Preparing for jobs of the future

Seems like many of these jobs will be low pay and will not require that much advanced technical training. Educators often miss the mark thinking future jobs will all be high tech.

Preparing for many of the future jobs will require learning to live well on low income. This needs to be taught more.

For instance learning how to get around without a car, staying healthy and avoiding medical bills, maintaining self esteem and finding friends without having money be the prerequisite. How to use second hand shops. Using the Internet as an inexpensive and powerful tool for social and political action.

On South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford's affair

Wouldn't it be easier if more people were into polyamory? Then these encounters could happen and it wouldn't have to be so upsetting to society and the family, or families of the people involved. Especially if people are very careful to be sexually safe. There are a lot of very safe forms of erotic behavior. Especially real mild forms of erotic play. Be careful, but variety is the spice of life.

I've even known people who said that affairs outside their primary marriage actually enhanced the primary marriage. Both partners passion for one another were boosted from the energy of a third person. Communication was good all the way around. Not like an affair behind someone's back. More like everyone knowing what's going on and being OK with it.

Retail dead zone? The automobile did it

Where GI Joe's and Good Guys were. Also, not pictured Circuit City empty.

Two empty box stores across one parking area have created what amounts to a retail dead zone in Bellingham. These were parts of chains that went under so maybe it doesn't say anything about local conditions, but these type of chains tend to locate in similar areas. Car oriented development. Also, of course, just more retailing than the economy can sustain.

Meridian Street near Bellis Fair Mall has created a wall of traffic that isn't pleasant to be in. Also not real easy to get across. Yes there are traffic lights, but the intersectionms are large. Not that friendly for bikes or pedestrians, of course, but those type of areas become less drivable also as traffic increases.

So it seems like some areas near Meridian (the main drag) could end up being in a "shadow of the traffic." Areas that are hard for people to cut across traffic streams to get to.

Car oriented retailing spreads out toward the periphery of the area while allowing the center to soften. It can be advantagous to locate right where the traffic first comes into the area. I've heard the term gateway before. Catch them as they are just coming off the freeway, or coming into town. Toward the center of car oriented development, the advantage softens.

With all the stores out there, people are tapped out before they get through the traffic into the center.

This is kind of what happened to downtown Bellingham many years ago when Bellis Fair Mall and other developments along I-5 really got going. Downtown became less accessible, sort of like a dead zone in the center. Back then, Meridian offered more space (for parking) and easier access for people coming into town from a large region.

Well now it seems like some of the central areas in the Meridian vicinity are starting to implode, like the downtown did in years past. Car oriented retailing needs lots of space, of course, but it also seems to seek "gateway" space. Be at the periphery where people are first coming into the area.

Sometimes I hear of threats by box stores to move out of town if they don't get favorable regulatory conditions in city limits. That political drama makes news, but there is also just the tendency to strive for being on the edge; the gateway.

Meanwhile, downtown Bellingham seems to be making quite a comeback. That's partially because there is more to it than just the type of retailing where easy parking is thought of as a prerequisite. Downtown is getting more residences. People don't need to drive here and park, they already live here.

Also some of the vibrancy I notice is people out doing things, not necessarily just shopping. A broader definition of vibrancy. It may not necessarily mean more dollars in the coffers.

In the last few years, I've noticed more residencies coming into the Meridian area as well, but you don't see a lot of people outside of their cars yet. Maybe that will come eventually if more trails and plazas get built.

Bellingham's nearly naked ride 2009

It couldn't be totally naked, but the ride was good. Fun with lots of smiles.

Maybe in future years, one step at a time, but this was a big step along what some people might call "that slippery slope."

There was also dancing. I say, dance your errands, ride a bike and have a good time.

Many thanks to Zack (pictured above) and others for smiling energy and organizational skills.

See more of my pictures from the ride on Flickr.

Great ride

Bellingham's scantily clad ride, or not quite naked bike ride was great. I went on it and got some images. Will take a while for me to digest and post, but I'm looking forward to sharing more.

New Bellingham art and children's museum under construction

With curving glass wall. Should be open some time in September, so I see on a sign at the old children's museum location. It's quite a change from what was there before; the somewhat drab Washington State Employment Office. Life keeps going in new directions. I was out walking with my camera.

TV conversion deadline

Picture of our old TV that my brother took in the 1960s.

I don't have a TV now, but interested in our changing world.

Another step along the way of change is the great USA TV spectrum conversion where TV stations move to more efficient transmission, bandwidth wise.

It will be interesting to see what the freed up spectrum brings. More portable internet radio, for instance.

Maybe I will look into getting internet radio on my bicycle. Big choice of stations via cellphone technology.

Before, I carried a big AM Antenna booster (big for the bicycle at least, maybe 2 lbs.). This improved radio reception a bit in areas where it was hard to avoid either Rush Limbaugh or country and western music.

In the past, it was interesting to contemplate radio waves traveling long distance across the land to my radio. Now, with internet, one is just plugged into the closest cellphone towers or landlines that bring the world.

I haven't had a TV in years. Here in Bellingham, TV reception is limited without paying extra for cable. Seattle stations are not available in most of this city. Local station isn't that interesting. Canadian channels are OK.

At my childhood home in Pullman, WA., our TV antenna on the roof got stations from Spokane. Also, Pullman plus nearby towns of Moscow and Lewiston in Idaho.

Glad I missed Bellingham awol sancturay city debate

It would have been crowded and stuffy, that day in the municipal court building. Heated community debate drew lots of fanfare. May have needed more fans of the "air circulation" kind.

Not that I don't have some sympathy for the plight of soldiers who made the commitment, but face multiple deployments and other hardships. Yes, people should think about these things before making commitment, but many of the people are quite young at the time.

It's like marriage.

Debate on foreign policy and sanctuary status at the city level seems largely symbolic. Federal government supersedes anyway, if nothing else by just threatening to pull some grant monies. Still it's part of democracy to have debate.

Some say the city needs to tend to local matters rather than try to get into foreign policy.

OK, as long as people stay dependent on cars and foreign oil, we've got problems. The city can do it's "local" job figuring out how to help people wean themselves from so much oil dependency. Transit, sidewalks, bike paths, zoning, housing density, affordable neighborhoods. Idealistically, being able to walk to work. Less worry about security of overseas oil supply. Less petrodollars going to the pockets of oil dictators.

During that debate, I was out biking around. Enjoying the fresh air.

Speaking of marriage and commitment to things like the military, it's interesting that the two front burner issues for the gay movement are, the right to serve in the military and the right to get married. Why are these the front burner issues?

While I support both rights, I also say, "be careful what you get yourself into." Look before you leap.

Sunlit days and biking around

Early evening sun has unusual orange cast. Might be dust from Alaskan volcano? I ride up through the woods of Sehome Hill.

Like a Sunday drive with no gas consumption guilt. Instead, burning calories.

On another trip, I head to Ferndale and then back on the Nooksack River dike path. Highland Games is just winding down in Hovander Park. I climb tower and look down as vendors are starting to pack up. No cover charge arriving this late. Heard the last of the music. Stumbled upon this happening.

I hear there is a possible naked bike ride planned for Bellingham

For details find description.

Good luck.

I hear she did a 100 mile run at age 74

Our local paper had an article about this woman who ran (walked part of the way) in a 100 mile marathon at 74 years of age. I think she did it in 29 hours which met postponing one night's sleep. Then she slept well, in her motel room near the site of the marathon event. I think it was back in Virginia somewhere.

Several weeks later, she gave a talk here in Bellingham. She lives in this area.

People think it's impressive that I jog nonstop from downtown Bellingham to Western's campus at age 54. That's only 2 miles, round trip. Sure, it's up hill, going to Western, but downhill coming back.

Really, compared to jogging 100 miles at age 74, it's not that unusual.

I guess I'm not going too far out on the limb. I look forward to many more years of jogging even though I doubt I'll ever do 100 miles in one swoop.

Bicycling, yes. That's a different matter. I've done bicycling centuries from time to time; usually as part of my summer bicycle travels. Longest day of my 2003 trip down the coast was only 83 miles, however. From Carpenteria Beach to Santa Monica in California.

Possibly my longest bike day was 120 miles from Pierre to Huron, South Dakota in 1991.

I hear that on level ground, it takes 4 times as much energy to jog as it does to bike the same distance.

I speak at end of this video on Lifestyle Diversity

A friend of mine made this video at the May 26 anti California Prop 8 rally in downtown Bellingham. While I am not married, I still support the right of gay people who wish to be married if they want. Several folks pictured in video. Toward end of video, I talk about accepting "lifestyle diversity" and how it can help society adapt to a more environmentally sustainable future.6:47 minutes.