Tuesday, September 18, 2001
The wonders of the fucking Internet. I followed links from the recent terrorist events to an explanation of the Marginot Line to German history to German culture to a summary of the 'The Baader-Meinhof Gang and the Postwar German Decade of Terror 1968-1977'. I knew nothing about this slice of history and had no idea terrorism extended beyond the usual hotspots during this era.
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I was starting to feel normal again, but actually I think the shock was just wearing off. Having been in New York to see the World Trade Center on fire and the aftermath in person required many days of simple comprehension. Now with the disbelief dissipating the sadness expands.
I lie in bed imagining my friend and his pregnant wife on the first plane to hit the towers. Federal Aviation Administration reports tell of a deception by the hijackers, probably to keep the passengers calm, telling the pilots they might land at JFK or LaGuardia airports. Perhaps the passengers didn't know they were going to die. Maybe they didn't panic until they saw how low they were over Manhattan. I can't sleep. I lie in bed running all the scenarios through my head.
I lie in bed and I'm scared. Scared in a way I haven't been since I was a child, scared to be alone in the dark. And I think I know what all the flag waving is for: to scare away the bogeyman, to build up a false sense of security so we can turn off the lights at night and go to sleep. But I don't think flags scare away the bogeyman.
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Monday, September 17, 2001
webarchivist.org needs your help in building a historical record of the events of September 11, 2001 from all points of view on the Internet.
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NPR chooses an all-text layout for the high-traffic period.
The normal web design sequence is to design a site with a certain target page size, and later when everything is built, do the load testing. I wonder if anyone builds design prototypes and tests them with a particular server setup to help fine tune their page size metric (probably not, it's cheaper and easier to just throw more servers at the site) ?
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I like to think someone in the Bush administration was listening to Mark Bernstein's call (see 9/14) for someone at the top to make a speech denouncing violence against Muslims.
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The New York Times asks architects to consider the World Trade Center: To Rebuild or Not? I bet you'd get a different answer from the engineers.
Personally I think they should build something grand on the site, a useful place that celebrates New York momentum, agreeing with Richard Meier when he said, 'The life of the city depends on people living and working in the city and loving it - we want people there. We want them in a place that can be magnificent.'
But there's something unnatural about building to the WTC's height; I'd like to hear from people who worked near the top if, for reasons of prestige, it was worth taking three elevators to their office.
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Sunday, September 16, 2001
Some members of my church visited a local mosque in a show of support. ' We gathered there with the Imam and several members of the congregation. I can’t begin to tell you how graciously we were received. We were honored guests and our hosts were clearly honored to have us. It was a humbling experience, I think, for everyone in the room. The Imam talked about how the terrorists had sought to divide us. "But look," he said. "The opposite has happened. Look at us here together." '
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Friday, September 14, 2001
I'm getting that rare perspective now and trying to hold on to it. The perspective that says, 'If you don't like the fabric of your life, you can pull it out and start weaving again. Don't worry about losing progress, don't worry about screwing up the second time what you didn't screw up the first time, just yank out those rows you don't like and start weaving again.'
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Lin recorded some messages posted in Union Square in New York City. I liked this one best:
[Drawing of a Dog]
Spot, Protector of All New Yorkers, sez:
New York will bounce
Back stronger than ever
Arf Arf Arf[As I watched, a father read this to his 7-year-old son]
The events this week make me want to live in the city again.
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Thursday, September 13, 2001
One of the most sincere people I've known, and that smile so damn contagious. He and his wife were on AA flight 11 from Boston.
Later I learn his wife was seven months pregnant. This loss of love and potential for life paralyzes me.
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Wednesday, September 12, 2001
I'm reading through the analysis of civil engineers, and for some reason it both comforts me and allows me to see into those buildings and see the people and it allows me to cry. And then I read this, from a book that is out-of-print: Minoru Yamasaki, architect of the World Trade Center: " 'The World Trade Center should,' he said, 'because of its importance, become a living representation of man's belief in humanity, his need for individual dignity, his belief in the cooperation of men, and through this cooperation his ability to find greatness.' "
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I'd like to thank everyone who checked on me during the past two days to see if I was alright. When watching the events unfold, the outpouring of support from around the world for the afflicted in the U.S. was what moved me most. I recorded my experience on Tuesday. It's largely insignificant to others, but the writing was good self-therapy.
Some inspirational words worth reading:
Comments on the Oklahoma City bombing from a man who lived through World War II bombing in England: '...We also teach them, by our example, by the tears we shed for the children of Bosnia, and Sarejevo--and now of Oklahoma City--that life is so good, so worth risking, that our hearts ache when a single life is lost.'
In Urgent Response, from my minister: 'Hope is the positive, as anxiety is the negative, mode of awaiting the future.'
William Saroyan's In the Time of Your Life:
In the time of your life, live - so that in good time there shall be no ugliness or death for yourself or for any life your life touches. Seek goodness everywhere, and when it is found, bring it out of its hiding-place and let it be free and unashamed. Place in matter and in flesh the least of the values, for these are the things that hold death and must pass away. Discover in all things that which shines and is beyond corruption. Encourage virtue in whatever heart it may have driven into secrecy and sorrow by the shame and terror of the world. Ignore the obvious, for it is unworthy of the clear eye and the kindly heart. Be the inferior of no man, nor of any man be the superior. Remember that every man is a variation of yourself. No man's guilt is not yours, nor is any man's innocence a thing apart. Despise evil and ungodliness, but not men of ungodliness and evil. These, understand. Have no shame in being kindly or gentle, but if the time comes in the time of your life to kill, kill and have no regret. In the time of your life, live - so that in that wondrous time you shall not add to the misery and sorrow of the world, but shall smile to the infinite delight and mystery of it.
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Monday, September 10, 2001
Bored? (I assume if you're reading this you must be). You can re-read my post from last Friday about taxonomies to which I've added a summary.
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Because I'm doing research into how web sites change over time, I very much wanted to hear Stewart Brand's talk at Web2001. I wrote to him and he was kind enough to send his notes. What's event more informative though is Charlie Cho's writeup of Brand's keynote speech.
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