Just reached page 100 of the novel I've been writing... oh... for fifteen years.
At the Franciscaines to work. I see there's an immersive installation starting in 5 minutes. Since I have a friend in there and she has never been able to convince me it's worth it, I drop off my bag at the cloakroom and go in. We'll see.
I use my phone's camera to take photos of my son or - as you know - far too many beach photos. Last night, I discovered the night mode feature, which is quite impressive.
Against all expectations, creating life is easy, fast, and free:
You film bats hanging upside down, flip the camera, and bam! Here we are on a Wednesday nigh in an 80s German nightclub:
Two pillars of Buddhism recently explored through the wonderful book "Seeing that Frees" by the late Rob Burbea, listening to the lectures of James Low that I discovered recently, and tirelessly through the recordings of
Of course, you know him. Because you're cool like that, and nobody tells me anything.
I know but I can’t stop myself!
Two videos watched several years apart, yet both left a similar lasting impression on me.
The first one, "Journey to the Andromeda Galaxy," made me truly grasp the vastness of the universe. As an engineer, I already knew it was immense... but not to this extent. Take a look, it's a fascinating mini-documentary that completely disrupts our perception of space and time scales.
We often forget the people who make our lives easier.
We dwell too long on those who cause us problems.
In the series "I found a treasure trove of lockdown drawings that I post when I'm in a hurry," here's a lockdown drawing that I'm posting because I'm in a hurry:
Often, when I watch a documentary, I wonder how people who claim to be so affected, so depressed, sometimes so mean, can appear so open, so sincere, and have so much perspective when telling their story. The hysterical one is perfectly calm. The compulsive liar tells the whole truth.
Yeah, sorry: I can't help myself. But every time, I'm amazed.
Received this week at a particularly opportune time (if only I believed in signs):
In business, of course, it's a quality. We want it everywhere.
When I find the time, I'll write a recap article about my approach to productivity and how far I've come in this area.
I've decided not to renew my subscription to the New York Times and New Yorker to see how it feels. Not to get stuck in my reading habits and discover new avenues.
Another dead-end hobby of mine: generative art. I program in c with the Cairo library to make little drawings. I do this some Sunday afternoons instead of tinkering.
Did you notice how the music from Kubrick's 2001 A Space Odyssey makes everything seem strange? No? Well, I have:
I liked the play so much that I did a quick recording of it. Excerpt:
The challenge starts like this:
Don't think of elephants!
Bam! Too late. You lost.
You imagined an elephant. Or Dumbo. Or any other pachyderm related to your personal culture. Maybe you imagined an entire herd of them. Shame.
I'm rediscovering Leonard Cohen: The Partisan, yes, but also "Who by Fire" which speaks to me quite a bit in these times of Zen exploration.
In an old chest, I found pictures taken in New York where I had invited my mother more than ten years ago. Back then, I used to do a lot of film photography and I used some of these for a small exhibition in a bar in Paris. (The pictures ended remaining there for several years.)