A work in progress, progress in work?

​
Hope lives in the West,
Her hair is a golden sun;
The wonder of life seems to fill her,
She oozes potential and fun.

Hope lives in the West,
But you'll never catch her;
She shifts from city to town,
Her eyes on the tallest buildings
And the greenest of trees.

Hope lives in the West,
And she goes to church every Sunday;
She doesn't really believe,
But she's making a candid effort.

Hope lives in the West,
And she has a fabulous boyfriend;
She keeps a girlfriend too,
But she never wanders.

Hope lives in the West,
And she has a fantastic new job;
There are no glass ceilings
And she's thinking of getting a dog.

Hope lives in the West,
But there are some things she's not quite sure of:
Climate change, Kasich and that place,
in the Middle East.

Hope lives in the west,
But she doesn't quite understand:
Why can't she be free if her skin is brown?
Why do they say 'no' if she's not a man?

Hope lives in the West,
She sleeps under the bridge, near town;
Things will brighten up, she's sure,
If tomorrow ever comes.

Hope died in the night,
And she's not quite sure how it was.
An accident or deliberate act?
A stranger or her own hands?

Hope died in the West,
But she lingers there still;
Her echoes wander the streets,
Her laughter is all that you'll feel.

Hope is a ghost in the West,
She haunts the cities at night;
But to look in her eyes, it means death,
And still, there are many who try.

"And a partridge in a Pear Tree"

“And so this is Christmas,

And what have you done?

Another Year over,

A new one just begun”.

John Lennon

I’ve always been fond of Christmas for some reason. Probably a relic from another life, or a little more likely, the influence of certain TV shows and movies from my early childhood (more in depth here). Still, I’ve never actually lived in a place that celebrated it as fully – until now. True, it’s no Festivus with its idiosyncratic traditions, but the overall cheer pervading the air does get to you, even when you don’t take into account the accompanying days off. It’s not going to be a white Christmas, sadly, (thanks climate change), but it should do.

A misty morning in Tenafly

 I thought I’d try some traditional holiday cuisine like honeyed sliced ham, and found a kit to make it in the grocery store, but it’s for an entire family and I’m not that big an eater. Besides, I understand that the more fitting tradition is going out to a Chinese restaurant. There’s also the likeliest scenario of finally seeing the new Star Wars movie. I can’t keep dodging spoilers forever.

The coming year is going to be very busy. How big corporate America and I are going to treat each other is still a mystery. But I am ready for it.

“A very merry Christmas, and a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one, without any fear”.

Washington: the first day

It has been a very long day. I've arrived in the City (the "other "City") at around 11am and immediately began the tourist frenzy. After waving hello to my new neighbors at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, I proceeded to the Holocaust Memorial Museum. I don't know why I chose to start my tour there. 

The museum is highly recommended, especially if you haven't been to other similar museums (like Yad v'Shem). I definitely got flashbacks from my trip to Poland all those years ago, and I had a few rough minutes. 

After that I needed to clear my head a bit and strolled around the US Capitol. 

From there, I continued to two personally important sites: the Supreme Court of Justice and the Library of Congress. 

Righteously inspired again, I visited the National Museum of the American Indian, where again I saw people dispossessed and persecuted. 

I hate to end on a grim note, but see below. I still have quite a few museums and other things to see and do, but I should have enough time. 

(Half) first anniversary

Today, if I'm not mistaken, I mark six months in this exciting chapter of my life. 184 days. A month of this was spent in the East, and the rest in the West.
Are these the first few months out of a greater and longer expedition? Or, am I already feeling the cold winds of change blowing? I cannot say. All I know, is that if it were up to me, it would never end.

I am learning and changing everyday, in some ways, I hope, for the better. Although I have not traveled yet far and wide, I feel more comfortable with the idea and can begin to explore the options.
Some things have not changed, and that's unfortunate, but perhaps they also serve to grant perspective, or even depth of some sort.

Next month I will be visiting "home", a place I couldn't be far enough away from on many issues, while can never really be torn apart from either.

My focus is still work and the insatiable project that has no chance in hell to be on time or according to my quality standards, and I can't imagine my life without it. But occasionally, I try to take a quick peek sideways, to see how normal people live. It's not all bad.

Adventures in the East pt. 2: The Rain Song, Brothers

I've been in the East for almost a week now, and it looks like I'm expecting another week. This trip was supposed to have been a week of focused work so I can go back home and proceed with work there, but I've been requested by our partners here to stay a while and listen help. This means I will need to make some plans for the weekend (other than laundry). However, as a typhoon is expected to lick the shores during this same weekend, my options might be a little limited.

This post's title refers to two great songs that started my Spotify playlist today: Brothers in Arms (thanks, Barry!) and The Rain Song. It's a bit disorienting to listen to them sitting on the 16th floor in a City I know next to nothing about its inhabitants, language or culture, but I'm thankful for every sliver of WiFi I can get.

This is actually from the 8th floor

Breaking news: 2.6%, baby!

A few weeks ago I sent a saliva sample to be analyzed for genetic information. A few minutes ago I've received the initial results - more detailed analysis is coming in the next few weeks.
I have to say, the results are a bit uninteresting in their uniformity and don't hold any major surprises or mysteries. Or do they?

I do wonder what's this 0.1% unassigned. Martian?

The above is the most speculative analysis of the results so far. A more conservative estimate put it at around 84% Ashkenazi, 14% broadly European and 1.1% unassigned. Being only 0.2% Middle Eastern is rather interesting and that 0.1% East Asian is also most curious. It couldn't have been too many contributes and probably a very long time ago, but still.

What I was also very interested to find, and am admittedly rather proud of, was that my genes are 2.6% Neanderthal (the European average is 2.7%).

Distant cousins everywhere! Useful for couch surfing on the next trip

Chapter 2: the grind and the refined - No one is Fa

I thought about writing this post before; in fact, I may have. It's difficult to say for certain these days.
I'm involved in a few cases that one of them, it is deemed, is important enough as to invoke a wide state of panic. I and others have dedicated many hours and days to it and will continue to until its inevitable resolution (or dissipation; like I said, it's hard to say). This means, of course, back to the sleep disrupted nights of old, having strange dreams and basically being tired to the bones.

But what is "Fa", you may wonder? Wikipedia will explain it better, but what I remember of it from university (because, really, memory of things is more important than the facts of those things, right?) is that it is a kind of a model. It was used by the ancient Mohists, my favorite school of old Chinese philosophy as a tool, to demonstrate and to think logically by analogy. One of the models or concepts that should be emulated is the Ren, the idealized or higher person.

Taking it to its simplistic extremes, it is having a person as a role model. However, it's demonstrated repeatedly that no one person is perfect and can be used as a role model for everyone, for all situations, for all times and experiences. Everyone is flawed. Even if that person was not flawed somehow, odds are that you and your perception are.

Can people be trusted then? How can we learn from something that we know to be wrong? The obvious answer is that we have no "real" choice. We can try to learn from many different sources many different things and hope that somehow we'll get the "right" idea. We need to assume nothing, and strip away our misconceptions. But, in the end, the truth is unknowable, and all we can get is increasingly educated guesses.

This has deviated significantly from what I wanted to say. I am tired and suspect my kitchen is haunted (the microwave turns itself on in odd hours).