z o s a

change

zosa — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:45:04 +0000

The needle on the Melancholy gauge is somewhere in the light-blue colored "high" range today as I get ready for my last day at my current job. My experience has been that is far better to leave a job on your own terms than not (I've left many on both) but this one definitely comes with some...feelings. I really enjoyed my time at ThingMagic and while the position ultimately did not go where I was headed I felt that I got a lot of good work done there. I like my co-workers and will miss the blend of humor and deep thinking at the lunch table. In a little under two weeks I start anew at First Act. Change is good they say and this one sure will be good but not without a side of sad.

guitar circle

zosa — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 13:24:09 +0000

After attending the MIT forum last night the stars all finally aligned properly and I had an opportunity to see and hear my friend DavidK's Guitar Circle New England. They were the live music at the Thirsty Ear on the MIT campus and since I was already there I had no excuses. The music was really nice. The five-piece band consists of all hollow-body, 6-string, steel-string guitars and the players follow the methodology of Robert Fripp's Guitar Craft using New Standard Tuning. This makes for wonderful arrangements with relatively wide dynamic range for guitar-only pieces. I particularly liked the arrangements of traditional "Morning Has Broken" that used some of the guitar melodies found in Cat Stevens' famous version and the slow melodious "Love Is Green" from Jeff Beck's seminal Wired album. I don't know any of the other pieces played but they ranged from contemporary classical to traditional classical to some serious King Crimson/ Robert Fripp sounding material. If you are a fan of guitar music and have never heard a Guitar Craft group play then definitely seek out Guitar Circle New England.

power stimulus

zosa — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 02:16:53 +0000

I went to an interesting MIT Enterprise Forum tonight focusing on portable power technologies. The panel comprised two moderators, one from Mass High Tech newspaper and the other from the VC community, and four industry representatives from Honda, Battelle, Argonne and a startup called Lilliputian. The discussions varied from the technologies themselves (Li-Ion batteries, Hydro-carbon-based fuel cells, etc.) as well as the challenges in growing the manufacturing industries for these technologies in the United States. The main thread was on how companies can possibly take advantage of the $2B of the latest stimulus bill earmarked for this sector. Given my recent growing interest in global sustainability issues and the needs of developing communities around the world (including the "third world" communities we can find in our own back yard) I couldn't help thinking that there must be a way for corporations to both take this government money and give back to the communities that need infusion so desperately. I think about this sort of thing a lot...any other thoughts out there on this are greatly received.

where we went in New Orleans

zosa — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 20:35:02 +0000

View Larger Map

25 cryptic things

zosa — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 00:54:19 +0000

by request, here is my 25 cryptic things about me reposted from facebook with a couple clues cleaned up...enjoy

1) First off grass and mowing every Saturday is my favorite hobby (5)
2) Paul Franzosa initially holds writing and the middle of the insurance agency from London represents a great rock band I like. (4,5)
3) What would a human do, Linus, holding an instrument I play? (8)
4) If Mr. Skelton owned Paul Bunyan's pet, it would be my favorite team. (3,3)
5) A third of a dollar with a follower is my latest favorite card game (8)
6) An infant with Mr. Chaney V gives my favorite show (7, 4)
7) Something magical is holding the place where I work (10)
8) Confused, harried, describes my spouse's locks (3,4)
9) My political philosophy is a wound coil amiss (9)
10) A tree license lingering around my bachelors degree (10,11)
11) My belief is coasting crazily (8)
12) A near blunder around my favorite film (5,6)
13) Second best without the color of most of my clothes (5)
14) What you see on the Mac screen - a rodent goes back with my main musical instrument (6)
15) Danger man, yes it has a place I've been many times (7)
16) Darling, tonight has a hold on my home town (9)
17) Mosaic visas, a confused author I love (5,6)
18) Something I like to listen to is a twisted evil crazy math result with an electronic component (4,6)
19) I love to read confusing scenic cite info (7,7)
20) Junior, a cooking vessel is another place I've visited (5)
21) Aw, I mill around to find my older son (7)
22) Dean, relax around my younger son (9)
23) Left two parts of every painting going back to something I like to do (6)
24) Awful hope in electronic gadget I use (6)
25) My favorite crossword type contains the result of sliced onions, physical therapy, and most of the hockey surface (7)

tumbling in new orleans

zosa — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 14:09:21 +0000

As some of you know I spend a considerable amount of my volunteer time with a high school youth group at the Unitarian Universalist church in Arlington. Next week thirty-seven of us will be in New Orleans to work on a service project in the ongoing efforts to rebuild after hurricane Katrina. I have set up a Tumblr and, network coverage willing, I will be posting some stuff there during the week. Feel free to take a peek.

chaliceyouthinno2009 dot tumblr dot com

I am trying to keep this particular site off the search engines, hence the lack of real URL

gaming manga

zosa — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:10:32 +0000

I recently started reading the manga Hikaru No Go, a story about a boy who becomes possessed by the spirit of a Go Master who lived a thousand years ago. What interests me most about this is that it is a manga (and a derivative anime as well) about a board game. Today I discovered that this title exists about a young Japanese girl who enters the the Chinese world of competitive MajJong. I love this trend...can "Hiraku no Catan" be far behind?

new leadership

zosa — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 18:51:12 +0000

Along the same vein as my last two posts, but a in slightly lighter domain, world leadership now seems to be heading in a pure fanboy direction. First were the repots of the new (albeit very conservative) Prime Minister of Japan being a serious fan of Manga and now this series of post regarding our new president elect as a real fanboy as well. A cabinet position for J. Micahel Straczynski perhaps?

change

zosa — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 21:00:14 +0000

I am pleased at the results from our national election last week. While I don’t think this election will bring the kind of fundamental change I personaly think is needed for the long term sustainability of our country and the world, it does represent change along the correct vector. This is represented especially by the going-live of www.change.gov within hours of the election results rolling in. Go there and you’ll see how a 21st century presidential transition should occur.

Related to this is that I became aware of that website on Thursday last week via this Ars Technica article. It took CNN until today to report on this in their political forum. While I loved CNN’s data representations during the campaign and the use of the mega touch panel during the election evening broadcast (despite constantly picturing Fred Armisen), it seems that even CNN is having a hard time keeping up with the change that I believe in.

Vote Today

zosa — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 15:57:57 +0000

http://maps.google.com/vote