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- June 4, 2018
Daily 021: Sidestepping through Overextension
June 4, 2018Read moreLast week I mentioned I was cutting back on blogging and streaming because I was feeling like I had lost touch with something important. I realized that I was feeling overextended, not able to produce quality content OR spend time doing the kind of personal reflection that usually buoys me. Perhaps this is due to the sense that there’s a lot of coding work to be done, and this has been looming in my mind to the point that I didn’t feel I could do fun things. In the past, being able to livestream the coding sessions alleviated some of that feeling of being “boxed-in” by work, but problems with the YouTube video upstream servers have made it impossible to have a session longer than about 10 minutes. I don’t know what’s going on with that.
On a related note, I’ve been grumpy about the low quality / low information density of my recent streams. I have a desire to produce more polished content these days, and thus every rambling livestream I do feels like I am producing junk. I also have not been producing new work for sharing on the website and Patreon site, and this has been weighing on me. Neither have I made any changes to the online stationery products. Everything seems to be degrading in quality and interestingness, and this has me feeling slightly down. The one bright spot is that I do have a lot of billable work.
New Strategies
Now that I’ve recognized that I’m feeling constantly overextended, ineffective, and sidetracked, I’m glad that I reduced the livestream/blogging. I have devised a few possible stratagems:
Embrace Work as Shared Process – One way to get back into the more frequent blogging is to share everything I’m working on as part of the work. This is the essence of my “Whats Up Dave” livestreams, actually, but to produce more polished content would be better for both viewers and for better-organizing my site content. I think it would, anyway. The challenge is whether I can do this quickly AND produce succinct content, as to not waste anyone’s time or disrupt my own productive work.
Choose Another Line of Work – I’ve had the thought lately that perhaps my calling is to be involved with managing a public space for creative people rather than try to BE a creative person. Right now, I am trying to be a creative person FIRST (and not doing so well at it) and making the public space (through the virtual coworking / living room cafe efforts) second. Perhaps I need to flip the emphasis around. But would this pay off?
Reframe the Work as Gift Giving – I think I like the idea of managing a public space because you get to do nice things for people to help them have a good day. I made the association with that feeling and a conversation I had with a new friend about making mysterious packages to elicit excitement and anticipation in the recipient. In the past I’ve done this for friend’s birthday presents and “Secret Santa” office gift exchanges to great effect, harnessing all my powers as a multi-faceted designer to create a memorable experience. I love artifacts that are imbued with a powerful history and the stories yet-to-be-told. So why not convert my work into that? This might be the market-friendly strategy that I employ, a way to recapture my personal sense of joy.
I think these are all good possibilities, and maybe I’ll pursue all of them this week. I’ll try to report in before the end of the week. Oh, this week is also Groundhog Day Resolutions Review, so there will be a post on that too!
Today’s Video
Recorded rather than livestreamed, I spend a few minutes talking about trying to recapture a sense of fun in my blogging.
- May 29, 2018
Taiwan 2018 Day 06-07 – The Lalu Hotel at Sun Moon Lake
May 29, 2018Read moreContinuing my Taiwan 2018 Trip Blog Series for Monday-Tuesday April 30-May 1st!
After touring around Sun Moon Lake on boats, we finally checked-in to the hotel, the The Lalu which is built into the side of a mountain overlooking the lake. It’s one of the premium locations on the lake; my dad said something about how this area was once exclusively used by Generalissimo Chiang Kai Shek and no one else was allowed to build there. In recent years, the names of various places in Taiwan have been renamed. For example, there’s an island in the middle of the lake called Lalu Island, but during the time of Chiang and his party’s rule it was called Guang Hua Island, and before that during Japanese rule it was called Jade island.
- May 22, 2018
Daily 020: Mission Goals, Makerspaces, and Other Indulgences
May 22, 2018Read more
Happy Tuesday! I’m a bit behind on my work, having had a rather reactive day yesterday as well as trying some new processes. Today is going to be another one of those days and I am trying not to to let it get to me. So I’m reminding myself what is important. I shared this on Patreon earlier, but didn’t get around to posting it here.
I made this poster a few days ago to remind me what my goals where, posting it around the house so I would see it every once in a while. The main purpose is to help me remember what’s important, and I am increasingly coming to realize that the productivity that I crave comes not from focusing on making things, but making an interesting place for people to gather and share their experiences and generally have a good time being inspired and making things. The Virtual Coworking Chat Room was an accidental step into that direction after many years of doing similar things locally; first something I called the New Media Group and later another called The Collective 03060. These were groups that I formed to foster some local creative energy and sharing, ostensibly to improve my own “gotta make things” motivation. I’m realizing now that perhaps it really is the group I want to support, NOT my own work.
It’s a harrowing thought, as all my life I’ve tried to force myself to learn and build things, but always found myself feeling short of actual drive to make things for the sake of making them. Maybe it is OK, though, to serve in a supporting role.
To test my reaction to this idea, I’ve decided to join our local makerspace, MakeIt Labs and see what it’s like to be part of an existing creative community. I hadn’t been to see their current space though I’ve known a few of the people there for years. (more…)
- May 17, 2018
Taiwan 2018 Day 06 – Sun Moon Lake
May 17, 2018Read moreContinuing my Taiwan 2018 Trip Blog Series for Monday April 30!
After resting from a long weekend of family-related matters, we took a car to Sun Moon Lake, one of Taiwan’s most famous and scenic resort areas up in the mountains. I had never been there as an adult, and this was the first time our family had gone on any kind of sight-seeing trip together that didn’t involve some Presbyterian Church-related business (that I can remember, anyway).
After about an hour’s drive from Taichung, we arrived at this first Visitor Center overlooking the lake. It was a rather striking piece of architecture, with gift shops and a small cafe where we decided to get lunch. I took a picture of the map for later reference.
I decided to have the Three Cup Chicken, which is one of those “Taiwanese” dishes that I had actually never had since my mom had never made it before; she grew up in a more Taiwanese-Japanese cooking tradition, whereas a lot of foods that Taiwan is known for now are actually more Chinese in origin or were invented later. Ordering this dish at a visitor center cafe didn’t seem like the best idea, but I was pleasantly surprised…it was actually quite well prepared with care. SCORE!
Also notable was the coffee. Taiwan’s coffee culture has been rapidly expanding in the past few years, and the “Hui-Sun” coffee is apparently grown right in these mountains surrounding the lake. I was curious what Taiwan-grown beans would be like. Both my sister and I liked it. I’m not enough of a coffee snob to know how well they rank against the best, though, but it pleased me to know Taiwan was taking on the challenge! GO TAIWAN!
I noticed while I was eating, this dog was silently judging me. We later saw this dog several times during the day on the boat ferry and around the town. It’s possible that this is a common breed of dog in Taiwan, though. It looks a bit like a Shiba Inu, a dog breed from Japan. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a lot of them in Taiwan due to Japanese colonial occupation in the early 1900s.
After eating we went to the Shuishe pier, where we could get a boat ferry to two other piers. The first stop was Xuanguang Temple pier. You can walk up a flight of stone stairs to see see the temple. There were some aboriginal people (the Thao) doing some kind of musical presentation; I’ll post these pictures in my Flickr Album when I get a chance. In the view you can see Lalu Island still poking up out of the lake.
Still killing time, around noon we got on the ferry again and hit the third pier, Ita Thao Village. It’s a small town with a large visitor center. We walked around a bit, taking in the sights while looking for a place to eat.
An interesting phenomenon I noticed in Taiwan was the use of celebrity endorsement for various street food places. I’m not sure what this place was selling (above, middle) but apparently it’s known for something. I’m assuming they are some kind of snack; Taiwan has an enormous and constantly-evolving snack culture, and the entire island is a grazer’s paradise.
We finally settled on a place that looked relatively affordable and more importantly was air conditioned. A-bun ordered a few dishes; the ones that stood out were this poached chicken (I just like this kind of chicken dish), betel nut stems (above, middle), and this plate of fried shrimp (which I didn’t eat). Shrimp of various sizes is available EVERYWHERE in Taiwan. Shrimp makes me feel ill, though, so this is not something particularly alluring to me :D
At 3PM it was finally time to check-in to the hotel for one night. We stayed at the nicest hotel in the area, the Lalu Hotel which was really quite noteworthy for many reasons. I’ll talk about it in the next update on Monday!
- May 14, 2018
Taiwan 2018 Day 05 – Paying Respects
May 14, 2018Read moreContinuing my Taiwan 2018 Trip Blog Series for April 29!
Exhausted from Saturday’s events, Sunday was decreed to be a day of rest followed by a visit to the family tomb to pay our respects. I believe the plot is located in a place called Ta-tu, in a relatively-new cemetery that Dad says is about 20-30 years old. The ashes of our ancestors in Taiwan, including my mother and my dad’s parents, are interred in the family plot. Interestingly, this is a Christian-style part of the cemetery, eschewing the traditional rounded shapes you see in other Taiwanese/Chinese tombs but keeping the overall layout. It’s quite different than what you see in the United States.
The inscription on the family tomb (above, right), Dad explained, was taken from Ecclesiastes Chapter 3:10-11:
10 I have seen the burden God has placed on us all. 11 Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.
This passage has particular meaning for him and my mother, but that is not my story to share.
Afterwards we had to kill some time before meeting with Uncle and Auntie for dinner at yet another buffet restaurant, so we stopped by Starbucks for coffee. I think the reason we went was because A-bun wanted to try it, or perhaps he thought being American’s we’d like it. The interior (above, left) looked pretty standard Starbucks. I had a cold-brew coffee that was acceptable (I don’t really like Starbucks coffee, though I like hanging out there when I’m at home). I did enjoy seeing some of the localized food choices they had, like the Starbucks Pork and Egg Sandwich, Longan Walnut Bread, and this Sweet Potato and Nuts Sandwich leftover. I suppose this might have been the least popular sandwich because it was the only one left.
Afterwards, we went to dinner with Uncle and Aunt at one of those super buffets in the area. I didn’t take any pictures, having been there before. Then, it was time for a good night’s sleep before heading to SUN MOON LAKE the next day!
