Julia Childs: What she's learned

Great read -- especially if you only have a sec. :)

Other stuff:
» NPR: Double Banjo Bluegrass

beach brrrrrdies

beach brrrrrdies, originally uploaded by emdot.

baby it's cold outside!

My 1st FreeHugs in Hyehwa, Korea

My 1st FreeHugs in Hyehwa, Korea, originally uploaded by Happy Haesam.

» A great flickr tag -- "free hugs"

Two Hundred Snackers, I mean Smackers

Ever wonder what constitutes 200 calories? Here's a quick reality check.

evan in 3d

evan in 3d, originally uploaded by emdot.

» Today is my brother's birthday. He's 20. :)

» I am so copying this next year. The personal annual report. Beyond clever. (seen on Kottke)

» The Terry Gross interview that sent me over the edge in fidgety itchiness: Frank Luntz Explains 'Words That Work'. This guy makes me very, very, very uncomfortable in a totally ineloquent way. He seems to embody what is wrong in humanity, yet I can't tell you why. Except that he is wrong wrong wrong and quite possibly is hiding devil horns underneath his hair. Unless he is bald. In which case he may have an evil spell that hides his horns from regularfolk like us.

we see what we're looking for

exploring the tree, originally uploaded by emdot.

"The Buddhist meditation masters know how flexible and workable the mind is. If we train it, anything is possible. In fact, we are already perfectly trained by and for samsara, trained to get jealous, trained to grasp, trained to be anxious and sad and desperate and greedy, trained to react angrily to whatever provokes us. In fact, we are trained to such an extent that these negative emotions rise spontaneously, without our even trying to generate them.

"So everything is a question of training and the power of habit. Devote the mind to confusion and we know only too well, if we’re honest, that it will become a dark master of confusion, adept in its addictions, subtle and perversely supple in its slaveries. Devote it in meditation to the task of freeing itself from illusion, and we will find that with time, patience, discipline, and the right training, the mind will begin to unknot itself and know its essential bliss and clarity."

— Sogyal Rinpoche

I find that one so true. We see what we are trained to see. We see what we are looking out for.

I did this little experience the other day. I closed my mind and I just thought of the color red for about 20 seconds. Do it. Try it now. Close your eyes and think of red red red.

{count to 20 in your mind}

Now, open your eyes and what do you see? $10 says you are noticing all the red bits around you. Things you probably never noticed were red. You'll see the red popping out of the littlest things. There it is. There it is. There it is.

I love how goofy life is. And how we all take it so dang darn seriously.

Footsteps

Footsteps, originally uploaded by Jonathon Brown.

7s and I went and caught Rocky last night. I went with pretty low expectations. I love going to movies with low expectations because then you can leave and say

"Wow! That was great!"

Which is what I said when we left the theater. It was good, the script, I thought, was great. And the cinematography was really beautiful. Okay, there were a couple of corndog moments (specifically with the photography.... a couple of gratuitous slow-mo moments; a couple of gratuitous rack focus), but c'mon: corndog? Meet thy mother. :)

PLUS it started with the "take it back" song, which won a place in my heart when I was only 10. And when things win a place in your heart when you are 10, they are a part of yer heart forever.

:)

overheard

i swear to god...

him (on the phone): we met on flickr.
other person: bah bah bah bah bah (can't hear what they are saying)
him: no no. FFFFlickr. NOT Lickr.

a little wisdom

[ zeldman ] What advice, if any, would you offer to all the self-publishers and would-be self-publishers out there?

[ leslie harpold ] Do it for fun, and most of all do something you personally care about. Most of all do it. Find your voice and then say something. The one cautionary statement I'd issue is do make sure you have something to say. I think everyone does, but I often see people confusing talking with having something to say. Once you figure out what that is, say it loud and say it well.
Publishing something you think people want is how things get homogeneous and boring. Don't be afraid to shake things up a bit.

---

Relish the fact that your gifts for love are so abundant.

— Leslie Harpold

---

Prove that you really believe beauty comes from within by believing that you're beautiful. Act beautiful. You always have, so I know you can.

— Leslie Harpold

Bangers-n-Mash: She never mentions the word Addiction, in certain company

*whispers: i support you*

deck the halls at the sunset drive in

deck the halls at the sunset drive in, originally uploaded by emdot.

read at breakfast

The Lost Tapes Conversations tape-recorded in the early years with Google's founders illuminate how their actions forged the growth of a Silicon Valley giant

chalk and awe

chalk and awe, originally uploaded by emdot.

i haven't taken a photo in days. and a photo i've liked? well, it's been even longer than that. i'm in the middle of a transition which has me focusing on other tasks (and talking cryptically on my blog).

i've been battling some kind of bug for what feels like weeks. i go through periods of exhaustion and then periods of just... kinda feeling funky. i've been dealing with a bleeding nose for at least three weeks. the air is dry. and my back hurts. and and and.

transitions affect all parts of our lives.

while i declutter (yes, still working on that), i continue to watch the sopranos and listen to the director commentaries.

what i've learned: i'm picky when it comes to directory commentaries. listen, directors... actors... set designers... producers... and what-have-yous... i'm sure you are a very interesting person. i'm sure your home life is rich and complex and funny and ohmigod so je ne sais quas. but guess what? i don't want to know about it.

instead, tell me about the lighting. the equipment, the actors, the moment, the scene, the music, the motifs... tell me about the shot that was such a struggle, what wasn't used, what was improvised, who is fabulous, and what just really gets you excited about the scene.

and i will be your loyal friend forever.

today on utata the subject of the things you know you are good at came up.

i am good at the smallest and most trivial of things.

i am good at being loyal (too good.).
i am good at finding the silver lining in damn near anything.
i am master non grata at forgiveness and cutting slack.
i am good at adding the trivial anecdote at the most inappropriate times.
i am good at sharing a bottle of wine, a six pack or a g&t (maybe too good.).
i am good at listenting to lectures.
i a good at taking notes.
i am good at believing that most of you are completely, 100% worth listening to.

i am bad at faking "like" when i do not like.
i am bad at "flying by the seat of my pants" when an emotional chord is struck.
i am bad bad bad bad BAD at working by myself in a big room.
i am very bad at isolation.
i am bad at recognizing in the moment that i am bad at isolation.
i am bad at acting on those things that make me uncomfortable.
i am bad at phone calls.
i am bad bad bad at opening up my mail.
i am bad at rectifying things.
i am bad at the repetitive every-day-stuff.

but, did i mention that i am very good at organizing while watching old episodes of the sopranos? so very good. in fact, i think i will go and practice that special gift right now.

eddy_MdO_bluff_MG_1758-9

eddy_MdO_bluff_MG_1758-9, originally uploaded by mikebaird.

ohmigod. i am so in love with this photo!

mike made me a contact this evening so i toodled on over to his flickr stream to check out his photos. wow wow and wow! mike really captures the central coast. you know what i mean... he captures it as you experience it. it's one thing to take a photo and make it a hyperexperience. then there's the other thing of taking a photo and having it not meet your expectations.

somehow this guy gets the photos in a very real mode. nothing more. nothing less.

but when i say "nothing more," i should add the disclaimer that where i am from is pretty consistently jawdropping. so in other words, mike is really good at capturing the drop of the jaw.

did i say i freaking LOVE this photo???

i'm blogging

when bloggers go bad...

or is it when blogging goes corporate? mainstream? middle-freaking-aged?

must stop while i'm ahead.

making fun of bloggers, i mean.

hello, kettle? you are black!

sincerely yours,

the pot.

part meerkat

part meerkat, originally uploaded by Automatt.

meerkats are the new chihuahuas

it's true. you KNOW you would own a meerkat and find it a cute collar and bring it everywhere with you if you could. don't try to deny it.

Bugging me: people who think that "best" is a smarmy way to sign an email. I LOVE "best." I love best, all the best, best thoughts, bestests, and bestestests. I love besties. Besters. Best to the Best. Best in the West. Best Fest. And Big Smackies of Bestestness All Over Your Face.

There is no need to hate the best (found via Kottke, my source for all things online and relevant.

Let's see. What else is bugging me? In no particular order...

• my hair. grrr. enough already. blech.


• working all by myself for most of the day (dear student assistants, if you happen to read this, this is not me plying you to work more often or come in and do your homework more often; but i love it when you do and thank you.) that's just me stating that it is really really really really hard for me to work in a big big big open space all by my lonesome for hours on end. i can feel the energy seep out of me. by the end of the day i am so low and depressed and depleted... IT SUCKS!!!! it's not even that i need to talk or anything. i am just the type of person who likes others nearby.


• ... maybe that is it in the bugging me category....


now for the loving it category....


• meerkats


• and that's it

I guess most things are in the "meh" category these days. Never a good sign. :)

LINKS:
» Terry Gross Interviews Anita O'day (don't miss this)

ygr

ygr, originally uploaded by johnyo.

i absolutely love love LOVE this photo from Johnny O in SF. why he was in bellingham? enquiring minds wanna know! tell us, olmie!

john and i worked together for several years, several years ago. he recorded my one and only time in front of a recording mic. and he's got the sweetest dog in town.

the de-clutter update

cuz i know everyone is hanging onto the edge of their seats here.

• major progress
• countless trash bags
• the purging of many things i was clinging to for no apparent reason
• ALL of the sopranos, season two, including going back for two episodes with directory commentaries
• i love director commentaries
• well, the good ones, at least

i'd kinda forgotten how totally brilliant the sopranos is. i haven't seen any of this last/current season and, true, am still rattled from that one episode in season five (you know the one; poor ade; that's what i'm going to call that episode: poor ade; i think it's called Long Term Parking.)

but now i am beat. i wish i would have made even more progress. but that is what tomorrow is for. right now? exhausted. tucking myself in. what is tomorrow? the 27th? only four more days to go. amazing. i'm glad for the November challenge, though, truly.

it's time once again, folks

time to fight the good fight.

the fight against clutter.

so i am spending my saturday night tackling The Closet Which Shall Not be Tamed. i've got a machete, a blowtorch, some plastic gloves and protection goggles, and i'm still not sure that i am properly prepared.

but i've already slain FOUR huge bags of paper crap. gone. shredded or ripped or tossed and gone forever. bye bye. just getting through that much junk has made me feel lighter.

how much more do i have to go?

would you ask such a thing of lancelot when he had only just started out on his journey? or frodo baggins? magellen? cook? balboa? i think no. :)

i'm at that middle explosion stage when you know you've made progress but somehow everything has multiplied and s p r e a d out. but i just poured myself a glass of wine (baileyana pinot noir) and got out an old season of the sopranos on DVD and me and this beast? we shall meet and i shall come out the victor.



(and just to remind you: already = four, whole bags of paper crap gone!!!! excuse me while i do a premature victory dance.)

We may say, and even half-believe, that compassion is marvelous, but in practice our actions are deeply uncompassionate and bring us and others mostly frustration and distress, and not the happiness we are all seeking.

Isn’t it absurd that we all long for happiness, yet nearly all our actions and feelings lead us directly away from that happiness?

What do we imagine will make us happy? A canny, self-seeking, resourceful selfishness, the selfish protection of ego, which can as we all know, make us at moments extremely brutal. But in fact the complete reverse is true: Self-grasping and self-cherishing are seen, when you really look at them, to be the root of all harm to others, and also of all harm to ourselves.

— Sogyal Rinpoche

overheard

Man: Christmas has two s's and they both are dollar signs.