Cartography of Time.

time, quantified.

This afternoon I have been largely absorbed in the interpretation of three weeks' worth of collected data into a visual key. It represents [my] time, (which can be a slippery thing when one works as a freelancer), and how it is spent. The goal of this exercise was to find where the largest chunks of ill-used time tend to exist, with the hopes of repurposing said chunks into more creative (non-client oriented) time. Basically, it has been a quest in search of an answer to the question, "Where does all the time go?" Damn interesting experiment, and I think I shall continue it for a time. Namely becuase this small cross-section is not enough data to really answer the question, but also becuase I'd like to see a whole year of it charted. (In fact I wish now I'd begun it on 01.01) More time, larger patterns; and intricate ones within those. Cycles and cirles. But I should like to add some more categories, or markers perhaps; signifiers of things like time indoors v. time outdoors; health issues (eg: a mark for days when one has a cold, or when the knee is acting up!); good days v. bad days (as relates to emotions, productivity, etc). Possibly add in the moon cycle as well-- why not?

Of course, the answer this day to the question posed is: I've used up many hours charting hours. (I think that may categorically fall under the heading "Irony")

Notes on the language: Each morning begins at the bottom of the column, and the day works its way up from there. Mornings were begun at 07:00, as it's extremely unlikely for me to wake earlier than that, save by sheer accident. Anything less than 15 minutes gets rounded ("less or up!") for the purposes of this experiment. Part billable/part social basically implies either (A) a meeting that ran long by meandering into a non-work-related discussion, or (B) a work-related meeting with a client who also happens to be a friend. Many hours of walking have been absorbed into "free time, elsewhere" due the fact that this is extremely unscientific.

Oh!

Yes, oh! The FINAL LAYER OF RESIN (have I jinxed again?) has been poured, not two hours ago. By 5:00 Friday a full 72 hours shall have passed, and the table will (at long last) be USABLE. With luck, that is. I have sealed it over with a thin coat of the alternate resin coating known as Envirotex Lite, and thus far looks glassy and splendid, unlike the final surface of the less expensive (and, not surprisingly, inferior) resin. The proverbial fingers are crossed, in hopes of success after much toil and frustration (not to mention the death of many poor little grey cells)!

(If none of this makes a lick of sense, read backwards in time; somewhere in November it all began...)

rusticity, urbanity.

The Rustic City

A series of new photographs taken, printed (and in some cases altered subtley) by e. daggar are now on display at Bonnie's Grill. They have been appropriately rustically (though expertly) framed by The Mad Framer, and are available for purchase. The show will be up through sometime in May, so go and have a look; have some dinner while you're there.

*the madness of spring george*

Weather has been unseasonably warm, or what has become unseasonable in NY, anyway, March generally being pretty miserable. And so it shall return to its inclement self within a day or two, but it has been enjoyable-- outside in short pants on Firday!

Today has been the 13th of the month, coinciding with a full moon. This is the sort of thing that affects certain things. (Whether they go noticed or unnoticed is a different tale altogether.)

That is all.

Ides and such

But more to the point, the calendar has already passed the first week mark in this the third month of 2006. Madness! Soon a whole quarter of the year will have gone the way of the snow from the blizzard.

Time is relative, to be sure. As are most things. My recent start at keeping track of it in the form of a study, an exercise, is not helping it to pass any the more slowly. I am hoping, however, to get some insight as to where exactly it goes; what mine gets spent on, at any rate. (It leads me to wonder how I managed to get so much done in an apartment with a television and cable, but then I did do a lot while the TV was on.)

The fishes prosper in their tank, a new piece of lovely furniture has been stripped of decades-old paint, and the resin in the table still takes impressions from objects set upon it, which means one final layer with a more high-quality resin shall be required. Not a big deal, as I've not much been inclined to sit in the kitchen; I think that will be more likely once weather gets warm, and the window in there is wide on sunny days.

Dehydration has a taste, and it's metallic. It's hard to remember to drink lots of water in colder weather, even though the function of heaters makes it pretty damn important.

Below is a card I made for my mother's birthday. I rarely work with cut paper, but there is something substantial about it; I shall have to do more of it. (More of everything, as far as I'm concerned).


floral

Gebäude und bier an "Loreley"

der Aufsatz von Pommes-Frites

tuesday.

06:00 am : to the Land of Nod™ at long last (long night of work)
10:00 am : wake!
10:20 am : coffee. strong. delicious. coffee! (several)
10:30 am : commence design work. Also: emails, phone calls, etc. (being responsible type stuff)
03:00 pm : application of paint remover to secretary-hutch-desk thing.
03:30 pm : lunch : turkey on crusty bread.
04:00 pm : drop stuff at Salvation Army™ on the way along Flatbush Ave. to walk across The Bridge
06:00 pm : back home from errands in city and in the 'hood (having taken the subway back)
06:20 pm : coffee! and cigarettes. washing of dishes, etc.
07:00 - 09:30 pm : scraping, brushing, and more scraping of aforementioned furniture item.
09:40 pm : dinner : leftovers from Scottadito, pappardelle a la wild boar.
now : post dinner ciggy & typing of nonsense before heading to the 'Milk* for drinks. Mmmm... beer.

Non-stop! (Had rather thought I'd get in a disco nap, but nothing doing.) Oh- also in there somewhere repaired spine of the Baedeker. The furniture task time-burgled more than expected (with still much toil remaining-- for another day-- or three...), so waking early tomorrow to resume proper paying work on designing things.


* Buttermilk; a "local watering hole". Well, relatively local. Local enough.

That's right!

Tomorrow marks end of third week of this odd little month.
Dang!

Coldness in New York these past few days, but only the rarest specks of last weekend's blizzard remain.

If tomorrow goes productively early on, it may be a bridge-crossing day. If not-- well, movement can be scarce in winter, particularly when one is busy clacking and clicking productively away before the great glowing screen.

Found a 1937 Baedeker's Great Britain in the "shelf filler" stacks at the Strand-- brilliant! In need of some repair, and even more delicate than my 1900 Central Italy copy, but still-- for six bucks-- Nice! The old ones are so beautiful.

Hmmm. As always, ideas for art projects and inspiration to work on other things coincide with lists, work and obligation. So frustrating- where were these notions a month ago? Oh, right! Obscured by the building and refinishing of various and sundry furniture for the no-longer-quite-new apartment. (Still, there is much fine-tuning to arrive at a truly efficient and comfortable space. And still purging to be done, I think. It seems that one is more likely to get busy about the work of making things when one simply has fewer things. Particularly as relates to things on walls.)

Well, it is nearly five o' the wee hours, now. Long night of work, but can't crash into sleep immediately upon finishing; I can't anyway-- need some decompression time, so I guess that's what this nonsense counts as.

They're alive!!

snowmen!


Prospect Park

Well, my camera and I did make it to the park briefly yesternoon, and had I not worn sunglasses I'd have been blinded. So sunny and bright. However, not a single square meter of snow remained un-trounced-upon! Shards of sleds lay about, of both store-bought and improvised varieties. I imagine it must have been teeming in there on Sunday. A number of snowmen were still holding tight, though their original identities appeared to be slipping fast.

post blizzard

It was beautiful.
Interesting that it was the record amount of snow dumped upon this mad metropolis; I'm sure a qualifier is in order: "...in a 24 hour period", or "... all in one fell swoop". But a fair swoop it was! Unless, I suppose, you were needing to drive somewhere, or had an aversion to snow.

It began so slowly- barely visible bits of snow on a wind in the afternoon, and such a gradual crescendo until finally by around midnight it had really begun to stick-- even on the streets-- and then came the near white-out visibility and some very slow going in a cab over the Brooklyn Bridge, as the Manhattan Bridge was already held up by accidents. (For example.)

But Sunday was just beautiful. The wind had largely ceased by early afternoon and the city was blanketed, bright, and almost as quiet as it ever gets. (Almost no vehicles, and few walkers, but in such a city as this one can still simply walk down the street or around a corner and enjoy a leisurely and civilized brunch in the midst of a record snowfall-- brilliant!) The sound absorption quality of so many cars-turned-marshmallows, bare trees draped luxuriously in endless white boas, sidewalks disguised as winding cross-country paths-- and all things become utterly softened and deformed of silhouette. The peaked and turreted brick house across the way from my windows took on a decidedly Moomin-esque appeal; great swooping drifts of snow having obscured the true shape of the architecture, rendering it whimsical and unrealistic in aspect.

And now, second day of sun without further precipitation, elegant and amorphous shapes have all but disappeared, leaving only shoveled and plowed mounds between structures, walkways and motorways. Much of the accumulation has gone slushy and brown with agitation and melting.

In hopes of finding some of the remaining shapes, I must take the camera into the Park this afternoon.

one quarter gone

Well not surprising, as this month always goes fast; strange what the lack of only a few days can do for the velocity of the air escaping a month. (One regrettable fact of February, of course, is that next rent day arrives earlier than ever.)

Have I mentioned that the great behemoth of TABLE is finished? Well, 99% so. One more day and it will be usable, I think. (The last layer (fourth in this case-- or third?) requires fewer drops of catalyst per ounce of resin, so the "degassing" phase is slower, thus the solidifying process takes longer. There are some imperfect areas on the surface, but I'm just glad the toxic part of the project has finished.

Photos of this and other things to come.

Oh! And in other news, the Roman-style bust that has resided in front of my new building since my opwn arrival has gone missing! Observe.

repetition

Hmmm.
(Just wondering if there is some way that I can work the word "epic" into a third entry, in a wholly new exciting way. This seems unlikely. )

pinprick diarama

From beneath the thin canopy of trees, walking up Union Street, the number of stars visible this evening is epic! Previously unreckoned save on such nights as of blackouts!

Is the apparent brightness of them due to a notable decrease in light pollution caused by the frugal populous of a nation in energy crisis? (This seems unlikely...) Does it relate to the freaky weather of our greenhouse planet? Or have they simply got less shy around cities? Gone bold in a new milennium (as defined by we tiny things so many many light years away...)

These and other questions remain unanswered.
Perhaps the city will get snow in addition to these pinpricks of glitter, and the park will transform into a new landscape altogether. This is what my cameras are hoping for.

second month begins

I neither watched nor listened to the man commonly referred to as the President last night. Can't bear it. (I suppose I ought to at least read about it somewhere. Perhaps in the Onion...)

The resinating of the Table has grown epic and tiresome, taking entirely too much material and time. It wouldn't be so bad save for the fact that every time I have to pour another layer, the greater portion of the apartment becomes toxic. Not to mention cold, as at least one window must be left open for a day or so. (Have to try and save some brain cells.)

Have gotten some great and decidedly dark photographs of Brooklyn and its surrounds over the past few weeks, some of which will be appearing in several cd packages upcoming... Others (less dark) will be appearing in *frames* at Bonnie's Grill (5th Avenue in Brooklyn) during the month of March.

New fish number three (absurdly and French-ly dubbed Tres) is flourishing in the tank with Pi. They get along very well (so far as can be determined among fishes in boxes at any rate) and have become avid beggars. (It appears that begging for food is a team sport when it comes to aquatic pets.) Tres is , like Pi, a red and white Comet, and has a marvelous tail. Dreadfully cute.