change the world, twenty minutes at a time

It’s so easy to fall back into the patterns of negative behavior. So today at lunch I worked really hard to stay positive and up-beat for a friend of mine who is still working at the company I left. It was harder than I thought. But it also felt better, too.

I was hoping to sneak in a quick bit of journaling on Tuesday evening while my seven year old was at baseball practice. But when we got there it was clear that the coach was overwhelmed by the seven other kids, one of whom is a complete hellion. I decided I could and should help out, so I set down my journal and picked up my baseball glove, volunteering to take my boy and the hellion for some catch and throw practice.

After a few minutes I sent the problem player to sit on the bench with his mom until he was ready to take practice seriously. The coach couldn’t do that, of course; but a volunteer parent has more free reign. Soon he was back in line and behaving whenever I told him to do something, and the rest of practice went well.

I never did get to write yesterday as a result, but I think I did the right thing for my son and the other six ball players. I know I did the right thing by the coach.

One step at a time…

Twenty minutes at a time? Perhaps more.

I have been taking my civic responsibilities more seriously lately. And that began with taking the presidential campaign seriously. I studiously read the platforms, chose my candidate, and started sending his campaign money.

Then I learned that my best friend was supporting the other party this year. We have agreed on politics, religion, philosophy and lots of other topics for years in a “violent agreement” manner, so I found this surprising. So did he.

We began a litany of emails and phone calls to explore the differences in our views, our research, and our conclusions. After two months, we now see things the same way as closely as we ever could, but we are still backing opposing candidates. But now I see my candidate as the extreme left wing tax-and-spend liberal that he is, and my friend sees his candidate as the sold out political hack that he has become.

In the end, though, I feel encouraged. With the ready information of the internet and online publications like WSJ, NYT, and others, I feel like the political discourse and the “marketplace of ideas” that so motivated our founding fathers may indeed be coming back at long last. It’s about time, in my opinion. The politics of fear and mass media had tired me of politics and civic duty. My friend feels the same.

I’ve concluded that we vote with our money in the modern political system. Sad, but true.

So I donated $100. to Barack Obama’s campaign. I cannot remember supporting the platform of a political candidate more. Obama is our best chance at restoring democracy in America.

I’m no cook. My wife is the master of the kitchen, and I enjoy the fruits of the labor, while reigning supreme in the wine cellar.

But my wife is on travel, and the domestic tasks, like cooking, fall to me.

But today, after a hectic day at work, my little one announced that he would “see everyone at the picnic!” as I picked him up at daycare. Hrm. Not what I had in mind. Then I read the flier posted next to the family calendar. “bring any main course dish and a serving utensil.”

Now I could have bailed on it, but it’s a good communal thing to do; so instead I cooked three pounds of hot italian sausage in tomato sauce and chicken stock, with a little garlic and oregano, and we headed into town for the potluck.

It was actually quite fun, and the teachers were very happy to see us, since my son is one of their favorites. He even won the door prize, by guessing which picture of their feet matched which of the seven teachers. He had a blast, and it was the right thing to do.

The sausage was a big hit with the parents, who didn’t want to eat another meal of “Kid Food”. We took home an empty pan.

Today I spent another three hours, bringing my total to about ten, working on a new draft international standard for surface texture in optics.

Ok, so it’s not riveting, and it’s not as glamorous as selling my car and buying carbon offsets with the proceeds. But it was a rather unique contribution.

I’ve finally finished the draft after signing up to write it almost a year ago. I’ve submitted it to the German standards group for consideration, and it’ll hopefully be on the agenda at Bucharest.

Why is this changing the world? Well, today there is no good way to specify mid-spatial frequency errors in optics. Even so, in the last ten years, a boatload of new tools have been developed to make precision optics, but they leave this uncontrolled residue of ripple behind.

Once approved (in about 2010) there will be a way to specify and control these errors, making optical systems perform better and with less glare. By 2015, I suspect most lenses made in the world will be referring to this standard on the print.

You can all thank me then.

Today I spent eight hours teaching my class on optics standards. It is a difficult task, and I felt drained after doing it. I slinked off to a restaurant to have a well-deserved beer and read the class comments that each person had submitted anonymously.

Reading all the great positive comments made me feel like it was all worth-while. I have made an impact, and spread knowledge in my very own, very special way, and contributed to the “body of knowledge” of our species.

So I guess that counts as a change the world action, no? sure there aren’t less starving children in Africa, but at least there are better informed adults in Michigan!

Yes, I’m reaching a bit here. But at least I’m reaching, right?

Short of ideas on how do make an impact yesterday, I logged on to freerice.com, like many others posed below, and answered silly questions long enough to raise 1,000 pieces of rice for the hungry.

This is an easy out, but it’s a positive move anyway. Affirmation: if I can’t find any other way to change the world, I’ll raise some more free rice for 20 minutes.

Today on my way home from dropping the big kids off at school, I stopped and dragged a fallen tree branch off the road. I could have gone around it, but sooner or later someone had to get out of their car in the rain and drag the branch off the road. So it was sooner.

I’ve been trying to be more available to my kids. Suprisingly, they’ve been accepting of my help, and it’s actually rather draining. I guess they needed my help more than I thought.

Complain less; do more. That’s a good mantra for the rest of the week, eh?

Today for my 20 minutes, I registered with Kiva.org (I know, I’m way behind Rin and Jenn here…) and signed up for optoutprescreen.com which makes me ineligible to receive offers for credit from any of the major credit card companies. This will hopefully drop the junk mail considerably.