Electrons

"Another thing I've been thinking about a lot lately, is that electrons are REALLY important, and if I could get ALL of them, I could pretty much run the universe." - Adam

Froggy in the Pool Skimmer

And they found a frog in the pool skimmer.
They threw it as hard as they could against the wooden fence.
It's lifeless body fell to the ground and they laughed.
And I was ashamed to be human.

Lois I'm Trying To Fly!

Running as fast as I could, and flapping the wings I had constructed from department store clothing boxes and masking tape, I really believed it might work.

Why We Fight

"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist." - Dwight D. Eisenhower

I just saw this amazing documentary about the "Military Industrial Complex" called "Why We Fight".

Blarg

By the way, sorry I keep only posting links lately....they're just soo cool! Anyway, I've been busy with other things and have been neglecting my blog. One thing I'm working on is teaching myself PHP and MySQL so that I can make the website I've been dreaming of forever. I decided it was best to start with something simple tho so I've been making a simple website to keep track of our communal expenses for the appartment and keep running stats.

Anyway, I should have a whole bunch of content to put up soon...like art and maybe some video and stuff. (That reminds me....the Earthdance Film Festival at UConn is comming up in about a month! I gotta figure out what I'm going to submit.) I've also been meaning to maybe post some personal stuff on here.....It's been feeling very sterile and impersonal lately.

Anyway, right now I'm gonna try to get some work done...maybe even head to campus. I know...pretty lame thing to do over spring break, but I'm feeling a little overwhelmed and I want to try and get ahead or at least caught up in some places so I can relax a bit. We are at least planning on going on some kind of day trip before break is over.

Gardens-in-a-Petri

"Billions and billions of bacterial landscape architects pruning -- no less in environments poisoned with antibiotics -- other bacterial landscape architects, dead or alive, to form dazzling arabesque parterres. The self-organizing embroidery of organisms in constant Darwinian mode." [Link found via News of the dead]


This kind of reminds me of a conversation I had the other night about the nature of God. This is the basic premise, which me and a friend originaly developed in a 4am philosophy session a few years ago.

The brain consists of billions of individual neurons. Each is relatively simple and predictable by itself, but out of that very ordered yet complex interaction of billions of neurons, arises the experience of consciousness. I see these complex interactions of relatively simple elements everywhere I look. For example, it is no new idea that society has a mind of it's own, some might call it the collective consciousness. Social forces are beyond the scope of any individual person. People are the neurons in the mind of society. Social, political, ideological and artistic movements are thoughts in this mind.

In the grand scope of the entire universe, you have some inconceivable number of particles interacting with each other. Is the universe on some level conscious? The collisions of galaxies and the deaths of stars, do these constitute radical movements of thought in the massive mind that is the universe? I can't accept the idea that God is some dude in the sky judging good and evil, but I could accept this massive mind being labeled God. After all, isn't there that whole thing about God being the alpha and the omega or whatever....kinda fits. In this way, everything is part of God. Consequently, I wouldn't think that this God really gives a shit about issues like gay marriage and such. The whole of human race would be merely an insignificant thought in the deepest corner of its subconscious.

Anyway, how did I end up on this tangent? In the image above, there are billions of bacteria. Each is a pretty basic unit just doing what it's programmed to do, but together something extraordinary occurs.

A Scanner Darkly trailer

I'm really excited about Linklater's new film, "A Scanner Darkly" comming out sometime this year. Here is the trailer.

[link found via News of the dead.]

LED Throwies

The Graffiti Research Lab and Eyebeam OpenLab have developed these simple and awesome "LED Throwies"

"LED Throwies are an inexpensive way to add color to any ferromagnetic surface in your neighborhood. A Throwie consists of a lithium battery, a 10mm diffused LED and a rare-earth magnet taped together. Throw it up high and in quantity to impress your friends and city officials."



[link found via News of the dead.]

11 Hours in the Studio

So yea, I was in the studio all night working on my clay sculpture project because it was s'posed to be due the next day.....but then school got canceled due to bad weather...a good thing considering I still didn't finish! The project is based on my Amorphaces and I have to say I'm pretty happy with how the 2D images are translating to 3D sculptures. Granted I'm not doing exact copies of the images, but I am using the basic idea. I still have a lot of work to do tho. One is pretty much finished, but the other two are just roughed out and one of those is being really fussy.

I ended up deciding it was crazy to stay till 9am and go to work on no sleep, so instead I left at 6am and caught a quick nap at my mom's house. Then after work let out early I went back to her house and slept for a bit. My mom made a delicious stir fry....but when she tried to wake me up for dinner I was apparantly incoherant...haha

Mom: Dylan dinner is ready.
Me: (dazed) I don't understand.
Mom: Dinner! Food! Eat!
Me: (frustrated) I'm soo confused.... (went back to sleep)