Distractions, reflections

Distractions, reflections

David Ing, at large … Sometimes, my mind wanders

2006/10/06 A return to Palisades

October 6, 2006
An exhausting week for me, as I went bicoastal. Strangely enough, it’s cheaper to fly Los Angeles to Newark plus New York Laguardia to Toronto, than to fly Toronto to Los Angeles. I wouldn’t recommend it as a regular activity, though.

I was scheduled for the SSME Summit at IBM Palisades, and missed the first evening. Minna and Taina had flown in from Finland, and had visited at NJIT for a few days. During the meeting, I saw Ian online, and sent an impromptu message to see if he was available for lunch.

20061006_Palisades.jpg

This was a reunion, of sorts, because Ian and Minna used to come over to Palisades with DLH for our “salon” discussions, where we were learning from each other on a wide variety of research subjects.
It was a bit strange to be back at Palisades, because this was almost exactly five years since I had really spent any time there. I was teaching a class when the planes hit the World Trade Center on 9/11 in 2001, and then attendance for corporate training fell off a cliff.

A lot of the waiters and waitresses in the dining room still remember me, though. For the better part of three years, I must have been there almost every other week.

2006/10/03 Unglamourous Hollywood

October 3, 2006
I’ve coincidentally had two back-to-back consulting gigs in the Los Angeles area. People tend to romanticize Hollywood, but I tend to see the more mundane. No movie stars for me, just more office buildings with views like this.

20061003_Burbank_office.jpg

Actually, the picture is informative, because studio sound stages take a fair bid of space, and the mountains in the back tend to soak up a lot of the traffic noise from freeways.

Admittedly, the weather is nicer than Toronto. I have been seeing Ben and his family on these visits, but not on every trip, because it would take at least an hour in rush hour traffic to get over to his place, and they have the usual dual-career-plus-kids commitments that we all do.

2006/09/18 Seeing friends in Claremont, California

September 18, 2006
Since I’m back on the road again, I can try to take advantage of seeing people that I wouldn’t otherwise meet in my regular life. In this case, I was near Pomona, and I had heard that Lynn was coming in from Hawaii. She, Todd and Len suggested that we might meet in nearby Claremont

Lynn thought that Len should think about the office for his next career away from the university, so we stopped by an office for rent on the main street in Claremont.

20060918_Claremont_offices.jpg

Claremont seems like a nice little California town, with a main street rather than the typical suburban mall.

20060918_Claremont_street.jpg

Most people may not have hear of Claremont, but it’s rather famous for business readers as Peter Drucker’s home base.

We decided to have Chinese food for dinner, and I got back to the hotel almost early enough to stay in Eastern Time.

2006/09/16 Free concert on Dundas Square

September 16, 2006
Living in Toronto has it benefits. As the prime urban center in Canada, it gets amenities such as touring musicians. At the same time, the city doesn’t approach the size of New York or Shanghai, so it’s easy to get around.

With the opening of a new retail store at Yonge and Dundas — part of the new Ryerson University campus — there was a “free” concert. I biked over, and there was a large crowd all the way across to the Toronto Eaton Centre. As the crowd thinned, I got a bit closer, but the sound was still better than the view. Can you see?
20060916_DundasSquare.jpg Continue reading “2006/09/16 Free concert on Dundas Square“

2006/09/10 Family dinner in North York

September 10, 2006
Since Jeanne, Lisa and Nicole came to town, both sides of her family got together for dinner.

20060910_NorthYork_dinner.jpg

We met up in North York … and this seems to be the new favourite restaurant where we meet for dinner.

2006/09/03 Kauppatori, Helsinki

September 3, 2006
For the second week of my two week stay in Helsinki, the first apartment hotel was full, so I was booked at another location over by the ferry docks, and kauppatori — the market square. Minna drove over, to help me move from one apartment to the other.

On the Sunday, the market hall (main building) at the kauppatori was closed, but the stalls outside on the market square were still open for business. Since the apartment hotel had cooking facilities, I bought a few vegetables for dinner.

20060903_Helsinki_Kauppatori_vegetables.jpg

Minna and I shopped around for lunch. The best alternative (given my aversion to shrimp and dairy products) was a salmon paella. (As I do with Diana, I gave Minna my olives).

20060903_Helsinki_Kauppatori_paella.jpg

There’s lots of tourist-type opportunities for shopping in the outdoor stalls, but mainly, Minna was just fooling around.

20060903_Helsinki_Kauppatori_MT.jpg

Minna actually pointed out some watercolors by a local painter. She thought that they would be good when she gets a bonus cheque!

  • Recent Posts

  • Archives

  • RSS on Coevolving

  • RSS on Media Queue

    • What to Do When It’s Too Late | David L. Hawk | 2024
      David L. Hawk (American management theorist, architect, and systems scientist) has been hosting a weekly television show broadcast on Bold Brave Tv from the New York area on Wednesdays 6pm ET, remotely from his home in Iowa. Live, callers can join…Read more ›
    • 2021/06/17 Keekok Lee | Philosophy of Chinese Medicine 2
      Following the first day lecture on Philosophy of Chinese Medicine 1 for the Global University for Sustainability, Keekok Lee continued on a second day on some topics: * Anatomy as structure; physiology as function (and process); * Process ontology, and thing ontology; * Qi ju as qi-in-concentrating mode, and qi san as qi-in-dissipsating mode; and […]
    • 2021/06/16 Keekok Lee | Philosophy of Chinese Medicine 1
      The philosophy of science underlying Classical Chinese Medicine, in this lecture by Keekok Lee, provides insights into ways in which systems change may be approached, in a process ontology in contrast to the thing ontology underlying Western BioMedicine. Read more ›
    • 2021/02/02 To Understand This Era, You Need to Think in Systems | Zeynep Tufekci with Ezra Klein | New York Times
      In conversation, @zeynep with @ezraklein reveal authentic #SystemsThinking in (i) appreciating that “science” is constructed by human collectives, (ii) the west orients towards individual outcomes rather than population levels; and (iii) there’s an over-emphasis on problems of the moment, and…Read more ›
    • 2019/04/09 Art as a discipline of inquiry | Tim Ingold (web video)
      In the question-answer period after the lecture, #TimIngold proposes art as a discipline of inquiry, rather than ethnography. This refers to his thinking On Human Correspondence. — begin paste — [75m26s question] I am curious to know what art, or…Read more ›
    • 2019/10/16 | “Bubbles, Golden Ages, and Tech Revolutions” | Carlota Perez
      How might our society show value for the long term, over the short term? Could we think about taxation over time, asks @carlotaprzperez in an interview: 92% for 1 day; 80% within 1 month; 50%-60% tax for 1 year; zero tax for 10 years.Read more ›

  • RSS on Ing Brief

    • The Nature and Application of the Daodejing | Ames and Hall (2003)
      Ames and Hall (2003) provide some tips for those studyng the DaoDeJing.
    • Diachronic, diachrony
      Finding proper words to express system(s) change(s) can be a challenge. One alternative could be diachrony. The Oxford English dictionary provides two definitions for diachronic, the first one most generally related to time. (The second is linguistic method) diachronic ADJECTIVE Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. “diachronic (adj.), sense 1,” July 2023, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/3691792233. For completeness, prochronic relates “to […]
    • Introduction, “Systems Thinking: Selected Readings, volume 2”, edited by F. E. Emery (1981)
      The selection of readings in the “Introduction” to Systems Thinking: Selected Readings, volume 2, Penguin (1981), edited by Fred E. Emery, reflects a turn from 1969 when a general systems theory was more fully entertained, towards an urgency towards changes in the world that were present in 1981. Systems thinking was again emphasized in contrast […]
    • Introduction, “Systems Thinking: Selected Readings”, edited by F. E. Emery (1969)
      In reviewing the original introduction for Systems Thinking: Selected Readings in the 1969 Penguin paperback, there’s a few threads that I only recognize, many years later. The tables of contents (disambiguating various editions) were previously listed as 1969, 1981 Emery, System Thinking: Selected Readings. — begin paste — Introduction In the selection of papers for this […]
    • Concerns with the way systems thinking is used in evaluation | Michael C. Jackson, OBE | 2023-02-27
      In a recording of the debate between Michael Quinn Patton and Michael C. Jackson on “Systems Concepts in Evaluation”, Patton referenced four concepts published in the “Principles for effective use of systems thinking in evaluation” (2018) by the Systems in Evaluation Topical Interest Group (SETIG) of the American Evaluation Society. The four concepts are: (i) […]
    • Quality Criteria for Action Research | Herr, Anderson (2015)
      How might the quality of an action research initiative be evaluated? — begin paste — We have linked our five validity criteria (outcome, process, democratic, catalytic, and dialogic) to the goals of action research. Most traditions of action research agree on the following goals: (a) the generation of new knowledge, (b) the achievement of action-oriented […]

  • Meta

  • Powered by FeedBurner

     Feedburner

  • Translate

    • Creative Commons License
    This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
    Theme modified from DevDmBootstrap4 by Danny Machal