Esquire piece on Heath Ledger

I really enjoyed this, mostly fictional, account of Heath Ledger’s last days.

After I died, people dissected me. They put words in my mouth: This is how he felt when he wrote this, this is what he thought of me, this is why he did it. Fuck them. But also bless them. They made me famous. Immortal. Suddenly, my songs, which once were strange and ill-conceived, now were fat with meaning. When you die, you become a Virgin Mary, an untouchable exalted thing with a golden breast and a mink brow. You lose yourself, and they win you. You have no voice, and so a million people breathe and talk for you. Your art is their art. Your casket is their temple, your last words are their next ten commandments.

 

Weekend in New York – NYTimes and Bruce Lee

We had one of the most amazing weekends in New York City.  We had one very long and exciting day in Manhattan/Queens and another in Brooklyn with friends.  I was in Manhattan giving a presentation and decided to stay for the weekend, so Amber flew out and we started our tiresome adventure.  We visited many friends and I thoroughly enjoyed our in “the other city”.

New York Times

A friend at the New York Times invited us both on a tour of their Manhattan building and the printing/production facility in Queens.  Familiar with large companies an their clandestine operations was thrown out the window as both buildings are clearly emblazoned with the company name across the side.  I’m an avid NYTimes reader and have so many fond memories reading the Sunday edition with Amber at Herb’s (no longer there) in Noe Valley.  It sounds so hipster, but memories I strongly enjoy.

The Manhattan office of the New York Times is the first entirely ‘green’ building in the city.  The building itself is entirely customizable.  There are window shades that automatically open and close as the sun moves to keep the building cool.  The lighting system will adjust to the specific needs of each department or office.  There are ventilation ducts throughout the building to enable a seamless flow of air.  The artistic nature of the building is reflected in the art pieces that decorate the hallways.  From the flat screen monitors projecting daily images from the paper itself to the Italian leather furniture the interior is something to behold.  Each floor matches the ethos of that department.  For example, the fashion floor is covered in fashion photos from the Times Magazine; the book review department has desks stacked high with submissions and copies of the OED; the science section has even more books including copies of every field of scientific research.  It’s a culture that enables the employees to live and work in their famous building.

From there we went to the printing facility in Queens.  The innocuous exterior does not reflect the almost surgical precision happening inside.  Upon entering we walked through (literally) the printing presses from start to finish and marveled at the miles of special track they have for moving thousands of newspapers efficiently.  When warming up the presses they may print a few thousand papers just to make sure the alignment of the colors and printing is correct.  They showed us special codes on the paper that show what press it originated from and how many times that page was updated.  There are even special dots on the front page that depict what edition of that day’s paper it is.  The de Vinci code of the NYTimes!

The paper starts in a 9 story warehouse that looks more like the door storage facility from Monster’s Inc. than anything else.  Robotic arms move 1.5 ton rolls of paper onto a conveyor belt that unmanned robots lift and load onto the presses.  We were able to walk among these robots as they moved and maneuvered around us as if secretly guided by invisible beings.  The paper is then run through the presses, different sizes depending on what pages of the paper are being printed.  It’s not until fully printed that the paper is cut and folded.  At top speed these machines can print 85,000 papers per hour – that is not pages, but entire papers!  Some papers are printed on the evening before distribution, but thicker ones such as the beloved Sunday edition are too big for one run.  Instead part of the paper (i.e. book review section) is printed early and held in reserve on massive wheels.  These reserve sections will be inserted into the rest of the paper when it is finally printed.  All of this is done by massive machines and miles-upon-miles of track that move the papers throughout the factory floor.

Bruce Lee – Enter the Dragon

The following day we stayed with friends in Brooklyn.  They are extreme kung-fu fans and got us seats to an open air showing of Bruce Lee’s movie Enter the Dragon.  This was one of the many open air movies showing in Prospect Park.  It was nice having friends who could hook us up with VIP passes meaning we had access to the beer tent and, most importantly, had a seat for the screening.  As the movie began, even in the opening credits, the audience cheered over and over.  I could tell there was something different about this screening but didn’t catch on quite as quick as most.  The music was new, updated and could not have possibly have been part of the original score.  It was not.

At this special screening Karsh Kale was mixing a new and updated live score.  In addition Soh Daiko was on stage drumming.  It has to be the most amazing version of any kung-fu movie I have ever seen.  The music matched each scene and reflected the intonation and intent of the original soundtrack.  I left there with a new appreciation for this movie.

 

Congratulations are in order

Kristin broke the news about a newly engaged couple.  I’m so happy for them both because I’ve known them for years and we have been through so much together (good times and bad.)  I’m excited to see them engaged and what a great place to propose – Paris!

 

Open letter to Twitter followers

I really like Twitter because it allows me to keep up with my friends and what is happening in their lives.  In addition to keeping up on the life and times of friends it also enables me to meet new people who my friends are interfacing with.  I enjoy this peep into their lives, but only to a degree.  I want to open the Pandora’s box, but not all the way.  I want to be open about my life but protect my tweets.

And therein lies the problem.  Because I protect my twitter feed only authorized connections can see it.  I want to enable many people to read and follow my life, but there is a limitation in twitter that forces me to follow them as well.  I wish we lived in a perfect world where I could keep a protected feed, enable others to follow me, and not follow them back.  But this is a limitation of the technology.

Now I like hearing about my friend’s lives in 140 characters or less, but I want them to be succinct and keep their live media stream within those boundaries.  I enjoy reading about even the nuances of ones life but disdain being forced to wade through pages of IM conversations between two people in order to find the content I really want to read.  I loath reading tweets that read “@friend yeah!” or “@friend totally!”  To me these are pains on my existence and only worsen the signal to noise ratio.

I am forced to work within the confines of technology and simply “unfollow” these people who violate my personal acceptance for such noise.  Sometimes these are people who I don’t personally know and sometimes these are actual friends.  I am sorry that twitter does not allow me to let them see my life stream, but I find it unacceptable to follow them just so they can listen in on my life.  Why should I change for their benefit?

So that’s life and how things happen on the Internet.  I end up following more people who increase the ‘signal’ and unfollow those who increase the ‘noise’.

 

Dinner in the Midwest

That’s right, I’m back in the Midwest again – ok, as much as St. Louis is considered as such.  I had a great dinner with friends.  It’s funny that when frequent business travelers get together all they talk about are TSA and the troubles of airports, hotels, etc.  (I’m told that once you have kids, the topic of “poop” suddenly becomes dinner conversation – ewww.)

I so rarely get to talk about myself but everyone seemed interested in my background.  It was nice that one of the dinner guests was German so I could pull that out and dust off a few words and stories.  Many of the others read my work blog and said they enjoyed it.  I’ve heard others say it but it’s strange to meet someone in person who actually reads your blog.  I’ve always said that the Internet gives everyone their Andy Warhol 15-minutes of fame.

I also met a fellow from South Africa so we talked about his past there.  S. Africa (.za) is a place I really want to visit some time – Johannesburg, not Cape Town.  Everyone else came from across the US, mostly on the East Coast.

I was surprised at how few of the people used social networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter, but a few of them had Flickr accounts.  I suppose taking digital photos is more common than micro blogging, but I would have expected more of the younger people there to be on Facebook.  Maybe the masses are still a generation behind them.

I enjoyed both participating in conversation and watching the consultants talk amongst themselves.  I’m no longer a hard-core techie but still enjoy listening to them talk about operating systems and new programs.  It’s as if I’m looking back in time.

I’m going to enjoy the next few days, but am already missing home.  I’ll be on the road for two weeks solid (no going home between weeks), but I just started my trip so things are ok now, but ask me again in a few days.  I like traveling, but someone it gets to be a bit much.  I say this, because after a while you start to think of the hotel room as “home” and you end up in hour long debates about the efficacy of TSA and what constitutes a “zip top” bag.  Although these are rallying points for frequent travelers, they are not how I want to reflect on my legacy many years from now.  At least I’m meeting new and interesting people who I might be able to include as “friends” several years from now.

 

oh the similarities

I’m such an Elise.  Wow, “jealousy and competition”? Yeah, I feel it all the time.  Solution? The Desiderata.

 

Dance, dinner, song

This weekend was fun. On Friday I went out to Friday Night Swing with the intention of having fun and ended up being a party pooper as I sat and chatted more than I danced. I don’t know what hit me but my lack of practice lead to a detrimental disinterest in dancing. Several people helped me begrudgingly dance a bit, reminding me that anyone can dance even if it’s just the basics.

Chipmonkey returned from Vegas, otherwise known as the land of burning casinos.
We ended up going to dinner with friends at Nola’s, a Cajun restaurant in Palo Alto. I’m not usually interested in that style of cooking but the food was great and I really enjoyed myself. I don’t think I’ll ever order a fillet again because the strip steak there was just so well seasoned.

These friends mentioned a funny online comedy piece they saw called Mr. Deity. It’s a rather funny series of sketches about God (Mr. Deity), his assistant, Jesus, and Lucy (Lucifer). The comedy is a little tongue-in-cheek and will be lost on anyone without an understanding of Christian parables, but I really enjoyed it.

From there we drove back to SF just in time to meet our other half for some karaoke at Do Re Mi in Japantown. I’ve been there a few times now and just can’t get into the feeling. I think that a little alcohol would smooth over my lack of singing skills – both for me and the others who must listen.

 

holiday-eve

I’m at home this holiday-eve and like millions of other Americans I went to see a movie today. It seems that no matter where you are, when you have a day that stores are closed the result is that people either watch TV or go to the movies. We saw, Juno, a movie about teenage pregnancy and the pressures of learning what it means to love.

Tonight is pretty normal, but something I don’t appreciate enough. I’m spending it in the kitchen, our social nesting place, cracking nuts and being the best sous chef I can be. The lights on the patio are lit red and I lit a log in the fireplace. June is being curious and Henry just woke up. It’s rather peaceful and surreal to be home-home for the holidays. It’s the first time that I feel comfortable calling my abode a home. It’s rather routine and comfortable at the same time.

Now is the time to reflect on the past year. What we did and what we failed to do. It’s a time to plan and hope for a better tomorrow – a better next year. A recap at this past year shows it has been a memorable one for many reasons.

• Got married
• Moved into a home
• Started a business and hired 2 people
• Turned 30
• Learned to dance (Swing and Lindy) – and met some great friends S&E
• Graduated with my Masters (w/ @packetshard)
• Trip to London/Paris (Stonehenge and Bath in UK)
• Training tour-de-asia (Sydney, Melbourne, Tokyo, Seoul) – visited the N/S Korea DMZ and climbed the Sydney Harbor bridge
• Attended two weddings (Kristy/Greg & Lorie/Paul)
• Saw the BYOBW (Bring Your Own Big Wheel) down Lombard
• Trip to Seattle (@dacort, who partied with us in SF for NYE)
• Discovered Facebook, Dopplr, GrandCentral

The list of things I didn’t do is shorter and less interesting. Maybe I one of the things I should do is complete my list of 100 goals in 1000 days.

 

Parent teacher meetings

Well, it seems my Mom is the most avid reader to my blog.  And by that I mean she is the only one who calls me to say I have not written in a while.  Now that she has fond my Flickr stream she seems more satisfied to know what is happening in my life.

But another friend of mine “E”, who is a grade school teacher, wrote on her recent parent-teacher meetings.  She said something that surprised and then scared me.  She says, “The nutso thing about conferences is the weird stuff the parents say that no one hears but you.”  It seems teachers are the confidant of parents – leaving me to wonder what my parents told my teachers back then.

As the holidays approach, I’m at home curled up next to my laptop (Chipmonkey said she saw the pulsating glow of a white LED in bed last night.)  It’s all writing and busy work for me.

 

Blogs are booring

Several friends have noted that I have not written anything in a long time (that being 23 days, 1 hour, 3 minutes ago).  I’m happy the traffic has finally died down over the “I’ll just pretend to hug you” post.  I was sick of getting 500+ hits a day off that one page, that had nothing to do with me.

I just don’t have much to say since subscribing to Facebook, Twitter, Dopplr, Flickr, and just about every other drop-the-last-vowel name you can think of.  I’ve resisted writing because I don’t care to tell people about the following things:

• how judgmental I can be (people should not wear sandals… I’m sorry, it’s just wrong)
• how stable things are (work, life, etc. is all pretty normal)
• about my travels (I travel for work, nuff said)

Let’s answer some questions:

1. How is your new home? Nice, we finally unpacked/repacked and cleaned up.  We have had several successful dinner events and hope for more in the future.
2. What are you doing for the holidays? Following Dopplr you might see we are staying local and going to Sonoma for the weekend.  Happy to not endure the horrors of airports during this season.
3. How are you doing?  Great.  Things are busy at work with ups and downs but exciting none the less.  I have a long to-do list that I’m working away at.
4. Going to the gym?  Uhm… I’ll defer an answer until next month.
5. What are you reading? The Intelligent Investor — an oldie but a goodie. (See also: Facebook book list)
6. Traveling much? Thankfully December and January are (mostly) travel free.
7. Enjoying SF?   Oh yes, but mostly due to our friends S&E, other visitors, and swing dancing.
8. Oh yes, how is dance going? We are both doing well, which is usually predicated on the current level of practice.  Next up, Lindy Hop.

What? No more questions?  Oh great, because it’s late and I need to get some rest.