(no subject)

Busy damn day. Good, but busy. My Saturday was way over-booked, so I just gave up on attending the Advancing Your Career in Game Development: The Women's Perspective event since it conflicted with my existing commitment to judge this morning at the monthly gameday. Besides, it was likely a recruiter-fest :>

Cut out of the second slot a little early to make it to tara_firma's birthday dinner before she moves to Bellingham. The service was not something you could describe as prompt, so it was a relaxing if slow 3 hour affair. Of course, being a decade older than anyone else at the dinner was a little odd. I can't decide if it makes one feel more connected with youth or damn old. Maybe both. I then left them to their plans to descend upon some unsuspecting karaoke club to make it to the nerdvana party. This time the event was pretty low-key, and frankly the terrible Bruce Campbell flick was pretty distracting. By midnight I was crashing fast, so I made my exit and need to get my butt to bed.

Too bad none of this stuff could be scheduled for Sunday, which so far is lacking in any firm plans beyond restocking the kitchen and cleaning house for my parent's weeklong visit starting Tuesday.

Remember

I purposely avoided all broadcast media today. 9/11 is a moment I recall vividly in part because I had nothing else to distract me when it happened. I was unemployed, had been for four months by September 2001. I had moved to Seattle in August to start over. Andrea was 3 1/2 hours away in Portland, and nobody was in the mood to discuss hiring opportunities. I was unemployed another two months after that, so I had nothing to do but watch CNN day-in, day-out for the entire tragic event and the weeks to follow.

While I recognize we must remember the people that died in the falling towers four years ago, we also have a lot of other people who have died before and since then to remember as well. Americans sure, but others too. When we have a day of remembrance, it should be more than just saying we honor their memory. We should remember them as we lead our daily lives. We should remember them when we make political choices. We should remember them when we form an opinion about current events.

I don't need a day of graphics and speeches to remember.

Instead, I spent the day in the company of the people here who I'm close to. There are others I wish I could have spent time with as well, but 2000+ miles is a long way to go for a visit, and some people I miss are separated from me by things more insurmountable than physical distance.

I remember them too. Seems appropriate for a national day of remembrance.