My Watch
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Sunday, February 22, 2009
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
Friday, February 20, 2009
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.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
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.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
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.
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.
Friday, February 06, 2009
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.
Thursday, February 05, 2009
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
Monday, February 02, 2009
Friday, December 19, 2008
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,
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
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
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Friday, May 23, 2008
Thursday, November 29, 2007
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.
Friday, November 16, 2007
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
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.
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.
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