June 10, 2011

On June 10, 2011 I went to visit an old woman. I walked in and saw a frail woman lying in an hospital bed. I saw a woman who was dying. This was not the woman I went to see.

The woman I went to see was a woman of strungth, a woman of faith, a woman who raised six children and was the glue that kept her family together. The woman I went to see was a champion back-scratcher who always said the right words to those in need. Not that those words were always what one wanted to hear, but that those words were the most constructive and appropriate words that one needed to hear.

The woman I went to see wasn't thin and dying, but a woman who was full of life, vivacious and unwavering. She was a woman who was full of life, full of love and made those around her better because of it. The woman I went to see was surrounded by family in the best of times, as well as when times weren't so good. The woman I saw was surrounded by family and hospice workers.

One of the best things I've ever heard about this woman was the following: She was very easy to love. That was the woman I went to see. A matriarch of her family, proud, strong and firm in her beliefs. A woman who welcomed me into her family with open arms. A woman so full of love that it was never a doubt. Her name was Margaret K. Hirst, but I knew her as Grandma Hirst.

On June 11, 2011 she finally let go the ties to her life on earth. Even as she left this life, she had gotten one thing that she loved so dearly; Her family had come together, under one roof.

I remember as a child going to Saturday barbecues, Sunday dinners, Holiday meals. I remember the chaos of having so many grandchildren around, the red punch made with ginger-ale and a frozen mix of some kind floating in the punch bowl. I remember back stratches and hugs. I remember trips to the Chesapeake bay, to a cabin that smelled of old times and boiling crab. I remember how our family dog, Shiloh, used to lay at her feet as if saying "I am your protector." I'd like to think that somewhere on that other side, he's laying at her feet now, not having to protect her-simply enjoying her company.

The woman I went to see on June 10, 2011 was not the woman I saw. No, I think that the woman I saw on June 10, 2011 was more than I could expect to see. Laying in her bed she wasn't just Grandma Hirst, she was the matriarch, the mother, the grandmother, the great-grandmother, the friend, the shepherd, and the guardian to her family. I won't forget Margaret K. Hirst, my grandmother. I don't think that anyone whose life she touched will either. The old woman I went to see was not the old woman that I saw, not at all.

Aston Martin's phone concept...holy crap!

http://www.insideline.com/aston-martin/aston-martins-sexy-new-cell-phone.html

Aston Martin's Sexy New Cell Phone
Published Mar 29, 2011

Poor So-So Pretty Good Good Excellent PoorSo-SoPretty GoodGoodExcellent8 Ratings 8 RatingsJust the Facts:
In partnership with Mobiado, the Canadian luxury-phone maker, Aston Martin offers a glimpse at a dazzling new high-tech Android mobile phone.
The device consists of a transparent touchscreen made from a solid sapphire crystal, with the electronics built into the platinum sides.
The phone is designed to integrate with various vehicle functions, from the power door locks to the GPS nav system, and to provide onboard wireless connectivity to a variety of social networking sites, including Facebook, Twitter and FourSquare.


BASEL, Switzerland — Aston Martin, in partnership with Mobiado, the Canadian luxury-phone maker, is offering a glimpse at a dazzling new high-tech Android mobile phone that would look completely at home on the Starship Enterprise.

Debuting at BaselWorld, the world watch and jewelry show, the new CPT002 Aston Martin Concept Phone is meant to whet consumers' appetites for the new Mobiado/Aston Martin mobile-phone collection that is slated to go on sale in May.

To say the CPT002 concept phone is high-tech doesn't begin to do this communications gadget justice.

The most sensational feature of the phone is a see-through capacitive touchscreen made from a solid sapphire crystal that displays the usual Android icons when in use, but is otherwise virtually transparent when powered down. The phone's electronics, battery and SIM card are built into the platinum sides.

Mobiado envisions a device that will integrate itself with various functions on your Aston Martin, from the power door locks and the safety hardware to the GPS nav system.

The CPT002 also is designed to provide in-vehicle wireless connectivity to a variety of social networking sites, including Facebook, Twitter and FourSquare, automatically updating your social-media accounts with your current location (from the GPS) plus images from the car's onboard cameras.

Inside Line says: Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any near-term plan to produce this exotic phone, whose purpose, according to Mobiado, is "to push the boundaries of invention, allowing concept ideas to be identified for future production designs." — Paul Lienert, Correspondent

Those Wonderful Dogs

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Loyalty between dogs

It's not just a myth. Couldn't we be more like them?

How 'OK' took over the world

Source Article

18 How 'OK' took over the world OK is everywhere, used every day


It crops up in our speech dozens of times every day, although it apparently means little. So how did the word "OK" conquer the world, asks Allan Metcalf.

"OK" is one of the most frequently used and recognised words in the world.

It is also one of the oddest expressions ever invented. But this oddity may in large measure account for its popularity.

It's odd-looking. It's a word that looks and sounds like an abbreviation, an acronym.

We generally spell it OK - the spelling okay is relatively recent, and still relatively rare - and we pronounce it not "ock" but by sounding the names of the letters O and K.

Visually, OK pairs the completely round O with the completely straight lines of K.



Almost every language has an O vowel, a K consonant, and an A vowel. So OK is a very distinctive combination of very familiar elements. And that's one reason it's so successful. OK stands apart.

Ordinarily a word so odd, so distinctive from others, wouldn't be allowed in a language to begin with. As a general rule, a language allows new words only when they resemble familiar ones.

Clever coinages may be laughed at and enjoyed, but hardly ever adopted by users of the language.

So it was in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, in the late 1830s, when newspaper editors enjoyed inventing fanciful abbreviations, like "WOOOFC" for "with one of our first citizens" and OW for "all right".

Needless to say, neither of these found a permanent place in the language. But they provided the unusual context that enabled the creation of OK.

On 23 March 1839, OK was introduced to the world on the second page of the Boston Morning Post, in the midst of a long paragraph, as "o.k. (all correct)".

OK may have originated from a comical misspelling How this weak joke survived at all, instead of vanishing like its counterparts, is a matter of lucky coincidence involving the American presidential election of 1840.

One candidate was nicknamed Old Kinderhook, and there was a false tale that a previous American president couldn't spell properly and thus would approve documents with an "OK", thinking it was the abbreviation for "all correct".

Within a decade, people began actually marking OK on documents and using OK on the telegraph to signal that all was well. So OK had found its niche, being easy to say or write and also distinctive enough to be clear.

But there was still only restricted use of OK. The misspelled abbreviation may have implied illiteracy to some, and OK was generally avoided in anything but business contexts, or in fictional dialogue by characters deemed to be rustic or illiterate.

Indeed, by and large American writers of fiction avoided OK altogether, even those like Mark Twain who freely used slang.

But in the 20th Century OK moved from margin to mainstream, gradually becoming a staple of nearly everyone's conversation, no longer looked on as illiterate or slang.

Its true origin was gradually forgotten. OK used such familiar sounds that speakers of other languages, hearing it, could rethink it as an expression or abbreviation in their own language.

Thus it was taken into the Choctaw Native American language, whose expression "okeh" meant something like "it is so".

US President Woodrow Wilson, early in the 20th Century, lent his prestige by marking okeh on documents he approved.

And soon OK was to find its place in many languages as a reminder of a familiar word or abbreviation.

But what makes OK so useful that we incorporate it into so many conversations?

It's not that it was needed to "fill a gap" in any language. Before 1839, English speakers had "yes", "good", "fine", "excellent", "satisfactory", and "all right".

What OK provided that the others did not was neutrality, a way to affirm or to express agreement without having to offer an opinion.

Consider this dialogue: "Let's meet again this afternoon."

Reply: "OK."

Compare that with: "Let's meet again this afternoon."

Reply: "Wonderful!" or "If we must."

Martin Van Buren was a big part of OK's initial takeoff OK allows us to view a situation in simplest terms, just OK or not.

When someone falls down, the question is not "how well are you feeling?" but the more basic "are you OK?".

And any lingering stigma associated with OK is long since gone. Now OK is not out of place in the mouth of a US president like Barack Obama.

Speaking to schoolchildren in 2009 he said: "That's OK. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who've had the most failures."

The word would also easily slip from the mouth of a British prime minister like David Cameron.

And yet, despite its conquest of conversations the world over, there remain vast areas of language where OK is scarcely to be found.

You won't find OK in prepared speeches. Indeed, most formal speeches and reports are free of OK.

Modern English translations of the Bible remain almost entirely OK-free. Many a published book has not a single instance of OK.

But OK still rules over the vast domain of our conversation.

Allan Metcalf is the author of OK: The Improbable Story of America's Greatest Word.

International OKs
Native American Choctaw: Okeh - it is so
Scottish: Och aye - oh yes
Greek: Ola kala - all is right
German: ohne Korrektur - without [need for] correction
Finnish: Oikea - correct
Mandinka: O ke - that's it
So both in speech and in writing OK stands out clearly, easily distinguished from other words, and yet it uses simple sounds that are familiar to a multitude of languages.

Finding the music

On some days I just can't find the music anymore. I know it's there but I don't hear it. I'm having a hard time being moved by anything and it's rare that I get "the shivers" or really feel the emotion behind a piece.

Last night I marveled while watching an aged David Gilmour playing Pink Floyd numbers. Somehow he kept his love affair alive with his music. I want that. I want to rekindle my love affair with that which is intangible. I want to touch that magic, mold it, carve it and sculpt it.

I don't want to stay silent anymore. But I've forgotten how to touch it's gilded edge.

A little bit of Karma

Dedicated to Sayrene, one of the nicest, kindest people ever.


Christmas day. December 25, 2010. Rockville, Maryland.

I was spending some time with my friend Jacob. He needed some smokes so we stopped by a local 7-11. He came back and proceeded to smoke when I realized that I could use a snack. I noticed a homeless man sitting near the entrance eating a bowl of soup, that obviously he had just bought. I knew what I had to do.

I went in the store and began the frantic search for that one thing that would ease my hunger cravings, that would quiet the abdominal unrest that I was feeling. I found that item and purchased it, and a cup of coffee.

As I left the store I went over and handed this homeless gentleman a five dollar bill. He said thanks and then asked me to "pray for the troops." I told him that if I believed in a god that I would, however, they are in my thoughts daily, as I was one of them- in what seems like many years ago.

I went back to my Element and talked with my friend a bit while he jonesed another menthol. We talked about this and that and just caught up with each other, renewing our friendship as we rarely get to see each other. Then he was finished and we got into the car.

We continued talking and I started up the motor. Just then a little finch landed on my rear-view mirror. The finch sat there and looked at me, and I at it.


I believe it was a female purple finch, but I'm not a bird watcher...except for this one time.

I rolled down the window. The finch flew down to the ground, then flew right back up. Here I was, maybe 8 or 10 inches away from a wild finch and it was absolutely beautiful and fascinating. I rolled the window back up, the finch flew down and right back up to the mirror. I think it was as curious about me as I was about it. I could see the wind blowing it's little feathers. I could see how rapidly the finch was moving it's head, how nervous it appeared to be. But I could almost feel a sense of calming from this little bird, as if she was saying to me: don't be afraid to slow down from time to time.

Another finch then flew up onto the roof of the Element. Which is when I decided I needed to drive away. The little female stayed on the mirror until I got onto the main road. It was a sublime moment.

So $5 was the price of admission into a few moments of this tiny birds life.