Aaron Golas » life

New Foliage

Aaron — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 00:00:28 +0000

I told you that tree was a work in progress. As it turns out, I actually meant it this time:

I’ve updated the site theme to reflect the new foliage as well.

The apple tree cuttings I took last autumn failed to root. I suspect I may have taken the cuttings too early, or else I let them get too dry over the winter. We’ll try again come Christmas… assuming the tree survives, of course. I perpetually fear a summer storm is going to sweep through and topple it. Hasn’t happened yet, though, and we’ve had some healthy storms in the past century.

This is where the world’s best applesauce and apple crisp start (picture taken by my mom, April ’09):

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Zero To One (Year)

Aaron — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 23:37:10 +0000

It’s my blog birthday. On 23 April 2007, after having attended the New Humanism Conference at Harvard, a friend and I started a joint atheism blog. Two years later — which is to say, one year ago today — I struck out on my own, starting this little site here.

Though I haven’t done quite as much yet with this slice of existence as I’d like to, it has nonetheless been an interesting year. I practiced a bit of web design and even built my own web app. I aided in the takedown of a local creationist. I had an editorial published in my alma mater’s student newspaper. And that’s just taken from the meager scraps of life that actually managed to find their way onto this site. In the past year, I’ve attended three skepticism conferences (The Amaz!ng Meeting 7, NECSS2009, and NECSS2010) and become more involved in Boston Skeptics. I’ve been teaching myself how to program in Python. I learned how to play Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition. I’ve forged new friendships and strengthened old ones.

But there’s still so much I want to do. So many ideas unrealized.

Ze Frank’s “the show,” a year-long project organized around a daily video blog, was an unexpectedly transformative force for me during its run from March 2006 to 2007. Today, I got to thinking about the episode “bittersweet,” from the last week of the show’s run. This project, this website, made the transition from zero to one a year ago. Zero posts to one post. And from there, a few more. Now that it’s making the transition from zero to one year old, how can I grow and improve?

Ze talks about confidence as it applies to creativity. For me, a big part of it comes down to the confidence to finish starting, to take the final steps in the transition from zero to one. Once you make the transition from “starting” to “doing,” accountability sets in hard. Accountability forces us to get stuff done and make what we do actually count for something, but it also invites judgment if we fail to meet expectations (be they others’ or our own).

In the coming year, I hope to have the confidence to finish starting and start doing.

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Hourly Comic Day 2010

Aaron — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 01:53:53 +0000

In January, the some-kind-of-awesome John Campbell (of pictures for sad children) draws an hourly journal comic. On 1 February, he invites the rest of the world to join him.

This was my first year attempting the Hourly Comic challenge. Consider this penance for having slacked off on my sketch posts. (Oh, and yeah, the lack of practice shows.)

It was grueling. It was fun. The results are below. (Also available on the Hourly Comic forum)

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Harvest

Aaron — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 05:15:10 +0000

The last of the leaves have been harvested. We sure put these basil plants through their paces:

I’m looking forward to the next crop; we’re due for some variety. We’ll have to include cilantro this time, I think. Dill was nice to have, and spearmint has been requested for juleps. Any other suggestions?

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A Half-Dead Tree

Aaron — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 23:59:05 +0000

While I was on a roll with the whole web design schtick, I decided to give the ol’ website a new look. To that end, I drew a half-dead tree (yes, I know it’s up in the header of the page, but I’m putting it here as well because it’s my website, dammit):

I know it looks all-dead, but it’s just dormant as we in the northern hemisphere head into winter. It’s also still a work in progress–a living piece of art, so to speak.

There’s something beautiful about a half-dead tree, since despite being half-dead it is still fully alive.

We have an heirloom apple tree in my front yard back home, brought as a sapling from Germany about 100 years ago. A full half of the tree is dead wood (which we dare not cut off lest we put the tree off-balance), and yet the other half grows full and lush every year, providing apples that my grandmother turns into the most incredible applesauce and apple crisps.

For several years now, I’ve been trying to clone the tree from cuttings. It’s a race against time; every summer, I fear that a hurricane or something will knock the tree down before I can take new cuttings. I came damn close last year, growing a one-inch-long section of root from a hardwood cutting completely by accident. Before that, I wasn’t even sure I could root from this type of tree at all, let alone one so very old. Now that I know what I’m doing, this might be the year I finally succeed in preserving my pomaceous birthright for future generations.

This isn’t a picture of my apple tree, mind you. This is a different half-dead tree, with a character all its own. (When a tree loses its leaves, that’s when you can tell part of its true character that’s obscured for most of the year.)

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