North Dakota

My sister invited me to join here in North Dakota for Christmas. She goes up there to visit her husband's family, and it is quite a family. Roger is the youngest of 9 children, six of which ended up being there with their own children, plus one of the children of a sibling that couldn't make the trip. So it was quite a full house, actually three full houses!

Anyway, I was a bit reluctant at first, not sure how well I would fit in. Being alone on Christmas isn't as bad as being an outsider on Christmas. I ended up compromising by coming the day after Christmas, and staying for the weekend.

I had hoped this would also allow me to visit my brother and my sister-in-law when they were visiting Paul in New Hampshire. Unfortunately I was quite sick earlier in the week (even missing the last two drinking days of Christmas!) and on Christmas day I was still wrung out. I think pushing ahead to work Christmas Eve might have taken more out of me than my recovering body could deal with. Because when Christmas day rolled around, I slept till 11am, called my family, caught up on a few things and then took a three hour nap!

Anyway, on Christmas, I spent a good portion of the day tracking the blizzard that was hitting the area of North Dakota, Minnesota and surrounding areas. I only mention those two states in particular because those are the ones I needed to travel to/through. The weathermen were predicting 12-20 inches of snow, or more and near white-out conditions. But as I checked the airport status (even at the seeming height of the storm) Minneapolis wasn't showing delays. When I checked the next morning before heading to the airport I checked again and still didn't see delays.

So, I proceeded with the plan. I went to Logan and found the plane was on time. Because of the odd weather pattern surrounding the storm, we actually made amazing time to MSP and ended up arriving over half an hour early. This allowed me time to get food rather than just running to make my connection. The connecting plane apparently had a bit of a problem getting in (although I think it was from delays at the previous airport and not MSP), so they shuffled our gate and delayed the depature 30 minutes or so.

But eventually we got off the ground and a quick trip later we landed in Fargo. All told, my sister and Roger had a harder time driving to the Fargo Airport than I had flying in. The drive to Roger's parent's place wasn't too exciting, but it was a bit of a novel experience for me. The land is so flat, and the wind so persistent that the snow is constantly blowing around forming drifts in some places and clearing other places. Even though it was still snowing the wind blew the snow clear of the road. Off to either side of the road, it was impossible to separate land from sky as it was a even off-white all around.

The only places the snow would accumulate on the road was near the shelter belts, lines of trees planted to break up the wind. In those locations several inches of snow had accumulated. Actually the snow also accumulated at the intersections where the stop and go of traffic heated the snow and asphault enough to trap a layer of snow/ice which attracted more snow and ice.

That afternoon and evening some of the local family members came by. Some were unable to make it, even though they lived only a few miles away, because the snow plows had not come through and the snow drifts were too high to traverse. It was doubly ironic since others were able to drive all the way from Minnesota. But all told there were probably 20 or so family members there that night to open presents (the blizzard was at full tilt on Christmas day so the present opening was delayed). This is my niece Veronica opening one of her gifts, one small bit of paper at a time.

I got an awesome present from my sister, a T-Shirt that says, "Bacon is Meat Candy". She also got me a couple of knitted caps to keep my bald noggin warm in the Boston Winter.

The next day was a lot of fun. I got my first taste of snow-mobile driving! It was a lot of fun. I didn't get too adventurous as it was my first time. Well, I got a bit adventurous when I was coming in after going around the field for a while. Unfortunately, it was a bit too adventurous since I wasn't able to stay on the snow mobile as I was trying to force through the berm of plowed snow. Fortunately the snow was nice and soft. It was actually less painful and uncomfortable than a similar wipeout on a jet-ski. I guess water is a lot more forgiving frozen and at a tenth of the density. Even more fortunately, my sister was close enough to see what happened, and record the aftermath with my own camera. Yes that is snow on my beard

Most of the day was spent just hanging out. I learned how to play Smear, which is apparently very popular. Considering it requires eight people to play, it is a good thing Roger's family is so big. There was also round 2 of opening presents as more of the relatives were able to make it in. I thought the first night was ordered chaos, the second night was even crazier. With six of the siblings home, their wives and children... it was intense, but fun. I also learned that my Chinese Checkers skills are stuck back in the early 80's, as I was trounced by some of the kids.

All, told I had a lot of fun in North Dakota. The weather outside didn't end up being so cold (it was actually colder in Boston today than it was most of the time I was in in ND), and the people were very warm. So my thanks to the Bartholomays for having me.

Harvey

I stayed home sick from work today. Luckily, I recently got some new DVD's to help wile away the hours. Although I did catch some of the new Let's Make a Deal and The Price is Right. But there was no way I could sit through another judge so-and-so or a soap opera.

Anyway, one of the movies I put in was Harvey, starring Jimmy Stewart. I have to say that in many ways Elwood P Dowd is my hero. One line that has always stuck with me, ever since the first time I watched the movie was about advice that Elwood got from his mother:

'Years ago my mother used to say to me, she'd say, "In this world, Elwood, you must be" - she always called me Elwood - "In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant." Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. You may quote me.' -- Elwood P Dowd (Harvey 1950).

Of course, it is really the entire character that I enjoyed. Perhaps its the naivete that gets to me, the simple natured man who won't see the bad in people. Someone who goes through life being friendly to strangers.

In a former life I collected quotes, that is to say I used to, but have fallen out of the habit. Another quote from Harvey that I found very interesting is when he is explaining what he does. He and Harvey sit at the bar and talk to people:

They tell about the big terrible things they've done and the big wonderful things they'll do. Their hopes, and their regrets, and their loves, and their hates. All very large, because nobody ever brings anything small into a bar.

Of course, there is a lot of philosophy to be found at the bottom of a whiskey glass.

2012

This weekend I went to see the movie 2012. It was definitely a disaster movie, with just about every cliche including ones not typically found in disaster movies. I'm not writing here to review the movie however, so much as to wax philosophical about one of the themes of the movie, namely: who gets a ticket to survive the disaster.

In the movie 2012, there were seemingly three types of people who made it onto the "ships": billionaires, genetically selected people, and politicians/military. The billionaires bought their way on the ship for a billion Euros, the politicians are politicians who need bully boys, and then there is the carefully selected by scientists types...

First off, why even allow billionaires? The world is getting obliterated and they won't have any money. Also they are very unlikely to have any skills that would be necessary to rebuilt society. Sure, their money would come in handy to actually build the ships, but after that they would become dead weight.

The politicians are marginally more acceptable, because there does need to be an organizational structure in place for the days after the end of the world as we know it. Although I know the politicians that would end up being selected would be the absolute worst of the bunch, so everyone would be better off without them.

In the same category as the politicians I put the military. They fall into the bucket because they are government. They also represent structure. They are probably the most obvious group to have represented because the "survival" and "engineering" experts could be cherry picked from across the military. Such selection process is very easy to do without drawing attention to the fact that the world is coming to an end.

The final group in the movie were those that were screened genetically to ensure the survival of the species. What a bunch of boloney. That is important when you only get to take say 20 people and have to repopulate the world. When you have thousands, or hundreds of thousands there is enough genetic diversity that inbreeding is not an issue. If they had said people were screened for hereditary diseases, that would make more sense, but it would only eliminate a small portion of the population. If you excluded people with family histories, you can still narrow it down, but would have billions of people to choose from.

So who would I pick? It is tempting to follow the path of eugenics: select people who are the smartest and strongest/healthiest. However, while that would be good for the long term advancement of humanity, it would do little to help in the first decade or two. In those days it is most important to have the correct job skills and the correct personalities.

The personalities of the people who are saved is very important. They have to be hard workers, optimists, and morally upright people. When there aren't a lot of people you can't have people who don't pull their weight, or people who leech of society. Of course, the real question is how to select people by personality type...

As for job skills, there are a number that are obvious: craftsmen and doctors. Someone has to build the new world, and take care of the people in it. Throw in some engineers, and chemists, biologists (zoologists/botanists), and of course farmers/ranchers. Some of these occupations are things that most anyone can learn given some time, but it would be important to have a number of experts in the various fields. So everyone should learn some crafts and farming, but experts are still needed.

But there are a number of less obvious occupations as well. Teachers will be very important, as will librarians and people who know how to access and disburse knowledge and information. With all the time and effort being spent to simply survive the fall of society, it will be incredibly easy to lose the knowledge. Sure, the information will be preserved by some media, but it is important to know the information is there to be accessed. It is also important to keep the knowledge "living" because it is easier to pass on information from person to person than to rediscover the knowledge buried somewhere.

The final thing I would touch on is the age and gender distribution. Obviously to repopulate the earth you want a large percentage of the people who survive to be of childbearing age or younger. But just because someone is too old to have children doesn't mean they can't be useful to a post-apocalypse society. There is the knowledge base that is so important, and with age comes wisdom. So the elder members of the saved group would need to be chosen more for their expertise than anything else, and the youth more for their health and predicted capabilities. The exact distribution should also be chosen based on predictions of how quickly food supplies with regrow. It would be terrible to have tons of babies being born and toddlers running around without food. Also children take time to contribute to society, so in the first few years they are a drain (although psychologically they would be very important!).

Finally gender distribution. It would be easy to say, "save more women" because the women are what would ultimately determine how quickly the world it repopulated. But that would really only be an issue with a very small group of survivors. With a large group of survivors that becomes less important because there isn't a rush to preserve the species. In those cases the provider/nurturer pairing becomes important. Also, men on average have advantages in strength and stamina which would be important in a building society.

Anyway, I could go on and on. It wouldn't be an easy thing to decide and the practical considerations are monumental. How to keep it secret so there isn't mass rioting and anarchy? How do you convince people to contribute to the building/preservation who aren't going to get a ticket? [Stepping out of character for a moment, remember the scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade where Indy throws the Nazi out of the zeppelin and says, "No Ticket!"]

Scrambled Eggs

The first thing that I've been meaning to write down is about scrambled eggs. It doesn't sounds like anything too earth-shattering, I realize, but it is something that I've been thinking about. Breakfast happens to be one of my favorite meals of the day, but when I go to restaurants I can never understand why the eggs never taste good. Often they taste rather powdery, or greasy. Now, I'm not much of a chef, but I came up with my own recipe which seems to give pretty good results:

2 whole eggs
1 egg white
1 small pinch of creme of tartar
~2 tablespoons of milk
~1/4 teaspoon of salt

I'm not a big of yolks anyway, and uses some egg whites only makes the result a bit fluffier. Anyway, mix them all together and whip for a minute. Be sure to incorporate a lot of air as your doing it.

Frying pan with medium heat. Put in a pat of butter and wait until the butter is almost browning, which will take a bit of practice to figure out when this point is reached. If you like buttery eggs leave the excess butter in the pan, I usually pour out whatever isn't needed to cover the pan.

Pour the eggs into the pan. I usually let the bottom just start to congeal before stirring the mixture. I've found a rubber spatula works really well. Flipping the eggs on the bottom to the top. Constant motion prevents overcooking the outside. Keep it up until most of the runny moisture is cooked out. There should be some juice left, since the eggs will keep cooking once they are transferred to the plate. But no need to overdo it or the juice will run into your other food.

Anyway, that's how I cook my eggs.

Quotations

When I was in college, one of my hobbies was collecting quotes. Since it was the early days of the internet (at least before most people knew about the internet, the days of 56k modems and bulletin boards), I decided to make a webpage. One of the first things I did was start a quotation page. As I said, this was the early days of the internet, so my 200+ quotes was actually a huge number by the standards of the day. After a couple of years, someone even thought highly enough about my page that he plagiarized it. Of course, taking quotes from my page was fine, but I did object to wholesale copying of my page...

When I was in grad school, I discovered that one of my pages was actually referenced in a journal article. I had trolled the internet for a while trying to find the proper citation for the quote, "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." Most sources listed Mark Twain, but he thought it came from Benjamin Disraeli. Benjamin Disraeli is not known to have said it however. Anyway, my explanation got cited which I thought was pretty cool.

But, that was college. I really haven't touched the quotation page I set up since then, except to transfer it from my school's computer system to Geocities. Recently, Yahoo has decided to close Geocities, so my pages are going to be taken down before the end of the month. I spent some time today copying all the files to my computer.

Anyway, I thought I'd share the quotes from one of my favorite sources Publilius Syrus. He was an ancient Roman who came up with a number of clever sentences. Many of them are relatively common today, and most are just as pertinent:

• Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.
• To do two things at once is to do neither.
• The eyes are not responsible when the mind does the seeing.
• God looks at the clean hands, not the full ones.
• As men, we are all equal in the presence of death.
• We are interested in others when they are interested in us.
• Every one excels in something in which another fails.
• A god could hardly love and be wise.
• Learn to see in another's calamity the ills which you should avoid.
• Many receive advice, few profit by it.
• You should hammer your iron when it is glowing hot.
• What is left when honour is lost?
• When Fortune flatters, she does it to betray.
• Fortune is like glass,--the brighter the glitter, the more easily broken.
• It is more easy to get a favour from fortune than to keep it.
• There are some remedies worse than the disease.
• Powerful indeed is the empire of habit.
• When two do the same thing, it is not the same thing after all.
• No tears are shed when an enemy dies.
• The bow too tensely strung is easily broken.
• Treat your friend as if he might become an enemy.
• The judge is condemned when the criminal is acquitted.
• When innocence is frightened, the judge is condemned.
• Practice is the best of all instructors.
• Never find your delight in another's misfortune.
• The fear of death is more to be dreaded than death itself.
• A rolling stone gathers no moss.
• Never promise more than you can perform.
• It is not every question that deserves an answer.
• No man is happy who does not think himself so.
• Never find your delight in another's misfortune.
• A guilty conscience never feels secure.
• Familiarity breeds contempt.
• It is a very hard undertaking to seek to please everybody.
• It matters not what you are thought to be, but what you are.
• No one knows what he can do till he tries.
• It matters not how long you live, but how well.
• Everything is worth what its purchaser will pay for it.
• Better be ignorant of a matter than half know it.
• Prosperity makes friends, adversity tries them.
• Let a fool hold his tongue and he will pass for a sage.
• It is a consolation to the wretched to have companions in misery.
• Confession of our faults is the next thing to innocency.
• I have often regretted my speech, never my silence.
• Speech is a mirror of the soul: as a man speaks, so is he.
• In quarreling the truth is always lost.
• No one reaches a high position without daring.
• For a good cause, crime is virtuous.
• No pleasure endures unseasoned by variety.
• Beware the fury of a patient man
• It is only the ignorant who despise education.
• Do not despise the bottom rungs in the ascent to greatness.
• He who flees from trial confesses his guilt.
• It is his nature, not his standing, that makes a good man.
• You can accomplish by kindness what you cannot do by force.
• A friendship that can end never really began.
• It's a bad plan that can't be changed.
• An angry man is again angry with himself when he returns to reason.
• The remedy for wrongs is to forget them.
• From the errors of others a wise man corrects his own.
• It is better to learn late than never.
• A Rooster has great influence on its own dunghill

Weekend

I went down to Knoxville this weekend for my niece's 1st birthday. I would say birthday party, and that was the original intent, but the party was postponed until today, and I got back last night.

On the second leg of my flight down, I shared the flight with a Washington Redskin. His behavior, while not deplorable, still didn't shine the best light on him. He spent a good deal of the flight chatting up the flight attendant (not that I could blame him). When he found out she wanted to be a journalist, he began complaining about sports journalists and how "we" hate them (upon getting home and trying to identify which player it was on the flight, I came to realize why "he" wouldn't like journalists). Anyway, rather than make snarky comments, I'll close this anecdote with an observation, he was listed at 6'5 1/2", but appeared to be at least an inch, more likely two inches shorter than I am. Although it is hard to tell in the confines of an airplane that might have had six feet of headroom total.

My niece is well on the way to being a real person. She is just starting to walk and seems to be able to understand some of what is going on around her. I was hoping to hear her say something, but it all sounded like baby babble to me. Although she does seem to understand shaking her head to say no (which I mostly got when I tried to pick her up).

Apparently I am still too much of a stranger for Veronica to enjoy being around. Although Melanie says she was a bit grumpy because she is getting a new tooth in. Also she was a bit out of sorts because Melanie was sick and couldn't play with her.

So, Melanie found out she had Strep on Friday. Just in time to tell me before I got on the flight down. I didn't change my plans as a result, but the party was pushed back from Saturday till Monday, so Melanie wouldn't get people/children who came to the party sick. It is also hard to setup a party from quarantine.

One of the "upsides" was that I got to bake the cake for Veronica. Not the really cool bear cake Melanie ended up making for the actual party, but just a normal cake. It was actually the first time I'd made a cake from scratch, and it turned out pretty well, especially with Melanie helping as she could. The icing I made ended up being a little too soft to make great decorations (I was going to try to make icing roses), but it tasted pretty good.

When it came time for birthday cake, Veronica didn't demolish the cake as Melanie and I were expecting. We gave her a big slice and she delicately pulled crumbs off the corners. No handful of frosting, no big mess. But it was still a good time.

Cigarette Butts

I went shopping for my niece's birthday after work today. It was actually a rather refreshing experience for me. Being big and tall, it is very frustrating for me to go clothes shopping, since I am limited to a handful of stores and basically none of the specialty shops have anything. But for my niece, I didn't have to worry about sizes. Also, I didn't really have to worry about if anything matched because they were little outfits.

Anyway, the real reason for this blog isn't shopping for my niece. Because after I went shopping, I went to dinner, which was good but still not the subject of the story. It is what happened as I was walking out of the restaurant. There was a guy taking off the top of one of those cigarette disposal poles. About 2 inches wide column with holes on the sides that flares down at the bottom. Anyway the guy was searching through the disposed of cigarettes for something to smoke.

I have seen homeless people, at least that's how they look, in the past pick up cigarettes from the street and smoking them. But this seemed worse that than. I suppose it's pretty much the same in reality, but it is still a bit disturbing. Kind of like an alcoholic drinking the dregs of other people's drinks at a bar. Anyway, it made me wonder if he's driven to it entirely from the addiction to cigarettes or for the enjoyment he gets from the smoking. Similarly for the homeless people who spend their nickels and dimes to buy alcohol instead of food. Are they that strongly addicted, or do they crave the escape the alcohol gives them.

Another thing that I was reminded of was an old math problem. A man figures out a way to unroll cigarette butts and combine them together to form new cigarettes. It takes five cigarettes to create a new cigarette. If they man finds 25 cigarette butts, how many cigarettes can he smoke?

Future Me

Last night while drifting in and out of sleep, I was thinking about the past. Specifically, I was wondering where in my past I would go to have a talk with myself about the past me's future which would be my present. What pivotal time could I arrive and give myself the advise I needed. I quickly identified times in my life where small changes would have the most profound far reaching effects. I was pondering what I would say to make sure those effects were to my benefit.

That's when future me showed up. "Past-me," he said, "I'm current-me, but you can call me future-me." He looked like me, only he wasn't quite me. There was something in his eye that held a little more regret, and a little more hope. I asked future-me what happened to me in the future, but future-me didn't want to talk about his past, he wanted to talk about my future.

"But future-me, my future is your past," I said.

He shook his head and said, "It doesn't have to be. There are a few pivotal times in a person's life when small changes can have a large impact on the future. Just by talking to you today, I have ensured that when I go back to my current time, my life will be profoundly different. I'm just here to give you the advise you need to make sure the current I go back to is better than the current I left."

"So future-me, what advise will make sure that happens?"

"Past-me," he said, "you were just coming up with a list of advise for your past-me, weren't you?"

"Yes, actually I was."

"Follow it."

I hate feeling trapped

This is something I have always known, but the concept finally crystallized yesterday as I was attempting to take the subway home... I had to work yesterday, even though it was a holiday (an entirely different rant involved there), and as I usually do I went down into the subway to catch the T home. By the time I walked the length of the station the announcement came on that the next train going my way was about to arrive. After about five minutes (I could see the train in the tunnel) another announcement came on that there was a delay.

By the time another five minutes had gone by, I was pacing like a caged animal. I was already stressed because of work, and the delay of the train only added to that. My pacing grew worse and I could almost feel my brain shorting. Every few minutes there was another announcement that there were switching problems causing the delay.

Finally I was fed up and left the station. As soon as I left the station, I started feeling better. I walked across the bridge, passing one train as it sit there waiting for the signal problems to be fixed. Eventually the train passed me, but I was nearly to the next station by that point. So I went into that station and it wasn't too long before I got on another train. Progress was slow, but steady.

As I paced, and walked and rode, I reflected how much I hate feeling trapped. For instance, traffic, I hate it. Not because of the time wasted and the morons surrounding me (although obviously those matter) but because I can't move as I want to move. In relatively light traffic, I find I pass people, just so they aren't in front of me, not necessarily because I want to drive faster, but because I want the option. If there are packs on the road, as there often are, I speed up or slow down so I am between the groups and not hemmed in.

At the movies, I sit near the aisle. I prefer sitting in the center, but I tend to sit close enough to the side that there is no one between me and the aisle. I haven't had to run to the bathroom during a movie for a long time, but I like to have the option of getting up easily. Same thing on airplanes, I always get the aisle seat. Generally I am fine during the flight, but once we land and everyone starts standing up, but the doors haven't opened, I feel my blood pressure rising. I just need to escape the plane.

But it isn't just physical confinement that bothers me. I also hate emotional, societal, and psychological confinement. In fact, sometimes the mental fetters are the oddest and most profound. For instance, I have always hated being labeled, or having someone comment that I always do something or that something is my favorite. I find that I change to avoid being that.

When I was young, I had a blanket (I still have it). When we would watch TV at night as a family, I would often get it out of my room and use it to keep warm and comfortable. One day my dad commented that it was a security blanket. I don't think he meant anything by the comment, but I stopped using that blanket when watching TV with the family.

That is probably the oddest/harshest aspect... That someone's expectations of what I am/like/do can somehow rob the enjoyment I take from being/liking/doing. Maybe if I can see that I am trapping myself I can sort this all out.

Because one of the things I have always felt was missing from my life was a sense of belonging. Perhaps trying to belong, felt too much like being trapped and it triggered panic. I have felt the sense of belonging, in small doses. Going to a restaurant and having the waitress know what I wanted to eat, and how I liked it.

A foolish constistency is the hobgoblin of little minds... What kind of mind is foolish inconsistency the hobgoblin of?

Sensitivity

I always thought things were supposed to dull over time. That we become inured to the things around us. Perhaps not just things...

But I've been finding that I seem to have become more sensitive to things. The other day I went to Roller Derby, and the people sitting next to me were smokers. I've always been sensitive to cigarette smoke, but it's getting ridiculous. Between matches, the people behind me left and were replaced with a whole row of smokers. By the time the second bout was over, I had to flee because I was getting an asthma attack from the smoke that lingered on them.

I've also noticed that I can sometimes smell my neighbors cooking from inside of my condo. The scent has to travel through two closed doors, across a hallway, and however far it is from their kitchen to their door.

It isn't just my sense of smell. I doubt if my hearing has actually gotten any better, but sounds, even subtle sounds pick at my attention. It amazes me when I can hear someone else's music on the subway, over the noise of the train and the music from my own earbuds.

Then there are people...

Mint Juleps and the Kentucky Derby

Today was the Kentucky Derby and in celebration (perhaps it would be more correct to say that the Derby inspired...) I made mint juleps and had some friends over. I had never had a mint julep before, let alone made one, so there was a learning curve involved.

The first thing I learned is that crushed ice is much better than regular ice. Nearly everyone commented that the further through the drink they got, the better the julep became. At first I thought it was a matter of mixing the drink, but later I became convinced it was the ice melting and mixing with the other ingredients, mellowing and accenting the flavors.

The big question on my mind was whether to bruise the mint or not. Really the jury is still out for the most part. I used infused simple syrup, rather than plain syrup. The infused syrup had nearly two days to absorb the essential oils from the mint leaves (both the bruised and unbruised). So the difference in flavor was relatively slight. Then there is the matter of the mint leaves turning black when they are crushed... Since I spooned the syrup in, I didn't need to spoon in the leaves, so there were no bits of black leaf in the drinks.

Of course, I also added leaves to the glasses. Here I believe there could have been a difference. If I had used a non-infused syrup, and unbruised leaf would not release much flavor in the course of drinking. But a good deal of the taste actually comes from the smell, so again it likely wouldn't make a big difference.

So, in conclusion, I would go with unbruised mint leaves more for the aesthetic values than the flavor, given the almost unnoticeable difference in the later.

As for the Derby... I don't know if it was the most exciting two minutes in sports, but it was definitely fun to watch. It was a very muddy track, and during the rather extensive pre-race coverage they showed the mud zambonie a number of times. I was pulling for "Hold me Back" but he was held back and didn't finish in the money.

The winner, "Mine That Bird" sparked much debate... Is the "Mine" the explosive type or the underground mineral deposit type, or simply the possessive form? Are we digging for birds? Taking birds into coal mines? Whatever the case may be, congratulations.

Swine Flu and Mint Juleps

The other day at lunch, I saw a girl walking through with a mask on. It could be for some reason other than swine flu fears, but it seemed too coincidental. It really amazes me how crazy the whole world seems to be getting about the "swine" flu. I've read a lot of articles about the flu, about how it's becoming a pandemic, etc. But more and more of the articles, rightly so, are concentrating on downplaying the threat.

First of all, calling it swine flu is a misnomer. It is a flu that can live in people, birds and swine, but there hasn't been a documented case in swine! Secondly, the flu isn't that deadly. Annually the normal flu kills tens of thousands of people in the US alone, the so called swine flu is still in the double digits.

It really bothers me all the fear-mongering going around about the swine flu. Before that it was the avian flu. Can people not get along without having something to fear? Do we actually need the boogie man to be able to sleep at night? I would blame the media, but they are just giving people what they want.

After 9-11, the media went on endlessly about how bad the economy was as a result of the attacks. Even after the economy recovered and was doing well, they kept hounding on the fact that the economy was in shambles. After five years of doomsaying, the economy did tumble. But the economy is a self fulfilling system, so how much was caused by the predictions and how much by the actual conditions? I wonder if the economy could have had a minor "correction" instead of a recession, if people were more confident.

Anyway, as Gabriel Heatter used to say, "There is good news tonight." I made simple syrup for mint juleps. As the name implied, it is a rather simple process. Combine equal parts sugar and water and bring the liquid to a boil and make sure all of the sugar is dissolved. Then let it cool (although a couple of web sites suggested boiling for 5 minutes, I boiled a couple of minutes). Once the concoction was relatively cool, I poured it into three glasses. The first glass had unbruised mint leaves, the second bruised leaves, and the last was empty (which will be my control group). The glasses are now in the refridgerator steeping or controlling.

I do have to say, mint is powerfully strong smelling! When I opened the little package, I just about seized up from the smell. I'm curious as to how I'll feel about the smell tomorrow, or I suspect for a few weeks to come.

Complaint

I dislike cigarette smoke, to put it mildly. Despise might be a more accurate term. As I was coming home from 6294 tonight, I had the misfortune of catching the very last train. When this has happened before, I didn't mind so much. Sure it is a little slower than normal (the last red line train waits for the last green line train and orange line train, so delays in either of those lines means a wait).

But tonight was an entirely different sort of issue. Two guys got on the train smoking cigarettes. There are a number of signs saying that it's illegal, but that didn't phase them. I told the guy to put out the cigarette, and he refused.

I won't go into the nitty-gritty, but it put me and everyone else on the train in an awkward position, although me more than most. If I had insisted, I know there was a good chance the confrontation would have escalated. I thought about pushing the call button, but again, an escalation would be likely. Even if I stood up, it could have been construed as a confrontational move. Also, if I had tried going forward to the talk to the conductor directly, there was a decent chance the doors would have closed and I would miss the last train.

There was more drama to the story, but my part ended when I got to my stop and informed the attendent at the station about the two guys who were smoking. I have no idea if anything will come of it (I doubt it), but... Actually, my part didn't quite end there, since I also wrote a message to the MBTA explaining the situation, and asking what a person is supposed to do.

On a slightly unrelated note (only relating in that it also happened on the train), I felt rather overdressed on the subway. Wearing a jacket and tie on the subway, on the first nice day (a weekend day none-the-less) made me stand out more than usual. Heck, wearing long pants put me in a very small minority.

P.S. I feel I should justify this posting a little bit more. I try to be the sort of person who is not upset by things. But sometimes something happens that really causes my blood to boil (and in this case triggers my asthma and causes my eyes to burn). Even though it is two in the morning, and I really should be going to bed, this had me wound up enough that blowing off steam writing a blog entry seems like the sane option.

Alumni Weekend

April 29, 1864 was the date of the founding of my fraternity. Every year to commemorate the anniversary every chapter has a Founder's day celebration called 6294. My chapter, the fourth chapter, Delta, was also founded on April 29, but 1885. So we've been at MIT almost as long as MIT has been around.

Anyway, this weekend is the celebration, so the tradition is to have a BBQ at the house, then go play an alumni vs. actives baseball game. Everyone then gets cleaned up and we return to the house later that night to have a "nice" dinner. Quite a few alumni come back to the house for this event, depending on the year. Some pledge classes coordinate, so their entire class tries to come back, even if they are spread across the country.

I just got back from the softball portion of the event. After 4 innings or so, the alumni's lead was in the double digits. The alumni virtually always win the event, and it's not always because we cheat and get to bend the rules (the alumni bat first and last, for instance). I hadn't intended on playing, but since pretty much everyone was as bad as I am, and as disinclined to running, I decided to play a bit. Although I did leave early as the sun started to get too much for me. Hopefully I didn't get sunburned, for which I largely thank my baseball cap (since a bald head is prone to burning). Anyway, I went 2 for 3 and scored a run.

The turnout this year has been much better than last year. Of course, last year was maybe 60 degrees and cloudy (which for me was wonderful) and this year was 80 and sunny. So that could have had something to do with it. Hopefully even more people will be at the dinner tonight.

Now, I have an hour or so to recover, get cleaned up and head back for the dinner.

Two blogs in two days...

I know it's hardly setting the world on fire, but I haven't blogged this consistently since I started this thing. Actually, thinking back to why I started the blog makes me wonder if there wasn't something subconscious going on.

I started this blog when I was moving from California. I thought it might be easier to give everyone the blog address and just post messages here letting everyone know how the move and the home-hunting was going. Once I moved in, I had a lot less to blog about.

Not that there is so much more excitement in my life right now... Well, I suppose there might be, but writing this is also a form of procrastination, I should probably be going to bed instead of sending out thoughts to the ether.

Anyway, today wasn't a very good day, as far as days go. Really Friday was a bad day, but I didn't realize that Friday was a bad day until today, making today the bad day instead. It isn't the day itself that is bad, so much as the news it brings, or the results of the news.

In this case, I came in this morning and found that the work I had done on Friday wasn't saved. I don't know if I accidently forget to save it, or if there was some glitch that caused it not to save, or what, but the result was the same, I had to redo the work. Luckily doing it a second time was easier and faster, but it was still annoying to do something twice. So that was information that would have made Friday a bad day, and instead made today a bad day.

The other bit of information was that the big contract that my company was hoping for, and for which I put in a ton of effort, didn't happen. The announcement was sent out on Friday after I left work. Since I didn't check my email after I left work on Friday, the news was waiting for me when I got in this morning.

Neither outcome was particularly devastating, but they both came as a blow to the psyche. The one two punch definitely left a hollow feeling in me for most of the day.

One of the real ironies is that I am procrastinating going to bed, by writing what a psychic blow today has been. But, I have always found that when I get this hollow feeling in my gut, the best and often only solution is sleep. Whatever pain or difficulty caused the feelings remains the next day, but the hollow feeling goes away, letting me work through it.

Anyway, I should at least brush my teeth...

Weekend

Last night I went to the Roller Derby to see the Boston Derby Dames in action. I believe I have a new favorite player in the guise of Sugar Hits. She played both games of the double header, and was amazing in the opening match vs. the Wicked Pissahs. At times she would simply sneak through the pack of blockers, at other times she used more powerful methods to get to the front (I would say brute force, but there is nothing brutish about her). In the opener, I was also quite impressed with the rookie, Lil' Pain.

The second game, which pit the Boston Massacre aginst the Philly Liberty Bells, was quite an exciting match. Even though the Derby Dames lost the match against Philly, it was a lot of fun, and I found my throat a bit sore this morning from the cheering.

As I drove to and from the match, I was distracted (as I often am) by the behavior of people in traffic. First of all, very few people stay to the right when they are the slowest car in vicinity (not even the second to right lane, leaving the far right lane for oncoming/exiting traffic). People who try to travel faster, should also pass on the left. The net result would be a negative curl in the velocity field, resulting in smoother traffic flow.

Secondly, people tend to travel in packs rather than as individuals. I have noticed than many people who drive fast, actually tend to slow down once they get to the front of the pack of cars, and seem reluctant to detach from the pack. Also the slower drivers tend to speed up when the pack threatens to leave them behind. The result is a group of cars that all move at approximately the same speed, making progress through them very difficult.

The third observation is that people can't seem to maintain speeds when the slope changes. Going uphill people slow down dramatically, and heading downhill the speed increases. Traffic seemed to average about 70-75 going to the match, but would slow to 60 when going uphill and reach 85 on the back side of the hill. This meant that traffic would clump before the hill started as the wave propogates backward.

Anyway, enough traffic observation...

So this morning, before church started there was a bit of a distrubance. A man was making a bit of noise and one of the ushers was trying to keep him quiet. The man who was making the noise at first sounded mentally handicapped, but it became clear he was drunk (although mental handicap and/or mental disorder are not to be ruled out). He had a large scar vertically across his forehead. He was also in possession of a number of bottles and cans in plastic bags (which I heard spill when he left).

Before the man was convinced to leave, he said, "I wish I were dead" more than once. He also said that if he left he would never come back. During his sermon the pastor brought up this incident and said the man had worked for the Missouri Synod for a number of years, and that when he was once again sober he would be welcomed back with open arms. I hope the man does find sobriety and peace.

The whole situation left me with strong, and conflicting feelings. At first when the man was making noise, I felt indignent, "doesn't that man know how to behave in church." As the usher began getting mad at the fellow when he wouldn't leave, I felt indignent, this time at the usher for not remaining calm and showing scorn instead of kindness. As the man left, proclaiming his desire to die, I thought about following him out, since clearly the man needed help, but unclear what help I could offer. As I looked around the church, I saw the same mix of feelings on the faces of those who saw what had happened, as well as those who just tried to ignore it all.

It also put some of my own previous thoughts in perspective. I wondered why people would come to church in sneakers and running pants. But they did come to church, even though they had a very big race the next day and had come into town from hundreds of miles away.

Since the Boston marathon is tomorrow, a number of people were in church from out of town, some families from Pennsylvania and Florida. There was also an early baseball game, so the streets and T were more crowded than usual. Actually it was a bit difficult getting to church because of the crowds, having to wait for a second train to have room to get on. Although, tomorrow might very well be worse.

Last week, I was the "White Isaac Hayes" this week, I'm "The man who casts a shadow." The former is more flattering, the latter perhaps more accurate, literally and figuratively.

White Isaac Hayes

On Sunday when I was walking to lunch after church, a guy the street corner got my attention and said, "Here comes a white Isaac Hayes." I suppose in a round about kind of way, it could appear that way. Bald head, full beard, and at the time I was wearing sunglasses. I also had on a very snazzy tie. But, I think the similarities break down about there.

Anyway, this being a street corner in Boston, in the middle of the day, I assumed he was soliciting money rather than just being friendly. As it turns out he was, but I'm jumping ahead abit. So as I got a bit closer he said, rather more loudly than necessary, "You look like the kind of guy who isn't afraid of a black man," and offered to shake my hand. So, while I was mildly offended by the statement, I didn't have a strong reason not to shake hands.

He then went into his sales pitch. He was apparently raising money for a book drive in Roxbury to help black children. He was the one who emphasized that it was for black children. I suppose that his loud manner, and frequent reference to race was an attempt to get me to donate based on "white guilt."

I declined.

As I started to turn away, the guy said, "You aren't going to hit me, are you?" He held up his hands in mock surrender. Nothing else the guy had said, or how he acted, made me even consider physical violence (or even saying something mean), but that one question did inspire violent thoughts.

I don't know whether he was fooling around, or if he was making a scene to attract attention/pity from other pedestrians. To me, it was insulting, a verbal slap in the face. I realize I am a big man, and I was probably 6" taller than this fellow, but I find it incredulous that he felt physically threatened by my movements/posture.

Anyway, it wasn't an entirely unpleasent walk to lunch. I also walked past an old woman sitting on a park bench. I said hello, and she responded with a "Good morning." I'm not sure if I flinched in some way, or if she caught the mistake herself, but with chargrin she started to amend her greeting, since it was in fact afternoon. But, it did feel like morning, and with a glance at my watch, I reassured her that it was only half an hour after morning.

Travel

This weekend I traveled to Knoxville to visit my sister and her family, most notably my niece. I checked the weather the day before and it looked like there was going to be some rain, but not enough to worry about. Boy, was I wrong.

I got to the airport with time to spare and the board listed my flight as on time. Groovy, but again wrong. We all got on the plane and then the pilot came on to say there was going to be a delay. A few minutes later the pilot came on again saying that there was going to be a long delay and that we could de-board once they got the jetbridge back in place. Luckily we hadn't actually pulled away from the gate.

Most of us on the plane went back out to the terminal to get the low-down on the situation. Turns out there was severe weather in Philadelphia which was holding us up. There was also severe weather in DC and NY making it difficult to reroute people. I got in the line at the counter and proceeded to wait my turn.

I've been in similar situations before and it always amazes me how rude people can get. A number of people were yelling at the woman doing her best to reroute people. They of course did this without waiting in line first. Apparently it is okay to cut in line if you just need one thing... Don't get me wrong, I can understand being upset that the flight was delayed, but why take it out on someone who didn't cause the problem? It's hard to even say it is the airline's fault since the weather was an ongoing situation (as opposed to the downstream rescheduling problems caused by not carrying margin in the system).

I got lunch in Boston, and eventually got on the flight to Philadelphia. I also got a new connection scheduled since we were still on the ground when my connecting flight to Knoxville was supposed to leave.

I'm not a big fan of the Philadelphia airport, at least the parts of it I've seen. Maybe I'm just unhappy that they have a terrible selection of restaurants. Also since everyone and their mother had a delayed flight, the one bar in the F terminal was packed. It actually took close to twenty minutes to get a seat. And the bar stayed back.

I will say I talked to a number of interesting people as we all passed the time. My sister always said that she likes airport bars. The people are interesting, there is no pressure, and most of them are just there to pass a bit of time.

After a number of hours at the bar in the terminal in Philadelphia, I went to the gate to await my flight. The scheduled 6:50 departure became 7:10, and the 8:10. Another flight to Knoxville was leaving at 8:20. That flight (unlike the one I was booked on) was direct to Knoxville. Unfortunately the Royal Stiltsters (or something like that) from Belgium had apparently taken all the seats on that flight, and even overbooked it.

Eventually I got on the plane to DC. It being a smallish plane, I had to gate check my bag. Not such a bad thing, but a bit annoying. Anyway, the first part of the flight was fine, but the descent into DC was... exciting. Depending on the wind direction, the approach into DC can be business as usual, or a bit harrowing. This was the harrowing approach and in bad weather. Due to airspace restrictions a good deal of flight space near Reagan National is off limits. So when the wind is blowing towards DC, you have to make a sharp descent and a crazy turn to avoid the airspace and still land upwind. As an aerospace engineer, I should know everything is fine, but I was still quite white-knuckled on landing.

Remember the gate checked bag? Well, because this was a continuing flight, it was the same airplane. I had the foresight to mark the bag's tag with my final destination. Yeah. Anyway, we didn't get to arrive at a gate, but had a bus come out to ferry people between the airplane and the terminal. Since I was continuing on, I didn't have to get off, right? Actually I did, to claim my bag and give it right back to the guy. Apparently they go through this because sometimes they send the bag with the bus if no one claims it. Anyway, those of us staying on the flight, gave our stubs to the flight attendent so he could call the gate and let them know we were already on board.

With all the excitement in Philadelphia, not everyone had normal seat assignments. Not a big deal, people can cope right? So, when the DC passengers got on the plane there were some problems. An older man found a woman in his assigned seat. So he told her so, except she was on the phone and so not responding quickly enough. The man started yelling at her. She in turn yelled back that she was trying to get a car in Knoxville because everything had fallen through and the man was being rude. The guy yelled at her for holding everyone up by not moving (did I mention that he was standing in the middle of the aisle this whole time, even though he could have sat next to her and let everyone go by? He demanded to see her ticket stub, which of course she had surrendered to the flight attendent.

The flight crew made numerous announcements that people who were continuing the flight had seat assignment issues and that everyone should just take a seat. People didn't just take seats though. They sat and then said they should be in different seats. It even seems like too many people got on the plane because there was someone standing when all the seats were full.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I eventually made it to Knoxville, only eight hours after I was supposed to. The real bummer was that when I asked my sister if she was up for a visit, she decided to have a bonfire party to celebrate. Since I didn't get there until after midnight, this meant I missed the party entirely.

But, I did get to spend two full days with my sister, her husband and of course Veronica (my niece). I also got to spend all a day with my brother who drove down from Pennsylvania. Although, he was lucky enough to arrive in time for the party.

The trip back was much less eventful. The rain was pretty bad the whole way, but aside from a few bumps everything was fine. Of course, the rain wasn't very fun when I got back to Boston. It was cold, super windy and raining. It was raining hard enough that when I walked back from the T station my leather shoes soaked through the top!

St. Louis

Last week I traveled to St. Louis for a training class. David (a coworker) and I went to learn some new software, and as he's from the area he showed me some of the sites.

The main site to see in St. Louis is the Gateway to the West, or simply the arch. I had seen it as a child and was absolutely terrified by the trip to the top. I've been afraid of heights for as long as I can remember, and for a while as a child I had a fear of elevators (the sudden acceleration and deceleration made me feel like I was falling). Anyway, the elevator to the top is this bubble tram system where the individual cars keep "righting" themselves as you travel the curve of the arch. In a word, terrifying! Anyway, to make a long story short I thought about facing my fear, and decided that I did a swell job of it... with both feet on the ground. But when facing the arch once again, I was amazed that when viewed from the capital building, the beautiful arch nicely frames an industrial complex. On one side of the river is the capital building, then a beautiful garden area which leads to the arch. On the other side of the river an old ugly industrial building and that's it. When I pointed this out, David replied something along the lines of, "It's Illinois, what can you do?"

While I was in town, I managed to dine at three different restaurants owned by Cardinal's players. It helped that two of the restaurants were within walking distance of my hotel which was also in walking distance to the training location. One thing that intrigued me was the menu at Ozzie's (as in the Wizard of Oz, Ozzie Smith) had a special "Lenten Entree" section, which I can't recall seeing before. I commented on this to the people hosting the training class, and they seemed surprised that I was surprised, since surely in a place like Boston I saw it all the time. Boston might be more cosmopolitan that St Louis, but having a lot of variety doesn't mean having all the varieties. Considering the number of churches in Boston that have been turned into condominiums, it really doesn't surprise me that I haven't seen a Lenten menu.

All in all, it was a good trip (except for the hotel which was sub-par). I learned a good deal, saw the sights, and got home safe and sound.

Home Again

I spent the last two weeks and a day in Virginia working on a proposal for work. It wasn't a lot of fun. I ended up having to extend the trip twice, the first time for four days, the second for just one. The woman at the hotel asked, "Why do you even bother checking out?" I also averaged working 12 hours a day for the entire trip, including a meeting on Superbowl Sunday. The one bright point was that I got to have dinner with my dad one night.

I must have been running on adrenaline towards the end. I almost fell asleep in the rental car van going to the airport, and again while waiting for my flight. But even though I zoned out and felt like I could sleep, I didn't. Even when I got home, I couldn't fall asleep until the stress worked itself out of my system. Once I did sleep it was for ten hours, and I barely got out of bed then.

Today was full of paying bills that have been piling up in my absence, doing laundry that I've been lugging around, and eating cookies that my sister made for me. I also spent some time working on my niece's present, but didn't get too far before my motivation dried up. I'm in a waking coma, althought I'll try to move off my couch in a bit... really.