Jouke Kleerebezem's NQPaOFU 21, 14-29 November 1999

conversational drift, informatic license, NQPAOFUXXI: notes, quotes, provocations and other fair use

mobility re-invents the wheel

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by Jouke Kleerebezem
NotesQuotesProvocationsAndOtherFairUse
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November 29
Numbers game
Woke up around three and stayed put until I wondered what time it was and saw it was four. Decided to go back to bed. Listened to R talk in his sleep next door. Tried to think of something else than NQPAOFU. One month to go to Y to K. Double zeros on the wallpaper. Why I number my 'issues' and Alamut updates 'per' month. Old habits. Numbering, calendaring. Measuring time, honoring it. Give a sense of continuity. Could I consider NQPAOFU (always was under the impression that it's six letters, but no, it is seven, is it, let's count again, NQPAOFU, ja) part of my continuous production as an artist, part of the body of work? What would I change to fit it in. Unblog it... I could clearly see a stripe of light between the blinds. Was it dawn? Nah. I started making lists of the things, artefacts, books, places, which left the deepest impressions on me, at some moment in time. Bukittinggi, Sumatra; Gombrowicz' Kosmos; Yves Klein's monochrome or sans titre; Mosaic... Wait there's more. When finally I fell asleep I dreamt I was in Remko Scha's class. He started some equation which outgrew the blackboard, so he happily continued out the door, in the street, graffitiing out of sight. Class followed him and decided to have a beer on the terrace witnessing the scribble from a place in the sun and waiting for him to return. Good morning all. Walk away from your shadow today.

Just when I was expecting a postcard from Florida >+ Judith is back at calamondin.

November 28
Leon Spilliaert
>+ Où est le secret de cet art insolite qui ne vient de nulle part? Aiguille, fil fin? Feu griffé, fifre? Bref il faudrait un f dans votre nom p.c.q. vous êtes la lettre f de l'alphabet de la peinture. See also the >+ Museum voor Schone Kunsten Oostende. We are living in one of his later pale austere landscapes, like the 1929 Troncs d'Arbres, which I couldn't find online. LS could draw my attention to distributing pigments over a surface again.

self portrait 1908
November 27
Eternal Ephemera
For years already one of my harddisks' partitions has been Estate. Estate is with the doctor in Paris at the moment, as are her sisters Tools, Service and Intelligence, for mechanical disorder in the house, which can only be re-erected from scratch, with new material. The Estate (and T, S, I) content (the real Estate, T, S, I) appeared irretrievable: no data can be scraped off the disk. I remember this guy I met years ago in De Druif café in Amsterdam (where most are drinking to forget, rather than to remember), whose house had just burnt down to the ground a couple of weeks before. He remembered clearly what it had contained but didn't regret the loss, he told me, sipping his mineral water. Sure, some photographs he'd rather have saved. That was all. It's like when being abroad for a longer period (G. lived in Indonesia on and off during several years, pre-web), and not missing anything left at 'home'. Upon returning you are surprised by the accumulated stuff, that you didn't miss for a second, and experience some happy reunions. Curious for my back-up dates on Estate, T, S, I, here's to happy reunions!

The Jakob Nielsen Usability Wing of the CHIGUI Museum
I wondered before and ask again what's to become of yesterday's blogs, apart from dead link showcases? Paul seems to be working on >+ Alamut's will, probably inspired by >+ Napoleon's, which he linked to on November 24: indeed a touching (and minute) document. Knowing Paul he'll grant Alamut eternal life. With all the lists out there 'comparing' logs and their 'importance' or popularity, as expressed in update rate, linkability, there could be more emphasis on the actual content presented. Some blogs clearly write history in the making and will be around forever, as research material, sticky meme tissue donated to science. Some will be as popular as their old media predecessors, yesterday's papers. Some (not a whole lot) will be dusting away in the Jakob Nielsen Usability Wing of the CHIGUI Museum, chigui.com (still available). Pick your destination today.

Q: what does this medium offer in sustainability?

Before some of us (hi Renee) used to say: 'capital buys voice'. In the attention economy, voice is capital.

November 26
Name your property and we'll set your mortgage
South Korea is the first to see >+ mortgages on .com domain names (courtesy >+ eatonweb), which is a logical development from the .commerce perspective. The bank involved has a panel of 8 to determine the value of your brainchild: "the appraisal group is composed of businessmen, domain operators, certified public accountants, lawyers and professors", according to Mr. Yoo, the domain name registration service Internet Plaza City's president. From a creative production perspective it is an unusual prospect. When before could asingleword raise copywryters substantial income? asingleword.com (still available) is the new standard in creative writing. We knew it all along since 1993 but were too impecunious (that's a nice one from the dictionary) to claim. Still 99% of the sexier names is available—if no blog's been there before you, that is.

.com gentrification
The web is a fine example of gentrification. Domain name mortgages are an early effect. The only business we ourselves have been successfully and seriously making money on was real estate. And we lived in our piggy banks! Then took the loot to France, to invest again in real estate, and meaningful life. It will take a couple of decades this time, but one day St.Germain-des-Bois will be the next Paris gentrification project. You'll be the first to know when we'll be forced to sell shares.

I finally registered nqpaofu.com. Not for the mortgage, stupid! So far only 7 sites link to my dear utterance (compare: Alamut, 223; calamondin, 94; lemonyellow, 657; puce, not listed; bovineinversus, 13). Check your own ratings at >+ PTypes. Don't know when I'll switch to my new .com. And for what. I've just grown attached to my acronym :-) and ciw.net is kind of generic, and was designed as an organizational format, rather than a 'work'... I've come to see a new domain as a new title (I'll be lost...). It corrupts the one-site-fits-all policy, but a next one would be moulindumerle.com (still available). Divide the production a bit. What production? With increasing online production we will see more short-lived domain names. If 'domains' become ephemeral, why keep their names for ever? BTW how's the >+ Internet Archive doing these days? It's not here, at >+ www.archives.org (soon available again, if this is the best they can do), it is still here, at >+ www.archive.org, and they are having the >+ Internet Archive Colloquium 2000, March 8-9, 2000, The Presidio, San Francisco. No attendance fees, no honorariums or reimbursements. Submissions before December 7.

Listening to Moby Grape's I'm Not Willing (2.59) and pondering my common cold and a visit to that drug wonderland the French Pharmacie supposedly is, tomorrow when we'll be doing the next door farmers market.

November 25
The picturesque means hard work

November 24
Chopping away
Woke up at 2:00am, then at 4:30, when I walked down to phone Gil in Paris, having misread my Pilot, thinking it was 5:30. I was very clear at 2:00 and very clear at 4:30, so I remembered she had asked me to call her at 5:30, and I stayed up and called her. She'd been up since 5:15... Her train left at 7:06 from Gare de Lyon due to arrive at Clamecy at 10:05. R+r and I picked her up on the dot and took her straight home. I owe you on my woodshed, another Studio Visit, where I spent most of the day splitting logs. Tomorrow the heating will be repaired (new pump and 23 new taps) but today is damp as hell. Also I need a stock for tomorrow when I hope to blaze all three downstairs fires. The wood chopping place is very romantic with its styrofoam ceiling (result of an unfinished isolation job) and early 20C wooden wheelbarrow, blocks and axe and all. Having spent a few days in this friends' Paris apartment with all the interior decorating and lifestyle magazines the world can buy, I know this location is really futuretro hip. Or will be soon. Also I had a good axe swing today, but I still need a bigger tool.

Chopping John Zerzan
Tonight I browsed >+ John Zerzan's Future Primitive (Autonomedia 1994). The back reads:

- 'Only a politics that undoes language and time', he has written, 'has any meaning.' Here is absolutist arrogance, based on tenuous and often contradictory speculations, along with occasional insights or references to fundamental problems of existence.
(Fifth Estate)

...or in his own words, that indeed leave one loving to hate them:

- We can either passively continue on the road to utter domestication and destruction or turn in the direction of joyful upheaval, passionate and feral embrace of wildness and life that aims at dancing on the ruins of clocks, computers and that failure of imagination and will called work.

That's a lot of die-hard hysterical bullshit, in that rare combination with a naive believe in pristine happiness which makes it really hurt—with 'that failure of imagination and will called work' as an 'occasional insight', as far as I'm concerned. Mind you the man blames all the world's evil on 'division of labor'. Antidote, antidote, who am I to quote?

November 23
WEIN
What Else Is New: yesterday night when I opened the door to the library, smoke hit me in the face. I got used to fumes, but now a log had rolled out of the fire, onto the marble floor piece in front of it, spitting its smoke into the room, instead of out the chimney. I had paid no attention to the bump I heard when reading Asterix to the boys upstairs. I never leave a fire without placing the screen in front of it though: it kept this mean log from rolling on to the oak parquet. With our current energy economy, it is a real shame to have to open the window after you've built up a temperature.

When searching smoke images at AltaVista, I hit on >+ Smoking from All Sides which lists Celeb Lites. Broken links abound, but there's the occasional gem. From Claude Chabrol's Les Biches (t)his femme, Stéphane Audran, one of my once favorite actresses, showing off her exhaling skills. I had not seen or heard about her for ages, having kicked the habits, but she's still genuine old school fatale to me.

exhale forte
November 22, only
Lucky Dip Learning (was: serendipity)
With all the buzz about speed dragging along over the past years (yes, that means slow burning to me, see also the >+ Doors 4 Diary) I remembered 1. >+ Ivan Illich at Doors 4 explaining to us the vital difference between quick and fast and 2. that speed on the surface might not take you any deeper delving into whatever you might want to delve into (history, pleasure, human relationships, smart interaction, your 2 cents of understanding any A-Z, any counter-relativist nuancing you can allow yourself on the threshold of the future, any experiments in living). Illich on November 7, 1996 (that's three years and fifteen days ago to you):

- I would rather look for ways in which we (in friendship, in mutual severe criticism of the youth, of past and contemporary certainties) deal with each other. As people who empowered through friendship seek presence, being Here, being Now, being -- and that is the English word -- Quick. You know what the word 'quickening' meant: the first kick of a baby in the belly of a woman. 'Quickening' meant: coming alive, quick.

Drawing epinions' ettention
Above lucky dip into memory has an unexpected spin-off: to suggest epinions' P.me cs. to open a Grab Bag category to: 1. fit in the misfits from the other categories which are, to say so gently, rather affirmative of old school and tool consumer ideology, and 2. (happily affirmative of new school data greed: milking your constituencies and making them feel proud of that), collect any directions the common interest is heading re:unbiased reviewing.

Gaining Reverse Speed
May A Thousand Returns Blossom... If rightfully we don't want to lose common 'speed' from our actions and productions, with the last avant-gardes we certainly lost progress, as our movement-of-choice: fast forward linear. Today speed can get us anywhere fast and we are and will increasingly be witnessing a thousand returns/re-runs. Reverse content will not set back the hands of time, but does re-introduce historical projects, that have been ruled out for all the wrong ideologies. Examples abound, especially in the ever retro-alert design field. Comebacks in design have been around since the 60s, yet always under the sign of linear progress, never at the loss of comforting contemporaneity. What if our productions would lead us infinite in all directions, including in reverse?

What would I like to see return (in alphabetic order), and why, for which possible contemporary reason?

   - animal powered vehicles: if someone could calculate the ecological footprint (NPI) of this kind of transportation, I would be interested in the development of high tech harnesses, carriages and carts. Communication with animals is one of life's greater learning experiences.
   - cottage industry and retail: excellent products, excellent interaction between producer and consumer, niche markets, radical customization. It can be done, it can be found, it can be shipped.
   - home delivery: if the dog or horse can't take you out to the distribution point, you want the good stuff to arrive at your doorstep, pronto. Some of us are witnessing this particular return. Full human potential demands from all of us to be deliverers and receivers. I prepare to be both.
   - home pick-up: apart from garbage and laundry, I want everything which myself, or G. or R+r, or the dog or the horse can't shlepp, picked up at our doorstep. Full human potential demands from all of us to be deliverers and receivers. I prepare to be both.
   - no ad zones: the NAZ is an old preference of mine— I have lived long enough to have visited them around the globe. Fuck the ongoing bannerization of our realm. It is vandalism, industrial hooliganism, to which we can only reply: "go dump all your cheap ad ammo on line". If we want it we'll get it there and blow the top off your sales figures. Heh heh. Otherwise we can do without it.
   - trade by barter: facilitated through domeafavor.com (still available) I can't wait for the barter branch of an attention economy to be rolling. A lot of us who have a lot to offer cannot afford a lot of money to play a role in a lot of our deals. Who wanted money in the first place?
   - more to follow fwd. to the past

Actually, more than anything else, the information revolution will in the long run change the scale of our off line mobility: corporeal, intellectual and social.

Snail Delicatessen (non food entry)
The postman ringed this morning to deliver a heavy package from Jan Wyle. It is waiting for G. to return to be opened, with yet more personal mail. In our roadside box, addressed to me I found other mail delicatessen: Judith's much anticipated postcard, sent from Madrid; QS Serafijn's new book, Loren Madsen's flyer with his 6,000,000,000 Monkeys installation:

- I heard someone tried the monkeys-on-typewriters bit trying for the plays of Shakespeare, but all they got was the collected works of Francis Bacon
(Bill Hirst)

up at the State University of New York at Stony Brook Staller Center for the Arts, until December 12 (who's going and getting me the story?), and a 16 November birth announcement for Lennart Maarten, Dagmar's baby brother, son of Wijnand Bolle and Margitte Boerma. Who needs email?

Flash Mobility Reflection
Don't expect more than the usual coherence. After having warmed my hands over my morning toast I entered the bureau with a hot large cappuccino, knowing I was not going to freeze to the keys (thank ... for plastics)... Honestly, it is not that cold, but I have to get used to a new definition of comfort. It's a long way from >+ Brooklyn(.elsewhere. November 19)... or from our Amsterdam nest for that matter. Which has still not been rented out after the last débacle and is available for any length of time at approximately Dfl. 100/night. This price is debatable; depending on the length of the contract, on how much we share the interests of the tenant, share believe in a LET system of exchanging goods and services and attention, etc. So don't hesitate to call +33 386 27 59 10/mail: NQPAOFU's friends are my friends...

GOGI
My ± 50 hour Gate Out Gate In estimate appeared to be one of my on the dottest ever: short of 6 minutes (no kidding, and I'm not that much of a numbers freak usually, sez my accountant). Last night at 18:56CET R+r and me steered into the garage, having left G. in Paris for another day or two. Before leaving we visited the Jardin des Plantes and the Natural History Museum (the new part) much to the amazement of the boys (they especially loved the stuffed birds hanging from the ceiling next to the glass elevator). Though I'm sometimes mislead to consider the Western metropolis just another click through experience, these visits make the difference, not only to the child's eye. Do we love Paris or not?

Met, Read, Had
met John and Kristi at the drink which was my main reason to go to Amsterdam last week-end. Having witnessed the Institute's Board driven destruction of cultural capital at the Netherlands Design Institute since last year christmas, a year later the expelled and their support were happily reunited 'around the pit that was dug to bury a good project' (parting vice-director Gert Staal). He was very firm, and bitter, and right. Good thing John smuggled >+ Doors out with him. Now which VC out there in my readership is going to dare Doors help push the envelope? We need to develop a smart-up company around Doors.

met Lily van Ginneken over coffee when we discussed life, art, bureaucracies and the Stroom website and Silicon Rally piece—in that order. There's lots of ideas and goodwill to improve look and feel and performances at stroom.nl, but as always there's as much practical and organizational and financial limitations to getting started toot sweet. Oh well.

read November Fast Company's 'Inspired by Work' interview with Eric 'open-Source' Raymond. Think about the deep effect on your work/job/.com, of 'how do you get the smartest collaborators, rather than just the smartest employees', or >+ read the interview—not for all of the answers, but for all of the inspiration.

had a few too many in last Friday night, and after, and after. We were celebrating a loss and capital destruction. So we burned some alcohol. Have a few too many urging out, today. Had and have are not related. Had a smart variety of vehicles on my mobility exercise: car, train, bus, foot, tramway, bike. What's more: ± I stayed within the estimate!

Notes to self
   - Mobility: get plenty exercise?
   - Try repeatedly: to phone Paul
   - R+r, ou de l'éducation: what else but my first initials (J.-J.) I would share with Rousseau.
   - Never again: try my lungs on a cigarette to get me warm...
   - Paying Attention: a difference in quality is read from what? in digital media (compare the difference between a hand-written and a laser printed letter).
   - domeafavor.com: combining interests in LETs, peer mobility and review, sharing source code and load, connectivity, a new division of labor, a new division of comfort etc.
   - Allow: my Côtes du Rhone to acquire the right temperature, meaning to leave it before consumption in the one room we have left pleasantly heated: the loo.
   - Pick-up: the other machine in Paris, when repaired.

November 18, day
Mobility Check
The next 50 hours from early Friday will be a mobility check of the StGdB-Paris-Amsterdam-Paris-StGdB kind, with a lot of stops along the line, using a variety of transportation, in what looks like going to be more of a variety of conditions than I'd expected, this time of year. You can never be sure. We're new here, too. But all this watery FFFFFF doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Some Updates
weather
...biiig flakes coming down since 10CET. I don't think it freezes over, but we're getting all FFFFFF washed. An hour later we hear the horse will come home with us early afternoon. (S)he's getting cold out there.

wheels
Paul was actually >+ re-reading Understanding Media and synchronicity (how's that for mobility?) happens again between the two of us (sez he, haven't received his ramblings yet). I thought I'd open the source myself, and I hit 'Wheel, Bicycle and Airplane':

- Perhaps the main feature of all tools and machines -- economy of gesture -- is the immediate expression of any physical pressure which impels us to outer or to extend ourselves, whether in words or in wheels. Man can say it with flowers or ploughs or locomotives. In 'Krazy Kat', Ignatz said it with bricks.

Where there's a wheel there's a way.

whoopy
one to many, one too many, and on and on and on you go. Earlier I joined epinions to go through the experience of joining it. If there's to be experience design, there'd be experience critique to guide all that experiencing to the experiencee... Maybe I should have suggested Peter 'now hiring' me to open Media > Experience, instead of DIY. The fields overlap.

November 18, somewhat, not much, later
Courtesy >+ Lake Effect
Surprised to find nqpaofu in the 'some weblogs' list at >+ kiplog ('knowledge is power'). I'm always surprised to find a link. Call me naive, an eternal newbie, a nincompoop, I'll still be surprised. Kiplog's claim to fame:

I like that.

November 18, early
If you can't beat them
Crazy night. Stayed up and signed up as an epinions member (who, desperate... me? I can't even make a buck with'm, as a non-US citizen. Get me my green card!). Already I feel the itch of half-baked reputation. Desperately looking for a category for my expertise. OK, I forgot about the 'buying decisions'... they're fixed. Onto products and services I'll never want. So I wrote Peter 'now hiring' me, our-man-inside:

- Hey Peter, sorry to bother you at home for business :-) I just signed up as an epinions member (if you cant't beat them...) but I can't seem to find my category of excellence. Would you be so kind as to open under Media > DIY, where we can *epinionize* over warez and hacks and URLs and everything nice that information media are made off? Be honest to me: who wants Media limited to 'Books, Movies, Music'? Come on! It's the 00's (almost). You should know better. Thank you for your cooperation. Yours, JJK

My honest intentions with epionions are to write epinions about epinions and see how meta we can get. Aren't you excited about the late 20C? It's really saved by interactive media. Otherwise it couldn't stand in the shadow of last C.

Go with the fix
How to explain it to the boys? Some day. You're living with these fixes. Why? It's against the fucking flow. Fix versus Flow. Do I like flow? It's a bit too hygenic. Even more so than Fix. Fix can be spoiled—not so flow. Which of course is a faux forte. OKstuffitnomoreinterpunctiongowiththefixhere'stoR+r

Early
It's early 11/18 and I'm trying to control myself. Thought you should know. Control's a feature. Bug? Feature? Bug? Hmm. Moderate spinning indeed. I'm gonna be up all night.

November 17
Bug or Feature?
Nothing to do with mobility (but having the bug-or-feature dilemma in common): an IMG's border can be any color you like as long as you mark it up with a font color tag... does everyone in the industry know this and didn't tell me? Not that it's that important. BTW, does anyone know of a way to color noshade HRs? Now that's really important to me.

who remembers CMYK? the original alchemy.

This morning showed traces of snow. I mean: on some cold surfaces you could actually count the flakes. It's a start. Dawn is around seven, the other day the low temperature stuck at -5C. Here we hadn't had any rain for weeks. None. Late this afternoon a 10 minute burst swept the valley. Tonight the cold returned.

November 16
Landau Mobility
The idea for a carriage keeps returning (NPI) to me today. I would want it to double function as a sleigh (yes the temperature is dropping). Someone in the bycicle design or Low Energy Vehicle world would be the one to talk to. Net searches so far did not reveal the right shop to me. Although there's some >+ surreal pics to be found (265k). I bet everybody else gave up on animal powered vehicles? They don't want the shit to hit the street again. From the amount of dog poop (aka 'van Dyke brown', courtesy my long-time-no-see friend John Schlesinger) I remember on the Amsterdam sidewalks, you'd imagine everyone else to speed around in dog carts here. No... we love our pets and wouldn't couldn't evva abuse them... let them smear the street in peace. Animal powered vehicle... not your usual APV. It's the future of MyMobility.

Studio Visit 3: the ± Horse Stable.

November 15
SIHI
Home made mobility is what SIHI is about. Small Industry Home Industry is distributed straight from the home(-server). Artists have always had the opportunity for SISI, small industry, studio industry and we might model for home made mobility. But for our distributing infrastructure, which is heavily intermediary dependent. Not as much for the logistics of the industry, but for its legitimation at the edge of consensus reality. The galery owner and museum curator are more like text deliverers, not goods deliverers. They make our practice legit.

Most industries do not need their deliverers to make the practices legit: it's art's unique problem. It's the price of splendid isolation paid. It's what you need at the edge of consensus. Either you give up that trail along the borders of understanding, or you redefine isolation by redefining mobility, and communication. Isolation is a mobility problem. We're coming around. New media changing mobility will change the position of the artist, without forcing him or her to return to consensus. Consequently the galeries can leave their studio production dependence and actively create demand, and > museums can be redirected to the conservative function.

November 14b
Round and round and round
Actually > re-inventing the wheel seems like not such a stupid thing to do... like it has been done all the time since the very first rounds. Now this would be called 'improving on' the wheel, I bet. When does improvement become re-invention? A revolution? Now who's spinning?

Adolf Hitler gave us the Highway, and the Volkswagen
Re: the wheel, the car, the road, transportation, mobility.
Now re-inventing the car couldn't be seen apart from re-inventing the road, which leads to re-inventing transportation, and ultimately to re-inventing mobility.

Our current idea of mobility was conceived and continually improved upon for 20thC man. Christening the Internet et al an Information Superhighway is just another retarded idea of what information mobility will bring about. Designing mobility means rethinking access time and place and displacement frequency and distance. Excuse the bahnfrench, but modelling physical transportation after information mobility is way better exercise to arrive at new concepts than gridlocking infobahn practice.

I keep coming back to A-Z mobility. G..., probably because I'm so Grounded.

The other day I tried to imagine a high tech innovative sulky or even landau to use within the 20-30km radius around the Moulin. If you're looking deep enough into the rearview mirror some mighty interesting images return on the winds of change.

Actually, in The Medium is The Massage, McLuhan and Fiore used the stage coach reflection in the rearview mirror to illustrate their critique (pp74-75) >+ alamut
bastion of peace and information

>+ idie.net
I DIE for change:
design competence ± 19991129
± numbersup
± 19991128
± spilliaert
± 19991127
± looongboom
± chigui
± 19991126
± intellectualproperty
± .comgentrification
± 19991125
± picturesque
± 19991124
± chopchop
± zerzan
± 19991123
± wein1
± 19991122
± luckydip
± ettention
± reversespeed
± snaildelicatesse
± flashreflection
± gogi
± metreadhad
± notestoself
± 19991118c
± mobilitycheck
± updates
± 19991118b
± hazardoushands
± 19991118
± beatsme
± poemtoR+r
± early
± 19991117
± feature
± 19991116
± landau
± horsestable
± 19991115
± sihi
± 19991114b
± wheely
± round2
± 19991114
± onceuponawheel

the studio visit getting to know the moulin

   second floor (attic), east room and landing, 9 November 1999
   sousterrain (cellar), main storage, 12 November 1999
barn, horse stable, 16 November 1999 The barn annex to the Moulin houses a horse stable, a saddle workshop (of which no typical elements remained), a workshop cum garage, a wood shed and the wine cellar. The horse stable is intact, as far as a shaft to the hayloft, a long rack (manger?) and stone water troughs are involved. The past days we prepared a return to its original function, when the small horse (no pony) of the people down the road to Thurigny will be lodged for the winter. Temperature is dropping sudden. The more warm blooded bodies in the house the better.

Having stocked the fire wood in the cellar of the house and the wood shed, and after removing the tools and collected bricabrac, we swept it clean. The space in its functional simplicity we now saw for the first time. The low November sun streams in through one door and out through the back. To bad for Feng Shui, I bet the horse doesn't care. It's a lofty space for one animal. Bet R (+r) will often wanna keep it company.

nqpaofu 1998-1999

The mark of launch-and-learn publishing: corrections are generally made within 36 hours. Reduction for print-out is 80%. by Jouke Kleerebezem NotesQuotesProvocationsAndOtherFairUse nqpaofu.com	± anchor > internal link >+ external link	> previous nqpaofu > next nqpaofu > index since 1998 > site map > idiosyncracies > nqpaofu platinum > nqpaofu gold > nqpaofu brass > moulin du merle
round and round and round we go November 29 Numbers game Woke up around three and stayed put until I wondered what time it was and saw it was four. Decided to go back to bed. Listened to R talk in his sleep next door. Tried to think of something else than NQPAOFU. One month to go to Y to K. Double zeros on the wallpaper. Why I number my 'issues' and Alamut updates 'per' month. Old habits. Numbering, calendaring. Measuring time, honoring it. Give a sense of continuity. Could I consider NQPAOFU (always was under the impression that it's six letters, but no, it is seven, is it, let's count again, NQPAOFU, ja) part of my continuous production as an artist, part of the body of work? What would I change to fit it in. Unblog it... I could clearly see a stripe of light between the blinds. Was it dawn? Nah. I started making lists of the things, artefacts, books, places, which left the deepest impressions on me, at some moment in time. Bukittinggi, Sumatra; Gombrowicz' Kosmos; Yves Klein's monochrome or sans titre; Mosaic... Wait there's more. When finally I fell asleep I dreamt I was in Remko Scha's class. He started some equation which outgrew the blackboard, so he happily continued out the door, in the street, graffitiing out of sight. Class followed him and decided to have a beer on the terrace witnessing the scribble from a place in the sun and waiting for him to return. Good morning all. Walk away from your shadow today. Just when I was expecting a postcard from Florida >+ Judith is back at calamondin. November 28 Leon Spilliaert >+ Où est le secret de cet art insolite qui ne vient de nulle part? Aiguille, fil fin? Feu griffé, fifre? Bref il faudrait un f dans votre nom p.c.q. vous êtes la lettre f de l'alphabet de la peinture. See also the >+ Museum voor Schone Kunsten Oostende. We are living in one of his later pale austere landscapes, like the 1929 Troncs d'Arbres, which I couldn't find online. LS could draw my attention to distributing pigments over a surface again. self portrait 1908 November 27 Eternal Ephemera For years already one of my harddisks' partitions has been Estate. Estate is with the doctor in Paris at the moment, as are her sisters Tools, Service and Intelligence, for mechanical disorder in the house, which can only be re-erected from scratch, with new material. The Estate (and T, S, I) content (the real Estate, T, S, I) appeared irretrievable: no data can be scraped off the disk. I remember this guy I met years ago in De Druif café in Amsterdam (where most are drinking to forget, rather than to remember), whose house had just burnt down to the ground a couple of weeks before. He remembered clearly what it had contained but didn't regret the loss, he told me, sipping his mineral water. Sure, some photographs he'd rather have saved. That was all. It's like when being abroad for a longer period (G. lived in Indonesia on and off during several years, pre-web), and not missing anything left at 'home'. Upon returning you are surprised by the accumulated stuff, that you didn't miss for a second, and experience some happy reunions. Curious for my back-up dates on Estate, T, S, I, here's to happy reunions! The Jakob Nielsen Usability Wing of the CHIGUI Museum I wondered before and ask again what's to become of yesterday's blogs, apart from dead link showcases? Paul seems to be working on >+ Alamut's will, probably inspired by >+ Napoleon's, which he linked to on November 24: indeed a touching (and minute) document. Knowing Paul he'll grant Alamut eternal life. With all the lists out there 'comparing' logs and their 'importance' or popularity, as expressed in update rate, linkability, there could be more emphasis on the actual content presented. Some blogs clearly write history in the making and will be around forever, as research material, sticky meme tissue donated to science. Some will be as popular as their old media predecessors, yesterday's papers. Some (not a whole lot) will be dusting away in the Jakob Nielsen Usability Wing of the CHIGUI Museum, chigui.com (still available). Pick your destination today. Q: what does this medium offer in sustainability? Before some of us (hi Renee) used to say: 'capital buys voice'. In the attention economy, voice is capital. November 26 Name your property and we'll set your mortgage South Korea is the first to see >+ mortgages on .com domain names (courtesy >+ eatonweb), which is a logical development from the .commerce perspective. The bank involved has a panel of 8 to determine the value of your brainchild: "the appraisal group is composed of businessmen, domain operators, certified public accountants, lawyers and professors", according to Mr. Yoo, the domain name registration service Internet Plaza City's president. From a creative production perspective it is an unusual prospect. When before could asingleword raise copywryters substantial income? asingleword.com (still available) is the new standard in creative writing. We knew it all along since 1993 but were too impecunious (that's a nice one from the dictionary) to claim. Still 99% of the sexier names is available—if no blog's been there before you, that is. .com gentrification The web is a fine example of gentrification. Domain name mortgages are an early effect. The only business we ourselves have been successfully and seriously making money on was real estate. And we lived in our piggy banks! Then took the loot to France, to invest again in real estate, and meaningful life. It will take a couple of decades this time, but one day St.Germain-des-Bois will be the next Paris gentrification project. You'll be the first to know when we'll be forced to sell shares. I finally registered nqpaofu.com. Not for the mortgage, stupid! So far only 7 sites link to my dear utterance (compare: Alamut, 223; calamondin, 94; lemonyellow, 657; puce, not listed; bovineinversus, 13). Check your own ratings at >+ PTypes. Don't know when I'll switch to my new .com. And for what. I've just grown attached to my acronym :-) and ciw.net is kind of generic, and was designed as an organizational format, rather than a 'work'... I've come to see a new domain as a new title (I'll be lost...). It corrupts the one-site-fits-all policy, but a next one would be moulindumerle.com (still available). Divide the production a bit. What production? With increasing online production we will see more short-lived domain names. If 'domains' become ephemeral, why keep their names for ever? BTW how's the >+ Internet Archive doing these days? It's not here, at >+ www.archives.org (soon available again, if this is the best they can do), it is still here, at >+ www.archive.org, and they are having the >+ Internet Archive Colloquium 2000, March 8-9, 2000, The Presidio, San Francisco. No attendance fees, no honorariums or reimbursements. Submissions before December 7. Listening to Moby Grape's I'm Not Willing (2.59) and pondering my common cold and a visit to that drug wonderland the French Pharmacie supposedly is, tomorrow when we'll be doing the next door farmers market. November 25 The picturesque means hard work November 24 Chopping away Woke up at 2:00am, then at 4:30, when I walked down to phone Gil in Paris, having misread my Pilot, thinking it was 5:30. I was very clear at 2:00 and very clear at 4:30, so I remembered she had asked me to call her at 5:30, and I stayed up and called her. She'd been up since 5:15... Her train left at 7:06 from Gare de Lyon due to arrive at Clamecy at 10:05. R+r and I picked her up on the dot and took her straight home. I owe you on my woodshed, another Studio Visit, where I spent most of the day splitting logs. Tomorrow the heating will be repaired (new pump and 23 new taps) but today is damp as hell. Also I need a stock for tomorrow when I hope to blaze all three downstairs fires. The wood chopping place is very romantic with its styrofoam ceiling (result of an unfinished isolation job) and early 20C wooden wheelbarrow, blocks and axe and all. Having spent a few days in this friends' Paris apartment with all the interior decorating and lifestyle magazines the world can buy, I know this location is really futuretro hip. Or will be soon. Also I had a good axe swing today, but I still need a bigger tool. Chopping John Zerzan Tonight I browsed >+ John Zerzan's Future Primitive (Autonomedia 1994). The back reads: - 'Only a politics that undoes language and time', he has written, 'has any meaning.' Here is absolutist arrogance, based on tenuous and often contradictory speculations, along with occasional insights or references to fundamental problems of existence. (Fifth Estate) ...or in his own words, that indeed leave one loving to hate them: - We can either passively continue on the road to utter domestication and destruction or turn in the direction of joyful upheaval, passionate and feral embrace of wildness and life that aims at dancing on the ruins of clocks, computers and that failure of imagination and will called work. That's a lot of die-hard hysterical bullshit, in that rare combination with a naive believe in pristine happiness which makes it really hurt—with 'that failure of imagination and will called work' as an 'occasional insight', as far as I'm concerned. Mind you the man blames all the world's evil on 'division of labor'. Antidote, antidote, who am I to quote? November 23 WEIN What Else Is New: yesterday night when I opened the door to the library, smoke hit me in the face. I got used to fumes, but now a log had rolled out of the fire, onto the marble floor piece in front of it, spitting its smoke into the room, instead of out the chimney. I had paid no attention to the bump I heard when reading Asterix to the boys upstairs. I never leave a fire without placing the screen in front of it though: it kept this mean log from rolling on to the oak parquet. With our current energy economy, it is a real shame to have to open the window after you've built up a temperature. When searching smoke images at AltaVista, I hit on >+ Smoking from All Sides which lists Celeb Lites. Broken links abound, but there's the occasional gem. From Claude Chabrol's Les Biches (t)his femme, Stéphane Audran, one of my once favorite actresses, showing off her exhaling skills. I had not seen or heard about her for ages, having kicked the habits, but she's still genuine old school fatale to me. exhale forte November 22, only Lucky Dip Learning (was: serendipity) With all the buzz about speed dragging along over the past years (yes, that means slow burning to me, see also the >+ Doors 4 Diary) I remembered 1. >+ Ivan Illich at Doors 4 explaining to us the vital difference between quick and fast and 2. that speed on the surface might not take you any deeper delving into whatever you might want to delve into (history, pleasure, human relationships, smart interaction, your 2 cents of understanding any A-Z, any counter-relativist nuancing you can allow yourself on the threshold of the future, any experiments in living). Illich on November 7, 1996 (that's three years and fifteen days ago to you): - I would rather look for ways in which we (in friendship, in mutual severe criticism of the youth, of past and contemporary certainties) deal with each other. As people who empowered through friendship seek presence, being Here, being Now, being -- and that is the English word -- Quick. You know what the word 'quickening' meant: the first kick of a baby in the belly of a woman. 'Quickening' meant: coming alive, quick. Drawing epinions' ettention Above lucky dip into memory has an unexpected spin-off: to suggest epinions' P.me cs. to open a Grab Bag category to: 1. fit in the misfits from the other categories which are, to say so gently, rather affirmative of old school and tool consumer ideology, and 2. (happily affirmative of new school data greed: milking your constituencies and making them feel proud of that), collect any directions the common interest is heading re:unbiased reviewing. Gaining Reverse Speed May A Thousand Returns Blossom... If rightfully we don't want to lose common 'speed' from our actions and productions, with the last avant-gardes we certainly lost progress, as our movement-of-choice: fast forward linear. Today speed can get us anywhere fast and we are and will increasingly be witnessing a thousand returns/re-runs. Reverse content will not set back the hands of time, but does re-introduce historical projects, that have been ruled out for all the wrong ideologies. Examples abound, especially in the ever retro-alert design field. Comebacks in design have been around since the 60s, yet always under the sign of linear progress, never at the loss of comforting contemporaneity. What if our productions would lead us infinite in all directions, including in reverse? What would I like to see return (in alphabetic order), and why, for which possible contemporary reason? - animal powered vehicles: if someone could calculate the ecological footprint (NPI) of this kind of transportation, I would be interested in the development of high tech harnesses, carriages and carts. Communication with animals is one of life's greater learning experiences. - cottage industry and retail: excellent products, excellent interaction between producer and consumer, niche markets, radical customization. It can be done, it can be found, it can be shipped. - home delivery: if the dog or horse can't take you out to the distribution point, you want the good stuff to arrive at your doorstep, pronto. Some of us are witnessing this particular return. Full human potential demands from all of us to be deliverers and receivers. I prepare to be both. - home pick-up: apart from garbage and laundry, I want everything which myself, or G. or R+r, or the dog or the horse can't shlepp, picked up at our doorstep. Full human potential demands from all of us to be deliverers and receivers. I prepare to be both. - no ad zones: the NAZ is an old preference of mine— I have lived long enough to have visited them around the globe. Fuck the ongoing bannerization of our realm. It is vandalism, industrial hooliganism, to which we can only reply: "go dump all your cheap ad ammo on line". If we want it we'll get it there and blow the top off your sales figures. Heh heh. Otherwise we can do without it. - trade by barter: facilitated through domeafavor.com (still available) I can't wait for the barter branch of an attention economy to be rolling. A lot of us who have a lot to offer cannot afford a lot of money to play a role in a lot of our deals. Who wanted money in the first place? - more to follow fwd. to the past Actually, more than anything else, the information revolution will in the long run change the scale of our off line mobility: corporeal, intellectual and social. Snail Delicatessen (non food entry) The postman ringed this morning to deliver a heavy package from Jan Wyle. It is waiting for G. to return to be opened, with yet more personal mail. In our roadside box, addressed to me I found other mail delicatessen: Judith's much anticipated postcard, sent from Madrid; QS Serafijn's new book, Loren Madsen's flyer with his 6,000,000,000 Monkeys installation: - I heard someone tried the monkeys-on-typewriters bit trying for the plays of Shakespeare, but all they got was the collected works of Francis Bacon (Bill Hirst) up at the State University of New York at Stony Brook Staller Center for the Arts, until December 12 (who's going and getting me the story?), and a 16 November birth announcement for Lennart Maarten, Dagmar's baby brother, son of Wijnand Bolle and Margitte Boerma. Who needs email? Flash Mobility Reflection Don't expect more than the usual coherence. After having warmed my hands over my morning toast I entered the bureau with a hot large cappuccino, knowing I was not going to freeze to the keys (thank ... for plastics)... Honestly, it is not that cold, but I have to get used to a new definition of comfort. It's a long way from >+ Brooklyn(.elsewhere. November 19)... or from our Amsterdam nest for that matter. Which has still not been rented out after the last débacle and is available for any length of time at approximately Dfl. 100/night. This price is debatable; depending on the length of the contract, on how much we share the interests of the tenant, share believe in a LET system of exchanging goods and services and attention, etc. So don't hesitate to call +33 386 27 59 10/mail: NQPAOFU's friends are my friends... GOGI My ± 50 hour Gate Out Gate In estimate appeared to be one of my on the dottest ever: short of 6 minutes (no kidding, and I'm not that much of a numbers freak usually, sez my accountant). Last night at 18:56CET R+r and me steered into the garage, having left G. in Paris for another day or two. Before leaving we visited the Jardin des Plantes and the Natural History Museum (the new part) much to the amazement of the boys (they especially loved the stuffed birds hanging from the ceiling next to the glass elevator). Though I'm sometimes mislead to consider the Western metropolis just another click through experience, these visits make the difference, not only to the child's eye. Do we love Paris or not? Met, Read, Had met John and Kristi at the drink which was my main reason to go to Amsterdam last week-end. Having witnessed the Institute's Board driven destruction of cultural capital at the Netherlands Design Institute since last year christmas, a year later the expelled and their support were happily reunited 'around the pit that was dug to bury a good project' (parting vice-director Gert Staal). He was very firm, and bitter, and right. Good thing John smuggled >+ Doors out with him. Now which VC out there in my readership is going to dare Doors help push the envelope? We need to develop a smart-up company around Doors. met Lily van Ginneken over coffee when we discussed life, art, bureaucracies and the Stroom website and Silicon Rally piece—in that order. There's lots of ideas and goodwill to improve look and feel and performances at stroom.nl, but as always there's as much practical and organizational and financial limitations to getting started toot sweet. Oh well. read November Fast Company's 'Inspired by Work' interview with Eric 'open-Source' Raymond. Think about the deep effect on your work/job/.com, of 'how do you get the smartest collaborators, rather than just the smartest employees', or >+ read the interview—not for all of the answers, but for all of the inspiration. had a few too many in last Friday night, and after, and after. We were celebrating a loss and capital destruction. So we burned some alcohol. Have a few too many urging out, today. Had and have are not related. Had a smart variety of vehicles on my mobility exercise: car, train, bus, foot, tramway, bike. What's more: ± I stayed within the estimate! Notes to self - Mobility: get plenty exercise? - Try repeatedly: to phone Paul - R+r, ou de l'éducation: what else but my first initials (J.-J.) I would share with Rousseau. - Never again: try my lungs on a cigarette to get me warm... - Paying Attention: a difference in quality is read from what? in digital media (compare the difference between a hand-written and a laser printed letter). - domeafavor.com: combining interests in LETs, peer mobility and review, sharing source code and load, connectivity, a new division of labor, a new division of comfort etc. - Allow: my Côtes du Rhone to acquire the right temperature, meaning to leave it before consumption in the one room we have left pleasantly heated: the loo. - Pick-up: the other machine in Paris, when repaired. November 18, day Mobility Check The next 50 hours from early Friday will be a mobility check of the StGdB-Paris-Amsterdam-Paris-StGdB kind, with a lot of stops along the line, using a variety of transportation, in what looks like going to be more of a variety of conditions than I'd expected, this time of year. You can never be sure. We're new here, too. But all this watery FFFFFF doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Some Updates weather ...biiig flakes coming down since 10CET. I don't think it freezes over, but we're getting all FFFFFF washed. An hour later we hear the horse will come home with us early afternoon. (S)he's getting cold out there. wheels Paul was actually >+ re-reading Understanding Media and synchronicity (how's that for mobility?) happens again between the two of us (sez he, haven't received his ramblings yet). I thought I'd open the source myself, and I hit 'Wheel, Bicycle and Airplane': - Perhaps the main feature of all tools and machines -- economy of gesture -- is the immediate expression of any physical pressure which impels us to outer or to extend ourselves, whether in words or in wheels. Man can say it with flowers or ploughs or locomotives. In 'Krazy Kat', Ignatz said it with bricks. Where there's a wheel there's a way. whoopy one to many, one too many, and on and on and on you go. Earlier I joined epinions to go through the experience of joining it. If there's to be experience design, there'd be experience critique to guide all that experiencing to the experiencee... Maybe I should have suggested Peter 'now hiring' me to open Media > Experience, instead of DIY. The fields overlap. November 18, somewhat, not much, later Courtesy >+ Lake Effect Surprised to find nqpaofu in the 'some weblogs' list at >+ kiplog ('knowledge is power'). I'm always surprised to find a link. Call me naive, an eternal newbie, a nincompoop, I'll still be surprised. Kiplog's claim to fame: I like that. November 18, early If you can't beat them Crazy night. Stayed up and signed up as an epinions member (who, desperate... me? I can't even make a buck with'm, as a non-US citizen. Get me my green card!). Already I feel the itch of half-baked reputation. Desperately looking for a category for my expertise. OK, I forgot about the 'buying decisions'... they're fixed. Onto products and services I'll never want. So I wrote Peter 'now hiring' me, our-man-inside: - Hey Peter, sorry to bother you at home for business :-) I just signed up as an epinions member (if you cant't beat them...) but I can't seem to find my category of excellence. Would you be so kind as to open under Media > DIY, where we can epinionize over warez and hacks and URLs and everything nice that information media are made off? Be honest to me: who wants Media limited to 'Books, Movies, Music'? Come on! It's the 00's (almost). You should know better. Thank you for your cooperation. Yours, JJK My honest intentions with epionions are to write epinions about epinions and see how meta we can get. Aren't you excited about the late 20C? It's really saved by interactive media. Otherwise it couldn't stand in the shadow of last C. Go with the fix How to explain it to the boys? Some day. You're living with these fixes. Why? It's against the fucking flow. Fix versus Flow. Do I like flow? It's a bit too hygenic. Even more so than Fix. Fix can be spoiled—not so flow. Which of course is a faux forte. OKstuffitnomoreinterpunctiongowiththefixhere'stoR+r Early It's early 11/18 and I'm trying to control myself. Thought you should know. Control's a feature. Bug? Feature? Bug? Hmm. Moderate spinning indeed. I'm gonna be up all night. November 17 Bug or Feature? Nothing to do with mobility (but having the bug-or-feature dilemma in common): an IMG's border can be any color you like as long as you mark it up with a font color tag... does everyone in the industry know this and didn't tell me? Not that it's that important. BTW, does anyone know of a way to color noshade HRs? Now that's really important to me. who remembers CMYK? the original alchemy. This morning showed traces of snow. I mean: on some cold surfaces you could actually count the flakes. It's a start. Dawn is around seven, the other day the low temperature stuck at -5C. Here we hadn't had any rain for weeks. None. Late this afternoon a 10 minute burst swept the valley. Tonight the cold returned. November 16 Landau Mobility The idea for a carriage keeps returning (NPI) to me today. I would want it to double function as a sleigh (yes the temperature is dropping). Someone in the bycicle design or Low Energy Vehicle world would be the one to talk to. Net searches so far did not reveal the right shop to me. Although there's some >+ surreal pics to be found (265k). I bet everybody else gave up on animal powered vehicles? They don't want the shit to hit the street again. From the amount of dog poop (aka 'van Dyke brown', courtesy my long-time-no-see friend John Schlesinger) I remember on the Amsterdam sidewalks, you'd imagine everyone else to speed around in dog carts here. No... we love our pets and wouldn't couldn't evva abuse them... let them smear the street in peace. Animal powered vehicle... not your usual APV. It's the future of MyMobility. Studio Visit 3: the ± Horse Stable. November 15 SIHI Home made mobility is what SIHI is about. Small Industry Home Industry is distributed straight from the home(-server). Artists have always had the opportunity for SISI, small industry, studio industry and we might model for home made mobility. But for our distributing infrastructure, which is heavily intermediary dependent. Not as much for the logistics of the industry, but for its legitimation at the edge of consensus reality. The galery owner and museum curator are more like text deliverers, not goods deliverers. They make our practice legit. Most industries do not need their deliverers to make the practices legit: it's art's unique problem. It's the price of splendid isolation paid. It's what you need at the edge of consensus. Either you give up that trail along the borders of understanding, or you redefine isolation by redefining mobility, and communication. Isolation is a mobility problem. We're coming around. New media changing mobility will change the position of the artist, without forcing him or her to return to consensus. Consequently the galeries can leave their studio production dependence and actively create demand, and > museums can be redirected to the conservative function. November 14b Round and round and round Actually > re-inventing the wheel seems like not such a stupid thing to do... like it has been done all the time since the very first rounds. Now this would be called 'improving on' the wheel, I bet. When does improvement become re-invention? A revolution? Now who's spinning? Adolf Hitler gave us the Highway, and the Volkswagen Re: the wheel, the car, the road, transportation, mobility. Now re-inventing the car couldn't be seen apart from re-inventing the road, which leads to re-inventing transportation, and ultimately to re-inventing mobility. Our current idea of mobility was conceived and continually improved upon for 20thC man. Christening the Internet et al an Information Superhighway is just another retarded idea of what information mobility will bring about. Designing mobility means rethinking access time and place and displacement frequency and distance. Excuse the bahnfrench, but modelling physical transportation after information mobility is way better exercise to arrive at new concepts than gridlocking infobahn practice. I keep coming back to A-Z mobility. G..., probably because I'm so Grounded. The other day I tried to imagine a high tech innovative sulky or even landau to use within the 20-30km radius around the Moulin. If you're looking deep enough into the rearview mirror some mighty interesting images return on the winds of change. Actually, in The Medium is The Massage, McLuhan and Fiore used the stage coach reflection in the rearview mirror to illustrate their critique (pp74-75)	>+ alamut bastion of peace and information >+ idie.net I DIE for change: design competence	± 19991129 ± numbersup ± 19991128 ± spilliaert ± 19991127 ± looongboom ± chigui ± 19991126 ± intellectualproperty ± .comgentrification ± 19991125 ± picturesque ± 19991124 ± chopchop ± zerzan ± 19991123 ± wein1 ± 19991122 ± luckydip ± ettention ± reversespeed ± snaildelicatesse ± flashreflection ± gogi ± metreadhad ± notestoself ± 19991118c ± mobilitycheck ± updates ± 19991118b ± hazardoushands ± 19991118 ± beatsme ± poemtoR+r ± early ± 19991117 ± feature ± 19991116 ± landau ± horsestable ± 19991115 ± sihi ± 19991114b ± wheely ± round2 ± 19991114 ± onceuponawheel the studio visit getting to know the moulin second floor (attic), east room and landing, 9 November 1999 sousterrain (cellar), main storage, 12 November 1999 barn, horse stable, 16 November 1999 The barn annex to the Moulin houses a horse stable, a saddle workshop (of which no typical elements remained), a workshop cum garage, a wood shed and the wine cellar. The horse stable is intact, as far as a shaft to the hayloft, a long rack (manger?) and stone water troughs are involved. The past days we prepared a return to its original function, when the small horse (no pony) of the people down the road to Thurigny will be lodged for the winter. Temperature is dropping sudden. The more warm blooded bodies in the house the better. Having stocked the fire wood in the cellar of the house and the wood shed, and after removing the tools and collected bricabrac, we swept it clean. The space in its functional simplicity we now saw for the first time. The low November sun streams in through one door and out through the back. To bad for Feng Shui, I bet the horse doesn't care. It's a lofty space for one animal. Bet R (+r) will often wanna keep it company.