The one that got away

So I've been told about ten times in the last two days that I'm slacking in the blog department these days. I got it. I can take a hint. Problem is, we're now going on what, two weeks? where the "next" blog might fall into the category of "the one that got away"...

A few woulda been, coulda been blogs that have run through (and out) of my head over the last couple of weeks ...

• the total decimation of my prized, grown-from-seed basil plants by some very hungry, very naughty natural predator
• the joys of unexpectedly receiving a $500 check in the mail for energy you inadvertently saved through the winter months (joys made all that much sweeter when such a check arrives the same day you realise you quite literally have $9 - that's right N-I-N-E measly buckaroos to your name until payday ... still 12 days away)
  
• effective and little known strategies for dealing with surprisingly persistent peeping tom voyeurs
  
• philosophical ponderings of a book review on the deeply depressing, clearly highly symbolic and entirely over my head Ensayo sobre la ceguera. If anyone can give me a Cliff's Notes explaination of this one I'm ready and waiting.
• continued strange but true tales of "All in a day's walk". Today's winner? (As I walk by) highly intelligent gawker guy: "Hey woman. You looking for a husband? Oh, wait, you walk with too much confidence to be a real woman, you must be looking for a girlfriend". Um, right. Heaven forbid we ladies should ever "walk with confidence" - we just might deprive our inner feminity.
  
• ten reasons why I am now blogging away in complete and utter darkness-save for the glow of my screen-and having conniption fits about the bugs in my bed

But alas, with the recent job change and many a long day now spent designing websites, integrating blogging, Twitter, FB and all the other social networking sites, and writing everything under the sun from official statements and speeches, to press releases, funding appeals, project proposals ..... I think it's safe to say that my creative (and especially writing) needs are now quite satisfied for the moment in ways never before seen. Totally and utterly zapped to be quite honest. But what with vacation just around the corner ... perhaps the next blog will actually stay on the line.

Breaking in the new diggs

Welcome to A (new and improved?!) Day in the Life Least Expected!

No, I have no idea what "arthemia" means and, yes, I fully agree that the dang white boxes in the footer are about as obnoxious as they come, but (clearly) this is a work in progress. I'm hoping to finishing migrating all of the last three years' worth of posts from the old Wordpress site soon and then I'll be shutting it down for good. While I know it's annoying when your favorite peeps change their address, I'm hoping this will be the first and last move for A Day in the Life, making it easier for you to follow, better for me to blog and, sometime down the road when it truly become ineviteable, less painful to turn the blog private. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be able to move over any of the great comments you've left in the past, so I suppose it's time to get a fresh start (hint, hint). In the meantime, make yourself at home ... and let me know what you think.

(PS And if anyone else has used the arthemia code before and knows the magic trick to replacing the logo code and/or removing obnoxious white boxes ... my ears are ALL yours!)

Ode to my electric toothbush

Oh, how I missed you, dear toothbrush! I know, I know, mom and sissy painstakingly tried to convince me of your worth for months on months on months on end, me thinking you only an expensive, consumerist gimmick. The first time I tried you, my lips went numb, my gums tickled ... my sister laughed. And yet, after that first time, well, you know what they say, once you go electric you'll never go back - I, Little Miss Anti-Electric Toothbrush herself, bought an electric toothbrush.

How could I help it? Every time I brush with you, it is like getting a relaxing massage. My gums grow strong, my teeth sparkle; my tongue is a happy being. Oh, how proud my mother and dentist must be!

After a week of long work days in 10,000% humidity and dust, after a week of adrenaline rushes amid close-by suicide bombings and near constant military checkpoint searches, after a week of mouthwatering food so spicy that you unconsciously break out in a sweat in the company of fabulous new-found friends ... after more than twenty hours of travel to return home, I would imagine most people would be dreaming only of a hot shower and their own bed.

All I've dreamt of, however, is getting back to you, my electric toothbrush (well, among other people and things, of course). Home, sweet home indeed.

Cool happenings back home

Brag time! Can't help but be proud of my grandfather, dad and all the team at TRC for the great job designing and building such a great looking building for downtown Bremerton ... and of my two (younger!) cousins for starting, not just any business, but a new clean technology development company, Distributed Energy Management, to be headquartered there!

New downtown Bremerton building gets its first three tenants

By Rachel Pritchett

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

BREMERTON — The new red-brick office building downtown with its signature rounded corner — unofficially called the Sixth and Pacific Building — is getting its first tenants.They include Group Health, a new clean-tech company called Distributed Energy Management, and an Edward Jones investment office.The Sixth and Pacific Building was built by Tim Ryan Construction and is owned by Tim Ryan Properties. It is across Pacific from the Norm Dicks Government Center and next to the Admiral Theatre.

Group Health Bremerton Behavioral Health Services, currently located off Kitsap Way and Highway 3 near a Dairy Queen, will relocate to the 44,000-square-foot building by the summer.It will occupy 6,000 square feet of space on the second floor of the four-story building.A Group Health spokeswoman said the new space is more accessible to mental-health patients referred from its medical centers in Silverdale, Port Orchard and Poulsbo.

“It’s just better access for our patients,” Katie McCarthy said.It is a lateral move for Group Health. It will occupy the same amount of space now, and its current staff will relocate but not expand.That staff includes four doctors, seven counselors, a psychologist and a nurse practitioner.Current patients will receive notices before the move is made.

Distributed Energy Management, which will occupy the entire top floor, is a “smart-grid” business that monitors the flow of electricity both at the user end and at the utility end to achieve better efficiency. The company was started last month by local brothers Jason and Peter Crabtree, and Jimmy Jia.

“We are very pleased to conclude our lease agreement with Tim Ryan, and look forward to establishing Bremerton and Kitsap County as a leader in clean-technology development,” said Peter Crabtree, DEM vice president.

Brian Galvin, DEM technology officer, said upgrades of electrical systems are urgently needed around the world, and his company plans to work with others in Western Washington to make the region a smart-grid leader.A company statement said proximity to the ferry will help with commutes to Seattle.

The Edward Jones investment company will close an office on Kitsap Way near Arnold’s and move around May, according to Marcia Marx, the Edward Jones financial adviser there. It will occupy space on the first floor.

Representatives of all three tenants said they are excited to be part of the downtown revitalization.

“I just love the prospects of downtown ... and I want to be a part if it,” Marx said.

To be, or not to be? You decide.

All right. It's been a long time in coming and it's finally up for an official, democratic vote. Should A day in the life least expected go private? To be sure, both public and private has its pros and cons ...

If you haven't noticed, the little cluster map widget on the bottom of the home page pays tribute to possibly unsuspecting visitors from all over the globe. Sounds like a tremendous invasion of privacy until you realize that all but perhaps one of those non-US (as well as non-Spanish and non-Swiss) blobs are not international peeping toms, but rather either Marcel or I in our travels. Almost like new-age postcards, we started a tradition of logging on wherever we may be (ok, maybe more him than me) just to get a new blob. That said, and as spread out as friends are in the States, there ARE a lot of unaccounted US peeping tom blobs ...

Perhaps the greatest plus to going private is a corresponding ability to "speak more freely", namely perhaps, in the area of work, which could potentially get (yet?) more exciting as the liklihood of my going to work somewhere "in the field" this spring becomes more and more real. And I would know each and every person checking in for the latest and greatest news (no, it wouldn't become a popularity game - honestly, I like having readers, so if your name sounds even remotely familiar, I'd let' cha in ;-)

Those of you who run live RSS feeds to see when the blog had been updated might be a little put off by the fact that (I don't think) RSS feeds would be available any longer under private status, and live feeds from public pics posted on Flickr would no longer function. Once I "invite" you to the blog, you would need to sign in to read, though I'm not sure if it would be every time or just the first time.

So what do you think? Continue as is as a public and slightly tight-lipped venture, or take the leap to freedom and go private? Let me know ... go vote!

Keeping in touch in this brave new world

"Ever-more-real virtual encounters could make us forget what we are missing ... the smell of a grandmother’s cooking, the warmth of an embrace. In interviews, older grandchildren who video chat with grandparents say they visit them less, feeling that they have already “seen” them".

I read a great article in the paper (can we still really say "in the paper" if we read it on-line?) the other day by NY Times columnist Amy Harmon that I just can't quite seem to get out of my mind.

Quite frankly, as one who's far away from family at the moment, I love the latest (and greatest?) techno-communications "schtuff" ... Skype, blogs, Facebook ... Thanks to these "tools", I find that I feel closer than ever to the daily ups, downs, excitements and disappointments in the lives of close family and friends. I often feel terrible for being the "long lost stranger-sister" to my littlest sister in particular, and seem to think that somehow, "if we only used Skype", it would take the "M" out of big sister M.I.A. That said, I have always said that joining Facebook is the number one best way to ruin your high school reunion ... I mean, really, why go at all if you already know what everyone is up to, how they are doing, what their kids' names are and what their partners look like?

But are we heading into a brave new world of distinctly inhuman relationships? Is video chat, blogging, etc poised to be the beginning of an end? What future is there for a generation of kids raised on "digital grandmas". And when it really comes down to it, when you "see" each other over the computer, does it lessen your "need" to see your loved ones live and in person?

"Some veterans of the technology fear that the video cam has started to substitute, rather than supplement, actual time together. Jennifer Ray, 24, of San Antonio, and her brother persuaded their parents to get a new computer so they could all video chat with their respective toddlers on split screens from different states. Now the siblings commiserate about their mother’s unwillingness to travel".