25 November 2003 - 23:12

Well, I’ve been kind of quiet lately.

Everything interesting in my life these days can’t really be put into words.

My vacation in Oregon was an oasis of rarefied yet earthly delight. The parts that involved hiking up cliffs, climbing trees, and wading into frigid water were all especially that.

I returned and began my new job. My first full-time, salaried (sort of) job. An almost adult sort of job. A job that establishes me as yes, quite middle class. Forty hours a week with a desk and a computer. My first year ever without a good three weeks off for Christmas.

I love it.

That may be part of the reason for my silence. While complaining about one’s employment is standard diaryland fare, I have never been even slightly tempted to contribute. I find myself in a job with benefits that anyone would appreciate – the flexibility, values, and educational opportunities of an academic environment. A smug sense that I’m doing something rather important (Environmental Studies! Why, I’m an environmentalist, and here I am, helping the Environmental Studies Program run). Continuous internet access. Intelligent, compassionate, articulate bosses/officemates who are a pleasure to interact with as friends and neighbors. I’m reasonably competant, and produce the occasional actual Thing.

Yes, it would be good job any way you sliced it.

I work a couple of steps away from Gillian Baskin’s office.

That makes this the Best Job in the World.

I think I hinted during the summer that I feel increasingly ... powerful. This feeling continues to slowly but steadily grow. It is a few steps above anything from my previous life, although I have always been pretty self confident and pretty capable. Is this the good part of being an adult? I think that soon I will be finishing projects that I start. I think that skills that I have slowly, faithfully built over the many years I’ve directed my own education are very close to growing together, to merging with each other and validating my belief that they would someday be useful for something. I think that after years of searching, I may be close to having my ideally efficient and usable organization system – you know, the perfect list that would make sure I didn’t miss people’s birthdays, lose their phone numbers, forget to floss twice a day, arrive at meetings late, allow new species to grow in the bottom of the refridgerator, or never actually do anything with my life.

This is all terribly hubristic, isn’t it? It may all be stardust and snakeoil. My ego may finally have overcome my shred of common sense.

Nonetheless, despite the days of geeky focus and frustration, the months are characterised by hope.

All that is rather vague. Let’s get down to nuts and bolts. What have I been thinking about these past few months?

Over the years, I have studied and attended to a variety of things: textile arts and the making of clothing, painting and drawing, comics, sculpting with polymer clay, prose and poetry writing, conlanging, a bit of computer programming and web coding, computer game writing, have thought about architecture and urbanism, ardent environmentalism, a little bit about music, educational philosophy, DIY ideals, psychology, experimental research.

We have all heard Great Wisdoms. They tend to be very short and easy to understand, but very, very hard to practice. It’s one thing to say “All life is change” or “One day you will die” or “The only happiness is freedom from desire” or “Be here now” or “Love everyone.” The words make sense, the profound nature of the sentiments can be striking at times. A few minutes spent pondering the implications of those thoughts can be very emotional.

But unless you somehow take one of those simple ideas and embed it in your consciousness, so that the thought is always with you, coloring your view of the world ... it doesn’t matter how profound it is for those few minutes of reflection, because after that, it’s gone.

I have yet to carry any of the above Example Wisdoms^tm in my heart. Honestly, I’m not particularly striving to.

However, at some point between reading about the discipline of typography for the first time, learning to make Really Good Web Sites, and actually working in Environmental Studies, I somehow acquired a new concept.

It’s a concept that I’ve been exposed to before, that is as simple and obvious as it is pervasive. But for some reason, about six months ago, it actually took with me.

That concept is the concept of design. It unites all of the disciplines mentioned above that I have studied for years. It validates my just on the healthy side obsessive compulsive tendancies.

So now, I can’t do much of anything without marveling at the invisible people who created layers and layers of the things around me. I analyze their choices, I try to learn from them, I criticize them harshly. Why use a typeface with such small counters for this copy? This bend in the road curves too widely! This logo is too ornate, whereas this one, though bordering on clichéd, is effective. This telephone cradle is too shallow. This shampoo label contains unnecessary text. What an intuitive car dashboard! This store is laid out very well for finding things. This patient information form is repetitive and intimidating. This bicycle is beautiful.

I’m willing to back up any of my assertions with argument, examples, and where possible, data. I’m also very willing to change my mind, and have on a handful of occasions.

I credit Vruba and Platypus and their years of good example for my little epiphany. It creates the illusion of allowing me to use much information at once. Instead of taking a walk and seeing birds when I’m studying birds, insects when I’m studying insects, and houses when I’m studying architecture, I have some sense that I can see the birds and insects and houses all during the same walk. This contributes to my sense of hope.

By the by, if you often find yourself at a loss for conversation, reading a portion of Robert Bringhurst’s The Elements of Typographic Style might help. Type is all over the place, and with a few basic concepts, you can start to have fun with it just by noticing the differences, pointing them out, and expressing your subjective opinions about them. I have passed many hours of waiting in airports and restaurants in this fashion. It’s a rather indulgent game.

And what have I been doing? Studying and reading and attempting to make things, much as I always have. Topics of study include the usual suspects: morse code, TCP/IP, web design, Hawaiiana, electronics, and hula hooping (yeah baby!).

I don’t have much to show for all my work and all my talk. Not just for the past few months, but for years and years, although my high school portfolio and college thesis were both great. Maybe that will change.

In other news, we have a cat! His name is Kif (after Kroker, from Futurama).