I'm kind of a big deal. People know me.
One of the rules of the newsletter is not to send these out on holidays, but New Years Day is a Tier-3 holiday.
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Seattle is frozen. Snow fell on Monday, flakes drifting down and piling up around the apartment. The rest of the week it has been dancing on the line between slush and frozen death. So we've been inside a fair bit.
Has there been card games, cooking and reading? Yes. But, has there been so so so much screen time? Also yes. (To my credit I spent 3 days running by every store in Seattle looking for snow boots, finally finding a sole pair of size 1s)
What's on that screen you ask? Minecraft. SO. MUCH. MINECRAFT. Apparently my son has a 1x1x1 block shaped hole in his heart. I'm trying to remember if my early obsessions with SimCity and FIFA ever reached these levels. "Hours" seems like an insufficient unit of measurement to use to measure the amount of Minecraft that has happened. This boy could reasonably defend a doctoral thesis on mob-trapping strategies. What do we have to show for it? A very modernist house made out of stone and glass (it took a whole day to make the sliding glass doors, but hey, details count), it's surrounded by pillars of lava that feed into a moat. I tried to show him through the works of Zaha Hadid for inspiration he insists that sharp clean lines better honor the medium.
More Gaël updates...reading really well, comic books being the thing that seem to have unlocked that for him. Loving all intensely physical activities and seems to be always bursting at the seams with energy. He has inherited my world class hair (I foresee this being a problem later for multiple reasons).
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And me?
I guess the big news (at least to me) is I've got myself involved in a bicoastal romance. Now I know most of you think of me either as the archetype of the jet-setting playboy or forest dwelling warrior monk, but I assure you I am both. (Someone wise once told me to remember "we are not just one thing")
I went out to visit her twice in New York, then a Seattle trip happened. We wandered the bluffs above the sound, dodged the king tide on the beach, sheltered from a rainstorm in the middle of the arboretum and saw the large fall leaves almost suspend in the air as they floated to the ground. All of this was fueled by chocolate and vegan lasagna.
Post-Seattle she rented a car and set off on a multi-week trip down the west coast. Late November is not for the faint of heart when it comes to car camping, the pull of mountains, lakes, rivers and coasts was too strong. One of my friends (I think Jacques?) described this as a dive into "big nature". The adventurer spirit is strong.
I flew down and we caught up in San Diego. Too much happened so distilling it down to some quick highlights:
* So many long beach days, discovering local musicians at tiki themed restaurants and watching the waves break
* Daydreaming of becoming a surfer (if nothing else, the comedy would be worth it) and earnestly trying to describe the intricacies of surfing to Shelby whilst having never surfed myself
* Scrambling up big piles of rocks in Joshua Tree
* Getting to poke my younger brother in the belly
* Oh man, the Botanical Building in Balboa park. What a perfect perfect place. Great subtle interplay of light, shadow and plant.
What else is new? I've been enjoying my break from work. Rediscovering the joy of programming. It feels terribly cliche, but I'm also hoping to get back on the exercise bandwagon in the new year. We'll see how it goes.
Ok this is long enough. Happy New Year Everyone. My wish for all of you is somewhat selfish - it is that I hope that our paths cross soon. Whether it's on text, the phone or over tea.
Cowabunga dude,
DJ
"See that surfer over there, that could have been me, I almost did it my 20s, look at him catch the...yeah catch the wave...rad...so rad"
---
Seattle is frozen. Snow fell on Monday, flakes drifting down and piling up around the apartment. The rest of the week it has been dancing on the line between slush and frozen death. So we've been inside a fair bit.
Has there been card games, cooking and reading? Yes. But, has there been so so so much screen time? Also yes. (To my credit I spent 3 days running by every store in Seattle looking for snow boots, finally finding a sole pair of size 1s)
What's on that screen you ask? Minecraft. SO. MUCH. MINECRAFT. Apparently my son has a 1x1x1 block shaped hole in his heart. I'm trying to remember if my early obsessions with SimCity and FIFA ever reached these levels. "Hours" seems like an insufficient unit of measurement to use to measure the amount of Minecraft that has happened. This boy could reasonably defend a doctoral thesis on mob-trapping strategies. What do we have to show for it? A very modernist house made out of stone and glass (it took a whole day to make the sliding glass doors, but hey, details count), it's surrounded by pillars of lava that feed into a moat. I tried to show him through the works of Zaha Hadid for inspiration he insists that sharp clean lines better honor the medium.
More Gaël updates...reading really well, comic books being the thing that seem to have unlocked that for him. Loving all intensely physical activities and seems to be always bursting at the seams with energy. He has inherited my world class hair (I foresee this being a problem later for multiple reasons).
---
And me?
I guess the big news (at least to me) is I've got myself involved in a bicoastal romance. Now I know most of you think of me either as the archetype of the jet-setting playboy or forest dwelling warrior monk, but I assure you I am both. (Someone wise once told me to remember "we are not just one thing")
I went out to visit her twice in New York, then a Seattle trip happened. We wandered the bluffs above the sound, dodged the king tide on the beach, sheltered from a rainstorm in the middle of the arboretum and saw the large fall leaves almost suspend in the air as they floated to the ground. All of this was fueled by chocolate and vegan lasagna.
Post-Seattle she rented a car and set off on a multi-week trip down the west coast. Late November is not for the faint of heart when it comes to car camping, the pull of mountains, lakes, rivers and coasts was too strong. One of my friends (I think Jacques?) described this as a dive into "big nature". The adventurer spirit is strong.
I flew down and we caught up in San Diego. Too much happened so distilling it down to some quick highlights:
* So many long beach days, discovering local musicians at tiki themed restaurants and watching the waves break
* Daydreaming of becoming a surfer (if nothing else, the comedy would be worth it) and earnestly trying to describe the intricacies of surfing to Shelby whilst having never surfed myself
* Scrambling up big piles of rocks in Joshua Tree
* Getting to poke my younger brother in the belly
* Oh man, the Botanical Building in Balboa park. What a perfect perfect place. Great subtle interplay of light, shadow and plant.
What else is new? I've been enjoying my break from work. Rediscovering the joy of programming. It feels terribly cliche, but I'm also hoping to get back on the exercise bandwagon in the new year. We'll see how it goes.
Ok this is long enough. Happy New Year Everyone. My wish for all of you is somewhat selfish - it is that I hope that our paths cross soon. Whether it's on text, the phone or over tea.
Cowabunga dude,
DJ
"See that surfer over there, that could have been me, I almost did it my 20s, look at him catch the...yeah catch the wave...rad...so rad"
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