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The Washington Obligation

Falling Northwest

I took these at the Japanese Gardens while visiting Portland last fall. These tiny trees were a huge part of my incessant inclination to make my way up into the Pacific Northwest. For years I’ve wanted to photograph these Japanese Maples. Finally, I couldn’t take it any more so I made my way to them…

Running Out

Portland also educated me about a remarkable magic power that I never knew I possessed!  This is a Portland-specific-magic that disables me from locating—or even nearing—any destination I set out for while in Portland… not at the time when I was actually looking for it, at least. I’ve named this power the Washington Obligation.

If I wanted to get to the highway, I ended up in Washington.

If I wanted to get off the highway, I ended up in Washington.

If I wanted to get gas, I ended up in Washington.

If I wanted to go South, I had to start further North—in Washington.

Tiny Gardens

I ended up in Washington at least once, each and every time I attempted to go anywhere via car. The number of journeys that had a much higher percentage of unintentional Washington excursions than ONE, is pretty near perfect. The odds that I would spend at least an hour trying to find my way away from Washington were the best I’ve ever come across. I’d bet everything I owned against the event that I’d make a Washington-free excursion. There were no conditions that could disprove such inerrant odds, apparently.

Magic.

Strange Days

I had no choice but to conform to and gracefully embrace this new and ironic destiny. I was abnormally gifted in finding this destiny, at least. For some reason, it was absolutely necessary that I make an appearance in Washington before I could make any impact on the fates. Only after I had fulfilled the Washington Obligation was I able to persuade the gods of coincidental junctions to compel my misadventures in the direction of, well, anywhere besides Washington.

The fundamental element of this deviating destiny is that I be delivered to a location of exceptional interest. It is, however, essential to the existence of this particular element that these conditions are strictly met:

• The unconsciously manifested location which I was to be relayed to MUST never be that one which I had originally sought.

• The tangential terrain obtained MUST be in the complete opposite direction of the initial target site.

• The providential place of my quest MUST materialize and prevent my passing without any portent.

I claim magic… the other option to explain this is far too rational for my taste.

Tranquil Trees

Cheers!

1. • On the Road
2. • The Town and the City
3. • The Subterraneans 

“The greatest pleasure in life is writing.”

Jack Kerouac

Quotes from The Town and the City

…who flit from city to city in search of something they hope to find and never even name… searching for some kind of resting place in their lives, which they never really want…

Jack Kerouac
The Town and the City

Quotes from On the Road

You don’t die enough to cry.

Jack Kerouac
On the Road

Offer them what they secretly want and they of course immediately become panic stricken.

Jack Kerouac
On the Road

…the only people for me, are the mad ones…

Jack Kerouac
On the Road

What is that feeling when you’re driving away from people and they recede on the plain till you see their specks dispersing?-it’s the too-huge world vaulting us, and it’s good-by. But we lean forward to the next crazy venture beneath the skies.

Jack Kerouac
On the Road

We had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.

Jack Kerouac
On the Road

1. • On the Road
2. • The Town and the City
3. • The Subterraneans

Quotes from The Subterraneans

For the greatest key to courage is shame.

Jack Kerouac
The Subterraneans

…for greatness dies too…

Jack Kerouac
The Subterraneans

…that the only thing that really mattered was love…

Jack Kerouac
The Subterraneans

But all feelings are real…

Jack Kerouac
The Subterraneans

…the details are the life of it, I insist, say everything on your mind, don’t hold back, don’t analyze or anything as you go along, say it out…

Jack Kerouac
The Subterraneans

…yet I also like the rhythm of to dream, to wake…

Jack Kerouac
The Subterraneans

…but angels know all and record it in books…

Jack Kerouac
The Subterraneans

1. • On the Road
2. • The Town and the City
3. • The Subterraneans

1. • Look Homeward, Angel
2. • You Can’t Go Home Again
3. • Of Time and the River

Quotes from Look Homeward, Angel

There are a lot of bad days. There are a lot of good ones.
You’ll forget. There are a lot of days.
Let it go.

—Thomas Wolfe
Look Homeward, Angel

He forgave because it was necessary to forget.

—Thomas Wolfe
Look Homeward, Angel

It seemed to him that he never knew her until he remembered her years later.

—Thomas Wolfe
Look Homeward, Angel

But we are the sum of all the moments of our lives—all that is ours is in them: we cannot escape or conceal it.

—Thomas Wolfe
Look Homeward, Angel

Realizing that his first escape must come through language.

—Thomas Wolfe
Look Homeward, Angel

…fleetest when they wait, go vaguely on to their one fixed home, because the earth is full of ancient rumor and they cannot find the way. All of the gods have lost the way.

—Thomas Wolfe
Look Homeward, Angel

Each moment is the fruit of forty thousand years. The minute-winning days, like flies, buzz home to death, and every moment is a window on all time.
This is a moment.

—Thomas Wolfe
Look Homeward, Angel

But enduring, a victorious reality amid his shadow-haunted heart, she remained.

—Thomas Wolfe
Look Homeward Angel

But thus, he knew, could love change one.

—Thomas Wolfe
Look Homeward, Angel

They had always known each other—since they first met. They had no excuses, no questions, no replies. The world fell away from them.

—Thomas Wolfe
Look Homeward, Angel

He had the most burning of all lusts—the lust of memory, the ravenous hunger of the will which tries to waken what is dead.

—Thomas Wolfe
Look Homeward, Angel

I will remember. When I come to the place, I shall know.

—Thomas Wolfe
Look Homeward, Angel

And it was the child and dreamer that governed his belief. He belonged, perhaps, to an older and simpler race of men: he belonged with the Mythmakers.

—Thomas Wolfe
Look Homeward, Angel

1. • Look Homeward, Angel
2. • You Can’t Go Home Again
3. • Of Time and the River

Quotes from You Can’t Go Home Again

For he was a Southerner, and he knew that there was something wounded in the South. He knew that there was something twisted, dark, and full of pain which Southerners have known all their lives—something rooted in their souls beyond all contradiction, about which no one had dared to write, of which no one had ever spoken.

—Thomas Wolfe
You Can’t Go Home Again

And it all boiled down to this: Honesty, sincerity, no compromise with truth—those were the essentials of any art…

—Thomas Wolfe
You Can’t Go Home Again

I’ve got an idea that a lot of work in this world gets done by lazy people. That’s the reason they work—because they’re so lazy… You work becuase you have to drive yourself to such a fury to begin…It’s so hard to get started that once you do you’re afraid of slipping back. You’d rather do anything than go through all that agony again…Then people say you’re a glutton for work, but it isn’t so. It’s laziness—just plain, damned, simple laziness, that’s all.”

—Thomas Wolfe
You Can’t Go Home Again

Some things will never change. Some things will always be the same. Lean down your ear upon the earth, and listen.

—Thomas Wolfe
You Can’t Go Home Again

You found the earth too great for your one life… But it has been this way with all men… You have faltered, you have missed the way… And now, because you have known madness and despair… We who have stormed the ramparts of the furious earth and been hurled back, we who have been maddened by the unknowable and bitter mystery of love, we who have hungered after fame and savored all of life, the tumult, pain, and frenzy, and now sit quietly by our windows watching all that henceforth never more shall touch us—we call upon you to take heart, for we can swear to you that these things pass.

—Thomas Wolfe
You Can’t Go Home Again

…it was silly, anyhow, to feel as he did about the place. But why had he always felt so strongly the magnetic pull of home, why had he thought so much about it and remembered it with such blazing accuracy, if it did not matter, and if this little town, and the immortal hills around it, was not the only home he had on earth?

—Thomas Wolfe
You Can’t Go Home Again

…and he had an instant sense of something re-found that he had always known—something far, near, strange, and so familiar—and it seemed to him that he had never left the hills, and all that had passed in the years between was like a dream.

—Thomas Wolfe
You Can’t Go Home Again

…Must the beggar on horseback forever reel?

—Thomas Wolfe
You Can’t Go Home Again

All he knew was that the years flow by like water, and that one day men come home again.

—Thomas Wolfe
You Can’t Go Home Again

1. • Look Homeward, Angel
2. • You Can’t Go Home Again
3. • Of Time and the River

Quotes from Of Time and the River

It is all so strange, so near, so far, so terrible, beautiful, and instantly familiar, that it seems to the traveler that he must have known these people forever…

—Thomas Wolfe
Of Time and the River

… for once seen, and list the moment that he sees it, it is his forever and he can never forget it. And then the slow toiling train has passed these lives and faces and is gone, and there is something in his heart he cannot say.

—Thomas Wolfe
Of Time and the River

He cannot think that he has ever lived there in the far lost hills, or ever left them.

—Thomas Wolfe
Of Time and the River

1. • Look Homeward, Angel
2. • You Can’t Go Home Again
3. • Of Time and the River

In keeping with the theme of a Fall Saturday, I thought this was a good list to start with.

The Top 20 College Football Stadiums by Capacity

Quick List

1. 1        MICHIGAN 107,501
2. 2       PENN STATE 107,282
3. 3       TENNESSEE 104,079
4. 4       OHIO STATE 102,329
5. 5       GEORGIA 92,746
6. 6       LSU 92,400 *NEW RECORD 10/10/09 93,139 LSU vs FLORIDA
7. 7       ALABAMA 92,138
8. 8      USC 92,000
9. 9      UCLA 91,136
10. 10    TEXAS 90,000
11. 11     FLORIDA 88,548
12. 12   AUBURN 87,451
13. 13    TEXAS A&M 82,600
14. 14    FLORIDA STATE 82,300
15. 15    OKLAHOMA 82,112
16. 16    NEBRASKA 81,067
17. 17    NOTRE DAME 80,795
18. 18   WISCONSIN 80,321
19. 19   CLEMSON 80,301
20. 20   SOUTH CAROLINA 80,250

The author is injured.

Please bear with me and my immobility.

That with which I write is currently out of operation.

Even oracle bones break though. Sometimes it’s the cracks that tell a better story. It just takes longer to type…

I’m a writer without a hand to write with, nor can I paint.

How Ironic.

Cheers

Wordle.net

Somehow, SOMEHOW, this fantastic online tool has escaped my attention until now—and I honestly can’t remember how I came across it since I became immediately mesmerized. I realize that this will definitely overtake the number one position on my list of great ways to waste the time I don’t have in actuality, but I’ve already rationalized it over to the list of things conducive to productivity.

For instance, though I spend eons of time re-coloring and changing fonts, the single second of inspiration that can be withdrawn from the disorder is (meaning I have convinced myself this is fact) worth all the wasted moments. Let me explain…

I write. At times. Sometimes—regularly—the thought is there, the idea is a good one, the words, the content, all there but I just can’t get started. The opening or closing—these are usually comparable to me—is floating around somewhere other than in my mind, same goes for the middle. Yes, I too, wonder how I ever produce anything useful at all.

If only I had a tool that could help me when I’m stumped… some kind of muse that would rearrange the words into phrases… something that could connect the important parts together… TaDa, Wordle!

I think that if you are a writer you’ll understand what I’m getting at. If you’re not, well, the damn thing is addicting anyway—it’s apparent that no point, really, needs to come from it. Just try it. Either type—copy-paste—a whole bunch of words in or enter a URL and Wordle will create a tangled mess of the words, which can then be tweaked—color, font, size, shape, order, direction—to your liking.

If it’s not a time-eraser for you like it instantly was for myself… congratulations, you obviously get much more done than I do.

Here is an example of what happens over in Wordle world. This is the art my words from my last post 160 Love Letters produces:

And one for this post:

Thank You, Jonathan Feinberg, for your creation. My procrastination will send you a medal when it gets around to it.

c’est tout

I think I found my new favorite…

Introduced to me by my first love Mashable. Who now owns this wonderful revelation Blippr. Congrats to both parties!

This addictive site is kind of a delicious combo of  Twitter (short & sweet—review character count = 160—clean & effective) + Mashable (info I give a flying ant about that actually makes my life easier with helpful hints from users ) + LibraryThing (books reviewed by readers, not reviewers, & ideas for new books to read you never knew about ) + Amazon (because lets face it, comparing computer applications and software, while bagging a pile of books relating to the 15 movies you purchased earlier because you downloaded the soundtracks and loved them, is just something they’ve got covered. And as always, the omnipresent Amazon is just a click away on Blippr, so no worries)

A quick and simple place to read a whole bunch of very short takes on why so many people don’t like the application that you love but they don’t have enough characters remaining to go into enough detail to wholly prove you wrong so you can still depart feeling lucky you came across such a helpful “time vacuum” tool and continue on your way rolling your eyes in pity at the “professionals.”

I obviously have trouble fitting the things floating in my head in those boxes that count down my keystrokes I have assumed, now, that these stubborn text boxes are really an omen and I must, at all costs, learn to trim my thoughts… no matter how much time it takes away from the necessities of life.

It is lacking that obnoxiously cute, irresistible bird that Twitter has let loose, though. Perhaps they could use a hippo or something…

I’m done.

Cheers!

Here’s the link for the 2009 Petition. Sign it. Make the best day a Holiday. Have a beer. CHEERS!

Because there is no better day to be at the bar.

Guinness is good for you. Trust me.

The world makes sense on the 17th of March.

Help make St. Patrick’s day an official holiday.

# of Supporters

• Saturday, March 7  —>   412,513
• Sunday, March 8    —>   412,945       (+432)
• Monday, March 9   —>   413,704       (+759)
• Tuesday, March 10 —>   416,070   (+2,366)
• Friday, March 13     —>   418,919    (+2,849)
• Sunday, March 15   —>   434,398  (+15,479)
• Tuesday, March 17  —>   442,466   (+8,068) 

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This is when I tire of painting… I turn to coloring. Sharpie Inspired.

There is somewhat of a reason behind this activity… as  much of a reason that you’ll ever get from me.

When I was having my house built I asked for an extra cable outlet and plug—one of each. I got both of these, but I also ended up with about 4x as many plugs/face-plates that usually come standard in a residential dwelling. When I claim they are excessive, I mean that to the truest sense. I have one of those plugs about very 2.5 feet throughout the house and one about every 7 inches in my kitchen. I could power up half a BestBuy within my kitchen alone—it’s ridiculous.

So after spending a good two years painting walls in pleasantly obnoxious colors I was instantly annoyed with the multitude of white boxes glaring at me from every direction. It drove me nuts. The sharpies made their move (5) one beer infested night and then I let myself subdue the electrical after-effect with the slightly more professional acrylic paint as the second (4) white box became a memory.

It should also be noted that I could very easily live my life with a total of two plugs… so the superfluous power appendages made their existence a bit more daunting to my sanity.

April 29th, 2009: Two new additions

May 17th, 2009

Strange Maps

I came across this blog the other day and I’m sharing it for all those that have a minor obsession with maps—as I do. This blog posts a strange, rare, odd and just plain damn interesting assortment of maps! What a fantastic idea and, really, I think anyone can find at least one map presented here that intrigues them. 

I applaud the creator of such a mesmerizing, random, cartogram collection that has joined my list of great ways to waste the time I don’t have.

http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/