Check out Just watched this new video, What is Version Control?, from our…>/a> from the folks at

For a moment this morning, a bald eagle raced along beside me, each of us on our way into the day.
The power of thinking is in knowing what not to think about.
So quickly came the changes I had, just moments before, said were unlikely or even impossible.
Might it be not that they rejected your values but rather that you failed to teach them those values?
A modification on a work by Kyle Winton.
Winton, Kyle. Silkscreen Poster “Good Things Come to Those Who…”. April 2012.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/430062470/silkscreen-poster-good-things-come-to-those-who (accessed April 11, 2012).
Check out HTTP 404 Error: Wall Not Found Storefront from the folks atCubeMe

Omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt. Nesque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit qui in ea voluptate velit esse quam nihil molestiae consequatur, vel illum qui dolorem eum fugiat quo voluptas nulla pariatur?
Consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
Et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus qui blanditiis praesentium voluptatum deleniti atque corrupti quos dolores et quas molestias excepturi sint occaecati cupiditate non provident, similique sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollitia animi, id est laborum et dolorum fuga. Et harum quidem rerum facilis est et expedita distinctio. Nam libero tempore, cum soluta nobis est eligendi optio cumque nihil.
Itaque earum rerum
Impedit quo minus id quod maxime placeat facere possimus, omnis voluptas assumenda est, omnis dolor repellendus. Temporibus autem quibusdam et aut officiis debitis aut rerum necessitatibus saepe eveniet ut et voluptates repudiandae sint et molestiae non recusandae. Itaque earum rerum hic tenetur a sapiente delectus, ut aut reiciendis voluptatibus maiores alias consequatur aut perferendis doloribus asperiores repellat.

Bread clip — Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Another item to work out before you move in with a Human from a commercially produced bread eating culture. What do you do with the bread tie? I came from a toss the tie and fold family. She is a reuse the clip person. Oh my! Can we keep it together? Only time will tell. So far, so good.
Toilet paper orientation — Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Here we have one of the important items to work out BEFORE you decide to move in with another Human from a toilet paper using culture.
I know the right answer. My wife does not. Don’t let this become the downfall. Reject the incompatible early. You have been warned.
![]()
This will be a series of articles about Edmonds Washington. The series will include events, merchants, restaurants, organizations, parks, the arts, etc.
As an example of what is to come, I have planned articles about the Edmonds Center for the Arts, The Driftwood Players, and The Cascade Symphony; articles about Epulo Bistro, The Loft Café and Social Lounge, The Winged Pig, FIVE, Portofino Pizza and Pasta, and Claire’s Pantry; articles about the local Starbucks and Tully’s, about Walnut Street Coffee and Waterfront Coffee Co too; articles about the Edmonds Chamber of Commerce, both Edmonds Rotary & Edmonds Daybreakers, Edmonds Toastmasters, along with the Edmonds Community Foundation, and Edmonds Backyard Wildlife Habitat Community Certification Project; articles about our neighborhoods like The Bowl, Five Corners, and Westgate; articles about our merchants and professionals like Running in Motion, Nama’s Candy Store, the Edmonds Bookshop and more; plus articles about the events in town, An Edmonds Kind of Fourth, the Waterfront Festival, the Classic Car Show, the Edmonds Art Festival.
Certainly there will be more too. I’ll have articles on local politics and parks, regional issues with a local flavor, and national issues that have a local expression as well.
I expect to deliver at least one “Around Edmonds” article a week. See you soon.
If we live truly, we shall see truly. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
Not everyone wants to travel the world, but most people can identify at least one place in the world they’d like to visit before they die. Where is that place for you, and what will you do to make sure you get there?
Travel has a way of opening me up to the truth. All the filters my mind builds around the noise of life in the places I am familiar are gone. Once I am away from the familiar I can see more of reality again. More reality means more truth.
Now having the filters isn’t a bad thing. I am sure there is a good reason we have developed the ability to filter our inner selves the cacophony of information outside ourselves. Still, opening past them from time to time is useful too. Travel does two things. I can see the world more clearly while I’m traveling and, when I return how, I am open to things I’d have filtered had I not traveled. I am sure you can think of examples in your own life, whatever kind of travel you may have experienced.
Recently I have had reason to think about the “before you die” questions too. I have discovered that when people are confronted with the truth of their own imminent mortality, it isn’t something else and other they want. It isn’t generally a trip to fill-in-the-blank. Instead I find they discover they want more of what they already have. Perhaps I have been exposed to a unique subset of humanity. I doubt it.
That all said, the question was, where in the world would I like to travel before I die? I have a long list. I’ll pick the destination most important to me today. That place is northern Italy. I really want to take my wife to a place I know so well. I lived there, in Vicenza, for an important year as a very young man. I’d like to share a place I know so well with my dear bride. Of course, I’d love to see the place again myself too.
What will I do now to begin to make that happen. I already am developing that plan. My wife and I have begun to plan for travel in Europe in 2013. Savings, begun; planning, begun; brainstorming the possibilities, underway, even culling the list, started.
I feel well on my way. I hope you have someplace in mind. I hope you are well on your way too.
I recently answered some questions for a profile on the Western Washington Paleo Enthusiasts group at meetup.com. It seems to me that I ought to share them here too.
I have only recently become familiar with paleo-eating. I came to it from a carb restricted diet that helped me drop 35 lbs. I wanted to drop the weight to make running easier. I am still trying to decide if paleo-eating, as a response to the diet of the industrialized late twentieth food system, makes scientific and/or practical sense for me. Being mostly of Scandinavian descent and well able to tolerate dairy, I believe in the ability of a group or people to adapt to a variety of food sources. I remain uncertain on the subject of agriculture as the demon that I find in some paleo-eating sources. I do feel certain that the ideas behind paleo-eating are a great starting point. I’ve had enough of a focus on macronutrient percentages. I find it interesting that tracking macronutrients is easier with modern manufactured food that it is with real whole foods. Ever seen the fat, protein, carb breakdown on an apple or a pork chop? BTW, you can with wolfram|alpha.
I hope to meet other paleo-enthustiasts, to learn more about paleo-eating and other characteristics of those interested in food and a healthy lifestyle, and, perhaps, to make a friend or two, along the way.
I am passionate about local, in season, whole foods, grown with care. I appreciate if those are as far from the modern industrialized food system as possible. Today, I think less in terms of a paleo-meal than I do in terms of ingredients. Spinach, eggs, nearly any animal muscle and some organs, fruits, nuts, all polluted with my non-paleo ingredient dairy. I would argue that dairy is perhaps one of our oldest agricultural products and thus more likely to be something we have adapted to already. But, I have no historical knowledge.
That which each can do best, none but his Maker can teach him. Where is the master who could have taught Shakespeare? Where is the master who could have instructed Franklin, or Washington, or Bacon, or Newton? … Shakespeare will never be made by the study of Shakespeare. Do that which is assigned you, and you cannot hope too much or dare too much. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Identify one of your biggest challenges at the moment (ie I don’t feel passionate about my work) and turn it into a question (ie How can I do work I’m passionate about?) Write it on a post-it and put it up on your bathroom mirror or the back of your front door. After 48-hours, journal what answers came up for you and be sure to evaluate them. Bonus: tweet or blog a photo of your post-it.
I am surprised to have found another Ralph Waldo Emerson quote that I so thoroughly disagree with. No, not at its heart, no where its real meaning lies, but it is with its surface that I disagree. It is true that you will not make a Shakespeare by studying Shakespeare. It is not true that you will create a great poet and playwright in the study of Shakespeare and the application of that study. I guess my heart says that we, along with our Maker, make us our selves in the space that occupies the gifts that the Maker has given us. If we can discover how to express those gifts in the study of Shakespeare then all the better. I have read of too many authors that began in direct copying of a great writer they admired. I mean word for word reproduction. After that, or as a different starting point, many great authors copied the style of a great author. They did this purposely to explore anthers voice in the discovery of their own voice, or they did this naturally and unconsciously as they produced the mountains of rejected work on the path to their own great work in their own great voice.
The other problem I find on the surface of the quote is in the ‘…do that which is assigned to you.…’ Too many of us find it too difficult to find our own calling, to find what has been assigned to us to do. I find that I do not have faith that anything has been assigned to me to do. Perhaps that is simply because I have not discovered a mission assigned to me by my Maker. Perhaps it is because I have not been assigned a particular mission by my Maker. Perhaps it is because I have been offered my Maker’s choice and missed, ignored, or refused it. Perhaps there is no Maker. I am uncertain which cause to assign to my response to this idea. It is related perhaps to my own ever present sense of being ‘in between’.
I’ll update this post with my response to the prompt in two days.
I recently answered some questions for a profile on the Seattle Greenlake Running Group at meetup.com. It seems to me that I ought to share them here too.
I have been running since I was a small child when I ran unconsciously for the joy of it. I ran cross-country and during soccer games in junior high school. Many miles passed beneath my feet as I ran with my dog as an escape for the chaos at home during my high school years. Many more miles were covered with the US Army in my 20s and 30s. There, in boots, with a pack, across the countryside, down dirt roads, down runways, over forested hills and across creek, stream, and river fords. Less in my 40s as ‘life’ got in the way. More in the decades to come.
My longest is a half marathon (from Europe to Asia). I know, sounds further when I add (from Europe to Asia) doesn’t it. Still it was but 21.0975 kilometers or 13.1094 miles. I may have run further but not on a measured course. Most of my miles were not measured. I do like the modern equipment we can use to measure distance, elevation gain, heart rate, etc.
I am a morning runner by general necessity. It is just easier for me to get a run into that part of the day most of the time. A run feels easier and I feel more alive while running in the evening.
I’d like to get to ultra distances and to run less on track or roads and more on trails.
Nope.
It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude. — Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance
The world is powered by passionate people, powerful ideas, and fearless action. What’s one strong belief you possess that isn’t shared by your closest friends or family? What inspires this belief, and what have you done to actively live it?
I have been feeling acutely lately the reality of this quote. I have not yet become the great man of the third sentence. I cannot even say that I am on a path toward that great man status. I have a fairly week sense of self today. I have opinions that are contrary to the powerful’s opinion. Yet, Occupy Wall Street and all the Occupy Your Towns that have risen up beside it suggests my opinions are shared by others in this world.
That is surface. There is a deeper sense in which I wear the worlds opinions. It eats at me. While, at the same time, I do not know what I should be exposing of myself. Not here, not in this essay, but i have not found that personal opinion within myself.
I believe I need more silence, more time in nature. More of the solitude of the second sentence of the quote. There i may find what I need to be to become great.
My strongest belief of the moment that is not really shared by those closest to me is a fairly small thing. That small thing comes from big things. Big ideas and the war underway today between the classes. I’ve said enough for the moment. I will retreat back into solitude for a time. There I will continue to steal myself for the battles large and small ahead.
Too Much Information with Benjamen Walker
Mondays 6pm — 7pm on WFMU 91.1 fm 90.1 fm wfmu.org
Too Much Information is the sober hangover after the digital party has run out of memes, apps and schemes. Host Benjamen Walker finds out that, in a world where everyone overshares the truth 140 characters at a time, telling tales might be the most honest thing to do.
via Too Much Information with Benjamen Walker, TMI Podcast Feed
I have been listening to Benjamen Walker for a few years now, off and on. I first discovered him during the Theory of Everything days. I love his eclectic mix of themes and his off beat take on the world. I never know quite what to make of what I am hearing. For that reason alone I can highly recommend his radio show to you. You can get it as a podcast too.
Your genuine action will explain itself, and will explain your other genuine actions. Your conformity explains nothing. The force of character is cumulative. –- Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance
If “the voyage of the best ship is a zigzag line of a hundred tacks”, then it is more genuine to be present today than to recount yesterdays. How would you describe today using only one sentence? Tell today’s sentence to one other person. Repeat each day.
While I have the book Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson, I haven’t yet read it. This quote, like yesterday’s, needs context I just don’t have. I find I don’t understand genuine as the adjective modifying action here. “Genuine action”. How, for Ralph Waldo Emerson, is genuine action different from action.
“Your conformity explains nothing”, does stand on its own.
That character is the accumulation of your action makes perfect sense to me as well. So, I guess it isn’t that I don’t have context for the quote. I do. I just don’t have enough context to discover nuance here.
The subject of character has been in the subtext of American culture for two decades now, perhaps longer. Not that I think that the pundits using the term today are getting it right. I don’t think they’re getting it right.
Emerson’s quote very nearly expresses a truth I believe about character.
It is my opinion the character is external. My character is the perception that others have of me based upon my actions in the world that they have witnessed or that they have received in stories about me. My sense the man’s character is based upon what I see him doing the world, upon the words he speaks, where he speaks them, the style with which he speaks them. My sense of a man’s character is based upon what I see him do or what I see him not doing.
We are afraid of truth, afraid of fortune, afraid of death, and afraid of each other. Our age yields no great and perfect persons. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
You just discovered you have fifteen minutes to live.
I do not know the context of this quote. I fear I am at a disadvantage. For today, I have no deep internal reaction to the quote on its own.
Fear, so many quotes on fear. “The only thing we have to fear…” Yet, fear is such a part of human life. We carry it, perhaps, as a means of survival. Yet, I think we too often fear, too much.
What a great and perfect person? There are none in our age, there were none in his age, there have never been any, nor will there ever be any. Yet, there are in this age, there were in his, age there always have been and always will be persons, perfect in their humanity, in their fragility, in their fear.
Set a timer for 15 minutes and tell the story must be told. There are no stories that must be told in that singular way.
All of our stories ought to be told. We need to tell them to each other everyday. It is by our stories that we share ourselves. Because our stories are our words, they are our expressions, they are our reactions, and the are our actions. Our stories are the sharing of our lives.
The sharing of our lives is a gift that we give. Yet, it is also the gifts we get. A gift that is not just in the stories others tell us, but in the telling of our own stories.
Our lives are not a singular story. Our lives are many stories. Each scene is many stories. Each is the source is the story that is upon the stage now. It is the story that we will tell of this time. It is the story that others will tell of this time. It is the story that we will remember differently another time. It is the story retold by another who only heard the story of this time. It is the story that is not about this time at all. It is the story of great or simple things.
So what is the story that must be told. It is the story that we cannot help but tell. That we are telling. That we will continue to tell. That will be told when were gone. That is told before we arrived.
Understand that you are not doing it now. Also, understand that you will not be, even when you think you are. With that out-of-the-way, you can begin. First, get plenty of sleep. When you have failed at that, eat a balanced breakfast every day. When you give up trying to do that, drink 8 glasses of water over the course of the day. Coffee and wine will not count. Now, give up and try this. Get twenty minutes of exercise every day. Build muscle, improve your metabolism; get your heart rate up too. When you realize you are too busy to do that, ask your doctor for something to take off the edge. The fuzzy headedness that follows is a key ingredient. Now, get tired of the side effects. Stop taking the medication.
The resulting clarity is all you need. 1
Notes: