Category Archives: Protagonist Post

checks and balances

I have never been a numbers person. Honestly, keeping track of anything in a formulaic way has always been counterintuitive for me. I’ve just finished week one of this “Cap and Trade” system and am finding that balancing my actual environmental habits to be less difficult and than balancing the points on the scoring card. I am now wishing I had been asked to brush up on some mathematical equations in my last logic chapter; it may have helped me create a tool for tracking all the miles of driving, cubic feet of waste, gallons of water, and hours of electricity I am using this month.

I have never even balanced my checkbook technically, but I also have never overdrawn. It may not be logical but I usually sense when something is off balance and then adjust as needed. I just make sure that I keep to my moderate spending habits and try to stay on the frugal side of things. I have tried to adopt this mode of operation to this game. So I’m not sure what my point results will reveal in the end, but one thing has become extremely clear. I am now more aware of everything I do on a daily basis more than I ever thought I could be (or wanted to be!). I mean who tracks how many times they flush a toilet in a database?

Within days, I determined what my highest point scoring habits include: driving my car, charging my laptop/phone, eating food that has an unknown origin and showering daily. Some of these things were easy to scale back right away. (like cutting back on my amount of showers and length of them) But others can not be changed overnight – giving up my car would mean giving up my job and giving up my computer would also mean giving up my job. I decided to avoid unemployment and focus on the areas in which there was potential to shift. Food and Water. These two things I have direct control over changing in my daily life.

Or do I? Even these decisions, in which I thought I had ultimate control over, are a lot more complex than I originally thought. I didn’t make it past my first meal of the month before I became tangled up in the logistics of how to “score” my eating habits.

Dinner number one: I had a salad with greens from my own garden, a tomato from a neighbors garden, some packaged baby carrots, a non organic cucumber and some salad dressing (with a ton of random ingredients) all from… the “local” grocery store, along with a turkey burger bearing a label saying it’s meat was “distributed” in near by Landover, MD Hmmm… something harvested by me, something locally harvested – other veggies from unknown territories and meat from where? If “distributed” means raised and processed, I think less than 100 miles away? So how many points is that?

Things got pretty complicated even after examining one meal. Knowing I got my food from the local food store was not knowing where my food is from. Living in Annapolis, I am privileged to have access to many places that sell locally grown food, but I did find, after checking, that those stores and markets are actually scattered around the area and are a farther drive away than my local Grocery Store. I would also have to go to several different places to get all things locally. Would the miles in my car out weigh the choice of the food? Hmmm… I had to check out the point system to find out. After checking I still was not sure.

While focusing on water consumption, this different dilemma surfaced: I’m in a pubic bathroom in my favorite coffee shop remembering that every time I flush a toilet I am essentially wasting water (and gaining .5 points). I am wondering how the proprietor and other customers would feel about me implementing the, “if its yellow let it mellow” motto. I never opposed this idea but I had also never really fully adopted it. This was the first time I actually found myself pondering this predicament. Do I do what’s considered “rude” and leave pee unflushed in a public toilet or do I waste the water and enable this water wasting habit we have all taken part in for years? I caved that time and succumbed to the “avoid doing what is rude rule” that my mother taught me long ago.

It’s ridiculous that I even have time or head space to think about such a “dilemma” as this let alone ponder it for the rest of the day. Later that evening I brought it up again in a phone conversation with “Logic and Order” chapter writer Gabe DellaVecchia. “Do you leave pee in public toilets?” I asked. He lived in Portland Oregon where he said that the “if its yellow let it mellow motto” is the norm, not only in personal homes but in public places as well. He said you may get labeled a “hippie” for letting the yellow mellow but heck that seems a lot better label than being called “rude”.

Is it rude to save water? Are we still being labeled negatively for trying to conserve? Well I guess we all have opinions on the right and wrong ways of doing things and we all feel differently about what’s important (in this case our etiquette or our conservation habits). But we can only make decisions for ourselves in our personal lives… OR do we need to work harder as a culture together to make these changes acceptable?

This game has filled my head with an overwhelming amount to think about and its only week one! Not only am I now thinking about how my personal choices are impacting everything and everyone around me but I am also pondering how and why we have come to make the choices we do and what kind of support we may or may not have for trying to make those changes toward a better outcome?

It seems like we are up against a lot of different obstacles when trying to do something like lower our personal impact on the environment. Beyond just the system in which we track our habits, there is the structure of the city we live in, our culture, our economic status and our upbringing. These are just a few of the factors that I haven’t even touched on yet. What were you taught as a child about how to make your decisions. Were you raised to conserve water or conserve money? Did you grow up on fast food or grow your own food?

I am curious about finding a system that could help us all shift our habits while taking into account our different starting points. (does this exist?) And are we even in a position to be able to make the changes we want to or will we have the access to do so? These are some of the bigger questions I’ve been wrestling with this week along with the “pee in public toilet dilemma”.

What do you think? How can we assess and accept the path where we have come from to get to a new place of balance where we’d all like to be?

8/9/13

Please join Chapter 3 writer Andy and I in the Cap and Trade Game and track your own habits! You may learn something about yourself and the possibly the environment in which you live and where you came from. Just click here and add your name to play.

Just finding this blog today? Read the prologue for more details on what Living Chapters is all about.

lifestyle: liveaboard

3 Replies

In the past few days of tracking my habits and assigning them point values, I have realized that there is one major thing that has given me a slight advantage with this eco-challenge chapter.

I live on a sailboat.

I know I mentioned this in my last post but I feel that it’s relevant to return to and reflect upon this singular choice. The Cap and Trade game has asked me to look very closely at the multitude of choices that I make every day and how they all effect our environment greatly but I have realized that making this one larger lifestyle choice has really given me a head start on easing me into making more enviro-friendly choices.

Months before starting Living Chapters, I decided to move aboard, free of any writer’s demands or suggestions, I wrote this particular chapter myself not knowing at the time that it would change the fate of my future chapters.

Unlike most liveaboards, I did not make this choice because I am a sailor, or have any attachment or history with boats or the sea. Although I have a strong love for being on and near the water, my reasons behind this decision were pretty practical. We all have our priorities and make mental lists of what we want when choosing a home. This is what my list looked like when making my last move.

What I would like in a home:

1. Affordable rent

2. Walking proximity to a downtown with local coffee shops and a farmers market

3. Shorter commute for work

4. Lack of drama (meaning: living without multiple roommates was preferable)

Trying to accomplish these simple requests in Annapolis is nearly impossible with a non-profit part-time salary. And after a month into my Craigslist housing search, I was almost ready to give up. I had seen way too many over-priced apartments and condos and met a large cast of potential future restraining orders – I mean potential roommates. The idea of living on a boat did not really enter my mind until I answered yet another random ad on Craigslist. This one was advertising a motor boat for rent, $450. Hmm..? Sounded like an interesting idea. Well it was an interesting idea but not a good idea. After arriving at the marina, I found that the guy who placed the ad and owned the boat, Jerry, wanted me to pay him $450 to live with him on his musty, rusty 35ft boat. Anyway, not to get off track here, telling my house hunting horror stories, but I had to give a shout out to Jerry because he may have changed my life forever. I did NOT end up moving in with Jerry and his collection of fishing gear and old boat parts, but meeting him did solidify two things. I definitely wanted to live alone and I was even more curious about living on a boat than ever.

I knew living on a boat would change my lifestyle but didn’t really consider how it could change my environmental habits.

I have to start off by saying I really know very little about the liveaboard lifestyle. I’ve only been aboard 5 months now, which is long enough to know that there is A LOT to learn and there are a million different ways to choose how to live on the water (as there are on land). What I do know is this – I had to change quite a few things to adapt to this new home and the predominant theme for me was reduction.

“Less is more” is the mantra, right? Well let’s count the ways living on the boat has helped me practice this.

Less space = less stuff = less waste. The first thing I adapted to, was living in a much smaller physical space. It really wasn’t that hard. With less space, I just prioritized and brought aboard the things that I really needed to live with along with a few things I really wanted. I quickly realized that there were a lot of belongings I thought I needed but really didn’t. Isn’t this alone the crux of so many of our consumption issues? We think we need more than we really do? Desire more – use more. Desire less – use less. It seems simple but sometimes hard to put into practice.

For example: at the grocery store – I now, choose things with less packaging. Why bring home the extra foam, plastic covering, or extra plastic bags when there is really little room to store or dispose of these things when returning to the boat. Do I need an extra plastic bag to put my ears of corn in or loose vegetables – no dont think so? My trash bin on land was twice the size of the one I have aboard so keeping extra trash was not a big deal in my personal life. I also don’t have ample space for recycling now – so I just try not to bring back any excess packaging when I don’t have to. I also have gotten into the habit of buying only what I need to eat for the day that I am going to eat it (with a tiny fridge there is no room to keep excess food) This has helped me eat fresher food and also reduces my food waste. I eat what I have on board before going and buying more.

Less space also = less energy usage. On the first boat I lived on, I used a refrigerator smaller than a dorm room fridge, a hot plate, a toaster oven and a small space heater when it was cold. I used no more than two 12 volt lights to light the space. I also learned that I could only use so much electric at any given time without blowing a fuse. I needed to make choices of using one appliance at a time and turn the others off when not using them.

OH and lets not forget water usage. Living on land my 1 bedroom apartment provided me with free-flowing hot water at my fingertips whenever I wanted it. I never had to think about if I would run out of water, so I didn’t think about conserving it. After moving aboard, water was the first thing I had to think about. On the first boat, I didn’t have running water – I used dock water from a hose and filtered it or brought on bottled water. Visually being able to see how much water I had aboard definitely helped me conserve my use of it.

So what do these reduction adaptations add up to? A much lower electric bill and possibly a lower negative impact on the environment. I have, whether I’ve intended to or not, fallen into a these new patterns just because of my lifestyle choice. If I observe and examine these habits a bit more closely and intently, (like the Cap and Trade asks me to) I may be able to make even more of a difference.

As a newbie novice living on the water, I just skimmed the surface of the many ways living on a boat can be a sound environmental choice. I encourage and ask the experienced liveaboards, sailors, and boaters to comment and share their conservation tips and experiences while on the water. I really hope I can continue to live on the this lifestylefor a bit longer. I have become really fond of this choice and feel like there is so much more to learn. I am renting this boat till the end of the month and am hoping to find a new one in September so that I can stay on the water. Wish me luck!

8/6/13

Thanks to Barbara and Jack Donachy for reading and commenting on my last post and sharing their fascinating life experience of living aboard. Very inspiring!

To get a taste of what it would be like to live on a boat yourself check out Sleeponaboat.com. Greg, who runs this website, rents me the boat I am on now. He would like to connect both boat owners and individuals looking for a weekend stay or live aboard experience. I can only endorse this idea. I LOVE IT!

Just finding this blog today? Read the prologue for more details on what Living Chapters is all about.

from where we are

8 Replies

Before I begin to respond to the epic eco adventure planned for this chapter. I would like to take a small step back and reflect on the overall theme of the month that inspired Andy’s sustainability challenge. “The environment”

The term itself may mean different things to different people, but when I chose this theme as one of six for the Living Chapters year, I secretly hoped that I would be challenged in two areas: 1. How I engage with my physical environment (natural or man-made) and 2. How I consume the resources that our environment provides us.

We all experience our physical environments very differently therefore we also engage and consume in different ways. Coming from different backgrounds, and living in different places we all begin at varied starting points.

So before diving head first into the compost bin, I’d like to take this first week to focus on becoming more aware of my immediate environment and my direct consumption patterns. Understanding where we are coming from and what we consume seems like it should be the first step in this “Eco-Awareness Game”.

So here is a quick snapshot of my own starting point:

My home/residence: I currently live in Annapolis, MD. For the past 5 months, I’ve lived aboard “Chasing Gwian” a 30-foot sailboat. On that boat my electric bill never went over $28 a month. I also did not have running water to use or waste. In some aspects, I was living relatively simply and efficiently. At the beginning of this month, I moved onto “Meridan Summer”, a 31-foot sailboat with running water, a somewhat working galley (kitchen) and much more space to heat or cool. Moving up in comfort definitely means moving up in energy usage.

Energy Consumption: My primary source of travel right now is by car. For my job, I luckily can do most of my work from a laptop computer from any place. However, I am asked to commute to a Baltimore City office once or twice a week (30 miles one way) and the majority of my work this month will be at on-site events and activities in Southern Maryland communities (50- 100 miles from Annapolis). I also commute to Mechanicsburg, PA (120 miles one way) to see and help with family at least once or twice a month. Since I left my last long-term leased apartment in Baltimore (over 2 years ago now), let’s just say I have been on the road. Even though I have a very gas efficient Toyota compact car, my use of fuel is astronomical! I may have spent more money in gas than I have in rent in the past two years!

Water consumption: I use toilet and shower facilities in a shared marina. Before moving into the marina, I had given very little thought to my water consumption. I love long showers and hot baths! Since making the choice to live aboard I have become more aware of both my water and electricity usage. The change of lifestyle directly changed my habits whether I wanted to or not.

Food consumption: I have no set patterns of where I purchase my food and I often eat out as I have not lived with a proper kitchen for more than a year now. Currently I do have a small garden bearing only some herbs, bolting greens and one thriving pepper plant (not enough food to sustain myself on) I enjoy going to farmers markets but often feel like I can’t afford to shop at them but have occasionally treated myself to the better food and more eco-friendly choices. The bottom line is this: choosing the right food has always been a mystery for me… organic, local, free range, sustainable… can someone help me out?

At first glance this game looks like its going to be ridiculously tedious and hard. But I KNOW this will be rewarding if I can come up with some fun and creative solutions.

So please, if you will – join Andy and I in this game – go here and sign up to play. Or illuminate me with some creative and fun solutions to all these enviro-friendly challenges. Post to the blog or on the Living Chapters Facebook page – Cause like Kermit and Andy have said “It’s not easy being green”. We need your help!

Last month I learned that simple logic tells us less is more…I am going to try to stick to that mantra as I move forward.

8/3/13

Just finding this blog today? Read the prologue for more details on what Living Chapters is all about.

To get a taste of what it would be like to live on a boat yourself check out Sleeponaboat.com Greg, who runs this website, rents me the boat I am on and would like to connect both boat owners and individuals looking for a weekend stay or live aboard experience. I can only endorse this idea. I LOVE IT!

protagonist parting words

the completion of beginnings

3 Replies

Is there really a symbol that could represent yourself or the work that you do? The Wild Card asked me this along with a slew of other intensive inner reflective questions this month. She also asked me to present visual ideas for this question and allow the Living Chapters audience to vote or select one that they thought might be a good representation my work. Thanks to all of you who weighed in with your votes.

Here is how people voted:

The most amount of votes were cast for this symbol.

Ironically this is a symbol that I gravitated to in my early years. It would pop up in many of my high school art projects, in letters that I wrote to friends, or doodles on classroom homework and folders. The eye image definitely has played a long-lasting role in my life representing the importance of being awake and being aware. Growing up, I felt that it stood for the ability to see what is right in front of you and emphasized the value of witnessing the world around you.

The second most voted for symbol was this one

The Labyrinth

The labyrinth seems very suited to my winding path. Labyrinths are often mistaken for mazes or something that one could get lost within or frustrated with. Unlike mazes though, there are no real dead-ends in a labyrinth only paths that guide you forward. Meandering, yet structured routes, that lead to new destinations. I see labyrinths as tools that can be utilized to practice finding one’s way out of confusing situations. I’ve found myself doing that more than a few times in my work.

So what do I think?

The overall process of picking a personal symbol has been intriguing. As I noted before, I feel that it is near impossible for any one symbol or image to represent a body of work or in my case what feels like an ongoing evolving path as I build my career. So for this reason, I gravitated to less literally visual symbols. I preferred the linear images that were left open to interpretation but yet held a rich meaning.

The Labyrinth, which came in second in all the votes, also came in second when I made my personal votes. I decided that the labyrinth represented how I have moved on my path more than what the work I have done.

My first choice to represent my work is the Rune symbol of Inguz. It seemed to stand out from the rest of the them visually to me.

In the Book of Runes by Ralph H. Blum, in which I first encountered this symbol, Inguz was described in this way:

“This Rune is akin to the moon, the intuitive part of our nature, with its urge toward harmonizing and adjusting in the sphere of personal relationships. The completion of beginnings is what Inguz requires. Drawing this rune may mark a time of joyful deliverance of new life, a new path. It means you will have the strength to achieve completion resolution from which comes new beginning. – All things change and we can not live permanently amid obstructions.”

The meaning appealed to me and seemed to describe the way in which I sought out work and new projects.

When searching further into this rune I found this meaning taken from the book “Zen Runes” by Maria Letizia Renzulli.

“As the moon is mirrored in the sea, as the upper parts of the this rune can be mirrored in the lower, so to can you mirror yourself in others, discovering your true power… “

This felt like the closest description to what I do. I work with people, find a personal connection and then mirror back that connection by framing their story within a photograph, audio story or interactive program that allows those that I work with to hear themselves and share in their own way. I don’t create new things. I simply witness the existence of them and highlight the importance and value to sharing them.

Only one person voted for this symbol but his reasoning just added to my original attraction to this symbol. My friend Steve Oxley impressions were as follows:

“It gives off the impression of potential – The design is simple yet complex, it gives me the impression of balance, as if life occurs in the apex of your past and your future. This is why it is good for a portfolio that’s trying to encompass your past in hopes of bringing the light to future adventures”

I can’t help but agree with Steve. I am still unsure of how and where it will visually show up on the website, but I have a few more days to figure that out.

7/29/13

Just finding this blog today? Read the prologue for more details on what Living Chapters is all about.

Images of the labyrinth and eye symbols were taken from the following books found in Powell’s bookstore in Portland OR: ”The Book of Symbols” – Taschen “Man and His Symbols” – Carl Jung

(wo)man and her symbols

1 Reply

I have had little time (literally) between my travels from coast to coast and state to state to properly give thought to Anita’s Wild Card self-reflection questions. Although I did zero in on one of them in particular – selecting a symbol for my portfolio.

I am a visual person so I thought this would be easy. But for some reason, I am finding it very difficult. How could one symbol or image represent what you would like to communicate about your personality or being? If there was a symbol that represented me what would it be? Is there really one archetype that can represent an individual? It’s probably the reason I have never gotten a tattoo… I can’t imagine picking one image that I would want to permanently live with. As found written in an 8th grade journal of mine, “Consistent change is the only constant in life”. I kind of still believe that.

Although difficult to pin down, I gravitated toward this task and welcomed the relief and break from hours of computer work – sitting with a pile of books peering through pages of visual images was an enjoyable experience. Below are some of the first finds and thoughts on selecting an archetype to represent my individuality and the work that I do.

So what kind of woman am I? Is there a symbol that can represent that?

What kinds of images have been used in the past to represent women? Do I separately self identify as being a woman? Being a woman with a certain kind of career? Hmmm… not really

Do I identify as being a traveler? Well… not only.

Do I identify with the amount of money I make? Or where I live? Maybe the things that I own or the things that I do? No… not really. None of that really seems to get at who I am or what my work choices have meant to me.

Could an animal represent me? I am starting to feel like a turtle residing on or by the water for the past two years and moving my home with me from place to place.

Should I look to astrology? Being a Capricorn is supposed to mean I am good on land and in water (the goat/fish). It sort of suits?

What about looking to history, mythology, or dreams to find the right symbol?

It all seems way too representational and a little bit too specific for me, connected only to one thing time, or place, with predisposed meaning.

Honestly I would prefer not putting any excess pictorial images on my online portfolio in addition to representing my work itself. After looking through more symbols I started leaning toward those that were graphic and linear.

The number 4 for some reason has always been my favorite number

I liked this one for its meaning more than the graphic. Sewing a seed that would grow the universe sounds appealing to me.

Again, I am more interested in the meaning here, rather than the graphic itself. The idea of independent movement and migration is something that has always played a role in my life.

After searching through pages and pages of symbols in books at Powell’s bookstore in Portland. My friend Gabe found this book “The Book of RUNES” by Ralph H. Blum

The symbols in this book seem to hold both the graphics and the meanings that I feel are more akin to me.

The following text was taken from the introduction of Blum’s book

“Runes are of Scandinavian decent and are an ancient alphabetic script in which each letter possesses a meaning and a signifying sound. They were used for legal documents, writing poetry and inscriptions but never evolved as a spoken language.”

This Rune is the Berkana Rune. It represents Growth, Rebirth, and Birch Tree. “The growth may occur in affairs of the world, family matters, the relationship of the self to the self or to the divine. This Rune leads to blossoming and ripening. It is concerned with the flow of beings into their new forms.”

This Rune is Inguz. “It represents fertility or new beginnings. This Rune is akin to the moon, the intuitive part of our nature, with its urge toward harmonizing and adjusting in the sphere of personal relationships. The completion of beginnings is that Inguz requires. Drawing this Rune may mark a time of joyful deliverance of new life, a new path. It means you will have the strength to achieve completion resolution from which comes new beginning.”

There are a few other Runes in this book that I am drawn to but these last two are the ones that speak to me the most.

I know which image I would pick but I have been asked by the Wild Card to allow the readers to vote upon the image that I should use. Please visit the Living Chapters Facebook Page and cast your vote for the image in the ” (wo)man and her symbols” photo album that you feel best represents either my work or myself.

7/19/13

Just finding this blog today? Read the prologue for more details on what Living Chapters is all about.

Images of the symbols were taken from the following books found in Powell’s bookstore in Portland OR: “The Book of Symbols” – Taschen “Man and His Symbols” – Carl Jung “The Symbolic Quest” – Edward Whitmont “1000 symbols, What Shapes Mean in Art and Myth” by Rowena and Rupert Shepherd

the king of scrap

1 Reply

Late last night, I left Portland, OR and took a red-eye flight home to the East Coast after a short-lived but much appreciated visit with this month’s chapter writer Gabe DellaVecchia.

I had put this cross-country trip off for too long. It seemed never a good time to go, but I had promised Gabe that I would visit him and his wife Makie, before they left this city that they love so much. So I decided to follow through, even in the midst of balancing my family obligations and non-profit day job duties. I am really glad I went. Even coming off a full night of no sleep and bouncing on and off planes, I am returning feeling ready to take on the rest of this month’s challenges. Sometimes all it takes for me to re-center is being around someone and sharing with one who really knows me.

Spending time with Gabe these past few days has been like exploring a time capsule I buried 17 years ago. He is one of the few players in Living Chapters that has actually witnessed nearly half of my life and all of the choices I have made. He knows me so well that he remembers some things more vividly and accurately than I could conjure myself.

“Oh really, I created a series of curtain and cloud photographs lying on the roof of the apartment building we use to live in? …Oh yeah, I guess I did do that…”

He has a photographic memory, but since I’ve known him, hasn’t really spent time making any photographs. Unlike myself, who has framed and photographed a lifetime of moments as an attempt at remembering all the people places and stories that continue to stockpile in the storage unit in my brain. I’m not that old yet, but the memories are starting to fade – I need a system upgrade and fast!

Making this trip to the west coast was not the only thing I have been putting off. After chatting with Gabe about the reasoning behind his July homework assignment, I realized that it has been seven years since I even talked about trying to start this “online portfolio”. Seven years had passed and I still have not done this? In 2005, I had gotten as far as scanning my photographic artwork and requesting a friend to design a website for me. We made it half way through before I got lost in another all-encompassing project and ran out of energy and web design funds and threw in the towel. Even though I am intimidated with Gabe’s task, we both agreed, it, like my visit to Portland, was long overdue.

Portland itself was fantastic. I am not able to go into how much I really enjoyed the people, food, mentality, feel and layout of the city because that would be a different blog entry altogether but let’s just say I’ll definitely be back and endorse the city full-heartedly. The thing I enjoyed most though was just being around my good friend.

It was the first time in years that we were able to really catch up and update each other in person on where we had landed on the map currently and on all the uncertainties and waypoints that lay ahead.

I feel more comfortable comparing notes with Gabe than anyone else on the constant set of transitions that make up my life. He is my only friend who has made an equal amount or more life choices and transitions into unchartered territory than anyone else I know. I am constantly impressed with his ability to reinvent himself and land on his feet in new situations.

This fact didn’t really sink in though until I started flipping through his masterfully organized “scrap books” that he has been compiling of his life’s work and path. As he mentioned earlier, Gabe secured a job in Denver and found little need to put together an online portfolio. Most of his career evidence is not visual and he was not in need of a job any longer. However, he is in need of making his load lighter on move day so decided to scrap together the mounds of evidence collected from his past endeavors into what are now 8 very large 3 ring binders.

I was blown away after exploring a few of them. It was like looking through an encyclopedia of Gabe’s existence from A-Z or in this case from birth to the present day. They began with his elementary days leading up to his 35th year and 357th job in Denver Colorado. On these hundreds of plastic wrapped pages you’ll find a path of papers and meticulously handwritten long notations. His traveling road starts with a high school trips to Russia and New Zealand and surprising leads him to college years in the suburbs of Baltimore City, a plethora of indie rock concerts, an ice cream parlor/beauty salon, a South African village, many Hollywood movies accountants offices, and a hot air balloon ride over Angkor Watt. (to name just a few of the random stops along the way)

To tell you the truth, I was overwhelmed looking through volume one. I was greatly impressed with the time, care, and details that were put into his handy work. (and a bit inspired!) These books are tactile personal and meaningful not something that I believe that can be achieved with a website. They guided me down the windy rocky road showing me exactly how he found his way from the suburbs of New Jersey to where he is today.

I was amazed and touched by the amount of detail and context in his books, and am honestly both a bit relieved and sad that I am not taking this route of scrapping together all the minutes and moments of my life in books. For me, the tactile scrapping is much more my style and the more enjoyable method. There is something to the actual cut and paste that I love oh so much more than the clicks on the keyboard.

I am thankful though that I am not piecing together the puzzle of my entire life this month. It may be taking me extra long hours on the computer building and editing my online resume but luckily I have been given the online visual express route from college years until now. So check in if you want and see that I have somehow made my second deadline of getting all basic descriptions of all projects up!

Phase one done! Phase two begins tomorrow – 10 years and 10,0000 pictures. Here we go.

Visit bethbarbush.com for recent written updates. Comment at the bottom of the pages while the commenting function is still enabled! I would love your feedback on this process.

7/17/13

Highlights from my visit with Gabe:

Our visit to “Scrap” the best recycled reused craft/school supply place ever.

Going through Gabe’s Scrap books.

Portland trip theme song from the Maestro: Swim Until You Can’t See Land

For more highlights from Portland visit Facebook Portland album: Including research for the Wild Card Response at Powell’s book store and the joy of returning to the Jump Rope Journal

Just finding this blog today? Read the prologue for more details on what Living Chapters is all about.

navigating chaos

1 Reply

In these last two weeks, I have peeled back the layers and examined my past creative and professional endeavors. Like Gabe, going through his pieces of memory-laden papers for his scrapbook, I am connecting the dots from my experiences, trying to map out the zigzagging path that led me to where I am today. Still camped out here in PA, I am missing boat life in Annapolis, but guess it’s appropriate that I retrace my steps starting from here in small town PA where I hail from.

I never felt as if I possessed much of a sense of direction, but getting lost always came naturally to me. I enjoy it still. Somehow, though, I have always found my way, whether it was by using the sun as my compass, or gleaning navigational advice from strangers at red lights and toll booths. I’ve felt more comfortable moving in the direction in which the wind was blowing stronger or relying on what felt right, more so than using any road map or guide-book.

This way of wandering through the world may not seem logical to most but it has worked for me. It’s the way in which I have found jobs, developed projects, made friends and committed to major life decisions. Organically… not really orderly.

I’ve never held an office job, have never balanced my checkbook, and currently have my belongings stashed in 5 different places in two separate states. (one of them being an almost sinking sailboat) Gabe’s description “a delicate balance of spinning chaos” may be the best way anyone has ever explained my unique lifestyle.

Oddly enough, I like to be dropped in the midst of chaos or unchartered territory. I’ve become kind of use to it, and am somehow more comfortable with the task of blazing my own path through the woods than following other people’s prescribed directions. And although there is nothing that I enjoy more than the unpredictability, freedom and diversity that my choices bring to my life – I constantly feel like I somehow, someday have to get my act together! Become organized! Get my life in order!

But when looking back, from this vantage point, it appears I have possessed an order and structure all along. It’s just taken the task of creating an online visual portfolio for me to be able to see this. Being asked to take a moment, reflect, and organize my accomplishments has revealed that I have had a clear direction in my path and an overlapping core mission in my career choices. I just seemed to have gotten there using creativity and instinct more than logic or order.

Why do I need to structure the chaos that is my life? Controlling chaos would only eliminate all the possible paths that I have taken creatively to navigate through it.

I tend to agree with Robert Frost:

“I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.”

7/13/13

Just finding this blog today? Read the prologue for more details on what Living Chapters is all about.

Check out the Living Chapters facebook page to follow the growing pains and progress of the evolving online portfolio.

Visit the June Gallery for images and videos from the Body and Kinesthetic chapter.

logic lesson # 2

1 Reply

I come to the end of this week feeling a little fried like my overloaded Macbook laptop must feel when it freezes up with that spinning rainbow wheely thing demanding that I stop what I am doing and take a break. “TIME OUT please!” it warns me “something is not working properly”.

Well I’ve spent these first few days of July spinning in circles myself dealing with a variety of faulty operating systems. My mother’s health, our healthcare system and my computer’s external hard drive all failing at the same time was enough to almost send me into my own personal system shutdown. But before this happened, I heeded the spinning wheel’s advice and took some time out.

I am feeling much better now after a relaxing Independence Day. I hid out with The Confidant who provided me with a beautiful backyard, a fire-pit and a sympathetic ear. Our conversations calmed me down and reminded me of a couple common sense logic lessons that I’ve practiced successfully in the past.

Sleep: Trying to do anything with little or no sleep causes meltdowns. Sleeping is not only useful for a clear head in stressful situations but also great for creativity, better health, patience and productivity. (This rule goes for my computer too – it also needs rest from time to time)

Focus: Focusing on one thing at a time is much less overwhelming than taking on everything at once. Looking at challenges one at a time is rational and actually doable. Oh, and letting go of the things that are out of my control is also a great way to focus and finish the things that actually are in my control. That’s a fun fact to try to stay focused on – give that one a try!

So after indulging in some good sleep, great conversation and good food over the holiday, I am ready to focus in and jump back into portfolio creation. In order to also give my computer a proper rest (and buy some time to fix my external hard drive) I revamped Gabe’s schedule for the process and created some new goals for his deadline dates.

First I will focus on all the descriptive writing that needs to be done for all main pages and work themes. (July 10th) Then I will dive into descriptive writing for all sub pages and projects (July 17). This hopefully will give me enough time hack into my hard drives, sift through, edit and organize my images. (July 24) And then finally upload a sampling of images that best represent all the work that I have described. (July 31st) woah… wish me luck!

I was somehow was able to make Gabe’s first deadline this past week and created a url and basic wire frame to build upon. www.bethbarbush.com

Check it out! There is nothing there now but you can watch as I progress and build upon it. Design and functionality is key! Your eyes and feedback on this will be very helpful. Looking forward to hearing your suggestions as I develop the site. I’m gonna need them…especially with editing down those 10,000 images!

Just finding this blog today? Read the prologue for more details on what Living Chapters is all about.

Visit the Living Chapters Facebook page for more updates, images and day-to-day activities.

Visit the June Gallery for images and videos from the first chapter Body and Kinesthetic.

logic lesson #1

3 Replies

It took only a few hours after sending out an SOS to receive more than enough help from all of you. Thanks to everyone who responded with fantastic ideas for online portfolio hosting sites and organizing techniques. I quickly went from having no idea of what to do to having an abundance of ideas. So now I was only left with two questions.

1. Which is the perfect online portfolio hosting site for me?

2. What’s the best way to organize my material and get started?

In a short period of time I fell down the inter-web rabbit hole and got sucked into reading about every kind of hosting site you could imagine and at least 10 different websites on “how to make a stellar online portfolio”. This is what I learned:

Answer for question #1: There is not one perfect online portfolio site.

The best thing to do is use what is both user-friendly for your viewer and what is easiest and most comfortable for YOU (the person creating it) I thought I needed a specific web-hosting platform to create my unique professional portfolio, but realize that I am already using and learning on a web hosting tool (this blog you are reading is WordPress), why choose a new tool to learn when I am already struggling to learn this one. WordPress it is! I even found a very helpful step by step YouTube video on “How to build a professional portfolio using WordPress” made by a guy named Phil who is a Jerry Garcia fan (if Phil could do this set up in 20 min I am thinking I can manage as well) By the time I am done with this site and a year of blogging on it, I hope to be at least proficient at WordPress.

Answer for question #2: Keep it simple.

Page after page instructed me to pare it down! Less really is more. Just because I did a million random things in the past 10 years – doesn’t mean I need to include all of them (Phew! I had no idea where the heck I had stashed those pictures of me driving a book-mobile dressed up as the Wheels of Wonder Woman nor did I really know if I wanted to share them) I also learned that the simplicity rule – should run throughout the whole portfolio, not just with how much content I include, but also in how I describe all the content. Keeping the simplicity mantra in mind when mining through the archives of long-lost projects will be key!

OK – so my first major decisions are made but I still have Gabe’s strict schedule to stick to. Somehow by the end of this evening I will open a new WordPress page and make some initial organizational decisions. At least I have Philip from YouTube to show me how to do it. Thanks Phil.

So here’s my logic lesson of the day:

Learning 2 new online media platforms (minus) Learning 1 new online media platform = Less of a learning curve and a better chance for success! Which is also equivalent to a less stressed and more productive Beth Barbush.

We all don’t need my metaphorical math equations to know that less is more…. it <is> simple logic.

Please join me in this July’s endeavor! Start your own online portfolio. Here are a few websites to get you started:

7 rules for creating a professional portfolio site:

10 simple steps to create and manage your professional online identity

Phil’s simple guide to using WordPress as an online portfolio tool.

Just finding this blog today? Read the prologue for more details on what Living Chapters is all about.

Visit the June Gallery for images and videos from the first chapter.