Unus Annus - a Momento Mori

I stayed up with my oldest daughter and my son to watch it all end – Unus Annus, that is. We were there when it ended. At 3:00 am, EST, the timer hit, “00:00:00:00” and with a click of a button, it was gone.

A moment after this image - everything went black.  Unus Annus, was gone.

What am I talking about? Well, therein lies a tale.

I discovered Unus Annus through my kids. They were there from the start – they have seen EVERYTHING. I would hear them laughing in the next room and the voices of both Ethan & Mark and from time to time I would join them to watch, enjoy, and to spend some time together making memories.

“So, what was Unus Annus?”

Well, Wikitubia (https://youtube.fandom.com/wiki/Unus_Annus) says this…

Yes, Ethan and Mark are…or were, Unus and Annus, however there is a third member who is only heard or glimpsed from time to time and that would be Amy. To paraphrase Mark, ‘Amy is a creative force unto herself and Unus Annus would not have been the force that it was if not for her presence.’ And what a creative force the channel was.  Over 365 videos, at least one a day, this past year.  I now take you to IMDB for three screen grabs – one from the beginning, one from the middle, and one from the end…

In the beginning…

At the meridian...

At the end...

It was fun while it lasted. But all good things… no, that’s not completely correct… ALL things must come to an end.

Unus Annus went live with a retrospective on 11/13/2020, at 3:00 pm, EST – or noon PST, where the live stream is happening on YouTube. Before midnight, all the Unus Annus social media accounts were deleted, one by one.

“But why would they do this?” you may ask. “They must be making a huge amount of money – 1 million views per video, advertising revenue, and merch – WHY?”

Money was not what Unus Annus was really about. Unus Annus was an art installation. Ahead of its’ time or, perhaps, the first product of its’ time. Mark, Ethan, & Amy created something that was not meant to last. But, in all reality, what is? It was built to illustrate that time is precious. Moments count. The message – pack life into the time you have for time is precious. Use it.

They never forgot their mission and they saw it through to the end. True to their word, at 12 am PST / 3:00 am EST, time ran out for Unus Annus. The only record of it exists in the viewer’s minds – in the memories. You either watched their videos for the time the channel was alive, or you did not. You either participate in the time you are given, or you don’t. ...So, participate. Do. Create. Dance. Take that Chinese archery or drum lessons you’ve always wanted to try. Try sipping different fluids through a Life-Straw. Search for the mighty HEE HOO but beware of the GONGOOZLER! Know in your bones that the search for each is a memory made. DO NOT PUT IT OFF. This is not a dress rehearsal. Go and make memories. Let us all remember that, for a short time, WE WERE HERE.

Congratulations for the tremendous Momento Mori of Unus Annus to Ethan, Mark, Amy, and all the other’s behind the scenes.

Thank you for the memories.   

For everything there is a time. Make your time count.

Let's Talk About Essential Employees

This morning, at 11:16 am, pandemic time, the power went off.  It is a windy, grey, rainy day and I’m hoping that it is only a felled tree.  The sirens that we are hearing whisper of other possibilities.  I pray that is not the case.  I can imagine the complications that such an emergency provides now with all first responders having to wear gloves and masks—if not full bodies Tyvek suits.  You don’t know what the person in the wrecked vehicle has and you don’t know what you may be passing to them.  Just as the pandemic has changed the rest of the sociological strata—our old ‘normal’—so it has changed, I imagine, how first responders go about their work of saving lives. 

Essential workers of any kind—are precisely that—essential.  I’m saying right here and right now $15.00 an hour for minimum wage needs to happen.  Also, the title, “Minimum Wage” should be changed to “Essential Salary”.  The person flipping burgers and serving us at the drive through is putting their life on the line doing so.  Here in NJ, the person pumping your gas is doing the same.  The cashier at the grocery store—yes, her too.  ALL of them deserve medals.  All of them deserve a livable wage.  When this is over there will be a concerted effort to forget that these days happened.  These ESSENTIAL EMPLOYEES should not be forgotten.

“How would we pay for all these people getting a living wage?”

How can’t we, after this globally shared experience.  These essential workers put everything—their safety, their family’s safety—all of it, on the line every day just by showing up to work.  I’ll go further, if it were not for these essential employees showing up society itself would collapse.  If you think a toilet paper shortage is bad, consider grocery stores being boarded up and closed.  Suddenly, the comforts that we take for granted, we can’t take for granted anymore.  $15.00 an hour is the right thing to do.  

But, not to ignore your original question, hypothetical questioner, how about this.  I work in a cube farm, in a rented floor, in a rented building.  That building requires electricity, water, heat, and upkeep.  That’s a LOT of money going out and for what—a mailing address?  A post office box could accomplish the same for a pittance of the price it takes to keep the lights on in my building.  This quarantine has illustrated that, in all actuality, half of the workforce across the nation could work from home and accomplish the same amount of work.  For both public and private organizations, in the new world order, this is a money saving, viable option.  Suddenly, you are not paying rent, electricity, water, sewer, heat, cooling, and upkeep.  Suddenly, you’re saving money just by having your people work at home.  Suddenly, you have enough to pay essential employees serving their communities $15.00 an hour.

You’re welcome, America. 

Speaking of essential employees and medals—I’m predicting that TIME Magazine’s Person of the Year will be Essential Employees.  It has to be.  The doctors, the nurses, the EMTs, the linemen (who are mobilizing right now to get our electricity up and running again. …I’m running on my laptop battery for this section of the journal), the cashiers, the fire responders, police, truck drivers, people who stock shelves—ALL of them.  They deserve that title, Person of the Year. 

So, @TIME Magazine, what do you say? 

It’s 12:15 and the power just came on.  Thank you, linemen from Atlantic City Electric.  You are essential, not only for electricity but for a functioning version of whatever, ‘normal’ used to be.  You and a host of other essential employees at this unique moment in our history are doing what you do, what you’ve always done—holding everything together.

Thank you.

 

Blimps & Time

We took off today to pre-celebrate my youngest daughter’s 13^th birthday.  We celebrated with presents, a trip to “5 Below” for Japanese candy, and a feast of sushi held in her honor.  We came home and the dogs were put on their leads so they could do whatever they needed to do, my wife went to her computer, my oldest to her Xbox, and my two youngest kids decided to stay outside for a walk.  I was taking some pictures when I saw something in the sky.

“Come quick!” I shouted to my two younger kids.  ‘Kids’ by the way, is going out of style in my household.  My youngest turns 13 this weekend and I live completely and utterly in a house full of women.

“What?” they asked.  They were unenthused.  Of course how could they be?  They had not seen the wonderful airship that I just saw in the sky!  A vessel out of time.  A blimp!  It was still visible but it was moving.

“You’ll see but you’ve got to hurry up!” I said.  They were not moving any faster.  I gave another look and, sure enough, the blimp was starting to disappear.  “Come on, this is cool!”

“Dad, your idea of ‘cool’…” my middle child was about to say something but I interrupted her and pointed skyward.

“See!” I said but there was nothing there.  The blimp had passed beyond the treetops.  Gone.  I was the only one who would ever know that it was there.

“What?” she asked.

“It was a blimp,” I said, “You missed it.”

“A blimp.” She said. “You got excited about a blimp?”

“Yes, I did.” I said. “I wanted to share it with you.”  I was looking at both of them.  I must have looked a bit forlorn and crestfallen.

“It’s not that we didn’t want to see it with you.” She said.  My youngest nodding her agreement.

“I don’t blame you." I said.  "I blame time.”  The girls looked at me strangely anew.  “I remember a time not all that long ago when blimps would have been cool to see fly in the air.  And now that time is gone.”  I made my way inside to my computer and after a bit of poking around I wrote this remorseful little ditty.  

I should start to schedule my mid-life crisis.  Hold on, let me check my calendar… OH.  My mistake, I thought it was set for a time in the future. 

It turns out I’m already there. 

An Open Letter…

Dearest, Gentle Reader

I have missed you. I have not been around recently. I have been an “absente blogger” and that does not resonate well in my ear. With the masters program I have only had briefest of moments to touch base here at my electronic Fortress of Solitude. I look at my last post (just scroll down) and I notice two things: 1. it’s short and too the point. 2. The point is pretty negative. I blame time – a commodity I simply do not have these days. I did not mean to imply that the current slump which we find ourselves is insurmountable – no, quite the contrary. We are the country that built and used the space shuttle. Are our priorities out of whack? Yes, but that’s cyclical too. This is the United States of America and we will get our collective act together. The debt ceiling and the S & P credit downgrade notwithstanding it all really is a season. There are good times and bad times no matter what area of the globe one inhabits. It’s part of being human.

My first class in my masters program has ended. I really loved it. It got me excited and motivated to move forward which is exactly what the plan is. I am also about half way through my second course. In my second class there have been several miscommunications and snags. That, however, is immaterial and transient. I know that it is cyclical, that everything will come together, and that it is only a season. Conflicts arise, but that’s life. How we face those conflicts defines us.

Well it has been wonderful catching up with you! I really do miss you and I look forward to a time in the future when I am back here on the virtual pages of Chicken Scratch discussing adventures and visits to the multiplex. [“Captain America – the First Avenger” was GREAT, by the way! Bring on “The Avengers.”] I hope to see you soon.

Until next time, Gentle Reader, adieu,

Sincerely,

Evil Chicken