The Manic Mechanic

My email and messages began to light up yesterday evening from people sending me links to this YouTube video. "You're gonna love this", etc. Well, indeed I do love the hell out of this video. It has my two greatest "loves", science and music, assembled in a touching, awe-inspiring combination. And it's all real. Backstory: Cmdr Chris Hadfield of the Canadian Space Agency, is ready to bid farewell to the International Space Station after being aloft for five months. A sensation in his own right among Canadian science lovers and already a bit of a rock star in his own way, he, along with an Earth-based collection of musicians reworks Davis Bowie's 1969 masterpiece "Space Oddity" as a fitting end to his tour of duty. Definitely must-see TV.

This shows all the incredible things humanity is capable of when they put their collective minds together. I've been in awe of the space programs ever since my early youth. Even though trips into space had mostly become workaday outings that made most people lose interest, I still appreciated all that went into every trip. The recent Mars rover mission proved that there is still a lot of out-of-the-box thinking going on that rekindles that feeling of awe I had as a kid. I hope you enjoy this as much as I do.

Here at Mayhem Acres strange or odd occurrences are pretty much the norm. It seems that this phenomenon tends to spread a bit from the epicenter here. Take this past Monday, when I was taking Jeff to have surgery, as an example. A bit more than a mile from the house as I was merging onto the perpetually busy Rt 29, we both noticed a car on the left shoulder of the opposing lanes of traffic. Not the first time we've see it around here. As we got closer, Jeff said, "It's Batman!". Sure enough, it was the Caped Crusader, seemingly having problems with his sinister-looking Batmobile. I noticed right away that ol' Batty had chosen the Lamborghini as his daytime ride, saving the actual Batmobile for the cover of darkness. Turns out the Dark Knight was on his way into Washington, DC to entertain children at a local hospital. With the help of the local constabulary and perhaps the Boy Wonder, he was able to make the trip. The Lambo Gallardo Spyder apparently needed a tow back to the Bat Cave, as tires for the $200,000 car are tougher to come by than, well, Bat-tires.

I wanted to snap a picture of the scene, but I thought it against Bat-protocol. Besides, I had gone too far trying to merge into traffic. Traffic which, ironically, was uncharacteristically flying along in all six lanes, in both directions. Around here, a disabled car usually garners a gaggle of rubberneckers, even if it's an old Nissan Sentra with one red door and a boiling radiator. Batman does not even get noticed.

The other day I was sitting in the waiting room of my physical therapist. For some reason I mixed up the time, and arrived about 45 minutes early. No biggie. There was a Car and Driver magazine on the table to keep me company. Then there was a baby crying, coming from one of the areas. Great. Not tool long afterward, a woman came out, carrying the baby in a bassinet/car seat thing. I figured it would be time for some silence. She then looked at me and said "I know you", to which I said, "You do?" "Yep, you're Phil. I used to live up the street from you." There was this vague familiarity, but I could not place a name to the face. She said her name is Myra. It was then a huge OMG moment with all the hugs and howareyas. The kicker is, I had not seen Myra since before high school. We were friends back then, since we had gone to elementary and middle school together and rode the same bus. Her family moved a short distance but that put her in a different high school.

I was completely floored that she recognized me. I said that I had less gray in the beard back then. And lots more hair. Well, okay, one was a lie. Still, I don't look very much like I did as a kid for the most part. Some folk do have that uncanny knack for faces and names, something that eludes me. As my brain dusted off and fired up some decades-old memory banks, I recognized her as well (despite the time that passed), and we had a good time talking. She is now a grandmother, living only a short distance from where I used to live. She had married a man that also went to the same schools as she did, he was the one who was at the place having therapy done for a really messed up hand and arm. We said our goodbyes and I had one of those incredulous grins that turn up in such circumstances which lasted me for the rest of the day.

Here was a perfect demonstration of "the more things change, the more they stay the same." Despite all the years, all the moving, etc, two people who have not seen each other in nearly 35 years will cross paths and will reconnect, even for an instant. Life is cool like that sometimes.

I started reading someone's doctoral dissertation the other day, I had downloaded it from the web. Entitled Networks of Aesthetic Production and the Urban Political Economy, I had barely begun the scratch the surface of this essay, it discusses musical and artistic creation and how it ties into economic, social and political issues, among many other facets, through it's 287 page length. Now, it's not like me to just randomly read a doctoral paper out of the blue. The reason this one piqued my interest was because it referenced a blog entry I made back in Jan. '06 as part of my "Music and Your Rights" series of essays.

Well! The things one can find during a session of "ego surfing"!

The author, Bas van Heur, must have thought highly enough about the entry/series and the following discussions and opinions from those on my friend list that it not only left an impression, but that he included it in his paper (look on page 174). I would not consider myself so much of a 'credible source', rather I like to foster thought and discussion on occasions here at the University of Mayhem and Auto Mechanics. I really value the input of those who take the time to read my various ramblings here, and sometimes feel a bit saddened when I don't get a lot of comments.

I am not a professional writer by any stretch of the imagination (though technical writing at work does help bring home the bacon, so technically I might be). I do like to write about that which interests me, and LJ gives me a little outlet for that. It's mostly about connecting with others, engaging in conversations, making friends, and the occasional saucy picture or crude humor to make things spicy and fun.

As to how I stumbled into this dissertation, it came about during one of my periodic searches of my blog URLs, online handles and my real name. This practice, often called 'ego surfing', can be a lot of fun, eye opening, and in some cases, unnerving. I will google various personal aspects and see what comes back. My real name comes up mostly relating to the CD that Kit Watkins released in '06 that had me playing on one track. My blog URL and "greatbearmd" mostly links back to LJ along with other blog-oriented stuffs. Other handles, names and info will yield a few relevant results. The last time I did this (usually at work while waiting for a long automated test to complete), I found the entry above. So here is a case where some aspect of me ends up halfway across the world only to be brought back home by a chance web search. I am still fascinated by how technology can make the world a bit smaller in very unique ways.

It seems I now have something new to sit back and read. As for Bas van Heur, danke shoen. You made the world a bit more connected for me.