A Box of Matches

I like the cover concept of this book. This has been on my radar for a long time now. I'm starting to read it. Lately, I wanted to sellect short books that I could finish and feel accomplished. It's a slim volumn. Hearth and home, that has been the archetypal image of dwelling that goes back to the time of cave dwellers and the discovery of fire. The fire place is becoming rarer. I don't have a real wood fire place. Reading this book make you yearn for a fire place, a place to contemplate and meditate before the real world invades. It seems to be the perfect place to do the The morning page as assigned by Dorothea Brande in a book call 'Becoming a Writer'. I had an image of the narrator, diarist using a fountain pen and handwriting his thoughts on paper but I was a little dissappointed that Emmet wrote on a half open old laptop. He did this partly because he did not want to turn on the electric light. He is careful to keep the modern world at bay, waiting for the sun to rise. He makes coffee in darkness and fumbles around in dimness. The descriptions of blind navigation is amusing. [book:Becoming a Writer76788]

Vietnam A book of Changes

This image is a good example of how photographers have great eyes for story telling. It has a pop art feel to it because of the repeated imagery, like Andy Warhol's portrait of Chairman Mao. The other similarity is the iconography of the subject mater. Since it is a bust, it has that Roman classicism to it. It's interesting that I find capitalism in the way the art is presented. Warhol's pop method elevated our taste for consumerism and fame. He put it on the same level of art. It is a new art form. I like how each sucessive image is reveal and how the news paper wrapped around the bust seem to convey the passage of time and also to herald in the news of the day, the change of regime and the impact that it will have on the land. I do remember the requirement to have a picture of Ho Chi Ming on the wall of every house hold. This idea was borrowed from Chairman Mao. In the essay, Mitch mention how much change he saw on the subsequent trips Vietnam. These pictures were made over a long period of time during the 1990s. It is my favorite image of the whole book.

LC1

LC1 Circa J, originally uploaded by Duc N. Ly.

The camera is Panasonic Lumix DMC-LC1. What ever happened to the days of simple camera names like Leica M3, M4 etc. For simplicity's sake, I will call it the LC1. This camera has the Leica lens. There is a bit of troublesome dust spot which needs to be fixed. I did not see this problem until after the trip. I have to remember to be better prepared with equipments. The LC1 is light weigh and has manual switches and buttons to make adjusting the camera easier. It's like the old cameras, I don't have to dig through the manuals to find the functions. It has a 28mm lens for wide open shots of the landscape. Although, I think it does distorts the picture a bit.

I had the circuit board replaced for free by Panasonic because of the Sony Sensor problem. I'm enjoying the camera's shots much more now. It takes fantastic pictures, good color rendition in day light. However, there's a dust spot appearing in the sky shots.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvtf0sM9XqQ

Dog Mountain

I put some of the images on Fotolia and Redbubble: http://www.fotolia.com/p/330135

http://www.redbubble.com/people/ducnly

May 24, 2009 Sunday around Memorial Day Weekend.

We left the city by 9am and arrived to a full parking lot already on this beautiful Sunday of Memorial Weekend. The trail head , somewhere near the Bridge of the Gods and Char Burger. We anticipate the carpet of yellow flowers around May which by August had died.

It has been four or five years since we last went up to Dog Mountain. I was younger and in maybe better shape. I don't remember the hike being this hard to walk up. Right off the begining, the climb is steep, worse then stairs. There is a series of switch backs. Today, the narrow path is like a highway with dogs, and humans passing opposite and from behind me. I did not stop, I just walk slowly. If I stopped at the beginning, the climb might be hard the rest of the way up. I had to push no at the beginning to set the pace, the tone of the hike. The yellow carpet of flowers would be the pay off. The gorgeous views would be there waiting.

This is a story made in 23hq.com. The camera is Panasonic Lumix DMC-LC1. What ever happened to the days of simple camera names like Leica M3, M4 etc. This camera has the Leica lens. There is a bit of troublesome dust spot which needs to be fixed. I did not see this problem until after the trip. I have to remember to be better prepared with equipments. The LC1 is light weigh and has manual switches and buttons to make adjusting the camera easier. It's like the old cameras, I don't have to dig through the manuals to find the functions. It has a 28mm lens for wide open shots of the landscape. Although, I think it does distorts the picture a bit.

This is me at the Summit of Dog Moutain. Tim took this photograph.

I found this man taking a nap at the summit. He's 'Dog tired'.

There are plenty of dog at Dog Moutain. This one seems very regal. Man's best friend is also useful for caring water and other essentials.

Leica M4-2

Leica M4-2, originally uploaded by Duc N. Ly.

I need a base plate for this monster.

Koi At Japanese Garden

Koi At Japanese Garden, originally uploaded by Duc N. Ly.

Koi At Japanese Garden
Taken with Panasonic LC1

Hike

Charlize theron

Charlize theron, originally uploaded by jens021.

Great Movie

Red leaf Minolta f 1.4

Red leaf Minolta f 1.4, originally uploaded by Duc N. Ly.

Bokeh

Taken with the Minolta XD

lens: f1.4

Nikon F4s

Nikon F4s, originally uploaded by Duc N. Ly.

The Nikon F4s is a professional film camera.
It is designed by automobile designer Giorgetto Giugiaro.
It has become popular with film shooters because the price is now affordable.

http://www.nikonians.org/nikon/f4/f4_1.html

DSCN Maple wings 1170

DSCN Maple wings 1170, originally uploaded by Duc N. Ly.

One of my favorite shots with the Nikon E990

Seiko Sowa

This bezel has some tooth to it.


Roman Numeral Date

Seiko Sowa, originally uploaded by Duc N. Ly.

Seiko 6309 is a professional diver's watch.It is designed by Ed Harris wore it on the film 'The Abyss'.Mick Jagger also wore on.

I used the Coolpix 990 for these macro photographs: http://lexly87.blogspot.com/2009/06/coolpix-990.html

HOW+TO+BUY+A+SEIKO+6309+DIVER+(Belongs+in+FAQ)

Visual Notes

Seaside

I took my Leica M4-2 camera to the Coast.

Andy came to visit us.

Lovers lay on the beach protected from the wind.

InHouse

I was listening to InHouse Music with Jeremy Peterson while playing StarCraft. This show reminds me of the early Kboo days of WDYBK (What does your brother know). The show was DJed by Rebecca, she went on to be come the lead singer of the Spinades. I listened live as the The Love Language play 'Providence'. http://opbmusic.org/performances/99-The-Love-Language
It's a great song. there are several other songs which I could watch live and record!

coolpix 990

coolpix 990, originally uploaded by Duc N. Ly.

Great Camera

Here's the link to some of the photos I took with this camera.

PhotoKina recently announced a slew of amazing new digital cameras, some known as micro 4/3, which is making Digital SLR smaller and smaller and pushing the mega pixel up and up. The good news is that the digital cameras of lower resolutions and slower shutter speed camera are on the used market for a very good price. I purchased this Nikon Coolpix E990 from Goodwill for $30. It take four AA batteries. The compact card and reader costs more. E990 has a magnesium body not plastic. In 2001, Time magazine awarded this model as the product of the year. It was the first 3. mega pixel under $1000. I’m amazed with the macro lens. It’s tricky to get it into macro mode but not impossible. The results are satisfactory. It picks up the fine hair line fiber caught between the nib gap. (I really need to clean this nib! The ink has corroded the once gold ring.) I also used the White Balance to measure the white surface to adjust to the typical white office lights. The camera performs well under low light interiors and had a soft tone without the flash.

I use this camera for macro photography. I don't need to attached anything else to it. The lens that comes with this camera is great for macro. The swivle helps to get the right perspective. Here's a series of the Seiko Sowa taken with the Coolpix 990: http://lexly87.blogspot.com/2009/06/seiko-sowa_05.html

Divisadero

A few words about the photograph. It's by Willi Ronis. He's a street photographer.

This book could have been two books. I felt that it was rushed to the end a bit. The pace picked up and became less poetic when it should have been more poetic as the later part of the book concentrates on Lucien the poet.
I was not disappointed. After The English Patient and In the Skin of the Lion, I read Anil's Ghost. That book wasn't as poetic. Divisadero is poetic but also high in concept without the accoutrement that goes with high conception. It begins with understanding the title of the novel. In the Skin of the Lion is also a title that suggests the craft of story telling but in Divisadero the suggestion of the craft of the story telling is carried out. In other words, it's not just a decoration but a device to tell a story. To witness this craft in action is quiet exciting. To explain a little bit what 'In the Skin of the Lion' means. It is a line taken from Gilgamesh. I imagine a group of people sitting around a fire at night and the skin of the lion is passed around from one person to the next. When you wear the skin, you have the podium, the floor, and it's your time to tell your story, to dazzle your audience. That's the craft of story telling. Divisadero, is a division of time, connection, and distance. It is through this perspective of distance that one can see clearer what has happen to those events that change one's life. It is as if one must assume the lion's perspective, be protected in this lion skin to tell this story and make sense of the Violence that Ann when through which tore the make-shift family apart. The high conception comes in the notion that the past and present can be entered through imagination and memory, the tools of a story teller. For Ann, she enters the skin of the lion in France, far away from her family back in California. She enters the story of Lucien the poet. It is from this safe place protected by the distance which is her lion skin to tell a story that is somewhat similar to her past circumstance.

Unbearable Lightness of Being

The character Tomas was born out of a situation.
Ever wonder how people meet? It's one of the questions asked of couples. Usually the answer is in a bar. While this is a short summation that would suffice for an answer, it is elaborated upon by the author who seems to bring into question coincidences and fortuities. Tomas's room at the hotel is number 6. She gets off at 6. He calls them the bird of fortuities. Milan uses the image of the birds flying down upon the shoulders of Saint Francis of Assisi. "A single metaphor can give birth to love." These are signs that bless the unions, the more the better. And to not notice such details is to miss out on one of the pleasures of life. It is a great romance. He is an unfaithful womanizer. She, Teraza, is a provincial girl, naive, almost a pure maiden. How is she able to capture his heart so thoroughly and yet be tortured at the same time by his infidelities? Milan talks about compassion and how heavy it weighs into the heart of Tomas. "for there is nothing heavier than compassion. Not even one's own pain weighs so heavy as the pain one feels with someone, for someone, a pain intensified by the imagination and prolonged by a hundred echoes." He has compassion for Tereza. His lightness has left. His womanizing and his infidelities are his lightness. They are Tereza's heaviness. The characters make choices. And because they only have one life, this choice is difficult. "We can never know what to want, because, living only one life, we can neither compare it with our previous lives nor perfect it in our lives to come." So Here is where Milan disagrees with the Eternal Return idea that says everything has already occur. Milan brings up Nietzsche's idea of the Eternal Return in the beginning. Some say that he spends the rest of the book defending this thesis. I think it's an academic outlook. And to come into the book with this perspective misses a lot of the other insights, insights into women, the heart, and relationship between the two. Fortunately, unlike life, one can re read a book.

Milan brings in Anna Karenina and looks at the symmetry of how Ann first met Vronsky at the train track. Someone was killed, run over by a train. The irony is that Anna commits suicide by throwing herself on a train track.

Tomas wrote about Oedipus Rex comparing Oedipex to the communist of his country.

Milan likes to bring up these references. His presence is always seems to be in the background of the narrative. So there are philosophical ponderings peppered through out the novel.

Genius Loci

Christian draws a lot on Heidegger’s essay 'Building, Thinking, and Dwells'. This essay is included in 'Basic Writings'.
Christian extracts certain passages such as the explanation of a bridge as a presence to draw together the two banks of a river much as a building will draw into different reference points of the landscape. In fact, it is the location of a building not it's points in space of a Cartitian grid that gives it place; the location and the reference to the surrounding landscape that is the main concern.
There has been a resurgence of phenomenology in architecture. Peter Zumthor and Steven Holl are two proponates of it.
Christian is a pioneer in drawing the cross discipline of philosophy into the architectural discussion. He was the first to talk about this.

In Praise of Shadows

Tadoa Ando recommends this book. There's a great introduction by Charles Moore. One of the basic human requirements is the need to dwell, and one of the central human acts is the act of inhabiting, of connecting ourselves, however temporarily, with a place on the planet which belongs to us, and to which we belong. - Charles Moore.

House Saga

Laurie Bertrand photographed a series of great vinettes of her and her husband's new home in South Dakota.
The set is accompanied by this quote: "Too often when we're buying or building a house we do not consider each room. We are carried away by one charming feature and are blind to details that will give us trouble later on." - Dorothy Draper

Aspinal Jewel Calf Pen Case

I've been looking for a pen case for my fountain pens. This item is good price and of great quality.
Aspinal Jewel Calf Pen Case

Here's a close up

Antonello Serio Man PE2009 02

Antonello Serio Man PE2009 02
Originally uploaded by Antonello Serio

Lately, I've been tired of having my mobile phone, wallet, keys, and mp3 players strapped on to me and cramping my jeans. The solution is to get a small shoulder bag to carry this all. Now our counter part in Europe have been doing this for a long time. I've been shopping around for a small man bag. This seems to hit the spot. I stumbled upon this gem in Flickr.com of all places. The bag is clean in design, understated, yet luxurious. I love the brown suade feel and the white contrasting shoulder strap in web canvase is racy. There are no bulky straps or details to get in the way. It's ver masculine. Antonello Serio is an Italian designer making beautiful fashion for men and women globally.

A Clock Work Orange

Drawing on the cover is by Robert Longo

Peter Zumthor

Zumthor just won the Pritzker Prize. This book reminds me of 'Basic Writings' by Martin Heidegger. There is an essay by Heidegger call "Building, Thinking, and Dwelling." I had a hint of the relation. Then I found a Wikipedia article that mentions Zumthor mirroring Heidegger.

Zumthor mentions the term “presence” of the materials in his work. I remember reading 'Building, Thinking, and Dwelling' and try to grasp Heidegger's meaning of the bridge as the beginning of a 'presence'.

Is Zumthor a senualist? In a sense he is but not the same as those that sprouted in the Roccoco period. Later Modernist such as Adolf Loos strip the ornamentation and the buildings became bare until it was cold. Zumthor seems to bring the warmth back with out all the ostentation. Architecture has always been about light, material, and sense. Zumthor finds innotive ways to let the material speak, or he treats the ordinary material into exterordinary ways. He seems to use material the way a writer uses words to compose a poem.

The English Patient

With bursts of warm light, Ondaatje illuminates the scene through poetic prose, rendering a tale of love and betrayal in times of war.

Book designed by Chip Kid. Photo by Cecil Berton.

Ikepod Sea Slug

http://www.yorktime.com/search?cid=70:sku=410


The vintage Seaslug.
Designer: Marc Newson
Marc began his design tinkering with a watch. In his teens, he started to study watch making. He's expanded to other products.
Here's an interview with Marc: http://www.watchismo.blogspot.com/search?q=marc+newson

Quantum of Solace Book

Pentagram has made a special edition of Ian Flemming's collection of Short Stories.

Never Let Me Go Book Review

I don't know how Ishiguro did it, but I felt like I had stumble upon a journal or a story written by Kathy H. The first impression is an intimacy with the story teller that I had not experience in a long time.

Objects have a special meaning in ‘Never Let Me Go’. The title is taken from the song by Judy Bridgewater, a fictional singer from the album Songs After Dark. It is in the cassette that Kathy bought at the Sales. This object came from the outside world. It is a reminder of the time Kathy experienced at Hailsham. The objects produce memories. The wooden pencil box is also imbued with mystery. Kathy mentions Tommy's favorite Ruby shirt.
The album has a woman smoking a cigarette. She had to hide it because smoking is forbidden for donors. It destroys organs. This is one of the ways that Kathy casually reveals the fact that they are donors. The books with smokers or smoking illustrations have been torn from the volume.

I like the fact that Madame selects the special art work for her gallery.

"I don't know how it was where you were, but at Hailsham ..."

I was asking myself this question of purpose and length of a life. On the one hand Kathy knows her purpose in life. On the other hand, she also will know when she will 'complete' her life. It reminds me of Blade Runner because the replicants have their own expiration dates to think of.

Tusting Bags

Tusting came over the border into Levenger's line up years ago. They make the popular Stanley, now updated Livingston bag. Levenger commission Tusting to make briefs that have an English tradition and look. Known as an angler's bag, these have become popular business briefs that are not so stiff and have an outdoors causualness about them. I own one. It is fully lined. The new leather smell is masculine.
Seirra Trading sells them on line.

Nooka

Nooka's story of a start up watch company. Watchismo has a profile on Nooka's start up. The dials bring a fresh perspective on tracking time. Futurist in style and concept, each creation presents a challenge to traditional horology.

Watch

Watch
Originally uploaded by Duc N. Ly

My Watch

Agenda Series

---------- ducly wrote :----------

I'm interested in your Agenda series.

can you tell me more about it?

Dear Ducly,

thank you for your email.

My agenda series are simply photographs of my own agendas, which I use since 2004. They are the result of my daily life, and they try to capture a part of my own memory.

It is the result of an obsession with understanding time as a concept and our relationship with it. We are in the middle of a transition in a world of new technology, where memory is captured differently (e.g. writing an email becomes stored in other ways within our memories than writing by hand, I would believe.) As a result the form of our traces are changing, as well as the archives of ourselves.

It seems important to me to capture this, as also an excuse to continue to produce.

All the Best

Aleksandar

related: www.flickr.com/photos/ducly/

tags: Moleskine, agenda, art concept, diaries, photograph

Fridge

I called Sears to come out to look at the Fridge. He told me to turn the freezer off and wait for the water line to thaw. This works. Apparently, the water line is close to the door panel. It is sealed in foam. If it was broken, they would have to replace the whole new door. My particular GE model door is not available because the manufacture have stop making it. So, after 15 minutes the water line works! The ice maker he said needed to be replaced too. But I did not get it replace. Last night, I heard the ice dropping into the box. So, it is also making ice! I'm excited.

It costs me $65 to have the repair guy come out.

The repair guy said that GE refrigerator is expensive to repair.

The parts and labor for freezer fix is $355.

D.E. Mays

portlandart.net/archives/2009/06/first_thursday_39.html

Portland Art selected to feature D.E. Mays for their First Thursday's pick. I first saw May's work at PDX contemporary in the Window display. I was in awe of their power to suggest architectural space. It was want I wanted to do. His work still influences me. I meet him at a solo exhibition at the Marylhurst Art Gym space. I'm glad to see his new drawings. They still have that simplicity and architectonic space to the compositions.

Kindle 2

I want one.  I want one.  This version 2 is so sexxy.

The Kendle 2 is available for consumption. Many people are talking about it. It is incased in an exciting shape. It is as thin as a pencil.  It looks like a large ipod for reading.  Amazon pays for the Wireless 3G access which is a great idea.  Garry's Posterous post has some interesting things to say about this free 3G. Amazon sells the e books, so essentially anyone that buys an Amazon product or especially it's ebook is paying for the subscription.  It's always a hard decision to pick that book for a plane ride.  Here a whole library is contained in a svelt package.  J.L. Borges would love this idea.  There are other magazines and newspaper monthly services for $9. Reading blogs is free. I liked the idea of the first generation of Kendles but knew that it was a prototype idea, clumpsy in it's shape and usablity.  The new shape also improves the battery life, readability, and download time.   This one is hard to resist.  The price is approximately $345.

amazon Kindel stuff

It certainly will change the way people read and buy books.  I hear writers groaning.  I'm not sure what their complaint is.  Maybe it will be less profitable for them or that Amazon doesn't carry certain chapbooks or books printed in small numbers.  Maybe it affect the writer's pocket book as in less royalties.  Independent book sellers, bookstores and even internet book stores has yet another source of competition.

It is interesting that a ebook device has available 3G 24/7 without a monthly service charge where as the phone needs this service much more and subscribers have to pay.  Really how many times does one need to down load a book?  And a book can last the reader for at least a day.  It is the blog reading and the newspaper / magazine articles which has news and needs the 3G.  What it means is an ebookstore which will be open all the time, with or with out hooking up to the internet.  There are no wires.  It will even read to y ou.  I wonder what this post will sound like on a Kindle.  This business model turns Amazon into a powerful publishing house.  Perhaps other publishers besides Amazon will offer this service.  Depending on production time of a paper vs. ebook, we could see three different release dates for books:  hardback, paper, and ebook.

I remember picking out each book and weighing them then taking that specific.  I clearly remember sitting down at a pool reading Magic Mountain or in a hotel in a foreign country reading english novels.  In some cases I did not bring books so I was subjected to the limited choice of a foreign bookstore's small sellection.

Violinist

I listen to Bach violin solo by Hilary Hahn. On the flight to Frankfurt, I listen and watched a video concert of Julia Fischer. First she plays the violin then the piano. I was very impressed. She looked older the Hilary Hahn. When I was on land, I check her Wiki page. She’s 25 where as Hillary is 30. I guess Hilary has a young face. I wonder if Hahn is an Asian name, Perhaps Korean? There are no sources about her parents. Hilary is much more media savvy then Julia. Hilary has her blog, Twitter, Myspace, Facebook, and Youtube page. Julia has just the professional web page. Julia is from Germany. I thought her dress is lovely and black with Chris-crossing straps to caress her small white skin frame. I still remember seeing Ann Aikiko Meyers playing Saint-Saens. Rondo Capricio. I also have a CD of Ann playing other Saint-Saens pieces. It seems that violinist picks a certain composer and stay with it through out her career. For Hilary, it is Bach. For Ann, it is Saint-Saens. Ann began playing at the age of four and debut at the age of seven. In fact all three of these violinists began at the same age. I’m thinking of Malcom Gladwell’s new book ‘Outlier’. It compares the ages and background of certain successful types. I would like to look at these young violin protégées.

nano_08_winner_viking

nano_08_winner_viking_120x238
Originally uploaded by Duc N. Ly

I made it. I won

bamboo painting

bamboo painting
Originally uploaded by Duc N. Ly

sony ericsson w760a phone cam.

molskine

molskine
Originally uploaded by Duc N. Ly

Sketching at the Gallery 114

match strike

match strike
Originally uploaded by Duc N. Ly

fires

Virgin Home Owner's Guide

http://astore.amazon.com/dnl-20/detail/0393334961

Perfume

"Odors have a power of persuasion stronger than that of words, appearances, emotions, or will. The persuasive power of an odor cannot be fended off, it enters into us like breath into our lungs, it fills us up, imbues us totally. There is no remedy for it." — Patrick Süskind (Perfume: The Story of a Murderer) Thus the novel persuades and pervades through our imagination the smell.

Why do I want to read this book?
I want to read it to see how the author transcribe a scent on to words.
One incident which stood out. It was when Grenouille pays the prostitute to get her scent. Well this explains a lot and it makes the narrative plausible and it makes his motives for murder clear. The prostitute is freaked out by the scrapper and the lard that he applies to extract her scent. If she would have let him do it then he would not have murder other girls. Well, he was to get a scent of the virgins. She was just his test subject. So I suppose that eventually he would murder. It does explain that it is not normal social behavior. So even if he advertised for girls to contribute their scent, they would not have. Besides, he murders her on impulse because he is obsessive about the experiment.
He is only concern with the scent and not even the physical touch.
So this is more then a story, and much more then just murders. It bring in moral questions. In searching for art, science, and perfection, he has committed these crimes. Was there a better way to extract this? In those times, it was not possible it seems.
His motive is more then just money, fame, and power. It was his mere curiosity and he pursuit of the purest and his obsessiveness. To him and to the writer, the scent is the essence: the soul of a thing, or a man or a woman. He had a gift for this sense. He is a freak of nature, like most genius who bares the talent or gift, it is a burden. So this is how the author makes the reader sympathize for the criminal. We, the reader, don't know much about the virgin victims, except for the final precious 13th victim, she has a bit of a story.
I might add here that the writer has a gift as well. Sometimes, he is a freak and is obsessive about certain ideas, theme, and words. The novel is the way he conducts the experiment. The way he can distill smell onto the page is remarkable.

Root Canal

Over the weekend, I had an experience of a Root Canal which last night caused me to gain some insight into pain. It caused a little bit of insomnia and made me understand the nature of insomnia too. I was thinking of what I was going to say. I rushed head-long into the future. My body was on the bed but my mind was with the blog, but first, the Root Canal. I have been reading Eckhart Tolle's book 'The Power of Now'. Basically, it's about the concept of time as in the now. It's funny that we don't think of spending time in the Now. We are busy worrying about the future and regret the past. These are two concepts of time that preoccupies us. We worry about projects, where we have to be etc. Now is also a time concept but it is also a much harder concept to grasp. Now is especially hard to practice in the time of multiple tabs browsing, and multi-tasking.

I was worried and became anxious of the appointment already weeks before and now in the car driving in the 6 a.m. fog. But the fog also taught me a lesson. It didn't allow me to look too far into the future. I just had to worry a few hundred feet ahead of me. I was worrying about how much I had to pay and the pain it would cost me. All that worry disappears as I sit in the chair, when the long needle injects the numbness into the gum. I felt the cold drop of liquid from the syringe. "This is going to hurt a little," she said. The root canal is not performed in the future or the past. It is performed in the now. I was sitting in a chair not moving. I might as well be tied down. All of my energy is focus on that tooth. I had to control my breathing, but not too much control but a relaxed breathing. I thought about the future briefly and I started to choke on my own saliva because I forgot to swallow. I was anxious for it to be over so that I can go out to the sunshine. I was not living in that moment. But I had to live in that moment to get through to go into the sunshine again. Doctor Adjaj was my Indian mystic and dentist. The assistant is also a Gypsy mystic from Romania, although they did not know that they perform these roles for me. We were practicing in a three person Sangha of meditation in the moment of now. The Gypsy informed me that the tool is hot. Smoke came out of my mouth. She handed him the paper pointer. He wore a plastic ring with pyramid foam to hold all of the pointed metal drills. The procedure of root canal is so specialized. This is what he does all day. They even have a special name for people like him call Endodontist. He uses all the elements of air, water, fire, gel, and compounds. The procedure is to go into the root of the tooth deep down and suck out all of the nerves that are dying, some even have become abscess. The procedure is painful to remove the pain. But once it's done, the tooth can survive, with less feeling and almost dead. His work is like a sand painting of the Tibetan monks. He can't take it home and put it on a wall, nor does he care to. Once it is done, the work belongs to me and I walk out into the world. I was so admiring my Mystic Adjaj until he said, "Is someone going to help us with the X-Ray or we'll never gonna get out of here." Already, he was thinking about the future.

I thought this is a perfect metaphor for looking at pain and suffering in life. We all have to perform this root canal on our being, our soul sometimes. We have to dig deep down into the root and remove, drop the emotions and some of the illusions, our misinterpreted perceptions in order for our life to survive. It is like we are not aware of the tooth until it begins to hurt. I can tell you all about it but you will not feel it until you have gone through it. That is the moment of now which makes it real for you. Sometimes children can't understand it because they have not suffered enough, they have not grown a wisdom tooth, nor have a root canal. When we were children we didn't have such concepts as suffering much. It is like a tooth. Teeth can survive a fire, and even death. It is the living that decays it: the sugar, the food, and the bacteria of life that destroy it.

I lost some sleep thinking about this post. And I don't know if it was worth it.

mindedfulness

squidoo.com/anthonydemello

astore amazon spirituality products

tags: Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle, spirituality, mindfulness,

Yellow Robe

etsy.com/view

The inspiration for Monk (yellow robe) came from attending the Kwan Yin temple near North East Glisan. The image of the yellow robe monk stayed with me after many prayer sessions. I try to recreate this vision inside the studio. I started with an acrylic layer to sketch out the shape because it was quick and easy, the medium allows me to work right away. It was meant to be just a sketch but a year later I went back to this painting and apply several layers of oil and abstract the image further to extend beyond the reality and into another element. The small paintings are precious and most of them are done quickly and spontaneously but always going back to further improved upon after a time.

‘Duc Ly’s paintings are textured abstracts that hint at Asian or perhaps Extraterrestrial Landscapes. His oil painted on Mylar is an exquisite vision of the moon surrounded by shapes that could be alien pictographs or characters from an exotic tongue.’
- Dave Johnson, The Asian Reporter

‘An acrylic on paper, titled “Gate VII”…shouts bright swaths of color while muttering subtle passageways to the unknown.’
- Dave Johnson, The Asian Reporter

jessica bruah

http://jessicabruah.blogspot.com/

flocking on blogger

testing post from flock to blogger

Blogged with the Flock Browser

design is mine

http://designismine.blogspot.com/
pdx blogger
we♥it.com

NaNoWriMo Win

My first nano and I made it thanks to many friend's encouragement. Now I do not want to write a darn thing! I'm getting tired of words. But next year...rest up for next year.

ooprint

Free blogger cards allows me to promote my blogs in real world!

I've been waiting for this opportunities for a very long time now. I'm glad some one has thought of this idea. The folks at ooprint went even further to provide customized tag clouds to focus on individual blogs. Here's the link to the freecards. Ooprint also has a group on Facebook!

THIS POST SPONSOR BY OOPRINT

Tisimi

http://www.tisimi.com/user/lexly87
is up and running again after they made improvements to it. You can vote for people like me to win the design contest or you can also sign up and submit your own design and let other people vote for it.
I like the site a lot and will use it for my architectural projects.

The Mist

The Mist by Stephen King come to theater just in time. November is a notorious month for fog in Oregon. This makes for a perfect get away from the real fog and be envelope in theater Mist. We've been watching the trailer on television and can't get enough of it. I want more! So here's the trailer on the computer: http://www.themist-movie.com/
A classic Stephen King novel 'The Shining' is so scary. I have the book and plan to read it. The 'RedRum' scene is so well filmed. The odd juxtaposition of camera angle puts things off kilter. It was filmed in a famous Oregon landmark call the Timberline Lodge. It's a very scary old building which still exist to this day. I have just recently watched 'Room 1403' with an equally clever device for story telling. King has a knack for this. He puts a character in a situation and we see what can happen. That is the basis for a novel. He has lots of imaginations. I also saw 'Sleepwalker'. I really think Alice Krieger, the actress who plays the mother to a teenage boy is very expressive in her role. It's about a supernatural un-dead who sucks and feeds on human breath for food. The new thriller from King is 'The Mist'. Check out the trailer. We will be going to this movie for sure.

15 nanowrimo excerpt

The crickets are loud. I hide the box next to my head in bed. I bring with me a flash light and sneak a peak into the paper hotel. I carefully open the lid and watch them move. The lid is full of holes and I shine the light as though I’m the stars. I imagine myself inside that box looking out into the starry sky. The creator has trapped us on earth like this box of cricket and has shined a light upon us...only we see a starry sky.
I’m terrified that the cricket will have escaped and crawl up the legs of my pants.
We are trapped like that cricket in cages being transported from one city to the next. And if we are lucky, some one will adopt us just like some kid will buy a cricket from the large cage from the man and then put him into a match box. We go from home to home, suburb to suburb, city to city, country to country.
I saw myself in the crickets. Bad karma has caught up with me. My necks will be broken and mounted on a stick by pirates of the seas.

Digital Camera

scrapbooking is a new passion of mine. I like digital cameras so much. I have two Panasonic Lumix FZ-10 and Panasonic Lumix DMC-LC1. I crave the new Panasonic Lumix L10. It has the film aspect ratio for very cinematic affects and panoramic like picture. Ritz is near by my work. I help my sister pick out the Nikon Digital SLR for her husband one Christmas. The camera came free with digital lessons. Those are very useful for making the best and brightest holiday seasons! It's fun to create only scrapbooks too. There are several out there. The smile box is good. Comcast has music features to go with it. Scrapbook.com is another good one. Plus photobucket, flickr, snapfish, Kodak Easy Share Gallery too.



THIS POST IS SPONSORED BY RITZ CAMERA.COM

NanoWriMo Exerpt

It’s the beginning of monsoon season. The cricket season. They crawl on the wire screen mesh. The symphony of sounds. There are several different kinds of crickets. One type is the brownish color. We call these fire crickets. The other is a black with a bright yellow marking on the back of the cricket’s neck. We carry them in match box and put them in shirt pockets. Later on, the crickets sleep in one large shoe box with other crickets. In the morning, I open up the box to see which one survived the night. They die in battle. The cruel things we did to them. We break the heads off of a dead cricket and put it on the end of the burnt incense stick. With this device, we use the whiskers of the cricket head on the stick to tease the live crickets into flaring their wings and enrage them to ruffle the transparent wings to make that lovely sound and music. It amazed me. The sound coming out of that peculiar vibration and the transparent wings. Especially the brown fire crickets which were a little wrinkle. The black ones were so dense yet when the wings rub, vibrate and fluff the air; such density became light and flurry.
The children, boys mostly, came gather round the bicycle which transported the screen cage of crickets. A wood frame box with mesh screen enclosed a city of crickets. Their barbed legs grip the screen while our faces gaze at the crickets. Our noses are inches away from the mesh. Sometimes, a finger would flick at the mesh to test the strength of those legs. The box is strapped to a wired bracket attached to the bicycle’s back wheel.

Happy Halloween

http://www.realestateecards.com/pumpkin/ayang

Warm in October

It's amazingly warm for October. I'm going to fright town tonight. I walk to Thai BBQ for lunch. Me.dium is fun. So is Pandora. I found old songs of New Order and Psychodelic Furs's Ghost in you. I've added a bunch of my social media in to Pownce.

Pandora's Box

I have open the Pandora's box! I am streaming the music as I type this. I like the smooth sound of acoustic guitar of Dominic Miller. I discover Dominic's music through Sting.

micro stock

http://us.fotolia.com/p/330135
It's been an interesting amount of work for perhaps a minimum return. But I'm glad that Fotolia accepted 9 out of 28 photographs that I have submitted. Back in the days before the inter-net, I was trying to break into the world of Stock photography. In the early days of Tony Stone, before it was sold to Getty's image, submission process was cumbersome. This was in the early nineties. Photographers send in slides, then it was upgraded to high quality jpg files. Now many people are submitting there works.

Shutterstock is also another good source for micro stock: Submit Photos to Shutterstock and make $$$!

See chadmcdermott.blogspot.com for more info about micro stock.

amazon store

http://astore.amazon.com/dnl-20

Squidoo lens

http://www.squidoo.com/lensmaster/referral/duc

Interim post

5.5 POSTING REGULATIONS.

If you have a Blog accepted into the Marketplace, you must comply with the following Posting Requirements:

1. Frequency of Posts. You may post a maximum of two (2) PayPerPost Marketplace Opportunity-related posts per blog in any given day. Sponsored posts may not appear consecutively on your Blog. Each Sponsored post must be separated by at least one non-sponsored, original content, post. 'Sponsored' posts apply to both PayPerPost Direct and Marketplace Opportunities, as well as other sponsored posts from competitive services.
2. Interim Posts. Your last non Opportunity-related post must have been within the 7 days immediately preceding your Opportunity-related post. After any break in blog activity of 7+ days, interim posts, that is, posts between Opportunity-related posts, submitted on the same day as your paid Opportunity-related posts will not count towards this requirement.

Shutterstock

 Submit Photos to Shutterstock and make $$$!

Mindfulness

I've been listening to this book on tape but you can also read it. I feel very relaxed. This is not some new age thing. It is written by a Zen master. I like his methods and metaphors. One metaphor which have stuck with me is of a stone thrown into the body of water. It accepts and sinks to the bottom. This is the position for meditation. He discusses the Sutra in layman's terms. These ancient philosophy and methods illuminates. Another metaphor is of the breath. He describes each breath as a climb on the rope to get to the top. He talks about the concept of the five aggregates. This is Dharma. This book seems to touch up on a lot of smaller detail items that I've read in the life remix, life hacks, and life improvement tip blogs. When I eat, I slow down and respect the food, I'm mindful and thankful. When I write, I'm mindful and thankful for the paper, computer, and typewriter etc. Hand writing has now become a form of meditation. An example of mindfulness image which the author gives is when one breathes, focus as though it was the axis on which the planet rotated.

'The Dead Fish Museum'

I read 'High Divide' and 'Drummond & Son'. These two stores are about a father's relationship to his son. 'High Divide' is about a father and son who take a camping trip to Olympia Washington. The hike culminate in one night when at the very peak of the mountain, the father asked his son to move to California after the divorce. Indeed the title suggests that there is going to be a divide. It is also a fork in the road which hikers often confront. Midway, there's a sign post which ask lets you choose the difficulties of continuing further.

I want to compare these with similar stories by Michael Chabon collected in 'A Model World'. They deal with the confusion which boys feel in their father's divorces.

'Drummond & Son' is a story about a typewriter mechanic and is son. If you like typewriters like I do, then this story is for you. There are several reference to communication. The typewriter is a machine for communicating. It's ironic that the mechanic spends more time fixing the machine then trying to fix the communication between him and his son. There is a lack of a motherly figure in both 'High Divide' and 'Drummond & Son'. And it is this lack of the wife and mother which seems to have broken up the wholeness of the family structure and leave the men lost and estranged.

Snow Crash

‘The Art of Innovation’ led me to ‘Snow Crash‘. I started reading it over the weekend and didn’t want to put it down. It’s very funny. For some reason, I latched onto this book. Maybe it’s because it talks about the Metaverse. Recently, I got into Second Life (SL). I need to do a little bit of research to find out which came first. It talks about people building houses in the virtual world. I can see some similarities between the Metaverse that Neal Stephenson renders and the world of SL. I think this book has influenced a lot of people and companies. For example, the book talks about goggled into the virtual world through the vision apparatus, a goggle. Hm…Google sounds a lot like goggle. Was the book the source?

update: “The Metaverse is a fictional structure written in code” - Neal Stephenson

meta-mater

I’m not a big fan of Sc-fi books, but once in a while a book like ‘Snow Crash’ proves to be readable. I’ve try William Gibson’s ‘Neomancer’. I didn’t make the leap into it yet. Maybe it’s too far out there for me to grasp. ‘Snow Crash’ seems very plausible. I remember, in my younger days, buying David Brin’s ‘Startide Rising’ because it had a cool cover of the man and dolphin. Uplift series

Art of Innovation

Earlier I happen upon ‘Ten Faces of Innovation‘ on Levenger’s website. My local library didn’t have this particular book yet. So I decided to check out it’s predecessor: ‘The Art of Innovation’. This book opened my eyes to things, my work place, my everyday experience and interactions with products. I read this yesterday and Saturday and couldn’t put it down. I took lots of notes on my CircaToma notebook of course and began making lists of things that bug me. IDEO call it a ‘Bug List’. I called my brother Andy and talk to him about it because he has read this and is reading ‘Ten Faces of Innovation’. I remember interviewing at an Architectural firm in Portland. Their studio practice imitated IDEO. I have a whole new respect for design. What we do with products, hacking it and modifying it are our ways of influencing and adjusting the product to our needs. I wasn’t aware that what we were doing is quick prototyping. Now I look at Judy of the Wood’s, NayNay, Mlle_Bleue, Shris, ArtisticSara,R.Rassemusen, Chet, and many other’s work (and even my own) with new eyes. I see DIY communities are like Hot teams working together to strife for better products.

The book is entertaining and the way Thomas and His co author wrote put complex projects into readable terms. It made me think back to reading about Jason’s story of how he started his business. He was looking with his eyes observe his friend with a problem in organization. What can be done better? His quick thinking and prototyping lead to a new line of product that are useful. IDEO encourages looking across the sea for ideas. Jason has done that as well as others. I used to work with the father of the founder of Oregon Chai. He told me a story of how his daughter’s travel to India lead to her idea of making the India version of tea call Chai in their home kitchen. It was very popular drink among friends. She shopped it around to different grocery stores. Eventually the demand for it out grew the kitchen area. Her father, the architect, built her the building for the start of her company.

http://diysara.wordpress.com/2007/06/08/diy-2-in-1-combo-rollacirca-notebook/

http://hdbizblog.com/blog/2007/06/06/using-a-capture-notebook/

Ready for organization philosophy

Chicken or the Egg

I received ‘Ready for Anything’ (RfA) as a belated birthday present from my sister. She saw it on my Amazon wish list. It proves that once it’s on a list, the mind can forget about it and go on to the next thing. This came as a surprise. I don’t remember putting it on the list. Earlier, I dismissed this book in a conversation with Jennifer George, who thoroughly analyzed the text. I’ve been wondering several points about this slim book. I want to make comparisons to it as investigations into the organization philosophy. This book was born after ‘Getting Things Done’. In the order of thing, ‘Ready for Anything’ is the egg. If I compare the two, Ready for Anything is the philosophy in which GTD is the systematic execution, a methodology. There are some 52 short sections, which can be read as or compare to Koan. At times they are like Koan, because of they are mysterious in nature. At times, it’s hard to understand without a through understanding, and systematic practice of GTD. At times, RfA is a ‘Cliffnote’, a synopsis for the real text. Even though it is written after GTD, I wonder if this could have been a prequel, a predecessor, a subconsciousness lurking underneath GTD. It acts as if an introduction to the systematic execution of a process. In some ways, I prefer RfA, as it is not as dogmatic as GTD nor is it as instructional. It is rather a pondering about a methodology, a pretense for the rigor which is spelled out in GTD. The marvel of it is that, as systematic as GTD is, people who have read it devised their own system. GTD methodology is flexible. Another book by David Allen could not have conjure up a better scheme. It is better to revisit the existing scheme with new eyes and perspectives. I think that this is what RfA does best.

Eastern Philosophy or emptiness….

Interestingly, the majority of the book is spent defending his theory against the ‘Priority Based’. This was and may still be the pervasive thinking. When I was a ‘Franklin Covey’ (FC) guy, I didn’t prioritize my tasks either. In Eastern Philosophy, we are taught not to look at the duality of good or evil. Thus, prioritizing seems to pass on a judgment. I struggle with the goals and mission statements. Because at the time, I concentrate on the moment, the present. Again, this is a Zen philosophy. The other is the notion of Emptiness, which relates to Feng Shui. It is an idea that if your mind is empty it can receive insights. If your channels of energy is clear, more energy will flow. I would say that the majority of GTD philosophy is based on Easter Philosophy. David’s analogue to the ‘Mind like water’ is a zen practice. Stephen Smith has caught on to this and have found quotations from ‘The Book of Five Rings’ which matches David’s thinking. In RfA, much of the quotations are peppered along the margin. I find these quotes match well with the text and marvel at how David has found them to seamlessly illustrate his point.

52 card pick up

Strangely enough, the number 52 made me think of Decks of Cards. Because GTD has been adapted into the Hpda, index size, I wonder if the whole book can be squeezed down into this playing card version. Each sections can be on a card, maybe in a form of a Haiku: Collect, Process, Organize,/Review, Do (it). I think Jenifer George is right in saying that the chapters don’t relate or appear to be in any particular order. True to the form of non- prioritization, this book can function well as a shuffle deck of card. There is a theory of randomness and chance and organized chaos. This is where we step into the new age territory.

digg story

thesimpledollar.com/2007/06/03/review-ready-for-anything/

GoodReads

auction ads

Electronic Closing

Ah finally a post opportunity that is about mortgage. I have been a big advocate of paperless submission in the mortgage industries. I like it's effientcy. I trust it more then the fax. It is scarry to see faxed papers flying around in a copy room with very private and security risks involve. With the latest technology. I don't see why this isn't possible. Well to tell you the truth, a lot of the hassle and cliches of the computer problem still has to be worked out. I've tested the system for three years now. only a few company does a good job in this department. As users of the process, people must train themselves to new ways of interacting with the technology. many of the promise of stream line is still in some infancy stage. Electronic closing is the latest in line of this methodolgy.