Monthly Archives: February 2012

Monday night – orbit

Leave a comment

I left Endicott before 6AM on my way to Ithica to pick up Diane. On the way there I heard that today marks the 50th anniversary of John Glenn’s historic orbital space ride.

width=660

He wasnt the first guy in space.. but he was the first human to circle the earth three times in space.. It makes me happy to see him still alive and kicking at the 50th commemoration of this . I grew up in the afterglow of that event Glenn was a hero to me and my generation. So much so, I learned this morning, that NASA wouldnt let him fly again lest they lose such an important figurehead. In effect.. his success grounded him… Something to meditate on, I suppose..

Since I was driving by myself in the predawn hours, my mind also wandered ot another important Orbit.. in 1979 I was an exchange student in Vienna Austria. I was teaching English at the Gymnasium IV on Graffstarhemebergasse (right opposite the Bozendorfer piano factory). At the time I was totally hooked on Orbit gum.. not only that..for reasons I cant remember, I refused to through away any of the labels.. For that the kids, and my school friends branded me Orbit. in fact.. my freinds in Gymnasium IV form VI-A still call me that..

width=400

They gave me this goblet to remember them by.. and I certainly do remember them20120220-203406.jpg

I often wonder where those kids are these days. Im hoping that our painstaking translation of Pink Floyd songs from English to German and back has helped them all in their careers…

Heres to us all keeping our orbits stable !
nite all, nite sam
-me

 

Sunday night – Presidential

Leave a comment

We’re here in Endicott.. which means we get to watch TV>. I say ‘get to’ because we don’t really have TV at home.. I mean, we have a TV.. but it’s just hooked up to the XBOX>. no cable or antenna into the house.. It’s not that we can’t get cable.. it’s that we choose not to have it.. because.. we know we’d watch it all the time. So.. when we’re at a place that’s blessed with real live cable.. we dive in like glutton’s.. that means two bad scifi movies last night.. some reality TV (parking wars ? pawn stars ? .. and I thought our show was dumb !).. but today we watched Mad Men.. (never seen it.. it was about the JFK assassination.. it was brilliant !). a movie about Jefferson, a movie about Lincoln.. and a movie about Marie Antoinette… It took me a little while to figure out the theme.. but the frequent lame car dealership ads with Presidents Day themes finally broke through. even the TV channels were doing the presidents day thing (ok.. so Marie Antoinette’s not really a president.. but she wasn’t far off)

I found all of these things strangely moving. The Man Men treatment of the JFK assassination took me immediately back to being 4 years old and watching it on TV… barely understanding what was going on. The Lincoln story resonated deeply with me.. the story of a tortured and principled guy trying to do what he thought was right was deeply moving. More so was the story of how his son Willie’s death of typhus fueled Lincolns depression.. and from that forged his resolve to free the slaves. Jefferson’s pointless bickering with Adams that robbed them both of peace and satisfaction in what they both accomplished..Flawed and great men , all.

I know I’ll never be great.. I just hope to be that interestingly flawed…
here’s my start in that at least.

With that TV priming, I had a really fun president’s day eve.. Diane took off with Linda for a girls night out in Ithaca.. .. so Dave and I hung out this afternoon and went to check out a flea market an used book store in Owego.. .. Later on.. Dave went with me to a talk I was giving at U of Binghampton. About 100 students showed up on a Sunday night in the middle of a three day weekend.. amazing..

It was mostly made up of engineering students.. A great group of geeks and geekettes.

Here’s my hostess and good freind Wendy.. (she used to be at IBM)

 

 

Afterwards one of the students, Jennifer came up and gave me an origami turtle.. I named him ‘Clinton’  because it was almost President’s day.. and because he was red.. I don’ think I’ve ever gotten a cooler after speaking gift !

I ran into several old freinds at the talk.. My freind Tom was there with his wife.. Tom’s now ding a PhD. at BU.. .. He has a very cool ghost in his house…   and sings opera (Tom.. not the ghost) if memory serves.

My good freinds the Chen’s also showed up. It’s Emily the hatted one’s ) birthday.. she  just became a black belt in kkarate.

The talk I gave went fine.. but I talked to long.. I did get to hang out afterwards and tlak to the students which was really good fun..

Then Dave and I drove home… it was great getting to hang out with him for most of the day..

OK.. I need to get up early.. so I’ll end here.. more tomorrow..
nite all, nite sam !
-me

Saturday night – dropping antacid

Leave a comment

Diane and I are down in Endicott. We’re down here for three reasons. First., it’s always good seeing Diane’s folks.. 2nd , I’m giving a talk tomorrow at BU and  3rd yesterday was our friend Linda’s birthday..   We were on our way out to Vietnamese dinner with Linda and David when I realized that my tummy was bugging me a bit. .. I’m at the end of a minor  stomach bug courtesy of my trip to India last night.  Before we left I asked David if he had an antacid or something.. He slipped me a Prilosec … It was the quintessential middle age moment.. dropping antacid before going out with freinds on a Saturday night. We spent the rest of the night making jokes about fiber content of foods, mattress firmness, easy listening music and other AARP topics. It a it was a good time .  It’s great to have old freinds.. even if we’re not old… yet…

20120218-210046.jpg

nite all, nite sam

-me

Friday night – clutter

2 Comments

The funny thing about blogging is that it drives every day to the resolution of a theme word.. . Every day I search the air for an anthem… an impression.. a scent of something that can be summed up in one or two pithy words in the title line right up there ^^^. it’s more than just a literary exercise.. naming a day can.. for better or worse… define it. Today’s word is ‘clutter’ ..(the house is clean.. I have to admit) but I walked over to my lab.. what did I see ? Clutter.. I went to my office.. there again: clutter.. I looked at my calendar .. and there’s time clutter. By the end of the day.. my head was swimming in it. All of that, i have to admit.. is par for the course. But, what really set the tone of the day was my new Facebook homepage. Like many folks. been pushed over to the new Facebook ‘timeline’ homepage. I just hate it.. it’s so cluttered !.. Too much stuff to look at,, too many things going on.. it reminds me of the old Myspace days..

Makes me long for the monochrome clacking of the teletype.. ahhh those were the days..

nite all, nite sam
-me