recent art

Although lately my thoughts have been consumed by godtube.com (bordering on compulsion), and my time has been consumed by work (mostly with Bolo),

I have managed to make a little bit of art.

The first is the finished version of my refrigerator project for my Art and Biology class (not one of the 2 projects that would satisfy my 'incomplete' in that class... Gail, I promise I'll finish those projects before June 6)



The voice is Teva's - one of the kids that I babysit - and yes, that is his refrigerator,
and most of the pictures come from a 2-day door-to-door adventure with my friend Audrey ("May I take a picture of the inside of your refrigerator?").

About 1/3 of the pictures come from emails, though, and I really appreciate everyone who participated - Hopefully, if you watch the video enough times, you can see your reefer in its .08 sec of fame!

Now for the second project - I'm really proud of this one.



This piece was titled "predominantly mail art," and it took place at An Art Affair at Stanford last weekend.

During the festival, over 20 people wrote messages on postcards that I made, and I mailed every one of them last Wednesday....

Here is what the postcards looked like.

The bummer moment happened at the post office when I was mailing them.

Saray, the woman at the post office, told me that they weren't "standard postcard size." She placed them onto a measuring diagram and showed me that the minimum size is 3-and-a-half by 5 (most of my postcards were about 3x5).

"...Can I just buy the stamps and try to send them anyways?" (it's not like I had anything better to do with them).
"Yes, but I can't guarantee they'll be mailed. Just put them in the mailbox outside, because I'm not supposed to handle anything that doesn't qualify."

I bought the stamps and sent the postcards... we'll see if/when they ever arrive.

Moral: if you ever do a postcard-writing campaign, make sure you cut the postcards at 3-and-a-half by 5, at least.

work

I've been working for George in San Francisco for the last 3 days. Yesterday and today I worked with a guy named Bolo, and he and I have already had some really interesting conversations.

I took this picture yesterday (the day that I met Bolo).


The mirror came from a bathroom that Bolo and I gutted, and I saved it for my friend Deb to make a mosaic.

godtube.com

I still haven't found a job yet (I promise I'm looking), but I did find something that could potentially occupy just as much of my time...

It's called Godtube, and yes, it's real.

When I discovered the site, this was the first video that I watched:


It made me want to laugh and cry at the same time.

The crying half of me is the part that is sad that Christians are still working to create their own version of "the media", which isolates them from so many interesting ideas that they could interact with (not to mention the people behind those ideas).

So I decided to post a video.

I decided that, since Godtube is an interactive web space, my voice could have a place in it. The video is very short, and it has been very well-received. I am trying very hard to stay away from controversies (like evolution), but I'm also trying not to dilute my feelings toward Christianity.

Curtis Steven and Michael: some of the things that I say might come as a surprise. I really don't know, though, since we haven't had too many conversations about this sort of thing. Maybe after this, we can have more of them.

I posted the video yesterday, and today it's on the Featured Videos page (it's already been viewed over 500 times).



I was encouraged by the response I received, so today I posted another video... I'm a little nervous about what will happen if/when the (extended) Rogers Clan discovers my role as the "token nonbeliever." I hope, though, that they would be comfortable enough to approach me about it if/when they do.

At the very least, I think that they would pray for me, and I always appreciate people's prayers.

night of the roundtable

Tonight I went to a roundtable discussion for hospice volunteers in the area. Fifteen of us showed up, with fourteen being between 30ish and 70ish and female.

I didn't do very much of the talking.

About an hour into the discussion, George arrived - he's about 40ish with a mustache. We walked to our cars together after the thing was over, and he told me that he is a chiropractor who likes to go camping. He was really nice with lots of charisma, and he was really impressed that I go to Stanford.

I told him actually I don't really go to Stanford right now.

"I totally understand what that's all about," and he told me about when he took some time off too.
"Yeah," and I nodded with my mouth open.
"Well, I'll see you at next month's discussion," and he turned to get into his truck.
"I'll see you at next month's discussion."

potential employers

Today I spoke with Jack in New Orleans. Jack is working on a remodel job, and I connected to him through my friend Maggie.

In my month-or-so of looking for a construction job, Jack is the only person who has offered me a real job (outside of Joe, in Tyler: "Y'better git to Texas where you belong")

Today I told Jack that I'm probably not going to accept the job. He understood and wished me the best of luck.

I got off the phone and I went inside to see Patti. After a few hours, I received a call from Bob Schmidt in San Francisco. I stepped outside to answer it.

Bob told me that he didn't have any work, but that he would give me George's number.

I called George, and George said that he doesn't either. I should just check back with George (and Bob) periodically, and eventually something will come up. That's what I'm going to do.

Then I went back inside to continue my conversation with Patti. She asked me about my call, so I told her about Bob and George.

Patti reminded me that her husband, Ted, also works in construction: he's a finish carpenter.

Jack, Bob, George, Ted | Bob, George, Ted (and also Joe, in Texas)

I don't think I should have too much trouble finding a job in the next few weeks.

It's the committing to one that is quickly becoming the issue.

So... is this vain?

I figured that if I was going to start a blog,
I would need to start with this question,
in part because it's the question that's kept me from blogging for years,
and in part because (if I really get into this whole blogging thing),
I might not get to seriously ask this question ever again...

Is blogging vain?

Mark Twain said that the offspring of riches are
"Pride, Vanity, Ostentation, Arrogance, Tyranny."
That sounds like America to me.

Lately I've spent a lot of time waiting
for the day when this whole tech-era comes crashing down,
When all of us arrogant fools will finally get what we deserve, and
when I get to do my part in paying for all of this pride and vanity and everything.

but it didn't come yesterday, and it doesn't seem so be coming today, so maybe I'll just start journaling... for the sake of journaling, I guess, but with an "audience". Maybe that will help me deal with all of this...

Right now I'm in the craziest, most open-ended time of my life that I've ever seriously dealt with. I'm not taking classes and I don't have a job; all of my belongings are in my car, and I'm not sure where I'm going to sleep tonight.

As I begin to sort these sort of things out, I thought it might be nice to blog myself through it, but I keep running up against this vanity question.

So yeah, maybe it is vain, but maybe I'm vain too. Maybe you're vain, too, and the only reason you're reading this is because you're trying to see yourself in me, or maybe you think I'll give you a shout-out or something...

Mom, I'm writing this mostly for you. I know that you want to support me in everything I do, but that you're nervous about how this will turn out. I'm kinda nervous about it, too, so maybe this blog will help us to be nervous about it together, instead of me trying to comfort you or you trying to comfort me, while we both are feeling a little uncomfortable to ourselves.

Or maybe that's just me, and maybe I'm reading you wrong. Either way, this is kind of like creative writing, and you have always loved reading the things that I write, so I hope that you can enjoy reading this, too, and I really hope that it can help both of us make sense of where this is all headed.

So, in a big way, that's where I am today, and I hope that you can enjoy reading it. I really do think it'll turn out ok, so it just might be a nice happy ending for all of us - especially considering this morning.
I'm house-sitting for the weekend, and it's the view that I saw when I woke up.

It kinda makes me feel a lot more comfortable with all of this uncertainty and stuff.


And maybe it'll all come crashing down tomorrow, and maybe we'll go into nuclear war. Maybe the Big One will finally hit California, letting everybody know that the whole Information Age was much more fragile than anyone had really expected... even so, I think I'll be able to look fondly back on this blog from the day before.