At Last

The last day of the year, and I am still in Wisconsin. The blizzard in NYC has prevented my return by almost a full week. No complaints on the part of the niece or nephew.

We've gotten the whole family playing Modern Warfare multiplayer. My sister-in-law and niece aren't real good at it, but they got some moves in. Let go of the trigger, pumpkin, aunt Julie needs to run across the field to the farmhouse.

We've watched all three X-men movies, some Disney Princess movies (including The Princess and the Frog - excellent). My brother and I took my niece to Tron. She just wanted to be included, and avoided a long round trip to the Dells to drop off her brother with his birth father. She was game for it, noting only that the movie was "loud".

Doctor Who Christmas Special? Charming.

My sister-in-law loves her Kindle. Also, she makes amazing snickerdoodle cookies.

Starbucks Via is a lifesaver. Not because my brother makes bad coffee, but because it allows me to make a single service instead of a whole pot.

I managed to get some reading done for my January 2 class. That's Sunday, for those of you keeping track at home. Also? I finished a 2.5 page paper for the same class, due by 5 PM Saturday.

Also managed to re-arrange grocery delivery for Sunday evening. Originally was scheduled for the Tuesday after I got back.

So, the plan is: go to a New Year's Eve party at Steakfire, crash out, then up early on New Year's Day to head in to MKE for the flight out. Fingers crossed that the weather holds and I make it out.

Multiplayer

So, I've been playing lot of Xbox online against other players. Lately, it's been Halo (Reach, and before that, Halo 3), but what I'm about to say goes for all the other games I've played online against others. These are first person shooters.

First, there are all kinds of players. Some of the best I've played with are guys who sound like truck stop good ol' boys. Sometimes I play with kids. Sometimes, with guys who are actually in the military. It's very rare that I encounter another woman, but that has happened, and I totally respect young women today who play these games, kick ass, and have no shame in playing a boy sport.

I am a woman. I have a female avatar - though to be fair, it's hard to denote gender in 26th-century battle armor. One guy complained that it freaked him out to hear a girl's death rattle when he assassinated me in combat. Others have blithely noted that my helmet looks gay. I don't know what to make of that, do they mean effeminate, or butch? FWIW it's the Air Assault helmet with some kind of extra communications bump above the visor.

In Halo, there are all kinds of games; my favorites are crazy kind and headhunter. Crazy king is king of the hill, only the hill is an arbitrary circle that changes locations randomly. In headhunter, every time someone dies, they drop a skull, and all the skulls they were carrying. You win by dropping skulls in a goal zone similar to crazy king, in that it changes locations.

I like team games. I do alright on my own, but team game even up the odds a bit. On a good day, I'll encounter people who know how to play as a team. most of the time it's just a bunch of individuals out for themselves. Team play is the best because when you coordinate action, you can achieve real results. In capture the flag, for example, one guy carries the flag while the others cover. If the flagman goes down, someone else picks it up and everyone else continues to cover.

Lately I've been playing some other variants. I like Team Sniper, though I don't do particularly well. The key of course is to hide and countersnipe the enemy. This is difficult in bright, blazing red battle armor. I tend to hide in caves and aim at ledges, but occasionally I will hop on an ATV and blaze across the field, hoping to draw enemy fire and kill them when I return from the grave.

Another game is called Juggernaut. In this game, one play has a powerful warhammer and can take a lot of damage. The other plays try to take down this Juggernaut. When that happens, someone else becomes the juggernaut. Winner is the player who lasts the longest as Juggernaut. I'm two for three.

In yet another game, the goal is to hold on to a ball. When you hold the ball, you cannot run or shoot, but you can kill another player with a single punch. I have a film where I won; Basically, I took possession and hid in what appears to be a locker room. Every time someone came around the corner, I punched them. It's pretty funny to watch.

I worry about my language sometimes. I can get really involved, in a way I don't with anything else. Have you seen guys at sports bars? I can get like that when I'm neck and neck for the lead. But I don't trash talk, and I don't say mean things about other players. I just curse and grumble. There are people online who say much worse things, who casually call people niggers and fags and . . .I usually bail and find other people to play with when the round is over. Plus, don't feel too bad about my language.

That said, it's weird to have kids around. I used to work in a school, and it's hard to have that adult-child distance when they're not right in front of me, and also when I'm inherently engaging in an adolescent pasttime. Plus, they kick my ass.

It is good, though, to find a group to groove with. No matter what, I much prefer to play with people who talk. It's nice to say "I saw that!". it's nice to have the back and forth and cheering on and consolation. Some games, no one talks. It's creepy.

So that's my online playing experience.

Tron Legacy

I recently saw Tron Legacy. I had to: I am a computer geek; I saw the first movie when I was a kid, and again at some point as a young adult on cable. Some observations.

I would require sufficient disaster recovery measures before I allowed myself to be zapped into a computer. It's a good thing no one ever switched off whatever system the Grid is running on. Twenty-one years of uptime? Amazing.

No reasonable person goes to a Tron movie expecting a focus on character development. It's about the world - the cycles, ships, and political system. It's like Alice in wonderland: more of a fanciful reflection of our own world than a study in psychological realism.

Encom is apparently the Atari/Oracle of the Tron world, and Kevin Flynn is Steve Jobs . . .if he had never come back from NeXT.

Brilliant cameo (I won't spoil) in the boardroom.

Favorite catchphrases: " . . .fights for the users", "greetings, programs", "You're messing with my Zen thing, man!".

This is one of two movies featuring Jeff Bridges that are out, and which I want to see.

The ending presents some implications that were not fully present in the first film.

Programs should not be elevated to posses user rights.

There is not enough Recognizer action. I'll take a Recognizer over the light cycles any day of the week.

Best supporting actor - the guy who played CLU's lackey. He's from True Blood, I think.

I really don't get the Tron hate in some reviews - even geek reviews. It is not a bad film. Boy misses father, chases him down the rabbit hole, fights the red - well, yellow - queen, and escapes. the visuals are stunning, on par with the breakthrough (for the time) of the original. the Young Jeff Bridges effect worked for me.

Also? Michael Sheen is hilarious. OTT, but hilarious all the same.

So programs, stop hating on Tron. it's a fun romp, and updated take on a memento from childhood. For me, it reminded me of why I got into and have stayed in technology. It's cool. It's shiny and fast-paced and addictive. Also, strange men in high towers have the ability to grant or deny you access to valuable resources.

End of Line.

Observation Deck

Notes from some recent travel over the Thanksgiving holidays:

Dear airline: changing my non-stop 4-hour direct flight into a three-legged route lasting over eight hours is totally not cool.

The express security lane at most airports is improperly utilized. Most people will opt out of the lane because they travel so infrequently that they assume they are not "expert" travelers. They give you the criteria for expert travel on the poster. The result is that no one uses the lane, and when the regular lane backs up, the TSA folks start routing everyone into the empty expert lane, effectively negating the purpose of the expert travel lane.

I finally experienced one of the cuisinart-style full body scanners, in Tulsa of all places - there was no such scanner on my outbound from Newark. They are no big deal. What is odd is that apparently, my double-timed trouser waist appeared as a belt, so I got a light putdown anyway.

My biggest complaints about how ridiculous airport security has become are based on what's already transpired. I normally carry a laptop bag, a purse, and a carry-on bag. In the winter, I have a coat. To pass through security I need no fewer than three trays, and sometimes more depending on the agent: laptop, shoes and coat, laptop bag and purse. If I'm lucky, my carry-on liquids can share a ride with my purse. The degree to which I have to completely disassemble my ensemble is ridiculous, especially if you multiply it out over the thousands of other travelers every day. At some point, we'll all be shipping our luggage priority mail and wearing sweatsuits and Crocs, modern-day monks with no real possessions.

The TSA needs to be consistent on whether or not we need our boarding passes out to pass through the security checkpoint.

My main complaints about security are not the security level required, it's that it is implemented so badly.

Jacksonvile Airport: you're supposed to put sinks in the bathroom. You know, for washing hands. It's all the rage at other airports.

Contrast

Two items in the NYT this morning stand in sharp relief to one another. First, there is a review of the latest Call of Duty video game, a first-person shooter in which the player takes part in any number of fictional yet historically-framed gunfights during the Cold War. In the other, Bob Herbert writes elegeically about Restrepo, a documentary released earlier this Fall about a USMC platoon holding a tiny outpost in Afghanistan.

Together, these two pieces touch on strong feelings, sometimes conflicted, that I have about the military.

For those who don't know already, I was an army brat. My dad was in the US Army band, but also trained to fight as a solider like everyone else. We lived on or near army bases, and I don't bat an eye at the sight of tanks, personnel carriers, artillery, or even a simple fighting man in uniform. That last one, of course, is the most deadly.

I also play shooting games, wandering through three-dimensional palaces of pop-up targets, throwing switches, dropping virtual grenades while carrying an arsenal of assault rifles, pistols, and the occassional target designator with which I can call in orbital bombardment.

I tend towards the more science fictional and fantastical games because they are far enough removed from reality that I can discuss them with friends as a diversion, like any other, as if I were watching a fantasy film or a Z-grade zombie masterpiece. When I try to play the Call of Duty games, I can't help but feel the tug of empathy, knowing that actual soldiers, guys the age of my baby brother, are in actual wars actually shooting and being shot at by other people.

I wouldn't go so far as to say there's a danger that I, a woman in her thirties, will fail to distinguish between fantasy and reality. It's not like I'm going to pick up a gun in real life and set out, bullets blazing. It's more like, I have trouble squaring my knowledge that the fantasy sets out to be realistic yet entertaining, and the reality is much more terrible than could ever be entertaining.

Then again, I know a lot of soliders play these games. They play to practice squad work, the play for fun, they play to get psyched up. the US Army happily provides Xboxes and a variety of games. Even my brother, a Coast Guard reservist, has told me his team plays a certain Call of Duty level to practice their vessel boarding procedures.

I decided a while ago I'd no longer delve into Manhattanite intellecual hand-wriging over the effect and interplays these games have on our culture and political direction. I'm also less concerned about being an outlier demographic - I play because Iam pertty good at these games and it's an outlet for my competitive side.

That said, I still feel a jar, a disconnect, something, when I see games that position themselves as realistic in tone if not outcome, and think about the thousands of people, men and women alike, serving overseas, whose perspective would provide the ultimately objective distinction between fantasy and reality.

The Frisco

Stashing a link here: the Frisco, a nice little drink:

http://nyti.ms/8ZAEIW

Variations of rye, lemon juice, and Benedictine.

In the News

US midterm elections are next week. Lots in thew news about that. A conversation with our resident conservative ("to the right of Atilla the Hun") reveals near pity for Obama's campaign efforts. For myself, from what I've read, things won't be too bad for the Democrats. What I'm concerned about is some of the reasoning I've heard for Tea Party candidates: "they're not Democrats." That's as bas as a Democrat who votes for a bad Democrat because "They're not Republicans". I'm really unhappy with how polarized politics has become - though to be fair, I can remember back to Reagan's first campaign for President, and it wasn't much better then than now, or at any point along the way.

Apple is apparently not going to sell their white iPhone 4G, ever, which is a shame because I was thinking I would buy one. Apparently there are problems with light leaking through the white material to the camera lens, so photos and videos are blown out. Guess I'll go back to my original plan of waiting for iPhone 5 . . .and getting an Android device.

Will someone please debunk this video clip of a "cel phone in Charlie Chaplin film" clip that is going around? Does anyone realize that for someone to use the phone, they would also have to time travel back a cellular network . . .which you'd think someone would have noticed when the modern network was rolled out?

Speed

September went by fast. October is going even faster.

Weird to realize that I was actually finishing up a summer class the week before Labor Day. I had to write a long paper (apparently, not long enough). And then fall classes started up at the end of September, which was just two weeks ago, but already feels like a lifetime.

I'm taking three courses, two of which dovetail nicely: Corporate Governance and Bankruptcy. The first focuses on how boards of firms and non-profits make decisions and do their job; recently we have focused on CEO compensation. The Bankruptcy class is taught by Ed Altman, something of a father in the field, and focuses on measuring risk and identifying firms that can be invested in during a distressed state. Several guess speakers from either class may as well have addressed the other. Where was Lehman's board in the run-up to it bankruptcy? How do boards manage their managers in a turnaround situation? It's all very, very interesting.

Alas, it goes by very quickly. Both of these courses are six weeks long, and we are already three weeks in to the semester. I have papers due in each next week.

In the meantime, the weather has turned from warm to mild to downright chilly; the Indian Summer evening of Fashion Night Out has been replaced by a snap that requires layers in the morning. In just over a month it will be Thanksgiving, and then sure enough Christmas. My life is planned out at work as projects underway should hopefully be resolved by then.

Then, there is also the Big Project, which will have to be detailed in another post.

Space Cowboy

Just for fun I've been watching an old Gene Autry serial, "The Phantom Empire". Twelve episodes in total, it follows the adventures of Gene and his myriad sidekicks as they tangle with the forces of a secret, high-tech empire located miles below the surface of the earth.

It has all the hallmarks of a prewar serial: impossible escapes, revealed to be possible in the next reel; a dashing hero; plot holes the size of Texas, and repetitive, expository dialog, along the lines of, "we must get to the control room", for those who missed the previous reel. The sets are silly by modern standards, but made with love - there's a sense that this was done on the cheap, but with a sincerity that more elaborate effects in the modern era rarely muster.

The main plot goes something like this: A group of industrialists seek to develop the area for its radium deposits (radium being something akin to Avatar's uobtainium - that is, a miracle material). While riding out and about, Gene Autry's kid sidekicks, Frankie and Betsy, spot a group of "Thunder Riders" who disappear into a cave. Framed for murder, Gene Autry is on the run and stumbles across the cave and into the secret kingdom of Maurania, where he is captured and sentenced to death. Meantime, an opposing faction within the empire rescues Gene (shades of Flash Gordon) and the serial plays out as Gene and company dodge the law, the industrialists, and the Mauranians. Eventually, the Queen redeemed, Maurania is destroyed, and the surface dwellers return and clear Gene's name.

So far, this is pretty standard science fiction: a hero, a couple of kids, some comic relief, derring-do, and a mysterious, advanced, fantastic setting contrasting with everyday life. What's bizarre is that the film retains Gene Autry's identity as a singing cowboy. A repeated plot element has him rushing to get back to "radio ranch", where his band apparently gathers and patiently awaits for him to show up for each broadcast. Apparently if he misses even one broadcast, his backers will cancel the show and they'll lose the ranch - to the industrialists, no less. There are not less than three points where Gene either rides in at the last minute or radios in a performance, narrowly averting a cash flow crisis.

Home Hunting

The best conversations start out with, "DId your lawyer put you up to this?"

I exaggerate, but not by much. Phrased a bit more politely, that was what the realtor asked me on the phone today in response to my counter-counter offer. I had indicated I might accept the seller's counter-offer but wanted to confirm with my lawyer first. As I explained to the realtor, what also happened was that some other properties I have had my eye on came down in price.

Here is the place I am looking at. The brochure is conveniently in PDF form at Columbia:

The unit is in the top building, lower row, middle column, to the left, like an upside-down L.

What I really like is the jet-age artist's rendering. I'm not sure where you're supposed to see that view from. That said, it is nice to be right next to the river. If I had more money I'd get a west-facaing apartment.

http://nyre.cul.columbia.edu/projects/view/17329

Explained

Well this explains the CSU vans in front of the precinct building and the news vans in front of the hospital.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/08/after-some-40-shots-in-harlem-one-dead-and-5-hurt-including-2-officers/?ref=nyregion

The Hunt Continues

First things first: I didn't realize how draining it could be to look at property. I remember friends of mine on the hunt talking about how tired they were, how frenetic their schedules were, and I didn't understand. It's just time management, right? And you can always say no.

Well, maybe.

First, their are missed appointments and last minute rescheduling. Factor in the time for travel, and viewing a single property can easily consume two hours of your day.

Second, realty operates on its own schedule. I have yet to see a property on a Saturday. Realtors who multiple properties so they can't always show the one you want when you can see it.

Finally, you could just have a stupid moment and write down the wrong address one day, showing up at Overlook Terrace instead of Terrace East, all the while walking around in the hot July sun wondering where this &%!@ building is.

I've certainly seen some creative apartments.

There was the place in Washington Heights chock full of beautiful Queen Anne-inspired furniture. The ceilings were high, and there was a huge closet. That said, it seemed small, partly on account of the furniture. While I like pre-war buildings, I'm not sure I want to live somewhere where I need extended-reach shelf tools to open cabinets. The Pullman kitchen was also interesting. not sure I like having a kitchen open to the living room, spraying grease on my TV.

There was a heavily renovated 4th floor walkup on Fourth Avenue in Brooklyn. I liked that one, but not sure I want to walk up and down that many stairs.

That said, the one apartment I am centering on - oddly, the first one I looked at - is near a subway station so deep underground that escalators are provided for the trip up. To head down, you take about 5 flights of 15 stairs apiece just to get to the landing to choose either uptown or downtown tracks. Then it's another two flights. Also, the entrance to the building has an offramp from the GWB in front. You don't notice once you're inside.

There was a nice little place I saw in Inwood. A studio, and bigger than I thought, but it would need extensive remodeling to make it work the way I would want.

And so the search continues.

Where I Come From

I asked my mom a few questions about our family recently. A fair amount was me wondering about my grandparents' politics (independent) to when I got one of my teeth capped (because I had some work redone). Some of the information was fascinating, and I think it might be at least interesting to others.

There is a rumor that there is some Indian blood in our family. It would certainly help explain these insanely high cheekbones I have . " It's on the Lassiter side, and I suspect that it is the Martin and or Orange families." So this would go back to my grandmother's grandmother, and clearly too much for me to cash in on tax-free tobacco or casinos.

Also of note? My great-grandmother was widowed at 42 with 9 children. FORTY-TWO. My grandmother divorced in her thirties, with three daughters, and remarried by the time she was my age.

This is all on the heels of some tales I got from my aunt and a cousin recently. My aunt commented on a dress I was wearing, and got to talking about how my grandmother made their dresses for school each year (my aunt hated wearing dresses, but guess what? My mom was the real tomboy in the family).

Here is one that really floored me, though I vaguely recall hearing this before: "They both grew up so poor during the Depression that their families were actually better off during the Depression than they had been in the 20's and before. There had not been much education before that, and it was scattered about. Mother had a grandfather who was a doctor but her mother only completed 3rd grade."

My grandmother was the first (and only) one to go to college. She also learned to fly a plane before she learned how to drive, apparently at the behest of her then-husband.

I'm not sure that the where-you-come-from idea is more important for me than for others, but it is very important, and furthermore important to get it right. A few years ago I realized our family hadn't always been middle class, and I started to look around to realize what I took for granted. This went hand-in-hand with some political awareness, especially as the current economic state was compared to the Depression.

In any case, I thought I'd share.

The Real David Brooks and his Magic Green Jacket

It's official: David Brooks is a Democrat.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/27/opinion/27brooks.html

Burial Ground

This is interesting. Apparently, Jim Thorpe was all set to be buried in Oklahoma, but while waiting for a memorial to be built, his body was shipped off to a town in Pennsylvania to (I assume) boost their tourism economy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/sports/25thorpe.html

Getting Real

I've been looking at property lately. I think I am coming down from the initial high, the rush of information flowing straight to the brain - learning the process, assessing neighborhoods, brokers, seeing apartments. Now I'm talking to friends and reconsidering whether it's realistic to go from zero to sixty by the time my rental lease is up in three months.

What I can say definitively are these things:

1) apartments in Manhattan around $200,000 are possible, but rare.

2) said apartments have creative layouts.

3) Sunset Park in Brooklyn: not bad!

4) It's hard to consider leaving Manhattan once you've made it there.

I've broken out the Case-Schiller, discovered a whole world of Brooklyn blogs, researched city waterfront development, and walked new neighborhoods (which, oddly enough, match up with Google Street View pretty well).

So that's about it. There are other factors - will I change jobs, will I even stay in the city once I graduate - but for now, it's an eye-opening hobby, especially with the market the way it is.

The Mac Girl

A couple of conversations at work recently have really brought home something I hate: I am "the Mac girl".

I work in a Corporate IT department, and for the past six months I have been the sole Macintosh engineer. Prior to that, I was one of two Macintosh engineers. I've been working on Macs since I was in college, which was a long, long time ago (and yes, in a galaxy far away - Oklahoma). But, this is a problem.

First, I've disavowed my technical abilities for a long time. When I was young, I simply didn't have the confidence; I fixed computers the way my brothers fixed their cars, and it was just a tool that I felt comfortable noodling around in. A guy who kinda like me when I was in college showed me how to crack open cases to clean out the innards, and I did that one summer in the lab. The next year, he suggested me as a replacement tech when he left the computer store he worked at. I just stumbled forward from there. Being a tech was my college job, which turned into my day job, which turned into my bad-economy job, which turned into my career.

Moreover, I grew up in an age when being a geek was not cool (apparently now, it is), and God knows, I always wanted to be cool. When I was younger, I would try to play of my geekiness ("oh that? nothing, you could do it as well if you had to, it's not complicated"), and now that I am older, I tend to be professional about it ("imagine if I started my career as a paralegal at a law firm, I wouldn't be raving about how certain frameworks for contract law are so much better than bankruptcy law"). Being a tech, being an engineer even, are just means to an end, that is, a way to make a living.

So at work, I'm the Mac girl. As far as we know, there are about 900 Macintoshes to the company's 27,000 Windows computers. That's just over 3%, and while I do the jobs of six Windows people for the Macintosh world, I get no real respect. For some of what we do, the number of machines I affect are a rounding error. So, needless to say, my career has stalled almost from the get-go.

Second, there's also a danger in being seen as, at worst a zealot and at best, parochial. One thing I know is that when you're a visible minority - a non-white in a mostly white firm, or a woman in a mostly male office - any other differences become exaggerated. So, whenever I talk about how a Macintosh works, I have to be careful to highlight how similar it is to a Windows machine, and smile and nod supportingly when my Windows counterparts describe the shortcomings of that operating system.

Thus, I go out of my way to be the non-Apple girl. I talk about how difficult Apple is to work with as a company. I joke about Steve Jobs' being Steve Jobs. I don't buy any iPhone when it first comes out, and I don't talk about tricking out my Mac at home. Other engineers are hacking their computers and media centers and Xboxes and Playstations at home. I read email, surf, and occasionally blog.

This is part of a distancing from the first bit above. I am actively trying to change careers. There was a time when my life was consumed by technology: I would come home from a long day installing video cards, updating operating systems, and configuring printers, and after dinner I would start plugging in cameras to my computer, installing software, and configuring network settings. I had to step away from it. Now, even ten years later, I seek to move further back. My iPhone really is just a phone, and I'm in no hurry to replace it, and I may very well replace it with a nice Android phone. I am considering replacing my Macbook with a netbook that I can just throw in a purse and go with.

But here's the final thing: I like Apple products. I think they're well made and I've taken enough business courses to know that you can't just base comparisons to competitors on price. However, I've also always been wary of cults, and fascism, and groupthink in general, and there is a lot of that in the Apple fanboy world. I think it's diluted some as computers in general have become more popular with consumer, and normal, less dogmatic people enter the pool. That said, I got sick of the politics a long time ago. It's just another way for guys to square off against one another ("Ford!" "Chevy!", or I guess "Mercedes!" "Volkswagon!").

So, hopefully, my Mac days will come to an end, at least in the sense of a single company's products providing my livelihood. I like being a subject matter expert, but truly I'd be just as happy to understand the finer points of antitrust regulation. It's just a job, it's not a way of life. Unfortunately, when you're locked into a world where technology is a way of life, the technology you use is seen as part of who you are.

Names and Branding

As several of my friends know, I've gotten into soccer with the World Cup recently. So much so that I'm looking for major league teams to follow. I figure I need to pick a few: a German team, since I lived there and have an affinity for Germany; an American team, because I am an American; a women's team, since I am a woman. I find myself baffled by my choices.

First, in Germany, I take it that Bayern Munchen (Bavaria Munich) is the big team. I actually drove through a town watching a cup game between Bayern Munchen against Milano; Milan won, and I spent my late dinner dodging young, drunk Bavarian men defiantly singing their team's anthem. My kind of team! But the more I think about it, the more I think I need a team from a place I lived, which would actually put me in to Nurnberg FC's camp. I looked for a Heidelberg team, but the closest I can come is a team from another Rhine city.

In the Americas, again I look for a home team, but am dismayed by my choice: the New York Red Bulls. Now In understand corporate sponsorship, and I understand the desire the name a team something exciting, but seriously, this is too far. Imagine the New York Doritos, or the New York Burrito Supreme. It's a little too close to Idiocracy for my taste, so I look elsewhere. I could go for the Sounders, since I lived in Puget Sound, or the NE Revolution, since they're not far off (though that would be like picking the Red Sox bc you hate the Yankees). Please, Red Bull, give your team a proper name. Even the Red Bull Knicks would be acceptable. I just can't root for a team that is named after a product.

When it comes to women's teams, there are fewer choices, but a bit more sensible. I've ruled out FC Chivas, for reasons similar to the Red Bulls. I like FC Gold, based in Santa Clara, and could go for them based on my work in technology. But that's about it. I also find myself tempted to pick by team colors.

So that's it! I have a new sport to watch. Heck, I have a sport. I am not a sports fan, but soccer has really grabbed my attention. I've discovered I actually like to watch the game itself, and not just root for countries. Finally, something to do over the next four years while we wait for the next World Cup.

&^%@! Politics

So the Republicans have pushed for a change to the Financial Regulatory Reform Bill (or whatever it's called):

Basically, instead of creating a recovery fund formed from money banks pay in, they want to take TARP money and use that as the basis for the fund.

This is after Republicans have erroneously maligned the recovery fund as another "taxpayer bailout". In the original version, it was not - it was formed by a tax (better described as an economic rent) on big banks.

So now, the Republicans are sayings that sure, this fund can be resourced from taxpayer money that has already been allocated - a provisioning that they complained about before, during, and after its use.

Want to bet that Democrats get accused of using taxes to save big banks next election cycle? Want to see the world turned upside down? You will, you betcha.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/30/business/30regulate.html

USA Out, 2-1 Ghana

I am not a sports fan. I understand the basics of most major team sports - football, baseball, and soccer. I understand the softball is baseball for girls, with an underhand pitch and generally associated with lesbians. I understand that NASCAR is racing cars, and the Formula 1 cars are faster.

I say all this to say, I do not follow sports.

That said, I started following the FIFA World Cup. About four years ago, a Brazilian friend of mine invited me over to watch their match (against whom, I forget). It was exciting, and interesting, and full international pageantry. Thus, this year I tried to follow it from the beginning.

Knowing how soccer is not as big in the US as it is elsewhere, I expected to have to follow another team. I thought I would follow Germany, since I live there as an adolescent. To the surprise of many people worldwide, the US did well, advancing to the Round of Sixteen. This is how I found myself in a midtown pub Saturday afternoon, watching the US play Ghana.

Sadly, they lost. From what I saw with my own eyes, diluted by my general lack of knowledge, the US gave up an early point and had trouble maintaining possession of the ball. The only goal scored was from a penalty kick, and an easy one at that - not the one where four or five guys get to line up in front of the goalie. So it was with a large group of moderately drunk Americans that I saw the US lose to Ghana, the same nation that had thrown them out of the World Cup in 2006.

It was great to watch though. I'll keep a closer eye on soccer, pick a team or two to following in the intervening years between World Cups.

Alto

Dinner with a friend at Alto, a lovely little restaurant tucked away in midtown Manhattan. Posh! Took the four-course prix-fixe: lovely scallops, veal tortellini, a big ol' pork chop, and for dessert, a hazelnut nougat covered in chocolate.

Race

Last night I saw Race, a new play by David Mamet, with a friend of mine. The original case had been recently replaced by Eddie Izzard, Dennis Haysbert, and Afton Williamson, with Richard Thomas continuing his role. Overall it was a good play, though shorter than we expected.

There was a slight taste of misogyny afterwards - to say that is to be expected in a Mamet play oversimplifies his work and places the form before the function. My only real complaint is that I wasn't hearing anything new. Maybe that's because of some of my own experiences with race. I felt like I was watching people who should know better navigate the shoals of race, class, sexuality, and prejudice, but then, I know that in real life, very often people do not know better.

Sex Change at 35,000 Feet

The weirdest part of my trip was the safety video Delta showed. It's a tidy little corporate production, smoothly demonstrating the rules - how to buckle up, no smoking etc, all narrated by what appears to be the peppy version of the girl from the weird Palm Pre ads. That said, there is one weird thing.

At the beginning of the film, a handsome male pilot welcomes you aboard. At the end, a lovely female pilot bids adieu. There is no real plot to the video, and the effect is that at some points, as you learn about safety and calling the stewards and stowing your luggage correctly, the pilot had a full sex change.

Music for Shopping

Among the more unusual musical encounters I had while abroad, two from a Sephora in Prague stand out:

1) "YMCA" sung in a dreamy bossa nova by a wispy female.

2) "Barbie Girl", (a song we studied in my law class, I should add), sung by a heartbeaking male crooner, ala John Mayer.

Both gender-transposed songs, I should add.

Back in the US

I've been back about a day. I actually went to work (early, at 6 AM) yesterday and left early (around 4 PM).

In the evening, I felt tired. Apparently, when I thought my body was telling me to take a nap, it really meant "sleep for eight hours".

Deutschland

In Germany. More later. Otherwise I will be late to class.

A haunted monastery, class trip to the Euopean Central Bank, a pub crawl, schnitzel in a cellar, new friends.

Later

The past six weeks have been all-consuming. I feel like I am just now waking up out of a haze, worried that I'm going to look at everything that's happened and see a lot of broken pieces.

So, school is over for the semester. Spring term is over. I took my law final over the weekend in a group. Hard! And important to me bc I am still, in my heart of hearts, lawlorn.

Work has also been busy, or at least annoying. many stupid little things have gone wrong, requiring me to right them. The big event has been an argument with one of my vendors. It is a long story but, if all goes well, we have a resolution at hand.

Finally, one of the non-profits I work with has been dumb-stupid regarding their budget, which I have been shepherding. In the past two months they've voted to approve specific projects that increase their budget significantly, in a year when they need to be reducing their expenses. Not only that, but the source of their funding is at a critical point. I've sat through three meetings now that ran very late, and they STILL don't know what they're going to do. We parted last night with a bigger gap than we walked in.

This weekend I travel to Germany, for a little work-study-travel. When i get back, I'm off to California for a conference. In a way, the next month seems just as busy as the last, effectively blocked out, but hopefully, less hectic and less stupid.

90 Days

We're 90 days into 2010. It's hard to believe. I keep two printed calendars at my desk at work, and I diligently cross off each day, like a prisoner, or an island castaway, marking the time until - what? I'm not sure. Multiple deadlines, my progress through school, the hope that one day, I will have a better job, or that kayaking season will arrive, or a vacation, or a class I want to take.

Meantime, life keeps happening. In the past 90 days I've dated, then broken up with someone. I've gone to school events, taken midterms, I've been to a spa, I've gone to the gym (hardly enough, it feels like) and corresponded with one of my aunts in Oklahoma. My baby brother has a baby of his own now, and my other nephew and niece have grown tremendously since I saw them last December.

Tea in a Tizzy

I'll say up front that I've been skeptical about the Tea Party activists practically since their inception. I've been skeptical about how they were formed, skeptical about their politics, and skeptical about whether they even qualify as a political party. I've debated with a paramour what their fate will be; he's afraid they'll actually gain power, while I've long thought that eventually they will get co-opted.

On this last point, I may be a little less certain. However, after reading this article in the NYT, it's still hard for me to take them seriously as a political party.

A tax code limited to the number of words in the US Constitution? Seriously? Would you like to build a baseball stadium based on the total number of hot dogs sold in the first year of baseball history? The tax code is a tool for the government to encourage and reward behavior, and it applies to citizens and corporations alike. Do you really think you'll have enough room in such a limited document to, say, require corporations to re-invest money in the US instead of parking it off shore? 4500 words is about twenty double-spaced pages. That's not a tax code, that's a term paper. The best you might hope for is tax code haiku.

Divine intervention? At least they're trying to manage this part of it. Did you know that it's possible to be fiscally conservative and not believe in God? Did you know that many people who do believe in God do not believe in divine intervention, at least not in the sense that it is commonly intended?

You want to promote States' Rights? Really? So if a given state enacts strong gun control measures, you won't run up to the Federal level to repeal it? Politically, it makes sense to prefer States' Rights, because then you can make incremental progress. However, every States' Rights proponent I've ever known, liberal and conservative alike, drops that plank as soon as they stop getting what they want at the state level.

The Tea Party is full of symbolic ideas. They are going to collapse if they ever obtain any real power. They do bring up some very valid issues, but they barely have an affirmative platform (until I read this article, I didn't think they had an affirmative platform at all).

So go on Tea Party. Bitch about the government. Bitch about taxes, bitch about the economy. Maybe one day, when you grow up, you'll be able to do a better job, but until then, keep trying.

Article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/13/us/politics/13tea.html

Grifting Starbucks

So here is the deal. Starbucks is offering a couple of different promotions right now. One, they've dropped the price of their default blend (Pike Place Roast) by fifty cents. Two, they're offering a coffee of the week promotion that culminates in the award of a free bag of coffee. It's this latter promotion I'm interested in.

Starbucks is promoting a different Bold blend every week. If you buy a bold coffee, you get a little "passport" featuring eight coffees, one for each week for eight weeks. When you buy a bold coffee in a given week, you get a little stamp to add to your passport (shades of "collect them all"). At the end of the eight weeks, you can present your passport to a Starbucks to receive, gratis, one bag of your choice of bold coffees.

Thing is, you only get one stamp a week. Once your Yukon blend is stamped, you're done till the next week.

Here is where I come in. I like Starbucks. I like their bold coffees. Every morning, I buy a tall toffee nut bold coffee to start my day. Most days, the clerks don't even bother asking what I want. I am that predictable.

I also work in Penn Plaza, and there are easily half a dozen Starbucks within walking distance of work. I don't have to go far out of my way to visit a different every morning of the week. So, I'm basically planning to tote around five passports, order the same coffee I would normally order, and collect five pounds of coffee (MSRP ~$50) in two months.

It's free, because I'm not doing anything more than I would normally do, except visit other stores. Well, maybe not totally free. I didn't figure this out until halfway through the first week, so I had to buy two coffees I otherwise would not have bought (even the Short, which is smaller than the Tall, counts). So I'm out $3.52 that I would otherwise not have spent.

So we'll see how it goes. I have to say, I'm not a fan of the Yukon blend, but I do like the Italian Roast and the Cafe Verona blends. I am looking forward to the Gold Coast blend; I like the art.

Cabbies

I don't take cabs often, but tonight I took two. After spending some time with my um-friend, I took a cab from midtown to the upper east side to meet up with a couple I know for dinner.

When we got to my prescribed intersection, the cabbies started asking me about my personal life. Was I having a good night ? No parties? No? God husband? We spent five minutes talking about the nature of the man I have been dating for a few weeks, before I quietly extricated myself from the conversation.

Later, on the way home, my hack, and older Indian man, had a conversation with a car service cabbie he had once worked with. He later explained that - this is Harlem, mind you - when he first moved to the US, he worked in car service, and the black people taught him all the highways and roads. When he moved on to being a yellow cab driver, he felt very loyal to them, and would not pick up fares in Harlem.

The way he explained it, the car service cabs augmented their income by picking up street fares, which while strictly speaking is against regulation, is generally not prosecuted except in the business districts.

The thing is, knowing that African Americans (well, black people) complaining about not being able to get a cab - maybe that doesn't apply here. Certainly, one of the big changes for me moving to Harlem was having car service cabs honk to pick me up. The way this hack described it, the yellow cabs let them do the work up here, since they are usually in Harlem only to drop off.

Two Sides

There are two sides to this story, this tale of disintegrated childhood and ramshackle youth.

On the one hand, a yearning for order, efficiency, a sentimental ache for the trappings of stability.

On the other, a desire for freedom, to leave, petulance, greener pastures.

Depressing News Day

So, in the news lately:

1) Supreme Court affirms corporate donations as "free speech", maintaining the potential for corruption within our political system.

2) Health care reform, already so badly mangled as to be negligible in effect, is now in real danger of not being passed at all.

3) New York's unemployment rate now exceeds the nation's, which is already and a long-time high.

Being an amateur student of history, it's remarkable to live through these times, to look back at similarly divisive debates, and hope that eventually, we'll get ourshit straight. We have to, in order to manage whatever comes next.

Hacked Web Ads?

In the span of a couple of days, I saw these two pictures in internet advertising.

The first one was on Facebook. It struck me as odd because it advertises "Moms Return to School" with the picture of a very shaggy man(or, I suppose, bearded lady).

Then, I saw this on a Google search a couple of days later. Same guy, right?

So, are these just bad, cheap, recycled advertisements, or did some intrepid hacking group manage to spike the images pulled in these ads?

2010

And off we go. If when I was younger, a new year brought a sense of wonderment, now, for the first time, I have a sense of awe at a new decade.

When we rolled to a new millennium, I was still in my twenties and didn't fully grasp the flow of time. Now, I have a fully demarcated, named decade to refer to to. Not only that, but ten years in the same city, in the same career, and awe at how much and how little things can change in a decade.

Being an amateur student of history, I can also references shows about specific decades: the fifties, sixties, seventies, etc, as if an entire decade could be summarized in a clip reel of fashion, music, and special events.

What did the aughts bring us? Two recessions, two nebulous wars and two regional wars; a decade of terrorism and financial failure. The rise of 'emerging markets', especially the so-called BRIC countries. A black president, love him or fear him.

What might the coming decade bring? The work of economists and other prognosticators. Who knows? Ups, downs, turnarounds. Perhaps a mission to Mars, or to the asteroid belt. Oceanic farming and dee-sea explorations. Green technology, a green economy.