The Art of Science

If science is the study of a topic in our universe, art should be the experience portion of the science.

What do we mean by the "art of cooking," for example? Is cooking a science at some level?

I estimate that cooking at a granular level, is the juxtaposition of edible chemicals under the application of various catalysts and "accelerants" until an optimal combination is obtained, no? Is there any wonder why my cooking often tastes like a science project?!

How do I know how much salt is enough? Check the recipe, right? So if I "follow" the recipe and the food still comes out like a sheet of exposed film, and just as edible, what gives? Perhaps I should have tasted it?

To hear, taste, touch, smell, and even to apply a visual test, these are the experiential terms, and these things occur in space and take up time.

It becomes obvious that for a simple recipe the investment of the extra time it takes to taste the food after seasoning is all the experience needed for success. More complex recipes require more experience either in the amount of senses involved, or the amount of time spent, or both.

Can you teach an old dog new tricks? Teach him how to wait first. Teach him to go slow and get immersed in all his senses. Move the new trick from printed page to fruition.

Cold Comfort

Today in our nation's largest metropolis we had the coldest weather of the season, but I didn't get to *enjoy* it because I busted my calf muscle and have been holed up at home for 3 days with my leg in rest, ice, compression and elevation. So I lied, I put ice on my leg, so I did have a taste of today's weather, but that is as they say, cold comfort, when what I really wanted was to be out and about, complaining about the weather with everyone else.

Be it resolved

Do you make new year's resolutions? I don't any more. I just do things. If I finish them, so be it. If not, I move on to something more interesting.

Clever and Daft

I spent my first leg of the holiday season primarily in a vegetative state, ingesting voluminous helpings of clever television, specifically the medical dramedy "House." I find this program and its primary character abrasive, enigmatic and vulgar while remarkably edifying. As I lazed out on Christmas day, I watched the brilliant twists of applied science and logic, mixed with gross humanity and flawed personalities and felt inspired to think all over and around the box with my own problems. I read in the December 13 edition of "The Economist" about the trend toward the clever among the daft and can say that it was a productive yet wasteful holiday season filled with new determinations to rise out of mediocrity...when it suits me.

Life Coach Gladwell

Malcolm Gladwell, writer for The New Yorker magazine, and alumnus of the Washington Post, has three books published. I have read two of these works and I'm working on the third. Respectively they are entitled "The Tipping Point", "Blink", and "Outliers". These well written books contain vignettes that crystallize thought on business, success, and personal development topics and possess such clarion calls to action that by their impact, on the reading public, I would not be surprised if he wins a Pulitzer. The more important question should be, "will these books have an award winning impact on my own fortunes?" I'm still reading them so I think they have.

Everything is Easy

It dawned on me that there are things I once could do easily that are more difficult or seemingly impossible now. I used to be able to jump down 5 or 6 steps on the average staircase. I have a mental block against it now...based on the Physical Shock I received when I discovered my new Gravitational Limitations... So how about saving my energy for better pursuits? There too I discovered that I have a difficult time finishing large text books. I used to devour entire textbooks in a week! What gives?! I'll come back to that one because it's becoming important to get that groove back.

This past week I was dusting off my piano playing to rehearse a jazz tune for an upcoming wedding reception and began to panic because I once could hear a chord progression and then play it almost exactly on the first try. Too much loud music in my headphones (physical shock), or is it a mental block? So the eureka moment came when I closed my senses for a second and thought of the joy of doing this thing that bore no physical barrier. I felt that joy right in my lungs as I mentioned in a previous post and the thought came to mind: "Everything is easy." After that, I listened to the patch of the song that was troublesome, and nailed it. Try it sometime. Be honest with yourself, because if you have no background in something, you'll simply be laying ground for success, but you'll have to fail a few times first. With things you once mastered, evoke their Easyness and enjoy the outcome.

How's Your Carbon Footprint?

A Volvo 850 Turbo isn't exactly the platform from which to make a statement about carbon footprints, but I had to include a shot of the smallest van I've ever seen.