Connections

"In an extreme view, the world can be seen as only connections, nothing else. We think of a dictionary as the repository of meaning, but it defines only in terms of other words. I liked the idea that a piece of information is really defined only by what it's related to, and how it's related. There really is little else to meaning. The structure is everything. There are billions of neurons in our brains, but what are neurons? Just cells. The brain has no knowledge until connections are made between neurons. All that we know, all that we are, comes from the way our neurons are connected."

- Tim Berners-Lee (inventor of the World Wide Web)

He Is the Ninja

And he's that good!

Arrhythmia

I feel an incessant urgency running throughout my being. It is focused in my chest, as though my heart can't quite keep pace, like when you trip and just can't quite catch your balance. You just keep stumbling along in a half-fall, faster and faster, but your feet just can't catch up with your body.

Prepare to be WOMPed

A few years back I started a message board for "discussion and updates on WOMP Films productions". This was not long after "The Network" revolutionized the senior movie project and months before "Joe Guidance" once again pushed the envelope. The message board was short lived and has spent the last few years hidden away on my hard drive. Now I share it with all as a look back on the time when we were so excited about filmmaking.

Prepare to be WOMPed!

Seat Change Chain Reaction

A seat change chain reaction is a phenomenon I have often witnessed as a student. It may occur when a student, for various reasons, sits in a seat that is not his or her usual seat. If this new seat is usually occupied by another student, then a seat change chain reaction will occur that may, under the right circumstances, relocate an entire row or even an entire classroom of students. The most common cause of a seat change chain reaction is when a student from the previous class has not yet vacated a seat usually occupied by an incoming student. The incoming student will be forced to find a new seat and even when their usual seat is finally vacated may see no reason to move back to it.

Where Is My Self Righteousness?!

For the better part of my life I have been haunted by an ever present self doubt. This self doubt likly has it's roots in my nihilist tendencies, although it could be the other way around (but see there I go). Rarely have I been able to be assertive and say "This is what I think". Instead, I doubt the validity of my thoughts and so I pause before I speak them. I listen to what everyone else has to say. I have felt like an observer to the world instead of an active participant; an outsider peeking through the window. All these people seem to know what they're talking about so I guess I should listen.

Where is my self righteousness to say, "this is what I think and I will make no appologies"? Where is my assertiveness to follow my thoughts and ideas? Where is my ego to say "I am an amazing person and everyone needs to know that"?

It's all burried under my self doubt...... Or maybe not, what do I know?

My Amorphous Sentiency: A Visual Interpretation

So...It's been a few days since my last post....On a side note, I still feel kinda awkward and self conscious on the audio blog posts. I'll try and stick with it though and I should loosen up. If anyone ever feels like doing a guest audio post just give me a call! If you don't know my number just ask and I'll probably give it to you.

I've been in kind of a funny mood that's not very conducive to writing. All the writing I have done in the past few days has been very scattered and incoherant. I'm really still unwinding from one of my most stressful and exhausting semesters of all time. I'm proud though, I feel like I've been doing some of my best work. Next semester should be really cool. I'm taking 2 sculpture classes (wood and clay) and an independent study making sculptural, multichambered udus (a type of ceramic drum). I look forward to going to the studio putting on some music and leting my mind go as I work the clay. Building something out of mud with my bare hands is kind of primal and meditative. Photo projects on the other hand often get me overthinking everything and conceptually exhausting my already tired mind.

Speaking of which, I thought I would share some of my work from my digital photography class. There's a lot that needs to be said about this work, but I don't feel up to it right now so I'll save that for another time.

Salty in New York

This post got cut off due to audioblogger's time limit. We continued onto another post....but I forgot to hit post on the second one....oh well, it is as it is.

Free At Last

The semester is over. I just made a shiv out of a candy cane and now I'm free at last!!

The Bread Hands Project

Here are some photos of my 2 final projects for my Moldmaking and Casting class. For these projects I first made a mold of my hand in aliginate. This mold was then cast in wax and a 2 part rubber mold was made. I then made lots of dough, pressed it into the mold and actually baked it in the mold. After baking 14 hands, the mold is now falling apart and turning strange sickly colors....and I wouldn't recomend eating the bread....but it worked!

Tracing our roots back to the Big Bang

I found this interesting article while doing some research for a photo project.

"Go back 6.4 billion years ago, and the Earth didn’t even exist (it coalesced at about 4.6 billion). At 6.4, our ancestors were just dust swirling around in space, fragments of a star that had exploded. Our “local supernova” about 7 billion years ago produced nearly all of the atoms presently in our bodies, cooking the heavier ones out of the hydrogen and helium that had been around for a long time."

More Turkeys

I'm 23

Today (well, yesterday technically) was my birthday! 23 years old. It kinda snuck up on me. Several times today people came up to me and said happy birthday and it took a moment before it registered "oh yea it is my birthday isn't it". My mind has been to focused on other things lately....like getting through the last week before the end of the semester.

I didn't really do anything special today unless 9 hours of class followed by 3 hours of work is your idea of a celebration. In fact, I'm really feeling rather lonely. I really miss her a lot and I wish things hadn't turned out this way. I feel a tugging at my heart deep in my chest. It actually feels like there is a physical void where something is missing, and when I dwell on that feeling for too long it expands to the rest of my body and scatters my thoughts.... Such a contrast to the joy and excitement I was feeling one year ago.

Anyway, she called today to wish me a happy birthday and we talked for a bit. I had stayed away for quite a while because seeing her had left me with such an empty feeling, but I think staying away just made it worse. I really hope we can find a way to be friends again because she is still a very special person to me. But it’s not easy to make that transition. At any rate I’m glad we are talking again, there are still a lot of things that need to be said.

On the bright side, I did at least get to celebrate my birthday the day before with my family. We had spaghetti and meatballs (and cinnamon birthday cake which was delicious… and lasted about 2 sec when I brought it back to my apt). I’m really excited about my Birthday/Christmas present: In April I will be taking a Glassblowing class at Snow Farm in Western MA. I’ve always wanted to learn glassblowing, plus it will be an opportunity to meet some new artsy people! I think it will likely be an experience I’ll remember for the rest of my life.

Rat Brain Flies Fighter Jet

Continuing my recent obsession with the mind, here is another link. (Thanks Mike!)

The "brain", grown from 25,000 neural cells extracted from a single rat embryo, has been taught to fly an F-22 jet simulator by scientists at the University of Florida.

Flythrough of V1 (Primary Visual Cortex)

I'm doing some research for an art project and I found this cool animation on this site. I thought it was appropriate given the recent discussion about neural nets and minds. I'm really ecstatic to have some ongoing discussion sparked by a post. (A note to Charles, thanks for your comments! I will post a response just as soon as I can find a break in my workload....soon I promise)

Woo! It Finally Posted

This was suposed to post two days ago but I guess Audioblogger was down. Anyway...here it is Salty!

Bread Hands

A drawing by Ashley from Kansas State University

Yes, the bread hands are driving me crazy! It takes so long just to make one! But I'm almost done making the 12 I need for my art project......I'm not exactly sure what the final presentation is gonna be but I'll be posting pics I promise. In the meantime, here are some pics of the work in progress:

Poo on Audioblogger

I guess audioblogger is not working today for everyone, not just me. Anyway me and Salty were talking last night and had the idea to do a conference call audio post....once it's working again. Salty assures me he has "BIG RANTS". So that should be a special treat, assuming he doesn't crowley-out as we say.

Anyway, had a busy weekend, but it was a lot of fun. Mike, Adam, Marissa, and I finally got started insulating and drywalling the room Mike likes to call his "study". We made lots of progress and took lots of pics of the process. It's not even finished and the difference is quite amazing.

Sometime soon I will post a more detailed account of our work complete with photos, but right now I really need to work on some of the art projects I've been putting off, finals are right around the corner.

Little Furry Invaders

We found the evidence last week. A few brown specks in our silverware drawer. It is our theory that with winter approaching, they are invading our old farm house for the warmth, and the morsels of food that we leave lying around in our laziness. For the past week, I have been setting this trap in or silverware drawer and it works like clockwork. Yesturday, I managed to catch 3 in one day. Total caught so far is approaching 10. The question I am beginning to ask myself is: Am I catching the same mouse over and over again? If so it's a pretty dumb mouse to keep going back in the trap. I go some distance down the street before I release them, so it would seem unlikely for it to come all the way back to our house.

Shiva not pulling her weight. Stop being lazy and go catch some mice!