Pop Culture Round-up: Spring 2012

It's been awhile since there was a pop culture round-up, but trust me - I still love pop culture. Here are the things that you should get out there and enjoy right NOW.


This song:

I'm trying to think of something to say about it, but I can't. So I'll just listen to it again.


Don and His Women
Um... how did Don Draper become the least misogynistic guy at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce? Sure, he's still a product of his time and history (I mean, they're still HIS women, let's face it), but 1967 seems to have brought the winds of change even to Mad Men's Don. He's in love with Megan, he loves Peggy (not THAT way, but in the way that a father loves a child who must inevitably leave a comfortable home to see beyond the mountains), and he may be the only one who understands the kind of love that Joan needs. I once read that the character of Peggy represents "a new spirit in women" that took hold in the 60's. 40-some-odd years later, in a world that seems to be trying anew to crush that spirit, Don Draper is giving me a little hope that the spark can survive.


Speaking of surviving...

My latest BBC fixation on Netflix
My favorite genre is what I call "Random People Come Together to Form a Family." Yes, I made this genre up, but once you know about it, you'll find it everywhere. It probably speaks to me because I'm pretty good at quickly forming a family wherever I go.


This makes me think that, should I survive a flu pandemic like the characters on Survivors, a British TV series that lasted only 12 episodes, I will be able to make my way. Survivors is about how we survive disaster by forging connections, but it's also about freedom vs. safety, men vs. women, and nature vs. man. I especially appreciate the characters; my favorite is Tom Price, a convict who survives the plague. He's sort of an anti-hero, but of the kind that you don't usually find in the U.S. (except maybe on The Wire.) He's a thief and a murderer, and he's not secretly-educated, not secretly-sorry. He's not redeemed. As played by the bullet-headed Max Beesley (sort of a cross between Daniel Craig and a pitbull) Tom draws your sympathy, even as you know that if the world wasn't ending, you would run from him in fear.


Speaking of apocalypses (apocalypi? apocalypto?)...


The Declaration
I'm an adult person, but for the last year or so I've been digging the rush of post-Hunger-Games apocalyptic YA fiction that's been gracing the shelves of the Amazon kindle store. I'm down for anything that leads to a world of more geek girls, but very few of these books are as good as The Hunger Games. However, I recently discovered The Declaration, by Gemma Malley. It's more like 1984 or Brave New World than a teen novel. It reminds me of  Meg Rosoff's haunting How I Live Now - it's  a young adult novel that can cross marketing boundaries. Written in spare prose, telling the story of a world where people live forever and so have banned children, The Declaration is a gem. And since it was published in 2007, the sequels can be enjoyed with no waiting.
Post-Apocalyptic Runner-up: I've also been following the Matched and Delirium trilogies. I find Matched to be the superior. No, it's no masterpiece, but the plot hurtles along at breakneck speed. I'll be reading the third novel, Reached, when it comes out in November.


What's your pop culture fixation these days?

Sustainable Seafood: Salmon En Croute

AKA: Salmon and Spinach Hot Pockets


Do you know what kind of recipes are great? The kind that are easy to make but which seem fancy to everyone else. This is one of those recipes.


Another great kind of recipe is the kind you can freeze, then pull out and cook for delayed deliciousness. This is one of those recipes too!

And, I love recipes that use sustainable ingredients. Add to the list of sustainable ingredients: canned salmon. You want to read the label to make sure it's not farmed salmon (often called "Atlantic."). Instead choose wild caught Alaska salmon, which is rigorously regulated. (Click here for an article from NPR with a few more salmon facts).


Salmon En Croute (salmon in a crust) usually consists of puffed pastry around salmon and veggies (usually spinach or asparagus). However, in this recipe, I use phyllo dough, because it's lower in calories. Phyllo dough can be found in the freezer section of your grocery store. It comes in a pile of thin sheets -- they look a little like rice paper. They can be tricky to work with, because if they dry out, the dough is fragile.


To avoid breaking the phyllo sheets, unroll the sheets (they come in a tube). Cover them with some cling wrap and then a damp towel. Take out the number of sheets that you need, then cover the rest back up. 


This recipe makes a good brunch dish or a dinner with a side of asparagus or a green salad. If you freeze the pockets, you can bake them for a quick lunch (instructions at the end of the recipe).


Ingredients:
2 cans of wild caught Atlantic salmon
12 oz. of frozen chopped spinach, thawed, with the excess water squeezed out. You can also chop up fresh spinach and wilt it by heating in a saute pan.
4 oz. crumbled goat cheese
capers (a couple of tablespoons, or more if you really like them)
juice of one lemon
one roll of phyllo dough sheets
olive oil (I use oil in a mister, but you could also use a pastry brush)


Step 1: Mix together the first five ingredients in a bowl and set aside. These are the filling.


Step 2: One at a time, take five sheets of dough and lay them out on a clean surface. Mist each sheet with olive oil (or brush with olive oil). Using a sharp knife, cut the stack of dough sheets into quarters. Each pocket will use two quarters.

Step 3.

Step 3: Scoop filling into the center of one of the quarters. Carefully place another quarter over the filling. 


Step 4: You're going to fold the edges to close the pocket. Get your fingers a little wet and fold the edges toward the center, so that you have about a 1/4-inch seam all around the outside. Use the water on your fingers to seal the edges. 

Here's what it looks like when you fold
the edges. Make sure that you've sealed them
so they don't unfold.

Step 5: Mist the top of the pocket with olive oil. With a sharp knife, cut 3 slits in the center of the pocket to let hot air escape.


Repeat steps 2-5 until you've used up all the filling.


Step 6a: If you're going to bake them right away, put the pockets on a baking sheet. Cover with cling wrap and a damp towel while you're making the other pockets. When you're ready, put them into a preheated oven (look on the phyllo package directions for temperature). Cook according to the phyllo package instructions, or until golden brown.


Step 6b: If you want to freeze the pockets, wrap them individually in cling wrap or foil without baking them. You can then put them in a bag or tupperware and stick them in the freezer. When you're ready to eat them, bake until heated through. It takes about 20 minutes in my toaster oven at 400 degrees. Remember they'll need more time in a full size oven.

Ultimate Recycling: The Beer Can House

This is Houston's famous "Beer Can House." Yes. It is a house made of beer cans. And yes, it is strangely, ethereally beautiful.

Light Green Redux: Put Your Stake In the Ground

I'm on a retreat this week, so I'm rerunning a few "Light Green Classics."
Here's one of the most viewed posts of all time on Light Green. I'd like to think that it's because it's brilliant, but I think it's actually because it turns up if you google "Stake in the ground."



My boss frequently says the phrase, "put your stake in the ground," meaning, lay claim to what you believe.

Well, today I want to put my stake in the ground. Even though I started this blog with the intention of being unpreachy, I think I've done pretty well at that, and so I want to go to church just a tiny bit.

Ready. Stake is going into the ground:

I BELIEVE GLOBAL WARMING IS HAPPENING AND I BELIEVE HUMANS ARE CAUSING IT.

If you read this blog, you might be thinking, well, duh. But a couple of recent events have conspired to convince me that those of us who believe in global warming (even the phrase "believe in" makes it sound like I'm claiming I believe in leprechauns or something) need to come right out at say that we believe in it and we believe it's caused by humans.

Event #1:

In a conversation on one of my favorite online communities, the question "Do you believe in global warming" was answered with a fair amount of equivocating although people generally seemed to be saying they did. Now, I happen to think this is simply a result of the fact that most folks who do believe in global warming also believe in a little thing called nuance, and they are happy to hold complex positions on issues. I am all for nuance and complexity. However, the fact that we are saying things like, "Well, even if we're not causing it, we should act like we are" lead to things like ...

Event #2:

The South Dakota legislature, as reported in the Rapid City Journal, among other news outlets, approved a resolution to urge teachers to teach "astrological" causes for global warming. Because I think it's always good to go to the source, here's the text of the resolution:

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, by the House of Representatives of the Eighty-fifth Legislature of the State of South Dakota, the Senate concurring therein, that the South Dakota Legislature urges that instruction in the public schools relating to global warming include the following:
(1) That global warming is a scientific theory rather than a proven fact;
(2) That there are a variety of climatological, meteorological, astrological, thermological, cosmological, and ecological dynamics that can effect [sic] world weather phenomena and that the significance and interrelativity of these factors is largely speculative; and
(3) That the debate on global warming has subsumed political and philosophical viewpoints which have complicated and prejudiced the scientific investigation of global warming phenomena ...


Of course, a resolution is not a law. They are only "urging" that teachers tell kids that global warming is caused when Jupiter aligns with Mars and love will steer the stars.


This irritates me even more than the whole evolution debate, because this has a direct impact on the day-to-day habits of folks. Not only that, but unscientific thinking is creeping. Anti-intellectualism is bad enough, but anti-intellectualism that leads people to think that it's OK to continue to burn fossil fuels so they can keep a TV tuned constantly to Jersey Shore? -- that's just ... well, this is a family blog.


Right now, I'm not going to go into why I believe global warming is happening and we are causing it. However, coming up, I'll provide some links to folks that can explain the science much better than I (or Sen. James Inhofe, R-OK) can.


If you want to put your stake in the ground and say,


YES, I BELIEVE GLOBAL WARMING IS HAPPENING AND I BELIEVE HUMANS ARE CAUSING IT,


then write a comment below. And pass this link along to a friend. Maybe they want to put their stake in the ground too.

Light Green Redux: Great Wolf Lodge

I'm on a retreat this week, so I thought I would share a few "Light Green Classics" over the next week.
Here, enjoy memories of one crazy travel destination where you do NOT want to take the family. At least, you won't if you're green.


Due to a travel snafu (in the truest sense of that word), my colleagues and I recently ended up staying at the Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine, TX. This resort contains an indoor waterpark and is relentlessly family-friendly, more like a theme park with beds than a hotel. In fact, the hallways in the residential areas were the scene for a hotel-wide scavenger hunt, in which kids pointed wands (for which they had to pay) at various animatronic wilderness creatures.

While I wasn't exactly thrilled to be there, I thought I'd make the best of it, even after I realized that my still-painful sprained hand would probably keep me off the waterslides. Therefore, I was pretty psyched to see that the Great Wolf was Green Seal certified - Silver, and had a green promotion called Project Green Wolf.

Some kid ran in front of the shot --
 because some kid was always running
 in front of you at this place.

As far as I could tell, being a "green" hotel consisted of many of the same green features that are becoming standard in hotels these days: recycle bins were prevalent, compostable cups were provided for coffee, and signs suggested that you re-use towels. The to-go bags in the restaurant said "Please Reuse!" - but they still used styrofoam to-go containers. All-in-all, it seemed like fairly typical stuff, although their website says that they do re-circulate much of their water, and use high-efficiency light bulbs and appliances.

Mommy, how come when we're camping
the trees don't have TVs?

The longer I stayed there, however, I realized that no matter what sorts of conservation measures the resort takes, their very essence is anti-green (What's the opposite of green? On the color wheel it's red. Well, Great Wolf Lodge is red in its heart). Throughout the entire place, animatronic animals were singing and smiling at you. Fake trees provided indoor shade ...


... and their trunks bore flat-screen televisions advertising features of the resort. If anything says "Screw the woods," it's an indoor tree that grows televisions. I began to feel insulted that the designers of this place seemed to think they could fool you into thinking you were actually caring about the environment when you were doing everything possible to get away from the real thing.

I'm sure that most Native Americans
lived in log cabins.
With pet owls.

To add to the careless re-creation of the American Northwest as a family attraction, an animatronic Indian princess told bedtime stories every evening, perpetuating kids' images of American natives as savages who talk to animals. As an educator who has spent a great deal of time trying to disabuse my students of their stereotypes of native culture, the idea of a bunch of (mostly white) kids sitting down in front of this display turned my stomach. And I like tasteless talking robots.

The woods are messy, dark, mysterious. They can be dangerous, ferocious, tranquil, or generous. One moment they may be dappled with sunlight and the next they might be sucking you into a swamp or confusing you with a false trail through the trees. But the things they will never be? They will never be plastic. They will never be filled with smiling wolves and owls. They will never be indoors.
Unless we teach our kids that places like the Great Wolf Lodge are an acceptable alternative to the real thing. And then, indoors may be the only place we have left to run.

Recipes: Slow Cooker Summer

The other day I was making Jamie Oliver's delicious Crisy and Sticky Chicken Thighs with Squashed Potatoes and Tomatoes, and I thought to myself: this will most likely be the last time I turn on the oven this summer.


We've had a much milder spring than usual, but it's impossible to ignore that the broiling days of summer are on their way. Turning on the oven in my little apartment would be much like turning on the heater.


So, I use my toaster oven a lot, and I've recently picked up a slow cooker. The slow cooker is pretty fabulous -- and eco-friendly! - because it cooks things at a lower temperature and, because it's small and contained, isn't heating up a lot of unnecessary space.


Two of my recent favorite recipes:


Slow Cooker Black Beans
Want to save money and cut down on packaging? Make your own black beans instead of canned!


You can buy dry black beans in packages of 12-16 oz, or you can find them in the bulk area of some super-markets. You'll also need an onion and garlic, and any spices you want (I use salt, pepper, and cumin, along with some dried chilies.)


You need to start this recipe the night before you want to cook it. Pour the beans into a bowl, and pick through them to make sure there are no rocks, twigs, or stray chickpeas in there. If you're using dried chilies, you can put them in the bowl too. Fill with water until 1-2 inches over the top of the beans, and cover. Soak overnight in the fridge.


In the morning, drain the beans and pick out any broken ones. (Don't go crazy with this. You're not Psyche sorting the seeds.) Chop the onion and garlic, and quickly saute them. Put the beans, chilies, onion, garlic, and spices in the slow cooker. Again, cover with water until about 2 inches over the top of the beans. Cover and cook on LOW for 8 .


When they're done, I drain out some of the excess water, and then I usually divide the beans up into three parts. One I keep in the refrigerator. The other two I freeze, and thaw whenever I need them. A sixteen oz. bag of dried beans (which is usually less than $2.00) makes about as much as 3-4 cans.


Slow Cooker Pulled Chicken
When recipes call for rotisserie chicken, and you don't want the salt -- or mutant, non-organic chickens -- that come with the rotisserie chicken, why not make your own pulled chicken. It can also be used in salads, enchiladas (that you then cook in your toaster oven), or sandwiches.


Take 1-2 packages of organic, boneless, skinless chicken thighs. Put them in the slow cooker with 3-4 whole garlic cloves. Add your favorite spices -- a little salt, a little pepper, some cumin or chili flakes. Then cover with water or reduced-sodium broth. Cook on LOW for 8-9 hours. 


Remove the chicken from the slow cooker and using 2 forks, pull the chicken apart into shreds.

A Good Friend in Dirty Times

Photo credit: AdClassix

When my sister was visiting a few weeks ago, she looked in my shower and said, "Ew."


"It's just old," I said.


I DO clean my shower. No worries there. But her remark got me wondering if I could make it a little brighter in a green way.


I usually use baking soda to scour, but obviously that wasn't cutting it, so I thought I'd look for something else. In the Whole Foods cleaning aisle, the choice was clear: Bon Ami powder cleanser for $1.50 or the fancy brand for $5.


I've been reading about Bon Ami on green blogs for years, but until I realized that I needed more than baking soda, I hadn't tried it out. Bon Ami (which means "good friend" in French) has been around for over 120 years -- and its formula has remained similar throughout that time.


Bon Ami is made from feldspar, limestone, baking soda, some corn/coconut-based cleaning agents, and a few other (biodegradable) ingredients. Originally, the feldspar was recycled from quartz mining operations.


Bon Ami is also a favorite of people who are chemically-sensitive. Because of its simple formula, it doesn't impact them the way most modern cleaners do.


So, the price is right, its impact is right ... but can it clean?


The answer is - YES! Of course, it didn't turn my old shower new again, but the tub is now whiter than it's ever been.


A good old friend, indeed.

Recipe: Bun Ga Nuong (Rice Vermicelli with Grilled Chicken)

Just because you can't pronounce something, doesn't mean you might not want to eat it.

Courtesy of Viet Taste. For some reason,
the pictures of my own cooking were erased.

When my sister and I were kiddos, our baby sitters were two sisters from Vietnam. One had grown up in the U.S., and the other, Ngo, had just arrived after waiting many years for permission to come to America. She and her father had been refugees in China all that time.

We adored the sisters, especially Ngo. She spoke almost no English, but was so loving and kind that the language barrier didn't matter. And she cooked us amazing food! I remember one day my mother was running out the door and told Ngo that we could have soup for lunch. My mom, like most of us, meant Progresso from a can. But Ngo wasn't yet familiar with the American love affair with processed food. She cooked us soup - made from scratch.

Since our summer days with Ngo, I've always had a soft spot in my heart for Vietnamese food, especially noodle soups and salads that remind me of her. I usually order the same thing when I go out: bun, or rice vermicelli.

Because I don't eat red meat or pork, I usually get bun ga nuong, which is vermicelli with grilled chicken. I've recently discovered that it's incredibly easy and healthy to make at home, too.

This is a salad, so don't worry too much about proportions. Add more of what you like, less of what you don't like as much - just like when you make a regular salad.

Ingredients

For marinade:
Juice of 1 lime
Reduced-sodium soy sauce
Fish sauce (the Red Boat brand is far superior to others I've tried, and is available at Whole Foods. Plus, if you click that link, there's a funny video with Top Chef's Spike visiting the fish sauce factory)
Red chili flakes

1-1.5 lbs. Organic chicken breasts, sliced into strips, or chicken tenders. Each person should get 4-6 strips.

Make the marinade: Mix together the ingredients for the marinade. I never measure, but if you want some proportions, here's what you do: Squeeze the lime juice into a big bowl. Put in some soy sauce (only a couple of glugs, or it will be too salty). Then put in a couple of tablespoons of fish sauce (again, don't get crazy, or it will be too salty). Shake in the red pepper flakes. Skip them if you don't like spicy food.

If you're scared of not measuring, don't worry. Just taste the marinade before you put the chicken in it. It should be limey-spicey-fishy-salty. But not TOO salty. If you think the flavor needs adjusting, add more of what you like.

Marinate the chicken: Add the chicken to the bowl of marinade and turn to toss. Cover and put in the refrigerator for 30 min. to an hour.

For the salad:
Your favorite crunchy veg, sliced into shreds (think lettuce, carrots, pre-made broccoli slaw, cabbage, bean sprouts, cucumber ... pick whatever you like in your salad)
2 green onions, chopped fine
a handful of mint leaves
avocado (this isn't traditional, but I like to add avocado to almost everything).

Rice vermicelli noodles (You can find these at Asian markets or in the Asian foods section of many grocery stores. For each person, you want a handful; you should be able to hold each person's portion between your thumb and forefinger. )

Unsalted, roasted peanuts, chopped coarsely

For the dressing (this is for one person):
Juice of another lime
Fish sauce
Pepper
Sesame, olive, or vegetable oil

Step 1: Chop the veg.
You want all of your veg chopped before anything else. You can add the crunchy veg, the green onion, and mint to the same bowl. Toss. 

Step 2: Make the dressing
In a small bowl, whisk together the lime juice, a tablespoon or two of fish sauce, a few drops of the oil, and a shake of pepper. You might also add chili flakes if you like your food spicy. If you have small prep bowls, it's nice to add each person's dressing to one bowl.

Step 3: Grill the chicken
I use a cast-iron grill pan. I coat it with a little oil, slowly heat it (you don't want to heat your cast-iron quickly) and put the chicken on. Grilling this way is an inexact science - I watch until the chicken has turned from pink to white halfway up; then flip the chicken. When the outside is completely white, I check to make sure that it's not pink on the inside.

If you don't have a grill pan, you can use an actual grill or saute the chicken. When it's done, transfer it to a plate.

Step 4: Cook the noodles (while you're grilling the chicken)
Follow the instructions on the noodle package. Rice vermicelli can get sticky, so make sure you follow the directions carefully. They cook longer than other types of rice noodles, however, so you'll want to test to make sure they're done to your liking. 

Step 5: Put it all together
Drain and rinse the noodles. Put each person's portion of noodles in the bottom of a bowl. Arrange the veg, grilled chicken, and avocado on top of the noodles. You can just arrange everything prettily. 

Step 6: Serve
Give each person their bowl of noodles, salad, and chicken; plus a small bowl of the dressing. The peanuts are a garnish -- you can put a bowl in the middle of the table, or give each person a small sprinkling.

Step 7: Eat
To eat, you dump the dressing into the bowl and mix everything up. Then you can slurp the noodles and eat the salad with chopsticks.

The Litter-ati

I'm a very sophisticated cat.
Please don't talk about my "business."

Let's talk about poo.


Not people poo. Cat poo. And other cat unmentionables.


One of my biggest green failings is that when it comes to my pet, I'm about as far from green as it gets. My cat eats cheap-o Purina Indoor Cat Chow (because he barfs if he has anything else). I've been using clay cat litter, which is full of badness - it's made from clay that has been stripmined - and puts money into the pockets of  Halliburton, since they produce most of the clay!


Blergh! That's really bad.


The problem is that when I tried to switch Wily to a more environmentally-friendly litter (pine) the little prince was having none of it, so he used my bed for a litter box. 


I did some research and found some info that said it could take 30 days to switch a cat's litter.


Problem? I'm never home for 30 days at a stretch.

Mr. Cheney is making that face because
he's no longer reaping the rewards
 of his cat litter monopoly.

So Dick "Meanypants" Cheney kept getting my money. Until recently, when I just decided to go for it. I was going to be home for a few weeks. 


I chose some corn-based litter because it was made by Arm & Hammer, and I used their clay litter and liked it. Plus, they make baking soda. Baking soda's my favorite! It also looked the most like clay litter, so I figured Mr. Fluffybutt would be less likely to "poo-poo" it (pun intended - and with malice!)


The next two times I cleaned the litterbox, I added some of the corn-based litter. There was no finger pointing or dramatic accusations of kitten abuse. Wily seemed just ... fine. A few days ago I made the complete switch to the corn-based litter and all is well.  The whole process took a week and a half.


Sigh. So I guess that the land was stripped for years longer than it had to be. I'm going to blame the cat.


Now, if only I could get out from under the finger of the corn lobby. Oh well - maybe if this cat litter thing works out for them they can stop shoveling high-fructose corn syrup into our pie holes.

Great idea!

This sign, however, is less helpful when you left your bags at HOME.

I Had a Vision!

Nah... not the hallelujah! kind. 


In the place where I work, we are very into having a "vision" for what you want to accomplish. At first, I thought this was a really hokey idea. People kept saying things like "well, my vision for my role is ..." and "I need to step back and clarify my vision." I wanted to shout: What is everyone talking about?!? 


But now, I'm a convert. I've come to see the (cough, cough) light. I now have a vision not only for my role at work, but I create visions for my non-work life as well.


I don't want to jinx it, but I think that one of those visions (my vision of finding a home in 2012) may be becoming a reality. I think I have found a house that meets the vision I set out for my home. And if it doesn't work out ... well, I'll keep looking.

Not this kind of vision!

Now, I don't think there's anything particularly magic about having a vision. I don't really hew with all of those folks types who think that creating an intention alters the quantum reality or something (I mean, all thoughts - like all biological processes -- do involve transformations in energy, but let's not get crazy). This kind of vision is not like The Secret.


This  kind of vision can be summed up this way: 
get extremely clear about what you want.


When you do that, getting what you want is not magic -- you still have to work for it. But when you are extremely clear about what you want, you can marshal your energy in a way that is much more precise; you can pursue those things that match your vision, and other things fall by the wayside. So when I read about a house that matched my vision, I was able to pursue it single-mindedly, instead of diffusing my efforts in driving around looking at lots of houses.


SO... how do you get the kind of clarity that will drive your actions?


Again, it's not magic or even science. It's just about thinking and answering questions.


Recently, my friend Kelly wanted to know more about how to create a vision for her family life. So I outlined a few questions to answer:

• What do I want to accomplish?
What are the top 3 priorities for you?  Be as specific as possible. For example, you want to say: "a priority is that someone is home every day to put the kids to bed" vs. saying "we prioritize family time." If it helps figure out your priorities, describe your ideal in great deal: the ideal day for your family, the ideal success at work, the ideal home you want to live in

• Why is this important to me personally?
What about your personal story leads to this priority?

• How will I get there?
What are the principles that you will follow in pursuit of your vision? (Examples: we will not increase our debt, or we will live within 1000 miles of our family). What are your personal strengths that will help you be successful?

The last step in figuring out your vision is to create a personal headline. A headline is a few words that encompass your vision.

A friend who works with me in the education reform movement has this headline: Students will be able to access their choice of the top 10% of colleges.

My personal  headline for this year: 2012 is the year I find a home.

My headline for work: Students, teachers, and communities will have choice and voice. (This might seem unclear to you, but I know exactly what I mean by choice and voice. The words don't have to mean anything to anyone but you).

This final step might feel a little frivolous, but it's a great gut-check for your vision. If you can state your headline and not know exactly what that means, then you're not clear enough to be really oriented toward your vision. And then, when you're pursuing your vision, when you want to check your actions, you can just refer to your headline.

...

I thought I'd share how I think about vision, because some people I know find it helpful.
I'd love to know what others think - what are the techniques or strategies you use to figure out what you want from work, family life, personal life, etc?