There are more than just bananas in there...

Category: The Monkey Thinks about Stuff (Page 1 of 2)

I get reflective, I write it down, you read it and leave comments. It’s kinda crazy but it works.

Write What You Know or Keeping It “Real”

That’s pretty good advice. I know I have heard it enough and it is pretty much what I do. I write about the stuff I know; things I like, things I care about, making things, seeking out adventures, good things to eat, you know basic monkey stuff. Sometimes, I end up writing stuff for newspapers, articles and magazines. Every once in a while someone sends me a check for doing that and people refer to me as an “author”. That never feels genuine to me, because it’s just an article or some stuff I wrote that someone liked or needed, but it is nice.  I have always held out that to be a real author, you would have to write a book. Well, to paraphrase Miss O’Hara, “I guess I’ve done authoring now.”

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Geocaching, Third Edition

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Geocaching, Third Edition

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What Dreams May Come…

Magic Fingers

It starts as the typical actor’s nightmare.  I am on stage, I don’t know the show, don’t know my lines.  Unlike the usual version, this time I don’t know the theatre or my fellow actors.  It is clear that it is some sort of avant garde thing, where the people on stage are reacting to things coming from actors in the audience, so I wing it.

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A Pearl of Great Price…

Pressure...

I do not normally engage in politically charged subjects here. I like to keep this nice and light, a place for musings that hopefully spread a little joy and the occasional bit of wisdom, but I read something this week that I feel needs to be shared. Since this is one of the few places where I can get away with saying anything I want, I am going to use it to help put a face on a problem our country currently faces. I promise to go back to my usual pictures, recipes and homilies in my next post, but I beg your indulgence and your patience as I look a little deeper into an issue that I had honestly never considered until this week. Continue reading

Recycled 55 Gallon Barrel Chair

Does everything a "normal" chair does and more!!!

UPDATE: After voting closed we were lucky enough to be selected as one of fifteen finalists. Our design went on to win Second Prize in this international Green Design competition, pretty cool, huh? I want to give a huge thank you to everyone who supported this project, we could not have done this without you.

I know I should not use this site for my own evil schemes, but since I am asking other people to help support this project, I figured I had better support it myself.  So here I am asking for your help, trying to mobilize the Monkey Nation for the greater good of simians and simian enthusiasts everywhere. So what do I need? I need your votes.

Here is the deal. When I am not working on real work or GeoWoodstock or writing this blog or taking pictures or coming up with other crazy schemes, my hobby is working on real-world problem solving, on a small scale. A couple of months ago, my friend, Seth and I were trying to find a way to recycle or reuse 55 gallon drums from my work and hit upon several things, but among those we designed and built some pretty cool chairs.

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The Road Goes Ever On…

The road goes ever on...

I got older this week. OK , I understand we get older every second of every day and that I am older now than I was when I last typed the word “I”, but we don’t mark the passage of time that way. We tend to take it in nice sizable chunks, usually years, and we count from zero. So this week, I turned over another year on my internal odometer, which tends to make me more introspective and reflective than usual. It is funny that I am more childlike and playful than I was 10 or even 20 years ago, particularly as I have reached an age where my Peter Pan routine is becoming a little unbelievable, even to me. So as I lay in bed just after dawn Sunday morning, contemplating the last thirty seven years I suddenly remembered the best birthday present I ever received, the one that changed everything…

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Can't Help Falling in Love With You

elvis

The first time I noticed her my heart started racing.  I was going over the plans for the production design for a show with the director when suddenly my heart started running a million miles a minute.  I looked around and could not figure out what was happening, I asked him if my color was OK, that I felt funny and my heart was racing and he replied, that it was probably just the pretty young stage manager who had walked up while we were working.  My heart rate slowed to normal and I laughed it off.  A few minutes later this young lady who I had never noticed before approached us again and my heart skipped a beat and started racing again, at that point I decided that maybe I ought to take a closer look…

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Calculated Randomness and the Quest for Understanding

clock

Over the last few weeks, I have noticed a flurry of “25 Random Things About Me” posts circulating around the social networking sites. I think it is an awesome way for people to connect and get to know one another better, but I take issue with the use of the word “random”. I mean, you get to choose the things you share, and looking at what people choose to share, it is obvious that they are making a calculated effort to show you facets of their personality or life that will portray them in a particular light. Not quite random, but beautiful, nonetheless. So why do we choose to share these things?

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iFarm Art Project

I often get up while the sun is still low in the sky and go for walks around our farm, enjoying the peacefulness of early morning and that beautiful low angle light. Sometimes my wife and I walk with the dog in the afternoon, there is just something about those long shadows we love, the golden hour of the day. Our farm is dotted with equipment left over from my grandfather’s past, old tractors, trucks from his shipping company and all kinds of farming equipment. It always brings a smile to my face to look at these testimonies to a life well-lived, they are reminders of my childhood riding in these trucks with him or helping to work on these tractors. From fully-restored showpieces to little more than junk, Pa collects it all, and he taught me to look beyond the surface rust to see the potential sitting there waiting for a caring hand to bring it back to life. So these walks are a good time for me. Lately, I have taken to snapping photos with the camera in my iPhone and then using the CameraBag app to process them in the phone, to try and capture a little of the beauty I see and the pieces of Pa’s soul sitting in our fields.

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Lights, Candles and Elves, Oh My!

A couple of weeks ago, I put out a call to friends far and near to send me pictures of their Christmas Trees, Menorahs, Festivus Poles, or whatever they do to celebrate during the holiday season.  It has been fascinating to see the many different ways my frioends celebrate during this great time of year.  We have Currier and Ives scenes, the Nativity, Menorahs, playful elves, homemade ornaments, a tree composed entirely of botox bottles, Charlie Brown’s tree, the old aluminum classic and even an “implant” tree.  Thank you to everyone who played along, I have really enjoyed getting to take a peek into your lives and family traditions.  I hope that you all have the Merriest of Christmases, the Happiest of Chanukkahs, a Grievance filled Festivus or any other thing you wish to have.  The holidays are a time to stop and think about the things that are most important to you and for me that is my friends and family, so consider this Holiday Collage my gift to you, and please overlook the fact that since you sent these to me in the first place, I am essentailly regifting you all.  Anyway, it’s the thought that counts, right.

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