loose and blurry fables
4 minute read
It's been a while, again. I had a large weekend, and woke up incredibly tired. It's 10min to 10 now and I'm already in bed. Finally putting sleep first. The rationale is (and I've thought this for a while) if I can nail the sleep then the rest will follow. I have a lot I want to do, I'm hoping the sleep will help me focus and get onto it. Zine fest is coming up - I will probably be going up to the limit. I wanted to make 2 zines, I may not get there though. It's always harder than I expect. I did some planning on friday, not much though. My friend came round and did his own prep - he looked at my planning drawings and I could tell he wasn't impressed. It's okay, gotta do it anyway.
Micheal Deforge.
back again
I started this entry and then, I think, fell asleep? No idea what I was going to say about Mike, other than he's a huge influence and inspiration.
Well I'm back now and I'm in an airport - no better place to hook into the journal. I've felt remarkably clear and focussed this week - I think it's due to sleeping better, but I haven't been keeping proper data so it's all conjecture for now. That would be a nice project (as I'm sure I've said many times before) - keeping some kind of tabs on what I'm doing at any moment, all the time. Every 10 min maybe? I could call it an art project. It would need some decisions made before hand:
- What to track? Mood, energy, heart rate, thoughts, activities, bowel movements, weight, drugs (caffiene, alcohol etc)
- How to track it? Some things are straightforward - BPM for heart rate, kg for weight. But less discrete things, like activities or moods or thoughts would need some kind of predecided framework for fidelity and grouping. No groups at all might make analysing the results too hard, but the wrong groups or not enough would have things fall through the gaps.
- How to collect it? Custom app? Off the shelf? Grid paper?
enough of that
I read an article recently: Systems design explains the world: volume 1. It's not amazing, and I don't remember how I got onto it, but it's worth raising the topic of "systems design" again and thinking about what system metaphors I currently operate on. And then, critique them. My room might be a good place to start.
I tried to do a diagram about it, but I realised it needs more thinking than I care to give it, and also, maybe my room isn't a good place to start. I guess the real concern isn't "design systems" but metaphors in general. I can't hold my actual room in my head to make decisions or understand it (map vs territory). I carry an abstraction that summarises and tells a story about my room, so I can use it. But how far off reality is this abstraction? And in what ways?
I keep all my clothes in the wardrobe. I'm always sliding the door open, biffing things into poorly suited shelfs and hanging shirts on coat hangers. I have a low shelf across far wall, accessible and on full display, full of books. I don't use these books, I never get them out. They're the most accesible things in the room, and the least accessed. Why are the clothes hidden in the wardrobe? It's what a wardrobe is for - and there's a story I've been telling myself since I moved in.
I think there's stories I tell myself about work a lot. I don't know much about how businesses work, so I gave these loose and blurry fables that are just enough to let me do my job. They are loosing their usefulness, and it's becoming time that I replace them with something more robust. I've been reading about project management.
I've had a busy week
I've done 2 classes now for early morning workouts, and I've been in the office 3 days. Last night I caught up with some friends of a friend for a drink, then carried on to a gig to see my friend S off. He's done 4 months in Melbourne and he's sick of it. He's heading to Wellington. It was awesome to see some live music. I have so far to go with drum practice. They made fun of one of the drummers for the sound of his snare - I hadn't even thought of the snare. People are living lives entirely differently from mine.
that's it
I didn't get much sleep last night and I am beyond exhausted. I'm done writing.
I've been reading some Louise Gluck
Telemachus' Detachment
Louise Gluck
- When I was a child looking
- at my parents' lives, you know
- what I thought? I thought
- heartbreaking. Now I think
- heartbreaking, but also
- insane. Also
- very funny.
listening to
Blood In The Snow - Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs
questions
- What do I want to have changed when I come back from Auckland?
- What can I do to start journaling more regularly again?