GRIZZLY PEAR

written snapshots

Category: Notes

  • Therme Vals, Switzerland

    We once visited the Peter Zumthor’s Therme Vals which is a free standing structure spa in the Swiss mountain side.

    Which is technically true.

    But its also in the middle of a little resort town and surrounded by boring old hotel towers on all sides.

    The photographs of the building are honest, this is an gorgeous structure, interior and exterior. But if the camera was shifted even a millimeter one direction or the other, the exterior shots wouldn’t look nearly as pretty.

    Razor Thin.

    Hanging out at the baths felt like standing on a mountain vista with litter in the foreground. However awesome the expanse, you are also burning a little mental energy to not think about the messy context.

  • Row, row, row your boat

    Over the years, I’ve given my daughter rides between the bedroom and laundry in a bin full of clothes.

    Yesterday I gave my boy his first ride in the bin.

    Halfway there, she saw him in her bin and decided to jump in as well.

    So the three of us did a couple loops around the house.

    My heart was full.

  • Tao Te Ching, Laozi

    As you may have noticed, I’ve been dabbling with reading the Tao Te Ching, borrowing all the copies available at the library and reading the liner notes and introduction.

    After all, the Tao Te Ching is somewhat impenetrable.

    And then I had this sudden inspiration, let’s start buying copies of this book! I’ll start a collection!

    Old habits die hard.

  • Calculords

    I stayed up till midnight playing this new-to-me iOS/Android game Calculords.

    It’s a cheeky digital CCG where the main mechanic is adding up number cards in your number hand to play out cards in your unit hand, but I digress.

    With my current life, I don’t stay up late much, and certainly not gaming.

    This morning I woke up in an odd mood.

    I suspect it’s a mix of the lovely weather out, mixed with the feeling the grogginess from gaming late into the night. A gaming hangover.

    Strangely familiar, a bit of deja vu, but not in my current setting, not this current life.

  • On the swings

    The kids were playing and laughing on the swings and the slides at the playground.

    Honestly, I think they were having just as much fun as if they were at an amusement park.

    Going on vacation is not cheap, but it is easy.

    The harder endeavor is finding such joy at home, day to day.

  • Me at Disneyland, twenty years later

    It has been at least two decades since visiting Disneyland.  I came before there even was a “California Adventure”, when this extravaganza was just an asphalt sea of parking.

    With two decades of architecture under my belt, the biggest change is the understanding that there were humans behind every bit of this manufactured world.  Nothing is to be taken for granted, neither the initial execution nor the continued maintenance of this idyllic universe.

    When you come as a kid, it just is.  When you come as an architect, it became.

    Yes, you notice the seams and the people behind the magick, but it is all the more impressive this way.

  • Disneyland, California

    We went for three days.

    It really is all that.

    The last time I had been in an amusement park was eighteen years ago at Six Flags, staffed with sullen teenagers manning the rides on a sultry summer afternoon.

    This was obviously not that.

    This was a bespoke experience to create the happiest place on earth. The theming, the architecture, the rides, the “cast”…not the prices…but just about everything else.

    It shows how money really starts to matter less to the audience once you completely stack rest of the deck in your favor.

    And yes, our girl was not happy about coming home to boring old Las Vegas.

  • Productivity software

    Currently my productivity software is a single page, two column list of everything that needs to be done (by me) on all my projects at work.

    The page sits on Microsoft OneNote, primarily synced across of my devices (personal and work), but I can’t help but be tempted by web apps like Trello or my new find this morning Airtable. There are a lot of power in all these apps.

    But as my experience with Basecamp a few years ago taught me, the increased power comes with increased complexity, and I’m just not sure its worth the tradeoff.

    One day, I’m certain a consultant will drag me into working with some sort of software that will be an awesome epiphany.

    But it will be difficult to beat a single screen (or printed page) that gives me a snapshot of everything I need to do in all my projects.

  • Chalk lines of bygone years

    I was outside an old industrial park and I noticed a chalk line on the slab outside one of the storefront doors.

    It was about an inch back from face of the finish so I suspect it was the line of the studs when they did a refresh of the place. That would make this chalk line maybe two decades old?

    I’m certain it survived over the years because this tenant had two doors, and this door was typically locked and unused. But still, that’s a long time for a chalk line to hang around!

    Sometimes our most insignificant marks last much longer than we could imagine.

  • Paprika, Satoshi Kon, 2006

    I’ve been watching and rewatching some tai chi videos from my school to relearn the 48 form they teach. It would have been a whole lot easier (and better!) if I just kept practicing and I don’t have to relearn it every couple years. That said, it has been good to go over some things which I never really got figured out correctly in the first place.

    Also my wife and I just watched Paprika. We watched it a decade ago in the theater. I still have no idea what just happened, but dang it’s a glorious spectacle.