I scream for Ice Cream!

There is nothing much better than an unplanned evening in an ice cream shop discussing bad poetry and dreaming about the future over a frappe and sundae.  

Note for all you wanna-be-poets.  Don't try and be romantic by using the word 'pheremones' in your art.  I don't care if it is a Haiku. 

Just wanted to beifly write about the benefits of spontaneous ice cream.  I'm feeling hopeful because events are conspiring to remind me that it's never too late to be the person you want to be inside... 

It's a small world...

I think that it's one thing to know intellectually all of the neat things that technology can do and another to see it in action.

It will never cease to amaze me how interconnected the world is through the Internet, and the things that high speed data make possible.  Talked to a friend in Australia last night via video chat over a lagless g-mail video connection.  Her sunlit balcony and cheery countenance was transported to our late night gathering as if it was a phone call to a neighbor across the street. We could see the skyscrapers of a distant city and hear the stock cars of the Australian grand prix roar around their endless circuits in the background.  A sense of life and humor transported across oceans and continents on a piece of fiberglass the thickness of a strand of hair to sit with us around the kitchen table and share our conversation like old times.  While an oversimplification of the engineering and science that makes it possible its the spirit that matters anyway.

A great deal of conversation yesterday revolved around other examples of the new found uses of technlogy. While we are all a little wary of the overreaching and all encompassing nature of technology in the modern world (I still keep paper journals and am a crusading advocate of paper snail-mail letters) we are still in awe of its potential applications.   I encounter other examples in my professional life.  Projects are taking place in my office right now to map the environmental hazards of neighborhoods and overlay them with census maps of income levels, crime and other statistics.  All of this data is available real time, uploaded by groups of high-school students from hand held GPS units and portable computers. 

Google can consistently predict the next location of a flu outbreak days before the CDC simply by indexing searches for flu and correlating them with locations of the computers performing the search.  Maps of other outbreaks are made simply by indexing news stories in local papers.  The city of Mumbai tracks its garbage men on google earth to make sure they are doing their jobs properly in the jumble of the million person slums. This year they will be able to track the flood waters of the monsoon in real time with a map that updates every time people text in that the water has reached their doorstep.  This will allow for better allocation of emergency resources and more organized evacuation plans.

It's exciting to live in a time where the possibilities of technology truly seem to be bounded only by the imagination.  Now all we have to do is imagine!  And communicate, whether it be with our neighbors or the other side of the earth.

Spring into spring...

Went out for the first time yesterday to play some disk.   Frisbee is by far one of the highlights of my summer and I was super excited that the time has come for the season to begin anew!

 Whenever I get together with my friends for any reason I can't help but be reminded of how awesome they all are and how lucky I am to be where I am in life and had the opportunities I've had.  We are all excited about exercise and the outdoors and health... (minus the part of the evening where we scientifically tried to stuff twizzlers with pixi-stick sugar.  And we all look out for each other.  I'm proud to be part of such a wonderful group of people.  It constantly makes me happy to think about it!

Anyway, disk was awesome.  I'm sore, but the good kind, and I'm looking forward to start playing actual games.

Why birds are smarter than most people...

Sitting outside eating my sandwich on a park bench enjoying the sunshine and the (relatively) warmer weather I was joined by a flock of house sparrows. These little guys were NOT shy but hopped all over my feet screeching at each other over each dropped crumb. I went through an exercise of tapping my foot progressively harder just to see how loud a noise or fast a motion would scare them off. Nothing phased them... They didn't so much as blink.

Eventually, about 10 of them all lined up along the back of the bench next to me and each cocked their head to the side to stare me down, as if to say "that's really the best you've got?"

I dug into my pocket to get out my camera and document the long line of identically canted birds on a bench and I was just about to push the button when my flock of of feathered friends flew away in fright. Momentarily confused because my motion to grab the camera was well below their previously demonstrated threshold of annoyance I eventually looked around and noticed the red tailed hawk that lives in the neighborhood.

These little birds with tiny brains had learned that I posed no immediate threat, even in close quarters, because I had about a zero percent chance of being able to catch one of them. Yet they were able to recognize a much more serious threat at a great distance. Who among us could so deftly determine the level of danger in a situation and quickly extricate ourselves without a fuss?

Nature... never ceases to amaze me, even in the middle of the city.

The cutting edge...

I've come to the determination that working at a university (or other academic setting) has a lot of advantages over other places of employment.

Not the least of which is that even when doing mundane tasks related to being an administrative assistant it never fails to be different and often more than a little strange.

A few examples:

One of the professors in my department is on a trip to London... not to have any sort of business meeting, or to sightsee, but to offer testimony before the house of Lords in Parliament about environmental health exposures on soldiers. Other members of the department have repeatedly testified before various congressional committees here in the US. The scope of projects that are routinely worked on range from the office itself, to neighborhoods across the city, to huge global research studies.

And these are some very smart people... Creating mathematical models to improve public health, monitor the cleanup of some of the worlds most toxic dumping grounds and generally go around using lots of big words. Dr's of all types abound. Its hard not to sometimes feel overwhelmed.

Yet my favorite moments almost always involve technology, because as smart as these people all are when it comes to computers, they're still stuck in my parents (or in some cases grandparents) generation. They know what's going on, but when it comes to change it's like watching a glacier move...

Which is why I was surprised when one of them came up to me today and asked if I was on Twitter (I'm not... so far...) This caused a moment of reflection. I was beaten to the technological punch by a 65 year old college professor who's previous technological experience was limited to e-mail and the occasional blog post. I think that's ok though. (I'm on facebook and he's not HA HA HA) One does not have to ride every popular wave yes? (oh no! I'm starting to sound like my parents).

Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed the ensuing conversation about all the pros and cons of various social networking sites and their possible applications for the advancement of global and public health and coordination of intra-office parties with the doctoral students. How's that for an office environment? Hmm.. Maybe I'll start twittering after all!

**SMILES**

Highschool Flashback...

Went out last night to a swing dance.

Usually these dances are held in church basements or converted warehouse dance studios because the unfinished old fashioned wood floors are perfect for the fast paced slip and slide dance shoes that the hard core dancers prefer.  However, the onset of lent had displaced this particular dance from it's usual hangout in the church basement to the Gym of the YMCA across the street.

Walking in to the darkened gym... with discoball lighting, wooden bleachers and small groups of people hanging out in the shadows on the edge of the room one could not help but be reminded of all those old high school dance scenes.  The in-crowd on one side... the people that just like to be lost in the music out on the floor, the wallflowers hanging out on the bleachers.  Chinese lanterns hanging from basketball hoops and people criss-crossing the floor over the "Y" emblazoned in the center court circle.  It was great.

I think it might have been even more of a flashback for me since I spent so much time in YMCA's growing up.  I love the Y.  I think that they do wonderful things fro a community and keep alive the spirit of good health through exercise and involvement in positive activities.  They do however, all have the same feel... Except for its slightly smaller size and added security, this Y could have been completely swapped with the one in which I came of age and no one would have been the wiser.  In the age of modern gyms with all the latest and greatest equipment and exorbitant membership fees to match I'm glad there are still places where the philosophy and the people are what matters most.  Staffed by underpaid but caring employees and volunteers they are not really a business so much as part of the community.

The dance turned out to be amazing and fun, with live music (more on this later perhaps) and more people active on the floor than in any high school dance than I ever went to...  Not to say that the wallflowers didn't exist...  I think that the high school ambiance ended up being more of a bonus.  There's something to be said for the illusion of time travel and the freedom of youth.

School Bus Epidemic

A crowded city bus I was riding on the other day drew to a stop at a red light. Also at the light, the next lane over, was a school bus filled with students from Plymouth on some sort of field trip to the Big City.

All down the length of the bus curious faces stared out little square windows at tall glass buildings, traffic and the men dodging rush hour traffic to sell single roses to commuters. One child focused instead on our bus and slowly made a goofy face out the window at us. Someone on my bus noticed this and laughed which made the young student laugh in turn.. His laughter caused the pair of girls sitting in the next seat forward on the school bus to notice the face he was making and focused their attention on our bus also. They started making faces. In a matter of seconds the entire school bus was making faces at the passengers of our bus, most of whom were studiously ignoring the display but grinning despite themselves.

Only one student did not participate... immune to the epidemic. Instead he simply flipped us all the bird as the light turned green and the buses separated, leaving one to wonder what the next 'epidemic' might have been if the light had been longer.

I love that the science I'm learning in the classroom can be demonstrated by such a simple situation as students making faces on a bus.

St. Patrick's Day +1

So, Being a relatively new resident of the city of Boston I didn't really know what to expect from this rather strange holiday.

Actually, I still don't. I read in the paper that the police were cracking down on public drinking... The radio DJ's on my favorite morning show were extolling the virtues of people who were cleverly managing to drink before 6AM while they were waiting to get into a bar that opened at 8AM... I went to a party this weekend (that was fantastic... thank you everyone) that was, among other things, a booze fest with Irish food (read corned beef and potatoes). It was a Tuesday night and on my walk home from the subway at 10:15pm there were people wandering from pub to pub all over town. I'm dating an wonderful Irish woman who doesn't really think the holiday is all that...

So... My observations lead me to the conclusion that several things are important about this holiday.

1. The Color Green
2. Drinking
3. Drinking
4. Something to do with Ireland(?)
   

I'm left with one question. What is St. Patrick's Day all about? What is it celebrating? I'm sure I learned this in grade school but I only vaguely remember. Also... the questioning part of me wonders how it ended up being what it is today?

My favorite parts of the whole thing? -- Everyone's having to dress in green, green decorations, green everything. So much Green all together makes me feel like fresh fields, springtime and sunshine which = Happiness. Second, all the homeless people on the way to the subway today were decked out in items discarded from yesterdays festivities... Shopping carts were draped in green flags and 4 leaf clover cutouts. Green plastic hats, beads and masks were in abundant evidence over stained coats, softening otherwise rough countenances. How could you not smile? I'm calling it St. Patrick's Day +1. I think perhaps seeing these people benefiting and having a good time would have made St. Patrick the most proud of his modern legacy.

Bed and Breakfast

A few things from a wonderful weekend... 

I am SOLD on bed and breakfasts!   Definitely the way to go!  Who wants a stale bagel and a cold cup of coffee that comes with standard hotel fare?  I'm telling you.. its nice to roll out of bed and wander down stairs... sit by the fire... stuff yourself with warm fluffy pancakes, hash, hash browns and broccoli and cheese omelets...    If you ever find yourself in the Burlington area and just want to get away from it all for a day, the black bear inn is highly recommended.

I'm also kinda sold on VT...  Granted there's not a lot to do and things are a bit too earthy crunchy sometimes but the people are SOOOO nice!  A fantastic break from Boston,  which I love dearly but would not always use the word "nice" to describe.

Getting to spend time with old friends is awesome.  I love telling old stories and catching up.  Plus, it turns out that nerf makes a chain gun.  This is definitely taking things to the next level.  Just the thought makes me giddy.   Now I have to make an even more serious effort to get back in touch with some other old friends... while the spirit of reconnecting is with me.

Also got to go skiing.  My favorite part of this is riding the chairlift to the top of the mountain and taking in the great views.  Skiing itself is pretty awesome, once I get over my yearly fear of killing myself on a random tree.  Perhaps the most interesting character of the day was the ski-rental guy.  Very friendly, very strange.  Liked to tell stories and change topics without pausing between sentences.  Also observed that all the lift operators and ski-patrol members had the exact same beard and looked like twins on first glance.  The Girl pointed out that if you spent all day every day in the cold wind on the mountain you might benefit from additional facial hair also...  Good point...

All in all..  pretty awesome!  I hope everyone enjoyed the weather and got outside before it started being inclement again!

P.S.  Totally found the hot tub that I was missing here...  One more reason to thank the Black Bear...

Working out for the best...

Two interesting and wonderful things have happened to me today, both involving the usually rather anti-student bureaucracy that runs the school where I go to learn stuff....

First: I lost my ID about four weeks ago while climbing on the bus... Besides being annoying, since I use my ID for everything and must have it prominently displayed on my person at all times at school, its also expensive... $35 dollars to replace! So.. I bit that bullet a long time ago...

Today I learned that some good Samaritan had actually picked up my ID at the bus stop and returned it... Not only that but because they did I get my money back! THANK YOU whoever you are that found a random ID and went out of their way to return it... I wish more people enjoyed the warm feeling that comes from doing the right thing... a simple act of kindness.

Second: I called to ask a question about Financial aid today... This, as anyone who has been through it will know, is a monumental pain. However, today, the lady on the phone answered my question without even having to be asked. She just intuitively figured out what I might need and provided the information in a cheery and wonderful way! Excellent! I love it when people take pride in their work and provide the best services they can!

Yay good moods!

a more real conversation...

I find riding the subway to be a good source of many interesting observations.

On my ride home last night things were similar to how they always are... People more or less minding their own business.  The guy sitting next to me chatting on the phone in a language I couldn't identify, the guy on the other side reading a book in Chinese.  Across the way another man watched sitcoms on his iphone, a girl filled out the crossword while balancing impressively in the center of the car.

Directly across from me a man fiddled with his blackberry when it suddenly broke and spewed (10 bonus points for using spewed in a blog post) tiny pieces all over the floor of the car.  He sat and stared at it for a second and then busted out laughing.  This struck me as a very appropriate response.  I helped him scramble around on the floor to find each widget while everyone else continued to mind their own business around us.  

In the end, we ended up having a pretty interesting conversation about how cell phones are taking over the world.  When I commented on his positive reaction to the self-destruction of his own device he simply smiled and said "Ironic that I'm having a better, more real conversation now that I broke it.  Perhaps it was a sign to show me that I'm more disconnected with the world when I'm connected to my technology like that."

As a gadget person I find all this innovation wonderful and interesting and happy.   I love that I can write here in cyberspace and potentially express myself to thousands of people through a medium that my grandparents couldn't even have imagined.  Yet from time to time its nice to have that broken cell phone moment.  A camping trip without reception, a month in Africa, moments where we can reconnect with ourselves and our immediate world.   The cyber world should be a supplement, not a substitute.

I need to remember this:

Nobody means to get carried away in mediocrity, but it happens, it happens unless you think about everything you do, unless you make every choice the best one you know how to make.

— Richard Bach

Housemates...

I came home from school today to discover one of my neighbors throwing snowballs at the upstairs window of her apartment because her roommates had locked her out.  Not only was this funny in a Hollywood movie script type way but provided me with my first opportunity to introduce myself and be neighborly.   I tried to be nice and invite her in to get warm and use the phone but she refused...  Still, steps in the right direction!

Also, I had a wonderful, relaxed and enjoyable conversation with my housemates.  These conversations help me unwind from my day and usually end up filling the whole house with laughter.  It often strikes me how perfectly suited we are for each other much of the time and how much positive influence we have on each other's lives.  Alas, we are often busy and these conversations are becoming increasingly less frequent...  

...and increasingly more precious.

Simple vs. complex

I spent some time this evening struggling with a problem set working through some complex ideas involved with one of my classes.   Erin, who is always supportive of such efforts was curious about the underlying ideas...   I went through a quick explanation of how even a small mistake in a study can create a great deal of misclassification and error.  She thought about my explanation for a second and summed up all my efforts and struggles in a simple idea, "so little things make a big difference?"

Exactly...

And I hope a motto to live by as well...

Snow day...

Today I accidentally went to work on a snow day...    This, as it turns out, was not so bad.  

I find shoveling snow to be one of those Zen chores.  You can be standing outside in a terrible whiteout and still be warm... the gift of your own exertions.   It's quiet, the snow muffling extraneous noise...   I also love how everyone is friendlier in their shared misery, exchanging snow removal tips and tools and cooperating to dig out cars, driveways and sidewalks.

When else does driving have the added excitement that comes from unexpected motion on a horizontal plane?

The bus stop had become home to 1000 sleeping pigeons seeking shelter from the precipitation and the wind, forcing all the humans out into the snow.  I found this hilarious....

There is a lot to be said for having to climb over snowbanks and break into your own office.  I had the place to myself for most of the day...  I got to run around in my socks and build up static charge on the carpet.  No one called or asked me for anything all day.  I actually got work done!  I got so much work done that I got to toss around ideas for creative video projects with a friend online, and finish some of my homework on the side.   The office was not 1,000,000,000 degrees like it usually is because some kind soul left the stairwell window open over the weekend...  I could have built a snowman inside as a result.   

I got to stand by the window and watch the snow fall on the city from a safe and warm place.  Blanketing, temporarily, the dirt and grime that usually covers the streets and making everything a more pristine white...

The best part about February...

The best part about the end of February and the Begining of March...  I get to set the date on my Watch 3 days  forward..  Feels like time travel!   Yay spring!

Family Friendly

I went to watch my sister play hockey today (yes, sister... girl... hockey...  unnatural) and unexpectedly ran into my brother who had also come to watch the game.  We all love and respect each other immensely but we all live busy lives and rarely manage the trip up to see each other.  When we do it's usually just two of us and rarely three of us together...

To come together in an unplanned and unexpected manner makes it all the more special.  Add to this a trip to the apartment to browse through old photos and meander through memories of the last few years and it becomes downright sappy.  But in a good way.  A way that reminds you what family is all about in the first place...  A group of people who you can rarely see but who will always be there no matter what.  Who will always love you.  A group of people who create home wherever they happen to gather.  I love my family and thank them for a brief but wonderful afternoon.

We wrapped up the evening with dinner at Erin's house, with her parents, which I always enjoy.  The food is excellent, the company is interesting and I never fail to learn something new...  I especially love that this too, feels like home.    Sometimes I feel like I take all of this too much for granted... so here it is..  A giant THANK YOU!!! to my family, new and old.  May there be many more days like this.