Today's Word: camp

Japan

September 3, 2010 – 9:40 am | Word Count: 511

I’ve been sitting here staring at the word Japan for about three minutes now. That’s not entirely true…occasionally I glance up to see if there is any inspiration on the blank white wall across from me. There isn’t.

When I think of Japan, the thought that keeps pushing its way to the front is the two times I was in Japan, each an hour or less, on a layover while traveling from the US to the Philippines. And since this is about the first words that come to mind. I’ll see if I can extract the remaining 400 or so words out of those hazed memories.

The first memory was landing and seeing the city, Tokyo if I recall, and Mount Fuji off in the distance. Japan has always held a certain mystique for me, and I remember wanting to be able to get out and explore the city. It didn’t happen. We were in a non-descript terminal, with little to define it from any other terminal except the signage. The nature of an international terminal full of connecting flights is that you will see many kinds of faces — enough diversity that you may not be able to tell where you are. Our time was limited and we got off the plane, sat for a little while, and then loaded on the next one.

I believe it was on the same trip (I’ve been to the Philippines twice) that we came home through a different terminal. It may have even been a different city — Osaka perhaps? I guess I didn’t have a window seat because I don’t recall landing or takeoff. This time around we had a little more time for wandering, and I remember being in a gift shop where most of the packaging, except for Coca Cola, looked, um, foreign.

But what really stood out was the TV that was on in the waiting area. It was a tube TV, but it was widescreen — the 16:9 aspect ratio that wasn’t really available in the states yet, except maybe on high end big screens. I don’t know that it was HD, but it may have been. But I remember the colors. It was a Japanese game show, and like most Japanese games shows I’ve seen (about 2-3 totalling 8 minutes if I’m honest), it was a barrage of bright colors.

And I think it inspired me. I remember being influenced by that, bringing some bright colors into my design work in the months and years that followed. It was so attractive, so appealing, that I wanted to capture it, even though the presence and personalities of the host and contestants seemed to be overdone to the point of being a turn off.

So, I’m by now means an expert on Japan, and I can barely say I’ve experienced Japan. If anyone else told me they had only had a layover in my city, I’d say they hadn’t experienced it. So I guess I haven’t, but the contrast in those few minutes was enough to know that I had an experience of some kind.

By John Chandler | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

focus

August 31, 2010 – 8:37 am | Word Count: 508

Now here’s a word I can say 500 more about, if I can keep my attention on it.

I’m typing this morning on my iPad, which is where I tend to generate a lot of content like this. Why? Because of focus. There aren’t other gizmos, doo-dads, and pop-ups all over the place trying to capture my attention. On my laptop, I’ve turned off most of those doo-dads and such. My email doesn’t ding when a new message arrives, and it doesn’t show an indicator. Sometimes, I even turn it off. Staggering, eh?

The truth is, the gizmos, doo-dads, and pop-ups are more active in my brain. Working in my laptop makes it easier for me to respond to them. I have spaces set up, and usually do creative work, which requires focused attention, in it’s own space. You know…stuff like writing 501 words. But with spaces, everything else is a simple keystroke away. I can flip over to my to-do list, or a browser window, or mail, just like that. And I often find myself doing that. Some mental trigger that pulls me away, off to see whatever I’m not doing at the moment.

The iPad has no such thing. I have a white screen, thanks to SimpleNote, and a keyboard. There aren’t any keystrokes except the ones that tack letters after each other to form words. The first few times I wrote with my iPad, I found myself inclined to do the spaces keystroke, and flip away to something else. It was an automatic reaction. That has gone away. I can sit here and type, with little effort. (I do admit that I checked my word count in the middle of this paragraph. There is still some opportunity for distraction.)

This isn’t my own problem I’ve discovered. All sorts of people are feeling the effects of gizmos and doo-dads screaming at them. Sometime last year, I posted about the Flow State on Creativityist. It came from The Now Habit, and it talks about getting into a mental state of focus effort. It was helpful — I would post the link for you, but that would cause me to step away from the letters and keys which are flowing, so you’ll have to find it yourself.

Recently, some friends have been swearing by the Pomodoro technique. It was started by a guy who had a 25 minute kitchen timer in the shape of a pomodoro — a tomato. He started the timer and worked until it dinged. Then he gave himself a five minute break. Now it’s an international sensation, approaching the magnitude of the macarena and pogs — and I think more meaningful than both of those.

Ultimately, I think we live in a time where we have trained our brains to multitask, and we are going to have to retrain our brains to hold tightly to a focused effort. It’s great to jump around and see what others our thinking sometimes, but our best thoughts will come when we can sit with them for a while and focus in on them.

By John Chandler | Posted in Tweetable | Comments (0)

dilemma

August 30, 2010 – 9:31 am | Word Count: 513

I face a dilemma everytime I think about writing in here.

There’s the dilemma of whether or not I think I have anything to say about the word. There are times, I have to admit, I look at the word and it moves me away from writing. Which is a shame, because the whole point of the word every day was to give one a reason to write. A topic to write about. But, at times, it becomes another barrier — a barrier which I’ve given myself permission to ignore with my “these are the first 501 words that came to mind” tagline.

After that, assuming I decide to go ahead and write, as I have today, there is the dilemma in my mind of whether or not I want this to be consumed by the public. 501words isn’t getting buried in traffic, but I know there are people dropping by every day…do I want them to read what I had to say, or didn’t have to say, about the word of the day. This really comes down to twitter for me. If I publish my post, a handful of people might happen by, seeing it on the homepage. If I post a link to twitter, it is sure to get more eyeballs. And so I end each post with the dilemma of whether or not I want to share these words with a wider audience.

One dilemma I don’t deal with is publishing. I know that if I write, I’m going to publish. I guess it helps that I know the readership isn’t so big at this point. Maybe as the readership for my 501words, or for the site as a whole, grows, so will the dilemma about whether or not to publish.

And that’s really what a dilemma is, most of the time. It’s a barrier we create, a means to trap ourselves in indecision about what is before us. Often, we aren’t sure which is the better route to take, or often, we know which is the better route, but create the dilemma so we don’t have to take it. I’m saying we a lot here, but my we, I think I mean me. But go ahead and tell me it’s true for you too. Or I’ll just pretend it is to save you having to be so vulnerable. Thanks for understanding.

There are times when a dilemma can be helpful, when a decision doesn’t have to be made, and one can wait until the right answer emerges. And when there is time for something like that in the face of a true dilemma, that time is a gift. But usually, the dilemma is more of a means to avoid what you might know needs to be done. At least that’s the case when I sit down to write here. But again, the whole point of having a word every day is that it gives me something to write about besides how challenging it is to write something everyday.

Kind of funny how many words can make their way back to that very topic.

By John Chandler | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

clock

August 23, 2010 – 9:55 am | Word Count: 496

The clock. Sometimes a friend, and sometimes an enemy.

I’ve not verified this, but somewhere along the way I heard that clocks were invented by monks, serving as a reminder to pray at set times of the day. That’s not to say they invented time, mind you, or the notion of it. But they invented the means to keep track of it.  The clock was invented as a tool to remind them, not what they didn’t have time for, but to make time for what mattered.

Seems like things have changed a bit, don’t you think? Now the clock has become the ticking taunter, reminding us how many minutes we have left, or don’t have left, until that meeting we are supposed to present something in. Or until that paper is due, or until we have to race away to pick up a child at school. A clock is not an object of peace, but most often of stress.

Sometimes, it’s a badge of honor to talk about how busy you are. I know that being busy makes me feel valuable, feel like I’m necessary, because I have so much to do. And so it’s not so much that the clock creates the stress, but that we generate a perspective on ourselves to try to fit in as much as we possibly can.

Feeling valuable and necessary is not, of course, the same thing, as being healthy. Estimating how much I can ‘do’ in the allotted time means that I often forget to create the time and space to ‘be’. It’s why it is so hard to sit down for 10-15 minutes and write 501 words here every day. It’s why I’m checking the word count right now to see how much longer this is going to take. It’s why I was hoping that number would be higher than 290. Well…it is now!

So the clock was created as a tool to generate space to be, in the midst of doing. It offered the monks, if the anecdote I’m basing all this on is true, a reminder to step away from doing, so they could spend some time being. And when I try to do the same today, when I try to set aside time to focus on being healthy rather than productive, than that time becomes another task, something else to measure during the day. And even the healthy space becomes a task of production.

But as I said above, sometimes the clock can be a friend. Sometimes I need a deadline in order for me to declare my work finished. The article never quite feels done unless the editor is telling me it has to be. The design comp could also include this and that, except for that looming launch date. But these are the tasks of production. And while finishing things is healthy itself, how can the clock not only be my friend for the things that need to get done, but also for the shaping of my soul?

By John Chandler | Posted in Tweetable | Comments (0)

Delicious

August 12, 2010 – 9:54 am | Word Count: 517

Delicious. A word which reveals the short comings of language. How can one even begin to use words to explain what delicious is? It is something you must experience.

But my experience of delicious might be much different than yours. The double shot vanilla latte that sits by my keyboard might be too sweet for some, or labeled too bitter by others. But for me, it is delicious. I can’t tell you what is delicious, so therefore maybe I can’t even tell you what delicious is. You can’t know delicious until you experience delicious.

So rather than try to convince you what is delicious, I’ll tell you what is delicious. You might not agree. And the beautiful thing about delicious is that this is something we can both be right about. So, here’s delicious:

-Already mentioned, but worth mentioning again is the double vanilla latte I’ve been taking draws from this morning. This isn’t any vanilla latte from a national chain. This is from a local shop called Houndstooth that takes the craft of coffee seriously, from the pull of the shots to the texture of the milk. It’s delicious.

-The classic Tex Mex cheese enchiladas I had for lunch yesterday were delicious. I’m a one trick pony when it comes to Tex Mex. I get cheese enchiladas just about every time. They are my gold standard for comparing one restaurant to another. But they aren’t only a point of comparison, because I will keep coming back to them on repeat visits.

-Unfortunately, I couldn’t eat them all, because of something else delicious: chips and assorted dipping style condiments. Yesterday, they took the form of a fresh salsa, a warm quasi, and jalapeno ranch. I worked all three of them with the light and crispy chips. They made me happy. And full.

-A year ago, I pulled a flavor out of my childhood and introduced my kids to cinnamon and brown sugar sprinkled on toast. I mix it myself, and the only recipe is guided by my heart to my hands. It’s probably five parts brown sugar to one part cinnamon. But I don’t really know. I mix and sprinkle. They love it. And I love it. Especially with butter melting over a warm slice (or two!) of sourdough toast. The brown sugar and cinnamon melt in with the butter. Perfect.

-Pizza. Thin crust, thick crust, takeout, homemade, pepperoni, onions, black olives or whatever else is handy. I don’t so much care. I love pizza. Sometimes pizza is categorized as a ‘younger persons’ food. I don’t think I’m going to outgrow it.

-Wings. I don’t get them enough, and three years living in Seattle was a desert experience when it came to wings. It was awful. I’m not too picky about wings though, the right mixture of sweet and spicy that comes from a good honey bbq sauce or a true Buffalo style medium-hot works everytime for me.

-Fresh cut apples (ever tried honey crisp?), fresh strawberries, blackberries or raspberries, peaches, or limes squeeze over almost anything. Some of the fruits I love and don’t eat enough of.

And I could go on. But I won’t.

By John Chandler | Posted in Tweetable | Comments (0)

honor

August 9, 2010 – 9:40 am | Word Count: 503

There is much danger here — danger of sounding preachy.

That’s one of the nuances of a word like honor. It is something that no one is going to argue is a bad thing. Who wouldn’t aspire to be honorable? But it is also a word that is largely absent from common language today. Why is that?

And here’s where the danger of sounding preachy comes into play. When there is this sense that something better could be, but isn’t, we have tender toes that we don’t want anyone to step on. So anything that calls us to that better thing makes us sensitive listeners, less willing to hear about what we already know is a good thing. Like honor.

I’m not sure why we dont’ talk about honor more. I’m not sure why I don’t talk about honor more. Who doesn’t want to be surrounded by people they would consider to be honorable? Who doesn’t want to look back on their life at the end and say they lived an honorable life?

I haven’t looked up honor in the dictionary today, but I’ll take a stab at it. To honor something is to see the inherent value in it, and treat it according to that value. It is to recognize the thoughts, the feelings, the goodness, the beauty in another person and to hold them in regard in how you interact with them. It is to recognize what is meaningful and valuable about your own person and live according to that.

I wonder if there is another side to it as well. Is it honoring to another to also recognize not only their goodness and beauty, but also the part of them that aren’t quite right, and to treat them according to that?

And here’s where I get stuck with 501 words — if I am to write the words that truly come to mind. I hate that I’ve backed myself into a corner here. Because I don’t have an answer to the above that is clear or that I feel comfortable with. And I hate to press publish on something I don’t feel like I have good, well rounded thoughts for. I don’t always mind if my grammer is bad or if my sentences are awkward. At least I don’t mind those things as much as the idea that I might publish words that are incomplete, or thoughts that are not well formed, or reasonings that have all sorts of holes in them.

And that’s why I force myself to do 501 words — even if I haven’t forced myself in about a month it seems. (I’ve been on vacation and such…get off my back!) I force myself because I tend to want to not speak thoughts until they are finished. That’s not always a bad thing, but sometimes it is the forming of words that completes the thoughts. And sometimes its good to remember that my thoughts will never be complete. And when it comes to honor, it looks like I’m going to leave these thoughts incomplete.

By John Chandler | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

battle

July 6, 2010 – 9:20 am | Word Count: 525

Battle, huh?

The first thing that comes to mind is a fight to the death. I suppose that would be a standard understanding — a battle is a conflict where violence is seen as the means to resolving the conflict, ultimately in death. One who is willing to go to battle is one who is willing enforce whatever means necessary to come out victorious in the conflict, even if it means violence.

It happens in wars, of course. Two countries or tribes feel threatened over an ideal or a piece of land, and choose to resolve it by obliterating the other.

But we also see battles on much smaller levels. Two drunks at a sporting event who allow their passions to get the best of them and come to blows. There are also times where the violence might take different forms; it’s not always physical. Often, what might be standard discourse or dialogue results in a battle. Two opposing sides who push their view to the degree that the other can’t be heard. And we come to expect this, because news shows like to set up the most vocal and extreme from each side in a dialogue where both are more interested in propagating their view than in engaging the other.

The real shame of it all is that we need to somehow assume there is a winner and a loser.

Humans growth through tension, through facing an obstacle or friction of some kind that requires them to push forward. It strengthens us, both muscle and will.

And if a battle is a conflict, what does it mean for us to scale back and see it as a conflict. As a tension that provides an opportunity for growth. To hear from, and to learn from, the other, with an expectation that not only they will be changed, but that we might as well.

Is this always possible? I’d like to think so, but…

A few months ago, I got hooked playing a live game on my iPhone. Each player was building their own kingdom of wealth and armies. The game continued even when you weren’t engaged with it, meaning your gold reserves grew and that other might attack you and steal from you.

While I don’t consider myself to be a violent person, I found it easy to extract vengeance on those who attacked me and stole from me. I would rebuild my army and come back to them again and again. Now it was just a game, and I finally removed the game from my phone and abandoned my kingdom when I decided it was silly to be that connected to a game. But it illustrates my point…

When the one you have conflict with is nameless and faceless, they become an object. It becomes less about engaging that other for the purpose of your mutual growth, and more about enforcing your will and your way. I can’t reshape what is happening between India and Pakistan or the US and the Taliban or any other conflict you can name. But I can reshape myself, encountering those who differ from me not with a posture of battle, but a posture of anticipated growth.

By John Chandler | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

rest

June 29, 2010 – 9:49 am | Word Count: 555

Last night I laid down in bed, intent on following through with my usual bedtime routine of reading some fiction. In this case, it was Out of the Silent Planet, by CS Lewis, if you must know. I’m only a few chapters in, and it hasn’t hooked me yet, but this isn’t a book review, so I’ll move on.

I fought to stay awake, but didn’t even make it through a page. I probably read about three pages worth as I kept drifting away, waking up and re-reading the same paragraph until I finally gave up. Again, that’s not meant to tell you what I think about the book. It’s meant to tell me that I was tired. I needed some rest.

Maybe it has to do with a rapidly approaching middle age. Maybe it has to do with the fact that my kids have no concept of summer and the benefits and glories of sleeping in. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I’m always attacking some problem or scheming a new idea in my waking hours. It’s probably all three, but when my body is lacking rest, it’s more apparent to me than ever before.

I’ve been pondering the differences between rest and recreation — better said re-creation. I think I would be willing to go out on a limb and say that rest is the ceasing of activity — the dictionary probably says something to that effect. What is a truly restful state, though? Certainly sleep usually is, unless it is disrupted by active dreams…or small children. But what is the nature of wakeful rest? I often like to wrap up my day with some time on the couch, listening to music and reading, or watching TV. Oh, or Angry Birds. TV especially can be equated to “vegging out”, and I’m not entirely certain that this should be considered the same thing as rest.

This brings me to re-creation. Re-creation is an activity that fills me and restores me. It puts me back together to that I can get back to the work of creating and producing. Re-creation is not always physical rest, but rest, true rest, can be (and should be) re-creational.

I’m doing tasks these days that require more mental and emotional energy from me than at any time in my life. My work, especially my design and development work, is more defined by alone time for the purpose of producing and creating than it ever has been. And so it has me thinking more about how to recharge, how to make the most of the time when I’m not doing that, whether that meaningful time with my family and friends, or time to recharge alone.

I do know that there is something sacred about rest. The first instance in recorded history of a weekend, of a day of rest, comes from the Ten Commandments. As the narrative goes, the Israelites had been in slavery in Egypt for centuries, and as they are making their way to a new life, God’s longest commandment is for them to take a day off every week. Regardless of where you stand with the Bible, or your views about faith overall, I think you have to agree that regular rest and re-creation restore us and remind to be connected to something greater than what we “do”.

By John Chandler | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

technology

June 22, 2010 – 10:14 am | Word Count: 529

I have a growing ambivalence when it comes to technology.

On the one hand, I am, without question, a technophile. I don’t have to have every new gadget that comes along, but I’m certainly intrigued by any new technology that somehow might shape my workflow or overall lifestyle. I’m especially keen on the products Apple is shaping in Cupertino, because they seem to value and understand that lifestyle and workflow are the point of technology, not the other way around.

I like the possibilities and innovation that come with technology…every day, I see bright new ideas generated by others in the form of software, hardware, or web services. It might be that the innovation that comes in the tech industry is what is most intoxicating to me.

But, on the other hand, I have an ever growing awareness of how much the connection that comes with technology leads us to being, um, disconnected. We have so many ways to be connected to what is happening out there, that we are struggling more and more to stay connected to what is happening right here. It is a challenge to be present in this place, in this moment. Of course, by we, I mean me…and maybe you too.

I’m also aware of a growing conversation about the not so positive effects of multi-tasking. This is already something I’d been thinking about, but I’ve seen at least three different articles on it in the last few weeks connected to different studies. I notice this most when it comes to technology. I have immediate access to so many things from the stroke of a key. Email from friends or clients, tweets from those who can somehow make my day meaningful in only 140 characters, news feeds, World Cup scores, and yes, my to-do list, can land in my field of vision within a matter of seconds. It becomes a grass is greener syndrome. It’s not that things are better elsewhere, but that something might be happening over there, or behind this app, right now, and I’m missing out.

Sometimes I need to step away and take a break. When I’m coding a website, I have to step away from the code every 90 minutes or so. Of the tasks I do, that is one that is the most draining. It’s also the task, by the way, that seems to most easily consume my complete attention. So its good to step away to let my mind wander and rest a bit.

But I also Where I really notice this is when I meet friction in what I’m working on. This happens mostly when I am reading, or when I’m creating something — whether words I’m writing or creating a design in photoshop. I find it so easy to flip away rather than push through the challenge of words that aren’t coming to me or a design element that doesn’t feel right. And so the technology that makes it so easy to create also makes it easy to escape.

I’m at 501 words, and I’ve not even talked about how technology can keep me from being present with others. That’s a least another 501 words, so maybe next time.

By John Chandler | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

summer

June 21, 2010 – 9:39 am | Word Count: 518

Hello summer.

I’ve always loved you. It goes back to being a kid, for sure. The first day of summer for a kid is never June 21 though, it’s always that first day out of school. Not that this matters. It was still all I needed to fall in love with summer.

I suppose your appreciation for summer has a lot to do with where you live. Growing up in Colorado, we had true seasons. While summer could get hot on the front range, it was still mostly a nice time of year, especially when you got to spend time in the mountains.

A big chunk of my adult life was spent in Arizona. Summer there wasn’t quite so welcome. The people who say it’s a dry heat are kidding themselves. Trust me…I used to say it all the time when I lived there, but 105 is 105 no matter what the humidity is. Yes, it might feel worse if the humidity is up, but it’s still pretty awful even at 10% humidity. The best part about that heat was the late nights. I loved coming out of a movie theater at 10pm, almost chilled by the cranked A/C in the theater, and stepping out into a 90 degree darkness.

Counter that with trying to generate some motivation to get work done after a lunch meeting. You fill your stomach, and then you get in a car that is 125 degrees from sitting in the sun. By the time you get back to your workplace, the a/c in your car has strained itself to get the temp in your car back down to about 98. So you have a full belly and you are overheated and work is hopeless.

After Arizona, three summers spent in Seattle were mostly glorious. There is little rain between early July — usually July 5 it seemed…somehow the rain liked to hang around until the 4th and ruin picnics — and early September. Those 7-8 weeks are fantastic. Low to mid 80s and bright blue skies. The main gripe about summer there is that it goes way too fast. After they grey and dark of fall, winter, and spring, it would have been nice for summer to hang around for another, I don’t know, 3-4 months.

Now we are in Austin, and back to the heat. It’s not quite as bad as Arizona, though we had a lot of 100 degree days here last summer. Everyone says that was abnormal, so I’m hoping and praying that’s the case. 95, even with humidity, is slightly more tolerable than 105. Except for the fact that I’m without AC in my car. Getting it fixed hasn’t made it to the top of the budget priorities. So, I like summer…I just try not to spend too much time in my car this time of year.

I really love the thunderstorms of summer. The storms that roll through here are unlike anything I’ve experienced living elsewhere. Big thunder and lightning with heavy downpours. Amazing…except for when they happen anytime between 7pm and 7am and mess with my kids sleep, and therefore mine too.

By John Chandler | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)