Ethan at the Nature Park in Beaverton, Oregon

Here’s our little guy doing some of his first steps while hiking near our home.

“Common Current recently released a report ranking U.S. cities on their ability to deal with a peak oil crisis. San Francisco comes out on top, with Oklahoma City ranks last.” Read the rest of the article at Planetizen.

What I find intriguing is the location of the Top 10 and Bottom 10 cities. Look at the locations and think about the politics. Then think about who is currently and soon-to-be leading our country. I think this country is in a great position to begin to design and plan communities that are energy efficient and improve our quality of life, not degrade it.

As a Portlander, I’m glad to see us at #7. Of course, with all great cities there is room for improvement. Portland recognizes this and continues to make strides. I just hope the bottom 10 recognize it because the ones paying for it are the citizens.

Top 10
1. San Francisco
2. New York
3. Washington, DC
4. Seattle
5. Oakland
6. Chicago
7. Portland, OR
8. Philadelphia
9. Baltimore
10. Boston

Bottom 50
41. Louisville, KY
42. Omaha, NE
43. El Paso, TX
44. Nashville, TN
45. Memphis, TN (tie)
45. Fort Worth, TX (tie)
47. Tulsa, OK
48. Indianapolis, IN
49. Jacksonville, FL
50. Oklahoma City, OK

Couple Shots of the Little Guy!

I’m told that I need to post more photos of our son. For now on, I will be sure to include at least a couple photos in my posts. Also, if you are on Facebook, we post a bunch of him on there. You have to be added as a friend though.

That's my boy!

Family hike

You’ve probably noticed that none of the videos on our Media page work. It’s because we’ve been transfering and uploading new ones on our YouTube Channel. Until we decide to embed on our site, you can catch all the wonderful action of our lives over on YouTube. Our current videos include a Willie Nelson concert we attended, Peace Corps experiences in Armenia, and lots of our little guy Ethan.Go view all of them and more at http://www.youtube.com/resqbrett

Most of you know that I work in the planning profession. Specifically, I’m involved in parks and natural resource planning. The funny thing is that I wasn’t aware of the value or the profession of planning until I was in my 20’s. I believe my Peace Corps experience made me realize the value of civic engagement and that citizens need be involved in the development of their neighborhoods, which is one aspect of planning.

Now I look back and realize that I should have thought about what shapes the development or lack of development in the communities that I live. I’m not sure what age I should have been more aware, but my 20’s seems a little late. Of course I don’t expect a 6-year old child to say, “Daddy (or mommy), when I grow up I want to be a planner”. Actually, that would be pretty nerdy if your 6 year old said that. But the point is that our lives are tremendously influenced by the profession of planners and it isn’t too early to learn how our communities are developed. After all, the youth are the future!

I want to introduce you to some great resources that the American Planning Association (national organization for planners) offers to teach youth about planning. The website is found here: http://www.planning.org/education/youth . As you’ll notice with the topics of the lesson plans, it seems that planners are involved in everything.

If you have questions, comments, or whatever, then feel free to let me know.

Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Brett

WARNING: Computer Nerd Alert!

As information inquirers, Laura and I read The Oregonian on a daily basis. While Ethan yacks away and plays with his oatmeal each morning, we share the front page and discuss the local news. It’s a great way to learn a little more about our community and the world we live in.

But for many of us out there, the morning newspaper just doesn’t cut it. We need MORE information. Not just any ‘ol information, but information that is up-to-date, relevant to our interests, and easy to access. This is why I love Really Simple Syndication or RSS feeds.

RSS feeds allow me to subscribe to a page and get the latest news. There are thousands of websites/blogs that provide these links. Even our website, actually this page that you are reading right now, allows this. But the beauty of an RSS feed isn’t that you can subscribe to it, but in the application that allows this to happen. In my case, I use Google Reader to subscribe to all my RSS feeds. Gathered on one page are up-to-date headlines from all the websites I subscribe to. Now I don’t have to click on a link to each website to see what’s new. It’s gathered all in one place

I’m not going to describe all the nuts and bolts of how to use Google Reader and RSS feeds, there is plenty of information on the web to do that. I just wanted to share the sites that I subscribe to and to make sure that you know you can always subscribe to our website. This page is the only dynamic page, hence, the only one that will be updated in your RSS feed. Hope you find a new feed to subscribe too. Remember to look for the orange image in your URL bar and click it to subscribe.

Brett’s RSS Subscriptions on his Google Reader

• First I have a whole list of friend’s websites that I subscribe to. Great way to stay in touch.
• BBC World News: Allows me to learn more about news from around the world (http://news.bbc.co.uk/)
• Foreign Policy Association: This organization offers a lot of blogs to subscribe to. Here are my favorites: Caucasus (http://caucasus.foreignpolicyblogs.com/); Central Asia (http://centralasia.foreignpolicyblogs.com/); Election 2008 (http://election.foreignpolicyblogs.com/); Russia (http://russia.foreignpolicyblogs.com/); U.S. Diplomacy (http://diplomacy.foreignpolicyblogs.com/); U.S. Role in the World (http://usrole.foreignpolicyblogs.com/)
• Fat Wreck Chords: One of my favorite punk rock record labels (http://www.fatwreck.com/)
• Lifehacker: All things computer and nerdy, but very useful (http://lifehacker.com/)
• MadConomist: Economics anyone? (http://madconomist.com/)
• The Positivity Blog: Fluffy but very optimistic (http://www.positivityblog.com/)
• Planetizen: All things planning and more (http://www.planetizen.com/)
• Politico: Politics, Political News, Campaign 2008 and on and on (http://www.politico.com/)
• PunkNews.org: My lifeline to the latest tours, breakups, record releases, tragedies and other shenanigans in the punk rock world (http://www.punknews.org/)
• Woodworking Magazine: I love to build things (http://blog.woodworking-magazine.com/blog/)

That’s my list. Feel free to share yours.