Category Archives: Random

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Can somebody tell me why it smells like boiled linseed oil in here?

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To answer the question in the title, it’s the sack of grain sitting behind me (don’t ask).

Today I went on a 30 minute jog around the neighborhood as part of a challenge from a friend and colleague in my small effort to help raise awareness and research funding for usher syndrome. For a variety of reasons this week is proving to be a rather emotional one. It has put me in a dour and philosophical mood. Every little thing along my way seemed somehow more acute. Every bit of sensory input was interesting. Perhaps it has to do with the icy dry air descending upon our little valley, and maybe it’s just me thinking too hard, I dunno. It started with sound and sight – something of a tie-in to the challenge itself. Usher syndrome is, after all, the most common cause of combined deafness and blindness, and yet so few have ever heard of it. Early detection is essential which is one of the reasons this challenge is so important – how do you detect something you may never have heard of?

Anyhow, to get on with it: The leaves here are starting to get a bit ‘crispy’ and as the sun drops low on the horizon blasting vibrant golden beams of light through the thin canopy of trees, these little birds, dunno what they are, rustle around sounding thoroughly like tiny elephants. And you know what? Aside from a bit of road noise, from the main road that’s it for sound. We don’t have cicadas or crickets. The few frogs we do have are typically quiet, and the birds, well they’ve mostly said their piece for the year. When you’re running, it’s your shoes, your breath and the wind.

It seems like the quiet would make for a peaceful and relaxing jog, but not so much. It’s too cold. The air just doesn’t seem to hold the sun’s heat this time of year. As soon as I hit the end of the drive, the cold started gnawing. Even with the last gasp of direct sunlight and my own heat of activity, the bite just got worse with every drop of sweat.

About half-way through my run, I was staring down the road into a thick fog of wood-smoke. Not the sweet well measured smoke you get from a fish smoker, but the thick nasty smoke from a poorly kept wood stove with low-quality wet wood. It got me thinking though about how things smell in the fall. When the air gets cold like that, sound travels well and so does smell. I got through the smoke and inhaled as much of the fresh clean air as I could. With that clean air came the sweet, pungent smells of fall, but there was more. Some houses I passed were dark and silent, but others were wrapping up their day. Some people were clearly taking their evening showers. I could smell the shampoo being pulled into the evening air by ventilators. One house was running their dryer and the perfume of dryer sheets hung out in the street too.

To bring this around to writing, smell is one I always forget about. It’s so close to taste that I think I just forget about it. The funny thing is that smell is really linked to memory and emotion in a way that sometimes other senses aren’t. It’s just like the sack of grain sitting behind me that reminded me of boiled linseed oil, which makes me feel like being in the wood shop. Once you get to the linseed oil part, you’re nearly done, but not quite, it’s like the last leg of a marathon.

Anyhow, that was an odd rambling post. But I posted it so there you have it.

Note: In the spirit of full disclosure, I took a bit of artistic license with this – I started writing this post yesterday. It wasn’t quite as clear today, but I ran the same both days

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Art is the science of creativity

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School started two weeks ago, and this past Thursday was the open house. We don’t usually make it because one of us is around to see the teachers after school and we’ve got plenty of opportunities to ask questions. That’s not going to happen this year due to our new schedules, so this time I went. Before I launch into my rant, I’d like to give a bit of context. The school our kids go to is a Spanish immersion program and it’s very small, many of the students, teachers, and parents all know each other. It’s generally a good school.

After the usual beginning of year housekeeping items and shooting candy from a pneumatic candy cannon, I went up to our daughter’s classroom. Her teachers gave a presentation about class expectations and what-not. I didn’t stay for the whole thing. Between the two of them, they’ve been teaching one of our children since our eldest was in Kindergarten. We know them and their expectations. I’ll have an opportunity to speak with them during the first parent-teacher conference.

Second, I went on to our youngest son’s classroom. Again, we know one of the teachers, the other is new. When question time came around, I asked about homework, listened for a moment about their plans for the class and moved on – I don’t see problems there. The last stop was our eldest son’s classroom and teacher. This one was important because he’s in 5th grade, it’s a teacher we don’t know, and last year was a challenging year for all of us with respect to homework and expectations.

This particular teacher wasn’t doing a presentation, he was meeting each parent individually and answering questions. By the time I had gotten over there, most of the parents had cleared off and I had his full attention. I asked the usual questions about homework, what sorts of things they’re going to cover and so on. He started telling me about his plan for the year a his plan to take a ‘steam’ approach. “steam?” I asked, as opposed to “stem?” – YES. Science Technology Engineering Art and Mathematics. He explained that he would integrate art into the routine.

I thought this was interesting. Recently I feel like all I’m hearing with education is how important STEM is. My question is where’s the art? I agree these topics are super important for college and jobs and what not, but what do these things mean without art? Is this something that we really don’t value any more? We should. Every single STEM field demands creativity and some measure of art, but it’s not taught that way. You learn the technical bits of all of these, like how the math fits in and how the testing and rigor of science applies. I have to concede that creativity is encouraged, but the science of art, the heart of creativity is dismissed as not particularly useful. It’s as if art is something else and shouldn’t mix with science and technology. Art is a science in its own right though. You try new things, you test them see if they work, others may try to mimic it in some fashion. Sometimes ideas must be discarded, other ideas work and are propagated.

To put it in more concrete terms: People don’t buy iPhones because of what they do. They buy them because of the artistry in their design, from the elegant look and feel right to how the applications work. Plenty of cars are sold based on their look in addition to their function. Homes that are built to look good are more highly valued because of that. People don’t like websites that look bad, and they don’t buy books that read like a technical manual.

photo credit: Steampunk keyboard, office, London, UK 3.JPG via photopin (license)

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Time for a major life decision

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Today I got the phone call. It was precisely the call I’ve been hoping to get for the past couple of weeks. A job offer. My spirits sank a little when we started talking money, it wasn’t as good as I’d hoped, but generally what I expected. Before the end of the day, we got to a place that I consider fair and reasonable. To be clear, in terms of overall compensation, it’s a pay-cut, no doubt about it, but the size and nature of that cut has been agonized for some weeks now and I’ve concluded that other aspects of the job and other long-term strategies make up for it – I’m not going to go into details. Realistically, it’s the sort of thing we can cope with. Not only that, after having met the individuals I’d be working with and hearing more about the project, I got pretty excited about the job. Not only does it sound like a tremendous opportunity, but it’s going to be a new and interesting challenge that I want to do. It’s the sort of thing I want to get neck deep into and try to do something brilliant. Right now, as I write this blog, the offer is sitting in my e-mail inbox awaiting a signature. All I need to do is print, sign, send it back, and make arrangements with my current employer.

The problem?

Possibly the best way to describe the problem is the question: Am I being selfish? The truth is that I want to do this job, I want a change, for so many reasons, and I look forward to not having to worry about the future of my job on an annual basis, and even the tiny ill-lit cubicle that I will undoubtedly be locked into for 8 hours a day, but is it fair to my family?

At the moment, I work 3 days/week at home, which means I’m there for the kids when they get out of school and they can be at home most of the summer. I worry about making it back to town before the after-school care closes down, and about homework. What will dinner look like if I’m not home at 4:30 to cook it up? There will be much less leave time available, so I won’t be able to take two weeks in the winter and two weeks in the summer and still have time to take off a day here and there to take care of home stuff.

Everyone I’ve spoken to so far has advocated for me to follow-through and take the job -Even my wife. This is advice I’d like to just take without the heartburn. I want desperately to be excited about this change, yet here I am stressing out about it. My current situation is so incredibly comfortable as far as home-life is concerned that I worry I’m making the right decision, even with the risk of layoffs or massive pay-cuts, loss of pension, and so-on in the next year or two. My current job is NOT a bad one, I’m treated extremely fairly and compensated well. The long-term prospects have little to do with those I work with now, and more to do with the decline of oil prices.

To bring this around to writing, as this is the point of the blog anyhow, will this effect my writing? Yes, a bit. I like to have off a few days here and there to write without harassment, and that will happen a lot less, but the more I focus on getting to the publishing of my first novel, the more I realize this is a hobby and always will be. It’s something I should enjoy, and if I do, I’ll work it in.

Anyhow. I don’t know if I’ve got much more to say about this just now. I have until about lunchtime tomorrow to make a final decision, perhaps someone will talk me out of it, or I’ll be convinced I’m making the right decision for myself and my family. I dunno. Either way, the next blog post will be an impassioned rant on word processors (or to be more precise – a pointless rant about how little it seems to matter what you choose.) I will also probably blog my decision at some point – this is a big deal for me.