TV and Health

This list of quick stats on Television & Health is nothing new, but once in a while these things hit me hard. Average of 28 hours a week watching TV -- passively sitting there, taking in mostly junk and doing nothing. 28 HOURS is a lot of time in a week to do something meaningful. How is it that people believe they're so busy and don't have enough time to do the things they want to do when they're blowing a quarter of each waking day on mindless entertainment?

Number of minutes per week that parents spend in meaningful conversation with their children: 3.5
Number of minutes per week that the average child watches television: 1,680

The Blunt Wisdom of Robin Wright Penn

Celebrity news on Lifestylism? Not really, but I guess this is a little different. I enjoyed this interview with Robin Wright Penn by my favourite movie writer, Katrina Onstad. It has some interesting bits about the choices this actor has made and her interpretation of the balance between work, parenthood and celebrity. On motherhood:

“No one really prepares you for motherhood,” says Wright Penn with typically appealing bluntness. “No one says to women, or men: ‘Guess what, guys? You are going to be non-existent for about eight years.’ They prepare you for pregnancy and that’s it. They don’t prepare you for marriage, either.”

On celebrity and getting work in Hollywood:

“If you don’t play the celebrity thing, then you don’t get offered the commercial movies,” she says with a shrug.

I guess it's easier to make these choices when you make a couple of million dollars a year, but it was still refreshing to hear this:

But staying out of the fray is a choice. Wright Penn takes only small roles during the school year to be available to her children, and says she can go virtually anywhere without being recognized.

Longer Work Day Cutting into Family Time

Longer work day cutting into family time: study. The article is solid, including some reaction from a representative of the Vanier Institute of the Family pointing out the negative effects of this trend, most of which is fairly obvious, I guess. I was interested in this counter quote, though:

"However, Lochhead said, it must be remembered that there is an element of individual choice in spending more time at work than with family, and the study, above all else, shows that Canadian workers are committed to their jobs."

I forget that sometimes, when I hear that people are working more -- I always assume that they'd rather be doing something other than working. Perhaps that's just my own personal bias.

Update: Garth reflects on the Globe & Mail's feature on the same study.

Adventure Divas

I hadn't heard of Adventure Divas before, but apparently there's a PBS series and several books out already. I was mostly interested in the profiles of women doing fascinating and important things all over the world. Inspiring! Makes you want to circle the planet and make an impact.

Rex on Climate Change

I enjoyed Rex Murphy's viewpoint on climate change on The National last night and found the article this morning. An excerpt:

"So the question for us is really, is the moral weight of our example worth the immediate, real costs to our economy and lifestyles? Will you drive 30 per cent less, buy 30 per cent less, approve putting a brake on the oilsands, offshore oil, the auto-making industry? In hard terms, will we use less energy, pay more for fuel, live less excessively, fly less often right now, just to show the world that we Canadians are willing to back up what we say about global warming by what we do?

This is not just a question for our politicians. It's a question for us all. Do we believe our moral leadership is worth the personal and public cost of providing that leadership?"

The only thing I might quibble with is this lumping together of personal lifestyle choices (driving less) with national-level environmental regulation, especially on industry. I like the focus on lifestyle decisions and personal impact, and I am willing to drive less (where we live, people already think we're freaks to only have one vehicle for a family of four), but by myself I can't make coal-fired power plants illegal, or limit CO2 emmissions from massive oil extraction and processing projects. This intersection between the personal and political realms goes to the heart of this lifestylism project -- revolutionizing your lifestyle won't cause the necessary revolution on these issues, and politics alone can't solve the problems without people changing their lifestyles. Are we willing to make hard choices in both realms?

Career Planning a Waste of Time?

The author of this post thinks Career Planning is Time Wasted. I agree with the research cited, and the argument is well articulated -- people are notoriously bad at predicting what will make them unhappy -- but I'm not so sure that it translates into all planning being a waste of time. When you're choosing to pursue something instead of something else, you're doing a type of planning, and you might as well choose a general direction (maybe a field, or area of interest, or type of activity) that suits what you're currently enjoying or curious about -- for me, that's all planning is.

There seems to be this idea that career planning for high school students is about picking the exact job description you'll be employed in six or eight years down the road...and if that's the case, I'd have to agree with this assessment that it's a waste of time. It's not about the end goal; it's about process: finding meaningful tasks, developing skills, and building connections in an area of interest that will likely become sustainable work if you really care about it.

This is probably too critical -- I hadn't seen this excellent blog before and probably shouldn't take issue with a single post when there were so many other good ones...oh, well.

Recreational Shopping

Recreational shopping could lead to 'consuming crisis': Lots of interesting quotes and tidbits in this short article, but of course I was most into the bits about lifestyle expectations:

"The study also found that 37 per cent of Canadians worried that they wouldn't be able to sustain their current lifestyle in 10 years time, noting they expected to have to tighten their spending habits. Another 24 per cent predicted their lifestyle would be about the same, while 32 per cent said they expected to have more."

Reel Life Wisdom

I got a copy of Doug's (Proactive Living blog) new book before Christmas, Reel Life Wisdom, and I sure have been enjoying it. A simple concept, really -- a collection of inspirational movie quotes organized around important themes -- so you can pick it up any time and open it to something interesting. The supporting web site is turning into an impressive resource by itself, with tons of quotes, articles and mini film reviews accumulating in the archives.

Worldmapper

Worldmapper: Work

For the right kind of person, this site could suck hours and hours of time out of the day. I'm one of those. It's pretty simple -- you choose the measures (work, health, education, poverty, etc) you're interested in and then get to see maps of the world with the relative weight for those measures represented. Hundreds of them.

Thanks to elearnspace for the pointer...

Mind Over Money

Some fascinating concepts and studies in this fairly in-depth article -- Mind over money: Studies indicate cash affects our social interaction. I thought this closing quote from one of the authors of a cited study was most interesting:

"If it's more important to have self-motivation it might be good to have reminders of money," Vohs said. "If group harmony is important, it might be a good idea to keep the idea of money down. People will have to decide what goals are in the best interest."

Update: Another article about the same studies: Mere Thought of Money Makes People Selfish. A quote:

"In a series of nine experiments, researchers found that money enhanced people's motivation to achieve their own goals and degraded their behavior toward others. The concept of money, they suggest, makes a person feel more self-sufficient and thus more apt to stand alone.

The scientists said the study had nothing to do with making a person feel wealthy. When real or fake money, or even a photo of cash, was placed in sight of participants, they became selfish."

Feeling Stressed?

There's nothing too new in this article, but it's interesting to think about how our choices affect our stress levels. I wonder if we wrongly equate all stress with negative results and health problems -- of course those are valid concerns -- but when you set up your life to minimize all stress, you reduce opportunities for growth and challenge. Difficult, risky and uncomfortable experiences cause stress, but life would be pretty dull if you avoided anything that took you out of your comfort zone. Anyway, here's the article from CBC: Feeling stressed? You're not alone, new poll says.

Five Things You Didn't Know About Me

Doug at Proactive Living tagged me with the challenge to list five things you wouldn't know about me:

1. I've seen Metallica in concert...twice.
   
2. Instead of renting a car or cabbing it in Los Angeles this weekend, I bought a bicycle and put 50 miles on it...also took some photos along the way.
   
3. I raced competitive motocross (off-road motorcycles) for years, including events in arenas with 10,000 spectators watching...and won.
   
4. I've never really liked pets -- and sadly, I've noticed that this makes it difficult for pet owners to like me.
   
5. I have four active blogs (and several other lapsed ones): this one, my personal blog, my work/learning blog, and a song blog...all of which are in danger of lapsing. More if you count my Flickr photos or 43Things as other types of blogs.

Thanks for the tag, Doug -- I'm sometimes too serious over here, and this is a good reminder to be a real person behind the links and writing.

And now for my five tags, selected not because I necessarily think they will take the challenge, but because they have consistently challenged me to think. The common thread -- great writers tackling difficult material and really living it...then sharing what they're learning:

• Penelope, the Brazen Careerist
  
• Christian at think:lab (and his inspiring list)
  
• Chris at Parking Lot (and his excellent reply)
  
• Shamash at Shamash Says... (with yet another fantastic glimpse into her past)
  
• Jill at Legacy Matters (and her amazing response)

Note: I didn't tag my Vancouverite blog-friend Brian, but I loved his response to the tag as well. As if we've both seen Metallica twice! I'm just glad I didn't get shot at either time.

Disparity

40% of world's wealth owned by 1% of population...

Kelowna Real Estate

Some national recognition of the stupidity of the housing market where we live: Kelowna house prices move ahead of Calgary, Toronto. In Canada, only Vancouver remains more ridiculous.

Take Back Your Time Day

Bet you didn't know that today is Take Back Your Time Day:

"Overworked and time-starved Canadians and Americans need to take time Tuesday to cancel an appointment, play with their children, go for a walk or plant a tree, says a group promoting Take Back Your Time Day."

Update: I missed the CBC's In-Depth feature on the topic -- By the numbers: time poverty. Lots of fascinating stats about work and overwork, particularly in comparing the U.S., Canadian and European situations.