Awake

Seth's newest video: Karen Kingsbury On the Set

For those of you who haven't seen this yet, here's Seth's latest production, a short video on the set of Like Dandelion Dust featuring Karen Kingsbury's visit to witness production of her book into film.

Now Playing

Now playing on my "singles mix"—a random assortment of individual tracks from my meager music collection...(links open in iTunes...when I could find a link).

• Mighty to Save {Hillsong}
• Snow (Hey Oh) {Red Hot Chili Peppers
• Think I'm In Love {Beck}
• Brightness {Lanterna}
• Unconditional {The Bravery}
• Satellite {Guster}
• Over My Head (Cable Car) {The Fray}
• How It Ends {Devotchka}
• Fade Into You {Mazzy Star}
• Hallelujah {Jeff Buckley}
• The Trapeze Swinger {Iron & Wine}
• Orange Sky {Alexi Murdoch}
• Please forgive me (Live) {David Grey}
• Please - Live From Rotterdam {U2}
• I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For - Live From Rotterdam {U2}
• Such a Lovely Thing {Devotchka}
• La Femme d'Argent {Air}
• Everything Is Alright {Four Tet}
• Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia) {US3}
• Ring of Fire {Johnny Cash}

Happy sampling...

Snow in the backyard

Snow in the backyard
Originally uploaded by amber_is_i

An invasion of tiny parachute flakes began early this afternoon. The snow has just begun to stick on the ground and the branches of the trees. This picture was taken of the backyard around quarter after three on Sunday afternoon.

Any snow in your backyard?

Announcing Chair Massage at First Friday at the "A" Street Arts Building

Just this morning I arranged to be at the "A" Street Arts Building for First Friday offering chair massage! "First Friday" is Ashland's gallery tour night (akin to Portland's First Thursdays). If you're in Ashland, the "A" Street Arts Building is on "A" Street and First across from the hardware store. I'm told there will be a Blues band there as well, so I'm sure it will be a great place to be on Friday, February 1st. I'll be offering chair massage in the upstairs hallway for $1/minute starting at 5pm. Hope to see some familiar faces (and meet new ones, too)!

Link: Amber Himes Massage, LLC

Like Dandelion Dust Movie Teaser Posted to Highwater Pictures Production Diary

Seth has created a promo video for the upcoming movie Like Dandelion Dust based on the novel by Karen Kingsbury.

Go check it out! Here's the link: Like Dandelion Dust Movie Teaser.

Library of Congress photos now on Flickr

Operating a hand drill at Vultee-Nashville, woman is working on a "Vengeance" dive bomber, Tennessee (LOC)
Originally uploaded by The Library of Congress

This past week, Flickr launched The Commons, a place for public-domain photos and the public's chance to help make those photos findable by the rest of the world. Flickr says:

You're invited to help describe photographs in the Library of Congress' collection on Flickr, by adding tags or leaving comments.

This is an amazing opportunity to be a part of making historical photos accessible to the masses. Browse the LOC's collection here and start tagging! (What are tags?)

Photos By Adalie, Age 4

My niece, Adalie, who is 4 now, is quite taken with my digital camera. After all, she's been able to navigate through photos (at least unidirectionally) since she was 9 months old. Her little fingers are now strong enough to hold down the tempermental shutter button (which has to focus first) and take a picture. So now, I let her have at it and I've discovered that she has quite a knack for perspective!

I've organized her photos into four albums. They are:

• The Baby Doll Series
• The Everyday Objects Series
• The Faces of Stuffed Animals Series
• The Tic Tac Toe Series

I hope you will enjoy Adalie Grace's first installment!

Link to The Gallery at Sleepyhead City :: Photos By Adalie

There's a bear on this beach

Who can tell me what beach this is? (Excluding persons who visited my parents for the holiday.)

Update! Trisha and Stephen were correct! The bear is a shadow of a ginormous bear kite flying during a kite festival a few years back in Lincoln City. (Bonus fact! Grandpa Doug's dark gray Tahoe is in the parking lot. It's the 3rd car from the bottom in the row adjacent to the beach, next to the white tent.)

Click here to visit the Google Map/Satellite photo.

Click to enlarge:

And what is the bear?

Mysteries in Mystery

Just finished Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, my favorite of the series. And oh the sweet sadness! The last few pages explain many mysteries of the Harry Potter myth and create even more. Here are a couple of passages that have lingered in my mind even since the last time I read this book (Over a year ago, I think, maybe two.)

From Chapter Thirty-Seven: The Lost Prophecy, page 835-856, hardcover edition:

[Headmaster Albus Dumbledore speaking to Harry] "But I knew too where Voldemort was weak. And so I made my decision. You would be protected by an ancient magic of which he knows, which he despises, and which he has always, therefore, underestimated — to his cost. I am speaking, of course, of the fact that your mother died to save you. She gave you a lingering protection he never expected, a protection that flows in your veins to this day. I put my trust, therefore, in your mother's blood. I delivered you to her sister, her only remaining relative."

...and... (later in the chapter, on pages 843-844, Dubledore continues...)

"There is a room in the Department of Mysteries," interupted Dumbledore, "that is kept locked at all times. It contains a force that is at once more wonderful and more terrible than death, than human intelligence, than forces of nature. It is also, perhaps, the most mysterious of the many subjects of study that reside there. It is the power held within that room that you possess in such quantities and which Voldemort has not at all. That power took you to save Sirius tonight. That power also saved you from possession by Voldemort, because he could not bear to reside in a body so full of the force he detests. In the end, it mattered not that you could not close your mind. It was your heart that saved you."

I really do enjoy these books—for the characters mostly—but I do find these themes of sacrificial love as death-defying protection and queries into the powerful content and nature of the heart resonate with me in my own journey of faith. These mythical stories help me (my mind, my heart, my soul) explore the mysteries of the Gospel. The mystery of Christ dying on the cross, a willing sacrifice, and in the small but eternally significant matter of an uttered confession and decision of the heart...this sacrifice somehow applies an eternal protection over our soul enabling fellowship with God regardless of bodily life or death, new Earth or old Earth, Kingdom Now or Kingdom to Come—there's a lot of mystery there! I like to read fiction and fantasy because somehow I think it trains my imagination and I strongly suspect that the strength and character of my imagination has everything to do with how I process the mysteries of faith and come to believe in them wholeheartedly. So while some sharing my same faith confession might choose to burn and scorn Harry Potter books, I will continue to borrow them from my Grandpa and read them, alongside Tolkien and Lewis, and L'Engle, and oh yes, David, Paul, Moses, Isaiah, Daniel, Peter, and John and I will continue to look for revelation in the most unsuspecting of places.

So thank you for writing these stories, Ms. Rowling. My sincerest thanks, indeed.

Elegance in Skill (Defined and Documented)

Got four minutes? Check out this amazing juggling performance: Chris Bliss: Must-See Finale

Pavarotti's Opening Ceremony Performance

Audio with slide-show-esque video of Pavarott's performance of Nessun Dorma is available on the NBC Olympics site. It was a magnificent performance.

Here's the link:
Pavarotti ends Opening Ceremony

The Making of an Independent Film

Have you ever wondered how those independent films got made? Ever wanted to know about a movie BEFORE it got posted on IMDb??!? Well you too can be a part of independent filmmaking history. Head on over to Seth's blog for The Allegiance and who knows...maybe your ingenius witticisms will make the DVD!!

Check it out:
VowYourAllegiance.com

Bonhoeffer airs tonight on PBS

Filmmaker Martin Doblmeier profiles Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a young Christian theologian who was hanged in a Nazi concentration camp.

In Portland, it's on at 10:00 pm on PBS (Channel 10) tonight (Monday).

Bonhoeffer (2003) - Program Details - Yahoo! TV

Rich Fuller: Spirit Guide Me

Melanie points out that Rich's song, Spirit Guide Me, is now on bob.blog.

It's a prayerful, meditative, wonderful song. Check it out.

Copy and paste this URL: http://bobhyatt.typepad.com/bobblog/files/spirit_guide_me.mp3
(I'm working out a bug and had to take down the link for the time being...)

(Let me know if I'm stepping on any toes spreading the word on this. And Bob, if you are reading and want me to serve this link on my server, drop a line in comments.)

Clippings Roundup

I've (finally) started using Bloglines to read/scan/skim updated blogs, zines, newspapers, etc. and one of the features is "Save to Clippings Folder". I've been meaning to post these as I go, but what a surprise, this task has been neglected. So here goes:

Techy stuff

• 43folders: Three OS X Timers— alarm clocks and timers that run on a Mac
• del.icio.us'd by vj (my office mate), PDX Super Crafty: Getting your creative business off the ground—applies to crafty-creatives not necessarily movie-making-creatives, interesting ideas though
• Posted on Macromedia Consulting Weblogs, a mashup of Yahoo! Maps Beta and some Webcams of the programmer's favorite skiing spots—mashup is the buzzword for creating something unique out of two or more existing (usually) digital things.
• Here's another Yahoo! Maps Beta Video mashup [Macromedia Weblog entry]
• Yet another Yahoo Maps! Beta mashup: Ivan Todorov of BLITZ | Blog: My Daily Traffic Report (as of this post, site took a while to load)
• If you want to dive in to developing a Flash app using the Yahoo! Maps Beta API, here's a simple example of how to do so. (Saving this for a snowy day...)
• Discussion of Safari CPU hogging issue, via MacInTouch
• Discussion of router problems, via MacInTouch
• Beta: Interrogate 0.7—a visual MySQL database manager for OS X, freeware. I'm using CocoaMySQL and I like it, but it seldom hurts to try something new
• For the iTunes glutton in all of us: Switch between two iTunes Libraries, via Mac OS X Hints dot com
• Via LifeHacker.com: Micro Persuasion: Ten ways to use Bloglines
• Also via LifeHacker, a nod to Atomic Learning's free online video tutorials for Tiger (OS X 10.4), Taming the Tiger: An Orientation to Mac OS X 10.4—mmmm video tutorials. I'm going to start producing these after the New Year. I've got my Snapz Pro, I'm wishing for a Logitech Desktop Microphone, and I've got Movable Type and Mac tutorial ideas aplenty to share...
• "Computer, What Day Is It?" Just discovered Tiger's voice command utility Speech. Very entertaining. Oh. And useful. Probably. ;-)
• Geek to Live: How to fix Mom and Dad's computer
• try ruby in your browser—ruby is a programming language I'm highly desirous to learn

Around the world

• BBC: Women resist 'honour' marriages—Five women from the same family in Pakistan's Punjab province have refused to be "united" with their prospective husbands as ordered by tribal elders.
• BBC: Girls Still Miss Out on Schooling—New figures show the UN has fallen well short of its target of getting as many girls educated as boys. (Maybe that's because it's a ginormous problem that needs widespread attention and coordinated strategy.)
• BBC: US firm to fight Somali pirates— I just thought it was somewhat ironic that there seems to be a comedic renaissance of pirate culture afoot in Internet-Land and here on the BBC is a story of US firm who's managed to score a contract for fighting pirates off the coast of Somalia. Who knew?

Fun(ny)

• Homestar Runner: Download All Our Playsets and Toys! ("cheap as free")—what will they think of next? I've only recently claimed victory over my random.bat Button Addiction

• Flickr Pool: MLK Blvd's around the world—who'll add photos of P-town's MLK Blvd.? (more about the project here)
• via Drawn!: animated shorts done in watercolor! La Papillon
• Of course you already knew that the third installment of X-Men is coming May 06: X3 Announcement Teaser, X3 Official Website

Thus endeth the linking extravaganza. Until next time, adieu and farewell.

Movies promoted in one theatre share a common cinematic past

Principals in the following upcoming films all starred together in which 2004 film?

Lady In The Water

King Kong

Walk the Line

Syriana

***Answer***

Yes, it would seem that M. Night Shyamalan's The Village served the careers of its primary players well, not to mention his own filmmaking career. What prompted me to write about this was that on Sunday, Dad and I went to see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and with the exception of Walk the Line, which was of course playing in the same theatre we were in, I noticed that films featuring the primary actors, actresses or writer/directors of The Village were promoted in some fashion before the feature. Shyamalan used Bryce Dallas Howard ("Ivy Walker" in The Village) for his upcoming Lady In The Water (whom we don't actually see in this first trailer). Adrien Brody ("Noah Percy") plays in King Kong, Willam Hurt ("Edward Walker") is in Syriana and Joaquin Phoenix ("Lucius Hunt") fills the role of Johnny Cash in Walk the Line (which Matt succinctly recommends).

The Bible in Legos

This guy is illustrating the Bible using Legos. He calls it The Brick Testament.

What I think is interesting about that is that Legos, little plastic interlocking pieces of perpetual fun and activity for all ages is spelled the same way as the Greek work legos, which can be translated the Word of the Lord. So he's using Legos (TM) to bring the Legos (Gr.). Hmmm. (Wow Amber that was deeeeeeep.)

Anyway lots of Bible-learning, lego-building fun over at The Brick Testament.

Awake Art

Here's a slideshow of a small handful of photos on Flickr that posess some connotation with the word "awake."

A slideshow of agentolivia's favorites on Flickr

Another New U.S. Nickel

I'm not usually a coin geek, but I'm loving the new Westward Journey designs of the U.S. nickel. Jefferson's head now "bleeds" off the five-cent piece and a couple weeks ago I noticed also a buffalo design on the tails side. But today, what a treat. I was digging in my coin purse for change to get a pack of gum and found another new design, inspired by Lewis and Clark, again on the tails side of the 2005 U.S. nickel:

A link for the interested: The United States Mint: Westward Journey Nickel Series.

Neat, huh?

Matrix Pong

This is awesome.

New music, new movie, new(ish) blog

Head on over to Dan's blog, The Nerdery to listen to two songs by the band Devotchka. One of the songs is from the trailer for Everything is Illuminated, of which Dan parenthetically remarks, "a trailer that is well worth watching." I concur.

On a technical note, Dan used CastPost which created a very nice interface for playing the songs within his blog post. Looks like something to check out—especially for you guys who like to blog about music. Linking to iTunes is fine, but I liked the elimination of that extra step of the computer explicitly opening up another program. You press play, and play it does. Nice and simple.

(For those of you who haven't met Dan yet but know Alonna, Dan is Alonna's husband. If you still don't know who I'm talking about, well then this note isn't really going to help you, is it? ;) Dan is also a tremendously useful person when one is planning the technical support of a short-term team to, say, India, for example.)

Difficult Times for Harry, Good Times for Us

It's the nature of the entertainment industry, I suppose: excitement and anticipation about dramatic hardship of fictional characters. Is it wrong to be excited about the difficult times that lie ahead for Harry? Well, right or wrong, I am excited about the movies coming up this fall.

I got thinking about this because last night I went and saw Batman Begins at the new theatre in Tualatin and spotted the movie poster for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (based on book 4 of the series). This book plunges deeper into the more serious aspects of the story and its characters and I liked how this poster captured that mood. The movie will be in theatres in no time (this coming November). And with The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe coming this fall as well (December 9), I'm looking forward to the holiday movie season this year. No post-Lord-of-the-Rings-depression here (although a extended-DVD marathon of all three movies is in order for the near future, I think). It's a good time to love the fantastical.

Links:

• The Official Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Website
• Official Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe Website

It's also a good time to get cracking on reading up on the series of both Harry Potter and the Chronicles of Narnia, at the very least reading the books of the upcoming movies. Maybe I need to move farther away so that I would have more time on the train to read. =)

Happy blockbuster movie anticipating.

A 2005 Buffalo Nickel

A few minutes ago I found something completely new in an ordinary everyday object: a newly designed U.S. nickel.

Markers!

What *could* it be?

Hmmm...what is it?

'Awake' in North Portland

Photo credit: VJ

Thanks VJ!

Are we ready to battle with evil?

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a book that leaves me with an impression that evil should be approached with purity of heart; friends, prepared, armed, and ready; and a focused driven attitude—even to the point of sacrifice.

Though what I love best about the books in the Harry Potter series are the endearing protagonists, delightful setting, and engaging plot, many times in the series, especially in the last three books, I have paused to think about the due diligence (or lack thereof) evident in my own life as I walk with the current of the Kingdom-Come flowing swiftly and surely in and around me.

Am I prepared for the seemingly fantastical battles ahead? Is my soul ready for the heart-wrenching decisions I will face? Despite the content of witchcraft and wizardry which some oppose (though they may not object to it in LOTR), I believe the service J.K. Rowling renders to her readers, young and old alike, is the comingling of innocence and guilt, lightheartedness and forboding, safety and danger, truth and lie, illumination and obfuscation interwoven in a context of fictional story, characters, and setting.

Though rendered in the realm of fantasy, does this not inform, if not warn us here in the Real World and in the Church that though it may be too heart-breaking to acknowlege, to difficult to comprehend, to frightening to ponder, we are, as with all creation, headed toward a new world, a new earth, yes, a new creation—a place of victory—only preluded by epic battles of war, death, torture, separation, fire, destruction, monsters and beasts, and creatures that we perceive to only exist in Faerie?

I believe that Rowling, along with many other writers of fiction and fantasy, can prepare the imagination for the truth revealed in the Word of God. To me, we seem too ill-prepared for the days ahead. I am thankful to the writers, filmmakers, and other creatives who create a bridge from Reality to Another Place, so that when we close the book, walk out of the theatre, or power off the DVD player, we can return to our World, perhaps more prepared, or at least inclined to get prepared for the "real" magnificent stories awaiting us in the days to come.

L.A. weekend pictures posted

Posted my pictures from L.A./Alex's graduation {finally}.

There's a sub-album in there with several shots of Alex's friend Grace's installation. The story is that Alex used some elements from Grace's pieces, digitized them, 3D'd and animated them for her fine arts installation (which turned out very cool, btw.)

As in life, people move on to different opportunties, environments, and geographical locations. I thoroughly enjoyed hangin' with Alex and her friends who have supported her and loved her through four grueling years. Thanks for taking care of my friend!

Noah's Friends launch

We launched the Noah's Friends site over the weekend. This is the brain-child of my brother, Seth. He's written 12 episodes of the adventures of the animals who stuck around after the flood and turned the ark into their own personal clubhouse and home. A team of animators has been working on the characters and background designs — I've been amazed by the incredible talent. I did the web site working from a start from Seth's friend and am pretty happy with how it turned out. It was a fun project to work on, especially with all the incredible art to work with. Seth's pitch on the site casts vision very well, I think, and hopefully someone will catch that vision and enable Seth to run with it.

I set up a design gallery for the site as well. The animators have been working hard over the last year or so and Seth wanted an easy-to-update, professional, and organized way to display the various designs. Its powered by the same program (Gallery) that runs my photo site, The Gallery at Sleepyhead City. There's a little tweaking to be done on the design gallery's stylesheet, but it's getting there.

Check out the pitch for Noah's Friends, an animated series ...coming soon to DVD (God willing!!!)

Go Seth!

Nooks, crannies, and scalloped walls

I started reading this book on church architecture today and after reading a few pages, I flipped to the back of the book to look for drawings and floor plans. I saw this drawing and it immediately resonated with me because we're in the midst of envisioning a "sacred space" for corporate worship that is inclusive and participatory and allows for varied forms of worship. I felt that this layout had some potential for providing what we're referring to as "alcove spaces" that might accommodate some of these various forms (that is, beyond a band, a sound board, and worship aerobics).

One of the things I like about this layout is the scalloped walls. On the building committee and with the architects, we've been talking about the idea of alcoves, nooks, and crannies, kinds of secret hiding places for prayer, worship, drawing, painting, conversation in the midst of big church worship...and places for these same kinds of activities throughout the week, unscheduled, unprogrammed, unrehearsed.

Found in the book Liturgy and Architecture by Peter Hammond (Columbia University Press, New York, 1961.

Red Ball Project

More about the Red Ball Project here...

On Friday, VJ and I are talking. I'm looking through her Flickr pics and she's talking about this guy who keeps inflating this ginormous red ball all over portland. at the schnitzer, city hall, somewhere on the bus mall and i'm kinda half-listening, half-looking through her pics. about a minute later, i look out our office window and there this giant red ball in the world trade center right across the street. i say, "oh, is that why you brought up the red ball guy?" she looks out the window, "oh my god!" the whole time she was talking about the red ball, it was right outside our window.

mike h. next door says it was a perfect place for a giant red ball. almost like it was made for it. we all feel dumb for not thinking of it first.

oh well. ;-)

Red ball in the World Trade Center

Of note: symphony commissioned to honor 1945 Nagasaki victims

Excerpt from the Oregonian's Kyr will write a symphony honoring Nagasaki victims:

The symphony is entitled "Ah Nagasaki: Ashes Into Light" and will present four vocal soloists, a chorus that includes children and full orchestra. The work, Kyr's 10th symphony, incorporates Western music, Japanese taiko drumming, and Noh chanting to depict the devastation and to offer a prayer for peace. A brief section of the work will be performed on the 60th anniversary next August. The full work will debut in two years' time, Kyr said.

The text of the symphony is a collaboration between Kyr and Tanahashi, and is written in both English and Japanese. "The entire project is intercultural," Kyr said.

Full article here: Oregonlive.com | Kyr will write a symphony honoring Nagasaki victims

In the sun

I picture you in the sun wondering what went wrong
And falling down on your knees asking for sympathy
And being caught in between all you wish for and all you seen
And trying to find anything you can feel that you can believe in

May God's love be with you
Always
May God's love be with you

I know I would apologize if I could see your eyes
'Cause when you showed me myself I became someone else
But i was caught in between all you wish for and all you need
I picture you fast asleep
A nightmare comes
You can't keep awake

May God's love be with you
Always
May God's love be with you

'Cause if i find
If I find my own way
How much will i find
If I find
If I find my own way
How much will I find
You

I don't know anymore
What it's for
I'm not even sure
If there is anyone who is in the sun
Will you help me to understand
'Cause I been caught in between all I wish for and all I need
Maybe you're not even sure what it's for
Any more than me

May God's love be with you
Always
May God's love be with you

~Joseph Arthur, "In the sun"

Commuter Reading List: Argentina, Tolstoy, and the Corporate Soul

Today's commuter reading list is inspired partially by a grant from chapter one of Dallas Willard's book, The Divine Conspiracy which has been the most timely, inspiring, and refreshing book I have read since yesterday (as I am concurrently reading Richard Foster's Streams of Living Water).

So Mr. Willard says that one of the most important books in two centuries is Tolstoy's Confession ; so, I picked that up at the library at lunch today. Incidentally, there was a concert going on Arts and Music floor (which also houses the books on religion) so after I found it, wandered around the literature section a bit, waiting for a pause in the program, and found a book that I thought Grandma might enjoy while she is recovering at the skilled nursing facility: a book of Christopher Marlowe's poems. Hopefully she'll like it. She's been wanting a book of poems to read.

And yesterday, I picked up David Batstone's book, Saving the Corporate Soul which they also had at the library and as of this morning's commute am finding to be a great read indeed. (Good stories, so far, too.)

But I think the most exciting thing I will read today is the College of Arts and Craft's Fall Course Schedule pamphlet which I picked up at The Real Mother Goose (at the MAX stop which is nearest the library). Would you believe they have a class on Celtic calligraphy on Monday evenings this fall? And the school is just around the corner from my new place. Brilliant. I am very excited. Now to save my dollars for the tuition. Maybe I oughta start charging my clients for web hosting...hmmm...also most brilliant idea.

Also on today's commute, a couple of articles on Argentina and one on Venezuela. Argentina's economic situation is proving very interesting and will probably have far-reaching consequences to countries all over the planet currently indebted to the World Bank and the IMF. (Don't know yet. Have only read the 2002 article. I'm in so much suspense right now!) The Venezuela thing is actually the testimony of Mark Weisbrot (of CEPR) "On the State of Democracy in Venezuela." But the real reason I decided to print it out was <sarcasm> because I was deeply and profoundly intrigued by the name of the subcommittee he was testifying to: "Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Peace Corps, and Narcotics Affairs". The PeaceCorps guys are trafficking drugs again, huh? </sarcasm> But I digress.

• Argentina's Crisis: The Costs and Consequences of Default to the International Financial Institutions
• Argentina's IMF Agreement: The Dawn of a New Era? | (Printer-friendly PDF over here)
• Testimony of Mark Weisbrot On the State of Democracy in Venezuela before the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Peace Corps, and Narcotics Affairs, June 24, 2004 [It's a PDF]

And finally, today's verse is:

Proverbs 4:7
Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom.
Though it cost all you have, get understanding.

Happy wisdom-gitt'n!

Fuse Factory: Um. Wow.

To do: check the Fuse Factory. First glance? Looks *very* interesting and inspiring. Can't wait to give a better look this evening.

Hat tip: TallSkinnyKiwi

This week's commuter reading list: PHP, Sustainable Economics, The "Emerging Church", and Calligraphy

Here's this week's commuter reading list: articles on the web printed out on the blank side of former printouts for my light-rail commute-home reading pleasure.

• PHP From The Command Line, Part 1 (SitePoint)
• Web Exclusive: Wendell Berry interview complete text (Sojourners Magazine)
• When We Stop Emerging (TallSkinnyKiwi's Weblog)

And then of course, there's The Illuminated Alphabet: An Inspirational Introduction to Creating Decorative Calligraphy, which I checked out from Central the other day.

I am happy reading.

Surviving Creative Burnout

How to survive creative burnout - UIWEB.COM

Hat tip: Kevin (from work).

Disease A-Wear-Ness

Plague (Navy/Gold)This is very strange. And weird. And strange. (Did I mention that it was strange?)

Get your infectious disease designer ties here.

Time for Art

Quote of the day:

"Art cannot be measured in time. You are the owner of your time," said Antonio. He and his brother had similar answers to how long it took to finish a project. "If you want to make something, there is not a determined amount of time. It's not like in the United State [sic] where you work for a determined amount of time."

—El Hispanic News, "Oregon's Purépechas," December 3, 2003

The showing of the "Our Ways: History and Culture of Mexicans in Oregon" exhibit has recently been extended and will be showing until April 2004 at the Oregon Historical Society. Also, the OHS will host a hands-on workshop on the Mexican folk art of retablo painting (painting on wood) on December 13 and 14. According to the OHS Web site:

RETABLO PAINTING WORKSHOP

December 13 (10:30am to 4:30pm) and 14 (12:30 to 4:30pm) Bend artist Cristina Acosta will lead participants on a journey to articulate their inner expressions in ex-votos (devotional paintings) as her abuela (grandmother) taught her. Each person will complete a retablo (painting on wood, another name for ex-votos) Workshop cost, $60.

Good stuff.