C.S. Robadue's Blog, page 9

What Do You See?

JANUARY 2019 – The future? A flying dolphin? A lovely sunset? Having a vision of what you want and measurable goals is incredibly important towards achieving forward progress in life. Whether it be for your creative projects, career, health, etc. Not going to set any specific new year’s resolutions or outline here that I am going to try and drink more water (though I am bringing two water bottles to work everyday now instead of just one, haha), but I do want to encourage all of you to set achievable benchmark goals for yourself. As they will help keep you pointed in the right direction towards hitting the massive targets that you are after in life. And that is essentially how I’m ever able to write, well pretty much anything, as I need to set do-able targets.

Like tonight, before I let myself go to bed I’m going to make sure I write at least a page in my creative ideas journal. Doing these little things will also help keep the pressure of achievement at bay a tiny bit. It is such a boon to your mind to have the sense that you are on the right track, and this gives you a road map to follow, and lights the way ahead. It is a particular set of skills that you can develop to take on any task with. And is especially helpful in training as a writer. I haven’t gone back to re-read my old posts recently regarding what I have told you all about my new book project. All I want to say at this point is that it is intended to be another small, controlled story, that is for an older audience, with virtues featuring heavily, and as you might have guessed, is going to feature a strong lead character.

I haven’t named the main characters yet, and that is kind of killing me a bit, haha. As I like telling the story to myself over and over again as I brainstorm, and to not know the names of who I’m speaking about makes it sound incomplete in my mind. In the past I have come up with the character names early on (Like August Winter or Oslo Robins), but I am having more trouble this time around as the main character is so much more serious than the other two.

Finished reading some non-fiction this month as I’m reading another door stopper worth of fiction at the moment. Which piece of non-fiction? ‘The Blue Zones’ by Dan Buettner, about isolated locations in the world where there is a higher concentration than normal of centenarians. It was a really cool read, as there were a lot of parallels to these different groups, whether they were in Okinawa, Costa Rica, Greece, or the US.

All of the locations in the book were in warm weather climates which I think definitely ties into the availability of fresh produce year round. As eating a diet full of fresh fruits and vegetables, not a lot of processed foods and eating smaller portions of foods was universal across all the groups studied. They also had a strong connection to family and sense of personal involvement in their communities and feeling of purpose (so vital!). Being physically active, avoiding vices, and avoiding stress, all key elements. Which seem like no-brainers when said aloud, but are very hard to be disciplined enough to do in everyday life. In these communities you had a lot of people living the same way, which helps make it more possible I think. Changes in culture threaten all of these blue zones, as people become more metropolitan and don’t take care of their health and live lives disconnected from their families and traditions.

Is definitely worth a read if you are interested in the topic. And I would encourage everyone to pick one of the lessons from the book to incorporate into your life. Whether it be eating less, connecting with your family more, having a greater sense of purpose, or doing more physical labor/exercise. (There were nine key lessons in the book as I recall). Living a happy life full or purpose, family, healthy foods, and exercise is bound to pay off regardless, so I’m committed to the cause, and here’s hoping I can also make it to 100, haha.

Thanks for stopping by to check-in, is very much appreciated! Hope you’re doing wonderfully and that this proves a particularly brilliant day for you!

~ CS

 

Step Into the Serene

DECEMBER 2018 – Seconds ticking away until New Year’s! Well, to be fair, still far more than a handful for remain of the current year, but writing an ever so slightly earlier retrospective than usual seems the right way to close out the year. Not going to end the year with a whole heap of procrastination, nope, never, haha. As one may have guessed, this month was a collection of sporadic efforts in various arenas of life. With the holidays, family, work, and social pursuits taking priority. Had a wonderful Christmas holiday and I’m looking forward to kicking off a year full of large pursuits in the coming months.

Happily, December worked out well in my writing life, as I picked up my new book project and did a lot of brainstorming in my creative journal. Pages keep getting added on with new ideas as I’m growing it further and further. Once I have a full concept for a story arc, I will switch over to actually writing the first draft of the book. Still a ways off from that point as I only have perhaps the first third of the story arc plotted out in big strokes. With a feathering of details that I’d like to incorporate. Several characters, the setting, and key story events have been sketched out. A lot of the other finer points and often full on re-writes happen once I actually sit down and start writing the draft. As naturally, ‘better’ ideas can come to you when you are in the flow of the writing process and thinking creatively.

Didn’t realize how energizing it would be to get back to writing after spending the prior few months designing other side projects (which are all still in the works too, haha). I would just say that my mind is most content, when it has a fiery and exciting art/writing project to obsess over and bring to fruition.

This month’s post photo comes from a hike this past weekend on a particularly warm winter’s day. The trails had taken us through a stand of pine trees that gave the air a fresh scent, the ground a soft blanket’s worth of cover measured in years worth of pine needles, and the light a magical diffused glow. In the near distance, just beyond those trees, is a quiet pond, fed by a number of natural springs coming down from the hillside(s) above. Serene is certainly a word that comes to mind when exploring such places as this.

Outside of creative pursuits and searching out fresh air free enough to nurture my thoughts, I have been read quite a few books this past year. Don’t have a number to hurl at you here, but between large 750+ page works, I scattered in a bunch of non-fiction titles. I like feeding all areas of my interests. For 2019 I see more of the same, with that balance, though I’d also like to read more work of the great philosophers and more short form fiction. Kind of flip the pillars of my reading habit all around, while still feathering in the non-fiction titles. My current read? About a quarter of the way through ‘Caliban’s War’ by James S. A. Corey, the second book in their Expanse series. Guess my sci-fi cook continues!

Side note: Introverts For Nature continues on; a creation to help give back in even a small way, and do something to help the environment, local wildlife, and instill a further sense of connected-ness to place. Have kept it up for twelve months, and surely intend to keep that moving forward as well!

Here’s to a wonderful 2019 everyone, thanks for stopping by!

~ CS

Off the Coast of Maine

NOVEMBER 2018 – My fascination with stone architecture continues to grow and I think it is most unfortunate that here in New England we see so few examples of it, outside of rare municipal buildings, and the stray historic site. Would love to see it have a resurgence and return to form as an elite source for building construction materials. It is incredibly durable and has the potential to be very ‘green’ with little carbon footprint (depending on the source of the stone and the distance it has to travel to the building site). Stone has been used to create homes for millennia, only to fall off in the last fifty plus years or so.

I’ve picked up two books on stone masonry from the library and watched a bunch of youtube videos on people that have built with stone (mostly in a historic restoration, versus new build). I see so much potential for its use in a combined project building involving lots of glass (which is made from liquid sand) and stone for modern 21st century buildings. They would be incredibly strong, long lasting, and with the right building techniques and modern air sealing, very eco friendly and cheap to heat/cool. That’s been on my mind a lot lately, need to do some sketches for building designs. As I’ve mainly been looking at classic stone work homes made to a green passive house standard, versus more modern designs.

November travels have brought me to Maine, Portland Maine to be specific for those of you keeping score at home, haha. Fittingly, crossing the state line into Maine brought with it snow on the ground and a sense of friendliness and warmth from its inhabitants that was a lovely contrast to the cold outside (side note, it was comparatively mild versus how cold I expected it to be. Classic expectations versus reality at play there, haha). The city of Portland is on a peninsula, is exceedingly walk-able, has delicious restaurants (at a rate of more per capita than any other small city in the US I was told), and offers views of the Atlantic and misty mornings.

Reminded me a lot of home and I think like many others, there is just something about being near the sea and feeling its presence in your life that changes you in a subtle way. With upwards of 60% of the human body being water, perhaps it isn’t so strange that we have such a kinship with it?

Been in a very pensive mood lately, as the days shorten, the weather turns cold, and thoughts of the future take hold of the night. Reading has been exceedingly good to me, I’m loving ‘The Wise Man’s Fear’, highly highly recommend it to the fantasy readers out there and otherwise for those of you who might be up for a challenge and enjoy a coming of age adventure story. This is a true gem.

Warm yourselves by the fire my friends, and may this Winter and holiday season be ever generous to you!

~ CS

Adirondack Heights

OCTOBER 2018 – Climbing mountains has become an annual goal for me, regular readers of WaveGarden Arts will remember last year’s tackling of Mt. Washington in New Hampshire, so where did this pull take me thus far in 2018? Well when my friends started talking of planning a trip to the Adirondack mountains to see the autumn leaves and escape the range of cell towers and email inboxes, I was completely on board. Reading about different trail systems and potential 4,000 footers to tackle, I was practically wearing my hiking boots to bed excited, haha.

Hiking in the Adirondacks worked out beautifully, as exhibited in the included photograph from the trail over Ausable lake. We stayed just outside of Lake Placid in upstate New York and the foliage and colors did not disappoint. It was gorgeous, with air that breathed life back into me after a long semester on campus. Reaching the lake felt like a moment out of a J.R.R. Tolkien story, it was that spectacular, certainly one of the most beautiful places that I have ever been to. Still feel very humbled by the experience as it was so moving. I could have sat by that water and watched the storms blow in from the North all day with ease. Just breathtaking.

Would very much like to return to the Adirondacks and take on one of the higher peaks, like Giant Mountain. As it was quite cold in late October for such events, with a dusting of snow having fallen the Saturday morning of our trip. Driving everyone close to the fire and to the table to play board games versus venturing outside (which is a very strong second place on my must’s for such adventures!).

Outside of hiking October has provided many opportunities for reading as I picked up a copy of ‘The Wise Man’s Fear’ by Patrick Rothfuss, which is the second book in his Kingkiller chronicles. Feels the perfect time of year to give it a read through and I know many evenings will turn in to late nights as his works are very difficult to put down once you’ve started them! Mighty curious to find what trouble finds Kvothe, as it always manages to, haha.

Have also started a larger scale draft version of the passive solar house design I’m working on. With the goal being to allow the bedrooms to have South facing windows, thus far it has worked out quite successfully. But moving the upstairs bathroom has caused a bit of a chain reaction necessitating other changes, haha. Whoops! But in a good way. Necessity can bring out the best solutions that otherwise could have gone unnoticed.

Take care and Happy Halloween everyone!

~ CS

Net Zero

SEPTEMBER 2018 – Welcome back everyone, hope your month has been a productive and satisfying one! Happily it has been as such for me, continuing the trend from August, I’ve spent an abundance of extra hours in the office at work. Where does that leave creative projects? They are moving forward, if even at a bit of a snail’s pace at times, haha. Been taking more notes for the new book that I’m working on, which I’m getting pretty psyched about as the pieces for the plot take shape. I like to have an outline and create bios for my characters and then put the plot events in motion and see how the characters will ‘react’. With this book, I know more the direction I want the story to go, versus who the characters are. Which is opposite of my past two books, where I have the characters more or less figured out first and then let the adventure unfold from there. Curious to see how this approach will affect the finished piece and process.

I’ve also continued to research building techniques, architecture, and net zero energy buildings. Was able to get my hands on some case studies for green buildings from both the academic sphere and residential projects. Which are really cool to read through, as you can see the decisions made by the design team and then the results of how successful they were at their energy reduction goals. I want to design buildings and use materials to create eco-friendly buildings, in both the short-term and long-term, in that they will be structures that can last one hundred plus years, but also not be cost prohibitive. Simple right? Haha. I think it is achievable within certain parameters, although there is always trade-offs to be made.

In preparation of delving further into the design world, I have cleaned up my home office and workstation. Curious what it looks like these days? Here is a glimpse into my current rig and desk. Did give up the large desk I used to have for drafting while moving, but at some point I’ll get a new one that is more spacious and comfortable for extended drawing, sketching, and making 2D designs. But a lot of the work I’ll be doing in the short-term is all on the computer and modeling out the designs. There is also additional energy modeling software to use for passive house design that I will be running at my workstation here.

I talked to an architect and he said that I should focus on materials and design factors for what is available locally (from building material supply to even the focus on the local trades). I agree with him from a sustainability standpoint (though that wasn’t his angle, he was suggesting it towards getting the best result from leveraging local expertise), though I would like to push the region towards more sustainable design and marrying time-tested aesthetics with modern building methodology and building science. As I think there is room for both on the same job site.

These are all fertile territory for rich exploration of ideas and concepts, and I’ve really savored the process. Outside of working all the time I did finish reading the third book in the Thrawn trilogy by Timothy Zahn, ‘The Last Command’. Such a fun selection of books to read, makes me lament the loss of the expanded universe as far as being considered canon, but so it goes in life sometimes. I have since picked up a massive work of door-stopper fiction that I’ll make sure I touch on next time! Appreciate you stopping by to check in, feel free to leave a comment to say hello, thanks!

~ CS

It’s a Jungle In Here

AUGUST 2018 – Was an interesting month, and no, not in a bad way, haha. Went from vacation mode to working pretty much all the time, but it was a very fruitful stretch. Which is great, as I had a lot on the agenda in the office, and was able to hit all targets. Have been focused primarily on design work, both visual and conceptual which is cool. And I’ve rediscovered in the process, my love for architecture and building design. Which has captivated my attention and sent me directly to the library to snag a stack of books on building construction and green design. As with up to 40% of energy consumed on the planet being consumed by buildings, it seems an area ripe for efficiency and enhancement gains that will have a massive impact on the future.

Which as those that know me would say, that is right up my alley. So in my spare time I’ve been sketching building designs (specifically residential housing) and getting back into Autocad. I haven’t used that since school, so it is a bit of a journey back in time to fire it up and start outlining structures and shapes again, haha. We’ll see where this train of interest takes me in the coming months and years, but it is fertile territory for my creative mind and design sensibilities. And I find myself quite at home staring at drafted plans and researching R values for building materials and design techniques.

Every so often I find that I’ve managed to adopt more house plants, or in this case a house tree (as seen above). This is a banana tree as a point of fact, and unlike my usual rescues, it is merely a temporary guest at my apartment, as it was salvaged from a compost heap by request of one of my friends. I’m endeavoring for it to have an enjoyable stay while it is here, and thankfully the warmth of Summer sunshine is keeping it happily content on the porch. As it would make quite a statement in my dining room (where it will be going next I suspect! haha).

The rest of my apartment is well ‘greened’ with other similar such rescue plants that I mostly know how to take good care of. Mostly. There is something so soothing and life affirming by being surrounded by things that grow and the shades of green one finds in nature.

Very much want to incorporate that sensibility into my future building design projects, as I think it is important to keep that connection with nature an ever present part of our daily lives. To not be so disconnected from the Earth beneath our feet.

So take a moment, stretch your legs, take a trek outside, breathe in the fresh air, and feel the natural world smiling back at you.

Cheers everyone!

~ CS

Road Trip

JULY 2018 – Pack up the car, ready the GPS, it is time for a road trip vacation! Where to? Oh I don’t know, how about a trip to the land of poutine, moose, and maple syrup? Deal! Spent a week venturing North through New Hampshire, Vermont, and to our feature destination, Canada. Had been pondering this trip for months with visions of Montreal and Quebec City offering standout (and readily drive-able) destinations. I had never been to either city and had heard tremendous tales of beautiful scenery, great food, and friendly people. International journey started with a quick stop in Burlington, VT for lunch at a small sushi restaurant, before reaching the border and the first taste of trip traffic. For as much as the border gets maligned, it was well organized, and with enough good tunes to play, the wait didn’t feel interminable.

On the other side and into the unknown of moose country! Or rather km and km of farmland! Before long, sneaking up over the horizon was the city of Montreal on its island home. Navigating the city streets was easy and a small rented studio apartment awaited in the student populated neighborhood by the McGill campus. The old part of the city really shined and the food was amazing, Lola Rosa (local vegetarian restaurant, extraordinaire!) has absolutely incredible tomato sauces, as featured on their house lasagna, just magical. My taste buds are relishing even the memory of such a good meal. Other highlights included sampling poutine for the first time (I couldn’t get the cheese curds to squeak, but I’m assured that they do in fact do, haha), climbing to the top of Mount Royal, and exploring a very walk-able city.

After several most enjoyable days, the next destination was Quebec City and the surrounding hills and mountains. With a stop at the stunning falls North of the city for some much welcomed hiking and connected-ness with nature. My assumption that Canada would be cool (in temperature) was dashed at the near 90 degree temperatures and high humidity, so the falls and the built in Air Conditioning that they provided was incredibly welcomed for the time spent there.

Quebec City is as charming as advertised. Perched on top of a hill, it strikes all the right beats of its European heritage, and was a delight to explore the winding streets and run up the steps of the fortifications that still exist today. And the crepe scene, oh so strong there. Had dinner at multiple creperies during the week with fantastic results. Both the savory and the sweet had tremendous merit and I found myself delighting in them both equally.

Better still, to split them and try both! Was a lovely vacation and I snuck in some time to read more Science Fiction and totally unplug from my everyday life. Is important to do that from time to time, experience something new, as it helps broaden your horizons and make you appreciate what you do have and the choices before you.

Cheers everyone!

~ CS

Being There

JUNE 2018 – Efforts to make a positive impact on the local environment have continued this month, through more time spent introverteering! Had one of the most successful hauls to date, journeying upstate to a park, hiking the trails, and picking up a sizable amount of rubbish. There really is something satisfying about the immediacy of being able to actively clean up an area and make it look better. Though it is always ever only part of the story about how we can make the future better. I’ve continued to try and buy only materials with recyclable containers and focus on purchasing glass whenever possible. Can be tough though as more and more products switch to plastic. Still, have to believe that every bit counts!



Here is the view from one of the trail vistas, really was quite beautiful, especially in person. Can’t emphasis the “you have to be there” factor enough, not just in this photo, but in life. There really is something to be said for getting out there and experiencing life first-hand, and seeing things for yourself, and making up your own mind, and having your own experiences. Although, looking at a photograph you do get to avoid the humidity and bugs that I assure you were ever present here, hahaha.

Finished reading my first door-stopper fiction book of the year, ‘Atlas Shrugged’ by Ayn Rand. Wow, that book will knock your socks off if you are willing to give it the time and patience that it requires to complete it. Is a very illuminating look into the nature and motivation of humanity, and what it means to be a person of the mind. As what are we, if not people of the mind? Felt as relevant a struggle as ever and though the world has changed a lot since it was originally published in 1957, I think there is a lot to gleam from this book. Whereas in other arenas, like the effect of automation on the need for manual labor, or AI and the need for intellectual labor, it feels more like a theoretical exercise that could use some updating. The romanticized ideals hold an appeal that speaks as loudly as ever, and the Dagny Taggart character deserves far more due in the lexicon of literature in my opinion. Is a book worth reading with an open mind. At the least it is a very interesting thought exercise and cautionary tale of a world on the brink of dystopia.

Other highlights of the month include going swimming, enjoying the early harvest(s) right from the farm/garden, and figuring out how to be more productive and true to my tasks at hand!

Stay creative my friends!

– CS

Art & Ivy

MAY 2019 – Sat with my notebook in hand along a rocky shore overlooking the bay last week writing. Formulating more ideas, some conflicting at this point, for the main narrative of the new book. Adding more pieces to the puzzle, which right now might not all fit together, but this is not abnormal for this stage of the creative process. As not every good idea is necessarily going to make it into the story. And often a quality idea might get swapped out for an even better or rather more fitting idea when I actually sit down to write or more likely during re-writes. Even knowing that I am going to be mercilessly writing and re-writing the story, it is still hard for me to put forward an idea I’m not totally sold on. Whereas other writers might say, oh, I’ll go back and fix it later. I don’t like to leave problems with the plot unanswered in the early going as it can really come back to haunt you later on I feel.

Traveled to New Haven, Connecticut this month to visit Yale University. Had made cursory glancing visits to New Haven in the past, typically enroute to New York City. Though my grandfather had taken my brother and I to the Shore Line Trolley Museum when we were kids, which was awesome, that’s definitely recommended. At any rate, it was great to finally see the Yale campus, which was as stunning as I imagined it would be, that architecture style is phenomenal, I don’t know why it isn’t used more in construction, regardless of the approximate cost. Can it really cost that much more to have some beautiful decorative stonework done? And they are building new dorms at Yale, so I know it is still possible to do with modern masons.

The Yale Art Museum (pictured here) was a must visit location, specifically (in my opinion) for it’s Japanese Woodblock prints and Impressionist paintings. Monet as always stole the show for me, his work is second to none in my estimation. There were also pieces by other titans such as Van Gogh, Manet, Gauguin, among others. They have one of Hokusai’s wave woodcuts, but it sadly was not on display at the time.

Other sites visited on the trip include the glacial rock formation of ‘East Rock’, which overlooks the city, well worth the short trek to the top. The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript library was not only super cool visually and culturally, but a nice dose of air conditioning on a hot day. The collection of first editions and rare literary pieces there is awe inspiring. And I’ve seen photographs of the exterior of the building at night, where they project imagery onto the geometric patterns of the structure, is a distinctly different look than the rest of campus, but has its place.

Quest to see all the Ivy League campuses continues, next up Princeton perhaps??

Thanks for stopping by, happy reading everyone!

– CS

Journey to the Center of the Falls

APRIL 2018 – Despite all the ice and snow in my photo below of adventuring in Kaaterskill Falls, I swear it was during Spring time and actually mild and muddy out on the trails! Have to give my brother credit for suggesting a trip to the Catskills to go hiking, and it was awesome. Searching the ‘Catskills’ online I came across a stunning photo that had been taken by a hiker from behind Kaaterskill Falls in NY. To achieve such a photo, you have to venture onto an unsanctioned trail and walk behind the inner rim of the falls. Which you could only sort of do (and not especially safely) with the amount of ice and snow build up (for the record, that is not my brother and I in the photo, haha. As that sheet of snow/ice they are on is right over the falls and didn’t look entirely stable to me. In fact, a block of ice the size of a microwave fell down from the ridge above on the trail in front of me walking over to this spot and terrified some of my fellow hikers! Luckily no one was crossing in the spot where it crashed through at the time, whew!) during our trip. The falls are actually a double water fall in that below the frame of the photo I took there is a pool that leads into a second water fall. The height of both is something like 230 feet and is very powerful to witness up close and in person.

I’d really like to go back at some point when everything is lush and green and see about hiking around the falls. I did summit the falls and then went back down again, despite their being a convenient parking spot about a 1/10 of a mile from the top that we only found out about later on, oops, haha. As when I got to the top there was A LOT of folks up there, small children, etc, and I was like, how did they all get up here? As it was pretty hazardous climbing given that the trail up had been practically hit by a mudslide with all the melting snow. What normally would have been a straightforward pathway was covered in multiple inches of red, shoe destroying, mud, haha. Still, I loved the climb, the rock formations and evergreen trees were beautiful. Is really a site worth seeing and is the largest water fall I’ve ever seen in person (not having been to Niagara Falls or Angel Falls, etc). Definitely want to go back, if you couldn’t already tell!

As per usual, it is very hard to not talk about my writing progress in any specifics! Have kept the journal going and am settling in to some ideas (all of which likely will still change, haha), debating how much of an action bent the story will have. With my first two books being very heavy on the action and less on the inner monologues and thoughts of the characters. Haven’t decided yet. Have a setting in mind, again, sort of, ahhh. If only I could take the plunge off the falls and write a book like Stephen King writes a book, and just write and see where the story goes. That is so not my process, but I will have to try it at some point and just experience it.

What places have you adventured to lately? And if nowhere, maybe take a morning/afternoon and venture forth even within your own state/county, there are probably some cool places you haven’t seen yet! Or go by bike, scooter, paddleboard, a new perspective can work wonders for your inspiration levels!

Happy Spring!

– CS