Video tour of a working alchemist's laboratory in France. There is a special quality to the space where stuff is made with the complete intensity of the intelligence, the heart, the soul, the spirit. There is no appreciation of "sterility" here, instead the opposite, it is as though the ceramics and glassware in their wooden shrines and dusty counters invite impurity to give meaning to purity in contrast, and in context...just as the imperfection of your lover is the perfect setting for the gem of your love, which is perfect in anticipation and regret only, never in the moment of work....impure, dust-blessed, asymmetrical work: A mere promise of the final art. And after the true art, the artist has disappeared, and the tourists parade back and forth in their dusty settings, looking everywhere for the clue except to their own imperfections, their own materia prima, their own lapis exilis.
9.11.09
Sixty Two
My birthday this year came at the end of a year-long web redesign effort, so it got overshadowed by the drama at work. In fact, it fell on a Thursday before a Monday launch, so you know it was barely noticed. Nonetheless, I got a birthday song from the staff, a nice dinner with my kids and wife, and a furnace tune up to really top off the joy.
So what do I know?
I have looked back over the projects of interest to me in the past two years, and see this list:
1. Starting to translate Lao Tzu's Tao Te King. Exposed to some chinese language basics, and collected over 20 versions of the book by various translators, including several from the 19th century and earlier.
2. Making a tree diagram of Wittgenstein's Tractatus using his numbering system
3. Drawing a major series of historical philosophical comix
4. Reading about and studying in some detail the history of the Vietnam war
5. Getting in touch with myself as an intuitive healer
6. Studying the effects of electromagnetic radiation on human biology
7. Making a film of Cheney's wedding that took about 100 hours, even though its short.
8. Making some 30+ necklaces out of gemstones, learning a bit of the craft
9. Attending to three family members in the throes of major health problems
10. Participating in a major web redesign at work
11. Getting my Library into a computer catalog (17 boxes so far out of probably 30)
12. Digitizing all my old family vhs tapes
13 Studying the electrical and biological nature of cancer, tracking down Bob Beck's various treatments and gathering the components to build his therapeutic devices.
15. Assembling an electronics studio and craft studio of some substance, including cool measurement devices, such as oscilloscopes and impedence meters.
16 Learning enough about electromagnetics to make sense of the projects and people I have been studying
17. Coming to terms with my essential mediocrity, on a global scale, even though I can claim some limited excellence here and there locally.
18. Gathering and reading 20+ books for a projected biography of Andrija Puharich
19. Studying the shameful history of CIA involvement in mind control and the nazi influence on post war american technology, concomitant to the Puharich book
20. Revisiting and updating my knowledge about UFOs and the paranormal ( in re: Puharich again)
21. Spending dozens of hours bringing my sketching and drawing skills back up to speed.
22. Participating in a year-long course of Tibetan medicine.
23. Learning and practicing Tai Chi for 7 months
24. Mastering the challenge of the perfect fruit muffin: exactly the right texture, taste and top.
25. Studying the fundamental ideas in math behind string theory, quantum mechanics, and the more fringe forms of the electromagnetic critique of Maxwell's so-called standard equations.
26. Moving into a meaningful dialog with a friend from High School who went to Vietnam, and became estranged from everything I thought I knew about life.
27. Diving into Twitter to the extent of gathering 1800 followers, now down to 1720 or so.
28. Starting a twitter account for the county and keeping it up.
So what do I know?
I have looked back over the projects of interest to me in the past two years, and see this list:
1. Starting to translate Lao Tzu's Tao Te King. Exposed to some chinese language basics, and collected over 20 versions of the book by various translators, including several from the 19th century and earlier.
2. Making a tree diagram of Wittgenstein's Tractatus using his numbering system
3. Drawing a major series of historical philosophical comix
4. Reading about and studying in some detail the history of the Vietnam war
5. Getting in touch with myself as an intuitive healer
6. Studying the effects of electromagnetic radiation on human biology
7. Making a film of Cheney's wedding that took about 100 hours, even though its short.
8. Making some 30+ necklaces out of gemstones, learning a bit of the craft
9. Attending to three family members in the throes of major health problems
10. Participating in a major web redesign at work
11. Getting my Library into a computer catalog (17 boxes so far out of probably 30)
12. Digitizing all my old family vhs tapes
13 Studying the electrical and biological nature of cancer, tracking down Bob Beck's various treatments and gathering the components to build his therapeutic devices.
15. Assembling an electronics studio and craft studio of some substance, including cool measurement devices, such as oscilloscopes and impedence meters.
16 Learning enough about electromagnetics to make sense of the projects and people I have been studying
17. Coming to terms with my essential mediocrity, on a global scale, even though I can claim some limited excellence here and there locally.
18. Gathering and reading 20+ books for a projected biography of Andrija Puharich
19. Studying the shameful history of CIA involvement in mind control and the nazi influence on post war american technology, concomitant to the Puharich book
20. Revisiting and updating my knowledge about UFOs and the paranormal ( in re: Puharich again)
21. Spending dozens of hours bringing my sketching and drawing skills back up to speed.
22. Participating in a year-long course of Tibetan medicine.
23. Learning and practicing Tai Chi for 7 months
24. Mastering the challenge of the perfect fruit muffin: exactly the right texture, taste and top.
25. Studying the fundamental ideas in math behind string theory, quantum mechanics, and the more fringe forms of the electromagnetic critique of Maxwell's so-called standard equations.
26. Moving into a meaningful dialog with a friend from High School who went to Vietnam, and became estranged from everything I thought I knew about life.
27. Diving into Twitter to the extent of gathering 1800 followers, now down to 1720 or so.
28. Starting a twitter account for the county and keeping it up.
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