Photo Mania

I'm not happy about how few photos I've shot this past week. Maybe I'm just not happy about the quality of what I shot or the fact that I still have a steep learning curve ahead of me with my new camera. Or maybe I just need to learn to be a better editor. All of the above.

Some people's stuff is so consistently great. I just love Heather Champ's photo-blog.

And daily dose of imagery is incredible too.

And of course Satan's Laundromat just blows me away. They all do. I've linked to them before and apparently can't stop... when I visit these sites I want to share them.

Here's a nice one I shot last year of a blind man playing cymbals in a band of legless men in Cambodia near Angkor Wat. I'm not making this up, so don't make me post the photo of the entire band.

Guitar Wolf Job Hunt

Saw an entertaining movie last night called Wild Zero, featuring the Japanese band Guitar Wolf.

On the job-hunting front I'm off to a good start this week:

- updated resume
- reworked cover letters
- posted resume at various online services
- networking like a champ
- sent resumes to apply for 6 jobs
- considered feedback from many friends
- felt depressed
- etc.

And then I felt sick yesterday and today. As yesterday progressed I felt worse and worse, kind of flu-ish. Today all I have done is sleep and eat. i wake up for meals and then just lay in bed snoozing. Its now 7:15pm and I just woke up again. Time to eat again soon and then hopefully stay awake long enough to watch Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon on DVD.

All Natural?

My friends Chris and Erin just had a baby delivered via c-section last week. Chris mentioned that they had hoped to have a "natural" home birth. Naturally, this triggered my thoughts on the issue of man versus nature. I mentioned to him that c-sections were a form of natural child-birth and he vehemently disagreed, as though the mere fact of human intervention itself were somehow outside the realm of nature.

Birds build nests, beavers build dams, ants build tunnels, bees build hives and humans build houses, office buildings, shopping centers, airports, etc. In my view it is a common mistake to understand man-made things as being somehow "unnatural". Also, it seems to me, that there is a strong value-judgment implicit in this view. The idea that what non-human beings do is harmonious, in-tune with and aligned with nature and that this is a good thing. While conversely, some (I guess it must be some, but not all) human activities are unharmonious, out-of-tune and mis-aligned and therefore they are unnatural and bad.

Are we somehow NOT a part of nature? Are we and our activities somehow opposed to nature? I think not (Au contraire, mon frer). We are very much a part of nature and as such ALL that we think and do (and everything under the sun, as they sing in the song) is and are 100% natural. How could it be otherwise? This does not mean that everything we do is good (whatever good means). Is everything a bird or bee does good? If a bee stings me, I can assure you that I think it is bad, but not unnatural. What could Chris and others mean by "nature" if it excludes humans and the products of their activities?

Chris says that nests and dams and ant tunnels and bee-hives don't have the same deleterious impact that many seemingly analogous human products have and that makes us and our products different and in some sense unnatural. Hogwash I say!

Just because human activities have a somehow less harmonious relationship with and impact on our environment does not mean that they are any less natural. That is unless Chris and others mean something different than what I take to be meant by the word nature.

More on this issue soon...

Einstein was a Buddhist

He may not have known it, but more than a few of Einstein's statements indicate a deeply Buddhist perspective.

The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. The religion which based on experience, which refuses dogmatic. If there's any religion that would cope the scientific needs it will be Buddhism....

A human being is a part of a whole, called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
-- Albert Einstein

Only a life lived for others is worth living.
-- Albert Einstein

A person starts to live when he can live outside himself.
-- Albert Einstein

Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.
-- Albert Einstein

The most beautiful experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand wrapped in awe is as good as dead. His eyes are closed.
-- Albert Einstein

Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.
-- Albert Einstein

I never think of the future. It comes soon enough.
-- Albert Einstein

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.
-- Albert Einstein

Relativity teaches us the connection between the different descriptions of one and the same reality.
-- Albert Einstein

The search for truth is more precious than its possession.
-- Albert Einstein

The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives.
-- Albert Einstein

Hello to Sophie Mae Berman

This just in... my laggard friends Ross & Robin finally gave birth this morning to Sophie Mae Berman. Its about time. What a happy week this has been with the birth of 3 new people to some great friends. Wow!

Wear Your Love Like Heaven

Really, there's no telling how long this Donovan thing can go on. He'll be appearing at Cafe Du Nord next week.

Welp, now I'm in the thick of it. Job-hunting. Arrrggghhhh. It can put you in a foul mood and yesterday that was about the size of it.

Today I kicked some ass, took a few names and scheduled lots of lunches, dinners, schmoozes, pop-ins and of course I left some messages.

I also tweaked my resume.

Dare I say that I'd rather be taking photographs... or even be working at a new job!

Season of the Witch

Must be the season of the witch. Or is that the season of the switch?

I'm trying to switch gears from backpacking in SE Asia to being a job-hunter here in America. Somehow the former felt better I think.

Being unemployed - how one must define one's self while looking for work - is not a whole lot of fun. Just consider the gap between what you might want to do and what is available. An even bigger gap if you don’t really know what you want to do in the first place. I never have really, at least not in very definite concrete terms.

[ why yes mister HR person, I have ALWAYS
wanted to manage channel sales for a
company that makes channel sales management
automation software tools... ]

Yeah right.

I want to grow a business that melds TV and the web with conventional programming forms on an XML-based hosted services social software networking platform. B2B only, please.

I consider it to be harmful to define my career goals in such a restrictive fashion. What industry? What discipline? Marketing? What kind of marketing? Channel marketing or product marketing? Please... give me a break.

My goals are much more generalized and they always have been. The criteria by which I assess a job are something like this:

- Intellectual challenge, potential for stimulation and engagement
- Growth and learning opportunities and potential
- Co-workers
- Customers and partners
- Salary and incentives
- Benefits
- Esteem/Status
- Acceptability of downside/risk/problems/ etc.

And then there are the issues of what value I provide to my employer. Rather than extremely specific and highly specialized skills or relationships in a particular industry, I believe that my value is much more generalized along the lines of:

- Ability to learn quickly and effectively
- Ruthless intellectualism
- Sharp analytic and problem-solving skills
- Ability to articulate, communicate and listen
- A deliberate, methodical, iterative approach
- A positive, helpful, good-humored outlook
- An open-minded, criticism-seeking attitude
- Willingness to take calculated risks
- Management and leadership skills
- Deep and broad experience with building value,
creating advantage and delivering results

My bottom-line is that I'm me. And damn I'm good when I'm faced with big challenges, but boy do I suck at being under-utilized.

Glad I got that off my chest.

Goo Goo Barabajagal

Yes, I am using Donavan songs as the titles of my posts, at least yesterday and today. I doubt the trend will develop legs, but time will tell as it does for all.

Felt kind of ill yesterday. Diarrhea if you must know. Yuck-o.

Today I'm better and the weather is better and its not the 4th of July and everything is copacetic hunky-dory.

I went for a long walk, took a mess-o-photos and ran into many friends.

First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain, then there is

They call me mellow yellow... had a great day yesterday. First I woke early and visited the San Francisco Zen Center for some quiet meditation and to see if any good-looking women were about.

Then I had lunch with Michael, Gerladine and Mimi at the Squat and Gobble in the Lower Haight.

After a nice nap I hung-out with Stanley for some 4:20 action.

Cecilia picked me up at about 7:30 and we had a lovely Thai dinner at Neecha Thai.

Finally we went to see Richard Thompson at The Fillmore. Henry Kaiser opened. During Richard Thompson's encore, Donovan came onstage and performed Season of the Witch, Hurdy Gurdy Man and Mellow Yellow. Amazing!