Not only have I been given two jobs this summer, but my leisure time, what little there is of it, has also been graciously filled. I've rediscovered some old childhood pasttimes, like Sherlock Holmes mysteries, all those big boxes of LEGOS up in the attic (I've always been an engineer, see...), I even found my old Game Boy in a box somewhere (250,000 points on Tetris!).
Along with these old avocations are some new ones. Most of you know about those spiffy objects d'art I'm always making which I like to call "cofiants". That word, which I made up, comes from the Latin meaning, "they become together". It's based on the ideas of the new sciences of chaos and complexity theory. I've included a few examples, so you can see what I'm talking about. Basically, with each drawing I start out with one short line or small box and propagate it according to a few simple graphical "rules". Usually, I'll draw it on graph paper, using the lines as a guide, xerox it to get rid of the lines, and then color it in using all the colors of the rainbow. I've only used a computer in making them once or twice. The result is usually a unique and highly complex picture or design which looks pretty cool. The source of my name for these drawings comes from the fact that if even one line or box is out of place on the picture, then the whole picture will look different. In chaos theory this is called "sensitive dependence on initial conditions." I can sense some of you falling asleep, so I'll dispense with any more explanations, except that I'll commend some books to you for your "summer reading list" if you're interested:
- Chaos: the Making of a New Science, by James Gleick. Penguin, 1987.
- Complexity: the Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos, by M. Mitchell Waldrop. Simon & Schuster, 1992.
- Jurassic Park and The Lost World by Michael Crichton.
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Anyway, what I want to do with these drawings of mine is sell them as art.
Just this week I went to an elementary framing class at the Frame Shop on Ft. Jackson,
so now I can frame my pictures at a minimal cost to myself using the tools at the frame
shop. I still haven't figured out where I might be able to sell them, though.
Before I had a job this summer, I had the time but not the confidence to go asking around
at galleries and shops, and now that I have two jobs, I've worked up the confidence
but now don't have the time. I guess I'll get around to these things eventually.
"The Lord Taketh Away...""Of the making of many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body." --Ecclesiastes 12:12.I've lost my scholarship. I've lost it in the most maddening way, too; I needed a 3.60 Q.P.A. to keep my full tuition scholarship, and at the end of the semester, my Q.P.A. was 3.59. Many of you will remember last summer that I said in this newsletter that keeping my scholarship with a Q.P.A. of 3.61 was only by the mercy of God. Now this year I must say that losing my scholarship this year by as much as I kept it last year must also be from God in the exact same way. This is not an event with which God is punishing me, but an event with which God is disciplining me. There is a good reason why this happened, though I won't pretend to know what that reason is. I'm confident though, that the promise remains true: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love |