Month: May 2009

This was in a recent New York Times article by John Markoff.  I think it was about artificial intelligence. Christ.  Do I have any brain cells left??  I read the article, what?  Yesterday?? Anyway, Markoff was writing about making predictions, and how everyone thought things were going to happen a lot sooner and he quotes futurist Paul Saffo saying, “never mistake a clear view for a short distance.”

I have to start making a list of ” truest true things ever,” and begin with that.  Brilliant.  Don’t you wish you were a smart person?  I wish I was a smart person.  Ugh.  Damnit.  I forgot that I’m trying to stop noticing my failings and instead focus on the positive.  Well, I noticed that I noticed my failings, that’s good. Can’t stop if you don’t even notice when you’re doing it!

And now, a cute cat picture.

It’s been closed down for a long time while they do renovations and now it’s open again, and I have to say, it doesn’t look very different to me.  They moved the fountain, supposedly, but if it’s a few feet over in one direction or another I can’t tell.  There used to be a two tier, different level thing going on around the fountain and now everything is all on one level.  But I looked all around for improvements and couldn’t find them.

This planting thing leading up to the fountain didn’t used to be there.  A statue/monument thing used to be there.  I liked the statue/monument thing, but this is nice.  

One great change is there have been children playing in the fountain every time I walked by, and I love the sound and look of that. Screaming, splashing children.  I’m not very kid-oriented, but I once was a kid and I remember how much fun it is to play in fountains.  I love that they have one. Street performers used to take over the fountain and I’m sorry they’ve lost their spot, but this is a better use. Now they perform off to the side, so it’s not like they no longer have a spot.

I took the day off mostly.  Wherever I went I took my time getting there, stopping to smell the roses, or look down at the pavement.  I wonder when this was scratched into the cement? When they were in their heyday, or later, as a tribute?  I forget where I was, east of NYU, kinda in CBGB’s territory.

A pigeon I loved for a few seconds.  And fed cornbread crumbs.  “Cornbread crumbs kill pigeons you know,” Howard lied.

Screaming gargoyle-ish female faces!  That top room is lovely inside, I bet.

The Chrysler Building, seen from Grammercy Park.  What a work of art.  I never tire of seeing it. Who does?

A jacket I can’t possess.  

From Howard: “That’s too matronly for you.”  Hmmm.

Not sure I agree. I love the collar.

I want to take today off too.

And tomorrow.  I’ll compromise.  I’ll take half a day off each day.

Summer movies!  

Terminator Salvation!

Night at the Museum!  (I liked the first one, sue me!)

By the way, I seem to have developed a problem holding the camera so all the lines are straight.  I had to rotate the image of the Chrysler Building for instance, in order for it to be standing up straight.  That’s why the top of the building got a little cut off.

Why is that?  What sort of weird spatial problem have I developed??

I’ve talked about this daily journal I keep, it’s not writing it’s a couple of lists.  I note three accomplishments each day and three things that made me happy.  I was trying to describe one of the happy things yesterday and I settled on:  feeling unrushed, like summer vacation.

First, it’s amazing how rare this feeling is for me, but I got down on the floor with one of the cats to pet him and I was just laying down, petting the cat, and I felt transported for a few seconds to summer afternoons, laying on the grass, when I had no place to go, nothing to do, a life before appointments and work and guilt about things I should be doing.  It was a wonderful feeling.  So relaxed and contented, even though it only lasted a few seconds.

I took this shot of the Jefferson Market, heading uptown.  I believe I was standing on the corner where 8th Street, Greenwich and 6th converge.  It looks a little Disneyland-ish, doesn’t it?

These were pretty magnificent.  So. The holiday weekend starts today, right now, right??

I’d love to go to movie after movie after movie, but they’ll all be packed so I think it will be book after book after book for me.  Okay, I’m a slow reader. In reality it will be:  book.  Period.

God the weather right this second is perfect.  I’m sitting in front of my sparkling clean window, there’s a cool breeze coming in, birds chirping, the sound of a pile driver in the distance—the urban equivalent of a lawn mower—and I’m wrapped in fleece blanket drinking coffee.  As you can imagine I’m quite content.  A pile of sleeping kittens on my lap would make it a little more perfect, but you can’t have everything.

But I do have So You Think You Can Dance recorded and ready to watch!! I started it last night but fell asleep.  I already love Gabe, I think her name is.  The one with rheumatoid arthritis.