Neat-O Burrito

What's going on...

2011-08-21T12:13:00.001-07:00

Here it is. I'm working as an artist and getting paid for it. Well, at this moment I'm employed as a Sign Maker at a local health-food store. To do my job, I have to write the signs found around the store. I get the impression that this will be a long-term job, because there are so many signs and I've been told to redo them all in my own style. The goal is consistency, so I need to practice. Also, I've been commissioned to do about 80 pieces of pottery in the next few weeks, so I'm working on that as well. The goal is to maintain $1200 a month so I don't have to work as a substitute teacher as often. Here's hoping!

Industrial Design program

2011-05-04T20:03:00.000-07:00

If I were to develop my own industrial design program, here are some things I would require of it:

a program that fosters creativity by rewarding excellence and promoting experimentation

foundation studies--key to any art degree are the basics: drawing composition, color theory, printmaking, sculpture, drawing techniques, 3d design, figure drawing, etc.

research methods

facilitating creative thinking

public speaking

persuasive writing

marketing

model and prototype development: from 3d computer models to actual prototypes requiring professional standards of accuracy and finish

mass production considerations (materials and processes)

corporate problem solving scenarios--dealing with real-world clients

development of personal direction

collaboration

portfolio

a thesis project

Apathy in schoolkids

2011-01-12T16:39:00.000-08:00

Just got through talking with a friend. He has a 13 year old and we both agreed that there is some apathy in the way middle school kids are approaching the world. I suggested it is at least a little cultural.

Earlier today, one of the 13 year old kids in my class asked, "How old are you?" When I said 36, she said "That's how old my mom is." I am in the parents generation. Are we the reason so many kids are apathetic? Have we (generation x) taught them this approach?

And is there something larger that the kids are tapping into? A general "blah", that comes from expecting the government to give us whatever we want, and comes from being so distant from the land, and comes from the ability to manifest our lives virtually yet without any physical effort.

Welcome to the 21st century.

Women's Myths of Yore

2010-11-05T18:07:00.000-07:00

It occurs to me that, as the fight-or-flight research was done only using male test subjects, and that a tend-or-befriend model is more applicable to women, maybe Joseph Campbell's "The Hero's Journey" is based on mythologies rooted in a male dominated society.

In Mary Renault's The King Must Die the hero Theseus makes his way about the Greek back-country encountering matriarchal societies whose goddesses have been seduced by Zeus; these groups were pretty much overwhelmed by the Greeks, and their mythologies incorporated into Greek mythology to quell any resistance. What became of the matriarchal societies? And what came of their belief systems?

In the song "I hope you're happy" the two main characters from "Wicked" argue about the means by which each has chosen to achieve her ends. Their friendship wins out, however. In the book I'm currently reading, Hunger Games, a strong bond of friendship develops between two female characters. (In an effort not to spoil, I will say no more about the book.) There appears to be a current of compassion that runs through each of these stories, and I am curious to find if there are more metaphoric stories that speak to the buried mythology of women.

The Heroine's Journey by Maureen Murdock, a contemporary of Campbell, has parallels to Campbell's Hero's Journey but seems rooted in the same rationale. Any suggestions for further study?

Looking for a Career

2010-10-06T06:57:00.000-07:00

Here's how you do it:

1. What big changes do you want to affect with your life?

These can be worldwide phenomenon that you want to do something about.

2. What sort of activities associated with #1 would you be able to do?

This has to do with your skills, personality, knowing your limits, and knowing what you won't let limit you.

3. What jobs match #2.

4. Where do you want to live?

5. What employment options are there (within commuting range)?

6. What job skills do you need for #5?

7. Go to college for the specific job skills...

or get on-the-job training

or build up to the job you want by working somewhere similar

Consider moving...where would you move?

Consider your needs...what will you be doing for yourself?

Consider ignoring all this and just living life as it comes to you.

Transcendental Space

2010-09-28T06:34:00.000-07:00

In a dream last night I was traveling through the park in one of the little springy kid toys from the playground. Apparently I was flying.

Pottery

2010-08-09T21:34:00.000-07:00

In elementary and high school we got to play with clay. Almost all my projects fell apart. On a lark, my first quarter of college I took a ceramics class to balance out the overly academic workload. The teacher was inspiring, energetic, and a taskmaster. I got a C. But more importantly, I realized why my projects had all fallen apart: it was the clay's fault. I learned to choose better clay, and by the end of that first quarter I was hooked. I took my second quarter of Clay sculpture a year later from another teacher.

The ceramics studio at Spokane Falls Community College became my retreat. I ended up there instead of in my regular classes, thrilling in the energy and community. I felt I had found my "safe haven" and worked hard to learn every aspect of the studio. I took more than 12 ceramics classes over the course of 8 years. I even met, in that ceramics studio, a beautiful girl who would become my wife. We spent many long hours together around the clay classroom, "working".

Two years ago my wife and I bought an electric kiln. I think we were both wanting a bit of that old studio in our lives again. This year we finally got around to setting up a working pottery studio: "Red Panda Pottery". Recently, a friend asked what my long term plan for the studio is. In answer, I would like to generate some of the same dynamic qualities that I adored from the ceramics studio. Here are a few things I would like to incorporate into our operation.

1. An attitude of constant improvement.

2. Fun and challenging assignments designed to pull from deep within the students' abilities.

3. Free use of clay, glaze, and kiln space (a creative way to do this could be to sell the best of student work to fund the studio) --thoughtfully, I know that student fees and government grants actually paid for the materials at SFCC. I don't have very many "students", and I would like to make money, so to break even, I'm making and selling stuff, too.

Cadence of thought

2010-06-22T08:26:00.000-07:00

Why do authors have to pace their stories, have to describe scenes, and use rising action? Why don't they just get to the point? Why can't the story just be problem-solution-done?

For some reason, it doesn't work that way. When I read back over the previous post, I find it hard to follow because it's over too fast for a reader to even get into, the pacing is too quick. The post seems like it could be just a condensed paint stroke, where I intended a whole painting to be. Maybe it would be okay with spaces separating the thoughts, or on different pages with pictures punctuating the text.

We are so big, our minds so teeming with brains, that there must be a cadence to what we do. This includes reading, and thinking. As a teacher, I find it helps to expose the class to certain ideas a little early, and repeatedly mention it before the day I present it. There is a cadence that our relaxed minds work best with. We are slow. We like concrete imagery, and time to process the thoughts being presented. Why are books so slow? Sometimes authors have to use filler to get their message across.

Swell of Fortune

2010-06-22T08:13:00.001-07:00

When an opportunity to do things is not acted upon, a moment passes. You could draw a surfing analogy here, having to get up on that wave and ride it when the moment is right. I grew up on a farm in Eltopia, WA. with lots of unorganized time. Some was used to do work; much of it was spent playing. Opportunities could be felt by the pressure of their approach (every week my mom offered to take us to church) and lamented in their wake (most weeks I would stall my decision-making until it was too late to catch a ride with her.)
Although Spokane is a little more densely populated, those opportunities still happen. I'm just out of practice listening for them.

C E R A M I C S

2010-06-20T15:10:00.001-07:00

Just ordered a video from Phoenix Films called "The Art of the Potter" that documents the work of Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada. It should be here tomorrow. I've decided that this summer will be full of pottery, and a minimal amount of working for others. I've started teaching how-to classes, and am lining up different projects for commission.

Still haven't found a Cone10 reduction kiln for rent, so it looks like Cone6 oxidation is the direction to go. Maybe Cone6 reduction with a saggar. This would depend on the kiln being used. I'm still working with Cone10 clay.

Recently I don't have a job. Oh well. Spokane is a service-industry driven place anyhow. This just gives me more time to network.
Don't do so well without structure, though.

End of School Year

2010-06-20T15:04:00.001-07:00

It took till the end of the year to find out what to do that would get the kids learning:
PLAY
laughter is really important too. Makes everyone more easygoing.
Not getting angry is also a plus.
Getting angry, a minus.
They appreciated me when I wasn't trying so hard to teach things.
So that's where I'm going to start next time.

(Really, I will be aiming to teach self-motivation skills. quality vs. quantity of work, asking questions for your own benefit, and starting off the year with fundamentals for maintaining a positive environment already set in place)

Be the change you want to see.

Algebra Lesson for 7th Graders

2010-03-13T10:46:00.000-08:00

I spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about what I'm going to teach and how I'm going to teach it. I came up with this lesson this morning--having fallen asleep worrying about how and what I'm teaching next week.

You have two children, one boy and one girl.
Whatever you give to the girl you have to give to the boy, and vice versa. They ar really loud and annoying, so you have to keep everything equal.

Bank Account Game:
Materials: Slateboards/Whiteboards, pens, erasers
Setup: Draw a girl in one top corner of the board and a boy in the opposite top corner. You're going to set up a bank account for the children. Your goal is to see if you can keep both sides equal.

Rules: Start with a solved expression (like x=2)
Student calls out an action and a number from -5 to 10
You can + or - a variable
You can + - x or ÷ by a constant
and we all do it. For example "Add 2x" or "multiply by 5"
X is just a fixed amount of money in a bundle. (Different banks use different ways of bundling their money. You're new at this bank and they didn't tell you).

I would do one example round, then one class round, using a different letter as the variable each round.

Then ask how we can get back to the original solved equation. You can follow the same steps backwards (using inverse operations) to get it solved...kind of like a rubik's cube.

One day, to keep them busy, you give one of the children 3 bags of comic books and 12 more, and the other you give two bags of comic books and 16 more. And they start to complain, until you say "I gave you EXACTLY the same amount, but I'm keeping them now until you can tell me how many is in one of the bags. Each bag has the same amount in it."

At this point the class would solve the problem together.
Then I'd set the kids on 5 problems for guided practice, making sure to throw in a negative number or two, and go over it 10 minutes later.

The independent practice would be a homework assignment posted on the board.

Finally, we'd review the guided practice and I'd ask for some feedback about understanding--this tends to be a slip of paper with a checklist and room at the bottom for comments from the students.

What I'm doing now

2010-02-12T07:25:00.000-08:00

Motivation is strongly tied to success.

Success cannot be given. To be felt, it must be earned. (yeah, I came up with that!)

The Houghton-Mifflin style of math textbook that I grew up with does have its drawbacks, but it works well to motivate kids to success. Each day a new skill is taught and then the day's work is to practice that skill. Learning and applying a new skill is a success reward on its own. The teacher is free to meet with students individually and to answer questions, and the student gets practice applying the skill. Highly functional.

The current book that I'm using (the CMP2 textbook series) does much to tie big ideas together, thus making the skills learned meaningful. However, it does lack some in the motivation department. In Looking for Pythagoras, the book has students proving that a general case of the Pythagorean Theorem works before they understand how cool it is, or what it even does. Transitions are missing: Too much learning is heaped on without time to build up to it, and it is not easily accessible as an "I-just-want-to-learn-it" tool.

However, the CMP2 series is generally better because of the story-like approach it gives to each lesson. There are deeper questions early on, that require deeper understanding of the subject being taught. And it does provide practice problems at the end of each chapter. In addition, CMP2 books are much lighter, since they are broken into mini-units.

Although I am coming to a realization here about how motivating it is to learn, and how teaching a single separate skill each day is functional in the classroom, I am stuck with the CMP2 series, and I now just need to try fixing my teaching style to increase that motivation.

And I need to keep waking up with this kind of epiphany.

The Base Layer

2009-12-14T14:46:00.000-08:00

They moved like hundreds of white flies

hovering in the air above the frozen ground

Afraid to land because it was so cold.

Each snowflake in turn,

brittle and light,

would gradually descend until it met the pavement

suddenly exploding into a thousand pieces

becoming fragmented clouds

of crystalline dust

My Memory for Names

2009-12-04T08:15:00.000-08:00

The part of your brain that saves and retrieves information is called the hippocampus. It turns out that memories are formed in connection to other memories, and are stronger if there is something to associate with them. (The strongest memories are formed when there is an emotion attached to them).

So why does my brain have such trouble with names? Is it because I'm not associating them with an emotion, or is there some rationale for the way it's working?

For me, the priority seems to be:

Boys name or Girls name

Number of Letters

Number of Syllables

Specific letters in the name

and then I lose track of what my brain's doing from there. So if I were to build a catalog of names to make it easier to recall one, I would start from there.

Girl>4 letters>Two syllables>ends in a vowel

Tara, Sara, Olga, Lisa, Tina, Gina, Emma, Kara,

closely associated with

Amy, Stacy, Lacy, etc.

Search Engine Syntax

2009-11-21T12:08:00.000-08:00

All pervasive, at least on the internet, the Search Engine has begun shaping the way we think. Search engines are special websites that act like indexes for the world wide web, and the first place most people go when looking for information on a specific topic. But does this mean that they're shaping our thinking?

To get what you're looking for with a search engine, it helps to have the end in mind. If you're looking for a list of famous baseball players, type in "'Babe Ruth' 'Hank Aaron' 'Joe Dimaggio' and 'famous baseball players' list". It's bound to give you at least those three, and is probably much closer to the result you wanted in the first place. And this is only one way that our thinking has to adjust to communicate with machines.

In his Atlantic Monthly article "Is Google Making Us Stupid", Nicholas Carr describes several ways that the internet affects our thinking. There is a chance that repeated interfacing with 'Google', trying to get an answer, creates neural pathways specific to that search-engine. The amount of available information, alone, makes us dependent on a search engine to filter through it for us.

Having the ability to use Google isn't the end-all-be-all of operating on the internet. A majority of web content is inaccessible by Google. The ability to adapt to new ways of thinking is enhanced by using that ability, and NOT falling into a comfortable routine of reading. One research summary points out that we're developing parallel thinking skills and perhaps losing our talent for sequential thinking skills.

On the other hand, McLuhan's book "The Medium is the Massage" (1967) points out that sequential thinking is due to sequential writing, and that the parallel www makes us think verbally again. (Here's a really annoying video that summarizes much of that book.) The change is happening, and it will affect us.

20 year Rule

2009-11-19T20:22:00.000-08:00

Why does Hollywood and pop culture seem to revolve on a 20 year cycle? I saw 1970's fashion try a comeback in the '90's, the show "I ♥ the 80's" hit starting in 2002, and now the V miniseries has me thinking about the original V miniseries. It's as if there's a holding pattern for our culture's growth. People try selling us our nostalgic feelings, and we buy them.

I suppose there's another angle here. The makers of pop culture are people, just like the rest of us. They are packaging their own nostalgic feelings. "Oh, remember that show I liked when I was a kid? Why don't we do something like that?. . ." So what if it's not new? The general population will buy it because it's familiar. It's no wonder "It takes any really new idea about 20 years to reach the public." Chuck Wagner, HHS Teacher.

Early Morning

2009-10-21T05:26:00.000-07:00

This post is on the need for productive industry in the Spokane area, as there are to be several unemployed or under-employed individuals this coming winter.

My idea--and this isn't entirely original--was to have a pottery center for the homeless, where they would be able to come and get some work when they wanted it...all sorts of problems there.

Maybe if it were something people needed--like pens, or food...no, wait.

I wiggle as I walk through life.

2009-08-10T08:10:00.000-07:00

I might be ADD, or bipolar, or some other undiagnosed disorder. I say disorder because I find it hard to keep my life in order, like other people I see.

I have lots of stuff organized into disorganized piles around the room. If there is a project I want to do, I can get it done if I work on it for less than 3 days, because after 3 days my initial creativity has changed shape, and is unwilling to

follow through. If I organize/structure my initial project to accommodate a longer time investment, I still may fall "out of love" with the idea and want to scrap it and start over...or quit.How can I succeed for myself? Just set attainable goals, or else change how I view success. (my Grandpa Benson--'You've gotta invent something, and keep your body strong as well as your mind'; Lee Ayars- 'become a famous potter/ceramicist') I see success as an intermittent reward for creative productivity, which is why I'm always making stuff and showing it to people...or the instantaneous gratification of their response. But lately I've seen my success-seeking taking on a more difficult edge: Long-term success that can pay the bills and "achieve" something lasting or monumental.

I wiggle as I walk through life, kind of making this path which has lots of (emotional and destinational) backtracking and doesn't get much beyond my self.

This path, I think, would have been more deliberate and I would

have gone further with less confusion.

One side note here.

My goal hasn't always been personal success in the capacity it has taken as of late. It has often been to strengthen others to their goals and my path has, in combination with other paths, looked something like this for which I am proud.

Q: How do you assess if a goal is worthwhile? Beyond $in < $out. I ask this towards sustainability, to a purpose over time. It could even help others get to the promised land you see but will probably not enter. Hmm. I sense a long term commitment coming on...

Glitter

2009-07-16T23:35:00.000-07:00

I
do
not
have
space
actually
Idonothave
aspacebarand
spIhavetohitenter
toseparateoutthoughts

Goal in Art

2009-07-04T16:06:00.001-07:00

We take in the world and store it symbolically
in our heads. Creating art allows other people
to see the world we see, or how we see it.
It's a very exposing process.
Unfortunately, once the artwork is created
the interpretation is entirely up to the receiver.

My current thought is that the goal in making art is
to create "archetypal" images that register
as pure tones in the symbolic visual brain
and that deliver meaning more directly,
allowing the sender and the receiver
to resonate more strongly.

Need to find a message worth sending.

Anchor Poem

2009-06-19T14:57:00.000-07:00

My leaping stone
I cling to you for strength and self assurance
Tether myself around the waist, the other end around you
like some umbilicus
Gather confidence and leap off into the deep wet unknown
Struggling bravely through whatever learning experience I'm in
And pull myself back onto you to recharge.

Is it bravery, stupid stubbornness, or some innate desire driving me
to loosen my tether and drift away
through uncertain abyss--to strike out on my own--?
Beyond that which I knew are familiar seeming shadows
Recognizable but not actually comforting
Ghostly forms and reedy delights, but really I miss having
Stable earth and stone and grass under my feet.

Vibing

2009-06-09T07:12:00.000-07:00

How do cells communicate
within YOUR body?
How do they know
(maintain a movement about)
homeostasis?
Do they resonate?

If this is electromagnetic
(resonance) or some other
isn't it possible
(likely) that I
in the room with you
vibrate from THAT
interstitial
resonance too?

Really Creepy

2009-06-02T07:19:00.000-07:00

A heaping plate of sloppery noodles
(surrounded on sides by channels
of buttery good redness,
relaxes under its overburden
of saucy spiced pork meatballs)
Whispers your name
and gently massages your olfactory nerves.
Eat me...
Eat me...
Eat me...

Okay...poetry

2009-05-11T19:01:00.000-07:00

BENEATH THIS BOX

Caught a ferret
to be my pet
and live in MY room
and I'll have to keep her
in a cage and keep my
door shut so she can't
escape and get out and
get back to the wild
to her home and family
and friends and maybe children
baby ferrets who need
her to take care of 'em
and...oh look. Sigh.
She got out.

Montessori Training Wheels

2009-04-15T21:19:00.000-07:00

I'm looking into MONTESSORI training because I think that PLAY and EXPLORATION have been take away from the curriculum, and that children should be self motivated in their learning. I'm going to start posting my findings about Montessori here.

Here are a few sites that I'm looking through.
http://www.montessori-ami.org/
http://www.montessori-science.org/montessori_science_articles.htm

http://www.montessori-namta.org/NAMTA/ads/washington.html
http://www.montessori.org/story.php?id=259
http://www.macte.org/index.html

Copy Degradation in Religion

2009-03-21T22:38:00.001-07:00

In history, it seems that there have been movements to bring religion back to its origins... especially when there is written record, like the Bible, or Koran.

As a religion progresses through time, there is less direct connection with the 'written word'. Someone claims to 'have it' so people follow that person. This is where personal feelings are introduced, and rather than seeking the source, the 'second generation' incorporates the teachings of their [person in touch with God], making an internal 'copy' of the religion.

How many generations (copies of copies) can there be? The thought occurs that someone must have become aware of this degradation, and decided to seek the Source. Thus a revival.

Perspective Transformation

2009-03-06T07:10:00.000-08:00

Personal Transformation
(by Jack Mezirow, 1991)

1) a disorienting dilemma;

2) self examination;

3) a critical assessment of internalized role assumptions and a sense of alienation from traditional expectations;

4) relating one's own discontent to similar experiences of others;

5) exploring new ways of acting;

6) building competence and confidence in new roles;

7) planning a course of action;

8) acquiring knowledge and skills for implementing one's plan;

9) provisional efforts to try new roles; and

10) a reintegration into society on the basis of conditions dictated by the new perspective.

Rolling Poem

2009-02-17T08:01:00.001-08:00

Invention: Rolling Poem
Purpose: To reduce the amount of space taken up by poetry.

The rolling poem is a new method of poem-writing. Simply take a word, connect it in a loop, and roll it along the floor.
The tracks left behind are often gibberish, but on very special occasions can become POETRY!

Here's an example of how it works:

When you connect the word EARTH in a loop and roll it you get:
EARTHEARTHEARTHEARTHEARTHEARTHEARTHEARTH...

However, with some creative spacing and Carriage Returns this sequence of letters becomes:

HEAR THE ART
HEARTH HEART
EARTH
EARTH
EARTH

Try it with other words, like STONE or ARE.

Jonathan Coulton hang in there!

2009-02-07T14:48:00.000-08:00

A minor celebrity named Jonathan Coulton just got interviewed. In the interview he described what it is like being both a fan and a celebrity-- that there is a welcoming in of 'kind' or just because of sameness.

(this is highly edited to take out repetitions and "y'knows")

JoCo: One of the strangest things that has taken a lot of adjusting for me is my increased access to famous people. And this is a weird ancillary benefit to becoming a semi-famous person, is that you, for whatever reason, are sort of in the club.
And it's much easier--I don't know if it's an internal thing--it's just easier for me to approach people, or if it's something in the way I carry myself--but I--*laughing* they recognize me as part of the tribe.
But I've had contact with a number of people that I have been a huge fan of and the contact is not like I get their autograph, it's like we hang out and talk. Y'know? It's really weird.

Q: Any names you want to drop?

JoCo: Yeah, well, I most, the most recent one was is Adam Savage from MythBusters.

Q: Even the Stuff with Neil Gaiman has got to be really strange.

JoCo: Yeah, that's another one. Like Neil Gaiman. Like I--I--*laughs*-- I had drink's with Neil Gaiman...that's crazy! Why do I get to have drinks with Neil Gaiman?

Q: It is kind of funny.

JoCo: Yeah. But it's great. I mean it's--it's fantastic. Because I am a fan of famous people I recognize what happens when people come up to me after a show or at PAX or on the street --wherever. You feel like you've come to know this person because you've consumed their work--you've listened to their music or you've seen them on television or you've read their books or whatever--and you kind of feel like it's kind of a one way relationship at that point, but you really have this desire to make it a two way relationship. I don't mean in a gross way but you want to connect with that person the same way they have maybe even unknowingly connected with you. And unfortunately in an autograph line it's not always possible to make that kind of connection, and so when I get to meet Neil Gaiman because Neil Gaiman happens to have come across some of my stuff and liked it--we have this dorky appreciation moment and then we just talk. And we do get to have the time and the comfort zones that let us just relate to each other as people, and that's totally thrilling.

Our society has tiers with commonfolk (the layer I like to lump everybody in) making up the bulk of it. But the human mind can't stand chaos. It likes to categorize, organize, and find patterns. Within the crowd certain people get named 'leader' or 'unique' in some way. If enough people recognize him/her then I imagine that person is elevated to a higher social status (based on notoriety). And this level is where Jonathan Coulton was when I (actually) got to talk with him in April.

However, there is another social structure at work in our culture, financial wealth. Financial wealth has all sorts of consequences, not the least of which is it's affect on a person's social network. Typically money is associated with things/stuff. The more expensive 'things' a person has, the more money that person has (qed). The highest ranking money level can also afford to have a social 'insulation' layer. Bodyguards, fancy airs, even the stuff: expensive fabrics kept clean saying 'keep your distance'.

People will mimic the wealthy to affect importance. Common people like me go out of their way to buy fancy clothes. "Bling" fashion is one example of this.
Business executives generally have receptionists, if not layers of very tall buildings to socially isolate (and thereby elevate) themselves. Even our country's president has an entourage of bodyguards at all times, both a safety issue and an obvious social pedestal. For the most part people are considerate enough: Fancy clothes, airs, bodyguards? Leave them alone.

And here's where my concern lies: JoCo's fame comes partly from his being approachable. You can drop him a line on the internet and chances are he will read it. However, what if JoCo's fame grows? He won't be able to interface on a direct level anymore. He might eventually have to hire someone to read the e-mails for him,, and choose which ones get through based on merit! This is the level of fame at which you have to know someone to get in. I'm a little worried that if Coulton reaches this level that I may never get to go see him again. His agent will raise ticket prices, and too many other people will want to go, and the fame will carry him away from the reality he knows with only money and his ever diminishing social circle to hang onto...GYAHHH!

Perhaps, however, I am underestimating Jonathan Coulton. Perhaps he got to this level of fame a long time ago, and instead of getting swept away in it, somehow deflected it and remained grounded, recognizing his constituents' need for the illusion of being connected, and using the principle of intermittent rewards so as not to burn himself out on too many commitments.

NINJAS!

2009-02-02T22:25:00.000-08:00

Beware! The Ninjas are everywhere!

I have put together a comprehensive list of sites giving what glimpse we have into the world of ninjas.

Ninja Ropes
Ask a Ninja
Xiao Xiao

That's it. Kind of mysterious, ninja...

How well does college prepare you for the real world?

2009-01-10T19:42:00.000-08:00

Nature abhors a vacuum

2008-12-26T12:16:00.000-08:00

Objects floating in water experience buoyancy. Buoyancy is the name of the force opposing a boat's will to sink. When an object is immersed in water, it displaces water. If the weight of the water is more than the weight of the object, the object will be forced upward. This force is buoyancy.

If a wine cork were completely submerged under water, it would float back to the top of the water to a point of equilibrium--between the water and the air. Corks are able, because of their material, to displace their weight in water with just a portion of their volume. The remaining part of the cork stays above the water level. If you added weight to the cork, it would float lower in the water.

Balloons float in the air because of buoyancy. They displace air. If the weight of the air that they are displacing is heavier than the weight of the balloon, the balloon will rise to a level of equilibrium (where the weight of air displaced is EQUAL to the weight of the balloon.)

Some balloons are filled with helium gas. They float because the atoms of helium are lighter than the atoms of air (Nitrogen, Oxygen, Carbon dioxide, etc.). Some balloons are filled with hot air. Hot air molecules move faster and take up more space than cold air molecules (a lighter amount of air can take up the same amount of space as a heavier amount of air) so the hot air balloon is forced upwards.

Hot air balloon beside a helium balloon

With this in mind, I would like to propose...The Vacuum Balloon. This would be a balloon shape filled with nothing...no helium, no hot-air. The only weight would be the skin of the balloon.

The problem I'm finding is that if the air is pumped out of an object, outside air pressure forces the object to collapse! Any ideas?

Snow!

2008-12-18T18:45:00.000-08:00

My college Weather ("Atmospheric Environment") teacher used to rave that we are on the verge of a new ice age. Prof. Quinn told us about Milankovitch cycles that predicted we are about a hundred years overdue for a Glacial period.

It hasn't happened, some think, because 'global warming' is combating it. However, heating up the earth might serve to send us into intense climate change--according to Prof. Quinn. Not like "The Day After Tomorrow" would have you thinking, but following the same principles (and much more slowly).
:>)
Here's a picture of us out sledding around Spokane on Dec. 18th (record snowfall!).

Oh my gosh!

2008-12-07T20:39:00.000-08:00

There is a workshop with one of my ceramics heros, Beth Cavendish Stichter. I met her and found out about the workshop about 6 months ago. Unfortunately, I was expecting it would cost a lot less. I cannot afford the $800 to go. SIGH.

Tea Names

2008-11-29T08:54:00.000-08:00

A few years ago Amanda and I compiled a list of catchy names for exotic tea blends on our refrigerator. It's tea weather outside so with no further ado...

TEA NAMES:

Feminini-tea

Masculini-tea

Frivoli-tea

Orangutanga-tea

Personali-tea

Aargh-Me-May-Tea (for pirates)

Muss-tea

Fuss-tea

Min-tea

Pleasan-tea

Duss-tea

Gus-tea (cures flatulence)

Circulari-tea

Circulatori-tea

Thirs-tea

Angulari-tea

Feis-tea

Nice-i-tea

Reali-tea (bring you back down to earth)

Hipocri-tea

Anti-cavi-tea

Discontinui-tea

Naked Singulari-tea

Reverse Polari-tea

Populari-tea vs Ignomini-tea

Punctuali-tea

Ameni-tea

Hilari-tea

Truss-tea (just a truth serum)

Sani-tea

Insani-tea

Humpty Dump-tea

Nas-tea (it's GOOD for you)

Amnes-tea

Solidari-tea

Go-tea (grows hair on your chin)

Guaran-tea

Ampu-tea

2-tea Fru-tea

Saul-tea (salt-water brewed tea)

Abili-tea

Affini-tea

anti-sterili-tea

Utili-tea

Fragili-tea

Tranquili-tea

Versatili-tea

Docili-tea

Prehensili-tea

Believa-bili-tea

Duali-tea

Ameabili-tea (tea brewed with vodka instead of water)

Inevita-bili-tea

Get Dir-tea

Be Flir-tea

Devo-tea

Spontinai-tea

Authori-tea

Kinda Feis-tea

Self Pit-tea

Jimmy Duran-tea (helps dexteri-tea)

High Quali-tea

Sitting Prit-tea

Byoo-tea or Be-you-tea*

Frail-tea

Horn of Plen-tea

Down and Dir-tea

Vivaci-tea

Alacri-tea

Shades of Hypocri-tea

Tone-up-your-uterus Tea

Peppermin-tea

Inferiori-tea

Fertili-tea

God-All-my-Tea

Minori-tea

Virgini-tea

Happy Brewing.

Christ is Love

2008-11-17T07:11:00.000-08:00

Memes are units of culture passed on from one person to the other. They are symbols, rules, ways of acting that make us who we are. Memes are the software that works on our human hardware. Example: kids will mimic behavior that strikes them as funny or interesting. This is the passing of a meme.

Sometimes memes are of a scope much larger than any one person could convey. Religions are a form of meme that has outgrown the individual. Since its inception, Christianity has been adapted and changed to maintain itself in the human consciousness (as have all other successful religions). It's current inception holds this basic belief worldwide: Christ is Love. Not the romantic kind, or just between friends, where the mutual benefits are obvious. This love transcends differences, and is between yourself and others whom you may or may not know.

I am not a big fan of the old testament as a way in which to live your life, nor much into prophecy. But the idea of 'love' overcoming all boundaries has practical applications in the modern world.

Discuss.

On the Properties of Breakfast Cereal

2008-10-28T20:29:00.000-07:00

Breakfast cereal was one of my childhood cornerstones. I was raised on raisin bran! Sprinkled spoonsful of sugar on my frosted flakes. My brother and I ate chex like it was going out of style. Cereal was our meal of choice watching cartoons on Saturday morning. We ate tons of the stuff just to get to the toy prize at the bottom of the box.

So I consider myself an aficionado when it comes to the qualities that make a good cereal experience. One element that remains key to thoroughly enjoying a bowl of cereal is minimizing the splash. That moment after you've chosen your bowl and spoon, poured the right amount of cereal to just match the three-serving picture on the box, and gotten out the milk. Suddenly a feeling of trepidation; is the milk going to splash out of the bowl?

Here's a quick ranking of cereals from greatest splash factor to least:

Corn Flakes (or any flake cereals), Frosted Mini Wheats (or Life), Raisin Bran, Cookie Crisp, Honeycomb, Lucky Charms (I swear it's because of the marshmallows), Kix, Cheerios, Rice Crispies (or , Grape Nuts), and finally Chex (surprisingly).

My research (and the frequent presence of near-empty boxes of cereal) led me to blending my cereal mixes. During commercial breaks on Saturday morning I would race to the kitchen. Generally I would blend various cereals for their texture (making sure not to put floating cereals like Cheerios or Kix at the bottom of the bowl--of course) layer upon layer, and finish with a non-splashing cereal like Kix or Chex. (NOTE: Rice Crispies at the top tended to get everywhere, and meant I couldn't fit as large a quantity of cereal.)

Here are a few of the most intriguing cereal combinations:

TOP: Corn Chex

MIDDLE: Rice Crispies

BOTTOM: Frosted Mini Wheats

TOP: Honey Nut Cheerios

MIDDLE: Raisin Bran (too splashy to be on top!)

BOTTOM: Grape Nuts

T+M+B: Quaker "Crunchy" Corn Bran (It's actually my favorite)

Least Favorites:

#3 Cap'n Crunch (because it shreds the inside of my mouth!)

#2 Life Cereal (i.e. sweetened wood shavings) followed by

#1 The the worst cereal experience is pouring out the last of a box of cheerios and getting a large mass of crushed+powdered cheerios on top of your happiness.

...but I digress.... since it seems I am not the only person who knows about mixing breakfast cereal. Instead I propose a challenge. The Splash is a function of height, surface tension of the milk, and cereal shape. There must be a use for such exhaustive research on cereal Splash! Somebody here had better come up with a good application. Discuss.

2008-10-24T08:36:00.000-07:00

Each year I end up working on a project that embraces the feeling of Halloween.

In college I started work on a clay sculpture of a gargoyle that was essentially me channeling this horror show I watched on TV when I was a kid: The Gargoyles (1972). The plot synopsis calls it: "A horror tale involving an anthropologist researching his book on demonology with his photographer daughter in a bizarre adventure that has a group of gargoyles, descendants of a monster whose skeleton the two have stumbled on, menacing the pair in order to retrieve the bones of their ancestor." It scared me [lots]!

I made the hideous clay gargoyle friendly looking and called it Elgin. Up to last year he sat on the porch of our house. Then he got stolen! (The sincerest form of flattery for an artist, right?)

So this year I decided to make another gargoylesque thing out of rolled newspaper tubes and tape. I call it a "skink".

Watches Amanda gather leaves.

He's a little camera shy.

Family Website

2008-09-29T09:09:00.001-07:00

I'd like to make a website that looks something like the following:

I. Home Page--This would be a welcome page, showing an overview of the website without giving away too much personal information--just news highlights and whatever's been updated on the website.

II. Login Page--Really secure website. You've got to type your info to get any further. Once in, you are allowed to make changes to the website...add your News, add what you know about a person, post pictures, etc. (Probably have the person's name recorded with the changes they made and the time of the changes--and as webmaster be able to roll back to see a previous entry that got erased--tactfulness, and what have you).
III. News--this page would have a Calendar, allow people to post changes to the calendar, and have a Forum to post messages about what's going on with each branch of the family.

IV. Genealogy--I really like the Visual Thesaurus (go here and click 'Look it Up') and would like to see a family tree program like it. The genealogy page would look like this:

excepting that
A. The dot's would represent Unions (marriage) out of which come Children
B. The boxes on the right would show biographical information about whoever you click on.
C. The color of the connecting lines would represent the relationship (parent-child, sibling, married, divorced, etc.)
D. You could add to the tree (just a click and type away), or you could add stuff to the biographical info.
E. Here's what the biographical info would entail:
1. Name, Birthdate, Date of Death, Place of Birth, Place of Death, all that stuff
2. Medical concerns
3. Biographical synopsis of their life
4. Photos, newspaper articles, map of travels
5. List of parents and children, friends, other relationships outside the family
6. Interests and activities
7. Anecdotes from people who knew the biograph-ee

V. Who's Who--this would be an alphabetized phone list, with links to the biographical info above, and give internet presence info too. There would be a section for friends of the family.

VI. Writings--anecdotes written by family members about things like: "How we met", "Growing up with Grandma and Grandpa for parents", "Heirlooms". There would be a different forum started every couple of months.

VII. A timeline with a map--you scroll over the timeline and dots appear on the map (with comments beneath), representing where members of the family are at that time--it could even have search criteria, so you could look at one person, or one branch of the family at a time.

Anyway, that's what I'd like to see.

Yikes! Bikes!

2008-09-19T18:08:00.000-07:00

I live in Spokane, WA. At beginning of summer I bought a commuter bike from Pedal-2-People, a non-profit organization geared towards bicycle education and ridership. It's great! (So is P2P!) Since summer started I've biked to work at least 40 times, so that's about 160 miles...about 6 gallons of gas. Oh well. It will add up eventually.

One of the issues with riding a bike is knowing the rules of the road. Today I decided to look them up online. Turns out there are laws governing bikes!

Of equal importance, there is etiquette to riding with traffic, and that's what I'm most interested in with this post. Here's my contribution: "Behavior on the Road". Please feel free to add your bit as a comment.

1. Bikes are a fact of life. For drivers: don't tailgate, they are granted the same rights AND responsibilities under the law (end of story).

2. Be aware that the public opinion of bicycles is newly forming. Anything you do that isn't "Same Rights, Same Rules, Same Road" really undermines that message. Therefore, do STOP at stop signs. Signal at intersections. Don't let cars push you around. Be aware of your less-visible/more-likely-to-get-splattered status and think about the obstacles ahead that might push you out into traffic.

3. Don't be a jerk. In fact, say Hi when you see a fellow biker. You're both in the same situation.

4. Passing--Keep right except to pass or to turn left. And when turning, use your hand signal.

5. Oh yeah, if you're thinking of parking on a bike lane, PLEASE DON'T!

I know I'm running on here, but on a side-note it's pretty cool that cyclers are required to wear helmets. It encourages the question "Why" to which I would answer: out of consideration for others who will have to clean up the mess if you crash.

Quality Programming

2008-09-07T18:01:00.000-07:00

As we get older, do we become less impressionable?

Recent exploration of TV programs shows a new line of Reality Television, teams of people (professionals) working together to some goal. I've recently seen "Design Challenge", "Project Runway", "Shear Genius". In these shows are strangely familiar characters in different circumstances. The entertainment factor for me comes from watching these different people cope with the group dynamics, and in being able to predict who won't get through to the next round. In fact, I'm getting pretty good at predicting.

Perhaps the reason for the popularity of reality television is that lingering childhood "need"* to learn behavior by observation.

Discuss.

(*need = latent instinct for imprinting...is it ever entirely surpressed?)

In passing

2008-09-04T11:02:00.000-07:00

Amanda and I are moving to a new apartment. I haven't been posting but have many ideas. More to come.

Musical Robot

2008-08-17T21:59:00.000-07:00

Dear Blog,
I had a funny idea today, and I am going to tell you all about it.
Actually, it isn't really developed, buut it is a funny notion...
I thought it would be cool to have a robot that listened to, or watched people cross a room,
and that only had the ability to interact by playing the elevator music faster or slower.
I'm not entirely sure what the machine's purpose would be, but it's actually sounding a little creepy.
Maybe it's not such a good idea after all.
All the same, I'm probably not the ONLY one who thought of it.
Anyway, gotta go.

Tribes:"Jacks-of-all-trades" :: Villiages:Specialization

2008-08-15T07:23:00.000-07:00

As people settled themselves in an area and started agriculture there were surpluses (leading to trade, and eventually specialization). Everyone does their own thing and earns their wage...to achieve meals, shelter, transportation (the basic needs).
At least this is what I thought when I was a kid.

It turns out, we are so good at meeting our own basic needs, a few people can provide for many.

The remaining people who aren't providing a service still need to work, right? I mean, what good would it be if they didn't work and still got everything they needed? (What fun would that be for the working people?) Enter "The American Dream" and Advertising.

The American Dream is a cultural carrot, encouraging us to work in order to get "stuff" (as listed in the American Dream brochure). It makes use of advertising to show people what's out there and how much enjoyment they will have if they just buy the "stuff" with their money. (Money = work).
A lot of people buy into the idea of the American Dream. (I shall dub them the Hamsters, doing a lot of work but accomplishing little)

However, a lot of people don't buy into the idea. They think..Hey, my basic needs are easy to meet. There's plenty all around me. I don't think I'll work. The unfortunate side effect is as follows:
Socially, the Providers and the Hamsters, who would rather be lounging around too, decide to ostracize the non-workers...labeling them "bums" or "vagrants" because they choose not to work.
Also, the health benefits of being active and thinking highly about yourself are plentiful. However, being called a "bum" and not having anything to do physically just sucks.
Then there's the "stuff". You can tell a "bum" by their lack of stuff...no house, no health care (which in this country is a luxury), no closets full of clothing. Basically, if you choose to live without working, the only stuff you get is what you can carry with you. People don't invite you into their homes to share their stuff with you...showers, televisions, music. Homeless-->Socially outcast-->Not really nice to be around. If you've chosen the life of a 'bum' then a large portion of society will make it hard to make the return trip.

But they don't need to be working for our society to survive. Do they? So why is there such venom against the homeless?
Anyhow, I'm attempting to answer the question for myself here. Feel free to chime in.

Early Morning Mental Meander

2008-08-03T12:03:00.000-07:00

A = 10³, B = 10⁹, C=10²⁷, D=10², E=3, F=4, G=8, H=3, I=5, J=???, K=???, L=11, M=10⁶, N=1, O=1, P=10¹⁸, Q=10¹⁵, R=3, S=6, T=2, U=4, V=5, W=2, X=6, Y=20, Z=???

I woke up and this popped into my head. Two questions:

First, what is the rule?

Second, what are the missing values?

Hint: I excluded the number 0 because, well, it doesn't really count.

First one with the answer gets a star named after him/her.

Another BLAH!

2008-07-27T11:30:00.000-07:00

My brain is flying around like a witch on a broom.

How do you keep your focus?

What sort of things can you think to do that

IRON out your brains creases

direct the jets of wind into a thrust

and not lose your momentum--

I admire your ability to do this and cannot

for the life of me--

maintain that pinpoint accuracy that

reads the groove of the

record called my life

Anger--for better or worse?

2008-07-16T17:06:00.000-07:00

I have long held my anger as a part of myself--something that defines me. In recent times I have found it useful to put aside anger, allowing me a broader ability to accept the world with less clouded a view. However, I feel like my resolve is crumbling without it. Where is that inner drive to fight injustice in the world? How do I protect that innocence inside me if I don't shell it in forceful resolve? And YES it's worth protecting. Everyone should have it.

So how do you separate the "good anger" towards injustice and stupid things you put yourself through from the "bad anger" that threatens to grow into a consuming force of its own?

Imago

2008-07-14T19:51:00.001-07:00

Just got back from wikipedia. I was trying to answer a question one friend asked: what is the stage of development after chrysalis. Of course it's butterfly, but is there a standard biological term, we wondered?

The answer is imago. Imago is synonymous with the adult (sexually mature, winged) stage of development not just in butterflies, but in all Holometabola (Endopterygota), insects that undergo Holometabolism (metamorphosis).

These include: beetles, flies, lacewings, fleas, caddisflies, mosquitos, ants, bees, and of course butterflies. There are more, but you can just go to the link for a complete list.

So it's embryo (egg), larvae (caterpillar), pupa (chrysalis), and imago (adult).

Incidentally, the plural of imago is imagines.
Also, the pupa stage of a mosquito is called a 'tumbler', FYI.

Hamsterdam

2008-07-08T06:32:00.000-07:00

A game to kill time and turn your grey matter soupy:

Start with the name of a country.
Merge it with the name of an animal.
Laugh

or alternately...

Start with the name of an animal
Merge it with the name of a country.
Chuckle-snort.

For example:

Hamsterdam

Japanda

(both of which are already in use on the internet)

...and Uz-gecko-stan

(which, incidently, is entirely new to the blogosphere!)

Enjoy!

Teaching Methodology

2008-07-01T21:26:00.000-07:00

"I know the subject matter and I can convey it to children." This is all that the hiring people want to hear.

Why would a class full of 3rd graders want to do what I say they should do?

How do you build that trust?

Yee Haw

2008-06-28T21:17:00.000-07:00

It has been a good couple of days. I have been with friends and riding that wave of perpetual awareness of what I should be doing... you all know what I'm talking about.

If you feel like you're in the right place at the right time

Or if you have the option to do something, and you take it,

Or if you decide not to get on that airplane and it plummets out of the sky in a fiery blaze,

Or if you're walking through a crowd and you just feel right, and every move you make puts you in contact with another friend,

Or if you have the inkling to visit the childhood house of your friend (whom you haven't even thought about for a few months) and she happens to be visiting her folks for three hours before heading back to college (in another state).

What do you call these moments of 'synchronicity' in which everything is propelled along nicely, like you're surfing a wave of euphoria?

I have it when I feel like I did something for someone else... and I like it.

How to originate a "new" idea: Synthesizing Bruno's Mnemonics with Hegel's Dialectic Method

2008-06-11T17:07:00.000-07:00

I've been reading various articles online to try and better understand what's been said in this book I'm reading.

The author painted an image, firstly, of Giordani Bruno (an italian philosopher from the 1500's). Bruno developed a mnemonic device to help him remember things. Good so far. The trick was to visualize a wheel. You simply think of the thing you want to memorize, affix it to your mental wheel, and leave it there. Then when you want to remember the thing (be it a name, factoid, date, or whatever) you could mentally rotate the wheel and...voila!

And here I'll stop until I re-read that section...

Surprise! A Splotchy Web Virus

2008-05-21T19:09:00.000-07:00

Unexpectedly, today I was given a virus unlike any I have experienced. I am obligated to contribute to a story and then pass it to someone else. All thanks to Splotchy who engineered the virus in a lab somewhere. Here's how it goes...

The story:

***
I had been shuffling around the house for a few hours and already felt tired. The doorbell rang. I opened the front door and saw a figure striding away from the house, quickly and purposefully. I looked down and saw a bulky envelope. I picked it up. The handwriting was smudged and cramped, and I could only make out a few words.
***
"Interesting", I thought to myself, "I don't know anybody named Ted Kaczynski." Unless it's going to clear this damn sinus infection in my head, I'll have to open it later.I set it on the kitchen table, and prepared my tincture of herbal tea remedies.
***
As I watched the lengthy glossop of honey slather into my tea I heard a rustling noise behind me. Having spent my childhood in a rotating house (due to some awkward foundations) I am quite adept at craning my neck and utilised this skill in the current situation, looking behind myself like a six-foot-tall owl.
***
The envelope - so stationary seconds before - had started to move, an event that I found somewhat odd, given that I was four days away from celebrating a year of sobriety. I picked up the nearest implement of swatting size without thinking, and slowly approached the bubble-wrapped delivery.The envelope continued to shuffle and shake as I stood poised with the potato masher held in readiness over my head. A small bead of sweat edged down my temple, hitting the floor at the same time as a lump of congealed potato from my weapon. There was a tearing sound, and I froze, unable to move, as a disembodied hand broke through my mysterious delivery. I blinked, and the thumb and forefinger of the hand formed a mouth.
***
"Hey, dude, what's up?" The Hand/Mouth said. I just stared, perplexed and terrified. "You got any grub? I'm starving!"
At this point, my fear got the better of me and I swung the potato masher down fiercely, knocking the hand/mouth (still partially in the packaging) off the counter and onto the floor. Screaming at the top of my lungs, I ran to the kitchen stool and stood on top of it, still grasping the potato masher with white-knuckled terror.
"Not cool, man," said the thing.
***
I stood transfixed in horror. The hand now started to inch across the floor towards my stool.
Ring, ring! On the wall across the kitchen the telephone began to ring, breaking me free from the icy grip of fear.

I had been in the middle of moving into a new home, in a fairly clean neighborhood. Kids on bikes, 2 cars in every garage. This hand was not something I had expected to be dealing with.

Ring! The phone rang again.
Cautiously, I climbed onto the counter, stepping over boxes and the empty sink to answer. "Hello?" I shouted into the receiver, intently aware of the scrabbling fingers below me.

"Mr. Newman, I have a proposition to make."
***

Thanks for passing it this way, Jillian!
On to you, Herbal-Amanda!

Our humble abode

2008-05-07T11:22:00.000-07:00

This apartment reminds me of living in a collapsed star. Everything overlaps.
The [living room/computer room/bedroom/laundry drying room]is cluttered with shoes and maps.

I am bigger than the kitchen which is a stove, sink, and refrigerator stuffed into one cubby. Around the corner is a fold-up wall-table like our friend Caitlyn's, stools, a washing machine/extractor, shoe cubby/dresser, closet, spots-for-the-dishes (I'm sooo grateful for the dishes!), pantry, and appliances.

The bathroom really minimizes on space as well, with pull-out drying racks on the side of the sink, and a sitting shower/bath. The drying rack resides here when not in use.

On arriving we realized our European electrical converter wouldn't work, and the stores didn't have a French adaptor, so we improvised. Now our cameras and phones can recharge, although Amanda's phone still can't find a signal.

Amazingly enough, none of this really matters because we're having a great time.
Lots of love to all you readers.--Sean

James Ensor--Still is Belgium's Famous Painter

2008-05-06T14:05:00.000-07:00

We went to the Musee D'Orsay today and while there stumbled upon this remarkable find.
It's James Ensor's "The Lady in Distress".

What? You don't know about James Ensor? Here's a little about the artist: James Ensor was most famously an early expressionist(ic) painter from the late 1800's. He produced his most successful work s up until his 40's and declined in vivacity from there. (Is that just the way of it?) Largely this is because he'd already become famous, and he decided to move into making music. His new work was kind of a softened repetition of earlier works, with a few goodies here and there. Musically, he was gifted at improvising on the "harmonium" and performed for guests. (If you trust Wikipedia).

Some of James Ensor's works can be found here, on this Danish website, and if you're not totally impressed by this, "Meet James Ensor" kind of puts things into perspective.

Dream about Mapping the 10th Dimension

2008-05-01T13:14:00.000-07:00

A "bad guy" was looking for someone to take over the mapping of the 10th dimension project (using a big computer) and found a British man who aparently had no credentials... a janitor of sorts. However, you and I know him as Dr. Who, the hero of our story. He, unfortunately, does not realize his own importance and goes to work for this fellow.

In working, the Dr. produces several artistic chaotic renderings and a diagram of a city. The bad guy asks how he did these so quickly (quicker, his cronies say, than any other computer tech so far), to which the Dr. explains it just came naturally. He did it entirely without the computer, which is still broken.

The bad guy looks at the papers as imaginary rubbish. [I assume the bad guy will throw him out, only to discover the true worth of the drawings later, but we'll never know, will we? 'Cause I woke up!]

"Bon soir" --good evening

2008-04-30T14:22:00.000-07:00

First evening in Paris, I'm feeling slightly discombobulated. The streets aren't straight, and we got quite lost on the way to the apartment *home* this evening.

First impressions of Parisians-- there was graffiti everywhere on the train ride into the city (like it's not controlled much).

Parents are very allowing of children to be outspoken--the light in babies faces is very different from USA babies-- parents allow the kids to be more determined--it's very hard to describe this difference.

There are many subtle language differences as well but I don't have command of the language so I digress. It seems to express similar ideas to our language but it does so in a way that is unique to being French.

I love it here.

Digestible chunks of reality

2008-04-27T07:52:00.000-07:00

Buzz Zap!!! We were talking about robots after being inspired by this video on you-tube. It shows a robot able to cover a variety of terrains without falling over. Wow!

Being nerdy, we all had our input into the conversation. Here are a few of the things I took from us talking:

--memory and learning are simpler than you might think--Rosenfield uses a constructivist approach to explain how memory is built. His take is that memory is made up of the connections between neurons (rather than just being a retrieval system) and is therefore constantly being created by simultaneous stimuli that create a unique pathway in your brain.

--actually the other way of dealing with learning robots makes sense too. We have instincts which are 'hard-wired' into our mind--like little subroutines that can be 'called' when they're needed

--Lego robots--modular electronic components fused with legos, that could be built lego-style into a circuit--would be pretty cool. Kids could learn how to build working robots, people could make robots based on the need of the day

This morning I was thinking back on all of this and realized that going from simultaneous stimuli like Rosenfield talks about to actual stimulus & response behavior --it's all about the coding. How can you take impressions of the big world and make them digestible for a computer brain to decide what actions to take? What is the streamline-iest way to make a robot learn? Could we make a rubber-band powered robot?

Nerdy nerdy nerdy

As for making the big world digestible, I think the next big wave is going to skip reading research articles and just reading reviews of these articles, because there's too much to go through. That's what I'm doing for now anyway.

Just a Quick Update

2008-04-13T18:39:00.000-07:00

Blah blah blah...I've re-read my recent posts and it's way too dry. Not a lot of vivaciousness to be sure, dear reader.

Here's an update about why I haven't been posting lately. I'm doing too much!

1) I learned to bake for Bouzies Bakery and covered for Thomas who was in France for 3 weeks

2) We're re-painting the house in expectation of Kathy's birthday extravaganza

3) I'm also delivery driving for the bakery

4) and applying for teaching jobs for this fall

5) and volunteering on Mondays, tutoring on Tuesdays, and whenever possible working with my dad on the weekends

It's enough to wear me out!

All that aside, my wife Amanda and I are going to FRANCE for too weeks! (After all this house-fixing is over we're renting an apartment near the Arch du Triomph and practicing our French. Amanda's Blog is more loquacious about this adventure.)

So kind reader, I hitherforth will try to write stuff that has more vim to it, for your sake.

Illness = Creativity ?

2008-03-26T19:12:00.000-07:00

One day I went into the art studio sick, and thus worked in an altered state throughout the day. A few days later I saw the art I had made and thought --hey that is really cool! I've since wondered if being sick had something to do with being creative.

10 minutes browsing only found two other people who think the same thing, here and here. But then I finally found some research on the subject.

In his journal article When Walls Become Doorways: Creativity, Chaos Theory, and Physical Illness, Tobi Zausner addresses the idea of the connection between illness and creativity by researching the lives of 21 visual artists. The artists fell into four categories:
"The artists studied clustered into four patterns. First, a
period of illness preceded choice of a career in art.
Second, illness transformed the creative process and
the art produced. Third, for some artists, illness became
life's focus, with negative consequences to the artists
and their art. Fourth, artists who remained creative
during an incapacitating or terminal illness produced
work in an entirely new medium."
Because the sample size in this study is only 21 people, Zausner concludes that the study is preliminary to actual research about creativity and illness.

Although the idea of creativity when you're sick is counter-intuitive, I thought of a mechanism for the correspondence: being sick activates your immune system, a great heaving part of which is your brain...so you use more of the entirety of your noggin when you're sick. Plus, if you're resting to get well, that's a lot of unused energy looking for ways to get out.

So, if you're sick today, rest up, drink lots of fluids, and play around with a new art medium. You never know what good may come of it.

Style Track

2008-03-10T16:24:00.000-07:00

Each year a photo is taken of the high-school graduating class, and you can see the current trends in hairstyle and clothing. Ten years pass, and there is usually a reunion photo, showing the updated styles.

What gets me is when the classmates with similar hairstyles, although separated by distance, will often end up with the same hairstyle.

I suppose this could be just the overwhelming pressure of mass media, targeting a frequency I don't perceive, that affects graduates of the same age.

Pop Culture pushes our perceptions here and there, but we are the ones that make the ultimate choice as to our appearance. Or are we? Is there something even more sinister, an unknown force that already has us in its grip? ...A demonic waste-product of Popular Culture that has infiltrated our decision making processes. I call this the "style track".

If you meet up with someone from your generation, and you see the similarity, run! Fight! Flee! Change! Dig deep!

Values

2008-02-24T18:13:00.000-08:00

This concept has been bothering me for a while--I'd like to know what you who read this think.

A lot of value has been placed on material goods--things we're used to having to pay for [like cheese, furniture, and marble countertops]--
while many services have a fee associated with them [electricity, massage, dentistry, and taxi rides]--
In practice, once someone decides to start charging for something, it's value is determined by the invisible hand of economics--supply and demand.

However, there are a lot of things we haven't placed a monetary value on that are very worthwhile [like the air we breathe, social cohesiveness, the value of free speech, etc.]
and I'm wondering if we should assign a value # to them, in order to give these topics fair measure against economically valued items. I mean, if someone intends to extinguish a species, I want to know what it's worth to them.

I have yet to see some other discussion about this, so let's have it out here...

*Off-limits topic*	*Economic vested interest*
Breath of fresh air	$1.00
Peace and quiet	$5.00
First amendment right to free speech	$25
Snake River salmon migration route	$100
Free internet	$1000
A kiss from my sweetie	$10,000 (if they brushed their teeth)

Of course these are made up numbers. To get a real idea of the values to assign things, a token economy would need to be set up and lots of trading done.

But that's the basic notion. What do you think?

Tough Shit

2008-02-18T18:51:00.000-08:00

Tough Shit

would be a pretty cool name for a line of durable---

outerwear,

underwear,

camping gear,

etc.

Pretty much anything durable could be sold under the label "Tough Shit" and it would catch on quickly.

Amid the Noise and Haste

2008-02-17T19:52:00.000-08:00

Got to a box while cleaning, and inside was my high school yearbook.

I know my high school experience wasn't the greatest of my life. I was in a state of angst up to transferring to a new school in 11th grade, and had no friends for the first 3 months there. But since then, time has passed. I sat looking back at the experience with a sense of...not nostalgia.

Nostalgia is a feeling on the surface. What I got was something so much deeper. Reading the comments people had written, I began to embody the self I was in the 1990's. This dusty part of my memory was like one of the boxes, just waiting there for me to delve into. I've gotten this kind of memory before. Every memory has its own distinct flavor, and I could taste what it felt like to be that kid. It was refreshing. I began at once to want to go running, and to do ridiculous amounts of math.

So I can see why people sigh longingly over their high school years. I think some part of my brain has transferred all these memories into a 'good' folder. Egocentrically, I can say 'this is part of what made ME, so of course it's good.' However, even stuff I went through 2 years ago, or 6 months ago, have their own memory-taste. Call it place-ness or once-ness...whatever. I am not in the best place I've ever been in my life (I mean it's okay...), yet I expect the overall sensations of this moment will seem good when I look back on them 10 years from now.

What you eat.

2008-02-15T09:42:00.000-08:00

During the week sometime I began running on low energy. During this time I felt like buying a big screen television and voting for Ron Paul. What the...?! It appears I'm highly susceptible to advertising when I'm exhausted.

When I woke up this morning, however, I was alert. My senses were heightened, and even the slightest movements caught my attention. Usually I wake up pretty alert, but this was different. My vision and hearing were acute. I felt more...like I was prey.

Then I remembered what we ate for dinner last night: Steak. It was as if all the body chemicals from the meat had entered my system, and I was feeling things the meat felt before becoming food. Alert to predators, and looking for my herd.

Something I heard about Druidic folklore said that when you eat of an animal, you take on its traits in some way. What a trip!

Is there any research about this? And is there a practical use for it? I smell a great conspiracy theory creeping up! If we could be kept exhausted and eating lots of bovine meat, we would all be susceptible to advertising and act like herd animals.

Oh, wait...

Shrink to Fit

2008-02-12T20:28:00.000-08:00

The art of rearranging things to fit into a space.

If there was a word to match that definition, I would have entitled my blog that.

I've been, more or less, cleaning my way through the house. Currently I'm finding clever ways to stack boxes in the basement and bedroom, since it's easier than thinking about what to throw away. Generally this process will result in a few extra square-feet of space to stack something else.

Would it be called "puzzle-boxing?"

One might suggest getting rid of the things would be more practical, since this would result in more space, and (more importantly) more time to do things other than puzzle-boxing the junk in the basement. Yes, dear reader, but what would I do then? At least with this mind-taxing task, I will be sure to have something engaging to do. . . forever.

Got to run now, stuff's a-waiting.