SwimFinsSF

Only in San Francisco…

… would someone have a license plate that says ‘CBT TOP’.

If you don’t know the acronym be very sure you want to know before you ask someone!

This city cracks me up!

Couldn’t resist

What Finding Nemo Character are You?

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Creatine

New news via Matt:

Creatine ‘boosts brain power’

Big muscles and a big brain – What more could ya want? Oh yea – a personality. Ah well. 2 out of 3 ain’t bad! 😉

Other Points of View

Here’s an interesting question. How do you go about forming your opinions on topics (political or whatever)? Is it from the TV News? Is it from the Newspaper? Is it from information on line? Is it from talking to people? Or some combination of all of these?

Here’s why I ask. I form my opinions based on gathering as much information from as many sources as I can and then fleshing those opinions by discussing them with other folks to see if there are holes in my theories. If there are holes in my opinions I may change my opinion or I may strengthen them based gathering additional points of view. I’ve been very known to change my opinions over time based on this kind of discussion and I’ve found that its made me a little more conservative over time ( seems to happen when you mix up young idealism with practical reality! 😉 )

There are problems with this model though. First of all, we tend to surround ourselves with people with similar mind sets so I tend to spend a lot of time preaching to the choir which doesn’t always help to find flaws in the theories I come up with. Living in San Francisco I tend to have a lot of rather liberal points of view which I enjoy but it also means that Kevin, being raised Southern Baptist in North Carolina, is probably one of my few conservative sources of information ( he’s actually really liberal too but he knows the NC folks VERY WELL! 🙂 )

Another problem I run into is with my style. I’m very similar to my family when it comes to debate – you make a statement of opinion in the form of statement of fact and see if people disagree with it. This has the effect of either getting people’s dander up and sparking an interesting debate or making people walk away from the discussion. Kevin usually takes the latter for fear of getting in a sparing match with me (which I enjoy as friendly discussion but he hates because of my style and he doesn’t see much point). This I should work on.

The last part of this whole thing I find is often, by the time people have formed opinions, they’re relatively resigned to them and discussions tend to get rather heated and emotional. I’m DEFINITELY guilty of this and combined with my style of debate I frequently find myself in discussions that are more a battle of wills than they are an educational debate where both sides learn a different perspective. Taking a deep breath often helps me!

I guess I’m just thinking out loud at everyone else’s expense – but it seems to me that we could all use a little more healthy discussion with folks that don’t share our point of view and where we can put our emotions and our resignations aside in hopes of learning… Might make the world a little more friendly.

Or maybe I’m just INSANE… I probably am! 🙂

Car Shopping

Uggg… I need a new car in a BIG way.. My old car has been a real trooper but its starting to show its age and i’m tired of worrying about it… Time to put it out to pasture.. But the process of car shopping stresses me out… I know what I want – an Audi A4… But gathering all of the right information and playing the dickering game irritates me… Why do I have to haggle for a car?

Anyway.. Off to the Dealer! 🙂

Concert re-cap

Bjork Concert was FLIPPIN Great… Met folks at the 21st Amendment for a couple of beers and then headed down to Pier 30 for the Concert. For those of you who haven’t been out here – Pier 30 is right out on the bay smack dab between the bay bridge and the new ball park.. Gorgeous… Warm summer night (till the sun went down then it got chilly)… Hung out with friends and had a few more beers. The crazy lady came on right after the sun went down and she was phenomenal… Her music is beautiful and creepy and she is a fascinating woman – really quirky but really fun… Anyway – if you can see her definitely check it out.. if not here is a teaser of the pictures from the show:

Bjork Concert on Pier 30