onfocus

Erik Benson has been very generous in citing Weblog Bookwatch as an inspiration for his All Consuming, but it has definitely taken on a life and identity of its own. He's put an amazing amount of work into his site, and has built some great features like integrated TrackBacks, XML output of all data, and friends lists. shew!

His work has inspired me to think about different ways I could share the Weblog Bookwatch data, and I implemented a small new feature tonight. On the mentions page for a book, there's now something called Books in common across these weblogs. The BookWatch analyzes the given set of weblogs and finds the book mentions they share in common. It's sort of a "people who mentioned this book, also mentioned these..."

The last time I was at Armstrong Woods there were signs up asking people to wash their boots and cars before visiting another park. Now I know why. Sudden oak death has infected redwoods and douglas firs in Armstrong and some of my favorite local hiking spots (including Jack London State Park). If it's found that this kills redwoods it could be devastating to the entire California coast.

Tim O'Reilly has a great post about reality on his weblog. I love the quote he mentions, "The map is not the territory." True, but hard to remember because maps are handy. Another way to describe what he's discussing is the Zen concept of Beginner's Mind that Shunryu Suzuki talks about. Suzuki says we loose our ability to see things the same way as when they were new to us, and that it's a constant struggle to keep our perceptions ready. One of my favorite Suzuki quotes: "In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities. In the expert's mind there are few."

Last week my folks sent me this little puzzle for my birthday. I was completely obsessed with it until I solved it. I spent every spare moment shuffling tiles or trying to figure out strategies for shuffling tiles. I got fairly close quickly, but when it got down to 2 or 3 tiles out of place it became maddening. Part of it was not knowing the final picture...and this painting made it confusing. I'm not sure if my folks sent it because they thought I would enjoy it, or knew it would torture me. I'm still not sure which happened, but I'm glad it's over. Thanks though, folks! (I wanted to get this snapshot before I scramble it and give it to someone else so they can have the "fun" of solving it. :) Here's a better image of the painting.

Happy Labor Day! skp and I took advantage of the extra day and went out to Bodega Bay. The weather was perfect (which is very odd for Bodega Bay) so we walked along the beach, soaked up sun, and watched the surfers. I've never seen so many people out there, but there was still plenty of room for everyone. Of course I took my camera along.




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skp: "These three-day weekends are hell on our relationship."

The Fast Runner is one of the most powerful films I've seen in a long time. It's easily the best film I've seen this year. The photography is beautiful and the story engaging. If it's playing near you, see it while you can because it's worth experiencing the cinematography on a big screen. The film was shot with digital cameras, so I was a little distracted by the quality at points. But it was filmed in such a harsh environment, that I don't think this movie would have been possible with standard film cameras. Beyond making sci-fi DVDs look crisp, this film shows that digital technology has opened up filmmaking to a wider group of people in more environments. They also showed a few behind-the-scenes clips during the credits, and I can't wait to find out more about how they filmed it. Hopefully the DVD release will include a making-of feature.

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I have a scanner again! I'm going to start sorting through some of my 35mm pictures from Alaska and see if there are any to post. I spotted this one right away and used it to test the scanner. It was early morning and everything was serene when I took this picture—it felt like we were inside a Japanese woodblock print.

More spiraling. Jason sent links to information about Fibonacci's Spiral (scroll down) and the Golden Mean. Very interesting reading—especially as the golden ratio relates to art. Also, there's this book: The Curves of Life: Being an Account of Spiral Formations and Their Application to Growth in Nature, to Science, and to Art: With Special Reference. The special reference sounds especially special.

Also, meg's mom spotted a spiraly shirt and clipped it before reading my post.

The Language of Ornament by James Trilling

I'm reading this now and it's fascinating because it brings the background into the foreground. It's the background of backgrounds. It focuses on the evolution of those patterns and styles that are primarily meant to enhance something else rather than be itself. It mentions that 12,000 years ago, people began using spirals to decorate objects. Before that, people made figures (paintings/carvings that were supposed to represent things they saw in the world) but spirals were an early and widespread purely decorative design. (Apparently across cultures.) Since I read this fact, I've been looking for spirals everywhere without finding them. There's something completely asymmetrical about a 2-D spiral, and I'm guessing it doesn't fit into the modern design palette. But I'm determined to find them. With the discovery that DNA is sort of a double-spiral, you'd think it would have an ornamental comeback. Have you seen any spirals out there?

Update: logos, symbols.com entry, archimedes' spiral.

I uninstalled something somewhere along the line and lost my Define browser extension. I wrote a new one to take its place and figured I'd share it. I use it most often as a simple spell-checker.

It works like the other IE extensions I've posted before. (Google It, DayPop Links, and Add Link Titles.) After installing, a new entry will appear in the right-click context menu of Internet Explorer called Define. Then you can highlight any word on a web page, right-click, choose Define and a new window will open with that word's definition at m-w.com. When I lost it, I kept using Google It instead, but it isn't quite the same when you're looking for the definition.

Define Setup
(right-click, Save Target As..., click to install. Windows only.)