Sunday, January 29

My 86 year old Italian mother and I watched the Andrea Bocelli concert on PBS, Live from Central Park.  He ran through the classic Italian musical catalogue from opera to movie soundtracks to pop standards including:

Puccini’s, La Donna e Mobile;

Puccini’s, Neccun Dorma;

Verdi’s, La Forza Del Destino;

O Sole Mio;

Volare; and

Quando, Quando, Quando.

Mom shared where she was and when she first remembered hearing some of the songs and the circumstances she found herself in at those times.  I found it especially poignant as she lay in her rehabilitation center bed as we watched on her room T.V. together.  Songs have a wonderful way of transporting you back to your youth and for three hours I watched the years roll back for Mom.

Monday, January 30

Some fun things going on in the month of January include the Sundance Film Festival; Fort Worth Stock Show and Australian Tennis Open.

Tuesday, January 31

If one has never listened to PBS radio’s:

A Way With Words;

Studio 360; and

Radio Lab;

treat yourself to some of the most witty and erudite discourse occurring in the media today.

Saturday, January 28

I watched Moneyball last night on Demand.  It was beautifully photographed and sharply written with just a couple plot points that were not very clear.  The screen writer, Adam Sorkin, won last year’s adapted screenplay Oscar for The Social Network, and is nominated again this year.  He was also the writer/creator of the television series West Wing.  

As a baseball fan, it was fun to be reminded about how unlikely the 2003 Oakland A’s were to break the major league record for consecutive wins with 20.  They were a team made up of few star players, but selected using sabermetrics (baseball statistical analysis using mathematical logarithms to predict on-base success of any given player), as invented by Bill James.  

The movie was really about patterns versus randomness and understanding what you are seeing.  In other words, an athlete may look physically very gifted but may not actually accomplish much towards his team’s success.  You can apply this in many life situations involving teamwork.

Friday, January 27

I was going through my Bible and removing some past service bulletins as they were making it very thick.  I ran across several from Dr. Gerald Turner’s sermons in late August when he annually took the pulpit to mark the return of students to SMU and the beginning of another school year.  He has done this the past 16 years and I do not think I have missed one.  He knows the Bible and came to SMU from Duke, another Methodist school.  SMU is celebrating its centennial.

I noticed the hymn sung after his sermon was, I Stand Amazed in His Presence, a favorite of mine.

Thursday, January 26

The Distinguished Alumni awards at the SMU School of Law this year includes, the Honorable H. Harjono, class of ’81 and Founding Justice of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Indonesia.

Wednesday, January 25

The Academy Award nominations were announced yesterday morning.  The films I will see in my ballot selection preparation for submission to my Oscar watching friends are all based on books I have read or would like to read:

Moneyball;

The Descendants; and

The Ides of March.

Tuesday, January 24

This blurb from the Oxford Union (Oxford University) advertising their social tomorrow in honor of Irish poet Robert Burns:

“A celebration of Robert Burns on Burns Night itself! Includes Ceilidh dancing, whisky, haggis, Scottish people...

Tickets: £10 Members/ £15 Guests, available now from the General Office - hurry to get yours before we sell out!”

Sunday, January 22

Today’s sermon at church started with video of Kevin Costner in a 25 year old Apple commercial.  Then the minister showed us her old iPods and how they have evolved.  The message was that we more easily let go of old technology for the new, than we do of old, outdated emotions that may still be controlling our future.

Monday, January 23

I was at the Department of Nuclear Medicine and learned about their work in biological luminescence, whereby studying the way fireflies light up can help create better dyes that when injected stain tumors for radiation images.

Friday, January 20

Something fun, as Valentines approaches:

Celebrate your love for chocolate at Taste: Chocolate at Monticello with a full day of chocolate-themed events. Learn how chocolate was a favorite of Jefferson's and how it was prepared and served at Monticello. Enjoy a chocolate-making demonstration and savor several pairings of chocolate and Virginia wines.

Saturday, January 21

Scientists' greatest pleasure comes from theories that derive the solution to some deep puzzle from a small set of simple principles in a surprising way.  These explanations are called "beautiful" or "elegant".

Historical examples are Kepler's explanation of complex planetary motions as simple ellipses, Bohr's explanation of the periodic table of the elements in terms of electron shells, and Watson and Crick's double helix.

Einstein famously said that he did not need experimental confirmation of his general theory of relativity because it "was so beautiful it had to be true."

Thursday, January 19

Attended lecture at Medical school by Chair of Developmental Biological department, an MIT graduate who spoke on creating tumors in laboratory mice so as to study cancer stem cells.  Questions from the audience included those from two Nobel laureates in attendance, Drs., Brown and Goldstein.

Wednesday, January 18

William Gibson, the great science fiction writer (my favorite is his novel Pattern Recognition), has written a collection of non-fiction essays entitled, Distrust That Particular Flavor.  I think his timing to go non-fiction for the first time is perfect, as the present seems very futuristic.

Tuesday, January 17

Classical pianist Simone Dinnerstein did a recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations which was almost as well received and hailed as the Glenn Gould recordings of 1955 and 1981 which inspired her.  Many say the Goldberg Variations are the greatest music ever composed.  I know I love my Gould recordings.

Dinnerstein’s new release is called Something Almost Being Said.

Monday, January 16

In Daniel Kahneman’s, Thinking, Fast and Slow, 2002 Nobel Prize winner in economics and Professor of Psychology at Princeton describes what our mind does to us when we think about our life.

He first describes how our minds are two different systems.  One that operates fast, using intuition and emotion.  The other that operates slower uses deliberation and logic.  For all of us the trick is managing these two systems.

In addition, our memories and how we recall them color our daily reactions whether we are aware of it or not.

All leads to the realization that my current happiness is driven by what I am aware of and focused on.  It may not reflect the actual state I am in.  To compound this is the possibility that what I think I am aware of may be in fact based on assumptions and not actuality.  So, if you think you are happy, you are happy, whether you should be or not.

Friday, January 13

A colleague at my new employer shares with me that her neighbor who used to work with me at American Airlines said to her about me, “you got a gem.”

Saturday, January 14

Rick Steves’ Saturday radio travel program featured a story on traveling to Belize or Guatemala to experience the celebrations tied to the Mayan calendar completing an approximately 5000 year cycle this year.  Mayan culture teaches that with every new cycle comes new ways of looking and doing things that build on the past to make a better future.  The year 2012 was only referenced once by one ancient Mayan scholar and so the exact date of the new cycle may be in question.  Mayan academics find no evidence of the date being associated with apocalyptic events as recent popular culture has been hyping for December 21, 2012.

Sunday, January 15

Enjoyed a Christmas gift from friends, an Argentine cabernet from the Mendoza region, Fabre Montmayou, a 2010 IWSC Trophy winner.

Tuesday, January 10

A chance to see the boiler rooms of the campus where all the buildings receive their heat supply from, as I look into a near accident that could have occurred.

Wednesday, January 11

I receive a new Stephen Minister assignment.  It’s a ministry at our Methodist church where you are partnered with someone who needs someone to talk and pray with due to some challenge(s) they are currently facing.

Thursday, January 12

Attended the Martin Luther King, Jr. award presentation at my employer’s for the medical student who contributed most to the community this past year.  It was an inspiring event with a speech by a former medical student who is now the Vice President and Chief Medical Office for Texas Blue Cross Blue Shield.

We were reminded of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s quote about how one’s vocation is one thing but we should all share the profession of finding a way each day to help one’s fellow man.

Monday, January 9

My wife and I watch Adele’s live concert video from Royal Albert Hall. We have a glass of J. Lohr cabernet.  Good rainy night activity.

Wednesday, January 4

Listened to vinyl records in our neighbors upstairs music loft on their turntable with newly purchased needle.  They treat me to RUSH’s original album which includes, Working Man.  A fellow neighbor plays Eagle songs on the guitar and shows my daughter some fingerings.

Thursday, January 5

A nice thank you note from my sister in Los Angeles who enjoyed the themed Christmas gifts I sent her and her family.  The gifts were a book about the Hollywood Bowl (which she said her and my brother-in-law attended to hear music and picnic); a Chuck Mangione CD recorded live at the Hollywood Bowl (my brother-in-law used to play trumpet); and a recording of a Doors concert at the Bowl (which my sister said reminded her of dancing to Light My Fire) back in the day and is still her favorite group).

Friday, January 6

Met a PH.D. in Rhetoric at my workplace who coordinates the University’s policies.  She mastered in Divinity.  Her dissertation was on the mother figure in the writings of Louisa May Alcott.

Saturday, January 7

My daughter’s first volleyball game in the City Recreation League.

Sunday, January 8

My daughter makes Sunday breakfast.  Eggs, pancakes, and sausages.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

We start the year by eating Black Eyed peas in the Texas tradition to make it a good year.

Then we attend a friend’s dessert party to start the year “sweetly” as they put it.

Monday, January 2

First workday of the new year.

Tuesday, January 3

Making the rounds of some of my new internal customers such as Willed Body Department and Transplant Services Center at UT Southwestern Medical Center.