I just watched an episode of Wyatt Cenac's HBO show "Problem Areas". My wife had told me she had watched it earlier and thought I would like it since it was about the concept of restorative justice. I had never heard of Wyatt Cenac, his show, or restorative justice, but I am glad I watched … Continue reading “It’s Easier to Build Strong Children Than to Repair Broken Men”
That was easy; I feel much better already. In this week's Wall Street Journal column, Dan Ariely mentions a research study from 2000 which showed that subjective socioeconomic status (i.e., where people ranked themselves relative to others) was more predictive of physical health and psychological well-being than actual socioeconomic rank. The metrics used were self-rated health, heart … Continue reading My Socioeconomic Status Is Better Than Yours, and Yours, and Yours; Heck, It’s Better Than Everyone’s
The picture above is an aerial view of Kapoho, Hawaii, one of the most beautiful places we have had a chance to visit. That's what it looked like last week; here is what it looks like now: The second picture is showing the result of the recent lava flow from Mt. Kilauea that has destroyed … Continue reading Photographs and Memories
A new study from the University of Georgia suggests that couples undergo significant personality changes during the first year and a half of marriage. The research team asked the couples to assess their levels of what psychologists call the big five personality traits: extraversion (how social and outgoing a person is), openness to experience (how intellectually curious or … Continue reading How Marriage Changes Your Personality and Being an Introvert
SNL has had many memorable musical performances over the years, from the merely great, to the highly controversial. I thought I'd share a few of my favorites. At the top of my list, perhaps not unexpected, is a solo performance of Bruce Springsteen sitting at a piano playing "You're Missing". It was a rehearsal performance; … Continue reading My Favorite Musical Performances from Saturday Night Live (SNL)
Last week I wrote about how popular videos of people pressure washing their houses have become, with some of the videos having over one million views! Well I just came across another category of popular YouTube videos that is just as strange, if not more so. The category: study-with-me videos. And before you try and … Continue reading Yet Another Odd Category of YouTube Videos
You might think that the title refers to how the unhealthy food found in a typical vending machine could lead to poor health, and eventually, death. But no, this refers to actual deaths from the vending machine itself. I came across this odd statistic in quite a roundabout way. I was reading an old Seth … Continue reading Death by Vending Machine
It's been a recurring theme of this blog - how different my perception of men's fashion is compared to the Wall Street Journal's perception. Here are the previous posts I've written about this: The Wall Street Journal's Annual Comedy Issue I Don’t Know Any Teachers Who Dress Like This My Lack of Fashion Sense, but … Continue reading It’s That Time Again – The Outrageous Wall Street Journal Guide to Men’s Fashion
Back in the summer of 1979, Philadelphia was the host city for the World Premiere of Rocky II. We did not have any tickets to the movie premiere, but my future wife and one of my best friends thought it would still be fun to go down into the city and see all the stars … Continue reading How Many People Did It Take to Make Rocky II?
You may be familiar with the famous Stanford Marshmallow Experiment, which was a series of studies on delayed gratification in the late 1960s and early 1970s led by psychologist Walter Mischel, then a professor at Stanford University. In these studies, a child was offered a choice between one small reward provided immediately or two small rewards if they waited for … Continue reading Curiosity as Important as Self-Control for Future Success
Borden's Blather 