1. Forecasting: The postal service is counting on bulk mail taking up a higher percentage of mail in the future than it has (even) in the past. The author makes the point that this forecast is very unlikely to end up being accurate. Internet advertising is cheaper and more targeted, and so the postal service should focus on delivering mail that actually is wanted. Since fuel costs over time will rise, and since advertising doesn’t rely on paper as a medium (and therefore isn’t guaranteed to require the postal service in the long run) the postal services strategy of promoting bulk mail is flawed.
2. Number of deliveries/week: There’s no reason the postal service needs to visit every house 6 days a week. I find this to be a pretty compelling argument to begin with – mail is a variably high latency medium – but consider how much more this would be true if no one got any bulk mail. What percentage of mail is actually worth receiving, and how frequently does one actually need to receive it? Consider what would happen if mail only got delivered on demand. The savings in fuel costs alone would be impressive. The author pointed out that this is one of the primary ways UPS and Fed-Ex save money; they only deliver mail people actually are paying for, so they don’t have to drive around to every house every day, wasting time and fuel.
3. Medium vs. Message: Of the first class mail that one receives, how much of it actually needs to exist in physical form? The author makes the point that much of the mail we receive starts out in a digital format, is printed on paper, sent out physically, and then opened, just to be thrown into the trash. This is certainly true for bulk mail, but even true for a lot of first class mail. There’s really no reason we need to receive much of it in a physical format. The trend clearly is moving in the direction of digital media — think e-bills, statements in PDF, automatic billing, netflix on demand, etc. — and the postal service should align itself with this shift. Over time there’s no compelling reason why we will have more paper mail than we have in the past.
4. Hybrid digtial mail systems: The author mentioned some systems in place (Switzerland, perhaps?) that involved a secure online service for citizens to view their mail. Basically letters are opened and scanned automatically for viewing. If they are needed, they can be delivered physically. If not, they can be securely discarded.

I have to admit that I find the current system fairly depressing and frustrating. It seems like such an obvious waste of resources that doesn’t even primarily meet the needs of the public good for which it was originally intended. I suspect that over time other countries will appropriately price the delivery of mail and will leapfrog our system. Much of the media that gets delivered via the postal service doesn’t actually need to be printed on physical medium. Most of the mail I receive goes directly into the recycling, and of the few pieces of mail I receive that are important, most of those could easily be emailed to me. It reminds me of trying to apply for an apartment in Seattle and needing to mail a letter overnight because a fax machine / email attempt didn’t work. It amazes me that this transition isn’t happening faster.

Americans receive 55 percent of the world’s total mail volume

After all, almost every piece of paper mail delivered today started out as an electronic file that was converted to paper, delivered through an energy-intensive and polluting process, and in some cases even reconverted to an electronic document once it arrived at a place of business. Why go from digital to paper only to go back to digital? Why not skip the paper stage altogether?

the other day i got my red rocket blaster in the mail. it’s a pretty powerful air blower that i was hoping to use to get some dust off my camera’s sensor. i think i at least moved one smudge to a different part of the sensor, but it didn’t quite live up to my expectations… so i’ll be continuing to take pictures with a wide aperture, which seems to work just fine.

Hanging out in Kerry Park was lots of fun. I got there early and chatted with some other amateur photographers. One of them had a fancy lens and new Canon he had me look through, recommended a website, and exchanged flickr information. The other gave me some tips on my tripod technique (keep the neck part of the tripod as close to the body as possible to minimize vibrations). Both had Minnesota connections.

Second, Rizal Park:

Rizal Park didn’t have nearly as many people but was equally pretty. I’m still little frustrated by all the dust that’s sitting on the sensor of my camera, so I bought a ‘rocket blaster’ blower (seriously) to try to get rid of it. Hopefully that does the trick for the next time around.

I got to see a bunch of friends around xmas that I otherwise wouldn’t have. Mostly one on one, which was especially nice. No visits to the Amherst Brewing Co. this time, but I did make it back to the Moan & Dove several times, The Harp, the Cushman Cafe, and the italian place that used to be called Pinnochio’s. There’s a phenomenal pizza you can order in Amherst that I’d almost forgotten about. It’s made by Bruno’s and it’s their mexican pizza. Super spicy and delicious. For xmas we made an assortment of tasty food: gifte, cookies, bourbon cake, cherry torte, lamb w/ garlic, roasted carrots, beets, brussels sprouts and potatoes.

I made lit crit lasagne a couple weeks ago, for the first time in a year or so. I think the big issue with the recipe is that I simmered the red sauce for too long, and so it’s not as liquidy and delicious as it was growing up as a kid. I also used 2% cottage cheese and neufchatel cream cheese. perhaps that was a bad idea?

For next time: consider using more sauce. One pound beef is *plenty* and 15 oz. tomato sauce isn’t quite enough. Instead, maybe use 2x tomato sauce, or even pasta sauce, and some real garlic – not the garlic salt the recipe calls for. This time I did use practically all the noodles and it was fine. I guess if you overlap noodles (5x/layer) but only do 2 layers that’s about right. Note to future self: I flipped the order of sauce mixtures halfway through, and it was ok: Olive oil on pan, noodles, cheese, sauce, noodles, cheese, noodles sauce, parmesan

I had a woodblock print of a sailboat (so Seattle) framed from my study abroad 6 years ago in Auckland, New Zealand. It’s my first time having anything framed professionally. I had S with me for moral and aesthetic support (right color black matte, larger frame than I might have otherwise gone with). It’s large and pretty imposing in the bedroom, but I needed something there, and I think I’m in danger of having too many photographs in my place and not enough other things. Prints work well, those fancy vinyl wall decorations are pretty nice, and I’m considering taking a painting class to end up with more colorful, textured stuff.

My high school class held its 10 year reunion at the Amherst Brewing Company after Thanksgiving. I was pleasantly surprised. Better than my 5 year college reunion, really. You have 4 hours to talk to anyone you want and then you’re done. It helps maximize your time somehow. Also the beer at the ABC is delicious. And maybe more things have happened that are worth talking about?

In addition to my class reunion, I had a great (and long) time in Amherst. I helped my parents clean out some stuff from the basement, got to spend a great Thanksgiving in Northampton with one of my Mom’s colleagues and his family, and even went to Boston to see the Joshua Bell and the BSO.

I’m still experimenting with salad dressings. In addition to the balsamic/oil/salt/pepper/mustard/brown sugar one, i’m realizing I like red wine vinegar in salad dressings. a lot. stay tuned

2) Annie was in town and I got to add a couple new places on the ‘places to go when people come into town list’. not in any particular order, ‘kerry park’ in queen anne, ’some bowling alley’ somewhere in mt. baker, “geraldine’s” in columbia city. It was great to see someone from school, and get to act a little crazy. maybe too crazy? apologies. must remember to update the google map with cool places to show people, as well as a) finally go to ezell’s chicken, b) ride the monorail and c) go back to places like the hideout and cafe presse that I haven’t been to for awhile.

3) Catherine and Chad came over and we made some delicious cookies. I’d forgotten how easy they are to make, and how satisfying baking can be. A couple weeks ago I made tator tot hot dish, last week a cake for my sister, and cookies today. Maybe tomorrow some squash, and Tuesday some bread? I didn’t make it to the Capitol Hill farmers’ market today for beets, but I think I’ll have enough food to get by on.

4) E invited me to (although the invite showed up as if it came from R — whoops Google!) try out google wave. It’s a pretty compelling interface, and the realtime translation I saw demonstrated in their 10 minute demo video online was pretty compelling, as was the ‘playback’ changes support. My only concern about the interface is how successfully people will be able to edit waves over time without having the UI become too cluttered. It seems like the editor is going to be one of the most important things to get right.

5) Went to hear the Puget Sound Symphony Orchestra on a google reader-informed whim. Hit the Hideout before, Machiavelli’s after, and even snuck in Mad Men before bed. The PSSO was more or less what I expected; a great oboist, hilarious conductor, but possibly an out of tune string section near the beginning and some problems in the brass section.

6) I plugged in some rear speakers in my living room. I ended up buying them with a receiver from craigslist a month or so ago. I was only only interested in the radio/amplifier for the kitchen and didn’t need additional speakers, but it seemed like a good price, so I bought the whole package. Recently, curiosity killed the cat, and I now have ’surround sound.’ I can’t say I always notice it, but I’ve just had to listen to 3 Radiohead albums tonight because of how awesome it sounds.

7) I dug up an old print I made in New Zealand of a sailing boat. I think I’m going to bite the bullet and have it framed (it’s large, nice enough, and most importantly, not photography, like practically everything else I have hanging up right now.) Also on my list is to sign up for one or two classes at the community college. Painting? Drawing? Printmaking? I haven’t quite decided yet but I’m looking forward to having a time each week that I have to focus on some form of visual art.

8) Last weekend I went to a Chris Jacobs exhibit. He’s an ex-lawyer turned photographer, now becoming famous for his somewhat literal representations of consumption. These often result in digital art that includes hundreds of thousands or even millions of objects printed on large pieces of paper. I’m not as big a fan of his (digitally augmented) visualizations as some of his earlier (purely photographic) work. Some of the visualizations are arranged haphazardly or regularly (which I like) but others are arranged geometrically or in such a way as to make a larger image appear at a distance (breasts out of barbies, a skeleton out of cigarette cartons, bejamin franklin out of $100 bills) which seems too obvious/contrived/needless to me. I checked out his website tonight and do like his most recent work. Not exactly uplifting, but certainly accessible: pictures of abatros chicks who have died as a result of eating garbage that’s polluting the pacific ocean.

Work: it’s been going well. Andrew spent last week in town, and Dave and I shared him. He couldn’t have timed his visit better, since we spent several days at the Port of Tacoma completing a prototype and starting the integration of our platform. I think we’re all pleased with how much has been accomplished just in the past week. Bug-fixing seems to have helped our momentum, and issues with our product that have been lingering for months have been fixed quickly, and with less effort than I expected. One of the nice developments is that I’ve finally set up my Macbook with Vmware and Windows 7 so I can actually work effectively from home and/or remotely. It was nice to be able to work at the Port, and it’ll be nice to be able to work from home around Thanksgiving.

Non-Work: Thanks to my month-long sore throat, followed by my tonsillectomy and month-long recovery, I haven’t been on my bike for at least a couple months. At the top of my list for this weekend is to put the fenders back on my bike so it’ll be ready for next (presumably rainy) week. I’m a little nervous about riding again, in general, just because it’s been awhile, but in particular because of the end of daylight savings time, which means that I’ll be riding home in the dark. I don’t like driving a car at night (except long trips on the highway, for some reason) and I certainly don’t like riding my bike in the dark. As Kevin and I often remark, no light can be too bright, flashy, or annoying to drivers. I want to be seen, at all costs. Every time I look for new and additional lights, I feel like I did in college when I bought a climbing harness: these sure are expensive, but they could save my life. It’s probably not worth buying the cheapest one just out of habit.

My Apartment: Elly’s mostly moved all of her stuff out. Some of it was nice to see leave — the weird red urns that were on the bookshelf — but other things I’ll miss. I already found replacements for two big-ticket items: a couch and a mattress, both of which I’m happy with, both of which are from IKEA (although I’ve been warned now on multiple occasions not to buy a couch from IKEA) and both of which smell mildly like sawdust. I’m still in the market for a saute pan, some new pictures for the bedroom, and possibly a mess of cheap books to fill up a bookshelf. I haven’t quite gotten to the point of buying books I don’t plan to read to make the place look warmer and more inviting, but I suspect it would help. Eirin says I need a throw for the couch, and I think she’s right. I think I could probably use some different pillow cases too, and maybe even some different pillows. Andrew Z spent two nights sleeping on the thing when he was out here, and though firm, he said it was comfortable. Anyone else want to come to Seattle to visit? I have a nice place for you to sleep. Don’t be shy :)

Future Plans: I haven’t spent any time playing the guitar in the past several months. I’m not sure why, but I think it’d help to have a) some sort of rudimentary lesson-book of warm-ups or something I could use to get into a routine and b) some song to practice that I’d really like to play and/or sing along with. Something to perform for friends. I need to remember to buy some pint glasses from the Amherst Brewing Company, I want to buy an AUX input device for my car and take it on some sort of trip east of the Cascades. Winter is the season that it seems most appropriate to bake my favorite foods: Lit Crit Lasagne and Tator Tot Hot Dish, so I suspect that will happen from time to time. I’d like to bake some bread, since I’m in possession of “The Bread Bible” at the moment.

At the beginning of September I always assume the summer is over, but apparently we have a couple more days this year until Fall begins. I feel like I owe it to myself to jot down a little post-mortem here to try to enumerate some of the things I’ve done and how it went. It’s safe to say I was a little anxious about the summer, realizing that I’d both be single and living by myself. It occurred to me, I’d never actually lived alone for any significant period of time. Since college, during which I always had at least one roomate, I seemed to try to keep as many people around me as possible. Immediately after school, S and I traveled around Europe together, I lived with my parents during rest of the summer, and moved in with friends when I set off for Minneapolis. First with K, C and J,  later I found a place with A and E, and then moved back in with K for a couple of years.  Finally I moved out here with E two years ago.

Summer ended up being a lot more busy than I expected. There were some longer weekend bike rides to the San Juans, the RSVP to Vancouver BC, and in general, much more biking to work. My parents visited twice, on their way to and from their volunteer efforts at Cascade Springs in Utah. A.O. came out on business but got to spend 4 days hanging out in Seattle. I flew to NYC to see C and co, and even made it out to Montauk for some fun on the beach. There was time spent hanging out at bars and finding delicious new types of beer, meeting new people, going to several Mariners games, enjoying work-sponsored revelry, and backyard grilling. There was a rodeo and a ferris wheel, a fair amount of mountain biking, and some gorgeous hikes and backpacking trips. I can’t say I spent too much time playing guitar, but I dusted off my tripod a couple weeks ago, made it to the Seattle Art Museum with my parents, and got back into reading Guns Germs and Steel. I made a conscious effort to buy some new music and expand my repertoire a bit. There are some new feeds in my rss reader (publicola, yglesias, capitol hill blog) and a bunch of miscellaneous tasks that sat on the back burner for over 2 years (cycle computer installed, roller-blades found a new home, film developed)

All in all, I’m incredibly pleased with how well this summer has turned out. There are plenty of things on the list for the fall, too. Perhaps I’ll enumerate those sometime soon.