10.27.2001

Crazy old Canon camera designed by Luigi Colani, an apparently famous designer. I can't figure out if these three cameras are ergonomic gems or nightmares. While we're talking about cameras, this page truly captures the ridiculousness (and brilliance) of the web, check out the shutter sounds of 25 different cameras.    7:28:22 PM

10.25.2001

Yesterday I tried acupuncture for the recurrent back problems I've had as a result of my having scoliosis. It wasn't painful, having the pins stuck in me, and the flood of warm, intense sensation they produced was not unlike hitting your funny bone, but in a good and beneficial way, so that you'd wish you could hit your funny bone every day.

The doctor spent over an hour with me, just talking with me about my health and daily life in order to get a complete picture of my general health before the acupuncture. I left with a brown paper bag of raw, fragrant herbs to make tea with, and a relaxed state of mind that came from being so well taken care of by an Eastern medical doctor, who could (and should) serve as a model for conventional Western doctors in terms of individual personal care.    12:37:08 PM

10.23.2001

Joel Meyerowitz has been documenting in photographs the aftermath of 9-11 for the Museums of NYC's archives. This interview with him is one of the best things I've heard in a long time. Amazing words from an equally amazing photographer.    6:06:40 PM

10.21.2001

photo editing    11:44:00 PM

10.19.2001

14 Steps to Today's Events

Step 1. Put on your nice clothes in order to drive down to a building to drop off design portfolio.
Step 2. Walk outside, look down to get your car key, look up, and say, "Oh shit."
Step 3. Call police, explain that your car isn't where it's supposed to be.
Step 4. Wait.
Step 5. Get call saying car was involved in a pursuit, but has been recovered without any damage.
Step 6. Be relieved, but then hear officer say, "There is some blood on the seats."
Step 7. Take an $18 taxi ride out to a part of Portland you hope to never go to again.
Step 8. See the full extent of what happened-- two spilled beer cans, bloodstains on seat and middle console, cigarettes in ashtray and bloody pocket knife on passenger seat.
Step 9. Try to clean up using alcohol swabs and Handi-Wipes, filling car with horrible lemony-alcohol scent and thinking, "Aren't the police supposed to take care of this?".
Step 10. Finally finish cleaning and get in car to drive home.
Step 11. Realize that CD player installed two months ago is gone, as well as vinyl case containing 80 or so CDs, essentially every good album you ever owned.
Step 12. Notice bloodstains that still need cleaning.
Step 13. Get honked at for not accelerating at a green light fast enough.
Step 14. Arrive home, thankful to have the car back, and trying to shake the feeling that this first and only car you've ever driven, that's taken you over 80,000 miles, cross the country twice, and on countless road trips, is somehow not yours anymore.     9:46:09 PM

I'd no doubt find this very funny, if my car hadn't just been stolen.    3:34:24 PM

10.17.2001

Three Arguments Against the War.    4:17:51 PM

10.16.2001

Barn sunrise    9:43:24 PM

While the current conspiracy theories going around about the 9-11 attacks seem groundless, our government has, in the past, made plans to kill innocent American civilians in order to engage public support for a war.    6:11:00 PM

10.14.2001

Oregon Zoo, Sea Lion exhibit

I had a chance to use the Canon D30 digital SLR camera this weekend. I shot over 1000 pictures, the camera opened up photography to me in a way I'd never known, gave me freedom without worries of film costs, and allowed me to shoot in bursts of 3-5 frames to capture action. I've always enjoyed digital but didn't appreciate its capabilities when housed in a camera with interchangeable lenses. The willingness to takes risks in photography has always been a big part of the way I shoot, but I've never matched the feeling I've had the last two days, where I can try anything.    10:38:35 PM

10.9.2001

One of the most exciting things going on today in photojournalism is the creation of the photo agency, VII. Comprised of seven of the best photojournalists in the world (including Christopher Morris and James Nachtwey among others), the agency is redefining the way photographers should be treated, not to mention putting out some of the best news photography in the world. I just found out today that they had a website and it's absolutely loaded with their images (choose Enter Agency at main page).

The only other photo agency that runs anything like VII is Magnum, which was started over fifty years ago (great historical article here). What's vastly different about VII is that each member controls their own accounts, whereas Magnum is just one big account, meaning if someone makes money in Magnum, a portion of it goes into the collective account, whereas with VII, each member is responsible for their accounts, and thereby benefits individually from their own hard work and success.

Given the terrible treatment of news photographers by magazines nationwide, it makes me happy to see a group of photographers striking out on their own and demanding that they be compensated for the incredible work that they do.    8:11:03 PM

10.6.2001

Not a very good picture, but a wonderful view from the top of Neahkahnie Mountain, unfortunately no elk were seen, just a couple green snakes, lots of moss, and a strange bluish bug.    11:30:28 AM

10.4.2001

dance, 8:47 PM, Pacific Standard Time, Portland, Oregon.    10:42:35 PM

I saw my favorite artist today for the 2nd time, at the First Thursday here in Portland. It happens on the first Thursday of each month, and all the galleries open and have new exhibitions. Even better though, one small block of a street closes off, and people who don't have the gallery ties can sell on the street. So, Paul Solevad, wow, he's amazing, see his work.    10:21:32 PM

In addition to this starting my own business stuff, I've been working hard on having a little bit of diversion within my room. A skate ramp was out of the question (due to having people living below me), so after much consideration, a climbing wall seemed like the (not so) obvious choice. The first struggle was bringing these huge 4' x 8' sheets of plywood up the two flights of stairs, everything seemed relatively easy after that. While screwing some 6" screws into the wall, it occurred to me that I'd better be living here for awhile to make this worthwhile. But anyways, climbing walls are much fun, and completely hard to get good at. My fingers have gotten all callousy and I constantly have skin peeling off the tips of my fingers (isn't that pleasant?).     8:59:12 AM

Glad that's cleared up.    8:51:15 AM

10.3.2001

A moving, diverse documentary of 9-11 in NYC (direct link to real audio). I didn't have much patience in initially watching this, I feel like I've already seen too much of this event, it's been covered beyond any news story I've ever known, and I've read so much and seen so much, that it's all kind of blurry, but it's worth continuing to figure out the news, to watch it objectively, to recognize when it attempts to manipulate, and to make informed judgements about what you see. It's worth it.    10:25:38 PM

10.2.2001

I have a real problem with what Ms. Coulter is writing here. My first problem is the title, with the sexist implication that women would be at home while their husbands went to work. In a way, the title sets the stage nicely for the McCarthy-like paranoia she is about to delve into. Since radical Muslims carried out the WTC attack, she believes that all Muslim non-citizens should be deported. Unfortunately for her, our country does not discriminate against religions, despite her wish that we do.

Her editorial devolves into absurdity in the second to last paragraph when she states, "Muslim immigrants who agree to spy on the millions of Muslim citizens unaffected by the deportation order can stay." Like she says, we don't need the New York Times to continue to let everyone know that not all Muslims are terrorists. But all the talk about dealing with this situation calmly and not making rash generalizations has apparently been lost on Ms. Coulter. The problem is not Muslims in our country who continue to be harassed and even beaten each day, the problem is with hateful people like the author who use their position to spread fear and racism.    9:36:40 PM

10.1.2001

"...and I knew what the loneliness of the long-distance runner running across country felt like, realizing that far as I was concerned this feeling was the only honesty and realness there was in the world and I knowing it would be no different ever, no matter what I felt at odd times, and no matter what anybody else tried to tell me. The runner behind me must have been a long way off because it was so quiet, and there was even less noise and movement than there had been at five o' clock of a frosty winter morning. It was hard to understand, and all I knew was that you had to run, run, run, without knowing why you were running, but on you went through fields you didn't understand and into woods that made you afraid, over hills without knowing you'd been up and down, and shooting across streams that would have cut the heart out of you had you fallen into them. And the winning post was no end to it, even though crowds might be cheering you in, because on you had to go before you got your breath back, and the only time you stopped really was when you tripped over a tree trunk and broke your neck or fell into a disused well and stayed dead in the darkness forever. So I thought: they aren't going to get me on this racing lark, this running and trying to win, this jog-trotting for a bit of blue ribbon, because it's not the way to go on at all, though they swear blind that it is. You should think about nobody and go your own way, not on a course marked out for you by people holding mugs of water and bottles of iodine in case you fall and cut yourself so that they can pick you up -- even if you want to stay where you are -- and get you moving again." - Allan Sillitoe, The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner

    11:35:00 PM

Arundhati Roy, The Algebra of Infinite Justice. Just brilliant.    4:13:56 PM