Space Adventures

I know I've been on this Mars rant for a while, but look... for only $102,000 you can go suborbital with Space Adventures. For a week of lodging at the International Space Station and roundtrip transportation, cough up $20,000,000.

Almost 2 out of 3 ain't good enough

Our natural wonders are dying from the heat as NY Times writes about it. I wrote about the problem in the Great Barrier Reef last July. Glad I got that one checked off... snorkeled it, even. During the Alaska AIDS Vaccine Ride in 2000 I trekked the land but missed Glacier National Park.

The one I've gotta get to is Mt. Kilimanjaro. A friend of mine climbed it, and I'd love to, but I don't know when. Any takers?

photo from the Tanzania Tourism Website.

homestarrunner on parsnips

Even Homestarrunner has a toons episode devoted to parsnips. I still love those Strong Bad e-mails the best.

If you love food...

...read Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential. Friends and family have been telling me for years, and I just finished it. The fun part about being a New Yorker raised in the home of a culinary artist is that you GET so much of it.

Jim, Dave, and Eva

©Photo by Matthu Placek

Two of my favorite people, James Klein and David Reid of KleinReid just might be on air with the esteemed Eva Zeisel tentatively scheduled for Sunday, June 26th, on the CBS News Sunday Morning Show Highlighting her career and her current museum retrospective in which some of Jim & Dave's collaborative works with Eva are displayed.

Now Playing

For months before I left my beloved little apartment on Cornelia Street, I watched them renovate and restore the old Waverly Theatre, now reborn as the IFC Center. It faced directly across my apartment building. At the time, I was sans camera and unfortunately only have impressed in my mind an unusal image of the entire theater gutted out. Facing the rear of the theater structure from my front stoop, I was looking straight through the building to the Sixth Avenue facade. Just totalled and empty, the innards of an old brick wall, much like the back of a dollhouse.

In Ev's Shadow

Where Ev goes, I follow... a little later (but hey, before the masses). Not in a creepy stalker way, of course. He just casts a long shadow.

In 2000 I signed up on Blogger where I eventually even paid for a pro account to help support them (and I'd do it again). It was the perfect medium for peeps at home in the U.S. to track where I was in Asia and Australia at the time without having to blast everyone with mass mails. I was grateful for the tool. Blogger hooked me up with flickr a year and a half ago and Hello and other cool stuff.

Then Blogger and Ev moved to Google. Thanks to my active blogger account, I got a coveted invite to Gmail in April 2004 and actually gave my first two invitations away to the HUSTLER OF CULTURE and Matt, who I knew would put their accounts to good use, despite the fact that the invites were selling on eBay for up to $40 at the time.

Now, Ev and Noah Glass have created and yesssss.... I got an invite! Odeo is podcasting made easy. Get in on it now. These guys know what they're doing.

Oh, and we're one degree of separation according to friendster, too.

Reunited after 30 Years

My dad just got to see his brother again, for the first time in over thirty years.

Cool stamps

For a big markup, put your face or artwork on your postage stamps! PhotoStamps offers the service. Perfect for weddings, baby announcements, just moved (picture your own house), art openings and invitations. Granted, you have to live with the ugly black bar code and worse, the grey stamps.com imprint, but it sure makes it more fun to send letters!

Can we get a photographer in the house?

I've known Mica and Ari since they were born, and I like to think I've been a big part of their lives. Yet, somehow, the only pictures that exist of me and the kids are not quite frame-able... Most of these are from this past year, and there's even one from 2002 (the only shot of me with either kid in a collection of 67 pictures).

OMG

Nightmarish.

Nine Symphonies for Download on the BBC

Download all nine of Beethoven's symphonies at the BBC website the day after they are broadcast. All the symphonies are performed by BBC Philharmonic, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda.

My favorites, of course, are the recordings conducted by Von Karajan.

But if you had to choose just one symphony to listen to, please, choose Elgar's Symphony No. 1. Kaly made me go see it performed in New York a few years ago (she attended the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night performances) and I was stunned. It's better than an hour of TV any day.

If I had a shrink

I think he or she would tell me that I have a problem with authority. But then he or she would agree with why and whom. Because I'm an extraordinarily reasonable person.

Did you take today for Granted?

I try never to take a day for granted. It's harder than you might think. I think I've done it for about six years running. Every day is rich. I always know how the next day is going to be fulfilling. I tell the people I love that I love them. I try to learn something new every day whether it's a word, a recipe, a theory, a place, a language, a shortcut, a system, someone's opinion, whatever. I look at new art and travel to new places and eat new foods. I talk to someone who lives far away from me every single day. Sometimes to four someones. Sometimes six. Every day I write to at least half a dozen people in my life that live far away. Sometimes four hundred and fifty. Sometimes they're real letters. Maybe it's not so hard because everyone in my life lives far away.

Now I don't want to be so far away. I've boldy erased my roots. I can't find them anymore. It's just becoming a bit disconcerting. If you see the same person every day, does that give you roots? If you see 365 people once a year, does that make you rootless? It makes you virtually invisible. I think I'm becoming invisible. Well, ok, maybe just translucent.

PostSecret

We are so lucky. We had the perfect childhood. There are a lot of sad people in this world. PostSecret is insightful and moving, touching, sometimes funny, sometimes scary. And, oh my, how necessary.

Today New York, Tomorrow Santa Monica, Friday Mars.

This debate over where I will move next is keeping me up at night. I think most days, I'm dreaming of my next shoebox apartment, walking down four flights to go to my gourmet cheese shop (or perhaps lugging a load of laundry to the cleaners). Then occasionally I think about the beach, Mica and Ari, future mini HP's, having a bedroom that's not in my kitchen...

And then tonight I thought: what about Washington, D.C.? Not Arlington, where I grew up, but Washington proper. Where I could walk to the metro (and not own a car), maybe work for some agency that's aiding a good human cause. Maybe I'm just a natural born east coaster.

If we could just find a faster way to get to Mars, maybe I wouldn't be so confused. No, because then I'll be weighing Earth or Mars... Mars or Earth. Forget it. Why do I have to choose?

Albert? Is that You?

Damn, a frog just jumped on our second floor window. No, a real, real frog.

Albert's the default voice on my ibook. Apple Mac peeps will know what I'm sayin'. Maybe.

What did you say?

Applied Minds just invented Babble™ for Sonare Technologies™, a new company of Herman Miller. It makes a conversation in open space -- say, your office cubicle or in a hospital area -- virtually incomprehensible to those in hearing distance and perfectly private.

Applied Sciences even maps the chemical signature of blood proteins -- to identify candidates for certain cancer treatments -- since most treatments only work for 5% of the population -- matching candidate to treatment.

What do I want for Christmas (ok, so I'm a heathen, but still...)? Applied Minds is also behind the Touch Table, a map that uses your handsignals for movements. To zoom out, place both hands (or just two fingers) on the table and spread them apart (If I saw this demo'd, I'd've cried.). Zoom in? Yeah, push your hands together. You touch points -- grab the earth, turn it on the screen, navigate, zoom into the location you want, get a historical view of the same location... in real time. You can even take a pen and draw on the map when you're pointing out information for those around the table. You can imagine my pool of glee regarding this fascinating invention. I happen to read maps for fun and even the new Google Maps Satellite pictures have given me plenty of entertainment. If this wasn't enough, they've now built a 3D version where the screen actually deforms so you can feel the hills and valleys. Watch the video (41MB) on NorthropGrumman. Cry all you want.

[just edited the links; NG originally posted information in 2004; sometime between the original posting her and April 2009, they updated their site and moved the links. The zooming thing is now in the hands of the masses by way of the iphone...)

We interrupt your day to promote: Parsnips.

I roasted some delicious vegetables today. Parsnips ought to get more credit. They're sooo good.

Actually, what I made was a lazy version of a very complicated but super delicious squash casserole recipe I have. One of these days I'm going to post it but someone should make it for me (I just hate peeling acorn squash)... Or better yet, I'll make it and you peel the squash...

World Jump Day

World Jump Day is July 20, 2006. It really should be called World Jump Moment, as jumping will take place at 11:39:13 GMT exactly.

If 600 million peeps jump at precisely the same moment, we could drive Earth into a new orbit, thereby (in their words) "stop global warming, extend daytime hours and create a more homogenous climate." 155,094,135 people have already registered. Go and find out how.

While you're at it, take a photo for the Fakefunk Jump Project run by Souris.

To be or Not to be... productive

It's been a bit difficult trying to get my priorities straight, between caring for dad, managing the house (updating their wills today), doing work for Lannam, and doing work for AXA Realty. In between, though, I'm cooking for dad which I'm enjoying -- I haven't done it really since I lived in GV in NYC. Tonight we're having typical summer dinner with Vietnamese influence: barbeque chicken with corn-on-the-cob, tossed mango salad and some tomato-garlic rice on the side. My mom had some amazing five-minute recipes she used to just toss together for us as kids. I wish she'd get her cookbook done soon!

Otherwise, I have a handful of other things keeping my ADHD head busy. There are hilarious things to scan and send to family that have risen from the storage closets of the old house, my 2004 taxes to file, photos to print, copy to write, clothes to wash, and decisions to make.

And I want to move back to this.

I am in the midst of a right-hand-left-hand debate over whether or not I should move to Santa Monica or go back to my beloved New York.

And I discovered this week: Santa Monica is comfortable like a couch is comfortable. New York is comfortable like chicken pot pie is comfortable.

And who can't love my old 'hood, snow and all?

Personal Hell Perspective

If there is a personal hell, mine would be a place described as the ultimate suburbia in which all homes in all developments look exactly the same -- and yet, ugly-the-same -- where I must go shopping at Bed Bath and Beyond, wear clothes from Old Navy, and eat at T.G.I. Fridays, and where the temperature runs around 90F.

This is what I'm talking about.

"Some rich man came and raped the land, nobody caught 'em,
Put up a bunch of ugly boxes and, Jesus, people bought 'em.
And they called it paradise, the place to be,
they watched the hazy sun sinking in the sea."
- The Last Resort, by the EAGLES

Mars is starting to look pretty good.

I just finished reading a book. In the last two years, I've started about 17, but I shamefully admit I only finished one in Santa Monica. Yesterday, I drove my dad to Columbus, Georgia where my oldest sister lives, and where her husband, an Army Ranger, is stationed at Ft. Benning (where dad himself was trained in 1957). After the combined stress of helping my parents pack up and sell our childhood home and then take my dad through minor surgery, and then have my mom leave town and be left to care for him post-op, and then driving 13 hours to Georgia... I arrived at my sister's where I just chilled. It just so happens that this sister of mine maintains my library [it should be noted that in my former life, I did in fact complete books more often]. So I sat and read Raise High the Roofbeams, Carpenters. One of my favorites.

Wanted: Comfortable digs on Mars.

Craigslist, the imminently useful classifieds collective, is beaming 138,179 ads to outer space.

This is not a hoax. It is for real.

Bye House!

Mom and Dad on the last day at the house we grew up in... eating Krispy Kreme donuts!

To Do.

6:30 a.m. go to bed.
11:30 wake up.

• Call utilities to close accounts
• Take dad to Physical Therapy
• Take dad to Radiology center to pick up barium for CT Scan
• Pick up boxes for mom for moving
• Buy digital camera for aunt's chauffeur in Vietnam
• Buy phone charger for mom
• Set up Dad's pharmacy in FL
• Arrange transfer of mom and dad's health care through FELRA to FL
• Take dad to PT Wednesday 4/27
• Take dad to CT Scan 4/28
• Take dad to urologist 4/28
• Take dad to pre-op appt 4/28 (Movers come 4/28!)
• Take dad to PT Monday 5/2
• Take dad to surgery 5/3
• Take mom to airport 5/3
• Fill dad's pill box daily.
• Go to Closing for sale of house 4/29 to read documents
• Pack and move (my) boxes to Eileen & Mike's basement
• Pack and move plants
• Set up utilities in FL
• Set up DSL in FL
• Shred Kaly's files
• Ship Kaly's box to UPS
• Pack Kiki's boxes (five)
• See Eva Zeisel exhibit at Hillwood
• Go to Crew Alumni event for Tom Chisnell
• 2 Chefs with Pat and Caroline

A new era.

On April 28, 1975, my mom took the five of us -- aged 8 weeks, 18 months, 32 months, 3.5 years, and 5 years old -- onto one of these. A C130 cargo plane that took us to Guam, in hopes of one day soon reuniting with my father. They then started a new life in America.


On April 28, 2005, Town & Country movers is going to load up a truck with three decades of our American life to Florida.

I'll drive my parents down there, a journey that 30 years later, is likely to be much easier. They're starting a new life in Disney World.

Who said life isn't fair?

Traveling to Mars

As if traveling the entire earth was not enough (it's not), I've recently fallen into discussions with friends about traveling to the other planets. Most notably, we wondered about Mars, and if you check, it looks like you can make the trip in just nine months! Yeah!

Update

For anyone who's been looking, I'll try to start up again, but moving around makes blogging a bit harder. Though I'm not in 10014 any longer, I'll keep my posts in one place, since I can't seem to keep myself in one place. Less confusion all around.