took this last week when becky and i stopped at o’garas on the way home. quick little happy hour and a nice little surprise.

so i’d like to write a longer blog about this but i don’t have the time right now. what i wanted to bring up is the idea of critical thinking. we need a greater emphasis on math and science in our educational system. i think there is pretty widespread support for that statement but i admit that i don’t have any numbers with me to back it up. for now, just go with me.

i think one of the main reasons is that it inspires critical thinking in a way that some other fields do not. now i’m not saying we should get rid of band, art, english, sports, etc. just that i think math and science has some strengths in these areas. i’ve been thinking about how easily people can be mislead with facts. for example, i’m reading an interesting article (maybe half way through) about investment of college at AEI called How Much is That Bachelor’s Degree Worth? now it has some interesting analysis about how much return on a degree you can expect and puts forth the idea that the return on investment over just a high school degree isn’t as high as some would think (say like 280,000 versus a million).

now you could read this and think, well maybe i shouldn’t go to college because the return isn’t that great and i could start my own business and grown it and earn more. and that may be a possibility. but if you’re thinking about this critically you could also think that hey, maybe it’s not just about the amount of investment. what about the ease of getting a job period with a high school diploma versus a college degree?

see the numbers could confuse. i stopped to think about it for a few minutes. another interesting point that the article brings up is the the return on investment on private schools versus public schools. so, if you’re going to go to college, where is the best place to go. now that’s an interesting question and a great way to look at these figures, i think.

anyway, my point is that because of my background in math and the time (you might say the investment) that i put in to learn how to think about things and keep asking questions about what is behind the thing being said leads to what i would argue is a deeper understanding of the bigger picture.

i’d love to expand on this and maybe i’ll have the chance but for now, I have to jump into my day. as a parting thought, going back to my point about other subjects, what are some of the strengths that each of those subjects bring to the table? how does a good background in literature or art or team sports change the way we look at the world in a positive way?

this is the best veggie tray ever. .. . or well it is the best that I ever put together. this weekend i threw a surprise b-day party for my wife and i had her totally snowed. it was a full surprise and i’m super happy about it and thankful to all the family and friends that helped me pull it off. in fact, it was so much fun, i think we should do it again next weekend. . . (since she didn’t know about the party, we have another planned for next weekend. sweet, two birthday parties).

so, anyway, great weekend. i’m glad i don’t have to keep a secret anymore. it was getting stressful.

i hope y’all have a good week. here i do, jumping in.

why i hate my cats this morning, originally uploaded by kregarious.

take a look at this. exhibit a in why i hate my cats this morning. they’ve gotten into the habit of waking us up when they feel it is time to eat breakfast. here is a list of the ways that they’ve developed.

• knocking the kleenex into the toilet bowl (pictured above)
• knocking things off the bedside table (items include a bottle of lotion, full pint glasses of water, books, and the kleenex box before we moved it into the bathroom
• climbing on top of becky and ripping and biting her nightshirt until she wakes up (or her shirt is ruined, whichever comes first).
• sitting on your chest with their butt toward your face and farting
• sitting on the wicker table and just rocking slightly so the wicker whines.

nice, eh?

so, i’m up and out for coffee. you know, it’s not as pleasant as when i went out for tea last weekend. it pains me a little to admit that. though to be fair i think it’s less about the coffee vs. tea as it is the people next to me talking about stocks and how much they can make. however, maybe it is the coffee vs. tea thing. the folks in the tea shop were talking about how they could become more compassionate people.

oh well, i put in my headphones and put the flying burrito brothers on. good times.

went to my friend, milan’s dry cleaners this morning to help him out with some photos. his brother, boban, took becky and i through the ins and outs of dry cleaning, which was interesting. i always wondered how it all worked. anyway, i had some fun taking pictures and helping a friend out. you can find it here: http://bit.ly/9DD3Fh. they’ve got great prices and I’ve got one of Becky’s dresses there now.

it’s been a nice day.

this is what i would use for a campaign called “clean up woodbury,” if there was such a campaign. i admit, i’m a little anit-suburbs (woodbury is a suburb of st paul, in case you’re reading this and not from around here). now, if you’re into living in the suburbs, that’s great, they’re just not for me is all i’m saying. i think it’s the sprawl and the driving everywhere. . . i just get to feeling uncomfortable.

the thing that is really interesting about this is who has heard of woodbury soap? you? ok, now the delicate question, how old are you? i’d never seen this soap until we got a bag of soap from becky’s grandma (we’ve also gotten bags of ribbons and various other things as well). now, i’m kind of a hoarder to i understand keeping things around that you might need one day but it never occurred to me to stock up on soap for the eventual soap shortages.

however, i’m glad she did because now we don’t have to buy soap for quite some time and all of the soap we have comes in really trippy 60’s packaging. sweet! thank you, grandma.

coffee to be, ah starting the day out with a nice cup of coffee. actually, went out to brunch after i made this cup. b and i went to the chatterbox for their fabulous buffet. good stuff. i had planned on hanging out there a bit but the wireless wasn’t working. so, i moved on to the tea source and now i have a nice cup of green tea in front of me. if life was without coffee and tea, it would be much weaker.

the guys that were sitting behind me until juts a moment ago were having a very interesting conversation. they were talking about where they are at in their lives and how to be more compassionate. they didn’t look like guys that would talk about compassion but there you have it. nice to see on a sunday morning.

been a really long few weeks and i’m looking forward to the weekend. very much so, in fact. here’s a photo of cantaloupe. i just liked the light and shadows. plus, i wanted to play with the new silver filter in camerabag. so far, i’m thinking just ok. however, maybe i’ll have some better images to try it on soon. though, not enough time to really play with photos lately. hopefully can make some soon. will be better when we can all get back outside again too.

on the upside of the week, i got a new dell mini 10v and can now get some of my work done sitting on the couch watching tv. sure. . . i’m still working long hours but at least I get to hang out with becky a bit.

let’s see, i was going to talk about two things but now i can only remember one. oh well. anyway, took this family portrait impromtu for some friends of ours. i’m not much of a people person when it comes to photography. i like derelict buildings and such. but i’ve been making an effort to take better photos of people. i’m pretty happy with how this one turned out, i gotta say. with all my friends who’ve had or are having babies, i may get a lot of practice in.

hmmm. . . maybe i was going to write about walking. walking is my favorite pastime. i have a book patiently waiting on the shelf called “what i think about when i think about running” by my favorite author, haruki murakami. i keep thinking the phrase “what i think about when i think about walking” in my head. when i’m walking, i feel an openness and a freeness that i don’t get in the rest of my life. there isn’t laundry waiting, i don’t have just one more spreadsheet to build and there is no email that needs checking. i’m just walking, even better if it’s under a blue sky.

i spend so much of my life indoors looking at a computer screen (and don’t get me wrong, i like computers and i even mostly like my job–no one likes theirs all the time). it feels so good to be outside and in the middle of winter, it’s a treat to experience. i love the taste and the feel fo the fresh air. i life in the city so it’s only so fresh but it’s not recycled. you can’t hear the constant drone of the big office vents.

one particularly nice thing about walking in the winter is that it’s generally very quiet. if it’s cold enough, you get the crunch of the snow. you may hear a few birds chirping if it’s the right time of day. you get a certain kind of peace that falls on the neighborhood though that you don’t get in the summer and it should be appreciated.

that said, i’m really looking forward to spring hurrying up and getting here. it’ll be nice to have warmer weather, melting everything. one more month or so and we’ll get it. just gotta hang in a little longer.

emily and i, originally uploaded by kregarious.

wow, 7 days into feb and my first pic of the day post. how sad. went up to visit ryan and the kids this morning. here’s emily and i sitting in the dining room. she’s got a sly look on her face. i was feeling pretty beat since christopher had me running around and crawling in and out of his massive fort in the basement. let’s just say that someone needed a nap this afternoon. heh.