SPY - EYE GLASSES

"SPY GLASSES help you do what you want to do," said Google’s co-founder, Sergey Brin, finally, after years of rumors, introducing Project Glass at Google’s annual developer conference.

"The glasses work like a hands free smart phone, displaying messages, images, and maps onto the world in front of you. The glasses have built in cameras that allow you to capture moments without disrupting them."
Sergey Brin tossed his baby son into the air and explained, “If I tried to capture that with a camera I’d drop my son.”

Wowee -- what a gesture, what a way to show to us that Project Glass is a harbinger of wonderful things to come!

I remember hearing about "spy" glasses a year or so ago, but I shrugged it off as one of those things that would never happen -- you know -- like driverless cars, and other farout "cloud" stuff, but gee ...

Project Glass is a big wow -- it enables you to WEAR a computer, take a picture -- a bunch of pictures -- and record what’s happening without anyone knowing that’s what you’re doing. There is no movement of your hands, no clicking, no buttons pushed -- nothing that tells the subject that he or she is being photographed.

What a convenience! It's progress with a capitol P.... Okay, it’s not a capitol P yet, perhaps, but aren’t you overwhelmed by the possibilities?

What’s a bit iffy, a little uncertain, right now, is who owns the photos? Google? And won’t the courts and trial lawyers be demanding access to the photos, as they’ve already done with Google, smartphones, and Twitter?

Well, the courts, the police, and the law school experts will iron that out the way they’re ironing out Internet stuff, like who owns what -- like controls, rules, laws, access, copyrighting ... all those things they've been trying to iron out for quite a while.

Meanwhile, what concerns me ... gee... wearing these glasses you look sort of outer-space-ish weird.

The glasses, as seen in the design photos Google provided, are a silverish band that wraps around the forehead and a slim white (or black) band that rests just over the right eye containing the small view finder. Nose pads also extend from the silver band, keeping the device in place. Unlike traditional glasses, they do not cover both eyes.

Undoubtedly someone will figure out a way for it to look like ordinary eye wear -- probably, design-savvy Apple will. They recently patented a similar device. Also, the digital photography guys are working on eye-wear, using nanotechnology (teeny batteries) to reduce camera size. They’re also experimenting with “gesture-based” technology that lets you take photos with the blink of your eye.

Gee, maybe we'll be wearing batteried contact lenses?

Anyhow, cheers, applause, bravos for Google’s Project Glass-- it’s definitely giving us a preview of coming attractions -- an early version of what’s to come.

As with Facebook, smartphones, and the Internet in general, this new wearable tech stuff promises wonderful convenience and connectedness. Oh sure, it might cost you some privacy -- how much remains to be seen. The thing to do is keep your eyes wide open, and go with the flow of it.

Hey, currently we’re flowing toward more and more texting -- buying, selling, eating, sleeping, flirting, being entertained, going to the doctor, to school, as well as the gym on our phones.

Hey .... "row, row, row your boat.. gently, down the stream ..." Did you know that there are more smartphones than toilets -- that in many parts of the world the average smartphone has more computing power than Apollo II when it journeyed to the moon?

Is it possible -- it might be possible, could it be that Goggle's got a plan for glasses to replace our phones and give us a new mobility, more mobility -- utter Mobility-- global, universal, ultimate freedom from lots of things that make us human?

Whoopee? Or ... whoa, wait a minute -- row, row ... upstream? downstream? are we heading for the rapids? A waterfall?

NORA EPHRON

She's gone.

Many wonderful tributes to her have been written.

I wasn't aware of her. I loved the films she wrote -- stories, events, scenes that live on in my mind, which undoubtedly affected, to some extent, my thinking.

I looked up her credits, her successes -- she was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Writing (Original Screenplay): for “Silkwood,” “When Harry Met Sally,” “Sleepless in Seattle” -- she won the British equivalent to our Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay for “When Harry Met Sally.” Her last film was “Julie & Julia.” She also co-authored the Drama Desk Award-winning theatrical production “Love, Loss, and What I Wore.”


So many characters she created touched me -- not their names but how they reacted, little things they did still seem real --I think that’s amazing --she created moments that you want to see again and again.

It’s sort of like what a mother does -- gives the child so many memories, deeply felt moments that continue to shape him or her for years and years after Mom is gone.

My Mom, sitting at my kitchen table, with a pen and music paper copying stuff -- eighth notes, chords, clefs -- she couldn’t read music. She just did it -- copied music that I desperately needed and couldn't afford to pay a professional to do it.

And my husband, John Cullum’s welcome home gift -- as I returned from a tour (the first time I’d been away from him) -- climbing the stairs. I heard a roar -- a huge thrilling chord from “Thus Spake Zarathustra” -- he’d bought sound equipment for me -- the real me -- what a gift -- that he perceived who I was, who I am.

And that’s what Nora Ephron gave me -- many moments, many visions of things that I cherished -- gestures, words that I’ll never forget.

Each film she created has them -- the something of Nora Ephron -- tenderness, womanliness, love, sex, and so many sweet, funny, awful incongruities that coincide with feelings I’ve had.

Yes, famous actors, producers, writers, all sorts of celebrities have mourned her with wonderful, deeply felt words. And she lives on, in the minds of many, many people, who didn't know her, to whom she gave precious visions of love.

If you were writing this, what moment or moments still ring in your mind?

Golly, I can't think of anything more important to say about someone who's gone -- Nora Ephron, you live on in our minds.

If you have time, here are scenes from some of those favorite movies.

STAND TALL

Every morning I stand tall.

I look at the clock. It's usually 6:50. I march into my dance studio-theater, striding with long, bold steps, looking straight ahead and beyond so that my head is high. I cross the 40 foot floor.

I hear my sneakers squeak. I dismiss my do-this- do-that morning thoughts.

If "stand up straight" worked like a mantra, I'd be peachy fine -- perky, zesty, quite attractive looking. Alas, commanding myself like the boss, director, choreographer, doesn't work anymore.

If you are very sloppy, very slumped over, or dumpy looking, you can read what I've said about this in blogs I wrote back in 2009 --"SSS" (Sit, Stand, Straight), or "Promenade." But I'm not encouraging you to click the links -- the fact is, I am older and wiser now.

How you look when you enter a room is more important than weight, diction, hair style, makeup, or what you're wearing. Even if no one sees you, it makes a difference.

It's an inner thing of pride and confidence. When you like yourself, you think more clearly and accomplish more -- you do whatever you are doing better -- more efficiently, more skillfully, accurately and thoroughly.

How to stand tall:

Be a toothpaste tube.

Squeeze yourself in the middle -- front, back, sides, all around. While you're squeezing count ten chimpanzees -- "one chimpanzee -- two, three," etc.


That's it. If you want to do more, toothpaste tube yourself three times a day.

And three times a day, go to a wall.

Stand against it... heels,
back of legs,
your waist,
your upper back,
your shoulders,
back of your head.
And count ten chimpanzees.

If you want to do more, do this three times a day.