Worchestershire What? Thanksgiving goes bye…
Happy Thanksgiving! Yes, today is the day that President Lincoln declared as the day that we recognize that which we are thankful for. Or something like that.
There is a lot of myth around Thanksgiving. Something about pilgrims, indians, and eating together. But seriously, how can we know whether there is any truth to that? I suppose we can counter that by asking whether it matters. The corporate giant I work for gave me the day off so there you have it.
A brother of mine called tonight to ask me how I pronounced “wor-shest-er-shire”1 Honestly, I don’t know if I pronounce it correctly or not, but I did find out that my Mother pronounces it the same way2. Big surprise eh?
W. and spent most of the day pretending like we didn’t miss our families. We worked together3 to make a decent dinner, and it wasn’t terrible, we ate plenty while considering that which we are thankful for. Which is a lot.
I’m thankful that my mother seems healthy. I’m thankful that I have a beautiful wife that is smart, caring, considerate, and independent enough to know that it takes two to tango. I’m thankful that I have air breath, space to move about in, and matter to keep me alive. Beyond that, I’m thankful that I’m just another being struggling to make the best of what is available. Does being thankful for that matter much? Probably not. Is what it is.
We finished the day off watching television. We didn’t watch football like I imagine a good many people did, but we did relax in front of the screen. The device that captivates and entrances.
Tomorrow there will be school work. Reading, writing, reviewing, drawing. Reality as it stands for this moonlighting student.
Image: It is thanksgiving, so why not a picture of my plate. I bet it looked like a million or so other plates today. Full of turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, gravy, and stuffing of some sort. It looked good. It tasted pretty good. But I’m glad nobody else had to suffer my cooking. I have a lot to learn. Sorry to W.
------------------------------------------------------------------------ This is a delicious sauce by Lee and Perrins. This sauce has a considerable history behind hit. Pick which one you want to believe. [↩]
- A little research suggests we are both right: “In the UK, Worcestershire is pronounced ‘woost-ur-shire’ and Worcestershire Sauce is referred to as ‘Worcester Sauce’, pronounced ‘woos-tah’. In many other parts of the world, however, it is referred to as ‘War-sest-uh-shire’ Sauce.” [↩]
- By together I mean me being all pissy in the kitchen and her being a good sport by letting me make a mess of things like I’m oft to do. [↩]
Nearing the holidays…
Some close friends of ours have what they call “Harry Thanksmas”1. This is the holiday wherein they combine Christmas and Thanksgiving into one because they won’t be around for Christmas. It’s a pretty clever idea if you think about it. They get the necessary parties together and celebrate the holidays. Cause seriously, the holidays are a time of bitter sweet. Once a year there is this pinch and hug. It hurts but feels good in a strange way.
Today was odd in a couple ways. I had a coworker…bless her considerate heart2, invite me to her family’s Thanksgiving dinner. The simple fact that she thought to invite me was enough to fill my spiritual stomach. Any time someone takes the risk to invite you into there familial circle, it exemplifies a certain openness. Though I probably won’t take her up on the offer, it sure was nice to be invited.
We attempted to complete a “usability test” today but didn’t coordinate our emails effectively and as a result, the people we were expecting to be available were not. So a fellow student and I headed to the lounge and sought anybody that had a few minutes to spare. Lucky for us a willing student stepped up to help out. Thanks M.P.
W. included this URL in an email to some friends that I don’t think follow the blog. Not that I think all our friends follow my posts. That would be silly I guess. Or would it? If I knew my friends had blogs I would subscribe to their RSS feeds so as to have some idea what was going on in their lives. But seriously,who cares what I post? A shout in the wind. One hand clapping in the forest when the tree falls down.
Image: When W. was doing laundry in Hawaii, I wandered around and found that the area outside the room had opposing mirrors. Sensing a unique opportunity I set the timer on my camera and tried to get an interesting shot of myself. Not sure it is interesting, but it was fun to do.
------------------------------------------------------------------------ I’m not positive that is what they call it, but it has to be close. [↩]
- Seriously, thanks for being so caring M. [↩]
Why Blog? The subject of a lecture…
The lecture I attended this afternoon in my CSCW1 class focused on Blogs and Wikis. Two web applications I fell in love with when I learned what they were.
We discussed why people blog and why blogging has become so popular. We talked about wikis and how people use them. Wikipedia is always an interesting topic. I think that understanding why it is so popular could lead to the building of applications that can better cultivate user interaction. Which, being a student studying HCI2 is phenomenon worth studying.
But the discussion on blogging got me thinking about why I blog. A few years ago the term “blog” seemed strange and kind of silly. Now it almost seems a household word. At least in this house it is. The worldwide “blogosphere” is fascinating to me. Who reads what blogs and why, who responds via comments to blogs and what sort of blogs inspire comments…there are so many interesting questions that come up when you start thinking about the underlying motivation to put to type one’s thoughts and feelings on any number of topics.
Part of why I started this blog was to force myself to write. The fact that others read it is an incentive of sorts, but is that the real reason? Is this an exercise in vanity? Perhaps in a way it is. But there are other reasons, others incentives that motivate me to blog. I’ve always been interested in keeping a diary but something about writing things down that only I would ever see felt…well…empty for some reason. Growing up I read a number of novels based on diaries and I found them personal and intimate. They made me feel more human and connected. The thoughts in those books could at times easily be my own voice in my head. Reading has always been a serious pastime of mine and I’ve long thought that someday my head was going to split open and spill out stories that would reach into peoples lives and make them feel more connected to the world. This hasn’t happened yet, but blogging is good exercise for my mind, my hands, and my sense of who I am in the world. Regardless of who reads it.
So I blog. And I don’t have any real good reasons other than I can, it’s easy, and it captures my history in a personal and impromptu way. Which I don’t think is a bad thing.
Image: I took this picture walking back to the parking garage after class tonight. It’s getting cold, the leaves are falling off the trees like large ocher colored snow flakes, and night seems to come so early.
------------------------------------------------------------------------ Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW)…I have a hard time remembering it too. [↩]
- Human Computer Interaction (HCI)…yeah, there are a LOT of acronyms to remember [↩]
Turtles are auspicious
It is said that turtles are auspicious1. They are docile creatures that mind their own business. If they do in fact live a long time, it is easy to imagine them being wise. Though I’m not sure what it means for an animal to be wise, but surely it happens.
Anyway, I spent most of this weekend doing…guess what…that’s right, homework. I had a group meeting in Ann Arbor Saturday morning and spent most of Saturday afternoon writing a critique of an article that is due tomorrow. I reviewed and revised it today, had W. proof it for obvious typos and grammar issues and just recently gave it one more review. Not terrible, but understanding the article for it took some serious thought. This school stuff hurts my brain sometimes.
The majority of today was spent coding PHP. I did some fancy shix using JQuery and AJAX and have our Hi-Fi prototype edging closer to being not just a prototype. It is easy for me to imagine what it would take to bring this the rest of the way to all out functionality, but that is way beyond the scope of this project. But I can see it and it wouldn’t be that tough.
So here it is, late on a Sunday. Thanksgiving is this week and we have decided not to go north. The plan at present is to make two trips in December. One for a gathering on W.’s side in mid-December and the other closer to Christmas to see both our families. Holidays tend to be logistical hassles, but we know deep down that it is good to spend time with our families. We’ll see how all that plays out.
Image: I took this picture of a sea turtle the last afternoon I was in Hawaii. He was gliding along, happy, and relaxed, looking for algae to munch on. I would have sworn he glanced my way and smiled, giving me a little nod. Turtles are auspicious you know.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------Not raised down in Brooklyn
For some reason I’ve been having a hard time focusing on school since I got back from Hawaii. I’m sure it will pass though. I think it probably has to do with taking a week long vacation in the middle of the semester. It sort of threw off my focus. I hope it passes soon because I have a ton of shix to do before classes conclude.
We had a presentation tonight where we had to channel someone famous and I was silly enough to choose L.L. Cool J. Seriously, what was I thinking?!? A nerd trying to be someone crazy smooth and hip. I had good props though but couldn’t pull off the New York accent. I was so distracted trying to be L.L. that I had a hard time focusing on what we were supposed to be presenting. And sure, I’m probably being too hard on myself. After it was over I thought of a dozen things I could have done better. Didn’t help that once I came “on stage”1 I realized that I had forgot my cheat sheet of L.L. sayings. Made for a rocky start. Farkus.
But alas, we live and learn. Will we get a bad grade? Probably not, it wasn’t terrible. “Martha” made cupcakes for the entire class so we finished strong. They got ate up right quick. They were “a good thing.”
Image: This is an “affordance” cube. It was an exercise in a class that required us to build a cube-like thing with affordances built into it. Things like turning, pushing, and squeezing. This was due while I was Hawaii so I contributed by building the cube and mounting it on a board that allowed it to be turned. The other two people in my group finished it out with the bright colors, dials, buttons, and words. I was very impressed with the great job they did. So impressed that I decided I had to use it for a blog post.
------------------------------------------------------------------------ We were doing a parody of the Martha Stewart Show with L.L. as a special guest [↩]
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