A perspective on Puerto Rico...

...by a Mexican-American I was chatting with:

"A low-class Third World Caribbean country."

3 recent quarry park moments:

1) When I'm picking up trash by the side of the park, this (short) (middle-aged) (Chinese) guy who's jogging says as he goes past without stopping, "Thanks, you great, man!".

2) As I'm walking along another section of the park, this (young) (Chinese-American) boy walks past holding up a turtle, which makes me do a double-take.

"Whoa!", I was like.

"He's dead," the kid was like, and explained that he wasn't moving and that he smelled funny.

He said he found him on the edge of the quarry park pond (which recently got a ton of run-off from storms, and so absorbed a lot of pollutants?).

"See?", he was like, putting his finger against the dead turtle's head.  "He doesn't move."

3) After the tip of my right sandal caught, the lowest layer of the front half became a bit detached, so I went and ripped it off.

Then, later, right in the middle of another path was another similar part of a ripped-off sole of a shoe.

And, it was even in the same color, black.

Semi-forced environmental neuroticism: Sunscreen.

A few weeks ago I used to scissors to cut open a pretty empty container of SPF 50 sun screen, and wiped my fingers all along the inside to use the very last of it.

On the one hand, that was because I had to get out the door and I needed sunblock.

On the other hand, that was also because I'm environmentally neurotic and I really did want to make sure that I used every last bit of the sunscreen.

Overheard by a friend at a large shiny gay bar in the city ~

A woman at the bar to her (gay) friend:

"On my G-d, this is the Six Flags of gay!".

Self-reflection: Activist op-eds.

A few weeks ago, a friend mentioned that everyone wants work that's meaningful.

That made me realize that's why I keep working on activist op-eds, though they take time away from the immediate goal of my dissertation:  those op-eds are the most meaningful thing I do in the short-term, and so they draw me in.

I'll have to be more cognizant of that in the future.

The environment of the 2010s:

Clear steampunk lightbulbs with smoldering orange filaments in interiors that mix concrete, wood, metal, and live plants, and dance songs with dirty, dirty beats...

I can already see both of those as hallmarks of this decade, they're everywhere.

I wonder... Adult male with children.

I do wonder about interactions as an adult male with unknown children.

On the one hand, my going to get the ball was neighborliness, and was perceived as such.

On the other hand, that same action could be perceived as a weird pretense for an adult male to interact with unknown children for malevolent purposes, though it wasn't and wasn't perceived as such, though I'm aware it could be.

That's kind of sad in a way, but it's a realistic interpretation of male action, given how much male violence is perpetrated against the vulnerable in our society.

Part of it, too, is being single.  If I had been there with a partner and children of my own, actions would not be as open to misinterpretation.

For some reason, I think of stuff like this when I interact with children - for example, if a toddler begins interacting with me on public transportation and I interact back and go on to chat with the parent.

I wonder where my awareness of this stuff comes from.