sixty-two

  

Clerkmanifesto is going context free for 100 days!

While I retire from 31 years at the Roseville Library, sell nearly everything I own, fly with my darling wife to Japan for 40 days, and then move together to France to start to build a life there, I present a less explained clerkmanifesto, a clerkmanifesto of snapshots and time travel. Below you may see old posts without introduction from my 4,750 post collection. You may see random photos, brand new or years old. I may write a passage about Japan as if of course you know I'm in Japan, I may make a simple observation or joke, but whatever it is, I won't be explaining it. You'll have to take it as it comes.

For more context you are welcome to read this longer introduction.

And if this is all too confusing I welcome you to investigate our thousands of fully explained historic posts from the past 12 years, though I'll be the first to admit, hours later, you may still come away a little confused.

Here, however it works, is what clerkmanifesto has for you today:

Here as promised, or warned, is another repost. I like this one because it is about my lack of clerkmanifesto fame, which, finally, I find more amusing than anything. Increasingly people who have known me follow me in instagram for the occasional bits from here that I post over there, which only confirms my worst suspicions about how we use the Internet.

But mostly I just like this post because it has jokes, and I find it funny.

 

Today I was reviewing some of the history of Clerkmanifesto. Perhaps my recent, unmarked passing of the ten year anniversary of my daily posts here, sometime last week, made me nostalgic. And maybe once again I was puzzling out how, while for everything I can find to read and watch on the Internet, I do so alongside ten thousand to ten million other readers and viewers, but for clerkmanifesto it's just... us. 

Hi.

Sometimes, rolling through the past work, I wonder what it is about it. What ingredient is missing? What has kept ten years of my writing out on the deepest backstreets of Internetland, where the wind howls and the cars rust? Tumbleweeds roll by.  A baseball field tucked into  acres of parched corn lies unused. And next door to me, the things you thought were on the Internet, but couldn't find no matter how hard you looked or thought should be there, play backgammon with each other and never answer the door.

But there is a classic joke, and I prefer a joke here:

A great flood is coming. A man waits in his house. A car drives up to the house. The driver calls out urgently to the man "Quick, get in the car. The flood is coming!"

The man replies "No. Thank you. I trust in God."

The car drives away. The waters rise. The man goes upstairs as water fills his house. A boat arrives at an open second floor window. "Get in the boat!" The boat driver says. "The waters are rising!"

"No, thank you." The man says. "I trust that God will save me."

The terrible flood rises some more. The man climbs onto his roof as his house is subsumed. A helicopter flies over and a rope ladder is lowered down to the man. "Grab the ladder!" The helicopter people cry.

"I have faith that god will save me!" The man calls back.

The helicopter flies away. The waters rise and sweep the man off the roof. He drowns. He is dead.

In heaven, he demands to be taken to god.

The man says to god "What happened? I had absolute faith in you, and yet I perished in the flood!"

God replies: "What? I sent a car. I sent a boat. I sent a helicopter..."

And so I imagine dying, long from now, and going to see god. And I will say "First of all, thank you. Second of all, what was the whole deal with Clerkmanifesto?"

And god will reply "I sent a car. I sent a boat. I sent a helicopter..."

And I'll say "You did?"

And god will say "Forty-seven N. Oak Street, Buffalo, New York?"

And I'll say "No. That wasn't my address."

And god will say. "Ah well. Let us not dwell on these things."

sixty-one

  

Clerkmanifesto is going context free for 100 days!

While I retire from 31 years at the Roseville Library, sell nearly everything I own, fly with my darling wife to Japan for 40 days, and then move together to France to start to build a life there, I present a less explained clerkmanifesto, a clerkmanifesto of snapshots and time travel. Below you may see old posts without introduction from my 4,750 post collection. You may see random photos, brand new or years old. I may write a passage about Japan as if of course you know I'm in Japan, I may make a simple observation or joke, but whatever it is, I won't be explaining it. You'll have to take it as it comes.

For more context you are welcome to read this longer introduction.

And if this is all too confusing I welcome you to investigate our thousands of fully explained historic posts from the past 12 years, though I'll be the first to admit, hours later, you may still come away a little confused.

Here, however it works, is what clerkmanifesto has for you today:

Here you go: a reprint of a post not that much more than a year old that caught my eye because it is about problems replacing staff at my (former!) library. This situation was still going on when I retired, and (I'll admit, to my pleasure) they are not even bothering to pretend to replace me.

Though if they did it would be quite a process...

This Spring's half day In Service Day came and went without my attendance. But the one thing that everyone was super excited to tell me about is the moment when the county's human resources department explained to everyone about the the county's 36 step hiring process.

Over the past years my library has been shedding workers like fur from an old sheepdog. Replacements are ever promised, yet never arrive. Finally, an explanation!

A 36 step hiring process. This, the County thought, would surely explain it to us all!

That was the highlight of the day.

I think it was the combination of the ridiculous, the hilarious, and the quietly insane that people found so appealing. Many people told me about how a hilarious comedy show sketch could be made out of it. I disagree. It would make a terrible comedy show sketch. I don't think any of these people have ever tried to write a comedy sketch! This story barely even makes a decent blog post, though I will continue to apply every one of my formidable skills in that department to do the best job possible of it.

Even that may not be enough.

What it really requires is a freakishly talented Jewish Czechoslovakian writer to bring it properly to life, and even they'd probably need a full novel to do it. 

It would be a funny novel occasionally, but that probably wouldn't be its most salient feature.

By the end of the novel I don't think anyone would actually be hired.

Just like in real life.

sixty

 

Clerkmanifesto is going context free for 100 days!

While I retire from 31 years at the Roseville Library, sell nearly everything I own, fly with my darling wife to Japan for 40 days, and then move together to France to start to build a life there, I present a less explained clerkmanifesto, a clerkmanifesto of snapshots and time travel. Below you may see old posts without introduction from my 4,750 post collection. You may see random photos, brand new or years old. I may write a passage about Japan as if of course you know I'm in Japan, I may make a simple observation or joke, but whatever it is, I won't be explaining it. You'll have to take it as it comes.

For more context you are welcome to read this longer introduction.

And if this is all too confusing I welcome you to investigate our thousands of fully explained historic posts from the past 12 years, though I'll be the first to admit, hours later, you may still come away a little confused.

Here, however it works, is what clerkmanifesto has for you today:

This is a prototype of some 3d animation versions I did of my (former!) co-workers and their spirit animals. I am not sure how far this has drifted from capturing the original librarian here. Of all these animations of portraits I find this one particularly charming, maybe because of the praying mantis in it, but it's just lively too. Some day, off in the French future, maybe I'll do something more complete with this series, and maybe not, but here's a glimpse of it. 

There is no sound here. As ever, click to engage, enlarge, and click again to play.

Yesterday, I shared a set of images that were a little closer to the natural Kyoto I’m seeing, and to the kinds of images I’ve been producing in that vein. Many of the pictures I’ve been making lately have invoked Japanese scroll work, along with more fanciful, folkloric additions drawn from my own iconography layered into Japan, and these new ones were more of an attempt at the picture postcard perfect.

The pictures today may not be quite as close to the natural born image as yesterday’s, but they still feel like a nod to the picture-perfect postcard version of Kyoto that we sometimes glimpse here and that I’ve lately been finding.

I suppose I’m inadvertently expressing that they don’t sell many postcards in Kyoto. I had thought I might send one or two back to the people who seem to be drifting further and further away in my life, but I’ve had trouble finding any. And if I do send postcards, I’ll probably end up resorting to the blander kinds that don’t really express what I feel about this city.

Hopefully, some of these pictures will capture it a little better. I’d be delighted if these could be the postcards I send back to the world I left behind. 

And that’s it from Kyoto for today.

fifty-nine

 

Clerkmanifesto is going context free for 100 days!

While I retire from 31 years at the Roseville Library, sell nearly everything I own, fly with my darling wife to Japan for 40 days, and then move together to France to start to build a life there, I present a less explained clerkmanifesto, a clerkmanifesto of snapshots and time travel. Below you may see old posts without introduction from my 4,750 post collection. You may see random photos, brand new or years old. I may write a passage about Japan as if of course you know I'm in Japan, I may make a simple observation or joke, but whatever it is, I won't be explaining it. You'll have to take it as it comes.

For more context you are welcome to read this longer introduction.

And if this is all too confusing I welcome you to investigate our thousands of fully explained historic posts from the past 12 years, though I'll be the first to admit, hours later, you may still come away a little confused.

Here, however it works, is what clerkmanifesto has for you today:

The live version of the non ai self portrait from a couple days ago. I find these a bit irresistible. Click once to prime it, enlarge it if you want, and click again to play. No sound.

We see a lot of beautiful and extraordinary things here in Kyoto. Sometimes we’re surrounded by astonishing crowds, and sometimes we’re all alone in the world viewing them, which is one of the great peculiarities of major tourist destinations when you dig a little deeper into them.

I, of course, take very few pictures, brief, minute-long sets throughout the day, usually anywhere from one to five minutes of total photography. And when I find myself among hundreds of people in an extremely crowded and beautiful place all taking pictures, I tend to lose interest rather than want to take more photos of the same thing.

I can hardly fault anyone for photography. When I see people with especially fancy cameras, I imagine they’re doing their fair share of post-processing to bring out the best in their images. What I do with mine may or may not be comparable to the kinds of things people used to do in darkrooms or with elaborate editing software. I really don’t know.

Many of the pictures I’ve been showing you are rooted in original images but layered with commentary, recreation, and artificial intelligence additions. Still, sometimes the photos that come straight out of my phone camera look particularly bewitching. And while I’m disinclined to leave those images completely untouched, I am inclined to show you a few that are closer to the original and especially striking. My postcard images.

So here are a few of those for today. And that’s today’s report from Kyoto.

fifty-eight

 

Clerkmanifesto is going context free for 100 days!

While I retire from 31 years at the Roseville Library, sell nearly everything I own, fly with my darling wife to Japan for 40 days, and then move together to France to start to build a life there, I present a less explained clerkmanifesto, a clerkmanifesto of snapshots and time travel. Below you may see old posts without introduction from my 4,750 post collection. You may see random photos, brand new or years old. I may write a passage about Japan as if of course you know I'm in Japan, I may make a simple observation or joke, but whatever it is, I won't be explaining it. You'll have to take it as it comes.

For more context you are welcome to read this longer introduction.

And if this is all too confusing I welcome you to investigate our thousands of fully explained historic posts from the past 12 years, though I'll be the first to admit, hours later, you may still come away a little confused.

Here, however it works, is what clerkmanifesto has for you today:

This is a modified version of a series I did of themed bookshelves at the library. This is the living version, full of dramatic trickling water action. Hopefully it won't do too much damage to the books.

Click twice as ever to get it to play...

Reporting again from the present, this is Clerk Manifesto in Kyoto, Japan. I am having a bit of a hard time keeping track of what images I have posted here because they are so involved to produce, going through layers and layers of images. I have switched over to a postcard perfect approach to Japan pictures after the earlier ink scroll approach. Maybe this comes along with some visits to classic places like the shrine with all the red torii gates (Inari, which is a fox shrine!), or the tea growing region of Uji, which is really more of a neighborhood of Kyoto. Or maybe it is just an expression of not really being able to live up to how pretty some of the things we see here actually are.

Every day is exhausting and demanding, which explains how there are so many old people here who seem to live life on the streets with a great deal of vigor and persistence, much like the amazing and tough old trees that populate this city and never stop fascinating me. Even today,  taking a day off, so to speak, from our usual touristic explorations of the city, involves coffee shops, grocery stores, incredibly long walks to botanical gardens (one of my favorite places in all of Kyoto), and several different temples.

Today we are in the house a little bit earlier than normal, so perhaps I can manage to put together one small collection of more recent photographs for you from Kyoto, Japan.

fifty-seven

 

Clerkmanifesto is going context free for 100 days!

While I retire from 31 years at the Roseville Library, sell nearly everything I own, fly with my darling wife to Japan for 40 days, and then move together to France to start to build a life there, I present a less explained clerkmanifesto, a clerkmanifesto of snapshots and time travel. Below you may see old posts without introduction from my 4,750 post collection. You may see random photos, brand new or years old. I may write a passage about Japan as if of course you know I'm in Japan, I may make a simple observation or joke, but whatever it is, I won't be explaining it. You'll have to take it as it comes.

For more context you are welcome to read this longer introduction.

And if this is all too confusing I welcome you to investigate our thousands of fully explained historic posts from the past 12 years, though I'll be the first to admit, hours later, you may still come away a little confused.

Here, however it works, is what clerkmanifesto has for you today:

I found a way to draw again, albeit on my phone. But this is not AI generated! I might sketch in Japan! Who knows.

It’s a self portrait.

fifty-six

 

Clerkmanifesto is going context free for 100 days!

While I retire from 31 years at the Roseville Library, sell nearly everything I own, fly with my darling wife to Japan for 40 days, and then move together to France to start to build a life there, I present a less explained clerkmanifesto, a clerkmanifesto of snapshots and time travel. Below you may see old posts without introduction from my 4,750 post collection. You may see random photos, brand new or years old. I may write a passage about Japan as if of course you know I'm in Japan, I may make a simple observation or joke, but whatever it is, I won't be explaining it. You'll have to take it as it comes.

For more context you are welcome to read this longer introduction.

And if this is all too confusing I welcome you to investigate our thousands of fully explained historic posts from the past 12 years, though I'll be the first to admit, hours later, you may still come away a little confused.

Here, however it works, is what clerkmanifesto has for you today:

In your time I will have been in Japan for three weeks. But as I write this, stocking up all the future posts so as not to to break faith with clerkmanifesto and any of its readers while I may or may not be adding anything as I travel, I am now a mere five days from leaving the country.

My darling wife and I have been very busy. We knew this would be a demanding and complicated process, dismantling our lives and moving to another country, but I think it has been even a bit harder than that. It has been a life of paperwork, planning, cleaning, selling, studying, banking, and bureaucracy. And during this I have tried to weatherproof clerkmanifesto against needing to post anything until we are at least through our 40 days in Japan and slightly settled in our first (2 months, 6 days) French home. But so far I have, despite my best intentions, completed a lot of very finished, fairly articulate posts, rather than many many of the more sketchy kind I have suggested I would be doing in my standard green text above. In short, I have spent what clerkmanifesto time I have had on what perhaps have been fewer posts than I hoped.

I have finally finished my long project of a music video of my muppet co-workers. I have posted my backlog (or most of it) of old rediscovered artwork, and I have perhaps indulged my predilection for explaining what day it is for me writing compared to what day it is for you reading more times than is ideal. So what next?

At this point I am thinking of leaning quite a bit more on old clerkmanifesto posts from the past, and, though I've said it before enough times that it is a little hard for me to fully believe it, I really am hoping to leave off the explanations and move on to the next day. Twenty-five posts in four busy days seems unlikely, but I'll get as far as I can. But either way, there will always be something every day here.

As ever, see you tomorrow.

 Here are today’s pictures of our adventures in Kyoto, in the kind of dual timelines clerkmanifesto I am currently running . We are just past the middle point of our time in Kyoto, bogging down just a bit in the heat and pace of it all. We have been hiding out some in massive train stations, malls, supermarkets, and an occasional sky tower, but they’re as fascinating as the zen temples, and air conditioned!