August Bianca Diary

Have you ever witnessed an adult temper tantrum? It can be an embarrassing experience. Even so, it is becoming an ever more frequent occurrence, and for good (bad?) reason.

Reason One: The age of automation has removed from us the necessity of the more mundane tasks. We don’t go to the mail room for our messages, they arrive via email on our computer screens; We don’t get together to discus calendars, we share our Outlook files. The point being, with the extra time we are harvesting, we place ever greater demands on ourselves to be even more productive. The pressure for ever greater productivity will eventually create an overwhelm which may trigger an out burst of temper.

Reason Two: Psychological Neoteny (Peter Pan Syndrome) as we continue on with an ever greater need for education we assume the characteristics of one who is being educated, namely a child. Since children have little or no control or input into the daily operations of their lives they occasionally have out bursts of temper. Adults, under the same circumstances demonstrate similar behaviors.

Reason Three: Not every bully stayed on the school yard. You may think that bullying is something that ended with 3rd grade or at the latest in high-school or maybe even with college hazing. But, it hasn’t. Bullying, as demonstrated by angry people (covertly or overtly) is an ongoing phenomenon.

So, how do you deal with it? First and foremost, if you are the supervisor you must take steps to insure the individuals receiving the brunt of the temper outbursts are having their rights and safety protected.

Key elements to remember:
Individuals equipped with the tools to handle anger and frustration are less disruptive and hostile.
Individuals who are permitted to express displeasure and disagreement in an appropriate manner are less likely to be disruptively hostile and angry.

What preventative steps can you take with an individual who may have difficulty with anger?

Segment their work load. Shifting focus regularly from one task to another is a good tool to alleviating frustration.
Coach them in positive ways of expressing their disagreement. “I understand what you are saying, I don’t happen to agree…”
Take steps to maintain a friendly work environment. Create opportunities for group work on some projects. Encourage moderate personalization of work areas. Provide a clear and easy to use employee handbook.
What proactive response steps can you take when difficulty arises?

Isolate and Elaborate. When you have observed a temper outburst, take the person aside and draw them out. Likely the incident that ignited the outburst had very little to do with the underlying cause of the outburst. Don’t be afraid of silence. Once you ask for an elaboration be prepared to be quiet and wait. It often takes time for a person to work through emotion to the cause of disturbance.
Distraction. The human brain can only hold on to so many concepts at the same time. Adults will often respond to something like, “I see this has very really worked up right now. Instead of beating our heads against this wall, let’s change focus and work on…”
Remote Outpost. Sometimes it is simpler to just temporarily assign the angry person a task at a different location. Often removal from the stimulation for the anger will allow the anger time to dissipate.
Humor. If we work in an environment where humor is part of our daily norm, anger has difficulty maintaining a foothold. One sign of a healthy productive work environment is the encouragement of the “we don’t take ourselves too seriously” attitude. If we have the ability to laugh at ourselves and our situation we have an excellent tool to deal with anger.
Our responses to disruption will be haphazard if we don’t have a plan in place. This plan is severely limited if it does not take into account the perspective of the individual creating the disruption. This article should help you develop consistent and practical solutions.

Amaya’s dress has a little donkey in the front pocket that she can pull out and bite his head. She is our little lady in red today, first time that she has worn a dress! But I put jeans on underneath to be all the fashion and because we went to our friends house to garden. eh, jungle hack, I mean.

She bought this great little plot of land– it’s an adorable secret garden; a short well-weathered door leads to old stone steps overgrown with grass knee high, on the top of the ledge is a flat of land with an old stone cistern in the center to collect rain water. Multitudes of grape vines, rose bushes, an old olive tree and three laden artichoke plants were discovered when our machetes were dropped.

(Ha, not really, we used a weed-whacker and chainsaw, but machetes were needed!) There were views of the grapevines next door and a wall of wisteria tumbled down an ancient wall. The neighbors chickens clucked and balked as all ten of us raked the land and burned the scraps in a big bonfire. Now it’s clean, fresh nasturtiums and basil are in the plowed ground and our friend has a nice place to sit and enjoy the wonderful southern French sunshine.

Benji voted in the morning for a woman for president and then we took our little woman to the garden party. What a wonderful day. Here is our yard and newly spread gravel (5 tons) and our flowers that are so happy that it looks like summer is here. Now, if only we could have a woman for president for the next five years. We will see. On verra bien.

Poor ole Tammy Faye Bakker is dead. As a resident of Charlotte, NC in the 1980s, I had a near-front row seat to the mid 1980s scandals that sunk the Jim and Tammy Faye ministry and their Christian themepark, Heritage VIllage, USA. The Charlotte Observer gleefully kept us informed of every misstep and financial impropriety up until the money shot: the revelation of Jim’s adultery with Jessica Hahn and the hush money to keep her quiet. It was the decade of the holy terror bimbo trinity: Jessica Hahn, Donna Rice, and Fawn Hall. Good times my friend, good times. (Give yourself a cookie if you can name the other two disgracees.)

Welp, anyhoo, Ms. Bakker like any good televangelist cut many albums. This track, “The Ballad of Jim and Tammy” is her 1987 swipe at Jerry Falwell who waded into their scandal-ridden ministry to help “save” it. This is her “Ballad of John and Yoko” - you wanna know what happened, download my friend and let Tammy Faye sing it to you in her own words.

Download (5.0 MB / 3:03)

The fine print: All downloads are provided for entertainment purposes only. VGG.COM accepts no responsibility, for anything, ever… blah blah blah blah blah blah nobody reads this blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

NEXT WEEK … Hey, that Simpsons movie is out then? We’ll do something for that next time, honest. in the meantime, if we get enough comments, I’ll upload the A-sides of the 12″ Sutra single I got this track from: Tammy Faye’s “Farewell We Love You” and “God Bless America.”

Finding cool new pet products is something I’ve been doing for the past couple of years here on DoggieNews (ok, so I’ve lapsed the last several weeks!). But there’s seemingly no end to the creativity that designers and manufacturers can conjure up.

Petaholica is a way to get your fix on what’s cool and new in the pet products industry.

It’s no more complicated than a newsletter delivered to your e-mail inbox every Monday and Wednesday. The Petaholica newsletter features one new pet product, and it might be a posh doggie collar, a stylish crate, or a crocodile skin pet carrier, or who knows?

Petaholica offers three types flavors of newsletters, one for the general readership, another just for cat owners, and another just for New Yorkers.

Having launched only a year ago, it boasts a readership of 12,000 subscribers, which is pretty impressive in that span of time (take it from someone who’s spent 10 years in the Internet field).

For every person who signs up to receive Petaholica, a donation is made to Casa de los Ninos, a shelter for abused and neglected children.

Visit Petaholica at:
http://www.petaholica.com

holy crapola. is it me or is there a buttload of great shows from now until xmas break?

i thought it was sopossed to be the slow season . . . but i guess not for the music biz! looks like it’s ‘no sleep till december 22nd’ for me! i’ll be able to catch a few zzzzzz’s from the 22nd - 27th while in pittsburgh, visiting the family. (freezing my ass off!!)

i’m sure while i’m there i will try to squeeze in some business, like visiting gregg gillis (girltalk), the band SHADE (who are so good, especially if you have taste like Jax - ROCKINSIDER & Kevin Bronson - shoegazer indie rock dream band)

so from now until the 22nd - here is my tentative schedule. i’m sure every day i will add more shows/parties to the schedule, as i suck at planning ahead.

monday, december 17th:

*Reeve Carney @ Mollie Malones
Yep - fresh of HELL YA! @ the Hotel Cafe show (which was amaaaazing btw)
now he goes back to his roots and is doing another monday night residencey @ Molly Malones.

Reeve Carney Live promo video
*EDIT
Just found out!!! DAN LE SAC Vs. SCROOBIUS PIP is also playing TONIGHT @ Spaceland!!! WOOHOO! (See Below for more info on Dan Le Sac!) They go on first tonight - - around 9pm. and it’s FREEEEE! hellll ya. look for me there - and say hello. i have pink and blonde hair - you can’t miss me!!

tuesday, december 18th:
*ARKnights @ Knitting Factory (alterknit)
*TROY THIS @ the Troubadour (early set - he goes on at 7pm!)

(p.s. TROY THIS’s song “American Dream The Happy Song” is my new default song on my personal myspace page. it’s that good. i am definatley booking this guy for a HELL YA! night ASAP.
huge props to the hot bookers of Girlschool & evan for the heads up on this one! you guys sure do know my taste in music!!)
**Dan Le Sac Vs. Scroobius Pip @ Cinespace
this one is a must. i am so jealous i didn’t get this show. boooooo to me. i give myself a big ‘hell no’ for dropping the ball. oh well, can’t get em all. maybe next time.

since i’ve already exausted posting his last 2 videos both HERE and HERE, how about his new video (which uses some radiohead as the backing track - - nice and ballsy! i wonder if they got clearance for that - - and if so how much??)

Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip ‘Letter from God’ video (FEATURING RADIOHEAD! HELL YA that is BALLLSY!)

wednesday, december 19th:
**PITTSBURGH SLIM show @ the ROXY!!!

Pittsburgh Slim new video for ‘First Date’
(stay tuned for a new track Slim just finished featuring Cisco Adler called ‘Hey Gurl’ . . . it’s hot!)

thursday, december 20th:
more to follow . . . post suggestions in the comment section!

friday, december 21st:
again - more to follow . . .

saturday, december 22nd - 27th: xmas in Pittsburgh (BRRRRRR!!!)

friday, december 28th: back in business! haven’t even thought about my schedule this far in advance . . . any suggestions? what is everyone doing for NYC? I need something AWESOME. There maybe a pittsburgh slim show in the works, and i know about the Steve Aoki bigbash w/ all the cooltastic kids . . . but I want something BIG. Last year Kevin Bronson took me as his date to the Paramount Lot party - where the KILLERS performed. It was AWESOME!! I want that action!! Anybody???

We do not remember days. We remember moments. Casare PaveseA couple of weeks ago, a dear reader emailed me for help on documenting her familys life and history. For several generations, we knew this as stuffing pictures in shoe boxes. If we were super-organized, we used photo albums. Today, we call this scrapbooking.The fastest growing hobby in our countrywith more than 25 million Americans, or 1 in every four households, participatingit didnt even exist as an industry eighteen years ago, when I first contemplated how I would document and organize our own family photosor memories as they are now called. Less than ten years old as an industry, scrapbooking holds more than 52, 000 sites on the Internet; over 4,000 retail stores support this multi-billion dollar industry and even traditional stores such as office supply giants, pharmacies, groceries, and gift shops all carry a sampling of scrapbooking products. The maze isto me anywaycompletely overwhelming. To even partially navigate its many avenues both exhausts and bewilders me.When you calculate the time and expense required to not only take quality photos (a high quality 35 mm camera, digital camera, and video camera are all practically required paraphernalia), it boggles ones mind to add in the additional cost of documenting your pix once developed. The average scrapper spends $50 per month on her hobby, or roughly $600 a year in supplies. Scrapbook papers generally cost anywhere from 10 cents a piece to upwards of 50 cents a piece (while browsing online sites I came across some fabulous specialty papers for my military enthusiast son, so I purchased papers with a military theme; they cost 45 cents a pop plus shipping) Add to that the cost of stickers, brads, and trinketsall totally adorable in their own riteand your personal scrapbooking arsenal just escalated another couple hundred degrees.And what about ink pads and rubber stamps? Gotta have those, too. At anywhere from a couple dollars to ten to twelve dollars for a decent stampas well as several dollars per each ink pad (gotta have all those wonderful colors, you know!)youre by now in this stuff too deep to escape fiscally unscathed.And we havent even gotten to embossing yet.Oh, geez.So whats a rocket mom to do? Practically speaking, at what point do you jump onto the scrapbooking craze while maintaining all of the other parenting strategies deemed so important in raising brilliant kids? I mean: can you really instill a musical heritage into your kids, immerse them into sports and exercise, and shape their character and help them to become more spiritually matureand scrapbook all at the same time? Are there really enough hours in the day to get in a good workout at the gym, get dinner on the tableand scrapbook? Can you add community service to your calendar as well as add colorful borders to your family photos? And is it really possible to hammer in that decorative brad (which seriously requires a good whack on the kitchen cutting board) and keep the baby down for a nap all at the same time?!?OK. Enough already. Heres my advice on getting your arms around the whole scrapbooking/creative memories/documenting-your-family-history thing: Find an organizational scheme that you think you can stick with over the next dozen years or so. Trust me: motherhood, while certainly easier in some ways over the years, does not get any less demanding. You just shift areas in which you spend your time. Time, money, and energy are your three most valuable resources todayand they will continue to be until the day you go up. So find a system to which you believe you can reasonably commit. If the whole idea of scrapbooking each and every page of your baby journals wears you out (as it would me), then switch to a system that is less creatively taxing. My personal choice: photo albums from Exposures. (www.exposures.com) Theyve been in business long enough that I trust theyll be there as long as we all still need their stuff. The last thing you need to worry about while selecting a system is the possibility of changing it mid-stream. I researched their product line until I was nauseous. I wound up using over-sized, attractive three-ring binders (offered in three different colors) that work perfectly for our family. I buy a few at a time so I know Ill never run out. I also buy their archival scrapbook paper, and use old-fashioned photo corners for every picture. You might want to look for albums that are offered in a variety of colors, in case youd like to color-code your family. (see http://www.selfhelpcenters.com/family.asp#1 for my recent article Color-Coding Your World) Decide if you want to be a documenter or a scrapper. Theres a world of difference here. Documenters organize their pictures once retrieved from the store (pharmacy, Costco, etc.) and then put them into albums. Sureyou can add titles, captions, dates, and quick journal entries. You can even use color! But you dont spend an inordinate amount of time on each page. Scrappers, on the other hand, make each page of photos a veritable work of art. They use artsy background papers; crop each photo; add beautiful borders; make great use of sticker art, brads, and trinkets; and punch designs to coordinate with the page theme. You should decide which path youre likely to travel down as soon as possible. Like it or not, you need to get your systema system, any systemdown before you take the plunge, as each system requires a hefty financial commitment. (The only inexpensive alternative is to buy cheap albums from a discount store (with those old-fashioned non-archival magnetic pages) and throw in your photos. You wouldnt do that, Im sure) Start collecting art and craft supplies. Regardless of which system you use, your childrens happy childhoods require that you spend time doing art. Make regular art days part of your familys weekly schedule. Those rubber stamps and ink pads that youre picking up on sale now will become a wonderful collection down the road. Lets face it: you need colored markers, pencils, pens, paints and papers anyway. They all add to your childrens artistic development. So perhaps documenting or scrapping your familys memories will be part of your regular art day for the next few years. OKso youre not going to take up sculpting for awhileor oil painting, rug hooking, or knitting. Thats alright. Just stay on track, keep picking up supplies, continue to browse art supply stores, and purchase fun stuff as you see fit. If you find yourself drawn to fancy papers and expensive stickersgo ahead and splurge. Youre going to need some of this stuff anyway, so try to make thoughtful and purposeful buying decisions rather than compulsive ones! Try to stay on top of things. But dont beat yourself up if you fall behind. I always tried to use holidays and summers to catch up with my albums, but with major moves in four of the past six summers, those plans went to pieces. So I am terribly behind in organizing and documenting my familys life. OK. So life goes on. I just commit that when I have time Ill renew my photo journey. Its a process. Itll never be finishedso I dont let myself get all whacky over it. If possible, though, you should come up with some system: perhaps you are on the ball enough that each and every time you pick up pix from the developer, you immediately put them into albums. Youd get an extra cherry in your sundae at my house. Perhaps after you pick up your pix you throw them all into a large drawer, with the hopes of organizing them one day. (Thats been me these last few years.) OK. So thats a system, too. Just be sure that one day isnt too far into the future, promise?!? Figure out where this all fits into your familys direction. You may be committed to too many thingsprofessionally and personally. This may simply have too small a role in your familys purpose. The commitment of energy alone to the whole scrapping thing might wear you out, leaving you feeling totally unglued and unable to do the other things in which you are truly passionate about! Thats OK!!!!! Maybe this just isnt your time!!! Stop beating yourself up. You may prefer to use your fingers teaching your child to finger-paint, your lap rocking your newborn, and your energy driving your kids to music lessons. You might rather use your discretionary funds supporting a missionary rather than spending it on pretty background papers for family photos. I cant tell you whats right for you. I can only help do the heavy lifting. So Ive done the research, evaluated some of the options, and am presenting them to you for your ultimate decision. I can help to equip youand encourage youto propel you to excellence. But in the end, this is your archiving. Above all, dont stress about this. Spend time your kids first and foremostand these decisions will fall easily into place in due time.Men Using Penis Pump
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Book & Lyrics: Allan Jay Lerner

Music: Frederick Loewe
Additional Materials: Michael A.M. Lerner
director: Glenn Casale
cast: Michael York, Rachel York, James Barbour, Shannon Stoeke, Time Winters, Eric Anderson, Tavis Danz, Stuart Ambrose, Daniel Guzman, Robert J. Townsend, Shannon Warne, Suzanne Carlton, Venny Carranza, Sandi DeGeorge, Sandy Hawker, Joanna Louise, Monica Louwerens, Grant Rosen, Joseph Stark, Leah Seminario, Megan Swanson, Jill Townsend, Alan M-L Wager, John B Williford, Vincent Zamora
set design: John Iocavelli
costume design: Marcy Froehlich
lighting design: Tom Ruzika
sound design: Julie Ferrin
fight direction: Sean Boyd
wig design: Mitchell Hale
orchestra direction: Craig Barna
choreography: Dan Mojica

The classic musical detailing the fall of Camelot and its principle architects, Arthur, Guenevere, and Lancelot.
##### While the sets and cotumes were bright and colorful and everything a delightful musical should be, the staging and acting lacked color.
James Barbour as Lancelot, and Rachel York as Guenevere, both had nice singing voices, but the acting couldn’t have been much more wooden. I’m not certain this was the actor’s fault, but director Casale’s lack of imagination and strength.
Blocking was incredibly static, and the extent of Michael York’s acting was a clenched fist and short arm movement which served for both “frustration” and “joyous” emotions.
The pacing was hectic, perhaps to not give us time to reflect on how dull the previous scene was. But by moving along too quickly, we enever got to enjoy any of the show. Would it be too terrible to laugh at “C’est Moi” or “Take Me To The Fair”? If not, then why not play up the humor a little? Let the actors act a little and play with the song? Instead, they sang through their pieces as if at a recital… good strength and volume, but no emotion.
Not helping the work was the awful sound. The orchestra drowned out Michael York in his opening song, establishing a terrible precendent. We should be able to chuckle at what Arthur is singing about, but since we can’t hear the words, we aren’t able to be drawn in. Then, though the orchestra did pull back near the end of the song, the sound quality on York’s mic always came across as slightly muffled and too obviously amplified.
The worst part of the show, however, was the make-up and hair. Michael York’s make-up couldn’t have been blander. I realize he’s probably trying not to look his actual age, but he still needs definition over the base. He was a pinkish-orange bowl. There was nothing to bring out his eyes, his cheeks, or in any way define any of his fetures. I was sitting only six or seven rows from the edge of the stage, and if I had a problem with this, I can only imagine what those in the balcony seats were seeing.
And the hair …. I don’t have a problem with anyone having a mohawk, though it did strike me as odd — it seemed so “native american” for a Dark Ages knight, though. Then there was the knight whose hair looked SO much like the movie/comic book character “Wolverine” from the X-Men — sort of a flat top which feathered out to wind-blown spikes along the top sides. And Sir Lionel, whose long hair, some in tight braids, was constantly in his face. And Mordred. First, he wore a strange little hat the first few times we saw him that was the exact color of his hair, and actually made it look like he had one of the oddest hairdos I’ve ever seen. Interestingly, it was my first thought that it was his hair style, and after the show, my wife made the same comment about Mordred’s odd hairstyle. It really was so odd that I wasn’t paying attention to the character or what he was doing — I was trying to understand what was on his head. Then, in a later appearance, the hat was gone, but he still managed to have an unusual hair style in which his hair seemed to be feathered back so that it creted a “ridge” at the back of his head.
One should never notice hair and make-up in a play. It should be just a natural part of each character and compliment the costuming. That I noticed it at all is not a good sign. That I noticed and even dwelled on it shows a lack of director control over the show’s “look.” The fact that I noticed it and thought how awful it was speaks poorly for the production.
Despite all of this, I think that my children enjoyed themselves. It is always good to get children out to see plays other than their local high school productions. Too bad it couldn’t have been a more stellar production.

Richard Jefferies, Out of Doors in February, from The Open Air:This, too, is one reason why a fixed observer usually sees more than one who rambles a great deal and covers ten times the space. The fixed observer who hardly goes a mile from home is like the man who sits still by the edge of a crowd, and by-and-by his lost companion returns to him. To walk about in search of persons in a crowd is well known to be the worst way of recovering them. Sit still and they will often come by. In a far more certain manner this is the case with birds and animals. They all come back. During a twelvemonth probably every creature would pass over a given locality: every creature that is not confined to certain places. The whole army of the woods and hedges marches across a single farm in twelve months. A single tree–especially an old tree–is visited by four-fifths of the birds that ever perch in the course of that period. Every year, too, brings something fresh, and adds new visitors to the list. Even the wild sea birds are found inland, and some that scarce seem able to fly at all are cast far ashore by the gales. It is difficult to believe that one would not see more by extending the journey, but, in fact, experience proves that the longer a single locality is studied the more is found in it. But you should know the places in winter as well as in tempting summer, when song and shade and colour attract every one to the field. You should face the mire and slippery path. Nature yields nothing to the sybarite. The meadow glows with buttercups in spring, the hedges are green, the woods lovely; but these are not to be enjoyed in their full significance unless you have traversed the same places when bare, and have watched the slow fulfilment of the flowers.

Updated with a sneak preview of Sicko
Obi’s Sister sent me the link to the AP story: Castro Says He’s Better, Weight Stable Fidel Castro’s recovery from intestinal surgery 10 months ago was delayed because the first of several operations he had went badly, the communist leader said in a statement that gave the most detailed account of his health since August.

Castro, 80, said in the Wednesday statement that he is now eating solid food and improving after “many months” of intravenous feeding. It was the most information released about Castro’s condition since his Aug. 13 birthday, when he asked Cubans to be optimistic but not rule out possible “adverse news.”Notice how it’s a statement, not a personal appearance, a press conference, a phone call, or anything such.

The WaPo has a picture of Fidel reading the newspaper, which, as they notice, is undated.

Michael Moore, who’s at the Cannes Film Festival and praises the Socialized healthcare system that let 15,000 die from heat in 2003 (many waiting for ice water in hospital hallways).(and who has a vested interest in not having to pay for his lifestyle choices) would be shocked to hear that El Comandante was at death’s door because the excellent Cuban healthcare system (the same excellent Cuban healthcare system that could not treat Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s cancer so he had to go to LA for chemo and radiation) botched up not once, or twice, but three times, or maybe more, A January story in the Spanish newspaper El Pais described Castro as being in “very grave” condition after at least three failed operations for diverticular disease. The Cuban government denied that report.After which, the excellent Cuban healthcare system had to be set aside and they called cancer specialist Jose Luis Garcia Sabrido, and Castro required medications that were paid by the Spanish taxpayers.

But hey, it’s free healthcare!

Obvoiously all of this stress is getting to him - the previously uniformed Fidel’s letting himself go, perhaps inspired by Michael, “I don’t have time now for films and photos that require me to constantly cut my hair, beard and mustache, and get spruced up every day,” he said, evidently referring to the preparation required for some of the official images.Here’s a picture of Michael. Apparently Fidel can’t let go of the newspaper.

Meanwhile, Fidel Castro Appeals for Investment in Health Rather Than in Arms, or more specifically, invest in his tripe.

Update: Via Manuel, LiveLeak has a segment from Sicko, where Michael More is in an NHS hospital and says, “In British hospitals, instead of money going in to the cashier’s window, money comes out!”

Update, Friday 25 May

————————————————–
In other, more relevant Latin American news, Congress should approve a free trade agreement with Colombia, and Investor’s Business Daily explains why:
Colombia Warning Americans might not realize it, but Colombia has shown great friendship with the U.S, at a high cost to itself.

- It’s lost 2,658 of its own troops in the drug war since 2002, but cut coca cultivation 9%, the United Nations found. Next door, the Venezuela that Rep. Bill Delahunt, D-Mass., praises is doing little about soaring trafficking.

- Colombia also has doubled oil production on the year, moving to become a top-15 U.S. supplier at a time when Venezuela is destroying its own energy industry.

- It has provided rare know-how to the U.S. in Afghanistan. Sending its own security forces into harm’s way, Colombia’s taken a top role in helping Afghanistan defeat the illegal drug cultivation that is a new threat to its stability.

- Do any Democrats remember that Colombia was first on the scene to offer swamp and jungle rescue teams, to help to the victims of the New Orleans disaster?

If Colombia is denied a free trade pact by Congress, its future will be severely hurt. To treat any ally in this way is unconscionable. But in the case of Colombia, it also is self-defeating.

Since I’ve spent a lot of the last two years complaining about all the bits I didn’t like about Boston, I figured it was time to to talk about the the positive aspects of being here. So, in no particular order, here’s what I’ll miss and/or liked:

- The Forest Hills cemetery: amazing “memorial sculptures” [aka big-@$$ gravestones] set in beautiful surroundings. Christina shot a few nice pictures here.
- Jamaica Pond: we must have circumnavigated the pond a few thousand times, for reasons like being bored, trying to induce labor, going for a run, and just wanting to take a walk.
- The Arnold Arboretum: another nice spot to take a walk.
- The Endy lab: a collection of very smart, creative, and funny people that I’ve had the privilege of calling colleagues over the last couple of years.
- All the interesting biological engineering, biology, CSBi and CSAIL seminars
- Zipcars: a pretty good alternative to owning a car
- The Weekly Dig: a really funny weekly paper with an irreverent, yet insightful, take on everything.
- The Wonder Spice Cafe, Royal Bengal, and Family restaurants: good food at reasonable prices, an all-too-rare occurrence.
- All the stuff Christina listed [although I’m not as big a fan of the “free stuff” as she is]

There are also a few things I wish I’d had a chance to do:

- Participate in one of the many [1K, 50K, 100K] entrepreneurship competitions held every year at MIT
- Watch a Robocraft competition
- Take a few more courses [like 7.03, 7.22, 7.23, 7.52, 7.86, 6.824, 6.829 and 6.852]
- Check out Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, Vermont and Maine
- … and, of course, graduate with a PhD

Update: Another one of my favorite things was working out at the CW Taekwondo club, run by two friends of mine. They’ve managed to build one of the best Sport Taekwondo clubs in the country, with current and ex-national team members from various countries, including an Olympian, working out there. In other words, it’s a great place to get your @$$ kicked