Ryan Byrd’s Ramblings

Most of you know that I’ve spent the last few days in the crown jewel of the pacific northwest, Seattle. It’s the second time I’ve been there and it provided me another occasion to practice what I call planned serendipity. Now serendipity^*, as you might know, is when good (unexpected) things happen because you’re in the right place at the right time. Now the time part is tricky and hard to control, but fortunately the place is easier to influence. What that means is that if you want interesting things to occur, you must get yourself to exciting locations. Sitting on your couch watching Seinfeld reruns is not one of those places, by the way.

When I arrived in Seattle, I had precious little detailed plans for entertainment^**, but due to a dash of luck and some frenetic driving (to effect planned serendipity), my sister and I experienced the :

• Bellevue Arts Festival (where an Asian girl at the info booth told me I had pretty eyes. The art was nice too.)
• Pikes Fish Market (lots of screaming and throwing of fish)
• Olympia Farmer’s Market (hippies galore plus fruit aplenty)
• State Capitol Building (they’ve got one big’ ol dome and a huge chandelier. Also we chatted with the assistant secretary of state)
• Jack in the Box (largest gathering of nerds. ever)
• Fox Island (you can drive right to this scenic hot spot to observe the well-fed flora)
• Tacoma Narrows Bridge (which once fell down, but they put it back up again)
• Torchlight Parade (simply amazing people watching)

* English author Horace Walpole coined the word serendipity from an old name for Sri Lanka, Serendip. Serendip was part of the title of a “silly fairy tale, called The Three Princes of Serendip; as their highnesses traveled, they were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of”

** I did have plans to have dinner with a friend or two (see previous entry)

On the way to Seattle, while wading through the security checkpoint line at the airport, I spoke with a fellow traveler, who happened to be a Catholic priest, and asked him if he thought people were inherently good or inherently bad. He paused for a moment before replying that he believed people were more-or-less good but endowed with bad tendencies arising from the “original sin.” That the question is legitimately posed at all is a sign of the times we live in. Certainly there is much evidence to contribute to a cynical, depressing outlook on life: inhumanity to man reigns, people care more and more about themselves and less and less about everything else, and greed and pride govern many of our actions.

Even traditional bastions of stability like the family are no longer sacrosanct. Indeed, it is increasingly rare, in my experience, to find a happily married couple. Statistics argue that I’m not being overly pessimistic either: marriages are lasting shorter and shorter and perceived happiness among spouses falls nearly every year. My friend “Elizabeth” has even forsworn serious relationships altogether because she can’t identify a single positive example of martial bliss among her friends. She is obviously disillusioned, but she is not alone.

On Friday, I had dinner with two old friends, D & R, and I experienced something I hadn’t seen in a while: down-to-earth, solidly good people. They have three beautiful children and have been married for seven years. From my perspective, D & R are each quite unique, yet their differences complement each other in surprising ways. As we talked, I could see something of their genuine kindness, happiness and confidence that only comes from hard work, compassion and maturity. In short, they inspired me with renewed faith in humanity.

So the world may be heading somewhere in a handbag, but that doesn’t prevent people like D & R from setting a good example for the rest of us.

The fact that I don’t own an iPhone doesn’t prevent me from caring about my blog-readers who do. I care *so* much, I went ahead and installed a nifty iPhone wordpress plugin to optimize this blog for them (when they view it through that phone of theirs.) So, if you have an iPhone (which means 1- you’re single, 2- you’re paid too much, or 3- you have no concept of money), go ahead and fire ‘er up and point the browser this-a-way. You’ll find nothin’ but love on RBDN for ya!

Janet over at www.humancensus.com is making waves with her latest social experiment. You’ll remember this kinetic entrepreneur from her hundreddollarbusiness.com site where she (last December) chronicled her struggles and joys as a mall kiosk owner. If you enjoyed those hijinks, you’ll be happy to know the tomfoolery is far from over. You see, Janet and I share a similar philosophy about life: we both believe the Internet is better when more people are participating. To that end, the humancensus project coaxes the blog lurkers into full-blown value-adders by asking intriguing questions and recording their answers. THAT’S NOT ALL. As of today, you can also vote for your favorite comments, and the highest ranked comment WINS!

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE! The first person to comment each day gets the chance to ask the next day’s question (or at least the right of first refusal of that privilege.)

Have some of *my* zany comments been featured on her website? Yes. Did I win only because Janet is a RBDN reader? Possibly… But the question is, now that the voting has been democratized will I win again? …

Any driver who grew up in one state but now resides in a different one will believe the natives of his current state to be the worst drivers anywhere. Californians who now live in Utah think Utahns are the worst drivers; Texans who live in Ohio think Ohioans are the worst drivers; Georgians who live in New Jersey think New Jerseyans are the worst drivers. But the fact is, generally speaking, drivers are about the same everywhere: some good ones, and a lot of bad ones. Now is the part where you post a comment saying, “But [state of choice] drivers really ARE the worst drivers!!” Just know that I’m not listening, because you’re wrong.

–Eric D. Snider

The problem with driving is not Utah drivers or California drivers or even drivers from Montana. The problem with driving is drivers. It’s the octogenarian in the fast lane putting along at 35MPH. It’s the cellphone-chatting-soccer-mom careening her minivan through all lanes of traffic to make an exit. It’s the semi-trucks who travel three abreast, forming a 65MPH roadblock.

Again, the problem with driving is people.

Of all the broken promises of technology, the automobile, with its persistent lack of innovation, never fails to disappoint. If Henry Ford were to come back to life he could climb inside a 2007 car and feel right at home. Nothing much has changed in his invention in the last 100 years. Cars still use regular gasoline. They still have internal combustion engines and they still get about 20MPG (actually, the 1908 Model T Ford got upwards of 30MPG.) Sure, there have been a few, token upgrades to automobile technology (such as fuel injection and air-conditioning), but nothing really revolutionary. Where are the electric vehicles we were promised? Where are the hovering space-cars? At the very least, we should be able, in the 21st century, to eliminate traffic jams.

Current wisdom suggests we build wider, more complicated roads to ease traffic congestion. I think that approach is short-sighted. There must be a better way. How about eliminating human drivers altogether. Just as most of us prefer email (routed by computers) to regular/snail mail (still routed largely by people), we’d all profit from a system where cars were not human driven.

Imagine this scenario: you program where you’d like to go into your car, and then divert your attention to something else– perhaps a nap, perhaps a book. You car computes the optimal path to your destination considering the current road conditions before guiding itself onto the freeway. Your car zips along, just inches away from the other cars, but that’s ok, because computers have much faster reaction times than people. Cars that break down are quickly shuttled to the side of the road and a tow truck is automatically summoned. These new super-cars calculate how much gas they need for a trip before starting, and fill themselves up at service stations (so there will no longer be broken-down cars to the side of the road out of gas.) If you like, you can even ask for a scenic trip and you’ll get routed to less-used back roads, where you can slow your speed and appreciate the view, all without interfering with others or ever laying your hand on a steering wheel.

What do you think? Are you with me?

I’m reminded of a social amusement occasionally played by those in certain circles. A goal of initial social interactions, according to the eminent social scholar Dale Carnegie, is to get the other person to talk about him/herself. The obvious problem, however, is that when both sides pursue this same goal, a stalemate results (each person answering the other’s questions with new questions of their own.) It can be a tiring exercise.

There is another way. It’s possible to derail the other person’s attempt at a Carnegian Victory by refusing to provide an adequate foothold upon which they can ask followup questions. Allow me to illustrate:

YOU: [asking a number of engaging questions]
THEM: [responding]
THEM: [attempting to reverse the focus of the conversation to YOU]: “And so what do you do?”
YOU: “Not much, really. I watch a lot of TV.”
THEM: “Oh?”
YOU: “Yup.”
THEM: “Which television programs do you prefer?”
YOU: “Nothing in particular, anything really.”
THEM: “And do you have many hobbies?”
YOU: “Well, I watch a lot of TV.”
THEM: “Oh.” [at a loss for words]
YOU: “So tell me more about _______. I’ve always felt that ________. What’s your perspective?”
THEM [relieved]: “Well, I really find that…”
YOU: [WINNER!]

A few of you surmised from my awesome Washington (State) poem that I am headed up to Seattle in a short while. My sister, who will be there as well, just emailed me to say she had booked a hotel reservation for me. And that got me thinking about a funny joke I heard recently. Are you ready?

If you were to second guess your decision to book some time to visit an American Indian community that would be a reservation reservation reservation.

– Brian Regan

I went to Seattle to see me some cattle
but really not cattle, but did see a bull.
but it was a lion, but not like a tiger
but more like a fish, or a seal or a gull.

I was out in the harbor, out on a small boat
the sun was a shinin’ and we were afloat.
Did I say it was sunny? (I’m not being funny)
it really was out,I’ll even bet money…

But let us not argue, let’s not get all huffy
I’m coming from Utah, where clouds are all fluffy.
And come snow or come hail, come sun or come rain
I’m back in that city, Seattle Again!

Much needed podcast (for all the haters)

(Apologies to Samuel Taylor Coleridge.) Lest you think that Ryan Byrd dot Net has become a cesspool of esoterica, we’ll talk about something less obscure for a bit. Specifically, here we’ll consider the issues of selling (and buying) something that is already free. A good example for review is our national obsession with bottled water.

Bottled H₂0 has only recently¹ permeated our culture, but it’s now everywhere. What self-respecting college coed is rightly accessorized without a 1/2 pint bottle of water in the mesh pocket of her backpack? What corporate meeting would be complete without chilled bottles of water on top of little square paper napkins for the guests? What gym bunny feels rightly clothed without a nearby bottle of the healthy liquid?

To be certain, the goal of proper hydration is a clearly a noble one (though parenthetically, we Americans are getting trounced by the Italians, who consume on average twice what we drink daily), but let’s chat about the concept of paying a premium price for a free substance.

Sure, you might argue, when you buy the water you’re also buying a handy container as well. But it would be foolish to pretend that people are buying only one bottle and then refilling it. NO, people regularly and frequently buy CASES of bottled water. In fact, “Americans spent more money last year on bottled water than on IPods or movie tickets. ($15 billion).” Next year we’ll spend 16 billion if projections are right. In 2006, Americans drank on average over 28 gallons of bottled water. Compare that to 1.6 gallons in 1976. “Ounce for ounce, it costs more than gasoline, even at today’s high gasoline prices; depending on the brand, [bottled water] costs 250 to 10,000 times more than tap water. Globally, bottled water is now a $46 billion industry.”

That might be true, you potentially counter, however let’s not forget that bottled water tastes better! It’s has more of a watery flavor, or so the clever marketers want us to believe. As it turns out, even though many people think the bottled variety is tastier, thinking does not make it so, “since most people cannot tell the difference in a blind tasting. Much bottled water is, in any case, derived from municipal (city) water supplies, though it is sometimes filtered, or has additional minerals added to it.” Pepsi has the nation’s number-one-selling bottled water, Aquafina, with 13% of the market. Coke’s Dasani is number two, with 11% of the market. Both [brands] are simply purified municipal water.”

Not one swayed by the pompous claims of others, I dashed to the store and bought a bunch of different brands of bottled water. Then I set up a simple blind taste test to determine if my friends and roommates could tell the difference between tap and bottled. Could they distinguish the two? Not at all.

But, it must be healthier, you muster, it comes from exotic locations! Actually, “there is [no] health or nutritional benefit to drinking bottled water over tap water. In one study, published in The Archives of Family Medicine, researchers compared bottled water with tap water from Cleveland, and found that nearly a quarter of the samples of bottled water had significantly higher levels of bacteria. The scientists concluded that ‘use of bottled water on the assumption of purity can be misguided.’”

Another study carried out at the University of Geneva found that bottled water was no better from a nutritional point of view than ordinary tap water. “… there are no scientific studies establishing that routinely consuming mineral water improves your health. The FDA, in fact, forbids mineral waters in the United States from making any health claims.” Admittedly, both kinds of water suffer from occasional contamination problems, but tap water is more stringently monitored and tightly regulated than bottled water. New York City tap water, for example, was tested 430,600 times during 2004 alone.”

So maybe purchasing bottled water is a bit silly– but is it dangerous? No, I not referring to the Dihydrogen Monoxide scare of a few years ago. I’m talking about its environmental impact. “…despite its association with purity and cleanliness, bottled water is bad for the environment. It is shipped at vast expense from one part of the world to another, is then kept refrigerated before sale, and causes huge numbers of plastic bottles to go into landfills.” “…the process of making the plastic for the water bottles burns up, something like, 1.5 million barrels of oil, enough to power 100,000 cars for a year.” “90% of bottles are not recycled.” “We pitch into landfills 38 billion water bottles a year– in excess of $1 billion worth of plastic.” That’s a lot of garbage…

Still love bottled water? Consider this:

Fiji Water produces more than a million bottles a day, while more than half the people in Fiji do not have reliable drinking water.

As well,

worldwide, 1 billion people have no reliable source of drinking water; 3,000 children die a day from diseases caught from tainted water.

So, bottled water is mainly just tap water, but people largely prefer it, because of ever-so-cunning marketing. Vendors ride the hype by charging a premium price and using adjectives like natural, artesian, pure, energizing, etc. Those late to the water bandwagon are now distinguishing themselves by adding slight value to the water. You’ll find colored, barely-favored, electrolyte-enhanced, and caffeine water.

In search of a value proposition, water bottling marketers spew out buckets of hype:

• Propel advertises their product as “fitness water.” Says Propel, “Don’t just hydrate, nourish”
• Aquafina uses “Pure Water, Perfect Taste” and “Make your body happy”
• Arrowhead’s “Mountain Spring Water” website states, “Arrowhead makes it easy to stay hydrated at the speed of my life.” You’ll love to know that Arrowhead is available in 14 bottle types.
• The French get the award for the most over the top promotional website. Evian Natural Spring Water’s website overflows with empty statements like: “revitalize your body”, “maintain youth”, “refresh your body from the inside”, “embrace life”, “water helps revitalize cells”, “Evian detox”, “purity youthfullness living”, “unique mineral composition”, “expel toxins”, “play at your peak” and “every bottle of Evian is a miracle.” The website also pictures a naked woman swimming in the snow and the infallible testimony of a French-speaking water “scientist.”
• “Crystal-clear, clean-tasting, and a delight for your taste buds, Amaro will quench your thirst completely.”

Evian spelled backwards is “naive” and probably for good reason; they fooled Americans into thinking we’re getting what we pay for. Maybe bottled water is just an indulgence, an extravagance, but maybe it’s more than that. Is this compulsion simply another symptom of our affluenza?

Perhaps it’s time to stop pouring money down the drain. Maybe it’s time that we Do Something Else… Do Something Real… Do Something

Sources:

Fast Company magazine, July/August 2007, p 111-121, “Message in a Bottle” http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/02/0224_060224_bottled_water.html http://www.earth-policy.org/Updates/2006/Update51.htm http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/consumers/bottled-water.html http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/01/opinion/01standage.html?ei=5090&en=1f703b85f17267b3&ex=1280548800&partner=rssuserland http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FNP/is_12_40/ai_75831977/print http://academic.evergreen.edu/g/grossmaz/KLESSILL/ http://editorials.arrivenet.com/health/article.php/10261.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bottled_water http://www.nrdc.org/water/drinking/bw/bwinx.asp http://www.bottledwaterweb.com/frontbottlers.do http://www.propelfitnesswater.com/ http://www.evian.com/ http://www.aquafina.com/ http://www.arrowheadwater.com/

1- We can credit the sneaky French for the bottled water explosion. It was only in 1977 that Perrier introduced it’s green glass bottled water to the United States, yet the US consumption of bottled water has grown more than 1000-fold since that time.”

I’m proud to be an American where at least I know I’m free

–Lee Greenwood

Being American fundamentally means having the freedom to be what you want to be. America is unlike any place in the world; it is the land of crazy dreams, where the people who take chances are celebrated, where crowds root for the underdog and where every-so-often that underdog comes back against a million-to-one odds, and wins. In America, you can invent an airplane in your garage, beat cancer and go on to win the Tour de France and run for president even if your father is just a farmer. Only in America can the most influential men in business be a pair of nerdy boys from Stanford and the richest man on her continent, a geeky college dropout.

Paradoxically that freedom neither is, nor ever was, without cost. America stands today on foundations blood-seeped from patriots past and present. Blood spilt from heroes: from brothers, from fathers, and from sons. Heroes whose lives and futures and dreams were sacrificed for our current dreams. Dreams nourished by the climate created by the 1st amendment of the constitution:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

The consequent freedom of expression and the pride the Bill of Rights engenders is interpreted by many of our global neighbors as blind arrogance; Americans think they can do anything, but for good reason– history has shown that we can. Tempering this ambition, of course, should be this restraint, that with great power, comes great responsibility.

And America has largely lived up to that responsibility. Being American means being brave and it means hard work. America was built by strong individuals, strong families and strong communities. Americans have faith, and are caring and giving.

Surely America has its problems still. Families are under vicious attack from all sides. We pollute way too much. We’re fat and getting fatter and fewer of us read books any more. Political life has degraded to the point that every race is a clothespin vote. We’re becoming more self-absorbed and less concerned with others. The list of troubles continues…

Yet if America embodies anything, it is hope. In her relatively brief history, America has shown a knack for overcoming nearly impossible obstacles. We overthrew our tyrannical mother-country, we united a divided land, we vanquished the Nazis, landed on the moon, invented the light bulb, the radio and the computer and we cured polio. We’ll overcome our present hurdles, too, and be stronger for it.

And so this Fourth of July, for these and many other reasons, I can say without reservation, that I’m proud to be an American. Are you?

thoughts on America the Beautiful