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Good 1.11.11 and happy new year!
I hope you've had a great holiday and had a chance to renew and relax. I'm having a sense of new beginnings this year - and brightness. Though world events seem to do their best to invade one's consciousness and press down with their weight, it's good to remember that our lives our our own, and that we determine how good, sunny, cheerful, sad, thrilling, exhuberant, boring or whatever - we want them to be - it's our choice. Our mood, temper, physical shape, relationships - all our choice.
I had hoped to do something grand today for 1.11.11 - a year in review of some of the Elevens of 2010, but I've got some other fish I'm frying right now. I'm working full-time at a digital agency in downtown PDX; doing strategy meetings around my legislation to move Oregon to an opt-in system for phonebooks - SB 525!; gearing up for a tree planting in Irvington with Friends of Trees on Saturday, March 12th (come join me!); discovering new places to dance like Muse which Heather Beckett has started up on Sunday mornings at the Bossa Nova Ballroom; supporting friends' projects; and trying out a little weightwatchers.
So, here we are. The start of a new year. What shall we make of this year - the 11 of the century? I'd like to see a shift - to a more peaceful world, and one that starts taking more seriously the changes that we'll have to make if we want to continue living here. I know it's going to take change - and our country does not seem in the mood to make that change. The funny thing is, we'll probably be a lot happier in a world that uses less resources - less freight moved, less oil burned, cleaner air and water, more other species happily swimming/flying/crawling/slithering nearby. But we're holding on tightly to the american dream - the marketing dream: that more stuff = more happiness. As I've started to move toward less - less stuff, particularly - I've noticed that I have more attention for what really matters - friends, love, relationships, good food, movement, and time together to enjoy all of that. That's what makes me happy. I imagine others might have the same experience - that if our communal focus switched from stuff to ourselves and each other we might need a lot less stuff and money/work-time to buy it.
My intention was to keep this short, so I'll sign off now. I hope 1.11.11 is treating you well. Enjoy this day and this year and thanks for being part of my life.
Sincerely,
Albert
PS - the benefit concert for my friend, Steve Bennett, went really well. Photos here. |
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| Improving the world via what we share on social networks |  |
Here's meme I've been working on for the past while. You know how people tend to publish things or share things on Social Networking (SN) that are stupid, or highlighting stupid things people do? for instance, today I saw one which showed a miss america teen segment where the young woman couldn't answer a question without making a fool of herself - or, there are stupid human tricks, pet tricks, etc. more |
| The Oregon Ducks lost yesterday
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It was a well-played game.
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| | An open letter to the far right |  |
This seemed like one of the most accurate responses I've seen to the shooting recently in Tucson, Arizona
And, speaking of the image above, there will be an interesting workshop called Humandala this Saturday, 1.15 @ Awakenings in Portland - ping me for more info. |
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 Good things that friends are doing: - Cheri Anderson has started a neat new business called Be The Gift - check it out here.
- My friend, Aaron Trotter, is up to his fifth or possibly sixth printing of his amazing Portland Places Card deck.
- Woodworker and friend, Eric McClelland's Gostools are becoming more and more popular with every sitting. At his birthday recently, there were new songs and cheers performed for the Gostool.
Saludos muy atentos,
Albert Kaufman
AlbertIdeation
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