I never say that I have an addictive personality. That implies that my personality is so wonderful that people can't get enough of it. And while that is, of course, true, it's not something I need to go around announcing. I don't know the adjective for what I want to say.
This is my way of saying that I bought a pair of shoes. Well, I kind of needed the shoes (they're low-heeled and black and replacing a very old, no longer supportive pair).
It's actually my way of saying that I have a holiday this week and am not sure what to do with myself. I don't have to work again until May 7th. I don't even have to think about work again until May 6th. Given that I've been working 150% of my contract teaching hours, not to mention the other stuff that I do, it's been a long time since I've had this much free time.
And how is it that I was even working that hard in the first place? I left America partly because of the workaholic culture. I felt like I'd have to spend most of my life working just to survive. Russians have (many, many) more holidays and work fewer hours per week than most Americans.
Of all the people I know back home, I assumed I was the least likely to get sucked into this stupid workaholic culture, due to my inherent laziness. But here I am, wondering if the place (which isn't even open for classes) is going to fall apart without me, or if my students are going to forget their English. I know that some of this is my own personality, but I think American culture is at least partly to blame. Why is it that Russians don't seem to have any trouble taking long holidays in the middle of the year?
Though I guess they just have different socially acceptable addictions. Work is better for my liver. Probably.
In other news, this happened back home: http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/30/highway.collapse.ap/index.html
Amazingly, nobody was killed, and even the driver was able to walk away with minor injuries, which means you're allowed to gawk at the pictures.
Here's a question for some mega nerd out there: how long does this section of freeway have to be out, thereby forcing some portion of commuters onto public transport, to create a net drop in air pollution? You have to account for:
1. the giant fireball which started the whole thing
2. the extra public transport being made available
3. the fact that some of the commuters will probably be driving longer distances instead
4. the air pollution created by the repair machines
If I weren't who's to say
14 years ago
2 comments:
Your mega-nerd list is so well thought out, that I find myself wishing that you had gone into science.
There's a whole "carbon-neutral" movement going on here, and it's driving me crazy. As a liberal science person, I'm happy to see people starting to take environmental issues seriously. But the way they're going about it! As an example, KQED, my NPR affiliate, had a pledge drive to help them go "carbon neutral." They're doing some good things like changing to energy saving lightbulbs. But then they calculated how much energy they'll still be using, and to make up for it, they pay to help reforest a deforested area in another continent. I have many problems with this: there's no depth to this. No one looks into, for example, how many employees might be able to work from home, or start using public transportation. Also, reforesting is a great idea, but rainforests are carbon neutral themselves. Patrick said it best when he said that they were basically buying alms.
If you think that photo of the freeway is bad, you should see the video of the fire. It may take months to fix it. Finding the steel alone is going to be difficult. Commuting to work for the rest of the year will be tough. Even though my commute is nowhere near the mess, there was a lot of traffic today because I'm along an alternate route.
Don't you think there's a difference between being a workaholic and feeling that your contributions at your job make a difference? I admit that I have trouble drawing the line at times. I hate the idea that many Americans feel the need to brag about their long hours. A couple of days ago, I heard people praising a company for its free snacks and free massages. I kept thinking that it would be better to help people have lives outside of work so that they can get their own snacks and their own massages. However, teaching is not one of those jobs that you walk in, work, and then walk out of.
As a good Catholic boy I have to correct your mother's version of what I said: they're basically buying indulgences, not alms.
I read recently -- I think in one of the many New Yorker articles about the impending ecological disaster -- that grasslands are actually better than forests, because forests are darker -- so they reflect more heat, I think -- your mother can correct me on that one if I'm misremembering.
There are lots of gawkers, apparently endangering themselves to stare at the freeway collapse. As a non-driver I had trouble picturing where it was, but it seems it's right by the Emeryville Ikea.
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