• 2 t-shirts
• 2 button down short sleeve shirts
• 1 pair of jeans
• 1 pair of shorts
• 6 pairs of underwear
• 6 pairs of socks
• 1 long sleeve shirt
• 1 frisbee
• 1 ipod + speakers
• 7 books
  • the brothers karamazov
  • how to see yourself as you really are
  • the great railway bazaar
  • foucault’s pendulum
  • pale fire
  • beginner’s hindi
  • lord jim
• assorted magazines, guidebooks, and other reading material
• laptop, camera, and batteries and memory cards
• hope, expectations, dreams, ambitions, curiosity and, of course,
• love.

see you when i see you.  read me, write me, laugh with me.

with love - jordan.

because in this fucked up and shitty life filled with depression and guns and death and disaster and suffering and struggle and toil and repetitive, mind-numbing, stupefying routine, we’ve forgotten what it is to have meaning.  because we’ve been so innundated with reports about secret prisons, extraordinary rendition, guatanamo bay, afghanistan, abu gharib and al qaeda, we’ve forgotten how to imagine peace.  because in a world of population and consumption explosions, of slums, industrial agricultural, overmedication, and addiction, in a world lacking environmental awareness, realism, honesty, and basic trust, in a world with so much opportunity, what we’ve ended up with is too much wasted potential.  and because deep down inside what we all really want is to be loved and to give love: the universe has conspired to give us our chance.  it is terrifying to believe, but this is our generation’s chance.  it means trusting and embracing something uncertain - it means risking failure.  but it inspires hope.  and what drives us to get out of bed every morning is hope.

today like so many other people around the world i remember what it’s like to touch that part of me that creates hope.  today i can honestly envision a time when love, respect, responsibility, service, and citizenship rise to the forefront of public discussion.  and today i can feel as if those things can be ultimately achievable.  in this man so clearly distinguishable from all other presidents, i can see the love and excitement and energy and hope that makes us all human.  today i feel like i can conquer the world; if you do too, obama has already been the best president of our lifetime.

“One voice can change a room; and if a voice can change a room, it can change a city; and if it can change a city it can change a state; and if change a state, it can change a nation; and if it can change a nation, it can change the world!”

“To those who seek peace and security – we support you.  And to all those who have wondered if America’s beacon still burns as bright – tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity, and unyielding hope.”

america, we share those ideals with you.  thank you, from all of us, for making this moment come true.

wow.  i hope this is real.

do you know your rights?  in 1948, shortly after the war ended, the global community established the universal declaration of human rights.  according to wikipedia, the UDHR is the world’s most translated document! the 60th anniversary of the signing of this document is december 10th of this year.  check out this great video illustrating the contents of the document.

do you think we’re progressing towards this goal? or is the message of the UDHR too idealistic to achieve?

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 1

i spend a lot of time thinking about how the design of social rules and institutions can work together to produce a more loving, fairer society.  people have an inherent capacity for good (or so i tend to believe in my better moments), but drawing good out of people often requires some sort of external catalyst.  properly designed rules and institutions, then, should consistently reference what i’ll call inspirational touchpoints, but which truthfully could be referred to in economic terms as incentives.

looking at life through an economic prism often convinces us that incentives are best utilized when expressed economically (i.e., if you work longer hours this week, i’ll pay you a lucrative bonus).  stepping away from that prism, however, unearths all sorts of non-economic incentives.  sometimes those incentives are expressed in time recaptured (i.e. an extra day off) or in time repackaged (i.e. a day spent compiling a mix tape a friend will love).  sometimes they’re expressible only in ineffable emotional terms (i.e. those people who find reward when following their heart for love, joy, or adventure).  coming to understand someone properly inevitably means comprehending which incentives inspire them.

and the truth is that we’re at our best when we’re achieving Read the rest of this entry »