Douglas Dollars is Six Times AliveThe description on the home page for this tumblr reads
We won’t be this way very long so I’m trying to explain to you who I am through the content of this site.
I hope the description is true and that I’m also more effective in doing this than not. Thank you all for the questions in the last day! I’ll probably get back to posting photos and music now.
It takes courage for people to ask questions. Once it’s out of their hands they have no way of knowing how it’ll be received, but I like to see the notes people send through as a chance or invitation to start something interesting, perhaps a project. I hope/assume this is how everyone works, but for me a project requires only two things:
I feel most satisfied when a project is ongoing, but there’s also a lot of satisfaction that comes from making something remarkable and finite. Projects that keep producing insights while never quite achieving perfection are the most rewarding. Stone can be carved into a sculpture, then polished until it shines, then photographed for a gallery, then sold for someone’s home. A good project never has to end.
I’ve forgotten most of the projects from the last year or so, but I’ve learned a ton about wine, I’ve learned how to yo-yo, I learned how to throw an effective party, I even learned how easy it was to create a brunch meetup for nearly a dozen folks using nothing but Tumblr and Twitter. Right now I’m teaching myself how to garden, and that’s going surprisingly well. Really good projects take about a month of effort.
These things only require an interested person and an idea. I’d like to have a project or two with everyone, and I enjoy it when projects spawn those conversation threads that float into other projects and things I create. Every project makes every other project better.
I’m hoping the next project will be “the best grilled cheese sandwich / soup combination.” I’ve had years of casual practice, but it’s time to take it seriously. Maybe the best soup contains vegetables I’ve grown!? Maybe it doesn’t! But I’m sure going to enjoy finding out.
This one took a while to respond to, I like how much it made me stop and think. Hopefully I’d recognize the situation as being so when it was happening, and then not over-think it afterward.
I’ve tried a lot of times to craft and plan things, including flying to an island to get a photo of a memory I had in mind for seven years. Forcing these things just doesn’t work.
If I landed in a perfect situation I hope it’d be dark, maybe in a park, the stars would be out (and visible), and the only sounds people would hear would be each other’s laughter. I think it can work for a pair of people all the way up to dozens. I also think it’d be incredibly tough to achieve.
There was also an idea I floated once about hearing the sound of hundreds of pianos play the same song at once, and how I think it would be overwhelmingly beautiful.
I really do wonder what I’d say about it. I don’t know how long I’ll be alive, but I do know that I’m always changing, and because of this so much of what I’ve done with others is highly documented in photo or text (since ~1998, for anyone with the detective skills), but I also know that I’ve never really shared the “good stuff,” to the rest of the world or in a way that makes full sense without context.
Giving the impression of sharing the whole story while really sharing almost none of it is where the magic lives. I’ve talked a lot about MaxFunCon here. Most would think I’ve given away the secrets, but everyone who’s been knows that I’ve really only described the first five minutes. This is the thrill.
For anyone who was directly involved in the moment I try to have it be as clear a representation of the memory as possible (or at least my memory of it). This is why Oregon looks like this to me and Portland looks like this. I’m a big fan of having people feel as though something public might be part of a private conversation as well, which is why even mentioning Portland and Oregon in this is a reference into another conversation someone might enjoy, or someone else entirely might have a shared thought about nighttime parks and solitude. Memories are conversation threads, incredibly thin, but always present.
These days, I’d probably just post a photo without a comment or other word. With documenting these things in this way, I know exactly what’s happened, but the more gaps I leave for the imagination of others, the stronger and more identifiable the moment becomes for everyone.
Because everyone can imagine a park lit by starlight.
themainmane replied
Well, I am fucking sold. I would italicize the sold, but I cannot do that in this tiny box of reply.
MaxFunCon has given me an incredible list of people with which to collaborate. Since 2009 I haven’t once had to hunt for a project or idea to work on. I don’t know much about sports, but I think it’s like having a non-stop first draft pick on ideas, talent, and friendship.
Folks might think I’m somehow hyping it all up, but searching Google for the stories of any other attendee should show I’m barely scratching the surface.
People have met an become married through MaxFunCon. If I were hiring anyone I’d likely prioritize a MaxFunster over someone who wasn’t. I do my best to get people who haven’t yet gone to come along with me, because I want to see the look on their face when they realize every word of it is true. They can disbelieve all they like, but when their jaw drops and they look my way, I’ll just nod.
See you there.
I hope MaxFunCon East is as successful as the ‘regular’ MaxFunCon I’ve loved. I’m sure there are a lot of challenges on Jesse’s plate in trying to make sure these live up to people’s expectations year after year, but I haven’t been let down once.
In general, I recommend it for anyone. There are a few barriers that help keep tourists out:
Last year I was taught to have emotional writing become less noisy by John Roderick and then spent my afternoon making animation with Pendleton Ward. The year before I did yoga as the sun rose with people I admire and then we made a movie with Rian Johnson. Oh, and also talked The War of Art with Andrew WK and for like half an hour. The first year I drank with John Hodgman and did improv comedy for the first time. These things aren’t even what MaxFunCon “is,” though.
Literally, MaxFunCon is showing up unsure about something, possibly not even knowing another person there and then realizing almost instantly that you’re surrounded by 150 friends for life. Figuratively, MaxFunCon is a non-stop surprise party for your heart. MaxFunCon is the summer camp you needed in your adult life.
Then you come back the next year and watch the magic happen for anyone else who is new.
There’s a moment every year where it feels like a layer of cloudy water is rinsed away from my vision, where every bit of dullness and grey from “normal life” is removed, and everything has the saturation dialed up about a third. It gives me goosebumps. It’s also the most motivating thing I’ve found, to get your mind clear and then return to real life with some ideas on how to make your next year even better before returning to the mountain.
Plus, who can resist all the secret sex parties? (link is safe to click)
Superficially: food mold. Any time I see it I shudder and I feel like I can’t touch it in any way, so I have to have some sort of barrier (paper towel, oven mitt, etc.) between the item and my hand when I throw it out. There was nothing in my life that created this irrational fear (it’s just food!) but it still happens.
Seriously: I’ve purposely spent the last ten months (or so) single because I wasn’t treating people properly last year or giving them anywhere near the time or care they deserved. A fear that hits me at least three times a week is wondering if when I see someone next whether I’ve learned a lesson. Two posts bookend the last relationship I was in: as it was beginning and after it ended
I hope whenever they show up they understand why it took so long and so many mistakes to get to them.
Traditionally? I don’t know. This is my second time having it, and the first time was when Sam and I were lawyers and I left a pack of glow in the dark teeth out.
Currently I’m cooking chicken burgers which makes the timing of this question so eerie/apt. Update: it’s a good combo, but I’ve had grilled cheese on the mind and it would have been better.
The drink is so sweet that it requires salty/savory balance.
whathappened replied to your post: What happens next? How do you get better at taking criticism? How do you grow a tougher skin?
You’re really enjoy 4 Loko, drunky.
Yes. It tastes like energy drinks and I also have a third of a watermelon in me. I didn’t drink last month (that was a secret) so this month I’m in training for MaxFunCon
Four Loko drunk is a completely new kind of drunk to me. Thank goodness I don’t get hangovers.
Awesome questions, everyone. I’m really enjoy this.
juliannadamer replied to your post: I seem to be drunk and laughing at the clouds while I lay out here, so
If anything could fall down from those clouds what would you like this thing to be?
RIght now anything self-illuminated would be amazing, it’s getting dark and I think glowing rain would be beautiful.
In general I’d make sunrises and sunsets about twice as long and the middle part of the day shorter. On the weekends I’m woken up by the sun and not alarms, and I think it’s pretty nice.
These all generally work, I just tend to forget to let people know about them.
Tonight’s desert.
Bringing-you-there is the tag I use to share moments of my life in the hopes of bringing people a little bit closer. The Wonderful Murder of Mr Watermelon was originally going to be a video.
You can view the bringing-you-there tag, if you wish, to see some of the other moments I’ve remembered to capture for you in the last year.
Reblogged from ryanleecarson|48 notes
Next time someone asks if you want to crash at their hacker mansion for the summer (which has a pool, BBQ and pool table!) or team up for a 24-hour hackathon, think twice. They’re probably just trying to cash in on your youth and optimism.
Ryan Carson’s post neatly sums up my issues with Startup Edmonton. The latest hackathon gave developers the “opportunity” to pay $70-$90 and then work for free all weekend in order to network with people who smell market opportunity but (still) can’t build a damn thing themselves.
You pay to attend, then you pay with your time, then you code the app, then if a marketer or “startup enthusiast” likes your idea enough you can partner with them and trade their money for sizeable equity in the thing you did all the work in, which will now also let them decide the direction of the product. These are professional parasites pretending to be pals, and this is a terrible idea.
Remember: talk is silver, code and execution are gold. DIY until they die.
(Source: ryanleecarson)
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