the pieces of my life

Today was my first truly free day in over a month. While having house guests was fun, there’s a certain relief to a day off entirely to yourself (and never before has Columbus Day been a day off, but then never before did I work for a university). I, of course, had a long list of projects to get done, but after finishing my blog, really didn’t feel like anything else, and I frittered away the rest of the day. In fact, blogging tonight is really more of a duty than a pleasure, because I don’t feel as if I have anything meaningful to say. What’s worse: if you come to the site regularly and I haven’t written anything? Or if you do come and I’ve blathered on about really trivial boring stuff (which is rather presumptuous of me–I mean, am I saying that what I write is important and interesting? Who are we kidding? I’m just one of probably a million out there who’s poring out her life in a weblog. But that just gets me going on the point and meaning of weblogs and what does it say about me, and I think we’ve been there enough). Perhaps tomorrow I’ll have an intelligent thought.

The font big enough now? Is this easy enough to read? This site is a permanent work in progress, so I’m open to suggestions on an ongoing basis.

Okay, I’m going to start making changes. Bear with any quirks.

The decision to start running again has forced me to start watching local news. The treadmills at the gym are all pointed to TVs with closed captioning, and in the morning, they’re on the news (and why all three TVs are on the same channel is beyond me). A couple of comments:

1) Local newscasters are equally annoying all over the country.

2) They flashed the weather map, and I was momentarily confused, because the water was on the wrong side of the screen.

3) Every local station flashes the stock report for local companies. But first of all, when they show them here, the market hasn’t even opened yet. And second of all, the stocks are boring. TJX. State Street Bank. Yadda yadda yadda. No excitement like Starbucks, Amazon, or Microsoft. Boring.

A New Look

So I’m starting to play around with new designs for my blog. If you have any favorite blogs, let me know. I’m checking a bunch out to see if there are particular styles I like.

Actual invitation from the Partner’s Club: “Join us for a special speaker event with Dr. XX XXX entitled ‘Living, Learning and Loving at HBS’.”

Computer back in working order. Big sigh of relief.

Chill in the Air

Tonight may be the night I cave and turn on the heat. The weather is distinctly fall like–I’ve got to do some winter clothing shopping really soon. I’m feeling woefully unprepared for this. As I type, my fingers are numbing up. But the first time I turn on the heat always feels like such a defeat.

The Year of the Blog

I just realized that I’ve been keeping this blog for a year now. I didn’t think I’d actually keep up with it, but there you go, I surprise myself. This is definitely a fun way to keep in touch with folks all over, but at the same time, it’s a little eerie. I talk to friends, and I mention something and they’ll say, “Oh, yeah, I read that in your Web log.” This thing is a conversation killer for me.

What’s New Is New

When DVDs first came out, there was somewhat of a mad rush to transfer video to disc, which created some poor quality movies. Gradually, folks, especially companies like Home Vision (with their Criterion Collection) got what DVD is all about. They made crisp transfers from new masters, pumped up the sound, and loaded on the extras. Now, mind you, some extras are bogus (I hate photo stills on the DVD and the other filler they put on), but the commentary makes DVD completely worthwhile. When Dave and the Claire Bear were here, we watched the Maysle Brother’s Grey Gardens. The movie itself is a fascinating documentary about a mother and daughter–relatives of Jackie O.–living in this deteroriating house, going rather insane. But what really made the film come alive for me was the commentary track. Granted, I didn’t watch the entire thing (it was late, I was tired, Adam had already fallen asleep in his chair an hour before), but it was captivating to here the “behind-the-scenes.” In a sense, commentary tracks are the ultimate form of gossip, an acceptable form of gossip. A lot of DVDs are coming out pumped up, and owning movies starts to make more sense than renting them, because it takes so long to watch a DVD now. First the movie, then the commentary, then all the featurettes. A lot of other companies have jumped on the bandwagon making premium movie series (such as Warner’s Infinifilm). (And of course, you get studios out just to make the maximum buck, as they did with Lord of the Rings, in which they rushed out a theatrical version and then started creating the special edition, so that some poor suckers got the bad version when all along the studio knew there would be a better version coming out.) But the point I was originally going to make is that many of the DVDs with the incredible features leave you scratching your head wondering, “Why that one?” Of course, some of it has to do with who studios can get to provide commentary and what kind of featurettes are available. And now, television shows are coming out at record speed on DVD. Granted, I fall prey to that one, as Adam and I eagerly finished season three of The Sopranos last night. Yet, upcoming releases include Malcolm in the Middle, Mad About You, 24, and The Shield, of which only one season is out! (By the way, did I mention I interviewed Michael Chiklis for work? He’s a BU alum, you know.) I don’t know why I find this immediate exportation to DVD disturbing, but I do. Vent of the morning.

Normally, on Tuesday and Thursdays, I wake up at a leisurely 7 a.m., get dressed, and then spend some time on my computer, checking e-mail, doing some writing, maybe blogging. On the other days, I wake at 5:10, go to spinning, and then come back and get stuff done until it’s time to leave for work. Not having a computer really throws my morning. I’m not exactly sure what to do with myself. I got up a quickly checked e-mail on Adam’s computer before he has to leave for school (I leave around 8:15 or 8:30; generally he’s gone by 7 or so). How is it I’ve become so dependent on my machine, and not just my machine, but my machine attached to the world.

My computer is hosed. Dead. Kaput. And while we wait for service from Compaq, I’m reduced to using Adam’s computer for the few minutes I can pry him away from studying. Which means little blog time. So all the brillant things I have to say will simply have to remain unsaid. You will have to amuse yourselves for now.

You know, it’s harder to blog when things are right with the world. I have nothing to be sarcastic and cruel about. This weekend was a delightful weekend, with a visit from the Claire Bear and Dave. Yesterday, we walked all of Boston (or at least it seemed like that: we started out in Allston, walked through Harvard Square to the MIT Museum, and then traversed Newbury Street and finally made our way over to the North End). Today was spent eating waffles at home and then apple picking. Now, I need to figure out what to do with that massive bag of apples.

The MIT Museum is probably the coolest thing to do in Boston. Granted, it’s no Spam Museum, but it’s still definitely worth while. The section on robotics and artificial intelligence was quite interesting, even with the film narrated by Alan Alda, who didn’t always seem to be getting what was going on. One thing pissed me off though: the sections on the male scientists always referred to them by their full name (“when Adam Medros invented this, he…”) or their last name (“Medros was the first to realize…”), but the one female researcher was referred to continually by her first name (“and then Jenny created…”). How bizarrely and obnoxiously sexist is that? What I found really interesting, though, is that all the male researchers were trying to create these robots to do physical things, but the one female researcher, Dr. Cynthia Breazeal, is working on a robot that is a sociable robot. Kismet is made to resemble a human (with eyes, ears, mouth, and even eyebrows) and to mimic their emotions. I just find it intriguing that the women have gravitated toward this “emotional” kind of robot. I’m not exactly sure what to make of it. Anyway, there was also an exhibit of these cool mechanical sculptures by Arthur Ganson, the photography of Harold Edgerton (he’s the guy who took the pictures of bullets going through cards and apples and whatnot), a holography exhibit, and then a history of MIT. Oddly enough, in the MIT history, they had two yearbooks out for folks to look at, and it just so happened that I saw one and thought, “That looks awfully familiar!” Of course it did. It’s the same one sitting on my dad’s shelf at home, so I got to show Adam, Claire, and Dave what my father looked like at 21.

But what the hell! Happy birthday, anyway, Andy! I’ll dance to an Abba tune for you tonight.