| King Of Wishful Thinking |
[20 Jul 2009|12:27pm] |
The journey of life continues. Ha.
We spent the evening at Jeff's yesterday, and on the way home the Go West song came on the radio as we hit rt. 16 (following the strangest detour via 99). It's one of those musical-association moments that gets emblazoned into my head for no good reason, and that I'll probably flash back to whenever I hear the song again. Like I do with most of the music that I listen to and take to.
I'll get over you, I know I will
I'll pretend my ship's not sinking
And I'll tell myself I'm over you
'cause I'm the king of wishful thinking
I'm more certain than usual that I'll return here over the next few weeks - introspective by nature, I find myself kicked into high gear for navel-gazing after our recent vacation to Europe (and a return to my high school there for a reunion). If I don't write more soon... I'll just be doing myself a disservice.
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| I have... |
[11 Jun 2009|07:23pm] |
...officially spent the past two hours in a time warp induced by a friend's LJ entry from December, thanks to YouTube and the NFB of Canada.
The things I thought I would never get to see again... mind-blowing.
This, for one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJ0dWFZPIRM
Meaningless probably to all but one or two of you... but it's haunted me off-and-on for years, the way a catchy song gets stuck in your head until you listen to it.
My brain needs a rest.
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| Market Basket |
[09 Mar 2009|11:30am] |
No wonder they're building a new one, in the same location (right across the parking lot from the old one) with *42* cash registers.
The old one had 26 registers open. *All* of them were open. And there was still a line. Not because the cashiers were slow, either.
I should say, rather, there were *two* lines. Traffic-managed, so you didn't have to pick a register - you were directed by a staff member to the next available one. One line was for the regular registers... the other line was for the express lanes - six of them. This just on a seemingly normal Sunday afternoon! But people were waiting. There was no cutting. There was patience. And semblance of order, the way there is order at a busy train station. Complete with the expedience.
Blown away. I'm definitely going back next weekend!
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| Weekdays - a verse or two |
[06 Mar 2009|03:41pm] |
Morning thwarts me
Noon entreats me
Afternoon inspires me
Evening fuels me
Night pushes me
I resent the morning
I'm intrigued by noon
I run with the afternoon
I sail through the evening
I reach, at night
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| Right on cue... |
[27 Oct 2008|11:53pm] |
...the HOCR is behind us, November looms ahead - and it's time once again for egg nog. You'd feel lost if I didn't post about it, wouldn't you? Let's try something new this year though - for as geographically scattered as you all are, please post in your comment a camera phone (or other) picture of your local grocery store's egg nog shelf. Whether or not you like the stuff. But if you do... note your favorite :o)
Unfortunately, this was at Stop & Shop earlier this evening... which means no Crescent Ridge Farms brand egg nog for me: I'll have to wait until my next trip to a store that usually carries it. None of the brands at S&S appear to have changed their recipes this year; consequently, it's really not worth cluttering up the fridge (or risking Chris's ire) with any of them, since I've tried all of these (or the ones among them worth trying anyway... I mean pumpkin-flavored egg nog? really?) and enjoy none.
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| A life snippet |
[13 Oct 2008|09:52am] |
(because it's not quite an update)
Head of the Charles - it's this weekend, October 18th and 19th. Much madness has gone into preparations for it, and much madness is yet to come as some 1800 boats, 8000 athletes, and 1200 volunteers (to make it all go smoothly) put on a great show for about 500,000 spectators (depends on the year). That's a lot of people descending on the tiny area sandwiched between Cambridge and Boston, called the Charles River... As has been typical for this time of year, my friends have not seen as much of me as usual, since about labor day. Am I training for the race? Heh. In a manner of speaking. I'm not racing. I'm timing the race. My team has been working more than in any recent year that I can remember, at making sure we're well-prepared for the weekend. But if you ask me how it's going, I'll give you my stock answer: "talk to me again on Sunday night, I'll tell you how it's going." If I'm not drunk, that is, and spouting nonsense.
Not that I can afford debauchery...
My parents will be visiting - arriving Sunday evening, they know not to expect to hear from me until after noon the next morning. I'll be taking that day off work, well, really, that whole week, to "recover" and to spend time with them. Lots lined up to do, a highlight should be Xerxes next Friday night. I'm really looking forward to their visit.
The Common Ground is apparently closing a.k.a. Thanksgiving 2008 - if all goes as planned and we make it out to PA for Thanksgiving with Chris' family, we'll swing by Ithaca on the "way home" to bid farewell to a piece of my past, a piece I share with many friends. Will it be sad? Will it be happy? It was the college bar we all went to for four years, and for me it was also the place I DJ'd every weekend for another year and a half later on. I could imagine a full playlist for the entire closing party just from those six years alone... never mind the 30 years that it has been around to marshal "family" together in our post-Stonewall coming out era.
Work? - work is.... Do I ever talk about work?
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| Noise |
[30 Sep 2008|08:42am] |
Don't miss the real news for the noise -
...blah blah blah politics blah blah politics blah blah 700 billion dollars blah blah blah blah politics blah politics blah blah blah blah bailout blah blah blah bailout blah blah blah blah politics blah blah blah bailout blah politics blah blah blah blah bailout bailout blah blah 700 billion dollars blah blah blah blah politics blah blah blah OMG blah blah blah bailout blah blah blah blah politics blah bailout blah politics blah bailout blah politics bailout blah blah blah blah bailout blah blah blah bailout blah blah blah 700 billion dollars blah blah blah blah blah blah politics politics blah bailout bailout blah blah blah blah blah 700 billion dollars politics blah blah politics blah bailout 700 billion dollars blah blah blah blah bailout blah blah...
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| Découverte de la semaine |
[28 Sep 2008|12:30pm] |
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Un brebis fait excellent complément à mon gruau matinal du dimanche, jus d'orange compris.
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| August, in the blink of an eye |
[26 Aug 2008|11:03am] |
...and just like that, it's almost over.
This post commemorates the start of the changing of the leaves, 2008. I noticed some yellow on the locust trees dividing the road on my way to work, late last week, and yesterday a few silver maples showing some timely red.
I am giddy :o)
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| Priceless |
[16 Aug 2008|12:59pm] |
I have wearied many - just about everyone with whom I've watched the NBC broadcasts of the Olympics, in fact, starting with the trials back in July - with my tirade on the more accurate pronunciation of 'Beijing'. I wasn't going to bore you here with it, though, until I heard a segment on NPR's All Things Considered yesterday evening that put it better than I ever could have:
Melissa Block
I've got to ask you, Anthony, you just said, the 'bay - [d]jing' curse... 'bay - [d]jing', not 'beige - ing', which is what I've been hearing all the time on NBC's coverage of the Olympics, that these are the 'beige - ing' games, and it's driving me crazy.
Anthony Kuhn
Yes, it's a slightly bizarre americanism, isn't it? I mean, we say 'j' as in 'juice', not as in 'azure' or 'leisure' or something like that. I can tell you, it's - you know - unequivocal here: it's 'j' as in 'juice' - 'bay - [d]jing' (which means 'northern capital') - just to set the record straight.
Block
'[D]jing' means 'capital' - not '[zh]ing', '[d]jing'?
Kuhn
'[D]jing'.
Block
NBC, are you listening?
Kuhn
Hope so!
Block
That's NPR's 'bay - [d]jing' correspondent, Anthony Kuhn - Anthony, thanks so much.
Kuhn
Thank you, Melissa.
Yes, THANK YOU Melissa! Leave it to NPR. But really - NBC, *are* you listening? Guess we know the answer to that...
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| Behind the times, once again... |
[31 Jul 2008|07:22pm] |
It's been fully two weeks since I've logged in to LiveJournal. Go me! I'm actually finding out my "social news" elsewhere... Facebook, sadly, but more interestingly, in real conversations with people. Amazing, right? But I do miss LJ.
*wanders around*
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| Crime and Punishment |
[10 Jul 2008|06:03pm] |
This is not a literary entry.
In the realm of politics, I have an open mind on anything I don't already have a firm, fact-based or well-reasoned opinion on. That leaves me without many strong opinions sometimes, though, because I'm someone who likes to take things on a case-by-case, contextual basis rather than in broad sweeping categories. As I go through life, however, I accept with a broad smile that I will learn things along the way that help me shape my opinions.
As such, I think I can say that I still have a rather undecided stance on whether to be categorically against the death penalty. Now, though, I can add a specific circumstance to the set of situations in which I would not support the death penalty, but the reasoning comes courtesy of a dear friend (I'm leaving her name out intentionally to focus on her words, though they are reposted here with her consent), who had the following to say:
The Supreme Court has rejected the death penalty in child rape cases, reports the Washington Post.
I am a woman who has been raped. More than once.
I am also a woman who knows far too many people who have been abused and raped, adults and children alike.
And yet, I am happy for this ruling. And not just because I'm against the death penalty. I am. I am voraciously against the death penalty. It is unevenly applied. It is irrevocable. It is fallible. People who are innocent of the crimes they have been accused of still end up with the death penalty. That is abhorrent to me.
So, yeah, that plays in to me being glad of the ruling today, but doesn't explain it fully.
It sure isn't because I think rape is a light crime. It sure isn't because I think that the kids who are raped -- kids. raped. :shudder -- don't suffer. I've sat in the waiting room at a rape crisis center. I've seen the hollow looks. Hell, I've sat next to my niece, and heard her whisper that her daddy's been gone a long time... while I knew he sat in a jail cell, accused of molesting her. I do not look at the victims and think "it's bad, but not that bad."
Here's a bit of the "why" of me being glad that child rapists can't get the death penalty: If the punishment for the crime of rape is the same as for the crime of murder, there's no point in leaving alive a victim who can ID you. None. I'd rather have a living rape survivor than a corpse.
I'd rather have a living rape survivor than a corpse.
If even one child is left alive because the rapist knows that, if caught, there won't be a death sentence, then HALLELUJAH.
Or, as hallelujah as one can get when talking about rape, murder, abuse, misery.
So...that's my take.
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| Bonne fête, Québec! |
[03 Jul 2008|08:37am] |
I rarely wish I could be somewhere else. I think I have a remarkable capacity to endure locational/situational factors. But I'm almost indescribably frustrated at the moment because I can't be in three places at once.
Today is the 400th anniversary of the founding of Quebec City. 400. To put it in perspective: that's July 3rd, 1608. The Pilgrims on the Mayflower only landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620. My employer, Harvard, was founded in 1636 (or 1634, depending on who you ask). The Great Fire of London was in 1666.
My parents live in Quebec City; Quebec means a great deal to me in general. But I'm not there right now. And it makes me beyond sad that I'm not there to celebrate, especially because I so easily could be.
Tomorrow is the 4th of July. Independence Day, for Americans. At least I'm not missing that, or the time with friends, if I'm looking on the bright side.
But Saturday... Saturday I'd like to be at Primrose Hill for what will probably be a once-in-a-lifetime reunion for one of the middle/high schools I attended (at least in terms of number of people attending, and their influence in my life - including the great lady who was my home room teacher and good friend for three years). People literally from around the world will be there, and because it's the first and most exciting one (on the tails of us all reconnecting over Facebook in the past year), I am enraged that I am not able to go. It will literally be a blast, and I have to miss it.
*broods*
I could have done it, too: been in QC City for the celebrations today, driven back to Boston in time for the afternoon/evening festivities here (the fireworks are nice, but generally not the focus for me), and taken an 11pm flight out to put me in London in time for the gathering there. Oh, to have had more advance notice on all these things...
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| Should I... |
[19 Jun 2008|01:28pm] |
...be disturbed that an Amy Winehouse song appealed to me? I just heard her "You Know I'm No Good" track this morning on the radio and have to confess a liking - mostly from a production and voice quality perspective (wasn't listening too closely to the words). Never paid attention to her before, but now, well, I'm intrigued.
In other chart-related news... NKOTB@43 on the Hot 100, up from 62 in a week? Lord help us if they break the top 10...
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| June the 17th |
[18 Jun 2008|09:47am] |
I suppose if I didn't want people wishing me a happy birthday at work, I shouldn't post the date so carelessly and readily here and on Facebook. So I have no right to complain when, to taunt me, my colleagues sing "Happy Birthday" to me three times over the group "end of year celebration" dinner last night that wasn't supposed to be about my birthday. The gathering took place after an afternoon of F1-style kart racing at a place just south of the city (who knew 36mph could feel so fast?!). I'd been stand-offish about it, but it turned out to be a fun part of the day and an unexpectedly novel way to celebrate my birthday the year's accomplishments at work.
Since I was booked yesterday (having originally planned to take the day off, and then getting "scheduled" for work until late), my birthday was celebrated very casually on Sunday night at Flat Top Johnny's, a low-key affair to which 17 people showed up. "17" I thought... cool. I like that number. I was pleased and flattered so many friends I hadn't seen in a while were able to make it.
So to highlight just a few things happening yesterday, marking the occasion:
- I turned 32
- Firefox 3.0 was released (have you downloaded yours today - before 2:16p EDT) to be part of the record?)
- The Celtics won their 17th NBA championship
(more or less in that order, I think)
Not too bad, I guess?
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| Oil company profits and taxes |
[02 Jun 2008|05:36pm] |
In general I don't agree with the idea of a "Windfall Profits Tax". I think it's anti-competitive, and doesn't conform to free-market principles. But we don't live in an ideal world, and the way oil is exploited does not conform to free-market principles. It's important to understand why.
In an ideal world, the oil companies should only be allowed to profit on the cost of extraction and distribution - not on the oil itself, which is a finite and scarce natural resource that is technically already "part-owned" by every individual on the planet. In other words, any profit attributable to the scarcity of the product itself should NOT be allowed to remain with the extractors, since their costs have little to do with the market price of oil (and the current market system only encourages them to more aggressively deplete the resouce). Oil is a resource that has taken thousands, even millions of years to generate, so everyone on the planet theoretically owns a share and should receive a profit on its consumption. That would not only put a serious damper on oil company profits, it would obviate the need for a windfall tax and take away a lot of the incentive to drill for more oil in the first place... which would drive innovation in the renewable/non-depletable energy-source sector instead (and that would be such a bad thing, now, wouldn't it, especially if those sources are "clean"/"green"?)
But in a society where, currently, there are barriers to popularizing the notion of collective ownership of natural resources (damn those communists for giving socialism a bad name!), and where it would be impractical to redistribute profit on these resources directly to individuals, a windfall tax on the profiteers is an imperative to ensure long-term justice and equitability. A windfall tax, while not an ideal solution, *should* be levied on anyone profiting from higher oil prices. It's basic common sense.
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| Erich at work... |
[29 May 2008|08:03pm] |
Not particularly interested in being photographed...
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[15 May 2008|07:40pm] |
It's 7:20p. I'm at work. STILL. Raging with irritation about niggling details just not quite happening for me on a current project. You can see the 'mess' here, if you're curious:
http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/downturn/
This entire day has been mostly wasted on back-and-forth over this page. I'm quite tired of it, and want to go home to the pie - and its maker - waiting for me patiently there. But can I? Of course not. The last round of changes is up on the web server, but its cache won't refresh for another 10 minutes so I have to sit here... twiddling my thumbs and stewing in my frustrations until I can check the page... and check out.
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flagster's journal