibowl. The first few times I ever went night skiing I wasn't a huge fan of it. It was cold, dark and seemed like a waste considering the snow kept getting icey and you were limited by what was illuminated. Maybe that had something to do with being at Meadows because since last season I can't get enough of it. On Wednesday we all met up at Brandon's around 4:30 and hit the road up the mountain. With just a short stop at Subway we are on the slopes by 6. The conditions were soft and powdery and we had the entire upper bowl to ourselves. With zero lift lines Brandon and I hit upper bowl from every different angle all night long. At around 9:30 we all packed back in the car for a short ride home with no traffic and were in bed by 11 that night. Oh and did I mention it's only 25 bucks?

And then to top it all off I got a call from our friends who are in Burkina Faso in Peace Corps.