Semiquincentennial

While listening to a Top 40 countdown of songs from 1981, the DJs introduced "America" by Neil Diamond. My ears perked up. I hadn't heard this song in a long time. "America" sent me back to the past but also brought me all the way back to the present.

The song is an anthem, a chest-thumping joyous cry celebrating all the of people coming to this land of freedom: the United States. "On the boats and on the planes, they're coming to America." Irresistible lyrics. How proud we should be that all these people want to come to America. She is the star these people navigate towards.

Hearing it made me think of this year's 250th anniversary. It came and went, without the unifying fanfare a big anniversary deserves. America's bicentennial in 1976 felt more epic. That was probably because I was 8. It also probably helped that America had limited TV options, and no Internet. There were fewer distractions to a call for a national celebration. 

The melody and the rhythm and the ideas of the song still work for me. Perhaps today's waves of people  are entering a land that is more fraught. To them I'd say: trust the spirit that brought you here. That star's light is real. It can be a noisy here, but listen to those who made their dreams come true here. The effort to make yourselves better makes this nation batter.

American Flag (Mike Mozart)

Go-Around

I consider myself an experienced airline traveler. Years of flying around the country for work back in the early 2000s made air travel routine and commonplace. On my way back from a trip last month, however, I had a new experience which greatly surprised me.

The plane was approaching Boston Logan Airport. I was in the middle seat, more concerned about finishing the movie I had started a little over two hours ago: Dune Part Two. I had ignored the warning from the entertainment system that said I might not have enough time to finish such a long movie.

I saw through the window that we were descending normally. A cold gray early evening. Boston low in the windows. Suddenly, without warning, the engines made a loud rumble and I could feel myself getting pressed back into my seat. We were ascending again, and quickly!

The ground vanished as we gained altitude. Soon we were back in the clouds, leveling off. A murmur from the passengers. The plane eventually began another approach and after a short period, we were on the ground. As we were taxiing, the captain announced "We were asked to do a go-around, as the plane ahead of us wasn't completely off the runway." Wow!

It turns out that a go-around is a well practiced maneuvers by airline pilots. Clearly our pilots put this practice to good use. And with the extra time (and judicious use of the fast-forward button), I didn't miss the end of my movie!

(by Ferry Octavian on Flickr)

New York City (1987)

In the Summer of 1987, I worked in New York City, doing data entry for a printing company (Automatech Graphics Corporation). This was the Summer after my freshman year in college. I took the PATH train from Journal Square into New York City. I then got off at the 9th Street PATH station and walked to the company's office on 770 Broadway.

At that PATH stop on 9th street, if you looked South down Avenue of the Americas you could see the World Trade Center. Heading East on 9th to the office, the walk was only a half mile. On Broadway, there was a corner store that made breakfast sandwiches. I sometimes treated myself to a bagel and an orange soda. I ate it outside if I was early, then walked into the office where I stayed until lunch.

Lunch is hazy in my memories. I do not think I brought lunch. More likely, I would have walked outside and grabbed a pizza or a hot dog. There may have been a vending machine in the office, but I no longer remember. Later that Summer I found a nearby diner called Silver Spurs, and they had delicious cheeseburgers for super cheap. I went there a lot.

I became comfortable walking around the area. Even though lunch was a strict 45 minutes, I remember walking a few blocks to the Strand Bookstore, and visiting record stores on St Marks Place. I could have even walked to Washington Square Park. Sometimes my friends would meet me in New York after work. It was the Big Apple after all.

I walked this commute using Google Maps' Street Views recently. New York City has changed so much since 1987, but this virtual walk looked roughly the same. The trees on 9th Street, the fancy-looking apartments, the large brownstones, the car garages, 5th Avenue. In Street Views, you can select older images, and by going to 2013 I could see Silver Spurs. (It's now a coffee place.)

The last time I was in Jersey City, I walked from the PATH station in Journal Square to our old house. Maybe the next time I visit I'll take it to 9th Street and take a walk around!

Italian Phrases I'm Memorizing

Ho una moglie e una figlia. Li amo molto ❤️

Sono americano ma sono nato nelle Filippine 🇵🇭

Caffè macchiato, per favore ☕️

Mi piace leggere 📚 e scrivere ✍🏼

È un Michelangelo 👨🏼‍🎨 o un Raffaello? 🎨

photo by tigerorchid

Put First Things First

I saw the Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People in a used bookstore, and it made me smile. I read this book in the mid-90s and it certainly influenced how I thought about life and work. As time progressed, I have forgotten the seven habits but the one that stuck with me: "Put first things first."

In the chapter on this habit, he buckets all the things we have to do into four quadrants: 1) Urgent and important, 2) Not urgent but important, 3) Urgent but not important, and 4) Not urgent and not important. In the book he shows these quadrants on a square which has importance on the Y-axis and urgency on the X-axis.

I have always loved this idea. So much of our day feels driven by the urgent, and you have to decide what is important and what can wait. So much of our off-time is made up of unurgent and unimportant things. What gets left behind is Quadrant II: not urgent but important. 

Quadrant II is the sweet spot of long-term development. This category of work is hardly urgent, but applied to your life's goals, it is often terribly important. It's usually a preparatory step. You are acquiring some building block to help you get just a little further towards that big outcome.

The habit is titled "Put first things first", and this emphasizes prioritization. What is the first thing? If you want to reach big but distant goal, you have to do "the first thing." And yet it's often the easiest thing to set aside for something urgent in your face. By prioritizing an important but unurgent task, you prioritize your goal.

This is why I'll always applaud people who run marathons, finish their thesis, produce a work of art,  give a performance, or achieve some meaningful long-term goal. These are outcomes that do not come from out of nowhere. These outcomes require sustained time and effort in Quadrant II, and everyone recognizes the satisfaction that comes from that.

By Davidjcmorris - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0

Garbage Truck Worker

The apartment complex we live in has large dumpster bins that are emptied out by garbage trucks every three or four days. The garbage trucks are the front-loading kind, with large hydraulic hooks in the front that extend and attach to the dumpster. The hydraulics then lift the dumpster over the front cab and deposits the garbage into the large refuse container. The workers rarely get out of their trucks!

The operation does make a lot of noise however. I don't know if this is on purpose, but sometimes the dumpster is repeatedly slammed into the ground, like a toddler banging a toy. The sound reverberates throughout the buildings, and I'm sure it's audible to the other buildings near us. I think they bang the dumpsters to dislodge garbage so that it falls into the truck better. Or maybe they just like making noise.

One morning, probably while taking a walk, I saw the garbage truck entering our street. I watched as it slowed down, then it came to a stop. I stopped also. The garbage truck worker opened his door, and then hopped out. He had a large iced coffee cup in his hand. He walked towards the back and then casually flipped this container over the high wall of the truck into the open garbage bin! I was dazzled.

I still think about that moment. Did that worker see someone do this before? I appreciated his cleanliness. I can imagine his thought process: "Well... I have this empty container which I should throw away. But wait! I'm driving a garbage truck!" The whole moment put a smile on my face. I may have even waved as he drove past, on the way to our dumpster.

From Mack Terrapro (Flickr)

Unlit Stall Thoughts

A few weeks ago I was in a bathroom stall at work, playing some Freecell, passing a little time and a little gas. Not much else though. Suddenly, the lights went out. 

After that split-second of low-grade confusion, I realized that I was the only person in the bathroom, and the facility's motion detector must have shut off the lights when it didn't detect anyone moving. I certainly wasn't doing much moving (in more ways than one).

My thoughts went towards how you might add sensors in the stalls or even the toilets. Those sensors could communicate to the lights that there were people inside who couldn't move but were nonetheless present. It could do double-duty by tracking stall usage.

But then my thoughts went towards the ancient times. How did people go to the bathroom at night before there were lights? Did they just stumble around their unlit homes? Did they fire up a candle? What about prehistoric times? Did people just wake up in the night then wander nearby to relieve themselves? They would likely be concerned about predators.

My thoughts finally settled back towards mid-2021, back to when COVID was starting to fade away. Nearly four years later, my office building is a small fraction of its former population. How long before someone else walks into this bathroom? I waved my arms, but that didn't trigger the lights. 

Just as I started to think practically about finishing up in the dark, someone else walked in. The lights came on. I thought about how this person might have calculated he had the whole bathroom to himself, but then  realized another person was here, sitting in the dark. He went into anoter stall, and then I made my way out, into the light.

Bathroom from Post

Ads and Ad Blockers

I don't use any ad blockers on my devices. I'm not a fan of advertising, but I have a grudging belief that advertising pays for content. I think about old media like newspapers, television and radio. Consumers of this media endured ads because they were getting something of value: news, entertainment, new music. Ads and content were locked together.

It's hard to justify this position with our new media options today. I can get news from an X (formerly Twitter) timeline, entertainment from TikTok and new music from Spotify. At best, ads get in the way, and at worst they're intrusive. For new media, it turns out you can separate ads from content. I then remind myself that ads provide the funds for the media platform and their creators.

Old media consumers could be considered a passive audience. We just turn to our newspaper, or TV, or radio, and have content instantly available. New media consumers are a more active audience. New media involves establishing a subscription, and perhaps a new device.

The old media audience understood there was no practical way to block out ads. The most you can do is lower the volume on the TV or radio when the ads come on. That's what I do. The new media audience have easy ways to stop most ads, but it involves action: installing a plugin, setting up a Pi Hole, etc.

In the end, it's a software battle: consumer ad blocker software versus media platform servers. Is your ad blocker adept enough to prevent an ad from pre-rolling on Netflix? Or a major news website? It's pretty clear which group has more money.

The new media adage is "if you're getting something for free, you're likely the product." Whenever I'm scrolling through Facebook or TikTok, I'm aware that ads pay for the content and for my (brief) attention. I can only hope they're good ads!

AdBlock

Musings on Facebook

Facebook is going to cancel their notes feature, which is where some of you read these postings of mine. The 250 or so notes I have posted here will remain, but if I want to post my writing on Facebook in the future, I'll have to copy them into Facebook posts ("What's on your mind, Rick?"), or post a link to my BLOG.

This update from Facebook had me thinking about how different things were before Facebook. Back then, in order for people to share their thoughts they'd have to post on specialty websites, or post on pre-browser communities like email lists, IRC or even USENET. In the end, the mass audience ended up on Facebook. And everyone wants the audience.

Mark Zuckerberg succeeded in making the web a lot more relatable, by creating a platform that was so easy to use that practically everyone I know in my immediate and extended family is on it. I was naive back in the 1990s, thinking that everyone would have their own websites, and people would largely communicate by email or through links.

I remember a co-worker in the early 2000s complaining that he'd have to get on Facebook eventually, because he kept missing out on party invitations. I did a quick check and sure enough he's on Facebook. Eventually, people succumb to the network effect: the more people on a network, the more useful the network. Facebook has become a mandatory online destination.

I do admire people who have managed to stay off of Facebook, despite its wide reach. One of my favorite pieces of writing is Steve Pavlina's 30-day Facebook fast. It's worth reading for its reminder that Facebook isn't everything: cultivate and cherish your real relationships, your real experiences.

All that said, I'm still on Facebook, perhaps now a bit more begrudgingly.

Praising "In Our Time"

"In Our Time" is my favorite podcast.

The show is a brisk 40-45 minute discussion on all manner of subjects: history, art, literature, and science. The host is Melvyn Bragg, a British writer/broadcaster with a firm grasp of whatever the subject happens to be. His guests are three academic specialists in the subject matter: a panel of articulate scholars.

When I first learned about this podcast, I picked out the subjects that were of interest to me: engineering, science and math. As I grew familiar with show and its format, I found that Melvyn's manner made any subject seem vibrant. He could produce an almost urgent note in his guests. I've listened to many great talks about history (both popular and obscure), art, poetry and literature.

All the guests are steeped in their subject. Whereas Melvyn has broad taste and knowledge, his guests are at the proverbial deep end of the pool. Without exception the scholars are articulate about highly specialized knowledge, and their enthusiasm for their subject can be quite infectious.

Melvyn would surely be considered a Renaissance man: a person with diverse interests and talents. It's clear that he prepares a certain way before each show, and he is the one that dictates the pace and the angle of approach. He defers to his guests, but he makes it clear that it his show, and he keeps things lively and brisk.

Add this show to your podcast collection, and broaden your mind!

The Seventh Blog Post This Year

I've been good about writing BLOG entries this year! This is the seventh entry so far this year, and even though this entry is light, it does count for the month of July. This means that I can say that I've posted at least once every month this year.

I'll take that.

The Best of My Blog

I've been writing in this space since March 10, 2001. Almost 750 posts. Out of all of these, I've marked 46 to be "my best BLOG posts".

I went through this exercise a year or two ago, when I moved my BLOG yet again from an old host to being back on Blogger. I went through each post, "labeling" them into categories. Some posts I could categorize easily ("Daughter", "Movies"). Some posts were so brief I labeled them "Tweet", which suggests that I was tweeting before Twitter was invented. Some posts eluded easy categorization, and I dumped them into "Personal".

The posts I marked as "My Best" are varied: movie reviews, reminisces, essays about the day-to-day, eulogies about the well-known and the personal. I really liked the posts I wrote about the people in my life who made a strong impression, people like Jonathan, Paul, and Greg.

I hope to add more posts into the "My Best" category. Of course that means I have to keep writing them first.

The Blog is Dead...Long Live the Blog

Last week, Wired magazine published an essay stating that blogs are dead. The author Paul Boutin says don't even think of starting one. He even suggests that if you have a blog, you might kill it in favor of your Twitter, Flickr, or Facebook pages. Posts from blogs are no longer "first page results" on search engines; Wikipedia and "professional blogs" now dominate that first page. Why bother, he asks.

Why bother, indeed.

As I read the article, it's clear that he is speaking of the blog as "soap box", the blog as an attention gathering device. I can imagine him giving the same argument about writing novels, or making music. "Don't bother. It's been done already. Today's creative works are cranked out by pros." Forget your voice. There's no more room for it on the web.

I reject his thesis, partly out of self-defense. I write mostly to serve my own muse, to serve up my own musings. I don't write to be paid, or to get "mass" attention. While at one point I wondered about page views, I no longer care.

I care about having the ability to write on the web, in a format that people have come to accept, even though these people are quickly moving to other formats. I care about producing meaty writing, not these so-called tweets or status updates. I care about connecting with people, even if they turn out to be only my family and friends, and the occasional stranger. I care about blogging, and I hope for my own sake that it's not dead.

And as for anyone who's thinking of starting one? I say go for it. Paul's right that your posts probably won't merit mass attention. But if you have an angle or a point of view that you want to express, I think there's plenty of room in the blogosphere. It's hard to express your thoughts with just photos and tweets. Getting your writing out there is sure to satisfy at least one reader: yourself.

My Mind on Sports

I've been venting my sports thoughts over at a BLOG I started on Sporting News earlier this year. And thank goodness too, since the Red Sox are in the World Series, the Patriots look great this season, the Celtics picked up Kevin Garnett, and the Bruins look pretty lively. But you can't also forget the New England Revolution, the local college teams (Boston College, Boston University, and sometimes Harvard can break into the national sports consciousness), golf, tennis, the Olympics (summer and winter), and everything in between. And if you scroll down a little bit, there on the left is a nifty ticker so you can see what's in my sporting mind. Go Boston!

Web Two Oh

I spent the past half hour updating my wife's blog (in which she primarily talks about knitting). She needed to add some "buttons" to her site (those little icons that reflect some affiliation). Come to think of it, I should probably add a few of those on my BLOG. "Like what?" you might ask. "Like these: LibraryThing, Flixster, del.icio.us, GolfBuzz, and Bloglines." Stay tuned!

Person of the Year

Wow. Never thought I'd be part of Time's "Person of the Year". *grin* Now if I could only get paid to write my own BLOG, then I'll have something to celebrate about.

Leroy

My brother Ron has been writing a BLOG about his new car, a MINI Cooper. I've been reading his writings, and it's entertaining. Ron liberally sprinkles in MINI Cooper jargon (his car color is "HB") and other car care factoids (he used ClayBar on some dirt a few months ago). It's fun figuring out what he's talking about. One of the things that I learned is that owners of MINI Coopers get free car washes for life. Now that is going to generate some brand loyalty!

Random Thoughts

My brother pointed me to Darth Vader's BLOG. It is very funny! I wonder if Han Solo has a BLOG?

Danielle Aimee, whom I've posted about already [1] [2], shot 8-over 79 in the first round of her first LPGA event, the Michelob Ultra Open. The leaders Silvia Cavalleri and Catrin Nilsmark are both at 4-under 67. It's a tough start for Dani, but when I look at her score card, I see that she really had a tough front nine, then settled down on the back nine. She scored a birdie on the par-3 13th. That had to be a good boost!

I did finish The Boys of Winter last month. I'm ready for the movie now.

Counting Up the Words

I spent a few hours tinkering with TokeParser, a Perl module that parses HTML files. I wrote a small program to count every word in my old BLOG. Here are the top ten words:

     1  3400 the
    2  2518 I
    3  1848 to
    4  1806 a
    5  1430 of
    6  1349 and
    7  967 in
    8  802 was
    9  701 my
   10  699 that

So. I wrote 'the' 3400 times, and I wrote 'I' 2518 times.

I think I read somewhere that the most frequent word in any memoir or diary is "I". me appears in my list as the 30th word. I'll post the full list and program in a few days so that you too (with a little help from Perl) can count up the words in your web pages.

By the way, the grand total number of words from my old BLOG: 73404 (over 517 entries).

A New Look

Hey! Things look different! What's up? Why the change?

There are a few reasons.

1. I've been writing this BLOG for four years (since March 10, 2001). I've always toyed with the idea of changing the site design to something more stylish. Blogger has thoroughly modernized their templates since I last browsed their selection back in 2002. I wanted to use these newer templates. (This present style doesn't use any HTML tables!)

2. In April 2004, I decided to stop paying Tripod/Lycos, my former hosting site. With that decision came pop-up ads. I didn't mind the pop-ups, as I use Firefox to surf the Web (it blocks pop-ups). However, some have vocalized that the pop-ups were a surprise. I wanted to move to a pop-up-free host.

3. I like SDF, a public access UNIX host. Having my site here gives me the ability to interact with my BLOG's HTML pages in a programmatic manner and this excites me. (Yes, it does. For example, I can calculate my own word count and BLOG entry count, as well as test some simple HTML markup.)

OK. Back to your regular programming. Welcome to the new Rick's Ramblings. Same as the old Rick's Ramblings.