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Fame and infamy
Does wanting to be famous preclude you from ever being famous? I’m not sure. There are lots of people who hunger for fame and many of them try extremely hard, only to fail. Maybe only those who don’t seek fame become famous? How do famous people get that way? Skill and talent don’t take you…
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Albrecht Durer’s eyes
Albrecht Durer had nice eyes. But look closely. In this self-portrait (age 28) painted in 1500, his pupils are quite uneven. This fascinates me because I also have uneven pupils. Anisocoria (the medical term for uneven pupil size) appears in about 20% of the US population. In my case, it appeared suddenly about a year…
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Aircon fan
I am not a big fan of air conditioning. I feel trapped when I have it on. I don’t want to leave my cool, dry room so I stay inside. Going outside–even to the veranda–is an expedition to the tropics. I’ve stopped running errands because it’s too hot. Yesterday I felt a big sense of…
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Focus
Do you ever get so intensely focussed on something that you forget everything else? I can do that if I’m creating just about anything–writing, filming, drawing, photographing. Today I managed to lose the entire day while rebranding a client’s website. I’m about halfway there now…I’ll try to surface here with some interesting Japan tidbits tomorrow.
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Mistakes and lessons
“You have the capacity to learn from mistakes. You’ll learn a lot today.” Thanks, Slashdot, for posting those words of wisdom and encouragement at the bottom of your page. I’ve been working on some video projects that are simple in concept, but tedious and frustrating in execution. My equipment is just not behaving. Like I…
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Another all-night billiards session
Another all-night billiards session. This one is indelibly etched in my mind because I managed to sink all my balls and the eight ball before Tod dropped a single one of his. I won and Tod was subject to MJ’s Aussie pub rules. He had to “drop trou” and run a lap around the pool…
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Half-year
Today marks the nominal half-way point of the year. It’s even observed as a holiday in China and Thailand. In reality, the halfway point is July 2nd (the 183rd day of the year) but let’s stick with the easy-to-remember start of July. It seems like a fine reason to celebrate. What should I do to…
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Taxi phobia
I have a phobia about taxis. Not being terribly fond of cars in general, I don’t like trusting a stranger to drive me around town. Maybe you can imagine how I was feeling when I was deposited at Ikebukuro at 1:15 am on the last train around the Yamanote line. I had a difficult decision:…
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Un-procrastinating
I’ve been on a personal crusade to take care of things that I’ve been putting off. I’ll bet you have some of these pesky tasks on your mental “To Do” list. So far, I’ve managed to accomplish several things: visiting the gynecologist and mailing Seth’s VCR to Vancouver count among the prominent items crossed off…
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Early summer fashion report.
Early summer fashion report. Gleaned from the streets of Omotesando The ethnic look: peasant blouses and long pairie/gypsy skirts. Next year, I expect to see a revival of “bistro print” skirts (the sort with French-looking bottles of wine and luggage labels). Why? Because that’s how it went in the 80s. Stripes: clean, crisp cotton (or…
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