Commuting with Nature, Fairly Odd Parents-Present / 23.04.2001

As mentioned earlier, I take my daughter to school on the Metro (DC's subway). Well, actually, I take both of my daughters to school. When commuting downtown with a 4 1/2 and 3 year old at 7 in the morning, you never know what to expect. What are my fellow passengers thinking of this trio of two highly-charged youngsters and one aging adult? Despite my daily scans of their faces, it's often hard to tell. On our better days we bake cookies and read books. But mixing make-believe ingredients can quickly change to sibling screams as one invades the other's space....

Fairly Odd Parents-Past / 07.04.2001

Last week two boxes of family artifacts arrived unceremoniously from my father's wife. I had half been expecting something as my sister had called a few days earlier to say she'd received a package of Dad's coffee mugs in the mail. We laughed at that. Neither of us had rated these cups on our respective lists of important memories. We both realized how beholden we were to a woman who, while sharing 27 years of our father's history with us, did so with apprehension. It was she who now filtered our history for us. I was hoping my bar mitzvah...

Commuting with Nature, Fairly Odd Parents-Present / 02.04.2001

This morning started out as most weekday mornings do: a rush to get us and the kids ready for work and school and a mad dash to the car, making sure everything and everyone is in place. As we pulled out of the driveway, I said "ding dong". "What does that mean?" my four year old asked. "Ding dong," I repeated. My daughter likes to make up games. She especially enjoys making the rules (the province of four year olds). Often, on the way home from school and work she'll decide to play a guessing game. You know, "it's green...

Fairly Odd Parents-Past / 26.03.2001

Got up early and took the Metro to the Library of Congress today to start looking for my mother's episode of It Could Be You. The Reference Librarian pulled the microfiche rolls of NBC's master scheduling list for the dates they had. Each roll contains 3 or 4 days worth of daily schedules, timed program scripts plus transcripts for each show. I was amazed to be viewing this history. Transcripts of early Today show episodes with Dave Garroway and company reveal a great slice into that time. I was less amazed by the effect scrolling a microfilm reader has on my...

Fairly Odd Parents-Past / 19.03.2001

In the last couple of months I've been unearthing some family assets. Since my father's death last October, I have been writing profusely about our relationship. He was a secretive man and found a place in an equally secretive job, as part of the legendary Skunkworks at Lockheed. So conducting family archeology or sleuthing (each apt metaphors for the process) has taken up a good deal of my free time of late. In the five months since his death, I have been piecing together his and our family's lives. Dad never talked about his early years. It was up to my...

Professional Auteurism / 05.03.2001

I was invited to speak on New Media to the Trustees and senior staff at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts this past weekend. They're looking to introduce technology within the museum and wanted to explore the area. I was one of three speakers. While I work at a museum, I was asked to represent the new media artist's point-of-view. Oliver Knowlton, from Sports Illustrated spoke from the business end and Susan Delson, from museumgoer.com, talked about museums and distance learning. I'm always open to speaking to people who will let me get my digital foot in their door. Especially, when...

Idiosyncratic Celebrations / 01.03.2001

Yesterday was my Personal Equinox Day. That's the day when the sun is shining both when I leave for work and when I return home. This celestial event changes every year, depending on my schedule. This time it was later than usual, since I've been staying later at work. It's an uplifting moment to realize you no longer have to rely on flickering mercury vapor street lamps to find your way home. Spring is my favorite season. I never had this feeling, growing up in L.A. We had seasons but the changes were more subtle than the extremes of winter and...

Child's Play, Commuting with Nature, Fairly Odd Parents-Present / 22.02.2001

As we walked through the door she began her incantation. Raising her hands before her, eyes closed, she began: I wish, I wish with all my heart To fly with dragons in the land of heart I stared, transfixed, as she repeated her words again and again. I knew her chant from her favorite cartoon show. And I took special note of a four year old's version of an often-heard rhyme. Her eyelids moved to the beat of her voice. When she stopped her eyes slowly opened and looked at me. “Now, I’ll teach you how to make a wish. If you say it...

Worker's Comp / 09.02.2001

Boy, did this week fly by. But it didn't start out that way. The first three days were spent in a class in contracting. I'm now an official COTR (pronounced "cotar" as in Cotar the Barbarian). In official parlance I am a Contracting Officer's Technical Representative. This means that I can be summoned at any time to be the technical rep on contracts. I have no legal power, thank goodness. That's reserved for the CO (Contracting Officer). But I do advise on the technical parts of contracts that come to our office of the new media variety. Day 1, 9 am:...