Seeking Coastal Utopia

We are an angry country right now — these are angry times. “fried egg in bowl” by KS KYUNG on  Unsplash There has to be something in the water, maybe it is all the pharmaceuticals we are peeing into our drinking water? Are there mind altering brain waves coming through social media to make us angry ? Somebody, please get me the aluminum foil! You wake up every day, you breathe one more breath, your heart continues to beat. You are able to move on through the rest of the day. Some days there are more bonus points than others, but guess what? You are still here, in this moment, and you have the choice to make — be a jerk or be nice. Hopefully, you choose “be nice” since that is how you wish to be treated. When you meet people every morning on your way to wherever it is you go every day, how do you greet those that you know? What sort of look do you have on your face? Is it a slack, deeply drawn face? Is your face pinched in pain or thought? Is it a scowl because the li...

I started my career in the military, working on avionics for the United States Marine Corps Harrier AV-8B Night Attack program (VMA-211 ).  In avionics, you quickly learn that feedback is a bad thing. Its negative connotation stems from electronic sound distortion caused by a signal input from the same device, the electronic noise (squeal) that you experience from a microphone being too close to a speaker of the same source.  The most entertaining example form of system feedback is best managed by The Culps as they set-up to start singing to a medley of songs (not the pros, but close enough!) Alas, the real feedback is good. The intent of feedback is to reinforce good behavior and is the easiest way to learn how to provide feedback.  Look for others doing good around you, recognize that good action, and reinforce these actions with positive feedback, which will lead to that good action being repeated in the future.  That positive reinforcement form of feedbac...