Robert Smithson

Robert Smithson's "Spiral Jetty," a 30-year-old piece of so-called "earth art" has re-emerged from the bed of Utah's Great Salt Lake due to the drought being experienced in much of the Western United States.

Here is an excerpt from Robert Smithson's essay 'Sedimentation of the Mind:'

The earth's surface and the figments of the mind have a way of disintegrating into descrete regions of art. Various agents, both fictional and real, somehow trade places with each other - one cannot avoid muddy thinking when it comes to earth projects, or what I call 'abstract geology.' One's mind and the earth are in a constant state of erosion, mental rivers wear away abstract banks, brain waves undermine cliffs of thought, ideas decompose into stones of unknowing, and conceptual crystallizations break apart into deposits of gritty reason...
Slump, debris, slides, avalanches all take place within the cracking limits of the brain. The entire body is pulled into the cerebral sediment, where particles and fragments make themselves known as solid consciousness. A bleached and fractured world surrounds the artist. To organize this mess of corrosion into patterns, grids, and subdivisions is an esthetic process that has scarcely been touched.

Sustainability Starts at Home

Here's my first attempt at a magazine article for public consumption. It was published in My Home Magazine last November 2004.

Almost everyday, we experience problems somehow related to the declining quality of our environment: pollution, unusual weather, overcrowding, and disease are but a few items in our growing list of concerns. It looks as if a troubled future awaits us unless we mend our ways and reconsider our role in the natural world.
Our relationship with our surroundings is very much like a complex loop: we change the environment and it also changes us. Oftentimes, we may feel that much of the degradation is beyond our control. On the contrary, what we do in the places where we live and work has a greater impact on the immediate environment than we may think. This is especially true in the place where we spend most of our days: the home.
The home is an integral part of our lives. It is one of the places where we can actually control much of our situation. There are many things that can be done for the home with respect to the environment, and the suggested activities here are just the tip of the iceberg. Although the goals may be the same, there is no specific way of making the home more sustainable, and the actual methods may vary depending on the resources available. Ultimately it is up to the home-maker and the household to decide, because no one has a bigger stake in the home than those who actually live and work in it.

Devoting Energy
One of the simplest and best ways we can help ourselves and the environment at the same time is by reexamining the way we use energy. The money we save on utilities can actually reduce our dependence on oil, so this strategy helps a lot.
We use different types of energy at home: electricity from the convenience outlet, light from the sun, and heat from liquefied petroleum gas. An effective way to save energy is to match energy and fuel choices to different household tasks.
The production of electricity is plagued with hidden costs. Most conventional power plants and utilities waste around half the energy generated from burning fuel and another 1/5 during transmission. Therefore, an electric stove only uses only around a quarter of the fuel’s total energy output, compared to gas stoves that are three times more efficient! Cooking by gas saves more energy than using electric stoves and ovens, and this is reflected by the gas and electric bill.
Another example is using compact fluorescent lamps instead of incandescent bulbs. In addition to converting electricity into light, incandescent bulbs also generate more heat, so much of the electricity used is converted into heat that you do not need.
The simplest example is just letting in sunlight and a breeze instead of switching on the lamp and fan. While the latter adds to your electric bill, the former requires little or no wasteful fuel to energy conversions whatsoever.
Hence, before buying and using an electrical appliance, think of other ways that achieve the same effect without the inefficiencies and the added cost.

Find Space
The best way to get something started is to make space for it, whether it is physical space or just some extra time in a busy schedule.
Storage space is a must for sorting garbage, recycling materials, and replacing inefficient appliances. Without allotting enough space, the resulting mess can get very frustrating and end the recycling project long before it serves its purpose. Store items that look especially long-lived and without any immediate use. Keeping trash that cannot be recycled will also serve as a reminder as to which products are no good to buy.

Sustain Life
In addition to finding space plastics and old batteries, you can also look out for more garden space. Besides providing oxygen and cleaning the air by gathering dust and toxins that would otherwise end up in our bodies, plants can also serve as a source of sustenance and a constant reminder of what we are trying to preserve in the environment. Plants can take root in a variety of conditions. They can grow on walls, indoors, or any conceivable place as long as there is enough sunlight, soil, and moisture.
If maintenance is a problem, hardy local varieties require less care than their fussy foreign counterparts. Instead of fertilizer, you can mix chopped and dried plant and vegetable matter in the soil. Composting is also a good idea, but only if you are willing to experiment. Though scentless when done correctly, nothing kills enthusiasm faster than a composting project gone wrong, especially if it is done within the confines of a small house where everything is within smelling distance.

Share Experiences
Finally, share your experiences with other members of the household and housing community. It is much more fun to work with others and benefit from their insights and experiences. Starting new habits can be difficult without the proper support, so before you begin, find willing individuals, regardless of skill, to aid you in your endeavor.
It does not take an expert to figure out what is right for the home environment. A little sensitivity and determination can go a long way to make the home (and everything beyond) a better place to live in.

What age do you act?

You Are 30 Years Old

30 Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe. 13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world. 20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences. 30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more! 40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

Man, according to this, I do act like an older person. And I thought my friends were just making fun of me...

What Age Do You Act?

Today is Monday

According to this news article today is one of the most miserable days of the year. I cannot agree more. Today feels absolutely wretched for some strange reason. Why exactly? I am too preoccupied with unpleasant feelings to figure it out. This is most unusual. Maybe I'll just find out tomorrow.

Bookshelf Update 1

The bookshelf has just received a major update, starting with books by my very first and favorite nature documentary broadcaster David Attenborough: The Living Planet and The Life of Mammals.

I also thought that I needed to update my garden designs with a few books by cutting-edge British gardener Diarmuid Gavin: Homefront in the Garden and Outer Spaces

Finally, a book on two of my favorite subjects, travel and food: Anthony Bourdain's A Cook's Tour.

What's great is that all of these books were on sale! National Bookstore Cubao is fast becoming my favorite place.

He who has departed

I attended my uncle's burial yesterday. It felt surreal going through the motions of an odd mix of Christian and traditional Chinese burial rites: attending a Catholic mass, putting on a white and red sash, walking a few blocks with the funeral procession, traveling via convoy to the memorial park, continuing the funeral procession once again, dropping white roses over the coffin, sealing the tomb, discarding the white sash, watching my uncle's daughter - my cousin - walk away with a portrait of the deceased only to see her come back later on (unusually), and ending the rites with a quick meal before heading home.

Besides the Catholic priest, there was another informal master of ceremonies, a mute with long gray hair dressed in shabby clothes who joined us during the first leg of the funeral procession. He then showed again in the park, directing family members where to go and what to do, writing the chinese burial date on the newly plastered tomb with a barbecue stick, and making sure that everyone discarded the white part of the sash and took the red portion home. All that without saying a word.

Though often unnecessary and superstitious, rituals and those who make sure that they are done properly do appear to serve a purpose, perhaps to preoccupy those who are grieving by giving them simple tasks to carry out when they would otherwise be drowning in the depths of sadness. In that sense, the priest and the strange man played very similar roles, even though they looked worlds apart.

My uncle, though I don't know him very well, was a kind and generous man. My cousins, niece, and nephews love him very much, and I guess those of us who do not know him so well still love him for what he did to deserve that kind of love.

Despite the recent death in the family, I still think that nothing really stops. People live and die, but what they do with their lives, the little acts of kindness are the things that last. They add to the goodness in this world, and those who truly learn and benefit from those actions, tend to do more good in turn.

So, to everyone, a life full of kindess. After all, that is what truly matters long after the end.