I hope you’re doing well. Thanks for taking a moment to read my latest update. This month from my Life Map I’ll be covering Health, Career, Activism, and Effectiveness.
Health
Over the past month I’ve lost about 8 pounds and overall from my heigh weight I’m down about 15 pounds. I’ve been trying to get to the gym more frequently for strength training. I have a program I developed about 10 years about that I’m returning to. I’m also riding my bicycle more often, and eating nutritious foods prepared at home. I’ve written previously about the health drink I’ve been making in the morning. It’s a combination of protein-rich nutrient-dense ingredients that seem to satisfy hunger for many hours. All these things seem to be working together for some success.
Career
I’ve been very busy at work due to taking on the workload of another full-time person who took a job elsewhere. As a result, I’ve been working a few extra hours to keep up, and I’m developing some systems to make the work more efficient. You can read the full list of responsibilities on my bio page at the University of Iowa.
Origins. For those of you who are new to these monthly personal updates, they began about 15 years ago out of a desire to share from my personal life about topics of lifeways (faith), health, career, finances, relationships, effective living, and activism. This is based on the life map presented on the Resources For Life website.
I hope you’re doing well. Thanks for taking a moment to read my latest update. This month from my Life Map I’ll be covering Health, Career, Activism, and Effectiveness.
Health
My two biggest health highlights are the juicer I recently bought and my new bicycle trailer. The juicer is helping me to eat more fruits and veggies, along with wheat germ, flax seed, and more. The bike trailer is making it possible to ride my bike even when it’s raining or when I need to haul something. So, it’s increasing my exercise and activity through the week.
I had a couple of exciting visits to the hospital this past month — a regularly scheduled colonoscopy and two weeks before that, an unscheduled trip to the emergency room for a sharp abdominal pain. The story I wrote about the ER visit received many comments and thousands of people read it. So, that was fun.
Efficiency
The right technology can really make life more efficient. This past week I purchased an HP Officejet Pro 8630 e-All-in-One Printer, Scanner, Fax, Copier machine. It’s been a while since I got excited about a new piece of equipment, but this is a truly amazing system. What I enjoy most is the seemingly instantaneous scanning capabilities. It takes about 3 seconds to scan a legal size page at a color resolution of 300 dpi. In the past I was reluctant to take on big scanning projects with scanners taking 10 seconds or more per page to scan. Now, I’m looking forward to clearing out many boxes and files of papers that I didn’t quite want to part with, but have been taking up a lot of space. Professional HP systems come with ReadIRIS OCR software which reads text on pages and makes them into PDF files that are text searchable. So, later you can search through thousands of scanned pages for keywords, and find the scanned documents with those keywords on them. The paperless office promised in the 1980s is becoming more possible.
I’ve upgraded one of my computers to Windows 10 and so far I really like what I see. As you know, I use Linux, Windows, and Apple. For the Windows work, I think Windows 10 will be a great improvement and I’m happy that Microsoft is giving it away as a free update for Microsoft Windows 7 users.
Activism
An area of activism I enjoy is Consumer Advocacy. Last week I was excited to discover a misleading advertising campaign that nobody else had identified yet. It relates to an automatic ink subscription service offered by HP. The marketing materials promise 50% savings on ink. In reality, the cost can be 100% higher than if you purchase your own ink cartridges at the store. I wrote an article about the misleading advertising, and contacted HP about the issue. Their case management team has promised changes to their advertising in response to what I discovered.
Career
This month I expanded my responsibilities at the University of Iowa. In addition to my previous duties, I’m now supporting an entire Division of departments. It’s an opportunity to work with more people and create an efficient system of excellent service delivery. You can read the full list of responsibilities on my bio page at the University of Iowa.
Origins. For those of you who are new to these monthly personal updates, they began about 15 years ago out of a desire to share from my personal life about topics of lifeways (faith), health, career, finances, relationships, effective living, and activism. This is based on the life map presented on the Resources For Life website.
When I was a teenager, I worked at McDonalds. I took the job to earn a little extra money, but over the years I’ve realized that I got much more out of that job than some extra spending money. At least in my case, I really learned, internalize, and honed a valuable work ethic. I was at an age where I was receptive, so it wasn’t a chore I resisted. I also learned that something as simple as a small bag of French Fries is important. Each customer — each person — is important.
We’d use stopwatches to time how long it took for a customer to wait in line, have their order taken, and get their food. My manager told me it was critical to provide prompt attentive service. I was told my work was important. We’d all compete with each other to see how quickly we could provide exceptional service. There was a comprehensive video training program, and we’d get credit for continuing education.
As I continued in life, I held on to the idea that even a simple task such as providing someone with an order of fries was very important and should be done thoughtfully. When I began my career as a computer support specialist, I felt my work was even more important than giving a person french fries. So, I determined that computer work deserved an equal or greater level of attention, responsiveness, and care.
Mysterious Abdominal Pain
Last week I had a sharp pain in my abdomen. It persisted over a few days, so I went to one of the exceptional satellite care centers we have in our area. These are the offices you go to as a first point of contact. They are limited in what they can provide, but they are convenient, fast, and a good way to see a doctor quickly for an assessment of what to do next.
The doctor I saw told me to go to the emergency room immediately. The concern with abdominal pain is that it could be just about anything from intestinal gas to a life-threatening appendicitis or other serious condition.
The ‘Other’ Hospital
I went to the emergency room of a local hospital.* Upon arriving and beginning the check-in process, my first question, was how long it might be — considering the pain I was in. My wife asked and got the response, “I don’t know,” from the person at the check-in window. My wife persisted, “Will it be an hour? Two hours? Four hours?” The answer came back again, this time a little more rudely, “I really don’t know.”
I looked around the waiting room, and seeing that almost all the seats were empty, and only a few people were there comfortably reading magazines, I couldn’t imagine why we wouldn’t be seen right away, and couldn’t understand why we wouldn’t be given at least a general estimate of when we might be seen. From the person’s expression at the check-in window, it was clear our presence there was an unwanted inconvenience. While DMV offices are known for a long wait and sometimes poor service, at least you get to take a number and know where you are in the queue.
Just getting to that ER was challenging. The narrow winding road with multiple unexpected sharp turns, and painful potholes, arrives at a confined dead-end entrance area where you’d imagine a loading dock to be. The few parking spots close to the door were already taken. Then there was the entrance. Sliding doors. Enter the first set of doors on the right. Then the next door requires you enter on the left. Trying to move in a serpentine motion isn’t so easy when you’re not feeling well. Then there were obstructions to reaching the check-in window. It was like an obstacle course. They certainly weren’t making it easy or convenient for people.
After some time went by, with nobody in the waiting room getting called, it was clear that things weren’t just moving slowly. They weren’t moving at all. We decided to cancel the check-in, but by then there was nobody at the check-in window and no hospital employees in sight. Hmmm… “How do we even get out of this?” I didn’t want to get an emergency room visit fee. Finally the grumpy person returned, and we told them we’d be going to a different hospital. They gave no response. Just a smirk.
Emergency Room Experience at Mercy Hospital
We went as fast as we could to Mercy Hospital in Iowa City. The hospital was easy to find. The emergency room entrance was easy to get to. There was abundant parking close by.
We entered and were immediately attended to by a cheerful person at one of the many check-in windows.
After my previous experience, I thought I should ask how long it might be before I could see a doctor.
“It’s an emergency room, so right away,” she responded smiling, but also looking a little perplexed.
I explained, “It’s just that the last emergency room we visited was very unfriendly and they wouldn’t tell us when I’d be seen by a doctor. They said it might be four hours.”
She smiled and said at Mercy they try to have people with a doctor in triage within 5 minutes of their arrival. “Would you like a warm blanket?” she asked. “Not right now, thanks,” I replied.
I felt like I was flying first class or checking in at some kind of fancy resort.
I asked where the restroom was.
She responded, “It’s right over there. Here, take this,” and handed me a urine sample cup. In most doctor’s offices you sit in the waiting room, and then after a while see a nurse who gives you the sample cup, but only if its deemed necessary, and usually after you’ve already gone to the bathroom.
The moment I stepped out of the restroom the doctor was ready to see me.
So, I was being seen and cared for in minutes after my arrival.
A few more minutes later, there was a team of nurses and doctors surrounding me working on diagnosing what might be causing my abdominal pain — asking me various questions to rule out bladder infection, pancreatitis, bowl obstruction, appendicitis, hernia, and various other possible causes. “You may need to go into surgery,” one of them told me.
Comprehensive lab work was done with blood and urine samples. A full CT scan was performed by two technicians.
In all, I think there were about 12 medical professionals attending to me, including the doctors, nurses, CT technicians, lab technicians, and other staff.
It was the kind of care you’d imagine a dignitary or celebrity getting — but that’s just apparently how they treat everyone.
Well, the good news is that the sharp pain was apparently caused by a pulled abdominal muscle. I just needed to rest up and get better. After knowing it wasn’t something more serious, my worries subsided and the pain subsided (with the help of the pain medication they gave me in my IV line).
I was home in time for lunch — rather than still writhing in pain at the other hospital.
The prompt and caring service at Mercy reminded me of when I was younger, working at McDonalds, learning that if bag of fries is important, then certainly something like caring for a person’s medical needs should be more important and deserving of fast, professional, compassionate care. It helped me to set a standard of excellence in the most menial of tasks, so I’d always excel beyond that in other areas.
Painful experiences are always difficult, but I can say I’m glad I had the opportunity to visit Mercy Hospital that day.
P.S. Thanks! To those who’ve asked… Yes, I’m feeling much better now. Thanks! 🙂
P.P.S. Comparison Data. I didn’t discover it until later, but ProPublica has an online ER wait time comparison guide based on data collected between April 2013 and March 2014. I’m not sure how representative that data is a year later, and don’t know how accurate the data collection was. It would be nice to have a national map showing real-time data collected live from hospitals across the country.
P.P.P.S. Praise & Criticism. It’s always a good idea to offer praise publicly, and criticism privately. So, I didn’t mention the name of the ‘other’ hospital in my writing. Additionally, while personal experiences are helpful to encourage and coach teams, overall assessments of an institution should be made with longitudinal data from the experiences of many people over time.
P.P.P.P.S Comments. Okay, so it’s been about a week since I shared my story online, and I didn’t realize that people had been posting comments below awaiting approval. Sorry about that! I’ve approved them all, and replied to each one. To those of you who felt I was too harsh on the ‘other’ hospital. I have another story to share from this week about a very positive experience with the other hospital. No, I don’t plan to start a weekly journal about hospital visits. 😉
Impact: The Rest of the Story
When we make an extra effort to go above and beyond in our workplace, or perhaps maybe outside of work we do something nice through a special act of kindness, one often wonders what the impact is. Today, with social media, we can actually see the impact visually. The maps below show people who have read this story, and then were moved to share it with others, who shared it with others, and so on. Exceptional acts of excellence and kindness are inspiring. They encourage others to raise the bar, to do more, to do better, to be better.
For the nurse who is tired after many long shifts, who has had a difficult week, but chooses to set those things aside and give one more smile while focusing on someone in need or in pain… That nurse wonders what impact their kindness has in the world. Here’s the impact.
In the few hours after posting this story, 230 people had shared it, reaching 1,200 readers. After two days, there were 890 who shared it reaching 4,800 people – and the story spread to Europe. After three days, the story had reached Australia, Iceland, Romania, Ireland, and the United Arab Emirates.
The maps below shows the 200 most recent visitors. Click any map for a larger gallery view.
What we do in life, for good or for bad, has an impact in the world. Live your life for good.
Global Visits – Day 3
Page Visits – Global
Page Visits – United States
Page Visits – US East
Page Visits – Midwest
Page Visits – Iowa / Illinois
Page Visits – Iowa
Page Visits – Eastern Iowa
Page Visits – CR/IC Corridor
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* I didn’t name the ‘other’ local hospital because I really didn’t intend this article to be a criticism of that hospital, but instead a word of thanks to the team at Mercy and a general commentary about the importance of quality customer / patient care. I subsequently received comments from people who are very pleased with their own experiences at the ‘other’ hospital. I’ve also had some very positive experiences with various departments within the ‘other’ hospital. It’s just that their emergency room process and procedures could use some improving.
I hope you’re doing well. Thanks for taking a moment to read my latest update.
Health
We all have general wellness goals like “I’m going to ride my bike more” or “I’m going to eat more raw fruits and veggies.” Yet, making those goals happen takes some specific tools and steps. So, this month I’ve been working on some of the ‘nuts and bolts’ of my wellness program.
MegaFitness Program. From about 1995 to 2005, I’d started developing something I call the MegaFitness Program. This month I went back to review some of my early writings about the program and return to following some of the principles I’d not been following recently. At the core of the MegaFitness program are an inventory of superfoods and nutritional supplements with powerful essential nutrients. The MegaFitness Program became a core foundational component of the Universal Wellness Program that’s been my focus in recent years. My hope is to continue developing the program and applying it to measure its beneficial results and outcomes.
Blender Juicer. Last week I purchased a Nutri Ninja blender juicer and I’ve begun to create some juice recipes specifically for that type of blender. My previous juice recipes were for a masticating cold press juicer. Extractor juicers blend the entire fruit and vegetable ingredients so no pulp is left over. By adding ice, the enzymes are kept from exposure to extreme heat. My latest juice recipe is a strawberry apple carrot protein drink that combines everything I’ve learned up to this point about making superfood drinks. The drinks I make are inspired by a breakfast drink my dad created back in the 1970s that was a modified version of the 1954 Adelle Davis pep-up recipe.
Bicycle Trailer. In May I started riding my bicycle more and saw some great results in my overall wellness. However, on rainy days I’d been taking the bus or driving. So, this month, I purchased a bicycle cart to protect my gear and backpack from inclement weather. Now I’ll be able to ride the bike when it’s raining or when I need to haul something. If you’re interested in getting a bicycle trailer, let me know. I can show you the cart I haveas well as a full line of bicycle carts that I offer with fast free shipping.
Politics
Last month I had a chance to make a video of Bernie Sanders. Since then, the video has maintained a top position. It’s now on page 3 (in the top 30 out of 160,000 results) on YouTube for anyone searching for Bernie Sanders videos. It’s had as many views as some of the top ten videos produced by ABC News, PBS News Hour, and MSNBC. So, that’s exciting.
Origins. For those of you who are new to these monthly personal updates, they began about 15 years ago out of a desire to share from my personal life about topics of lifeways (faith), health, career, finances, relationships, effective living, and activism. This is based on the life map presented on the Resources For Life website.
I hope you’re doing well. Thanks for taking a moment to read my latest update.
Health
This past month I’ve started riding my bike more. I’ve been seeing more success with weight loss and overall wellness. As we head into the summer, with the longer days, I hope to do more riding. We have some great trails in the Iowa City area. I’m also hoping to get back to the gym. Hopefully in my next update I’ll have more good news.
Politics
As you may know, over the years I’ve had an interest in politics. I recently updated the Political Resource Group web page. A few years ago, I launched AGovernmentOfThePeople.com civics website, which continues to grow. Today I had the opportunity to go hear Bernie Sanders speak in Iowa City. Fortunately I was able to get an ideal seat for making a video recording of the event. I’ve shared the video on YouTube and Vimeo. You can watch the Vimeo version below.
[vimeo https://vimeo.com/129315899]
Music
It’s nice to get a chance to connect with musicians and to somehow be a help to them. Music empowers people to live more joyfully and effectively. It soothes, entertains, brings healing, inspires, and energizes. In recent years, I’ve enjoyed working with people in the music industry on promoting their work. In 2011, I was contacted by an agent working with Sardar Khan on his latest music video “Show ’em All” and then later that year, was asked to help promote a project Sardar developed with Snoop Dogg, “High off the Fame,” which now has over 600,000 views. In 2012, I was contacted by the producer for Kage Sparks and asked to assist with promoting his latest works. My favorite videos from Kage Sparks are “African Dream” and “Shaka Zulu.” In recent years, I’ve been working with Marq Divine on promoting his work.
Many thanks to all of you who keep in touch and provide support for the work I do.
~ Greg
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Origins. For those of you who are new to these monthly personal updates, they began about 15 years ago out of a desire to share from my personal life about topics of lifeways (faith), health, career, finances, relationships, effective living, and activism. This is based on the life map presented on the Resources For Life website.
Architecture. In 1984, I traveled to Central and South America as part of the South American Urban Studies (SAUS) program offered through the Higher Education Consortium for Urban Affairs (HECUA). From that experience and others, my interest in architecture and urban planning have grown, and small houses are a part of that interest. To me ‘architecture’ encompasses all aspects of how we plan, build, and improve the spaces we live in. As a photographer, I’m drawn to the patterns, texture, and lighting of buildings. As the manager for the Iowa City Architecture website, I enjoy aggregating local planning and development news. I also contribute some articles. My most recent writing, from this past week, is “Population Growth: To Build Up, or to Build Out.” I also created a video on the topic of ambient lighting in urban areas.
Goat Rental Business. On April 7, I began offering goat rentals nationwide through my Amazon store. You might enjoy the artwork I did for the campaign. It shows a goat being delivered by Amazon drone. I don’t personally have a herd of goats. I’m actually a reseller for people who offer the services. When you have an Amazon store like I do, you can sell anything offered by Amazon and make a commission.
Consumer Advocacy. This past month, the KIND Snacks company received a stern warning letter from the FDA. Apparently the FDA decided nuts aren’t healthy, and KIND was the company they chose to make an example of. I decided to do a little research into this, and my findings might interest you. You can click here read my report. It bugs me when a good company is getting bullied, so I decided to award KIND Bars an award for Most Nutritious Healthy Snack and Transparency in Labeling. It’s frustrating when the FDA uses taxpayer resources to launch a smear campaign against what is possibly one of the best natural raw foods providers in the nation. This is really an important story because every major news media outlet in the nation got the story wrong (reporting that KIND bars aren’t healthy), except for Huffington Post which reported “Why The FDA Action Against KIND Bars Doesn’t Mean They’re Unhealthy.” That headline should have been everywhere, but wasn’t.
Reflections on Tolerance. It seems like there have been waves of news stories lately relating to intolerance in some form or another. On April 24, I wrote a short article on the topic of tolerance.
Advertising. Since I was young, I’ve had an interest in advertising. I continue to follow advertising news, and occasionally write about it. I like advertising that inspires and also ads that are funny. A few weeks ago I wrote about the latest Taco Bell ad campaign. They created an elaborate video and launched two websites for the campaign.
Many thanks to all of you who keep in touch and provide support for the work I do.
~ Greg
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Origins. For those of you who are new to these monthly personal updates, they began over a decade ago out of a desire to share from my personal life about topics of lifeways, health, career, finances, relationships, effective living, and activism. This is based on the life map presented on the Resources For Life website.
I hope your’e doing well. Thanks for taking a moment to read my latest update. This month’s topics are writing and health.
You’ll notice I’m sending out my personal update earlier than usual. Rather than waiting until the end of the month, I’m hoping to start doing my newsletter writing near the start of each month.
Writing
I first developed an interest in writing when I was in high school and one of the first computerized word processing systems became available — running on a Radio Shack computer. I was amazed by how a word processor could completely revolutionize writing. I’ve been writing regularly since then. Most of my writing over the past 20 years has concentrated on reference documents, commentaries, product reviews, and other articles without the first person reference or perspective.
Other than my Put Your Life on a Diet book, I really don’t have much experience writing stories of fiction or non-fiction.
A recent attempt at fiction writing was the short story “Rezifp Dawn” that I started in May of 2012. After five installments, I stopped writing, but I very much want to return to it since there’s more to the story.
This month I started doing some story telling from my own life experiences including the writing “What a Leader Looks Like” about leadership and business management. In that writing I share some of my own experiences and observations about leadership.
I’m also programming my writings to be time released. So, after writing them, I set a date and time of publication for each writing. That gives me some time to reflect on them. The outcome is a more refined and distilled product. It also means that I can have writings in a queue that get automatically released periodically in intervals. This news update you’re reading now was written Friday evening, but scheduled to go live at 3:00 AM on Saturday.
Health
My main emphasis in recent months has been to cut back on some of my other activities to focus more on optimal wellness practices.
Over the past few years I’ve been working on developing a unified wellness protocol that can reduce blood pressure, lower blood sugar, improve blood cholesterol, and reduce weight. By unified, I mean a single multi-phase protocol that addresses all these conditions over time.
One local doctor I spoke with believes that bariatric surgery for weight loss and pharmaceutical drugs for the other conditions is the best solution to these common health problems. By contrast, other doctor’s I know who practice integrative medicine recommend specific diet, exercise, and lifestyle changes for meaningful long-term health improvements.
Those who practice P4 medicine believe that healthcare should be Predictive, Preventive, Personalized, and Participatory. Predictive medicine gathers data that can help reveal expected trends and outcomes. Preventative means developing and implementing a plan of corrective action before it’s needed. Personalized means each person has a program specifically designed for their unique situation. Participatory means that the ‘patient’ isn’t just receiving orders from a doctor, but participating in the entire process of developing a plan that will work.
While it’s true that many severe illnesses can be corrected or prevented by lifestyle changes, making those lifestyle changes can be difficult. There are many plans that work, but if you can’t work the plan it’s worthless.
A multi-phase approach, like the one I’m developing, makes it easier to succeed with major lifestyle changes. For example, instead of simultaneously targeting multiple conditions with parallel treatments, it’s possible to target specific conditions in a certain order and then build on that foundation. Leveraging one cure against another condition to bring it down next.
The order in which conditions are addressed makes a difference. In the fall of 2014, over time, I was able to stop consuming foods high in sugar by eating breads and carb dense snacks as my ‘go to’ nibble food. I was then able to stop consuming breads and other high carb / high glycemic index foods by using cheese and other dairy products as a reward. At some point you grow tired of cheese and the body naturally begins to crave more nutritious foods once the hunger stimulating influence of sugar has been thoroughly removed. Other items such as coffee, foods high in the unhealthy types of fat, fried foods, and foods high in salt are shedded along the way.
There are a few exceptions, such as Ezekiel 4:9 bread which, although it’s called a bread, is an entirely different kind of food and processed by the body differently because of the sprouted grains used. So, rather than causing blood sugar to increase, it seems to powerfully reduce and regulate glucose levels (at least in my experience with it).
Some foods and activities that seemingly have no health benefit, can have a strong beneficial impact after clearing the body of debris. Like working the soil before planting a garden, getting rid of sugar and other toxins really creates fertile conditions for greater positive change. Context is critical, and efficacy is often highly volatile based on existing conditions.
Food preference is one of the traits we commonly use to describe who we are. So, permanently changing your food preferences changes the core of who you are. It’s not about using herculean efforts of self control to avoid eating foods you’re craving. It’s about changing the cravings. These are two entirely different approaches.
The process is probably similar to drug addicts slowly stepping down to less addictive drugs over time to eventually get free of drug dependency. With combinations of sugar, carbs, fat, salt, caffeine, and flavor enhancers, some food products can be almost as addictive as drugs — which explains the slogan “bet you can’t eat just one.”
Indeed, much of the snack foods available are clinically developed and lab tested to powerfully activate addiction centers in the brain. (source) Not only are they addictive, but they increase hunger while seemingly blocking brain receptors that tell us we’re full. It’s really a dangerous combination that’s programmed to have a single outcome: more consumption which leads to obesity, which leads to more consumption, which is accompanied by the common ailments I mentioned above.
There’s some truth to the Tyson’s commercial below showing the insatiable appetite that a person has when eating snack food.
I’ve discovered some common fast food products and grocery store foods that anyone can use to raise their blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol to dangerous levels in about 30 days. I’ve also discovered some common grocery store items that can do the opposite. Most of the natural supplements and healthcare devices I’m using can be found at a corner drug store.
By following the wellness program I’m developing, I’ve been able to drop blood sugar levels by over 200 points from dangerous levels to normal levels without medication. I’ve reduce blood pressure from persistent clinical hypertension down to consistently normal (or slightly below normal) levels, also without medication. I’m now entering the cholesterol reduction and weight loss phase. This is where I’ll be significantly reducing intake of cheese and other high cholesterol foods, while increasing intake of foods known to reduce bad cholesterol.
In addition to dietary modifications, I’ve started doing regular stair climbing throughout the day. I’ve already lost 12 pounds since February 9).
There’s a lot more to this program, including some interesting wireless data collection tools (similar to biotelemetry systems) that automatically collect health data and present it in a meaningful way for actionable responses. Most of these devices are available on Amazon. This is a subset of the XTX4 project I’m working on.
I’ll be sharing more about the details of this program, and hopefully some ongoing success with it in the coming months. I plan to make the program open source and public domain.
Many thanks to all of you who keep in touch and provide support for the work I do.
~ Greg
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Origins. For those of you who are new to these monthly personal updates, they began over a decade ago out of a desire to share from my personal life about topics of lifeways, health, career, finances, relationships, effective living, and activism. This is based on the life map presented on the Resources For Life website.
On 4 March 2015, I had a nice interview on NPR with Tom Ashbrook and some other tiny house enthusiasts. Click the play button below to listen in.
Below is a description of the show from Tom Ashbrook:
For years, Americans have been on the McMansion trail. Bigger and bigger homes have driven up the average size of US accomodations and expectations. But there is a counter-movement, the “tiny house movement,” that is pushing for just the opposite. Pushing for – and building and living in – teeny tiny houses. Five hundred square feet. Four hundred. Three hundred. Two hundred. And tiny apartments, too – micro-apartments – gaining interest. Backers. Dwellers. The tiny house people say it’s all about living light. Maybe living better, in a very small space. This hour On Point: tiny houses, and the urge to live small.
Julie Williams, micro-apartment resident in Washington, DC.
From Tom’s Reading List
NPR News: Living Small In The City: With More Singles, Micro-Housing Gets Big — “While the average size of new houses gets bigger every year in the U.S., some people are trying to do more with less. A lot less. Tiny houses and micro apartments are now a niche trend in the housing market. Smaller spaces are touted as more environmentally friendly, more affordable and perhaps even more communal. The idea is you might be more likely to get out and be social if you live in a smaller space.”
WFAE: Big Challenges For Tiny Houses In North Carolina — “If you could design your dream home, what would it look like? A big house with a four car garage? Maybe something more modest but efficient. Places like Portland, Oregon and Washington, DC have communities experimenting with small living spaces known as tiny houses. North Carolina has caught on to the tiny house trend—homes that are tiny by nature, but artistically designed for those looking for a more compact way of living without going into much debt. ”
The Oregonian: ‘Portlandia’ tiny house: Fred and Carrie have never been so close — “Are you searching for an affordable home in Portland’s Alberta Arts District? Does your soul want sustainability yet your heart yearns for luxuries like a master bathroom with soaking tub, TV and a window framing landscape? Would an efficient home office and library filled with classics feed your mind? The tiny house that stars in Thursday’s episode of ‘Portlandia’ might be the perfect fit. If you can squeeze in.”
Two Radio Interview Participants Needed! Sorry for the short notice, but we’re hoping to find two people who would like to be interviewed on this hour-long National Public Radio show about tiny houses. This would be a call-in interview, so you wouldn’t need to travel. We want to round out the guests on the show, so we’re looking for one woman, and one man to be guests. One should be living in a tiny rural tiny home. The other should be living in a micro apartment. Neither guest should be living in Iowa City or Washington. Preferably younger millennial/hipster micro home dwellers. For details, contact us as soon as possible. Thanks! Please contact us if you’re interested.
Personal Update 201502 | 28 February 2015 | Saturday
Greetings,
Thanks for taking a moment to read my latest update.
Health. Last fall, I began reducing my consumption of sugar and coffee. Then I began reducing my intake of breads, pastries, and other foods high in carbohydrates. During this time, my indulgence was to eat various kinds of cheese. Now, almost 7 months later, I find I’ve lost my appetite for sweets. By using cheese as a treat, it was much easier to stop eating sugar, coffee, and breads. What’s really interesting is that I thought I would have a hard time quitting cheese. Yet, now, I don’t even crave cheese any more. Soon, I hope to post the list of foods that I’m eating. It’s a list I developed that’s mostly low-carb low-glycemic-index superfoods.
In the News. I enjoy working with the media. Sometimes this involves working behind the scenes helping with news, articles, and television shows — mostly about small houses. I’m sometimes called upon by local media to help meet story deadlines. This past month I was interviewed by Fox News for a story about Phishing Emails and another brief appearance was for a story about shopping mall security.
Reflection. I recently learned that someone I know has cancer. Out of respect for their privacy I won’t go into any details, but the experience has reminded me of how indiscriminately ravaging cancer can be.
Inspiration from Advertising. As you may know, I’ve always had an interest in various aspects of advertising, especially inspiring ads. There are several inspiring ads recently produced by WestJet. The video below is an example.
Many thanks to all of you who keep in touch and provide support for the work I do.
~ Greg
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Origins. For those of you who are new to these monthly personal updates, they began over a decade ago out of a desire to share from my personal life about topics of lifeways, health, career, finances, relationships, effective living, and activism. This is based on the life map presented on the Resources For Life website.
