Seder in Charleston

I like to think of myself as a fairly ethnically and culturally diverse person.  My mother is a Puerto Rican Catholic, my father is a Californian Agnostic, my step-father is a trained Southern Baptist Minister and my step-mother is a Jamaican Jew.

Often, when I tell people my mother is a Jamaican Jew, I am regarded with a look of consternation.  I enjoy imaging what must be going through their minds.  My mom’s family are Sephardic Jews that fled Portugal, during the Inquisition.  Apparently, one of the techniques used to root out Secret Jews was to note the kinds of foods they ate, during the Passover Festival.  For this year’s Seder dinner, mom wanted to honor her ancestors by eating the kinds of foods that would have been eaten by the Secret Jews. So on Saturday, Andrea and I went up to Charleston to celebrate Seder with my Father and my Step-Mother.

Seder is celebrated after sundown which was around 8 PM this particular Saturday.  So, Andrea and I took a late lunch at Mondo’s. 

This joint is absolutely local’s only, but it’s the best food in Charleston hands down!  Better yet, the prices can’t be beat.  I had an Eggplant Parm Sandwich, Andrea had a Veal Burger, we washed them down with 2 Bloody Mary’s and finished with a shared Hazelnut Chocolate Gelato.   Total bill:  $28 (with a good tip).

So with full bellies, we headed off to John’s Island to see the folks.  We were greeted with Reggae Music, a lazy cat and awesome smells.

 

Here is ‘Kitty’, I swear this cat never ages she’s like 13 years old!

Here is Mom putting the dinner together, Dad and I weren’t being lazy, we were ordered not to help.

 

The Pièce de résistance a beautiful chicken coated with this amazing paste.

So for about another 5 hours, we cooked, talked and drank.  Finally around sundown, we put on our nice clothes and sat down for dinner.

 

Andrea, mom and Fran (mom’s dear friend for over 20 years).  And here’s the Seder table.

The meal was outstanding!  And the ceremony was truly powerful.  Religions and their unique ability to preach love openly and yet proclaim a monopoly on God; generally engender feeling of discord within me.  But spirituality, the human, individual communion with the divine is beautiful and powerful.  While, I’m a stranger to Judaism, I can appreciate the spiritual nature of the ceremony.

The next day, Andrea and I drove around Charleston, and in the late afternoon, I took her to James Island County Park.  Like Mondo’s this is another local’s only spot in Charleston, which is absolutely breath taking.

While I’m in love with the Urban Bohemian feel of Riverside in Jacksonville, my heart and my soul will always belong to the marsh lands of the Southeastern Coast.  Someday, I hope to return to Charleston to settle, but until then I need to walk my own path.

Potluck in the Park – Beta Version

I have this vision of Boone Park in Avondale along Herschel.  It’s a sunny Sunday with just a dusting of puffy clouds in the sky.  The weather is perfect high seventies and there is a whisper of wind.  The open field, just west of Herschel, is filled with Adults and Older children playing Frisbee, kickball or catch.  Under the trees, younger children chase gigantic bubbles.  The picnic tables are covered with different family recipes.  All around strangers become acquaintances and acquaintances become friends.  Everyone eats hearty, laughs and feels like a kid again for a day.  As the sun goes down, the gathering retires back to their individual homes.  Groups of neighbors who have lived 100 yards away from each other, finally meet and realize they share many of the same interests and stories.  Maybe, we all become a bit more connected.  Maybe, we feel a bit less like islands amid a digital sea of entertainment.  Maybe, we make the place we live a community.  At least that’s my vision.

This weekend, we beta tested Potluck in the Park.  A wonderful time was had by all!  And I thank my lovely wife, for this awesome idea!  Ya’ll should come next time, everyone’s welcome!

We were here…you should be too!

Best Bocce throw ever.  That was about 40 yards away!

Everybody loves big bubbles!

RE:Charge Jacksonville ’08

As my understanding of our industry has evolved, I have learned to value the contributions Graphic Artists have added to my projects.  I remember the early days of the web when content was king, and a web designer was anyone who knew an <a/> from a <br/>.  But as we have matured as an industry, the form of a page has become tantamount in capturing the average user’s 8 second attention span.  In fact, when Andrea, my wife, started in the Graphic Design Program at UNF, I had visions of starting a Web Studio with top of the line application developers, paired with top of the line Graphic Designers.  We were to be the personification of the ‘design wives and programming husbands’ paradigm.  That vision may someday come to fruition, but at the moment our careers are talking two divergent paths.

So in order to better network with the community of Graphic Designers, I decided to enroll in the RE:Charge 08 AIGA Design Conference.  Turns out this was an awesome decision!  I was inspired by the speakers, and left more convinced than ever that Graphic Artists can play a critical role in the development of applications.  We engineers are the machine, but the designers are the paint job.  For better or for worse, consumers make their purchasing decision based on an emotional connection to the paint job, not just an understanding of the utility of the machine.

I found it fascinating ironic that I came across the following quote, while reading about Game Theory between sessions.

"Some recent experiments have raised questions about utility theory, the mechanism that allows you to express a person’s preferences in a consistent pattern so he or she can make rational decisions.  It appears that choices are often made on the basis of the way the alternatives are expressed; while this may not be news to biased poll-takers, salespeople and advertisers, it is disturbing to game theorists.  Game theorists assume decision makers behave rationally; when they don’t difficulties arise, and these difficulties are discussed in the text."

I love this quote because it shows how disconnected the mathematical and systemic minds of the scientific community are from their own souls.  Their spouses must be pissed!

So why is this important.  This is a simple example showing how the scientific mind clings to the rational.  For years scientists have mocked the religious for clinging to a subjective mystery, yet we too are guilty of ignoring the subjective in the pursue of the quantitative.  The result is that we miss the obvious.  In this example, does the irrational components of behavior invalidate the rational foundations of game theory?  Absolutely not?  The irrational decision points provide no objective means of predicting behavior.  It’s kind of like quantum uncertainty at the store front.  🙂

I’ll close with the following.  During the RE:Charge event, Juliet D’Ambrosio gave a presentation on interviewing technique.  When she asked for volunteers from the audience, I spoke.  The purpose of the 12 minute interview was to demonstrate interviewing techniques.  At the end of the exercise, she would summarize the person in 6 words.  For me she chose, "Bohemian Techie in Love with Life".  I think I’m sticking that on my business card.  I am a scientist == techie and I am an artist == bohemian.  In some way, shape or form I think that this is not just a description of me, but also a description of the human condition.  Before we ate the Apple in the Garden of Eden, we saw the world as color and experience.  The Apple showed us cause, effect and consequence.

Thank you AIGA, the speakers at RE:Charge and the participants.  What a wonderful few days!