Living the Artisanal Life

Try to find a balance between the industrial and the artisanal life, with equal parts Stark and Arcadia.

Some wonderful reads recently:

Chronicles of the minibus service in Syria. I'm wistful because we were supposed to go on our honeymoon here, and have postponed this trip into our unforeseeable future. My middle age, perhaps? 

http://blog.longreads.com/post/the-end-of-the-line-a-microbus-map-of-damascus/

Why everyone should go to graduate school.  At any level - lab assistant, undergraduate, graduate, postdoc - one can make a meaningful contribution to humanity's collective body of knowledge. 

http://www.businessinsider.com.au/the-illustrated-guide-to-a-phd-2012-3

Video Games change the way we dream.  This explains why I frequently dream water levels, nature/mountain levels, and wake up in the morning drenched in sweat, but awaken unable to remember why I broke a sweat. 

http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/21/5330636/video-games-effect-on-dreams?utm_content=buffer8eb4e&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

I've set this photo of a poppy field in Afghanistan as my desktop background across two screens at work, panorama-style, because it inspires me. This picture represents our connection to the ancient past (mountains) and our hope for the future (flowers seeking the sun, looking upward).