the ides of March

Hey, really glad tomorrow is March 1st, means closer to spring ( if such a season exists in chicago) and then summer, which means the ability to journey outside without fear of the cold.

It's been quite a productive and enjoyable evening, after dinner N&J and I piled in the car and drive to play at an indoor play area, then went to borders bookstore, just to browse this time because we eaach picked something out there last Sunday, then home for bath and storytime, then after the girls are cosily tucked in bed, A. went to find something to watch on the basement tv while I did a nice run outside, thinkind during most of the run how refreshing it will be for the snow and cold to be gone- running in layers kinda makes me perspirean awful lot. I really love running though not so much in this weather.

Since I finished "the grays" i am now reading another library book, "terminal" by robin cook who is known for also writing 'coma", guess it could be described as a 'medical thriller'. It's good and some of it is set in Boston which I enjoy. Noticed most of the books I have borrowed from the library lately have been very quick reads but that is ok and exactly what I need since whenever I read my programming textbook I discover myself re-reading paragraph after pararaph.


the Red Sox tied the twins 4-4 in their first spring training game, Schilling pitched well.

My girls are always so entertaining, their new saying for tonight was "Dad I love you with all my heart". And N. amde it a point to tell me incessantly that she was very very good today. I told them they are great girls and me and mommy are really lucky they are our children, they like hearing things like this of course.

Three notable events in March are the birthday for my sister J. and also the celebration of St. Pat's Day, and...Brett Anderson's first solo album is released towards the end of the month, I just pre-ordered it and the single (with b-sides) today via amazon.uk ( he has no american record contract, surprise, surprise, why di I always love these artists with a cult following?).

Ok I am off to bed with visions of running wearing shorts and a sleeveless t, just can't wait...........

Holocaust survivors

WARSAW (Reuters) - When Miriam Schmetterling left Poland in 1946, she had no idea if she would ever see her home country again or meet the people who saved her life during the Holocaust.


On Tuesday, the 82-year-old Jewish woman, in Poland for the first time in 60 years, took part in a reunion of 60 Holocaust survivors and their rescuers in Warsaw, in one of the biggest such gatherings in Poland.

She met Jozefa Czekaj-Tracz, who as a 15-year-old Polish girl helped hide her from the Nazis for almost a year. People hiding Jews risked a death penalty under the Nazi occupation.

"She was a little girl then but she already knew that she had to do everything not to let anyone discover the six Jews hiding in her house's attic," Schmetterling told Reuters.

"Jozefa played the piano each time visitors came to make sure they couldn't hear noises which came from the attic. She knew we could have all died."

Jozefa Czekaj's parents took Schmetterling and her family to their house in a town near the city of Lviv, now in Ukraine, to protect them from the Nazis, who invaded the city in 1941.

"Germans were killing people and we knew that is what had to be done," Czekaj said after the meeting. "If I was in the same situation now, I would do it again."

At the start of World War Two, Lviv, with the largest Jewish community in Poland, was controlled by the Soviet Union after a non-aggression pact between Hitler and Stalin.

Poland had the biggest Jewish population in Europe until the war but the murder of millions in the Holocaust by the occupying Germans and an anti-Semitic campaign by postwar communist authorities left only a few thousand Jews in the country.

Since the end of communism, Polish governments have tried to rebuild relations with the Jewish community overseas and many thousands of Jews visit the land of their parents and grandparents each year.

Many in Poland were incensed by accusations of complicity with the Nazis, who killed 3 million ethnic Poles and razed Warsaw to the ground.

UNRESOLVED PROBLEMS

Polish officials have launched a campaign to remind the world that while some Poles informed on Jews to the Germans in return for money, others risked their own lives to save them.

The biggest single group of the so-called "Righteous Among the Nations" at the Yad Vashem Institute are Poles.

But many issues between Poles and Jews remain unresolved.

On Wednesday, a delegation of Holocaust survivors will meet Polish government officials to press them to compensate them for property confiscated by the communists.

Poland, the biggest post-communist EU member, is the only country from eastern Europe, besides Belarus, which has not enacted a program for the restitution of property seized after the war. Several attempts to solve the issue after 1989 have failed, mostly on grounds of cost.

"It is a matter of fairness and just," Gideon Taylor, Vice President of the Claims Conference, which organized the meeting, told Reuters. "These people are very old and cannot wait. Time is not on our side."

Poland's ruling conservatives have promised to pass a new law to allow some compensation, but many claimants say that a government proposal to compensate only 15 percent of the lost property is inadequate.

movie night

The whole family went to the movies tonight, we saw "the bridge to terabithia" it was very well done though most likely N&J are too young for some of the subject matter. J. had tons of questions and N was very sad.

I wish I could convince the whole family to go for a bowling and pizza night, maybe this will happen someday.

I am off to bed now.

Oh and it snowed again today, I am sick of shovelling.

When I close my eyes I can see me and the girls running outside and playing soccer. It will be here soon, yes it will.

power loss

Snow,rain,ice,snow. Lots of shoveling and we lost powere at our house late Sat night/early Sunday morning, we had no power until 3pm, which meant we missed all the early masses and meeting P and E for brunch/play date.

N&J amused themselves they created more of their "books" and they wore sweatshirts and we got lots of blankets out of the closet.

We were so happy when the power was back, we drove to the grocery store and got some provisions, ate and read, relaxed. Got something new, an organic pot pie with broccoli and cheese, believe me it tasted wasy better than it sounds. I need to buy some more. Also stopped at the deli counter to get turkey slices and muenster cheese for lunches during the week.

I only have about 40 pages left in the grays novel which works out perfectly as it is due at the library tomorrow. Tuesday is now entrenched as our library day which is of course a pleasant diversion for all concerned.

Friday class was decent, we got back lots of our early scores for the first third of the class, and I got mainly A grades on my programs and written assignments and an 89 on the first exam.

A and I still have not watched the dvd of the prestige though hope to get to that this week sometime, I ran so many nights last week and whenever I returned home she was fixated on a different movie so no luch with the prestige yet. we figure we will like it since we liked the illusionist so much.

some cool highlights from the weekend were walking during the sat night snowstorm and the girls each took sticks and kept writing their initials and also arrows, when I asked them about it they said it was a map so we could find our way home.

and then yesterday morning they covered me with their bathrobes and we all staye together in N's bed for quite a while which ended up warming us all up, we talked, laughed a bit and were all content.

so all is well, back at work now and looking forward to friday, we are about to start object oriented programming supposedly whatver that means, we did functions last week and hopefully soon will do arrays, the prof keeps talking about showing us arrays but never does!

looking forward to summer for the warm weather and more freer running outside, and bbqs, just a few more weeks hopefully and we will be there.

Brett Anderson writes about his childhood

Dog Man Star is my favorite album, Brett has a new album due out end of March. I found this article, the bulk of it written by the man himself. It is interesting, I knew he grew up poor, and I learned more by reading this:

A singer-songwriter with impeccable credentials, Brett Anderson remains one of music's heavyweight performers. Having spearheaded the 1990's indie scene with Suede's blueprint for Britpop and re-established one of the world's greatest song-writing partnerships with The Tears, he returns to the fore as an accomplished and independent new artist. On March 26 Brett Anderson will unveil his self-titled album via Drowned In Sound in the UK.

Before his several sold out dates take place across the pond, Brett sat down and wrote us an exclusive feature that talks about growing up in Haywards Heath, and the effect his family had on his art. This is a two-part piece, with an exclusive interview to follow.

+++

I was born just after the Summer of Love of 1967 in the upstairs bedroom of a tiny council house in Haywards Heath; a grey little train stop of a town between London and Brighton. To most people the 60's meant free love and mini - skirts but to my parents it was all rented furniture, Lino and pregnancy tests. My mum was a dressmaker and part time artist and my dad was a postman at the time but managed to drift from job to dead end job until he eventually settled as a cab driver.

It was a strange upbringing and one that didn't fit in with the usual class stereotypes (though whose really does?). We were an abjectly poor family but we lived in a safe and leafy part of England. Most of my friends' dads worked in insurance or something but mine was a swimming-pool attendant one week and a window cleaner the next. There was never any money around so it was the kind of house where if you wanted something you made it yourself. Our mum sewed all our clothes, made the curtains and blinds and painted the paintings on the walls and our dad busied himself making all the furniture. He even made himself a pair of speakers out of which blasted a constant rumble of Gustav Mahler and Hector Berlioz. We lived in a council estate by a rubbish dump so I spent most of my child-hood picking through other people's discarded stuff, climbing on their broken 'fridges and playing with their smashed TVs. there was always an obsolete household appliance to fuel our children's games. Someone even once dumped a knackered rowing boat, which my little friends and me spent most of the summer in pretending we were pirates.

My dad was a child of the Empire, born in the early 40's to a military family and very proud to be an English Royalist. As my granddad was stationed in India, my dad grew up in a very old-school colonial environment. He always wore a suit and tie, saluted the TV at the end of the night when they used to play the national anthem and even fixed a flagpole to our tiny council house so he could run- up the Union Jack. I even used to think that he secretly arranged my conception so that i was born on Horatio Nelson's birthday, one of his elite group of heroes which also included Winston Churchill and the romantic composer Franz Liszt. Every couple of years he would drive his ancient, tatty Morris Traveller (look it up on Google) to Hungary and bring back a bag of soil from Liszt's birthplace. Liszt was his religion. Once when on jury service he refused the bible and insisted on swearing his oath on a biography of his hero.



My mum was from a rural Sussex family and had more happily embraced the zeitgeist of the 60's. She learnt to paint and draw at an art college in Brighton and had much less conservative tastes than my dad. While he was downstairs engrossed in his Wagner Operas, she was upstairs painting or sewing and listening to the Rolling Stones on her tinny little plastic cassette player or wandering through the gentle Sussex countryside, documenting it's simple beauty with her brush.

I guess my path in life as an artist was very much a result of the synthesis of these two personalities and the unique world they created for me and my sister Blandine (named after Franz Liszt's daughter of course). It's easy to see myself as a blend between my father's obsessive love of music and my mother's creativity. But looking back there were other aspects of my childhood that I have learned to treasure. I am especially proud of the way we were never taught to worship money. Value was defined through art and beauty and even though life was a struggle for my family it was always something other than money that was the goal. In this crushingly greedy and materialistic society, I am honored to have been raised in this eccentric but precious way. My only regret is that I never managed to tell either of my parents that while they were still alive.

Well, I can't really think of a neat way to end this. I did enjoy writing it though. My dad died recently and it set me off on a huge emotional journey. After sorting through his meager possessions in the little house where we were raised and spending hours poring over old photo albums I had a period of intense reflection about life and death, my childhood and my place in the world. Years of being in a successful band keeps you in a state of emotional immaturity, your development on pause, and it is only recently that I have taken control of my life and felt the need to confront and ask questions of my self and my past, where I have come from and ultimately where I am going.

Brett Anderson, London, Feb 2007

Warm

Supposedly it is 40 degrees outside right now. I am going to go out right now and confirm.

haircut

It truly is amazing how much attention Britney Spears is getting for shaving her hair.

I tried twice ot get a haircut yesterday with no success- first time it was too busy, second time they were closed.

Italian Night

At Mass on Sunday we learned there would be an Italian night, with spaghetti, salad, garlic bread, and a raffle.So N&J and I all went, J. loved the spaghetti and N. loved the salad. I lvoed everything, we all had lots of fun and then we took a long walk. The weather finally warmed up some.

I am about half done reading the new Whitley Streiber novel, "the Grays", it's good though fairly depressing....tonight we are all going out with A. for Polish food.

I ran sat and sun on the treadmill and drank tons of water, feeling a bit better though havin glots of recurring migraines for some odd reason. When this happened years ago it got so bad I went to the doctor and he prescriber some kind of medicine/tablets I took, I might need to do so again if this does not go away.

The first exam at schhol went fairly well I think, it was longer than I thought and had two parts- a written exam with word definitions and multiple choice followed by a programming exam where we had to write and compile a program. I know I got the program right and all the word definitions, but I think I missed one or two of the multiple choice, hopefully the exam will be graded by Friday so I can find out my score.

The replacement diner, Carriage House, which replaced the Fireman Restaurant, is now open and N&J are thrilled, it was way too busy Sunday so we drove by and decided we will try and go next weekend if possible.

The thing that is facinating me the most recently is the many carefully thought out questions that J. asks me. I really am so proud.

bitter cold/youtube/eraserhead/twins enjoy the snow

It is -18 right now and likely was even colder when I drive to work. My hands hurt when touching the steering wheel so I wore gloves. It is awful. Typically I love winter though this year for the first time in my life I am not fully enjoying it and am eagerly looking forward to summer and baseball, tanning, and cookouts.

I am a huge fan of youtube! I watched quite a few short films of Lynch and Eraserhead on dvd, then proceeded to go to youtube and watch practiucally all of the final episode of Twin Peaks. Cooper's spirit possession still bothers me, but noticing the similarities between Eraserhead and the Black Lodge/ Red Room of Twin Peaks was fascinating- the floor in the lobby of Eraserhead is the same as the red room, that black and white zigzag pattern. And Jack Nance is the star of Eraserhead, a young 1977 Jack Nance, the same Jack Nance who discovers the body and has the first line in Twin Peaks. I found that very cool. I had never seen Eraserhead, watched it twice. It's fairly disturbing though a lot easier to understand than Inland Empire or some episodes of Twin Peaks. The thing I have discovered is not necessarily by repeated watching but by thinking about it I have figured out lots of the mysteries and I like to think meanings in a lot of this stuff. It's enjoyable.

First exam tonight at class so am nervous. Fortunate to get the "A" in the first class so the overall average will remain decent. If I can esacpe with a "B" in this calss I will consider myself fortunate.

N&J have so much homework! I do not recall ever having any homework to do in kindergarden, they have to read about 4 books per week on their own, and they have written assignments, mainly practicing writing the alphabet and also cutting and pasting pictures, checking that they match other picutres(example- rug/bug)

They have been enjoying sledding and playing in the snow. A. and I created a massive hill of snow in our front yard and when I shoveled the other day I kept adding more and more snow to it while N. watched in the window, she was very pleased about this.

David Lynch uses Macs!

Yet another reason to love the guy! -CW

David Lynch launches new site with Macs and 4D
by Jim Dalrymple

David Lynch, director of Hollywood cult classics for TV and
the big screen,today officially launched his new Web site.
Lynch, a big Mac fan, utilized software from 4D Inc.,
Macromedia's Flash, as well as hardware and software
from Apple to build and maintain the Web site. With his
reputation secure as one of the most original and unusual
directors in film today, David Lynch's career spans three
decades. Lynch first came to public notice in the late 1970's
with the release of the cult film Eraserhead. His credits also
include the mid-80's film noir Blue Velvet and the offbeat
television series (and later motion picture) Twin Peaks.
Lynch's dark and often violent vision continued through the
1990s to today with movies including Wild at Heart, Lost
Highway and Mulholland Drive.

Lynch is running his site on 14 G4s using WebStar, 4th
Dimension database and the 4D Business Kit, all from
4D Inc. The WebSTAR Server Suite features Web, FTP,
Mail and Proxy servers integrated in a modular application,
with secure, IP-based remote administration. WebSTAR V
will take advantage of the speed and stability of Mac OS X,
according to Brendan Coveney, 4D president and CEO.
The recently released 4D Business Kit includes tools to
build online catalogs, shopping carts, payment systems,
tax calculation, shipping, customer management and
order tracking. The package includes two stores, with five
store expansion packs also available. 4th Dimension is
a relational database and the company's flagship product.

Eric Bassett, the designer of DavidLynch.com, spent some
time recently in Beverly Hills to talk to us about the project
and David's choice of equipment. Bassett has worked
very closely with 4D to create a site integrating all of the
company's technologies. "There wasn't anyone even close
to WebStar," Bassett told MacCentral. "I really like using this
software. "4D is great because of its scalability and the
application they created for us is just unbelievable."Other
companies were interested in working with Lynch to help
produce video for the site, stream content and setup
equipment, but they went with Apple because Lynch uses
Macs.

Lynch also learned how to use Final Cut Pro himself, so
he could edit video for the DVDs he will sell on the Web site.
All of the DVDs were made using DVD Studio Pro. "The
Internet is here, an infinite world of freedom. To express
ideas in the ether. Apple is also here and they have helped
us immeasurably. Apple products have been key for the
creation and maintenance of DavidLynch.com," Lynch told
MacCentral.

The Web site will also feature Pay Per View shows inside
the member's area. Some of the features will be shown
free for members. The shows will be streamed using
Apple's own QuickTime, another favorite of Lynch and
Bassett. "All of the video delivery will be in QuickTime
streamed over an Akamai network," Bassett said.

Polar Bear Story!

from the Boston Globe Sunday February 11, 2007:

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - As first dates go, this one didn't end well. A male polar bear who was trying to court a female polar bear apparently pushed her over the edge of a 14-foot drop while playing this week, Memphis Zoo officials said.

Cranbeary, the 5-year-old female, had surgery Saturday to insert two steel plates and 26 screws to repair a broken leg.

Payton, the 3-year-old male, is on loan from the Brookfield Zoo in Illinois as part of a breeding program. This may be both bears' first romance, and it got a little awkward, said Matt Thompson, mammal curator.

Zoo officials said Cranbeary is in heat, which could have led to Payton's aggressive behavior. A visitor reported seeing him tussling with her atop the cliff before she fell.

Cranbeary will stay in her cage for at least 10 weeks until her leg is strong enough to return to the exhibit, zoo officials said.

Party girls

Quite a busy weekend, after Polish school there was a bowling themed birthday party for one of N&j's friends, included pizza and cupcakes, they enjoyed bowling, it was their first time playing. Sunday we practiced numbers and reading and also attended a square dance which was fathers and daughters only for their girl scouts troop. It was lots and lots of dancing- outstanding cardio. We all enjoyed ourselves, and got lemonade and cookies too.

Personally, I read some stories from "Cathedral" Raymond Carver, finished the first 3 of 6 programs for homework, watched 5 of the 7 Twin Peaks season one episodes, three more Desperate Housewives with A., and finally, also saw Flags of Their Fathers- which I enjoyed though did not think it was as effective a war story as Band of Brothers.

Also, the girls and I worked on cleaning the house today to surprise A.

AND I ran on the treadmill both Sat and Sun, which really made me feel good.

I started to go through my closet to organize and also decide what I no longer wear so I can give it to a local charity.

hmmm, what else. Oh I know, and this is really really cool- N. has been writing more and more stories, she spells out the words and writes them as she hears them, for example, she spells "house" as "howse". It is really cute, she wrote me a story, and she wrote it all using green markers, she said it is because she knows I like the color green!

that's about it for now. Pitchers and catchers report really soon, I am very excited about the team the Sox have- their pitching looks like one of the most solid staffs they have had in recent seasons.

Chill

It is -19 with the wind chill factor right now.

Yikes.

presents

Just learned A. got me a new lamp and a frame for my marathon picture! Hooray! :)

desperate housewives

We are now on disc 3 of 5, "Desperate Housewives" season 2, and the odd thing is that while I still like Susan(Teri Hatcher) she no longer is my favorite, she is just too scatterbrained. I like Bree and her inherent belief that all can be put to right by baking muffins or having a dinner party. And she took the time to make the bed after her husband died, she is just too much.

It is still terribly cold out here, we have tons of comforters, blakets, and pillow son the couch in the basement for our "housewives" viewing, and the cat hangs out with us which is comforting.

The bad thing for me personally lately is I am having daily headaches again- this happened a few years ago and it got so bad I had to go to the docotr who prescribed some special pills to alleviate it. NOt sure why it is happenening but it is very frustrating.

The good thing was A. had to do lots of shopping last night so after helping N&J finish their homework and reading them a story(about a dragon who learns how to blow bubbles) I hopped on the treadmill and did a bit more mileage than Sunday, so I felt kinda proud of myself. I just love these asics running shoes. I think they are better than Nike.

Oh and we watched Cinderella part 3 and the girls again were asking about going to Disney World for their birthday in May so A. and I need to figure out someway to make that happen. Jiminy Cricket is not around to help me by my wishing on a star!

All for now.

Freezing/super bowl/home

Everything is cool lately, with the exception being J. has scarlet fever. WE went to a neighbor's house for the Super Bowl, and had a good time and lots of bowls of chili. The temps out here are awful, it has been about -25 with wind chill the last few days. My car has been having trouble starting. Home is good, A. and I have been watching tons of Desperate Housewives season two, so far so good. I re-read about all of my Raymond Carver stories as a reward for all the reading for school, and wow so many of them are such downers, I bet Carver was not much fun at parties, he has a very bleak outlook on life and relationships.

Last week I finally grasped lots of the basics for the programming language so feel more confident in it. It is a challenging though very interesting class. Lots of projects and tons of reading, but enjoyable. In addition to programming,many of the students are into online gaming, world of witchcraft, etc. I have not played any of these games so usually am pretty quiet during breaks and the hour in the lab, just focussing on writing the programs and trying to improve. 3 of the 15 classes are done, it is neat how fast a 3 hour lecture can go when the professor is on a roll, which was the case last Friday.

N. was unbelievably attnetive to J. this weekend, bringing her cold ice water, extra blankets, and even magic markers and paper to draw. Very thoughtful. J. was quite weak Saturday, seemed somewhat better Sunday and today went to the Doctor and got medicine/antibiotics for the scarlet fever, ten days worth of doses.

hmmmm what else? Not much really, things are good at home, we just all are hoping the weather warms up, supposedly it will be 10 degress tomorrow with possibility of snow, so we will see.