I should probably make a witty remark about the Scarecrow. But I

Did you know that the brain only weights 2% of body mass but consumes over 20% of the oxygen and nutrients we intake?
Sharp Brains has an interesting article on the 10 habits of highly effective brains.

It’s sometimes sad for a five year old to see trees removed when they are alive and well.

There is a lost sense of nostalgia from eating a hearty meal that Yoopers would enjoy after rugged yard work; though there shouldn’t be.

Advantages of mowing a wet lawn.

When I was younger I was charged with mowing my parents lawn every week.  In Michigan, at times during the summer it can often rain for days on end.  A few times when it had been raining for four or five days the lawn would grow higher than my father liked.  This of course was my fault, for not mowing the lawn in the rain.

 

 And the lecture would likely follow during the rain as well.  “Right, wrong, or in different” he used to like to say, which was usually the sign that logic had either gone out the window or one of us would be over analyzing to further analogize the conversation’s points to our advantage.  Seven years later, and a few thousand miles away I still mow my own lawn.  They say it rains a lot in Seattle.  And while I still feel this is a stereotype used to keep outsiders away, I do find myself having to mow the lawn after a fresh rain.  But I have found that when your lawn has patches of dirt in it like ours, the water works to my advantage keeping the dust down.  For the first time today I’ve come in from mowing, not covered in a dusty dirty face.  No shower; no Netty Pot needed.  I think I will from now on go out of my way to embrace the rain, immediately cutting back all it has helped to grow.

Zen and the art of mowing the lawn

5 things you should know before mowing your lawn

I put no thought into this at all.

drawing

Originally uploaded by c.williams40

Which is exactly how I’m supposed to do it, someone told me.
It’s hard not to put too much thought into anything.

Because summer ends sooner this far north.

A three mile walk along the Snohomish, picking blackberries along the way.

An empty table for two.

Photo by Private Skylark

We should eat dinner without the kids more often.

Contractor scams $20.5M from the Pentagon

We used to joke about this sort of thing in the navy.

We could wrap a box in tin foil, fill it with parts, put some blinking LEDs, and wires sticking out here and there and sell it to the DOD for thousands of dollars.  Then when they realize it doesn’t work, offer to “upgrade” it for another hundred grand.  We figured you could probably get away with it for a few upgrades before something better came along, or they decided it was no longer needed.

“It is a troubling case because the fraud took place during a time of war,” said Kevin McDonald

I suppose in the end we could view this as a case against both federal administration and private enterprise?
What are we left with then?

Twenty-three songs in a row to fit my mood.

The joy of the perfect shuffles playlist can make all the difference in a work day.

I recently cut back half of my library, to only include those songs that I have actually rated.  It makes for better listening and less song skipping.  Plus it frees up more room to add more podcasts.

Stiff necks and fixed ideas

The people in charge in most organizations today are part of the Baby Boomer generation, brought up by parents born before World War II, and trained in schools and universities during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.

Slow Leadership has posted an interesting article today on this subject that plagues the younger generation work force. While plagues tends to be a bit sensational, it is a common theme among many contemporary authors. I will also say that the public school system of not only the 1950s but today were designed in the late 1800s. While I feel that hopefully, we are  seeing some positive changes in society, this article gives an interesting and increasingly heard perspective on this issue that entangles so many aspects of our lives.

More than just just office supplies.

While sitting down to my normal morning routine prior to my 7.30 meeting I came to realize that I had left my favorite pen at home.

I turned to Google for advice and was asked if I had really meant, “What to do if I left my favorite pet at home.”   I also came across such questions as “Would you leave your child at home?”  It quickly became obvious that the internet did not give a shit about my estranged writing utensil and the more I looked for sympathy through my web browser It became more apparent that I am truly useless because I do not own a Moleskin notebook.  Further searching on Flicker helped support this evidence.

So with three minutes left until my meeting I will contemplate driving the fifteen minutes home for lunch to get my pen for the next, oh, four hours.