What is a boy to do — nay, what is a man to do given boyish characteristics and a fool’s heart of gold?
boy.
12-Mar-08Networking.
12-Mar-08What is the value of this much-hyped interaction intended to get us ahead in our careers and social lives?
I have been pondering this question recently as I have been evaluating my success in finding the perfect job in Washington, DC — ie, I haven’t had much luck and wonder why. More…
Detestable Politics?
28-Feb-08I have been familiar with this bizarre sight from having wandered by it previously, but yesterday it struck me as particularly bizarre. You see, I had just left the House Committee on Foreign Relations meeting and was pondering the reason for such meetings — the seemingly strange way that both Congresspeople and the viewers act, and why the entire field of politics is viewed as unseemly by so many.
Wow! Talk about exciting. I attended a full meeting of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs yesterday morning and got a good taste for how Congress runs. While there was plenty on the agenda for the meeting, it really all came down to discussion of saving the 
President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Well, this was quite a thing, so it seems. You see the original plan was enacted in 2003 to provide $15 billion over five years to a select group of countries. More…
Index of State Weakness.
27-Feb-08Now here’s something worth writing about! I attended an event at the Brookings Institution yesterday entitled Weak and Failed States: What They Are, Why They Matter and What To Do About Them.
In addition to reflecting many of the sentiments that I long to hear more discussion of, they were announcing the release of the new Index of State Weakness in the Developing World — a policy tool to help policymakers understand the strengths and weaknesses of the 141 developing countries. More…
Hats. Hats. Hats.
26-Feb-08I have been searching for a hat for about two and half years.
An exceptionally kind friend of mine (ha!) gave me a hat just over a year ago that was exactly what I was looking for. I have since worn it in winter and summer — even though it was really too warm and fashionably inappropriate for the no-white-until-labor-day crowd. Meanwhile, I continued my quest for a good summer hat. More…
Ugh.
22-Feb-08I know I’m late on this post, but it was started late on Wednesday the 20th —
What nasty weather today! I went to all the trouble of traversing the city in the snow and rain to attend a very interesting lecture:
Poverty and Inequality in the Global Economy Series: What is Global Inequality and Why it Matters
Unfortunately, the speaker was unable to attend. They expect to re-schedule it, and when
that happens, I’ll report on how the Lead Economist for the World Bank’s Research Department perceives Global Inequality.
In other primarily uninteresting news, I’m growing a beard. I can’t really decide if I like it or not, but it’s a good thing to do in the winter, I suppose. What do you think?
Finally, I was lucky enough to be notified at the last minute (thanks, Melanie) that there was a lunar eclipse tonight – fabulous. Amazing how magical the simple spinning of the planets and their satellites is.
I captured this picture of it – not great, but I didn’t break out the tripod, so I thought it came out O-K! I love the fact that you can see the different shape of the earth’s shadow crossing the moon. As it passed into complete coverage, the moon went all red and as it began to reappear, there was a thin sliver of white on the other-wise red moon that my camera simply would not even attempt to capture. The wonderful part about this was that at that point in the process, the sliver was at the bottom of the moon – beautiful. Sorry I don’t have the technology to have captured my own stills of it.
Hope all is well with each of you,
Wayne
A Good Day.
19-Feb-08I actually accomplished something to day.
That’s not to say that I don’t accomplish something every day, but let’s be honest – fewer are the days that accomplishment feels like accomplishment than those that it drifts by as if nothing happened.
Today wasn’t like that.
Today, I can look back, see the accomplishments, and consider them as greater than the time put into them. Among these accomplishments are:
- Formal job rejection based on ‘overqualification’ (but at least they were kind enough to let me know – and it seems as though I have finally figured out how to write a cover letter and resume that is attractive to job providers).
- Discovery of another potential job opportunity that I would like to pursue. I know this may seem like a silly thing to list, but I have to look through a LOT of job openings to find one that would actually interest me and suit my skills.
- Significant accomplishment on POMED’s website — mostly back-end stuff, but it’s been hanging over me for quite some time while I’ve been inundated with other goings-on.
- I talked to my baby sister! She’s soooo cute! She said she almost drowned over the weekend (okay, not really – but there was flooding on the farm!)
- I made significant progress on formatting the final Capstone document. In another couple of days, I may indeed have something that’s worth looking at.
The only thing I have yet to do before turning in is to make a quick review of today’s selection of Lolcats. It’s not a day without it!!!
Revival.
18-Feb-08And so it begins anew…
I have begun working on the Capstone project again – I’m finally ready to finish assembling it for final submittal to the Center for Global Affairs, create and make the video of our final presentation publicly available, and put the whole thing up on the web in a more user-friendly format.
While I am admittedly ever-the-optimist, I do believe this will be an excellent start towards something greater.
Dreams.
25-Mar-07I’ve been having a hard time recently, but I think I’ve figured it out.
I’ve been having a terrible case of writer’s block, and even research block, to coin a term, and I think it’s due to the nature of the subject that I’m working on. As I referred to in a previous post, I feel like this project is moving a feeling that I’ve always carried, forwards towards fruition.
I don’t really know what that means. I mean, I understand the words, but how is this going to come about? How is this notion that I’ve carried, bolstered by knowledge and experience, actually going to get tied down to reality? How is it going to play out? How am I going to make a living while doing it? In the more immediate term, how am I going to write about it convincingly to make it understandable and consequently viable?
I have the research skills. I’ve done rather well in that department, if you judge by the responses from professors. I’ve built tools and knowledge and the abilities to find, gather, assimilate, and re-present data in a cohesive way.
I have the idea. I have the theory. I have the background understanding. I’m not just making it up as I go along. I can see it as reality in the future, but I can’t quite make out how to get from here to there. But that’s the problem I’m working on, so that’s not really a surprise.
I have a great team that I’m working with. I mean, you can always FIND things to bitch about if you’re looking, but at the end of the day, we all get it, and we all want it to be right. Even more so, we all demand that it be right.
So what’s the problem, you may ask (for I am)? I think the problem is me. Not the totality of me, but certainly from within me. Perhaps fear is the right word. Fear of doing. Fear of being out there. Fear of having my innermost thoughts, ideas, and viewpoints scrutinized. It is certainly easier to criticize than to do, and if I never do, I don’t have to worry about being criticized.
Well, this must certainly be amongst the oldest and lamest reasons for stagnation in human history. Simultaneously, I would have said that it really doesn’t seem like me. I’ve never much concerned myself with what other people thought, quite the opposite in fact. Peer pressure always worked on me in the opposite fashion: “so this is what the cool kids are doing? that sucks!”
“I have my own view of the world and I’m going to live by it,” would more nearly sum up my life, or so I’d like to believe. That’s not to say I don’t take other’s viewpoints into account, it’s just that there aren’t that many areas of my life where I’m concerned about whether they will agree or disagree with me. I’m open to the debate, but not constrained by it. I try to live by the belief that, “part of what I’m doing is probably wrong, but that doesn’t differentiate me from anyone else, and when I realize what’s wrong about it, I’ll just change it.”
I guess I’ve found an area where I’m a little more sensitive. And why not? If I see this as my contribution to the world at large, I guess it’s acceptable that I’m a little concerned about how it will go over. After all, if it goes poorly, does that mean that my innermost views are wrong? That everything I’ve based my life around is a lie? To say it that way makes it sound ridiculous, but I guess fear is like that sometimes.
So if that’s what’s going on, the big question is: what am I going to do about it?
Well, this acknowledgement seems to have helped. I can see the legitimacy of my concerns, but at the same time, I do have a life to lead. I have a thesis to finish, I have ideas to convey, I have a livelihood to find, I have a contribution to make.
And time keeps passing me by…
I guess I better get back to work, trust in the legitimacy of the ideas, support and convey them properly, and take the next step towards being the change I want to see in the world. (Gandhi)
Ya’ know what? I just want to say that that’s not good enough. “Taking the next step” is part of the eternal procrastination that maintains the world as it is today. If I’m going to quote Gandhi, I should not be reducing the impact of his words. Therefore, I amend that final paragraph with the following sentiment:
I am the change I want to see in the world and I will take the next step towards disseminating that change.
It’s gonna be a good life!
Wayne
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