October 2011
9 posts
It looks simple, but I'm very excited. Spaghetti...
Apple Cake in jars! These will last forever!
My first solo batch of pumpkin seeds!
Why You Shouldn't Sneak Pets, an Animal's...
Many children aren’t allowed to have pets because their parents don’t want the extra expense of supporting an animal or they don’t think the kids are mature enough to raise a pet. I just watched an old episode of “Malcolm in the Middle” where Dewey snuck a dog into the house and tried to hide him from Lois and Hal. Leaving aside the obvious implications of disobeying...
Well, Johnnies, it finally happened. I'm...
My new balcony flower box for kitchen herbs, a...
Improved Batman O' Lantern
Okay, so I revisited my Inkpad program and drew this. I think it’s better.
Batman O' Lantern
I’ve always been curious about Trev’s facility with graphic design on the computer, so I’ve long been meaning to get involved with vector drawing programs. The only problem there is that so many of the instructional guides for that sort of application assume you already have a great deal of knowledge about these techniques when they try to explain how to use their specific...
What Steve Meant to Me
Dear friend,First, I am sorry for your loss. I belonged to a special generation. Born in 1986, I never knew life without Macintosh or a world without Apple. A world without Steve.Steve’s spirit was there when I learned to read and write. Steve helped me with my homework. He connected me with friends and family when I was away, and eventually gave me my first career. I have had the privilege...
September 2011
18 posts
iLife
This is my first short film exhibiting any kind of skill.
A Short Film
I’ve been meaning to make a short film for a while now about iLife in iWorld; meaning it’ll be a brief little showcase about how Apple products infiltrate almost every aspect of our routine. I guess I should say my routine. We’ll see how it goes; I’m no videographer.
(Untitled)
I couldn’t think of a good title for this post, but I guess you could call it “my thoughts on the last five or six days of being separated, and its effect on the other parts of my life.” But that would be a depressing title and no one would ever read the post. Then again, it’s likely to be a depressing post, so no one will read past this point anyway.Luckily, I’m...
My little break buddy friend
Why Sarah and I Had to Break Up, a Commentary on...
Sarah and I did not break up because of any personal differences or disagreements. We were quite happy together, but circumstances intervened.Those specific circumstances related to Sarah’s parents’ feelings about me. Having only come into contact with me once (and briefly at that) her parents decided that I was unworthy of their daughter’s attention and affections. You have to...
I'm just slightly obsessed with this optical...
One, Two, Skip a Few...
So I skipped my run today. To be far, I have been pretty sore the past couple of days, and I’ve been a little concerned about not taking any time to recuperate. This morning, I woke up on time (7:47) and meditated like I intended to, but I really just felt like taking a rest from running. I’ll run again tomorrow, but today I just wasn’t up to it. And that is okay. I feel the...
Meditate First, Ask Questions Later
It was such a good idea to choose to meditate first thing in the morning instead of run or do homework. Meditation is the easiest activity to initiate, and once finished, everything else seems totally manageable.There have been several mornings where I simply did not feel like running. I forced myself out of bed and into zazen, and it was only upon arising invigorated from my seated position that...
Cherry Crush by @BluCigs
The Cherry Crush flavor cartomizers arrived in mailbox today, and I couldn’t be happier about it.First of all, I was concerned that, instead of the Java Jolt cartridges being bad, my Magnificent Menthols may simply have been uncharacteristically good. I was worried that Blu cartridges really weren’t all that and I just got lucky the once. I was deliciously wrong. Cherry Crush smokes...
Sleep
I woke up this morning at 7:44, with no alarm, just like yesterday. This corresponds to me going to bed around midnight (or around 1 last night) so I’d like to take a minute or two to discuss my sleeping habits and how they play into my new routine.I’m drawing heavily on two articles I read online about sleep, so if you want the verbose version, check these out:Cheat on the Need to...
Meditations
This morning I meditated and could not for the life of me help thinking. At least this time I was thinking in more of a barrage of different thoughts instead of the meta-critical thinking of yesterday, but it was still a bit of a nuisance. I know that the goal is not to free myself from thought, but instead to free myself from feeling different ways about the things I think. Having an emotional...
A vacant workstation
Second Meditation and Second Run
5:44 (Awakening): I woke up one minute before my alarm went off this morning, and I am growing more and more convinced that there really is something about sitting up and then standing up that contributes to the waking up process. I’m going to do some research on that during my internet time later today and hopefully post a wonderful article I found about the science of a good night’s...
First Studies
I had relatively little difficulty finding a course in Programming Methodology from Stanford University that includes and introduction to Java. The program is designed for novices and focuses on understanding the thought process that goes into programming rather than just drilling by rote the mechanics of the language. I definitely liked the “Liberal Arts” approach to the software.My...
Love my Blu.
First Meditation and First Run
Today marks the beginning of my self-development project.6:30 (approximated): I woke from a dream at some point before my alarm went off, but with enough time to fall back asleep again, so I estimate my natural wake time at 6:30 for having gone to bed around 23:00 last night. This is appropriate; humans need between 6-7.5 hours of sleep each night. I only remember a few disturbing bits of my...
An Experiment in Motivation and Development
OverviewI spend most of my time at home reading things and watching things. I read mostly books and news articles on the internet. I watch mostly junk on my AppleTV, punctuated occasionally by something great, just to remind myself what good cinema looks like. It’s an appalling lifestyle if you want to take yourself seriously.So I’ve decided to cobble together some of my favorite...
Experiencing Blu Electronic Cigarettes
I’ve been smoking for eight years. Something about going outside for five minutes, burning something and inhaling harsh air has been strangely appealing to me. However, a new healthcare initiative at my workplace and mounting scientific evidence suggesting I was steering myself toward an early grave convinced me I needed to stop smoking.So I quit, often for several months at a time. But it...
August 2011
1 post
Why I Always Carry a $20 Bill in my Pocket
On my recent trip to California, my friend Trev asked me what I would do if I found myself without my shiny Internet-connected devices. I laughed and said, “I’ve consciously managed to maintain a good degree of competence independent of my iPhone.” Well, that’s half true. Trev and I were getting a ride from our mutual friend Travis to Union Statin in LA to catch our train...
June 2011
3 posts
Why can't I finish what I start?
Disconnected
I spend a great deal of time interacting with the world on the internet. I haven’t tallied up how many hours a day I’m using it (though I’m sure there’s an app for that), I would estimate about four hours on an average workday, not counting the times I use it to do my job. Which are frequent, since I am a computer technician.I consume gobs of information, tons of data....
Disconnected
I spend a great deal of time interacting with the world on the internet. I haven’t tallied up how many hours a day I’m using it (though I’m sure there’s an app for that), I would estimate about four hours on an average workday, not counting the times I use it to do my job. Which are frequent, since I am a computer technician.I...
May 2011
2 posts
My favorite word is ladybug
Coffee Break
April 2011
1 post
Illuminated Musings
I have strange notions about the origins of things. I was watching “Everything is Illuminated,” it’s a movie about a young Jewish American who travels to Ukraine to seek out his grandfather’s village and the woman who saved his family, when Jonathan (the protagonist) made reference to valets. It suddenly became clear to me exactly how valet must have happened, and the...
March 2011
6 posts
Understanding what Jesus would do, then doing it
via twentytwowords.com Isn’t this the best any of us can hope for?
My life, lately, acted out by my Teddy bear.
The Zitegeist
It’s very rare that I conduct reviews of apps, because I don’t like outing myself as that much of a fanboy, and it’s rare that I feel strongly about an app that doesn’t already have tons of strong feelings posted about it all over the internet. But this app is different. It’s called Zite, and it’s the Pandora of reading online content on an iPad....
Ready-to-Wear Outfits
I was reading an article over at www.NPR.org about eerily beautiful Australian mugshots from the twenties, and was struck by something unwittingly poignant in a description of the photographs. Claire O’Neill said this:Together these faces show the seamy side of Sydney — or, as Australians call it, “Sin City.” Jaded veterans were back from WWI, Doyle says, cocaine was rampant and...
Why You Should Date an Illiterate Man
From the time he meets you, his brain will explode into a thousand whirling clauses, nested nominatives, story lines. He is obsessed with detail, his own greatness, will be self-involved and righteously, assiduously take note of every one of the banal profundities he coins on a regular basis. The reading man will, for better or worse, love wholeheartedly. He is a born idealist, will do the same...
Pay the homeless
If a small experiment conducted in London is any indication, a cost effective way to help the homeless may be to simply give them money. One asked for a new pair of trainers and a television; another for a caravan on a travellers’ site in Suffolk, which was duly bought for him. Of the 13 people who engaged with the scheme, 11 have moved off the streets. The outlay averaged £794...
September 2009
60 posts
brian dettmer: cassette tape skeletons →
Carl Jung and the Holy Grail of the Unconscious →
“In the Red Book, after Jung’s soul urges him to embrace the madness, Jung is still doubtful. Then suddenly, as happens in dreams, his soul turns into ‘a fat, little professor,’ who expresses a kind of paternal concern for Jung.
Jung says: ‘I too believe that I’ve completely lost myself. Am I really crazy? It’s all terribly confusing.’
The professor responds:...
“There is no more selfless and heroic breed of civilian than smokers, who...”
– Matthew Norman (via jhnbrssndn)
Book Titles, If They Were Written Today
yourmonkeycalled:
Then: The Wealth of Nations Now: Invisible Hands: The Mysterious Market Forces That Control Our Lives and How to Profit from Them
Then: Walden Now: Camping with Myself: Two Years in American Tuscany
Then: The Theory of the Leisure Class Now: Buying Out Loud: The Unbelievable Truth About What We Consume and What It Says About Us
Then: The Gospel of Matthew Now: 40 Days...