life with a little pizzazz
Yet another year for a great book sale. I posted on last year’s sale also. More special finds and an enjoyable morning. Highlight of the day came from the little lady.
“This is one of my favorite days of the year.”
Last night we prepared her book list so she could check off her needs as she discovered them. It is awkward thinking of telling a child that she has collected more than enough books. Can there be too many?
Honoring the event I am attending today, I thought I’d share my user experience using TriMet, Portland’s public transportation entity, for travel from home to the Oregon Convention Center.
In short, the bus and MAX train ride were technically flawless. Even the preparations went smooth. Last night I used TriMet’s website to verify my travel plans. After entering my home address, my destination (just entered “Oregon Convention Center,” no address) and the time I needed to arrive by, the website informed me of where and when to catch my bus. It also let me know where to depart the bus and then walk to catch my MAX train. As I said, everything was flawless. Even the times were right on. But, despite this, the experience was mundane and uninspiring.
Then, on my short MAX ride, the coachman alerted us to the presence of a sea lion in the river to our right as we crossed the Steel Bridge. My transportation experience transformed immediately from an impersonal task into a shared experience. People around me morphed from mere indistinguishable shapes to inquisitive and true community partners.
One little action changed my experience.
Who are we
But what we are to others
Who are we
But what we give
Who are we
But what we believe
Who are we
But what others share
Who are we
But what others support
Who are we
But a reflection of our collective journey
Make yours a vibrant journey
Not simply in the leading role of your own life
But in the supporting role played in the lives you touch.
The Gazillion Jumbo Bubble Machine truly does work. I’m not sure what their bubble recipe is but it makes some nice bubbles as we discovered this weekend. Here are some quick shots that don’t really show how well the machine worked but are cute bubble shots. The machine does do as advertised — lots of bubbles and plenty of bubbles in bubbles.
Hopefully the author of the following poem won’t mind me sharing it with you. You can also enjoy this poem and other works in the newsletter of the San Gabriel Writer’s League.
After a run-in with …
Carol Menchu
I look at us
walking around
in our individual wrappings
looking out on the world
with our individual psyches
making mountains
out of mole hills
and mole hills out of mountains
and wonder at the
wonder(less)/ness of it.
I, who know life is but
imagination’s figment,
am as guilty as all
of de/constructing
monsters in my mind
reading into what goes on
what does not exist
beyond myself.
And while I seek a freedom
away from mind’s perceptions
I am afraid to let go of myself
to freely seek this peace—
this emptiness—
this freedom away from collective
human imagination of self.
I am afraid of losing something—
What?
Control?
But isn’t the ability to lose
control of control
gaining control
of myself?
I’m on my return from Las Vegas to home and stranded at the Phoenix airport overnight. It is now 12:30am and I’ve got a little corner of the airport to myself. I found a little two chair seat hidden between some stairs and elevators near the “rescue area.” It will be my place for the night unless I have an urge to meander.
It’s been a long day, starting with the end of Summit, continued with a delay in Las Vegas and then my overnight stint here. Summit ended today with some minor sessions that I won’t bore you with here. The closing reception included an inspirational hypnotist that let us know that what stands in our way is our own preconceived limitations (which we may not be aware of). He proceeded to lead us through a couple of exercises that he used to pick a handful of people as subjects to hypnotize. It was entertaining but less than fulfilling. I guess I’m a skeptic. In his exercises he was looking for good candidates that he called good ‘visualizers.’ People that can take a suggestion and visualize it as being truth. For example, hold your fingers apart and visualize that each is a magnet attracted to the others. The visualizers will find themselves — after coaxing — with their fingers touching. I’m sure it is just my warped view of the world but I didn’t see these people as ‘visualizers’ but more as people more susceptible to suggestion. I would guess they buy a lot of commercialized products.
Anyway, on with the day. After lunch with a co-worker at the House of the Blues — which again was not playing the blues — I headed to the airport. The flight started to load and then they stopped after hearing that Phoenix was shut down due to weather. The people that got loaded sat for 45 minutes on the plane until the rest of us got loaded after Phoenix gave a green light. Unfortunately, on the way to the runway Phoenix closed again and we sat on the tarmac for an hour.
This led, as you can imagine, to everyone missing their connecting flights in Phoenix. Initially we were naive enough to think our connecting flights would be delayed as well but this was hopeful thinking. Once in Phoenix we were led to a line to wait another hour for new flight info. I actually never made it through this line, a woman finally came around with a phone number to use which led to my new flight at 7:30am the next morning. (This is better than the large group of Anchorage bound people that were being initially being told they could get home next Wednesday — it is spring break.) We were also told that no hotel rooms are available — not sure how true this is but it is spring training time here as well.
I finally got to eat some dinner around midnight. Thankfully there is a Paradise Bakery that is open 24hours here. They were quite popular.
So now I wait afraid to sleep in case I don’t wake up in time for my flight. See you soon.
My flight leaves at 7:30am
My father will soon be on his way home to Guatemala for a long overdue visit. He will have the chance to visit with family not seen in many a year and to visit his mother’s final resting place.
This comes at a time of excitement for Guatemala as Rigoberta Menchu, a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, recently announced her intention to run for president.
All kinds of presidential news taking place in Guatemala recently, with our own president visiting in March. With the visit coming soon, the native population is discussing the need for a ritualized cleansing.
Some of you have been waiting for an update to the Cupcake gallery. It shows a few quick shots of her at the dog park.
This six month old is doing fine and keeping us busy. She has a lot of energy. Our favorite story about her now is that she had a puppy playdate (never thought I’d be involved in such a thing) with a little lab puppy. Cupcake, or Cuppers as she is becoming to me, wore that poor lab out. It was ready for sleep and Cuppers wanted to keep going. Our friends let us know that they would like Cuppers to come over again, their lab pup was worn out for a couple of days providing them some nice quiet time.
I suppose you should know a little bit about what I do for work. Officially I’m the Web Services Manager at Portland Community College. That means that I manage development and care of the Portland Community College web site and other web services like our MyPCC student portal.
I’ve got a great team working for me doing a lot of good work. We’re all busy, all the time, but we also keep it light and enjoyable. If you visit the PCC site, your input is welcome as we are always looking for ways to improve. I have areas I want to address, but patience is valuable as we evolve the site from its past existence into the future.
A student wanted some assistance with some homework. Helped her with a visual on paper but then I thought I’d throw a quick Math Flexercise together. That’s right, I used Adobe Flex.
In case you are interested, here is the Math Flexercise MXML file that defines the Flex application and is used to create the resulting Flash application. It’s not a great example of coding, this was done quickly one night but perhaps it will help you with your Flex experiments.
Hope you enjoy it.
(Let me know if you break it.)