Posts

Posted on

Life: A Moment of Quiet

Little bits of projects in progress are slowly taking over the horizontal surfaces of my home

We had an actual THUNDERSTORM this morning! The sound woke me up at about 4:18 am, which was NOT welcome, though it was novel. I could also see lightning flash through the curtains now and then, and after a while, even heard rain (ACTUAL RAIN!) patting against my home.

The novelty of thunder and lightning used to be delightful – it happens so rarely! – but during a fire weather watch, the fear of new wildfires sparked by lightning is too real. Lovely local lightning photos on Twitter were met with a sentiment that combined “ooooh!” with “OH, NO!”

We are still more than 20 days from the autumn equinox, but rain is rare in September, and the smell of rain and the heaviness of the storm mean that it FEELS like autumn right now.

*

I’ve been busy. A little too busy.

There is a quote from Dorothea Lange, which the Internet recounts as, “One should really use the camera as though tomorrow you’d be stricken blind…” and sometimes I take her suggestion too much to heart. I’ve been WORKING on my projects with intense, goal-oriented dedication, and it feels like work – creative, but still work.

Photography isn’t all being out and taking photos: beyond the planning and reconnaissance about when the light will be right and in what weather and season, there are: downloads and uploads; indexing and organizing; labeling and backing up; and just as much work for film, plus physical labeling and storage. It is a bit tedious to manage my voluminous output across multiple formats, tedious enough that I suspect my notes for possible NaNoWriMo novels may just be a procrastination plan. I’ll admit it: I suspect it would be easier to write another novella (my fifth!) than it would be to organize my photos and scan my film (and recent monotype prints, while I’m at it). It is funny, but also true. Also: to the extent I pretend to care what people think, it would be much more glamorous to say I’ve written another novella than to describe my indexing process for images. Just typing that almost knocked me unconscious with boredozzzzzzzzzz…

*

My dining room table is becoming a staging area for cameras and film with too little room left over to eat, and I need to get that under control soonish.

I have an unexpectedly large collection of painted shapes that were masks for monotype prints, which I am also working with for fun and frivolous purposes

The IDEA of having time is stimulating all by itself. The potential project list in my head is getting ambitious, rather than just consisting of things that can be done after work or between errands. More and more modest-but-time-consuming projects are piling up in my mind. I really will be designing inappropriately complex templates for photo albums – it will be fun and mostly harmless! 😀 I really will locate more negatives that I’ve mislaid, to see if I can pull together a book from a camera my father found in HIS father’s attic! These projects will all be satisfying in their own way.

It’s lovely to have the time to execute plans, and hopefully I’ll squeeze in rest between organization sessions!

Posted on

Culture: World Postcard Day is October 1, 2021

World Postcard Day (October 1st)
World Postcard Day (October 1st) – Celebrate the postcard day by sending a postcard to someone!

Yes, for some of us, nearly every day is World Postcard Day, thanks to the hard work of our postal services! There is also a SPECIAL day for those of us who aren’t already sending and receiving them regularly! The winning design for the card this year is cute, and everyone likes to receive a note in the mail. Try it!

Posted on

Book: A Crack In Creation by Jennifer A. Doudna and Samuel H. Sternberg

See how the letters in yellow are all DNA-related?
Adenine, cytosine, guanine, and thymine. (Like in the movie GATTACA.)

Book: A Crack In Creation: Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolution
by Jennifer A. Doudna and Samuel H. Sternberg
published by Mariner Books / Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, New York
2017

Imagine not only having the scientific skills to be recognized with a Nobel Prize, but also the communication ability to explain the scientific landscape context in which you did it, AND the basics of the science? You don’t have to just imagine it: you can read this book!

Doudna and Sternberg describe this important technology well. My own limited summary of what they’ve proven would be: bacterial chromosomes store DNA snippets of viruses they encounter, which they use to mount a precise defense against viruses; the way they store the information is so consistent that it works like a programming language; and these precision DNA-targeting defenses are useful for scientists to make precise modifications to DNA.

This impressive book describes past and current developments in genetic editing, tools and approaches (including Zinc Finger Nucleases and Transcription Activator-Like Effector Nucleases), what other scientists were discovering, and Doudna’s work with many collaborators on developing CRISPR Cas9 into a useful tool for human scientists. I appreciate the authors’ work in identifying and crediting other actors in this space, and how the collective contributions to overall knowledge supported further discoveries.

Doudna and Sternberg write clearly about very complex topics, and do a great job of covering this technology at a high enough level that non-biochemist readers can grasp the general concepts without needing to fully understand the mechanics of it all. (There were times when they were working on one problem, and tested it by developing a tool that seemed just as hard as the problem they were trying to address, which both impressed and surprised me, catching me up further to the current state of what is possible. )

The book continues beyond the science of how CRISPR Cas9 works into the ethical implications of being able to impact our own evolution, which is a discussion Doudna is actively promoting. The book suggests that the scientific community’s expanding knowledge of genetic disorders appears to be pointing toward good, single-mutation candidates for potential therapeutic treatments in humans, but that more complex conditions would require other solutions, and that we need much more data – and some difficult ethical conversations – to determine whether to change human genes in an inheritable way.

I did object to a few positions in the book which speculated on using technology to favor business interests over consumer demands, the environment, and animal welfare. These positions may attract investment from “Big Ag” while turning off the public.
– Doudna compares CRISPR to Big Ag’s Genetically Modified Organism campaigns, and blames consumers for not embracing the self-serving objectives of Ag corporations. The industry modifications were intended to consolidate business, not benefit consumers or meet any specific consumer demand. Consumers should not be expected to embrace products which do not directly benefit them. Various national laws, including those in the EU and India, have recognized that GMO use is not a purely scientific matter, but one of industry consolidation and domination, and one which has environmental impacts.
– While the UN Climate organizations are advising us to dramatically reduce animal agriculture, the authors here see engineering animals to eat more favorably than our global crisis or public health require.
– The concept of animal welfare is raised but not meaningfully addressed, or is addressed in an industry-over-animals point of view. (Writing on animal welfare should NOT make me think of internet jokes about inert monsters produced for fast food chains!)

CRISPR Cas9 has vast potential as a tool to improve human health in the area of genetic diseases – what a time to be alive! – and the complex process of determining appropriate priorities and ethical frames for this important work still lie ahead. This is a clear, thoughtful, informative book for learning more about this technology and the ethical concerns this technology creates.

Posted on

Art: Pan American Unity by Diego Rivera on view at SFMoMA

The colors! THE COLORS! It’s been {forever and a day} since I last saw this, and it is glorious. A really powerful mural. It’s in the free-to-the-public SFMoMA lobby on Howard. Go see it.

Pan American Unity
Diego Rivera’s last mural painted in the U.S. moves to SFMOMA for a free-to-see presentation.
Posted on

Climate Emergency: California fires (today, and for so many days)

The smoke hanging over us every day is a difficult and stressful reminder of what is happening to places we love.

Every day, the news names places I have been to, places I have hiked through, places I have photographed, and notes that these places are on fire at that very moment.

We aren’t yet at the phase where we fundamentally rethink how to live here, and how to be safer and more environmentally responsible, not just at an individual level – individuals can’t solve this alone! – but region-wide at a governmental, societal, and even corporate level. We really need to have those conversations. Soon.

Posted on

Book: Zaha Hadid by Philip Jodidio

What would the architecture profession do without architectural photography?

Zaha Hadid
by Philip Jodidio
published by Taschen, Köln
2019

Before reviewing this book, I wish to disclose how I feel about deconstructivism, even though Hadid’s work is NOT the old meaning of THAT fad. I trained as an architect and worked in architecture in the late 80s and early 90s. In school, I had a few oppressively modernist instructors (as in the 1950s concept of modern) get very, very excited about abstract deconstructivist drawings of spaces which could not be built, and which had no human use. While they obsessed over floating red triangles, they still insisted that an ideal building was a Palladian villa. I’m not kidding. They couldn’t see where the movement was going. Also, the deconstructivist works they liked best could not be built on earth because of gravity. They completely missed the rebellion against simple forms that these fetishized, sharp drawings offered. Their enthusiasm for drawings with no application on earth put me off all such work for a long time. In the meantime, Hadid’s real world, mature work displays great characteristics which were implied by her early rebellion against simplistic geometries, which led me to this book.

This book is a profile of Zaha Hadid’s architectural practice, and the work of the global firm she founded, which continues to produce remarkable buildings consistent with her approach beyond her death. The Taschen Basic Art series is a collection of artist profile teasers, which get you started in your studies without committing you to a vast, oversized portfolio the size of your coffee table. It takes a light, greatest-hits touch, which was just right for me to familiarize myself with her recent work and help me overcome my misgivings around the early conceptual drawings I used to associate her with.

The essay by Jodidio is long, but it helped me clarify elements of her designs I like. I was pleased to read that she always worked with engineers up front, not at as an afterthought, which explains her innovative designs for walkways (such as the famous floating ramps and stairwells of the National Museum in Rome, and so many other cores of her buildings), which define many of her interiors for me. She incorporated and used below-grade spaces as essential spaces within her designs more visibly than many of her contemporaries, and this allowed for different circulation patterns, which also feel innovative. Her use of organic, fluid-appearing forms carries through her designs in a way I feel is superior to some of the others working on similar projects. Many of her theoretical drawings and early designs also anticipated computer-supported fabrication, so it sometimes feels like the technology caught up with her ideas.

The selection of projects is excellent, and the photography is well done, especially with respect to night scenes and interior lighting. (Hooray for architectural photography!)

I’m not entirely sold on all of the interior spaces. There are walls that melt down into the floor in a way that will tempt skateboarders, but foil pedestrians, and while those feel consistent with the intentions for the overall building forms, they sometimes look… leftover? I’ve been in her building in Seoul, and loved her plazas and bridges, but the interior spaces I entered were more cavernous than comfortable.

This book is an attractive and affordable introduction to the built work of an innovative architect whose portfolio feels both contemporary and futuristic.

For those of you who drink: the introductory essay creates an opportunity for a drinking game. Take a shot each time you encounter the words “seamless” or “chthonic.” You are also allowed to have an outburst each time a comparison to modernism is made.

Posted on

Internet: Updates to my Fine Art Photography Blog

I don’t update my photography site very often: galleries and art shows don’t want art that has been shared previously! (Darn it!) But I shared three posts there this month, and plan to post more in coming weeks.

In the order they went up:

Medium Format Brick Wall Portrait in Red – Words About Images
As the most pandemic restrictions lifted and I could leave my neighborhood in spring, I committed to getting out of the house WITH CAMERAS.

This post is about an image that is completely typical for me.

Pinhole Photography (with fancy technology) – Words About Images
Pinhole photography has a long and honorable tradition as a school project, as something photographers do for fun, and as a way to linger by creating long exposures in places where you want to hang out. There have been impressive works made with pinholes, but people usually choose it for the fun an…

I tried pinhole photography in one of the least DIY methods possible.

Analog and Digital (Not Versus) – Words About Images
(Image: medium format film shot of China Basin scaffolds, taken on Lomography Purple.)

This post explains why I use both film and digital technologies, for practical purposes and special effects!

It seems obvious to ME – the right tool for the right job! – but people who don’t make images require an explanation whenever I use film, regardless of context. (I was last asked by a non-photographer to explain my choice again this week, so this post is likely evergreen.)

Posted on

Life: Time for my own projects

Keeping things visual: a screen grab of some recent favorite images on my current iPhone.

I… have… time… of my own! Right now!!!

After ten months of maintaining business continuity and transferring of all of my team’s and my own work to colleagues at a new corporate parent, I have a sense of accomplishment and relief. I left ‘things’ in good hands and departed on good terms, and now I can relax for a while!

Medical, dental, and administrative appointments took up my first days off, and more of those appointments are coming. I caught up on chores, those things I felt I must do, and did some cleaning. I took some photos, but it always felt like I had to go back to work when I completed a roll!

And then, on Wednesday of this past week, it felt REAL.

This time is really mine. Which feels rare and precious and wonderful and amazing.

I wake up early to take film out of the refrigerator to use for the days when the weather and smoke forecasts are favorable. I go out on long walks, looking at the lighting in various locations at different times of day, and choosing how I want to photograph certain buildings. I make excessively complex plans for setting up photo albums page templates for my Instax Mini prints. I fell into a rabbit hole about graffiti art by researching the Montana acrylic markers I use, which are inexplicably made in Heidelberg (!?!?!) but named after a very western state to celebrate the urban graffiti of New York City(!?!). I am now aware of the few SF Historic Districts we have; I looked up architects of buildings I like to photograph; I am reading books; I caught up on my correspondence in both English and German (!); I’ve even seen my friends!

It’s so exciting to have a life beyond my job.

I am lucky to do amazing work at amazing companies. My work offers exciting challenges and a chance to collaborate on programs that can improve human health, and is stimulating in many ways. Sometimes, they even let me listen to scientists! (Sometimes, I even understand what the scientists say! 😀 )

Yet, THIS intense self-study and self-guided time is also really NICE. Restorative. Stimulating. I can make bigger plans. I can follow my curiosity to wherever it leads me.

I’ve been having symbolic dreams at night about this. Dreams of trying to go somewhere new but being held back by other people’s issues have given way to dreams of arriving at my destination(s), and enjoying great views from a clean, pleasant location. (The cities in my dreams are GORGEOUS at night, and reflect spectacularly on nearby water!)

And then I wake up and fanatically research ink or film or glass paint or authors or book publishers or fonts while drinking French press coffee or homemade chai. (Hahahaha!)

I remain concerned about humans, and the consistently poor decision-making I’ve been witnessing. I’m going to try to vent some of this in harsh fiction, when I’m not fanatically doing something else… Otherwise, I’m hoping all this exploration will result in some good posts here, even as I wonder if this is really the best place to share what I’ve learned about spray paint nozzles. (There are SO MANY, and… oh, pardon me. Ahem.)

So books, coffee, AND MORE. 😉

Posted on

Words: 800 Days of Duolingo

The Duolingo app is still a regular habit of mine! I’ve been using it in different ways for different languages, and with even more practice behind me, my favorable opinions have grown even stronger.

My Sunday profile. My 800 day streak isn’t PERFECT: there is an option to be forgiven if you make up for it the next day. Which I have used.

During the course of my studies, Duolingo has been adding lessons and improving exercises. I appreciate and like the improvements, which I feel have increased my understanding of topics like verb tenses.

Separate scores for separate languages; “crowns” are displayed in the app for each course, reflecting each unit/chapter you have completed.

German is the language I still use the most, and it is the one I have completed all of level 1 for. I have pen pals who don’t speak English, and this has increased my need to be able to write skillfully and expand my vocabulary. Duolingo introduces practical topics that are more current than the lessons I learned so long ago. (I remember the word for reel-to-reel tape player, because I had some old books – I’m trying to move AWAY from that!) I’m moving through all the lessons in a linear fashion, and plan to complete all of level 2 this year.

Since I first studied German in the 1980s, I can think entirely in German for periods of time, so when I am too tired to study another language, I return to German.

French is my runner up, and a language I always THINK I should speak, though I mostly have reading experience. (I’ve used French transactionally in France, with success but no depth. I’m much better with written French than spoken.) The best part of the app for me with French are the listening exercises: there were sounds that I couldn’t distinguish before, that I can now! My pronunciations remain dodgy, and the app is trying to help.

Spanish is a language I have heard all my life, since I grew up in San Francisco’s Mission District, and would need to use my height to get objects off of high shelves for other people’s abuelas. Talking to abuelas only taught me NOUNS, however, so I’m using the app primarily to learn verbs and form complete sentences!

Spanish is the course where I started writing out notes on verb conjugations, and it turns out I REALLY need those for reference. My note-taking has helped improve my answers, since I recall things better when I have written them out. I also use independent references for verb conjugations. Duolingo helped me finally think a few thoughts spontaneously in Spanish, which is new and exciting.

Japanese is a recurring interest, and a language I studied independently for a brief time in the early 90s. (I learned hiragana and katakana, and tourist phrases; I have visited Japan twice on multi-week trips, and was able to translate signs for other foreigners both times.) Japanese for English speakers is a relatively new Duolingo course that I had been eagerly awaiting, and I’m really impressed by it.

This language program is INTENSE, since there are new characters to learn in nearly every lesson. It helps to be familiar with hiragana before beginning, but the program covers it, and then replaces some words you’ve learned in hiragana with their kanji equivalent, which is how students there learn kanji, I believe.

I’m finding weak spots in my katakana, and am learning that note taking for the new kanji characters is ESSENTIAL. I was clever enough to subtitle the kanji with hiragana early on, but making notes in English is a fair enough habit.

My characters aren’t well-formed, but I’ll improve with independent practice on sheets that schoolkids use.

I’m learning the Japanese counting method, where the number is modified by the shape of thing being counted, and it is a tribute to Duolingo that they have introduced this gently enough that I did NOT run away screaming.

I am not super confident that I can recall some of these lessons where multiple new kanji were added, and so I may use the course differently from how I use it for other languages: instead of completing level 1 for all lessons, I may keep stepping up my levels in the early lessons until I really feel comfortable.

SO: Duolingo is a useful tool. You can set your own pace, and use it as a standalone study method (especially if you are already familiar with the languge) or as a supplement to other tools. If games and competition motivate you, you can get competitive in your ‘league’ against other students working at a similar pace. The courses are regularly improved based on the data they see across students. It has options to skip ahead and test out of levels that you are acing. I’m happy to see the addition of Japanese, and the care that went into designing the lessons.

I still recommend it! 🙂

Privacy Policy Proudly powered by WordPress