Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Daily Life: Sin Nombre
Sin Nombre, popcorn with butter, Cherry Coke and Junior Mints at
Cinema Artes in Santana Row.
Cinema Artes in Santana Row.
Sent from my iPhone
Daily Life: A Mystery Vegetable In My Soup
Lunch was a chicken and rice soup that was rather short on chicken. That is one of the drawbacks of eating soup deli style, there are always people who will go into a counter soup and fish out all of this or all of that. Sometimes they will go to great lengths. I have seen people standing at the soup pots using the ladle like they were panning for gold, carefully selecting individual bits of floating this or that for exclusion or inclusion in their bowl.
All in all it was a good soup though, flavorful and containing only one mystery vegetable like substance that I was unable to identify - I suspect it was overcooked cauliflower from the general texture of it, or it may have been corrugated cardboard that fell into the soup. I am not really sure, but it carried the flavor of the soup well, so I didn't worry about it too much!
Since my day started early this morning it has been passing relatively quickly and I should wrap things up at about 3:00 PM, maybe a little sooner. I have been meaning to get out and see the movie "Sin Nombre" and given how things have quieted down this afternoon that may be my plan. It is playing at a couple of different theatres, so I have some options as far as time is concerned. It is supposed to be a very good drama and I just really have not been in the mood for a drama the last couple of times that I have gone out to see a movie. Today I am kind of in the mood for a good dramatic movie. I've also got a couple of movies stored up on the DVR at home that would fall under the category of "dramatic movies" and I might elect to watch one of them instead.
All in all it was a good soup though, flavorful and containing only one mystery vegetable like substance that I was unable to identify - I suspect it was overcooked cauliflower from the general texture of it, or it may have been corrugated cardboard that fell into the soup. I am not really sure, but it carried the flavor of the soup well, so I didn't worry about it too much!
Since my day started early this morning it has been passing relatively quickly and I should wrap things up at about 3:00 PM, maybe a little sooner. I have been meaning to get out and see the movie "Sin Nombre" and given how things have quieted down this afternoon that may be my plan. It is playing at a couple of different theatres, so I have some options as far as time is concerned. It is supposed to be a very good drama and I just really have not been in the mood for a drama the last couple of times that I have gone out to see a movie. Today I am kind of in the mood for a good dramatic movie. I've also got a couple of movies stored up on the DVR at home that would fall under the category of "dramatic movies" and I might elect to watch one of them instead.
Daily Life: Morning
I woke an hour or so before dawn this morning. As I padded around the apartment brewing coffee and making breakfast I opened the patio doors to hear the sound of a morning symphony of birds and to fill the apartment with the lush scent of rain. Unfortunately, a neighborhood skunk had other plans, so the door was closed as quickly as it was opened! Off to a rolling start here in semi-rainy California.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Daily Life: The Hallways of Life
It appears that in addition to being introspective today I am also inclined toward writing. I was walking down the long hallway at work and I saw one of my friends at the other end of the hallway. We waved and turned down different halls long before we ever met. I thought - what an apt description of our journey through life.
We are all walking down a great maze of intersecting hallways. Sometimes we walk together. Sometimes we pass each other. Sometimes we make the same turns. Sometimes we make different turns. Sometimes we glimpse each other in passing. Sometimes we move down the same hallways and because of the influence of time and timing, we never even see each other. Sometimes we recognize friends in the distance, wave, and then make the turns we are inclined to make.
Sometimes we will change our paths to walk different hallways with our friends. Sometimes they will change to walk with us. Sometimes we double-back and cover the same ground we have already covered. Habit and choice can often send us down the same hallways day after day. I think the nature of love and friendship is that we should encourage each other to go down those hallways we are inclined to go down, even when those hallways separate us.
In the end, we are all walking the same hallways, just as different paces and at different times. Somewhere in those hallways we meet. Then we meet again and again and again as time flows inexorably past.
We are all walking down a great maze of intersecting hallways. Sometimes we walk together. Sometimes we pass each other. Sometimes we make the same turns. Sometimes we make different turns. Sometimes we glimpse each other in passing. Sometimes we move down the same hallways and because of the influence of time and timing, we never even see each other. Sometimes we recognize friends in the distance, wave, and then make the turns we are inclined to make.
Sometimes we will change our paths to walk different hallways with our friends. Sometimes they will change to walk with us. Sometimes we double-back and cover the same ground we have already covered. Habit and choice can often send us down the same hallways day after day. I think the nature of love and friendship is that we should encourage each other to go down those hallways we are inclined to go down, even when those hallways separate us.
In the end, we are all walking the same hallways, just as different paces and at different times. Somewhere in those hallways we meet. Then we meet again and again and again as time flows inexorably past.
Daily Life: Paperwork, Teleconferences and Gravity
I am feeling a little guilty that I didn't do anything over the weekend. I kept it a quiet weekend, stayed close to home, and other than some incidental errands the only thing I really did over the weekend was go out to the movie.
I knew it was the right choice this morning when I woke up. I was bright-eyed and bushy tailed and fairly leapt out of my bed. There was definitely a spring in my step as I started the day.
If I were to describe my mood today it would be "centered and slightly introspective". There is a sense of the deliberate in my mood today, as if I were walking on uneven ground and carefully placing one foot after the other. Not in the sense that my footing is uncertain, but in the sense that each step is very certain. I am not sure that analogy makes any sense, but I am sticking to it for now.
I was looking at my work calendar today and I noticed that I currently have 10 hours worth of meetings on the books this week. That is an extremely light meeting load, so I am taking that as a portent of good fortune.
A long time ago, when I was a child, my father was the foreman of a construction company in Rapid City, SD. I can remember going to pick him up from work and being fascinated by his office. He had an average sized office that had a round window. Inside the office was his desk (covered with paperwork), a big table (covered with blue prints) and assorted shelves and file cabinets.
In later years I learned that there is far more to being a construction foreman than paperwork, but at the time I was terribly impressed and I remember thinking "that is what I want to do when I grow up - sit in an office and do paperwork". I had other dreams and visions of what I wanted to do when I grew up as I grew up (most folks do I think), and I often refer to the last ten plus years of my life as my "accidental career".
The advent of the personal computer of course mostly transformed paperwork into the realm of electronic media, but paperwork is still paperwork, whether or not it involves paper. If you were to ask me what I do for a living - the functional aspects of it - I do two things - I go to meetings and I do paperwork.
It all centers back on the task of managing people and projects, but if you were to sit in my office with me you would notice two things that are prominent. I am almost always reading or writing something, and I am quite often on the telephone - either in an individual call or in a teleconference. My day consists almost entirely of two very basic things - writing and talking.
The biggest challenge in my day is dealing with the wide diversity of personalities that make a big corporation move. It is navigating my way through a hundred complex relationships, rich in history and detail, and finding two distinct points and connecting them. I think there is a secret that good managers know and bad managers never truly grasp. Success or failure in any organizational task relies on people, and a managers true job is managing people. All the rest of it is just paperwork, teleconferences and gravity.
I knew it was the right choice this morning when I woke up. I was bright-eyed and bushy tailed and fairly leapt out of my bed. There was definitely a spring in my step as I started the day.
If I were to describe my mood today it would be "centered and slightly introspective". There is a sense of the deliberate in my mood today, as if I were walking on uneven ground and carefully placing one foot after the other. Not in the sense that my footing is uncertain, but in the sense that each step is very certain. I am not sure that analogy makes any sense, but I am sticking to it for now.
I was looking at my work calendar today and I noticed that I currently have 10 hours worth of meetings on the books this week. That is an extremely light meeting load, so I am taking that as a portent of good fortune.
A long time ago, when I was a child, my father was the foreman of a construction company in Rapid City, SD. I can remember going to pick him up from work and being fascinated by his office. He had an average sized office that had a round window. Inside the office was his desk (covered with paperwork), a big table (covered with blue prints) and assorted shelves and file cabinets.
In later years I learned that there is far more to being a construction foreman than paperwork, but at the time I was terribly impressed and I remember thinking "that is what I want to do when I grow up - sit in an office and do paperwork". I had other dreams and visions of what I wanted to do when I grew up as I grew up (most folks do I think), and I often refer to the last ten plus years of my life as my "accidental career".
The advent of the personal computer of course mostly transformed paperwork into the realm of electronic media, but paperwork is still paperwork, whether or not it involves paper. If you were to ask me what I do for a living - the functional aspects of it - I do two things - I go to meetings and I do paperwork.
It all centers back on the task of managing people and projects, but if you were to sit in my office with me you would notice two things that are prominent. I am almost always reading or writing something, and I am quite often on the telephone - either in an individual call or in a teleconference. My day consists almost entirely of two very basic things - writing and talking.
The biggest challenge in my day is dealing with the wide diversity of personalities that make a big corporation move. It is navigating my way through a hundred complex relationships, rich in history and detail, and finding two distinct points and connecting them. I think there is a secret that good managers know and bad managers never truly grasp. Success or failure in any organizational task relies on people, and a managers true job is managing people. All the rest of it is just paperwork, teleconferences and gravity.
Sharing: The Summer Day - Mary Oliver
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Daily Life: Notes from a Simple Sunday
It is about three thirty in the afternoon here in San Jose and I've just circled back into the apartment. The sky is a very deep gray, the breeze smells of rain, and all of the birds are singing up a storm. I just put dinner into the oven (roast chicken with rosemary, thyme, and seasoned salt), so it should be ready in an hour of so. After deliberating half a dozen chicken recipes, I ultimately decided to just keep it simple. I'll cook some rice to go with the chicken before to long.
It's been a pretty simple and enjoyable weekend. Saturday was a supremely lazy day - the only reason I left the apartment was to run down to the bank, make a quick stop at the drug store, and then swing through the book store. Other than that I spend the day relaxing, reading, listening to music and watching incidental shows on television.
Today started out pretty much the same. I went to an early mass, then circled home. I played on the computer for a while, then cooked a chili omelet for breakfast. I ate the omelet while watching a DVR'ed episode of "Lie To Me", then went out to meet Pierre and Helen at the movie theatre to see the new Wolverine movie with Hugh Jackman. It was visually enjoyable (try not to think about the plot, try not to think about the plot). I would recommend it as a pleasing two hours worth of eye candy.
After the movie I stopped at a russian deli for tea and a sandwich, then swung over to Target to pick up a new flour sifter (mine was on its last legs) so I can try a coffee cake recipe sent by someone dear to me who tormented me with visions of coffee cake for an entire week. From there I drifted home.
A few minutes ago the rain started to pour down - the fast popping as it hits the awning outside the open patio doors is a wonderful rush of white noise. I slept very well last night and I had one of those dreams where I woke with a phrase in my head. (My dreams have been surprisingly literate the last couple of months - I wonder what that is about - perhaps it is because I am not writing enough.) The phrase was:
"Incidents of Insight and the Mechanics of Meaning"
It seems like it would be a good book title. Perhaps it is a very good description of the type of dream that I seem to be having lately. I am aware that I am not writing as much creatively as I like to - other than a few, I have not written a lot of poetry or short fiction in the last month or so. (Just like that the rain has stopped - that is how it has been all day - a little bands of showers, enough to raise the scent of rain and leave it slightly muggy.)
I need to start doing writing exercises to get those creative juices flowing and to that end I just took one of my favorite little writing prompt books out and I will page through it a little later in the evening. It is not that I do not have anything to write, it is more that I have not gotten around to carving out the time to actually do the writing - and that is something that is entirely curable.
One of the highlights of this weekend has been a lot of very satisfying incidental conversations and with incidental people. Though slow and simple I have moved through the weekend so far with a sense of being very much alive - and that is a very good thing.
It's been a pretty simple and enjoyable weekend. Saturday was a supremely lazy day - the only reason I left the apartment was to run down to the bank, make a quick stop at the drug store, and then swing through the book store. Other than that I spend the day relaxing, reading, listening to music and watching incidental shows on television.
Today started out pretty much the same. I went to an early mass, then circled home. I played on the computer for a while, then cooked a chili omelet for breakfast. I ate the omelet while watching a DVR'ed episode of "Lie To Me", then went out to meet Pierre and Helen at the movie theatre to see the new Wolverine movie with Hugh Jackman. It was visually enjoyable (try not to think about the plot, try not to think about the plot). I would recommend it as a pleasing two hours worth of eye candy.
After the movie I stopped at a russian deli for tea and a sandwich, then swung over to Target to pick up a new flour sifter (mine was on its last legs) so I can try a coffee cake recipe sent by someone dear to me who tormented me with visions of coffee cake for an entire week. From there I drifted home.
A few minutes ago the rain started to pour down - the fast popping as it hits the awning outside the open patio doors is a wonderful rush of white noise. I slept very well last night and I had one of those dreams where I woke with a phrase in my head. (My dreams have been surprisingly literate the last couple of months - I wonder what that is about - perhaps it is because I am not writing enough.) The phrase was:
"Incidents of Insight and the Mechanics of Meaning"
It seems like it would be a good book title. Perhaps it is a very good description of the type of dream that I seem to be having lately. I am aware that I am not writing as much creatively as I like to - other than a few, I have not written a lot of poetry or short fiction in the last month or so. (Just like that the rain has stopped - that is how it has been all day - a little bands of showers, enough to raise the scent of rain and leave it slightly muggy.)
I need to start doing writing exercises to get those creative juices flowing and to that end I just took one of my favorite little writing prompt books out and I will page through it a little later in the evening. It is not that I do not have anything to write, it is more that I have not gotten around to carving out the time to actually do the writing - and that is something that is entirely curable.
One of the highlights of this weekend has been a lot of very satisfying incidental conversations and with incidental people. Though slow and simple I have moved through the weekend so far with a sense of being very much alive - and that is a very good thing.
Friday, May 1, 2009
Daily Life: Quick Quick
Two days passed very quickly. If I look back at them I couldn't say, in great detail, what make them pass so quickly. Work with productive and quick. Personal life was productive and quick. I was thinking earlier about one of my New Year's resolutions, which was to try and keep things simple - specifically, to focuse more on what I was doing in the moment that I was doing it. It has had an interesting side effect of making time pass more quickly, or so it seems to me. More likely, what it has done has made me lose track of, or perhaps stop paying so much attention to, the flow of the hours on the face of the clock.
I have been enjoying it - nights seem to truly belong to me, to spend as I wish to spend them, doing the things that bring me simple happiness. I think the trick to happiness is pretty simple - pay attention to what makes you happy, and then do those things that make you happy. Enjoy a good movie. Listen to a CD. Read a book. Talk to a friend. Write a letter. Take a walk in the park. Enjoy dinner with friends. For each of them, when you are in them, be in them. Very zen, all in all.
For some reason I am looking forward to this weekend very much. I don't really have anything special planned. The weather channel says cloudy with rain. I think I will just move through the weekend and enjoy the cloudy with rain part. It will be a good weekend for cleaning, writing, reading, talking and movie watching. Hope to share some of it with you.
I have been enjoying it - nights seem to truly belong to me, to spend as I wish to spend them, doing the things that bring me simple happiness. I think the trick to happiness is pretty simple - pay attention to what makes you happy, and then do those things that make you happy. Enjoy a good movie. Listen to a CD. Read a book. Talk to a friend. Write a letter. Take a walk in the park. Enjoy dinner with friends. For each of them, when you are in them, be in them. Very zen, all in all.
For some reason I am looking forward to this weekend very much. I don't really have anything special planned. The weather channel says cloudy with rain. I think I will just move through the weekend and enjoy the cloudy with rain part. It will be a good weekend for cleaning, writing, reading, talking and movie watching. Hope to share some of it with you.
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