Might need this one day: 101 essential freelancing resources.

An interview with Joanna Newsom. On her time studying composition at Mills College:

My music generally retains an interest in melody and harmony and some sort of meter-- it might be a polymeter, but some sort of meter that repeats for more than one bar. But a lot of these ideas that I was interested in seemed to be considered pass?©, like they were unworthy of discussion and unworthy of listening. I wouldn't necessarily say that would be true of the professors at that school, but the climate was dictated by what the students were interested in, and most of them were writing incredibly dissonant music on their laptop computers and didn't play instruments [or] know how to write notation.

Sad and hilarious.

Francis Tapon is going to attempt to yo-yo the Continental Divide Trail---2800 miles north and 2800 miles back south through New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana. I think it's pretty amazing to even consider it, but it seems like the next "logical" step since the AT and PCT have been yo-yo'ed. I'll be keeping tabs on him.

A long, excellent interview with Steven Johnson. A smart, knowledgeable interviewer can make such a huge difference.

The Oregonian newspaper is publishing its daily photos on Flickr. It's looks like they're consistently geotagging them, too. I absolutely love it. [via matt]

Some old photos of shelters in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I was surprised by how much younger and newer everything looks.

I like David Seah's idea of using a pickle jar to tame distractions.

There's a cool New Yorker article about Parkour, the cool urban running/ jumping/ climbing/ leaping thing. By no means am I as bold as the pros, but man it's fun. [via kottke]

Fun facts about the OCLC Top 1000 books owned by library systems worldwide. "How far down the list do you have to go to get to a live author? Jim Davis' Garfield is number 15 on the list. (Four of the 5 top works by living authors are cartoons!)"

A long essay exploring Human Computer Interaction in Science Fiction Movies.

An interview with Scott McCloud.

One of the eternal tensions of comics might be this dual aspiration that we have, on the one hand, to ensure that words and pictures are integrated. That they feel as if they were drawn by the same hand, feel as if they belong together—that they’re flip sides to the same coin. And, on the other hand, to take advantage of the unique potential of words, and the unique potential of pictures, which often sends them in opposite directions.

In the course of the interview, he also mentions Dylan Horrock's critical essay "Inventing Comics," which is worth a read.

A nice little article about Helvetica in the IHT. Now that people who normally wouldn't care about type are noticing, it's even more ubiquitous.

Several months ago, I decided to attempt a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail this summer. In 2005 I was fortunate enough to hike the southern 1/3 of the trail, about 730 miles from Georgia to mid-Virginia. I've had a hankering to get out there again. A while ago I gave notice at the library where I work. My last day there is the 10th, and I'll be hitting the trail on the 15th. (!) So, you can expect things to get a little sluggish here between now and the 15th as I put final touches on my preparation. And after that, mlarson.org will be on a little hiatus. With health, patience, and a bit of luck, I should be back sometime in late July or early August with a photo of me smiling on Katahdin.

I'll miss you.

Writers need editors: "They remind you that your writing is not fragile"

Right now I'm enjoying Riding Giants, a documentary about the history of surfing.

The Universcale guides you from cosmic size all the way down to the immeasurable sub-atomic scale. Kind of like the Powers of Ten film, but this one has chill Musak.

Next time I'm in Seattle, I'll have to remember to stop by the Wall of Gum.

I was reading this profile of Albert Einstein yesterday and came across this mind-blowing bit of trivia. Einstein "calculated how many water molecules existed in 22.4 litres." That's pretty cool in and of itself. But going further, “that many unpopped popcorn kernels when spread across the United States would cover the country nine miles deep”.

I just found Moon River a few days ago. A blog with lots of old books, maps, design stuff. Right up my alley.

Doc Searls talks about how to save newspapers. Nice tips there. The sad part is that readers (i.e. customers) have been complaining about many of these features for years [e.g. archive paywalls, complicated websites, lack of linking, etc.]