Random events

Speaking Japanese?…hmm, I think so

March 18, 2012

I am on the bus, traveling around town from one meeting to the next. This bus is crowded and I am standing in the aisle, holding onto one of the overhead straps, looking around idly at the passengers. It is a random mixture of people, although heavy on the student side since it is the [...]

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Clouds

March 27, 2011

I was coming home on the ferry yesterday and stood on the upper deck watching the clouds. I was trying to understand how they were lit by the late afternoon sun since the sky was scattered with big, puffy white cumulus clouds against a background of streaky and shiny stratus clouds. I remember my father [...]

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In the rush to get to work

January 28, 2011

I am driving to work on an early Spring morning. I have gone through my usual routine: walk out the door, pull it shut behind me with cup of coffee in hand and computer bag over shoulder. I head towards my car, unlock the passenger side, put my coffee in the cup holder, put my [...]

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A virtual philosophy of money

January 11, 2011

What is money but trickery and obfuscation? Money is untrustworthy and shadowy, elusive and shape-shifting. Who really knows what its worth? Perhaps it is obvious I have never understood money. So this is a piece about what I know about money in an attempt to pin down something positive and useful about this currency that [...]

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When push comes to shove

January 8, 2011

I am sprinting to the station nearest my office to catch the train to a meeting in the East Bay. It is late in the afternoon, just before the rush but the carriages are already crowded with commuters, people leaving work early and many of them carrying bags of brightly wrapped gifts since it is [...]

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Life and surprises

January 2, 2011

The other night, I conducted an experiment amongst some of my friends. There were four people I told individually I had written a new poem. It is a poem of which I am rather proud. And not one of them asked me to read it. The closest one of my friends came was to ask [...]

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Some novelties never wear off

December 19, 2010

It is that time of year again. My name is everywhere and I try not to be too sensitive. I get off the ferry this morning and walk across the Embarcadero. A brass band is playing Christmas carols in a rather sad and lackluster way because the musicians are standing out in the cold and [...]

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Awesome…I think

October 13, 2010

I am waiting in line at my favorite coffee shop in Oakland. When my turn comes around, I order a non-fat latte and then stand aside to let the next and, by then, only other customer approach the counter. As she steps forward, she and the girl barista recognize each other. They express their surprise [...]

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It rafts, too? On the Milky Way?

September 9, 2010

Another meaningful sign on the ferry. This one adds weight to the one I posted earlier that simply says  ”Life rings.”

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Know your enemy

September 1, 2010

I have a friend who is a hunter. He likes to hunt deer with a bow and arrow. We had been trading phone calls because we had some things to discuss and, with our busy schedules, it has been difficult to connect. So he called me last Sunday morning from the cabin where he and [...]

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