He wrote a book report.
Started with the title page.
ClARion BOOKS
HOUGhMiFFin co
I suggest he copy some of the actual text.
He refused.
Added !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, drew a few lines across the page, and ran off.
䷴䷸
GRIZZLY PEAR
He wrote a book report.
Started with the title page.
ClARion BOOKS
HOUGhMiFFin co
I suggest he copy some of the actual text.
He refused.
Added !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, drew a few lines across the page, and ran off.
䷴䷸
We neglected to take down the nets after harvesting the peaches.
So the tree caught two birds.
Thankfully, we freed them both.
We’ve never been so close to birds before.
It took some unwrapping and untangling to get the hummingbird loose.
He flew up towards the neighbor’s eucalyptus tree.
We had to cut the net to free the little bird with a yellow head.
She raced out into the dense apple tree.
I rolled up the nets.
䷯䷦
the jug is broken and leaks
Grain Elevators are tall trucks
that let the road
approach them
I’ve always been a prose guy.
(More Pentateuch than Psalms.)
But I’ve always held the nag that I need to get into poetry (along with Jazz and Russian novels).
This is as good a start as any.
Short poems.
Straight to the point.
Haikus + Americana.
I’ve tried writing some myself, when I started this blog.
I bought this book around that time.
But buying and reading are different things.
So here I am, a decade later.
Not sure if I grok poetry any better.
That will be a matter of trying.
Again and again.
Reflected upsidedown
in the sunset lake, pines,
Pointing to infinity
As for this book itself.
Jack successfully taps into the vividness of Haiku.
It’s a snapshot of mid-century America.
Unfortunately it’s also a snapshot of Jack’s unraveling.
I need to revisit this book in a few months.
Maybe I’ll better enjoy the art when I’ve become inured to his sad story.
Desk cluttered
with mail—
My mind is quiet
Nowadays, books advise, report, analyze, or condemn.
But they don’t proselytize.
They don’t announce their beliefs and then push you to agree.
So this was a fun change of pace.
It starts with a biography, and the second half discusses his foundational philosophy.
Aquinas is positioned as the stable centrist in the chaos of modern thought.
Balanced between individuals and ideals.
Respects the object and its perception.
Rooted in realism.
A common sense approach to philosophy.
Is it accurate? Maybe?
This book has survived almost ninety years.
Not that it’ll convert me to Catholicism.
But Chesterton made the religion a lot more attractive than before.
䷈䷠
I listened to it one and a half times, since I went over the second half twice.
Chesterton’s ranging wit in British English was a delight.
It was a joy to hear him wrestling to simplify non-obvious concepts.
At the turn of the century, there was a fad of cheeky comic books covering non-fiction subjects.
This one uses a gimmick of the Caterpillar teaching Alice in Wonderland.
This conceit works surprisingly well for a broad overview of Indian and East Asian thought.
It is awkward to read such books as an advanced beginner.
I’m not a bewildered neophyte, the intended audience.
But I don’t know enough to judge the veracity of the work.
However, it turned out to be a great moment to read this book.
It’s tough to jump into a new subject.
A pure beginner confronts too much information all at once.
But every book embeds a bias, especially the basic ones.
With a little familiarity, you can better converse with the author.
So a student should (re)visit an introductory text after some study.
I used this tactic when learning to bake bread.
After reading every baking book at the library, I could discern implicit instructions.
So I could mine the most basic cookbooks for their unwritten assumptions.
The hard part is humbling myself to open an beginner’s book.
Maybe that’s why I haven’t picked up a cookbook in years.
䷞䷬
The graphics in this book haven’t aged well, but that wasn’t the point. These books were designed to be appetizing at the time of publication. Given the extent of the series, I’d say they worked.
I got this book at the Spring Valley Friends of the Library bookstore along with several volumes. This is the first that I’ve read. I should get onto the rest of them.
He tried to walk the 2×3 balance beam.
He needed a hand.
Then he told me to try.
He gave me a hand.
䷬䷢
sublime and enduring perseverance is needed
then remorse disappears
A mathematician tackles this topsy-turvy religious philosophy.
It’s a collection of 47 short essays that predate the blog-post book fad by three decades.
Smullyan plays with multiple voices, draws from Chinese poets, and utilizes his training as a logician.
His bemused detachment won’t convince a skeptic, but if you’re already digging Taoism then you’ll enjoy this book.
䷟䷉
The book brings back memories of summer, visiting my cousin for two weeks, where I came across Smullyan’s Alice in Puzzleland at the Whittier Library.
I should revisit this book to for a deeper dive, but I want to play jump into other subjects first.
This afternoon, I asked why he was still wearing his white pajamas with a white t-Shirt.
She explained, he’s a bunny!
(Duh)
He ran off and bounded back wearing a headband with rabbit ears.
䷺䷩
he hurries to that which supports him
Last Christmas, my daughter became obsessed with Vince Guaraldi’s lyrical “Lucy and Linus”, which led to Brubeck and then Davis, Parker, and Coltrane.
One night in January, I woke up at 2:44 and couldn’t fall back asleep.
I listened to a podcast and watched a video about World War 2 aviation.
Then, this album.
My friend had just recommended this as one of Coltrane’s best.
He’s right.
Coltrane plays on a razor’s edge, running the line between melody and dissonance.
The album starts fast, contradicts itself with crushing moments of slow quiet before returning to vigorous speed.
The songs push a glorious cacophony, rescuing themselves with breathtaking audacity after extended flirtations with raw disintegration.
I don’t know music well enough to write a proper critique, but I know myself.
I rarely have patience for just listening to music.
That night I did.
All 37 minutes.
It didn’t solve my insomnia.
䷍䷝
Nine months later, we’ve been using youtube for our dinner music. This evening, the algorithm proposed Giant Steps and the boy picked it out. I was a little surprised, but I shouldn’t have been. Bartok’s “From a Diary of a Fly” has been his favorite for weeks.
We listened to the entire album all as he buzzed around as a bee and jumped on the sofa. Kids go through phases pretty fast. I hope this phase sticks.
We tried playing Tobago.
It’s too advanced for the kids.
But he pulled out the box the next day.
So I set it up on the dining table.
Still too advanced.
But she used it as a springboard to create a treasure hunt.
Now I’m walking around the house with a turtle wearing bunny ears chanting “Koyaanisqatsi” and a shovel made of a ping pong paddle with a roll of paper.
䷼䷇
a crane calling in the shade
its young answers it