I don't do memes all that often, more because I think that a lot of them are silly and I don't want to clutter up my blog/LJ friends page with them than anything else.
Some of them, though...well. Right now, there's a 'where were you when' one going around, and that was one that I found pretty thought-provoking. The really interesting part is that this one sparked a lot of memories, that I'll probably ultimately end up writing about. We'll see how it goes. I've been sitting on this one, gradually answering it, for three or four days. About damn time it gets posted. :)
Where were you when...
1. When John F. Kennedy was shot (11/22/1963):
2. When Mt. St. Helens blew (5/18/1980):
3. When the space shuttle Challenger exploded (1/28/1986):
3b. When the Chernobyl nuclear disaster occurred (4/25-26/1986):
3c. When Halley's Comet visited (1986):
4. When the 7.1 earthquake hit San Francisco (10/7/1989):
5. When the Berlin Wall fell (11/7/1989):
6. When the Gulf War began (1/16/1991):
7. When OJ Simpson was chased in his White Bronco (6/17/1994):
8. When the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was bombed (4/19/1995):
9. When Princess Di was killed (8/31/1997):
10. When Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold opened fire on their classmates at Columbine High School (4/20/1999):
11. When Bush was first announced President (11/7/2000):
12. When the 6.8 earthquake hit Nisqually, WA (2/28/2001):
13. When terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center [and flew a plane into the Pentagon and into a field in Pennsylvania] (9/11/2001):
14. When Columbia disintegrated during re-entry over Texas (2/1/2003):
Where was I? Answers below.
1. When John F. Kennedy was shot (11/22/1963):
Not even a twinkle in the eyes of my parents--I wouldn't be here for another almost ten years. My mom was on the verge of turning 9 years old.
2. When Mt. St. Helens blew (5/18/1980):
Living in Salt Lake City, worried that one of our mountains might erupt, too.
Never happened.
3. When the space shuttle Challenger exploded (1/28/1986):
Like so many people my age, I was at school. *Un*like a lot of people my age, we didn't get to watch it as it happened. I just have vague memories of a few of my teachers crying. We didn't get to leave early at all, and the first time I actually saw it was later that afternoon, when my mom came home from work. I remember her kneeling on the floor in front of the TV, holding my brother in her lap as we all watched, silent.
I got my first period the same day.
3b. When the Chernobyl nuclear disaster occurred (4/25-26/1986):
3c. When Halley's Comet visited (1986):
My memory of these two events is pretty vague, so I've rolled them into one. I would've still been in Utah, and...that's about it.
I did a report on Chernobyl in high school, and got a B on it rather than an A because it was too long.
4. When the 7.1 earthquake hit San Francisco (10/7/1989):
Still in Salt Lake, utterly terrified for my mother, who was living out there by then, I think. Either living or visiting, but I *know* she was there. Scared the hell out of me.
5. When the Berlin Wall fell (11/7/1989):
We got to see footage of this in my history class. It was pretty cool.
6. When the Gulf War began (1/16/1991):
Ha! Okay. In that same history class mentioned above, my teacher, Ms. Cluny, talked about the US and its cyclical history of involvement in conflict. We were due, she said, and that it would happen within the next five years, probably much sooner than that--and that it'd be in the middle east. Probably not such a huge leap in logic, given the fabric of politics at the the time, but it was still really interesting. I saw her a couple of days after the Gulf War started and we talked about it--she seemed more surprised that I'd actually been paying attention than anything.
Anyway. This is one memory that's actually really clear for me. I was driving by that point, and took a couple of friends home every day. One of them was in an AP History class, and she mentioned that they had a class pool running on when the war would start. I don't remember the exact date the pool started, but I *do* remember that it supposed to start several days afterwards--probably after a weekend or something. I went home, I turned on the TV, and just sort of stared for a minute, then called Merianne. "You all lost," I said. "The United States went to war half an hour ago."
I had an uncle in the Navy reserves at that point--a pilot. I forget the exact plane he flew, a C-130 or something, the one that looks like a 737 with a long stinger coming out the back of it. We were all terrified he'd be called up.
He wasn't.
7. When OJ Simpson was chased in his White Bronco (6/17/1994):
I was working double shifts at Wasatch Valley Rehab, from 3pm to 7am, and was on the tail end of one of those shifts. One of the rooms in the long term care ward was a 4-plex--four beds, four women. They liked to have the TV turned on at 6, and I ended up in their room during 'the chase.'
It's really weird, too, how thinking about this brings back other, sensory memories. But that's a topic for a later time, I guess.
8. When the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was bombed (4/19/1995):
Still in Salt Lake City, but not for much longer at that point. I was working in the reception atrium of the Eccles Broadcast Center, the local PBS/NPR station. It's on a golf course, the station, and the atrium is exactly what it sounds like. Every once in awhile, the building would get hit by a golf ball--at which point we'd always go out and snag the ball. Any golfer who came to get the ball would have it returned, of course, but none of them ever did. Heh.
ANYway. There were TVs in the reception area, tuned to the station that was broadcasting with the volume turned down, while the NPR station played in the background. When we heard about it, we turned the radio station down and turned one of the TVs onto the news, so we could get the latest about what was going on. Well. I say 'we,' but it was one of the program managers for the PBS station. The station manager came out about half an hour later and chewed me out for letting them change the station.
9. When Princess Di was killed (8/31/1997):
I had just arrived in California a few weeks previous. I was going out to dinner with friends, and we passed through the laundry room on the way out. The TV in the laundry room was tuned to CNN, and it was reporting the news. We didn't realize how serious it was until much later, we just heard that it was a car accident.
10. When Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold opened fire on their classmates at Columbine High School (4/20/1999):
You know what's really sad about this? I don't really remember all that much about it. I *do* remember that the Sharks were in the middle of a playoff series with the Avs (which they lost), and that there were games were postponed out of respect.
11. When Bush was first announced President (11/7/2000):
Don't really remember or care where I was for this one, actually.
12. When the 6.8 earthquake hit Nisqually, WA (2/28/2001):
Oh brother. I was at work, and heard about it from a co-worker. Was immediately just absolutely *terrified* for my mom, Matt, and my brother. Couldn't get ahold of anyone. Tried not to panic. They made me go out and pick up lunch for everyone to take my mind off it--not such a good thing since Kevin, sweetheart that he was, had the radio on for me while we were out.
13. When terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center [and flew a plane into the Pentagon and into a field in Pennsylvania] (9/11/2001):
When the actual attack happened, I was asleep. I first heard about it on the radio, and it was a very surreal sort of thing. Understand, I've never been to New York at all, and the only experience I had with the WTC was that it was an establishing shot for so many movies.
When I first heard about it, I was in the car on the way to work, when they reported that the first of the towers had fallen. Even then, it seemed strangely surreal, and a co-worker and I talked about it as we walked into the building. I mean, a plane into a building? They're not talking about a big passenger-type plane, are they? It's just a single-engine thing or something.
My mom and I talked via email throughout the day. After a few hours of watching CNN when I got home, I had to go into the bedroom and read something mindless.
14. When Columbia disintegrated during re-entry over Texas (2/1/2003):
Saturday morning. I was up early, because I was working the 5am shift, so I couldn't ever sleep much past 7 or 8. I'd turned on the TV just after it happened on CNN, so I was part of the story almost as it happened.
This morning, I was a little bit late coming in to work. One of the smokers was out when I got there, having a pre-work cigarette, and we exchanged a few words.
Him: "Good morning."
Me: "Good morning, how are you?"
Him: "Well. I'm here."
Me: *laughter* "I know how that goes."
Him: "It's Tuesday!"
Me: "One day closer to Friday."
Him: "Yeah. It's sad how we keep wishing our lives away."
Which, I thought, as I walked into the building, is truer than I really thought it was, at first. But seriously. What else do I do all week long but plod through the workday and hope/wait/wish for the weekend?
Sad.
Hee!
I was frugal with my points this morning so that I could splurge and have a Togo's sandwich for lunch. Mmm, turkey and avocado goodness. That first bite was just incredibly delicious.
Anyway, I was in line at the pick-up window, and there was a guy behind me holding a kid that's maybe a year or so old who they wave up to the counter while they're getting my receipt and stuff for me. Employee puts drink and straw down on the counter, child automatically reaches for the straw with just a *huge* grin.
"You want the straw?" says Dad, then unwraps it and hands it to him.
Child takes the straw with that same big grin, very charming.
Dad grins and says, "Okay. But don't poke your eye out."
I laughed, and after a pause, Dad says to me, "Just a little fatherly advice, you know."
Hee.
I hated admitting this when I was younger, and was still uncomfortable with it in a lot of company for many years later, but...
I took eight years of accordion lessons as a kid. Yeah, shut up. :) I was really damn good at it, actually, and as much as I might have resented the choice of instruments at first, I really grew to love it. It wasn't cool, and when I was fifteen or so, I was told that I could stop taking accordion, but I *had* to be taking lessons of some sort, so I started playing the guitar. As it turned out, and hardly a surprise, I'm sure...I was a really crappy guitar player. :)
I figure most people probably think of polkas and Weird Al when they think about accordions--or they think about one of Pepsi's latest commercials, wherein a young Jimi Hendrix is deciding between Coke and Pepsi. He ends up choosing Pepsi, naturally, and happens to catch sight of a guitar above the machine. Across the street by the Coke machine is an accordion store. And there's always the ever-amusing 'Play an accordion, go to jail' stickers that I've seen here and there.
Thing is...it's an incredibly versatile instrument, and there's much more that can be done with it than just polka-type music. Sure, maybe it's *good* for that, but...okay. When I took lessons, I had both individual and band lessons, and the band was GOOD. They travelled to Disneyland every year for competition. They played the 1812 Overture as a performance piece in every recital they had, and it was just fucking amazing.
The best part, for me, was knowing a piece so well that I could rest my head on the case, close my eyes, and just *play*. I'm sure that every person has had moments like that, when you're just in the zone, whether it's as a writer, as an artist, as a comedian, as a musician, whatever. You just *play*, the notes come off your fingers like gossamer, there's never a wrong note, and every bit of who you are is in that one piece. One of my favorite pieces to play was always Sunrise, Sunset from Fiddler on the Roof.
Sometimes, and it's happening more frequently lately, my hands just *itch* with wanting to play again, even if I had to start over with a new instrument. I know there's no way I could immediately pick right up where I left off and be able to get moments like that again right away, but I just...wow. It hits me hard, sometimes.
I love this time of year. And even though I said that I didn't want the Mega March Madness package from DirecTV, it's still a tempting thought. Two weeks and change of college basketball--from the first 64 teams, all the way down to the final. Oh so tempting. But the TV would grab me by the face and not let me go. Work? Fuck work, there's basketball on. School? Bah, fuck school, too. :) And hockey? Well...sigh. I can't quite bring myself to say 'fuck hockey,' but still. Sometimes, during the end of March...there is only basketball! ;)
I've been a college basketball fan for as long as I can remember. I was born out in North Carolina, and spent the first seven years of my life smack dab in the middle of ACC territory. My stepdad went to NC State (Raleigh), but he cheered for UNC (Chapel Hill), Wake Forest (Winston-Salem), and Duke (Durham), as well.
Duke, though, that was my grandma's team--she loved her Blue Devils. She died in 1991, just a few days before they finally won their first national championship, a year after being utterly obliterated in the final by UNLV (103-73 was the final score in 1990). They won again the following year.
In recent years, Duke has become the team that everyone loves to hate--ie, the constant comments of Duke sucks on Fark. But...well. It's been bred into me to love the game and the team--can't help it. It's like being a fan of the Utah Jazz even so many years after leaving Salt Lake City.
So, anyway. Yay for March Madness. Can't wait to see what happens this year.
Go Duke. :)
...for people familiar with the Crystal Singer series by Anne McCaffrey.
I was in the grocery store today, and I saw something new--SoBe has a drink called...
Inspired by the Latino Culture, SoBe Fuerte is a blend of Mango and Passion Fruit. Our newest Powerline product contains guarana, jamaica, and yerba matte from Latin America to get you going through the day. Like all SoBe products, Fuerte is specially formulated to quench the body, uplift the spirit and enlighten the mind.
Yeah, I'm a great big geek, and that made me giggle...right there in the middle of the grocery store at 6:30 in the morning.
So, by now, everyone's heard about the Todd Bertuzzi/Steve Moore incident (link goes to game recap), and the NHL's decision to suspend Bertuzzi for the rest of the season--including the playoffs.
Even if you don't follow hockey, you've probably heard about it...which is sort of the point of this posting. The clip has been shown all over the place, it's made the front page just about everywhere--including CNN, where they're calling Bertuzzi the 'hockey punch player.'
It's really unfortunate that the only widespread publicity that hockey ever gets is shit like this. Yes, it was a hugely bad incident, but it's sad, to me--the game itself is fast-paced and exciting, it's fun to watch, and the players seem, in large part, to be pretty down-to-earth guys. It's not like the NBA or MLB, most players don't have absolutely huge contracts--I remember reading somewhere that professional hockey players are paid substantially less than players for the other North American leagues. There are some big names, but ask anyone on the street to name a professional baseball player, and they'd be able to do so in a heartbeat. Ask anyone on the street to name a hockey player? Not so much.
But that's the whole point. Not all publicity is a good thing--and this definitely was *not* good. You want people to come to see the games, not look at the sport and scoff because they feel it's too violent, and that the league condones it, and/or makes it possible by fostering an environment in which it's okay for this kind of thing to happen.
As Brett said, much more coherently than I could, In point of fact the NHL doesn't foster this sort of behavior: witness its year-long suspension of Marty McSorley, which basically ended McSorley's career; witness how the severity of the suspension it's doled out to Bertuzzi.
So, where does that leave me, opinion-wise?
I think the NHL made a good decision. My biggest fear was, given that Bertuzzi is a pretty big name, one of the Canucks' leading scorers, they'd take that into account and make his suspension a light one. In addition to being suspended for the rest of the season, Bertuzzi also has to apply for eligibility before training camp next year, so they'll revisit again at that point. I think that's fair enough.
I'm glad to hear that Moore will be okay, and I hope that he makes it back onto the ice next season.
I also hope that Bertuzzi's career recovers. This particular bit of fucktardery aside, he's actually a pretty fun player to watch.
Also...in the unlikely event that you have no idea what I'm talking about... :)
A few games back, Steve Moore laid an open ice hit on Markus Naslund--a check that even Naslund says was clean--and gave him a concussion. Naslund was out for three games.
The Canucks essentially considered Moore a 'marked man' after that. Someone fought with him early in the game. Bertuzzi also tried to have a go with him, but Moore was skating away, his attention elsewhere. Bertuzzi grabbed Moore's jersey, dragged him backwards, threw an overhanded punch, then fell on top of him (all 250some pounds, almost entirely muscle), and drove him into the ice.
Moore has two fractured cervical vertebrae, a closed-head injury, multiple deep cuts in his face, and...yeah. It was pretty bad. :/
It's quite lovely out today. In spite of the inevitable allergies, which I hope (knock on wood!) will be mild this year, I love this season.
I walked outside today to go get something for lunch, and it was pleasantly warm, but not hot. My hair is long enough to be pulled back now, so I put it back in this tiny ponytail, and rolled down every window in my car on the way to the store and back.
The breeze was soft on my hand when I put it out of the car, and the traffic noise just wasn't that bad.
Some days are just beautiful, and this is one of them.
What does it say about me that, when we get an email from a client describing a problem and asking, 'what should I do,' my immediate thought is to reply telling him to bend over, put his head between his legs, and kiss his ass goodbye?
Yeah, I know. Look at all those shocked faces from the people who know me well.
Shut up. :)
I have just had one of the most...surreal experiences of my life.
I walked into a post office (the one on Mary, for those of you familiar with Sunnyvale and its postal orifices), at just past 12:30pm, on a FRIDAY...
...
...and there was not a line three miles long leading out the door.
In fact, when I walked in, there were two open windows, and no line at all.
I have never seen that. Ever.
Even when going to the post office in little Zebulon, NC, there was *always* a line, albeit a short one.
I was in and out in 10 minutes, and that included sending two packages, picking up a registered letter, buying stamps, and getting some information about how to print labels on my very own printer.
What the fuck?
:)
J. K. Rowling says she may write an 8th Harry Potter book.
Yeah. So not surprised.
But at least the article mentions that she's working on book 6. :)
According to CNN, there are very few bloggers on the net.
Guess they're not all that familiar with Livejournal and Diaryland and the like, are they?
Unless the legions of teenyboppers writing in AOL speak and lamenting about how hard their lives are just doesn't count.
Hm. :)