My Computer is Keeping Me Up at Night!

Ever do this? Finally cleaned up the kitchen, kids in bed, just about to go yourself, but, hmmmmmmm, maybe I'll check my e-mail. Next thing, it's way past midnight and it'll be another night of 6 hours or less sleep. Yikes, how did that happen???

At first, I'm ok the next morning. But, maybe about 2:30 pm, while digesting lunch, you find your eyes getting heavy. you stay awake for a bit, but as you start thinking about that memo you need to write, you kinda doze off for a bit and look up to see this on your screen: jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj.

Well, I just took this as my own fault. But now I know of the hypnotic spell cast by that pleasing blue light of the screen.

Michelle Slatalla, last Thursday in the New York Times Style Section ("As Different As Night and Day," NY Times, Jan. 19, 2010) spilled the beans on my computer's spell over me. She quotes Dr. Nancy Collop, medical director of the Johns Hopkins Sleep Disorders Center. “It emits a blue light, which is one of the most stimulating lights to the little receptors we all have in the back of our eyeballs, which send messages to the brain to say whether it’s day or night and whether we should be awake or go to sleep.”

So, even though I'm tired, the screen is stimulating my brain with its subliminal message: "It's really daytime, and you want to be awake. Just keep watching me. You don't need sleep!"

My rectangular master has duped me into spending the hours bathed in the enticing light it casts upon my face.

Now that you know this, beware! Don't look at the screen before bed or when you really have other things to do. Don't let your computer screen condition your brain to spend all your free time in its spell!

Since When is 12 a "Plus Size"??

The New York Times Styles Section yesterday (Jan. 14, 2010) featured Crystal Renn, who, at size 12 is considered a "plus model." Plus model indeed! She looks rather "normal size" to me!!

When did size 12 become a plus size? When I hear "plus size" I think "fat!" But, consider that the average American women is a size 14. Is size 12 really "fat?"

Crystal was reported to be 5'-9" measuring 38C-30-42 and size 12. Apparently, in modeling -- dominated by like size 2 starving young women (some with bearly discernable busts) -- the cutoff is size 10. So, if your size 12 or bigger (fatter), your a "plus."

Now, this is personal because I'm also a size 12 (well, most of the time. sometimes I can fit into a 10, all depends on the cut). And I don't think I'm "fat." Well, maybe "big" but being 6' long and not anemic, I'm far from petite!

But I like "tall" or "long" better than "big" (or "fat").

My dimensions (40c-32-38) are kinda in the same ballpark as Crystal, but being taller, I have a few more pounds on my frame. And I'm more than twice her age, too! She is far more attractive, that I can admit.

But here's my question: at size 12, do I look like a "plus" or just "not bad for over 50!" -- what do you think?

An Earthquake in the Land of the Poorest of the Poor

Haiti, the small nation next to the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean, is the poorest in the Western Hemisphere. Chronic unemployment mixed with political corruption and limited international investment mark the decades of poverty.

An now an earthquake has crumpled homes and other buildings. More are now homeless, hungry, without water. The woman on the right seems to embody the sadness of the lastest misfortune and its cumulitive effect on the people of Haiti.

While on one hand, I cry out "Why, oh why??", I also ask, as an engineer, why can't the buildings be constructed to better withstand earthquakes. It's not rocket science. It is easy enough to develop a standard design for these types of concrete reinforced buildings, as I have seen done in Peru. Yes, poverty and the ineffective hand of government have resulted in people doing the what they can with what they have. But this often means using poor or weak concrete, or only baked bricks and no reinforcing.

Besides the necessary relief to help feed the new homeless, there is also a need for groups such as Engineers without Borders to find a way to educate the people on better construction methods, to prevent results like below.

I urge all my readers to support the relief and rebuilding efforts in Haiti.

Some Random Thoughts about Christmas

“So this is Christmas
And what have you done?”

So signs John Lennon is his song Happy Christmas (War Is Over). This song always getting me thinking about what Christmas really is about. And what we, as a nation and a culture, have done with this holiday. Long time ago (2002 to 2015 yrs. ago), a little Jewish boy was born to a young mother far from home.

What have we done? We have a big commercial frenzy that excludes his own people from the celebration! What have we done, indeed!!

So, here’s some random thoughts of mine on the holiday we call Christmas

The Fuss and Whoopla
We have all this whoopla before Christmas: the frenzy to buy presents and the bubble in retail sales; decorations in stores, homes, and public places; the music on the radio; and a few voices trying to remember the reason for the season (oh, this Jesus Christ, known to Christians as “Our Savior” is born!).

And Who’s Missing Out on it All?
But wait a minute, who’s missing out on the celebration? Well, one group is our Jewish friends. Hummmm, but wasn’t Jesus born to a young Jewish mother? So, I wonder what this nice boy Jesus is thinking about our present day fuss about his birthday. And who misses out on it all.....his own people! Oy vey!!!!

And When Was Jesus really born?

My little research of internet sites provided a great variety of results:

• Jesus was probably born on Sept. 29th or March 1st or June 2nd or maybe Dec. 25th.
  
• Jesus was probably born sometime in the 13 year period between 6 BC (6 BCE) and 7 AD (7 CE).

The date and year all depend on which “star” marked his birth, and there are a number of significant planetary conjunctions which may have caught the eye of the astrologers from the east.

But, there is a little contradiction with the biblical text, as Jesus was said to be born during Herod’s rule (and he did in 4 BC [4 BCE]). Yet, the census that required Joseph and Mary to travel in Bethlehem didn’t happen until 7 AD (7 CE). And, for the first couple of centuries, followers of Christ didn’t celebrate his birth, so there wasn’t any real effort to come up with an exact day and year. And some believe Dec. 25th was convenient as it coincided with the Roman solstice celebrations.

Personally, I like the September or June date, as it would give some separate space to think about what Jesus did and said and what it means personally and for the world. I have even considered petitioning the major Christian denominations to move the religious celebration to this date and leave the Consumer Holiday in December.

Why Doesn’t the New Year Start on Christmas Day?
If the birth of Jesus marks the years in the current calendar, why does the year start a week later? Well, January 1st represents the day Jesus was named, the day of his circumcision. Most people don’t think of New Year’s Day as the Feast of the Circumcision…..might through a different perspective on the celebrations.

Fall in My Favorite Park

Boston's Public Garden is near my office, so I stroll there often. Sometimes at lunch, sometimes walking to the subway at the end of the day. The park is beautiful in all seasons, but the fall foliage paints the park with a particularly stricking palate of colors.

Here's a sampling of my photos of fall in the Public Garden. For more photos, check out my blog Urban Vistas.

Do You Need a Perfect Vagina?

Do You Need a Perfect Vagina? How’s that for a questions? But can you believe this is a trend in cosmetic surgery for women?

Maybe I’m getting old, but I still remember when it was the thing to get a face lift or a tummy tuck. Before that, there was always the nose job. Well, at least these alterations related to the part of your body that everyone sees on a regular basis.

But the vagina? I keep thinking to myself, why? Who’s going to notice? It’s not something you’ll notice every time you look in a mirror. And it’s not something someone near you on the elevator will see. So, why spend $5,000 to have a perfect vagina?

A report by the BBC (New warning on “perfect vaginas”) says some women are embarrassed in front of a sexual partner.

Maybe. Depending on the nature of the encounter. But in intimate encounters of, shall we say, the “first kind”, it’s not exactly what’s he’s looking at. It’s usually dark….all he’s looking for is the entry portal. As he’s finding his way in, his mind is not on the aesthetics of the entryway, that’s for sure! For guys, it’s simple: he finds his way into the “happy place,” the big event happens (hopefully, not too soon), and then he’s happy and maybe you are, too. In my perspective, it’s the presence of the vagina, not the perfection of its appearance, that is the main attraction for the guy.

But, that's only one perspective. There may be other reasons…..some women complain of being uncomfortable in tight clothes or riding a bike. Maybe there are other personal reasons to spend $5,000 for perfection in this private region. Leave a comment about what you think.

Saving My Garden

This year, the killing frost is late. Last year it arrived for El Día de los Muertos (Nov. 2). This year, it was unseasonably warm. But as the week progressed, the temperatures plummeted and some frost was visible yesterday morning. So, even though today is sunny and warm, it was time to save what I can from the garden.

I repotted the geraniums which I keep inside over the winter. I also brought in the parsley, one of the few plants that did well during our short, wet and cool summer.

On the right, that’s most of the cherry tomato harvest below: 9 green tomatoes. There was one ripe tomato we had around Labor Day, and one rotted on the vine before ripening. Oh, well, everyone tells me it was a bad year for tomatoes, and there’s always next year.

Below: my ferocious beast stalking in the wilds of the garden.

El Día de los Muertos

El Día de los Muertos (the Day of the Dead) is tomorrow, November 2nd. It is no surprise that the late autumn is a time to remember the departed. In the northern hemisphere, we witness the temperatures dropping, the sun lower in the sky as the days get shorter, and the death of annual vegetation. Here in New England, this takes the form of a vivid display of bright foliage.

Today (El Día de los Santos, or All Saints Day) was extremely beautiful, unusually warm and even sunny. I took a bike ride to the Mount Auburn Cemetery, one of the most beautifully landscaped cemeteries in the area. It was an appropriate day to take in the beauty of fall while contemplating our mortality.

One of my favorite reflections is found in Psalm 90 where one translation reads: “teach us to number our days that we may learn your wisdom.” Yes our days on earth are numbered, they are finite. But we must embrace our transitory existence and not be afraid of or obsessed with our eventual death. That is the wisdom we must learn, so that we can make the most of our lives.

The Psalm also says “for a thousand years to you……is like the passing of a single day.” This contrasts the eternal nature of God to our brief existence, with an understanding that time can be experienced differently, something that would be embraced in Einstein’s special relativity centauries later. Our lives pass in snippets of time, maybe a century at most. God spans the centuries (“por los siglos de los siglos”).

So, what becomes of us? Do we wither and fade and our life is extinguished, like the annual flowers in my garden with the killing frost? Christianity, Judism, Islam, and other faiths embrace an afterlife in heaven with God. Hinduism professes reincarnation. Others think death is the end. We don’t know the answer.

But while I was there in the cemetery, one thought came to me. I do know what will happen come April. Those same trees now displaying their brilliant foliage, after 4 months where their branches lay bear through winter winds and snowfalls, those very branches will bud forth in a glorious display of spring colors. Hope and life springs eternal.