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2010 Newsletter

"You there, give me the lowdown, throw me the facts"

Yes, it’s a new series by animator David Firth, called ‘Drillbithead’. As is typical with All things David Firth, it’s quite surreal and appears to lack a point. Try it for your self: http://www.fat-pie.com/drillbithead3.htm

The Tragic Mistake

Not long into their interview with public radio host Ira Glass, one of the three college-aged interviewers, a young girl, asks, with a desperate smile etched on her face, how to decide “which of her passions” to pursue.

“Like how do you determine, how…”, she begins.

“How do you figure out what you want?”, Glass interrupts.

“How do you not only figure out what you want, but know that you’ll be good at it?”, she finishes.

There’s a pause. In this moment, when Glass prepares his answer, the young girl’s earlier admission that she’s a pre-med, and doubting her decision to attend med school, hangs in the air. Glass can relate: he too had been considering med school when he stumbled into his first radio internship, after his freshman year of college.

He proceeds cautiously, softly: “Honestly, even the stuff you want you’re not necessarily good at right away…I started working at 19 at the network level, and from that point it took me years. The key thing is to force yourself through the work, force the skills to come. That’s the hardest phase.”

One of the other interviewers, a young man in a baseball cap, interjects: “Do you think hard work can make you talented?”

“Yes. I do.”

The students let this sink in.

“In the movies there’s this idea that you should just go for your dream,” Glass continues. “But I don’t believe that.”

By the students’ reactions, this is not what they expected to hear.

“Things happen in stages. I was a terrible reporter, but I was perfectly good at other parts of working in radio: I am a good editor…I feel like your problem is that you’re trying to judge all things in the abstract before you do them.”

A beat.

“That’s your tragic mistake.”

–Reblog from http://calnewport.com/blog/2010/11/12/the-pre-med-and-ira-glass-complicated-career-advice-from-compelling-people/

 

(Via @Karessence)

On the very first climb,  I was immediately struck with a sneaking suspicion that grew into a certainty that I would a) die. or b) not finish this ride. So I contented myself with a few laps around FOOSP–Fremont Older Open Space Preserve, explored some new territory and got some flow going on the limited singletrack there (noteworthy, because when I first returned, I had almost no flow or mojo on the bike). For some reason, horse droppings were quite a problem… It reminded me of the question of the month in one of my favored bike publications, Bike Magazine, which went something like this “If mountain bikers started pooping on the trail like horses, would we get access to more places? Horses are allowed almost everywhere, including wilderness preserves, while we get chased down by the man.” (Bike Mag Nov 2010 Ask Chopper QOM) Pondering these deep things, I went home via Monte Vista High school (nice staircase jumps) and Calabases BMX Park (still closed for rain because the City of San Jose is lame/closed for the Holidays… I just jumped the fence).

The lesson? Ride more. During my first quarter at SPU–Seattle Pacific University (located in Seattle, surprise surprise!) I rode a bicycle exactly twice. Can you say Atrophy? [#fat] I’m trying to get a bike up to Seattle for next quarter, but airline fees are pretty steep. I’m also looking at old road bikes in Seattle. Both of these solutions should help ease my withdrawal.