Journal

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How stupid does a spider have to be to build a web inside a screen door?

the door onto the porch at Grandpa's house... my head took a big head-shaped chunk out of it when i opened the screen door (before which it is invisible) and stepped out. I will know to duck from now on.

Rain in the early morning, sprinklers

Thundershowers in the morning - with thunder cracks that sounded like targeted strikes around the perimeter of our neighborhood - left puddles that were already fighting to survive at 11am.

D, getting up to avoid a sprinkler that eventually aimed at the patch of grass she was laying on after leaving the bar at 1:30 a.m. (it's past 2 at this point), fell and scraped her elbow on the sidewalk.

Cape Cod with Stefan, Romy, Dimitrius

Leaving today from Grandpa's at Cape Cod after the clearest day i've ever experienced on Thursday and the warmest ocean water (global warming made real?) on Friday.

day starts with exercise

- well doing some agaric internal work -- calling today's meeting officially -- and getting http://fostercareindia.org set up with a mailing list.

Ran for 30 or so minutes this morning, 100+ pushups spread out, and 100 situps straight--- situps were way harder than they should have been.

Then yogo with Stefan, with some moves at the end taught by CS.

unimaginable

NYC -> Providence -> Boston

At no point did the brakes start smoking again. Of course it was raining, but i think they've worn a groove.

Avoided a truck that decided

Driving much too fast on the exit ramp, a very long sharp turn, i made the mistake of braking just slightly while in the turn, and lost control of the van- countersteered, countersteered, countersteered, countersteered and the wheels gained contact with the wet road again. Veering from one side of the offramp to the other while also tracking its curve enough to not go off the pavement entirely was interesting, to say the least.

Thursday in Wellfleet

Swam briefly alongside the boat, and within 50 feet of seals hanging out by the seagull-covered spit of land that points at Billingsgate shoal.

Made hummos, canned chickpeas, no tahini or garlic, too much salt, a bit of salsa you couldn't find a trace of, some curry powder and paprika that seemed to work well.

Did 50 solid pushups.

the author is ringleader, cheerleader, ringmaster, organizer, and jack of all trades of a process that might never end

Seth Godin is spying on me. How else to explain that he just wrote: "what it means to be an author is changing for the first time in a hundred years [...] the author is the ringleader, cheerleader, ringmaster, organizer and jack of all trades of a process that might not ever end."

Sure, he claims that's his takeaway from Craig Mod's essay "Post-Artifact Books and Publishing", but it seems more likely he's been following the writing and publishing of the Definitive Guide to Drupal 7.

day 1 at the cape

i did do the run in the morning, and a paltry 26 diamond pushups.

i want to print up stickers that say "Seth Godin is watching you." And if you Google that you'd come to his self-directed effort post.

Started to read a Spenser book lying around. Always short and quick, but still not a good idea. Should have at least picked up Gladwell's Outliers so i'd have read it and not just think i know what's in it.

fell asleep for one and a half hours in the late afternoon.

Arrival in Cape Cod, 5:40 a.m.

Just made the 14 hour, 23 minute trip from Sissonville, West Virginia to Wellfleet, Massachusetts in just over 11 hours.

Thank you, ye gods of speed traps, for clearing them out of my way.

I never thought it would be my personality to be the fastest car on the road – in my grandfather's minivan no less – but except for a couple attempts at having a pace car, and once in traffic, no one passed me in the whole 815 miles i was on the road.

Working in NYC

started working at Andrew's, then outside of Tien Garden (closed, but their wifi was on), then with CS at her place from 10-3, and now in front of the Seward Park NYC Public Library. Wonderfulness.

Inside the library, there were plugs and open seats at the table right of the entrance, and a bathroom downstairs (near the community room) that was open. Tables upstairs full, and no bathrooms.

2011 May in text messages

Calling the IRS: Rigid yet inconsistent

The strange combination of rigidity and inconsistency in engaging with the IRS is striking even for a one-time student of bureaucracy (at UMass-Amherst, and not just the involuntary study of bureaucracy every student was subject to-- in retrospect Whitmore administration building wasn't bad at all...)

The fact that each representative begins by reciting their ten-digit identification number does not make the interaction more human. Anything you say that is conversational, or simply trying to convey information that is not in the exact form they expect or is too much at once.

Evening attempting to work

Most awesome swim ever

Springtime green trees, rain-fresh water, fantastic company.

What a way to spend rapture day!

Dinner party... awesome.

Small, quality turnout!

Lots of discussion on revenge, depression, love, cars, pharmaceuticals, the rapture, science...

B brought wine in addition to what we had, R bought hard cider, Magners Original Irish Cider, especially for M when he picked up S, and we drank a good bit of the B&B at the end.

M needs to find a new place, would move back home if she had a job there

Sent her 279 Days to Overnight Success

Earlier conversation with Ed:

Great publishing-- Springer -- amazing quality of stuff

[your great ideas will not come into being]
until you find the one other person
who balances you

make a presentation at the Sloan school

Excellent Israeli couchsurfing guest

Gal Lin cooked me vegetarian -- vegan -- shakshuka. He concludes that mushrooms can make a good replacement for eggs.

Succeeded in getting into the program at Babson he flew here from Israel to get into, that will put Palestinian, Israeli, and US students together to work on a couple entrepreneurial projects.

Lost: Tattered Wristband. Orange and red thread wrapped in a layer of purple cloth.

My band o' unrequited love has been lost. I've been wearing it, a Rakhi thread signifying love and protection between a brother and a sister (and i learned later that in Indian popular culture it is what you do not want someone you are falling in love with to tie on you), since 2009 August 5.

Dinner and a Run

Not enough book work done today but a fair amount of other cleanup, but a walk to the woods and a successful dinner by both Mom and R's standards, and a

Before that, a day at the Cape, saw Grandpa just in the evening and the morning. We went to the graphics / print shop too, my first time there, R loved it.