In this informal live walk‑and‑talk, Jason Nicholas streams from a rainy New Jersey setting with his dog Liv. He offers a brief, unscripted check‑in, sharing personal reflections on the weather, the surrounding trees, and the small annoyances (gnats) as metaphors for life’s distractions. Jason promotes a later 9 PM ET live architectural sketching session, describing his spontaneous, unrehearsed style and inviting viewers to join the chat. He mentions upcoming equipment (a gimbal) to improve video stability, discusses his perspective as an architecture teacher who likens life to a classroom, and uses observations of birch trees, a decaying chimney, and urban details to illustrate ideas about foundations and mindful attention. Throughout, he encourages positivity, community interaction, and embracing imperfection.
Chapters
Hey guys, how you doing? Jason Nicholas Nicholas here. Hope you're having a great day today. Just out for a walk and, um, I want to do a quick check-in to see how your day's going. I hope you're having a good day. It's, um, it's Wednesday, rainy day here, and that's okay because I love rainy days. I just wanted to come on just for a minute or two. Um, yeah, no agenda, just to come on, take a quick walk. And I always love this reflection here of that tree in the water, or I guess trees. Um, it's just always a beautiful reflection to see how those curved trees look in the water. That's so fun. So, um, Liv and I are here just taking a quick walk. I'm gonna head back actually to the car in a few minutes. It's pretty buggy out here today, um, and, uh, we're just gonna walk and talk off the top of our brains and, um That's it. Again, no agenda. I will be sketching live later, so if you want to see some architectural sketching and some creativity, just, um, join me around 9 o'clock PM Eastern time today and we'll do a live stream and it'll be fun. I'm not sure what I'm sketching tonight, but we'll, uh— that's what's fun. I really never plan. I just come on the air and sketch. We have some good fun chat. Good creative chats, um, real nice community online. So definitely tune in later, um, around 9 o'clock PM. I'd love to see you in the chat and say hello. But yeah, we're taking a walk. I love walking here. We're here maybe, I'm gonna say, 5 times a week. Kind of late here tonight and it's really buggy out, maybe because we had some rain. And maybe this is a reminder to me that in life there are things that bug us, people that bug us non-stop, like these gnats flying around me. And I guess we have a few options, right? We can swat them out of our way, we can grin and bear it, or we can set our focus elsewhere and not even really pay attention to them. That's trying to— kind of what I'm trying to do is just focus on the sounds around me, the sights, and not those— not let those little bugs get to me. You're probably tuning in and be like, oh my gosh, what is this guy talking about? You know what, I'm just talking from the heart, from the mind. That's what this is about— unrehearsed, unscripted, me being me. And, um, I think sometimes we're afraid in the world just to be us out there in front of people. And that's okay. I'm just trying to work the courage up to do more and more of it because I just want to be a positive voice, no matter how small it is, but a positive voice out in the world. So if you're listening to me and hopefully you're getting something positive out of this, that would be amazing. And I have a gimbal coming tomorrow, so my walks be more steady. So if you don't know what a gimbal is, it's a device for doing videos and walking that kind of keeps the camera steady so it's not so shaky. Because right now I'm walking my pup, holding the phone, and talking. So pardon the shakiness, but hey, it's all bueno. Let's see which way she's going to take us today. Feel free to say hello in the chat. I always appreciate your guys' time, whether it's a minute, a second. Like this, share it, subscribe if you like this kind of stuff. Walking— it's either me walking here in New York City I stream from occasionally, and lots of architectural and just sketching in general. I love watching water running here. Olivia is the leader. She gets her way 95% of the time when we're walking. I used to say 85, but now it's 95. This is like her Her walk. I'm just here for the ride. Um, this is new. She never walks down here. This is kind of cool. Look at this tree here, this fallen tree. Hello, Ash Hines. Good to see you. Thank you for saying hello in the chat there. Yeah, cool view, right? That is one of the things I love about walking. Even if it's in the same place, I always see different things. And sometimes I just stop to notice details like, you know, simple details like fallen trees or fungi. I'm a fungi, but not this kind of fungi. Like fungi mushrooms grow inside of trees. I think if we're always in the same environment, and if you guys are always in the same environment, maybe it's a workplace or your house, try to look at things differently. Maybe start paying attention to some of the details around you. Um, whenever I go to New York City— well, New York City is sensory overload times one kabillion. Is that— wait, is it kerbillion? New York City is sensory overload, but I love it. I love it. There's so much to take in there, um, and so much to see. But I'm always seeing new things. Even if I have seen the Empire State Building a thousand times, I am looking at it and seeing new details. It's kind of fun. It's like a game. It's like, um, who knows, who remembers Where's Waldo? And has anybody found him yet? Poor Waldo. It's like Where's Waldo, try to spot different things. Or that game Car Bingo, if anybody's ever played Car Bingo, right? You're trying to find different things and it trains your, your senses and brain in different ways. I mean, even little things like water droplets. That's one of the cool things about coming out here after it rains, is all this, um, kind of water droplets on the leaves, on the trees. Can I ask where you're at? I am in The Garden State. Does anybody know where the Garden State is? So I am, I am in New Jersey. So I'm excited to, um, be getting a gimbal so when he's— when I do these walks, they'll be steadier. Got some ripples on the water. So these are my favorite trees in the whole world. These are— I call them white birches. I think they go by some other names. I love these birch trees. There's a couple more back in here. Um, I love them, but I find them to be really fragile, and a lot of them are broken, snapped in half, and I'm not sure why. But here, here's one here. I just think they're really beautiful trees. You know, being an architect, maybe for me there's something architecturally satisfying about these birch trees. The texture, the color, the proportions of it. There's a couple right here. There's a good shot. Those are cool things. I see these little remnants of buildings and structures that used to be here. If you look here, here's some kind of concrete pier. You can see metal bar sticking out of the top of it, so there used to be a structure there. And then if you stay tuned for 20 seconds, let me show you this cool structure. We'll head back in a sec. So check this cool structure out here. So there's like this— there's a chimney just hanging out here. I think there used to be some kind of building or lodge building here, maybe. And now have a chimney just kind of hanging out, and it's really fun to see it vines crawling all over it. And whenever I think of it, it reminds me that we all, as we all need to have a strong base, a strong core, strong foundation to withstand any of the challenges life might throw our way. So kind of like that chimney, right? It's kind of withstanding the test of time. Sure, it's slowly crumbling and falling apart But it's still here after all these years. And I think we're— it's kind of like us, right? We need that strong base, that strong foundation to weather through the times. Give me a thumbs up if you think that was a wise statement. I'm feeling very Yoda-like today. I just had a— I'm a high school teacher and, um, I teach architecture and CAD. I felt like Yoda in the classroom today, just going beyond what we're doing in the classroom but just talking about some kind of basic life stuff. Oh yeah, I asked the question. I'm like, guys, can you all, can you all point at the teacher in the room? All right, so of course a few students pointed at me. I'm like, like, yeah, but you're also wrong. And then I said, like, point at each other. I'm like, you are all teachers. Life is one big classroom. We're all learning together and teaching together. I'm like, mic drop, Yoda moment. That was kind of fun today. Libby's taking me up the hill. If I'm out of breath, that's why. Hi, Liv. All right guys, we're gonna get up this hill and then I'm gonna end. Gonna feel like this kind of stuff— like, subscribe, um, join me later. I should be live streaming and doing some sketching probably around 9 PM Eastern time. Yes, 9 PM-ish. All right, I think we've got a good stopping point here. Thank you guys so much for watching. Until next time, sketch boldly, live creatively, and embrace imperfection. Right, Liv? Right.
