My phone was out of service due to a bad power adapter – my own reluctance to wait on the line and diagnose the problem with my phone company caused me to not have phone service for almost 4 weeks. Its a statement about how important I deem that legacy landline (actually its Vonage now and no, that’s not my actual phone). In the end it was only a 15 minute conversation with most of it on hold. Express shipping and no cost to me and 2 days later my 212 number was back in service.
What I don’t miss is the incessant cold calling around dinner time. By my annoyed count that was 5 tonight. I know enough to not automatically answer, but to stop what I’m doing and walk over to the caller ID gets weary that fifth time.
I suppose if it wasn’t one of those times in my life when I absolutely need to see who is calling it wouldn’t be so bad. I’d just let it ring and not mind it so much. Which is like the pesky people in our lives – they may not “mean it” and say “it will just be a few minutes, but could you…” and not realize that it just took you 25 or 75 minutes to reach this point in your thought process…
When my phone line was out, I could still get phone messages that callers left via an attachment to my email. I set it up also to text me on my cell. I knew which I could delay (forever) and which I should answer sooner based on the phone number. If only we could shield ourselves similarly with pesky people. I’m not being rude, just efficient with my time. I know what I know because I made the time to learn – and they are intruding upon that precious time.
Had the time to play with WordPress a bit today and decided to try and configure it a bit more the way I’d like. Changed the sidebar some. Downloaded a plugin to allow creating photoblogs more easily. Next to dust off the camera and snap off a few photos.
I’m liking this blogging software alot- and I’m barely scratching the surface. Making it extendable by user created plugins is a great concept. If only we as humans could just plugin another module and now dance or draw or code competently.
It has been said that it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert at something. I wonder what that number would be to become competent? Also, what frameworks allow the most efficient processing of hours of study, play, practice in some field of endeavor?
I’m sure it took the author of that plugin much more than the 20 minutes I took to add it to my install. Knowledgebases and NLP attempt to speed up the process. Some gifted people can learn a language very quickly. In fact surprisingly in a recent survey almost a half of the respondents said they would be open to having a surgical implant if it would enhance their abilities.
I’m not sure I’d like to flex my biceps and get FM radio yet. Or even have WiFi built in to my skull. Small laptops and phones are good enough for me. Keep that RFID chip in the packaging. I even hesitated putting them in my dog, but the idea of finding a lost pet won in the end.
Getting past this rough patch in the economy – I wonder what new technologies will propel us forward? The pace of change has sped up such that what our grandparents experienced we will see happen every decade, And that just gets cut by 50%. So then it will be 7 years then fewer. It would be great to see energy issues solved, so that we don’t have such economic and ecological crises. What plugin will affect some young mind and spark that next great idea?
Fully loaded up with the day’s shopping, most of the weary bus riders were content to sway with the bus to and fro in a daze on their way home. A woman with a rather large box sitting in the front garnered some looks as the newcomers trundled to the rear.
That is until an elderly gentleman chose to ask where she got her stereo system. She answered that she got it at the Best Buy. Then there was a flurry of reviews of all the electronics retailers – how Circuit City was this and Radio Shack was that, etc. More riders joined in, they spoke of where to go and where they had been, how some woke at the crack of dawn to get the Black Friday sales.
Others talked of ordering online, how the store locator didn’t indicate correctly all the Manhattan store locations. How you could now order online and then pickup! “What a concept.” Then it moved to the economy, about how this was a great time for buyers. How the woman was looking for a new TV to join her new stereo system.
Then she spoke of how she got some great bargains for clothes. My attention drifted off to the yogurt I wished I had a spoon for. In Manhattan it sure didn’t seem like the consumers were pulling back.
I’m reading a comic book, or graphic novel as some of you prefer, that I got from the public library. Its “X-men Messiah Complex”. I’ve missed a few chapters in the X-men story. I like the artwork- yet the time travel plot line gets weary at times. Not so bad here but in so many Sci-FI stories its an often used tactic.
Makes me think since its so ‘impossible’ that it is so often fantasized about. I spontaneously asked the other day, “If you could go back in time and give yourself a message, what would it be?” Maybe there is a spiritual plane where time doesn’t operate the same way and messages can cross.
For me, there are a few moments that I wished I lived differently. I’d send back “flow” to that first week at Stuy as a freshman in English class. It was on the tip of my tongue… I never really got the hang of class participation until much later when someone remarked that I was stingy with sharing my ideas.
“Yes” to a certain invitation that I still think about. “No” to another one. “Travel more” to that younger me that thought about taking a year off of school.
Of course, with those ‘regrets’ we will never know for certain what may have happened if we chose the other road. Would it have been that catastrophic Marty McFly punch that almost ended his life before it started? We can’t go “back to the future”, but sometimes its very revealing what those messages and moments are for each of us.
Just got back from an easy 2 mile run in what seemed like balmy warm weather. I saw my breath a couple times so it must have been somewhat cold- yet it was very comfortable. After the hard work of really cold weather running this seemed so tranquil and it lulls me into a complacency.
I guess I’m in holiday mode – things to do, but it can wait a few days, no sense in not enjoying it. Happy gobble gobble!
Why is it that there is always a missing cable or adapter in our lives? The phone’s adapter blew out and I finally got the replacement in the mail. I took the opportunity to rewire a few others things – like my WiFi – and I have forgotten what a pleasure it was to roam around the home untethered.
It’s not like the pure technology excites me anymore (although it is still somewhat cool) but we so easily grow accustomed to life’s little luxuries. How many times have we torn the living room apart looking for a remote – just to turn on the TV? Or where is that cordless phone today?
These minor annoyances so accumulate into such large stresses sometimes. But chipping away at the tangle of missing and misplaced wires, adapters and other paraphenalia in our lives does make a small yet significant difference. Such daily improvements and additions create a base on which to create larger and more important changes.
Being in the now can even make doing the dishes more enjoyable. Which reminds me…
The exuberance from my morning run has faded and I’m at the tail end of a busy weekend with more to-do-list than time left. I feel like I live in a gigantic puzzle, you know the one where there are 16 slots and 15 pieces of the puzzle and you have to move everything to get two of the correct pieces to be next to each other? And not just my pack rat self and small apartment either.
Its 16 spots with one empty and I’m standing in it. I just laughed to myself as I read what I typed and it seems so much more dire than reality. Lots to do, but worth doing and the results and some fun in the doing will be more than enough reward.
Back to that morning run: it was gorgeous in Central Park this morning. Everything was lit up by that warm sun, and I even took the bridle path south. I normally take the paved road. It was a bit more scenic and the Lake was partially frozen over. I saw a motionless turtle that I hope was just lethargic. The little boy in me wanted to poke him with a stick, but the parent in me resisted just enough.
On the way back, I passed the dinosaur topiary in front of the Museum of Natural History. It wasn’t bad, even compared to the ones in that documentary I saw recently. Armed with that knowledge of what it takes to create one, I gave the green dino a bit more respect. I’ll try to bring a camera with me next time.
A couple more tasks and off to bed. This shortened week might just be what I need.
The phone call was errant but well timed. To go back to sleep or not, that is the question. Suddenly I remembered the new running schedule that I planned on implementing… that is one of the new schedules that I was thinking of implementing. Still, I was awake and enough so to pull on one of the not-so-new running shirts and tights that I start to grow familiar with.
I stopped asking myself if I look funny in these black tights, somewhat due to repetition mostly due to being thankfully warm during these last few runs. It was 70 degrees 7 days ago, wasn’t it? (I might still ask a friend if the tights are …)
Some lessons learned for winter running:
- I need about 1 layer per 10 degrees F below 50F
- Lip balm
- Head and ear cover in the form of a cheap cap from the local 99 cent store.
So I headed out and woke quickly in the 15 degree’d wind-chilled air of a crisp New York morning. I decided to go into Riverside this time…incorrectly thinking that it would be less windy. I tried to focus on nasal breathing, to help the air warm and humidify a bit before hitting my lungs like sandpaper. Also all that jazz about nitric oxide being good for you (another upcoming article).
My face burned from the wind before I got too far. I pulled the black cap down a bit further and dealt with feeling good that my ears didn’t freeze like the other night. Thoughts strayed to my late dog Lena – a Samoyed that never truly lived in the moment unless she was out in the park on days like this. The thick white fur coat and huge smile that she brought everywhere with her still makes me smile every time I think of her and the nickname I gave her. “Hostess of the park” I used to call her as she would grin and greet almost everyone that happened across her path.
Those reminiscenses got me through the first mile – as I turned by the empty tennis courts. I looked out over the Hudson and saw the white breakers – if memory served that meant winds in excess of 12-15 miles. Somewhere in my past there was a NYPL book that outlined little signs of what milage windage caused what. Light leaves rustling? 2 to 4 miles per hour. Branches moving? then 5-7 miles, etc.
The wind chill and frostbite table would have prepared me better, as I didn’t know till much later that it was “feels like” 15F. I did decide to cut the run short as I got winded trying to pass a young coed that raced past me. She was finishing her run as she circled the Dinosaur playground and exited. I fed my wounded ego by running past her and back up the hill towards the north. Thankfully it wasn’t windy in this section. I could see my breath as I worked my way up the little hill.
A few minutes later I was home and warmly under my most comfortable comforter. The post run nap was splendid.
