Ken Morrill

Dreamed I was on a deadline with the president - that I failed to open letter from her with assignment to prepare program that was late, press release wasn’t written, program wasn’t printed. At another time in the same dream, flew over crowd with funny saying, then said I was going to skip over water then swim along the bottom. Laura and kids were nearby. Somebody tried to stop me. Earlier, was at a reception. Government people. That was the issue then, a gathering. A phone call to the office. A project. My thought on waking up: the director, the work of that time, and how he would like to direct me today. While I should have the ambition on my own. Some people do stand by waiting for direction. I think I am easily one of those people, if I am not careful. At the same time I have shown a lot of gumption with my website, doing it my way all the time. I have all the capability of a big company’s PR department, of a country’s, with this software and these machines. Now I must pursue my own vision of an encyclopedia.

Like working in a university, one thinks one must be in an organization like that, whereas in reality one can be free outside, with a website, sharing with others, teaching them, if one really has something to teach.

It was comforting to have direction, but I have to remember how low I was paid.

Journal

Back from a trip on a trail with the steadicam.

Reviewing my footage now, I walked on the trail, sometimes ran, was learning how to control the camera (not always easy) - tried sometimes to follow it where it seemed to want to go. Out there in the forest, trying to see what I want to capture next time I am out, how I want to move with it. I think I can see right away that off trail is best, moving over the land untouched, not with the trail, but as if floating over the woods. The sound, not so significant, it is more about the place. Not a wind problem that I can see with the shotgun mike. Must be how it is designed.

Journal

A little bit left outside, I prepared all day for it, so I was ready with tarps covering the firewood and remaining outdoor gear.

I’ve been reading the New Book of Knowledge encyclopedia entry on Wisconsin, amazed by so much information, wondering why I don’t read in that series every day, wondering why I didn’t read more when I was young, although I did read a lot. Thinking of ED Hirsch’s theory that it is important to know actual facts, not just form, as was taught. The more I know, the better I should do. Thinking of Bill Gates reading the encyclopedia.

the bright right nothing of too much or on the perfect curve of just right or shadows on the slope
each mention or motion
a place for poetry
where one could consider

In the drop of a shadow
When I bookmarked your page
It became a favorite
But I hardly returned
In the embrace of what was known
Where we dug and discovered
In your iron search
How I found where I was to be
The drop off was a dragon
And each shadow was a new hope

Gold band and silver lining
walls that were not covered as you dreamed
What you wanted to become and who could claim another
how to put the thin sheets up
as it was covered in what should be
flattened and ironed on.

Journal

This will be the best Christmas for me as far as getting things goes. Equipment that if I use it will change what I do forever. Capability elevating me to a level I never reached, but it must be me trying and daily trying. So many things have happened in the past that I could not control. Now I am slipping into the perfect recording studio, a gift I should use. So much to learn that I do not know. Feeling it is late also, wishing I had a mentor, I will have to learn on my own as I go, working beyond what I have, and even this may not lead to money, or it might turn into more than I expected.

Journal

A journal is something that helps my mind. It gets me through many tough things. I have been doing that for thirty years.

Journal

The difference between being a provider and a consumer of information. Both are necessary. What makes one person better than another? Sometimes it is just doing it. Dreamt about telling someone how long my site was in existence. How long I was a federal webmaster. But what does it amount to now?

Waking up, I realized that I can use many things I know to make money. One of them is small boat handling. I can make videos from a boat, with the addition of one and the application on the area. I need to make a steadicam system for the boat.

I think it is just as important to be a good old consumer of information, a regular reader.

Journal

Dream: on the property of a touchy film director. Also inventor of scary military robots. The sea was there. A wedding by the sea. A girl on a hill. The Pinon’s were there. Other people arriving by helicopter. The scary sea and creatures of the sea.

Today is a big day of Yahoo integration.

Journal

The snow fell and we are home warm and well stocked.

Journal

I am up early and it is snowing. Suddenly it became freezing rain, I could hear it tinkling outside on the snow, forming a crust. I went to the door and in the street light saw it coming down. I checked the fire and it was blazing in the wood burning stove.

Journal

Layout program - Acrobat - these things paid for but not used, while they should be, time to think of projects. Promotions of the site, versions of publications different.

Feeling of so much content to process, beyond my dreams, and a vision of an encyclopedia of the modern world, which I am writing.

Time to design a logo - to design more than I do, to have PDF files in addition to HTML.

Use the cameras that you have. Do not buy new models, thinking that they will help you. If you do not use what you have, you can not use the new.

In the best place to write, better than all the roads I travelled, where I was trying to be comfortable and warm in faraway countries.

Well beyond anything I could do before, I have the tools to do anything that can be done in publishing, print or electronic.

Every press release I find, I am amazed by the number of companies, by how big the world is, how many people are out there doing things. It makes me feel small, but also amazed that I am able to edit material about these many distant things.

Reading articles about typography makes me nostalgic for things I never did, occupations I never had. As if I were a rare book archivist, as if I had scanned old typefaces and created new fonts. These were hopes of mine but I failed in many ways to achieve the dreams I had. However, now I have time to do anything I want. And I want to work with old lettering. I want to study old books and art forms.

Using a different typeface in my journal than usual does make me feel different about my words.

So much more to learn, so far to go. I have been only a few places compared to the wide world and all it holds. I have been busy with simple things. I have not thought big enough about fame or success.

I do not know where I am going. I like a good font that kerns well. I am rebelling against plain text. It is time to see the art of lettering again. Is almost as if I am drunk on wine, but I am drunk on typography.

I would like to have a kind of TextPad for Mac - macros that match my system in Windows, so that I can make my pages over here.

Downloading BBEdit to see if that can help.

Journal