Marc Mermelstein

New job

2006-10-25T04:49:17Z

Six months ago I started working at the Mendocino Coast District Hospital as an orderly (spongebaths and bedpans). Since then I have been made 'Unit Coordinator' (low level management), 'Audiology Technologist', and, my favorite, 'Neurodiagnostic Technician'. A year ago I was stacking tuna in the freeze hold of a fishing vessel in the middle of the Pacific. Damn.

Palo Altans! Rejoice!

2006-03-21T04:16:03Z

I'll bee buzzing through town wednesday eve through the weekend and I want to see you. Yes, you. respondez pour comment

mermel @ 2006-02-11T20:00:00

2006-02-11T20:03:56Z

O'tay kiddies - here we have me on some evening during my Autumn tuna trip. Note the bucket of blood in the foreground.

Coos Bay, Oregon

2005-09-01T00:21:32Z

Trawl fishing tuna
long lacy lines lure and catch
hunts like jellyfish

New workplace buoy

2005-07-31T22:57:55Z

No more salmon and crab for now - Tuna 'till mid october. Goin' up to Alaska then back down again. NOAA has a nice data collecting buoy near my office.

My Workplace Buoy

2003-12-10T18:18:34Z

NOAA BUOY 46022</href>

change of plans

2003-08-04T07:25:09Z

so i'm not working at the spa - I'm fishing salmon on a trawling boat.

Knife goes in guts come out.

movin out

2003-07-15T07:12:45Z

so I'm moving up to northern, I mean way northern california. Unincorporated Fort Bragg, more like Inglenook (pop'n 300). I got myself a truck and I'm gonna be livin the easy life at 33625 Simpson Road, Ft. Bragg - puttin additions onto the house I'm staying in and workin part time at a spa in Mendocino handing out towels, checking bromide levels, and recommending the different masseurs. Not too shabby.

Gimmie a ring on the unlikely event you're in the area and I'll room, board, feed, and get you discounts at the spa (i'm anticipating being lonely up there).

Here's to country living!

Well, the robber barrons are back. Hearst would be proud...

2003-06-02T06:39:13Z

*******NEWS***FLASH*******
San Jose Mercury News:

Posted on Sun, Jun. 01, 2003
FCC's Powell must be held to his word
By Dan Gillmor
Mercury News Technology Columnist

Monday, barring an 11th-hour change of bureaucratic heart, the Federal Communications Commission will give a gaggle of powerful corporations a gift of enormous value. The three Republican commissioners will outvote two Democrats in easing long-standing rules designed to prevent a few companies from controlling too much of the media we read, hear and view.

The question is not whether the FCC vote can be stopped, though a draft plan may be tweaked a bit at the edges. The Republican majority, led by President Bush's handpicked chairman, Michael Powell, appear determined to proceed despite opposition from what may be the most ideologically diverse group ever assembled.

To be fair, the commission is under pressure from the courts, which have interpreted current law in a way that almost requires more media consolidation. Congress, once again, has failed to step up to an issue of paramount national importance.

Assuming the fix is in, let's ask a different question: Where do we go from here?

We, the people, need to understand what's happening, and why. Then we need to get angry. We need to get organized, and take the fight back to the halls of power.

And we need to call Powell's bluff. He's reassuring everyone that our fears are groundless, but now he has to back his lofty words with genuine action.

By itself, the FCC's support of further media consolidation could have been relatively harmless. It's not totally removing limits on what one company can own in a given community or nationwide, after all, just making the limits less stringent.

We could even view the FCC's move, as Powell has suggested, in the context of a media scene that is getting more diverse, at least at the edges. Information technology makes it easier and cheaper to create art and journalism. And the Internet gives creators potentially global reach. Nice theory, anyway.

But we have to look at the FCC's latest policy move in two additional contexts. First, consider the recent spate of mergers and acquisitions by the biggest players, to the point where the five giants now control the vast majority of commercial media in America. Diversity in viewpoints is a business tactic to these companies, to be used if profitable and discarded if not.

The shameful lack of coverage of this issue, especially by the broadcasters and media conglomerates that stand to gain the most, is a red flag. When media giants are asked to cover issues where they have such an enormous stake in the outcome -- particularly when coverage might inflame the general public to the point where it demanded a different outcome -- they do what is best for the bottom line.

The second context in which we must see the FCC's action involves the future of the Internet itself. The promise of the Net is in its nature, a medium in which we can create and disseminate news, art and other ``content,'' not just consume it.

It's not alarmist, given the plain-as-day trajectory of policies -- including the FCC's own recent actions -- to suggest that the Net's promise is in jeopardy. A few giant media and telecommunications companies could well grasp full control of the Net.

Earlier this year, the FCC gave U.S. regional phone companies the right to control access to their high-speed data pipes. This basically mirrored earlier policies allowing the cable companies, which also created networks by getting government-granted monopolies, to refuse to share access to their lines.

In other words, U.S. high-speed data access will soon be under the thumb of two of the most anti-competitive industries around.

I doubt they'd dare to stamp out speech they don't like. But they could turn their systems into what industry people call ``walled gardens,'' where the content they provide gets preferential treatment and where they discriminate against material they don't control.

This is not idle speculation. Cisco Systems, the company that sells the gear used to direct Internet traffic around the Internet, is happily offering telecommunications companies the tools to create these walled gardens.

Will Congress step in? Doubtful, unless we force the issue ourselves. The broadcasters, who are among the winners in this new arrangement, hold a club over the lawmakers: airtime during election campaigns. That clout led Congress a few years ago to give the broadcasters airwaves worth tens of billions of dollars, without any public-interest requirements in return.

Powell's FCC could prove its good intentions by following through on a direction the chairman has favored in speeches and the commission's staff has touted in policy papers: It could free up more of the airwaves for high-speed data, creating a way around the phone and cable monopolies.

If Powell is serious about reform -- about ensuring a vibrant and diverse media -- he'll push ahead with spectrum reform. If he's just a puppet of the media and communications oligarchy, he won't. It's that simple.

You can help him move in the right direction. E-mail him at mpowell@fcc.gov or call the FCC at (888) 225-5322. And call your elected officials in Washington, at (202) 224-3121, and tell them you want more media diversity and more choices for your communications and information.

Or you can just sit back and watch TV, and be happy with what the oligarchs feed you.

I HAVE GRADUATED FROM COLLEGE

2003-05-20T14:18:03Z

now I am... i will soon be... i plan to... eh.

i'm in palo alto. save me.

beginning of the end

2002-08-11T03:39:16Z

I'm going back to Kenyon! Yay!

I'm in Pittsburgh right now for a huge family reunion with the offspring of my paternal grandmother's 12 siblings. Lots o people. But I get to see relatives, and that's always, well it's, okay, maybe it's... well I have to see them sooner or later. Some of them are great, but, well. I guess I really just want to be at kenyon.

Oh, and a blast from the past, I seem to have picked up an ear infection! Sore throat, clogged nose, headache, nausea, and the extremely painful sensation that my right ear is filled with fluid. Let's hope it goes away soon. In fact I'd like you all to pray, pray for my ear infection to subside. You can even phone in and use your credit card to help the healing begin. Your donation will keep you in the lord's favor and his light will forever shine upon the.

Televangelism at it's best. thank you. thank you.

post-gretchan summer

2002-08-01T06:20:41Z

my summer post-gretchan has been getting better. There was a brief time when I was inconsolable, three weeks of pure gut-wrenching, heart-breaking, mind-crushing, will-breaking pain. But I came out of it, slowly, with the help of a really sappy support group and a girl named Phaedra (she gave me her number and helped me out in seeing myself again over the course of a week of dates-on-training-wheels). Well, she went off to china to go backpacking leaving me back with my housemates, ma home boyz. We've been having a great time together, sittin around during the morning until we decide to go play basketball or go to the gym to lift for 3 hours. We generally eat dinner together, either out or in, and we actually held an old skool style bbc in berkeley's campus (jerome and chris had mickey's and i had da O.E. muthafucka) last wednesday.

Needless to say we're all having a nice relaxing summer.

My personal activities have become narrowed down to reading R.M. Persig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, whittling or bone-sculpting with riflers i got from OSH, and fixing up an antique Craftsman tool box from the 40's or 50's with boku supplies I got from OSH as well. Just a side note - naval jelly is the shit for gettin yo rust off.

Been teaching myself to play the guitar too - now i'm really a hippie. fuck it.

so that it for me, pretty much. Here's a link to a new friend's website with pictures of me, chris (skinny asian guy), jerome (skinny asian guy with a mohawk), and jeff (non-skinny & non-mohawk). He's got a good one of 3 of us at an A's game we went to today: Over the diamond.

tough break

2002-07-02T20:45:00Z

i feel shitty. i'm going to a hospital, though. tough break i guess.

right left me

2002-06-26T19:24:37Z

gretchan left me

she said that she feels restless, she wants to be free, she wants to be 21 and run around and date the wrong people

so she left me

i didn't have a choice

she cheated on me a week ago

then she flew out to california to tell me for $1400 and beg for my forgiveness and try to make everything better

I figured that is she was honest enough to come out and tell me she really meant it

so i forgave her and she was happy

then she went back to louisville knowing that I stilled love her and she said she still loved me.

then i called her up because i hadn't heard from her in a while

she

she said that she couldn't be with me anymore. She said that she wanted to be with Juan Carlos instead. She doesn't want me anymore. But I didn't have a choice, I'm still in love with her, she is my morning day evening night my everything and she doesn't want me anymore. But she has my love and she runs around does what makes her happy, without me. I don't make her happy. but then why did she come out to tell me she was cheating on me, why did she come out and tell me she loved me? why did she do that? I forgave her, i told her I love her and she lied and told me she loved me too. Why?

i can't even think straight anymore.

what am i going to do without my heart?

i need it to be happy... but she needs to be free to be happy.

help

Do you have blacks there too?

2002-05-31T23:08:08Z

BUSH'S GENERAL EDUCATION

Do you have blacks in Brazil?

It is said, that, before September 11, George W. Bush thought the Taliban were a Bavarian brass band. Now, thanks to his comprehensive knowledge, the most powerful man in the world has got into hot water again.

AP
Rice helped Bush from the leave in the lurch

Washington - It was Condoleezza Rice, national security advisor, who helped her boss out of the embarassing situation. During a conversation between the two presidents, George W. Bush, 55, (USA) and Fernando Henrique Cardoso, 71, (Brazil), Bush bewildered his colleague with the question "Do you have blacks, too?"

Rice, 47, noticing how astonished the Brazilian was, saved the day by telling Bush "Mr. President, Brazil probably has more blacks than the USA. Some say it's the Country with the most blacks outside Africa." Later, the Brazilian president Cardoso said: regarding Latin America, Bush was still in his "learning phase".

a haiku

2002-05-30T00:44:04Z

biking in the city
in a bubble, observing
life breaths all around

Rachel Metz is a wonderful person!

2002-05-25T01:41:38Z

Rachel Metz, formely of my old high school and currently of UC Berkeley, is allowing me to rent her room for the sumemr! Not only that but she is letting me sleep on her floor until it is ready for me to occupy! Not only that, but she is going to give me a ride to berkeley! Wow!

wow

wow

mom

mow

wom

owm

not too many anagrams for 'wow'. PS: if you have the means then go and see 'monsoon wedding'. It is wery good.

Back in Palo Alto

2002-05-22T06:39:36Z

It's night time. I was just sitting out on the back stoop waiting for tipper to come in. The air was cold, but it didn't touch that way on my skin - the only notice I had of it was that my breath made little tufts of steam when I let it go. It was the only thing that appeared in my darkened field of view. I suppose there was a lawn and a garden and my cat somewhere all out there beyond my warm breath but I couldn't see it and I really didn't care. I like the weather here.

On to current events: I not only have the aforementioned job in Berkeley, but also managed to talk my way into working for Jean-Francios Revon. he's a very popular set designer in the Bay Area, lots of contracts. He has six shows in production at this moment. I asked if he needed an assistant for the summer. He said he would be glad to use me. Funny - I can remember working with him on his sets when I was 14 or so. I turn 21 in a day ot two. It's been a really long time, or it seems like it has.

The one problem I have now is that I might not have a place to live in Berkeley. The student run co-op said that they might not be able to house me. That really sucks. I really enjoyed living with people my age last summer in Georgia when I was with Habitat. We'd all just sit out on the porch at night and talk about everything. I really miss having people my age around me. I tried calling Sean but he's not home yet. Aside from him I pretty much gave up. Back to berkeley - if I can't get housing then I guess I'll just stay here in Palo Alto, work at the theater and act in Wingspread. Shouldn't be that bad - I've done it before and they're only doing 3 or 4 shows. That's a hell of a lot less than they used to do for a summer run. But, still, even though it is relaxing here, it's also boring. I really do miss being around people my age. It's a lot of fun.

I guess you can really only miss things when they're not around. I should just treat it like my back yard: I know that there was a lawn and a garden and a cat out there, i just didn't care. I just focused on what I could see, not what I couldn't. It was less frustrating, more calming. Summer.

I got my job! For sure!

2002-04-29T20:58:04Z

READ!!!!
(I had to take out the phone number so none of you can call and tell him what a ghastly person I am!)

I'm gonna be in Ber-keley!
---------
Hi Marc,

Jed and I are looking forward to working with you this summer. Why don't we plan on having you start on May 27, which is a Monday. Jed will be back by then and we'll be able to start fresh.

Let me tell you a bit about how the office works. The main office is a pretty close working environment, and we have a separate editing suite across the street. We just upgraded our computer system and reorganized both offices, and we expect this summer to be a pretty busy time. We are in the initial phase of production on our medical marijuana documentary, "Waiting to Inhale: Doctors, Patients and the Law." There are also several other projects in various stages of development.

We are usually in the office around 10 am. You will be doing a lot of different things, and there's always plenty of work to be done. It changes from day to day, and we'll try to keep it interesting. Above all, we want you get comfortable with the work environment and be able to work independently.

I really appreciate your help this summer and I look forward to meeting you in a few weeks. If you have any questions, feel free to give me a call here at the office, (510) 845-****.

Sincerely,

Gab

power to not work, not mine, but my problem.

2002-04-29T07:10:22Z

if god not the brighter took light from we fighters, wagers of homework nothing more left in our clenched fists like the keyboards and books we did have - leave us and go we to the walls of a locked darkness of a ghosted library where no one can work and tomorrow's papers are due but we know that and still sit like idling monkeys and smoke cigarretes [w a i t i n g] and drink water [w % t i n] and wish that we could work again [no! $ j &] just because we wished we didn't have to work a week ago. huh. puff.

Hello. My name is Marc and I am fucked. {hello marc}. hi.

singing

2002-04-02T20:06:36Z

Most of last week I was very depressed. I was okay from monday morning through the rest of the day, but after that I just felt like I was in a slump. I wasn't reall y putting any effort into my work, I procrastinated, I becaome slovenly. I spent more and more time just sitting around with friends and little to no time actually doing anything.

But I think I found out why.

See, last week Doc Locke let us have the week off from Chamber SIngers. With the completion of our tour and our home concert he felt that a break would do us good. So we all remebered to not go to chamber singers for a week and that was that. Well this was also the wek I just started feeling bad.

Today we started chamber singers up again. Even warming up I was excited - little tinglies running all around my body and my ears felt like they were having honey and wine poured into them. Inhaling before the first note of our first song after so long of not hearing this beautiful singing - it was like I knew that I was safe now, little parts of me were jumping inside, being happy. And I didn't even have to try to sing. It all just started flowing out of me and the more I let go the better I felt.

I really like to sing.

Spring Break

2002-03-01T00:10:02Z

Does anyone have any suggestions for what I should do? Miami or Myrtle Beach? Or should I just not go anywhere, stay on campus and go fishing everyday and relax like a mo fo?

Well, howabout this= what is everybody else doing for Spring Break?

True, true

2002-01-09T06:37:48Z

see the truth.

Futile Homostasis in the Face of Entropy

2001-12-31T10:04:56Z

It seems to me as if there is a very strong correlation between certain things in the universe ? more specifically the world. Entropy, nature?s inevitable decay into chaos, and the unnatural human phenomenon of Homeostasis, man?s desire for his artificial world to stay the same (I have taken the liberty of creating the word ?Homeostasis? out of the Latin prefix ?Homo?, meaning human, and ?Stasis?, meaning constancy). The though is this: there is an ongoing, self defeating cycle of Entropy and Homeostasis that is uncontrollable, unstoppable, and will inevitably cost mankind much more energy than we are willing to put into the system.

It came to me when I was on the phone with my dad. We were talking about the increase in respiratory ailments in the New York City area as a result of the trade center tragedy. After the events of September 11th there has been an increase in those particular kinds of medical problems. Obviously enough those problems stem from the destruction of the towers from upright, very much solid, buildings into little smaller bits. Some of these smaller bits are small enough to be called particles, little dusty things that can be inhaled and aggravate the alveoli of lungs. But why is this significant?

Well, as far as sociological reasons there are many for why planes were flown into the buildings. These reasons are all the creation of man (Ironically they were the creation of men who wanted homeostasis of their religious ways) and their actions sped up, for the tactless purposes of my thoughts, the decay of the buildings. See, all things decay, they all are slowly chipped away at by the chaotic force of Entropy. The planes just happened to speed things up by adding much more entropic energy than nature could divvy out. So now that the towers have been unorganized into their smaller, more particulate parts, Entropy, it seems, has caught up with mankind (not that it isn?t always chasing after us and nipping at our heels). And yet we attempt to reorganize. We clean up the site where the towers were in preparation to rebuild them. We go after other humans to try and make sure that this does not happen again. We do all sorts of things, but we fail to realize that we are fighting an even greater foe than we can imagine: time. Time always moves forward, and with it is entropy picking apart what we have been working to create. Pity that it must be so, but throughout all human history things fall and things rise, people die and people are born, entropy disorganizes and we scramble blindly to re-create.

I do not have a solution to get out of this cycle, it encompasses the whole universe ? suns form and then nova. All organization in the universe is doomed to eventually become disorganized. And we, foolish we, skitter about trying to clean up after chaos and make little lives for ourselves. Can we be so blind? Apparently so. It occurs to me that even if we destroy hate and malice among men there will still be accidents to destroy things, or progress to make other obsolete, or more creation of humans to add countless new variables into the monstrously enormous mix of multivariable equations that govern all thermodynamic physics of life to expedite the entropic forces we fight and ignore. In short, the more, the messier.

Is this pessimistic? I think so. But I also think it is right. Pity.

(drum roll please....)

2001-12-24T05:03:02Z

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRETCHAN!!!</text>