Cats will fit in anywhere to get cozy

(Image from ASPCA Facebook site)

Santa may not find them useful, but I find them brilliant.

The (not so strict) Vegan Diet

In my attempts to add something challenging to my daily life, I am going vegan for one month. I can't pinpoint what made me decide, except that a perusal through PETA's website has the power to convert any meat-eater to veganism for at least daylight hours. Cows are kept pregnant all year round? Some enriched sugar is siphoned through charred animal bone? What?!?!

Although I have maintained a pescatarian diet for about three months, it's not easy to go all-out and eat vegan. I started nearly a week ago, and I can't be sure whether the bread I have eaten was devoid of all dairy - in fact, it probably wasn't. But aside from that, I have maintained the diet pretty well. After speaking to a friend who was vegan for a year, I have added a B-complex vitamin and take this and other supplements daily. I've noticed changes in digestion, and am adding more fruits and vegetables to ensure I get the fiber I need. I was eating a lot of cheese prior to this, so although I no longer have that as my go-to snack, it's probably for the best. On the whole, I feel pretty good, and may even take it longer than a month.

But let's get through the month first.



Vegan truffle from Whole Foods.

We should all be so fortunate

"Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but to pour them all out, chaff and grain together, knowing that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then, with the breath of kindness, blow the rest away."

Ms. George Eliot, Victorian novelist

The Best Year of Her Life

The Best Year of Her Life by Gerald Locklin

When my two-year-old daughter
sees someone come through the door
whom she loves, and hasn't seen for a while,
and has been anticipating
she literally shrieks with joy.

I have to go into the other room
so that no one will notice the tears in my eyes.

Later, after my daughter has gone to bed,
I say to my wife,

"She will never be this happy again,"
and my wife gets angry and snaps,
"Don't you dare communicate your negativism to her!"
And, of course, I won't, if I can possibly help it,
and of course I fully expect her
to have much joy in her life,
and, of course, I hope to be able
to contribute to that joy --
I hope, in other words, that she'll always
be happy to see me come through the door--

but why kid ourselves -- she, like every child,
has a life of great suffering ahead of her,
and while joy will not go out of her life,
she will one of these days cease to actually,
literally, jump and shriek for joy.



"The Best Year of Her Life" by Gerald Locklin, from Men of Our Time. (c) University of Georgia Press, 1992.

"This is the true joy in life...

"This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy."

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
Irish playwright and critic

A Vitality

There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening

that is translated through you into action,

and because there is only one of you in all time,

this expression is unique.



If you block it,

it will never exist through any other medium

and be lost.

The world will not have it.

It is not your business to determine how good it is;

nor how it compares with other expressions.

It is your business to keep it yours, clearly and directly,

to keep the channel open.



You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work.

You have to keep it open and aware directly

to the urges that motivate you.



Keep the channel open.

No artist is pleased.

There is no satisfaction whatever at any time.

There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction;

a blessed unrest that keeps us marching

and makes us more alive that the others.



Martha Graham to Agnes De Mille as shared to me by Ronald Alexander

Antilamentation by Dorianne Laux

Regret nothing. Not the cruel novels you read
to the end just to find out who killed the cook, not
the insipid movies that made you cry in the dark,
in spite of your intelligence, your sophistication, not
the lover you left quivering in a hotel parking lot,
the one you beat to the punch line, the door or the one
who left you in your red dress and shoes, the ones
that crimped your toes, don't regret those.
Not the nights you called god names and cursed
your mother, sunk like a dog in the living room couch,
chewing your nails and crushed by loneliness.
You were meant to inhale those smoky nights
over a bottle of flat beer, to sweep stuck onion rings
across the dirty restaurant floor, to wear the frayed
coat with its loose buttons, its pockets full of struck matches.
You've walked those streets a thousand times and still
you end up here. Regret none of it, not one
of the wasted days you wanted to know nothing,
when the lights from the carnival rides
were the only stars you believed in, loving them
for their uselessness, not wanting to be saved.
You've traveled this far on the back of every mistake,
ridden in dark-eyed and morose but calm as a house
after the TV set has been pitched out the window.
Harmless as a broken ax. Emptied of expectation.
Relax. Don't bother remembering any of it. Let's stop here,
under the lit sign on the corner, and watch all the people walk by.




"Antilamentation" by Dorianne Laux, from The Book of Men. (c) W. W. Norton & Company, 2011.

Word of the Day - And something I am sometimes good at, sometimes achingly not so much

Sitzfleisch

PRONUNCIATION:
(SITZ-flaish, ZITS-)

MEANING:
noun:
1. The ability to sit through or tolerate something boring.
2. The ability to endure or persist in a task.

ETYMOLOGY:
[From German Sitzfleisch, from sitzen (to sit) + Fleisch (flesh). Earliest documented use: Before 1930.

NOTES:
Sitzfleisch is a fancy term for what's commonly known as chair glue: the ability to sit still and get through the task at hand. It's often the difference between, for example, an aspiring writer and a writer. Sometimes the word is used in the sense of the ability to sit out a problem -- ignore it long enough in the hope it will go away.

Taken from Wordsmith.org

Navigating Office Politics

Taken from the New Yorker

Poem

Thank you Garrison Keillor and your daily Writer's Almanac emails - without which my poetry intake would be severely limited.



Driving Montana, Alone by Katie Phillips

I smile at the stack of Bob Dylan CDs
you are not holding in the passenger seat.
Storm clouds have gathered. My "Wow" rises
over the harmonica for your benefit,
but you cannot see that one sunlit peak

in the midst of threatening sky. The road turns
wet at the "Welcome to Anaconda" sign,
and I pat my raincoat, loosely folded
where your lap should be. "Anaconda was almost
the state capital," I say, but that's all I know,

and you don't ask for more. You wouldn't mind
my singing and swerving onto the shoulder
for more snapshots over the car door.
And it's only when I get just south of Philipsburg
that your not being here feels like absence.

I want you to see these dark rotting barns,
roadkill of Highway One. It seems only you
could know why my eyes fill the road
with tears again when a flock of swallows
swoops through an open barn door
and rushes out the gaping roof.




"Driving Montana, Alone" by Katie Phillips, from Driving Montana, Alone. (c) Slapering Hol Press.

Not sure I understand it, but I think that's why I like it.

"The Blind Old Man" by Robert Bly, from Talking Into the Ear of a Donkey.

I don't know why so much sweetness hovers around us.
Nor why the wind blows the curtains in the afternoons,
Nor why the earth mutters so much about its children.

We'll never know why the snow falls through the night,
Nor how the heron stretches her long legs,
Nor why we feel so abandoned in the morning.

We have never understood how birds manage to fly,
Nor who the genius is who makes up dreams,
Nor how heaven and earth can appear in a poem.

We don't know why the rain falls so long.
The ditchdigger turns up one shovel after another.
The herons go on stitching the heavens together.

We've never heard about the day we were conceived
Nor the doctor who helped us to be born,
Nor that blind old man who decides when we will die.

It's hard to understand why the sun rises,
And why our children are mostly fond of us,
And why the wind blows the curtains in the afternoon.

Happy Valentine's Day

Love is gentle, love is kind....But above all, love is paranoid.



Picture from the Washington Post.

Fred is Dead, Long Live Fred

The Mystery Bookstore is closed. I finally bought a "Dead Fred" pen holder. This was at their cash register, and it was so popular that they started selling them. I'm keeping mine on my desk at work. Seems appropriate since Valentine's Day is coming up :b

Pulling from the Archives

So since I don't get published regularly anymore, I'm pulling an article from my archives. I was very proud of this one - I wrote about all the political activity in the Valley during the 2008 season. I interviewed an assortment of interesting movers and thinkers - from a buttoned-up conservative democrat organizer in Lake Balboa, to a button-less yogi-turned Ron Paul activist in Studio City, and a whole mess of hardcore Clinton groupies (some crazier than others - myself included).

This was my last major article for the Sun Community Newspaper and represented a sort of climax in my political involvement too, since I was active in promoting Hillary Clinton. I was very involved with her on-line community, made phone calls from the Valley office, "bribed" friends with Clinton gadgets and gizmos (to no avail) and anything else to promote her candidacy. Alas, this created some friction among friends and family (you know who you are).

I was heartbroken when she lost, mildly consoled by Sarah Palin's potential in unraveling the effects of Obamania, and have yet find political love again. Sigh. Maybe I'll open my heart in 2012 - That Bobby Jindal is a looker.


Grassroots Campaigners Sprout in the Valley


BY NAZBANOO PAHLAVI

It’s the day before the Texas primary election, and a group of largely female volunteers are making last-minute phone calls at a Lake Balboa office used by Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

Hitomi Heap-Baldwin, a volunteer from Tujunga, sounds like a seasoned campaigner on the phone. “Did you also know there is a caucus going on in the same day?” she asks a Texas voter. “Can I spend one minute telling you about it?”

This is Heap-Baldwin’s third day as a volunteer here. She is only 16 and a junior at Flintridge Preparatory School in La Canada.

Heap-Baldwin is one of many young activists involved this election season. For her, volunteering means making phone calls – even if that means skipping track practice. “I can’t just let someone else win if I’m interested in it. I have to do something about it,” she says.

Young adult professionals such as Burbank native Valerie Rothenberg, 26, are also active volunteers. Sen. Barack Obama inspired her involvement in his presidential campaign. “I think Obama especially inspires people to organize,” Rothenberg says. “He said, ‘this is your campaign, you can make a difference.’”

Her grassroots efforts started with 15 people in a friend’s Porter Ranch living room last spring, and grew from there. She was a precinct captain in her neighborhood, traveled to Nevada to campaign for Obama, and organized phone banking sessions at a North Hollywood park. Despite her dedication, Rothenberg, who is a freelance costume designer, has no intention of entering politics professionally.

Grassroots-level volunteers like Heap-Baldwin and Rothenberg are often the most effective agents for a candidate. Their active role is helpful with engaging voters who may be detached from the political process.

Bob Blumenfield, a democratic candidate for the 42nd Assembly District, believes that voters are more receptive to volunteer campaigners. “There’s a passion that’s there – not that paid staffers don’t have that passion; they do – but it’s undeniable as a volunteer,” he says.

Blumenfield has recruited high school volunteers from Birmingham High School in Van Nuys and Oakwood School in North Hollywood. He is planning another recruiting session at Van Nuys High School. He counts on the energy and enthusiasm that young people bring to his campaign.

Republican Tony Strickland also recognizes the importance of young volunteers. “It is extremely encouraging to see young people get involved in the political process at the grassroots level,” says the former Assembly member and current state senatorial candidate for Tom McClintock’s termed-out seat.

Some young activists simply have politics in their blood. Rothenberg’s father, Peter, is a coordinator for the Valley For Obama group and convened the Obama delegate caucus for Brad Sherman’s district in mid-April. Heap-Baldwin’s father, an Obama supporter, would clip news-related articles and hide them in her backpack.

Ashley Ingram, 22, was also raised in a politically active family in Burbank in the 1980s, when her parents volunteered for Ronald Reagan’s campaign. Ingram is a passionate young republican – one of a group that is not as easy to find in a largely democratic electorate like Los Angeles.

“It’s hard to come out of the republican closet, as I’d like to say, especially in the Valley,” says Ingram, who said she often felt singled-out in high school because of her conservative views.

Ingram is sharp and poised with an impressive grasp of California politics. She has already been a paid staffer on two campaigns, including her current position as Deputy Campaign Manager for Tony Strickland. She previously worked for the Rudy Giuliani campaign. She cites the September 11, 2001 World Trade Center attacks and Giuliani’s role in the tragedy’s aftermath as factors fueling her desire to enter public service.



Many political activists refer to both September 11 and the Iraq War as the major events triggering political activism in teens and young adults. Damian Carroll, an experienced grassroots campaigner and current staffer for Assembly member Mike Feuer, says young people are more mobilized today than they were eight years ago, mainly because of those two events in addition to Hurricane Katrina.

“It brought people up to this idea that public service was important; that we had a character as a nation where we could pull together and make a difference,” Carroll says.

Cameron Silverberg, 14, is an 8th grade student at Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies in Tarzana, and a volunteer for the Obama campaign. “I just think Obama has the ability to really unify a divided country,” says Silverberg. “He has the unique ability to restore what’s broken about America right about now.”


He mentions the Iraq war and its affects on the economy as one of the main issues he cares about. The other is climate change. “He (Obama) really does understand the importance of dealing with it right now as opposed to leaving it to people like myself and my generation where we’d have to deal with it.”

Chad Jones is president of Valley Grassroots for Democracy, an organization that evolved out of a coming together of Valley-based Howard Dean and John Kerry supporters in 2005. At the time, Jones says they weren’t sure whether they wanted to create another democratic club in the Valley but then they realized something.

“If you’re trying to change the democratic party,” Jones says, “which was something we wanted to do – to make it more responsive to the grassroots - the reality is that we had to become part of the system and change it from within.”

He says that teenagers and young adults don’t join as members or participate in club activities as much as he would like. Those who are active are more likely to join the Young Democrats. “We do tend to skew older – 50 plus,” says Jones, who at 37, says he is one of the youngest members of the group.

For those young people who are disinterred in the presidential campaign, the Internet has served as this season’s power tool in reaching out and mobilizing them.

The online presence of Barack Obama has been a major asset in his courting of young voters. His personal page on the social networking site Facebook, for example, has nearly 770,000 supporters listed – about five times the number of supporters listed on the Hillary Clinton page.

“It’s not a top-heavy campaign,” says Carroll, 31, who ran as an Obama delegate in Brad Sherman’s congressional district. According to Carroll, the campaign has done so well on the grassroots level because they encouraged supporters to spread Obama’s message in a personal way. In response, supporters created videos, posted them on YouTube, and emailed them to each other – a tactic more effective than receiving an email directly from the campaign.

When Carroll first got involved in politics in 2003, he used the website Meetup.com to connect with fellow progressives. He recalls his first meeting at Dupars restaurant in Studio City, a gathering that eventually resulted in his involvement with the Howard Dean campaign.

The internet has also been important in strengthening Congressman Ron Paul’s popularity. Steven Vincent, a Studio City yoga instructor, used Meetup.com to organize Ron Paul supporters in Burbank and North Hollywood. He says one of his groups now has about 300 members.


Vincent does not look like a typical republican. On a recent day, he is wearing a neon yellow T-shirt with a Ron Paul slogan emblazoned across his chest. Although Vincent is in his 40s, he has a youthful energy that befits his political activism.

“If you had told me before March [of 2007] that I was going to register republican and campaign for a republican candidate, I would have told you that you were really crazy,” Vincent says. He mentions Paul’s “unrehearsed quality” and his Gandhi-inspired writings on peaceful non-intervention in foreign policy as traits that appealed to him.

Vincent represents a group of people not necessarily young in age, but new to grassroots politics. Grassroots work, such as phone banking or precinct walking, can be a catalyst for volunteers who continue stay active beyond their first political campaign.

Vincent, who jokingly admits he had always been a “lifelong member of the no-confidence party,” says he will continue his activist work despite Paul’s defunct bid for the presidency. He plans on participating in a grassroots distribution of Paul’s forthcoming book, The Revolution Manifesto. He also wrote an article on Paul for the February issue of LA Yoga magazine and plans on doing more writing. “It’s a movement; it’s not a political campaign,” he says.



Heap-Baldwin is also active in her community. She started her own website called Teensthinkgreen.com to promote eco-friendly lifestyle alternatives for teenagers.

For the young activist interested in a career in politics, grassroots training provides an invaluable foothold. Ingram’s training gave her experience no bachelor’s degree could replace. “We all had to pay our dues and put in our free pay and interning and getting beat up for a while, but it was completely worth it to do what we do now,” says Ingram.


Seasoned grassroots campaigners often tout the importance of passing on their training to the next generation to keep their political party or organization alive.

When Carroll first got involved in politics, the then-president of the Young Democrats of the San Fernando Valley encouraged him to get involved in local groups. Carroll ultimately became president of Young Democrats and now remains on the executive board as communications director.

“I don’t feel representative so much anymore,” Carroll says. “I’m looking to find who are the young people in our club who are up and coming – who are ready to take on more of that leadership.”

Since he first joined in 2003, the club’s membership has increased from roughly 40 to 300 members. Their budget also reflects that growth.

Ingram says college republican groups often fall apart when a president or a core group graduates. She made sure that the club she founded at the College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita had stable leadership before she left.

For Blumenfield, there is an innate sense of duty to mentor and recruit young people.

“I got involved in politics when I was very young,” he says. “You know, it changed my life in many ways – and I want to help other people have a similar experience.”

My Current Article in Carnegie Mellon Today, January 2011

As the Crow Flies

Two Carnegie Mellon students board a flight from Pittsburgh to New York, the first stop on their trip. For Jen Horwitz, who studies public policy and management, traveling isn't a big deal. The East Coast native has been abroad. But she has never been to Bangladesh. Neither has computer science student Anthony Vel†zquez. That's the final destination for their internship.

After New York, the pair touchdown in Dubai and meet up with two classmates from the Qatar campus: Brian Manalastas, studying business administration, and Aysha Siddique, a computer science and information systems student. They exchange hugs. This is their first meeting, though they've taken a videoconference course together.

The interns are in flight again as part of the TechbridgeWorld Innovative Student Technology ExPerience project. Through a 10-week internship, iSTEP provides students a chance to apply their knowledge and skills for creative problem solving outside the classroom, and, in this case, many miles from home. The multi-faceted problem awaiting this group entails developing an educational tool to enhance English literacy among pre-college students, and to determine features for a standalone Braille writing tutor for visually impaired children.

The interns land in Dhaka, capital city of Bangladesh, and have a chance to unwind at a nearby rest house during a six-hour layover. On the cab ride there, they witness the "organized chaos" of Bangladeshi traffic. Eventually, the group arrives in Chittagong, where even in the middle of the night it's more than 90 degrees.

They soon meet with their primary partner, Young Power in Social Action, to start determining what they could best accomplish during their stay. A few weeks later, Horwitz, in her role as needs assessment and evaluation coordinator, leads the visit to the Chittagong Government School for the Blind. The school has just one computer allocated for the students; it runs on DOS and is subject to sporadic power outages, a challenge for all of Bangladesh. The team uses its collective computer science knowledge to make the limited technology work for the iSTEP Braille learning game that is based on animal sounds, a game first implemented by iSTEP in Tanzania.

The interns encounter yet another problem as they work with the Bangla elementary school children sent here from across the country. In Tanzania, the game included sounds from a pig, an animal not common in the Muslim world. So, for the Bangla version, the iSTEP team adroitly substitutes a crow instead. The students gleefully recognize its squawk. Lesson accomplished.

After multiple visits to the school, the internship ends. It takes nearly 45 minutes for Horwitz and the others to leave amid the children's hugs and good-byes.
-Nazbanoo Pahlavi (HNZ'03)