And You Shall Become a Mighty River- No wait, sorry, tiny creek.

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Photo #756: Micro River
Location Taken: Hurricane Ridge, Olympic National Park, Washington
Time Taken: June 2008

If you’ve ever wondered what the start of a river looks like, well, here you go!

What, you never wondered?!? Weirdo. (No wait, that’s me.)

Well, ok, it’s not the actual start of the water stream. That’s further uphill, well, upmountain, where there’s still some snowpacks hanging around in June. They’re melting because, well, June, but it’s a slow process. Those small drops find the lowest spot, which makes them gather together and form tiny streams, which then join together into larger ones and so on and so forth until you find yourself in the ocean.

…I actually do wonder what the start of various rivers look like. I mean, there aren’t snowpacks everywhere. I know some go dry when there isn’t enough rain, but others, like the Mississippi, don’t. So I kind of want to visit the headwaters, just to see what it’s like. In that case, it’s Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, and the river looks like any old river at that point, but still!

Though really, the lake is fed by somewhere, and some measuring systems trace the Mississippi up one of its tributaries…

Every so often I get the urge to find a river and follow it all the way to its source, trace where all those water droplets that keep the river flowing actually come from. Only reason I haven’t (besides time and money for such a trip) is because I know actually finding such a source is difficult, due to, say, thick vegetation and swamps and lakes and all that fun stuff. I’d say it has no purpose as well beyond curiosity, but any discovery has an inherent purpose…

  

When Two Hearts Meet… They both go thumpathump.

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Photo #755: Meeting Of HeartsLocation Taken: Hoh Rainforest, Olympic National Park, Washington
Time Taken: June 2008

There is a little dog laying next to my ear. I can hear her heartbeat, loud and clear.

It is faster than my own, a tempo much stronger, more energetic. Such a small heart, fitting such a tiny dog, but strong and enthusiastic.

It’s odd. We say someone who is nice and kind has a “big heart”, but really, you don’t particularly want a bigger than average heart. It’s usually a sign of not so good things. I suppose it’s yet another case of English’s quirks, how we use the term “heart” both for the physical heart and for the center of emotions.

I mean, elks have large hearts, I’m sure, but you don’t hear of them being sweethearts. Tiny dogs, on the other hand, can be the sweetest sweethearts out there. And the most irritating critters, but that’s another story.

Still, there’s nothing quite like curling up with a small dog, listening to the sounds of life.

Now if only the rhythm of the beat wasn’t making this headache I have worse…

  

So Many Paths, Which to Chose!?! Why am I just standing here…

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Photo #753: Split PathLocation Taken: Spruce Woods Provincial Park, Manitoba
Time Taken: June 2008

Do you ever have decision fatigue?

It’s a fairly common thing, actually. It’s when you get presented with so many decisions in a row that your brain gets overwhelmed and just shuts down. Modern life, with all the choices that are presented to us every day, is very prone to this type of fatigue. There’s ways to get past it, by applying overarching criteria that drops your decisions down to a manageable level, but those bring drawbacks with them. And sometimes, you just either can’t or don’t want to avoid all those tempting decisions.

Like today. The most recent patch for the MMORPG I play, Guild Wars 2, hit today, and oh my goodness is it packed full of changes.

So I was having to decide which part of the new stuff to try out first, and decide how to go about it, and after that was done, what to go to next.  I mean, the new traits are really interesting but the wardrobe makes dressing up my characters so easy but the sigil revamp is something I should sort through and I haven’t even touched PvP yet…  And then I was struck with the urge to buy all the dyes needed to complete my collection now that they apply to all my characters rather than just one, which I ended up doing because having more colors is awesome despite it eating a significant chunk of my money…

That’s actually one of the side effects of decision fatigue. You’re more likely to give in to impulse buying. Since your brain keeps getting overwhelmed by all the choices, it can short circuit when it comes to deciding if whatever you’re considering is worth the price or even something you really want at all.

Which might actually be why so many stores toss so many options at you. The loss from stocking oddball objects might be made up by increased impulse buying of other things triggered by having to consider, ever so briefly, if you might just want that mint jelly after all…

  

Taking the Long View on Everything

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Photo #752: Long ViewLocation Taken: Kamloops area, British Columbia
Time Taken: June 2008

I don’t do audio.

Ok, I do listen to music and, you know, hear people talk the like. But I have a lot of trouble retaining information I learn that way. Even music blurs together, so while I enjoy it, I rarely remember more than a little of it. I have an absolutely horrendous memory for lyrics and I can literally forget I have music playing, despite it, you know, making noise.

This was a bit of trouble in school, since so much of the American education system is based around lectures. Luckily, I can solidify things in my memory by writing them down. Even if I never read my notes again, just the act of writing is enough. But to this day, anything purely audio only sticks at the basic concept level.

Except for a very few exceptions. Freakonomics Radio is one of those.

I don’t know if you’ve heard of Freakonomics. It was a book that made a big splash several years ago, a look at the odd ways economics works and how it affects our world. Mind you, I have yet to read the book. But I have listened to each and every podcast on that site.

I suppose it ties into that “retains basic concepts” thing. Stephen Dubner and Steve Levitt are so good at clearly explaining things that everything gets reduced to basic concepts, which then stack on top of each other to present a thorough review of the subject.

They cover quite a wide range of topics, too. From looking at why the Japanese build essentially disposable housing to The Tale of the $15 Tomato to why you’re not too likely to die by fire these days.

Each week there’s a new show, and it’s always interesting to see what they chose to talk about. It takes a large degree of talent to get past my disdain for most audio media, and this not only manages it, it excels. If you’ve got time in your schedule to listen to even just a few of these shows, I do solidly recommend giving it a whirl!