Curiouser and curiouser. I’m tall and from up here, it all looks connected. So I like to follow an idea as it roams across disciplines. My favorite people are the ones with big brains and a sharp wit. The former is good for thinking. The latter might be for real knowledge or a good laugh or both at once. When they say “A mind is a terrible thing to waste” I think yeah, wow, that IS terrible.

All too computer and media savvy and still vastly prefer the intimacy of one “friend friend” over oodles of “Facebook friends”. The internet often seems like sweet sorrow but, yes, I am here hoping to bend it to my will (Actually, the internet seems sometimes to me like a wild animal. They should borrow some signs from the zoo: “Do not feed the internet” or “Do not startle the internet with any sudden moves”).

I try hard. I like to push myself some, even if I don’t get all the way to where I want to go. Samuel Beckett described this process as “Fail again. Fail better”. I think that’s a sublime and positive way of saying that there is a lot to be said for effort (intellectual, emotional, physical).

I follow the golden rule.

For work, I invent actual physical things. I know, crazy, no apps whatsoever. These days those physical things are for cardiac surgery and yes it is wonderful and humbling and just plain awe inspiring to see a doctor put something you designed into grandpa’s beating heart and watch it work (usually, hopefully). I’m lucky and I know it. I’ve been building things since I was a kid and I expect to be building things for the rest of my life.

I organize hikes for friends all over the bay area, sometimes to fairly remote areas (I know the secret spots). I also setup a yearly backpacking trip so that we can all get lost together. When I really need to settle my mind, I’ll go alone for a spell, feeling for most of the time like a kid at play. The solo trips make me appreciate my connections to the world even more.

From time to time, I build art projects in my shop. Right now, I’m working on hardware that drags a ½ ton granite boulder very slowly across my space. It makes a great sound, scraping and grinding and popping against the concrete floor. And something that massive, moving, is wonderfully improbable.

Building things
Planning adventures both near and far
Getting the seats on the plane with the most legroom.
Thinking, then acting on it
Confusing predators
Listening to people
Not believing everything I think
Knowing when the moon is full and the tides are low
Reaching things on high shelves, particularly at supermarkets when a little old lady needs something. This happens much more than you’d think. It’s fun and you can get into some great conversations.

My height. In eighth grade, a friend’s father described me as “a tall glass of water”. I just loved that and still do.

Films: Andrei Tarkovsky (Stalker and Andrei Rublev in particular). Cassavetes. Airplane (“I am serious... and don't call me Shirley.”). Almodovar, Herzog (esp. Fitzcarraldo). I thought Lars Von Trier’s Melancholia was excellent. Paul Thomas Anderson. Don Hertzfeldt’s animation. Wim Wenders with Paris,Texas (the scenes with Harry Dean Stanton and Natasha Kinski talking through the one-way glass are just stop-you-in-your-tracks beautiful ). Road Runner cartoons and the Acme company that supplies him (If anyone is listening, for Christmas you can forget the IPhone. I’d like the Acme Earthquake Pills or the Rocket Powered Roller Skates. Thanks.).

Music: Black Keys. Tom Waits. Gotan Project. Nick Cave singing “Wonderful Life.” Anthony and the Johnsons. Jeanne Balibar singing "A Rose is a Rose". Leonard Cohen doing “Boogie street”. Skye. Guilty pleasures would have to be 80s music like Depeche Mode, New Order and Men at Work that remind me of a misspent youth. Moby.

Books: Anything by Denis Johnson (esp. “Tree of Smoke” from a few years back). Samuel Beckett: Every year of reading him I see more tenderness and humor in his work. Dharma books, but only ones with a sense of humor or a good feel for so-called obscenity. Borges. Sedaris.

Food: Gimme sushi, please. Anything hot. Lots of little dishes shared with someone special. Ah, but no cilantro. I have that gene and it tastes just awful to me.

Well, lots of things.

Recently: Kindness. Yes, Kindness. I think it’s important and I think it’s a simple word that’s actually pretty tricky.

Well, like everyone else here, it just depends. Often out with friends, sometimes watching a movie. Maybe just reading a book (quelle horreur!).

I’m perfectly comfortable walking directly from meditation (in the morning) to a bar with a friend (in the afternoon). It feels right somehow.

*There is something interesting going on in your head and you want to share.
*You want to know why I’m trying to drag that boulder around.
*You have a boulder you are looking to unload for the right price.

Ingmar Bergman made a movie near the end of his life (Saraband) in which a priest says the following:

“A good relationship has two elements: good friendship and an unshakeable eroticism".

I might add “a certain playfulness” and then that’s about what I’m looking for. And you?