reframing

it's funny how easy it is change someone's behavior by changing their self-perception.  i guess the trick is how to change someone's self-perception.  with clothing?  with flattery?

 

a recent example:  matt bought some fancy motorcycle gear (jacket, gloves, helmet) for me.  after walking around (and riding) with the new gear, i started to think more seriously about taking a motorcycle class. 

 

summer, don't go!

it's already mid-july.  oh my.

 

goings ons:

• sociable friday.  zante indian pizza & maggie mudd's ice cream with matt's out of town friend; (awkwardly?) avoiding eric and bidding brendan good bye.
• east bay bike ride, 18 miles.  rated easy, but it was hard for me.  windy, twisty and steep.  a wonderful downhill part with views of san francisco and the bay!  rewarded self with tara's (earl grey and lavender) ice cream in berkeley.
• work
• tomato, mushroom, sausage & black garlic with pasta.  very delicious!

there are eight tomatoes growing on my fire-escape!  two of them are starting to turn a beautiful pink-red.  :)

lawyerly thoughts of the day

preliminary thoughts.

• stress.  i don't deal very well with stressful situations.  i think the law path (more so than other paths) is really stressful.  stressful in terms of competitiveness in school, competitiveness on the job market, etc.  i think the public interest path, because it is so uncertain, would be particularly stressful.
• oversupply.  the job market for lawyers is shrinking.  we read about it in the papers every day -- firms are deferring new hires. 
• status.  law (regardless of track), is really rigid and fixated on status, more so than other fields.  the people who went to the best schools, who made law review, got the best grades, went to the most reputable firms / organizations succeed.  it's not that i don't think i couldn't make it (i have full confidence i can beat a game based on grades and smarts), it's that i don't enjoy that way of thinking and that kind of environment.  i don't want to be "one of them."
• high school debate.  i was on a competitive high school debate team, and i didn't enjoy it.  i liked learning about issues very broadly, connecting them together, and thinking about ways to "fix" things.  but i disliked, especially, debating procedural kinds of issues ("topicality" if anyone remembers). 

but there are still elements of law that are appealing to me.  like, learning and using a specific "tool" or skill rather than learning about things broadly.  specifically, i think i'd be better at reading / writing rather than more quantitative stuff.  also, maybe i can overcome the things i mentioned if i have focus, if i can keep my eye on public interest / environmental law.

adventures in lululand

goings ons: 

• celebratory dinner at pauline's with emily, derek, and matt.
• $20 haircut at a hair-cutting school, an "a-line bob".  cute and cheap.  will go back again.
• jane's birthday dinner at destino.  reminds me of that spanish language learning series, "destinos!"
• read.  finished james baldwin's go tell it on the mountain.  i'm not really sure what inspired me to pick it up at the airport.  it's pretty heavy stuff for the airplane.  beautifully written.  i'd probably have a deeper understanding if i knew the bible a little bit better.  last week, i finished haruki murakami's what i talk about when i talk about running.  i enjoyed his self-deprecating style and his analogy between running and writing.  also, a collection of yoshihiro tatsumi's short comics good-bye.  moving. i'd highly recommend it.
• made.  oven-steamed salmon and mushrooms.  zongzi.  corn chowder.
• chatted and thought about the law and the practice of environmental law with vivian.  i think it's clearer (and more confusing) to me now.  one manager at work suggested looking at it like this: school provides a "set of tools". think about which tools will best get me what i want (or think i want).  i can't help but feel that legal tools might fit me more than business -type tools.  but i can't be sure.  afterall, high school debate (which many of my friends liken law school to) wasn't my favorite activity.  also, as an outsider, i see the legal world as slow-moving, anti-innovative, and anti-doing.  those are my law and career thoughts of the day.

hoodoo voodoo

matt introduced me to the great american southwest by motorcycle. highlights:

• grand! canyon! sixty miles of unpaved road to toroweap to peek over cliffs and to sleep under stars. watching the not-so-distant thunderstorm from our campsite near pt. imperial around the north rim.
  
• following our silent, aloof navaho boy-guide through winding, red-walled antelope canyon.
• indendence day. wading in lake powell and camping on the shores (sort of) of remote warm creek bay. (after rejecting the chaotic, crowded, "primitive" camping at lone rock.)
• pleasant highway drive to bryce canyon, where we hoo-ed at hoodoos on a 3 mi. hike and slept in the trees below.
• zion, where all the landmarks were obviously renamed by mormons. easy emerald pools hike and strenuous (also scary) angels landing hike. overcame fear of walking up rocks with cliffs on both sides, sort of.
• las vegas. eating at "nob hill," the bellagio buffet, and some asian fusion place. lazy river and pools. gameworks fun hunting dinosuars, shooting asteroids, and dancing to DDR. walked across the brooklyn bridge and ascended the eiffel tower!

riding as a motorcycle passenger for long distances is actually quite nice. since the helmet and wind kept me from talking, i could just be alone with my thoughts. mostly, i thought about career / school stuff and how i'm like / unlike my parents. matt and i talked about other motorcyclists, the moon vs. stars (light of the full moon mostly blocked the stars), foreign tourists (especially hearty german ones), the spectrum of ways to enjoy the outdoors (e.g., RVs versus ultra light-weight backpacking), and more.

cooking adventures

along the lines of making jam... i've been trying to learn how to cook or preserve "food scraps".  like, re-using extra ingredients from recipes. recent cooking adventures include:

• roasted chicken. then froze the bones until i had time to make chicken stock.  one chicken really goes a long way.  basically, my mom tells me to do this every time we discuss easy cooking.  four years later, check, done!  i'll be incorporating this into my food prep routine.
  
• pickled carrots.
• stuffed peppers, vaguely adapting from this, this, and this.
• steamed corn on the cob and sauteed summer squash.  some vegetables don't need much cooking.
  
• polenta with zucchini and tomatoes.  it's really easy, and really delicious, like a summer version of a mushroom ragout with polenta that i've made.
  
• freezing fresh herbs, bacon, sausage, bread, everything.

sorry to bore you guys.  this is partly a log to look back on one day and see where i found a particular recipe.