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Recent News... Just for Pope Gregory... |
2001-09-20 - 7:01 a.m. Woodchuck on the bus Under the heading 'cosmically odd', I passed a groundhog waiting for a bus last night. He was standing on the edge of Old Columbia Pike, right next to a Metrobus stop. The little guy was balancing upright on his hind feet, front paws in the air like a begging squirrel. These days the signs on the Metrobuses proclaim "Your new Metrobus: More comfortable than ever!" I guess they've enticed an entire new realm of clientele. I wish I made this stuff up. Yesterday work time was lost to computer maintenance. The entire defrag your computer, rebuild the file table, etc� Coincidentally, my officemate's new computer arrived the same day. His hard drive screams like a banshee. I have a splitting headache. If you can hear it, the whine settles into the back of your skull, vibrates your teeth and just leaves your entire body tense. Hopefully, I'll learn to tune it out, but since we had to ditch a lab server because I couldn't standing within 20 feet of it, I don't have much faith. I am blessed (if you call it that) with bat ears. Whenever I take hearing tests, the techs consistently ask me if I'm sure I can hear that high, or am I just imaging things? Oh, I wish. I can walk into a house and tell you if you left your computer monitor on upstairs, because the high frequency noise changes when those things are powered, but not receiving CPU output. This is a miserable talent to have in a technical job. It not even a cool party trick. So West Wing didn't premiere last night. But I got a lot of sewing done. Only a bit more to go on the Shire tablecloth. PM and I worked on finishing up a cotehardie, and it looks awesome. At 11 p.m. I made the mistake of getting sucked into a movie I'd never seen, "The Next Karate Kid." The teenage angst and life lessons part of the plot was predictable as anything, but the Mr. Miyagi character is, as always, funny as hell. While the 'kid' is off at her first high school dance, Mr. Miyagi is out bowling with a bunch of Buddist monks, where they apply their Zen archery skills to Zen bowling and kick tail at the local lanes. The Buddist monks were the best part of this movie. Never trust a priest who can't dance�I stayed up entirely too late watching the darn thing. I understand Buddism, but the oriental religion I don't quite grasp is Shinto. It is a nature based religion, that's about the only part I understand. The TRMM project launched from Tanegashima in Japan. While the American team was over there delivering the spacecraft, the Japanese team was doing final assembly of the rocket. We had one afternoon assembly to bless the launch vehicle. A Shinto altar of branches, fresh fruit, fresh fish, beer and other offerings was assembled in front of the 20 story H-II rocket. A Shinto priest led the ceremony. Our role was to clap at the appropriate moments to drive out the demons of bad luck. It was a lovely ceremony, but afterwards we respectfully asked several of our translators to explain the meaning behind the blessing. They gave up after ten minutes. I guess some things just don't translate. Some things don't need translation to be beautiful. Still no flags at Home Depot. But, I found another smiley antenna topper on a minivan in the parking lot. This one was pink and happy with a cowboy hat and a tiny red and white ribbon around the band. The President speaks tonight, and I'm very interested to hear what our next move will be. I need to make a blood donation appointment for a couple weeks from now. We visited a lot of temples in Japan, but one in Kyoto stands out in my mind. It was small and poorer than most, but it's the most peaceful place I've ever been in my life. It was so beautiful that seven Americans just sat in complete silence for about half an hour. If I close my eyes, I can almost taste the tranquility and stillness of a Buddist Zen garden. It feels very good right about now.
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