What is she UP to, anyway?

So, so ahead of the curve

2008-08-08T12:11:00.000-05:00

In order to cement your status in the cultural elite, you want to be already sick of everything no one else has even heard of.

...If you can do this, becoming not only an early adopter, but an early discarder, you will realize greater status rewards than you ever imagined. Remember, cultural epochs come and go, but one-upsmanship is forever.

I will spare you the long list of items that I "discovered" well in advance of the madding crowd. Or the brilliant predictions I made which were ignored or pooh-poohed at the time, but which could have made someone (including me) huge portions of fame and fortune had we been bothered to follow up on them.

Bah.

Go read this article by David Brooks, it's amusing. (Thanks for the pointer, David!)

Tired

2008-07-17T17:35:00.002-05:00

Gah.

When I took my car in for service a few weeks ago they told me I needed to replace three of my tires (namely, the three that hadn't blown at high speed on the highway last summer). I knew this was important, I knew it was urgent, I knew I should do it promptly.

Did I do it urgently and promptly? I did not.

Everyone who doesn't see this coming, raise your hand right now.

No? Nobody?

I thought not.

Yeah, I'm an idiot. The only good thing about this story is that the flat was a) on a BACK tire and b) half a mile from home. So, ninety reimbursable bucks later, the spare is on and the shot wheel with its snazzy rim is in the trunk.

Me, I'm still an idiot. I'm not a DEAD idiot, however, and that's gotta count for something. No more highway driving for me until I get this tire business sorted.

iPhone v.2 Software

2008-07-12T11:00:00.004-05:00

I don't know why anyone was surprised by the SNAFUs around the release of iPhone 2. You remember what I went through when I got my original iPhone last year? Horrible, horrible experience.

So I waited until the reports of server frustrations died down, and then ~ in the wee, small hours of the morning ~ I downloaded and installed the new software uneventfully.

Yeah, there are some spiffy new features (although STILL no cut-and-paste, and still no mass mark-as-read in email). Everyone will have his or her favorite, but in my view the best is the simplest. Now, when the phone rings, you do not have to "swipe" to answer the phone, just tap an "accept" or "decline" button. This is a lot easier to do in a hurry, or one-handed, and a major UI improvement.

Frankly, I'd wish they'd allow you to answer a call by pressing the "home" button. But you can't have everything.

Dust to Dust

2008-06-06T15:53:00.005-05:00

My trip to Boston, the memorial service for my father, and other family matters went about as well as I could have hoped.

We mingled my father's and mother's ashes together, as he had wished, and planted a small hydrangea bush on a strip of land right near their former studios in their memory. My brother and sister-in-law were headed to the cape, and were supposed to scatter the ashes in the ocean.

Life is fleeting, friends; show your love as completely as you can, while you can.

Tagged!

2008-03-27T17:32:00.004-05:00

Oh dear, a meme, what shall I do, what shall I do?? Kelly tagged me:

So, I'm supposed to share a quotation and dedicate it to three other bloggers. This is a toughy. I don't have a lot of pithy little quotes hanging out inside my head. So instead of something short and sweet, you get the only poem I know by heart. I memorized it in my sophomore year of high school, and it's with me still.

Shakespeare's Sonnet 94

They that have power to hurt and will do none,
That do not do the thing they most do show,
Who, moving others, are themselves as stone,
Unmoved, cold, and to temptation slow,
They rightly do inherit heaven's graces
And husband nature's riches from expense;
They are the lords and owners of their faces,
Others but stewards of their excellence.
The summer's flower is to the summer sweet,
Though to itself it only live and die,
But if that flower with base infection meet,
The basest weed outbraves his dignity:
For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds;
Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.

I don't know a lot of people with blogs. So: two friends, Molly and Abbie, and one stranger, Shreve, consider yourselves tagged.

Mighty Service

2008-03-13T17:46:00.003-05:00

So I was having this little problem with my Mighty Mouse: it would scroll every which way but down. And, unfortunately, down is the direction you mostly want to scroll when scrolling is called for.

I looked up all the troubleshooting procedures online and applied them all, to no effect. So this afternoon I toddled over to the Clarendon Apple store and hoped I could get helped without an appointment.

After ascertaining that my description of my problem was indeed accurate, the helpful guy at the Genius bar asked the magic four-word question: "Do you have AppleCare?"

Why yes, yes I do. Five minutes later I walked out with a brand new Mighty Mouse.

AppleCare: buy it. Worth every penny; it's already more than paid for itself.

Sick as a Dog

2008-03-05T17:09:00.003-05:00

I've got some kind of stomach thing, or a flu, or something. My entire body aches and I'm as week as a newborn kitten. I feel like DEATH.

I had horrible indigestion all night, and the mere thought of eating is nauseating. I can barely take a sip of water.

This one is nasty, folks. I hope you don't get it.

What must it be like?

2008-02-28T15:44:00.002-05:00

Just now on my way to Starbucks I passed two young ladies carrying grocery bags. The first startling thing about them was their height. They were both well over 6 feet tall ~ and probably closer to 7. A second glance made it clear they were sisters. A third glance (more of a double-take, actually) made it clear they were identical twins.

Being a jerk, my first insta-cliche thought was, "There goes two-thirds of a scarily well-coordinated women's basketball team."

And then I thought about how many bad jokes and stupid insensitive questions and rude stares and general obnoxiousness these two pleasant-looking young women have probably already endured, and I was ashamed.

JetBlue Totally Rocks

2008-02-23T06:27:00.005-05:00

If JetBlue were a dude, I would totally marry him. Seriously, I am now going to look into buying JetBlue stock, because they have achieved something close to miraculous in this day and age: they have made air travel tolerable, even mildly pleasant. Their customers are not treated like cattle. They leave promptly and arrive early. Their personnel are friendly and helpful. Their seating is humane. Even their snacks are good. It is impossible for me to believe that a company doing so many things right for customers shouldn't -- barring terrible management or bad externalities -- prosper and thrive.

Hey, I was right about Apple, wasn't I?

Update: Well, I arrived in DC just fine (early) but my bag didn't. Hmf. In fact, the early departure from Las Vegas meant my bag never got on the plane. However, unlike my experience with USAirways, someone helped me promptly, took my report, promised my bag would show up later today, and gave me a $30 voucher for future travel. So I am somewhat mollified, if aggravated that my seamless experience was effed up.

All Quiet at Dulles

2008-02-17T17:59:00.002-05:00

No lines, no crowds, no waiting. I positively zipped through security. I find myself with almost two hours to kill before my flight. An amazingly low-stress experience. Hard not to see it as a good omen. Wish me luck, peoples!

Slipslidin' Away

2008-02-12T16:57:00.000-05:00

Be careful out there folks. I took a cartoon-character lift'n'splat fall on some invisible ice just now, resulting in a giant wetpatch on my thigh and what will undoubtedly be a couple of colorful and fancifully shaped bruises.

Proceed with caution, because falls are better when they're metaphorical.

Great Feature, Stupid Limitation

2008-01-18T11:38:00.000-05:00

Like a good little Apple fangirl, I promptly updated my iPhone to 1.1.3, and happily and quickly customized my home screen(s), added webclip icons (including making a custom one for THIS blog, check it out you iPhoners!), and thrilled to the *reasonably* accurate location finder in Maps.

Software updates: yay!

But. As we speak I'm downloading a rental of The Simpsons Movie. I'll load it up on my iPhone so that I'll have something to watch on my bus ride this weekend if I get bored of listening to Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me while the scenery rolls by. The catch is that once I start watching it, I have to finish watching it within 24 hours. So, for example, I can't watch half the movie on my way out of town and the other half on the way back.

THAT IS JUST STUPID. Let me repeat: the 24 hour window to watch a rental that is available for 30 days is STUPID. In case I failed to be quite clear: this restriction is DUMB, IDIOTIC, and downright BRAINDEAD.

I cannot see how this limitation solves any concern that either Apple or the movie studios might have about piracy. It's just pointless. And aggravating.

Desperately Needing Redesign

2008-01-09T11:15:00.000-05:00

The user experience of cremation (for mourners, of course, not the deceased) is appallingly bad. This is the second time I've been through it, and I was once again outraged by how awful it was.

Your last experience of a loved one should not include someone dressed in shabby janitorial clothing. It should not involve machines that look like they more properly belong in a Nazi concentration camp or an execution chamber on death row.

While I'm sure there are some engineering and safety issues to be dealt with, there is simply NO EXCUSE for how poorly this extremely significant moment in vulnerable people's lives is handled.

It made me quite angry. For a second time.

Again

2008-01-06T22:27:00.000-05:00

Nothing to see here. I'm an idiot.

Going to Albuquerque

2008-01-06T03:04:00.001-05:00

I've decided that I need to be in Albuquerque for my Dad's cremation. It just isn't right for my sister to have to deal with this alone. I'll be back on Wednesday.

Gone

2008-01-04T14:37:00.001-05:00

Harold Tovish (July 31, 1921 - January 4, 2008)

My father died this morning in Albuquerque, NM. He was a creative, intelligent, funny, and sometimes difficult man, who was loved and admired by many.

We will be planning a Memorial Service for friends and family to be held in Boston some time in the coming months.

Found Poetry

2008-01-04T06:20:00.001-05:00

Okay, here's a meme for you all that I just made up, which riffs off the previous one. Use the aforementioned Random Quotes page and weave the final words of each quotation, in order, into a poem. The first line is the title.

The Future Invades Our Lives

Keep in the sunlight
Get off the ground
From blind belief in another

In lunatic asylums
It has been a fine day
You have tried to make it precise

If you find yourself up there
Wonderful
Be a nonconformist.

[Sources:

Change is the process by which the future invades our lives. ~ Alvin Toffler;

Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight. ~ Benjamin Franklin

Mama exhorted her children at every opportunity to 'jump at de sun.' We might not land on the sun, but at least we would get off the ground. ~ Zora Neale Hurston

With most men, unbelief in one thing springs from blind belief in another. ~ Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

The men who really believe in themselves are all in lunatic asylums. ~ G. K. Chesterton

Wait until it is night before saying that it has been a fine day. ~ French Proverb

Everything is vague to a degree you do not realize till you have tried to make it precise. ~ Bertrand Russell

I have just returned from Boston. It is the only sane thing to do if you find yourself up there. ~ Fred Allen

Anything looked at closely becomes wonderful. ~ A. R. Ammons

Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson]

Here's another one:

Thinking Will Turn Into A Tune

Our individuality
Being an entrance somewhere else
For each other

Out at once
The truth
Took to blossom

Won't get much sleep
We change the world
Being thought unjust.

And one more (this is fun!):

A Way To Explore It

Obscurity is forever
According to our belief

Enjoy the work that you're doing
For general consumption

To fail in so many different ways
I am
Prepared for life

Among his opponents
We who inhabit the body lack.

Dada Rock Album Cover Meme

2008-01-04T05:06:00.000-05:00

The first article title on the Wikipedia Random Articles page is the name of your band. (Fish Counter)

The last four words of the very last quotation on the Random Quotations page is the title of your album. ("What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly." Thomas Paine)

A Creative Commons licensed photo* from Flickr will be your album cover. (photo by kevinch)

Use your favorite graphics software to throw them together, and post the result.

Meme via Chocolate & Vodka.

*The original version of this meme called for the 4th image from Flickr's "Most Interesting" page, but unless you find that photo JUST HAPPENS to be licensed for this kind of use, you should refrain, even for a goofy meme like this. Respect copyright, peoples!

Happy New Year!

2008-01-03T03:33:00.000-05:00

It's a new day, it's a new dawn.

Many thanks, once again, to the lovely Kelly (and her fabulous family) for feeding me the requisite black-eyed peas to ensure a prosperous new year. I'm already in rich in friends... now a little filthy lucre wouldn't go amiss.

May 2008 be a blessing to us all.

Benazir Bhutto

2007-12-27T14:33:00.000-05:00

I am dumbstruck and dismayed.

Long, long ago — seemingly in another life — I met and photographed Benazir Bhutto. She was a young woman then (as was I), but she had already been Prime Minister of her country.

She was amazingly charismatic, eloquent, and ferociously intelligent. She seemed like a beacon of hope, especially for women, in a region that had suffered tremendously.

I have not followed the controversy surrounding her political career, so I can't speak to that. But I admire her courage in returning to Pakistan in the face of serious personal threat. And I mourn the brutal destruction of a person who carried such potential to contribute to the greater good.

[Update: For some grim photos and an eyewitness account, go here; ~ this is what political violence does.]

All aTwitter

2007-12-25T00:21:00.000-05:00

Cripes. So somebody kewl like Kelly is using Twitter. Hence, I must learn about it and use it myself. So I go and set myself up a Twitter account (tovish). And then I try to get my phone to receive the tweets.

The first verification message showed up just fine. It asked me to send my name. Which name? My twitter name? My phone name? My real name? I try all of them. Nothing works.

I start the verification process over again. Now I can't even get the darn first verification message.

And may I add, the Twitter help system is RIDICULOUSLY BAD.

And, apparently, I am deeply uncool.

Merry Christmas, all!

[Update: Now it's working, apparently. Except I can't delete all the junk messages I sent by accident. It says it's deleting them, but noooo... Grr.]

iTunes Meme du Jour

2007-12-09T05:03:00.000-05:00

I never do these, but what the heck...

1. Put your iTunes, Windows Media Player, etc. on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. You must write that song name down no matter how silly it makes you look.

If someone says "Is this Okay?" You say:
"Stoned to the Bone, Part 1" - James Brown (Well, James Brown is definitely okay...)

How would you describe yourself?
"Girlfriend" - Alicia Keys

What do you like in a guy and/or girl?
"Going to the River" - Taj Mahal (Apparently, the depressive type.)

How do you feel today?
"The Shape I'm In" - The Band (Not so hot, really.)

What's your life purpose?
"In the Garden" - Bob Dylan (Thanks a lot, Bobby, lay it on me why don't ya.)

What do your friends think of you?
"Little of Your Time" - Maroon 5

What do your parents think of you?
"Tuesday Heartbreak" - Stevie Wonder

What do you often think about?
"Chan Chan" - Buena Vista Social Club (Okay, your guess is as good as mine.)

What do you think about the person you like?
"It's Me, O Lord (Standin' in the Need of Prayer)" - Charlie Haden and Hank Jones (Always.)

What is your life's story?
"Ziggie Stardust" - David Bowie (I'm such a rockstar.)

What will you dance to at your wedding?
"All I Really Want" - Alanis Morissette (I don't think so, but it would be unconventional.)

What will they play at your funeral?
"Eight Days A Week" - Beatles (Not the worst choice.)

What is your biggest fear?
"Southern Man" - Neil Young

What is your biggest secret?
"I Believe (When I Fall in Love It Will Be Forever) - Stevie Wonder (So true.)

What do you think of your friends?
"Bad Things" - Jace Everett (This cracks me up.)

What do you think about your past?
"Set Them Free" - Sting (An excellent idea.)

What is your future going to be like?
"Bring Me to Life" - Evanescence (I can hope!)

What do you see in the person you like?
"The Consequences of Falling" - k.d. laing

What will the song be for you and your spouse?
"The Hoochie Coochie Coo" - Taj Mahal (Yeah, baby!)

Not Too Cool to Boogie

2007-11-29T15:20:00.001-05:00

A poker buddy of mine, PK, is pals with Elliott Yamin of American Idol runner-up fame. He hooked me up with freebie tickets for Elliott's show at the 9:30 Club, so of course I invited fanboy David to join me.

It was a fun concert. I particularly enjoyed the encore performance, shown in the photo above, which featured just Elliott's splendid voice and keyboard.

Things to Give Thanks For

2007-11-22T19:30:00.000-05:00

Some years I feel as if the list is longer than others. But I know that even on a short-list year, I am more endowed with blessings than I could possible enumerate, and my gratitude falls far short of what is truly owed.

This year, to keep it simple, I give thanks above all for the love and kindness of friends. An especial thanks to Kelly & Todd for their hospitality today, which surrounded me with warmth and fed me with affection.

Passage

2007-10-28T20:11:00.001-05:00

Last day in Albuquerque. I don't know if I'll ever see my father alive again. It's odd to say goodbye to someone you know very well who doesn't seem to have the vaguest idea who you are. He didn't call me by name once.