My ceramics are now available through etsy.com! You can check out my store at bryancronk.etsy.com. I’m just getting started, and more will be added as I get used to selling my work. It’s a start!
It’s the day after Christmas, and I have to admit the holiday is not the same for me anymore. Not that I’m a grinch, but the holiday seems to have less significance to me the older I get. Over the past few years, presents have played a smaller role, and when you take away the presents, you have to look at what you are left with, unfortunately for me, there isn’t much left. Our traditions are centered around food and gifts. Being forced to look at what the holiday means to me is shocking. It’s empty and lonely, but not hopeless. Im at a turning point, and have decided that one of my resolutions for 2012 is to give the holidays some personal meaning and start forming new traditions.
Tea: Paklum Tips, special white. Smooth, slight grassy taste, but gentle. No hints of sweetness and no aftertaste. Pleasant but nothing special.
I’m still enjoying the direction I’ve been going in with my ceramics. While most of the pots I’ve been making have been symmetrical, one of my latest pieces took on different shape while remaining true to the concept. To date, this is my favorite piece.
Most ceramic instructors tell students to have a vision of the completed pot, right down to the color of glaze, before they start to work with the clay. This doesn’t work for me. For the mandala pots, I’ve been starting off with a general egg-like shape, I throw on the wheel. I make as many as I can (time and amount of clay permitting). When once they are dry enough to start trimming, I get to work cutting them up and seeing what happens. Some of the parts naturally fit together better.
For this piece, I did start with a loose sketch of a type of spiral, and I think the movement of the spiral comes through in the finished pot. I may have to give the ceramic instructor’s advice some more thought!
I’m a big Haruki Murakami fan. I recently started reading his latest book 1Q84. It’s a big book….about 1000 pages. While I’ve barely made a dent, I’ve already got the feeling that I have no idea what I’ve gotten myself into. After I read The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, my perception of everyday life changed. I instantly wanted to share the book and the experience with everyone. 1Q84 is the next step at opening my mind, and I think it’s the perfect book to challenge myself with at this time.
2011 is almost at an end. It has been a difficult year. A lot has happened with my family. My beliefs and commitments have been challenged. And through it, I feel like it’s been one of my most creative years. Tough times lead to suffering only if you let it. Being challenged physically, mentally and emotionally can open you up to the present moment and who you are deep at the core.
Oh free wifi, how you tease me so. I was thrilled to find that Amtrak finally installed wifi on many of the northeast corridor trains. Ideas started to swim around my head about what could be accomplished during the few uninterrupted hours I’d find myself with while traveling for the holiday. Unfortunately, while the network is easily detected….it’s not so easy to connect to. I got on once for five minutes and then spent the rest of the train ride trying to reconnect. Fair to say, I accomplished little, thanks AmtrakDisconnected.
While not entirely what I expected, lukew gives readers a lot to think about when considering a mobile strategy. Since I’m more of a developer than a biz dev guy, I would have appreciated more technical examples. To the author’s credit, he did point out in the intro that Mobile First was not a technical book and the examples he did use perfectly illustrated the issues he wants website architects to consider. Overall, this book is a good primer for anyone new to thinking about the mobile web experience.
Something about updating, altering and dropping tables in a database makes my palms sweat. With more practice, I’m hoping these fears fade, but for now, each time I execute anything other than a select, I imagine that I’m pushing a big red button.
After completing the SQL programming course, I’m feeling more confident. For instance, the other day, I performed an update on 2000 rows based on the results of a select. This is pretty basic stuff to a lot of developers, but for me, when it executed successfully, it gave me the same thrill as seeing “Hello, World!” on my first html web page.
This is part of why I love working on the web. There is always going to be something new to learn, and something that will always give you that exciting “I did it!” feeling.
I’ve mentioned it before, I love to read and learn new things. I try to read across disciplines, since you never know what lessons you’ll learn from unexpected places. But I have a problem with keeping up with the ideas I get from everything I view and read. Mood boards, idea journals are great, but what good are they if that’s where the thoughts die? Maybe I should be reading more about putting ideas to action. Any suggestions?
I’ve been hearing all this buzz about your “klout” score. I didn’t pay it much mind. But then yesterday, I attended Mashery’s The Business of the API conference. It was only a one day event, but it was packed with great presenters talking about what makes a good API and how to make developers happy and encourage them to use your data (if you want them to). One of the presenters was from Klout, and then other presenters mentioned Klout, so I have to rush home and get my score. Now I never felt like I was putting myself out there as an influencer, but I do feel like I know what I’m doing and talking about. Seeing such a low score was not only eye-opening, but also a challenge to see what it takes to earn a few more points and move up from “feeder.” Wish me luck.
Today is one of those days when I wish I had my camera with me while out for a run. The south end of Roosevelt Island in NYC has been under construction for quiet some time. At the end of the island is a Small Pox Hospital, known as the Renwick Ruin. As I approached the south end of the island, I was happy to see the pedestrian gate was open, so I ventured in. I was surprised to find a beautiful park with paved paths that make their way right up to the ruins. The paths wind through wild flower gardens with benches throughout. I think the park is a memorial of some sort, and from what I saw today, a nice addition to an island that still feels like one of NYC’s best kept secrets.