And, seriously, stop forwarding that crap to me.

Diego Stocco takes an ordinary dry cleaning shop and turns it into a rhythmic instrument in Music from a Dry Cleaner.

(via Laughing Squid)

The phone rang again.

I noticed it was just before dawn. The sky was dark blue with a hint of brightness at the horizon. I was incoherent and wasn’t sure [...]]]> I was startled awake from a deep sleep by the phone ringing. It was dark out and it seemed like the middle of the night.

The phone rang again.

I noticed it was just before dawn. The sky was dark blue with a hint of brightness at the horizon. I was incoherent and wasn’t sure why I was awake. I glanced at the clock: 6:20 in the morning.

The phone rang a third time.

In reaching for the phone, I knocked it to the floor. It rang again as I fumbled to get control of it and raise it to my head.

“Hello?,” I said, in a half-slumber.

“Chad? It’s your mother,” said the familiar voice, with a panicked tone.

“Hi, Mom. What’s wrong? What’s going on?,” I asked, convinced something tragic had happened within the family.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine. Is everything alright?” I felt it was taking too long to get the point and I was cranky for being awakened so early.

“We are under attack.”

“What?”

“We are under attack. They’ve attacked New York. You need to turn on your TV and be aware of what’s going on.”

“Wait, what? Who’s attacking who?”

“We are under attack. Go turn the TV on.”

Unsure of what was going on, I stumbled into the living room and turned my TV on. I saw an episode of Card Sharks, which disoriented me further. I hunted for the remote so I could change the channel.

“I’m not sure I understand. Someone’s attacked New York?”

“They’ve crashed planes into the World Trade Center. It’s bad. Are you watching the news yet?”

I found the remote. I instinctively punched in “202″ for CNN in HD. The DirecTV receiver took a second to switch channels. When it refreshed, I saw the familiar twin towers of the World Trade Center with smoke pouring out of them. The anchor was mid-sentence and incomprehensible.

“Yeah, I’m looking at it now. These fires are from planes crashing into the buildings?,” I asked.

“Yes. I need to call the rest of the family. I will call you back later.”

“Okay, Mom. Love you.”

“Love you too.”

I put the phone down on the table and looked again at the screen. I saw smoke plumes stretching to the edge of the image from both of the towers. The CNN anchor was talking but I was paying no attention… I was trying to make sense of what I was seeing.

It looked like any other fire I’d ever seen, albeit bigger. I saw a faint orange glow and smoke drifting from the building, almost majestically, off into the distance. My initial thought was that small planes had crashed into the sides of the buildings but that was interrupted by CNN replaying the events of just a few minutes prior. The replay clearly showed a large United Airlines jet impacting one side of the second tower, followed by flames and debris exploding out of the opposite side.

“Holy shit,” I said, aloud, to the empty room.

I immediately thought of my close friend, Veronica. She worked in one of the towers, but I wasn’t sure which. I dialed her number, but was met with an announcement tone, followed by, “all circuits are busy now, please try your call again later.”

I hung up and dialed again, only to be met with the same announcement. I imagined thousands of people having the same thought and decided to wait awhile before trying again. I, like millions of others, tried to absorb the enormity of what I was seeing. It was like watching a blockbuster summer movie, except it was real.

The CNN anchor mentioned a fire at the Pentagon and unconfirmed reports that another plane had crashed there.

I picked up the phone and tried Veronica again. I got a fast busy signal.

CNN seemed content to show the image of a jet aircraft slamming into a high-rise over and over again but I wanted more information. I began scanning the various other news networks hoping for a different perspective but found they were all the same. Exasperated, I switched back to CNN.

As the channel change registered, I saw the image zooming outward to reveal only one of the two World Trade towers and an enormous amount of smoke or ash where the second tower stood. Chaos ensued as the anchor, the commentator, and anyone else with a live mic unanimously wondered what the hell was going on. Was it a bomb or did it collapse?

Panic started to set in.

I grab the phone and dial Veronica’s number, more desperately than before.

“All circuits are busy now.”

I felt helpless, as if I was watching loved ones in turmoil yet couldn’t help them. I had been to New York dozens of times before… I had even stood on the observation deck at the southern tower of The World Trade Center. Watching something I was so familiar with be the center of such chaos on the TV screen made everything so real, yet it was still much like watching a movie, as if were a replay of someone’s memory.

The screen cut to scenes of people covered in dust and running through the street.

I tried Veronica’s number again. This time, the phone rang and I stood at attention in the hopes I’d reach her. I heard a click and a brief silence, followed by a familiar voice:

“Hello, this is Veronica. Please leave a message and I will call you back as soon as I can.”

My heart sank, but I was grateful to at least have gotten through.

“Hi, Ronie, this is Chad. I just want to know you’re okay. Call me back when you can.”

I hung up the phone and stared at it for awhile, as if it could help me.

Attention on CNN started to shift to Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where it had been reported yet another aircraft had crashed. United flight 93 had gone missing and it was presumed to be the flight that had gone down in a field there.

This is when I started to get a cold sweat: I had taken flight 93 about a dozen times as my routine way to get from New York back to San Francisco… I even had a flight attendant recognize me on one flight and I remembered thinking to myself that I might be traveling a bit too much. As if this entire episode unfolding in front of me hadn’t hit home enough, it was suddenly in my back yard.

Days went past and, with each passing hour, I felt that my friend may have been one of the ones unfortunately lost in the disastrous events of 9/11. The realization you may have lost someone you care about is something I wouldn’t wish on anyone: you feel an enormous gamut of emotions from grief to self-pity to concern for their family to just outright confusion… how could this happen? It seemed unfair and the lack of information just made it worse.

Then the phone rang. The number showed as “unavailable,” but I instinctively answered it anyway.

“Chad?,” said the voice I thought I wouldn’t hear anymore.

“Ronie? Oh my God, are you okay?”

“I’m fine… I hurt my knee in the mess, but I’m fine.”

“I’m so happy to hear you’re okay.”

“I can’t talk for very long, things are hectic over here, but I wanted you to know I was alright.”

“Just knowing you’re alright is enough. Call again when things are more stable, okay?”

The relief you feel when you find out someone you’re concerned about is safe is a completely different level of the emotional roller coaster.

When you see a fire truck go by or see a police cruiser rushing somewhere, remember that those are the men and women that are running up the stairs when the building is on fire.

Remember to never take as for granted the people that you care about and always cherish the moments you have with them… you never know when it might be the last moment you have.

Carl Sagan famously made a request of NASA that they point Voyager 1‘s camera back toward Earth and take a picture of what our world looked like from the edge of our Solar System. The resulting picture spawned a book and forever changed my life as I realized that everything and everyone [...]]]>

Pale Blue Dot

Carl Sagan famously made a request of NASA that they point Voyager 1‘s camera back toward Earth and take a picture of what our world looked like from the edge of our Solar System. The resulting picture spawned a book and forever changed my life as I realized that everything and everyone that I knew or will know, touch, or experience, is contained in a incomprehensibly tiny blue planet in the incredible vastness of space.

Recently, another NASA project, Cassini–Huygens, captured a spectacular image of Saturn that also contains the “pale blue dot.” I’ve added an annotation to show where Earth is in the picture. Remember that Cassini is half as far away as Voyager 1 was when it took its picture and yet we’re still but a tiny speck in the photo. In fact, our entire planet would have been completely hidden by Saturn’s rings if it weren’t for the fact that we’re serendipitously located in a large gap.

Look at this photo and ponder for a moment everything you’ve experienced and all of your goals, hopes, and dreams and recognize they’re all going to take place on that tiny pale blue dot. You were born, will live, and then ultimately die standing upon it, just like everyone else you know.

Staring up at the night sky, we often forget the vast empty distances between where we are and what we can see. Pictures like these really help to provide perspective.

Earth is the pale blue dot indicated by the arrow. The Sun is behind Saturn.

Check it out:

Further proof of my theory: