He cut two long rectangles,
Colored them blue,
Held them against his face.
😭
He cut an oblong shape,
Sharp corners at each end.
Colored it red,
Lips.
He cut a square,
Drew a face,
Colored it brown.
???
䷏䷿
drink and feast
but no wet heads!
-
He carefully studied his sister as she drew emoji’s with her friends before wielding his scissors and markers.
-
kampMATE firebox, 2021
We’ve been a couple of weeks away from camping, for years.
Last year, we slept in the backyard to test the tent, the sleeping bags, and pads, and stayed properly indoors for the rest of summer.
The year before, we spent Memorial Day weekend testing the kampMATE firebox. It’s a simple contraption: five interlocking stainless steel plates that create a small wood cooktop.
On Friday, we learned that harnessing one of the four elements takes a learning curve! We’ve never cooked with fire before, so we wasted wood to boil water and scramble eggs.
My mother-in-law stepped in the next day. Unlike pampered Americans, she grew up cooking with coals. She danced between wood scraps and charcoal briquettes to build a proper fire. We stir-fried ground pork, added white beans, and stewed for an hour. We switched pots to cook rice. After the rice was cooked, we reheated the stew with cauliflower. It was a legitimate meal, but it took forever. We used 42 briquettes.
On Sunday, I started the fire using charcoal, paper, and dried leaves. We made a savory stew with stir-fried onions, garlic, sweet potatoes, and garbanzo beans. Surprisingly good; more surprising than good. The meal was supplemented with veggies and rice cooked in the house as the stew simmered for two hours. We used 20 briquettes.
We celebrated Memorial Day with an all-American chili. We filled the box with rocks to pushing the charcoal up to the pot. Unfortunately, the red beans were uncooperative and took hours to soften so it still took 20 briquettes.
We closed the long weekend buying a dutch oven from Home Depot. We planned one-pot meals by adding rice to the stews and watched outdoor bread baking videos.
The firebox spent the summer in the sun before moving permanently into the shed. (The dutch oven is a cast iron bread box on the kitchen island.)
Still, $25 was a cheap diversion for a long weekend.
I wonder when we’ll go camping, two weekends from whenever.
-
Coyote America, Dan Flores, 2016
The story of man versus fauna in America is a dreary one, starting with the ancient forebears who came across the Bering Straits, the spread of Europeans in the 1800’s, and the industrialization of death in the 1900’s.
The one bright spot amidst the devastation has been the coyote, which has used its persecution in the 20th century to spread throughout the nation, entering its final state (Delaware) in the continental United States during the 2010’s.
Having evolved as both predator and prey, they can’t rely upon their alpha physique like wolves. Instead, coyotes are whip-smart. They’ve developed a unique social mobility with “Fission-Fusion” tactics, being pack animals when it suited them and becoming loners if necessary. Howling is their means of long distance communication, which influences the local coyote density affecting their litter sizes (ranging from two to nineteen!).
Aside litters from nineteen, the coyote’s story is quite similar to ours — chatty creatures in the middle of the food chain with a wide range of social flexibility.
Unfortunately, we also mirror the coyote’s ingeniousness with our deranged attempts to eradicate these “prairie wolves”. It’s a story of brash humans coalescing government power, aiding corporate cronies with cruel policies. As always, it’s appalling to read about our blindness to the destructiveness of our obsessions, even if things have slightly improved with the rise of the environmental movement in the 1970’s.
Through it all, the coyote survived and spread. It was ranked lower than a cockroach in the 1950’s opinion polls. Now it has admirers among city slicker liberals. It is regaining its place as an avatar god of this land, even among the colonizers of this new world.
Unlike most nature books, this one does not end on a dreary note. But that’s no credit to us. Almost every other creature has disappeared under such slaughter. This time, we’ve been outwitted by the trickster, much to our delight.
~
I started the audiobook at 1.5x but slowed down to 1.0x before the introduction was over. Even though the high speed narration was perfectly intelligible, some books are meant to be savored. It would be disrespectful to rush through such a well told story.
I wrote the initial draft of this note this two years ago and publishing this post reminds me to listen to it again. It’s still a two month wait at the library, not bad for a book that’s been out for seven years.
~
As a complete tangent, I just stumbled across the album Prairiewolf. It has nothing to do with coyotes, but it’s a chill groove and I hate to ignore synchronicities.
-
Dragons dare not dawdle during devilish dances — drunken dervishes desire dramatic delicacies.
The kids caped up and whirled to programmed songs on the keyboard. After she was dragged off to study Chinese, he ran around the house as a ghost. The beanie-veil combo is a fresh innovation in our house.
-
OPM.42 Fence Sitting
Make a decision!
The Owner needs to decide.
Already?
Right now?Yesterday? (oops!)
But if decision isn’t ripe yet,
The OPM should live with the discomfort of uncertainty.
Straddle the fence.There’s at least three parties on a project:
Users
Contractor
Architect.Three of agendas to juggle.
Yeah we’re a big happy team.
But each of us are beholden to the demands of our organizations.
Who signs whose paychecks?The OPM’s job is to sort through the conflicts and develop a synthesis.
Part of this game is to play the game.
To develop a good conclusion.It might take a some fence sitting to sort it out.
Ponder each team’s agenda.
Understand why they conflict.
Inhabit their perspective.Time’s up.
Then get off the fence.
Make a decision. Communicate clearly.Delay further and it’s opportunity cost.
Time’s a wastin’.~
Some Links
I’ve been following Jeffery Saddoris ever since coming across his long running podcast with Bill Wadman.
On Taking Pictures went on hiatus for a few years, but they recently returned to bless us on a sporadic basis, whenever the guys feel like turning on their microphones together.
In the meantime, Jeffery hosts several podcasts and writes an introspective newsletter. Iterations consistently make me ponder my own life, choices, and art.
~
Far West boy feeds a swan, Taronga Park Zoo, Sydney, 1935. Ted Hood ~
Thanks for reading!
Justus Pang, RA -
He snickered as his sister berated him for ruining today’s game.
Arriving home, I was greeted by Wordle.
The kids snuck off with the iPad.Giggling in the playroom,
They connected to the living room TV.Stop playing with the iPad!
I have to take my shower first.Coming out to play,
He already took four guesses.AUDIO
AUDIO
AUDIO
AUDIO
□□□□□
□□□□□䷚䷧
carry a burden
ride a carriage
invite mischief -
Royal Prep Academy (Sofia the First, 2013) and Dr. Seuss Thing Two and Thing One Whirly Fun (Dr. Seuss, 1016), Wonder Forge
Both of these games are stuck in the mediocre middle. They have decent components and a reasonable starting concepts, but they don’t create compelling experiences.
The kids enjoyed them for a moment, but they’re just OK. With tweaks, I suspect we could unearth a decent game within the pieces.
These perfectly middlin’ products make me ponder my own career. It feels unfair to demand excellence from my purchases but not from myself.
I’m good at what I do. I put in the best effort I got while I’m at the office, but I’m not willing to sacrifice the time to get to the “next level”.
Should I be chasing something beyond the horizon? Am I maximizing my potential? Am I making the most of this time?
Maybe, the questions shouldn’t be applied to work. I’m in a good spot at work, do I really have to press for more? If I was single and unattached, maybe the pursuit of career greatness would be warranted. It could be a great way to serve the world and enrich myself. Heck, it might be worth a big roll of the dice.
Is there an epic quest waiting for me?
Sounds enticing, but I’m not skipping out on my kids to find out.
-
She insisted on showing us how she induced that green pillowcase to don a pair of dark grey socks with black stripes.
She sat on the kitchen tile,
pulled the pillowcase over her legs
put the socks on her feet,
slid out and hopped up,
proudly displaying
a topsy-turvy skirt wearing socks.A few minutes later,
I wandered into the living room.
Two kids wriggling inside
the stretched out skirt.
she looked up, grinning,
“a chrysalis!”I grabbed my phone,
but the older butterfly was
already chasing her brother.
Twirling a chrysalis
over her head,
a lasso.䷤䷩
auspicious woman
children dally
great crossing
elephant laughter -
They embarked upon two suburban safaris to exotic places of prosaic commerce.
We left the world as it shut down.
Three years later, we decided to visit the library.
For a Japanese koto concert
(we lasted one song)Shopped at the friend’s bookstore,
Browsed the stacks,
While we were out, we went shopping.
(our first time with the kids)- Marshalls
- Ranch 99
- 168
- Sprouts
He rode the shopping cart seat,
She scrunched in the basket.
She got out and pushed him,
(he got out and tried to pushed her)Bought my first new pair of shoes in five years.
Picked up staples, veggies and meat.
He called out the name of everything he saw.
(delighted by the mundane cornucopia of produce)
We saw live fish,
looking miserable.
And crab, clams, and lobsters,
(presumably miserable too)Crackers,
Lots of crackers.
And aisles of snacks and candy.
(mama said no!)I ran into an classmate from my old kung fu school.
He recognized me, even with a mask.
We hugged.
(school still going strong)Left for home at 7 pm.
Mama made Mac & Cheese at 9 pm.
Kids fell asleep at 11 pm.
(made it to 12am to close year 43.)(what will 44 bring?)
Woke up to wrap presents
Made pancakes with the kids
They unwrapped my gifts
We started a puzzle
I took a nap
Made birthday noodles
Cleaned the kitchen
We went to Ikea.It’s been forty months,
Since I rushed through for
Utensils and Swedish meatballs.
(exiled from family before the world shut down)The four of us
leisurely meandered
through both floors
(he loved the escalator)They sat on every couch
Before we picked up the pace
To the toys.
(mama let us buy a small stuffie)Downstairs
He rode a shopping cart,
Twice in two days!
(after so many years)We picked through the goods,
Checked out,
Entered the dark.
(two hours after we arrived)He exclaimed
Wow that was fast!
Yes it was.
(all of it)䷎䷦
modest expedition
through neighbors
no disadvantage -
My Birthday Haul
Eight books for age 4+4
- Opus, Satoshi Kon
- Boring Postcards USA, Martin Parr
- World Atlas of Cheese, Nancy Eekhof-Stork
- 99 Variations on a Proof, Philip Ordlin (the last two were recommendations from post.news over the past few months)
Not shown:
- In the West, Avedon, a big birthday splurge (let’s hope the “cheap” $100 copy from Amazon isn’t totally beat up when it arrives)
- How to Say Goodbye, Wendy MacNaughton. The preorder was just announced. Unfortunately this subject will be all too relevant as I cross through my mid 40’s.
- Absolutely on Music, Murakami & Ozawa
- I Think, Therefore I Draw, Cathcart & Klein (the last two were lucky library finds from yesterday’s excursion).
