Uncovering Writing

Thoughts on a Memory from childhood. I collected bottle caps in grade school, walking home directly from my school or the bus stop. We’re talking a couple of blocks for either method, even though smoe of those blocks were pretty long! How did I amass so many beer bottle caps?!? Was my neighborhood just a suburban skid row?

I was thinking about this in 2014 and 2015 and wrote it down on an index card just a few weeks ago. I thought I’d lay it down here.  I want:

• to have someone like me holding a treasured volume of a book I wrote, long after I'm dead
• to seed the future with the children of my mind
• to quell the questions of others about my chosen vocation
• to quell the incessant question in my own head as to whether I can accomplish these things that make me happy

I wanted to finish reading my first book before I wrote a review of my 4th generation Kindle (basic edition). I read Max Barry’s Machine Man (review is on this blog). I really love my Kindle!

I’ve been an Apple guy since 1986. I love my iPad but I was intrigued by the Kindle’s tiny size and weight, especially when holding an eBook for a long time. I wanted to give it a try and for $79, it seemed like a good deal. If I bought some books and didn’t like the Kindle, I could still keep and read them on my iPad using the free Kindle app. All I’d be out was the $79.

Yes, I bought the one with Special Offers, i.e. ads. When in standby mode or on the home page, an ad is shown (full screen in standby, small banner on home page). Since e-ink requires ultra low power, these ads do not impact the battery life significantly. There are no ads while reading books. If you don’t want ads, you can pay $30, which is the price difference between the Special Offers Kindle and the unsubsidized one. It’s a Kindle menu option and the fee will be charged to your Amazon account. Note, there’s no physical difference in hardware or what’s on the Kindle’s exterior to say that it’s Special Offers or not. I don’t mind the ads right now, especially since I put my Kindle in a sleeve when I’m not using it. Maybe I’ll get rid of them, but for now, that $30 can be put toward new books to read.

I have read 13 books on my iPad, five of which were fiction. I used the iBooks app. I take many notes when reading nonfiction and I really enjoy the iPad’s interface to create them. I don’t take many notes with fiction … unless it’s Steinbeck. I mostly limit myself to highlighting sections that I found fun or want to remember.

Since I bought the basic edition Kindle, the only keyboard is one that you have to use a five-position button to select each letter. Thus, there is no easy note typing or searching. However, the highlighting on the Kindle is cleaner than on the iPad, in both highlighting and reviewing later. On the iPad, I find it hard sometimes to set the start and end of the highlight. It’s almost impossible if the highlight extends to the next (not visible) page. On the Kindle, you click twice and then use the button to select words or lines of text. It inverts the text as you go, so you can see your progress. Click twice to end the highlight, and you’re done.

I love the display’s Pearl E-Ink. It’s weird not having a backlit screen but the clarity of the print is amazing. You need light to read a Kindle, so reading in bed without any lights won’t work anymore. But, the eye strain is less with reflected light. I even took out a magnifying glass to check out the text and it was beautiful, no pixelation, crisp and clear like it came off a press.

The Kindle’s size made for easy reading. It was light, worked in either hand or on my lap and didn’t cause much fatigue. I did injure my middle finger once due to how I gripped the device. In order to use just one hand to do page turns and hold the device, I held the Kindle with my middle finger hyperextended away from my thumb. That strain caused me a little discomfort for a day or two, but it went away once I changed how I held and used the device. Important safety tip, thanks Egon.

Overall, I really like the Kindle as an e-Reader. I will qualify that by saying the Kindle is best served for my reading fiction. I will stick with the iPad for nonfiction as I require a better interface for taking notes. The other Kindles (Touch and Fire) are such poor imitations of Apple’s iPad that I would never consider nor recommend getting one of those. If you want a small, portable reader (yeah, even I tried putting it in my jeans pocket and it fit!), you can’t lose with a basic Kindle.

It’s insane. I’ve accumulated so much to read that it now becomes a chore to pick something! But, that’s better than a time in the 1990s when I couldn’t find anything to read for almost nine months! After that, I decided to pick up anything i found interesting, just to be safe. Got me in a bit of a predicament, but it’s worth it!

In my previous post, I celebrated the election of our 44th President, Barack Obama. It’s been 8 days since that glorious night and I’ve been reflecting on my comment about that being a great way to go out with this blog. I haven’t been blogging as much lately, partly due to having a contract that took up a great deal of time over the last few months. I wrapped that up yesterday and will finish out some other volunteer work in the next few days.

So, what’s next? Back to writing. Full-time writing. Working on my novel and potentially a book on my experiences working in the electoral politics arena during the last three election cycles. I think that blogging might detract from my writing, i.e., give me an excuse to burn words here instead of in my novel. While I’ve had a ball blogging, it is very distracting. I think I want to let it lie.

Additionally, I’ve made snide and sly comments to people lately about blogging in general. It’s very egotistical to put out your own thoughts as if someone else just has to know what you’re thinking. You might respond that that’s precisely what I’m planning to do with a novel or a book. For some reason, that seems different to me. Blogging too has evolved, going more mainstream with hip new writers and former reporters working digitally instead of in newsprint. There are still outsider blogs out there, especially in the art scene and local politics. I’ll probably still read those on a regular basis.

And, for those who are interested, I don’t think I’m going to be able to give up my twitter fixation. Microblogging (140 characters or less) is really something I’ve taken to and perhaps a better format than a full-fledged “blog” to convey my thoughts. I’ve always loved writers' notebooks, little sketches of plot, a one-line piece of dialogue, or an idea for a story written down. I think I’d like to use twitter that way.

For those who’ve read my posts, and especially those who added a comment, I thank you. To anyone who happens upon this blog, I hope you enjoy it and find something of value to take from it.

Cheers!

I just finished reading Natalie Goldberg’s book on writing. I don’t know how the book ended up in my hands but now that I’m writing, I was intrigued. Overall, I was disappointed. Parts of the book I found classist and other parts bordered on racist. The book is part of Bantam’s New Age collection, so there’s a lot the author tries to convey in a spiritual/philosophical vein. However, her tone seems to conflict with the message she says she wants to convey. As for the book’s structure, I don’t think there was any. There was no flow between sections, no organization, no building upon previous lessons. This work should have been edited down by about 100 pages and forged into a coherent progression.

There are two things I’ll take away from this book that are incredibly useful. First, she gives four things you must do in order to be a writer and do writing: (1) keep your hand moving; (2) lose control; (3) be specific; and (4) don’t think. I liked these so much I printed them on an index card I keep in front of me while I write. Second, her advice to would-be writers: “If you want to write, write. This is your life. You are responsible for it. You will not live forever. Don’t wait” (p. 45).

Harris Teeter is nearly here! It'll be almost two years since our Safeway supermarket closed in the Kings Contrivance Village Center. It's been just shy of a year since workers started to demolish the Safeway facility and the neighboring, but long-closed, Friendlies Restaurant building (also see here). Now, the exterior of the Harris Teeter building looks complete and the inside is shaping up as well. It's very exciting. Officials in the Village have said it should open on Wednesday, May 21st.

You can't see from the picture below, but there is one thing that really strikes me when you view the new building as a whole. (To be fair, others have mentioned it in the local newspapers.) The entrance to the market is directly from the parking lot. For those who remember, you entered the Safeway from inside the area of the village center. All store entrances used to open onto a central courtyard, architecturally tying all the shops together. You could ambulate around the center, walking in and out of stores while still enjoying the ambience of the open space. The new Harris Teeter only has what looks like a fire door along its courtyard facing side. The rest is all brick. While aesthetically pleasing from the parking lot, the new occupant looks divided and separated from the rest of the center.

While this might seem an academic argument, foot traffic is paramount for the survival of small businesses in the village center. We've already lost Keighley Jewelers, which closed last December. Owner Terry Keighley noted a decline in visits to the store after the Safeway closed and the delay in finding a new anchor and rebuilding. If people come to shop who don't know about the other stores in the center, they might just park in the lot, run in the front door, and never wonder what's around the corner. They might see the liquor store but that's about it. If the entrance were inside the courtyard area, they'd see almost every storefront or at least see that there were plenty more shops only steps away.

Village centers in Columbia might not be as important as they once were. But, if you're refurbishing them with brand new construction and a first-in-the-area supermarket, I'd think you'd want to help the center thrive.

For those of you who were Hogan’s Heroes fans, you will remember Ivan Dixon. He played the role of Staff Sergeant James “Kinch” Kinchloe. The master of all things electronic and a vocal impersonator of German officers, Kinch was a fabulous character on the show. Sadly, he has passed away. The Washington Post reported on his death on Wednesday, though he died on March 16th. In addition to the details in the Post article, Wikipedia has a good entry on his life. I never realized how much he did as an actor and later in life as a director. Ivan Dixon: you will be greatly missed.

As I wrote earlier, I just cancelled my landline Verizon service. I was a little scared (comfort and nostalgia), but went through with it. Below summarizes my experience with Verizon’s customer service folks during this “trying” time.

Any doubt I had about getting rid of my service was wiped away with Verizon’s frustrating, dare I label it as customer, service. I looked on their website to find a number to cancel my service. Nothing obvious nor did anything come up using their handy-dandy search service. There was the “I’m moving” option, so I looked into that. But, that seemed primarily to transfer my Verizon account from one address to another. So, I figured I’d call “Billing” That seemed right since I was hoping to cancel my bills along with my service.

At 3:36 pm, I made the call. I was greeted with a voice-activated response system. Happily, within a minute, I’d been able to select “Cancel my account” as an option. This is pretty easy. Here we go, no turning back now!

I was on hold for 28 minutes. With horribly loud and poorly selected classical music. Twenty-eight minutes! After that seemingly endless wait, I got connected with a person who asked me for my phone number! When I dialed in 28 minutes ago, the stupid computer told me my phone number and I told it that was the number I was calling about to boot! This guy didn’t know? Oh well, I told him and also provided my name. He asked how he could help me today. Well, since I selected “Cancel my service” from the menu of options 28 minutes ago, maybe that’s what I’d stick with. That’s great, he said, and told me he’d transfer me to the Cancellation Department to help me. I interrupted him, asking if I’d have to be on hold again after having waited so long. He said it shouldn’t be long. So, after being on hold for 28 minutes, I spoke with a person for about 1.5 minutes and now I was headed back to that liminal space known as On Hold.

The line went quiet. There was no horrid classical music, no ringing to connect me, no voices. I panicked, 30 mintues of my life gone and now I’d been disconnected! I pushed a few buttons (0 and 1 mainly, perhaps a hark back to my previous career as a computer scientist), and prayed that I hadn’t been disconnected. I hung on, prepared to retry only if I heard a dial tone or one of those weird fast-busy sounds. Deep breaths, control and channel that anger. It’d all be over soon.

At 4:16, after 12 minutes in the silent abyss of Cancellation Department Transfer Hold Hell, a person picked up. She asked for my number and name. I grumbled out the digits and my name. She asked what she could do for me today. OMG…WTF…ARGH! With a bit a strain in my voice, I said I was calling to cancel my account. Her first pitch was “we can offer you a $12.95 per month plan that’s cheaper than your current service.” I told her no, I wanted to cancel. She asked if I was moving. I said no. She said she could cancel the service. Woohoo! Finally, it seemed like I’d called last century. But, then she asked me for a contact number. I asked why, to which she said it was in case there was a problem. After going through legal gyrations to make sure they would not sell, reveal, use, or do anything with my new number unless it was in regard to the current cancellation process of my landline, I gave up my cell phone number. I hope that doesn’t come back to haunt me. She asked if my contact number was a cell phone. I told her yes. She asked if I was using Verizon Wireless. Oh god, not another pitch. I said no, and thankfully, she moved on. Though, I wonder if I’ll start receiving mail solicitations for signing up to their mobile service!

She asked if I wanted the line to offer a forwarded number or just list it as disconnected. Those were my only choices…I asked. I chose the latter, preferring not to have a dutiful person copy down my new number to sell to more telemarketers. We scheduled the service to be shut off at 8 am this Wednesday. I couldn’t say tomorrow, Tuesday. I wanted a day with my line, just to say goodbye.

So, 43 minutes and 37 seconds after I dialed Verizon, I said goodbye to my service person. I really have to wonder if the long holds, transfers and pitches were aimed at wearing me down, hoping that I’d hang up and keep sending my money to Verizon. I hung in there though, and now all I’ve got is a cell phone. I’m pretty excited about saving the more than $400 per year I spent on my landline. Here’s hoping it goes well!

Okay, deep slow breaths. Sit up straight, focus ahead of you. That’s what I was wondering if I’d have to do once I did what I just did. Won the lottery? Finished burying a body in the backyard? Put a just emptied cartoon of milk back into the fridge? Nope, I cut my ties to Verizon.

I just cancelled my landline home service. I gave up a phone number I’ve had since 1991. I’ve been talking about doing this for a few years now, having grown accustomed to my cell phone as the main conduit through which people connect to me. It took me awhile to convince Diane that we’d be better off without it. Since going back to grad school in 2001 and working in a DC nonprofit and politics since 2004, most of the people I met were under 30 and never had a land line in their life. They’d always had a cell and lived full lives.

We’ve been spending approximately $34 per month for the honor of being harassed by telemarketers during odd hours of the day and evening. If we call our friends out of the area, we’d use our cell phones, which gave us free long distance. If we called each other, it was free (no minutes used) on our cells. I rarely sent or received faxes, and there are online or store options (e.g. Mailboxes) that can handle that rarity from a previous era. I ditched long distance service on our home line years ago, but still hung on to the basic service. Partly, it was due to the nostalgia for a number I’ve known for so long, second only to the one I grew up with at my parent’s house.

Feel free to contact us on our respective cell phones. We’ll be listening! See this post for my actual cancellation experience. Grab a hot dog, it’s entertaining…

The Baltimore Sun has a nice piece up on the Wegmans grocery store that may open up on the corner of Snowden River Parkway and McGaw Court in Columbia. Part of the traffic/parking work has been approved, but the overall decision won’t be voted on until the end of January.

Having lived in Maryland since 1989, Howard County since ‘91 and Columbia since ‘98, I’ve been a longtime shopper in the area. I’ve seen Giant drop in quality across the stores in Columbia (Owen Brown, Hickory Ridge), Laurel and Silver Spring. Safeway never was that great and I wasn’t sad to see it leave my village center in Kings Contrivance. Weis has some good things, especially their produce at the Gorman Road location, but it’s not a great overall store (i.e. I can’t by my dry foods, meats, fishes, spices, etc.) all in one place consistently. Shoppers, Food Lion and others have no appeal and are much lower in quality that the others. Wegmans would bring a much higher quality experience and might even help Giant and Safeway update themselves.

I don’t accept the anti-Wegmans argument that says opening one of its stores will kill the village centers, figuratively and literally. I’ve seen the disregard of my village center where stores have closed, rents have gone up and the whole bank is being bet on a Harris Teeter store that won’t even architecturally/symbolically be a part of the center complex (it’s entrance points away from the commons area). I watched the Oakland Mills village center implode and know that people are having problems trying to resurrect it now. Just so you know, I love my village center. I continue to shop at the CVS, Liquor store, Bank of America, Michael’s Pub, Enrico’s trattoria, the Bagel Bin, the dry cleaners and the cobbler. But I don’t see a lot of foot traffic there these days.

But, I also shop at other stores, like Roots, a high-end small grocery store off 108. Roots hasn’t crushed other business. I think that they and stores like them (Produce Galore, David’s Natural Market) actually helped make good quality organic food, a variety of cheeses, vegetarian foods, etc. a mainstream concept. I think Wegmans will continue this community quality uplift. I also shop at big box stores like BJs. And, if the parking lot outside and the lines inside during the evening or on weekends is any indication, many of my fellow citizens shop there too.

Given that, though, I have two concerns. First, I was shocked at the enormity of the Hunt Valley Wegmans complex. I went to school where Wegmans was born (Rochester, NY), and I’d never seen such a monstrous store like the one in Hunt Valley. It was too big. The Hunt Valley store is 140,000 square feet and the proposal for the Columbia store is 160,000. I’d like to see that scaled down. That may be a negotiating point to close the deal.

I’m also concerned about traffic on Snowden River. It is crowded now and such a huge store is going to have an impact. However, I don’t think the apocalypse is coming. I didn’t hear the outcry when they built the huge new complex off 175 and that’s added a ton of new traffic. There wasn’t an outcry when the Target plaza was built, but I’ve spent years waiting through 2-3 traffic light cycles to get into the plaza no matter what day of the week it is.

I’m hoping that we do get a Wegmans, though a smaller store than planned.

You never know how much time you’ll have, and you should never keep putting off the things you want to do.  Especially if you’re trying to change the world.  I read Marguerite ‘Mara’ Galaty’s obituary in today’s Washington Post and was simply blown away. This woman did not waste her time, didn’t put off what she wanted to do, and wasn’t stopped by breast cancer six years ago. Sadly, she passed away on November 3rd. I’m simply floored by what she did and what she accomplished. In 38 short years, she did more than most people accomplish in a lifetime.  Mara is an example to aspire to.   I encourage you to read about her life.

It is with deep sadness that Diane and I share with you the passing of our very first kitty, Buddy.

He’d been suffering from mast cell tumor cancer and, more recently, diabetes. In the past few weeks, his health deteriorated and over the last few days it had gotten significantly worse. After much discussion with our cat oncologist and our fabulous regular vet, we decided that the time had come. His quality of life was no longer there and we didn’t want him to continue to suffer. He passed away quietly, peacefully, surrounded by us and the staff of our vet, who’d watched him grow up from a kitten so many years ago.

Buddy had turned 17 this past Saturday (July 7th). He was born exactly two weeks before Diane & I got married, although he didn’t join the family officially until he was about eight weeks old. Diane picked his name and never was there a better choice. Buddy was always at your side: when you were in the shower, on the toilet, doing your hair, eating, sleeping, crying, laughing, or just staring off into space. Always. Loved by all, feared by few, he was the bestest kitty ever.

We miss Buddy tremendously, but he’ll always be in our hearts and in the hearts of everyone who’d ever met this greatest little guy in the world. Keep us in your thoughts and if you have a kitty, puppy, or other furry, non-furry, big or small member of the family, give them a hug.

The destruction of the Safeway and Friendly’s in the Kings Contrivance Village Center continues. Kindly, they’ve left the facade up in the parking lot while destroying the interior and back walls of two facilities. Let’s hope they keep a steady pace and put in the new Harris Teeter as soon as possible.

The merchants in the Village Center need this project to be completed. Foot traffic and drive-by customer visits are down. A local farmer’s market is supposed to help a little. I went to it last week and there was just one vendor. Let me say she was extremely kind and the asparagus I bought was pretty much hands-down the best I’d ever had. But, she was only selling a few items. This is hardly going to be enough to draw business to the Village Center.

Please, do whatever you can to help out the merchants. Visit the Liquor store, which has an amazing staff. Grab a slice or a nice meal at Enrico’s. Have a morning bagel and coffee at the Bagel Bin. Grab a pint and a burger over at Michael’s Pub. Visit the CVS and Bank of America. Drop off your dry cleaning at the cleaners. There are other stores too, please help!

Below are two pictures that I took this afternoon, looking into what used to be the front entrance to Safeway. The first is looking to the right at the Safeway entrance. The second is looking to the left, ostensibly to the parking lot.

I was a kid. I was a (grade | high ) school student I was a college kid I was an (astronomy | english | classics | computer science) major I was a computer scientist I was a software engineer I was a systems engineer I was a web developer I was a dot-com-er I was an entrepeneur I was president I was a student again I was an anthropologist I was an intern I was a grassroots member coordinator I was a political junkie I was a government relations person I was a political volunteer I was unemployed

I am a consultant I am still an anthropologist I am a writer I am a politico

I’m not sure where I’m going

Forty years ago, on a 1967 Face the Nation news episode, Robert F. Kennedy said the following with respect to the Vietnam War:

Do we have the right here in the United States to say that we’re going to kill tens of thousands, make millions of people, as we have, millions of people refugees? Kill women and children, as we have? I very seriously question whether we have that right. Now we’re saying we’re going to fight this so that we don’t have to fight in Thailand. So that we don’t have to fight on the west coast of the United States. So that they won’t move across the Rockies. But do we… our whole moral position changes tremendously.

This is why I like RFK so much, even though I was only about a year old when he was taken from us. But his words about a different war at a different time struck me as I look to the television and newspapers today. The argument proffered in that war was that we had to fight the communists there so that we wouldn’t have to fight them here. The same is said about terrorists in Iraq. It was specious then and remains so today.

I ran across this in today’s The Hill newspaper. It’s about Cesar Henao, an intern in Rep. Tim Mahoney’s (D-FL 16) office. Mr. Henao is a 29-year-old former computer scientist who returned to school to study politics. I was a 34 year old computer scientist who went back to school for public anthropology, an applied activist engaged form of anthropology. I ended up working foreign policy and PAC work after school. This is too cool a story. Best of luck to you Mr. Henao!