My Blog
A Blank Slate
Thursday, October 28, 2004 at 5:48 am
Tabula Rasa - a cleared mind. Refreshment. I always thought that if you were going to start over, it meant having no benefit of previous experience. Last week, however, I created a new design for my web site in a day, and came up with the code for it in 2 days. Now, I haven't exactly got around to finishing it, but let me say this: If I were editing my old side extensively, I would never have reached anything like the new site design. If I had never designed the old page, the new design wouldn't have been so nice. Apparently experience follows when you start over.
This week, I had a graphic design project to do. I had created a few different rough drafts and I had no avenues of improvement. In a painful decision, I scrapped all three ideas. It didn't take me a full half hour to come up with a whole new design that was more visually interesting. Now what happened? Those first three took hours of trying to just think of an idea to start with.
A blank slate is the best use of new experience. That is one reason why God's grace is truly so amazing. If we were not to be wiped clean, we would not have grounds nor room for our transformation. In Cor 301, we are experimenting to become a true Christian community. One of the virtues of this is emptiness. The reason is that we all come in with our own backgrounds and we simply can't transcend them by trying. We have to clear the mind and use our experience to interpret the data is if it were brand new. Amazing.
Surprise!
Tuesday, October 26, 2004 at 2:45 am
I was gone all weekend fixing computers at home in Bushnell. On sunday afternoon I last-minute catch a voicemail from the Fishy that there was going to be a surprise birthday party for Rachel Heston at her house at 5. Basically, if I left within a half hour I could make it there. So I did. I got to her house about 10 minutes after 5, but she hadn't shown up yet. I decide to hurry up and use the bathroom before she gets there...It was so great...but I think I'll just show you how I described it to Fishy today on IM..
Chad: I'm glad I caught my voicemail in time
Chad: even if I did end up in the bathroom as Rachel showed up
Chad: which is kinda awkward at a surprise party
Chad: It's like...I couldn't flush yet
Technology...strange
Wednesday, October 20, 2004 at 6:04 pm
So I was reading a story about technology on ZDNet.com and I came across this little paragraph:
"Nobody knows how the brain works, although there's lots of fascinating work being done in cognitive neuroscience--last week, researchers at the University of Rochester announced that adult ferrets used 80 percent of their brain's processing power to think about things after being shown clips from The Matrix. Nobody knows what this means (although the figures may be substantially lower for the sequels), but the fact remains that we are developing some very powerful tools to peer into the workings of mind."
Sunshine
Monday, October 18, 2004 at 1:24 am
Today is one of those days where if all of life could be summed up in two days, it was. Of all situations, it is the most unlikely to actually make a difference. I had Saturday (yesterday) all planned out. I rented "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" on several recommendations and paired it with "New York Minute" the next stupid Mary Kate & Ashley Olsen movie to laugh at. I was all set to wash laundry during the two movies and then doing homework, some light reading and then going to bed. About 5:15, I ended up changing my plans when Jake Russell burst into my room saying I should go to St. Louis. He and Natalie W. finally convinced me to go.
So next thing I know, I'm leaving clothes scattered across my bed and driving my car down I-70. We eat a lil ravioli and have a little hot cocoa and we're on our way to the City Museum. My idea of a museum was kinda blown away as I spent the next several hours crawling, climbing, and wandering through mazes of metal, wood, and rock. I got myself caught in a narrow passageway in a cave and without knowing, I kinda ripped my pants. Natalie, Charity, Alexis, and Jake all kinda waited a while to tell me that there was kind of a gaping hole in my pants right over my butt. A while later, Jake is hanging upside down in a rope lattice only to get a thorough talking-to from one of the security guys. In this place where everything is climbable and they claim in multiple places that they are not responsible for injuries, he gets 'in trouble'.
Well, we didn't stay long after that, and it was off to Natalie's house to find my car. I had several opportune moments to show off my underwear between the place where we were in the museum and the parking lot. I had to walk even further because instead of parking in the three dollar parking, we parked in a place that was 'three except without the "th" but with an f.'
I didn't get back to my dorm until well after 2 a.m. I got some good long sleep and then got around to watching the two movies. Eternal Sunshine was an incredible movie. Even though it didn't follow a linear storyline, it was easy to follow and I'd say even life-changing. It's a movie that instead of making you really think at one pivotal point in the movie, it is a movie solely comprised of those points. After the movie was over, I just kinda sat still for 5 minutes or so. My head just started flowing with ideas and thoughts. I decided that the theme for my Digital Media portfolio was going to be "Live Out Loud."
Then I watched the STUPID, stupid Olsen twin movie. The highlight quote of the movie went something like "We need that dog. That dog is my life. And when he poops...his poop is my life." Like I said, it was stupid. I loved it. I took the two movies back and came back to my dorm still flooded with thoughts and wrote out an introduction to my portfolio project. It contrasted ideas like "All the world's a stage" with "but not all are actors," and saying "There is no audience." The premise is basically that we need to express ourselves, but it is not for an audience so that we look good. It is for the expression itself and that that amplified life ripples effect to the far reaches of the world. It was interesting - yesterday was probably the most exciting day I've had in a long while and that came from just expressing myself through having fun. Today, I see a movie that in some way, for me, confirmed and blasted my mind. My creativity has hit a dry spell. In fact, I'd say that I've always been technically competent but wasn't very expressive or artistic. It was because I wasn't truly living and I didn't realize it until today.
God is awesome
Tuesday, July 20, 2004 at 1:13 am
This summer has been great so far here at Lamoine Christian Service Camp. I have been learning so much through the work I've been doing. I only have 2 1/2 weeks to go before the camp season is over. I still have a promo video, brochure, and an entire section of a web site to do still. Last week was Junior 2 (5th and 6th graders) with Dawn Farris. This was the week I'd been waiting for since last summer. I was able to put together a game just like Who Wants to be a Millionaire for the kids to play and I got to see a lot of people I hadn't seen in a while. That's all I have time for, but it's been so long since I've posted!
