Archive for March, 2007

Juanita’s in turmoil

Wednesday, March 28th, 2007

Gomez came by looking for N to walk the dogs and I put my shoe on and attempted to walk with him to the Magnolia Bridge. I was hobbling behind him and it felt like he was walking so fast I was thinking about my mother’s slowing down so much lately – and what R had said the other night that when she had come by to visit and I was on the porch with both feet bandaged and my mom came by and she had to help her up on the porch that she was worried about leaving us both there because neither of us were too swift on our feet.

L said that Juanita is in turmoil and I said that is a chapter heading if I ever heard one. Some rigamarole with J’s helper/sitter wanting to break free from the cloying clutch of the apartment’s atmosphere and J saying she wants her gone anyway because she is an overuser of paper products.

I told L that G and I were talking about the whole hoarding phenomenon that has swept our mother’s life – the stocking of the fridge and pantry till things leaped out everytime you opened the door. He said J’s housesitter did that too. So apparently she’s creating some of that cloy.

Your mama said so

Wednesday, March 28th, 2007

Mom called and left several messages while I was in the bathtub – now mind you this was my first time in the tub in a while as my feet have been bandaged, but finally given the green light to soak, I dove in and didn’t want to get out. I was headed to meet G at Swirl for the Tuesday night tasting, and I called mom on my way and here’s the exchange:

Mom – Why haven’t you called me back?
R – I was in the tub and getting ready to go to Swirl.
Mom – well stop calling me when you are on your way into a restaurant.
R – I’m not on my way in, I’m on my way over. I have plenty of time to talk. What’s up?
Mom – nothing. I have nothing to say.
R – well then I’m glad I called you back. What are you doing right now?
Mom – I’m sitting here naked watching Dancing with the Stars, waiting for my tub to fill.

It’s images like this that get stamped indelibly on your mind.

You do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around

Wednesday, March 28th, 2007

The stainless steel panels finally arrived from Lowes and I was able to get them on the fridge. This has been a four part process – ordering a stainless fridge, having a custom panelled one delivered, ordering the stainless panels, having only one show up, and now finally all three are in. Pulling out the fridge though punched a hole in the floor. If this is the way it is – one foot forward, and one foot back – then you certainly have to do the hokey pokey and turn yourself around or you might just go nuts.

To that end, TL rode his bike over and sat on the porch and I demonstrated my fire dance with my twirly ropes Queen Bee Irene gave me last time I was in San Francisco. Of course, she has this whole graceful routine she does with her fire dance, as I was demonstrating to TL – mine needs a lot of work. From the one act demo I gave, TL said there is no way I can do that at his party – I think he has a fire phobia – which could stem from watching G’s apartment burn, when she lived directly next door, several years ago. Well I’m going to work on my act, so I can move from spastic to polished fire dancer.

The return of the foot

Tuesday, March 27th, 2007

I went to get my stitches out this morning after my houseguest left and I told my doctor that I liked him a whole lot better before this whole surgery thing. He smiled thinly in response. Then he began to contort my toe like it had not just had surgery, been stitched back together, and been stuffed in a corsetted bandage that had basically caused my flesh to dissolve. He said do this exercise three times a day. I smiled thinly while I stared him down. He said your foot is inflexible right now from the surgery where it is normally very flexible – being why you got into this problem to begin with – and I said well a nurse in my Pilates class told me it was because my feet are inflexible that I got this way – and he said, that’s why she’s a nurse.

Doctors – whatyagoonnado?

Why I don’t miss California

Tuesday, March 27th, 2007

A friend forwarded me an email exchange amongst girls in California preparing for a bridal shower – okay, let’s just say I live in the South and last night one of the most embarrassing stories was one of mine and had to do with my first marriage. K took me to get a daquiri one Sunday afternoon before we got married and the daquiri was so large it needed a handle (let’s not mention we got it at a drive-up window) and then we got high – I’m 23 at the time – we had been having sex like rabbits for weeks (months) and I have a monster bladder infection as I am wont to get from nonstop sex – he brings me over to his sister’s house under the auspices of picking something up and I go to the door with him and the door opens and I am overwhelmed by about 50 people inside shouting surprise – well, duh, yes, more like MORTIFIED! – but pièce de résistance is then my brother-in-law, H, says to me as I walk through the door – “hey Rach, heard about your bladder infection, hope you’re feeling better” – which made me just want to take the poison pill right then and there.

But I digress – so here in the South, we tend to still do things old fashionedy like having queer bridal and baby showers that are ridiculously ridiculous and involve things like scooping cotton balls on your head and pinning present bows to a paper plate. But my friend in California today sends me a deal breaker – an email volley that goes on and on about how each shower girl attendee should bring a rock, marble, feather, or other icon that might symbolize the commitment and transition in the bride’s life from lover to wife and then the girls will build an altar – I just have to say, in hindsight, my shower was a helluva lot more fun.

Why leave home?

Monday, March 26th, 2007

I’m thinking I would love to go to Turkey this year and have been speaking to Fatma about going with her on a boat and spending time at one of her two houses there. Meanwhile, spent a day on the phone with sources – always a good day at work when that is happening – and then when M finally got her hotline sent in from the conference – we drove over to the Parkway and had catfish poboys. G came to meet us and wanted food but they quit serving at 8 so we went over to La Vita afterwards and as usual it was command central with everybody stopping by. R pulled up with a date – some Aussie oncologist – and we all began telling our most embarrassing stories – lots of fun – I can always top the crowd with my most embarrassing – but F almost had me – we laughed till our sides were splitting. Then R went over to the park to smooch – the park is turning into the smooching park – how beautiful a place we live in – wine, laughter, smooching – the promise of so much in the wings.

On the avenue again

Monday, March 26th, 2007

When my colleague returned from the conference, G came over and we all three went to La Vita to sit outside and have a salad, but it’s more than a salad, after we sat down, Y pulled up with M and they both came over, and then F came and sat with us, and then M showed up too and came and sat with us and then a new Turkish guy appeared and he sat with us and before you know it we were spilling out into the sidewalk. How lovely was it to tilt my head back, my leg in M’s lap, and see the moon shining between the palm fronds of one sngularly tall palm amidst the sprawling oaks that line Esplanade Avenue? Or better yet how great to be surrounded by people who are engaging and dynamic and full of all the joie de vivre that life has to offer here in the Big Easy? How lucky am I?

Visualizing what you want

Monday, March 26th, 2007

My neighbor came by yesterday to visit – we were talking about stuff – she’s been single for five years after coming out of a very bad breakup. I said yikes, I’m 17 months into being single and everyone keeps saying I need to get back out there and I keep running for the bathtub instead. She said you have to visualize who you want and I said, I don’t see any visualization of what I want because I don’t want. She said, pishaw. Is there a conspiracy out there to merge me into couple-dom again? By George, I believe there is.

In the meantime, she did say something interesting – she asked me what is the quality I look for in a partner and I said – make me laugh. Sense of humor is key. She said that was tops on her list too. But her second, which I took with a great degree of weight was this one – I want someone I can be proud of – wow, yes, I told her, that wasn’t on my list but only by virtue of oversight. Being proud of your partner is a big deal. She was saying she was at this awards ceremony in her company and she was sitting with a guy she has worked with for 18 years and his wife had won an award and she turned to him and said, “you must be very proud of ___” and he said, oh yes, I am.

So you can say you want someone with junk in their trunk, or someone tall, or some of my girlfriends want someone rich, but really those are physical attributes – the ability to get someone’s humor and laugh, to be proud of who they are and their accomplishments, those seem to me to be very strong qualities to hang your hat on.

This just in – multitasking doesn’t work – to which I say DUH

Monday, March 26th, 2007

March 25, 2007
Slow Down, Multitaskers; Don’t Read in Traffic

By STEVE LOHR

Confident multitaskers of the world, could I have your attention?

Think you can juggle phone calls, e-mail, instant messages and computer work to get more done in a time-starved world? Read on, preferably shutting out the cacophony of digital devices for a while.

Several research reports, both recently published and not yet published, provide evidence of the limits of multitasking. The findings, according to neuroscientists, psychologists and management professors, suggest that many people would be wise to curb their multitasking behavior when working in an office, studying or driving a car.

These experts have some basic advice. Check e-mail messages once an hour, at most. Listening to soothing background music while studying may improve concentration. But other distractions — most songs with lyrics, instant messaging, television shows — hamper performance. Driving while talking on a cellphone, even with a hands-free headset, is a bad idea.

In short, the answer appears to lie in managing the technology, instead of merely yielding to its incessant tug.

“Multitasking is going to slow you down, increasing the chances of mistakes,” said David E. Meyer, a cognitive scientist and director of the Brain, Cognition and Action Laboratory at the University of Michigan. “Disruptions and interruptions are a bad deal from the standpoint of our ability to process information.”

The human brain, with its hundred billion neurons and hundreds of trillions of synaptic connections, is a cognitive powerhouse in many ways. “But a core limitation is an inability to concentrate on two things at once,” said René Marois, a neuroscientist and director of the Human Information Processing Laboratory at Vanderbilt University.

Mr. Marois and three other Vanderbilt researchers reported in an article last December in the journal Neuron that they used magnetic resonance imaging to pinpoint the bottleneck in the brain and to measure how much efficiency is lost when trying to handle two tasks at once.

Study participants were given two tasks and were asked to respond to sounds and images. The first was to press the correct key on a computer keyboard after hearing one of eight sounds. The other task was to speak the correct vowel after seeing one of eight images.

The researchers said that they did not see a delay if the participants were given the tasks one at a time. But the researchers found that response to the second task was delayed by up to a second when the study participants were given the two tasks at about the same time.

In many daily tasks, of course, a lost second is unimportant. But one implication of the Vanderbilt research, Mr. Marois said, is that talking on a cellphone while driving a car is dangerous. A one-second delay in response time at 60 miles an hour could be fatal, he noted.

“We are under the impression that we have this brain that can do more than it often can,” observed Mr. Marois, who said he turns off his cellphone when driving.

The young, according to conventional wisdom, are the most adept multitaskers. Just look at teenagers and young workers in their 20s, e-mailing, instant messaging and listening to iPods at once.

Recently completed research at the Institute for the Future of the Mind at Oxford University suggests the popular perception is open to question. A group of 18- to 21-year-olds and a group of 35- to 39-year-olds were given 90 seconds to translate images into numbers, using a simple code.

The younger group did 10 percent better when not interrupted. But when both groups were interrupted by a phone call, a cellphone short-text message or an instant message, the older group matched the younger group in speed and accuracy.

“The older people think more slowly, but they have a faster fluid intelligence, so they are better able to block out interruptions and choose what to focus on,” said Martin Westwell, deputy director of the institute.

Mr. Westwell is 36, and thus, should be better able to cope with interruptions. But he has modified his work habits since completing the research project last month.

“I check my e-mail much less often,” he said. “The interruptions really can throw you off-track.”

In a recent study, a group of Microsoft workers took, on average, 15 minutes to return to serious mental tasks, like writing reports or computer code, after responding to incoming e-mail or instant messages. They strayed off to reply to other messages or browse news, sports or entertainment Web sites.

“I was surprised by how easily people were distracted and how long it took them to get back to the task,” said Eric Horvitz, a Microsoft research scientist and co-author, with Shamsi Iqbal of the University of Illinois, of a paper on the study that will be presented next month.

“If it’s this bad at Microsoft,” Mr. Horvitz added, “it has to be bad at other companies, too.”

In the computer age, technology has been seen not only as a factor contributing to information overload but also as a tool for coping with it. Computers can help people juggle workloads, according a paper presented this month at a conference at the National Bureau of Economic Research. The researchers scrutinized the work at an unnamed executive recruiting firm, including projects and 125,000 e-mail messages. They also examined the firm revenues, people’s compensation and the use of information technology by the recruiters.

The recruiters who were the heaviest users of e-mail and the firm’s specialized database were the most productive in completing projects. “You can use the technology to supplement your brain and keep track of more things,” said Erik Brynjolfsson of the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a co-author of the paper, along with Sinan Aral of the Stern School of Business at New York University, and Marshall Van Alstyne of Boston University.

But the paper also found that “beyond an optimum, more multitasking is associated with declining project completion rates and revenue generation.”

For the executive recruiters, the optimum workload was four to six projects, taking two to five months each.

The productivity lost by overtaxed multitaskers cannot be measured precisely, but it is probably a lot. Jonathan B. Spira, chief analyst at Basex, a business-research firm, estimates the cost of interruptions to the American economy at nearly $650 billion a year.

That total is an update of research published 18 months ago, based on surveys and interviews with professionals and office workers, which concluded that 28 percent of their time was spent on what they deemed interruptions and recovery time before they returned to their main tasks.

Mr. Spira concedes that the $650 billion figure is a rough estimate — an attempt to attach a number to a big problem. Work interruptions will never — and should not — be eliminated, he said, since they are often how work is done and ideas are shared. After all, one person’s interruption is another’s collaboration.

The information age is really only a decade or two old in the sense of most people working and communicating on digital devices all day, Mr. Spira said. In the industrial era, it took roughly a century until Frederick Winslow Taylor in 1911 published his principles of “scientific management” for increasing worker productivity.

“We don’t have any equivalent yet for the knowledge economy,” Mr. Spira said.

But university and corporate researchers say they can help. Brain scans, social networking algorithms and other new tools should help provide a deeper understanding of the limits and the potential of the human brain, they said. That will teach workers in groups how to manage the overload of digital communications efficiently.

A new organization, the Institute for Innovation and Information Productivity, whose sponsors include Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft and Johnson & Johnson, has been created to sponsor such research. It provided money for the recent research project at Oxford’s Institute for the Future of the Mind, for example.

Further research could help create clever technology, like sensors or smart software that workers could instruct with their preferences and priorities to serve as a high-tech “time nanny” to ease the modern multitasker’s plight.

That is what Mr. Horvitz of Microsoft is working on. “We live in this Wild West of digital communications now,” he said. “But I think there’s a lot of hope for the future.”

Correction: March 26, 2007

A front-page article yesterday about the limits of multitasking misspelled the surname of a cognitive scientist at the University of Michigan, who said that “‘Multitasking is going to slow you down, increasing the chances of mistakes.” It is David E. Meyer, not Mayer.

Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company
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The Secret

Sunday, March 25th, 2007

Seems like I can’t walk out the door with someone not speaking to be about The Secret. And what is the secret? That positive thoughts attract positive action. This is a secret? My neighbor brought over the DVD because the universe now understands that I am not going to buy and read the book, and the Secret wants an in to my life. So foot up, shackled to my couch, I am watching The Secret and lo and behold, like I said, I know it.

Remember the Louise Nevelson quote I write about? – I have made my world and it is a much better one than the one offered to me – that’s my thought process already. What you imagine and desire of life – that is the life you will live.

Okay, I’m living it with some modifications – I admit almost caving on the remodel – I lost faith at several steps in the process from conception to completion – always at night alone in my bed. Now I know better and believe stronger in the singular vision that any project requires.

I admit to having lost faith in relationships – but I will get my faith back. Last night, sitting in the rocking chairs on the front porch looking at the evening lights twinkling in the bayou and having a glass of red wine with a colleague who is staying with me – we were talking about life and how one thing leads to another and most times the events are unplanned. She told me she’s lucky because she married her soulmate. I said I thought I had found mine but the kid thing threw it a curve ball. And she said, as almost 99% of the mothers I’ve spoken with have said, oh, but that’s a big curve ball.

The secret is don’t give short shrift to your life’s desires because they will manifest themselves in other ways and not necessarily in a pretty package. My elephant in the room ended up leaving a huge pile of shit that has taken a long time to clean up.