Contacts

Today I as I was scrolling through the People app on my phone I was struck when I came across a name of someone who had died a few years back. Then another. And a 3rd and a 4th. Some family and some friends.

I stared at their names and phone numbers and replayed a few quick memories of each in my minds-eye. My finger lingered over the delete button but I couldn't seem to go through with the act. Delete seemed so final... as if finding them there in my address book kept a small piece of them here with me.  A silly notion for sure but even as I write this I have 4 contacts of family and friends that no longer exist. 

What would I do for my phone to ring and their names to show up on the caller ID just one more time?

Sundays

Sometimes... on Sundays... I'm overwhelmed by an uncontrollable sadness.  It feels like the end of a memory I'll never get back. 

Crash

Sometimes when I'm driving I fantasize about being in an accident.  I crave the sound of the impact, the smell of the bending, crunching metal and the complete and utter surrender to whatever may come.

I've been in 2 car crashes. In the first I flipped an old SUV on a winter country road, 6 times clockwise and twice end over end before coming to a dead stop upside down in a drought laden creek bed. I woke up several hours later with a concussion and hanging upside down from my seat belt.  I had reacted poorly to a dog who decided to run out in front of me on that icy winter night.

In the second I ran into a car going about 45mph t-bone-style when the driver decided to cross 6 lanes of traffic about 10 yards in front of me.

I'm not sure where this fantasy daydream comes from but when I have it, nothing seems more real.  In both cases I was completely calm. My heart didn't race. I eased into the slow motion frame rate crash with complete acceptance.  My mind was blue-water clear.  If I had to make a guess that's probably what I'm looking for.  Clarity and acceptance.

Holding the door

One of the most simple and easily contagious acts of generosity I see is holding the door for someone else.  Particularly while entering a shared office space, parking garage, hospital, or the like.  One after another the person in front holds the door for the next and it passes on like a virus.  There are as many reasons for doing it as there are people who participate so I won't pretend to  have some great insight into the human condition here but they all benefit materially, and I'd venture to bet at least one of them feels better about themselves.  How do we make this work in other situations?

Make Believe

I watched them jump from couch-cushion to arm-chair to fireplace and so on, daringly.  Their little feet teeter on the edge of near disaster.  One yells out to the other 'Watch your step!' and I hear genuine, heart-felt, concern in their voice.  Just then, the floor below them begins to crumble and their hearts begin to race.  Their pace picks up and they begin to crowd each other as they near their goal... safety.  The last one leaps and slides, just missing his mark and the others grab for his hand and drag him belly up onto a make-shift island made of winter coats.  It's a dangerous world out there full of adventure and excitement and around every turn, you have to keep a watchful eye.  The floor is made of lava.

Building Node.js on Raspberry Pi

1.  Install adafruit.com Occidental Distro

http://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-raspberry-pi-educational-linux-distro/occidentalis-v0-dot-2

2.  Install build dependencies

sudo apt-get install git-core build-essential

3.  Get the latest version of Node from github (v0.8.8)

git config --global user.email "you@example.com"

git config --global user.name "Your Name"

git clone https://github.com/joyent/node

4.  Get these OpenSSL and V8 patches

curl https://github.com/stolsma/node/commit/5bef2b06f480b79bb203191f23d114adcdd9734b.patch | git am

curl https://github.com/stolsma/node/commit/db219e052176e2501158dd4390629531e813594a.patch | git am

curl https://github.com/joyent/node/commit/f8fd9aca8bd01fa7226e1abe75a5bcf903f287ab.patch | git am

curl https://github.com/joyent/node/commit/7142b260c6c299fc9697e6554620be47a6f622a9.patch | git am

5.  Build Node

cd node

./configure 

make

sudo make install