Reflections

Looking for a very s hort time rental in the area

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 21:28:53 GMT

A good friend of mine will be in the Boston/Cambridge area from December 24th through the 31st, and is looking to rent a small apartment for the duration. She will be here with her boyfriend - both of them are academics in their late 30s, so no keg parties :-) So if anyone has something they are willing to rent or knows of a place, do let me know. Proximity to public transit would be key.

Cincinnati on Monday

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 16:12:27 GMT

I am going to be in Cincinnati this coming Monday. Anyone local would like to hang out?

Paul Robeson in Yiddish

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 13:31:20 GMT

I heard about this performance and finally I found it. I heard this song sang in both Yiddish and Hebrew, but no performance got to me like this one.

Anyone in Ohio or West Virginia this week?

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 10:52:32 GMT

I will be staying around Columbus Ohio Wednesday night and in Parkersburg, West Virginia on Thursday. Next week I will be in Des Moines Monday and Tuesday nights. If anyone wants to hang out, let me know.

David Foster Wallace is dead

Sun, 14 Sep 2008 16:40:51 GMT

www.nytimes.com/2008/09/14/books/14wallace.html I am so sad.

Bed-bug exterminator needed ASAP

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 20:03:05 GMT

I am having a bite at the SF airport, ready to board a plane that will take me home to Boston.

I'd just found out that there is a bed-bug infestation back at home. It appears that an exterminator will need to be brought in. If anyone can recommend one, or has any general words of wisdom on the situation, I'd love to hear about it...

URGENT: a general practitioner is needed in NYC

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 15:42:07 GMT

My mother has been under the weather for a couple of weeks now. The pool of doctors she chooses from is limited to the Russian speaking variety. Unfortunately, it seems that many of the Russians who came over to the States kept the Soviet work ethic, and connect success directly with the amount of money they make; in the case of doctors, the money is connected to the number of insurance claims they submit to the insurance companies, NOT the quality of service they provide. Since their patients need them because they find it difficult to communicate with the English speaking physicians, the Russian doctors treat them like crap because "where else could they go?"

In short, the quality of care my mother has been getting is sub standard, and she needs a good physician, even if s/he does not speak Russian. The way I go about finding my providers - medical or not - is strictly by recommendation of people whom I know, and so far it has worked really well. So, especially you, NYC denizens of my acquaintance, can you recommend a GOOD general practitioner (preferably in Brooklyn)that either you, a member of your family or a good friend used and really, REALLY liked?

Thanks!

Back from Burning Man

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 17:50:56 GMT

I returned from Burning Man yesterday. Most of the dust is out of my outer layer (though the urge to fellate a vacuum cleaner to get it out of the lungs is great). Hanging out this week with Kamela in San Francisco, and will be here most of the following week as well.

MANY somewhat grand Burning Man type of realizations, some of which I intend to post in this space.

It seems that all the fatigue I was not feeling on the Playa had just descended on me right now - a tricky thing to deal with, as I am usually a fairly "go-go-go" type of person - but deal with it I shall :-)

Hangoutage in San Franciso

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 17:47:25 GMT

I will be in San Francisco for a trade show from Sunday, September 7th, through Thursday morning, September 11th. Anyone in the area would like to hang out in the evenings, let me know.

Off to make my passport cooler or who wants to hang out in Nice?

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 21:23:50 GMT

I got a new passport in '06 on the occasion of the expiration of my old one. This natural order of things produced a moment of sadness - my old passport was bedecked with colorful stamps from a myriad of foreign and exotic countries - Japan, Australia, Italy and the like.

In the past year my new blue book has been catching up. There are a number of trips to Canada and to Germany, and now a forthcoming one to France. After my last performance at the One Acts at Theatre @ First tomorrow, I will be bolting to the airport, heading for a week long training in Nice, France. If you, or anyone you know, wants to hang out please let me know. I will be staying at the Media Garden Hotel in Valbonne. I will be there from Sunday afternoon through Friday morning, and the only evening spoken for is Tuesday, where I have an official invitation from my hosts.

My mobile should be working (it did in Germany, so I assume it would in France as well), so I will be callable and SMSable. Give me a holler if you are in that neighborhood!

Anyone in DC tomorrow?

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 20:45:51 GMT

I got thrown into an unexpected trip to DC today. It's for a Thursday event, and I am flying in tomorrow night (Wednesday), arriving at about 10:45. I'll be at the Washington Court Hotel if anyone is interested in a nightcap...

Ants in my pants

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 15:04:13 GMT

Well, not quite :-) But in my kitchen. It appears that we have a bit of an ant infestation in our house. It's those little "honey" ants. K fought them valiantly with traps and all manner of ant destroying implements. So while we no longer have columns of ants in our bathroom and kitchen, they are still around, and nothing we do seems to work. My suspicion is that the source is outside the apartment, and destroying them here (even with the approach of having them carry various nasty poisons back to their nest) will not do the trick. Has anyone in the area had similar experiences? My feeling is that if the source is outside of my apartment, the landlord should be dealing with that - has anyone had to deal with this kind of situation?

New visual paradigm

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 19:29:44 GMT

Who said that links cannot be immediately visible? Check this out: http://beta.searchme.com

Organization

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:22:40 GMT

I am curious how, in days of yore, people with the level of complexity that I have to deal with on a day-to-day basis, managed that complexity of tasks and schedules without an electronic organizer. Either the complexity was avoided because of the inability to manage, or people were more organized...

It's a good thing!

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 12:48:43 GMT

It's a good thing to be yourself. Openly and blatantly. My personal inclinations would add "inoffensively," but between being offensive and confusing, I think I'd take offensive. Wen you are yourself you don't confuse other people who might expect something from you that you are not, and you will find/attract the sort of people you are actually interested in. This is, incidentally, apropos absolutely nothing in particular.

That accent thing...

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 14:32:00 GMT

In the past couple of months, the topic of my accent came up a number of times, and it wasn't in the context of "oh, it's so interesting/sexy/makes you unique, etc." I began to ponder whether, at my age, I still have the ability to modify my speech to a degree that I could pass as an American (not a normal America, that will never happen). I became intrigued with the idea of choosing the type of American accent I would want to have and going for it (the result would be arguably more eccentric than what I have right now, of course).

Any professional/informed opinions? Any recommendations of speech coaches in the area?

Anyone in Indianapolis?

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 05:06:20 GMT

I will be in Indianapolis Wednesday night on a business trip. Anyone local for hanging out?

Have I...

Tue, 13 May 2008 18:07:18 GMT

... succumbed (the word conjures up some combination of fellatio and climaxing)??? I am having this low level headache that is refusing to go away. I am curious if my body is asking for coffee (I've been drinking it on a sort of semi regular basis over the past few months). Thing is, I had strong tea this morning, so I don't think it should be caffeine per se...

Strange sensations...

Tue, 13 May 2008 17:29:49 GMT

It is the middle of the week, and I am in my office in Framingham rather than in some random state (or Canada). How delightfully bizarre... AND my noon call was canceled, AND I just went to shop for lunch food at Whole Foods...

Ah, the bitterness!

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 15:30:35 GMT

In the spirit of America's litigious culture, I am pondering suing the Clinton and McCain campaigns, as well as the major media outlets for insulting my intelligence. Those "bitter" remarks by Obama that have been debated ad sputum, what were they?

"You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them.And they fell through the Clinton Administration, and the Bush Administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not."

"And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

H'so - the man said that some people are bitter because a confluence of circumstances, presumably out of their control (but under the control of the people Obama positions himself against), have dealt the bitter people a scurvy trick, the raw end of the stick, or whatever idiom that stands for "they got screwed." Re-reading Obama's comments, I can see someone deciding to give him grief for maybe presenting religion and guns in a negative light, but instead both Clinton and McCain are telling us that he is denigrating the American people, that salt of the earth, that moral compass that is supposed to inspire us all and that is the source of all our most cherished values (no I'm not a populist - deal).

I might be living in a bubble of my own making, but as much as I try to understand the logic of the attacks of Obama I fail - miserably at that. All it does (from my perspective), is make Clinton and McCain look ridiculous, as they insult the intelligence of the people they claim Obama has insulted.

My jury is still out, as for whom I will be voting in November, but this "bitter gate" (I swear the term as been overly abused - I only use it because The Washington Post does - I am waiting for a candidate to break wind at some televised/recorded event, to be followed by the "fart-gate" headlines) is certainly hurting both Clinton's and McCain's cause as far as I am concerned.

I'm alive, really!

Sun, 06 Apr 2008 06:38:11 GMT

I realize that my posts in this space have been less than sporadic. There is very little mystery here - it's work and the XXX rated hours I've been working lately.

I am writing this from Germany. I will be in Munich starting Sunday night, training and working. I decided that a little bit of vacation is in order, so I flew in on Thursday, arriving Friday morning, and spent most of the time sleeping - really, I haven't slept so much in months, if not years (I am still not managing more than 7 hours at a stretch, but I ended up pulling a few sets of 7s and 5s that had me averaging 10 hours a day).

Good GODS I feel something like approaching normal - that sense of being fully awake realizing I was not aware as to how sleepy I was. In the unlikely event that anyone I know happens to be in Munich and is interested in hanging out some evening or other, do let me know. Otherwise, I will be back on the 16th, will be in NYC the weekend of the 19th, and in Bethesda, MD, most of the week of the 21st. After spending, oh, a week at home, I will most probably be in Vancouver most of the week of May 5th. Anyone for hangoutage, do let me know.

The funny thing is, with all this travel madness (and the work madness into which I won't go in right now), I have this strange feeling that things are settling a bit in a good way. I see both the establishment of good routines (and recognize the ones that are still lacking, e.g., gym time), as well as emergence of friendships and romantic relationships.

Well, I need to forage for some food now. Looking forward to seeing many of you when I am back States side.

Total lala land and the winner of the most incongrous clip

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 05:43:36 GMT

I am in the last stages of finishing a very long and very boring work related document. It's 12:41 AM. I listen to youtube music as I work. The clip below winds the award for the most bizarre combination of cultures:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWKiMgNFB4Y&feature=related

And then there is that:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xn5L6aYUtVU&feature=related

Week breakdown guides

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 18:44:15 GMT

Oh ye corporate rats out there, I have a question. Is anyone aware of any studies/publications/guidelines regarding how much "unstructured" time a corporate worker should have in his/her week. I would like to come up withe a fast and hard rule of "No more than X hours of meetings a week," or some such thing.

California, here I come!

Sat, 23 Feb 2008 03:14:51 GMT

I will in Sacramento in a week - flying in on March 2nd Sunday night, and leaving at some point on Wednesday. Prime nights for hangoutage are Sunday and Tuesday nights. Oh ye locals, let me know if you'd like to get together.

Relaxing

Sun, 17 Feb 2008 00:30:02 GMT

This has been a good day so far - taking my time and not rushing anywhere, while actually getting some work done. Ran errands, looked at a potential car to get, and am about to go to a party where I will see many people I like a great deal.

Tomorrow I'm off to Las Vegas to man my company's booth at a trade show. If there is anyone I should see in Vegas, let me know. Otherwise, I will be back on Thursday.