cdymek's Blog!

Yesterday was hectic, with work, followed by a really dynamic RAA Memership Growth committee meeting and, as always, Monday Night Drinking. MND was a good time, where I had the opportunity to suck at darts and then redeem myself on the pool table. The bar was a busy, smallish place filled with smoke and, as the minutes reflect, had bars on the window. The nicest aspect was that people were still coming and going as late as midnight when we left.

Today at work paranoia over layoffs reached new heights, with more than one person expressing the opinion that there would be an announcement tomorrow morning during the earnings conference call. All I can say is we shall see what we see tomorrow. Given the choice, I’d rather still be employed, but how much control do I have anyway?

Saturday was homecoming at Rutgers, so I watched Rutgers lose badly to Pittsburgh in the first half, followed by a respectable recovery in the second half of the game to only lose by a little. This was followed by dinner with Austin and Mark in New Brunswick and preceded by wandering amongst the tailgaters meeting with a few friends.

Some progress was made on the site redesign this weekend, as I actually put together an interface that I liked and look forward to using. I was too busy reading a book I really wanted to finish before the onslaught of new magazines arrived (FOUR in the past three days!) to do much more than that, and this week with RAA events and potentially a quick FOP Java project to throw together for a few hundred bucks, I’ll likely not have much time to work on it.

Remember these? I was talking to my friend Jenn tonight online and we were trying to remember the name of Shirt Tales. So many “classic” cartoons are listed on this page.

Just down the street…

Her name was Jackie, 23, who lived in Manville for 17 years. My deepest sympathies to her family and friends.

A memorial appeared earlier this week on the bridge over the railroad tracks that connects my neighborhood and parts beyond. Each day I’ve watched it grow in size, without any awareness of who it celebrates or what circumstances caused it to appear. On my walk tonight, I saw several teenagers arrive and walk up there, no doubt to view what has occurred and leave their own marks behind.

This past weekend, a second student this semester jumped from a balacony at a library in NYU. In summarizing the student reactions, I couldn’t help but think that while there may be a reaction there now, in time, that reaction will fade. Eventually, for those that come after, the memories will be gone, something rumored about but generally forgotten.

I always remember this time of year, though. It always touches me a certain way. The grieving process is one of the most difficult parts of life, both for those grieving, and for those who care about the griever. It is a process that can be at once private and public, shared and yet borne in solitude. And those who offer comfort so often find themselves torn, looking for the right words and unable to find them. My only words are cold comfort, that part of loving is letting go, and part of living is losing, and there is no avoiding it. Celebrate what times you had, remember them, cherish them, and live your life to the fullest.

I’m starting to get excited about doing a complete revamping of my website. There are a number of parts that I don’t update often, if at all. And I would like to better manage the way I handle linking, potentially by including links as an addendum to each entry. I would also like to de-emphasize certain sections, maybe remove others, and simplify the navigation. I may also implement the site with stylesheets and Struts, making the whole contraption easier to maintain. Since I’m my migrating to my new jCentric server anyway, now feels like a good time to spend a few days rewriting the site.