an old Poem

I wrote this at least 3 1/2 years ago. It was my first and best poem, I just found the one scrap of paper I had it written down on, and figured I'd put in in a fairly stable place. (unlike the hard-drive it was burried on)

In my daily interactions

with the world around me,

I've yet to find a moment

that does not astound me

I've ne'er been so surprised

at the ways of Time and Space

Nor seen some Matter in Motion,

that's not flying in my face.

The order, The Perfection,

the sheer Beauty of it all!

Is but a dim reflection

like a mirror on a wall

Of a much greater reality

one which only could enthrall

With all irrationality

any man under this law.

Are all mortals such great fools,

to take the trash and leave the Jew'ls?

Act we all like stubborn mules,

to think that we could set the rules?

If complex, we call it chaos,

If miraculous, then by chance.

Are we so blind as not to see,

This Vast, Eternal Dance?

"In Him we live and move,

And have our very being."

He is truly the Eye,

Through which is done all seeing.

The Brothers Miller

(these last 3 posts were originally one, but I decided to break them up as it was quite long)

Recently I've been reading Ryan Millers blog. Younger brother of the Rand and Robyn Miller who made myst. Interesting.

Also here's an interesting article about Robyn Miller, who may well me my favorite author/artist/musicion/film-maker/etc. today
Heres a quote:

"The Christ story is a myth I believe is true, and is incredibly compelling,"
Miller says. "It's become dulled in our imaginations, but if we could listen to
it for the first time - a god who has a son who becomes a man, who makes the
supreme sacrifice - it's still very alive." .....

For Miller, precision in a
work of art is more than a reward unto itself - it's a tribute to the author of
authors, whose trademark is the .sig file of all things. "Whether you're making
cabinets, designing software, or writing an article, I believe that God would
have us make things well, and act creatively in every scenario, because that's
what He does and we're made in His image."

Some good pics of riven can be found here:

Looking back on my life so far, Robyn miller really has been very influencial in my interests, tastes and goals. So I'll post somemore interveiws:
http://members.aol.com/jamesstep2/robyn/robyn1.html
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/5.09/riven_pr.html
and one with his brother Rand: http://www.cornerstonemag.com/imaginarium/features/rand.html

And then a link to Richard Vander Wende's site , who worked closely with Robyn on Riven:
www.vanderwende.com

P.S. Please comment, I'd love to know what yall think.

Augustine Film

After listening to some old Ligoneer tapes by J. Gerstner on Augustine, I was re-inspired to think about making a film on the life of St. Augustine. That would be awesome. It could be a trilogy. The first movie he's un-converted. He's converted in the second. He's theologian in the third, and it ends with the sack of Rome! It would have him writing the Confessions and the City of God, etc. Someone really has to do that. He's probably the most influential Christian thinker in history. Loved by Reformed Protestants and Roman Catholics alike. The African founder of European Christendom. It would be great for Roman Catholic-Protestant discussion. And would renew interest in reading him. We essentially have the script with the Confessions (which I must finish over Christmas break, as well as read the City of God)
Tell me, How is this not perfect for a film. We have Ambrose and Monica, we have a huge detailed character arc. It's Dramatic, it's interesting, and there's few movies about the time period. Someone must do a good film(s) about Augustine!

If you haven't read the world's first and best autobiography, written by that great church father, please do yourself a favor and read it over break, it's so good.

Thanksgiving and before

Well, I had a great Thanksgiving! I got to see all 5 of my sisters, my parents, my brother, my grandparents, many of my aunts, Uncles, and cousins, and a family of close friends!

I am so thankful for my family.

At thanksgiving, I weighed myself at 195 lbs, last time I weighed my self I was at least 210 (some time last summer) so apparently I've lost my freshman 15. Heh.
(Newsflash! Attn. Girls who want to lose weight! Give me all your money and/or meal plans, and you are guaranteed money back to lose at least 15 lbs very fast!)

Last Saturday night (a week ago). I ate, talked, watched movie, and talked somemore with friends(Stephen McMillan, David Grey, and Mike Graham) . That was really fun. I've been so busy lately, it was the first human interaction I'd had in a while. It wasn't IM, email, phone, forum, or the like, it was real human interaction, and theres no replacing it.
We went to see the incredible which was awesome! Pixar did it again. I agree with what Brian Godawa and Peter Leithart said. I hope their next film is up to par w/ the rest!

During the last 2 weeks I slept in the Arch. dept several times (I do that when I get less then 2.5 hours of sleep) But last monday, on my way to the couch-thing, Low and behold, there was someone on my couch! And it was Tres (of RUF fame). So I had to go all the way to the MSC to sleep. Heh.

Another random tid-bit. If you ever want to play darts/throwing-knives with Exacto-knives come to east side of the second floor of Langford C after 2am on Sunday nights. We have a target set up on the bulletin board. It's great fun. Just don't lose your knife.

Air force dabbling in the occult?

I was just reading this article

Which was talking about the Air Force doing research in the area of psychic teleportation, Gary North has a good section in his book (Unholy Spirits, which can be found free online here
) dealing with this. He writes about how the USSR had done much research and experiment with this. He also quotes Lewis in the Screwtape Letters: (as a demon)

" My dear Wormwood,
Our
policy for the moment, is to conceal ourselves. We are
really faced with a
cruel dilemma. When the humans disbelieve
in our existence we lose all the
pleasing results of direct
terrorism, and we make no magicians. On the other
hand, when they believe in us, we cannot make them materialists and
skeptics. At least not yet."

Wow, that's scary. It's truely post-modern (and humanistic) worlveiw that uses both science and magic.

Thoughts on Interactive 'art' and storytelling.

It's ironic that my love of classical music, renaissance Art, and literature was birthed partly by playing computer games. One of my favorite Artist and Storytellers is Robyn Miller who (with his brother) made Myst and Riven His favorite authors are Lewis, Tolkien, and Jules Verne .He designed most of the art, composed the music, and co-wrote the story for Myst and Riven. After Riven, he left the game industry to go into film because he thought games or"interactive worlds" as he liked to call them, were too weak on storytelling ability. Since '97 he's been working on some sort of film (landofpoint.com )

Adventure games (like myst) are, in a way, interactive stories. Which is sort of a paradox. But, then again, that is what our lives are. It like playing with providence and free will. It will be interesting to see how this medium develops. It seems to be the least popular form of video game these days.

Playing a good adventure game is really like looking at a beautiful painting, listening to good music, watching a movie, and solving a puzzle or a mystery all at the same time. Maybe one of the reason people avoid the genre is because it's sort of inbetween video games and movies or books. When people play 'games' they wnat action, when they watch movies, they don't want to have to think, and make decisions.

Anyway, I was just thinking that I would buy an old computer so that I can always come back and play all the old adventure games that are now impossible to play. I guess that's the difference between art and entertainment. Art is forever. Entertainment is meant to be consumed. And the lines are blurred in our society.

Just because the Arts of Film and Interactive entertainment began in "Consumer" society, doesn't mean that they are destined to be less then high art. Maybe....
___________________________________________

I wrote that yesterday, odd thing though, today I stumbled across this: www.99rooms.com Which is a great example of interactive art. The first word that comes to mind is Odd. A little frightening, and strangely beautiful. (warning, this site may be unsettling to some visitors)

This week I've been listening to The Count of Monte Cristo on tape while I ride my bike, or work on my projects. Listening to a book instead of reading it is a very interesting experience. It is really storytelling, as you are actually listening to someone tell you a story. I think every reader should occasionally listen to a book. Very enjoyable.

The odd thing (I say that alot now, don't I) about listening to portable cd/mp3/tape players is that the music or voice is totally disconnected with the person and performer. So I have a voice in my head telling me about Edmand Dante while I'm waiting at a stoplight on my bike or drawing or checking out a library book. Same with music.
There are so many things that technology has brought up that need to be addressed! Our culture has changed so much in the last 100 years!

Oh, by the way, I found that 99rooms link from http://www.coffeehouse-at-end-of-days.com/ What a great blog. He regularly talks about games too, though not adventure games.

Well, I'm off to do something else... Maybe I'll goto Barnes and Noble or something...

Procrastinatio

While I'm not sleeping, and not doing the homework I should be doing, nor reading all the good books I want to read or other things, I may as well post another interesting blog by Leithart:
It's about Laughter. So very interesting.
http://www.leithart.com/archives/000908.php
another interesting one here: http://www.leithart.com/archives/000749.php

I've also added 3 more books to my amazon wishlist from reading his blog. Funny. I spend almost more time finding books I want to buy then I do reading the ones I have!

While I'm writing, I may as well recommend the movie Primer to you. After much anticipation, I saw it last thursday night. It was beyond my expectations. It's the most thought provoking film I've ever seen, and is definitely in my top ten list (which is a very competitive spot). Part of the reason I was looking forward to it was because it was made by a Christian, Math Major who lives in Dallas, w/ no film experience, and the film won the main award at Sundance, and he shot it on film (which is expensive) all for under 7000$. That basically means he's a genius. Oh yeah, and he wrote, directed, produced, acted the major part, edited, composed the music, and did the cinematography too.
Anyway, it's showing at a few theaters in San Antonio, Dallas, Houston, and Austin. You can find them at www.fandango.com . If you like movies that make you think, that are beautiful, and that are deep, see Primer.

Art and Sh*t

Today while at the Arts section of Half Price Books, two girls (obviously looking for a book that wasn't in the art section) walked by and one said "Oh that's art and sh*t."
After a few seconds said to myself "my thoughts exactly"
She of course meant Art and stuff, but what passes as Art today is often literally sh*t. (like much of the 'art' we pay our government to sponsor) And if the 'art' isn't physically sh*t, then it's the creative equivalent.
A book on Rembrandt next to a book on Pollock really are books on art and sh*t respectively.


Posts coming soon: (hopefully)
Thoughts on the movie Primer,
thoughts on the Film Festival I went to this weekend,
and thoughts about propaganda and story

Chasing Birds

Yesterday at a time I should have been studying, I walked by a flock of blackbirds with a camera. For the next 30 minutes I chased them around taking pictures of them in flight. Here's the cream of the crop, I probably took around 100 pictures (many of nothing), and here is what turned out good:


warning, this one is quite large:


That was fun!

Photos from sunset post

Here are a few of the pictures I took last monday:
A few have them have been color corrected in Photoshop. The first 2 are long exposure shots, I don't remember exactly how long, but several seconds each. I'm using a 3.2 mega-pixal digital camera I checked out from the Arch. deptartment, I don't remember what kind it was, but it has all the manuel focus, f-stop, exposure controls, which is cool. I've never really played around w/ that stuff before.
(click on the pictures to see a larger version)


Here are 2 of the sunset pics:



and here is one I took a few weeks ago, I always love old textures like that, I'm not sure why.


While posting photo's I may as well post these too. I was walking by a puddle carring a camera, so I stopped at took some pictures.

Trinity and Storytelling

I just read a great entry in Peter Leithart's blog:
http://www.leithart.com/archives/000942.php
It's an article on Trinity and Story. Check it out.
Also Doug Wilson has some interesting thoughts on the election:
www.dougwils.com As much as I like Bush, It is disturbing that he has bought in to Poly-theism just to get elected. Bush! Please remember we serve a jealous God.
Edit: here is the post I was refering to in Doug Wilson's blog: http://www.dougwils.com/index.asp?Action=Anchor&CategoryID=1&BlogID=546

Happenings

On Tuesday night I got 1.5 hours of sleep in the Arch. Building, that was interesting. Even at 4 in the morning Kerry was still planning to win the election, I guess something changed before 8am. My sister Kristin who just graduated from Patrick Henry College phc.edu was campaigning in Penn all week, and then on Tuesday night she got to go to the party at the white-house!

Today I was watching the making of Star Wars dvd, very interesting. Apparently Lucas had kept the story details so quiet, that in the making of the Empire strikes back, Mark Hammel didn't know that that vader was his father until literally minutes before the scene was shot that he finds out. And the actor playing vader in the suit, didn't even know!!

Today I went to Barnes and Noble at about 5:45, and I stayed there till 11. Great fun, I think I'll have to make that a weekly thing. Funny thing, when I was there they played a song from the Amelie soundtrack! So much better reading music then the Jazz they play so often. But anyway mainly read In the Blink of an Eye: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1879505622/002-9201377-8102448?v=glance

It's a book on film editing, so I didn't expect it to be that interesting, but man! it was incredible, I read 70 pgs in one sitting. It talks about how our vision is 'cut' by our eyes blinking. When we look from our book to the clock on the wall, we usually blink, and just see the book and then the clock, just like on film. He also wrote about how our blinks separate our thoughts. When you are talking to someone, they usually blink right when they 'get' what it is you are saying. You feel odd when someone stares at you w/o blinking or if someone blinks to much during a conversation because it means that they are thinking about other things, not following your conversation. We also says that we notice bad acting (subconsciously) by when the actors blink at the wrong times. (ie, when they are thinkin about their performance, or how they look instead of their character) He also pointed out that you see this a lot in Political Candidates when they are nervous, etc.

When ever I read something like that I always want to go watch people, watch their eyes, etc. Anytime I read books on drawing people or animation I want to watch people too. But people don't like it when you stare at them. I always want to watch how people walk or what their mouths do when they talk, etc But people always think your a psycho or something. :( Oh well, that's life I guess.

I've also been reading Unholy Spirits by Gary North: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/093046253X/qid=1099723721/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-9201377-8102448?v=glance&s=books

It's basically about occultism and demonic power. Very interesting, he talks a lot about para-normal science being real demon interaction. I had previously thought all that stuff was just a hoax or fake, etc. He shows how the modern Atheist, cannot accept anything super-natural in his world view, so he just rejects it no matter how much evidence exists, just as he accepts evolution, despite it's absurdity. He also talks a lot about the common goals of magick and humanistic science: power.

I guess I've become so influenced by the secular worldveiw that I forgot that supernatural evil exist! (I also watched Hell-boy recently, which like Indiana Jones, links the Nazi's with occultism, which I think makes a lot of sense) He refers to Lewis alot, which is nice to see someone so reformed do. I now have renewed interest in reading that Hideous Strength. I'll probably read it this Christmas Also, if I have the guts I may watch the Exorcist sometime. I've heard from Brian Godawa (www.godawa.com) that it was good, it really shows the nature of evil.

Odd happenings: Brad Pitt, Burning Rubber, Sunsets and Suicides

Random oddities:
Night before last I had a dream in which my cell phone rang w/ the Amelie soundtrack. That was kind of cool. Last week I watched 2 disturbing movies with Brad Pitt in them: Fight CLub and Se7en. Funny thing is my partner in my Design class looks just like Brad Pitt. I keep thinking he's going to beat me senseless or kill me, etc. ;) This evening riding home, the sunset was beautiful, so I went to the top of the Northgate Parking garage to watch it and take some pictures. I also decided to take some long exposure shots of the cars below (which turned out cool), so I climbed up on the wall at the top of the parking garage. I got lots of good shots, which I may post here, but as I was walking back to the stairs, three cop cars come up behind me. Apparently someone had seen me up there and thought I was trying to commit suicide! So anyway they asked for my ID, etc. and told me not to climb up there anymore. That was odd. It's at least the second time I've gotten in trouble w/ police for taking pictures. (the first was when I was taking pictures of textures on the new Court House in Corpus, turns out it was just after security had been raised due to terrorism) Then, this evening coming home from Bible study, I lost control of my bike, dropped my Bible and my knee was plunged in to the tire giving me a large, black-pink rubber burn. At least I didn't fall off my bike though.
Well, off to bed, ready for a new adventure tomorrow!