Ryan and Debi

Author: server_deity

  • hard-wired politics?

    I caught this article in the LA Times today about some recent neuroscience studies illustrating differences between conservatives and liberals. Turns out, there are actual biological differences: conservatives don’t respond well to ambiguity and don’t take kindly to change; liberals, on the other hand, are very accepting of change and tolerate ambiguity well. Like the…

  • vegetarianism and the environment?

    Here’s an interesting news item I rediscovered in the NYtimes today: raising animals for meat releases more CO2 into the atmosphere than does the entire travel industry combined. This is based on research conducted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. I’m sure some of my regular readers will take issue with…

  • dinner with the McDonaldizer

    Last week I was gearing up for all of the orientations for the new job when I noticed on the schedule for Tuesday a keynote speaker who surprised me – George Ritzer. The non-sociologists who read this blog probably won’t recognize the name, so you may want to check him out on Wikipedia. The sociologists,…

  • LA Trip D7 – Stan Winston studio tour; dinner with Scott, Shalynn, and Anderson

    My Uncle, Stan Winston, offered to let my extended family take a tour of his studio while we were out there. I’m always hesitant to ask, as I know Stan is extremely busy. But most of my family was interested, so we took him up on his offer. What’s more, my cousin, Matt, offered to…

  • LA Trip D6 – lunch with Scott; the La Brea tar pits

    We thought we might be touring my Uncle’s studio today, so we got kind of a late start. Also, Ethan seemed to be coming down with something – he had a temperature and was crying for much of the night. We ended up scheduling the tour for Tuesday, but with everything else going on we…

  • AZ-Humphrey’s Peak

    Summit Date August 12, 2007, around 11:00 am Party Ryan Cragun and Mark Woolley Trip Report Mark and I woke up around 5:45 to get ready for the hike. Tom, well, Tom had been up all night anyway with the runs and vomiting and was semi-awake when we got up. For those who don’t know…

  • LA Trip D5 – hiking Humphrey’s Peak and driving back to LA; blessing Anderson

    Mark and I woke up around 5:45 to get ready for the hike. Tom, well, Tom had been up all night anyway and was semi-awake when we got up. For those who don’t know the intimate details of our trio, Tom may not do the most hiking of the bunch (Mark and I probably hike…

  • LA Trip D4 – driving to Flagstaff and the Barringer Meteor Crater

    I got up very early, around 5:30, to hit the road for Flagstaff, where I was to meet up with Tom and Mark, my hiking buddies, in preparation for our hike of Humphrey’s Peak the next day. I left around 7:00 and managed to avoid the worst of the LA traffic, which, by this point,…

  • LA Trip D3 – the Getty Villa and Javan

    We spent most of the morning picking up Debi’s sister, Suzy, and her husband and baby, Brent and Ethan, respectively, along with picking up cars and arranging transportation. Debi’s parents rented a mini-van, which I drove most of the time. But with Suzy et al. there, we didn’t have enough room in the mini-van. And…

  • LA Trip D2 – the Griffith Observatory and dinner with the Winstons

    This was our second full day in LA. We stayed in a nice two bedroom, two bath condo in downtown Santa Monica that could sleep 8 (though a little awkwardly). At this point it was still only Debi’s parents, Gary and Rosemary, Steve, Debi, and me. We had tickets to the Griffith Observatory in the…