Dust Art

I've sketched on a paper, whiteboard, chalkboard, concrete, but never in the dust of a car window.

Kind of looks fun. But check this out. Scott Wade draws works of art on the back window of his Mini Cooper.

Fantastic stuff.

Even when I have the best of tools, I can't get these results.

...dave
There are no rules, only tools. ~ Glenn Vilppu (renowned animator).

I Believe...in finding myself?

Brian Grazer was on NPR yesterday. I listened to his "I Believe" story.

The "I Believe" is a three minute monologue from someone (sometimes a famous person) about their core belief. Anyone can contribute (see http://www.npr.org/thisibelieve/agree.html).

Sometimes the story is light, like "There's no such thing as too much barbecue." Other times it's serious and thought provoking, for example "Human existence is in peril."

I must say though, usually it's vapid.

Not that Brian Grazer's "Disrupting my comfort zone" fits that category but it WAS sorta silly. I mean, a man of 45 still looking for himself? At least that's the essence of what he said. I think his exact words were: "bombarding myself with challenging people and situations." Fidel Castro was one of the people on his list to 'challenge him.' Come on, Castro? Is this going to help one grow? The way I see it, if you haven't found yourself at 45, you are truly lost. Sure you may be financially successful, but you're still living without purpose.

Besides, I've never understood the term: "I need to find myself." What is that anyway? What is a lost "self?" I can understand lonely. I can understand someone who has lost direction in life, or someone who is sad, or has fear. But a 'need to find yourself?' This doesn't resonate true with me.

Sometimes I'll hear that the person is going on some retreat, hiking in the back country, meditating on their belly button, or something just as ridiculous. Trying to find oneself while alone in a forest is like trying to find your way home without a map. It's challenging yes, but it will not lead you to a safe destination. We don't gain understanding or find direction, we don't gain friends and strengthen families by isolating ourselves. That's what terrorists and unibombers do. They become so self-absorbed that they no longer fit in with society, nor can they even relate to their own relatives. Isolation is the recipe for personal disaster.

Don't get me wrong. Slowing down I get. My favorite "I Believe" so far was "The practice of slowing down" by Phil Powers. It was real, it was practical, and it just made sense. Perfect sense.

But "finding oneself" just doesn't get it for me.

...dave
How do I find myself? I've never lost myself yet. -Charlie McCarthy

Borders Guy

I know of a guy who lives at Borders.

I really think he lives inside the bookstore. Seriously.

Because, he's always there no matter what time I go. If I go at lunchtime, he's there. If I go after lunch, he's still there. One time I stayed for two hours. He stayed too. What does this guy do for a living?

He's always talking to himself too. Sometimes he talks on the phone. I don't know what's he's saying. I don't listen.

He doesn't really bother anyone. He stays mostly to himself. I think he asked me for a pencil once. But other than that, he's never bothered me.

One time I was reading next to the window. Suddenly I heard this thunderous crack. The huge plastic coated poster fell from it's suction cups. The top buckled over me and wrapped me in it's fold. The bookstore bum told the manager. I kept reading. I didn't want to cause a stir.

I'd really like to ask this guy why he hangs out at the store. Maybe that'll be the subject of a future post. Maybe he kind of works there? Sort of like a mascot or something. You think?

I wonder where he sleeps? There are some exercise mats at Borders. Maybe he rolls one out at night.

It's all so puzzling.

...dave
Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore? -Henry Ward Beecher (1813 - 1887)

Playing with Fire

At a friend's BBQ we decided to play around with PAM, the oil from a can for non stick results.

We were spraying the candles on the picnic table to get that fire-throwing effect. Great fun.

Sure it's dangerous and shouldn't be done in front of kids but we were careful and there were no kids. Ah, other than the ones doing the spraying that is.

...dave
A man can never quite understand a boy, even when he has been a boy. -Gilbert K. Chesterton

Sunset

The other night it rained hard and then suddenly it cleared. I glanced out at the sky and discovered a beautiful sunset. I never tire of sunsets.

Our house faces the west so we just glance out at the sky from our office. The rain clears the air so the combination of after the rain and a sunset makes for a beautiful picture opportunity.

I wish I could have ran to a different spot for a simple view of the trees and clouds but as it turned out I got a little glow from the house down the road. It adds warmth to the picture.

I like the way our home is situated in our subdivision. There is no house across the street. This gives us an unobstructed view of the sky and some trees. Since our backyard it thick with trees, we have a little bit of privacy around us but with the safety of other homes nearby.

...dave
I think that I will never see, a billboard as lovely as a tree. Indeed unless the billboards fall, I'll never see a tree at all. -Ogden Nash

Loose Coins

I hate loose coins in my pockets. I have a glass fish bowl that I toss my loose coins into at the end of the day. But even during the day they rattle around and make lots of noise so I can't really sneak up on anyone. What am I gona do?

Then I ran across this idea. Now the coins won't rattle AND I don't have to break as many bills during the day.

I can never think of this kind of cool stuff.

...dave
The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas. -Linus Pauling

Coffee Cup Stamp Mug

Here's what I need. A coffee cup stamp mug. I'm always leaving coffee rings on my desk. Now you'd believe the marks were part of the desk design. Why didn't I think of this?

What a great idea.

It IS a bit girly though. It's not a manly pattern. Maybe I could just get a rubber stamp and glue it to the bottom of my morning coffee mug?

...dave
Great ideas often receive violent opposition from mediocre minds. -Albert Einstein

A New Wine Cellar

We had some friends in who do Italian Plaster. They are great. While here they asked if there was a wall they could use to show me what they could do. I turned them loose in my wine cellar. It was just a whitewashed concrete wall. Now it really looks like a wine cellar.

Of course I need to add a few bottles yet but at least you get an idea.

This is not a good reflection of what they do. You should see some of his work. You'd swear you were looking at a marble wall. It's not faux finish mind you, it's Italian Plaster. This stuff is marble dust applied in several stages. The result is durable and dust free. In fact, the finish will absorb moisture and can eliminate allergies.

Check out this site to give you an idea of some of the different textures and applications. (Click on one of the small pictures for a bigger look.)

Wally and Shiroma do awesome work. They've lived and traveled to many countries and have been hired as craftsmen on multi-million projects. Some of the countries they've lived in are: Russia, Africa, and Sri Lanka to name a few.

...dave
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” -Leonardo da Vinci

Flakes

Flakes, you know you've gata love 'em, in all their nutty variety. Flakes, and I'm taking people flakes not cereal flakes, drive me crazy. People flakes are a lot like cereal flakes now that I think about it. They are light, not very filling, and just take up room in the box. In the words of Paul McCartney: "Where DO they all come from?"

Like the man and wife team I met last weekend. They called from two hours away and wanted to look at the car. I met them Saturday afternoon. Seemed nice enough but they'd been in an argument on the way. Their tempers had ignited about a traffic jam I think they said, they looked frayed.

Bob was checking out the car and and asked all kinds of questions. Meanwhile Mary, or whatever her name was, pawed through the repair records I brought in a manila folder.

I asked them if they knew much about Boxsters. "No" they lied in unison. Later I discovered they have been looking at Boxsters for two years.

Since the car has just two seats, and I wasn't about to send a strange couple on their way alone, I took Bob for a drive first. I let him drive through some twisties and we returned for Mary's turn.

She'd been drinking a bit. Maybe to dull the memory of the argument I don't know. I debated letting her drive but I really wanted to sell the car.

I drove her to a less traveled road and let her drive me through the turns. I saw my life flash before me when she took the turns hard. I was glad to get back behind the wheel.

We made a deal and they were going to call and confirm within two hours one way or the other. I waited but never heard from them again.

Until two DAYS later.

"Car still for sale?" Bob asked in a friendly way.

"Sure. Are you still interested? I thought you folks were going to call me in a couple of hours?"

"We were? Oh, didn't realize that. I'm sorry for the mixup. You know you said you'd be willing to drive the car half way. Are you still in agreement with that?"

"Yeah, sure." I said. I'm a man of my word. If I say something, I tend to follow through.

"One other thing. Would you have the oil changed too?"

"Sure. How did you want me to handle the cost?"

"I want you to do it before I pick it up. You pay."

"Bob. I'm willing to deliver the car to you and have agreed to a price you and I shook hands on just two days ago. The car doesn't need an oil change for another 3,000 miles."

"But I'm concerned about the high mileage and want to make sure it's ready to drive."

Send me the money and find out. No, I didn't say that. Instead I said: "Bob, I'm willing to deliver the car as promised. I'd be willing to have the oil changed instead. But I'm not willing to do both. You choose what you want."

"I'd like to have the oil changed then. I'll come pick up the car."

And so it ended. I put the wheels in motion to pay off the car after I received his deposit of $200. I got a check in the mail two days later and deposited it into my bank. Then he called again on a Friday evening.

"Hi, Dave, is there any chance that I can pick up the car this weekend?"

"Sure, just bring the cash. I'll send you the title when it clears."

"Well, I have the money in the bank. Would you take a personal check?"

"Ah, no, Bob, I won't." I like to have dollars in my hand if someone drives off with my car and parks it two hours away. It's kind of a insecurity thing I have I guess.

Is this guy for real?

"Well, then that means I'd have to pick it up next week? Next weekend is Father's Day!"

"Great, consider it a gift to yourself then."

"No, but I'm divorced and I have only that weekend to visit my kids. I can't come next weekend. I've been looking at Boxsters for two years. That will mean another week before I get it."

"Then what's a couple more weeks. It's parked in the garage, it will have new oil in it, and I'll even clean it up for you. It'll be all ready for you the week after next. Ready to go."

"Would you consider letting me back out of this deal? Can you send me my check back?"

What a flake.

...dave
He was a few flakes short of a full box. - Dave Terry

TV drive-in

Ever watch TV outside like the old drive-ins? You should try it.

Here's Eric and friends out back watching a DVD on our impossibly small TV. We don't even have cable. It's sort of a 50s approach to movie viewing without the cars.

I'm not sure why this is such a good idea other then an increased volume of people can watch. After all the backyard can accommodate a hundred people. But then, the TV size may not.

Your mileage may vary.

Less of a mess to clean up!

...dave
Drive-in banks were established so most of the cars today could see their real owners. -E. Joseph Cossman

Stuff I'm Reading

I decided to put together a list of books I've read and enjoyed in the event you might enjoy them. Here they are by category:

Sketching/Journaling:
The Creative License
Everyday Matters
How to Make A Journal Of Your Life

Journaling:
The New Diary
A Book Of One's Own
Writing Your Life
Writing Alone
Leaving a Trace

Writing:
The Forest for the Trees

Other Non-Fiction:
Hitler's Lost Sub

Fiction:
Me Write Book: It Bigfoot Memoir
Pest Control

More to come...

...dave
If you study to remember, you will forget, but, If you study to understand, you will remember.

Land's End Canvas Classic Attache

I may have mentioned how ratty my old Canvas Attache from Land's End really was. The final straw came when the zipper separated when I stuffed way too many books into it.

So I wrote them to ask if it was repairable. They said they don't repair bags but please send it back and they'll replace it. Well within two weeks I had a new bag. And get this, they not only replaced it for free but sent me a check for the cost of sending them the old one! Wow. They are tops in my book.

I've got to tell you, these folks are the tops. I have never experienced such fantastic customer service. (Except with Cross Pens, but that's another story.)

I've had a Canvas Classic Attache from Land's End (available at Amazon) for about 12 years.

I love their canvas attache. It's carried more stuff, bursting at the seams, than any other bag I've ever owned. I like the pen pockets inside. The newer version also has two pockets inside the side pocket. In my old bag I was always losing stuff in there but now the pockets match the inside ones.

Their customer service is unmatched. Their products are guaranteed for life!

...dave
It is not enough to give the customer excellent service. You must subtly make him aware of the great service he is getting.

The Pipe

I work with a woman that has quite a lot of drama in her life. I'd say, more than her share. I may have mentioned her before. Anyway she came over to my desk today to tell us the "topper story."

It seems that her son got pulled over by the Georgia police. He'd rolled through a stop sign. So they asked him to get out of the car while they searched through it. They expected to find some reason for the lazy driving.

They bent down into the car and pulled out something that looked like a crack pipe. They held it up from the driver's side of the car (he was back by the trunk) and asked him what this pipe was doing in his car. He said he really didn't know, must be a friends. He later told his mom that he was going to wring whoever's neck that smoked it.

They called in the experts who went through the car looking for drug residue. They didn't find any. Meanwhile her son was fuming at his friends and the memory of their last joy ride out together.

Finally, frustrated at finding nothing, the cops brought the pipe up to his face and said: "Listen boy, you better come clean. We found this and you'd better tell us where you got it."

It was then that he got a closer look. It was, in fact, a kazoo that his mother had bought him from Cracker Barrel, a local restaurant and gift shop.

He began explaining how it was actually a musical instrument but they weren't buying it. Finally he offered to play it for them and then had trouble getting any sound from the thing. Suddenly, some noise came out which proved that it wasn't a pipe as the cops had imagined but was just a toy kazoo.

Now burning mad they gave him a ticket for the rolling stop sign infraction.

The good news is if he hadn't gotten any sound out of that thing, he would have ended up in jail playing a different tune.

...dave
I've never had a problem with drugs.  I've had problems with the police.  ~Keith Richards

Experimenting with Fire

One of our friends threw a graduation party for their son. Jim built a huge bonfire out back and was ready to start after sundown. They live right by a lake so the kids went out knee-boarding from a jet-ski. Great fun.

Us old folks sat around the table telling old tales of what it was like when we were young. One of the adults in her 60s said that she had to milk a cow BEFORE she went to school. After school she had to pick vegetables out on the farm, then she had to clean the barn, and then help her grandmother sew a huge quilt hung from the house rafters. She worked until 9:00 p.m. and then went to bed. She started it all over again the next day. I couldn't top that one. No one could. We sat around in silent empathy.

Jim owns a tractor that he's overturned several times going up and down his hilly property. He towed a huge grill behind it and pulled up beside the bonfire.

When the sun went down and after dinner I started experimenting with long exposures of the bonfire.

By the time the fire got going, I couldn't get within 20 feet of the roaring furnace. I was afraid I'd melt the camera if I got any closer.

There's something mesmerizing about a fire. We all sat around and contemplated life while reflections of the flames danced in our eyes.

I saw some activity up by the house and found some desert. I finished off the cheese cake and washed it down with espresso.

...dave
'Where there is no wood, the fire goes out.' -Bible proverb

Books I'm Reading

My English reading has slowed some since trying to focus on Chinese but I still like a good book. Here are a few books that are pretty good reads:

The 2005 Best American Travel Writing
(Trying to understand what great travel writing really is.)

The Professor and the Madman - Simon Winchester
(a little disturbing)

The Meaning of Everything - Simon Winchester
(soon to start)

River Town - Peter Hessler
(Great read about an American who lived in China for two years)

Influence Without Authority - Cohen Bradford
(for work)

I know I'm not averaging two books a month. I'm having a hard time keeping up! There are 150,000 new books printed in the U.S. each year. That's an average of 410 a day. At an average of 350 pages each, that's just 143,835 pages a day and just 6,000 pages an hour. Hmmm...it's not going to happen.

...dave
"To the making of many books there is no end, and much devotion to them is wearisome to the flesh." Ecclesiastes 12:12