HELLO all. I have recently been made aware of a fantastic artist/engineer named Theo Jansen. Cousin April shared a Youtube clip with me and I'll share it with you. He is part of a relatively small class of artists that refer to themselves as "kinetic sculpters". Just watching his creations walk around is a treat. After looking at them in more depth on his website or in interviews and such, it occurs to me that it wouldn't be too difficult to build something similar to one of these beasts (the walking leg mechanism is so brilliantly simple) and actually ride in it using pedal power. My work at UVA on lightweight materials makes me think of how this person powered moving truss structure would not even have to weigh more than say 200lbs and certainly could be made to weigh less. (CFRP tubes filled with polymer foam are amazingly stiff and fairly strong and weigh so very little. But they cost $$$) If you are an engineer type come be inspired, if you are not, be amazed.
I was bold in my last post. I felt certain that a specific miracle was going to happen. It has not happened and so I'm left to process through the events of the past two weeks. While I don't understand why I felt so certain that I was going to see a person raised from the dead, I do feel like that faith came from something outside myself. If you are a christian, then you may know the admonishment that Jesus gave to his disciples to the effect; When you pray, pray with faith. Believe that you have received it already and it will be granted to you. I feel like I know what it is to live that out. However, the specific prayer that I and others prayed was not granted. I don't want my faith to be based on the delivery of certain miracles but I feel like I ought to expect miracles to happen in my life. God does miracles. I have put my faith in the Bible, and the Bible says that I should expect miracles so I expect them. I don't think this is a flimsy position. However, a faith that is based on the seeing of miracles alone is flimsy. I believe that miracles help to reinforce faith but are not a good basis for it. After all, it is easy to discount the majority of reported miracles in the world and demand more scientific scrutiny. I have heard of miracles happening in certain ministries and places around the world, and I believe they do. Heidi and Rolland Baker have reported many including raising of the dead. I think that God is going to start doing more miracles in Charlottesville and that includes the raising of the dead. I just need to figure out where I fit in to all this. And I need to work on hearing God and being certain of what I hear. Just this past week, a woman in our church who has had a brain tumor was healed. The tumor no longer exists. Praise the Lord, nothing is impossible for Him. I know these discussions of faith and religion are more heady than some really want to read. But for me to get these thoughts down is important. I know my readership is very small but getting my faith out in the open is helpful for me. It breaks me of my introspection and shyness about sharing my faith in the non-digital world. My private thoughts are no longer private, but this is the price of admission.
JESUS Christ as the title says, trampled down death by death. Sort of fighting fire with fire. It's something that as a Christian I've accepted. But recently I've come to realize that my position has been more one of hoping rather than true faith. I hope that God's promises are true and that his power is real, but there is still a significant portion of doubt. True faith, something that I've been grappling with and I think I've come around on, is a position of confidence rather than hope. Taking actions that show that I honestly believe that God's promises and power are real and not just hoping they are. I know that I've heard many stories of miracles and even had some experience with the faith behind miracles (though I'm still hoping for that one to happen). Well today in our community here in Charlottesville, I'm seeing something exciting and new. Soon many will see an exciting miracle take place. We will see the dead come back to life here in Charlottesville! I've heard of miracles happening elsewhere in the world even the raising of the dead. On mission trips and in remote places in Africa and such. Friends of friends having amazing experiences. The stories while encouraging in one sense are also frustrating because I don't get to witness them. I want to see miracles. And very soon I will get to witness a pretty awesome one. I'll post up the full story afterwards so you readers can get a detailed account from beginning to end. God is great and his love endures forever. He is more powerful than I ever gave Him credit for. I'm beginning to see it now though and it is awesome. I'm so pumped up!
MAN UP! That was sort of the theme of the boys trip to Atlantic City that a few friends of mine and I took up north just recently. My friend Jon does silk screen printing as a hobby and we printed up a bunch of t-shirts with a design he made. I don't have the design on board but it's taken from this comic strip. It is basically the second panel there (in monochrome) and underneath is says "MAN UP" in video game font. So Jon, Brian, Spence, Matt and I all crammed into Spence's Saab and headed up to Atlantic City for some sweet casino action.
The first time I went to a casino, I lost $20 to the slot machines within about 5-8mins. It was a sucky feeling and it definitely was not my idea of a good time. This go around, we played blackjack and I made $60 in 30min. This was a better experience. Not only because I won (though, come on! it's awesome to win), but because I felt I had more control over the money I was gambling. If you don't go to casinos, I wouldn't guess you know this but the old "one arm bandit" slot machines are a thing of the past. Some of them have arms to pull but most of them are setup with buttons that spin the wheels for you. Instead of coins, you purchase a pre-paid swipe card and the machine will automatically deduct your bet from the card and add winnings to it. No more the days of the coins crashing into the win trough. It's all very sterile now. BOO! So I won $60 at blackjack and my friend lost around $80 in the same amount of time. That's a net of $20 for the casino. Next we played poker. I got a few lucky hands and made another $70 or so and cashed out for the day. $130 for a few hours of gambling; Not bad considering I started with $20.
Jon and I went back to the hotel around 1am and went to sleep leaving the other three to their own devices. Come 9 in the morning, we woke up to find Brian slumbering in the other bed but Spence and Matt were nowhere to be found. After a few calls, they finally picked up the phone. Still at the casino, they had played poker all night long and were up a few hundred dollars. Good for them, except for some reason they thought they could come back and sleep at the hotel until 4 or something. Nope check out is at 11 baby, and by the time they got back, they only had about 15min to enjoy the beds they paid $40 a piece for.
Having nearly had my fill of gambling for the weekend, Jon and I visited the local aquarium and saw some of the alien creatures we share this planet with. (Watch the movie: Aliens of the Abyss) One fish bore a striking resemblance to a blue hummingbird; Weird!
Grabbed some lunch at the Irish Pub and -$40 later I was finally finished off my gambling craving at the Showboat Casino's Blackjack table.
A pretty successful trip for my first real visit to a casino. All safe and sound back in C-ville now and starting a new semester of school. Speaking of gambling, check out a new blog I just started regarding a wager I made with a friend to be won or lost in six months time. Till next time...
HAPPY new year to all of you reader out there. I spent Christmas with my lady and the fam. New years in Chicago with a wedding of one of my good friends sandwiched in between the two happy holidays. It was a fun and busy time. Actually new years eve was a bit milder than in years past. Because the train stopped running at 12:30 and the fact that I was inconsolably sore, I sat in my hotel room at 11pm calling a bunch of my east coast friends who celebrate the event at EST. I had a drink or two and that was that. I don't know about the rest of you, but 2006 passed like a milksop. That was in part due to my broseph being in another city. I was in Chicago for my friend's wedding and he was in New York throwing down with his friends, and boy can he throw down. Anyway, another year another 365 dollars. As I grow up, as I prepare myself for the "real world" I think of all my friends I've had through the years. Some of their old acquaintance I've forgot and that makes me nostalgic and sort of melancholy. There are some acquaintance who's friendship and memories I'm currently letting slip, for shame. Then there are those who I haven't yet met, I feel nothing for those in this last group. Here is to keeping in touch with old friends. A new years resolution.
Here is a picture of me and the lady. I said I'd get one up here eventually and seeing as how I don't have a camera, it took a while. This was taken at a friends wedding. Note the raised eyebrow. That is for you reader. Just for you.
THIS past week has been a busy busy week/end. It all started Wednesday night when friends Bernard and Jon and I went to the kick off meeting for the Adrenaline Film Project After a little bit of talking about how to frame shots, getting location releases and set safety, we got our line of dialogue, "I want to believe it", our prop (a jar of miracle whip mayonnaise, and our genre; Fantasy. After that it was a rush job to come up with a story. Once submitted and approved at 10pm, we had to write a script and get it approved at 9AM the next morning. We stayed up till about 2 working on it, but we couldn't get a finished script. We split up to write our own versions. Then we used the best from each to compile a rough draft. The next morning, we went to the writing workshop and finished it up. We started casting and collecting props till 5 or so. I went to H-burg to get some stuff from Glens Fair Price Store (the best costume shop around) to get some makeup and junk. Then back to C-ville for casting and shotlisting, location scouting and rehearsals. We got to bed at 1:30 then up for filming, at 8am. in the rain in the woods. It seemed fun for the first hour or so, but then the sog set in and it started to feel gross. The makeup effects I put on our monster kept falling off. And we had a hard time keeping our equipment dry. But we made it and after taking a short break from filming to dry off and eat lunch, we were done with the forest scenes by 4pm. Then we went to film our interior shots but the child actor we had lined up got stage fright and refused to do it. Well, I had to leave at this point to go to Ferrum with my lovely lady Lindsay to visit her parents. Jon and Bernard spent the rest of the evening editing the forest stuff and trying to line up another child actor. Lucky for them they found one.
In the meantime, Lindsay drove us down to Ferrum while I slept most of the way. When we got there, I pretty much just headed off to bed. I kept having anxiety nightmares about the film. But they faded after I woke up to a nice breakfast. Lindsay and I went to a folklife festival they were having down there at the college. It was pretty sweet. Lots of crafts and craftsmen, bluegrass music. They had a pretty big exhibit on the moonshining culture of the area. They had a sheepdog demonstration as well. It was amazing! The farmer, a man with two prosthetic arms, had his dogs so well trained they seemed like they were remote control. He would call out or whistle commands to the dogs, and they would route the sheep. He could put the herd of sheep anywhere in the field he wanted within probably 5 feet. They also had some pretty good cooking. It was so windy down there though that the 60 degree weather felt like 30. A lot of the tents blew over. I got a little sick from being out in the rain the previous day and being out in the cold. But it wasn't too bad. The next day after church, we went to visit Lindsay's brother. They had the cutest kids and we carved pumpkins with them. On the way back to C-ville, Jon called and said that we had won one of the prizes from the competition. Pretty sweet! I got a professional headphone set and a gift certificate to banana republic, kudos to them for doing a great editing job and with filming the child actor. It was fun times but I was so worn out, I ended up taking Monday off sick. Feeling better today.
SO I carved pumpkins with my good friend Jon Sharp the other day. That was fun. Only four days old, my pumpkin is now full of mold. So sad. Pumpkins don't last long after carving but four days is a little to fast for my creation to acquiesce to the entropy that so dominates the world. I want to try carving another pumpkin and trying out a method to preserve it. I'm just thinking of coating the inside with wax. That should work I think. I doubt the tea candle inside will be enough to melt much of it away. What do you think?
Oh also Jon caught me dancing to his cell phone ringtone. Enjoy that moment with me now...
HELLO reader. Thanks for reading, I know I haven't put anything new up here in a while. I'm still workin' away at my paper and not much has changed since last I wrote you. What's new? Well, lets see. I saw a cool kung fu movie "the protector" go see it if you heart action. Without hyperbole I can honestly say it made me sweat. Plot bad, breaking bones good. Whatelse? I've been working with a friend on trying to get into a film competition here in town (the Virginia film festival adrenaline competition). Other than that it's been life as usual. I'm used to more free time, and I haven't had a heaping helping of it for a while. I feel a bit sick too, but don't let that get you down. That is all for now. Well, have a good one. Keep in touch reader.
AS tropical storm Ernesto throws his torrents against my window, I can't help but to hum that tune. "Singin' in the rain, just singin in the rain. What a glorious feeling, I'm happy again!" Perhaps it's because I just watched the musical and the songs are ridiculously catchy, but I just love the rain.
I tested out my poncho on my walk to school this morning. I have come to the conclusion that I also need rain pants, if I am to enjoy sitting in my office with they driest of jeans. Darn if they don't take a long time to dry. Furthermore, I have soggy socks. When I am in the rain though, I generally love it. I hope I can go splashing about later today. Driving in the rain is even more fun. There is a street here in C'ville that when it rains really hard, tends to flood. I can drive down the hill and hit this gigantic puddle sending me into a hydroplane as plumes of water splash up ten feet high on both sides of my car. What fun! Pedestrians beware.
I still don't know my plans for this weekend. I had been planning on going to a wedding with Lindsay but some mixup with the RSVP card threw those plans out. My brother and cousins and Tim were planning on camping but may be rained out. My long missed friend is having a friend reunion down in NC beach but I haven't heard the details. I will be back at my folks house on Sunday/Monday and all the while it looks like it will continue to rain. However I spend my weekend, I hope it entails some sort of muddy rain field sport. Like mudball, or mud wrestling, human bowling, or muddy muddy monster frisbee ball sog face game... or monopoly EXTREME MUDDY RAIN STYLE! Okay back to revising my paper...
