Geek of All Trades

Hookah!

Apologies for the hiatus; Second Life ate my blogs. 

I am, um, reprioritizing at the moment, and so I will try to post more regularly to at least one or two of the blogs, even if I can't quite manage all three.

In the meantime, David gave me a hookah for my birthday.  It is officially the awesomest thing ever.  I have not fired it up yet - I just ordered some rose-flavored tobacco and some coals and I can't wait to give it a shot.  In the meantime, though, here are some pictures of it in its pristine state:

It should have a ceramic bowl at the top into which the flavored tobacco is placed; the hookah came without one but I ordered one with the tobacco so I'll be all set.

A closer look at the vase and the business end of the hose.

And here is another look at the top end of the houkah.  I'll post again when I get the bowl and coals. 

Missing a friend

Our good friend K passed away this weekend. 

She had been fighting against cancer for more than five years now.  But while her death is no surprise, it's still a tragedy, and it still hurts.  All weekend we've been remembering the things about her that made us smile.  Some of them have sneaked up when we least expected - in the middle of a conversation about something unrelated, someone says something that triggers a memory of K.  We found pictures of her taken at our wedding.  We've been weepy. 

K's funeral is Tuesday, and we are collecting our tears and funny stories to share with K's family and other friends who loved her.  We will always miss her. 

Middle name tag

A couple of weeks ago Amodini (who has both a general stuff blog and one for Hindi films) tagged me with the "middle name tag."  I was rude and didn't respond right away, because I was overwhelmed with work there for a few weeks and haven't had time for too much blogging.  I've had a reprieve, though - a trial that had been scheduled to begin three weeks from now has been moved to the spring - and so I wanted to thank Amodini, and pick up this tag. 

The idea is as follows:

1. You must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name.
2.  If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.
3. At the end of your blog post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag.

So here we go:

M: Middle name.  I have one.  In fact, unlike many people, I use mine regularly, preferring to write my name out in full  - first, middle, last - in correspondence, court papers, and even informal settings.  My name doesn't sound right to me without it.  Both of my brothers have middle names too, but they don't use them, not even an initial.  I'm not sure why that is; I've never talked to them about it.  "Miriam" is an essential part of my name, and I can't imagine not using it. 

I: India.  Why?  I don't know.   I'm not Indian; I don't pretend I am, and I don't aspire to be.  But I watch Indian movies, study an Indian language, and from time to time have been known to cook Indian food or wear Indian clothes.  There it is.  I haven't been to India; mostly because David and I are poor planners and haven't yet gotten around to making it happen.  I once joked that I decided to learn Hindi because that's the language the spoken by the voices in my head and I wanted to understand what they were saying.  Sometimes that feels not too far from the truth - I have no idea where this came from.

R:  Religion.  It comes and goes.  There have been times in my life when I could not imagine Friday night without Shabbat services.  Now is not one of those times.  David and I haven't gone to Shabbat services regularly in many years.  I wouldn't mind getting back into the habit, but I don't want to take responsibility for it; I want David to select a congregation and say, "we're going, tonight." 

I: Idols.  I have one.    

A:  Ambivalent attorney.  Attorney is my real job; ambivalent is what I am about it.   I don't dislike everything about it, and I'm trying to make some changes to my practice that, I hope, will help me enjoy my work more.  But I'm already on my second career, and I'm fairly certain I won't be doing this for the rest of my life.  No specific plans yet though!

M:  Morphology.  Well, not morphology specifically, linguistics generally.  (I know, it's lame - the trouble with my middle name is that I have to come up with two entries for "I" and "M;" I can't tell you how I struggled with this one.)  I've been a linguistics dilettante for as long as I can remember.  I sometimes fantasize about dropping everything and heading back to graduate school to study linguistics.  David worries that if I did that, it would kill my interest in it; he might be right.  At any rate I remain an amateur, for now.  I'm not certain what branch of linguistics I'd specialize in were I to take the plunge; perhaps some sort of comparative syntactic studies, since that is what interests me most across languages:  the different structures used in different languages use to express ideas.  (Examples of my musings on such concepts here and here and here.)

In completing this tag I am supposed to tag other bloggers, one for each letter in my middle name - six in all.  But the last time I tried to tag some bloggers it didn't go all that well - only one of them responded to the tag.  So I'm going to do something different this time.  If you read this, and you have a blog of your own, consider yourself tagged.   Just let me know, via a comment or an email, if you pick up the thread, and I'll add a link to your post here. 

Tagged.

I have been tagged with the "eight random facts" meme, by the author of the fascinating blog bradshaw of the future - a blog I've been meaning to highlight here for some time, so more on that in another post. 

For now, on to the meme.  I'm finding it a challenge because in a way, Geek of All Trades itself is a collection of random facts about me.  So I have to find eight facts that haven't yet made it into Geek of All Trades posts, or cannot be deduced from reading them.  I hope they are at least somewhat interesting.

Rules (edited for brevity):

1. Post these rules before giving the facts.
   
2. Then post eight random facts/habits about yourself.3
3. At the end of your post, choose eight bloggers to tag and list them.
   
4. Leave your tagees a comment telling them they're tagged.
   

Facts:

• It is entirely possible that I could recite along with the actors every dialogue from Cold Comfort Farm.  Also Howards End, and perhaps also Breakfast at Tiffany's.

• When I was in my twenties, I couldn't wait to turn 30.  Now I am well into my 30s and I can't wait to turn 40.  I also greet each new gray hair as a welcome, long-awaited guest.

• I went through a period of several years in which I frequently dreamed about witnessing a plane crash.  In the typical dream, a low-flying airplane would enter my field of vision from behind me or from the side.  It would fly across my field of vision and then be obscured by a tree, hill, or building.  Then I would hear the crash and see the explosion from behind the object that obscured the airplane.  The dreams are much less frequent now.  During that time I was also afraid of flying, though I did so when I had to.  I had not been afraid of flying at all before this, and I am not now - the fear went away on its own.

• I am the laziest, most irresponsible, most undisciplined person I know.  David says that this is only so because my friends and acquaintances are all extraordinarily highly-motivated people.  Clearly I need new friends.  Also  I am a perpetual dilettante and serial obsessionist.  Or maybe I just have the attention span of a gnat.

• According to one of my early baseball memories, on or near my birthday one year I went to a game at Yankee Stadium with my dad at which catcher Rick Cerone hit a home run.  I can't identify this game from the data at Retrosheet though.   It might be this game, if my dad took me to night games when I was in third grade.  Rick Cerone didn't hit that many home runs, and that is the only one he hit any time at Yankee Stadium any time near my birthday.  It's possible that I've conflated two memories - one of going to the stadium on my birthday, and another of Rick Cerone hitting a home run. 

• I'm on my second career now, and frequently fantasize about what my third will be.  If I could be a professional student, I would.  I sometimes dream of going to graduate school in linguistics, but I am afraid that the transition from avocation to vocation will kill my passion for it.  I think I will probably end up teaching - I'd teach just about any subject to just about any students, provided they want to be there and are eager to learn.  I would also be very happy as an editor, but it seems that fewer and fewer employers want to pay people to edit things. 
  

• An acquaintance of mine who is an aspiring filmmaker made a ten-minute documentary about me for her filmmaking workshop.  If I am feeling particularly exhibitionist, and if she gives me permission, I may just post it for all of you to see.

• I put up my first website in late 1995 or early 1996.  It is long, long gone, but portions of it can be seen via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.  For a while I had a Natalie Merchant fan page on that site, which was gone before the Internet Archive existed, so it's lost to posterity.  Still, in that tradition, I recently started a third blog, called Sounds Like Power, which is a fan blog devoted to Shabana Azmi.  Le plus ca change ...

Passing along the tag:  I am not sure I can think of eight who have not already been tagged, but I will try.

The Real Charlie:  My friend Charlie, who writes about beer, traffic, morbidity and mortality, and his daughters, among other things.

While She Naps:  My friend Abby, who writes about the magnificent soft sculptures she creates while her two daughters (who happen to be the same as Charlie's two daughters) are sleeping.

Desi in Boston:  My friend Amit, who writes about all kinds of things.

Darkstate:  My soul-mate David, who doesn't write about anything, but perhaps this tag will kick-start him and get him blogging again.

Was Watching: Steve, whom I got to know when I was a moderator on his now largely defunct NetShrine discussion board, is a very ardent and loyal Yankees fan who is unafraid to go out on a limb with his unique and creative ideas about baseball.  I hope he will respond to this tag by posting some interesting Yankee-related facts about himself. 

Well, that's pathetic - I can only think of five.  The trouble is, I think, that most of the blogs I read are by people who don't know me and who couldn't really be bothered to respond to my dinky little tag, like Susie Bright or Language Log.  But if I think of anyone else I'll come back and update the post. 

Busy little geek, and a small plug

Just popping in to issue a quick apology for the radio silence here at Geek of All Trades.  There's quite a bit going on. 

I've been juggling a lot of different projects at work, wearing both my patent prosecutor hat and my litigator hat.  I'm starting to have a strong opinion about which of those hats fits me better. 

Also, my Hindi class has resumed, with a vengeance; it now meets twice a week, and I'm lucky if I can manage to get to half the sessions.  I'm taking the class more for the social opportunities it offers than for language learning; the class isn't challenging me at all at this point, but I've made so many excellent friends from it that it just makes me happy to go.

David and I have resumed our efforts to get our house remodeled, and this time it's really going to happen, though we are still in the planning and talking and "dear lord it's really going to cost that much" stage.   I will have updates as they occur - once they start tearing our home apart you will definitely hear about it here. 

Those of you who care what I have to say about Hindi films as well as the sundry random topics I toss up here will have noticed that things have not been quite as quiet over at Filmi Geek.  Keeping things going over there does take some time.  There's more, too - I'm also now writing for the South Asian Films section at the relatively new Jaman website.  Jaman is several things.  It's a source to download high-quality movies from all over the world - not just India, I promise.  But perhaps even more importantly, it's a community for people who love to talk about movies, who watch movies and who make them.  Jaman is in a growing phase now, and it looks like it's going to be a lot of fun, so please stop by and have a look. 

That's all for now.  More substance to come in the future. 

On hero-worship and the irresistible pull of gossip

I've been digging into old gossip about someone I admire very much, gossip that is about a quarter of a century old.

I'm not sure why I am compelled to turn over these rocks, but I am drawn to them, irresistibly and obsessively.  It isn't exactly changing my opinion of the object of my admiration.  Though she may have said and done some things that look hypocritical when compared against the stances she takes quite publicly today, I am not inclined to hold her hostage to decisions made and actions taken so very long ago.  This stuff is ancient history, long forgiven by the people involved and by the people who were scandalized by it, or not, at the time. 

But if it's not bothering me - if it's not making me think less of her, as I insist - why am I worrying it like a loose tooth?  The attraction is perhaps driven partly by the sheer tastiness of it; it's human nature to be titillated by a salacious story.  But there's more to it.  I think I am drawn to the history of a more vulnerable youth of this woman who stands today so thoroughly powerful and above reproach.  If there is a touch of arrogance about her today, she has earned it.   In her past, though, she was less sure of herself, and less consistent; these scandals I have been investigating occurred at a time when she was struggling mightily with the very same issues that I, at the same age she was then, struggle with today:  issues of personal and professional identity.   She sorted them out in time - and how! - and  became a better and stronger person for the experience.  If she can do this, than perhaps so can I.

And so, perhaps, I study the fragility of her youth in order to give baseline and context to the magnificence of her present. 

Two facts about me:  I have always been drawn to women older than myself, and I have always longed to be older than I am.  When I was in my 20s I longed for my 30th birthday.  Now that I am well into my 30s I eagerly anticipate the arrival of 40, so dreaded by so many others.  The reason for this, I think, is that I have always hoped that with age will come resolution, a sense of togetherness and purpose, and end to the persistent confusion that seems to define my life.  This hero I so admire (neither  "heroine" nor "heroin," I say, with a warm nod to an old friend who once called me on that particular bit of linguistic serendipity) is a woman more than 20 years my senior, and as grounded and accomplished as a person can be.  If I just look at her as she is today, I see a state of grace and confidence that I can never attain.  But if I look at her in the light of missteps she took when she was my age, and see how beautifully and completely she has recovered from them and learned from them, perhaps I can take a little comfort for my own future.

To you, whatever readers have stuck with me this far, I apologize for being so cryptic.  The fact is that I don't want to be responsible for dredging up these old scandals, for leaving them, attached to my name, in a place where Google searches can find them.  And so I am not naming names or being specific about the events in question.  Some of you will know what I am talking about, some will not; and that will have to do for today. 

2006: Another year of all trades

A year ago, I posted a microcosm of Geek of All Trades - a year in review post that summarized what had happened on GOAT in 2005 by excerpting just the first sentence of the very first blog post of each month of the year.  Here is the 2006 edition of this Year of All Trades post, but I have to admit that last year's did a better job of conveying the condensed flavor of GOAT. 

January:  What better way to start the new year than with a dispatch from the Department of Dubiously Useful Skills?

February:  One morning a few weeks ago, my usually indomitable friend J. turned to me with furrowed brow and said, fear edging her softened voice, "Do you think the United States is going to bomb Iran?"

March: Susie Bright is rightly depressed about the state of reproductive rights.

April:  I just spotted this in an AP story - I think it speaks for itself.

May:  I came across this item today - an AP wire story highlighting several law professors who have banned the use of laptops in their classrooms.

June:  I have been quiet here lately.

July:  Demetrius is diabetic, and we give him insulin shots twice a day.

August:  This is the fourth installment of Geek's Indian movie list.

September:  It's been a while since I posted, I know.

October:  Last night we heard a fantastic concert featuring two very different groups from East Africa - Mombasa Party, from "Kenya Mombasa" (as the band said), and the Royal Drummers of Burundi (pictured above).

November:  The fascinating Data Mining Blog reports that Microsoft has launched a mapping service to compete with Google Earth.

December:  As I was alighting from an Amtrak train in in New York's Penn Station the day before Thanksgiving, I spotted this sign near an escalator...

Family and Chanukah

What a week.  Early last Saturday morning we learned that David's aunt and grandmother had both passed away the previous night.  They were both ill and had been rapidly declining.  Even so, the synchronicity was spooky.  They were mother and daughter.  One died in her home, the other in a nursing home twenty miles away.  And neither ever had to be told that the other had passed.   

By 11:00 AM we had booked plane tickets for that evening, and we set about arranging a sitter for Demetrius, running some errands, and packing up our things.  We spent the next four days with David's family - mourning, telling stories, driving relatives to and from the airport, and just generally taking care of each other. 

We brought back Grandma's chanukah menorah; the timing seemed good, since Chanukah started the day after we got home.  And yesterday evening, on the first night, we set it up.

Baruch atah adonai eloheinu melech ha'olam shecheyanu v'kiy'manu v'higyanu lazman hazeh.

Blessed are you, our God, Creator of time and space, who has supported us, protected us, and brought us to this moment.

We will have a happy Chanukah, remembering David's aunt and grandmother and lighting our candles.  I hope you have a happy Chanukah too.

Charles river moonrise

I snapped this picture (with my cellphone camera) out my office window earlier this week.

(Click on the image to see a larger version.)  It doesn't fully capture the beauty of the full moon rising over the Zakim Bridge, but it's a start.  This won't be my view very much longer - I'm moving to a different office next week, facing west instead of north.  I'm not sure if I'll be able to see anything other than the next office building. 

Ancestral homestead

I visited my family in New York for Thanksgiving.  My parents now live on Manhattan's Upper West Side.  Until about ten years ago, they lived in a free-standing Victorian in the Ditmas Park section of Flatbush, Brooklyn.  That's the house I grew up in - my family moved there when I was eight weeks old. 

During the holiday, we took my nephew to the New York Aquarium, in Coney Island.  On the way back, we detoured past the old house on East 18th Street. 

It looks a lot different now than it did when we lived there.  In our day, the shingles were brown, as shingles should be.  The trim was white, and the roof shingles were red.  And those wooden banisters on either side of the front steps weren't there.  But it's still the same house; the ghosts of my childhood lurk on the porch and under the eaves.  There are some unchanged elements that can't be seen in this picture.  The wrought-iron work on the front door is still there, though also painted that same awful periwinkle that now sullies the trim.  Over on the right side of the porch there still stands a trellis to which rose bushes clung when I was little.  And the shrubbery is basically unchanged. 

The double windows above the porch (and the window diagonally placed next to them) were my room.  (I didn't have an air conditioner when I was a child.)  The tiny window to the left was my mother's little bathroom; not even a half bathroom actually, just a sink where she could put on and take off her makeup.  The double windows to the left of that were my parents' bedroom.  My brother's rooms were in the back of the house.  The front-facing triple window in the attic was our playroom, a multipurpose room in which my brothers and I stored many of our toys and games and the books from our childhood. 

The house has had two owners, I think, since my parents left.  I suppose it is their prerogative to add banisters and paint the house all kinds of inappropriate colors, but I would love to see it once more as it was when my parents left it.  My brother Matthew, who is an excellent photographer, took a thorough series of black and white photographs throughout the house as my parents were packing and moving out, so we fortunately have that chronicle of the house's details.  Often, when I'm having trouble sleeping, I will take a mental walk through some portion of the house, concentrating on minutia - what the hall carpet felt and smelled like; the shape of the tear in the windowshade that hung in the small window at the top of the kitchen stairs; the tile pattern in the bathroom floor.  In this way preserve the house as it was, regardless of the changes successive owners put it through.