All posts by johncohn

Friday night – My Brother Sam

Tongiht Gabe told  that he’d dreamed about Sam on Wed night . It wa a strange dream, he told me.. The next day. his teacher walked in with the book ‘My Brother Sam is Dead’ .   It’s an award winning  book about the revolutionary war.. The kid who narrates the story’s brother has died in the war. . Gabe’s teacher hd  written us a letter asking us if it was ok if they brought the book into the class. We thought she was so sweet for asking..  She took a few minutes before the class to talk to the class about Our Sam.. and the sensitivity to the books title. Gabe was fine with the book title.. we talked about it at dinner.

I think it’s so interesting how even years later people sometimes don’t knwo what to say or do.. but are always looking out for us..

I think I’ll read the book

Nite All, nite Sam

-me

Thursday night – home from NY

Very late.. hoem from NY.. spent time trying o get throgh 247 emails just from today.. it doesn’t pay to be offline.  I need to get soem sleep ‘uz I am feelong a little sick.. sore throat. I had a great short trip down to NY> .it was so great seeing max again. I somehow faled to get a picture of him.. so here’s a picture fof the thank you message I left him this morning.. couldn’t find a pen.. so I used mustard.  I wouldn’t relish having to clean it up.

I had a call today at 6AM (@#^%# australia)..   Lef tMax’s apt and headed up to Armonk for all day meetings

I generally don’t talk about work in this blog.. so I won’t start now.. but I had soem very cool meetings there today..   I really like it when I can meet folks from other parts of my company..

Gotta sleep now.. more tomorrow..
nite all.. nite sam
-me
ps. my friend curry sent this pic from the discovery canada home page. The show debutid in canada last night  

Wednesday night – carry on

So, didja ever have one of those perfect set-ups for a joke.. and then… no one got it ?
It’s a really Zen thing.. like.. ‘if a tree falls in the forest .. and no one is around to hear it.. ” kinda thing

Well this really happened tonight. I was flying down to NYC for a meeting tomorrow. Diane had loaded me up with stuff to take to Max and his roomies. One of the things she’d bought for them was some ground buffalo meat .. Max is a vegan, but his roomates are all hardcore carnivore.. anyway. I’m on a  short trip, so I wasn’t checking any bags.. So .. I slipped the still frozen wrapped meat into my briefcase.   

Normally, I always get held up when goign through airport security becaus eof the homeade elctronics I always have in my bag.. (my rainbow headband, TV-g-gone, ardiuino board, etc0> This time, I’d taken all that stuff out, so I expected smooth sailing..

No such luck.. they questioned me about the meat in my bag..    I told them it was just my’ carrion luggage .. get it ?!?! Carion.. as in carry-on… but … like.. carrion..  which  wikipedia defines as ‘(from the Latin caro, meaning meat) which refers to the carcass of a dead animal.’

They didn’t get it . in fact they stared at me as the possible “meat bomber”..
Note to self.. don’t ever try to be funny with someone has the power to make you miss your flight.

The people on the plane were nicer, though. the flight attendant was handing out purple stars and putting them on everyone’s cheeks.. I opted for mine on my hand.. somehow it felt like communion.. but it was a cool gesture..

I got into JFK and took the subway to maxes.. I as waiting for the train when I realized that the Colony was premiering tonight in canada.. i fact.. sa I looked at the  time, I realized that at that exact moment, I was doing my shower scene at the end of episode 1 in front of all those Canadian viewers. ..   So here’s the face of a guy who at the same time is appearing naked on foreign TV.

I love rifding the subway.. I planted a samstone in one of the stations..

I’m now at maxs hanging on with him and a few friends.. it’s great seeing him and them and reptar..

Man .. I’m so sleepy now.. Gotta go to sleep !
more tomorrow..
night folks
night sam
-me

Tuesday night – packed

Today was packed with stuff.. good stuff. tough stuff.. just stuff.. It began with a 7L30-8:30 board meeting at the ECHO  museum downtown. I love these discussions


FOllowed by a completely busy and somewhat frustrating day at work. I was in meetigns every minute of the day.. but I’m not sure I made forward progress…

At 5:30 I drove back to Burlington to give te opening talk at the Supper and Science  program for my friends Nancy and Moe.   It was at Burlignton Hugh school.. where max did his video work.   First moment in the door I met this guy.. wo’s last nme is ‘sparks’ isn’t THAT cool ?!?!

The school was incredibly multicultural for a program in VT. All the signs were in at least English, Vietnamese and Serbo-Croate.

We had a good dinner of chili…

Then we went upstairs to Moe’s place for my presentation…    Max spent many happy hours up here !

The audeince was a great group of kids from king street center.. many of them from somalia, others from congo or bosnia.. a really, really cool bunch of kids.

I think they liked my talk on the colony.. they’d all watched parts of the show and were full of questions..

I got out of there after 8.. then went to meet soem friends in town for a meeting. some of these guys used to be in IBM.. but are now workign for a partner company.. .. Here’s my friend Vivek

and my friend Brion.. Brion’s 21 year old son Andrew died just 3 weeks ago. I was surprised and happy that he made the trip. We talked for a couple of hours.. he’s doing amazingfly well.. he seems to be in touch with his feelings and is coping remarkably.  Talkign to him took me right back to Sam’s passing..
Still. i was happy to be there for him.

He and I made a deal to talk frequently for the next several months.

OK.. I’m too tired to write more.. more tomorrow.. Nite everyone.. nite Sam
-me