employment & unemployment statistics, reported by the bureau of labor statistics, november 2008
* unemployment rate: 6.7%
* number unemployed: 10.3 million
* total employment: 144.3 million
* teenage unemployment rate: 20.4%
* black or african american unemployment rate: 11.2%
* hispanic or latino unemployment rate: 8.8
* number unemployed in 2008 increased by 1.8 million
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Sunday, December 07, 2008
snow
it finally snowed on thursday. for nearly 24 hours it fell from the sky at a semi-rapid pace, coating the ground with the fluffy white power that colorado is known for.
snow is indeed much different here than in other places that we have lived. in the mid-west you can get a varying degree of different types of ice, ice/slush, slush/ice, slush/ice/snowish, etc combinations--but invariably few occurrences of true powder.
the big flake colorado variety can be easily blown off with a swooshing hand or a pursed-lip puff of air and the snow swiftly marches away.
this too is why skiing and snowboarding on the stuff is such a great experience. you mold it, in many respects. it goes where you tell it to go. snow here is very intriguing, very unique.
snow is indeed much different here than in other places that we have lived. in the mid-west you can get a varying degree of different types of ice, ice/slush, slush/ice, slush/ice/snowish, etc combinations--but invariably few occurrences of true powder.
the big flake colorado variety can be easily blown off with a swooshing hand or a pursed-lip puff of air and the snow swiftly marches away.
this too is why skiing and snowboarding on the stuff is such a great experience. you mold it, in many respects. it goes where you tell it to go. snow here is very intriguing, very unique.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
charting trends
i do not believe in "flu shots." it is my opinion that the epidemic of pre-remediation of such a noxious virus propagates it to mutate, becoming more resistant to vaccination and therefore more noxious.
despite my ill-feelings surrounding the shock-and-awe of a preemptive strike on each year's microscopic bio-terrorists, google has developed an interesting gis product to chart reported flu cases.
mind you, my interest in this product is the mere charting of data, and, as alluded to, not the subject matter.
despite my ill-feelings surrounding the shock-and-awe of a preemptive strike on each year's microscopic bio-terrorists, google has developed an interesting gis product to chart reported flu cases.
mind you, my interest in this product is the mere charting of data, and, as alluded to, not the subject matter.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
voodoo vegan donuts
went to portland last weekend. had a good visit with all. it was fantastic to be back in the grey and wet with the old friends.
nhut quang vegan vietnamese restaurant was a belly-stuffer, a trip to food fight vegan grocery, and major highlight was a midnight trip to voodoo donuts in downtown pdx.
we scored 3.5 dozen vegan donuts from the a.m. baking cycle for a mere $7. smiles and sugar comas punctuated the remainder of the trip.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
patchouliland
after a 4-day reprieve back in ol' b'more, we're back on the bus to mork & mindy-ville. we headed back east for a wedding, of which we enjoyed last night. spent some good quality time with the fam and caught up with a battery of old friends via vegan eats, coffee, & a wee bit of booze.
it perplexes me, the mental playground of revisiting shadows of your past.
stepping in the footsteps of your yesterday, reflecting on your own evolutionary path. in several respects, it is fascinating to feel the brunt of this confounding time-space derailment.
it had been well over a calendar year since returning to md. after a few hours, the synapses began to fire in the correct order, yet i stood beside myself in awe of how we are so easily swayed by life experiences to dictate our reality.
in this trip, i heard echoes of remembrances--so-and-so were robbed yesterday, such-and-such burnt down, this-and-that closed down...yet, these understandings of a reality, not necessarily my own in the current, are what have my mind skipping on the poorly articulated confounding plerplexion leading this post. it is concerning, yet fascinating how we adapt to different situations and accept them as reality--which can be drastic extremes of good and bad. i stumble on a memory of our old neighborhood in b'more occasionally--we were out for a stroll two blocks from our house one friday night. across the street was a cop talking to a guy slumped on a bus stop bench clutching his bleeding left shoulder. turns out he had been stabbed and they were getting a report as the minutes ticked closer to an ambulance arriving. we were curious, yet shrugged the man's injuries off and kept walking to our destination.
sure, what can you really do, you may ask. same city, two of our friends were inside their house watching a dvd. a series of gun shots punctuates their evening from outside of their home, followed by desperate cries for help. after a peek out the window, they go back to watching the movie.
how is it possible we can do this? it is survival, in many ways. evolution and acceptance, with a sprig of apathy and dash of nonchalant desensitization. in the same way I observed and associated spent junkies in my back yard as simply factors of my mundanity, i now see countless strips of bicycle lanes, soy lattes, and wafts of patchouli mildly interrupting my focused thoughts.
it perplexes me, the mental playground of revisiting shadows of your past.
stepping in the footsteps of your yesterday, reflecting on your own evolutionary path. in several respects, it is fascinating to feel the brunt of this confounding time-space derailment.
it had been well over a calendar year since returning to md. after a few hours, the synapses began to fire in the correct order, yet i stood beside myself in awe of how we are so easily swayed by life experiences to dictate our reality.
in this trip, i heard echoes of remembrances--so-and-so were robbed yesterday, such-and-such burnt down, this-and-that closed down...yet, these understandings of a reality, not necessarily my own in the current, are what have my mind skipping on the poorly articulated confounding plerplexion leading this post. it is concerning, yet fascinating how we adapt to different situations and accept them as reality--which can be drastic extremes of good and bad. i stumble on a memory of our old neighborhood in b'more occasionally--we were out for a stroll two blocks from our house one friday night. across the street was a cop talking to a guy slumped on a bus stop bench clutching his bleeding left shoulder. turns out he had been stabbed and they were getting a report as the minutes ticked closer to an ambulance arriving. we were curious, yet shrugged the man's injuries off and kept walking to our destination.
sure, what can you really do, you may ask. same city, two of our friends were inside their house watching a dvd. a series of gun shots punctuates their evening from outside of their home, followed by desperate cries for help. after a peek out the window, they go back to watching the movie.
how is it possible we can do this? it is survival, in many ways. evolution and acceptance, with a sprig of apathy and dash of nonchalant desensitization. in the same way I observed and associated spent junkies in my back yard as simply factors of my mundanity, i now see countless strips of bicycle lanes, soy lattes, and wafts of patchouli mildly interrupting my focused thoughts.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
wisdom removed
at 34 years of age, i've gone through what i should have endured over a decade ago--having my wisdom teeth extracted. the nitrous oxide deluge withdrew my concerns for the gnarly prying that the dentist was engaged in. i chose pink floyd as my music of choice for the endeavor. recovery was quick, as i didn't require the hard pharmaceuticals past day 1 and relied on ibuprophen for the week following. kids, remove your teeth in your teens. no sense in waiting til later on.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
acupuncture
i have suffered from chronic lower back and hip alignment issues for well over a decade now. not fun.
there was never an event of injury which set things off, unless you count the sneeze on an early october morning in '94 that rendered be incapacitated and begun this series of lame pronunciations of mortality.
i've tried the chiropractor and yoga and core work and rubber balls and inversion boots and all have helped or hindered further to one degree or another. well this time, i've tried acupuncture. the session was relaxing and interesting. there were definitely some key points of 'ohhhn that really hit something.'
ther hour was over and i mindfully erected my weight back over the top of my frame, expecting magic to heal me, i was pleasantly greeted with even more discomfort than i had originally walking in the door of the therapist's office. however, time is more fickle than the changing trends of a high school in-crowd and as the day progressed, i noticed a subtle release in my lower lumbar which even awoke me in the night with a 'clearing' sensation.
now i am an eternal skeptical optimistic pragmatist, yet pushed to extremes of human condition i will try alternative practice that people i trust speak highly of. i must tell you, in the days which have followed the acupuncture, i have suffered from what i believe people call recovery.
now i am still experiencing a bit of tightness in my hips, but i can once again lace up my own shoes without looking like an 80-year old man. again, my cynical side says, 'ah, that could have happened as the days passed in any event,' yet i am confident that my current status of recovery was expedited by a series of tiny little needles injected at numerous points along my trunk and legs. at this juncture, i am a believer in the healing stimulation of this centuries old asian medicine. it is worth a shot, in my book.
there was never an event of injury which set things off, unless you count the sneeze on an early october morning in '94 that rendered be incapacitated and begun this series of lame pronunciations of mortality.
i've tried the chiropractor and yoga and core work and rubber balls and inversion boots and all have helped or hindered further to one degree or another. well this time, i've tried acupuncture. the session was relaxing and interesting. there were definitely some key points of 'ohhhn that really hit something.'
ther hour was over and i mindfully erected my weight back over the top of my frame, expecting magic to heal me, i was pleasantly greeted with even more discomfort than i had originally walking in the door of the therapist's office. however, time is more fickle than the changing trends of a high school in-crowd and as the day progressed, i noticed a subtle release in my lower lumbar which even awoke me in the night with a 'clearing' sensation.
now i am an eternal skeptical optimistic pragmatist, yet pushed to extremes of human condition i will try alternative practice that people i trust speak highly of. i must tell you, in the days which have followed the acupuncture, i have suffered from what i believe people call recovery.
now i am still experiencing a bit of tightness in my hips, but i can once again lace up my own shoes without looking like an 80-year old man. again, my cynical side says, 'ah, that could have happened as the days passed in any event,' yet i am confident that my current status of recovery was expedited by a series of tiny little needles injected at numerous points along my trunk and legs. at this juncture, i am a believer in the healing stimulation of this centuries old asian medicine. it is worth a shot, in my book.
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
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