Facebook Discourse

A Friend From High School (Who is quite bright)

Erasing history will lead to temporary satisfaction and a fruitless future.

Those of us who have been through this recommend that you hide your history books. When you are forced to believe their false narrative, your children will still have the opportunity to learn from the past.

19 Comments

Comments

David Boevers

I don't understand "erasing history" I don't think anyone is saying we should forget. They are saying we shouldn't celebrate oppression.

A Friend From High School (Who is quite bright)

how is a statue celebrating oppression? Are the Coliseum or the pyramids or any number of statues of past kings and queens celebrating oppression? Is erasing any and all “offensive” pop culture obliterating oppression?

You know how people today are astonished at how the Holocaust came about? Pulitzer Prize winning novels were written about it in the recent past. It was the fettish of literature for the last decade.

This is exactly how the Holocaust came about. One group of people decided what race and way of thinking was acceptable and decided to wipe out everyone and anyone who did not agree with that way of thinking. The cancel culture existed back then. If you didn’t agree, you were cancelled. And guess what? The silent majority who did in fact not agree stood silently by. With the exception of a few who could not stand in silence and acted.

Slavery did not start in 1619. Slavery started in ancient times. That is what people did. My people were slaves of the Ottoman Empire for a century. Your people were slaves before then. Do we see everyone turning the universe upside down? No. Love the way the people of the youngest country on Earth feel so entitled and self righteous. As if the world revolved around the good young USA. Eccentric and absurd.

David Boevers

ok, you've convinced me, it is exactly the same

A Friend From High School (Who is quite bright)

I will convince you of nothing. Sadly, that is how it always is. It’s like trying to warn your children about something and then they go and do it anyhow. And after they go through that painful experience, they say “I wish I had listened to you.” Nobody is listening because everyone is smarter. That’s fine. Sad part is, it is not our generation who will suffer. It will be the generations that come who will not experience freedom as you did.

A Friend From High School (Who is quite bright)

and one more thing. One day, and it will be much sooner than later, someone will decide that what you think is not acceptable. It always happens.

David Boevers

I suppose that the Coliseum and the pyramids are celebrating oppression. To the best of my knowledge those oppressed by those symbols aren't clamoring for their removal. Maybe they are. International news in the US isn't great. I'm uncertain the arguments here are symmetrical. The exterminations in WW2 Europe didn't follow a dismantling of the history of the Jewish oppression Germans - it was more a complete fabrication of the concept that Jews were currently oppressing the majority. That's more parallel to the calls in the US now of the oppressive tactics of reverse racism. I get there's a slippery slope here. That takes cultural dexterity, and no action should be assumed and undertaken without consideration and debate. That is why I make a distinction between celebration and memory. If we are going to remove statues and rename schools then the curriculum in those schools needs to contain the history and the context to make sure the knowledge is not buried or worse intentionally falsified. Taking down a statue of Lee at a state capital doesn't remove Lee from history books, or at least it shouldn't so as to be a bulwark against exactly the kind of new oppression you are warning of.

David Boevers

I also think that there is something about the age of the wound in play here. Many of the people expressing their rage are people that are right now today still victims of the oppression they are speaking out against. To them it is not about history, it is current events. I don't know what European Jews did in the 1950s to keep Nazis from being celebrated. The population was so decimated that they had other things on their mind I would imagine. Also, the rest of the world helped with that lift. The Germans themselves outlawed the kind of celebration that the US failed to intercede with in celebration of the Confederacy. I imagine that had there been a significant movement to paint Hitler more gently that Jews would have opposed it.

A Friend From High School (Who is quite bright)

Why are we judging history by today’s standards? If that were the case across the world, we would not have ANY ancient buildings or artifacts standing. Do you think what the popes did to artists like Michaelangelo was not oppressive? Yet do we take down the Sistine Chapel? I doubt 99% of people taking issue with Lee have ANY idea about who Lee was or what Lee did. And this is why statues of people who actually devoted their lives to overthrowing slavery were also toppled. Ignorance. Complete and utter ignorance of history.

David Boevers

AND... FWIW, and I am not an authority here, but I have been trying to learn something about this recently, apparently many of the monuments were in fact not celebrations of the confederacy and were not put in place until the 1950s and 60s in the US as a direct thumb in the eye to the civil rights movement. So not even the people that erected the monuments were concerned with preserving a historical narrative. They wanted only to hurt people they thought weren't people, within the footprint of my lifetime - historically like... yesterday.

David Boevers

But yes. We need to be mindful of the repercussions of the actions. The actions should not be undertaken without discussion and debate and with an eye toward the preservation of the full historical narrative. And the process must be monitored with vigilance.

David Boevers

There is a difficult dimension to this around art. I don't know how to solve that. We see a lot of discussion about this aspect in my field around #metoo. Does having someone exposed as a monster invalidate all of the art they have created over the length of their lifetime? I don't know what to do with that. Sometimes I get the feeling that Jews have somehow taken the construction of the pyramids as an achievement (even though it is a product of oppression). That seems like a fairly significant emotional contortion - making lemonade from unfortunate lemons.

A Friend From High School (Who is quite bright)

but this is my point. There is no discussion. Only extremism. There is complete and utter obliteration of any point of view except that which is felt to be “acceptable.”

Where did the adults go?

David Boevers

^^^^^ discussion.

 

Ellipses...

I don't understand how Treasury thinks it is reasonable to keep the recipients of the bail out money secret.  Just doing do reeks of corruption.  Besides, they've established that Congress won't do anything.  Even if all the money went to Eric and Don Jr. I don't think that would change...  Today I got my hair cut.  All week the wait times had been over 100 minutes according to the app, but today I looked and it said 0.  The place was doing no shampooing, so beard trimming, no blow drying, and everyone had masks.  It still felt  a little risky...  We distributed the "Camp Corona" t-shirts today.  They were a resounding success.  It has me thinking about doing a "second session" shirt with a different graphic for later in the year...  I reached out on Facebook today to see if I could get contact information for someone famous as part of prepping a project for the fall.  It took less than one half hour to get their agents numbers and a connection to a personal assistant.  That's a pretty good network I think...  The court today officially expanded civil rights to LGBTQ people today.  That's a good thing.  The cynic in me thinks they only did it because later in the term they are going to more firmly codify the "religious freedom" exception and pretty much mooting this ruling.  Maybe I'm wrong.  I hope I am wrong...  It looks like this fall will have to be the end of my dodging the Canvas app at work.  I managed to create my own workflow using email and webspaces for the entire time we were using Blackboard, and I've been using the same methodology since we switched over to Canvas.  The summer program is requiring Canvas to keep the Zoom operation completely behind our password authentication, so there's no choice.  Once I have to do it this summer I can't see why I wouldn't use it in the fall...  The triage folder I have set up has started to work well on its own.  It took a few days to get enough rules established but it seems to be there now.  I can only hope all the unsubscribing I have been doing along the way has had some effectiveness too...  The notice came today that my new bike has shipped.  It is coming FedEx Ground Freight.  Should be here in five days.  I hope I like it when it gets here...  Did you know that "chokehold" is a term of art and not everything that includes grabbing someone around the neck qualifies?  Something tells me we are all going to become a lot more familiar with the specifics of the language in this area.  That's probably something that should have happened a long, long time ago...  In other news: Uncle Sam's, after being take out only for like 3 months, has quite suddenly started offering the free fries you would have gotten dine in as part of the take out.  That was a nice discovery today...

Clean out Your Desk

We're coming to the end of the Spring session and into the Summer session for Sabian's daycare.  Gib5on had his last day on Kindergarten this past Friday.  A couple of family friends' kids had their High School graduation yesterday.  Regardless of the opened-up-edness of the economy and various schools the milestones are passing by with regularity - even though there's almost nothing regular about it.

Sabian's daycare is going to open up for the "summer camp" session.  For a kid in diapers that doesn't speak there isn't much of a difference between the spring and the summer.  There is a difference this year though.  Because of social distancing under PA "green" the number of kids that are allowed in the room has dropped.  There was a survey that went out earlier asking if as a parent you were in an "essential worker" job.  When we saw that we figured that they were probably going to have to back out on providing slots to many of the kids that were already signed up.  Since we were already looking for a solution for Gib5on we just rolled Sabian into that plan.

I bring this up because today I got to go by the daycare and collect the belongings we had left there when things abruptly closed up.  Parents got to drive into the driveway where they were met by a staff member who brought out whatever was left in plastic grocery bags.  We had one bag of diapers that were now too small and one bag of clothes that are also now too small.  I would have just donated all of it to the daycare but as with many things set up with a procedure there wasn't really an off ramp for that decision.  We'll find a way to do it later.

Picking up her stuff reminded me of an experience last week I had at my work.

Over Spring Break when we got the notice that we would be coming back online rather than in person we got an email instructing us to come in and get what we needed out of our offices to be able to finish the semester.  I went in with Gib5on riding in a collapsible wagon to pick up the binders for my Spring classes: one for ScenoFab, one for Production Planning, and one for CAD.  I also grabbed a armful of books I might need for Entertainment Rigging.  On top of that I also took a case of soda, a case of chips, what was left of the juice boxes I keep for Gib5on as well as some toys he plays with when he's around.  I thought about cleaning out and unplugging the refrigerator, but that felt like over reacting.

That would have been two and a half months ago.  It had an aura of responsibility and preparedness to it.  I bumped into other people in the building even though we were on break.  There were folks in the offices at the front of the ship and people in the shops working on inventories and maintenance.  The school had a buzz of activity to it.

About a month ago we got another email, this one talking about the fall telling us that we'll be in a hybrid model and that campus would eventually open up again but for the time being everything was still closed.

I have a shortened summer session coming up.  We're not having Drama Precollege this year, but we are having a Drama Summer Program (also for high school rising seniors).  I have taken to calling it "The Program Formerly Known as DP Precollege" but I probably won't put that on a syllabus or anything.  Since campus isn't opening until the fall and I am teaching next month I needed another trip to the office for supplies.

Instead of just going in this time I first emailed our facility manager to be sure I wasn't going to be stopped by Campus Security.  He told me things would be locked up but that it was ok for me to go in and out quickly and reminded me to wear a mask.  Once again I packed up the collapsible wagon and Gib5on and I went to my office.

I hadn't anticipated it, but this trip was really different.  The building was empty.  The only person I saw was a Campus Security person taking a break in our lobby (probably taking advantage of the air conditioning).  I was in the lobby on the way to the mail room - I had been told my box was overgrown.  It was.  I expected the guard to challenge me on my presence but he didn't.  Maybe having a key is enough to confer permission to be there.

In my office I loaded up what I think I need for my summer Technical Production class and anything I might need for the "Applying to College" class we're creating this time around.  We also snagged the last of the food I had: another flat of soda and half a case of Rice Crispy Treats we'd left the last time.  There just didn't seem to be any reason to leave anything this time.  I still haven't unplugged the fridge, but I do keep expecting an email telling me someone from FMS was going to go door to door to do that.

It doesn't look like we'll be back in our offices before the top of the Fall Semester.  That means any prep for the Fall is also likely going to happen at home; so I grabbed the binders for TD1 and TD3.  While I was at it I just grabbed the rest of the class binders: Rigging Seminar, Production Planning & Organization, and Technical Design.  I also grabbed books for those classes and also a stack of books that I haven't read but have been living on my shelves for a while now: my own "Books you should have read by now."  The thought was that with all this time at home I might have time to read more.  (Spoiler: it hasn't to date, I'm not sure why it will later).

Then, and I can't really speak as to why, I also took a bunch of general supplies and some of my personal gear.  I have this cool Arduino clock that seemed like it would be wasted sitting in an empty office.  I took my echo tap, another thing that seemed a waste sitting in an empty room.

That last bit seemed really weird.  The only time I have ever felt this way before was when I had left a gig forever.  There was this moment where you find an empty carton and fill it with the personal items you had accumulated at the office because you were never going to be int hat office again. I went from room to room looking for an empty box for odds and ends.  It really felt like a "clean out your desk" moment.  I have an intellectual appreciation that this was temporary, but on a gut level this errand felt very different from the first one.  We loaded up and slunk out of the building before we got busted.

I wonder if it is going to take more than opening up campus to put us on the path again.  Based on my last visit I think maybe something more fundamental has broken and will need to be rebuilt.

And we should unplug all those refrigerators.

Worth a Look

Here are a few posts from last weeks Greenpage that might be worth your time...

Dear White American Theater: #WeSeeYou Movement is 64,000 Strong and Counting

rescripted.org: The #WeSeeYou movement sweeping the nation is asking our theaters for accountability, and investments in anti-racism. The initial call to action was an open letter entitled “Dear White American Theater” launched at 7pm on June 9th. This letter invited the community to sign the petition in solidarity with this letter on www.weseeyouWAT.com. Since then they have received at the moment of this publishing over 64,000 signatures and counting.

Posted by David at 6/11/2020 08:54:00 AM

 

The Dangers of Optical Illusionary Performative Activism

The Theatre Times: Dear white folks (and institutions) seeking to be true allies,

Resist the urge to pat yourselves on the back.

This process is never-ending.

If the following makes you defensive …

Good.

Posted by David at 6/08/2020 01:51:00 PM

 

Resurgens: The Theater is Burning. We Should Let it Burn.

medium.com/@patrickrmyers: Located within Woodruff Park in Downtown Atlanta is a bronze monument. Dedicated in 1969 by The Rich Foundation, it was fashioned as a testament to the city of Atlanta’s resiliency after William T. Sherman burned its infrastructure to the ground during the Civil War. Ostensibly, it depicts a bird lifting a woman up and out of a raging fire. Aptly named Atlanta from the Ashes, it is better known by residents as The Phoenix. This ancient myth has become a symbol of Atlanta, both in its past as a city in flames, and its eventual future as a thriving metropolitan hub. This mythology is so intrinsic to Atlanta’s narrative that even its seal is an illustration of a phoenix. Atlanta’s motto? Resurgens, Latin for rising again.

Posted by David at 6/14/2020 04:27:00 PM

 

Cody Renard Richard on Experiencing Racism as a Broadway Stage Manager, and a Call to Allies

Playbill: Cody Renard Richard, a production stage manager whose credits include Hamilton, Freestyle Love Supreme, and Kinky Boots, has taken to social to share some of the various ways he has experienced racism while working on Broadway.

Posted by David at 6/09/2020 01:09:00 PM

 

Holding Theatre to Account

Exeunt Magazine: As protests against police violence, racism and white supremacy continue, both in the US and the UK, organisations of every kind have two different responses to make. One of these responses is public and immediate. It involves social media posts of support and solidarity with Black people, ones that can across as heartfelt or utterly hollow, depending on the track record that they’re built on.

Posted by David at 6/10/2020 04:43:00 PM

Ellipses...

I was going to write something from my list, but there was a protest march in front of my house and MSNBC says someone was shot and killed for being asleep in a Wendy's drive through.  Writing about the 290 calorie Ramen I've discovered just seems wrong...  In general I think a lot of these things could be helped by caring less.  Somehow all of these things have developed this monumental exigency.  It seems like thinking "whatever" and just waiting would do better for everyone...  Traffic stops are apparently a significant point of abrasion.  Is it possible to just have way less traffic stops?  Dead tail light - photo with dead tail light and license plate - ticket in the mail.  Caught speeding?  Photo with license and radar reading.  Ticket in the mail and text to a number associated with the license.  Cross the center line recklessly?  Onboard sensor notices, car gives you 15 seconds to pull over before cutting power.  We could have way less traffic stops without losing enforcement...  We had to explain to Gib5on what the protests are about.  I am not sure what the depth of his understanding might be at this age.  I hope by the time Sabian is the same age there won't be a reason to explain...  I am in a Facebook spat with a friend about the nature of the infection curve for COVID.  He seems to believe that the rise in cases is about a rise in testing.  The news I watch says otherwise.  But even if it is I'm not sure that means it is ok to loosen up the behavior restrictions...  I had a conversation with one of our Docs about our summer bubble.  He seemed to think that as long as the Allegheny County numbers continue to trend the way they have been that we should be ok.  That's what I had thought...  My boss says our new director of recruitment is going to work hard on diversifying the student cohort at work.  I think they are really over matched there.  We need a network, not a person; and that network can't serve multiple masters...  I know the police unions say that administrative hurdles are counterindicated as a way to modify behavior - that you don't want someone in a shoot/don't shoot situation to even have a part of their mind thinking about he additional paperwork.  There needs to be a way we can have both... 

DP Weekly Round Up

TECHNICAL DIRECTION

 

http://greenpagesod.blogspot.com/2020/06/todays-leatherman-charge.html

http://greenpagesod.blogspot.com/2020/06/two-recycled-woods-are-engineered-into.html

http://greenpagesod.blogspot.com/2020/06/modular-magnetic-multitool-is-only-what.html

http://greenpagesod.blogspot.com/2020/06/todays-leatherman-black-silver-wave.html

http://greenpagesod.blogspot.com/2020/06/nitecore-r25-rechargeable-flashlight.html

http://greenpagesod.blogspot.com/2020/06/todays-leatherman-tread-tempo-lt.html

http://greenpagesod.blogspot.com/2020/06/todays-leatherman-tread-tempo.html

http://greenpagesod.blogspot.com/2020/06/todays-leatherman-topo-signal.html

http://greenpagesod.blogspot.com/2020/06/todays-leatherman-charge-tti.html

http://greenpagesod.blogspot.com/2020/06/trending-griffin-mini-pocket-tool.html

http://greenpagesod.blogspot.com/2020/06/want-to-easily-keep-your-joist-hangers.html

http://cmuptm.blogspot.com/2020/06/culture-of-care-works-to-boost.html

http://cmuptm.blogspot.com/2020/06/kobalt-xtr-24v-5-tool-combo-kit-review.html

 

STAGE & PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT

 

http://greenpagesod.blogspot.com/2020/06/actors-equity-association-will-host.html

http://greenpagesod.blogspot.com/2020/06/new-union-guidelines-tell-us-how-to.html

http://greenpagesod.blogspot.com/2020/06/with-no-live-performances-in-sight-some.html

http://greenpagesod.blogspot.com/2020/06/tennessee-rolls-out-new-guidelines-for.html

http://greenpagesod.blogspot.com/2020/06/iatse-developing-protocols-for-safely.html

http://greenpagesod.blogspot.com/2020/06/youll-master-microsoft-excel-and-power.html

http://greenpagesod.blogspot.com/2020/06/los-angeles-sets-rules-for-tv-and-film.html

http://cmuptm.blogspot.com/2020/06/los-angeles-county-approved-film-and-tv.html

http://cmuptm.blogspot.com/2020/06/actors-equity-association-says-texass.html

http://cmuptm.blogspot.com/2020/06/cody-renard-richard-on-experiencing.html

http://cmuptm.blogspot.com/2020/06/porn-industry-testing-system-could-help.html

http://cmuptm.blogspot.com/2020/06/actors-equity-responds-to-new-jobs.html

 

LIGHTING DESIGN

 

http://greenpagesod.blogspot.com/2020/06/project-interview-josephine-dimalibot.html

http://greenpagesod.blogspot.com/2020/06/project-interview-joy-wong.html

http://greenpagesod.blogspot.com/2020/06/project-interview-rinnin-kositanont.html

http://greenpagesod.blogspot.com/2020/06/impulses-for-restarting-event-industry.html

http://greenpagesod.blogspot.com/2020/06/showtime-sound-creates-virtual-beach.html

http://greenpagesod.blogspot.com/2020/06/your-interview-qingzhu-li.html

http://greenpagesod.blogspot.com/2020/06/robe-pointes-to-dw-stadium.html

http://greenpagesod.blogspot.com/2020/06/a2c5t-celebrates-25-years-with-light.html

http://greenpagesod.blogspot.com/2020/06/sully-new-classic-by-robert-juliat.html

http://cmuptm.blogspot.com/2020/06/vectorworks-inc-ma-lighting-and-robe.html

 

SOUND DESIGN

 

http://greenpagesod.blogspot.com/2020/06/d-soundscape-builds-on-market-leading.html

http://greenpagesod.blogspot.com/2020/06/renkus-heinz-unveils-new-iconyx-compact.html

http://greenpagesod.blogspot.com/2020/06/pride-through-our-eyes.html

http://cmuptm.blogspot.com/2020/06/black-technicians-matter.html

http://cmuptm.blogspot.com/2020/06/taking-daily-walks-make-it-immersive.html

 

COSTUME PRODUCTION

 

http://greenpagesod.blogspot.com/2020/06/4-reasons-theatrelovers-should-buy.html

 

SCENE DESIGN

 

http://greenpagesod.blogspot.com/2020/06/tales-from-scenic-artist-and-scholar_7.html

http://greenpagesod.blogspot.com/2020/06/tales-from-scenic-artist-and-scholar.html

 

VMD

 

http://cmuptm.blogspot.com/2020/06/as-coronavirus-slows-hollywood.html

 

BONUS ARTICLE

 

http://greenpagesod.blogspot.com/2020/06/the-best-25-college-drama-programs.html

 

 

STAY HOME – STOP THE SPREAD – SAVE LIVES

 

Gate Upgrade

One of the things you have to do when you have kids is danger proof your home as best you can.  We have a staircase in the center of our home that isn't the most baby friendly piece of architecture, so it needs a gate to keep the kid from making an ascent.

Most of the gates you can get now are based on an expansion concept.  The gate presses out against each end to provide resistance to pushing the gate out of the way.  This is great for a door opening or someplace along a hallway (we have a couple other gates installed in those situations) but are not so great for a staircase where one or the other end of the gate is relying on a freestanding newel post.  In that situation pushing out on the support just pushes the structure outward.  You probably can rig the thing with enough oomph to hold in place, but the fact of the matter is in doing so you are slowly but surely damaging the stair railing.

So for that scenario you need to find some other kind of gate.  In the Gib5on iteration of this solution I managed to find a kind of accordion type gate and MacGyver a mount for it.  You can kind of see what is going on here:

In order to mount this I cut two pieces of 1x2 and drilled them the long way to accept zipties (you can barely see one of those pretty much at the end of his nose).  The 1x2 was soft mounted to the structure so as not to damage it and then the included mounting hardware was hardmounted to the 1x2.

This worked reasonably enough and so now in the Sabian iteration of the project I went looking for the gate and the stupid hardware I'd made last time.  Search as I might I couldn't find it.  I eventually came to the conclusion that it must have been in the garage last spring when we had a little bit of a sewer backup and consequently must have gotten some ick on it - and therefore went into the dumpster.  So much for that.

We needed a replacement.  I went to the home center looking for the identical gate so as to repeat the earlier installation.  If you know anything about home centers you will not be surprised to know that I was unsuccessful.  They didn't have this gate (I bet I could have found one at Target or something.  It is a fairly common piece of gear).

They did have this:

This, lo and behold, is a gate designed exactly for the installation circumstances I was just explaining - bearing on the newel post of a staircase.  They have designed and manufactured the adapter hardware I had bush-fixed myself in the earlier round.  Instead of drilled out 1x2 there is a steel adapter piece that mounts to the newel post with adhesive and straps.  The straps are somewhat more formidable than the zipties I had used, and the fastener actually includes a ratchet mechanism; making it simpler to tension the belt (which was an annoying part of using zipties).

Here's the installation in place here:

The straps are also preferable over zipties because the buckle has a release capability, so when you install them backward such that the extra is in front you can take them off without damaging them and turn it around so the installation is cleaner.

I went back and forth over the adhesive.  It probably isn't necessary for proper function but I put it in anyway.  I'm hoping at the end I can get it removed without damaging the finish on the newel.  We'll see - in like three years.

The gate is oak.  The architecture is maple.  You can't have everything I guess.  It doesn't look too out of place, and even wrong it is way more spiffy than the raw pine of the Gib5on installation.

We'll see how it holds up.

Ellipses...

Yesterday's post was the first truly substantive thing I have posted here in quite some time...  We call the expanded bubble we've created "Camp Corona."  If I can find a package of iron on transfers I may make up some t-shirts...  We landed a Bob double stroller for free off of Nextdoor.  On its own that probably justifies whatever time I've put into that site...  I can't decide who to follow on Instagram.  Is it supposed to be more like Facebook or more like Twitter?  And who should I follow on Twitter anyway?  And why had Facebook become so much less about friends and so much more about Groups?  Isn't that what LinkedIn is for?  Maybe it is time to declare social media bankruptcy...  My email archiving continues.  I've created a new folder for my workflow.  I now have a "triage" folder.  It goes someplace between Inbox and ToDo...  I put a prompt up on Facebook that has over 200 comments.  I feel so successful.  That's a problem...  I've been to Lowe's twice this week.  I should probably do some kind of project to justify that...  There was another D&I town hall tonight.  More and more questions.  Not too many solutions.  We'll have to keep working...  Gib5on has an iPod Touch but he doesn't know about it.  Let's not tell him...  Now that there's been one Bagel post I need to decide if there should be a dozen more...  I've pretty much stopped watching MSNBC at night.  Lately I've just listened to them on the Echo while I do stuff like this.  The content doesn't lose much for not having pictures...  I think Costume Production people are going to find up being banned from the #NFTRW Podcast.  It isn't up to me, but I will be disappointed if that's what happens...  The "CrowdSource" class for the fall might have almost reached critical mass.  Hopefully that will turbocharge it into something really cool...  There are now 16 TANBI idea post-its at my desk.  And yet here I am again doing an Ellipses...  I almost bought a screwdriver today but I really don't need another screwdriver, even if the bit storage on it is pretty cool.  I did buy SAE and metric 3/8 drive hex keys.  The assembly instructions for the soon to arrive bike seem to require them...  It took two days but someone picked up the outgoing USPS package I had.  Or maybe someone stole it.  If that's what it was they will be disappointed...  I finished the Sunny Randal book I've been reading for like forever.  Next up it looks like I'll be moving on the the prequel book from the CBS Picard series...  This week should show significant progress in the basement fit out.  Maybe I'll take some pictures...

Bagel

Today I called it a year on the email for academic 19-20.  Usually I archive everything and start new folders at the end of May.  The way things have been going this year it took me a little longer to get to it.  Folders in my email typically are 1920_Something or F19_Something or S20_Something.  Next years folders will be 2021_Something (That we're into academic 2021 is something else altogether.  If you asked me what year it was 20 years ago I would probably say like 1987.)  One of the folders I archived today was different.  It was just called "bagel."

There's this episode of The West Wing where they are talking about a likely economic downturn and in the midst of the discussion somebody says "recession" and everyone else in the meeting harps on him for using the word.  (The audio here isn't great.)

The idea is that if you use the word recession you give the idea life and so instead you use a placeholder word to be able to talk about the thing without helping to make it real.

Several years ago I got sick.  Not sick like a cold, sick where my life was in jeopardy and a significant disruption of my day to day was required to protect my life.  I haven't really posted much about it here or on Twitter or on Facebook.  There have been some oblique references here and there, but really to know what was going on you had to really know what was going on.  Partly it just never seemed like the right kind of thing to talk about online.  Partly not talking about it was a way to try to keep from fueling it.

There were hundreds of emails associated with the process of getting through the thing.  Emails to and from docs.  Emails to and from insurance carriers.  Emails to and from work.  Lots of travel emails, coordination with airlines and hotels and babysitters.  At the end of the thing I had a stack of papers in a cabinet that was probably 18 inches tall.  Mrs. TANBI and I had a shared Evernote notebook with hundreds of documents.  Those two together probably couldn't even begin to touch the total amount of correspondence.

I am fairly anal about email as you might be able to tell from the annual archiving and the folder naming conventions.  So I needed a place to put all these emails, but somehow a folder called "Medical" or "Doctors" or God forbid "CANCER" seemed a little too on the nose.  And following the West Wing rule putting that name on it would give it power.  So once again following the West Wing rules I called the folder "Bagel."

Today I archived the "Bagel" folder.

It took a very long time to take that step.  A lot about being sick this way puts you in a frame of mind where you don't want to jinx something.  There's lots of tests and they never really use the word "cured."  You just don't want to tempt fate.  Even writing this feels... foolish.

To put it in perspective, at one point I went to the hospital for a scan - what was supposed to be the last scan for a while, the magical one where they give you the best news they give you.  I had done this trip a handful of times now but this time I booked the airfare as aggressively as I could.  I only planned one hotel night.  I'd never done that before.  That turned out to be tempting fate and when they did the scan they thought they saw something, one night became five.  One scan became a scan and a needle biopsy and a surgical biopsy.  I had to go to Target to buy clothes.  I'd only packed for one day.  It turned out to be nothing.  I couldn't help but think if I hadn't planned so aggressively that the process would have gone more smoothly.

On that same trip I remember being happy because I had finally remembered to bring my earbuds.  When you do a scan you get a tracer injection and then you have to sit quietly for a half hour but they don't want you to read or watch video.  The previous times I had done it I had always forgotten my earbuds, but this time I had remembered.  Shuffling the songs on my phone, the last song I heard before going in for the scan was Melissa Etheridge: "I Run For Life."  That's her anthem for cancer survival.  It felt like a sign.  I think I tweeted at her that I was going in for my last scan and that hearing that song was an omen.  You know me, I don't smile much.  When that song came on I smiled ear to ear.  That was tempting fate.  I already told you what happened.

So you don't tempt fate and you don't do anything to give it life.  I've been ostensibly clear for a long time but that bagel folder stayed in my personal portion of the folder tree for year after year while other emails were archived.

Until today.  Here's hoping that isn't tempting fate.