I like the closet space. 

Ah, my pretty bike. 

This picture is looking out of my windows. 

The bed in my new room. Check out the "Endless Summer" picture. I like the match! 

Fun with the phones.

So I some how turned on the hold music for the company so that it would play out of my phone. I had no idea that this was the case, but randomly this morning, my phone made the sound of a rebooting computer. I jumped up and asked, "Did any of you hear that?" Everyone kind of stared at me as if I had three heads. So I went to Seth, my boss, and asked him if he had rebooted his computer. He said, "yeah, why?" After bantering back and forth for a while, we came to the realization that the hold music for the company was playing out of my phone. Apparently, the hold music for Miller Systems is supplied from Music Match Juke Box on Seth Miller's backup computer. He had just rebooted this computer and that was the sound that I heard. This was not previously a problem because hold music coming out of his computer is a new feature that was just setup within the past few days. He told me how to turn this feature off on my phone and sent me on my way. By this point, I came back to my cubicle to hear Funk music pumping out of my phone. I pressed the designated key sequence to turn it off...and the music kept right on coming. So I went to Ben's phone, and pressed "Feature 86". Ben's phone started to sing to us. Maria, my manager, said, "hey, it doesn't work on my phone!" so I ran over there and pressed the magic sequence on her phone, turned up the volume, and within 30 seconds, the whole office was rocking out to Seth's magic Funk tunes. "Hmmm, I wonder how you /really/ turn this off," someone asked. So I trundled back to Seth's office to ask how to /really/ turn off the music. He tried punching Feature 86 on his phone and it started to sing to him. He punched it in again...still singing, again...still singing. Finally, in his infinite wisdom, he tried the novel Feature #86 command and, low and behold, the music ceased as quick as it began. I ran back to my cubicle and spread the good word. Now we know how to both turn the music *on* and *off*.

Everything under the sun

Yesterday, I hung out with a a really wonderful friend from high school, Lisette. She called me during the day but I couldn't take her call then, so I finally caught up with her around 6:15pm. I hoofed it from 3rd and 56th street uptown to 10+ blocks to her appt. and gave her a call so she would buzz me in. We then went out to a Japanese restaurant for dinner, a nice little place about 3 blocks away. We dined and talked for a few hours, she offered up three choices: a) we could head out to a bar and catch a drink, b) we could walk to a neo-bohemian coffe shop that she often frequents, of c) we could head back to her place and catch some tea. I really like Lisette's studio appt., but I coffee sounded really good to me to I elected to go with plan B. Another 10-12 blocks later, and after Lisette doubted herself about which block the place was on (she claimed that this is a frequent occurs, ah how many times does a place "move" on me...only all the time...;), we made it! I order a mocha, she a latte, and we sat down in the back and change for another three hours. We talked about everything from politics, to friends, to work, to the weather, to you name it. At around 11:00pm, we were both starting to turn into pumpkins so we decided to call it a night. I came back up to her place to pick up my back, talk for a bit more, and then grabbed a cab back to the Kimberbly Hotel on 50th where I was staying.

Lisette is a really good thinker and a really good listener which makes for delightful conversations. We're both knowledgable enough about a broad range of topics that we can talk about nearly anything despite the fact that she's been working in performing arts for the past two years since she graduated and I have been working in computer software. On the matter of geography, we're each a little bit right and a little bit wrong.

We had a discussion about the temperature difference between Boston and New York City. I claimed that NYC is mainly west of Boston, with only a little bit of north/south change. She claimed that NYC was far east of the western border of Massachusetts and that most of the trip from Boston to NYC was spend traveling north/south. She said this is why NYC is halfway between Boston and Washington, DC. and also why it is so much warming in NYC than in Boston. Well we were each a little bit right. She was right about the temperature difference and that NYC is far south of Boston. I was right that New York City is aligned with the West Coast of Massachusetts. ;)

A dynamic community

And now, as I have just been writing about communities, I have just watch one grow up around me. An altercation on this train from Boston to NYC will bring me into NYC over and hour and a half later than I was scheduled to arrive. Apparently, a man and a woman were making racial comments about oriental people on the train. One man got very angry and threw a beer bottle at the racist man. The train's ticket agent handle the whole situation very poorly and did not diffuse things early when he was alerted to the aweful things the man and woman were saying, which allowed the situation to degenerate to the point where someone got angry enough to use violence to affect the situation. The train stopped at an unscheduled location to take the three people involved off of the train. The community banded together when it first appeared that the asian gentleman would be the only one removed from the train. Futher, they erupted when the asian man was removed from the train in handcuffs (I would say /rightly/ so). They convinced the officers to remove the man who was struck by the beer bottle. Not yet satisfied, they rallied until the woman was to escorted off of the train. I have a better feeling of what it feels like to be in a mob. My accounts of this story are mainly based on fragrments I heard from other passengers afterwards. I was listening my music for most of the ride. I did catch a solid photo of the police entering the train, and removing people. The guy sitting next to me wanted nothing to do with this group. A first year law school student at NYU, he got up and left about five minutes before we started off for New York again. He was anoyed by the whole situation and just wanted to get home to catch "Desparate Housewives" on TV. Who can blame him, between leaving 50 minutes late from South Station in Boston, and this train altercation, we're arriving into Central Station around 9:30-9:45 instead of the projected 7:48 that reads on our purchased ticket. Needless to say, I'm pretty anoyed too.

Hurray, I just talked to Lisette

I justed talked to my friend Lisette, a wonderfully strong and supportive friend fron high school. I'm meeting up with her tomorrow after I get out of work for the day in NYC. Here's to rekindling friendships from communities of old.

Communities

What communities do I belong to?

Hmm, this is a very interesting question. First, it classifies me and defines me. On the other side, it frees me to focus my time and my efforts on what I believe I like. I would say that this is a good thing. I may belong to some communities that I do not like, some that I disagree with. This self inspection afords me a chance to evaluate my choice in the past, and make new decision in the future based on what I think I like or dislike.

So what communities do I belong to? I know that my likes and dislikes have grown and changed over the years. I will often come back and revisit an old "like" but infrequently with it return as a full blown hobby.

I have paticipated in many sports communities. I value myself as an athelete yet I no longer complete in sports. In fact, I rarely participate in sports. In fact, I rarely excercise now. Hmmm, maybe this is not such a strong community for me anymore. While I was once a strong member of the atheletic groups that I have participated in, sometimes "captaining" a given group, I have not gone for a run in over 4 months. I have not gone for a bike ride in over 3 months. My excerise is no longer through teams, I don't even participate in the other commmunities (track, cycling) that once provide me a physical outlet for stress. I should definitely think about returning to some form of group exercise. I think this should mean joining a team of some kind. I doesn't need to be a competitive team, though that is not necessarily a bad idea; I believe I would enjoy the community of atheleticism once again.

There are many other athletic atitivies than cycling and running that I used to frequent. I use play hockey, soccer, basketball, baseball, I tried crew for a season, tenis, skiing, surfing, swimming, kayaking (both white water and sea), and hiking. This is not meant to be a bragging right; in fact it may be just the opposite--I might argue that it is a tribute to my inability to commit to anything for the long term.

I have joined a whole other set of communties centered around arts. While I would not describe myself as creative first and foremost, I enjoy trying. I have participated in community theater, children's theater, and I even participated in two performances in college. These have been some the most welcoming communities that have welcomed me. People seem to come from such different backgrounds into theater. The join in for such different reasons. I really like the challenge of overcoming my fear of taking in front of many people. I also like the conversations, and the friendships that I mading within this community. Another art that I have formed many communities through is music. From the time when I was 4 years old, I took paino lessons. Up until I was ten or eleven, this was in the form of group lessons. Much like Japanese society, the nail that stood out was hammered down. What I dichotomy music can present. The "backup" is usually relagated to a role of perfect reproduction of a script. The soloist(s) burdened with the job of adding creative flare and entertaining the audience. This is clearly a gross oversimplification. Further, I am not in opposition of this model as it works. A group individual performs standing out would likely degrade into a shouting match of musical voices. I play guitars, but my guitar communities have mainly centered around either performing for a friend or two, and practicing with a friend or two. I have performed on a guitar twice in front of "real" audiences. The first time was for a music course I took at school. I took guitar lessons that were subsidized by the school. There were two prerequisite to this program: first, I had to agree to take lessons for two semesters or more. Second, after my second semester, I had to agree to give a "recital that showed my progress." A third and somewhat less important rule was that I could not be a beginner. As I had played guitar for 8 years before my first lesson, I was a compotent hacker on the guitar. My performance was worthy of note for two reasons. First, I has to once more overcome my fear of being the center of attension for a large group. This part I enjoyed very much. Second, I performed guitar with another person for the first time. This was very fun and exciting, but I realized in a very tangible way how my pratice and performance habbits affected another individual. Emily, (incidently a fellow physics major at camp Bobo (or Bowdoin College) had never really played guitar before the start of the semester. This is another reason that rule number 3 above was not very important; it could averted with a "wink", "wink." In my view, this is a _very_ good thing for I believe that anyone willing to put the time in should have the same opportunity to learn music as anyone else. Well, Emily as a newbie was a _lot_ more dilligent in her guitar studies than I was. As it turns out, over the course of one year visit to the community of guitar students at Bowdoin College, Emily surpassed my 8 (and by then almost 9) years of hacking! This both amazing/impressed me and embarassed me. Boy had I slacked off. I wanted to learn some new chords, to work on my technique that while was fairly functional as a home grown solution, was holding me back a bit. Well by the time Emily and I came together to practice for our two "joint" pieces, it was clear to me that she should be taking most of the solos. So I did want I thought the most logical thing at this point: I practiced like hell so I wouldn't look like a goober in front of the whole phsyics department which Emily (proud of her accomplishments) had invited. Incidentally, this included a professor who was quite nearly a concert pianist and another would chose his undergradate school based on where he could find both an excellent educating and had performance degrees in instuments (his was oboe I believe.) The Bowdoin physics depart values dillegence in ones chosen study. So for two weeks, I practiced and practiced really hard. I played my scales and I record myself playing the "background" rhythm part, so I could practice my smallish solo. Was I as good as Emily by this point? Nah. But definity didn't embarass myself. Most importantly, I didn't make a fool of Emily who really put the time in to make something of her oportunity to perform. Which brings me to my final musical class of communities: my voice. My dad's a /really/ good singer. This is in no way a point of contension. I have a good voice, though the "goodness" varies from year to year, month to month, week to week, day to day, and from hour to hour. For the most part I like the way it sounds, but occationally (usually when I use a microphone) it comes out sounding really bad. Anyway, I have sung in choirs, a capella groups, musical performances as well as bunch of other small things. One time, I sang on the street for change with a friend in middle school. This was really more for fun than anything. Some of the best musically experience I have ever had came from singing. I've met some of best friends through vocal communities I have participated in. But like everthing else I have done, I often feel the need to move on. Luckly, many of the groups I have been in so far have had self limiiting terms. It was either a "children's" choir, a highschool choir, a college choir, or an college a capella group. Now that I am in the really world, I have to take these choices of when to go and when to stay into my own hand, I can guide my destiny for the most part. I think that the set of musically communities I now belong to may change in the near future, for better or for worse.

Ah but there are yet other communities that I actively participate in, or have participated in previously. School provides a great venue for forming communities around learning. While the other communities I have described involve education in some smaller ways, their main focus has been some other task. Education in school for me so far has been as much about the process of learn, as much as the material I have learned. This makes for interesting groups including study groups, academic support groups (like groups to help one write a paper), and academic clubs around an interest, not to mention the communities formed in the classroom settings directly. One group communities that I wish I would have been more important to my academic education so far would be online groups. Alas, Bowdoin in my day didn't really embrase an open enough form for news to been taken up by a greater community.

I would like to join the open source community at large, thought I have not yet found my "itch that needs to be scratched." I hope this will come soon. Then, I may find my community to keep me busy for a while!

Eric, Greece 2004 

First posts always suck...I never know what to say. Work sucks today, as do a lot of other things right now, and yet there's a silver lining to almost all of them. More on that soon I think. This is a nice, vague start.