Quite Quite Fantastic!

Postwar & Contemporary Art: Berlin Hotel Wants Art, Not Money

2009-08-11T15:49:00.003-04:00

Here's a cool story on a hotel where you get to stay free in exchange for creating art/modifying the space. And it's in Berlin! Ausgezeichnet! (from one of my company's news aggregation sites: artist.com)
Postwar & Contemporary Art: Berlin Hotel Wants Art, Not Money

And here's a more complete article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/aug/09/berlin-hotel-marienbad-artists

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Journaled!

2008-02-23T22:15:00.003-05:00

The Wall Street Journal Health Blog used this photo from my "remix" set to illustrate an article on "the medical equivalent of bubble wrap. I placed a statement in the set that you were free to use these to remix in your own art without credit. I had applied a creative commons attribution license to them as it was the most liberal flickr would allow.

My thinking was that as long as it was an element or a texture, go ahead and use it. I did put in some language to the effect, don't try to pass it off as your own. I never imagined anyone wanting to use any of these as an illustration in their own right! The Wall Street Journal editor who used my photo generously credited me and pointed back to my flickr photo, for which I am grateful. In fact I'm excited that it might draw somebody to my stream.

It was a lesson for me also, on licensing. I stated on the page:
"Feel free to remix. All I ask is that you don't sell it as is. You are free to sell your own artwork which incorporates it. Just don't be a troll."

I didn't want someone profiting strictly by stealing. I didn't even think someone might want to use it by itself. I'll need to keep that in mind when choosing licenses for anything, that I have any reservations about use.

365 Self Portraits Week 5

2008-02-23T22:12:00.000-05:00

Day 29 - Party

Had a hard time getting anything done, with a kid staying home sick, and generally getting off to a bad start. My wife talked me into meeting her with the kids at a company holiday party (In JANUARY!) and it pretty much salvaged the day. So you are stuck with pretty much the only self portrait I shot today.

Day 30 - Rest before Activity

I know, lots of people have askd me (winking) "what kind of activity?" Well, really I just felt like changes are coming and I am preparing for them.

Day 31 - Toes

Unable to face myself today. You are probably going to learn a lot about me, like my twisty toes.

Day 32 - Legs

I had a pretty full day, so didn't get around to the 365 till late. Wasn't happy with anything I did so I got desparate rolling around naked with my camera.

Day 33 - Solar Corona

Busy day, filled in as a Sunday school teacher, Worked out and went to a super bowl party, Where I fooled around and came up with this. Too tired now to do more.

Day 34 - Voyeur

Every photographer is a voyeur, invited or uninvited. I caught myself taking this picture through a window of a "hygenic" nail place where the employees were kindof medical uniforms. I'm not sure why they are absurdly short skirts. I felt very naughty taking this.

Day 35 - Frontandback

Wrapping up the week with a multiple exposure Polaroid spectra. You've seen both sides of me now...

365 Self Portraits: Week 4

2008-02-12T22:15:00.002-05:00

Here's the weekly update of my project to take a unique self portrait every day this year.

Day 22

This is the goo side of this.

I never finished scanning this one. I feel stupid because I went to see if I could rinse the cruft off, and viola, a nice negative appeared as all the goo washed off. The box didn't say positive negative, but I looked it up and it was. sigh. I've been throwing them away. and the film is discontinued.This is a screen capture from the scanner's preview window. Alas, next time I will take a full scan just in case.

Day 23 - Unclothed

Shot in window light on top of a dresser. Boy it was cold.

Day 24 - Mason and Me

I felt like doing something a little different. Bring one of my loved ones in. Of course it had to be a funky polaroid, expired film.

Day 25 - Hang On

One of the remarkable things about this project is that the face that Ireveal to the camera isn't always the one I plan or expect. I'm not tosure I like the technical details on this one, and the being offbalance, on edge, was not what I was going for. There is truth there.

Day 26 - Nude ascending a staircase

Ok, sometimes I'm just crazy. Walking up nude from my freezing basement. The blur is intentional to keep your eyes safe.

Day 27 - exposed

I saw the sun on the snow, and had this silly idea. Well, first I had to go to the grocery store, fix a snack for girlscouts and then get my gear together. By then the light was rapidly fading, and not much was going right. In the end, I think it's good, because I have to give myself permission to go with whatever I got, or this project will be too much.

Day 28 - Mind Chatter

Multiple exposure Polaroid Spectra. Sometimes I do feel like my mind if full of junk. Oh and yes, I am in there, just look.

365 Self Portraits Week 3

2008-02-12T22:14:00.000-05:00

Here's the weekly update of my project to take a unique self portrait every day this year.

Day 15

It was quite late. I hadn't blown it yet, but I hadn't prepared anything either. I shot a couple of goofy faces at arms length. Someone on flickr had just commented on this daisy scanner photograph I had put up a long timer ago. Hmmm. I had just read about some new (to me) photoshop techniques, so I played around. It's certainly weird. I particularly like the petals coming out of my nose.

Day 16 Windowlight

I was testing a camera to give to a friend, and decided to do a few polaroid image transfers. Turns out the film I had on hand was way out of date, so the colors were a bit blue and dark, but not bad overall. This is a technique I used a lot in my "professional" artist days. You peel the polaroid after only a few seconds, and place the negative (not the print side) down on another type of paper. I like Rives Arches printmaking paper. I then use a rubber brayer to adhere the emulsion and wait 60-90 sec, and then peel.

Day 17 -mydeskmymind

To say that I have trouble keeping things tidy is an understatement. It's often frustrating and gets in my way. This is a polaroid spectra double exposure.

Day 18

Polaroid Image Transfer on Printmaking paper. There's always a bit of serendipity to these, the bubbles and voids.. Sometimes they run the shot, other times they make them.

Day 19 - Shame

I've put on some weight since the holidays, and the weather turningcrappy, I haven't been running. I've been putting off showing any of mybody, but thought I'd get it over with. Kindly look away. The transfers weren't working (I think the film was too old.) and this was the last piece of spectra film I had.

Day 20 Bliss

An odd, busy, paradoxical, happy day.

Day 21 On waking

My wife says the first thing you do is the only thing you can count on getting done. I've been staying up late doing these, so I set up the camera by the bed to take a picture when I got up. This is me waking up at 6am after getting to bed after 12:30. Good thing I got it out of the way because, either I'm totally out of juice or getting sick so going to bed now, and for once, not doing this at midnight.

365 Self portraits: Week 2

2008-02-07T11:12:00.000-05:00

Working on catching up. I think I'm on week 5 now.

Here's the weekly update of my project to take a unique self portrait every day this year.

This second week has really made it clear to me how huge this commitment is! As I usually run out of time every day, I've been doing the portraits at 10 or 11 pm. It definitely has worn down some of my resistance to picking up a camera that has built up with a long absence from photography.

Day 8 Finally daylight

But never one to do anything easy, I darkened the room, sat in my meditation chair and pulled my Pinhole-holga-polaroid contraption close. I then focused on my breathing for 25 minutes.

You always knew I was an alien.The camera for this was a Chinese Holga medium format camera that I ripped the lens off of and replaced with a pinhole. It was taken with a polaroid back (which cost 4x what the camera cost)The film is interesting in that it requires you to sponge on acoater/lacquer to preserve it. Whew done before 3pm. One thing that was interesting about this shot was that I darkened the room hoping it to be the right amount of light, and counting somewhat on serendipity. As I was meditating, the light changed coming from the roller shade, but I just breathed, experienced it, totally prepared to do something else later if it didn't work out.

Day 9

I started the day with another pinhole experiment. I opened the pinhole when I got into the shower, and closed it when I got out about 15 minutes later. Couldn't see more than a ghost, so I had to come up with something else.

I've reconnected with several old (as in since I started flickring) flickr friends through comments on the 365days project. Looking again at their photos, both old and new got me to dig out my spectra. My shower experiment with the pinholga didn't reveal enough of me, so I thought I'd try a different Polaroid.

A tip o' the hat to:

aikithereska

rskoon

DerrickT

Day 10

Well, still in the shower mode, with the spectra. The light was nice, but I knew I was inside the minimum focus distance. I liked it enough anyway and didn't really have anything better. Well, there were a couple of other shower pics:

I kindof liked this, but as I had had several freak shots in a row, I rejected it as my daily selection.

And this one...

I thought was too goofy.

Day 11

I took a shot of my daughter washing her hair, and then double exposed myself on it (remember, these aren't digital, but polaroid instant film.) It turned out to have a lot of tension. Some people seem to find it creepy. Well, if you can't stir the pot a little, you aint no artist!

I have shot more than just self portraits as a result of this project. I took a single image of my daughter and worked it in photoshop to get this:

Which I was pleased with.

Day 12

It ws really late, as you can see from the monumental bags under my eyes. I shot this using my LCD monitor as a light source. The original was in color, and I hated how blotchy my skin looked. I've learned a few tricks about converting to black and white that give much better results than the automatic methods, and I came up with this dramatic pose.

Day 13

Gasho is a Zen gesture of gratitude. I can't seem to wipe the frown off my face lately, so I bow, and give way... a little

Day 14

another spectra double exposure, shirtless with side light. Cropped from the original.

WooHoo! only 50 more weeks to go.

365 Self Portraits: Week 1

2008-02-06T23:10:00.000-05:00

Art and photography are very important to me. Unfortunately in recent years, I have been making less and less time for my art. I had heard of groups over at Flickr where the idea was to take one photo a day, no matter what for a whole year. Some of the groups are any photo, and try to have themes for each week (not required) and others are selfportraits only. I joined one of each, but committed to myself to do one selfportrait everyday. This would fulfill the requirements of both groups, and give me the option of doing something different for the non-selfportrait group.

I have done self portraits in the past, but not that many, and I always feel funny doing them. I don't particularly like looking at myself in the mirror, and these days it really underlines the difference in how old I think myself to be and how old I am or am looking.

Here's a recap of the first week:

Day 1.

Actually I got started a day late on Jan 2. Because it's a leap year, I still get to do 365. Ok, nearly missed this one too. Got started at about 11pm. I had these battery powered xmas lights:

Ok, mostly I was glad to have the first one done. Whew!

Day 2

Ok, 11pm again. Well, lets play with fire. And a mirror. Could be fun, could be cliche'.

This one was more technically challenging. I manually adjusted the white balance and set up the tripod and whoops! forgot to turn the flash off:

I debated about using this one, but felt that maybe that was cheating. Using weird effects to draw attention from my ugly mug didn't feel very honest. I ended up using the shot I was going for and eventually got:

Day 3

I don't really know what I was thinking. It was close to midnight and I have this funky color changing Hotei lamp. I didn't feel like setting up lamps and I started playing around and kindof liked the contact illumination. It's kindof cheesy, but I like the colors:

Day 4

I really wanted to do better today, but the shot I set up was socontrived, I'm too embarrassed to show it. No, you really don't want tosee me in an insect mask with glowing eyes created by shoving LEDcandles in the eye sockets...This was taken balancing my camera on my knee while waiting for a movie(Juno) to start. There was nooo light.

I figured it was better to get a blurry underexposed shot done than nothing:

Day 5

Trying to get outside, I finally did, still at night. 9:30 after my Men's group met. I was kindof depressed, decided to let it all hang out. Also, I removed a lot of the color. it was interesting that my head basically remained unchanged after I had turned all but the red channel down. I brought the green back a bit.

Day 6

Didn't get out again. Hmm, will I run out of ideas? I don't know. I've been eye-ing some of our toy robots for a while. Ended up with a me and my Teddy shot. Had fun playing with this one in photoshop.

Day 7

In spite of a beautiful warm day, in which I actually got outside, I ended up waiting until late again. I had tried to do a street shot similar to this but my first attempt went awry and I was underdressed, as the temperature had dropped quite a bit. Ended up making faces while lying in bed. In the Camera LCD, I thought this one looked like Mr. Clean. Gave it my fake Holga treatment in photoshop. Maybe next week, I'll actually use the Holga (a cheap plastic chinese film camera.)

Are you as tired of looking at my face as I am? I've thought several times this week, is this really worth it? Shouldn't I be doing something more productive with my time? Should I really be writing this article?

Well, one day at a time...

Back to Blogger!

2008-02-06T21:27:00.000-05:00

It's been a long time since I've updated this blog. I have been blogging, but in a vain attempt to win Money! Fame! Prizes! over at gather.com

It's certainly an interesting community, far more diverse than where I usually hang out, with lots more middle Americans. After a while, the point grubbing got to me. I'll still be updating some content there, but not spending much time there.

What initially attracted me was the fact that it seemed to be a magnet for aspiring writers, and it is true, there's lots of good stuff in the writing contests there. The article editor is pretty easy to use, but the group posting and image browsing are very primitive, especially compared to flickr.

I have earned a $25 Borders gift card, but it seems to rack up the points you have to do a lot of commenting, which, apparently people do, spending lots of time there. Unfortunately, I don't have the time, and even if I did, the wage works out to something like 27 cents an hour, unless you resort to distasteful cut and paste commenting, which I generally equate to spam.

daisy-crop

2007-10-26T11:37:00.001-04:00

I've been revisiting some of my scanner photography lately.
It's been interesting to look at parts of the images.

daisy-crop
Originally uploaded by osbock

Creating a readership and attracting a publisher through podcasting

2007-06-08T10:04:00.000-04:00

I wrote this little summary for a friend who is trying to get published. I thought I'd share it with my blogging audience (all two of you!)

A growing number of authors, frustrated by the difficulty of getting publishers to even look at their work are turning to podcasting to develop a reader base that then ultimately attracts publishers.

Here's the website of an author (Scott Sigler) who has achieved what I mentioned. If you look to the bottom of the page, you see that his book "Earthcore" is now available in paperback at Amazon.com.
http://www.scottsigler.net/index.html

(By the way, Earthcore is terrific!)

I think his approach is pretty sound:
His own website that acts as a marketing vehicle for his work.
Distribution of the podcast is done through podiobooks.com, which also allows it to be visible through itunes, the most popular podcast feed source.
Also, though the main gameplan is to get a readerbase to convince a publisher, podiobooks also takes donations (guiltware?) and the author gets 75% which is in fact a pretty good percentage. Of course not every listener donates and they don't regulate how much (so it could be $.75)

There are other examples, here are a few that I have personally listened to:
Cory Doctorow
Mur Lafferty
J.C. Hutchins

There's also an article on the New York Times website that covers the movement pretty well: (requires free registration)
Link to the article

Podiobooks main page:
http://www.podiobooks.com/index.php
Example of a book page on podiobooks.com
http://www.podiobooks.com/podiobooks/book.php?ID=85

Podiobooks has a submission guidelines page that also includes pointers to very good basic information about podcasting
(what kind of recording equipment, etc., tips, etc.)
http://www.podiobooks.com/authors.php

Once you start developing an audience, it is very important to keep up a regular frequency. Listeners are happiest with weekly, but monthly is the outside limit. It's probably better to crunch and build up a back log of several chapters, take a break and then do some more, etc.

If you have your own feed in addition to the podiobooks feed, you can release a modified version of your installments that includes a talk introduction if you want, responding to readers questions, making excuses why you missed last week etc. Some people go way to far with this.

Also no matter where your podcast feed is, if you prove that you have produced regular podcasts for more than three episodes, you can get linked into the itunes music store at apple. Another venue for exposure.

The Walk for Hunger

2007-05-06T18:39:00.001-04:00

The Walk for Hunger
Originally uploaded by osbock.

Charlotte, Mason, Joyce and I did Project Bread's walk for hunger today. It's a 20 mile walk, but most families with kids just do part of it. We walked from Park Street Station in downtown Boston to Newton Center (around 7.5 miles)

We raised almost $600 to feed the hungry in Massachusetts. Their web site made soliciting and collecting pledges effortless. I hope my friends didn't mind a little spam from me, as it was for a good cause.

Charlotte and Mason complained a bit in the last mile, but mostly they were terrific! I think they were proud of their accomplishment.

If you'd like to donate, visit our walk page at:
http://www.projectbread.org/goto/osborn-pollock

MCAS Dragon

2007-05-05T17:18:00.001-04:00

MCAS Dragon
Originally uploaded by osbock.

I meant to document the construction, but got carried away and in a hurry. The "skull" or frame is made from pink foam insulation board, stuffed with newspapers and plastic bags. The skin is duct tape, and the eyes are big super balls, that I drilled holes into and placed bright color changing LEDs, making them internally illuminated and changeable.

I hope to develop it into a full costume. I'm thinking about applying foam insulation to the surface for texture, installing a fan and silk flames in the mouth.I also want to build a frame to wear it on and big puppet claws. Wings would be way cool, but probably out of my time budget! Maybe in 3 years!

I meant to document the construction, but got carried away and in a hurry. The "skull" or frame is made from pink foam insulation board, stuffed with newspapers and plastic bags. The skin is duct tape, and the eyes are big super balls, that I drilled holes into and placed bright color changing LEDs, making them internally illuminated and changeable.

I hope to develop it into a full costume. I'm thinking about applying foam insulation to the surface for texture, installing a fan and silk flames in the mouth.I also want to build a frame to wear it on and big puppet claws. Wings would be way cool, but probably out of my time budget! Maybe in 3 years!

Mindful Management: Sovereignty

2007-02-28T21:51:00.000-05:00

I've been reading Everyday Blessings: The Inner Work of Mindful Parenting where the authors talk about the importance of the concept of sovereignty.

While it may seem patronizing to compare engineering management to parenting, I believe the concept is very useful in running a happier, more productive organization of any size.

What is Sovereignty?

Most of the dictionary definitions of sovereignty talk about absolute control, free from external influence, like the power of an absolute monarch. Both in terms of real sovereigns (like the Queen of Great Britain, as seen in The Queen.) and the way I'm using it here, sovereignty has many practical limits. The independence and power of a true leader can only continue as long as she serves the best interests of the group she leads.

Good engineers, marketing people, managers, and executives all have an abiding interest in their trade, and ultimately get satisfaction from doing their job well. Unfortunately, many managers, and leaders in organizations hold a notion of how the other people outside their organization should do their jobs, robbing them of sovereignty. Much better is managing in a way that respects people for their ability to create value for the organization. This allows everyone to operate at peak potential.

The rest of this essay will center around the role of the engineering manager and how a mindful engineering manager can facilitate the best result from his or her own team as well as facilitating interactions with other teams such as marketing, quality, customer service and executives. The same concepts can easily be applied to the other job titles.

Managing Engineers

Micromanaging engineers is never a good idea, even if the engineer is inexperienced. Experienced engineers resent it, and can often find better ways than the way they are told. Inexperienced engineers just experience stress and frustration and won't have the opportunity to learn to manage themselves.

Obviously, letting everyone do whatever they want isn't a good idea either.

How then, is a mindful manager to lead his or her team?

Know your people. What motivates them,? What are their strengths and weaknesses? What are their interests? What is the level of their skill?
Give responsibility. Assignments should be broad enough to give the individual engineers enough room to innovate, design and create solutions. Responsibility for larger areas, or when things need to be done in parallel for time's sake should be assigned to small groups of people.
Interdependence. The team's practices should include opportunities to work together, this includes pairs and small teams, as well as cooperative practices such as code reviews and brainstorming sessions.
Being clear about what is important. Time, specific functionality, usability. It's also important not to tell them things are important when they are not. This boxes in their thinking.
Be firm about what is important, but flexible about how you get it.
Listen. Be a sounding board, give feedback, offer to help or get help when needed. Take their good suggestions and evangelize them.
Give them credit for the good ideas.

Working with other teams and functions

Marketing and Product Management

It's the engineering manager's job to represent and help communicate the marketing team's vision and interests in the shape, design and requirements of the product.
Sometimes this requires marketing to geek translation skills, but often it is just demonstrating that you respect the value of the marketing and product management team. This means actively working with the product management team to understand the requirements and help (with the aid of the engineering team) translate that into a set of technical requirements that can be implemented. When tradeoffs need to be made, the solution the engineering team choses must meet the underlying business need, and the manager should get the marketing manager to sign off based on that common understanding.

Architects

When architects are separate from the engineering team, their needs for sovereignty also need to be respected. Common understanding and respect must also be established. Sometimes the architect's vision cannot be fully realized in a single version. Here the architect should be respectfully approached to help work out a roadmap that reflects the priorities of the details of his or her vision.

Superiors

Directors, VP's and second level managers have a great deal of responsibility for the financial success of a product. As such, their sovereignty concerns often deal with whether or not the product will meet business needs. This includes: marketability, features, quality, and time to market. The mindful engineering manager should focus on these attributes in communicating status, and raising issues that cannot be resolved without executive escalation. Acknowledging the underlying business problem of a particular engineering problem, and inviting the executive's perspective on acceptable solutions is a good way to use the executive's strength and acknowledge his or her sovereignty.

Conclusion

This seems like a lot to juggle, and one might come to a conclusion that no such super-manager can exist. I think, however, that just one manager behaving this way can inspire others to step up, in recognition of their own sovereignty and value. As more people step up and embody this kind of mindfulness, the communications between teams becomes more clear, and conflicts and miscommunication reduced. As the culture of mindfulness grows, morale, self-esteem and the esteem of colleagues is bound to grow as well. Consider this when managing your team.

Day 15: shifting priorities

2007-02-22T21:39:00.000-05:00

toothpastefordinner.com
Well, I've missed 2 days of the 15. But in general I feel I've kept the commitment. I do feel that my entries haven't always been the highest quality. I don't know if anyone is reading this crap (no comments for a while!) I think it would be easier if I had a definite theme or "idiom" to stick to.

I could write about tech stuff, particularly making things, but my priorities are definitely shifting. Anyone who knows me knows that I am passionate about many things, sometimes serially, some things always. My photography has been shelved the last month, and I let the deadline for the PRC member show pass by. I still haven't quite figured out how to fit more of my art into my life, but I do know it is still important to me. I feel, however, that it is less important for me to go for shows, recognition, etc. but more important to get out there and do it. It will become important again to share it, but the exact nature of that sharing will probably be different, probably something more "open source"

Stay tuned. In the meantime, head on over to Toothpaste for Dinner
and Drew's excellent (not positive) review of second life (I pretty much agree with his opinion, though he's much funnier than me...). While you are there, check out his comics, they are twisted!

Unintended (?) Education

2007-02-21T21:42:00.000-05:00

My youngest (the twins, age 6) are attending a "camp" run by the aftercare program at our elementary school this week (February vacation.) While my daughter loves school, both of them are more than enthusiastic about going to this program. Enough so that the getting out of the house on time isn't much of a problem this week.

Sure, you say, it's because they are playing all day. Well that's true, but the people who run this program have set up some brilliant activities with no pressure that I think can teach more than regular school can at times. Today they had a construction day, where they did domino runs, knex towers, and marshmallow/toothpick structures. They built a tower that reached their gym's ceiling (and that took some engineering) and had to use a lot of logic to build a domino run over 200 feet long. Even their marshmallow structures had a distinctly geodesic flair. No pressure, lots of fun, and guess what? Learning definitely took place. It's true that their going bowling tomorrow, but I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't learn a little physics. The teachers would deny any ulterior motive of education, of course, but the fact that they are passionate, caring and fun makes the learning effortless.

A tip of the hat to those creative, engaged people!

Humility/Guilt/Intention

2007-02-19T22:19:00.000-05:00

I found myself distracted during meditation today by guilt over blogging about helping a woman with her broken arm. I tend to over analyze these things, but I do know that I tend to seek acknowledgment. I was praised much as a child by my parents, and this unfortunately interferes with my self esteem. I'm aware of this tendency and I often feel guilty if I recount a good deed, even if my intention was to illustrate something else, as I think was the case yesterday.

I think it's important to be of service whenever we can. I think it is also important to encourage others to do the same. I think, though, that it is important to do service to do service, not to serve some need to prove "I am a good person."

I learned tonight of "Taking the Precepts," kind of a pledge that you do when becoming a Zen Buddhist. This led me to this dharma talk on the precepts by Sensei Robert Aitkin. In it he discusses the 7th precept: I take up the way of not praising myself while abusing others.

He gives the reason for this precept:
"The reason I praise myself and abuse others is that I seek to justify and defend myself as a certain kind of rather superior being."

And the appropriate understanding:

"Actually, I am not superior or inferior. My actions and words are appropriate or inappropriate to the needs of people, animals, plants and things, including myself. If I am authoritarian and put myself up and others down, then I am not meeting their need to grow and mature or my own to listen and learn. The Buddha Dharma is obscured. The world suffers."

This is my intention and my labor.

Another aspect of this that I still haven't figured out is how to avoid visiting this behavior on my children. Children do need encouragement, but too much praise is poisonous. It would be best to instill in them their own motivation to right action and passionate living. If anyone has good techniques here, I'd love to hear them.

A little excitement.

2007-02-18T21:14:00.000-05:00

Well I missed a day again, but I've been having a lot of fun with the kids. Went sledding yesterday, and everything was ice, so it was very fast. I laughed a lot watching the the kids light up with the thrill.

We went ice skating today, and the twins hooked up with a girl Charlotte had in her class last year. I met her mother and we chatted. I was taking a few turns around when I saw the girl's mother on the ice, with a couple of people standing over her. She had fallen and broken her arm. I helped her get her skates off, and offered to have her daughter stay with us. I offered to drive too, but the rink manager had called an ambulance. She was in a lot of pain and looked like she was going into shock and it took more than 30 min. and the ambulance still hadn't arrived. I told the rink manager that I thought I should take her to the hospital, and at first they didn't want me to because the ambulance was coming, but they decided to let us go.

She insisted I just drop her at the emergency room, and I took the kids back to our house, where they had a fabulous playdate, with more laughter. While they knew her before, I think they are now friends.

Random

2007-02-17T00:23:00.000-05:00

Complaining
I was complaining tonight about daily blogging. My 6 year old son said (laughing), "Why don't you just press a bunch of keys, like the alphabet."
My 6 year old daughter said, "Make sure you press the space key every so often."
djfha djkdhsf ads8f8di hvndvkj9ewy9 d fgjkdashfidf9 hdjfh 98d fdasjhf akdsjf9
djkfh akdsjf 8id fkha dsfjka dsfjkh adsfh ad faksdhfkja ds9

Hey, that was a lot easier, and it'll probably get past the spam filters.

Reality
Who says we don't create our own reality. I was walking in the woods, and I stopped to look at a frozen stream. I was soon lost in a fantasy about "trying" the ice. Just as I was imagining myself falling and telling myself it would be a stupid thing to "try" the ice. I slipped on the path.

Flickring family history.

2007-02-15T23:06:00.000-05:00

Family pictures, snapshots, old formal portraits are a great way to pull out stories and family history from the older generations. The trouble is, whenever this would happen with my mother, or grandparents, I never wrote any of it down. I've long wanted to know more about my family history, but never had time to do the whole genealogy thing. I did briefly try some genealogy software, but it only helps you to record the data.

My mom loves pictures, and on one of my trips to visit her, I asked her if she wanted the negatives. I was interested in scanning them to save them digitally "for the future." Of course the negatives would probably outlast any computer media I would put them on, but honestly I coveted the photos. I took them home and eventually started scanning them and putting them up on flickr.
When I emailed my mom to show her, she started commenting (on flickr) on the photos making corrections to my titles, and dates, etc. Now flickr isn't really designed as a genealogy collab site, but it was a nice comfortable way for my mom and I to interact. I've thought of using the flickr API to build just such a genealogical collab site, but the nice thing about using photo commenting on a photo commenting site is that it's simple, and that's especially important if you can't train your distant (she lives in Kansas) mother in some specialized software.

Not that I've given up on the idea however. I think using flickr to capture the data is key, and there may be a few minor enhancements that could be made with greasemonkey scripts. It would also be cool to do a mashup that allows you to display a family tree and click on the nodes to bring up pictures of those people. Flickr did a cool thing recently that I only recently accepted as a good thing: hiding "machine tags." Tags with a certain syntax, like geolat:147.222 are hidden, but still available from the api. I think this is key for developing applications like this, as any metadata you would like to define for this mashup wouldn't clutter the flickr interface, but be available to your program. Guess I'd better get busy....

Smile

2007-02-14T23:18:00.001-05:00

Smile
Originally uploaded by osbock.

In Blink, Malcolm Gladwell recounts some research about how assuming a facial expression such as a smile actually triggers the brain to experience pleasure and happiness. This has been verifed by imaging, and other techniques, but I like his story about the researcher who was cataloging human expressions and found he was depressed after frowning all day and happy after smiling.

Thich Nhat Hanh calls this "Mouth yoga" in "Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life." I haven't finished it yet, but almost every little chapter really touches me.
He includes this poem by Marion Tripp:

I have lost my smile
but don't worry
the dandelion has it.

I have lost my smile, but have found it again in the faces of my children, my wife, in the sound of my breath.

Teacher as machinist

2007-02-13T09:08:00.000-05:00

Ok, maybe this is a little far fetched but as I was describing what I liked about "The Celestine Prophecies" to a friend, several thoughts occurred:
1. The story is pretty hokey.
2. Still the idea of "coincidences" really grabbed me.

So here's my little epiphany:
A good teacher knows how to present knowledge to a student or group of students. In the case of simple information, they use terms and metaphors that are pretty universal.

In some cases though, people have a hard time learning some things, either through their particular neuro-psychological profile, or their prejudices from their experiences. In this case, the educator must shape the knowledge to fit the "shape" of the receptive part of the student's mind.
In some cases this happens in little bits, and the fitting of the "keys" actually change the "shape" of the mind, making it more receptive to more of the concept being taught. The shaping can be individual, based on what the teacher knows about the student's background, how they learn etc. or it can be based on the "shaping" formed by common cultural experience. When this is the case, I believe this is what creates a Meme.
James Redfield even talks about our culture leading us to our receptivity for his "prophecies". I think his particular genius is in constructing the story in such a way to work on our minds conditioned by the confusion and dissatisfaction engendered by our modern society.

Even though I don't buy the story, I like the ideas, and I really respect his construction (note I didn't say his writing, it's not that good.)

Zen Sit

2007-02-12T23:14:00.001-05:00

buddha
Originally uploaded by osbock.

I did my first Zen sit tonight at the First Unitarian Church in Newton. Like my free personal training session I'm doing tomorrow, this is something I've put off for a long time. It was difficult, but it also felt very familiar to me, and frankly I enjoyed a couple hours of quiet. There appears to be an active, though far flung Buddhist community here in the northeast, and I'm lucky to have a local group led by our minister James Ford, whose blog Monkey Mind just got nominated for a blogsiattva (who knew!) award.

He always has interesting things to say so please take a look.

Idiocracy

2007-02-11T21:26:00.000-05:00

Well, checking to see if anyone is still reading... My son picked out a movie tonight that I was sure was going to be crap. He generally has good tastes, but sometimes likes stuff because it's "counter." I'm still giving him shit about making me see "Smoking Aces" (Argh, what a terrible movie.)

He picked Idiocracy because it starred Luke Wilson (Owen Wilson's smarter brother..)
What we both didn't realize was that it was written and directed by Mike Judge (Office Space, King of the Hill, Beavis and Butthead.)

While not perfect, it as very entertaining, and not a bad premise about evolution no longer selecting or the smartest or fittest. There are a set of very funny interviews in the beginning with a hi-Q couple talking about how it's not the right time to bring a child into the world, while a lo-Q "gentleman" ends up with hundreds of descendants.

Most of the movie takes place 500 years in the future (I'll try not to spoil too much) and the President is a hoot, driving around on a giant tricked out chopper trike with his cabinet, and his wresslin' garb as his presidential uniform!

While not as brilliant and well executed as Office Space, it's definitely worth a look.

Day 5: oops..

2007-02-10T23:00:00.001-05:00

lost
Originally uploaded by osbock.

Missed a day yesterday. Well, soldier on, the whole point is to make a habit and if I give up now....

Went to a "coffee house/talent show" at Sudbury Valley School tonight. Grant didn't want to come, but we wanted to go to get more of a feel for the place he spends his days. Most of their philosophy revolves around the kids making decisions for themselves, so parental involvement isn't always welcome. There were people singing off key, silly skits by the younger kids and some phenomenal musicians and singers. The wonderful thing about the event was the kids in the audience cheered just as loudly for the off key singers as the superstars.

Incredible energy. It's got to be good for them to be there.

Finished a minty boost kit tonight (charging an Ipod from AA batteries, fits in an altoids gum can.)
went pretty smoothly and it didn't blow up my ipod, though it was already fully charged. More testing tomorrow.

Day 3: Buddha machine, ennui

2007-02-08T23:50:00.000-05:00

I probably don't have any readers left after my long hiatus between posts, and I hope I don't bore searching for things to write in my current 15 day goal. There's a lot on my mind, especially the travesty around the Boston Lite Brite scare. I find it's still really hard to be articulate around this, but the fact that the city continues to call the silly hack advertising boards "hoax devices" and that Turner caved and gave Boston 2 million really upsets me. I would be fine if they paid someone to educate the first responders as to the difference between a lite brite and a bomb....

On the bright side, I ordered and received an FM3 Buddha machine.
It's a little hard to explain why this thing appeals to me, but it's like an infinite album. I like working in the basement with it in my pocket playing it's endless drone loops through it's scratchy little speaker. I wish it shuffled instead of having to push the button on the side to play tracks, but it really is a new media release. Not CD, not DVD, but a true mass market interactive device, for about the price of a double album...

Hacking away.

2007-02-07T23:04:00.001-05:00

diceyproject
Originally uploaded by osbock.

Had a fantastic Interview yesterday, however it resolves, I will share about it here when I'm able to.

Having a little time, I've finally gotten back to my electronics hobby. I bought this little electronic dice kit to practice soldering (it's been years).
I felt a little bad because I really wasn't that interested in dice, and would have another thing around that i wouldn't use but couldn't throw away, but it was really cheap (<$5).

Turns out, my kids were entranced. We now use it to focus the kids for bed. They push the button, and how ever many dots are lighted, that's how many things they have to do to get ready for bed.

Roll 3: Remove three pieces of clothing
Roll 2: Put pajama tops and bottoms on.
Roll 4: Get toothbrush, put toothpaste on, brush, spit.

They love playing games (and we used to do this with regular dice but they got bored.) and the tech nature is also interesting them in electronics. They are starting to use snapcircuits and are really learning a lot.

Meta Resolve

2007-02-06T21:34:00.000-05:00

I don't really like New Years resolutions, as I hate to make promises I might not keep. As you can tell from this late date still thinking about resolutions, I have been guilty about something that I'm now ready to make at least a small commitment. I haven't been writing very often, and I now commit to blogging at least once a day for 15 days. I figure that's long enough that I may actually develop the habit.

Since new years I've been thinking about my favorite things in 2006 and I'll be writing more about them in the days to come. Here are a few of the things I've discovered, or enjoyed in 2006:

1. Podcasts, particularly Escape Pod and Pseudopod as well as the Sciam podcasts
2. Netvibes. Convinced me to use RSS. It's my homeapage now.
3. Make Magazine and their wonderful blog http://makezine.com/blog
4. Rediscovering electronics hacking, music, etc.
5. I don't know if I started at flickr last year, but it really dominated. Lots of supportive friends, inspiring images, and lots and lots of babble.
6. Moo cards. At last personal calling cards I can be proud of!

I'll write more on these and more in the coming days.

P: Pneumonia

2006-11-23T14:22:00.000-05:00

I started this entry when I was pretty sick with pneumonia. I waited too long to go to the doctor when the cold ended, but the cough didn't. The antibiotics appear to be working, but, recovery is slow But I'm definitely on the upswing.
I also got to finish a good, funny, and touching book;

The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World.
by A. J. Jacobs

A couple of things I really liked about this book. First it was a fairly light read, which was just what I needed laid up in bed. At times it's laugh out loud funny. Mr. Jacobs isn't afraid to reveal himself in an unflattering light without false-modesty.

In his quest to read the entire (printed. bound) version of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, he takes us through a, perhaps not epic, journey of self discovery. It was charming, and I definitely recommend it.

One last note on sickness. As long as I laid still during the worst parts of the recovery I was relatively ok. This meant, besides reading, I got to spend a lot of time with my kids chatting with me about their day, their friends etc. Nothing else to do, no distractions, I could give them my full attention. Because talking made me cough, I had to listen more too. I hope I can have more of these without being flat of my back!

Worming into their hearts

2006-11-15T16:23:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, I went in to each of my twins' first grade classes and did a bit of show n' tell about vermicomposting, and set up a worm bin for each class to recycle their lunch scraps.
The kids each got a specimen of Eisenia Foetida to examine, and, well, play with.

It was a fantastic experience, with the kids asking a lot of great questions, as well as sharing their recycling stories. One kid said "My mom makes a lot of trash. She's always saying, we need to throw out these boxes. I want to save them and make things out of them."

One teacher told me the other teacher had filled her in on the activity and said that I was "Passionate about worms." I thought about that, and the wonderful feeling I had doing this.
I always enjoy doing my science demos for my kid's classes (last year, I gave them all hovercraft rides), and I have fantasized about becoming this generation's Mr. Wizard or Bill Nye.

I'll definitely be doing more of this, and who knows, If I can figure out a way to make a living, that would be a hoot!

Hauntings

2006-11-08T12:18:00.000-05:00

Happy Halloween!
Originally uploaded by osbock.

Well, I'm way behind, but I may as well start with the Haunted house. As I've done every year for the past 4 or 5, I spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday building a haunted house, that runs for 2 hours, and is torn down in about 1 hour. It's always a struggle to get volunteers, my oldest has outgrown it, and my youngest are too young to go through it.

Why do I do it?
1. The core team of people (myself, John Rice, and Nina Berk) are committed and utterly reliable. It's important to us to carry on the tradition and carry on we do.

2. I've learned a lot about adjusting to what's possible with the resources at hand. The Haunted House used to be run by a very creative guy, who worked months in advance planning, worked nonstop (up all night most times) to create a very coordinated, artful haunted house. It was also, often stressful. Our version is usually a bit looser. We err on the side of what we know we can get done. We spend more than a little thought on how we can simplify and make things easier. Still, the kids come out scared, and the kids who act in the haunted house have a blast!

3. How often do I get a fully supported excuse to spend a weekend creating something totally wacky? Hey, that's worth it right there.

4. More than just the event itself, people in the community appreciate the continuity, and that appreciation continues to create that community. With over-scheduling, 2 career families, many, many demands, it's hard not to feel isolated and not connected to a community. These small efforts really do make a difference.

In the weeds...

2006-09-27T21:51:00.000-04:00

Mason on the Marsh
Originally uploaded by osbock.

Well, I haven't kept up with the blog lately. I started an entry weeks ago, titled koyaanisqatsi, about life out of balance, which is true, but I'd rather not dwell on it, but I do feel it is important to keep this going with something, so please bear with me and let me know if you are bored.

I did get some photography done over vacation on the cape with my favorite models, which you can check out in my artsy flickr stream:
http://flickr.com/photos/kevino or my family stream: http://flickr.com/photos/qqf

Kids are back in school, and, in fact, Grant is at a new school: Sudbury Valley which eats up a lot of my day driving him to and from until we sort out the transportation. Overall, I think it's the right choice for him, as it will let him find his own way.

On the mad coincidence/celestine prophecy front:
I videoed a cool one man band bluegrass player at Boston's Quincy market. I posted it up on youtube and didn't reallly think about it, until I saw a story about Eric Royer on http://makezine.com. I followed the link to his website (http://guitarmachine.com/) and I'm now even more of a fan of Eric Royer!. I emailed him the link and he may use the video on his website.

Oh, and another distraction: I scored a cool Konica Minolta Scan Dual IV 35mm scanner on ebay for a very good price, so you'll probably see a lot more of my old 35mm (and some new trashcam stuff) on my flickr stream, so stay tuned.
God, I am rambling. well, perhaps something more coherent next time. hmmm arenophilology.....

A new era

2006-08-07T16:46:00.000-04:00

Wow. It's been a while since I posted, but now it looks like I'll have a little time to catch up on a bunch of topics I've been saving up.

After nearly 9 years at Sun Microsystems, I was one of the 20% of the software organization that was "affected" by the most recent Reduction in Force (RIF.)

In many ways, it is the end of an era of my life, and there have been many pulls and pushes to tell me it is time to move on to the "Next Big Thing." I still don't have a clear vision, but I do now have incentive and a bit of freedom to figure that out.

The thing that makes me most sad is that I won't be seing and talking to my friends at Sun on a daily basis. I'm sorry I didn't get to say goodbye to all the amazing folks I've worked with over the years, but I promise to make an effort to stay in touch. Fortunately, linkedin, IM and other modern services make this a lot easier than it used to be, but also I'm planning on getting together with folks in person as well.

I could probably write more about what I've learned (and may still) but it's all a bit fresh, and I'm still processing, so stay tuned.

I'm not jumping into any job that comes along, but I'm definitely open to exploring possibilities. If you have any leads for a creative, inventive (6 patents pending in the last year), leader, software architect, photographer, please pass them along!

The Calling

2006-04-10T21:11:00.000-04:00

Jury Show Submission
Originally uploaded by osbock.

A few weeks ago, the intern Minister (Chris Bell) at FUSN did a sermon about "Callings" as he had recently received his "Calling" (translation, he got a job) to be minister at a UU church in Santa Rosa California. It was a sermon jam packed with ideas (as most of the sermons at FUSN are) and I won't try to summarize. One of the key points, though, was that there's a lot of talk in career counselling websites, books, etc. about seeking your calling, following your bliss, etc. I think he said that this was somewhat arrogant, as many people do not have a choice. They do not have a choice between rice farmer and painter, factory worker and minister. He said it was important to pursue your passion/calling, but why did it have to be connected to work. Of course this message was vindication to someone who thinks my pursuit of an artistic career is irresponsible, as well as giving fuel to my own resistance. I left with mixed feelings, but stored this away, waiting for...

The next idea, from "The War of Art" by Steven Pressfield. This book is not as didactic as some of those "Live your passion" books, but he definitely doesn't like dabblers, amateurs. While some define amateurs as "those who love" he makes the point that the professional loves more, having completely committed to her art. This rings true to me, and though it would probably be simpler to accept this and aggressively pursue this career, I feel that it is most important to make the commitment and do the work. Whether or not my living is derived from it may or may not follow, but I must aggressively pursue my art.

I got a rejection today (from the PRC members show) and I choose to view this as proof that I did WORK. I need to continue, and perhaps accumulate more rejections, and hopefully a few successes. More important than success, is to work, to delve, to show, and this I pledge to continue.

Serendipity and Resistance

2006-03-28T22:49:00.000-05:00

I vacillate between being a total skeptic and a quantum mystic. So that is why I'm somewhat embarassed to openly confess that I really liked "The Celestine Prophecy" by James Redfield. In fact I almost didn't read it because many of the reviews made it sound like a "Mystical new age journey." Too many people who I respect recommended it to me, and I finally caved. I read it, and yes, it was a "mystical new age journey" but it rang so darn true, that I decided to really change my behaviour.

I don't really buy his whole "theory" but viewed the book as a metaphor for a truth that isn't really hard to explain. The idea is that if you are open to them, coincidences will lead you in a direction that benefits you. It seems to fly in the face of rational planning, but what I'm coming to realize is that this works because there is a powerful force always at work in my life, that this kind of behaviour is meant to neutralize: Resistence.

It follows that if I want to sabotage any goal, or believe myself not worthy of something (like being an artist) I will resist, ignore, and otherwise plug my senses to any interesting opening, opportunity or experience.

By consciously being "open" and stating what I want (to be an artist and teacher, and be able to support my family) many of my conversations have taken a different direction. Where I might have discussed the weather before, I now talk about people's passions. About half the time, people are uncomfortable, or change the subject, and I pretty much forget about those. Of course when people are open, and talk about their struggles, or desires, those stand out, and seem like a coincidence (since I forgot all the other less inspiring interactions!)

If I was closed down and depressed, I might have never struck up the conversation with Rodrigo. If I hadn't blogged about all this, I never would have gotten an email from fellow manager Martin Lister referring me to "The War of Art" by Steven Pressfield which is about combatting resistence, and that, of course led me to the connection between resistance and Serendipity.

Music, stumps, serendipity

2006-03-23T21:33:00.000-05:00

I continue to struggle to bring art back into my life, but the more consistent I am in being open about it, talking about it, and doing it, seems to bring fellow travellers in front of me to inspire and educate me.

Case in point: I was flying to California for my management job, when I struck up a conversation with the fellow in the next seat. His name is Rodrigo Moreira, and he makes classical guitars, and is the president of the Brazilian Rosewood Foundation.

He was a professional tennis player, who had to stop because of injuries, had a good job, but took a break, went home to Brazil, and started obsessing about stumps. Much of the rosewood forests near his home have been clear cut, and he started probing around the stumps, digging them out, thinking about them. He told me his parents probably wanted to institutionalize him, but he had an idea that would end up taking on a life of its own. Rosewood is a wonderful wood for making guitars, and Rodrigo's own grandfather was a Luthier. What he discovered was that the stumps contained beautifully figured, and well aged wood, and quite a lot of it. He created a foundation with the help of donations from several famous guitarists. He employs the local people to pull the stumps from the ground, and resaw them into wood that is then sold to guitarmakers all over the world. He then uses the profits to buy more land and plant thousands of trees each year. He never cuts these trees, but is comitted to restoring as much forest as he can.

He is happy, feels he is doing good, and is making a good living as well. He also creates beautiful guitars (I didn't just take his word for it, I googled him!)

He doesn't have a website yet (I'm hoping to encourage him to spread the word) A google search does turn up a number of enthusiastic reviews from owners, as well as images.

Portfolio Review

2006-03-06T22:23:00.000-05:00

Charlotte
Originally uploaded by osbock.

One of the member benefits of the Boston Photographic Resource Center is an annual portfolio review. I took a pile of old and new work in this morning for feedback from the curator, Leslie Brown. Not only did I get terrific feedback, Ms. Brown was incredibly intuitive, a fantastic active listener, and from this made several connections that were very valuable to me.
She encouraged me to continue to use the polaroid medium because of my facility with it, but really thought my heart was in the children's portraits. She picked up that I had blamed having a family for not photographing for 15 years, and thought that it was fitting to return through my family. I've been very pleased with these pictures, but have been looking elsewhere for "commercial potential." I think I do have to follow my heart here. It does feel right.

Oh, and she turned me on to the terrific work of Loretta Lux! Check it out.

The importance of irrelevant goals

2006-02-21T16:44:00.000-05:00

Creation Dance
Originally uploaded by osbock.

OK, I cheated a little with the title. I really meant no-longer relevant goals. Goals, that while important when you made them, maybe slipped away, by virtue of finding out they were overly ambitious, or simply by procrastination.

Case in point, my entry into the juried Boston Photographic Resource Center Member show.
I put off pulling it all together for one basic reason (in additon to my perpetual tendency to self-sabotage!)

I was most active "artistically" 15 years ago, and have a fairly large portfolio of ready to frame images. When I went to the "Answering the Call" seminar they pretty strongly made the point that New Work Is Better. The submission guidlines also said the information sheet should contain when the images were printed. Well this much sent me into a tailspin of self doubt. I was tempted to lie, but the whole point of making changes is to be more integrity with my values. I had more recent work, but none of it was printed, or at least anywhere near the form I'd show.

Well, as negative as my thoughts may be about not submitting my very best, it was an incredible experience pulling it together.

The first thing was the basic "kick in the pants" to get going on producing new work. We all need these, and we don't always have outside support to provide them. Forcing myself through this somewhat painful process definitely gave me this!

Second was the much dreaded "Artist Statement and Bio." While I was sure this would be incredibly difficult for me, I did basically know why I made these photographs. Joyce was kind enough to suggest that I stop off at a Starbucks somewhere and not come home until I finished it. It really wasn't as bad as I feared, though I didn't "perfect it." It's still a little to artsy-wordy to have the most impact, but I did it!

So, just a word of encouragement! Keep those promises, especially to yourself. I know it's especially important for me because keeping myself moving is the thing that keeps me moving (Inertia man!)

Photography for the Blind?

2006-02-18T18:29:00.000-05:00

I went to the Boston Photographic Resource Center to drop off my last minute entry into their members exhibit and check out the new "DOCUMENT:
Contemporary Social Documentary Work from Greater Boston" exhibit.

Very strong work, and lots to write about, but the first thing you see when entering the exhibit is a rather unusual display of large color photographs by Mariliana Arvelo and James Patten with relief carved and burned "copies" below. The photographs are pretty compassionate photos of folks in the boston deaf-blind community. When I say compassionate, I guess I mean that they honor their subjects passion and engagement with life. In some ways I'm a little uncomfortable with this, as it does seem to shout: "See they can swim, party, etc. just like normal people." I think that in some ways it is good as people who do hold prejudice (well, probably just about everybody to some degree, even if it's just called sympathy) to entertain a more normal view.

Below each photograph is a Laser-CNC (Computer Numeric Control for the non-geek) etched/carved wooden panel of the accompanying photograph. I think the key idea is to enable the vision empaired to experience the photographs through touch. My first reaction was, "hmmm. I wonder what blind people think? Especially people who have never experienced sight?" I personally found touching them, especially with my eyes closed bewildering, and while we've all heard of enhanced senses, etc. I wonder if it really is meaningful.

I talked to my neighbor about it briefly on the phone. She is an educational consultant for the visually impaired for the Boston Public School System. We didn't have long to talk, but she told me that 2-D texture art, etc. were fairly controversial as opposed to 3-D scuplture. She also expressed an interest in visiting with blind artists (she'd applied for a travel grant.)

I really like the idea of trying to learn from anyone who has a different perspective and I would love to be more exposed to art created by people with different perception systems.

If anyone has any pointers, or especially personal experience, I'd love to hear from you!

Here are some images from an earlier show from Mr. Patton's website.

Doing Justice, finding balance.

2006-02-15T12:27:00.000-05:00

Making and experiencing art has become very important to me, maybe not as important as oxygen, but when I go without, I definitely become more golem like, and it's not pleasant to live with me.

15 years ago, I was a full time artist. I was happy, having a great time. In fact, I felt guilty to be doing something so fun, so, of course, I put an end to that. Lots of excuses (early childbirth of my son, fear about being able to support the family, etc.) so I re-entered the corporate world, hoping to ignite passion about computing to take the place of my art. Well, I was distracted for a while, but the pressure has built until I can't take it anymore!

I started making pictures again, and also started seeing a life coach (Lauren Mackler) After taking the requisite personality tests, lots of exercises and talking, she's been dragging me kicking and screaming toward the idea that I can actually Make a Life, and Make a living.

Well, I haven't convinced myself yet, but I definitely know it is very hard to do justice to the artwork part-time. I had a couple of good runs stealing time from the family, but I have to pay for that, and it is not sustainable. I'm still trying to convince myself that I can make a business of my art. I just started a "Shameless Self Promotion" course online with Art Business coach Alyson Stanfield (ArtBizCoach.com). If anything, things I'm learning there ("you should spend 50% of your time on marketing") are reinforcing the idea that this is not something I can easily get going in my "spare time."

I'd love to hear how others navigate this, as I'm sure I'm not the only one trying to transition with family commitments, etc.

Answering the Call

2006-02-08T13:42:00.000-05:00

I went to a seminar put on by the Boston Photographic Resource Center last night.
Answering the Call (for entries):
A How-To Guide with Leslie Brown and Jim Dow
It was a fantastic, entertaining, overwhelming look at the inside process of jurying for art shows, galleries and grants.
Jim Dow was fantastic as he led the group of about 90 of us through the Jury process with a mock review of slides that he had assembled from recent shows he had visited. Leslie (the curator for the PRC) also added her experience and some details about the upcoming PRC member show.

He opened with a statement about how "The dialog that surrounds contemporary art is often more important that the work itself." He then proceeded to trick us by showing us real artist's statements paired with images. What a lot of "artspeak!" He then revealed that the images were actually vernaculer images (such as samples from a 19th century gravestone sales kit, and poodle garden sculptures.) He confessed to lifting the artist's statements from a famous art school in Boston's visiting artist section of their web site!

The point of all this was to really write what your photography means to you, because, if you make it through the anonymous portion of jurying, and they start reading statements, they said it all blends in to "nerf" unless it really rings true.

Lessons:

Jurors often have hundreds, if not thousands of images to get through. You don't want to make it easy to eliminate you quickly. Some examples of big boo-boos: Bad slides, wildly unrelated images, subtle images that need perfect reproduction to be understood.
Understand the exact parameters of submission. How many projectors will they be using (in our trial, they showed 2 images side by side, which Jim often used to point out details of the syntax of the artwork that were important.) Use this information to present your work in the best light. If there is an obvious sequence to your submission, make sure you communicate this in accompanying materials.
Index sheet is highly helpful especially with digital submissions. This is also a good way to indicate sequencing/pairing, etc.
Many shows are now accepting digital submissions, but the process hasn't adapted very well for it. For one, projectors may or may not be available, and if they are, rarely multiples. Jim showed very interesting examples of great photos, scanned from an 8x10 negative, that looked terrible and washed out when digitally projected. They looked great on his laptop screen, but much. much detail was lost in projection. Another important case of finding out how the work will be seen (passing around a laptop, projection, etc.) He said he'd seen Powerpoint used effectively, but that any hope of color management goes out the window. Tiffs on CDROM seemed to be the preferred format/media. (I think I'll blog on how this could be fixed later....)
Don't ever submit more than the standard number, even if it is allowed. Makes you look anxious....
The Freshest work comes to the top. Many shows now limit submissions to the last 2 or 3 years work. There ensued an interesting discusssion about old images being reworked, and "when is it finished. Generally, they concluded that when it is printed it is finished (or completed in the case of manipulated works) even if starting from decades old source material.

There was much, much more material, including a discussion of rate of production, and "What is a body of work?" that could probably be expanded to a whole semester of discussion and study.
If you ever get a chance to see Jim Dow speak, I highly recommend it. He was inspiring, humble, supportive and impressive. If this seminar is any indication of the PRC's educational offerings, I'm looking forward to going to a lot more of them.

From the perspective of making a living as an artist (something I'm exploring) I don't know how important these Juried shows are. It seems they are an important tool for building your resume, and thus part of your brand as an artist. I think there are other more direct ways that may have a more immediate impact on sales, but I think it's probably worth the effort to pursue a few of these a year for both the exposure, and the resume building.

Kansas and the Beats

2005-08-16T21:51:00.000-04:00

I recently got interested in reading more of Alan Ginsberg's poetry (I met him in college.) You probably never heard of him but he is probably the second or third most famous beatnik (after Jack Kerouak and William S. Burroughs)

I picked up a book of his poetry, called "Planet News" in a used bookshop. It contained a poem that I'd heard of, but never read, called "Wichita Vortex Sutra." and it was full of references to Kansas and Nebraska, including Hutchinson!

It was clear he had visited Kansas, and I wondered why, so I googled "Kansas beatniks" and came up with some great Kansas history pages.
It turns out many influental beatniks came from or lived in Kansas, including William S. Burroughs (author of "Naked Lunch") Ginsberg visited because he wanted to see where so many of the Beats came from, including a famous sculptor and film-maker Bruce Conner, who was the Wichita regional manager for Dillon's stores.

The Wichita Vortex was a group of poets, writers and artists who lived in Wichita.

Here's a great site if you want to read more:

http://www.ku.edu/heritage/beats/

Caffeine Creep

2005-06-07T11:24:00.000-04:00

Caffeine Creep
Originally uploaded by osbock.

I quit caffeine for 3 weeks about 2 months ago, with the intention of having minimal caffeine from then on. I was tired of the roller coaster and lack of control over my own energy. It has been going pretty well, except the last few days, I haven't been getting very much sleep, or exercise. Plus, there is a really cool new coffee shop in our village.
Lincoln Street Coffee
It's really nice, free wifi, plus it's independent. So I really have to support them (spoken like a true addict!)
That's why the photo is of my shadow...

Chinese adoption trip

2005-06-06T22:58:00.000-04:00

China Adoption Trip - Evie and Jeff get Linnea!
Our next door neighbors are leaving this Thursday to pick up their new baby daughter in China!

They've promised to update their blog from China so check back. They have quite a complicated itinerary, so it should make for an interesting read!

First paddle of the year

2005-06-06T22:39:00.000-04:00

IMG_0211
Originally uploaded by osbock.

Joyce bullied me into getting out to the Charles for the first time this year. I was really glad she did. It was a beautiful day. A little hot earlier, it started to cool down and get a little cloudy in the evening. I brought my new Canon A95 with me (always a bit nerve-racking, a delicate electronic device in a tippy boat.) I followed a great blue heron around for a while, but all the pictures came out blurred.

Sandy Island New Hampshire

2005-06-01T23:06:00.000-04:00

Sandy Island New Hampshire
Originally uploaded by osbock.

The family joined our FUSN friends at Sandy Island camp in Lake Winnipesaukee.
I got this nice shot(s) one day at sunset at the beach. It really is a beautiful place. I did this handheld, and stitched it together with the Canon Photostitcher. The program can also make quicktime VRs. Here's the same shot in that format. Watch out, it's pretty big.

2004-11-29T23:42:00.000-05:00

Thanksgiving and a RealEstate Journey
We were really inspired by "Rich Dad Poor Dad" and wanted to get our money to work for us, instead of the other way around. We think we'd like to expand our stock portfolio using a value strategy (long term, find underpriced "gems" and wait) and to invest in Real Estate. I want to make sure we capture what we learn here, both for our own benefit, and for others on the same journey.

We're not quite sure what the best RE investment strategy is, but we thought we might look at the Cape as we've heard things are still appreciating there, and were surprised to find somewhat affordable listings there. The rental market is a little wonky there, so affordable is relative, especially when you are looking to get income, or at least break even while waiting to "flip" the property for appreciation. Part of our motivation, is probably the secret desire to get a "subsidized getaway" though we would pick a deal that makes money over that.

Thanksgiving weekend, we drove down to Cape Cod, and stayed in Hyannis at the Cape Codder and visited a few open houses on Sunday.

Things learned from the agents there:
1. Year round rentals are often to "workers" and to reduce the rental per person, they will have 3-5 families move into a 3 bedroom house. This is bad news for a septic system that is rated for 4 or 5 people. He said getting it pumped once every six months when you have renters is a good idea, and may prevent having to replace the hole thing to the tune of $10,000+
2. It may be obvious, but the closer you are to the beach, the better for seasonal rental. Of course the price goes up too, however, there are fixer-uppers, and "relatively close" properties that aren't too bad.
3. There are 8-10 rental weeks in Seasonal rental. I'm sure not all those weeks are equally valued.

I had a discussion with someone at work, and she told me that she had some friends that bought a former yacht club, and renovated to 7 units, living in the "penthouse" Did seasonal rentals for the other units, but only monthly through Oct. I thought this was a nice idea, if you can book them, as it would be a lot less work than weekly, both from the perspective of maintenance and managing the "reservations"

2004-10-30T16:24:00.000-04:00

I have a bunch of stuff to write about China, but I'm way behind. In the meantime, I thought I'd show you the hoverboard Grant and I made with his friend Caleb.
Hoverboard Video