Documentation of Regular Features on Social Media

Mostly for my own documentation's sake, here's a list of regular blog features and Twitter hashtags that have become a recurring feature in my social media production:

Time and money.  An every-other-year accounting of my allocation of time and money.

Car usage.  An annual tally of how many times I drove or was driven in a car.

April Fools.  My feeble attempts to trick my readers.

Predictions.  A fun end-of-year stab at what will happen in the coming year (as well as a pitiful recounting of how last year's guesses were woefully off).

New Year's resolutions.  A blow-by-blow review of how I did on my resolutions for the year.

Eco-friendly holiday greetings from the Huang Family.  A holiday "card" from all of us, without having to send them in the mail.

What am I working on.  A quarterly description of work projects I'm working on.

Recommended reads.  Blurbs on selected book reads from the past three months.

Huang Family newsletter.  A monthly update on our family.

Too long for a tweet, too short for a blog.  Periodic sharings of excerpts from a book/magazine/song I've recently consumed, presented without commentary.

Lazy linking.  A periodic dump of links to articles I found interesting.

#TBT.  Every Thursday, I post a song lyric and invite others to guess the title and riff on what memories it conjures up.

#1stWorldDadProblems.  Not serious whinings that betray just how good I have it as a father in America.

#ThisIsWestPhilly.  Something about my neighborhood that captures its quirkiness; usually having to do with some juxtaposition that you wouldn't find in many other neighborhoods in the US.

#FitBitOrgasm.  I've rigged my FitBit, through IFTTT, so that when it reaches my step goal (and vibrates...hence the phrase "FitBitOrgasm"), a tweet is automatically sent out that records the date and step count.

#OverheardFromTheFuture.  Wild guesses at the kinds of innovations that will be commonplace in the future but seem futuristic now.

Merry Christmas

Let not all the layers of Christianity and Christianness that you have been exposed to over the years inoculate you from this astounding narrative: God incarnate, the Savior of the world, the vanquisher of all evil for all time, born to two teenagers on the run and laid in a horse feeding trough and recognized by lowly shepherds and awesome angels alike. Think on that for a sec.  Merry Christmas!

Too Short for a Tweet, Too Long for a Blog Post XXVII

Here's an excerpt from a book I am reading now, "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks," by Rebecca Skloot -

"Black scientists and technicians, many of them women, used cells from a black woman to help save the lives of millions of Americans, most of them white. And they did so on the same campus—and at the very same time—that state officials were conducting the infamous Tuskegee syphilis studies."

Lazy Linking, 160th in an Occasional Series

Stuff I liked lately on the Internets:


160.1 Yo, Philly! We need some interactive seesaws too bit.ly/1MjQxYN @thisiscolossal
 
160.2 Many famous social media stars are too visible to have real jobs but too broke not to
fus.in/1Qow38L @thisisfusion

160.3 Netflix makes socks that tell when you fall asleep and hit pause for you read.bi/1IbXG2z @businessinsider ht: @margrev
160.4 A militarist explains Trump (hint: it's the OODA Loop!) bit.ly/1QqnWc9 @fdrlst ht: @reihan
160.5 11 reminders that 2015 was an awesome year for humanity bit.ly/1PbELWN @medium

Life is Messy and Beautiful

You might not remember, but when Facebook first unveiled "News Feed," there was an uproar about your personal wall being seen by all of your friends.  For many, this automatic feature felt way too invasive.  Of course, now we all swear by our Facebook feeds, checking them constantly on our computers at home and using every spare moment to take a peek on our mobile phones. And why not, since it is an unending feed of family pics, celebrations of milestones, and other happiness-inducing content.  The world seems smaller, cozier, and more joyous as a result.

But life is not always beach vacations and first steps and job promotions.  Sometimes life is messy.  Sometimes there is a moment of tragedy, or the long and numbing fallout from it.  Sometimes there is deep sadness, crippling anxiety, and unyielding grief.

Especially for those of us who are young and of means, it can be tempting to try to make all of our lives into one happy Facebook post after another.  Our good health gives us the privilege of not having to deal with pain and discomfort at every turn.  And our good wealth allows us to keep many worries at bay; our financial house will not crumble if something goes wrong, and we can buy little pieces of happiness (or at least stave off the unhappiness that comes from want).

What could be wrong with this?  Isn't this what we all consider to be the good life?  Happiness at every turn, any possible problem that is lurking around the corner can be dealt with, most of life free of worries and fears?  If pleasure and ease is to be had, why would we not use the freedom and resources given to us to have them?  After all, when given the chance, we plan vacations full of joy and experiences, not sorrows and headaches.

I have an even richer life to offer you.  It is called real life, and it is messy but beautiful.  Sometimes by choice and sometimes not, my own life is very full, but that fullness has included many things that do not seem pleasant.  You too have probably, yourself or vicariously through friends and family, suffered through some of the same things.  Losing a loved one far too early.  Bouts of depression, suicidal ideation, or self-injury.  Addiction, incarceration, bankruptcy.  Barrenness, loneliness, divorce.

The seduction of the always happy and always easy life is ever around us.  At the very least, we seek only good surprises, not awful ones.  We want to believe that so long as we do the right things, the life laid out before us is clean and beautiful.  We're taught as kids that if we floss we'll have good oral hygiene, that if we study hard we'll get good grades, and that if we eat right and exercise we'll have good health and feel good.

All of these things are true.  And yet sometimes life is ugly and messy.  Sometimes people who do everything right still fall fatally ill, or don't get the promotion, or find their relationships falling apart.  Life may not need to always break our way, but it's not allowed to be so cruel and capricious, right?

Ah, but sometimes it is.  No one is immune forever, even those of us who, by dint of when and where we were born, live remarkably charmed existences.  Sometimes the ugliness and mess comes crashing in.  Then what?  Do we put on a sunny exterior and try to bounce back from sheer commitment to the power of optimism?  Do we circle the wagons and buffet ourselves from any possibility of veering into a ditch?  Do we stew with cynicism and jealousy and rage?

As for me, I choose to believe in a God who is all-knowing and all-powerful, and I find no contradiction between that being true and evil/mess/ugliness/uncertainty crashing into my world.  Life is messy and beautiful.  May we seize it to the fullest every single day.  

Why Real Diversity Matters

I have had the pleasure of getting to know a number of professionals who do diversity training for a living.  As I hear from them what they are trying to accomplish in their sessions, it occurs to me just how powerful they can be, not just for diversity issues but for overall personal, organizational, and commercial success.

And why is that?  Well, let me start by differentiating between different levels of diversity.  Simplistically, think of this in three tiers.  First, you can have a group that has different kinds of people in it.  Second, that group can have not only diversity in composition but a relatively fair distribution of how power is distributed within the group.  Third, all in the group are genuinely seeking to understand different opinions and the different perspectives from which those opinions emerge, and at times those different opinions and perspective may change people's own opinions and perspectives.

From this frame of reference, putting in the hard work to be a truly diverse group (i.e. the third level) pays huge personal and professional dividends.  For while we tend to think of diversity in terms of the bringing together of people of different racial, ethnic, gender, sexual orientation, or other categories, truly there are no two people who are alike in their life perspective and therefore in the way they view the world and form opinions.  So unless you plan to live all by yourself in the middle of nowhere, your success and happiness as a human being involves being able to effectively interact with other human beings.  And diversity training helps orient you so you can get outside of your own inherently narrow and selfish perspective and more richly interact with others.  Conversely, you can just stomp around wondering why no one "gets" what is obvious to you, latching on to only those who see things from your perspective, and having their hearty assents further atrophy your ability to , see things from multiple perspectives.

If diversity training is not your thing, you may think of it as unnecessary or as a necessary evil.  I would encourage you to think of it as essential.

Lazy Linking, 159th in an Occasional Series

Stuff I liked lately on the Internets:

159.1 Banksy strikes again, at refugee camp in France bit.ly/1Rf2cjm @thisiscolossal

159.2 Sobering acct of how black ppl are treated at Princeton bit.ly/1NF9eHb @voxdotcom

159.3 Getting an emailed pic of your incoming mail before it arrives: creepy or cool? bit.ly/1Tv6u3H @qz

 

159.4 How bike share in NYC got back on the right track  bit.ly/1M73RiX @fastcompany

159.5 What if the increase in mass shootings has nothing to do w/guns? bit.ly/1RJUxsL @margrev (see also bit.ly/1NBlfmS)

2015 Books

Here are my ratings for the books I read in 2015.  In case you've forgotten, the scale goes like this: 1 - pass, 2 - some good some bad, 3 - recommended, 4 - can't stop raving about it, 5 - fundamentally changed my life.

1.       Colonel Roosevelt (Morris) 3

2.       Working for God in the Marketplace (Nwuneli) 3

3.       The Price of Everything (Porter) 3

4.       Vision of the Anointed (Sowell) 3

5.       The Future and Its Enemies: The Growing Conflict Over Creativity, Enterprise, and Progress (Postrel) 4

6.       Try This: Traveling the Globe Without Leaving the Table (Freeman) 4

7.       Steve Jobs (Isaacson) 4

8.       Damn Good Advice (For People with Talent!): How To Unleash Your Creative Potential (Lois) 2

9.       The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life (Schroeder) 4

10.   His Excellency: George Washington (Ellis) 3

11.   Authentically Black: Essays for the Black Silent Majority (McWhorter) 2

12.   Get Me Out: A History of Childbirth from the Garden of Eden to the Sperm Bank (Epstein) 3

13.   Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (Douglass) 3

14.   A People’s History of the United States (Zinn) 3

15.   The Soulful Science: What Economists Really Do and Why It Matters (Coyle) 2

16.   The War of the Sexes: How Conflict and Cooperation Have Shaped Men and Women from Prehistory to the Present (Seabright) 4

17.   The Wisdom of Crowds (Surowiecki) 3

18.   Ecological Intelligence : How Knowing the Hidden Impacts of What We Buy Can Change Everything (Goleman) 3

19.   Uppity: My Untold Story About The Games People Play (White) 3

20.   Transition Game: How Hoosiers Went Hip-Hop (Wertheim) 4

21.   Play Their Hearts Out: A Coach, His Star Recruit, and the Youth Basketball Machine (Dohrmann) 4

22.   Sticklers, Sideburns and Bikinis: The Military Origins of Everyday Words and Phrases (Donald) 2

23.   Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead (Sandberg) 4

24.   One Summer: America, 1927 (Bryson) 4

25.   Think Like a Freak: The Authors of Freakonomics Offer to Retrain Your Brain (Levitt/Dubner) 3

26.   The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business (Duhigg) 3

27.   Food: A Love Story (Gaffigan) 3

28.   I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban (Yousafzai) 4

29.   Crazy Busy: A (Mercifully) Short Book about a (Really) Big Problem (DeYoung) 2

30.   Jeter Unfiltered (Jeter) 2

31.   David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants (Gladwell) 3

32.   The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined (Pinker) 4

33.   Dad is Fat (Gaffigan) 3

34.   From Eden to Exile: Unraveling Mysteries of the Bible (Cline) 3

35.   The Joy of Less: Discovering Your Inner Minimalist (Richards) 2

36.   The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman (Ferriss) 3

37.   Year of No Sugar (Schaub) 3

38.   Dr. Mutter's Marvels: A True Tale of Intrigue and Innovation at the Dawn of Modern Medicine (Aptowicz) 4

39.   How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character (Paul Tough) 3

40.   The Grand Design (Hawking) 3

41.   The Black Swan: Second Edition: The Impact of the Highly Improbable Fragility (Taleb) 3

42.   Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth (Aslan) 4

43.   The God Delusion (Dawkins) 3

44.   C. S. Lewis - A Life: Eccentric Genius, Reluctant Prophet (McGrath) 3

45.   What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions (Munroe) 4

46.   Up from Slavery: An Autobiography (Washington) 3

47.   The Souls of Black Folk (Du Bois) 3

48.   A Crash Course in American Law (Jones) 2

49.   50 Core American Documents: Required Reading for Students, Teachers, and Citizens (Burkett) 2

50.   Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance (Obama) 3

51.   Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy: A Righteous Gentile vs. the Third Reich (Metaxas) 4

52.   The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing (Kondo) 4

53.   Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets (Venkatesh) 4

54.   A Nation of Immigrants (Kennedy) 3

55.   Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us (Moss) 4

New Year's Resolutions

Since 2011, I’ve posted my New Year’s resolutions at the end of each year.  It’s a good way to do a year-end check-up and see how I did and what I need to recommit to into the New Year.  So without further ado:

1. Body - run 500 miles, swim 30 miles, 150 upper body workouts, 150 lower body workouts.

I’m pleased with my efforts although my body is starting to betray me.  Adding a newborn into the mix doesn’t help either.  My tallies for 1/1/15-12/1/15: ran 342 mi, swam 28 mi, lifted 95 times.  Grade: B.

2. Civic – join one or two more boards.

I’ve found boards to be a great way to network, give back, and stay in touch all at once.  I’ve had to throttle back on depth, and have come off the Spruce Hill Community Association, but was added to the Philadelphia Water, Sewer and Storm Water Rate Board.  Grade: B. 

3. Friends and family – shrink the time between contacts (varies by person).

Not nearly as many phone chats as I’d like, and my trivial pings on social media didn’t much make up for that.  Grade: C.

4. House – 2-3 more projects.

We got Asher’s room ready and that’s about it.  It’ll do.  Grade: C.

5. Kids – 1 on 1 times each month. 

Despite all the busyness, I still spend a fair amount of time with the kids, although sometimes it’s while we’re frantically in transit from Point A to Point B.  Although sometimes it’s those very drives, walks, and subway rides that kids remember.  Grade: B.

6. Marriage – at least one date night per month.

Not a whole lot of quantity here, especially post-Asher, although getting Asher was itself quite a meaningful me-and-Amy moment.  Grade: C.

7. Mind – read 50 books.

I’ll post my books (with ratings) tomorrow.  This was the year I discovered e-books from the Free Library of Philadelphia.  No cost + availability in my pocket = lots more reading done even with less free time. Grade: B.

8. Self – three hours per week of uninterrupted me time, three personal day getaways.

Didn’t do well here and this introvert is feeling it. Grade: D.

9. Spiritual – 100 Bible memory verses, one extra hour per week of praying.

Up and down.  Finding my sense of self and purpose, but not nearly as devoted to being rooted as I ought.  Grade: C.

10. Work – ten quality reports.
Really liking what I get to work on at work.  Topics included university/community relations, urban blight, land banks, responsible banking, CDCs, and shared food manufacturing.  Geographies included Honolulu, Phoenix, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Delaware.  Grade: B.

Lazy Linking, 158th in an Occasional Series

Stuff I liked lately on the Internets:


158.1 2 Philly HS's on Most Diverse list: Central #1, SLA #16 bit.ly/1Q6by0y @nichesocial

158.2 We crave "junk news" & then blame the media for giving it to us rol.st/1MS1Dpi @rollingstone ht: @kottke


158.3 Some pics spark controversy b/c they show us what we all know but don't want to admit is true bit.ly/1N26eYt @quora

158.4 Vox says the best way Zuck can give away all his $ is to give it to his college roommate bit.ly/21vuMAD @voxdotcom

158.5 6 handpainted images inside a translucent cube = mind blown bit.ly/1IKdcgs @thisiscolossal

What Am I Working On

As has become my custom every three months, here's what I'm working on now at work. I won't repeat anything from last time that I happen to still be working on, and for confidentiality's sake I have to blur some of the details for some of these studies.

* Feasibility assessment and marketing advice for a large-scale multi-level retail development.

* Economic and community impact of a teaching hospital.

* Neighborhood benefits from environmentally sustainable public infrastructure investments.

* Funding mechanisms for affordable housing.

* Economic impacts from municipal capital investments in low-income neighborhoods.

* Capital needs assessment for communities of color.

2016 Predictions Guaranteed or Your Money Back

It’s time to gaze into the ol’ crystal ball, say crazy stuff, and hope that no one checks after the fact.

These were my predictions from a year ago:

1. Two words: Jeb Bush.  Two more words: hot mess.

2. Drones the size of tarantulas debut in emergency rescue simulations.  I.e. everything in Minority Report is eventually coming true.  This’ll come.  Just give it time.  Spielberg is just that far ahead of his time.

3. Nine more Fortune 500 CEOs announce they are gay.  This didn’t happen but it might still be true.

4. The NFL has seen child abuse, domestic violence, sexual assault, murder, bounties, prostitutes, steroids, dogfighting, sexting, drugs, and did I miss anything?  Well, this coming year will bring a high-profile coach throwing games to pay back a gambling debt.  Nah, we got Deflategate instead.  Yawn.

5. Seemingly unstoppable public momentum concerning policies about marijuana use, police cameras, and net neutrality hit a brick wall.  Slowing, maybe.  Brick wall, probably not.

Meh.  Here’s 2016:

1. Google kills Google+, buys Twitter, and does an April Fools prank that is so good it causes a national security crisis.

2. Synthetic meat hits the shelves at Whole Foods for the first time.

3. Rio 2016 is an unmitigated logistical disaster, including a food poisoning or contagious infection outbreak that knocks out a huge number of marquee athletes. 

4. Silicon Valley’s woes come to a head – arrogant CEOs, lack of diversity, shaky state budget, transportation gridlock, social unrest, housing costs – leading to high-profile relocations to Seattle, Austin, and (drum roll please) Wilmington.

5. After 7 years of gridlock and obstinacy, President Obama and the Republican-controlled Congress have a really productive last year together, including all kinds of compromises – on immigration, deficit reduction, and energy policy – that confound cynical pundits and a fed-up public alike. 

6. Africa has its “Arab Spring” moment, as young tech-savvy social activists in country after country seize the global spotlight.