The title of Daniel Gilbert’s book is a bit deceiving – Stumbling on Happiness. This is not a self-help book nor is it specifically about happiness. The Dewey Decimal Classification system categorizes the book as “applied psychology”. Gilbert writes about how the brain produces and responds to feelings, ideas, and concepts. In eleven chapters he’s [...]

After talking with several close friends about my consumer test, I’ve decided to end my non-consumer month of living on only necessities. Why? For several reasons: my friend Mike is coming into town next weekend and I start a new job on Wednesday. But the biggest reason is that I want to support local businesses. [...]

Shelley Jackson will be at Elliott Bay Book Company tonight at 7:30 PM to promote her new book Half Life. A welcome return back to a Seattle she once called home is made this evening by Shelley Jackson, who now hails from Brooklyn. In much of her writing (the story collection, The Melancholy of Anatomy) [...]

Judith Bluestone will be discussing The Fabric of Autism: Weaving the Threads into a Cogent Theory at Elliott Bay Book Company today at 2 PM. HANDLE Institute Clinical and Educational Director Judith Bluestone has received a Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Ward for Public Service and a Jefferson Award for her extraordinary work with autistic children. Her [...]

The Golden Compass is the first book in Philip Pullman’s “Dark Materials” trilogy. Like the “Harry Potter” series, you will find these novels in the juvenile section at your local library. I found The Golden Compass to be an excellent read for adults as well (I even had to look up a few words in [...]

Maybe Not Buying It did inspire me after all. I’ve decided to do a one-month experiment in which I do not purchase any goods except “necessities.” If that goes well, I may even extend the experiment to two or three months. So here is what I am pledging to my friends and family (I’ll need [...]

Rep. Ed Murray is stepping down from the State Senate. So tonight is your chance to meet the democrats who are running for the 43rd district seat: Lynne Dobson, Richard Kelley, Jamie Pedersen, Stephanie Pure, Bill Sherman, and James Street. Town Hall will host the event. At 6 PM you can mingle with your fellow [...]

I had high hopes for Judith Levine’s book Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping. Maybe I set my expectations too high. Can I really expect one book to convert me into a non-consumer? I wanted gems of wisdom on how not to spend money; how to talk myself out of buying that cup of [...]

Am I the last person online to create a MySpace account? I killed my Friendster account awhile ago. Let’s see how long I last on MySpace.

Christian and I were looking for an Italian restaurant for his father’s birthday dinner. Dale loves linguini with clam sauce, so that has to be on the menu. Last year we took him to Machiavelli’s on Capitol Hill, but we weren’t very impressed with the food or the service. So this year we took him [...]