jcarroll.net

Depth of Place (Continued)

2011-09-01T08:43:00.000-04:00

Additional photos from the "Depth of Place" set posted earlier this year.

Quilt Patterns

2011-07-07T08:19:00.005-04:00

These are the quilt patterns I designed that my grandmother will make later this year.

Depth of Place

2011-02-09T08:45:00.003-05:00

Just before, or just after, something happens, the echo of the event is there, sensed but not seen. Staring at a wall, or object, our mind begins to break down the surface and reveal the inside. Looking into a space, we project what has happened there, creating a story, forgotten when we walk away.

(Link to this set on Flickr.)

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-24T08:59:00.000-05:00

Max's World at Age 7

2010-10-26T08:53:00.002-04:00

This is my boy, of whom I am so proud, reading Harry Potter 4 on the couch last night. He's a Lego builder, a log-walker, a piano player, a fledgling fencer, a super-math-kid, and just a little too good at video games.

Esmé Spelling

2010-10-15T07:39:00.002-04:00

Esmé (now 4) is doing a great job spelling phonetically...look at all the words she sounded out and typed all by herself! My favorite is 'cupcake'...

The End Of Our One-Car Era

2010-08-26T07:37:00.000-04:00

After 10 years of using public transit (seven of light rail to my office, three of bus during graduate school), I am now officially a full-fledged car commuter. You see, my office relocated from the downtown core to one of those 'nice' suburban office parks. Unsurprisingly, it is not well-served by public transportation. Perhaps it was time anyway--the kids are getting older, and we're starting to see the beginnings of multiple, overlapping extracurricular schedules. It was a bit sad to break our 13-year run of being a single-car household, but there was at least one fringe benefit: We cleaned out the second car space in our garage, and threw away about six cubic yards of god-knows-why-we-were-keeping-it junk.

So the bad news is that we're now buying two tanks of gas per week. The good news is that the new mode of transportation has 300 horsepower and no less than six beautifully-proportioned, manually-selectable gear ratios.

Transient Places

2010-07-21T21:01:00.002-04:00

Airport hotels are strange Petri dishes of humanity.

Daddy's Girl

2010-07-12T09:11:00.003-04:00

Happy Big-7 Birthday Max!

2010-06-25T07:15:00.001-04:00

Happy 4th Birthday Esmé!

2010-06-21T07:31:00.000-04:00

Mentos & Coke

2010-06-19T08:09:00.004-04:00

Just one of about 15 things we did to try to occupy the six 7-year olds at Max's birthday sleepover:

First time trying this, I'm glad it worked as well as it did. Of course, the novelty wore off quickly and we resorted to movies & video games to sedate the horde.

My First Paperweight

2010-06-08T08:16:00.002-04:00

My briefcase is extra-heavy today with the beautiful painted paperweight (rock, that is) Esme made me in preschool. "Daddy, it's for the papers to not fly off your desk!" Thanks, special girl. (I'll wait until you're older to discuss heremetically-sealed high-rise office buildings...)

From Fish to Infinity

2010-06-06T17:42:00.004-04:00

Steven Strogatz, a professor at Cornell University, just concluded a great series of articles in the NYT articulating math concepts (from simple to complex) in accessible language. I've really enjoyed reading these over the past several months...here's the first article, and a link to the entire series.

Wi-Fi in Amish Country

2010-06-01T08:40:00.000-04:00

After arriving home from a road-trip to Amish country yesterday, I asked Max to tell me the most interesting thing he observed during the day. He said, "They don't use electricity, but there's Wi-Fi in the coffee shop."

Passport Update

2010-05-02T07:15:00.005-04:00

Kids are required to update their passports every 5 years (rather than every 10 for adults)...for obvious reasons:

That whole growing-up thing happens pretty quickly.

Cleveland International Film Festival 2010

2010-03-28T08:24:00.006-04:00

This year, the marketing team behind the Cleveland International Film Festival asked people to submit stories of how the festival has affected them. Authentic Films then produced several trailers for the festival, each featuring a series of these stories chained together, sharing a theme.

Since Rose and I met and went on our first date because of the film festival, we were asked to participate. So of course we brought the kids along for the filming, and as you'll see, Max steals the show. (Our trailer is called 'Family, Friends, Love'.)

Tenth Anniversary

2010-02-24T15:08:00.007-05:00

On February 18, Rose and I celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary. I love her today more than ever. When we were first married, we got a lot of advice on having a successful relationship--some useful, some not so useful. Couples are as different as people, so it's tough to find blanket advice that applies to everyone. One important thing we have learned: To be happy as a couple, you must be happy as individuals. Being strong as a stand-alone person makes being together as a couple, in love, all that more meaningful.

Another secret to a good marriage: I roll the toothpaste tube neatly from the end, and she grabs and squeezes the hell out of it right from the middle.*

*That is, we have vastly different, but complementary, approaches to a shared outlook on life.

Biologically Inspired Design

2010-01-26T15:22:00.013-05:00

This is the kind of thing that really excites me: fundamental connections among biology, design, and human behavior. A group of Japanese scientists has shown that "the slime mold Physarum polycephalum forms networks with comparable efficiency, fault tolerance, and cost to those of real-world infrastructure networks--in this case, the Tokyo rail system."

Comparing an organism's behavior to a designed human system, then learning from that organism's 'reinterpretation' of the system in order to develop better models of design...amazing.

Link to summary article and full report ("Rules for Biologically Inspired Adaptive Network Design").

Max's Robo-Gator

2009-12-30T10:26:00.004-05:00

Maxie-boy built and programmed this Lego Mindstorms Robo-Gator all by himself from the instructions. All I did was install the programming software on our PC, and help him connect the robot's CPU via USB to download the behavior program. I am very proud that he could handle such a complex project on his own at age 6.

Mindstorms uses simple icon-based "if-then" type programs to tell the the motors what to do when certain feedback is received from various sensors. In Robo-Gator's Case, when the eye-sensors "see" something within 60cm, the legs move and make the gator lunge forward. When something is within 30cm of the eye sensors, the jaw motor makes him bite repeatedly. After attacking, Robo-Gator retreats and waits for his next victim.

Christmas Questions

2009-12-23T08:44:00.002-05:00

Last week Maxie asked: "If Jesus came to make the world a better place, then why do people still litter?"

Keep asking, Max...keep asking.

The Winning Project

2009-12-18T09:09:00.002-05:00

It's a sustainable, transit-oriented development with lots of green space, integrated bicycle access to campus, high-end residential & retail, and a 23.4% return on equity. Good job students, I am proud.

(This project was my jury's choice for 'best concept, best feasibility, best fit' for my 2009 Real Estate Development class at Kent Architecture.)

Don't Turn It Off--Kill It

2009-12-08T12:31:00.000-05:00

All of our homes are full of electronic devices that use power when off. Estimates of so-called 'standby' or 'vampire' power use range from 10-15% of a household's total annual consumption. These devices sit there, waiting to be used, waiting for the remote control to activate them, telling us the time (do we need that many clocks?), their little red/orange standby lights glowing, waiting to jump into action.

I decided that I didn't like all those lights and clocks staring at me anymore, so I installed a 'kill-switch' on our family's living room entertainment center. Actually, what initially prompted me to do this was the surprising amount of heat I noticed when opening the doors of the armoire that contained all of our (supposedly 'off') devices: LCD TV, PS3, PS2, Wii, A/V Receiver, DVR. To accomplish the task, I simply mounted a surge protector on the back of the armoire, hidden from view but in an easily-adult/kid-accessible location, and plugged all the devices into it. Switching the surge protector off puts the devices into a true zero power consumption state--no glowing lights. (Detail: I did not connect the DVR to the kill-switch--otherwise it wouldn't be able to grab the shows it was programmed to auto-record.)

I've tracked our power consumption since installing the kill-switch in mid-September. Compared to the same 3-month (Oct-Dec) period last year, we're using 27% less electricity. That's amazing. Certainly a large portion (but not all) of this savings is attributable to the kill-switch. The remainder of the savings, I believe, simply comes from the fact that we're all paying more attention to our power use in general--turning off lights more quickly, etc. This behavior of course is a direct result of the installation of the kill-switch. It reinforces something I've learned over the years: The mere act of paying attention to something often leads to improvement of that thing.

Previously: Generating less trash.

Strange Hybrid Creatures

2009-12-05T10:48:00.003-05:00

I love Esmé's cute (but slightly disturbing) Bunny-Bug.

2009-11-26T07:08:00.000-05:00

Thankful for my beautiful wife and children, thankful for health, thankful to want for nothing, thankful to be alive in 2009--best year for the human race so far...

Esmé Writing

2009-10-24T07:06:00.007-04:00

The way Esmé writes the 'S' in her name makes me happy to be alive...

Above-left: Esmé draws her interpretation of an apple, and writes the word "apple", but spells it "ALIME". Above-right: Esmé draws mommy and does her best to spell it. Ask her how to spell "mommy" and she'll tell you: "OMOMOMOMOMOMOM ... and a Y!"

One Year Ago

2009-10-16T13:48:00.014-04:00

For the past couple of weeks our family has been quietly celebrating the one-year anniversary of our trip to Japan & South Korea--going out to a Japanese restaurant with friends, making sushi/kimbap at home, looking at all the pictures.

It was such a volatile year--with so many things going on--and this trip in some ways became the pin around which everything revolved. But amidst all the activity, and all the craziness preparing for this novel experience--once we finally arrived we found peace, relaxation, the kindness of strangers, and the generosity of friends. In the middle of some of the busiest cities in the world, we were chilling, on vacation.

I remember... the long flight, extra-special treatment at Japanese customs, the room (and the high-tech toilet), turning a corner and discovering Shibuya at night, the JR Yamanote Line, Asakusa, Akihabara, Ginza, Kamakura, Rose at Hase-dera, morning in Harajuku, Omotesando, Shinjuku, Mitaka, Ghibli, Maxie and the shinkansen, Yasaka-jinja, the ryokan, Hiromi, Higashkiyama, Kiyomizu-dera, Nara, soaking in the bath, the graveyards, Gion, Esmé and the Geisha, eating a village (kaiseki), Narita, Seoul, long drive, kids romping, dinner with friends, Gyeongju, mountain sunset, Sokkuram grotto, burial mounds, wandering around Seoul without kids, Insadong, Nanta, good-byes...

These experiences cast a long shadow.

All I Have to Do Is Show Up

2009-10-07T14:18:00.004-04:00

Earlier today, Rose (my wife, that is) and I spoke for no less than 35 minutes on the phone, doing nothing but coordinating our calendars. Apparently my life is pretty well laid out now, and all I have to do is work, sleep, and show up at these various occurrences. Adds a bit of simplicity to things, I suppose.

2009-09-29T21:00:00.000-04:00

Max lost his first tooth today!

My Little Big Girl

2009-09-14T10:13:00.004-04:00

Esmé started preschool today! In the Carroll-Merendino tradition, she had no trouble saying goodbye to us and getting on with her business. Mom & Dad, on the other hand, were having a hard time leaving the building...

Fastest 12 Months of My Life So Far

2009-09-02T08:30:00.000-04:00

This past weekend I was catching up on organizing our digital photos. I'm typically quite good at archiving, labeling, organizing our family's media, but since our trip overseas last year I've been a bit behind (9-12 months behind to be exact).

So the most recent photos downloaded from our camera include Maxie's first day of school as a first-grader. As I'm sorting the images, I find myself looking at last August, when he was starting Kindergarten--and a wave hits me. It feels, literally, like he was starting Kindergarten yesterday. Even as we were walking him to school last week it didn't hit me, but looking at the photos brought it home like a bomb. I can remember everything we did in the past 12 months (it was a busy time), but for the life of me I feel like I blinked and now we're here.

I know I'm just wending myself through a cliché here (and my parents are probably laughing), but I've never felt time pass this quickly before, and it's never hit me so hard.

Advice on Picking Blackberries

2009-08-22T07:24:00.002-04:00

Advice from my Dad last night, to Max and me as we started to pick blackberries (applicable to life in general):

The big, juicy ones tend to hide from you.

Almost Free

2009-08-13T09:06:00.006-04:00

I just stopped using Microsoft Outlook in favor of an all-Google solution to email, calendar, contacts and tasks (since now Google calendar and contacts sync with my mobile phone). Outlook is such a bulky program, I'm thrilled to drop it.

This leaves only two non-free software components in my computer network: Windows Vista and Quicken. I've got my eye on Mint.com as a replacement for Quicken, but I'm not quite ready to make the jump to keeping all my financial data in the Cloud. Plus, Mint seems a little to 'automatic' for me. Here's the basic software run-down:

Browser: Chrome
Email/PIM: Gmail
Office: OpenOffice
Security: AVG Free, Spybot S&D, Ad-Aware, CCleaner
Imaging: GIMP and Paint.NET
Media: iTunes, WMP, VLC Media Player

Almost there. Previously.

I Love the Future

2009-08-11T14:31:00.002-04:00

I am thankful to be living in a time when we have the privilege to debate over health care. I love the future; so much better than the past.

Mexico

2009-08-07T21:02:00.004-04:00

Recently, I heard a fool say...

2009-07-24T09:34:00.003-04:00

Adults aren't any smarter than children, and what's really sad is to see someone who thinks they have it all figured out.

I think the fool is right.

Rural Economies

2009-07-18T08:40:00.006-04:00

Driving through rural Ohio last night, passing horse-and-buggies on their way to a local produce auction, Rose and I were wondering if these areas are hit harder by economic recessions than urbanized areas. Probably. If your town was less-than-booming to begin with, what must it be like in a global recession? Or perhaps these economies operate semi-autonomously.

Hot Birthday

2009-06-25T09:46:00.003-04:00

The hot weather today--Maximilian's 6th birthday--reminds me of how hot, clear and bright it was the day he was born. Happy birthday Maxie!

Solstice Girl

2009-06-21T08:08:00.005-04:00

On summer solstice 2003, my beautiful girl Esmé came into the world. She brings long, warm days and happiness. Happy 3rd birthday Esmé!

Max's First Piano Recital

2009-06-04T07:22:00.003-04:00

Last weekend Maxie-boy (soon to be 6) had his first piano recital..and he NAILED IT! We are pretty casual with his lessons--once every two weeks with semi-random practicing. We simply want to give our kids an artistic and technical appreciation of music. The intent is, along with other activities and interests, to raise well-rounded children. So he had been practicing his pieces pretty regularly, but could only play them 'perfectly' about 60% of the time.

There must have been something about the atmosphere of the recital--the other kids (all older than him), the parents, the venue--he was *just* a little bit nervous, and this edge seemed to bring out his best. He carried himself like such a young gentleman! It was really a special moment for him, for Rose and me, and even for little sis Esmé who was--surprisingly--very well-behaved the whole time (though we did fear for a moment that she was going to break out in song during the performance).

2009-06-03T08:20:00.001-04:00

Last night I had a dream about over-abundant search engine results.

2009-05-18T21:57:00.000-04:00

Grandpa.

The Case Against Kindergarten Red-Shirting

2009-05-13T08:47:00.004-04:00

Almost every state has increased the age at which children are allowed to start primary school. This is remarkable, given the strong evidence that, in the United States, starting school later decreases educational attainment.

Redshirting is referred to as “the gift of time” in education circles, reflecting a perception that children who have been allowed to mature for another year will benefit more from their schooling. As we will discuss, little evidence supports this perception.

Link to the full study (PDF); via The Atlantic.

2009-05-06T08:55:00.002-04:00

Esmé has entered the terrible twos. This one is beautiful, but beware, she has a will of steel.

2009-05-03T09:13:00.001-04:00

Last night, we were getting in the car to go home after a little get-together. It was a beautiful, cool night, and the stars were out. As Max was getting into his seat, he looked up at the sky and said,

Daddy, outside is like a big room, and the sky is the ceiling, and all of the things in the world are just like things in the room.

Brothers K. Cuts Deep

2009-05-01T09:14:00.003-04:00

To wit,

He tried not to think of it, but that did not help either. The most irritating thing about it was that the anxiety seemed completely accidental, external, as if it had nothing to do with him. Something was disturbing his conscience, just as some object may irritate a person, when he is absorbed in work or a heated argument, without his being aware of it. The irritation grows and grows and becomes really painful before he manages to remove the offending object, which often turns out to be some insignificant thing like a handkerchief that has fallen on the floor or a book that has not been replaced in the bookcase.

2009-04-29T09:10:00.002-04:00

To a parent, a child is a mirror, revealing everything.

Earth Day - Ancillary Benefits of a Recession

2009-04-22T08:40:00.002-04:00

Aside from the gaping holes that appeared in our retirement accounts around October 2008, our family has (thus far) been fortunate to avoid much of the mayhem of the current economic crisis. That said, the pressure to “live leaner” and to carefully consider how we spend our time, money and other resources remains strong.

One ancillary positive effect of this pressure, which I’ve noticed over the past month or so, is that our family is producing about 40% less trash and recyclables per week than we did, say, six months ago. This is a reduction from about 13.4 cubic feet/week to about 8 cubic feet/week.

We’re certainly not eating less--in fact the kids keep growing and, if anything, appetites are increasing. I think it simply amounts to buying less crap that comes in packaging. Feels good. And you know what? I cannot, for the life of me, remember what that other 40% of stuff might have been--we don’t miss it.

Still seems like a lot of trash, though.

A Wise Boy

2009-04-14T10:12:00.002-04:00

A few weeks ago, Max (now 5-1/2) was telling me and Rose about a classmate who was pushing him around on the playground. This is the first time we’d heard of it, and I think they were playing innocently enough--just one of those situations where Maxie was done playing and the other kid wasn’t yet.

So I said to Max, half joking, “Just push him back!”

Max promptly replied, as he raised his hands questioningly, “Well that won’t work, because I’ll push him, he’ll push me, I’ll push him again, and what will it solve?”

Brilliant.

A few nights ago, driving home after a long, fun day with the grandparents, Max, out of the blue says, “Daddy, I don’t care about goals.”

I asked him what he meant, exactly.

“I mean, I don’t care if I’m trying to do something and somebody else does it first--like, before me--that’s OK with me. I just want to do it, then I’m happy.”

Quite a balanced perspective for a young one, if I may say.

2009-03-31T08:53:00.002-04:00

Only the closed mind is certain.

2009-03-25T08:26:00.000-04:00

Add to list of things Jason likes: A good shoe repair shop. Thank you, shoe repairman, for making my favorite Oxford shoes last 8 years and counting.

I love using things for a long time.

2009-03-18T09:18:00.004-04:00

My special guy Maxie--it's like this Lego ad was made for him. He assembled this 795-piece MX-81 spacecraft all by himself in about 4 hours! Dad is so proud...

2009-03-04T09:34:00.003-05:00

Now that we’re in a global recession, perhaps at the end of it the citizens of the world (particularly the first-world variety) will come to a new balanced perspective of how economic growth should fit into the total framework of human existence.

In the United States, as capitalists in general, we tend to focus on economic growth for its own sake. We see it as the bellwether of the nation’s health. However, economic growth should simply be one of many positive by-products of humanity’s striving to better itself and improve the quality of life for all.

The creators of the Genuine Progress Indicator metric have embraced this way of thinking for over a decade now. If, after all the current chaos subsides, we see a groundswell of support for this “new-old” way of thinking, I for one will consider the revised world-view worth the price.

2009-02-20T06:54:00.000-05:00

There’s an old cliché: when you travel, you leave a piece of yourself wherever you go. But what I feel is the profound effect certain places--a very few--continue to have on me long after I’ve departed. What lingers is permanent mark on the soul, an echo, a feeling that these places are, or could be, home.

2009-02-11T06:39:00.001-05:00

...for the first time, in that night alive with signs and stars, I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world. Finding it so much like myself--so like a brother, really--I felt that I had been happy and that I was happy again.

2009-02-06T12:52:00.003-05:00

Juan Enriquez thinks that the conflux of DNA manipulation and therapy, tissue generation, and robotics is leading humans to the next stage of their evolution.

Happy New Playstation 3 Owner

2009-01-23T06:29:00.007-05:00

Over 2 years after the initial PS3 launch, I finally saw my buying opportunity: a $150 rebate from Sony. So I took the plunge, and got an 80GB PS3 for $250 + tax. That kind of purchase feels good to me.

In the second half of 2008, once I finally decided that a next-gen console purchase was imminent, I did a fair amount of research on the Xbox360 vs. PS3 question. I came to the following conclusion:

The only real option is the PS3. Xbox360, which many love, is waning technology and weaker hardware. Wii is a toy, a novelty (incidentally, I bought a Wii in addition to my PS3). Blu-Ray is the highest quality video delivery system available right now, I have a largish HDTV, and I want that. Most importantly, as of year-end 2008, there are numerous critically acclaimed, high quality games for the PS3 that I really, really want, which are either exclusive to or available on the PS3 (this was not necessarily the case at the end of 2007). If I had purchased a 360, I'd feel like I was buying inferior technology.

After one week of ownership, I can add the following ‘surprise’ observations that only became apparent once I started fiddling with things:

The look and feel--the build quality--of the PS3 is very high. It runs silently, as a high-end A-V component should. You get what you pay for. The XMB interface is sleek, intuitive, and a joy to use.
The PS3 is an *amazing* networked media server. I installed TVersity on my PC and my PS3 immediately found all my shared videos, music, photos with *zero configuration*. This feature alone is almost worth the price of the PS3.
I love the PS Network Store. I’ve already downloaded Super Stardust HD, Echochrome, Pixeljunk Eden, and plan to continue this behavior. The downloadable demos are a great feature.
Playstation Home -- I like it, or…I want to like it…it’s cool, very well executed, but there’s not a lot to do there yet. We need expansion!
Curious about: Installing Linux and MAME on the PS3.

Sony has created a fun, powerful, flexible, high-end platform here. I think with the inevitable upcoming price cuts the PS3 will become with next-gen console of choice.

2009-01-15T06:55:00.001-05:00

If you like Douglas Adams and The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, but want something that bites a little deeper, try the book that inspired Hitch Hiker’s: The Sirens of Titan.

And why does Kurt Vonnegut like fire engines so much?

2009-01-04T22:16:00.005-05:00

My New Year's girl.

2008-12-28T22:18:00.002-05:00

Last week I was upgrading the graphics card in our family PC (Radeon X1950XT to HD4830), working at the dining room table next to Max, who was working on a massive Lego vehicle he had received as a Christmas present. He was making observations and asking questions about what I was doing. I showed him the motherboard, CPU, graphics card, hard drives, etc., and attempted to give him an explanation of each component’s function.

Later that day, we went to Microcenter to get some miscellaneous hardware to finish the job. While we were in the store Max said, “Daddy, I want to see the mama-boards...where are they? My next spaceship is going to have, like, four computer brains.”

Mama-boards.

2008-12-25T00:01:00.001-05:00

Peace on Earth.

Happy Holidays 2008 from Jason, Rose, Max & Esmé

2008-12-20T07:39:00.010-05:00

"I see your family photos everyday... It was the time like a dream, sweet dream."

2008-12-16T22:41:00.003-05:00

Max's first Pac-Man drawing. The legacy continues.

2008-12-10T23:51:00.007-05:00

Funny kid stuff recently: Lately, whenever Esmé gets her hands on some money, she always refers to it as $5. We have no idea why this happens, but it's hilarious. She'll hold up a penny and say, "Here's FIIIVE dollars!"

Max has been exploring the scientific method in Kindergarten. One night, he decided he was going to explain it to us. "A hypoposis is...it's like your idea. A hy-pop-osis is your concept, Daddy...and then you have to test it."

These kids are too much. They're my Christmas presents.

2008-12-05T06:44:00.003-05:00

I think I originally read Catcher in the Rye in 1992 or 1993--when I started college it was on my list of “books I should have read in high school but didn’t because my school was too religiously conservative.” Unfortunately, when I first read it I was in the beginning stages of architecture school, and was apparently too distracted by my new obsession (and the corresponding workload) to appreciate the full beauty of the story.

I just finished reading it again, and realized, interestingly, that Holden’s little sister Phoebe seems to be the spiritual twin to Esmé in Salinger’s earlier short story bearing that name.

2008-11-25T07:29:00.003-05:00

Stepping back, the thing that intuitively concerns me about ‘the state of the world’ right now is a general volatility and compression of critical events into ever shorter time horizons. Financial markets are a mess, but my real concern is that financial crises seem to be getting closer together, and the swings--both up and down--are growing larger. I’m concerned about resource use and global warming--weather seems more volatile and climate disasters more frequent. I’m concerned about political instability--the world is ‘getting smaller’ yet we (the nations of the world) don’t seem to be getting on any better.

These are intuitive comments, generated from a mix of qualitative information and personal observation. If you think of the earth as an organism, with each component part of human existence being part of that organism (the ecosystem, the political system, the economic system, the technological system, etc.), it boils down to this question: How healthy are we? How healthy, or stressed, is the earth as an organism?

2008-11-21T07:14:00.003-05:00

In winter, in downtown Cleveland, there's a gentle breeze that blows. It runs about 30 MPH on average and it has a nickname--the "breeze that makes people leave northeast Ohio."

2008-11-19T23:08:00.004-05:00

In Max's Kindergarten class, the current big thing is Star Wars: The Clone Wars on Cartoon Network. Toys 'R' Us is pushing it, everybody's pushing it. This is all fine, fine, when it comes to toys and costumes, etc. However, the show is quite violent, and I can't believe there are so many parents out there allowing 5-6 year olds to watch it.

2008-11-16T07:02:00.003-05:00

Rose and I were having dinner with some friends last night--wonderful people--and the experience reminded us of what characterizes our social circle. We have a very mixed group of friends--different income levels, different political views, different cultural interests, different geographies, different ideas of what constitutes a good time...the list goes on. We tend to slice across personality types--many of the people we call friends wouldn't really get along with one another, even though they get along with us. Over time, we've observed that the single common thread that runs through the individuals and couples that we consider friends, and who remain friends over time, is the following set of characteristics:

They have a reasonable amount of confidence about themselves,
They have a genuine interest in other people,
They have no agenda to deliver, no big chips on their shoulders,
And nothing to prove to anyone.

True relaxed inner confidence is so rare. It's an 'OK-ness' with yourself that allows you to avoid one-upsmanship, just be yourself, have a good time. You'd think these qualities would be more common, but they really are not, and they're a treasure when found.

2008-11-08T07:53:00.003-05:00

Years ago, we posted some of illustrator Gary Taxali's work on Opensewer. Recently, his work was featured on the cover of Newsweek.

2008-11-05T08:49:00.001-05:00

Ahhh...feels good not to be ashamed of our President.

2008-11-04T07:04:00.001-05:00

Although we took over 2,000 photographs on our recent 3-week trip to Japan & Korea, upon reviewing them I found so many instances where--amazingly--I wish I'd taken more. Just a little more detail of that building or street, or a video & sound recording of the subways, or another photo of a restaurant or a temple, or a photo of a silly sign, or the desk where I sat...not subject matter for award-winning photos...just memory.

2008-10-27T13:39:00.003-04:00

I've posted a photo set of highlights from our recent trip to Japan & South Korea. A larger set of photos, with more detail on each city (Tokyo, Kyoto, Seoul) can be found here.

2008-10-22T13:15:00.004-04:00

I thought our trip to Japan & Korea was expensive until I got home and updated our stock portfolio (ouch).

2008-10-18T12:00:00.004-04:00

Home.

Jet lag is *nasty* after 27 hours of continuous travel, moving from a +13 hour time zone. Special bonus accomplishment while coming home: our 777, thanks to a 170 MPH tail wind, traveled in excess of 700 MPH. So far this is the fastest I've ever traveled, and as close to the speed of sound as I'll likely ever get (unless I hitch a ride in an F-18 some time).

2008-10-16T10:41:00.006-04:00

Leaving Seoul and soon-to-be-distant (again) friends. Five year reunion held in the sixth year; hopefully we'll see them again soon. The world is small but still big, and Seoul is a city almost too large to comprehend. Travel takes a lot of energy; we miss home but still wish we could stay longer. Seems like we've been away forever, but the trip went so fast.

2008-10-10T19:55:00.010-04:00

Leaving Kyoto for Seoul today; shinkansen to Tokyo then an airplane...long day of travel ahead, but some old friends at the end. Some Kyoto observations:

I made a Florence reference in my Tokyo entry on 10/6, but that was only referring to the flavor of a relatively small district around Shibuya station. More appropriately, based on my limited observations, I think one could refer to Kyoto as the "Firenze" of Japan.
Tokyo is a modern city, so the high-tech, the modern, the sometimes-ugly...they all blend together fairly well into a hyper but energetic and attractive mess. In Kyoto, the new and the old do not blend so well. For example, take the Higashiyama district, with its beautiful traditional architecture and multitude of shrines and temples. On its western, southern, and northern edges, it collides with a landscape of 70s-90s vintage horrid-modern masonry and curtain wall mid-rise buildings. And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the overhead power lines and transformers everywhere.
In contrast to the above point, one of the most beautiful things about Kyoto is the fact that you can be walking in the midst of what feels like a concrete jungle, and then suddenly come upon a wooded shrine in the least expected place. When this happens, it's like discovering an oasis.
I can't get the ubiquitous phrase 'onegai shimasu', in that high-pitched 'may I serve you' voice, out of my head. So kind, but so strange.

More later...

2008-10-06T17:16:00.011-04:00

After five days in Tokyo, we're leaving for Kyoto today. It's been a hybrid relaxing/intense few days, but an amazing experience so far and a lot of fun. Few random observations about an American family traveling in Tokyo with two young children:

Tokyo's non-orthagonal configuration makes many of its districts feel (but not look) like older European cities. Our first night, wandering around Shibuya station, felt a little like wandering around central Florence (if you squinted your eyes until everything became a little blurry).
The city, considering its size and intensity, is surprisingly quiet. At Shibuya crossing, thousands cross at every light change without a word--you can almost hear the footsteps. If it weren't for traffic noise, and the blaring noise from video screens on buildings, there wouldn't be much noise at all. Drivers do not honk at each other.
People move smoothly and efficiently everywhere. Even with the crushing crowds on the metro and Yamanote line, we never felt unsafe or overcrowded, even with kids in a stroller.
Tokyo doesn't have any public trash cans. You 'pack out' what you use, just like when hiking. Public restrooms don't have paper towels, and often don't have air dryers. You carry a small cloth handkerchief with you to dry your hands. This, and many other examples exist everywhere of efforts to make a small footprint, individually and collectively.
Service and courtesy are amazing. No less than five separate individuals attend to us on our way from the front door of our hotel to the elevator. But these same people navigate the metro stations without regard to anyone around them, and might just run you over if they're in a hurry.
Japanese people love our kids; they get a lot of smiles and a lot of photos taken of them.

More to come from Kyoto...

2008-09-25T07:22:00.001-04:00

This is the busiest Fall I can remember. I’m not a big fan of saying that I’m busy, because I firmly believe that there’s always time for something if you want there to be--it’s all about priorities. Nonetheless...wow, we are busy. During the months of September & October 2008:

Our son Max started Kindergarten
I started teaching a graduate course at a local university
We have several improvement & repair projects going on at our house
I have two major deals underway in the office (one of which recently died, which is always fun)
We moved a significant amount of money into a real estate investment
And we’re taking Max & Esmé on a three-week trip to Japan and South Korea to visit some old friends

This is all happening over a span of about, say, seven weeks. It’s enough to keep us on our toes. To stay on top of all of this, and to give each individual the love they need during times that are special for them is, admittedly, quite a challenge.

2008-09-24T22:05:00.001-04:00

One week to go...

2008-09-13T07:28:00.005-04:00

Last night, while sitting at the dining room table building Lego Mars Mission vehicles, Maxie asked me: 'Daddy, will there always be a tomorrow? I mean, is the world ever going to end?'

Ah, the thoughts of a 5-year old.

I told him (in simpler and more explanatory language) that individual people, after they get old and gray, will come to an end and die, but as long as we keep having children and take care of the Earth (and the other planets for that matter), there will always be a tomorrow.

2008-08-28T12:08:00.002-04:00

Max started Kindergarten today!

2008-08-25T16:23:00.004-04:00

Maxie-boy is now officially riding his bike with no training wheels! He's been working at it, and for some time now he's been able to ride when you give him a push. But as of yesterday, August 24, he can take off, ride and stop all by himself!

So proud! As promised, he was rewarded for his achievement with a Mars Mission LEGO set.

2008-07-23T09:38:00.006-04:00

A well-written editorial post on Lifehacker regarding productivity and information overload:

The longer I do this, the more I suspect that a good part of the "information overload" story is a myth cooked up by folks who don't know how to use the internet well in order to demonize something they don't understand.

And my two cents on the matter:

Productivity is, in a sense, meaningless. Those things which are important to you, or your boss, or your client, as the case may be, get done. Those things which are less important fall by the wayside. In business, most (but not all) things that rise to the level of "important" involve relatively larger sums of money. The above holds true in your personal life as well. If someone tells you they're "too busy" to get together, etc., they're actually informing you (politely) of your relatively low placement within their internal priority list. No reason to be bothered by this--it just 'is what it is', as they say. Everyone does it. People make time for what's most important to them, whether they admit it to themselves or not. So forget about productivity--just get done what's important to you. If you're not satisfied with what's getting done, revisit your priorities.

2008-07-17T07:27:00.001-04:00

Ode to Joy, another MIDI duet by Max (melody) & dad (accompaniment)...

2008-06-25T08:09:00.001-04:00

Happy birthday to my special big guy (5)!

2008-06-21T08:54:00.001-04:00

Happy birthday to my sweet pea (2)!

2008-06-04T07:21:00.002-04:00

Spring family photos posted.

2008-05-29T22:53:00.003-04:00

Here's a MIDI recording of Maxie and me playing a duet on the piano the other night. He's melody, I'm accompaniment. My special little guy is getting so big!

2008-05-27T22:47:00.005-04:00

Esmé & Max looking for Sea Lions.

2008-05-26T23:56:00.002-04:00

Intelligentsia vs. Gimme! Coffee -- Winner: Gimme!

2008-05-13T22:31:00.005-04:00

Max drew 6 trains recently.

2008-04-14T08:13:00.003-04:00

Yesterday Max decisively beat me at Go. Admittedly, at the outset, I gave him some help and intentionally made a few bad moves to help get him going. But by the time we were 20% through the game I was actually trying, and a soon-to-be 5-year old beat me. This has a few possible interpretations: (1) I'm really bad at Go, (2) Max is really smart, or (3) some combination of (1) and (2).

2008-04-05T07:34:00.018-04:00

The best way to live
      is to be like water
For water benefits all things
      and goes against none of them
It provides for all people
      and even cleanses those places
      a man is loath to go

-- from the Tao Te Ching, V. 8

Following up on previous posts here and here, I continue to attempt to reconcile...

The concept of living like water, as expressed in the Tao Te Ching, and
My intuitive connection with the forms of the natural landscape

...with my personal aspirations. You see, in reading the Tao Te Ching, one could be led to think that goal-seeking is a less than optimal way to live. From V. 9:

Grabbing and stuffing--
      there is no end to it

Sharpen a blade too much
      and its edge will soon be lost
Fill a house with gold and jade
      and no one can protect it
Puff yourself with honor and pride
      and no one can save you from a fall

Complete the task at hand
Be selfless in your actions

However, as my brain has passively processed all of this over the past several months, I think I'm finally starting to unify these ideas. I am recognizing that perhaps they do not contain the inherent contradictions I once thought.

Water, the presence and lack thereof, whether liquid, as a flow or a body, or solid, as a glacier, has formed and continues to form the natural landscape in which we live. The cycle of water can be seen as an analogue for certain journeys in life, which can include aspirations.

I am one who seeks like water.

The older I get, the more I realize that things cannot be forced. All we can do is seek out that which fits our life and our context, and then enable it. Through this seeking, and through the un-contrived pursuit of opportunities that fit one's circumstances, each person can achieve a success that resonates with them. The difficult part is the search, and having the wisdom to recognize which aspirations should be pursued (and then enabled), and which should be ignored.

I believe this general concept applies to goals, relationships, and in fact everything in one's life. It is a lesson learned from water, from gravity. It is a cycle, and a journey from high to low. Success comes at the bottom.

Rain is chaos, the unknown, randomness.
The Watershed is a flow with resistance, it is seeking, finding one's way. It is the most difficult part of the cycle.
At the Stream, a way has finally been found. There will be challenges, but gravity is with you.
The Body of Water, at the low point, at the terminus of the stream, is a temporary end, a reward. Life's rewards can be found in low places. This resting place, being low, is also a type of death. Death leads to rebirth.
Through Rebirth, evaporation, we are led back to chaos, and the cycle begins again.

This is life--full of opportunities, full of people. But only a small portion of these fit each individual, each situation. The search, both the experience of seeking and the potential reward, is part of what gives life meaning.

2008-03-30T06:57:00.002-04:00

From time to time, I'm known to fall asleep reading to my kids. This gives my wife two choices: Leave me alone, in which case I usually wake up around 2:00 AM and crawl pathetically into bed, or two, kick me so that I wake up. Depends on her mood.

Last night, I managed to drag my sorry hide downstairs and we watched BSG Razor (awesome). Rose gave me a little sarcastic remark like, "Nice to have you awake for the whole movie..." To this I replied, "It's easy to stay awake when you have a knot in your stomach," referring of course to how one feels when watching BSG. It's a good knot.

Season 4 starts this week. I've never before been excited for the new season of a television show. Time to format the DVR's hard drive.

2008-03-22T07:31:00.003-04:00

File under fun with rolling balls/marbles/George Rhoads-esque: Binary Marble Adding Machine (direct link to video).

2008-03-16T21:58:00.002-04:00

Pajama day.

2008-03-12T10:38:00.004-04:00

Coffee

I'm truly passionate about coffee, and have learned a lot over the years. I realize that I have almost nothing to say that hasn't already been better said by others, so I link to them below.

After struggling with (and wearing out from over-use) no less than three consumer-grade espresso machines, I finally broke down and invested in a decent prosumer machine with a heat-exchanger (HX) and E-61 group head.

Originally, my wife was not happy with the fact that I took out of commission one entire worksurface in our relatively small kitchen... However, now that she's had more than a few of my espresso drinks she's learning to live with the configuration.

I continue to humbly pursue excellence in my own espresso-making. Please follow these links for excellent coffee resources:

Gimme! Coffee - Excellent educational PDFs. If you make it to Ithaca or Brooklyn from time to time, stop in to their espresso bar and have some of the best drinks in the eastern United States. Did I mention that they do mail-order beans as well?
David Schomer - An espresso sage. Be sure to read his MSNBC story.
Coffee Geek - Once you get serious about coffee you'll spend hours (days) here. See my review of the Anita and the Quick Mill doserless grinder.
Whole Latte Love - Check out this tutorial on the golden rule of espresso.
Home Barista - How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Heat Exchangers.

Enjoy.

2008-03-04T08:42:00.005-05:00

One week ago Starbucks closed its stores nationwide for about 3 hours to train its 'baristas' (sarcastic quotes intentional) and, according to the company's former CEO, regain some of the romance and soul of the espresso experience. Coffee connoisseurs around the world laughed out loud at the news. The subtitle of this ABC news article nails it: 'Coffee Purists Say a Few Hours of Training is Hardly Enough to Learn the Art of Espresso'. The community at CoffeeGeek had a few interesting things to say about the event. Timely as ever, NPR's The World offered a short but highly informative story within its GeoQuiz on the true art of espresso (thanks, Rose!). As you may already know, I'm a junkie.

2008-02-24T07:35:00.005-05:00

My wife and I (and now our kids, 4 and 1) have been fans of Animusic ever since we first saw the early videos back when we were at Cornell (Wayne Lytle wrote his first music animation software while at Cornell). The first video we saw, and one of the most memorable, was called "Pipe Dream". Now two guys, Dan Paluska and Jeff Lieberman, have created an "automated multi-instrumental orchestral machine" that bears more than a passing resemblance to the ball-bouncing instruments in Pipe Dream. It's located at 186 Orchard St. in New York City. Wonderful...I can't wait to show this to my kids! (via Gizmodo)

Incidentally, if you like bouncing balls, check out some of George Rhoads' sculpture, another Ithaca resident. (previously)