best package under the tree

From 12/27/11

back home in brooklyn from a great xmas in connecticut with family i wanted to share a couple snapshots of my favorite gift this year: an original program from the 1963 march on washington which included mlk's "i have a dream speech." she and my grandfather, a methodist minister in bristol, connecticut, were in attendance that day...so much love for them for attending and for putting some of their good stock into my blood.

the best part of the gift, aside from the beautiful program (filled with artwork not words or propaganda), are the included treasures: clippings from the local papers covering their travels from hartford down to d.c. (see picture of the two of them sleeping on the train below). journalists along for the ride describe a train ride filled with rehearsals of song and non violent protest measures. almost unbelievable in a time of so much reported violence by police on blacks, the article reports that not one arrest was made on the 200,000 protestors in attendance. a lot of lessons to be learned from us today as we continue to protest injustice.

also a copy of a brochure of of king's letter from a birmingham jail. my grandfather also marched on selma - he didn't get arrested but he did a get a handshake from king.

wow, glad to still be able to share yet another meal with them this weekend, my grandfather's 95th christmas.

From 12/27/11

you are alive

"you are alive". lori and i bought a print of a photo with these words spray paint scrawled on an nyc wall. the prints for sale were all gathered, post september 11th, and the sales were a fund raiser for relief efforts. we had only been dating for 4 months, and while we were already pretty in love we couldn't have predicted then what a great future was in store for us.

on the 10 year anniversary of september 11th i have found it hard to decide how the event impacted my life. after all, as close as i was to the tragedy (i could see the second tower fall from my vantage point on 5th avenue and smell them burning for weeks), i was "still alive." we've started a family and i've been able to find success as an architect in new york city. my life couldn't be fuller, busier, or better. so looking back on the last 10 years it is hard to say how september 11th has changed my life.

i've read the commemorative journalism published this week - so many memories, some despite the infamous slogan, i had forgotten. i wonder along with some of the more intellectual musings if we are living in a post ironic state, how was being funny changed by such an event?

and then tonight i listened to a story corps collection, "we remember," recording stories of those lost in the attack on the world trade center. and i cried, which i haven't done too much of in the wake of the tragedy then or now. it's taken ten years passage for the gravity of all those lost and their legacies halted to understand the benefits (privilege?) of being alive.

and it is with that that i feel true sadness for the lost, their families, and the memories they were not able to create these past ten years. i'll be thinking of all of my friends and loved ones tomorrow...nothing like a strong reminder like this anniversary to never take a day of life for granted.

stand in the place where you work

if facebook is good for nothing else it is good for starting a stand up desk revolution. my friends ryan and chris have me thinking sitting is for sloths and they have the reference, and in ryan's case the experience, to prove it. ryan's lost 10lbs.

check out this great article chris posted.

i work in a brand new white laminate lined architect's office. it's not too stodgy but i will be falling out of line if/when i decide to stand. rather than acquire a dedicated standing desk i want to use a desktop converter. that way i can stand or sit and if i catch too much flack i can just stow the thing under my desk until the air clears.

since it is an experiment and i can't commit yet i want to spend a max of $100. this is a much bigger budget than chris and ryan who used bolts of cloth, reams of paper, and assorted plastic boxes. but at the same time ready made standing desks and converters can be hundreds of dollars!

here's my research:

cheapest...
standup desk
$69 black
only 15" deep.


here's a great article: standing desk shootout.

from the article the winner is:
giraffe desk.
$900.
beautiful in a 2003 kind of way but wtf! 900 bucks!
32x27x9" high


the other contenders are all dedicated standing desks.

i also looked at ikea hacker and then realized (since i have the ikea catalog memorized) that the billy bookcase height extender does the trick. $20, and i have one in the bottom of my closet!

***

(currently) the winner is: the billy bookcase top with a close second to the $69 stand maybe with a monitor stand on it to get the monitor a bit higher and let my keyboard live under it to help with the 15" depth.

should probably get an anti-fatigue mat too.

i'm targeting october 1...stay tuned!





photo1: ernest hemingway exemplifying standing desking

photo2: my desk. killer view of times square assuming my standing desk faces out the window.

vinny

It's my first post in awhile so i thought i'd write with news of the biggest addition to our life. vinny. a green 1999 acura sedan. the bad news is that after 80 years in the road, my nearly 95 year old grandpa has had to call it quits for driving. the good news is that he gave his car to our family of four. i'm kind of uncomfortable with being a car owner in nyc. you truly don't need one here and if you do they are easy to rent or car share (zip car and the like). but with two kids some of the train is pricey and kind of doesn't work so we are driving more. and on our last rental trip we spent a small fortune on a week and we had to hustle home lest we get charged for a whole 'nother weekend. so renting has become more costly and arguably more inconvenient than parking and car maintenance. or so i thought. cell phones go hand in hand (or hands free!) with car driving so vinny's first two weeks of adventure are pretty well documented... the car came to me with a brand new battery. but i left an interior light on for 5 days so the first time i took him for a spin was on a tow truck: I needed a new battery (to replace the one week old battery i killed) so $168 and warm and informative conversation with my friendly pakistani immigrant tow truck driver i was back on the road. that night, in fact, i drove to the grocery store. it pained my conscience to know i was increasing the carbon footprint of my park slope food coop groceries, but when i had the automotive might to carry a bottle of seltzer AND a six pack of beer home (when walking with cart i can only carry one or the other) i started to come around to the idea of driving to the store.

and then came the snow (again). good news is alternate side parking is canceled so you don't have to move your car. bad news is when you go out to your car it looks like this:
it took me and hour and a half to dig it out and most of that snow gets tossed into the street and the passing cars methodically push it back onto your car - just a little harder and denser! i also had to change plates and add some car seat do-hickeys.

i can't tell if the post is running over so i'll part with a couple lessons learned:

1. if you have yellow snow all over the trunk of your car you can wonder how on earth a dog climbed up there to pee without leaving tracks or you can operate under the assumption that the mini van owner behind you that you parked 1" from had to pee at the same time as he became very annoyed with me and killed two birds with one urine stream.

2. while changing over the license plates i learned that if you are a house mouse in suburban connecticut in my grandparents temperate garage. it might make sense to establish a nest behind the rear license plate complete with bird food from the nearby storage canister in the garage. but now you're in brooklyn baby!