Powers of Ten.
A film dealing with the relative size of things in the universe. And the effect of adding another zero.
Made by the office of Charles and Ray Eames. For IBM.
(Thoroughly enjoyable.)
I really recommend following my friend Jonathan Hillhouse on Flickr & Tumblr.
He is living in Japan (Oita prefecture) and shoots a 4x5 Graflex Speed Graphic exceedingly well.
Ditto. Wonderful photographs.
True Running Is.
muse and music,
drug and dealer,
life and liver,
ocean, river.
wound and healer,
peace and keeper,
joy and rage,
shaman, sage.
The internet… real life… reality… friendship… relationships… modern society… solitude… happiness… peace…
These are the things that occupy my thoughts often. And they are, in one way or another, the reasons I took some time off from the Internet again this Fall. Why do I do it? Why do I turn my back on all the amazing people and sights and sounds and the never-ending buzz of this great hive we call the internet? Because it is the single most effectual action I know of for adjusting my perspective on my life and the world around me. I don’t know if there is some sort of psychological scale for measuring cognition and focus and a sense of being present in one’s own life, but if there is I am positive that whenever I step away from the buzz my score goes off the charts. I can’t quite figure out an easy clever way of describing the phenomenon, but it is absolutely real.
What I’m finding is that, as a 33 year old man, I’m still not sure how I feel about this brave new world of technology. The irony being that I make my entire living designing and building web applications! I literally help MAKE the internet! Ha! This thing I love, and am pretty damn good at, is the thing my subconscious mind (and my conscious one) is somehow trying to get away from.
So you see my dilemma. I love the internet! I think you all are spectacularly fascinating people! I honestly do. However, when I ignore your collective cacophony and retreat into the quiet solitude of a more analog existence, my mind literally changes. (And I use the word literally with total understanding of what it means. I do believe that it literally changes. Any cheap brain scanners on eBay?) The rhythm and meter of life begin to change. The change is quick and dramatic, and as the new groove overtakes the old one, the living of it starts to sound like a whole new song. The syncopated staccato crash-pattern of the digital morphs itself into the long and lyrical aria of the analog. The change always surprises me. It feels foreign at first, and then quickly feels like home. And when it comes, the craving for an unbroken real life state of mind becomes, at times, overwhelming. Part of me sincerely hopes I am not fading off into the Grey Havens of the internet, but I cannot deny that another part of me wants nothing more.
I may write more on this, as it is on my mind often these days (though I often wonder if I’m getting more eye-rolls than amens when I talk about it). For now just know that it’s not you — it’s me.
I’m logging out for a little while. Always good to get some time away from the screens. I did this last year and it was fantastic. This year will have slightly different parameters, but will be mostly the same. No recreational Internet. No movies. No TV. No Twitter. Basically, no turning my brain off in front of a screen. At all.
It’s harder than you think. BUT SERIOUSLY, DO IT.
This year promises to be way more fun for me than last year though, for two reasons. First, I am way more active in the outdoors than I was last year. Last year I was hoping to get some good “walking” in. This year, I’m rock-climbing, scrambling, and trail-running basically barefoot through the woods at least twice a week. Second, we are buying a new (quite old, but new to us) house. It is an amazing hundred-year-old “Stickley Craftsman” (read that article if you don’t know what that means—I didn’t either), designed by Stickley himself, built from one of the original Craftsman Magazine plans (#57 to be exact) in 1910, and oozing with character. It is even in a coffee table book! It looks different—much better—now, but check it out here on Google Books.
We are, as folks who have experienced some very difficult failures and restarts so far in life, absolutely ecstatic. Can’t wait to share pictures. This house will fit us (not just in size, but in spirit) more than any place we’ve ever lived. It really is rather amazing and we feel sincerely lucky to get to live there. That reminds me!—MaryAnn and I are also celebrating our 10 year anniversary next week. Wow. Time flies when you’re hanging out with the coolest chick you’ve ever known.
So I won’t be bored.
Enjoy the season! Get outside! Love your people! Enjoy your time! See you in a month or two. I’m sure that when I return, the Internet will be bustling with news and photos and songs and ideas and “likes” and “follows” and will be humming with all the spectacular complexity that it currently is. For now, I’m going to take more time in the woods, more time with some books, more time tinkering around the new house. I’ll see if I can’t come back with something worth stopping by for …if not… don’t worry, you really won’t miss me. Much. ;)
Happy Autumn!
Quick Tip For Outdoorsy Folks: Yerba Mate Bottle
(side note: I really think we need to bring back the term “naturalist” - it really is the best word for people who love being in nature. anyway…)
Make your whole quart bottle into hot Yerba Mate in the morning when it’s cold! I highly recommend adding sugar, honey, or agave nectar to taste. Yerba is a little harsh if not sweetened, especially if you’re not used to it. On hot days, do the same but just brew the Mate cold. It’s an amazingly effective energy booster and an incredibly healthy and delicious alternative to plain old water or fancy modern energy drinks/powders. And since tea is, of course, about 99.5% water, you’re still getting hydrated, just with the nectar of the gods.
Me and the chipmunk (see him there?) on top of Eagle Cap. That long beautiful valley in the background is where we hiked in from. And this photo was taken from near the lake that is down there in the far lower right.
Why the hell are my eyes filling with tears?, I asked myself this morning as I read John Gruber’s beautiful and poetic piece on Steve Jobs’ passing. Of course, like everyone else with an Internet connection, I heard the news yesterday. And like so many others, I found out on a device with his single-symbol signature on the back. Until now though, honestly, I didn’t feel much. Why should I? I didn’t know this man personally. A lot of people who I don’t know personally die every single day. Why should this guy be different? This morning it finally struck a chord. This man altered my life. He altered the lives of the last couple generations of humans. All of us. It’s not about products or “things” or iPods or Macs. It’s about the scope of the impact.
Think about it: personal computers.
Steve Jobs was one of the people largely responsible for the reason we all use them, work with them, carry them in our pockets, make art with them, explore the world with them. He wasn’t singularly responsible of course, but in the galaxy of technology that has seen supernovas of growth over the last 40 years, his star was very near the center, and just might have been the brightest. His passion and audacity and belief really did move things forward. He wasn’t always tidy, he wasn’t always nice and he wasn’t safe — people who actually change things seldom are — but he certainly did change things.
This morning I also saw the version of the “Here’s To The Crazy Ones” video which has Steve’s voice as the voiceover, a version I didn’t know existed. As I watched, it struck me: I think I’ve always heard his voice in that voiceover. It encapsulates the spirit he embodied. His face belongs in it now. He changed the world. He did indeed push the human race forward.
Ruins.
peep the high res on this one for the details
love it when they take pictures of each other behind my back.
There is something sublime about a farm at dusk. Everybody knows what to do. There’s no rush hour. Quite the opposite actually. It’s slow down hour. Get settled hour. Find your place to eat hour. Get cozy because you’re gonna be snoozing soon hour.
And the lack of light does not feel like darkness, just the slow graceful fade-out of daytime when everything gets quiet and calm and gray.
The dread-lock dog. Can’t remember her name. Cool though. Like a real-life muppet.
Myles and the dread-lock dog.
What up Duck.
some projects have such a nice overall color palette.
