Our ever-awake world is full of machinery creating disturbing vibrations (and sleepless nights). After much trial and error, here’s the most effective way we found to dampen them..
Read MoreVibration Fixes: Levitation Suits + Air Mattress Shock Absorbers
Over the past year, I’ve written about the many improvised solutions I’ve created to try to NOT feel the mechanical vibration that shakes me awake every morning. I even looked into making a rig like this “Levitation Suit”, a designer’s attempt at a 3D hotel bed. In lieu of being able to be weightless or levitate, my newest vibration-damping fix came via some readers who had the same problem.
Read MoreDoes Your Apartment Vibrate? Fixes that Help Tame Vibration
Here’s a summary of all the fixes I’ve found to dampen irritating, sleep-depriving vibrations coming from machinery and other mechanicals.
Read MoreVibrating Bed Fix: Fight Vibration with Vibration and/or Custom Sound
My latest experiment to temper the mysterious vibration that shakes me awake each night was to apply a vibration directly to the bed to neutralize the irritating one.
Read MoreA Vexing Problem Yields Unexpected Gifts: Wondrous Images of Vibrations
Since we first wrote about the mysterious mechanical vibration that shakes us awake at night, we’ve tried endless fixes to no avail and at times, have despaired of finding a solution. But amidst this difficulty have come many unexpected gifts, in the form of strangers reaching out to help, and research leading to rich layers…
Read MoreIndustrial Materials for DIY (Incl Vibration Fixes)
We have a thing for industrial materials: the mysterious raw materials used by various industries that were traditionally off-limits to the public. Years ago, we learned that if we could find a source, we could buy them like anyone else. Recently, we had an adventure and lesson in the vast possibilities of rubber products (and made some big discoveries we didn’t expect).
Read MoreAlan Watts’ on Laughter and Anxiety
After David Saltman described his remarkable experience seeing Alan Watts give a talk in the 1970s, we hunted down some video of the essential astonishing lesson. Which led to way more…
Read MoreThe Ear is The Way to the Heart
This huge little insight about listening startled us awake! And got us thinking about the powerful practice we all do daily…
Read MoreStephen Nachmanovitch’s ‘The Art of IS’ Decodes Improvising As a Way of Life
YoYo Ma described The Art of IS as “a philosophical meditation on living, living fully, living in the present.” We find it full of surprising ideas that are also incredibly helpful.
Read MoreListen to the Magic of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah Being Hummed Around the World
Among the many joys we experienced at the extraordinary Leonard Cohen exhibition at The Jewish Museum, is a room resonating with the sound of hundreds of people around the world humming Cohen’s anthem, Hallelujah. You can experience it online as well.
Read MoreA Wounded Cello’s Lesson in Navigating Change in Things We Love
When a virtuoso cellist found his rare, beloved cello changed after massive repairs, he had to find new ways to elicit its unique sound — a lesson in navigating change in things we love.
Read MoreQuestions that Transform Difficult Situations (Jack Kornfield)
At the height of a crisis, a friend sent us this hugely helpful excerpt from Jack Kornfield’s wise book about becoming at ease with the difficulties of life.
Read MoreVoyage of Discovery: Murukami’s 3300-Song Playlist
We were thrilled to find a free, streamable Spotify playlist with over 3,300 songs from novelist Haruki Murakami’s legendary record collection. Its range is vast, from rare jazz recordings to a huge riff of Bach and Elvis: discoveries that fuel our own creative endeavors.
Read MorePauline Oliveros: Deep Listening is My Life Practice
“Deep listening” was sonic pioneer Pauline Oliveros’ life practice. Here is her simple instruction for doing it yourself (with music).
Read MoreWireless Speakers We Love + How We Found Them UPDATE + Caveats
After we accidentally sacrified our trusty-ancient-unwieldy speakers trying to counteract the bed vibration that woke us up each morning, we went on the hunt for great sounding wireless speakers. We ended up getting two variations because music is so essential to us. It fuels our work when energy levels are low, helps us chill out, and even…
Read MoreA Cheap Instant Moveable Lego-ish Standing Desk
Day after day of sitting and writing at my computer made my body crave standing. Knowing that standing is much healthier than chronic sitting, I’d rigged standing desks in the past but none of them ever seemed quite right. In desperation, I plunked the EverBlock library steps on a terrace table and perched my old 17″ MacBook on it.
Read MoreReflecting on Difficulty: 5 Questions that Transform
At the height of a recent crisis a few months ago, our friend Chris Eldredge send me this note: I’ve been reading Jack Kornfield’s “A Path with Heart: A Guide Through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual Life” and saw this. I thought it might interest you. ( I changed a bit of the wording where…
Read MoreVibrating Bed Fix Headway: A Wood Bed + Hockey Pucks
To date, I’ve published four lengthy posts about my desperate attempts to quiet the mysterious vibration that shakes me awake every morning. I lost count at twenty; the latest was making four 80+ pound concrete block legs to support the platform, which was a grid of wood on a frame of steel angle irons. The real…
Read MoreVibrating Bed Fix #438: Homemade Concrete Block Bed Legs + Sorbothane
Since I last posted the Vibrating Bed Mystery Contest Update in October, I’ve tried MANY solutions to toning down the vibration that shakes me awake in my bed each night. Sleep-deprived and desperate, I pursued fixes by trial-and-error while entering into deep research into the nature of vibration, how it travels, what materials amplify it…esoteric stuff for a lay person.
Then an engineer who had worked at the Mayo clinic took an interest in my dilemma, which led to a BIG adventure in pouring concrete, LEAPING into unknown territory and being willing to fail.
Read MoreEndlessly Useful Photographer’s Apple Boxes
Wood apple boxes come in graduated sizes and have a handle routed out at one end, making them easy to move around. A staple of photo studios, they would be a great piece of multi-purpose “furniture” for home, to use as step stool, sitting stool, small table, ledge or stand for books or objects…We’ve discovered that you can buy them or make them.
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