entertaining the Olmsted-Bartholomew Vision

i have a love-hate relationship with Los Angeles. i celebrate its unique character and glorious ethnic diversity while bemoaning the income disparity between the ultra-rich and the direly underprivileged. i enjoy savory and sweet culinary delights from around the world (at reasonable prices), yet i cringe at the thought of navigating the clogged 60 fwy to get to my favorite taco place in the world (30 minutes to cover 7 miles?--i could do that on bike!). i hike the scenic mountains of the transverse ranges to enjoy the abundant southern california biodiversity, but am greeted by a view of a sprawling urban distopia united by smog.

i think you have be seriously blinded by complacency to love LA wholeheartedly and entirely. granted, every city has its share of troubles; no place is perfect and LA is far from it. but it is worse to think that LA could have become a metropolis much different (need i say, better?) from how it is today. i am reminded of the 1930 Olmsted-Bartholomew Plan for a "green" LA metropolis based on and around the natural elements of the basin. i feel gutted at the thought of such a monumental missed opportunity.

instead of "dead" space created by parking lots, empty parcels of land, liberal use of horizontal space for residential, commercial, and industrial buildings, Olmsted and Bartholomew envisioned "green" spaces--"parks, playgrounds, and beaches." instead of 71,000 acres (plus 91,000 in surrounding areas) of parkland, LA currently has a paltry 23,700 acres. the plan placed a park along the LA river, functioning both as recreational/scenic landscape and natural flood control (non-residential zoning). today, the LA river has been restricted to a concrete channel to accommodate senseless suburban sprawl.

i am deeply interested in the relationship between man and nature--in aspects of human reliance and impact on natural environments across time and space. like Michael Pollan, who, in Second Nature, uses the personal garden to explore the man and nature interface (and yes, one does exist), i believe that we would all benefit from being cognizant that cities and urban areas represent one of the most important interfaces between human and natural habitats. the LA of today has retained very little of its natural setting--unique in this world and may i say, graciously endowed with diversity and beauty. it could have been an eden by design and it is my hope that it still could be.

oh and it's earth day. i'm celebrating by imagining (and attempting to will into existence) a greener LA.

next time...

- cover arms and legs completely when mt biking in scrub habitat/tall grasses (lest i get get more poison oak rashes!)
- bake carrot cake for a full hour, use baking soda and baking powder, drain carrots (lest my cake collapses again)
- don't leave anyone behind on a hike or assume they are following someone else (lest i get left behind/ahead one day)
- make sure evan wears real shoes on a hike through snow (lest he freezes his toes off)
- know what i'm getting myself into (education, job, relationships)
- listen to my gut

list will be updated periodically, frequency will depend on how often i botch things up...

obligatory job hunt post

i really need to report this somewhere for the world (theoretically) to see: the job search scares me. never have i been humbled to such an extent--maybe crushed is the more appropriate verb. yes, there were those first year moments in college, but those PALE in comparison to THIS. THIS job search makes me feel useless, unaccomplished, direction-less, and desperate. while my fingers instinctively type out the phrase 'i loathe it' when i ponder my job search, my right brain (ha! i have to be creative to come up with an optimistic perspective) is telling me something else altogether: that i need and appreciate this and should be thanking, not kicking, myself for making the decision to not enroll in a PhD program last fall and instead embark on a few years of paid work. so creatively thinking about this: this is excellent--an opportunity to reevaluate my career direction, make some money, consider some non-academic career options, thoroughly research graduate school programs and advisers, and work on myself. this all sounds perfect except two things get in the way: the economy and my neuroticism. okay, so the job market still sucks, regardless of signs of recovery. companies and organizations, even those hiring a month-long temp field assistant to collect invertebrates in wetlands, have been inundated with hundreds of applications. my response is to just wallow in self pity for being so unfortunate as to chose the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression to find an entry level job. but again, my good old right brain is telling me otherwise--that i should treat this as a challenge and opportunity for character development. i'm going through shit but when i manage to crawl out, i'll have grown a thick forest of new chest hairs (please, figuratively speaking). also, it is my neuroticism that is the source of my violent swings between optimism and pessimism.

well, all i can definitively say that all this violent swinging is exhausting and more injuriously, absolutely tormenting. sometimes i just want to cave in and trade satisfaction for some ease. i must be extremely weary to be entertaining such awful, defeatist thoughts.

"Glorious Desert Blooms or Why I Love California"

Anza Borrego is singing the sweet springtime tunes after a stormy winter and wet early spring. Desert flowers are probably at their peak now, with the beavertail cactus (a late season flower) now in bloom. i don't think i was all that strange in my fondness for Lawrence of Arabia (this is not a non-sequitur). it represented, amongst many other ideas it inspires, abundant and beautiful life in the desert, where life is modestly present and entirely precious for all the harshness it tolerates--and after bearing witness to desert wildflower displays, one could say that it tolerates with a grace the world rarely recognizes.

Spanish Needles (Palafoxia arida):

It's a monumental year for the Desert Lily:

red-tipped ocotillos:

If you're currently in SoCal, i have a little suggestion: the desert is not to be missed.

"childrenz (sic)"

I spent an amazing two weeks in the San Bernardino Mts teaching/care-taking middle schoolers at a residential outdoor science and environmental education camp. i use the adjective "amazing" to describe my awe at both how exhausting and challenging/fulfilling i found the experience to be. annihilation knowingly greeted me at the close of each week. this is still evident in my loss of voice, coupled with my frazzled and dazed appearance, as well my ability to instantaneously fall asleep the moment my head hits the pillow. however, what i will forever take away from this experience are my reflections on the following:

- environmental education
- outdoor science education
- natural history
- why children are so enthusiastic and energetic
- working with people of diverse talents and backgrounds
- making a small difference in a big way
- some random ecology, geology, astronomy factoids. =)

children, i believe, are inherently attracted to nature. however, in our increasingly built societies, their exposure to natural environments are limited. the camp experience is meant to inspire these young students to think about biodiversity and natural processes, providing a mental respite from technology and media bombardment and state standardized exams. instead of seeing the forest as merely a stagnant place, they have the opportunity to breathe life into it through their awareness and understanding of its complexity, fragility, and importance. i played the role of willing and eager assistant (technician? maybe even lab manager!) in their discovery. "may your journey in nature lead you to yourself"

the sustainability component of the curriculum was particularly satisfying to teach. after a discussion regarding ecological footprint and the types of behavioral and lifestyle changes that can reduce it, the kids were lead through a "rock" game of sorts that featured a small pile of 20 or so rocks (per dozen kids) in the center of a circle. the kids were allowed to take rock at each turn and each player with three rocks was rewarded a piece of candy. even 11 - 12 year olds are motivated by candy. however, i, playing Natural Forces and Time in this case, would double the number of rocks that remained in the center after each round. meaning, in order for everyone to win a piece of candy, the kids couldn't adopt a 'each child for him/herself' strategy. it was incredible how violent these kids became as they made mad leaps into the rock pile, hoarding as many rocks as they could get their hands on, even going to so far as to elbow and kick other kids out of the way or grab rocks from each others' hands. [insert discussion entertaining validity of Hobbesian philosophy] however, when the kids were given the opportunity to strategize after being fed (a few) guiding questions, they caught on quickly and they were able to take turns taking rocks from the pile. what an effective exercise in teaching conceptual understanding of natural resource management!

it's incredible how much new information and ideas I picked from two weeks at camp--one definitely needs to understand the material in order to teach it! i think i can now tell whether a rock or boulder is granite or not and also throw some interesting details into the mix, like how it's made up of feldspar (the most common rock forming mineral), quartz (most common mineral on the face of the earth), and mica (flaky and shiny and only 2 on the Mohs hardness scale). wow, i feel like an amateur geologist already. also, as a fledgling biologist, i didn't realize that black bears were introduced to the transverse ranges (San Gabriel, San Bernardino, Peninsular ranges) from Yosemite/Sierras. this is quite a salient example of fundamental v. realized niche and i used it liberally in ecology discussions.

i also got my birding going and rolled out my Sibley's (field guide to the birds received as a wonderful gift from a ornithologist-friend). i spotted a few of the common bird species while taking the kids out on walks: stellar's jay, american robin, western bluebird, mountain chickadee, white headed and acorn woodpeckers, and black headed juncos. this was definitely the most bird watching i've ever done (hey, i'm slowly branching out on the tree of life), but i don't think the kids could tell what an amateur i was. luckily whatever enthusiasm i had for it made an impact on my kids because by the end of both weeks, i had 10-12 year olds pointing out bird species left and right! also, after only three days on the trail, most of my kids were noticing deer, coyote, bobcat and raccoon tracks AND identifying most common trees in the area: coulter pine, jeffrey pine, sugar pine, white fir, giant sequoia, and incense cedar! can you imagine just how pleased i was: shoulda seen me as duly impressed and beaming like a parent on graduation day. very fellow counselors and trail leaders a little refresher on ecology and tree identification (after doing some prep work on this myself) and was thrilled to have such enthusiastic coworkers as temporary students! in all, i found the experience astoundingly rewarding and i hope i've made an impression on at least a few rascals...(and our future world leaders!)

however, while i relished the teaching experience, i don't think i will EVER again babysit children. imagine 30-50 6th graders bouncing off the walls (and the trees, snow, poles, boulders, everything) from sunrise to bed time. this is how i know that if i ever considered teaching again, i could only teach college students. this is despite my fondness for their unbounded enthusiasm and impressionable minds. hardened college students are either grade-whores or don't care/fall asleep in class, but at least they won't give me a near heart attack by darting from precipitous edge to precipitous edge, making me lose my voice in the process.

the experiential self is happy

i decided to test out Google bike maps (beta--yes, i will submit comments based on my experience) and followed a route from Hacienda Heights, CA to Pomona College, Claremont, CA (my alma mater!) at 7: 30 am this thursday morning. i made modifications to the route to reduce the number of turns (and hence, directions i needed to memorize or refer to). see map of route here.

Google maps predicted 1 hr 47 min there and 1 hr 28 return for nearly 19 miles each way. i clocked in 1 hr 30 min there and 1 hr 15 min return. gravity (heading further into the basin) helped shave off a good 15 minutes. my speedy road bike helped me beat Google predicted times. huzzah!

it was quite the experience and must now express regret for not having tried this during my undergrad days. i saw parts of the cities of Pomona and Diamond Bar that i did not know existed. for example, the southern face of a large lush hill with exposed granitic rock along Mission Blvd (on which i hit 33 mph going downhill--wowza!) resembles hillsides in Scotland on a pleasant sunny day. i'm always taken aback when i see any sort of largish, natural, undeveloped space in LA suburbia. in navigating the urban landscape on bike, the couple of miles that separate the hearts of Pomona and Claremont cities disproportionately represent the wide expanse between affluence and poverty.

as i pedaled home around dusk, riding alongside weary commuters seated behind their steering wheels, i sensed that the difficulty of our respective daily journeys home separated our greater world views and attitudes. the difficulty for me was physical exertion; my legs felt each upward curve of the road, however slight. my commute was measured by traversing the physical landscape, and entirely dictated by horizontal and vertical distances. for drivers, however, distance is quickly and easily eliminated with the step of the gas pedal. the difference between going 10 and 30 mph up a hill is a slight increase in pressure applied to the gas pedal. these commuters were fixated on minimizing time, nearly independently of distance. suburban and city commuters measure space in the form of time. the consequence of this, i sense, is a tendency to overlook most things that lie between points A and Z.

the way we navigate space in a car is very different, and in my opinion, much less complete (insert pejorative emphasis here) view of our built and natural environments. instead of experiencing communities, we observe them through the barrier of a car window. the result is a fragmentation of the sense the scale at which community operates, a skewed sense of physical distance that blurs with sense of time, and a undervaluation of the intricacies of our landscapes.

of course, this takes us to the 10000 feet question (to borrow a friend's phrasing) of what defines a "good" and "preferable" lifestyle choice. (yes, i am still referring to the latent world view effects of driving a car) for me this is the difference in living an "enchanted" or "disenchanted" life. i am, by no means, a Luddite, nor am i advocating that people should cease driving, but i do posit that society could benefit from diversifying our mode of transit, if not for the benefit of our environment, then for an appreciation of the beautiful minutia that comprise our surroundings.

for full meaning of this post title, watch Daniel Kahneman's TED talk.

the blog resurrection

i'm reviving this blog even though i know i've long lost my readership (if i even had anything resembling readership to begin with). it's alllll for myself--to grease my writing gears, to pull dusty thoughts off their shelves, to linger in inspiration, and to keep at bay that most insidious of inner demons: apathy.

so, to begin: i've been a bit manic and have thoughts and moods as erratic as the flight pattern of a drugged bumble bee. i suspect there will be some random (personal and news/rest-of-the-world-related) shit in here.