From a blurb for an upcoming public lecture on Bach's cantatas at UC Riverside:

Bach's creative life stretched from the early 1700s till his death in 1750, a time known as the Baroque period in European classical music. Contrary to his somewhat undeserved ultra-religious image, Bach only devoted relatively short periods of this half century to the composition of church music, according to Bach scholar Jan Koster. [emphasis mine] Bach lived in Leipzig, Germany from 1723 until his death in 1750. Bach was a prolific cantata composer, writing more-than 300 cantatas, many in only the first five of years of his time in Leipzig, according to Koster. Many of Bach's cantatas were subsequently lost.

I'm about to board Air Canada 827 from Boston to Toronto. Yeah! This last week in Cambridge has been a wonderfully rich one. The goal was to blog during the course of the week-- but I never managed to fit it in the busy schedule. Moreover, I tried to work and keep (some) tabs on what was happening in Berkeley while I was in Cambridge. During the meetings, I paid attention to the speaker and to the non-verbal dynamics of the participants. I noticed that many folks were physically at MIT but mentally back home.

More when I get to Toronto. My last day in Cambridge was a rainy one -- a marked contrast to the heat and humidity of the early part of this week. I wanted to see Boston; I walked most of the Freedom Trail but gave up near the end because of time constraints and because I had developed a blister that made walking a bit painful. So I treated to the Harvard Coop, read excerpts from a few books, trank some earl gray tea at a nearby cafe and then rushed back to catch a shuttle that brought me to where I am now.

(Wish me a safe flight -- I hope my luggage doesn't get lost!)

Even when I'm tired, I am usually able to write something coherent on my blog. But I'm really struggling to get something down tonight. Maybe I'm distracted by the latest "reality tv show" that I stumbled upon while channel surfing: Cupid . After thinking about educational technology interoperability all day, my mind has been reduced to the mush that can contemplate interoperability only of a more primal nature.

This is one of those days in which I just check in, dear blog, to say that I'm ok. Dear blog, I had a wonderful dinner last night -- wish you could have been there at Casa Portugal. Nothing like hanging out with cool, smart people who get what you are doing from around the world (places like Australia, Sarajevo, Berkeley, the UK, and Canada). The duck was good too, though the lack of vegetables made me long for those big salads you get in Berkeley.

Today was full. I didn't have my notebook computer on during many of the sessions -- so dear blog, I was not in touch with you. Sorry. I felt that I needed to pay attention to my fellow human beings. Dinner with Ken and Lisa was the highlight for me, however. First Harvard Square; then Davis Square -- I love this city already. Cambridge is one cool place.

Goodnight dear blog. Sleep tight.

As I noted on The Architecture Lodge, I'm here at MIT now. It's already 12:15pm my time -- and though I'd love to tell you about how I learned to find the local mall so that I can buy clothes to hold me over because of lost luggage; the rediscoverd pleasures of hot weather; the splendor of the mix of people at the conference; the joy of recoverd luggage (Jesus talked about searching high and low for a lost coin); how thrilled I am that my friend Krista has started a new blog focused on transportation; how I finally did something I've putting off for a long time -- too long.

But I must hit the sack and blog tomorrow!

Bright and early tomorrow morning, I'm flying to Montreal to attend my sister Shirley's wedding. I don't anticipate having any network connectivity until I arrive at The University Park Hotel @ MIT on Sunday evening to attend the alt-i-lab meeting all next week.

I need to get packing rather than blogging....

Happy Canada Day! I'm going to be in Montreal in a couple of days for my sister's wedding. Truly exciting. Until then, there's so much to do that it's easy to lose sight of the most important things in life. (I'm very grateful to have been born in Canada. I'm also very pleased to be living in the U.S. Any contradiction in that?)

Lynn, I'm sorry about Dan's car being stolen. You recounted being attacked in daylight in Berkeley some years ago. My former housemate Christo and I were also mugged in Berkeley. In our case, it was around 9pm and we were walking along Benvenue. Frankly, we weren't terribly alert during our walk; we were distracted by the topic of our conversation: women. The price of inattention was being accosted by a man who jumped out from the bushes. Luckily, he seemed to know what he was doing, displaying little nervousness at all (beats a jumpy robber any day). He just discreetly held his gun (or what appeared to be a gun) to his side -- but it was obvious enough to the two of us. We handed over our wallets. He then ordered us to turn around and run. The thought did cross my mind that he was then going to shoot us. Instead, we heard the engine of his accomplice's car roar away.

That incident shook us up, naturally. It's sad that the language of self-blame creeps back into how I described the situation. Yes, we could have been more alert. But I shouldn't be blaming the victim (namely, ourselves)! And it can happen again, no doubt, with worse consequences. But is there a truly safe place? Maybe. I certainly behave as though there are safer and less safe places.