All posts by johncohn

WEdnesday night – Leap of faith…

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Happy Leap day everyone !,It’s a free day.. a bonus day really. I spent my bonus day working with a bunch ofyoung workers from all over the country.. Not a bad way to spend it.. When you think of it, it’s quite remarkable that soemthing as esoteric as the earths track through space and around its own axis  would cause us to make such an unscheduled stop on he track of tick marks on our calender. Actually.. when you think about it.. Leap year must be hell on computers programs .. like a mini Y2K of special code with bugs

if (day == leapYear) {

insert bug here

} else {

}

Even things like nursery rhymes break down..

Thirty days hath September,
April, June and November;
February has twenty eight alone
All the rest have thirty-one
Except in Leap Year, that’s the time
When February’s Days are twenty-nine

Or as I always learned it…

Thirty days hath September,
April, June and no wonder;
All the rest have peanut butter
Except Grandma , she rides a bike

 

Ahh.. my flight is going to board.. Hope you’ve had a extra day !

good leap-nite everyone, good leap-nite Sam

-me

 

ps. i love seeing Billy’s invention on every magazine rack in the country !

Tuesday night – structure

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Man… What a long day in so many respects . Just back to my room at 12:40 am. I spent the day in a coaching workshop here in armonk. I got to spend Quality time with a bunch of young-ish IBM folks from all over the company as well as some more senior colleagues I’ve known for some time. The whole thing was run as a set of highly structured role playing interactions. My first reaction to structure is always negative . I generally prefer to think, act and speak as I please… But things like this remind me just how much I sometimes need structure to function in this world. I think I need the proverbial box to think outside of.
It’s fun interacting with some of my more linear colleagues and learning to appreciate their styles (which I do) and getting them to tolerate mine ( which they sometimes do)

The day was long and grueling. With bad news inserted in on several fronts . Several close friends are dealing with unexpected changes in their lives and my heart goes out to them all

There’s an owl outside somewhere who who sounds kinda sad and tired like I do now

Maybe it will seem better in the morning

Nite all, nite sam
-me

Monday night – ghost walking

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Greetings from the IBM hotel in Armonk NY. Long time readers will know that this is my favorite hotel in the entire world. not because it’s comfy and bright.. exactly the opposite, in fact. It’s dark rocky hallways and small cell like rooms remind me of a monastery. Walking the corridors here I can imagine the austere and peaceful life of a Buddhist or Franciscan monk.. with only prayer, meditation and hard labor to think about..

Its feeling particularly monestarial this week.. not that many people about.. but it’s quite crowded compared to my trip here in late December of 2010. I was in fact the only person in one building of the hotel. I know because I asked.. and I knocked on almost all of the doors to prove it to myself. Here are some views of that nigh So.. what do you do when you’re the only soul in a hotel ? Well.. what I did was put a sheet on my head and film myself running down the hall.. Why ?! It just seemed like the right thing to do at the time.

I love this hotel..

nite all, nite sam
-me

Sunday night – mishpokhe

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Perfect day in Vermont.. We got about 2 inches of snow last night which qualifies this as the 2nd (or maybe 3rd) real snowfall for the year.. that is just so strange. Diane and I took advantage of the dusting to get out our cross country skis and take the dogs down b the river. It felt great doing something a little wintery I am just not ready for spring.. but it feels like spring even now.

The rest of the day was quiet and peaceful.. I don’t remember doing much other than going to a Feldenkreis class and Marsha and Ira’s. I forgot to take pictures, but their yoga studio has a picture perfect view of Camels ump.. that was dusted white and sunny in the background. Really an amazing view.

Diane and I had a light dinner out then she dropped me at the airport for my trip down here to Armonk..

Since I don’t have pictures from the day. I’ve decided to share some pictures from my new found 4th cousin Mengele (aka Michael). He’s doing some genealogical tracing of my Mom’s family. Seems his grandmother and my mom’s grandmother were sisters. He’s the guy that photographed my great-great grandfathers tombstone

Anyway Mengele is somehow involved in a new museum of Jewish Emigrants in NYC.. It traces the background of all those relatives we all have that “… arrived with only a dollar in their pocket”  and went on to make bank in either textiles, real estate, law.. bah, blah, bah..   It’s funny how many of these rags to riches stories I remember hearing as I grew up.. It seems so many of ours and our freinds  relatives arrived on these shores as paupers and went on to wealth.that it didn’t make sense. Malcom Gladwell took this point on in his book Outliers It seems our progenitors landed on these shores at just the right time.. with just the right skills and just the right work ethic. . All we have to do is tell the story backwards to make their success seem so very unlikely..

Mengele’s museum is evidently full of posters about individuals and families . He sent me the following ones about distant family members.. or Mishpokhe (משפּחה)as we say in Yiddish. .. every one of them an Outlier.. I enjoy reading these and hope to find the museum one of these days..

Who knows what folks will write about us when we’re gone..
will they write at all ? Or are we writing our own histories ? (.. and are you reading one right now ? )

nite all, nite sam
-me