Criticism is easy; doing is hard.

"And happiness is thought to depend on leisure; for we are busy that we may have leisure, and make war that we may live in peace." — Aristotle

I'm a collector of places. When I've been to a place I love, it's mine forever. You can do it, too. It has nothing to do with ownership. It has everything to do with your emotional experience there.

Mini Watercolor Axonometrics

Drafted these in pencil, then rendered in ink, followed by a splash of watercolor.

Move quickly, but never rush.

I'm a collector of places. When I've been to a place I love, it's mine forever. You can do it, too. It has nothing to do with ownership. It has everything to do with your emotional experience there.

Typewriter

Just made this diagram using my old typewriter and drafting table.

"Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature."

Do things you're afraid to do. Then, you survive them, and it's an accomplishment. Excel at them…and it's a bonus! Great moments come at unexpected times. Resist fatigue, resist negativity, and—regardless of the situation—make the most of the moment you're in.

Reality cannot be changed outright, but it is slightly malleable.

Happy Birthday to Esmé (11) and Max (14)!

On this morning's flight I observed some parents with young-adult daughters who had never flown before. It was refreshing to see the sense of wonder in young adults, in this age of "I've already seen it all because of the internet". It was adorable, actually.

Inconvenience Vs. Problem

"One of life's best coping mechanisms is to know the difference between an inconvenience and a problem. If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire, then you've got a problem. Everything else is an inconvenience." — Robert Fulghum

Barn On Stilts

Found an old sketch I did in architecture school.

On Working, and Not Working

"If you accomplish something good with hard work, the labor passes quickly, but the good endures." — Gaius Musonius Rufus

"Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time." — Marthe Troly-Curtin

My wife's parents always had an extra table-setting at dinner, for anyone in the neighborhood who might stop by. It was such a beautiful tradition.

If you know a friend you can fully trust,
Go often to his house:
Grass and brambles grow quickly
Upon the untrodden track.

— Havamal ("Words of the High One") Translated by W.H. Auden and P.B. Taylor.

Thursday

"One Thursday, nearly two thousand years after one man had been nailed to a tree for saying how great it would be to be nice to people for a change, a girl sitting on her own in a small café in Rickmansworth suddenly realized what it was that had been going wrong all this time, and she finally knew how the world could be made a good and happy place. This time it was right, it would work, and no one would have to get nailed to anything.

"Sadly, however, before she could get to a phone to tell anyone about it, the Earth was unexpectedly demolished to make way for a new hyperspace bypass, and so the idea was lost, seemingly for ever."

— Douglas Adams, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

Reel-To-Reel

Further down the vintage hi-fi rabbit hole…(don't tell my wife). It's a 1971 Akai 1720W reel-to-reel tape deck. I bought it from the original owner, who himself bought it in Vietnam during the war (subsequently bringing it home to the U.S.). I love the "Made in Tokyo" stamped on the back. What can you find that's made in Tokyo anymore? The exterior of the case is fully trimmed in wood, and it comes with a wood latch-on transport face cover. The build quality and the satisfying 'clunks' of the interface just can't be matched by most things made today.

Coming home to the sound of your children playing piano beautifully…one of life's great feelings. What a blessing.

"If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it; blame yourself, tell yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth its riches." – Rainer Maria Rilke