anthropometaphors

Among my dreams is to have a backyard shed.  The best way to describe my ideal shed is as an adult playhouse.  My shed would have concrete floors, an expansive desk, power tools, art supplies, a high-end sound system and windows with coverings that allow the space to be drenched in light or choked with blackness, even on the sunniest day.  I might throw in some central heat and A/C for comfort.

Considering my fondness for sheds, I was pleased to find Shedsploitation, the blog of SF Bay Arean Seth Boor.

Shedsploitation

Modern Cabana (10 x 12)

While precious, at 10′ x 12′ their smallest shed is just large enough to require a city permit to build.  I’m a good citizen and will stay within code.  I’m also averse to city intervention, so I’ll stay small.   So the shed search continues.

I arrived home from work yesterday to find a box from Amazon on the porch.  Inside was a layer of newfangled bubble wrap (the kind made of a several large areas inflated with air, not the kind with an expanse of little pustules full of air, ripe for the popping).  Beneath the bubble wrap was a gift wrapped in cheerful yellow paper with a wide white ribbon around the middle.

I was intrigued.

Having no idea what the package was, I picked it up and thoroughly inspected its shape, heft and thing-ness.  I concluded it was likely a book, but I had no idea which one.  Returning to the wrapping, I found a small card; a small blank card.  It was clearly a present, so I decided to open it.

It was indeed a book, The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, by Alain de Botton.  I considered the book.  As I had just arrived home from work, I was tuckered out and wanted nothing else than a glass of water and a nap.  Instead, I picked up the book-present and brought it with me as I climbed beneath the down comforter.  Hiding amid white pillows and fluff, I read the first chapter.  What I encountered was a homage to those invisible warriors who transport goods around the world to feed our whims and hungers.  Every other page held a photograph — brutal, real and entwined with the chapter’s theme of cargo shipping.  The experience was akin to reading exceptional pieces in Harper’s or Granta, or perhaps an eloquently crafted graphic novel.

Cargo ships (Richard Baker, 2008)

I read most of the second chapter, before sleep won me over and I was lost in another world entirely.

Personas shows you how the Internet sees you.

Created as a critique of data mining, Personas is one part of the Metropath(ologies) exhibit on display at the MIT Museum through the month of September.  And what a critique it is — the Personas vector created based on my name has absolutely nothing to do with me.  I know because I watched as the Internet was scoured for characterizing statements to use in its analysis; all the information used came from other people who share my name.

Josh Witten Persona’d his name multiple times to get a sense of the reproducibility of the analysis.  While his Personas vector was created based on his own information, his analysis (of the analysis of him) indicates the Personas vector is generated randomly.  Josh ran three independent trials, resulting in three truly independent Personas vectors.

While I may not learn much about myself using Personas, the schematic is nice.  The clean appearance and abbreviated legend are what I would like to see in a Personas vector of my very own.  Until then, here is the first Personas vector I mapped to Morgan Gray:

Morgan Gray, as the Internet sees her

The front yard renovation and landscaping is complete!  To jog the memory, here is a picture of the front yard before:

Before

And here are two images of the yard, after:

After (1 of 2)

After (2 of 2)

The front yard renovation and landscaping was done between June and July 2009; designed and performed by Julie Gordon and her crew.  In short, the following was done to the yard:

• Removal of existing front gate, concrete pathway and brush on sidewalk strip
• Design and installation of redwood fence and porch (with porch expansion)
• Landscaping using colorful plants with low water requirements (i.e. drought-tolerant)
• Installation of drip irrigation with automatic control system and timer

It’s taken some time for me to find the correct circumstances for decent pictures.  The weather has been overcast and gray, which translates into dreary pictures.  When the sun happens to be out, I’ve been at work during the day and can only catch long shadows in the yard when I return home.  So at last, a few pictures of the yard, with decent lighting and “feel”.

The space is still rather open, as the plantlets are babies and need about 1 year to fill out.  In the few weeks since the work has been completed, all of the plants have noticeably grown, with many producing stalks with flowers and all of them sprouting new foliage.  Of the entire garden, there have only been two casualties.  One (of many) great things about working with Julie is that she has followed up with us and checks in about the plants.  She guarantees the plants for 1 year after installation, and is getting replacement plants for the two that didn’t make it.

Our pup Winslow loves the yard…a little too much!  When left unsupervised, she will dig little holes in the gravel path.  Instead, I let her into the yard in the evening when I check the mailbox.  She zips around the yard, zigging and zagging between the bushes.  It’s a sight to behold.

“The fingers of your thoughts are molding your face ceaselessly.” – Charles Reznikoff

“Beauty, unaccompanied by virtue, is as a flower without perfume.” – French proverb

“A diamond with a flaw is better than a common stone that is perfect.” – Chinese proverb

“Desire is a horse that wants to take you on a journey to spirit.”  - Malidoma Some

“The most important and enjoyable thing in life is doing something that’s a complicated, tricky problem for you that you don’t know how to solve.” – William Vollman

“Few are altogether deaf to the preaching of pine trees.” – John Muir

“Do you ever allow yourself to question, to have a burning question–and not put out the flame quickly with the first answer that you hear?” – A.H. Almaas

“If you come upon a lamp with a genie in it, don’t wish you had a magic wand.” – Rob Brezsney

“Brainwash yourself before somebody nasty beats you to it.” – Rob Brezsney

“A compliment is something like a kiss through a veil.” – Victor Hugo

“Minotaur (MIN-uh-tawr) noun.  Someone or something monstrous, especially one that devours.”

“The days come and go like muffled and veiled figures sent from a distant friendly party, but they say nothing, and if we do not use the gifts they bring, they carry them as silently away.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“You have a gentleness that can sift inside and ignite, you’re a well set up campfire, basically.” – Michelle Medina

“That which God said to the rose, and caused it to laugh in full-blown beauty, he said to my heart, and made it a hundred times more beautiful.” – Rumi.

“For one human being to love another is the most difficult task of all. It’s the work for which all other work is mere preparation.” – Rainer Maria Rilke

“Someday after we have mastered the winds, the waves, and gravity, we will harness for God the energies of love; and then for a second time in the history of the world, human beings will have discovered fire.” – Teilhard de Chardin

“Love is life. All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love. Everything is, everything exists, only because I love.” – Leo Tolstoy

“If you do not love too much, you do not love enough.” – Blaise Pascal

“Until you have loved, you cannot become yourself.” – Emily Dickinson

(The file was aptly named “Quotes”)

I’m soooooo excited!

Several months ago I stumbled across iri5, an artist who works in conceptual mixed media collage.  Mixing media and genres of media, iri5 creates pieces that tickle my brain.

Robert Smith (by iri5)

Face of Change (by iri5)

Check out her other pieces here and here.

Last month I came across her art for the second time, and requested a price list for her work.  Most of the pieces I’d seen were unavailable, leading  us to talking about alternatives and the possibility of a commissioned original.  We tossed around a few ideas, images and more ideas.  After a few more ideas were tossed around, we came to agree on the creation of a bust of Oscar Wilde…comprised of snippets from The Portrait Of Dorian Gray, my fave book evar.

The work has begun, and iri5 has posted the first sketch on her flickr.

My Guys

Did I know any of these things about myself before I took the quiz?  Yeah sure, but I hadn’t thought about all of them in one go.  Now that I have them, I’m not sure what I’ll do with them, but I definitely see a few patterns.  Then again, when don’ t I see patterns?!

What patterns do you see?  And for those who know me, does any of this surprise you?

1. What part of the newspaper do you read first?
Don’t read the newspaper; I use Netvibes to collate the RSS feeds I’m interested in.
To rephrase the question in terms of my Netvibes, below are the 3 tabs I check every day and their corresponding RSS feed (from first read to last):
1. News – GeneomeWeb Daily News Articles, Pharmacogenomics Reporter, SFGate, New Scientist
2. People – Gmail, friends Delicious and blog feeds
3. The Black Hole* – Apartment Therapy San Francisco, Stereogum, Decor8
* So named because I often get lost in the intertubes once I open this tab

2. What are three books you’ve read in the past year?
Because I lurve so many, here are 5:
St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves: Stories (Karen Russel)
Cloud Atlas (David Mitchell)
All Cats Have Asperger Syndrome (Kathy Hoopman)
The Corrections (Jonathan Franzen)
The Children’s Hospital (Chris Adrian)

3. As a child, what did you do in your free time?
I read books and played with my imaginary friends in the large expanse of the backyard.  Summer was spent inside the cool darkness of our big house; I’d sit silently near a window, warming my toes in puddles of sun on the carpet.

4. What’s a goal that has been on your list for a few years?
To write and publish a book, story our journal (i.e. peer reviewed) piece

5. What do you actually do with your free time?
I read.  I play with my blessing of a dog.  I’m often at the dog park, walking through plants.

6. What types of activities energize you?
Writing a list.  Spending time alone in my home when it is clean and well-organized.  Waking early while the birds are still participating in the dawn chorus, knowing I have so much free time ahead of me that I can’t imagine the end of it — for this reason I love staycations.

7. What famous people intrigue you?
I’m not really intrigued by famous people so much as wild animals and children.

(from The Huffington Post)

It’s great to come home from work, open the gate and see a package waiting for me on the porch.  Or to find one in the mailbox.  Heck, I’m happy with one laying on the dirt after having been tossed over the fence by UPS.

Today I came home and there was a package on the walk (not quite into the dirt); clearly the result of a trip over the fence.  As I unlocked the front door I caught a shimmer of light from the stamps on the package.  My first impression was the stamps were beglittered.  Upon closer inspection, I saw the stamps were from Finland (as was the entire package) and were not sparkly as previously thought — the stamps were braille.  I’m impressed by postal stamps that are in braille, what can I say?

So taken was I by the stamps, that I forgot to open the package for 3 hours.

Inside the package were two lovely pillow covers, hand screened printed by Nuka on Etsy.  I adore the pillow covers and the Finnish stamps I saw today.  I simply heart Etsy.

Doily pillow cover (Nuka)

visualize whirled peas

House horoscopes? Who knew.

House Number 2
Here is a house that creates peace, harmony and balance in anyone’s lives. It is a house suited for relationships, and people who are laid back and friendly. This is a great home for new lovers or people who have lived together for a long time. It will aid in the balancing of any relationship.

However sometimes we are so laid back that one may call it laziness. So don’t forget to get off the sofa and DO. Do what needs to be done to fix the creaky floorboards and cracks in the pavement with this house.

Positive Colour Suggestions: Cream, Green and White.

Interestingly enough, the hubs and I moved into our house soon after we were married. It’s been a great spot for us, and we’re already famming it up with the addition of a pup. The house is a decent starter nest; being both structurally sound and somewhat generic, all sorts of creative remodels are under discussion as ways to personalize our abode.

(via Apartment Therapy)

Charlie Becker, Pod-Rat-OX

As an SF Bay Area native, I don’t feel a strong pull to head down to LA.  At least I haven’t, until now.

I’d like to see an art show at Giant Robot 2 (in LA) but alas, I won’t make it before the April 15 closing night.  In case you are in the area and can make it, here are the details:

Giant Robot is proud to host Year of the Ox, a group art show celebrating year 4707 on the lunar calendar. Pieces will include illustration, oils, pencils, prints, watercolor, sculpture, and other media-all dedicated to the hardest-working animal of the Chinese zodiac cycle.

GR2
2062 Sawtelle Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90025
gr2.net
(310) 445-9276