A designer is an emerging synthesis of artist, inventor, mechanic, objective economist and evolutionary strategist.
Buckminster Fuller (via 7knotwind)
Author: coffeehousejunkie
quality paper action book (via)
Creative-writing programs are designed on the theory that students who have never published a poem can teach other students who have never published a poem how to write a publishable poem.
“Show or Tell: Should creative writing be taught?” by Louis Menand in The New Yorker (via somethingchanged)
the definition of haiku is more than 3-line poems with no more than 17 syllables… the key is the revelatory moment…
Haiku… are short, unrhymed, poems… that juxtapose two images to capture a moment of insight about the world or about oneself. (via poetry foundation)
i wasn’t kidding when i said i have a 1000-page manuscript. here’s a photo of it on my drawing table. now if i can only find where i put my lighter…
speaking of ‘inadvertently burnt’ manuscripts… i came across this interesting piece about about William Carlos Williams’ first volume of poetry…
Of William Carlos Williams’ debut slim volume, Poems, which the young and popular physician of Paterson, NJ published privately in 1909 only two copies are known to exist. Of the second state, which differs from the first in only a few respects, a hundred copies were published in 1910 by a local printer Howell at 25 cents a copy. Dr Williams took a dozen of these to the local stationery store and after a month four had been sold, so he brought home the remainder and after distributing a few copies to members of his family, returned the rest of the edition to his printer. At some point Howell, as Williams recalled in his Autobiography, then wrapped them in a neat bundle and put them away for ‘safe keeping’. After they had ‘ reposed ten years or more on a rafter under the eaves of his old chicken coop ‘ they were ‘, Williams recorded ruefully, ‘inadvertently burnt’. (via bookride)
insulse
adjective • insipid, dull, stupid
From Latin insulsus: in- ‘not’ + salsus ‘salted’.
just returned from the river arts studio stroll… number one kidlinger is jazzed, but can’t decide what to do, ‘dad, i can’t decide if i want to paint or do ceramics or glass works’ … awesome! & to top it off… clear blue sky, 72°F outside, plus 12 bones for lunch (we ate outside next to the river in the middle of november)… how cool is that?
what i learned on npr.org this morning…
around 2 i walk into the fiddlin pig for lunch & the waitress has my table ready… as i slide into the booth this song by johnny paycheck comes on the sound system… i’m just glad the kitchen staff didn’t revolt & leave the place… because the bbq & ribs were delicious…
(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)
want to write my next book this antique…speaking of… it’s national novel writing month… i didn’t participate this year, but i do have a 1000-page manuscript on my desk & i need either an editor or a lighter… i think a lighter is cheaper…
(via affair)
Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: “What! You too? I thought I was the only one.
C.S. Lewis (via justbesplendid) (via fluffynotes)
How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.
Annie Dillard
(via justbesplendid) (via quote-book) (via ireadintothings)
some days i dream of steamer trunks & where they might take me… (via creativeinspiration)
Poet Charles Simic on military installations in Iraq:
Can one imagine what it’s like for an ordinary Pashtun or Iraqi to pass by one of these monuments to our wealth and our arrogance? (via nyrob)
badinage
noun • /bad-NAHZH, BAD-nahzh/ • banter
(via sophiniesom)
today’s running soundtrack
Bang! You’re It! – Sophomore
Massive Nights – The Hold Steady
When We Were Young – Dolores O’Riordan
Light Up Ya Lighter – Michael Franti & Spearhead
Now I’m Gone – Juliana Hatfield
Right Hand On My Heart – The Whigs
99% – The Mooney Suzuki
Gilt Complex – Sons and Daughters
today the hill won…
maybe it was the temperature: 38°… or maybe it was the 5% grade… or the 170-foot ascent… or maybe it was the cookies & milk before i went to bed after the concert…
whatever it was… it took me 33.10 to finish 5k…
In defense of readers
Reading is a necessarily solitary experience—like dying, everyone reads alone—but over the centuries readers have learned how to cultivate that solitude, how to grow it in the least hospitable environments. An experienced reader can lose herself in a good text with anything short of a war going on (and, sometimes, even then)—the horticultural equivalent of growing orchids in a desert.
Despite the ubiquity of reading on the web, readers remain a neglected audience. Much of our talk about web design revolves around a sense of movement: users are thought to be finding, searching, skimming, looking. We measure how frequently they click but not how long they stay on the page. We concern ourselves with their travel and participation—how they move from page to page, who they talk to when they get there—but forget the needs of those whose purpose is to be still. Readers flourish when they have space—some distance from the hubbub of the crowds—and as web designers, there is yet much we can do to help them carve out that space.
… the people of the creative class are fairly certain they are destined to be creative, but can never be certain about just how creative they are. So they must seek outward signs of their blessed inner superiority, must seek or contrive recognition for their creativity whenever possible. This is that class’s essential self-consciousness, and when it is acute, it becomes hipsterism.
“Creative writing and crippling self-consciousness,” Marginal Utility (via somethingchanged)
crowdsourcing
noun • leveraging the wisdom of the crowds; getting someone else to do your job for you
Here at Word Journal, we love words. That much should obvious by now. But we don’t know all the words, and now that Tumblr has added user submissions, we think this is a great time to expand our vocabularies. So if you’ve seen any interesting or unique words recently, do let us know!
liz: sujay: “The Designer You Treat Like Shit Has Quit Unexpectedly” (via dan)
yeah, that’s about right… either i need a new job or i need to start my own design studio…
Coffeehouse Junkie 