Friday, December 14, 2007

Hot Lips gets a big up from Plenty

So I pretty much spend my entire day reading about environmental news (ok, sometimes I do other things, but I'm not telling you what they are yet), but I don't usually post the links here because, well, if you want to read about that stuff, it's easy enough to find.

HOWEVER.

This article in Plenty Magazine about the growing trend of organic fast food
mentions Hot Lips Pizza in Portland, OR! Hurray! Hot Lips pizza was a staple at pretty much every party ever thrown at OES. Yummmmmmmm.

Can't wait for my five year reunion...which I actually dreamt about the other night...

Thursday, December 06, 2007

An alternative to that other list

In response to Kitty's post about the NY Times "100 Notable Books of 2007" list, I'd like to offer up this alternative:
CRITICAL MASS: Introducing the NBCC's Best Recommended

Although the list is one-seventh the length, I've read twice as many books on it. (1 x 2 = 2...how sad!)

Edit: Somehow I counted wrong, and I've actually read three books from the NY Times list...but still! (2 / 3 = 2/3)

Thursday, November 01, 2007

Location is everything, but you already knew that...

I've already raved about Walk Score, and recently the NRDC published a neat blog entry about how important it is to not only live in an eco-compatible location, but also to put your business in one.

Monday, October 29, 2007

Popsicle is Allowed

Oh wow, so much has been happening!

The Red Sox won the World Series!

Apple picking!

Apple pie baking!

Pumpkin carving!

Sarah is coming to Boston toorrow! (And so is Salman Rushdie!)

And so much more...but first...

I love the funny connections I make while studying for the Lit. GRE. I was reading A.E. Housman's poem, "When I was One-and-Twenty",

When I was one-and-twenty
I heard a wise man say,
"Give crowns and pounds and guineas
But not your heart away;
Give pearls away and rubies
But keep your fancy free."
But I was one-and-twenty,
No use to talk to me.


when I was reminded of the a poem on a Korean notebook (title: "Popsicle Is Allowed"),

Years and years ago, when I was only seven years old I heard a wise man say,
With a sigh and sad eyes,
"Dear, give all your ice cream and popsicle
but not your heart and soul away."
But I was just only seven years old, and,
No use to talk to me...


Ahhhhh! I love it!! Back to studying now...

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

How to get an A for Green!

Less than two weeks ago I was at a post office in Kenmore Square. The guy ahead of me had received a package, and asked if he could leave the cardboard box there for them to recycle (he had already opened it and removed his...boardgame...). "Well you can leave it here," the kindly postal worker replied, "but it won't be recycled because we're technically on BU's campus, and BU doesn't recycle." Wha? Come on, BU!

That interchange prompted the idea in my head that someone should rate colleges according to how "green" they are. Well...someone has! The Sustainable Endowments Institute just came out with the College Sustainability Report Card, which you can download here. They rate schools in eight categories, including Food and Recycling, Climate Change and Energy, Green Building, and Investment Priorities. Who is at the top of the class? Carlton, Dartmouth, Harvard, Middlebury, University of Vermont, and University of Washington. And what score did BU get? Barely passing with a C.

Check out the descriptions of notable initiatives in each of the eight categories. Each school also gets a full-page report card that describes why it got the grade that it did.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

We gon' sip Bicardi like it's Earthday

Next month I'm going to visit my friend Chandler in the Netherlands, so I'm thinking maybe I should swing by the Sustainable Dance Club. Plenty Magazine writes about it, and my absolute favorite part of the article is the mention of "party scientists." Yeah, such a thing actually exists, but only at Delft (the tech school Chandler attends).

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Fresh fodder for conspiracy theorists: Dragonfly spy robots!

There's an article in the Washington Post about dragonfly spy-robots. It all proceeds just the way you think it would...

until you hit page 2 and it starts talking about CYBORG INSECTS WITH COMPUTER CHIPS IMPLANTED IN THEIR BRAINS!

In other news: If 6 pm in Boston Common is the haven of dog-owners, 1 pm on Commonwealth Ave must be the time and place where all the professional dog-walkers convene. First I saw a woman with 5 tiny spaniel-looking-things, then a guy walking SEVEN huge wolf/dog hybrids. What?

Sunday, September 30, 2007

Running: An Effective Yet Dangerous Ani-Depressant

Runner's World has a very interesting article about the coupling of running and depression as seen through the eyes of (absolutely amazing and inspiring) ultra-runner Lisa Smith-Batchen.

The article discusses how exercise is a natural anti-depressant that has been shown to be more effective than pharmaceuticals. Many people (myself included) rely on running as a mood stabilizer, and it's no secret that when you exercise regularly you feel also better mentally. But... you also tend to feel down and depressed when you stop working out, effectively dropping into an exercise withdrawal. Veeeeeery interesting to see what happens when depression, obsession, addiction, parternity, and endorphins collide within Lisa Smith-Batchen's physique and psyche. It's a crazy upward downward back again spiral that makes you wonder, in spite of yourself, whether running really is a mental illness, and Smith-Batchen needs a re-diagnosis.

Saturday, September 29, 2007

We'll make it I swear...

I would just like to say that at this very moment there are a bunch of drunk people outside butchering (I mean singing) Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer" and for some reason it is making me really happy.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

More Rejection Love!

I promise I won't turn this blog into an exlusive rejection-fest, but I will post the most delicious rejection emails for your "I didn't want that job anyway!" enjoyment:

Thank you for your interest in -----------. We are in receipt of your resume. While your resume is solid, it does not strongly match our current hiring needs.

We will keep your resume on file against future hiring needs and contact you at that time.

Thank you again for your interest.


Oh man, I feel like a Victorian novelist "dashing" out the proper nouns. It is so devious.

More rejection coming soon...

Friday, September 21, 2007

Happy hunting...

The best way to kick off a weekend?

Thank you for your interest in employment at ***. We have reviewed your resume and decided to pursue other candidates whose qualifications more closely match those we are seeking for this position. We wish you the best in your employment search.


Impersonal, polite, email rejection! The ironic part is, this is one of the few jobs where I felt I my qualifications actually do "closely match those [they] are seeking." Just goes to show you...I know nothing about this "employment search" stuff...

Friday, September 14, 2007

Right on!

Alex Roth succinctly sums up why environmentalists have been notoriously unsuccessful in past decades as he attacks PETA's new anti-meat campaign. Thank you for saying what we've all been thinking!

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Standing in line to see the reading tonight...

Yesterday Kaya and I tried to go see Junot Diaz, an MIT professor and fiction writer, read from his new novel. We (and a surprisingly large number of other disappointed fan-boys and fan-girls) were turned away because the reading was sold-out. They through us a (small) bone, telling us the talk was being recorded for re-broadcase on CBS Sunday Morning. I think I'll have to tune in, because while public libraries are amazing things, they aren't the best if you want to get your hands on new fiction (I'm 45th in the "hold queue"...at least I'm only 25th for An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England).

And now I'm going to take a few seconds to embarrass Paul. (Ok, so it's not that embarrassing, just funny to me...) Last night it appears he went shopping. Here's the complete list of what he purchased:

paper towels
Snyder's pretzels (which are quite addictive, I have to add)
Gatorade
frozen pizza
beer (good beer, at least: Peak Organic Pale Ale)

Did I miss anything? Paul, I'm just teasing you because it exactly fits the bill of what you'd expect a 25-year-old male to buy.

Now get to work!

Quote of the Day (designed to make all you aspiring writers out there, yours truly included, feel like shmucks)

Ninety-year-old screenwriter Millard Kaufman, whose first novel is being released this month:

"Years ago, I was working in Itaty, and Charlie Chaplin and his family came from Switzerland. We were at a beach north of Rome, and it was a very foggy day and the beach was lousy. At about three o'clock it cleared up, and Chaplin said, 'I'm going back to the hotel. Unless I write every day, I don't feel I deserve my dinner.' That made an impression on me." (a la The New Yorker)

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Because Tyra Banks looks good in emerald...

I'll be back soon, for real, but first...

America's Next Top Model goes green!

(Can you say "guilty pleasure"?)

Stay tuned for some culinary (mis)adventures...

Thursday, September 06, 2007

Move it!

Sorry I disappeared for a while. I was hiding in my...new apartment! Last weekend, as everyone who lives in Boston knows, was the grand headache of all headaches, when everyone in the entire city (or at least everyone under the age of 35) decides to pack up their wordly treasures, strap them to the roof of their car, and honk, swerve, and hold on for dear life for a few miles before arriving at a new residence. It also happened to be the weekend before most of Boston's dozens of colleges start. This grand balancing act (how does everyone and everything manage to shift in perfect synchronicity? Ok...it isn't quite perfect, but somehow everything ends up working out in the end) turns Bed, Bath, and Beyond into a cross between a zoo and a battlefield (you are now picturing ostriches and polar bears hurling hand grenades at each other, right?) and Comm. Ave. into a demolition derby. It's great fun.

In other news, I waited for 3 and a half hours at the doctor's office because they "forgot about me." Also, in case anyone forgot what region of the country I'm living in, at the beach in Scituate this weekend, I heard an eight year old kid say, "It's a pretty view, Julie. A wicked pretty view."

Happy September. (And happy birthday, Erik!)

Wednesday, August 29, 2007


Alice, you so have my blogging habits pegged!

Anyway...today I went hiking at Wachusett Mountain in central Massachusetts. It was a beautiful drive, a beautiful hike, and an all around beautiful day. A herd of wild gobbling turkeys crossed my path (or, I think technically I crossed theirs). The trail was, in proper New England fashion, rocky and deciduous, which meant a lot of hiking and a little trail running.



Why is going hiking so much better than looking for a job?

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Some light summer reading




Last Tuesday night I started reading Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking. Less than 24 hours later, I had finished that book, as well as Calvin Trillin’s About Alice. This isn’t the most impressive feat of marathon reading I’ve done (reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory between sunup and sundown when I was six still tops the list), but it certainly was one of the most emotional.



I’m a firm believer that, before I start analyzing a book’s prose style or thematic elements, the first litmus test for a book should momentum: how hard is it for me to stop reading a book once I’ve started? Is the book, in metaphysical terms, a train, a speeding bullet, a stampeding elephant? Or it is a feather, a drop of rain, a gnat? Both Didion’s and Trillin’s books possess a great deal of momentum, a refreshing break to the momentum-less Your Paradise through whose pages I’ve been recently slogging (albeit happily). Some books carry the reader along through with suspense plot, others with humor, and others with stimulating knowledge. About Alice and The Year of Magical Thinking carry the reader along with immense emotional weight and acceleration.

Both books are by writers navigating life the wake of the death of their long-time spouses, both also writers. Both books are short, sweet dirges that delineate a portrait if a long-standing, deeply loving marriage The similarities end there. Trillin’s book is, as the title deftly and succinctly claims, about his wife Alice. Didion’s book, on the other hand, is about herself. It is a memoir of her grief interspersed with a description of the death of her husband, John Dunne, and the illness of her daughter, Quintanna. (Note that on the cover of the book, the letters “J”, “O”, “H”, and “N”, have been highlighted from the title and byline, although I have a feeling this was not Didion’s decision but her publisher’s.)

Didion is documenting a loss of control, something she calls a pathologic grief that manifests itself in irrational thinking as she keeps waiting, preparing, for her husband to come back. The book, although maintaining a flustered, flushed, bewildered tone, is full of schedule, repetition, and routine. Didion is obsessed with dates and times. After reading the book, the reader has the date and time of Dunne’s death memorized, and, if desired, could draw up a detailed timeline of Didion and Dunne’s life together. It is a marvelously constructed, well-crafted and well-researched piece. The book is amazingly controlled, although it claims not to be. And this works because Didion’s calmness is part of her pathologic grief, and so the pathology itself is her need to put everything in order, her need to research and write.

Phrases repeat themselves in ever-evolving iterations throughout the book, like the chorus of a song that is modified slightly after each verse. The effect is hypnotic and mesmerizing, and makes the book read more like a lyric work of prose poetry than an extended essay.

What appealed to me most about Didion’s book was, oddly enough, not her experiences of grief, but the glimpses of the writer’s process and writer’s life that spread into every corner of the book. She is struggling with her grief via a “writer’s dilemma” and has a desire to understand and control the situation by writing everything down. This process is, however, futile, as we see her search for meaning in her scattered notes on the back of grocery lists and receipts. Didion reflects, “Was it only by dreaming or writing that I could find out what I thought?” (As I copied down the quote, I accidentally almost wrote “dying” instead of “writing”, which is either telling or just a coincedence.)

As she’s running from her memories she trips and stumbles into my own. I challenge any reader to get through the book without experiencing the same phenomenon: for me it occurred when Didion was covering the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston. And throughout the book, as Didion was flying back and forth from New York to Los Angeles (she and her husband lives in the Sunshine State for many years, and her daughter was hospitalized on both coasts), I was taking notes with a cheesy puzzle pen I bought at LAX that says “CALIFORNIA IS A-MAZE-ING.”

Towards the end of the book, Didion reflects, “I realize as I write this that I do not want to finish this account.” (229) Reading those lines, I realize that I desperately want her to finish, and want to finish reading. As I was reading, I was constantly waiting, although I couldn’t tell whether I was waiting for Didion or her daughter to recover? Quintana died several months after Didion finished her manuscript.

While Didion’s book provokes analysis, Trillin’s book provokes silent reflection and reverance. About Alice is not an account of mourning; it is a eulogy for a loved woman. Trillin has packed his grief away to calmly, delicately, and respectfully create a swan song for his wife. Trillin’s pain is obliquely visible through the details of what has been remembered and what has been forgotten about his wife. It is interesting to hear how many of Trillin’s favorite memories of Alice are, according to her, fabricated or incorrect. This doesn’t trouble Trillin, or the reader, and only adds to the poignancy of his descriptions.

Which book do I recommend? Read both.

(Also: Were the publishers seriously going for something here with the covers? Notice how their covers employ almost identical color schemes and styles. Is that the convention for a book about a deceased spouse?)

Monday, August 27, 2007

For all your carbon offset needs

Check out the Cool Driver Campaign from Vermont's Native Energy.

Psychosocial Moratorium: A Place for Friends

This weekend, thanks to my responsible, directed, med-student friend Jane, I found out that there's a clinical term for the aimless aversion to responsibility I (and many of the people I know) are feeling right now. It's called psychosocial moratorium, and it means delaying the onset of "real" adult responsibilities by traveling the world, hanging out at home, living in the woods, etc.

So, the next time someone asks you, "Have you gotten a job yet?" or "What do you want to do with your life?" just reply, "Well, right now I'm spending 1-3 years in my psychosocial moratorium, but I'll let you know as soon as soon as I'm done."

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

I've turned into a homeless person...

Today I spent about 8 hours at the Boston Public Library (Central Branch, if anyone wants to try to stalk me). I'm supposed to be applying for jobs and studying for the GRE, but I haven't done either of those today. Instead, I finished Joan Didion's "The Year of Magical Thinking" (yes, I know that technically it should be on my "current reads" list anymore, but I'm living it there for thematic reasons that will become evident in about 5 seconds) and started in on Calvin Trillin's "About Alice." Yes, they are both books about writers mourning their bereaved writer spouses. They are, however, completely different from each other, and I'll go into that in more detail soon (I'm only halfway through the shorter "About Alice").

Today I also found some books on hikes in Massachusetts (would you believe that at the BPL there are more books on hiking in Oregon than there are on hiking in New England? Ok, maybe all the New England ones are checked out because it's summer...). Tomorrow I'll be a homeless person in the woods, instead.

At least I haven't yet been woken from a nap by library security (there's a strict "no sleeping" policy at the BPL).

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Today I saw a woman with a the license plate:

36 D

There's only one thing I can think of that it refers to, but I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt. Yeah, right.

Now's that's a good use for s***

Ok, we all know about my fascination with waste treatment (or rather...what happens after the waste is treated). A nuclear power plant in Maryland has honed in on a novel solution: use treated sewage as an industrial coolant.

Now that's not nearly as efficient as pumping the water back into the drinking supply via reservoirs, a la Singapore, but it's a start.

Did I mention I went fishing at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant last week? (Ok, so I walked around on the rocks while Paul and his friend fished, but I did attempt a few casts myself.) Pilgrim uses sea water for cooling, and if you drop a line in the out-take stream the warm water will carry it out to schools of hungry blue fish.

Binoculars or Blinders?

Here's an interesting article about the narrowness of MFA writing programs and a plea for contemporary writers in general to step outside their comfort zones and start taking some chances. Even if you aren't a writer, it's sound advice.

Choose Your Own Adventure

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Another dream job!

America's Test Kitchen is hiring an editorial assistant! Zoinks!

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

!!!!!!

Maybe this is what I should be doing:

There's an entire ASSOCIATION for the "Study of Literature and Environment."

No joke...I was totally just thinking, "Hmmm...how am I going to market eco-lit as a viable concentration in my personal statemeny?"

Alive and stateside

The most unexpectedly poignant moment of the week:

"I just hope you find what you like to do. I don't think I ever did."

--My grandfather's parting words after our dinner at Claim Jumper, the Outback Steakhouse of the new millennium. (In case you were wondering, a claim jumper is someone who, during the California gold rush, beamed '49ers over the head with shovels and stole their pay dirt.)

And in the spirit of self-humiliation, here's a piece of circa tenth grade writing I found while unsuccessfully attempting to purge my room. It was for a fiction class, and I was supposed to write a character description/personification of an emotion. So...enjoy (or not). Ha!

Passion
She is running through the woods. Wild, unique, daring. Staring blood red sunsets in the eye. She laughs without warning and cries on your shoulder. “That is dangerous,” they say. “Impossible,” say others.
She hears their warnings but tries anyway.
Challenging, believing, living: She lies on her back at night underneath the starry sky, listening to the stories the universe has to tell. She makes it up herself as she goes along.
Two days are never the same. Yesterday she fell in love.
Today her heart was broken.
The thundering currents flow through her veins. Her picturesque love of life is contagious. Running with the wolves, sitting calmly beneath her favorite tree, watching the moon rise. She gambles with her feelings, and she usually catches herself when she falls.
Unless she doesn’t: She keeps falling…
falling…
falling…
The sky holds her up.


Coming up next, perhaps some of the sesquipedalian gems my ex-boss wrote and put in my mailbox?

Friday, August 10, 2007

It's my last night in Korea...

...and I have no sheets at the moment. Luckily the pink flowery comforter that greeted me when I first arrived is still here...some things never let you down.

See you on the other side of the Pacific.

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

4 days left and I am already 70% packed

Things I Will Not Miss When I Leave
- The smell of slaughterhouses in the morning

Things I Will Miss When I Leave
- Being able to go to a tiny kiosk down the road and get my shoes repaired while having an awkward converesation in broken Korean

Things I Have Not Decided Whether or Not I Will Miss When I Leave
- The oversized scary-awesome arthropods that inhabit my stairwell (good thing my roommate is so good at sweeping them down to the fourth floor)

Sunday, August 05, 2007

Career Possibility 2: Travel Writer

I’m sick (Korea decided to give me a cold as a going away present…), my apartment smells like baby vomit, a gang of small red bumps is inhabiting the skin under my watch, and I visited the DMZ this weekend and desperately want to write about it, BUT…

First, I am going to continue my series on “potential jobs for Jordan” (because, let’s face it, I hate the word “career”—it is just too darn scary).

Travel writer most definitely falls under the categories of “unrealistic” and “missed the boat on that one”, but I am going to write about it anyway. From what I’ve been able to gather from various articles on job prospects in travel writing (NY Times , tips from an experienced travel writer, escape artist, salary.com, and plenty more where those came from), the job is less glamorous than it sounds, relatively low-paying, stressful, difficult, and very very awesome. The publishers of travel books have a very difficult job because they are constantly struggling to keep up with ever-changing travel information. That’s good news for writers, because they are always in demand. Some people say it is more important to be a writer than a traveler, others say the inverse, so I am going to go ahead and say: you need to love both traveling AND writing….that sounds more than obvious, right?

Ok, here is what I should have done (and I know some people told me to do this, I was a doof). As soon as I found out that my Moon Handbook: South Korea was utterly lacking when it comes to Gwangju (virtually no information on hotels, restaurants, nightlife, culture, anything), I should have written up a few sample listings, sent them in, and said “Hey, your guide could use updating in several other areas as well. I am available for other assignments”. Seriously. As the reviewers on amazon.com say, the book is overflowing with general cultural information (I think the author must be a Buddhist—it seems like all he did was visit hole-in-the-wall temples) but conspicuously void of practical information. It describes Gwangju as a “former backwater”, which is true, but now it is Korea’s fourth largest city. A little more—and I’m just asking for a little; I wouldn’t spend more than two days in Gwangju if I weren’t living here—than the obligatory “here’s the address of the Gwangju National Museum and May 18th Memorial” might be appropriate.

*Note: After re-reading my first draft of this post, I realize that I didn't fully capture my abhorrence for the Moon Handbook. I wish I had my copy in front of my so I could quote some of it's horrible-ness, but several months ago, in a moment of disgust, I fed it to some pigs. The book is clunky, unhelpful, repetitive, and irrelevant. Yes, it is exhaustive, covering tiny villages in more detail than it covers Gwangju, but if you are a foreigner heading out into the sticks it is going to be a comedy of errors no matter how many times you have read your Moon Handbook.*

Most travel book publishers are open to pitches and suggestions, so it’s worth a shot. The most “open” when it comes to unsolicited writing are probably:

Frommers
Lonely Planet
Rough Guides

Hmmm, Let’s Go only employs full-time Harvard students. New plan for becoming a travel writer: get into Harvard for grad school and spend my summers traveling and writing for Let’s Go. Just a few road-blocks in that plan, but shouldn’t be a problem…kidding!
Things I Will Not Miss When I Leave
- Getting nearly poked in the eye when a Korean stranger reaches out and tries to touch my eyebrow ring

Things I Will Miss When I Leave
- The luxury of direct inter-city busses and theme-park-esque rest stops

Things I Have Not Decided Whether or Not I Will Miss When I Leave
- Taxi and bus drivers who think they are on a NASCAR racing circuit
Pro: Every time I want to go somewhere it is like riding a roller coaster
Con: Every time I want to go somewhere it is like riding a roller coaster

Friday, August 03, 2007

Things I Will Not Miss When I Leave
- Crowded subway cars that smell like kimchee

Things I Will Miss When I Leave
- Going to an Outback Steakhouse and having a server named "Pooh" or "Boobie"

Things I Have Not Decided Whether or Not I Will Miss When I Leave
- Buying what looks like a package of 4 sticks of butter at the grocery store, only to find that it is actually one GIANT stick of butter 4 times as big as a normal stick

8 Days and Counting...

I have just over a week left before I leave Korea forever. To celebrate the event, I am starting a new daily feature.

Things I Will Not Miss When I Leave
- The sauna-like summer weather,

which makes me feel like each morning I am going for a swim (in a jacuzzi) instead of a run. I don't call it working out anymore, I just call it sweating. "I'm going out for a sweat, I'll be back in an hour!" Except...once I get back, I don't stop sweating for the rest of the day.

Things I Will Miss When I Leave
-Pat Bing Su

Things I Have Not Decided Whether or Not I Will Miss When I Leave

-The look on Korean taxi drivers' faces when I surprise them while I am running on a narrow road through a rice field and they have pulled into a ditch to urinate

Thursday, August 02, 2007

Career Possibility 1: Environmental Consultant

I don’t exactly know what at environmental consultant is. Or at least, I didn’t know four days ago. I just knew it contained a word I liked, “environmental”, and a word I didn’t like, “consultant”. Similar combinations, such as “nasal” and “spray” or “poached” and “egg” have had mixed to positive results, so why not give it a shot?

According to the UK website Prospects, an environmental consultant:

“works on client contracts in areas such as water pollution, air and land contamination, environmental impact assessment, environmental audit, waste management, environmental policy, ecological/land management, noise and vibration measurement and environmental management. The sector continues to expand in response to a mix of regulation, corporate risk and reputation management. Consultants operate in a very commercial environment and senior staff may be required to help attract future clients for the business.”

So basically…an environmental consultant could do anything and everything. From other sources, I have gathered that some environmental consultants sort through masses upon masses of data, others get their boots wet tromping around in toxic spills, and others advise schools on how they can install more efficient heating systems. It all depends on where you end up, and your firm’s specialties.

Some environmental consulting firms are huge. And by huge I mean offices in 20 different countries and all 50 states. The Environmental Careers Organization has a great “Career Tips” section, and tip number 1 is, you guess at, all about careers in environmental consulting. They have a list of the "top" 65 environmental consulting firms in the United States. (Although it is unclear whether "top" means “biggest” or “best” or “highest hit on Google”.)

Of those 65, the following firms (with headquarters from Long Beach, CA to the Netherlands) have offices in the greater Boston area (yeah, I am still doing this for me, remember!). The list goes roughly from big enough to dwarf the Titanic to a sizable two-engine motor boat. Unless noted, offices are in Boston proper.

CH2M Hill Companies
IT Group
Earth Tech
Parsons Corporation
Black and Veatch
Montgomery Watson
Camp Dresser and McKee (CDM, headquartered in Cambridge)
Jacobs Engineering Group
Battelle
Tetra Tech
The ERM Group
Weston Solutions
AECOM Technology Corp.
ENSR International (headquartered in Westford, MA)
Malcolm Pirnie
HDR
Arcadis
ATC Associates
TRC Environmental
ThermoRetec Consulting (now merged with ENSR, in Concord, MA)
Conestoga-Rovers
SECOR International (Chestnut Hill, MA)
Michael Baker Corporation
Hazen and Sawyer
EA Engrg., Sci., and Tech (Southborough, MA)
LFR Levine Fricke (Braintree, MA and Lawrence, MA)
Bureau Veritas
GeoSyntec Consultants (Acton, MA)
DLZ Corporation (Waltham, MA)
Parsons Brinckerhoff (headquartered in Weston, MA)
Haley and Aldrich

After looking at all those websites, and dozens of pictures of men and women in hard hats and goggles scrutinizing plans, highways in “fast motion” with the lights all blurry, close-ups of handshakes, people sitting under bridges as the sun is setting (and yes, the sun is always setting…), aerial photographs of construction sites, clear lakes with reflections of cloud-filled blue skies, test tubes filled with jello colors, and hands holding soil that is sprouting seedlings, I think I have a better idea of what goes on at an environmental consulting firm. (Side note: only one website had annoying “intense” background music.)

Now, the next step is to see exactly what each firm specializes in (waste water management? air pollution? energy auditing?) and send out unsolicited (ah! so scary!) cover letters and resumes accordingly. This is obviously just the beginning…

P.S. An environmental consultant is not quite the same thing as an environmental engineer, which I may or may not cover some time in the near future.

Do What You Love

Another quick nod to Kaya for giving me that blogging book. Oh wait, she didn't give it to me. I checked it out of the library and it is how many days late? I'll toss that one into the pile of "things I will worry about when I get back to the US." (I can just feel my dad's skin crawling as he thinks Noooo! Stop procrastinating! Can't you renew it online?)

"Idea number 87: Do what you love.

...I asked myself, 'What do I do when I want to relax?' I like to poke around at online stores.

I decided to start a shopping blog called Mighty Goods, and people immediately responded. It's won awards from all kinds of magazines, the ads on the site do well, and I've even had offers to write about shopping for others."

--Margaret Mason, No One Cares What You Had for Lunch: 100 Ideas for Your Blog

What do I do in my free time? Well, usually I just eat, but I have also been known to read, run, and step food outside on occasion. However, that is not what I'm getting at. For the past, oh, FIVE MONTHS or so I have been spending most of my free time, like Mason, poking around online. My haunts haven't been online stores (though I wish...would have probably made for a much more exciting five months), but job websites. That's right. I am addicted to monster, craigslist, idealist, and many others.

And yet...

I still have not secured a job for when I get back to the US!

Yes yes, I have identified the problem (or rather, others have identified it for me), and it is that I don't really have a focus. One day I want to be a science writer, the next a teacher, the next a geologist, the next a circus performer, and so I am having trouble just buckling down and finding opportunities.

BUT, I realized that I have been amassing a ton of information about various career paths, so I might as well share it with the world.

Or I'll probably just get lazy and watch episodes of The Office for the third time...

All right, FBI, where are all those job offers?

Ok, this made me laugh. Here are the "off the beaten path" ideas from an online career test I took. (Can you tell that I am having trouble with this whole finding a job thing?)

Book Reviewer
Travel Guide Writer
Cartoonist
Magazine Freelance Writer
Wilderness Adventure Guide
Rancher
Forest Firefighter
Beach Lifeguard
Motivational Speaker
Masters of Ceremony
Set Designer for Amusement Park
Las Vegas Performer
Handwriting Analyst
FBI Language Specialist
Video Game Tester
Environmental Hazards Tester


My favorite one is Las Vegas performer. Sin City, here I come!

Saturday, July 21, 2007

Another reason the Hong Kong Airport rocks my socks...

...besides the multiple varieties of (real) orchids growing everywhere, is the "Resting Lounge." Nestled between two regular unassuming gates, hidden from the moving walkway, are a series of reclining chairs (Paul, what are they called again? Like the deck chairs...?). Each one has its own bush/shrub/tree (or two, or three) for added ambiance and restfulness. Seriously, I was about to curl up on the floor and then I saw this, like an oasis.

Headline of the week

Micropenis excites US publishing house

Once again, thanks to the Bookslut Blog for the link.

In less phallic news, I'm on my way back to Korea to teach summer school and delighted at the Hong Kong airport's free wireless internet. Take that LAX.

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

If I had a dollar for everything I didn't do...

And the word of the day is: HIATUS. I've been receiving some not-so-subtle hints from my readership (Alice's comment, Kaya's book, No One Cares What You Had for Lunch: 100 Ideas for your blog) that I should start blogging again, so here I go.

I seriously never cease to amaze myself with how little I can get done during the summer. But, to make myself feel better, here is a list of all the things I HAVEN'T done in the past four weeks. I have...

- NOT secured a job (although I have had a couple of interviews...)
- NOT bought a plane ticket back from Korea (will I be stuck there forever? Ok...I'll try to remedy that today, I swear!)
- NOT done any lesson planning for summer school (SAT prep...no problem!)
- NOT found an apartment (but have looked at a few, and am looking at some more this evening)
- NOT cooked a four course meal (or baked anything)
- NOT gotten past the Rennaisance in my GRE Lit. studying
- NOT purchased a new pair of running shoes (ahhhh! sore knees!) or a new watch (ahhh! water damage!)...will take care of the former today, hopefully...
- NOT written the great American novel
- NOT visited the Harvard Museum of Natural History or the ICA
- NOT been to a movie theater
- NOT composed a symphony
- NOT run in any road races
- NOT updated my blog

Ok, so I'm a big waste of space, and I'm enoying it!

Monday, May 07, 2007

A minimalist post

This weekend I...

...fought a losing battle with a gigantic cockroach.
...dropped my glasses into the toilet.
...hid under my covers during a thunder storm.
...went to a butterfly festival in the rain.
...watched a Korean bus driver jumpstart my friend's car.

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Locked in...

Words Without Borders new May "issue" spotlights writing from prisons. Ah, takes me back to my senior year of high school, when I spent hours flipping through old newspapers published inside the walls fo the Oregon State Penitentiary. It was for an assignment, I swear (solemnly)!

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

A little bit of Kim...

If you are in Boston this week, check out Korean film-maker Gina Kim's new movie, "Never Forever", at the Harvard Film Archive Wednesday, April 2.

I'll have to wait until June, when it comes to Korea, so tell me how it is...

Thanks to Paul for the great article about her!

Sunday, April 29, 2007

The bees' knees (or is it bee's knees?)

Yesterday I was kidnapped by a Korean family and taken on a sightseeing tour. Sighting of the day:

A man standing on six (six!) crates stacked on top of each other (tottering like the Leaning Tower of Pisa) wrangling with a swarm of bees in a tree (and swarms of concerned people down below). I wish I could have stayed to watch that one unfold...

The blooming flowers (with newlyweds stopping to take their pictures every 25 meters or so) and meandering river were nice, too.

The cheese stands alone

There's nothing better than receiving a care package...except receiving a care package that contains cheese! This wondrous event happened to me this week, and I have an update:

The cheese is good! The cheese is good!

Tillamook Cheddar: delicious

Smokey Gouda: decadent

Colby and Cabot Tomato Basil Cheddar: still chilling in the freezer, but I have high hopes

So, thank you Paul for sending it (expertly wrapped in foil). Now I just have to plan out my consumption...

Monday, April 23, 2007

Thanks for trying...

Every single time I had a math test in high school I secretly hoped that I would walk into class and the teacher would say, "Surprise! No test today! I just wanted you to study and learn the material, and I knew telling you we had a test was the only way to ensure that you did."

Did it ever happen? I'll give you a hint...NO! (To set the record straight, my junior year finals were cancelled for a day due to a snow storm, but that one we can chalk up to divine intervention and not teacher generosity.)

But never, ever ever, would I have had the nerve to do what one of my students did yesterday. She walked into my classroom right after lunch, with a grin like she had just snuck into a second movie after the one she paid for finished, and said,
"I have bad news. You aren't going to like it, but you can't do anything about it. Well, you will just have to accept it, but..."
I was going for mock shock, but I think I accidentally a heard of elephants from my eyes to trample her instead.
"It's about the math test. None of us are ready, and we don't want to take the test."
This is the point where I asked her where she was going to be seventh period. In math class? Well, yes. Problem solved.

Also, a different student returned a book that I leant to her, First They Killed My Father. She clandestinely left it on my desk with this post-it note:
Thank you for the book! I really x 1000000 enjoyed it. P.S. Sorry for making it Dirty.

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Many of you have heard me talk about the poor morale that surrounded me during the summer I spent at NASA's Glenn Research Center, but this incident makes all the complaints and grumbles pale in comparison:

"Police said Saturday that a bad performance review may have led a NASA contractor to fatally shoot his supervisor and take another employee hostage before killing himself."

Am I allowed to say that I am glad I am not working for NASA anymore?

Thursday, April 19, 2007

This is why I don't get up early...

I was on track to be significantly early to work. I really was! But then I spilled my cereal all over the floor.

The moral?

Early bird doesn't get the worm; or does, but then watches it splatter on the linoleum in a shower of browning milk, soggy chocolate flakes, and battered banana slices.

So it all evens out in the end...
Today, my life unfolded in run-on sentences:

After learning how to fend off attackers via pressure points in hapkido (you know, the usual knuckle jab to the ribs and chin thrust to the collarbone, a twist of an arm or tweak of the neck here and there), one of my classmates gave me a piece of gum that tasted like my grandmother's bathroom: lavender and frost blue soap seahorses and clam shells, rosebuds swimming in a potpourri pool.

I spent my evening at the happening intercity bus terminal (a hub of culture and transportation), debating to travel or not to travel over pizza, burpalo (buffalo) wings, and sealed-for-freshness sweet pickles.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Urban Nature

Here's an article from Grist about the Olympic Sculpture Park which just opened in Seattle. My family and I had a chance to walk through while I was visiting over spring break. We, being a family of cynics, laughed at the park's artificial natural habitats, but this article puts it into perspective, and reminds us that so many city dwellers (even in the Emerald City) never touch the world outside the urban.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Astronaut completes her own Boston Marathon

And without the undulating terrain OR the gravity!

(Or the nor'easter.)

Monday, April 16, 2007

Got to break a few eggs...

Ok, so continuing in the trend of more traditional news-blogging (and skimping on the personal stuff), here's an article about letting corn-to-ethanol fuel plants release a tad-bit more pollution, as long as their net contribution is still in the green.


U.S. gov't eases pollution rules at ethanol plants

I'm having a my physics kids do an energy and resource assessment of our scool. We found out that about one-fourth of the food our cafeteria buys gets wasted. At least in Korea it all gets magically whisked away and becomes pig-feed.

Happy Boston Marathon!

IT'S MARATHON DAY! Awwww, I'm sad to be away from Boston for my favorite day of the year.

To honor the event, I did get to watch a great Korean movie called "Marathon." It's about an autistic man who trains for, you guessed it, a marathon. It was very heartwarming and funny.

Sunday, April 15, 2007

More censorship...

I was talking with K.T. (future librarian and one of my all-time favorite people) about an article linked from the Bookslut Blog about the censorship of the novel Kaffir Boy. K.T. said that the author, Mark Mathabane, lived in Portland and worked for Catlin Gablin (my high school's rival)! Why do they get all the cool literary connections?

Earth Day...what to do?

Any ideas on what I should do to celebrate Earth Day (April 22) at my school?

I have approximately 0.5 hours to prepare for it, and no budget. Suggestions? My students are chronically environmentally ambivalent.

National Poetry Month makes everything better...

I had quite the epic weekend, but before I write about that, it's National Poetry Month! Here is a link to one of the best poems I have read recently:

Eavan Boland, 'Atlantis--A Lost Sonnet'

Enjoy!

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Updates on the cities versus suburbs debate from Cambridge, MA:

Cities are the Answer

"The old paradigm of the pollution-filled city as a blight on the landscape and the leafy-green suburbs as the ideal is outdated and does not lead us to a future of energy independence, clean air and a stable climate. Cities are the best hope to realize our need for a bright, sustainable, and promising future."

Springtime = Shearing

In Korea, springtime is the season of shearing. Sharing, you mean? No, shearing.

Coming back from a week in the states, I barely recognized my students and co-workers because everywhere I looked I saw new hairdos. Bobs, crews, mullets, you name it. (Anything goes here.) Even the forlorn spaniel that lives in a blue plastic dog-house in the gas-station adjacent to the school was shaved.

I went for a run around the nearby man-made lake (the one around which once, during the winter, I ran 25 times in the dark). The limbs of the trees lining the pavement were lopped, like hands reaching towards the sky with fingers severed at the first knuckle.

Pruning is a drastic and vicious art here; in the spring the plants have their tops and middle removed. I never caught the act in progress, I am only witness to the amputated trees and shrubs.

The weather is beautiful now, though.

Short but sweet

Last night I saw a shirt (pink, long-sleeved, with a collar) that said:

Hysteric Gender

Modern Vintage


Again...

Oh, Korea...

Saturday, March 24, 2007

Drama in the kitchen...

Ok, my "post-marathon" goals stood for all of...one week. But there is hope! I've had a stressful time at school this week, and it's been exhausting, but...don't worry, I'll be back to true form soon! Spring break is coming up...yay!

In other news, yesterday I went on my first legitimate run (meaning, longer than 10 minutes) since the marathon. It felt really good. The weather was grey and drizzly, just the way I like it. When I got back, I ran into a cluster of my co-teachers gathered around my friend Min's new dachshund, Lucky Guy. He was shivering and sneezing, but very appreciative of the attention.

At this very moment, I am in the middle of making biscuits. Thanks to my mom's rudimentary cooking skills (just kidding, Mom! I love your food!), Bisquick arouses a strong sense of nostalgia. The first batch went swimmingly, but in the second batch, where I was attempting to be daring and make "cheesy" biscuits, I distractedly added way too much milk. (Funny how 2/3 and 1 2/3 look almost the same when you aren't paying attention...) So, in order to save the biscuits, I had to turn into into a double (and them some) batch. The only problem was...I had run out of cheese. Well...I had run out of THAWED cheese, that is. Luckily there was some in the freezer, but let me tell you...grating frozen cheese is a challenge.

They are cooking right now, and look decidedly more amorphous and blob-like (are biscuits supposed to jiggly menacingly? I don't think so...) than the first batch, but with cheese, butter, and garlic salt, how can you really go wrong?

Update: The biscuits are out. Verdict? They taste cheesy so...Success!!

Friday, March 16, 2007

I love frosting!

Yesterday we had a "PD" (professional development) day at school. Normally, the teachers all get frustrated and grumble because we have a lot of productive discussions but feel like our input is ignored by the school's administration. Add a megaphone and some donuts, however, and it's a different beast! The highlight of the day was when we had to walk through a firedrill and discovered that the only way to escape from the third floor (guess who has a classroom on the third floor?) is by a very crusty very frayed rope-swing pulley system. Oh, I love Korea!

But...PD day was not the most significant event of the day. That honor goes to the two tubs of rich and creamy triple chocolate fudge chip frosting (supplied by two very special moms). My roommate and I used them to make cupcakes, frosted cooked, and a "Power Brownie" (dubbed so by one of my co-teachers because of its excessive school spirit).




You'll have to excuse my confusion about the color scheme of St. Patrick's Day. Resources were limited.

More photos of our domestic achievements are can be found here.


Last night my principal held a party at his apartment, and I got vomited on by a baby! Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone!

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Alice is right!

Alice, my personal shoulder-angel, has oh-so-kindly nudged me in the direction of posting again. While there is too much to get you all exhaustively caught up on (Ummmmm...I went to Hong Kong to run a marathon, I took my kids to a Model United Nations Conference, I got my brown belt, I spent the weekend in Cheonan dodging snow and taking pictures of myself on circular matresses and among giant anthropomorphic bottles of soju...for starters), I will give you an offering:

New photos on Flickr! Yay!

I still have many more to upload (and when will someone gift me a paid account--ahem! mom and dad...just kidding!), but right now I am limited to 200 viewable photos at a time, so I figure they can wait. Until that day...Check out the crazy pictures from Hong Kong (floating trees, fat greedy pig-men, ferries, laser light shows, something is afoot at the Circle K...).

I've started a list of post-marathon goals, one of them is to update this blog TWO times a week! Wow! So...we'll see how that works out.

An anecdote, to get the ball rolling:

In Korea, the customary gifts to bring to a house-warming party are laundry detergent and toilet paper. This is not because detergent and TP are useful (though no one can deny that they are), but because Koreans love symbolism and puns. Laundry detergent represents wealth, because by giving someone a box of powdered Tide, you are wishing that their money multiply like so many bubbles in a washing machine. Toilet paper, on the other hand, is for mediating problems. The word for "unroll" (as in unroll a roll of toilet paper) is the same word, phonetically, as the word for "solve." So, my giving someone a roll of bathroom tissue, you are saying, "may all your problems be as easy to solve."

Also...last weekend in the hotel Diana and I stayed at in Incheon, there was a gigantic vending machine containing snacks, beer, condoms, underwear, and panty-hose. Oh, Korea!

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Last night was kind of an "everything is going wrong" night. (Well, after my glorious sandwich, that is...I should have started to notice the trend when I burnt half of it, but I was so elated about its ooey gooey inner goodness to notice.)

First, around 8:55 I woke up from one of those catatonic death naps. I felt like someone had run over my body with a truck. I was lying on my stomach, drool coming out of my mouth, the works. I fought my instincts and braved the cold to run to hapkido (about ten minutes through rice fields and under freeways by jog). When I got there, the group of high school boys that joined right after I did were just leaving. First, there's the goofy one. Then there's the other goofy one. Then there's the tall goofy one with glasses. Then there's the shorter goofy one with red glasses. (Only one person will get this, but maybe they are a next generation all-Asian Odd Squad?)

Anyway, my encounter with them led to my enlightenment on a few issues:

1. During my vacation, where I took a short hiatus from hapkido, the class moved from 9:30 to 8 pm. That explains why, when I tried to go Monday night, everything was dark and locked.

2. Koreans must think Americans love shaking hands. The tall goofy one with glasses kept saying "Hi how are you?" and shaking my hand.

3. Koreans also must think Americans say "Oh my god!" all the time. Once the tall goofy one with glasses found out that I didn't know class had moved, he repeated "Oh my god!" in a high falsetto about 82 times.

I smiled and said "See you tomorrow!" and ran back home.

Once I got home, I enjoyed about ten minutes of electricity before the apartment went black; just lovely apartment 503 (o-bek-sam), the entire rest of the building was fine. So I got up, sighed, and called the maintenance guy's cell phone. We had a very convoluted conversation in Konglish before he told me he would send his wife to "check it out."

20 minutes later she arrived with a flashlight, walked through the door, marched straight into the kitchen and flipped a tiny (and yet completely obvious) switch on the electrical board. Gee, I felt stupid. But hey...I didn't want to touch anything for fear of causing irreparable damage. I mean, just look what happened when I didn't touch anything.

After that, I was happy because I could see, but then I found out that the internet didn't recover from the shock as well as the electricity did. Ha. So it's still out.

And that was my night! Lovely! Actually, it wasn't so bad...

Things that are fantastic

I've already mentioned how it's very fashionable in Korean grocery stores to tape "goodies" onto merchandise. Here are a few recent purchases:
- a wine glass taped to a bottle of Yellow Tail
- much needed earmuffs and gloves taped to boxes of cereal (Choco-Chex and Oreo Cereal)

Also, I bought some fresh-baked green bread. After eating some, I am not sure what gives it its fantastic color.

I made a sandwich tonight with the green bread, peanut butter (smuggled in from the United States thanks to Paul), honey, banana, and chocolate chips. Slap the whole thing in a frying pan with some butter and it's one fantastic meal. Honestly, there really isn't anything better.

Oh, by the way, my vacation was also fantastic.

Near my school, there's a massive dirty grey comforter dangling by a tree branch. It's been swaying a few meters above the sidewalk for a couple of weeks now. When I run or walk past, I never go directly under it.

My favorite recently-read book is Salman Rushdie's The Moor's Last Sigh. Stop by Gwangju and I'll lend it to you.