Month Fifteen

OK, perhaps this is an unpopular stance, since I wasn't here on 9/11, but anytime anything happens in Manhattan nowadays you have to hear something about "a reminder of 9/11." It's kind of hard not to have a reminder when a building known as "The Widow" that survived the mayhem that day gets burned to the ground and two firefighters lose their lives, but now the "reminder" angle that the media always inserts into these stories has the ring of untruth or at the very least, should go without saying.

At this point and time, any tragedy should have its own context. Unless there is foul play involved from a distant land, this constant bringing up of 9/11 does no good.

It's amazing how many things happen in The City, though. Cory Lidle's plane, the doctor who committed suicide by blowing up his own building, the pipe that burst close to Grand Central Station, and now the 7-alarm fire in the WTC area. It's almost like a minefield.

Speaking of danger, I see a lot of rather curious laments on how safe New York is, and how some people who knew it way back when wish for the old days when you had to look over your shoulder. There is by far too much worship of rough and tough, gritty environments. I know it's great to be able to say you were able to survive such elements, but where exactly is the glory in all that, really? Who needs that kind of stress? Isn't there enough weird crap that happens around here? Seriously, when did it become a good thing to be proud of a dangerous neighborhood? Count me out of that nonsense.

As for my job, people are making progress in learning the craft of projection, a bit slowly. Some people are really excited about it, some just go through the motions, but it's to be expected. Does anyone have a skill with so many nuances to it, it's impossible to explain your knowledge of it? I've always approached my activities with logic and looking at a task from several different perspectives, with a CSI mentality. You can teach someone how to build a film from reels, but really, experience trumps anything I could possibly say about the job. You just hope that the person does the task correctly and then begins to absorb the knowledge on their own. It's what I did. I learned how to do these things in an environment that allowed me to make mistakes and learn from them. I sometimes wonder if I do a disservice to people when I correct someone's mistake before they have a chance to make it.

So, that's all for this month. More next month.