The head honcho at the place I work is a really nice man. I don’t have a ton of interaction with him on a daily basis (we have about 100 people in our division and I’m about mid-range on the totem pole) but every time I see him in hallway, he smiles at me and says in his southern drawl, “Hi there, how’re you?” And you know what? I really do feel like he wants to know how I’m doing.
He has this habit of calling me “Julie” though. I’m not sure if it’s because of my last name, and that’s the name association trick he used when I first started, or if it’s because the only other twenty-something in my section is named “Julie” and he’s lumped us into one person in his mind. Either way, it really doesn’t bother me. I’m sure it seems odd, but the director of my division that I barely ever see not knowing my name really doesn’t make me feel like less of a person. My direct supervisors know my name and that’s good enough for me.
So, today I’m on my way to the restroom and taking my hourly lap around the office (when I sit too long my shoulder gets grumpy) and as I come out the door of my office area, he’s walking in the same direction. He said, “Oh, hi Julie. How’re you. Oh! I called you Julie again.” I responded blindly with my general reaction to things like that by saying, “Oh, it’s okay.” To which he replied, “No, it’s not.” It caught me off guard that he was so quick and I got flustered for some reason. And when I get flustered this funny thing happens where I forget everything that relates to intelligibly speaking the English language. So, I said, “Well, um, I guess it’s been a while.”
What?
I have NO idea what in the heck I meant by that. And I’m pretty sure he didn’t either. It didn’t relate in any way to the exchange we’d just had. He just stared at me blinking, waiting for me to finish my thought, but I couldn’t come up with anything. So, I just said to him, “Well, have a nice afternoon,” and I basically half-walked, half-jogged to the bathroom and flushed my head in the toilet in the name of red-faced embarrassment.
Not really.
But, up until about an hour ago, I’d been going over and over in my mind if that was as awkward as I imagined it was. And then I started laughing and getting over it as I replayed the whole scene in my head. That’s a big step for me.
Filed under: Life, Me | Leave a Comment
Reading
In 1962, when John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth, he also clearly demonstrated that lights at night could trace human activity from space. Passing over western Australia, he reported seeing a very bright light on the ground; the citizens of Perth had coordinated to turn on as many lights as possible to signal to Glenn as he flew overhead.
Since that time, satellite imagery of nighttime lights has proved useful as a piecemeal method to measure development upon our planet. Static snapshots can reveal stark disparities, like the brightly glowing prosperity of South Korea beneath the darkness of the impoverished, totalitarian north. Gradual changes can be discerned, too, like when the intensity of Soviet-bloc countries’ nighttime lights slowly increased after the USSR’s fall. All such observations to date have been quite crude, constrained by the fact that most of the data comes from one low-resolution source, the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP), an aging network of satellites formerly operated by the US Air Force but now controlled by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
But new analytical techniques and observational satellites may soon open a more rigorous frontier for measuring economic activity from space. Brown University economists J. Vernon Henderson and David Weil, along with their graduate student Adam Storeygard, recently released an analysis of a decade’s worth of global night-light data from DMSP. Their research shows a link between changes in a country’s gross domestic product and the intensity of its electric lighting: On average, as a country’s GDP increases, its nighttime light emission becomes more intense. The work is particularly promising for measuring growth in the developing world, where the quality of collected economic data is notoriously poor.
“A lot of activity in these developing countries is in the untaxed, off-the-books informal sector, but very little information is gathered about it,” Henderson says. “So when [statistical agencies] estimate total economic activity, they don’t really know the size of that sector even though it may account for a majority of the employment in the country. When you get another metric to compare the numbers to, you can be shocked by how much they are off.”
-excerpted from SEED Magazine, “Illuminating Dark Economies” by Lee Billings. Whole article is here.
Gives new meaning to the term “nightlight.”
Filed under: Dialogue | Leave a Comment
Just another reminder about Thursday’s show at Stubb’s featuring troubadours Dawn Landes and Justin Townes Earle. I’m very excited if you couldn’t tell. I actually heard Dawn’s latest single, “Young Girl” on KUT a few days ago. Q magazine had lovely things to say about her recently released album, Sweetheart Rodeo: “”Her sweet vocals and country-ish musical tilt recall Cat Power, but with a fresh and affirming, rather than jaded, worldview.”
Show is this Thursday, February 4th. Doors at 9 p.m. It’s an inside show. Tickets are here. See you there. I’ll be the girl in the Frye boots and the felt flapper hat.
Filed under: Music | 1 Comment
Reading
THAT’S ALL I’m going to tell about. I could probably tell you what I did after I went home, and how I got sick and all, and what school I’m supposed to go to next fall, after I get out of here, but I don’t feel like it. I really don’t. That stuff doesn’t interest me too much right now.
A lot of people, especially this one psychoanalyst guy they have here, keeps asking me if I’m going to apply myself when I go back to school next September. It’s such a stupid question, in my opinion. I mean how do you know what you’re going to do till you do it? The answer is, you don’t. I think I am, but how do I know? I swear it’s a stupid question.
D.B. isn’t as bad as the rest of them, but he keeps asking me a lot of questions, too. He drove over last Saturday with this English babe that’s in this new picture he’s writing. She was pretty affected, but very good-looking. Anyway, one time when she went to the ladies’ room way the hell down in the other wing, D.B. asked me what I thought about all this stuff I just finished telling you about. I didn’t know what the hell to say. If you want to know the truth, I don’t know what I think about it. I’m sorry I told so many people about it. About all I know is, I sort of miss everybody I told about. Even old Stradtlater and Ackley, for instance. I think I even miss that goddam Maurice. It’s funny. Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.
-from The Catcher in the Rye, the signature tome of cranky, angsty band kids everywhere (I was one of them.) Author J.D. Salinger passed away today.
Filed under: Dialogue | 1 Comment
Tags: current events, reading
Words to live by
Last Friday night, Conan O’Brien said a few words on his final broadcast of The Tonight Show before joining Will Ferrell, Billy Gibbons, Beck and others for an epic version of “Freebird.” I got a little choked up over what he said, mostly because I’m the world’s most tenderhearted person, but also because I’m mulling over some big life decisions at the moment (more on that later) and I felt like his words gave me a bit of a push. The man behind the Horny Manatee just gets me. He has ever since I started watching him on Late Night when I was in high school.
And all I ask is one thing…and this is…I’m asking this particularly of young people that watch…please do not be cynical. I hate cynicism. For the record, it’s my least favorite quality. It doesn’t lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen. I’m telling you. Amazing things will happen. I’m telling you. It’s just true.
–Conan O’Brien, 1.22.2010
Filed under: Dialogue | 4 Comments
Event Alerts x 2
Last week, I mentioned to Drummond that Austinites were coming out of hibernation. By that I mean it seems as if the city gets really kinda quiet from the first week in December through about mid-January. I don’t ever see as many people out and about as I normally do any other part of the year. This week though, it seemed like people slowly started to venture out and places are a little more crowded than they have been. Maybe it has something to do with this being the time of year we get our first shot of warm-ish weather. Anyhow, it’s a good thing because there are so many great events coming up! There are a couple I want to talk about tonight.
EVENT ONE: ROCK N’ AUSTIN SWAP
My friend, idol and former co-worker, the venerable and completely fabulous Tolly Moseley of Austin Eavesdropper is putting on this event in conjunction with Sarah Dean of The Year of Living Thriftily.
Here’s the scoop: This is a clothing swap with Cupcakes! Music! Pop-up Shops! and Rum!
Okay, here’s a bit more detail.
Bring 10 pieces of gently used clothing and/or accessories to the Rock N’ Swap and you’ll get to take 10 pieces of gently used garments and/or accessories to take home with you in return. If you don’t bring apparel to trade, that’s cool–$5 secures your entry. The pop-up shops will be hosted by Magnolia Family Vintage and Laced With Romance. So, bring some extra dosh if you’d like to peruse the stores. Worried about not being about to have a drink or a snack? The ladies who thought up this awesome event have you covered, dear reader. The Cupcake Bar will be on hand with samples of their delightful treats and the folks at Treaty Oak Rum will be there.
And perhaps the most fun accoutrement: KUT’s very own Laurie Gallardo will be there DJ’ing the event. I know! I KNOW! How awesome is that?
This event will also benefit the ARC of Austin. All leftover clothing will be donated to the charity. So, this is the opportunity to both stumble upon a fabulous “new “vintage broach *and* help out a great cause.
UPDATE: The folks at Do512.com are running a ticket contest. Click on “I Like It” for a chance to win free entry, which also entitles you to 10 items of clothing, that you get to pick! Head over to the event page here to check out the contest.
Here’s what you need to do to ensure you can get your swap on:
I highly recommend you visit the event Facebook invite here and RSVP. As Tolly aptly states on her blog, once this event hits capacity, they’ll have to cut off entry. So go, QUICK…hit the “Attending” button. You can also RSVP here.
This event happens this Saturday, January 30th from 6 p.m. ’til 10 p.m. at Beauty Bar (617 East 7th Street.)
For more information, please visit Austin Eavesdropper or The Year of Living Thriftily blog. Have fun, sugar plums!
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EVENT TWO: DAWN LANDES at STUBB’S
I wrote about the oh so lovely and very talented Dawn Landes back in December. Her latest effort, “Sweetheart Rodeo” is a must listen.
And now, Ms. Landes is coming to Stubb’s! Excited? We at Lux are!
Dawn will take the stage on Thursday, February 4th. She’ll be joined by the talented Justin Townes Earle, son of one of my better half’s musical heroes, Steve Earle. This is an inside show and doors open at 9 p.m. Tickets are now on sale at the Stubb’s/Frontgate website. I’ll post another reminder closer to the event.
Filed under: Music, austin | Leave a Comment
Friday Morning Soundtrack
iPod on shuffle:
1. “Countdown” by The Black Keys
2. “Annabelle” by Joshua James
3. “White Unicorn” by Wolfmother
4. “Satisfy My Soul” by Bob Marley & The Wailers
5. “Undisclosed Desires” by Muse
6. “Anything, Anything” by Dramarama
7. “Midway Park” by Whiskeytown
8. “Four Sticks” by Led Zeppelin
9. “We Can’t Help You Now” by Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks
10. “It’s Not Easy to Be Human” by A Camp
Filed under: Friday Morning Soundtrack | 2 Comments
Charities of Choice
Clearly, the earthquake in Haiti last week was one of the most heartbreaking events in recent history. I keep looking at pictures and I read the stories and it’s just so, well, it just makes me tear up. I can’t help it. Last night on KVUE, they told a story about a man who had been hanging on for three days and when he finally was able to get medical attention, they didn’t have the supplies they needed and he passed away. It’s difficult for me to fathom that.
I sometimes am guilty of getting caught in my “Austin bubble.” I worry about my own friends and family, where to eat dinner, how to pay for a new pair of boots, etc. Although I think of myself as a well traveled person, I still forget that there’s a world beyond my city. I’ve lived abroad, for many years at a time, but events like this are the ultimate wake up call for all the things that happen outside the 512 area code.
So, tonight I wanted to put together some “commercials” for my favorite charities and I hope you’ll consider throwing a few bucks their way.
Last year, I was introduced to the most amazing non-profit, The Mona Foundation. I found out about them thanks to an author I worked with at my old job. She commissioned our PR firm to help with get out the word about a fundraising dinner with Rainn Wilson (a spokesperson who works on behalf of the charity.) The goal of the Mona Foundation is to “raise the status of women and girls” around the world. People, they do AWESOME work. They operate the Zunuzi School in Haiti. According to their website, “Zunuzi School has continued to uphold the highest standards of education in service to the most poor in Haiti.” Right now, they’re taking donations for earthquake disaster relief. 100% of your donation will go directly to their efforts. Read about their operations in Haiti and donate here.
I am also a big supporter of the work Oxfam does around the world. So far, they’ve been able to get enough water to approximately 50,000 earthquake survivors and according to their website, today they distributed 18,000 hygiene and kitchen kits. They have put together an extensive collection of Haiti stories and information on their site. You can also follow the efforts of Oxfam America on Twitter.
Drummond is a huge supporter of the American Red Cross and the work they do. They have also put together an extensive section of ways to donate and help.
Filed under: Everyday, Important lists | Leave a Comment
Tags: current events
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Tweets- luxinaustin: @TollyM I *never* knew that! To think, we sat across cubes from each other!!! We'll have to discuss :) (P.S. girl crush on Kaitlin Olson.)
- luxinaustin: Went out for dinner with my sis. J-Drumm thought that was a free pass to make a fried bologna sandwich for dinner. Home now smells terrible.
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