Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Dog-Days Monkeyshines

It was a hot and extra-steamy weekend here in Brooklyn this past weekend, but that didn't stop our favorite little ones from spending a fun-filled weekend with Daddy.

Our pet "mouse" saw a lot of action this weekend, which is good because living in a relatively small cage, he needs the exercise. We put him in the bathtub first to make sure that in his excitement that he is not going to make any poops, then he is free to run around the apartment. This weekend he was treated to several rides on our electric train set. Zachy was a little disappointed that he didn't fit into the boxcar, but Mr. Mouse seemed to genuinely enjoy riding in the flatbed car. Both children thought that this was quite fun.

Saturday morning we did the Sensory Gym thing per usual, then we went to the Shore Road Park for some sprinkler action. You might notice something slightly different about the photos of this white-hot action: Daddy is actually in a couple of the shots! Yes, I finally remembered that the disposable digital cameras that I use have a timer feature and the fences around the swing sets make perfect perches for self-photography. Unfortunately, Daddy is not nearly as photogenic as his beautiful children.

On Saturday afternoon we went to a local block party on 87th Street. We kind of invited ourselves, but since we live on the corner we were welcomed and got blue wristbands that designated us as residents. We got balloons from a clown who tied them into silly shapes, Daddy got some yummy potato salad, and we all bounced on the moon-walk ride, which Miranda dubbed "the bouncy castle." Zach was eyeing up the BigWheels that the kids were riding and would have taken a turn if the opportunity had presented itself - this got Daddy thinking, hmmmmn? Anyway, it's always nice to meet your neighbors and we had a good time.

On Saturday evening we took a long walk to the 69th Street pier to look at the water and see the fishermen fishing, after that we went to Owl's Head Park which is Zach and Miranda's normal stomping ground when they are not visiting with Daddy.


As we walked along the way, we saw a bag-piper piping. Zachy clutched his ears, but smiled and Miranda stared spellbound until the nice man had finished playing for us then said, "I want one!" I told her that perhaps she could try it when she was older - eeeek!

Sunday morning we went to the park by Fort Hamilton High School. We were up and out early, trying to get some outdoor time in before it rained, so we had the place all to ourselves for the first hour or so. No piece of equipment went unused, including the big-kids' swings which both Zachy and Miranda did a great job of swinging on.

With rain threatening on Sunday afternoon (actually it was threatening all weekend), Daddy decided that we could use an indoor activity so we went to the Painted Pot on 3rd Avenue. This is a place where they have a variety of unfinished pottery pieces that you pick out and can finish yourself. Of course you pay for the pottery, but included in the price are all of the paints/glazes, supplies, etc that you use to decorate the pottery. They also include the kiln firing of the pieces. You can choose to just do the painting or you can use colorful beads and tiles to create a mosaic piece. We just stuck with the glazes. Miranda did a fabulous job painting a large plate, and Zachy did a nice job of painting a piggy bank in the shape of a car, until he got bored and decided to sit and much some Fritos and watch the action (Daddy finished it for him). Thankfully, the paints and glazes are all water-based so they wash out of clothes, which is a good thing because we were all pretty well splattered by the end.

While we were on the way home, the skies opened up and we got pretty drenched, which the kids thought was just hilarious. Even Daddy didn't mind so much because it actually felt good after pushing the stroller around all weekend in 1000% humidity and sweating like a beast. That about sums up the high points of this week's episode of Monkeyshines - stay tuned for future adventures!

Monday, July 30, 2007

TED




Each day I receive about 100 articles to read through my heavy use of the Google Alerts feature of my gmail account, which allows me to capture any electronically published material (news papers, news wires, blogs, scientific journals, magazines, etc) on topics that relate to the key words that I have set up and am constantly tweaking. This allows me stay on top of the areas of science, politics, literature, culture, etc. that I am interested in. I open all of the articles in Firefox tabs, read some of them immediately (the ones with catchy headlines), then tag those and the others to my del.icio.us account (the unread ones tagged for later reading). Recently I got an article that was linked to the TED site and for some reason (probably too much time on my hands) I decided to see what this was all about. I'm really glad that I did.

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out in 1984 (long before the internet) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader. The annual conference now brings together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes - a tall order, as you can probably imagine.

This site makes the best talks and performances from TED available to the public, for free. More than 100 talks from TED's archives are now available, with more added each week. These videos are released under a Creative Commons license, so they can be freely shared and reposted. Here's the link:

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/list

I have watched quite a few and found them all to be pretty amazing. You owe it to yourself to check this out - at least take a couple of minutes to scroll through the list of speakers that have talks in the archive. You may not recognize all of the names but then again, how may astrophysicists, molecular biologists, anthropologists, etc. ever get to be household names? Anyway, it is all free of course and TED's mission is worthy of supporting - it is after all what the architects of the internet had in mind in the beginning: the free sharing of ideas and information for the betterment of humanity. Sounds pretty good to me.

Friday, July 27, 2007

Faith

I've been thinking a lot about faith lately - trying to understand what it is and how it works - not faith so much in a religious sense, for I do not "do" religion, but faith as it relates to epistemology and faith as a doorway to spirituality and, ultimately, to a life of harmony and peace.

The idea of defining faith as "seeking understanding" was set forth by St. Augustine in his statement "Crede, ut intelligas" ("Believe in order that you may understand"). This statement extends beyond the sphere of religion to encompass the totality of knowledge. In essence, what this Carthaginian monk was saying is that faith must be present in order to "know" anything. In other words, one must assume, believe, or have faith in the credibility of a person, place, thing, or idea in order to have a basis for knowledge. Pretty hip for 4th century Algeria, huh?

One illustration of this concept is in the development of knowledge in children. A child typically holds parental teaching as credible (God help us all), in spite of the child's lack of sufficient research to establish such credibility empirically. That parental teaching, however ridiculous, becomes a foundation upon which future knowledge is built. Thankfully, parental instruction may be the historical foundation of future knowledge, but that does not necessarily make it a structural foundation.

Even adults attribute the basis for some of their knowledge to so called "authorities" in a given field of study. I believe that there is a structure called the Eiffel Tower in Paris, even though I have never seen it (or Paris for that matter) for myself - I have faith that it is in fact real and there. Unfortunately, people seem to have widely varying thresholds for qualifying or determining what is, or is not, a believable source. For example, how many times have you heard someone start out a sentence with: "you know, they say that....." The "authority" in this case is the proverbial "they", and it is quite alarming how often and how easily knowledge is built on these foundations of urban legend, wives' tales, half truths, quasi-science and rumor. This is often true, however, because one simply does not have the time or resources to evaluate all of his/her knowledge empirically and exhaustively. "Faith" is used instead.

It would appear from my observations that the primary filter or criteria used for making the decision of whether or not to place faith in a given proposition is popular opinion. It would also seem that if most people believe that a proposition is true, other people are inclined to go along with that proposition and similarly place faith in it as truth. Is this merely a time saver, or is it the construction of knowledge out of some perverse need for conformity. Remember that Mark Twain famously said, "When you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect." Sage advice in my opinion.

The good news in all of this is that everyone, even people who profess not to, have faith. What is even better news is that faith, and therefore knowledge, can be grown. Consider Plato's classical model of knowledge (see the venn diagram above). Of all the ideas or propositions that can exist, some are truths, some are beliefs and of the intersection of these two sets - propositions that are both true and believed - knowledge is a subset. Thus, by expanding the set of beliefs (growing faith), knowledge-space must expand. In any event, it seems clear that we humans have the unique ability to "choose" to believe whatever we want - this is "free will".

Let's consider for a moment how different all of the above is from what the "common man" would reply (at least in our culture) if asked to define faith. I have tried it and I generally get an earful (sometimes two earfuls) of dogma. Our culture is dominated by a Christian view of faith - a view that paints faith as synonymous with religion, and therefore dogma. This Christian view of faith (like the Islamic view) hales, for the most part, from the root of Jewish thought on faith, from which both Christianity and Islam sprang. Moses Maimonides, a twelfth century Moroccan rabbi, in his commentary on the Mishnah, compiled what he refers to as the Thirteen Articles of Faith from Judaism's 613 commandments (and you thought there were only 10) found in the Torah. It is easy to see the similarities these hold with Christian and Islamic Views - they are as follows:
1. Belief in the existence of the Creator, who is perfect in every manner of existence and is the Primary Cause of all that exists.
2. The belief in God's absolute and unparalleled unity.
3. The belief in God's noncorporeality, nor that He will be affected by any physical occurrences, such as movement, or rest, or dwelling.
4. The belief in God's eternity.
5. The imperative to worship Him exclusively and no foreign or false gods.
6. The belief that God communicates with man through prophecy.
7. The belief that the prophecy of Moses has priority (or Jesus or Mohammad).
8. The belief in the divine origin of the Torah (or the Gospels or the Koran).
9. The belief in the immutability of the Torah (or the Gospels or the Koran).
10. The belief in divine omniscience and providence.
11. The belief in divine reward and retribution.
12. The belief in the arrival of the Messiah and the messianic era (or His return for Christians).
13. The belief in the resurrection of the dead.

Bleeechhhh! Dogma! But be of good cheer, for I've found that it doesn't have to be this way. For a rather refreshing contrast, consider the Bahá'í Faith, which is practiced by more that six million people in over 200 countries. In the Bahá'í Faith, personal faith is viewed as a progressive understanding an individual goes through to learn the truth for oneself, towards the end that one may learn of God, of oneself, and also develop a praiseworthy character, not simply by knowing the truth, but by living honorably in relation to it. Different ways of learning the truth for oneself are all respected and culminate in a spirit of faith or indwelling spirit by which the Holy Spirit informs one's belief without recourse to senses, intellect, intuition, scripture, or experience and research. Wow! Sign me up! Do I get a T-shirt?

If the Bahá'í Faith too exotic for one's taste, one could always consider Buddhism. Faith in Buddhism is 1) A conviction that something is, 2) A determination to accomplish one's goals and 3) A sense of joy deriving from the other two. It doesn't get much simpler that this.

That's all for now - keep the faith.

Thursday, July 26, 2007

My Own Music!!!

At long last Ted Kennedy's Driving School rides again. I've finally been able to add my own music to this page (see below and right). It will remain on the sidebar of the blog, under the photo of the bridge permanently (for now), even after this post has been pushed down into the nether regions where old posts go to die (somewhere in Africa I think). Please note: when you click on the player there is a 3 - 4 second delay before the song starts playing. It is an annoying techno-glitch that I am working on - please hang in there:)



I had been meaning to get around to uploading my MP3 file(s) to my Podbean page, then using a third-party widget to stream it from that site to this one, however, that all became unnecessary as of today. Sonific.com finally added a feature that allows artists (like myself) to self publish their music and use their (Sonific's) widgets as players. This is really cool because I am comfortable with Sonific's tools and happy (so far) with their service, but more importantly, it allows billions of my fellow humans (anyone with a computer jacked into the net) to hear the product of my creativity. Who knows, I might even make a couple of bucks off of it, as this track is now for sale on Amazon.com - cool huh?

I recorded this song at Porter Square Studios in Cambridge (it was engineered by Rob Ignazio) - I wrote the song, arranged it, play all the istruments (except keys, violin and mandolin which were played by the other members of the driving school), do all of the drums and percussion and do all the vocals. Enjoy!

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

New Art

On Sunday I went over to my friend Nathan's place (Stephanie and EJ live there too) to pick up a special treat: the painting that I've admired since the first time I visited their place, back when they were still living in Bay Ridge. Nathan was quite a prolific painter of paintings at one point and enjoyed working on massive pieces of plywood, among other things. Since they are in the process of leaving the United States (which strikes me as an altogether sensible thing to do) they are seeking to lighten the proverbial load. To this end, he has begun giving away the fruits of his genius to his friends.

This piece (pictured above) was painted directly onto a slab of inch thick plywood that is slightly over 4 feet by 5 feet and weighs the better part of 80lbs - judging from the hanging hardware that I mangled trying to get it to stay on the wall, and from the strain on the nice Islamic gypsy cab driver who helped me cart it up to my door. It is a whimsical scene of an art library featuring several distinct styles and wonderful color. It looks great in its new home - Thanks man!!!

Sunday, July 22, 2007

Gene-Gene

Gene Gene the Dancing Machine, aka Eugene Patton (born April 25, 1932), was a member of the stage crew and occasional performer on The Gong Show. He was one of several amateur performers who would "warm up", and entertain the audience during commercial breaks. Host Chuck Barris found him so entertaining that he had him dance on the show on-air, and he proved so popular that he soon became a recurring act, an occasional judge, and eventually the regular closing act for the show, with the credits regularly rolling over his enthusiastic dancing, often joined by Chuck, the celebrity judges, the stage hands, and whoever else felt like joining in. Usually Gong paddles, flowers, plastic fake food, stuffed animals and various other items were thrown onstage for good measure.

Well I certainly would never claim to be as magnificent a talent as Gene Gene, but I did go out dancing Saturday night, and dance I did. The big NCYPAA/ICYPAA dance was held in the cavernous Gothic sanctuary of a church on East 74th Street in Manhattan and ran from 10:30 to 1:30am. The room was amazing, with a massive pipe organ in the corner and the DJs, who set up on the altar, really rocked the place. I had originally planned to go with a friend, but he bailed out due to a family function and I decided to go by myself - and I'm glad I did, even though I didn't get home until almost 4am. I always used to be too self conscious to dance much, however, I found that this is no longer the case. I danced with lots of very cute young ladies, made lots of new friends and had an amazing time! Who would have thunk it?

Friday, July 20, 2007

Of Mice and Monkeyshines










Let's start this off with a little eye-candy - here we see a view taken from the sprinkler area of the Shore Road Park at 79th Street, looking Northwest across the river. Miranda attempts to plug up the frog-sprinkler's mouth. Zach enjoys the cooling waters.








Our installment of Monkeyshines for this fortnight was jam-packed, fun-filled, and Jim-dandy. It featured multiple trips to multiple parks (as usual) to run through the sprinklers, long walks along the promenade (somewhat as usual), and a trip to the pet store to purchase an addition to our family (not at all as usual).


As I mentioned in a previous post, I had been wanting to get some sort of a pet for the kids for some time, but did not want do all of the work that is involved in owning even a cat, which are not really allowed in my building anyway. Miranda is quite taken with the lizards on our trips to the pet store next to the Sensory Gym, but they do not seem to hold her interest for very long and having owned reptiles in the past, I know that they are not very interactive. Really what I would like to do for the kids (and myself) is get a dog, but that will have to wait until I first secure a suitable living arrangement - give it a couple of years. So to make a long story somewhat shorter than a long story, I had been thinking in terms of a rodent.

We loaded up the stroller, braved a terrifically hot day and cruised down to World of Pets on 86th Street, between 5th and 6th Avenues. We got a white rat, which we have been referring to as the "mouse" - the pet store had a varied selection of mice, including a rather handsome species from Africa, however, mice are known to bite and nip at little fingers and I wanted this to be a positive and learning experience for the kids. Rats on the other hand, are much more docile than hamsters, gerbils or mice and offer the added benefit of being very bright and loyal. So a rat is what we got.


It was interesting to watch the difference between the way Zach and Miranda enjoyed the experience. Miranda was just bursting to hold the "mouse" and pet it and solemnly promised to be a gentle "mousey-mommy" and to take good care of it. I was so proud of her holding the rat in her hands, carefully trying not to hurt it, squealing with delight (Miranda, not the rat) and saying "Ooooh, it's soooo cute!"

Zach was curious about the "mouse" but was far more interested in the cage, especially the working of the door and the water bottle. He giggled when I put the "mouse" on his shoulder - he has a wonderful deep chuckle that seems to come from way down deep and belong to someone much older. He is, however, quite a bit more heavy handed than Miranda, so I was far more nervous for the tiny creature (the rat, not Zach) as Zachy was holding it.




After our new pet was suitable terrified, we put it back in its home and filled up its bowl with MeowMix - I'm sure that irony is not lost on all of you, but until I can find some RatChow our rat will dine like a cat.

The rest of the weekend was just as wonderful, however, not as singular. We watched Corduroy, which is the story of a little girl who admires a stuffed bear in a department store, but her mother does not let her buy it because it is missing a button. That night the bear comes to life and goes on a quest in search of a button, so that the girl will buy him - you can probably guess the ending. Miranda, who has a fine and ever expanding collection of stuffed bears, was enthralled with the story and I believe that we have definitely found a new favorite video. Zachy, on the other hand, loves to watch the Thomas videos from Grandma Fredi and Grandpa Monty, and will watch them over and over again without tiring.

One other first this weekend was buying Miranda ice cream from one of the Mr. Softee trucks that prowl around on warm days - normally I don't do this because I don't want Zach to feel bad, but Zach was busy munching away at his snack and didn't seem to mind. Miranda wanted chocolate which she ate "like a kitty," licking it out of the bowl rather than using a spoon. She got it all over everything, but was very happy to announce the fact that she was all sticky.


Finally, I spent a great deal of time ingenuity and effort to redo the kids room to make it a bit more comfortable for little people to live and play in, and I'm proud of the way it all turned out so I took some photos to show off my handywork - tell me what you all think.



















That's all for now - keep checking back for the continuing saga of Monkeyshines.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

It's Magic!

I just met Magic Johnson in the lobby of the building where I work. I got to talk to him for a little bit and rode the elevator up with him. What an amazingly nice guy! He was on his way up to the 14th floor to see Mr. Bill (President Clinton) - I got off on the 9th floor as usual. Only in Harlem!

My Brother from Another Mother

Last Thursday, July 12th was Michael Burns' last day at work. Every once in a blue moon (actually a lot less frequently in my experience) you meet a kindred spirit and some profound form of bonding occurs. This was certainly the case with Michael and I. We have spent the last few years as friends and colleagues; perfecting our craft together, solving problems together, having deep discussions on just about everything, reading the same books, editing each other's written work, watching internet documentaries together, hanging out on Fridays, eating lunch together, learning how to be parents, and laughing a lot, at ourselves and life.

Michael, Janelle and Noah left this past Sunday, with the whole household crammed into a U-haul, for a new life in Illinois (Champagne-Urbana) where Michael will be pursuing his doctorate in writing studies. I am incredibly happy for him, and deeply sad at losing his companionship, both at the same time. Fortunately, there are some friendships that are strong enough to overcome vast distances and we have made arrangements to stay a part of each other's daily lives - I will miss hearing that funky laugh and Arkansas drawl, however. Peace and love to ya' Mr. Burns, wherever you are.

Monday, July 16, 2007

Reality Check

Today I am just being. I had the big second interview with Ameriprise (American Express's Financial Services Division) at their offices across the street from the Chrysler Building on Friday. I thought the whole thing went pretty well (even though my phone chops ain't what they used to be), but the recruiter that set it up said her information showed that I aced it. I'm expecting a call from the V.P. some time today, after they have had a chance to confer, etc. I'm trying to keep things in perspective and go through this whole transition to the finance industry (wherever I end up) with my eyes wide open - so we'll see.

I will get around to writing this week's edition of Monkeyshines sometime later in the week, but I will say that I had a wonderful weekend with Zachy and Miranda, and that our family has a new addition: we now have a mouse in the house. Let me explain - I've been wanting to do something about a pet for the kids, and I have not had good luck with fish, so we went out and bought a "mouse" which Miranda is calling "Squeaky." Actually, Squeaky is a white rat of the common variety, that I am now referring to as Socrates (pronounced "so-crates" with a long "O", a long "A" and a silent "E", like in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure - this, along with the reference to Willard, amuses me). Socrates now lives in a cage (a rat condo really) on the kids dresser and it is nice to have another being in the house, which often seems very empty when the kids are not there.

This evening I have an appointment with Dr. Zoe and then I will be celebrating my two years formally, complete with a Carvel ice cream cake. Tomorrow, I get my first exposure to the mortgage business, which actually interests me far more than financial planning. I am very curious to see what there is to see in this arena, and I am going to get to watch (and listen to) a deal go down from soup to nuts. I will also probably learn a lot about credit scores and such - trey cool! The rest of the week should be pretty uneventful - just a bunch of laundry to do, I'll keep y'all posted.