Over the next 2 months I'll be doing some consulting work for NPR's Day to Day. My gig involves helping the Day to Day team think through a new blog called Daydreaming, which, as the show describes it, will look at the state of the California Dream:

Daydreaming is Day to Day's official blog. Over the summer we'll be showcasing the people, stories and issues featured in our new series, "California Dreamin'." The Golden State has brought the world new trends, new ideas, and new ways of life, but what happens to the California Dream when the economy's sluggish?

My own goals are pretty straight-forward: build a blog for the show (check); develop policies and procedures for said blog; develop a content and community strategy; work within the framework of NPR's existing tools and digital policies, as well within the more abstract framework of "NPR-ness." Come visit every now and then, and leave me a comment. Or, better yet, subscribe to the feed.

h/t atrios:

Extreme commutes: More time on road means less time for family

Zack Guettinger's alarm sounds at 3:45 a.m., bringing with it a cruel reminder that he must drag himself out of bed for another three-hour drive to his job in San Ramon.

[...]

On a typical day, he drives 200 miles there and back. It's not a short drive, but as he explained, it's what must be done.

...now I am thinking about killing my car. From Krugman:

Sick transit and all that

The point isn’t that nothing can be done — it’s just that serious reductions in driving would require a lot of long-term rearrangement of the way we live. It will come — but not quickly.

The key for me is that I'm self employed and am in the 3.6 percent that works from home or the nearest wifi-enabled coffee shop. (I need an easily accessible power outlet too, which actually turns out to be more of a pain than wifi.) But I don't have to drive unless I want to.