Noah K Everyday

Noah K Everyday

I'm interested in things that are elemental. Things that come from first principles. Basic measurements of physical quantities that can not be distilled down into anything more real are interesting to me.

Running marathons teaches you a lot about distance. You learn a lot about time as well as more complicated qualities such as power and energy. The funny thing is, I'm more awed by the distance when we're driving back to the hotel room after the marathon. During the event, I'm experiencing the thing, and it's going by too slowly to really understand, especially at the paces I usually run (~10 or 11 minute miles.) But having to drive for half an hour or so to get back to the start of where you ran from... well, that's pretty sobering. "Hell, I ran this biatch," I usually say, or something to that effect. Everybody in the car agrees that it is a long way, but only those who ran it really feel that distance. We usually feel the distance even more in the next couple of days, then it fades and the mind glosses over and saves the good memories and blots out the pain. You don't remember what it means until about the 22nd mile of the next marathon you run. That last three or four miles is a beautiful hell. It's drug-like. Your life will never be simpler than when you're done with the preparation and the running of the first 4/5ths of the marathon. You only have one thing to do, and two physical quantities to think about: time and distance. Sure, you might be concerned about your energy level or your heart rate or the temperature or wondering where your friends are or something else... but ultimately it boils down to "how far is it, and how long do I have to get there?"

This photography project shows time in a completely different light. While not on a geological timescale, it's definitely closer when compared to the usual time-lapses we see (see my earlier posting about the movie Baraka.)