Wednesday, February 05, 2003

fiddling with technology; have to write something to get something else to work.......

I wrote that almost a month ago, and yes--I'm still fiddling with technology. I hope that ultimately I learn something. Now I am almost desperate enough to read the directions.

Monday, February 03, 2003

We celebrated my father's 80th birthday yesterday. Drove to Washington, frantically wrapping his gifts with Christmas wrapping paper (Hey, it's what I could find!) as we flew down I-95.

I got him two books, one on architecture and the other on the oppression of left-handed people (as a leftie, he's always felt strongly about this). Also I made an electronic birthday card he really liked. He seemed touched that we had made the trip.....and he is a man who is not easily touched.

At Friday's parent-teacher conference, the teacher said about my son, "he knows he's a little different." In fact, that could be said of each and every member of my family--both the one I come from and the one my husband and I have created. Yesterday, sitting next to my father, I was grateful for that. There he sat, at 80, looking dapper in blue jeans, sneakers, and a Brooks Brothers sweater. He is a primary source of our collective and slightly twisted sense of humor.

My parents are anything but conventional. As a child, it embarrassed me. Now I see it as a gift. I don't want to be unconventional in the same way as they are (that would be a contradiction in terms). But I sure do appreciate the lesson. Their lives demonstrate the wisdom of living by the dictum, "to thine own self be true."

Saturday, February 01, 2003

Horrified to learn of today's Challenger disaster. Feel sadness, especially for astronauts, their families and loved ones. Send prayers far and wide. Feel lucky to be here and hold my loved ones closer.
Minor screed:

At minumum, 70% of business books are drek. And I'm talking about the bestsellers. I think of them as "self-help for people who have jobs but want careers." On average, the self-help books I've read are 70% drek too. So at least the genre is consistent. Both sub-types share this virtue: they give you a way to feel like you're doing something on your own behalf by investing time and energy in reading them--even if the ultimate 'message' is just an assemblage of familiar platitudes that you'll never act on anyway.