Before starting the NATO run, I worked through Arthur Baker’s book of swash capitals. The straight brush also loves the blocky forms of Rudolf Koch’s Neuland. The two got mashed together here.
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After tower defense on Blooket, They made me a night zombie, Seeking brains in the dark while They hid under folded sleeping pad huts.
Brains, brains!
Morning comes the sun! Away I go! They ran into the playroom to fortify With pot lid shields and Miso containers shooting arrows.
All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages. At first the infant, Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms; And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel And shining morning face, creeping like snail Unwillingly to school. And then the lover, Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier, Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard, Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel, Seeking the bubble reputation Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice, In fair round belly with good capon lin’d, With eyes severe and beard of formal cut, Full of wise saws and modern instances; And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts Into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon, With spectacles on nose and pouch on side; His youthful hose, well sav’d, a world too wide For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice, Turning again toward childish treble, pipes And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all, That ends this strange eventful history, Is second childishness and mere oblivion; Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
William Shakespeare, from As You Like It, spoken by Jaques
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I’m still infatuated with this script, even though both the Girl and Mama find it illegible. This one was graphed over 4 sheets and stitched together in GIMP. Unlike the Lord’s Prayer from the week before, I had switched inks before start this piece, so there is a slight natural gradation in the actual piece, which is pushed further in the computer.
A piece this long still prints out small on a letter sized sheet, so I need to look for shorter poems…or go back to my book projects. But things are so busy at work, I’m having a hard time slowing down in the mornings to take a breathe of calligraphy. This office pace, which started in December, is not sustainable, but hopefully the new guy who joined our team this week will take some of the load.
they waved their arms like noodles splayed legs meander through the bedroom if you get close to another blarg blarg, give them a big hug! i blarg-ed Mama.
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he said i was a ready monster. ready, reaady, reaaady flapping little arms like a t-rex
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i’m an oig monster walking through the kitchen hunched over bent chicken wing arms
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a baoulu baoulu hovers around the safe zone breast strokes to swoop kids hopping off their beds dragged into the dark
This week I started playing with a variant of Gothicized Italics where part of each letter is written with the hairline edge of the pen. It’s a bit of Edward Johnston slamming into graffiti scripts.
Unfortunately, this hand is not easy to read. Then again, a couple of years ago, I had an epiphany that legibility is overrated.
I’m really digging the contrast of thick and thin. It brings me back to the old days of hand drafting, with thin verticals and thick horizontals, though I’ve had to retrain that preference since standard calligraphy is the opposite with thick verticals and thin horizontals.
It’s a joy to write, especially at full speed. I suspect it’s a bit like talus running, though I don’t have the courage to risk life and limb on high octane activities—such excitement is confined to my home studio.
Lately, I’ve been scribing old texts, but these posts are fun a reminder of last year’s explorations.
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May 2025
I really like the contrast of the bright italic hungry on the compressed Roman capital background.
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August 2025
The contrast between the cursive Bus and the gothicized italic Stop slammed together nicely, spiced by the ruling pen splatters.
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May 2025
Multiple SAD‘s went well with this pop-up design of multiple cuts.
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July 2025
I save the initial washes from my brushes and pens in containers, letting them slowly evaporate into a grey wash, which I used with a ruling pen here I enjoyed the cheeky contradiction of the words Slow Up against a rapid, sloppy cursive.
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July 2025
spun chaos thru woven silk
This was my last 5WP of 2025, Funny how practices just slip away with a whimper, this was my last 5WP of 2025. After that, I played with big words with the ruling pen, watercolors, and gouache. Maybe I’ll come back to this format one day. Or maybe, like hard disks with spinning platters, I’ve done my last one.
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Life and art moves fast. Cya next time!
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PS—Rubik’s Cube
I fell into a rathole last week, finally learning the Rubik’s Cube. Years ago, I was impressed with a table of kids effortlessly solving these cubes at the Rivera food court while lunching at a convention.
Turns out that a learning the Rubik’s Cube is like acquiring any other skill in this modern world. Start with youtube. I could have gone shopping but I just found a short video and jumped in.
The first couple tries took a while, an hour for the first and then forty minutes, constantly referencing the video. The next few came much faster even while referencing J Perm’s static website for edge cases.
Even though it’s tough at first, there aren’t that many patterns to memorize, so I’m now I’m solving the cubes consistently in the 4 minute range, even less if everything lines up correctly.
Apparently the “beginner’s method” can consistently garner 2-4 minute solves, so I’ve pretty much hit max speed.
Do I practice to get as fast as possible using this method? Or do I blow it up to memorize more advanced techniques?
Like every other hobby on the internet, it’s a total rathole. Thankfully I’m not particularly competitive. I’ll most likely just teach my family how to solve the cube and be done with it.
—November 2021, and yes, I just stopped and forgot it all over the past four years.
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PPS—Christmas Pens, Twenty Twenty-three
For Christmas, I gave myself three (six) new pens.
I bought the Enso Pilot Parallel Set, which includes four pens at 6.0mm, 3.8mm, 2.4mm, and 1.5mm.I screwed the Pilot Parallel 6.0mm nib into a Pilot Spare Sign pen body which makes for a great barrel filled setup.
I also got the Duke 551. with the with Guanyu inscription—”忠義仁勇信” (loyalty, righteousness, benevolence, bravery, trustworthiness). Just yesterday I thinking I own enough ink to last for ages, but not with these pens!
And finally, I got a Jinhao 80 with a Naginata Nib. It’s “just” a cheap Lamy 2000 knockoff but the nib is epic. It’s gonna supplant the Architect nib as my favorite variable nib.
The Parallel 6.0mm is great. Everything you’d want from a 3.8mm but more! A totally different lettering experience on the page, and my recommendation for anyone starting to learn calligraphy.
I’ve been paranoid about AI slop music, but I’ve given up when it comes to other languages. I worry that this most human art has been stolen by the box, but maybe that was lost with the first recording.
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July 2025
slow down push yourself
I was curious why Edward Johnston devoted much of his late career exploring Gothicized Italics so I started practicing it. Pretty much throughout the second half of this year. I can’t speak for the master, but for me, it’s the points, and the deep ***spring*** points. Though it makes me awfully close to graffiti. Maybe that’s where this was heading all along.
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July 2025
mistake mental math moose month
More playing with Gothicized Italics, with a ruling pen.
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September 2025
The administration’s attempt to push out Jimmy Kimmel pushed me to finally donate to FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. We’ve been in some rough waters these past few years and I appreciate a group that focuses on one mission and practices in a way to earn bipartisan ire.
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September 2025
While convelescing at home after my week at the hospital in September, I powered through the 2025 Inktober prompts. AVOCADO was a warmup word from their year long Inktober 52 challenge before I started marching through the list.
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May 2025
I made collect in May, while practicing the pop-ups as well as Fraktur script. I have a bunch of other pop-ups that may or may not be shared. We’ll see if I ever feel like editing those photos, or if they will stay on the hard drive as I chase other pursuits.
Cya next time!
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PS—Kahoot
My daughter had been using this online quiz app with her online distance education. The goal is to answer questions both correctly and fast, so she gets quite frustrated when her Chromebook is too slow to let her answer the question in the allotted time. She’s a competitive one, even though I remind her it’s only a game.
For the past few weeks she wanted to try making a Kahoot. We finally had a moment on Halloween so we hit the website found their free personal account. We played around a little together, and then she ran off on her own, making her own Kahoots. We asked how she knew that someone could create their own quizzes.
She didn’t know, just had a hunch.
There are lot of negatives to growing up in this online world. But maybe she’ll come out of this zeitgeist with an open-ended perspective of possibility. Not as users but as makers.
Long ago, we started a blog with the girl. Even though it’s been dormant for years, it showed that websites can be easily made by us. Or the time playing with Scratch, proving we can program games.
We made this online world, let’s make sure we shape it more than it molds us.
—November 2021
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PPS—Wordle Algorithm
We’ve been playing quite a bit of Wordle, going through those five letters over breakfast. After a while we’ve settled on an opening algorithm.
Start with AUDIO
If there is a green letter or multiple yellow letters then start deciphering ad hoc
If only one yellow letter, then
SHARE
USHER
SHRED
SHIRE
SHORE
If there are no letters, then go with SHYER
If we have one yellow letter, we can test SHER while catching all the vowels by the second word.
And if we have no letters, we can also test almost-vowel Y.
After the second word, it’s just free play, though we tend to play on “hard mode” where we are locked in with the clues that are known. I wouldn’t enjoy playing this game by myself, but we have fun together.
—February 2022
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PPPS—AI Art Destabilization
Surfing on Bandcamp, I stumbled across Mille Morceau which has a surreal, architectural album cover. As I stared at it, I suddenly felt destabilized. Is this AI? The ground fell out from under me. It was a physical reaction even though I was just lying in bed. I need to explore this further.
I’m editing this post while listening to Quincy Jones’ album You’ve Got it Bad Girl, by way of Phacyde’s “Passin’ Me By” which featured a sample from “Summertime in the City“.
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July 2025
Two years ago, I bought a brilliant Magma red from Birmingham Pens which I used on this Earth. I love their inks but it’s frustrating that they cycle through their catalog.
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May 2025
I used a special brush used for painting grass. I gravitate towards large widths that force me to indulge in my tendency to fill the entire page—even to the point of abbreviating the letters in fast.
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July 2025
Cancer, from Inktober 52’s astrological series last year.
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May 2025
The curves felt appropriate with the word noisy.
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July 2025
I suspect Finish was a reminder to self, I have a projects that need to be closed out.
Cya next time!
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PS—Trusted Advisor
Ego leads to commodity, Empathy leads to Trust.
The role of the Architect is to be the guide — Obi-Wan, not Luke.
The User is the Hero! They rarely get a seat at this table.
—August 2021
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PPS—The crapwork in your job
I was torn about Naomi Osaka’s withdrawal from the French Open a few years ago. We all have crapwork, but we’re not forced to perform such drudgery in front of the world.
Then again, we also don’t have FU money, so we do it.
The Grand Slam organizers seemed heavy handed in their response when she declared that she wasn’t gonna participate. But I would be equally heavy handed if one of my consultants skipped out on one of their duties, even if it was ancillary to their core deliverables.
It’s a tough situation, but she does have FU money and the French Open doesn’t need any specific single individual, so worked out for both parties.
Ultimately, I’m happy she chose her sanity over chasing another grand slam title. After grabbing four of them, I suspect she realized all that glory is temporary. Either way, she’ll have to get up and train for the next one. Like many of us, maybe she just needed a break.
—June 2022
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PPPS—Las Vegas Small Town Stuff
I was in a meeting with my Deputy Administrator and her former boss in private practice to discuss structural questions on a renovation.
As Deputy Administrator, she was the highest ranking person in the room, while the structural engineer would be the lowest ranking person in the room, since he was a sub consultant to the architect who worked for me.
Work doesn’t happen on an org chart, things are done in the realm of humans. It was fun to watch her dip into old habits, bantering with her old boss, questioning his decisions.
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A few years ago, I hosted a college student from UC Berkeley to show what architects do on a daily basis.
Coincidentally, my mother-in-law used to work with her mother, and my daughter had just been to a party at their house a week before she visited my job.
That college student now has a job in city government, as a colleague with my best friend from Rice.
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An agency project manager suddenly submitted their resignation.
Less than a day later, my architect on my college project mentioned that she met the new project manager on her other project for a theater.
Yup.
And that theater project had an opening because their owner’s PM left to become a VP at the college of my project.
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A former coworker recommended me for a job.
His former manager had recommended my coworker for that job. This manager eventually became the administrator who hired one of my former interns based on me and my coworker’s recommendations.
When things went sideways, guess who helped my old coworker find a gig at my new place.
Just a simple attempt with foundational hand, albeit with the ascenders slightly short.
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Reinhard Staupe designed this little, brilliant memory game, Sherlock: go around a circle of eight cards and name them before flipping them up. If you land on a card that you previously remembered, grab the card, refill the slot, and flip the other cards back down for the next player’s turn.
As an adult with too much on my mind, my daughter absolutely destroys me. The boy can play too. He doesn’t play well, but he understands the rules.
The joy is in watching the kids play together. They find certain cards hilarious for no obvious reason. Especially the sock, which is absolutely, gut wrenchingly funny.
Not the drawing, it’s just a green calf-length sock. The illustrator wasn’t trying to be funny. The publisher told Oliver Freudenreich to draw a sock, which he did.
But don’t tell that to the kids—that sock taps into the raw, mystical connection developed over four years of fighting, crying, and laughing.
It’s fun to have two New Years, plus my sister is in town this year!
As always, I must remind everyone about this series of schmalzy Petronas CNY ads. It’s the least that oil barons could do for the culture.
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6/22/2025
Fish and hook. As a fan of asymmetry, offset folds are exciting.
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6/23/2025
With my love of asymmetry, angled popups should have been an obvious progression, but I could never get them to work. At this point I also gave up on pairing the pop-up and the words as I raced through the exercises in the book.
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6/24/2025
Not exactly pop-ups, but I had fun exploring the splashy, bendy motif, and they played great with the big text.
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6/26/25
This stunt has an Art Deco feel to it.
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6/28/25
thank you!
This was a thank you card for the Administrative Specialists in our division.
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Cya next time!
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PS—Chinese New Years
The Lunar year is bit awkward. It’s nice to have a second calendar to enjoy, especially gastronomically, but these moments don’t fit great around the American workweek.
It’s a more noticeable now, since my in-laws celebrate these festivities more than my parents. Before the pandemic, we would celebrate on weekends (a 2/7 chance of happening) while squeezing in eating the appropriate foods on the proper day.
Just like celebrating birthdays!
For a few years, work from home alleviated the complexity. We could visit the in-laws and with our laptops. I worked during the day, the girl did her distance education in the evening, and we celebrated during the breaks.
Not ideal, as some Algerians once told me in Paris, an immigrant lives with their ass on two seats.
—February 2022
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PPS—Wedding Greetings
Because of the pandemic, my mother-in-law did not return to China for her nephew’s wedding. Instead, we recorded a greeting for the event.
Our first attempts included the kids, but that quickly proved impossible so they were shuffled into the bedroom to watch TV. We adults then tried to look happy (but not silly) in front of an iPad as my mother-in-law wished all the best for the happy couple.
Good lord. It still took multiple takes, several of which were ruined by laughter.
Now I know why actors earn their fortunes. Pretending is a real, difficult skill. I see why traditional cultures view frown upon this vocation. If you can fake it on stage, can you be trusted at all?
Of course, being a great actor is well rewarded in today’s modern world, a nice problem for a star! But I wonder if the traditional had it right—a professional fake must pay a heavy psychic tax.
—February 2022, and congrats to the happy couple who welcomed their first kiddo last year!
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PPPS—Dude
Tom the Dancing Bug, by Ruben Bolling
I saw this comic strip on an office door in a community college. Now that I have finally found it again, I need to put it somewhere semi-permanent.
