Wednesday, 9 January 2019

Thursday, 3 January 2019

Seedling Year

'Pine Tree', Ink and color on paper by Pan Dawei just a foot long, but it'll do
New Year's pine

Issa















(Pine Tree by Pan Dawei courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and a generous photographer.)

Wednesday, 2 January 2019

WW: Straight Key Night 2019


(Every New Year's Day brasspounders observe Straight Key Night. During this 24-hour period [1 January UTC, 0000 to 2359], we eschew our fancy-pants electronic keyers – such as the one shoved back against the wall in the picture – and pull out a classic old-style Morse key, for auld lang syne. The example in the foreground above is the very one I started on, all those years ago.

It's been humbling. In my young days OTs [old-timers] complimented me on my skills, but it turns out that several decades of laziness plays hell on one's fist. My New Year's resolution is to remedy that.)

Wednesday, 19 December 2018

WW: Green sea anemones


(Anthopleura xanthogrammica. With support from elegantissima.)

Wednesday, 12 December 2018

WW: Je me souviens

(Ah, les fois que j'ai déneigé ça. Québec, tu me manques encore.)

Thursday, 6 December 2018

Good Video: From US Marine to Zen Monk



Here's another great Zen hermit video. This time it's former Marine and corporate warrior Scott Mangis. He's been inside (got okesa and the whole 8.2296 metres), but these days practices essentially on the Issa plan, as a family man and member of a freeform skete near Tokyo.

So cue 'er up, brothers and sisters. It's nine minutes well-spent.