When I am empty please dispose of me properly

This is a site about my general interests in a variety of topics. For a website more specifically about my work please see Unaahil B’aak: The Temples of Palenque.

The weblog’s title comes from the label of a polystyrene Whataburger cup. It seems appropriate somehow at a number of levels. The subtitle is borrowed from Yoshida Kenkō’s (1283-1352) Tsurezuregusa, often translated as Essays in Idleness, which comes from the opening preface:

つれづれなるまゝに、日暮らし、硯にむかひて、心にうつりゆくよしなし事を、そこはかとなく書きつくれば、あやしうこそものぐるほしけれ。

Tsurezurenaru mama ni, hikurashi, suzuri ni mukaite, kokoro ni utsuriyuku yoshinashigoto wo, sokowakatonaku kakitsukureba, ayashō koso monoguruoshikere.

Donald Keene translates this passage as, “What a strange, demented feeling it gives me when I realise I have spent whole days before this inkstone, with nothing better to do, jotting down at random whatever nonsensical thoughts that have entered my head.” This reflection seems to aptly describe the character of most online writing, even if brushes are lacking. Each reflect in their own way my interests in visual culture and language. This website–it is not really a log–presents some of my thoughts on these issues, which are essentially, “essays in idleness.”