Onward, upward, thruward

We must realize that, at its core, procrastination is about emotions, not productivity. The solution doesn’t involve downloading a time management app or learning new strategies for self-control. It has to do with managing our emotions in a new way.

Weather models are increasingly insistent on two more major storms this week, one on Thursday to Friday and another potentially bigger one on Sunday.

therienne

It is hard to explain just how bad the public transpor[t]ation situation has gotten during all of this blizzard-misery.

Last week, when the T was only approaching total collapse, and hadn't yet reached the point where the General Manager of the T and the Governor of the State were using reporters in their respective press conferences to exchange insults, was bad enough. People were stacked up so tightly on platforms I'm surprised birth control wasn't needed, trains were breaking down, catching fire, and occasionally vanishing never to be seen again. Fights were breaking out, and the drop-off/pick-up area of the station were so bad that it's possible I may have thrown a snowball at a car that was endangering lives. (True story, I threw a snowball. Then I hid behind a convenient snow bank).

The MTA in New York has generously loaned the MBTA two jet-powered snow blowers (very similar to the MBTA’s "Snowzilla") to help clear the snow along the Red and Orange Line rights-of-way. Please be advised that these pieces of equipment are powered by jet engines, which produce elevated levels of noise.

There have been more than 100 shootings in Boston since the Marathon in April.

Think about that. If 100 people went to Massachusetts General Hospital with a mysterious virus in four months, we would treat it as an epidemic. There would be headlines, alarms, and calls for action.

ursamajor

We are very particular in this country about the kind of violence that mobilizes us to talk — if not act — about public safety and gun control. The slaughter of little children in a Connecticut elementary school. The carnage in a Colorado movie theater. An assassination attempt at a Tuscon shopping mall. An act of terror at the Boston Marathon.

The more insidious and persistent violence, that spawned by gangs and drugs and poverty and despair, barely registers on the consciousness of those with the good fortune to live outside the battle zone.

ursamajor