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1. cog·ni·tive dis·so·nance   /ˈkägnətiv/  Noun.  The state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, esp. as relating to behavioral decisions and attitude change. This takes on a new layer when a prior part of your identity used   to be based on practicing complete self-honesty. This has recently been irrefutably challenged… It's suddenly harder to pinpoint where the honesty lies… I wonder if I have created excessive cognitive dissonance over things in which I actually do NOT feel strongly about and that is exactly why the dissonance has occurred….  2. I feel very happy and secure about my decision to go back to residency so far.. Even call is pretty fun. it's weird. Thank you, thank you.  3. I love Philadelphia. Great city.  4. Recently, I've been aggressively recruited into the Philadelphia Crossfit competition crew by my gym… which means I'm about to be seriously humbled. South Philly Rumble 6.1.13.  5. Indecisi...

Seriously can't believe this Chick Fil A nonsense.... How ridiculous. Thanks, politics, for giving me hope, yet again, that you can sensationalize anything to pull points, make a profit, and make everyone look like complete idiots in the process. Can we move on yet? I'm sure there are many more personal social ideologies for all of our mega fast food corporations to capitalize on.... Unfortunately, I'm just not interested. Now the obesity crisis, that's something I'm curious about hearing some fast food ideology... I imagine it goes a little something like this.. "anything for a buck."

I am starting to wonder whether our generation of 20 and 30 year olds are on the right track.. Or at least whether my "category" of 20 and 30 year olds… The career people, the professionals… We're single or married or "partnered" or not, but we are all living the same lifestyle. For ourselves. Most of my extended family in my generation are living a similar life… Wandering, wondering, working, traveling, moving around, unsettled.. Only 4 of my cousins have had kids, and I'm 29 years old. And I have 25 cousins. 7 of them are married… Granted, many of them are much younger than me, but the precedent has been set. Almost all of the married cousins were well-established into their careers and older (25+) by the time they settled down. By my age, most of my parents, aunts, and uncles were married and done having kids. Yet here we are..  So what does it mean? Are we "liberated" because of the freedoms we have via ease of traveling, improvement of o...

Continued from May 2011... 1. My job causes time to pass in half-time, so it actually feels like it's only been 5.5 months since I started this job instead of almost a year. And therefore, I will not be turning 30 years old anytime soon. Or, does it mean I will be turning 30 in the very imminent future..?  2. Apparently, long-term relationships are even more complicated than I previously imagined, in that they involve working out not only all of the details of the relationship itself, but also many conflicting external forces. It makes me wonder how so many people make it work?  3. Seattle is a very nice place, but it's entirely too far away from the Center of the Universe, New Orleans.  4. I'm starting to enjoy distance cycling almost as much as distance running, which confirms the suspicion I have that I am really just a bit compulsive and/or masochistic.  5. I'm incredibly addicted to the cult of Cross Fit. I think about the WOD's during the da...

I've been listening to NPR on my commute, and they've been talking about the Washington state school system "crisis" regarding their soaring budget needs while admitting poor results... I'm hearing this stuff on the radio at the same time as reading the biography of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson… All of it really makes me wonder. Wonder about a lot of things, but primarily… what is it that makes people great? First and foremost, it makes me think that nothing ever got better by hucking a bunch of money at it. There has to be a vision. A plan. And maybe even something that could be realized with less or no money if the idea is great enough. Secondly, we have to start taking ownership of our jobs and roles in society again. Great teachers are great teachers because they have decided to become great. Same as most professions. No doubt, money and equipment and a good support system help, but one of my best teachers was paid probably $35,000 a year and worked in t...

Here I am again, looking Forward, Backward, but never down at my feet. I have been sooooo nostalgic this week. I think watching HBO's Treme series is doing it to me. And then, of course I went and watched Warren Miller's annual ski film and Utah is all over it… What about here and now? The problem has been, and continues to be, I don't much care about the here and now. I'm perpetually unimpressed with my surroundings.. And why? It feels like nothing is ever as good as it "was." It's an age-old problem, right? This is not a new story or concept. My problem is… sometimes it really "is" as good as it gets. I think the times I am reminiscing about in New Orleans are really what life is all about. They are real. It was such a great time and place when I lived there. And the same thing with Utah. The thing about Utah was.. Residency was so horrible, and I missed New Orleans so much… but sometimes Utah really was "the best." Being up on a m...

I finally decided to brave the bumper-to-bumper traffic I've resigned myself to since moving to Seattle and persuaded myself that it's time to get out. I moved here, time to see some of it. After browsing various websites with event and music listings and coming up relatively devoid of any interest in anything, I decided to go out with a friend out to the "Neptune Theater" to listen to a band. It's a college scene, decent band, great people watching. After paying the exorbitant "$15 cover" that is so standard for crappy live music out West, I entered a pretty cool setup for a show. It's an old theater that that has an interesting history, http://stgpresents.org/neptune/history.asp. The walls and bathrooms have stained glass depictions of Neptune. It's a great space. My friend and I settle in to my standard behavior at this point… which is, establish a vantage point in an inconspicuous place and watch. Instantaneously, I felt like an alien to...