Author: andrew

Day 1 in Disneyland

We left Reedley and arrived mid-morning in Disneyland.  What a fun experience!

Our first ride was the train around the park.  Liam was scared of the dinosaurs, and it was an early indication that we would have to watch out for scary experiences.  Next we went down Mainstreet, USA to Sleeping Beauty’s Castle.  Again, it was a little bit scary for Liam.

Peter Pan’s flight was, as expected, a highlight.  While waiting in line we met a couple who are retired teachers.  They are also grandparents, and really enjoyed talking with our kids.  King Arthur’s carousel was next (see the photos below), and then we took a break and ate lunch in Fantasyland.  Lunch was $40 (yikes!), and the adult portions were about right, but the children’s portions looked small.  They weren’t; our kids actually had plenty to eat.

The crowd index was really low (as expected for a Tuesday in November), and our rides on both Dumbo and the Casey Junior Circus Train were quick, due to the short wait in line. Liam sang the Casey Junior song for the rest of the day.  But he only knows the words, “Casey Junior’s back….”, so he sang that one line over and over and over and over.

Clara’s favorite ride (so far) was the Mad Hatter’s teacup ride.  After enjoying this spinning sick-inducer, we headed to Tomorrowland, to the Autopia cars and Buzz Lightyear’s Astro-Blasters.  Clara drove(?) with me on the Autopia cars, and she had so much fun. She laughed the entire time!  On the Astro-Blasters, Liam and Daddy competed with Clara and Mommy for the highest score.  Daddy was a bit worried early on, because it turns out Mommy is a pretty good shot.  But the ladies were soundly defeated by the end of the ride.

We were getting pretty tired by this point, so we wandered through innoventions (meh), then took the Monorail back to Downtown Disney.  We were able to ride in the front of the Monorail with the driver – we’d heard you can request this, so we did.

We had a late but scrumptious dinner at the Storyteller’s Cafe downstairs in our hotel, Disney’s Grand Californian.  Lisa enjoyed the corn chowder and a salad, the kids made their own pizzas, and I enjoyed the buffet, complete with New York strip steak and an over-the-top dessert selection.

After dinner we collapsed into bed.  Lisa and I intended to plan Wednesday’s fun, but we were both snoozing before we knew what was happening.  I’m writing this during naptime on Day 2, and I hope we can update the blog to share all of today’s fun and adventures sometime (late) this evening!

Abstraction, progress, and my theory of creativity

I’ve observed abstraction both in the movement from assembly language to high-level coding frameworks and in the human upgrade from chiseled stone to steel tools. In all cases, abstracting principles and moving to higher-order thinking enables progressive leaps forward.

Changing the basis for a decision can affect an entire discussion. In some ways, those who figure out the end are more powerful than the best of those who design the means.

But so many times we live exclusively in a world of means. We don’t stop to divine the ends, or even move up the systems-thinking chain. Answers to intractable questions may be available laterally. When people see such answers, they often call them the results of creativity. They don’t realize that creativity is only the result of a habit of mind.

So what makes abstraction into progress?

Completion of the abstraction is one factor. If the abstraction is mostly complete it can be useful. But it can’t allow the freedom and comfort of giving our minds entirely to the higher-order frame of mental reference. Though being able to mentally scale referent frames may be the habit of a strong, creative mind, it’s better for progress that the abstraction be completed and society function at the new, higher level.

Critical mass, support, and surrounding infrastructure are also part of the picture. The pace of change cannot be too fast, or the ecosystem that surrounds the abstraction will choke it off.

What else am I missing?

The future past

Sometimes I think it would be nice to go back: back before things were complicated, before life became what it is today. But there I find a problem: I’m not sure that I’d want to go forward again. And so I press on, trying neither to look backward or forward. For behind me, things are simpler. And before me looms the unknown. Tragedies and complexity are certain to lurk ahead, and I head toward them, blissfully ignorant.

Ecclesiastes 6:12 “For who knows what is good for a man in life, during the few and meaningless days he passes through like a shadow? Who can tell him what will happen under the sun after he is gone?”

Life skills upgrade: focus

I have a confession to make: I have a very hard time focusing on things in general.  You may have noticed this, as it’s been several months since my last blog post.  (Case in point: After writing the previous sentence, I left this post to go check a minor point in my server’s configuration, looked at three config files, then did a Google search on how to modify them.  While my results loaded, I returned to this post.)

I’ve found some help for this problem, and I want to share it with you.  It came in the form of a book, simply titled “focus.”  The subtitle is: “A Simplicity Manifesto in the Age of Distraction.”  Poignant? Yes.

I found the book from the great blog Lifehacker, which I then stopped reading on the advice of the book.  Irony abounds.

Anyway, the book is free.  Sort of.  It’s free for the free version (which is a .PDF-contained eBook), which you can download here: FREE GREAT BOOK HERE NOW SUPERLATIVE EXCLAMATION!  I have to confess, I read the free version first.  But it was so good that I actually went back and purchased the paid version of the book (which is also a .PDF-contained eBook) for 35 bucks.  The free version was worth way more than 35 bucks to me, which means that the full version is worth potentially more still.  Either way you choose to go, it’s a heckuva deal for the quality of the material.

Though the writing is intentionally clean and easy to read, this is not a book that you want to rush through.  I have tried to read it as part of a morningly working focus ritual.  Here’s how it works for me: I sit down at my desk, close all other programs, close the door and issue a stern warning to any who might be tempted to break my concentration, and breathe deeply a few times while I mindfully start reading.  At this point, I’ve gotten a lot of value out of the exercise before I even start reading the book!  When I read, I never read more than one chapter at a time.  I’m not really meditating, just reading mindfully, learning to focus and only do one thing.

This is one of several aids to productivity that have influenced my thinking about work in the past few years.  The other is the Getting Things Done methodology, pioneered and preached by David Allen.  Getting Things Done, or GTD in the parlance of us devotees, deserves its own blog post.  It probably deserves several, but I’ll leave that for another day.  Suffice it to say that this book, Focus, is influenced by and compatible with GTD.

So how has it gone for me?  Really well so far.  I wouldn’t be writing about it otherwise.  (I never would have gotten around to it.)  I’ve read the entire free version of the book once, and I’m now re-reading the full version of the book.  I don’t end up reading it every working morning, but I find that when I do invest a few minutes in the morning to focus, my entire day is VASTLY more productive.  As a matter of fact, if I’ve done any work for/with you in the past six months, you probably owe my participation partly to this book.

The format of Focus is very helpful, as well.  It’s not framed as a large, thought-provoking explanation of anything.  It doesn’t carry that kind of authoritative weight.  Instead, it’s a bunch of bite-sized chunks of useful tips and helpful practices.  There are sections with tips for parents, employees, managers, etc.  Most of the time, I’ve been able to read a chapter and walk away with a very small change to my day.  There’s been at least one occasion where I stopped reading mid-chapter, closed the book, and went on to implement something from that day’s chapter right away.

Anyway, I highly recommend it.  I’ll even buy you a copy of the free version if you’d like.  It’s at least that good.  Here’s the info:

focus : a simplicity manifesto in the age of distraction

author: Leo Babauta
price: free or $34.95
site: http://focusmanifesto.com/

Movie Review: Gone with the Wind

Last night Lisa and I finally got around to watching that old classic, Gone With the Wind.

Reaction:

When the movie finished, I was angry.  What a dissatisfying ending!  It felt like the movie makers just ran out of minutes and weren’t able to tell the second half of the story.  The ending was abrupt and kind of weird.  The movie lasted through all kinds of horrible events, then stopped short when Rhett walked out.

Characters:

I really fell in love with Rhett, that roguish, good-looking, inexplicably rich leading man.  In fact, he’s probably the arch-typical leading man.  I don’t think I’ve even seen anyone stronger in that role.

Scarlett was reprehensible, inspiring true disgust.  Somehow, at the end she turned from the very definition of a bitch into a hope-possessing angel bent on following the true love she’s just discovered she always had.  This change of character was so complete as to be unbelievable.

I kept waiting for the movie to parallel Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew. That never happened, at least not completely.  Scarlett, the shrew, was only tamed after Petruchio, Rhett, gave up and turned away from her.

A few technical notes:

  • It might have been our jank-tastic home theater system (or lack thereof), but we had a tough time understanding the dialogue for the first half of the movie.  Subtitles helped, but made us feel like we were watching a foreign film.
  • The special effects were pretty cool to see.  I’ve heard that a lot of the movie is actually illustrated, and that would explain the rich contrast and great coloring.

Waiting for David

I read the story of King David’s anointing in the Bible with the kids this evening.  It’s amazing how reading in a new format (i.e. a children’s bible) can give you new ways to think about the stories.

I realized something: it was a long time from David’s anointing until the time that he stepped onto the public stage and starting fulfilling his God-given role as King of Israel.  What did he do during that time? He chased sheep.

David was specifically called by God to do something, and was then placed right back into his everyday life.  How many times do you think he wondered (while tending those dumb, smelly little animals) whether God had really called him?

Of course, with hindsight, we can see that God was training David.  He was giving him the chance to learn leadership; to learn how to shepherd God’s people.  God was training his hands for war: sending bears and lions to teach David to fight, protect and kill.  But it must have all seemed like drudgery at the time.  It probably felt as if God had never called him.

Have you ever been called by God to do something, then dropped back into your everyday life?  Do you ever wonder, “Was God really asking me to do that?” Do you wonder why nothing’s changed?  Could it be because God is preparing you, making you ready for the day you’ll fulfill your destiny? Might he be using small, everyday tasks to build character, to shape your skills?

If you feel that God spoke to you at some point in your life, sit down and think about it.  Write down as much as you remember and pray for direction.  It could be that God’s not finished with that call yet.

How much?

How much can one learn? How many things can a person master? Are there over-arching skills that one can focus on to improve one’s facility with many different skills? I’d really like to be a great photographer, a cutting-edge designer, a good businessperson, a trusted counselor, a good advisor, a knowledgeable historian, an effective teacher, a compelling writer, and a decent human being.  Not necessarily in that order.  Is it reasonable to think that I can become all those things?  Is it possible to be well-rounded in an age that requires such depth in every field?  Or should I give up some of my dreams? Try to develop in stages?

P.S. –  Be sure to watch the Shinn Photo blog tomorrow morning around 8 am.  I created an art piece earlier today that I’m excited to share!

Initial Thoughts on Behavioral Finance

As part of my course of studies at Fresno State, I’ve been exposed to a (seemingly) newer academic area: Behavioral Finance (BF).

I’m finding this whole area of Behavioral Finance a lot more interesting than I expected. It seems to represent a much more sophisticated, wilder look at the world of corporate finance than the previously accepted norm. My perception is that the previously-held convention was largely based on the idea of homo economicus, the completely rational decsion-maker who always interpreted data correctly and used formulas and models to make the mathematically optimal decision every time. It seems like BF looks at the business world much more through the lens of psychology, seeking to explain why people act as they do instead of as formulas tell them they should.

I wonder how accepted behavioral finance is as an academic area? Is it a small corner, or is it widely accepted as being on the cutting edge? I guess people have been discussing investor behavior for a long time, but this seems to take area of exploration to the next level.

I expect that the emergence of behavioral finance as a discipline (or sub-discipline) makes room for all kinds of new and interesting academic research. Is it proper to say that there are emerging markets within academia? If so, I think I just found one.

P.S. – I started writing a novel this afternoon.  Is anyone interested?

The Night Jesus Saved Liam

March 20, 2011

After reading Jesus’s words about hell in Mark 9 before bed, Liam told me, “I don’t want to go to hell. ” I told him that there’s only one way to know for sure that you’re going to heaven. I explained our separation from God because of sin, and Jesus’s provision. We prayed the prayer of salvation together, then asked for the gift of the Holy Spirit.

I explained to Liam that he had become a Christian, and told him that he should tell everyone he knows about it.  He thought it might be fun to have everyone come over to our house for a party.

Liam also had some interesting questions. He wanted to know why I’m not perfect, even though I’m a Christian. I told him that my sinful nature still wars against the Spirit of God in me, and that I won’t be perfect until I die and go to heaven.  I told him that I’m not perfect, but I am forgiven.  And God’s now forgiven him because of what Jesus did.  Liam told me that when we go to heaven, we’ll have perfect bodies, just like Jesus.  Apparently he’s been listening and putting some of these things together. I feel like he has a very real understanding of what he prayed, and I’m so happy that he’s chosen to follow Jesus!

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