Yearly Archives: 2011

Wednesday-ish – WTF ?

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Ok.. I just gotta put it out there .. I’m in Fukaoka Japan.. …

And the airport code is FUK…. WTF ?

Last night I flew here from Shanghai…    My plane was delayed so I ammused myself by watching goverment made health cartoons. Based on the subitles.. I surmised

‘don’t hang out with bad sorts’

“

‘boil vegetables well’

Open the window.. so you won’t catch cold

meditate to reduce stress


through away dirty tissues (instead of what ?)


don’t spread germs


lay off the tv (and books ?)


Here’s a first.. our pane was delayed by 30 minutes.. so they fed all of us dinner !.. It was sort of good

dumplinny things with rice, soybeans and noodles.. SOme chcken too, which I ddin;t eat

Got to japan about 10PM… It’s so weatern.. you ould forget you’re soemwhere welse.. until you go to the restroom, at least..


here’s my hotel room

and here’s all the stuff I had jammed in my suitcase.. I had to make a potato cannon for my talk today..
in parts, I guess it looked ok on xray.. amazing

some assembly required

which shirt ? (note red whit blue motif )


The conference started with a talk by the governor of fukoaka prefecture.. very nice guy

My talk went pretty well.. hard to do a tlak like mine in translation.. but people reacted when they wer supposed too.

I’ve had several nice conversations since my talk.. which is gratifying

The keynote after mne was from my good friend Anrudh.. Funny we had to come all this way to talk.. we got to hang out and talk work and freinds for a while today.. very good catching up


here I am with anirudh. new freind Bruce

After the talk I gave my cannon to the guy whos hosting me (Can’t quite get his name.. really nice guy)


some cool demos here… too

this had a very cool motor movement !

then went for a short run through the coruded city.. several cool shrines.. and signs in mangled english.. Gotta love it

I thought these looked like swans.. no.. I guess like cranes…

OK.. gotta dash to the reception.. then on to tokyo

stay warm over there folks.. I understand it’s gonna be cold at home

Hasht mata folks, ashta mata sam

-me

Monday-ish night – Lost in translation

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Greetings from Shanghai.. I got here after a long convoluted path of canceled flights. replacement flights, cab rides and one veryrrrry long plane ride.. 13 hours.
I got a nice sendoff last night as we had a few folks over to make samstones.. It’s always nice to come together and make them.. an unusual excuse for a party.. but  a very nice ritual for us.. It’s nice to come together and think about Sam.


I got the word that my flight this morning to newark was canceled at about 10 PM.. I’d just tried to get tto bed in the hopes of a good night’s sleep. No luck there.. I spent more than an hour on the phone last night trying to find a way to Newark.. I couldn’t do that.. so I got a Jetblue flight at 6:30. .. woke at 4 to get there.. got a cab from JFK to Newark only to find they (Continental) had rescheduled me to travel Thursday (!!!!) instead of Monday..   Anyway.. alls’ well that ends well.. I’m here-ish.

The flight was long and uneventfull

 

Hannah.. I saw this guy reading a nuspaper with a title you’d understand !

By luck they had an extra veggi meal.. actually a vegan meal !!Not bad !

 

I just noticed that there’s only an hour left of this 13 hour flight… While that would have sounded good to me 10 hours
ago.. even 3 hours ago.. now I’m already missing the forced stillness of the plane. It’s a rare treat.. and in ways a
sweet torture to get to / have to sit with your own thoughts and nothign more for that long. For the first 7 hours or so
I managed to stay mindless… I worked… (I just realized as I wrote that that it’s funny for me to say I’m striving for
mindlessness after so many years of striving for mindfullness).. It’s those hours in the middle that drag by. It’s a strange
feeling being so far from the ones I love…. and so far from the responsibilities of work. I feel sort of detached and
lonely.. and my trip hasn’t even really begun. Luckily (?) , the plane had one of my favorite movies.. Sophia Coppola’s
“Lost in Translation” ..I don’t know whay I love that movie so much.. but a few years back  I watched it 5 times while flying back

and forth to Asia  In it, Bill Murray plays an aging movie star who’s in Japan to make some commercials for a whiskey company.
He then meets another dispalaced person. played by Scarlett Johansson.. and they are basically loney together…

The film absolutely nails the diplacement and disorientation of being far away by yourself  It’s sweet and sad..

Being quiet like this for so long is good time to reflect for me.. My life is very good now..  My heart is at peace
I’m surrounded by  love and I deeply love my family. we’re all doing well and are healthy and sane. For all that,
I’m  truly greatful.  As at peace as I am in my heart, my brain is not at peace. I feel like I am drifting a bit. I’ve
made more space in my life recently to accomodate more focuss on my job.. which is demanding it right now. In doing that,
I’ve had to trim back some of the things I do to keep sane.. I’m doing fewer school visits, fewer crazy projects,
traveling less … all things that keep my mind occupied..

I feel like I need to open myself and refocus . I want ot re-find my sense of mission I’ve had about getting kids
interested in helping the world through sceince. That still calls to me.. but I nede to freshen my approach… rethink
my goals and expectations. Maybe I need a new message ?  I plan to meditate some on that this week as I spend time on planes,
trains, busses and hotels

Hey.. looks like we’re now  30 minutes out of Shanghai. Gotta get ready to move.
I’m making a short stop there only to change planes.  I had hoped to be able to duck into town and check out
the electronics markets.. but.. it doesn’t look like I’ll have time. Next time… I hope…

OK.. more later from Shanghai…
nite all, note sam
-me

Ps.

a couple of scense from the airport as I wait to board my flight to japan

 

I put a samstone here.. I think it’s the 4th one I’ve put in this airport

 

 

Sunday night – prep

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I woke today well rested after our fun but overly eventful trip to Montreal last night.. In fact, I forgot about Deb’s car being broken in to until I walked outside with the dogs…

I’m glad we made it back last night because I had a whole day of prep for my coming trip.. I’m going to be in Asia all week for a series of talks..In prep I had a 46 point todo list which I worked down to nothing today…. and that’s all I did.. so not much to report here.. I promise I’ll make up for it in tales from my trip this week..

Right now.. I smell pizza down stairs… so I’m gonna stop there..

nite all, nite sam

-me

Saturday night – strange ending

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Woke this morning and couldn’t figure out where I was for a moment.. Oh yeah… 8 of us in Hannah’s 1 room apartment in central Montreal..

Deb, Diane and I took a ‘run’ to the Jewish section of town to get bagels. It wasn’t much of a run because the ice covered sidewalks proved too treacherous to run much of the time.. It was good being out , though.. it was in the teens and very windy.. .. it was invigorating to say the least. It was about a 30 minute run/walk to Deb’s favorite Bagel place. it was very cool watching them make bagels.. they made only one kind.. now that’s a bagel store.

We got back to the apartment about 9:30 ish.. everyone was just waking up.. We got off to a lazy start.. eventually we ended up downtown and did some shopping..   then we grabbed lunch at Reuben’s a Montreal landmark .. and home of the epiphanous sandwich..

Gabe had never had a smoked meat sandwich .. I think he liked it !..

Everyone shared a huge peice of their famous cheescake…  I gotta say.. it was not the best retturant for 3 vegans.. (Me,  deb. diane)

Then.. back out into (or under ) the streets of Montreal for more shopping.. Here the guys are helping me shop for sport coats..


The main event of the day was 2 games  of laser tag at LaserQuest… You basically run around an shoot at your freinds .. and strangers with a laser .. it’s indescribably fun.. and somewhat disturbing.   I stopped ot put a SamStone in the maze.. and got shot mercilessly as I was doing it.. Sm would have thought that was pretty funny i think .

The last event of the day (or so I thought)  was dinner at a Lebanese place I like.. The food was great.. and there was curling in the background.. How montreally can you get.. ?

Hanna, Deb and I offered to go get the car rather than have everyone walk back in the 10 degree weather..There was a very unpleasant surprise waiting for us when we arrived. Someone had broken in to Deb’s suburban.. and grabbed on of the bags.. unfortunately it was Sumner’s bag with his passport.. .. They left everything else..   It really felt weird seeing this.. we’d parked on a busy street in a nice part of the city.. Man !..

While the others waited for the police. and cleaned out the glass, Gabe and I wet out and scroungetd for repair material at a grocery store.. .. plastic garbage bags for plastic, shipping boxes for cardboard.. various types of substandard tape.. but we got something that worked.. By placing the patch inside the car, ewe were able to make the car roadworthy..

I

Deb managed to bleed all over her registration..

I managed to bleed all over everything …

Around 9L30 we were ready to drive home.. Deb drove the whole way. Diane kept her company. … I slept

Miraculously. the juryrigged patch held for the whole highway trip

Now it’s past midnight.. and we’reall beat.. and a little saddened by the turn fo the day.. Still it was a great trip..

More tomorrow..

nite all, nite Sam

-me