Day 4: Ann

Whose daughter has her own blog: veganimperfect...who was running the popcorn stand at the Honeyman State Park on the Oregon Coast. The popcorn was 25 cents per bag. There was also free coffee. I went to the coast to spend the day with friends, and there were folks dune surfing across the small lake that had formed between the river and the ocean. Jesse M Honeyman bequeathed the park to the Forestry Service awhile back and one cool fact: all the berries in the park are edible.

Photo by DM

I left a postcard at the start of the nature trail that leads around the lake. It was gone when I came back. Yay!

Victor's in progress progress

A heads up from Claudia

...first thing this morning, wrote a poem, and John recorded me in our backyard. So raw and unedited! One take, girl, just for you a little performed poem in the super hot afternoon (96 and counting). I adore Sun Ra, so it cracked me up that you choose him for me. I need a little wild performing in my life. I do believe I could've incorporated the tray in a more creative fashion, but considering the time constraints, I will do something else later. When I return from vacation, I may make another video with it on my head--very Sun Ra-esque.

Cant wait to see the video Claudia!

Day 3: Dr Don Williams

just got in from New Orleans on the Amtrak. He's here for a couple months & wanted the low-down from the sistahs. Good luck Dr!

Photo credit IRS

Day 2: Rick

Was chilling with his big gulp out on jefferson. Thanks Rick...

I also left a gift by the nearby tree.

Day 1: Adam and Georgia

Adam told me he felt 7/11 should give bendy straws with their boxed wine. I laughed. I had not considered that option in the past, though it doesn't seem like a bad idea. Ha!

Truth be told, the day almost went by and I thought the 18th was tomorrow when I went on line and realized it was today. I panicked, stood up and turned in circles for a minute or two. After realizing that the day was not yet over, I put on my pants and grabbed a postcard. It was time to celebrate anyway: after a day of being in editing/writing mode, I went to the 7/11 to get some wine and to meet my first stranger.

Adam was super cool about taking a photo with me. He said sure right away. Another confession: I just got a smart phone. Yes, I went over to the dark side. I took my first photos on my smart phone. That's why I have a slightly crazed glazed look. Smart phones will do that to you. Besides, it's kinda tough to take your own portrait when you can't feel the shutter button.

BTW: I left Georgia with the chocolate. Yay!

A note from Luo Yu:

Hola! The key things I received include a three-volume encyclopedia (don't understand why one would send me such a heavy thing out of all the packages - isn't it quite costly and troublesome to send it all the way to China, lol) and a picture of a rotten wood trunk obtained from the url (sorry don't know what to do with the qrscancode). Well, I also want it to have some Chinese touch. So I decided, paper making it is! According to the Concord Desk Encyclopedia I received, paper is defined as: felted or matted sheets of cellulose fibers, formed on a wire screen from a water suspension, and used for writing and printing; wood pulp processes are sometimes involved (Vol. 3, p. 928).

In July, I happened to visit a traditional paper-making workshop run by some Hmong families in Guizhou Province, southwest China. In ancient times, this village used to provide materials for ritual scripts created by another ethnic groups in the region, and it was once a secret paper source site during the internal war period. So, Ana, this is going to be my next research project - a fascinating topic!

My 36 picture is composed of one photo in which I was tempting to suspend some bark fiber out of the water (needless to say, I failed), and the other three photos are the products this paper workshop has made - very delicate objects including dyed paper mixed with flowers/leaves, paper lamps and paper for traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy!