StuckK

A couple weeks ago (5 weeks to be exact) I was reading this post from the Freakonomics blog. I'm fascinated by the idea of what motivates people, for myself, for my students, and just for my interactions with other people. The post discusses "commitment contracts," which I make in my mind all the time: cooking dinner more often, going to bed at a reasonable hour, eating healthier, not checking work email after a certain time and all those other things that I know will make my life better. But of course, I'm not great at following through on any of it. It's easier to pick up takeout, stay up a little later, have a bowl of ice cream, and double-check that no school emergency has come up since I last looked. When it comes to things that impact only me, I need more motivation.


Stickk.com, a website set up by researchers from the Yale School of Management, turned out to be exactly what I needed. The way it works is that you set up a commitment contract with yourself about anything. I chose going to the gym at least four times a week and decided I'd start out with a 5-week commitment. They send you an email every week asking whether you met your commitment and keep track of how you're doing. For me, just putting it in writing is not enough, so StickK adds another dimension. I gave them my credit card number and if I didn't make it to the gym four times in a given week, StickK.com would charge me $25 (you set your own price point; I started on the lower end in case this experiment completely failed).

Just to raise the stakes a little bit more, StickK gives you the option of where your money goes. It can be to another person of your choice, but I felt like most of my friends would feel uncomfortable enough with the arrangement that they'd either decline to participate or would spend the money on us doing something fun together. Another option is to give your money to charity, but I'd feel okay if I skipped out on the gym and the United Way got $25. So StickK has a third option: the anti-charity. I set up my contract so that if I didn't meet my commitment, not only would I lose $25, it would go to the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy. You can probably guess by the name that this organization defines marriage under very specific, very exclusionary terms. Not exactly a cause I want to support. (There are anti-charities for all sorts of beliefs; I love that the list of options includes a bunch of different British football clubs.)

I'm amazed at how well this commitment contract worked for me, and I'm proud to say that for the past five weeks I've gone to the gym at least four times a week. The money and the anti-charity have unquestionably been the major motivating factor. There were multiple days when I dragged myself off the couch or forced myself to stop on the way home from school because I was so horrified at the thought of donating to an anti-gay marriage organization. This is a very busy, very difficult time of year and I know there are a number of days when I would have skipped out if this threat weren't looming over my head.

Now this post just sounds like an advertisement for stickK.com and maybe it is. Seriously, I can't wait to try out some other commitments to see what I can do when I force myself into it.

PS - A fun thing to do is check out the homepage where they show a list of commitments that other people are making. There are a lot of the usual like save money, lose weight, eat healthy, etc., but there are also some amazing ones: "make $1 million by a certain age," "be more awesome," and "be nice to my girlfriend." I am so fascinated by other people.

Cross Dress Day

This week is Spirit Week at school, one of my favorite events of the year. I love ridiculous costumes for any reason, so Spirit Week gives me five days worth of entertainment. Plus, how can you pass up wearing pajamas to work? (BTW, if anyone finds good/awful footy pajamas, I'm in the market). Pictures coming at some point--I have to say I'm proud of what I came up with for Crazy Hair Day.

When the Social Committee announced themes for each day, Wednesday was listed at "Cross Dress Day." That did not sit well with me at all. The whole reason why Spirit Week is fun is that you get to wear things that oppose convention--Pajama Day is fun because generally we don't wear pajamas outside our homes; my quasi-mohawk made kids laugh today because it's so far from my usual  hairstyle. My worry with Cross Dress Day is the implied message that (1) gender should dictate the way we dress and (2) dressing contrary to gender expectations is not only frowned-upon on a normal day, but is actually something that we should consider funny or silly. I have no idea if we have any transgender students at our school, but I imagine that if you're already restricted from expressing your identity through your appearance (which could be anyone, not just transgendered students), you don't need a school-sponsored reminder that the way you want to look/feel is a joke.

I brought this up with some other faculty members, who seemed to agree that Cross Dress Day sends the wrong message. We agreed that we'd never have a "Dress Like Another Race Day," an analogy that in my mind is pretty applicable. Word was passed down to the Social Committee faculty sponsor that Cross Dress Day needed to be replaced. And it was. Tomorrow is Sports Day (go Giants!). Problem solved.

However, I'm worried that the reasons for the change was poorly communicated to the students. Many students seemed to think that it was because the teachers were opposed to the act of cross-dressing in itself, which is the exact opposite of why we (or at least I) thought it should be canceled. I tried to explain to my advisory that saying that we need a special day when it's okay to dress like the opposite gender means that on normal days it wouldn't be okay to do this. It should be okay for a boy to wear a skirt on any day the year. I'm not sure how much they understood, but they seemed to calm down when I told them that I'm not against cross-dressing.

The more difficult thing is that after talking with some other faculty members today, I'm not sure they understood my view. When I explained that supporting Cross Dress Day also supports the idea that men and women should dress a certain way, one teacher responded that most people do believe in those gender expectations. Luckily he caught himself in his faulty logic, but I was ready to list off all the other things that "most people believe" that we probably shouldn't be supporting. This teacher also told me that I should be okay with Cross Dress Day because his gay students were excited about it. I didn't know where to start on this one--would it be better to talk about the difference between gender and sexuality? To explain how people can contribute to their own oppression? To remind him that the opinions of a few people within an identity group do not represent the group as a whole? Sometimes talking to educated, well-meaning adults is much more frustrating than talking to teenagers.

On the other hand, I have to wonder whether I'm overreacting. I think back to the openly transgender student I had when I was student teaching--would he have felt uncomfortable with Cross Dress Day or would he have welcomed it as an opportunity to finally dress like he so desperately wanted to? Even in the latter case, does is that enough to negate the message that cross-dressing should be considered abnormal? Is it better for that kid to have one day where he can wear what he wants under the pretense of it being a joke, or for him never to even have the opportunity to be that joke? Will the presence of kids in gender-bending clothing once a year eventually have the effect of making it acceptable on other days?

On a semi-related note, I recently read this article in Vibe about the dress code at Morehouse. It's an interesting question of what is "appropriate attire" for a scholarly environment and what happens to gender norms in a single-gender setting. I wonder what the men in this article would have to say about Cross Dress Day.

We Lived this Picture

http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/10/24/travel/24galapagos.html?pagewanted=2

The NY Times probably had a slightly better camera, but really it doesn't look that different from all of my pictures.

Also: when I opened up this article, the ad on the side was for New Zealand tourism. Has targeted marketing gotten that good (i.e. is Google selling the contents of my email/brain?), or is the universe just trying to remind me of all the things I'm not doing at the moment? It's usually this time of year when I start daydreaming and looking up plane tickets. In case you were wondering, winter break tickets to Auckland are currently out of my price range. I haven't searched prices to Ecuador. Yet.

The FC in The NYT

Even the New York Times recognizes the magic of our fair city.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/08/us/08bcintel.html?_r=2&adxnnl=1&emc=eta1&adxnnlx=1281924002-6h4/f5XG5sNVkXkdEPnTcQ

Points of note:

-I have said it over and over that the water is dyed. No water anywhere is that color, except maybe in a toilet bowl. Also, I highly doubt that the dye's main purpose is to keep algae from growing. Let's tell it like it is--Foster City must look like a postcard 24 hours a day.

-I enjoy living in the "Boats and Boat Parts" neighborhood, but am not-so-secretly jealous of those who live in "Stars and Constellations" or "Islands." I am currently coveting a residence on Polaris Avenue or Pitcairn Drive. Flying Cloud Isle and Shooting Star Isle are tempting too, but those sound a little too much like places I would have invented as vacation spots for my My Little Ponies.

-How has Foster City not suffered any damage from natural disasters? I moved here with the full understanding that our idyllic green lawns would be the first thing underwater in the event of any seismic activity. I consider it a small price to pay.

-I haven't made it to the windsurfing classes yet. It's been on the docket for two years now, but with this being the last weekend of summer, it looks like I'll have to wait it out a little longer. I think the Galapagos were an acceptable substitute.

London, you've got to do better

All signs pointed to disappointment. First, the nanaimo bars I so desperately tried to make turned out too lumpy and too gooey at the same time. Even my sugar-loving roommate pronounced them "cloyingly sweet." Then, in search of Canadian beer, the guy at BevMo had never heard of Labatt's or Molson and led me to the European section. I know I'm no longer living in a state where Canadian pennies mix with American and no one takes second notice, but come on. Then, of course, there was the death of the luge-er (luge-ist?) that Brian Williams just couldn't help but show on a seemingly endless loop.

But despite such omens, I had high hopes for that favorite event of mine that comes only once every two years: the Olympic opening ceremonies. I love the opening ceremonies more than I love the actual Olympic events. The parade of nations makes my heart melt. I get that nervously excited knot in my stomach when the torch enters the stadium. I like the imagination of the IOC that French is somehow the most sensible language to conduct business in.

But this opening ceremonies... blah. I get that Canada is not the most exciting nation ever. And I get that it's pretty much impossible to live up to an army of synchronized drummers recruited from a pool of 1.3 billion. I even get the hope that three hours of dancing First Nations people could be the beginning of an apology for a history of attempted genocide. But fiddlers? A poetry slam? A weird child running over digital wheat fields? I just think there could have been something else. The whales were cool. As pointed out by a savvy Slate blog-reader, kd lang's all white ensemble was reminiscent enough of a cake-topper that the world was indeed reminded of Canada's progressiveness around gay marriage (take that, USA). But I think I would've preferred floating state-sponsored health care or something to really showcase what Canada has to offer. Nelly Furtado's heels just didn't do it for me.

To be honest, my continued disappointment in the Olympics thus far really stems from NBC. Just because you were projected to lose $200 million on all of this is not a legitimate reason to only post half-hearted clips of nothing on your website. Thanks for spoiling the excitement of competition--do I want to watch Jacobellis' unforgettable silver (and her creepy pale hair) or Kearney winning the first US gold? What I actually would've liked to watch is something where I didn't know the outcome, but I guess that's out. Not to mention that the closest thing I can get to watching live is reading the live blogging comments. Looks like this year will be just like the Olympics of my childhood where I turned to CBC for any real coverage of Olympic events.

Somehow, Canada pulls it out in the end.

Little Red Schoolhouse Update

Remember this adventure that I had back in March? Good thing I snapped those pictures when I could as I pretty much got in at the last opportunity.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/22/AR2009062202971.html

Farewell, Little Red Schoolhouse. Now that we've gotten that monstrosity out of the way, I can think of another monstrosity that we could stand to change. Any guesses?

NY Times, You're Brilliant

I think we already know my affection for Wordles (or word clouds, as they are sometimes called in non-name brand parlance), and many people might be familiar with my penchant for US presidential history and trivia. So when I opened up NYTimes.com this morning, I almost choked on my huevos rancheros (Sarah and I make delicious breakfasts on weekends).

Here it is, an interactive feature that appears to have been designed just for me.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/01/17/washington/20090117_ADDRESSES.html?hp

San Franciscans: R Crazy

I'm glad I'm not voting in San Francisco. I would be seriously annoyed if I felt like someone thought I should spend any time even considering Proposal R. On the other hand, it is totally worth your time to read the arguments. One would think that the haiku alone would be enough to convince voters, but I guess they really needed five printed pages worth of "information."

http://www.smartvoter.org/2008/11/04/ca/sf/meas/R/

To quote one of my native-born San Franciscan friends, "I think that if other people knew what goes on here, they'd expel us from the country."

Elect This Man

I set up this blog as a way to keep friends an family informed of my whereabouts, adventures, funny stories, etc. as I'm off traveling the world and having adventures and funny stories. As such, I've tried to keep the political commentary to a minimum. There are enough political blog out there and it's not like I have a unique perspective to add to the lot.

However, I can't not mention Barack Obama's recent speech on race in this country. I have been an avid Obama supporter for a long time, but I worried that reaching his new political heights would tarnish his vision, idealism, and most of all his honesty. His recent speech on race is one of the most beautiful, honest, human things I think I've ever heard from a politician. Finally, someone willing to name the state of race in this country for what it is without dismissing the legitimacy of anyone's feelings, status, etc.

If you haven't read it already, I strongly recommend that you make the time for it. Or watch it on YouTube. I was in tears by the end.

Not that my endorsement means much, but as a teacher, as a student, as a woman, as a person of color, as a white person, as a young person, and as any other demographic I can think of, I whole-heartedly believe that giving this man the keys to the White House will send our country in the direction it needs to go.

Best Year Ever

It's pretty disappointing that I'm only at Stanford for one year. I really love it here and I hate that in June I'll no longer be a student here. It's hard to take advantage of all the traditions, etc. in only 12 months. However, I also feel fortunate that the 2007-2008 school year ended up being my year of choice. Stanford won Big Game, our basketball team is ranked in the top 10, and now they just announced a commencement speaker who overcompensates for the fact that I missed Bill Clinton at Michigan last year.

http://daily.stanford.edu/article/2008/2/21/oprahFor08

So maybe my friend Andrew (quoted in the article) isn't too excited, but other reactions from my friends have been sufficiently appreciative:
"I think that just bringing couches to jump on while proclaiming our collective love for Katie Holmes might be fitting."
"Oh, and you think she'll hook us up with Jobs in her school in South Africa?"

If nothing else, it's pretty much guaranteed to be better than the Oprah Show taping I saw that was all about people who are addicted to plastic surgery. Or maybe that'll be the topic of her commencement speech. Hard to say.

From the Sidelines

Check out this video of some Mission students commenting on the upcoming election (there are also come cool shots of our school). None of them are actually in my classes, but I am fortunate enough to know Cedric and Sandi, two truly amazing kids (as you can probably tell).

Absent Minded

When my CT told me at the beginning of the year that part of her grading system included points that kids couldn't make up if they were absent, I was kind of stunned. What if they're sick? I asked. What if it's an excused absence? Her response was "Too bad." I quickly understood her reasoning. Our kids are unbelievably truant, and a lot of those are excused absences from the parents. We had one student miss class all of last week being sick. We have other students who have to take care of siblings. Some kids miss for doctor's appointments and court dates. Others go to the Wellness Center practically everyday. And that doesn't even include the kids who are skipping class. Even though I was nervous about being unfair to the kids who have legitimate reasons (which a lot of the above reasons are), it ends up that if you're only missing class once a marking period, it's not going to hurt your grade. In the end, it comes down to the simple reality that kids can't learn when they're not in class.

Here are some other reasons I didn't think about to explain just how important it is that they come to school. Note the mention of Mission in the 10th paragraph!
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/10/07/INBJSHURJ.DTL

Even Better Together

Two of my favourite things in the whole world are (1) New Zealand and (2) The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. So what happens when something from New Zealand makes it on to the Daily Show? Pure genius.



Maybe the best part is that I heard about this because it was one of the top stories on New Zealand's Prime News, one of three nightly newscasts in NZ. I listen to it as a podcast everyday to help deal with my homesickness (can you call it homesick when it's not really your home?), and this was the perfect example of the kind of Kiwi news reporting I miss so badly.

Now You Have No Excuse

As the world gets smaller/flatter, it was only a matter of time before free international calling appeared. I guess you could say there already is free international calling with services like Skype and Google Talk, but here is a service that does not require a computer for either party.

http://www.futurephone.com/

All you do is call the phone number in Iowa, and it will connect you to international numbers in a whole bunch of countries--including New Zealand. Although nobody has tried calling me yet, I read about the service in the New York Times, and I put a lot of confidence in their fact checking abilities, so I don't think it's some sort of scam. They say that the only potential downfalls are that it's sometimes hard to get a connection, and it might not connect to cell phones in some countries. Sounds good to me.

Of course this means that I now expect my phone to be ringing off the hook.

Kingitanga

I don’t really have much to comment on the subject, but it seems wrong to go without mentioning that a major New Zealand event has happened. Last week, the Maori queen passed away, and Monday, after a week-long tangi (longer than is traditional, but they wanted to accommodate all the mourners), she was being buried and her eldest son named as successor.

Mostly why I have no comment is that I have little understanding about the Kingitanga (the Maori King Movement), either its history or its current issues. However, it has still been interesting to watch the reactions of my Maori friends and coworkers. Something I have heard a lot is “She wasn’t my queen.” However, this has not been said in the way I would say “George Bush is not my president.” Because the royal family is from the Tainui region (south of Auckland), it seems like people who are not from that region or that iwi do not feel as connected to her or to the throne. When the new successor was named this morning (they brought a TV into the office so we could watch), there were a lot of reactions as there would be to the naming of any political successor. Unfortunately, the reactions pretty much had no context, and since half of what was going on, both on TV and in the office was spoken in te reo, I was really left clueless. My te reo is definitely improving, but not that much.

So since I actually live here and don't really know much about the topic, I figure my non-Kiwi readers are in a similar situation. So here are some links to educate yourself with.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C4%81ori_King_Movement
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3771923a8153,00.html
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10396433
http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/politics/maorikingmovement
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/466/story.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10396435

In Other News

I was reading Saturday's Dominion Post, Wellington's local newspaper, and guess what I came across in the world section? Lo and behold, it was a short article from the AP wire about where else but Ann Arbor, Michigan. I shouted to my roommates that my hometown had appeared in their newspaper halfyway around the world.

Stupidly, I didn't think to see what the article was actually about before reading it to them out loud and showing them how my home is represented in the international press. I had actually read the same story in the Ann Arbor News a few days before:

http://www.mlive.com/news/aanews/index.ssf?/base/news-18/115029425989890.xml&coll=2

My roommates' first question was "Why would anyone be carrying a gun around like that?" Good question. Honestly, that didn't even really occur to me. I didn't realize just how prevalent gun violence is in the US until I came overseas. There are almost never stories about shootings, and if there are, they're big news. Just when trying to find the link to this article, I found three gun stories on the AA News 14-day archive. It makes me sad that I have grown up seeing these stories on a regular basis and thinking that it's the norm. Not to say that there is not violence here, but there is definitely a lot less, or at the very least, a lot less reporting on it.

Thank You, New York Times

. . . for continuing to print stories that support my life choices.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/08/fashion/thursdaystyles/08vaca.html?_r=1&ex=1149912000&en=1e8a169adf0f6cc2&ei=5087%0A&oref=slogin

(and thanks to esl for continuing to send the stories to me)

I did it before it was cool

I hope everyone saw this article in the New York Times on Saturday:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/25/business/worldbusiness/25abroad.html?_r=1&incamp=article_popular_1&oref=slogin