Hand-held devices

In a way Jason Sivak from lower New York State was thinking with his hands on Sunday. Jason and two of his guys who work for him, flew in to Ventura on Thursday to join twenty-five other stoneworkers for the 10 day International Japanese Dry Stone Wall Workshop being held here this month. Much of what is being taught in this course is shared through demonstration but also through translation. Jason has been finding it is a lot to take in. He told me he lay in bed Saturday night wondering how he was ever going to remember all the information that was being shared about how to split and shape and place the big stones we are using in this traditional Japanese style of building. The next morning while keying in a reminder to himself he remembered the app on his new iphone which enables you to record anything, wherever you are. It was the perfect thing for documenting the conversation he was to have with Suminori about the large triangular rock he would need to accurately shape before it could be fitted back properly in the south side of the rampart he's working on. Mimi translated for them while the hand-held micro-phone recorded it all, to be listened to, when Jason gets back to New York.