All posts by johncohn

Friday night – Pratt parkign lot

I’ writing from the parking lot at Pratt. I’m sitting in the car while max tried to cram a semesters worth of stuff into a duffel bag. I think I’m helping him the most by staying out of his way. As soon as he’s done we’re going to drive back home. It is great having him back for awhile…
    My trip down today was really nice.. as these drives usually are. I got on the road at about 7:30… rather than 6AM as I had originally intended.. I just couldn’t pry myself out of bed. I finally got up in time to take Gabe to school.. then took off from there. The late start was just as well since the roads were still a mess.. I had to take it really slow until about White River.. Still, the day was beautiful.. and the company was good (I often ‘talk’ to Sam in the car)… I spent most of the drive down in calls of one type or other..  I find these calls in the car to be some of the most productive I have.. There’s nothing else .. keyboards, text messages… etc.. to distract me so I really pay attention to what’s being said. Consequently, the miles just melt by. Before I knew it I was approaching NYC.  My original plan was to try and catch a talk at CUNY main campus on 5th in Manhattan.. The speaker was Prof James Gee, a word recognized expert in the educational use of video game technology.. It would have been great.. but as I neared the city, the traffic started slowing down.. I was goign to be cutting it clos.. and then there would be parking. The final straw is that my friend Nora from the NY Hall of Science who’d told me abotu the talk called to tell me she was goign to blow off goign because she had too much to do. So… I aborted the mission.. But I had a good ‘plan B’ I drove down to the NY Hall of Science in Flushing Meadows.. and had a great meeting with Nora’s boss, Eric.

Eric, Nora and I are all working on this same IBM video game proj. This was the first time I’d had a chance to sit down and really talk to Eric one on one. It was so much fun. We have very similar backgrounds, raised Jewish, device physics background, love of education outreach… and both vegetarians !.. We took advantage of that fact to go have our talk over veggie Chinese food nearby.. It was GREAT !.. Everything there from the ‘pork’ buns to the ‘fish’ were all vegetarian.. It’s a place just made for  veggie Buddhists and Kosher-keeping Talmudists.. So cool. NYC  is just amazingly diverse.. something for everyone if you know where to look!

Eric and ‘pork’ bun

tofu disguised as tofu

It truly was

I left Eric about 4 and headed the last 10 miles to Pratt.. I know pictures never do sunsets justice.. but there was an amazing one happening as I turned off the BQE towards Pratt.  

I got to Pratt about 5:00 and finally found Max around 6.   He looks great.. and he’s so happy to be done for the semester. I can tell he’s pretty beat.. so it’s going to be just me and the road on the way back.. still it’ll be nice to have him near.

I did happen to notice these signs in the common area in Max’s dorm.. I thought it was funny.. since I’ve done C-A-D (computer aided design) my entire working life.. here it means ‘common area damage’

Now I’m just sitting in the car and working i.. I found some free WiFi.. so I’m pretty comfy !     

A really cool/weird  thing just happened… as I’m sitting here typing !.. I turned on the satellite radio for some blogging tunes and turned to the Indie station I always listen to (XMU).. As I did that I was thinking of the time I turned on the radio last year and this station played ‘Organ Donor’ by DJ Shadow.. just as I asked where Sam was out loud to the cosmos .. Right after that they played a really obscure DJ Shadow cut ‘ Building Steam from a grain of Sand’. That song has some very Sam like lyrics. I blogged about it  on Dec 21st and Dec 22nd last year.. raw times.
   Well.. just as I was thinking back on that weird coincidence.. on comes ‘Building Steam’   I jumped I was so shocked !

Building Steam from a Grain of Sand by DJ Shadow.
From listening to records i just knew what to do
I mainly taught myself
And, you know, i did pretty well
Except there were a few mistakes
But um, that i made, uh
That i’ve just recently cleared up

And i’d like to just continue to be able to express myself
As best as i can with this instrument
And i feel like i have a lot of work to do
Still, i’m a student – of the drums
And i’m also a teacher of the drums too

What makes cancer tenatious?

The moon rules the fluids
Including the inner juices of human beings
That which assimilates and feeds the body
So the crab feeds his astral plane
Assimilating and distributing all he receives
Slowly, until it becomes apart of you

I fly to the strangest lands

And i would like to able to continue
To let what is inside of me
Which is, which comes from all the music that i hear
I would like for that to come out
And it’s like, it’s not really me that’s coming
The music’s coming through me

The music’s coming through me

OK.. Max just came out.. time to start helping him load the car.. It’ll be a long drive home.. but nice… My family is coming together.. I love you all.. love you Sam

-me

Wednesday night – babys

Most mornings I go out into the world having no clue what I’m going to face… and no clue what I’m going to write about in this blog. Somehow, most days brings something I feel that it’s important for me to reflect on. Today it came in the form of a folded piece of notebook paper that my friend Ron handed me at lunch. Ron’s son Nick and Sam were friends from the time they were 4 or 5  years old. Ron told me that about 10 years ago, when Nick was 5, he an Ron were working on writing skills. They were writing short silly Dr. Seuss like stories for practice. Nick came up with the following short story about Sam and me which Ron wrote down … and found today in his office as he cleaned up .

I’ve read that paper so many times today. I’m so glad that Ron kept it. Nick and his friend Nick R. played “If I could I would” at Sam’s memorial service last year.

The rest of the day was a mix of phone conference calls. I managed to squeeze in a quick haircut. with our friend Deb. She told me today that she’s getting married in June..

I left a little early from work to get in some xmas shopping. First stop was Fire and Metal where I saw my friends Marty and Doug. Their son Jonathon has just moved to Vietnam where’s he’s working for Unesco.

I then went back to Queen City steel to get a little more metal for a present I’m making for/with Gabe.. It’s cool to have a winch to load stuff on your roof rack

I got home around 6 and soon after headed up to the baby shower that Deb, Diane and  Jen  were throwing for Hannah and Dave.. They’re due on Dec 21st…  but I’m betting for sooner… look at that belly !  I think pregnant people are so beautiful.

I couldn’t help noticing Gabe’s beautiful feet were also at the party.  Socks and feet that only a father could love.

He wanted me to show everyone that he lost a toe nail.. yuck !

Speaking of baby showers.. I heard tonight form my friend Glenn in Australia that his wife Liesel just gave birth to their third child.. baby Samantha (love that name !) .. this is the wonderful circle of life. Here’s Samantha with her brother Thomas and sister Katie

Well.. that’s all for tonight.. More tomorrow. Gnite all, gnite Sam..
-me

Tuesday evening – happy ?

Quiet day.. not much to report. I new I’d be busy today so I snuck out or a snowshoe with Chai around 8:30. I had a call at 9.. which I took out in the woods as Chai and I puffed our way up the hills in the back. The nice thing about my job now is that much of it is on the phone.. why not do it while snowshoeing ?
The trouble is .. I had back to back calls all morning.. which didn’t get me a break to take a shower (which one needs after snowshoeing !)  So.. I managed to take a shower during one of those calls… Thanks goodness that picture phones never caught on !

I did manage to get into work.. and had a fun meeting with Bill and Scott, too friends from a company we work with. I’ve known these guys for so long and through so many companies that mostly we just gossip. My field is relatively small, so everyone knows everyone else.. it was good to catch up.

My next meeting was an interesting experiment of a meeting held in a ‘virtual world’ All the attendees ‘met’ in a simulated 3d world.. The organizers are trying to figure out if dressing up your animated character (or avatar) and ‘attending’ a meeting in a virtual world is more valuable that a simple conference call. Today’s meeting wasn’t too convincing.. all of us kept bumping into each other and running into things.. But it was fun to see folks ‘gathered’ for the meeting. This technology is going to advance very rapidly over the next few years.. it may well be the way that some meetings and training sessions are held in the future.. though it won’t get my vote until you can all go out and have a virtual beer after the virtual meeting.

In the afternoon I had a real meeting .. not phone.. not virtual world… with the team at Champlain. We had a good talk about the shape of the project we’re doing together. I’m so impressed with these students. I’d pay to work with them .
Poor guys were all pretty beat. They’re all in the throws of final projects and exams.. I’m so glad that I no longer need to go through that..

After the Champlain meeting.. one more work meeting then a little manic holiday shopping.. The music and decorations didn’t trouble me too much today. I think I have a muted form of the holiday spirit in me.  Sam’s in my thoughts every minute.. So are Gabe and Max… I want to give them a good xmas this year..

I guess I sort of am ….

Aspects of it surely are… .. but other parts … are too so, so sad


I managed to get to Queen City Steel right before they closed… I’m trying to make a few xmas presents for people.. Can you believe that  these guys don’t gift wrap  ?!

I met up with Diane and Gabe at Sikuras for dinner which was fun, then went to an IEEE meeting about hybrid cars. The Sales manager from our local Toyota place was the speaker.. it’s ironic.. that as he spoke, our poor Prius is spending it’s 3rd day at his shop undergoing ‘observation’.. and possible exorcism.

OK.. not much more to report.. more on the morrow…
Gnite all, Gnite Sam
-me

ps. I’v ebene trying to catch up on mthe many SamStone placements that folks have sent us since thanksgiving.. Many cool new places.  You can now browse all the SamStone placement stories and pictures here.  I loved this picture of my friend Uwe’s daughter at Dante’s View in Death Valley, California

Monday night – invisible

Busy day today. I managed to get many things done.. but somehow was in a fog just the same. I went in to my Burlington office for the first time in several weeks. I’ve been on-site a few times, but haven’t made it upstairs to my actual desk.  been either  working from home, traveling in NY, at meeting in town (e.g. Champlain) or on vacation. It felt really weird to be walking around work.. Just like my experience with shopping, I’m observing that I don’t necessarily want to be seen. I catch  myself ‘slinking’ down the hall hoping not to run into anyone I know… And not running into anyone I know is sort of impossible for me.. anywhere.  I say “I’m observing” this about myself, because I’m trying not to judge which of my current reactions to life are good or bad. They just are.. I’m guessing that my current new shyness is also a little about the season. maybe it will pass.. or maybe this is who I’m becoming.. we’ll see.

   Again, my day was productive but not noteworthy… I like these kind of days now.   I got home a little late and joined Dines 6PM Yoga class already in progress… She really worked us today… I love that class. When we came back in I listened to a  message from Avery about a Sam moment she had yesterday. (You can listen to it here) I’m having and hearing of so many of these wierd coincidences in the past weeks. Our Antennae are up !

While I was recording Avery’s message, I lifted a copy of the message that’s still on our voicemail at home.. (listen here)  I like listening to it.. Eventually, I guess we should change it.. but I don’t want to yet. You can even here our old bird Gabby in the background..

Another audio story… I’m trying to get back into the regular meditation practice that I’ve done for years… I was wondering struggling to lie down and do it.. When I finally did last night I realized how deep the associations I had with my old favorite meditation music.. most folks repeat something.. a mantra…  to themselves to help them shut out idle chatter in their minds and help them focus . My mantra with this music was always ‘… diane..  max.. sam.. gabe … diane.. max.. sam.. gabe… ‘ . I realize I was avoiding the music .. and my meditation.. because I felt the mantra would make me sad…    As soon as I tried it again I found that it actually made me happy.   My love for my family is still and will always be whole…

Well.. gotta go and meditate now.. Namaste folks.. namaste Sam.

-me