i like any kind of plastic grid-like material. like orange construction fencing. this held some kind of fruit. or maybe it was onions, i can’t remember.
i don’t know why I am drawn to these things but i am. i also love orange rope and those thin orange sticks they put into the ground on construction sites.
my thoughts are very scattered these days. I keep sitting down to write and my brain gets too anxious. (maybe it’s because I am reading too much Bucky, the forward written by his grandson states that reading him can be a bit “disorienting”.) I love that he constantly made up his own words to get his ideas across. you kind of have to “see the bigger picture” with him, instead of trying to decipher each sentence and find meaning in it. it’s better to find meaning in the greater whole.
i have been working on purging “stuff”, and get a bit overwhelmed by the process of it. there is a point where you have to push through and get past the “stuckness”. you can also apply this concept to creating something, as there are often block that come up that make you want to quit. you get overwhelmed at some point and think “this is not working”, I’m not very good at it. but what you don’t know at the time is that the place you have to push through to is very close, just inches or minutes away. it might be a simple as moving one item. but you don’t know that because you’re stuck on the side of uncompletion which feels bad (read: self criticism). those of you reading this who have given birth may recall that the moment most women want to quit is right at the point of “transition”, (when the body is coming through the birth canal). But at that point you are almost done!
this is why it has become so helpful to me to perceive everything as an experiment. because the next step then becomes about trying anything. just make a move no matter what it is and a different conclusion than the one you are faced with will arise.

from the American Book Center in Amsterdam, (just voted the best bookstore in the world by a newspaper in Ireland).
it’s my birthday in a few days and this is a really great early present for me. I wish I was there in person to see it. (I love that it looks like they caught a couple in the throes of a kiss but they are just walking past each other.)
it may be hard to read but the display is of this image.

I made a small change this week that has made my life a bit better. (I’m not talking about the wallet, though I should report that that is going really well also. i no longer overstuff because you can’t or you will break it.) Whenever I would go out into the world I would bring my journal with me everywhere, (which I still love to do). I have always been a big advocate of the “one book” for everything, and I still am. But while browsing in a bookstore I found these tiny little moleskins and decided to conduct an experiment. These books are so small they fit in all my pockets so I can bring them everywhere without having to lug around my heavy journal. I always have a fear of not being able to write something down. So if I get an idea while in the woods, as I often do, I just reach into my pocket to jot it down (I admit I was afraid to try this). And the best part is these little books get placed into my bigger book (into a handmade pocket), so that the ideas are not separated from the bigger picture. The one book lives! It’s ingenious. It’s light. It’s spontaneous.
I love anything that can fit in my pockets.

Some amazing ideas at the idea tank, from the Buckminster Fuller Challenge. Makes me go crazy with ideas for changing the world.
I just ordered the re-released version of Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth. I am entering into research mode again. *Please let me know if you have any recommendations based on what you have seen me write about on this site (specifically Perec, Munari, David Abram, Fuller, Bachelard, etc.).

“As the industry nears its 100,000th post-recession layoff, dragging newspapers, magazine and television with it, it’s become apparent that selling ad space is an unsustainable revenue model for media as a whole. It is from the chaos of this moment that the relationship between content and capital will be defined for generations to come. Either quality content and valuable journalism will prevail, or a failing ad industry will survive by cannibalizing faltering media outlets: pitting the sponsored versus the authentic in a deathmatch for attention, relevance and the almighty dollar.”
Douglas Haddow from the article “Pop Nihilism -Advertising Eats Itself” in Adbusters #84