Almost Ready

After being lightheaded, exhausted, and a little nauseous the past few days, I'm starting to feel more physically and mentally stable today. Hopefully this means I will be all better by tomorrow, since my plane leaves at 8am! I'll be spending the next three weeks traveling to Germany, Austria, Italy, and England, on my first trip to Europe. This will also be my first time on a real train!

Last night I bid my parents farewell as they also depart for China tomorrow. Occasionally it hits me that this is really happening, but for the most part I don't think the reality will sink in until I return from my travels on Sept 23rd and 1661 E Stonybrook Ct no longer has a black Civic parked in the driveway.

Feel free to send emails if you need or want to get in touch with me over the next three weeks. I'll try to check my email and post blog entries periodically during the trip.

Musings from a Mantis

This little guy has been clinging to the underside of my bicycle for over 5 days. I first discovered him after riding my bike home from work last Friday, when I glanced down and saw a small green body hanging upside down from one of the metal bars that makes up the frame.

Despite the fact that he is hanging upside down, holding onto a rusty chain with some of the tiniest limbs I have ever seen, he appears calm and unafraid. Even when I brought a camera within 6 inches of his head and snapped a few pictures with the flash, he merely rotated his head sideways to started at me. Nothing else on his body showed the slightest hint of movement.

Does he have thoughts or instincts that tell him to sit calmly and not move? Is he unaware of the fact that green does not function as camouflage on a metal surface? Is he oblivious that I am very much bigger and stronger than he is and could pose a real threat to his very existence? Does he believe that he is tough enough and resourceful enough to handle anything that may happen to him?

It seems like we as humans are often oblivious to what is really happening around us, walking through life as though wearing blinders, seeing the current joys or irritations but missing the bigger picture. We lose sleep worrying about things that won't even matter in a week, yet neglect to consider the reality that any of us could die tomorrow and have to face whatever comes afterward. I feel indignant when someone borrows my parking space without permission, yet I have done nothing to support the fight against ongoing atrocities of genocide in Darfur.

Life in the modern world, especially in a small, safe American city, has become too easy and convenient. Day to day survival generally doesn't even enter into our minds as a problem to be addressed. There are plenty of toys and entertainment to distract us from the harsh realities of pain and mortality. We have instantaneous access to more world news than any other culture in history, but do we have compassion? Have our hearts become disengaged due to an overload of information? Have our emotions been dulled by the cinematographic assumption that physical suffering is just a matter of stunts that are made to look real?

Ninja Travelers

According to my dad, Chinese movies always seem to have ninjas, whether or not they have anything to do with the plot. This strikes me as greatly amusing, right up there with the English sign translations gone wrong. And while his assessment is probably based on a grand total of less than 5 movies, it does seem to reflect a certain randomness in the culture that I wholeheartedly support. My parents' departure date for Shanghai is quickly approaching, and since I'm the only kid still in town during the packing process, most of the "extra" stuff is ending up at my apartment. This seems to me to be a good system. Unfortunately it looks like my trip to China will be postponed until next spring though, based on schedule mismatches with Mark and Luke coming to Boise the day after Christmas.

The Europe plans are coming together nicely, with lodging and transportation nearly solidified. We're staying at a cute place in Venice that overlooks a canal, and I can't wait to ride on my first train! I have learned about a dozen words each in German and Italian, and would like to take the time to learn a few more phrases before I leave in two weeks, but we'll see how that goes. Fortunately my friend Mike keeps stubbornly speaking to me in German, so I'm picking up some words here and there -- some more useful than others. :)

Hopefully I will have time to post updates at various points along the trip, but regardless I will definitely take lots of pictures and have stories to report when we return. And since I'm barely getting back in time for the first concert of the year, it gives me the rare and lovely opportunity to listen and watch from the audience instead of from the stage.

Belated Introduction

Mostly I started this blog out of curiosity -- to test the blogging concept on a personal level, to experiment with format and layouts, and to play with RSS. Also I enjoy words, particularly when carefully arranged in clever sentences. After all, how often does one get to use "feckless", "insidious", or "forthwith" in normal conversation?

So I randomly started this blog one night last fall, but then it seems that I promptly forgot about it, because I have almost no recollection of the incident whatever. Nonetheless, I was recently reminded of its existence, and with my family scattering around the country and the globe, I find that a secondary motive for blogging has risen to prominence. My hope is that our family blogs will serve as a forum for sharing the minor but interesting bits of life that make it feel personal and real, despite the many miles that separate us from each other.

Comments from friends and family are always welcome and appreciated.

And now I leave you with some favorite literary quotes from the Tyson anthology.

'The time has come,' the Walrus said,
'To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--
Of cabbages--and kings--
And why the sea is boiling hot--
And whether pigs have wings.'

"I never look back, darling! It distracts from the now."

"Your hair wants cutting."

"That Hansel -- he's so hot right now."

"Flowing robes...the grace...striking!"

Treacle.

Morning vs. Night People

My Latest Theory: Morning people vs. night owls

Characterics of morning people:

• enjoy waking up with or before the sun, often without using an alarm clock
• can be extremely productive before 7am
• get tired by around 10pm and typically have no trouble falling asleep
• do their best thinking first thing in the morning

Characteristics of night owls:

• have a general hatred for alarm clocks and a disfunctional relationship with the snooze button
• loathe getting out of bed above all things
• gradually become more energetic throughout the day and enjoy staying up past midnight on a regular basis
• sometimes try to go to bed early but lie awake for hours, unable to fall asleep
• do their best thinking after sunset

In my opinion, the difference is not just a matter of how much sleep you need or whether you like to be awake before everyone else. I think it has much more to do with your body's concept of a "day".

For morning people, the equation is something like:
(number of hours you naturally want to be awake) + (number of hours you want to sleep) <= 24

And for the night owls, it's more like this:
(number of hours you want to be awake) + (number of hours you want to sleep) >= 25

This would explain why night owls seem to get in a cycle of going to bed later and later, then either waking up later and later or else building up sleep debt night after night. It's hard to go to bed when your body says that it's not ready to sleep yet, but it's hard to want to get out of bed when the morning always comes too soon. On the other hand, for morning people their bodies tell them that it's time to go to bed with enough time for them to get fully rested before they need to wake up in the morning. Sometimes I am amazed that morning people don't have to exercise extreme willpower to get out of bed when the alarm rings, but maybe this theory explains that behavior too. /shudder

"People are particularly stupid today"
-- Michele, from Gilmore Girls

A few days ago I ordered a 2GB secure digital memory card online from CompUSA, but decided to save some money and pick it up in the store. Then today my dad asked if I'd pick up a special 4GB compact flash card for him too, so I placed another online order after lunch and received a confirmation email shortly thereafter. It says conspicuously in several places that the items will be available for pickup within 15 minutes of receiving that email. So I figured four hours should be enough and decided to stop by the store after work.

As I'm driving down the road on my way to REI (I'm planning to go there first), casually reading signs, and I suddenly see the words "Comp USA". It takes a minute to register what I'm seeing. My brain has apparently replaced the concept of "Best Buy" with the name "Comp USA", and I was on my way to the completely wrong place. Thankfully the need to focus on turning into the parking lot distracts me briefly from the overwhelming fear that I have truly gone insane.

"Well, so far so good. At least I made it here in once piece," I'm thinking to myself. I walk into the store and one of the many sales associates directed me to the "business orders" desk. The guy behind the counter is talking on the phone, but I figure he can probably multi-task so I hand him the two separate confirmation emails. He comes back a few minutes later with the SD card and another piece of paper, directing me to give it to the cashier when I pay.

me: "What about the other card?"
him: "What?"
me: "I had two separate orders."

So he goes into the back again and returns a minute later, saying that the order must not have gone through for some reason and looking vaguely apologetic. I decide it's not worth the time and energy to get to the bottom of this -- after all, they probably have 15 more of the same cards on a shelf somewhere in the store. He points me in some kind of a direction and confirms that indeed they have more such cards "over there". Just then two other sales associates (probably about my age) were walking toward me so I decided to enlist their help instead of looking awkward and lost while trying to decipher the organizational system of the store.

me: "CF cards?"
guy #1: "What?"
me: "Compact flash cards"
guy #2: "You mean like a flash drive?"
guy #1: "Is this for a camera?"
me: "Yeah, it's for a camera"
guy #2: "I think so, they should be over by the entrance. I'll walk you over there..."
guy #2: "Is this like an SD card? I know we have some of those."
me: "No, it's a compact flash card. I ordered one online and for whatever reason the order didn't go through so I just need to go find the same model on the shelf."

We arrive at a wall with a bunch of smallish memoryish-looking packages and I tell him "thanks, I can find it." I start browsing but the dude is apparently getting paid to help me and is taking his job very seriously. Or maybe he just wants to see what they look like. I locate the SD and microSD cards so I start back in the other direction.

guy #2: "Oh yeah, here you go. Compact flash," and starts to hand me the first one he sees
me: "Actually I need a specific brand", and keep looking for the right model
guy: "Ah, you need a 1 gig." (looking over my shoulder)
me: "Okay here it is" (as I finally locate the high performance SanDisk card that Dad wanted)
guy #2: "Oh, 4 gig"

I didn't press the issue.

After paying for the two cards, I'm walking out of the store looking at my receipt and realize that the receipt doesn't show the date, the name of the store, or the information for the CF card -- it only shows the SD card and the total amount of the bill, along with 500 word essay on the CompUSA return policy. I sigh and reluctantly head back inside. By this time the cashier has vanished and I don't want to start snooping around his cash register without permission so I find another guy and explain the situation. guy #3 looks confused and shows it to someone else, who thinks he can look it up in the computer.

guy #4: "did you pay for this with a credit card?
me [thinking]: "what is this, a test?" (the card name and number are on the part of the receipt that he is holding in his hand.)
me [aloud]: "yeah, like 2 minutes ago."
guy #4: "I can't find it here. I'll see if Mark can print you another copy," and walks off

I wait around for about five minutes feeling very bored and somewhat incredulous at the whole situation. In the process I glance halfheartedly at the titles of many books that are sitting on the sale rack. There's a book on iPods and iTunes with a subtitle "the missing manual", which amused me. Apparently Apple's ease-of-use mantra doesn't completely eliminate the need for the printing industry (which, come to think of it, is good for me).

Finally guy #4 comes back with a sheet of paper and indicates that it, along with my other half-receipt, will (together) count as a full receipt. Somewhat bewildered by this "new math", and the mystical "Mark" who has created the pseudo-receipt, I resolve to myself to revise my mental lookup table so that, in the future, the concept of "Best Buy" will in fact map to the name "Best Buy".

Hours after midnight are free

The title of this post perfectly describes my subconscious ideas about bedtime. And despite the unfortunate tendency of reality to disprove that idea on a regular basis, I remain determined to take advantage of my best creative hours despite the cumulative effects of sleep deprivation. If only the work day started at 11 instead of 9.

Away message of the day:
"I don't make films...but if I did they'd have a samurai"

Weekend Road Trip

Last weekend I met up with some friends from Seattle at Crater Lake, in southwest Oregon. We booked the motel reservation over the phone, and although we weren't sure what to expect, it turned out to be a charming and well maintained B&B, just 20 minutes from Crater Lake National Park. This is a picture of the Caddis Room, where we spent our two nights. The boys let us share the queen bed and slept in the other room, which was really sweet of them. Unfortunately it didn't result in too much girl time, partly because we were so exhausted every night from staying up late, and partly because the two door frames between the rooms were completely devoid of doors!

Since the Crater Lake area is not exactly a happening place in late October, we ended up skipping lunch both days and driving into larger cities for dinner instead. In the meantime though, I think everyone appreciated the Cheez-Its and pretzels.

Over the course of the weekend we took an Abbey Road style picture on the fallen trunk of a large tree, made up some goofy games to keep ourselves entertained, almost froze to death for the sake of star-gazing in the perfect darkness, and spent an evening in Medford watching Natalie MacMaster play some lively fiddle tunes.