[Please listen to Carousel by Iron and Wine, followed by John Wayne Gacy, Jr. by Sufjan Stevens.] The shot moves, they pose themselves, look, smile, flash, freeze. Right there. Italian farmers drink too much now, losing olive and grape crops to infestations of pesticide-resistant insects and outsourcing. The past appears; what was thought to be gone. That worst feeling in the world you hoped you’d never feel again. Empty glasses of free water appear mid-shot, staying away.

This is a letter I wrote to my sister, who is 15, back in May. She was frustrated with fitting in and figuring out what she wanted to do. Here is my response. Hello to you, my dear sister. Because of I suffer from the same kind of predicaments, I don’t know how much merit my advice carries, but I’ll take a stab at doling some out. As weird as this sounds, I think these are the best kinds of problems to have.

My doctor, who is ridiculously awesome, gave me this sage advice on keeping yourself healthy. Eat a wide variety of foods. Make sure the foods you eat are colorful. Drink at least 2 liters of water per day. You should be peeing clear by noon. Eliminate as much stress from your life as possible. Whether it’s religion, nature walks, or any other kind of spiritual work, give your immune system a rest by being at peace with yourself.

I finally read the whole thing yesterday. This is, without a doubt, the best book about writing I’ve ever read. It is as important as it is brief. I would try to summarize it, but their isn’t any nonessential material. Buy the book, or read some of the rules online (linked above), and live by it. (I am working on a summary of How to Read a Book by Mortimer J.

It’s interesting how standards shift over time. I’m thinking specifically about phones and web applications. Sound quality on cell phones (and land lines, for that matter) is terrible, and web apps are usually unbearably slow. Why is this accepted? People accept what is normal to them. We all become accustomed to things. For typical phone use, sound quality has never been great. And for the next generation that use cell phones much more than land lines, dropped calls and even worse sound quality are normal.

EPIC. FAIL.

Playing around with Inkscape.

IT HAS BEEN RELEASED. Christopher Plummer reading Alice in Wonderland is quite possibly the best audiobook production ever created. Buy it on iTunes HERE.

I went through a quite large box of things from camp yesterday. I decided a few things were worth saving digitally, if no other way. Reliving the experiences, I realized that 2006 and 2007 were some of the best summers I've had. As cheese-ball super-corn-dog as it may be, I will never forget the people I grew to know and love there.To Forge, Nick Singleton (Domino), Possum, Slug, Melissa Gilleland, Brooke Tatilian, Hannah Hayward, the girls (Katie Skene, Megan Geraci, Leah Newton, etc), Supernova, Mahi Mahi, Dean Dugger, Marcos and Tony Wyatt, Dinawa, of course T.