May 4, 2008 at 8:59 am · Filed under Life, Meaning, & Selfhood
Haven’t written here in a while — since February it looks like. Been a busy March/April:
- Vacation with family in Taos NM: Earthships! Los Alamos! Vistas! Kite flying! Jackrabbits!
- Gearing up for Maker Faire: New NifNaks business cards! collateral! more collateral! packaging!
- Taxes and other stuff that I can’t remember but has certainly kept my life busy!
- Listening to RadioLab podcasts! …Seriously you must listen to RadioLab.
Anyway, I’ll be writing again soon with a real post as the ache to write has been building within.
February 7, 2008 at 10:21 pm · Filed under Life, Meaning, & Selfhood
I eek over the crest of the hill. Out of the corner of my eye a driver creeps left, looking to try and pass me. I grin knowingly — he’s got no chance.
I switch into high gear, the push of muscle combines with the pull of gravity, acceleration quickly transforms to velocity, and I take the whole lane. A fleeting feeling of weightlessness catches me as I whip over the speed bump; in a blink, I’m down the hill. Faced with the threat of a raised bump of asphalt, the car slows down to a crawl and has barely moved from where I left it.
The drivers don’t realized how bulky and slow they are in their cumbersome metal carriages. Their slowness contrasts with my own agility and my moment by moment connection with the road — reminding me why I enjoy riding these streets, and making me feel alive.
January 18, 2008 at 7:35 pm · Filed under Design & Web Geekery + Life, Meaning, & Selfhood
I am a creative person and like many of that ilk, my level of organization is also creative — to put it kindly. Productivity is a trait that I admire and occasionally accomplish quite well, but it is often hampered by the fact that I seldom have much of a plan. For instance: at some point near the end of this month, I will sit down and pay the bills. I will probably approach this task differently then the last time I did it. It’ll all get done but in a different order and manner, which is not the best way to approach finances.
To solve this problem I’ve decided to create a document, a User Guide for me and my life. Also, in order to make this productivity project interesting, this User Guide will be more than just about how to pay the bills. It will be a self-portrait.
It’s been a while since I’ve created a self portrait. In some ways this blog is a self portrait; however, mostly it is just a stage. A real self portrait involves honestly peering into one’s self and painting, drawing, sculpting, or writing an representation of what you find.
“Colin, a User Guide” will be my self-portrait, an non-chronological autobiography. It will be a reference guide to every thing I do from paying the bills to the blogs I read to the daily tasks at work to the routes I take on my bicycle. It will be a detailed description of how I approach life, death, politics, beauty, art, culture, and friendships. It’ll be a catalog of all the hopes, dreams, regrets, and desires that shape me and propel me through life.
I will be designing this as an actual user guide with easy to follow instructions and call out tips. If anyone were to need to become me this document should get them pretty far. Which may come in handy if I get hit by a bus one of these days. [note to self: include a Living Will as part of the book’s appendix]
In order to make this a true self portrait, I will be honest with myself as I write this. Which means that there will be parts of the book I won’t want people to see. As such, I will be creating two editions: the public version with sections redacted and the private edition encrypted under lock and key which includes the personal and financial details I’d rather not share with the world.
Initially, this book will be developed as a PDF; however, I am also interested in actually getting this printed. A private edition for myself and a short limited edition run of the public edition. I have already designed a cover and started on an outline. The process of creating this book should be interesting, and I will post updates to this blog as I work on it.
November 14, 2007 at 11:22 am · Filed under Life, Meaning, & Selfhood
Been a bit crazy in my world lately, and I haven’t had much of chance to update this blog in a while. Actually have started on a few posts, but haven’t had time to finish them. They are just sitting there in my drafts staring at me.
So what have I been up to you ask?
- Normal work has been keeping me busy
- I had one week of a bad chest cold (the same one everyone else got)
- I’ve been working on new logo designs for interpretive arson
- I’m working on a new event (more on this later)
- I’ve been poring lots of time into helping Nifer with NifNaks.com (check out her new datawormz flashdrives they’re awesome!)
- And I’ve been trying to work in some social life in order to keep myself sane (went to the Maze Party in Half Moon Bay which was a whole lot of fun)
I miss my blog writing so I hope to squeeze in a bit more time for this soon.
November 13, 2007 at 11:58 pm · Filed under uncategorized
I’m heading to PA/OH to see the fabulous Morley and my Grandparents.
Step one: public transit — my least favorite part. The MUNI bus was late by 15min (hence the sour look on my face in the photo). I’m now
on BART on my way to OAK which is going ok so far.
I’m packed light. Only a simple backpack and no laptop. Burning Man has taught me how to pack with the minimum of gear, but it took a bit of digital prep work to not bring the laptop.
I had slideshows I wanted to bring, music, and videos. I kicked together a couple slideshows to show the grandfolks and put them both on my iphone and on a flash drive. Music housed several places: shuffle for simple tunes and long battery life, iPhone for all my current favs, and my old iPod 3G 40gig for hauling the rest and storage. I rearranged a bunch of my music on it, adding a bunch of new stuff I’ve gotten recently but have yet to fully listen to. Unfortunately, the battery in my 3G dies faster than an anorexic on a desert isle, but it’s good for when I can plug in. I powered it up last night, and I’m curious how long it’ll last.
I also converted my DVD of The Decent to iPhone format and loaded it on, so I have something to watch on the plane. Wish I had time to convert another movie — oh well.
K time to get off BART!
August 21, 2007 at 12:32 pm · Filed under Art Freak Culture + Life, Meaning, & Selfhood
Burning Man preparation has begun to take over my life. As I mentioned in my last post, it’s looking to be a dusty year. Hopefully we won’t see a return of the the 3 day long condition alpha storm of 2002. In any case, I’m bringing my respirator and my patience.
I leave on Monday, and I won’t have much time for CatCubed, nor will I have much time to respond to questions concerning my Gmail, IMAP, iPhone setup. If your question is easy, I’ll shoot you a response; however if it takes more time, it will have to wait till I return.
