5.12.2011
sprout
- find a basket. lay down a soft porous cloth like linen or cotton (cheesecloth is great). i used a bandanna
- pour your beans into basket!
- every morning and night, give beans a bath. otherwise, let them sit there all day in a room temperature out-of-sun place. covered with another cloth that you rubber band or rope to the basket, so that it doesn't fly away, and no curious bugs get in
- wait and watch... it will take about a week. you can munch them all along the way
- yum!!!
5.11.2011
fuzzy caterpillar
i prepare to make something i've never seen before
and i'm not sure just how to do it
but every cell in my body screams
now is the time
you are exactly where you need to be
here
now
so i am hanging on the end of a perfect leaf
waiting for instructions to arrive
and trusting
that they are on the way
5.09.2011
blessings
and so are your eyes
i saw a shooting star last night
reflected into the pond of a thousand frogs singing mating songs
why is the strongest answer of all
merely just another why
5.08.2011
tree of life
what is portrayed on either side of this tree feels to me like a good synopsis of china, to jiling
more photos!
thanks qizi for photos!
http://www.couchsurfing.org/image_gallery.html?id=I06JTVU&folder=435745
5.07.2011
love and support
even when you feel utterly alone
even wind always has earth below her
how?
but i must trust
it will all work out perfectly
it will all work out perfectly
5.06.2011
banyans
to turn visions into reality
keep eluding me?
do i keep reaching into the empty air
do i keep waiting for that perfect moment
or do i move the vision
and tweak it into a more "realistic" something else?
what do we do with our dreams that are "too" beautiful?
5.05.2011
birds
owls, crows, eagles, and more
they are waiting to see when
turtle will rise from the waters
bringing with her
great
magic
magical one
sweet beautiful music making
one
this world
awaits your
gifts
5.03.2011
meat factory
doesnt not mean that nothing has been said
hands that touch and eyes that see
don't always connect
how can i truly touch you
if you cover yourself with such a blanket
i can see the blanket
this waltz we dance
you step on the same toes over and over again
just because all is silent
does not mean that all the thousand little songbirds
will not sing
and spread their songs of truth
over the dead mess of silence
that grey coats the rainbow people
rainbow landscape shuttered in grey
yet all is not dead
right?
feet getting trampled on over and over
some get to wear thick leather boots
some get to wear nothing at all
bruised soles, bruised souls
all the eyes that peer through the dead carcasses can still see
they see in different forms
all the screams muffled out in the countryside
where presumably no one hears
the red lanterns that light the path of the (un)dead
a ladder raises itself up to heaven
a big knife awaits up there
all the little birds are crying
you wonder why they keep making that sound
all the winds know
and all the prayers lie also (un)dead
5.02.2011
dafen and dalun art village
http://www.couchsurfing.org/image_gallery.html?id=AXGXHCK&folder=434412
thanks qizi, local tour guide and new friend
thanks kendal as always for companionship and more
thanks marina (russia), new friend and much laughter
and thanks everyone else who showed up all along the way :)
5.01.2011
photo technicals- some basic geekery
this is not edited, and is part of a larger course-planning document for a photo workshop. if you're interested, read. if you're not, go admire some jiling poetry or photography, instead. by all means, do enjoy yourself. :)
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Draw a diagram. Explain that the camera works just like the human eye… basically, you press the shutter release (camera button). Before you press the shutter release, the shutter (the camera "eye") is closed. When you press the shutter release, the camera eye opens, then closes again. During the opening and closing process, light is allowed into the lens (camera eye). Behind the camera eye, there is a detection mechanism. On film cameras, it's the film, which is sensitive to light. On digital cameras, it's a technical mechanism which is also sensitive to light, and translates into pixels. The more sensitive the detection mechanism, the greater the "ISO" of the film, or the higher the number of the ISO. (this number ranges usually from 80 to 1600). How quickly the camera eye opens and closes is called the "shutter speed." This ranges from holding the shutter down for as long as you want on some cameras (infinite time), to as quick as 1/6000 of a second. The shutter speed varies according to your camera and what lens you are using. The kids most likely won't need to know about shutter speed/ aperture/ ISO/ WB, but this is for your own info, and in case they ask you questions. The aperture the size of the camera eye's opening. The smaller the number of the aperture, the more light is allowed in (the bigger the opening). Aperture numbers typically range from f/2.5 to f/11. The larger the number of the aperture, the sharper the entire image, the greater the "depth of field." With a small-numbered aperture, on the other hand, one part of the image may be in great focus, whereas the rest of the image may be out of focus. Playing with shutter speed and aperture gives you great power over the image on the whole. A photograph is not just a "copy" of real life. The photographer is an artist, and every photograph carries an imprint from whoever made the photo. A good photographer has a solid technical knowledge of the camera and just how to use it for each situation, is flexible to changing circumstances, understands weather and lighting (mornings and evenings make the best photos), and has an "eye" for catching moments and framing them in just the right way. Basically, a good photographer is a light-moment-and-camera ninja.
4.29.2011
love
kendal is my best friend here. we support each other through all the beauties and challenges of being here in shenzhen, china. and we travel together. and we live together. and more! an amazing woman with so many inspiring gifts.
richard was my bus guru who can help me find my way home from any random small anywhere in shenzhen, and also has a great sense of humor and insatiable curiousity about the world and her people.
we hiked with these people for a day who, once they got over kendal's sandals and my skirt, were actually fun hiking partners (okay but they never got over the skirt and sandals). but i told ridiculous jokes, they told ridiculous jokes, and we all laughed a lot, and i feel like mountain people anywhere are among the best people ever, always.
how about all the people who came before us that we don't usually see anymore but certainly carry a presence? oh yeaaaahhhh :)
frederik entered my life for a whirlwind three days of excellent english, the best introduction to shenzhen that anyone has given me since i've been here, and comprehensive questions and insights covering everything from life and love to computers and digits.
and there's so many more people not pictured!!!!!! :)
感恩. infinite gratitude.
happy mama's day
everyday a day to celebrate earth,
everday a day to celebrate sky,
everyday to celebrate LIFE!
happy birthday EVERYDAY!
love like dandelions everywhere shyed into corners, exploding onto pavement,
and motherwort flowers surprise surprise everywhere underfeet (feet themselves, acts of love)
LOVE unnoticed but always apparent, and ALWAYS PRESENT
感恩. infinite gratitude.
rainy days
thanks trees for the paper
thanks sky for the inspiration you (always how i love you) bring
and heart... well, we've still got some talking to do
sprouts
here, in china, this batch, was my first time successfully sprouting any yummy things... small mung beans, green beans. utterly delicious. two handfuls of beans, in water soaking (changes of water) for 4 days, and then sprouting for another week... lasted for about 1.5 weeks of continuous delicious utterly ALIVE sprouts. pictured here are the final two handfuls of yummy sprouts that me and frederik feasted on, in a traditional gazebo atop a small hill above shenzhen, china
在上海跟三阿姨和uncle
spring sakura blossoms are so beautiful and smell so good... i think i still like the taiwan sakuras in the mountains the best though :)
4.27.2011
incoming storm
storm soon
storm comes riding on thick clouds heavy with rain
heavy with messages (are you listening?)
small shelter in big forest with even smaller girl
(little girl old woman)
sleeping under it
big boom bam wake up wake up to
i am sorry
(never endingly so)
to this raped earth and desecrated skies waters fishes birds
everyone
especially
two legs walking hands crawling
markets and buildings rising as
animals birds falling
clouds heavy with rain
incoming on heavy grey skies
clouds heavy
rain coming
thick with messages from afar
so far that we cannot hear?
so far from deep inside the very
souls of our feet
depths of our hearts
rising
the cries of mamas
desecrated and raped
the cries of
i am here
you too
we are here
what are you DOING?
what HAVE you done?
where do we GO from HERE?
4.26.2011
office work: enlightenment
4.25.2011
thailand
on beauty and magic
4.24.2011
let's
4.18.2011
chocolate
thankSky
time
4.17.2011
4.16.2011
4.15.2011
functionality and aesthetics
the coolest people i've met in the "wild" make their everythings (from shelter to eating bowls) with both functionality and aesthetics in mind... for a beautiful and useful life
waking
4.14.2011
letters to the wind
4.07.2011
school of life
he wanted a photo together! and he asked me to mail it to him. he's not familiar with email or digital cameras, but he knows roots, shoots, buds, and blossoms more than anyone i have yet met here. maybe i will go back to yangshuo one day and keep sponging up wisdom and knowledge. what do you do when someone you really want to learn from speaks a different dialect though? :)
this is medicine
yangshuo, china. 3rd generation "grass medicine doctor." all the herbs from the local mountains, used to treat everything from the common cold to the uncommon cancer. his father is in his 80's but looks like a 60 year old. his children are practicing grass medicine healing arts too. this is medicine.
this is life
this is work
night-life: office home
this is dinner
a typical evening meal with the indier team at our home base in shenzhen... lots of meat, lots of oil, lots of white rice, and one or two plates of veggies (not their usual) for me and the other vegetarian
4.06.2011
indier team- spring 2011- shenzhen, china
add our boss-guy and subtract the yellow-dots-shirt woman, and this is my small china crew of tourism industry, outdoor industry, and general student-of-life teacher-of-yaya vagabond folks!
some of my china kids
3.28.2011
3.04.2011
2011 Jan- Mar Taiwan photos
https://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2877001&id=2514403&l=50b0f69b6a
part two:
https://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2877023&id=2514403&l=36b9dc66bf
part three:
I am in China from March until June. Be back in Taiwan on June 15. Enjoy your spring, and I'll see ya in the summer, blog land!