Goodbye, productivity!

Hello, PandaCam!

[hint: the camera is controlled by the zoo, so if you don't see our little pal Butterstick, wait a minute and they'll move the camera]

She said, "that neck brace makes you look fat."

I work in a giant medical complex. There are always patients and families mulling around, sometimes waiting anxiously, sometimes just sitting together and laughing or testing an uncomfortable silence. And every now and then I overhear really funny stuff.

I've been having a particularly time lately making sense of interpersonal relationships, whether romantic or otherwise, my own or my friends'. Right now it seems like hurting each other is an inevitable human behavior, and when we are hurt, we turn right around and take it out on someone else. So the cycle goes on, whether we are aware of our part in it or not. "We are all just big wounded responses," says Carol Churchill.

And occasionally we embrace it, rush headlong into taking someone down a few notches with zeal. The daughter was being brought, bandaged, through the lobby in a wheelchair by what looked like her brother and father. They stopped next to a woman who was seated, facing the other way. The daughter said, "hey, mom," weakly. The mother turned around, gasped, and opened her mouth to speak.

Why this woman is one of the greatest people I know

The name Lindsey Sherline is one most of you will recognize, and if not, it's really only a matter of time before you do. Although forced to share the title of most creative person ever with my father and my often-institutionalized friend Jim from high school, Lindsey creates through her work and her daily life a world that is uniquely stylized and entirely captivating. Anyone would be hard pressed not to want to live there.

Over the years and many changes they brought, she and I have had our good times and bad times. But as she unveils a new and very public project, I am happy to invite you to take a look (she would ask me to remind you that it is still a work in progress; the explanation is at the bottom of the page, so you might want to work backwards):

http://tu-tutimes.blogspot.com/

Who needs "pink is the new black" when "grossly incompetent and dangerously corrupt" is the new "re-elected?"

That's twice i've bet on the wrong horse. The horse of reason. The horse of getting your job back and being able to declare where you are from without making people cringe.

So first it was GWB back in the White House, and now Kwame's back for four more years as mayor of Detroit. My only consolation is that because his mismanagement thus far has earned poor Detroit a crippling 50 million dollar a month debt, he may not have a city to be mayor of for the full length of his term. According to the accountants, insolvency - or, as my grandfather predicts, good old fashioned bankruptcy - is just around the corner.

At least we've still got the Lions, right, guys?

Two short ones

a) I neglected to mention my having gone with the fabulous Ms. Pancakes to a WAAAYYYY too hip fundraiser. Our friend Alex works at Kid Robot, which organized the event, and it was both great to see her and the incredibly creative work people had put up for the charity auction (you can read more about it at the kid robot site). That someone I think is so great finds herself working at a place that really seems to fit with her style, and that charity results, makes me happy.

b) Last night I saw Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price. While yes, this is a documentary with a clearly stated bias, it does do a very good job of collecting the facts about Wal-Mart and the stories of the people affected by all levels of the corporation. If you haven't wised up to the evils of Wal-Mart yet, or if you're just interested in learning more, I strongly suggest you see this movie. [Is it out in theatres anywhere other than NYC? I'm not sure.]

Thank you, giant corporation. Oh, and I brought you a sandwich.

What happened to customer service? And what happened to Apple? My computer starts having problems, and Apple wants to charge me -upfront - $49.95 so that they can try to help me over the phone, although by their admission my problem may not even be something that can be fixed over the phone. Either way, $49.95. Thankfully, the guy on the phone mistakenly suggested that they wouldn't be able to help me, and I told them I'd figure it out myself. The Apple store here in NYC has a policy of taking reservations for tech support on the day of, but you need to go online early in the morning. I tell the apple store employee that I can't get online easily because my computer isn't working, which is, as i had already said, the reason I need the tech support. She tells me I can show up at the store to be seen as a walk-in at 6 a.m., but that I should probably show up around 5 because "a lot of people want to get help and can't get appoinments." When did Apple become Microsoft?

One brief discussion with a nerd at an electronics store later, I find out that Powerbook batteries tend to go bad after two or so years, and I needed to change mine.

Then our internet in the apt. goes out, and after making me wait several hours for the guy to show up, he tells me he can't fix it - why? who knows? - and I will have to schedule another appointment so another repair guy can try to fix the problem. My favorite was the repairman's astonishing announcement that "your internet doesn't work." Oh, really? Man, am I glad you're here.

I am so sick of the implicit corporate assumption that I have nothing better to do with my time and/or money. As I can't post about Japan or anything without going somewhere for internet, things will be slow on that front.

Perhaps the only consolation thus far today was the one pre-packaged "gourmet" sandwich in the hospital cafeteria that stood out from the rest - it lacked the usual printed label and was marked unceremoniously with a piece of tape, on which someone had written in magic marker the thoroughly baffling one-word description "EGGBEEF."

Mmmm....EGGBEEF.

Japan!

Don't call it a comeback. Call it: The Dr. Science Crazy Funtime World Adventure! Only the first day's worth is up, but I hope you like it!

No hallow left behind

Halloween is sort of the high holy day in my family. Normally, there'd be outrageous and extravagant decorations and our lawn (spilling over to the neighbor's), and hundreds of people would come from miles away to see our house. But this what not a normal year.

This year, had you traveled to our house, you would have found a simple, yet quietly ornate sign, explaining that "we, the pirates who gather here each year" were, in an act that recalls the courageous pirate captain Jean Laffite's aid in the battle of New Orleans in 1814, donating the money for decorations to Hurricane Relief in New Orleans.

Let me assure that for our family this was, indeed, a sacrifice. We still had a great Halloween time, though, dressing up as dead Gregorian monks and scaring people at a local Halloween haunted village. The folks there just assumed we were part of the show, I guess.

So it was a great Halloween, a lot of fun was had, I was once again reminded of just how much I have to learn from my parents, and we got the best Christmas card photo ever out of the deal.