Panties on the rice cooker

It's chilly and my laundry is not drying so I'm putting my underwear on top of my rice cooker one by one to dry faster. This is how I get my kicks when I near the end of real productivity for the night. I went to the Hyatt today to meet Amy for brunch and chill in her suite for a while before they headed over to the Shilla for more meetings. The weather was all over the place, but once I got home it was nice again, so I was motivated to get groceries, clean, shower, do laundry, cook, do dishes, and have a good sketchbook session.

NOW I finally understand the calligrapher I met in the fall last year: he said that to really understand hanji, you have to learn calligraphy. At the time, I thought, that's a great idea, but I want to learn how to make hanji first. But today I took up a brush and ink and almost passed out while doing some work in my sketchbook (the big one is all hanji that I made in the winter, and it's actually my "worst" batch, but it still felt amazing). I have to say that ink on hanji ranks up there with shooting with an SLR and great sex.

Most western paper is NOT right for eastern ink/brush work b/c there's no relationship: the paper repels the ink. The ink just sits on TOP of the paper. But ink on hanji is incredible. Go and get the supplies to do it at home b/c it is insanely gratifying. I wonder if there would be less war if more people did this.

I had intended today to do a post inspired by Frank's post yesterday, but I'm too tired from battling some demons and working to tackle it. But I think it's an important and deceptively simple question to consider: why we do what we do.