Afganistan

My brother deployed for Afganistan this morning. There's too much to say about this. I'll try to come back to it.

Carl
Carl died. He was hit by a car while on his bicycle. Buried yesterday.
Growing up he was more than a little scary. He was fifteen or twenty years older than us and had a very limited vocabulary. A child-man.
On our bikes raceing in opposite directions we teased and provoked him by yelling, "Hee Haw!" It was terrifying and exhilarating being chased by him. He always yelled back at us, "Hee Haw, Hee Haw!"
After coming back from college I realized he'd been visiting my parents for years. As often as everyday he'd come by to cool off from biking around and have a coke or whatever my folks had for him.
Last time I saw him he was visiting my parents house as usual. My nephews playing near his feet.
I didn't know what to think of him as a boy and now I feel so sorry that his life was cut short. I wonder what he thought of us back then, and what he thinks of us now.

ninth move

Here's my move. My friend Greg told me that there is a winning move. Lucky for Mike I probably didn't make it.
Other moves: 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

By the way neither of us claim any chess talent. Oh, and click on the board to see the whole postcard.

Juarez: A City on the Edge
Scott Carrier tells stories, he breathes life into events and make them occur in history. He has power in his voice and compassion.
He's doing a seires of shows for NPR's Day to Day...
Part 1: Poverty in the Global Economy
Part 2: Gangs Battle for Turf, Honor
Part 3: Life Around the Maquiladoras
Part 4: Americans Party in 'Juarez Land'
Juarez Murders Produce Few Answers, Much Grief

Feelin' Good
The good people over at Six Feet Under stole my song for their ad, but they put it to good use, and it was never my song anyway. For 3 minutes Nina Simone tells you how she's Feelin' Good. The line that gets me best:

Dragon fly out in the sun
You know what I mean
(Don't ya know)

The song reminds me that the fullness of life is free. The line reminds me that it's summer, and winter's coming. Reminds me of visitng my gradmother during summer break. Of vacation, effortless speed, running through corn, swimming in creeks, childhood, and all of it ending too soon.

Encounter with racism.
I'm just going to relate this as it happened...
Walking to the car after watching Van Helsing Saturday night I see a woman get out of the passenger side of a truck and yell, "That was our spot, you black bitch!"
Astonished, I meet my brother's bewildered eyes, both of us thinking, "Hey crazy person, what does black have to do with it?"
Perhaps because she's used to racism, somehow accustomed to ignorant hate, the spot 'thief' calmly asks, "Now you've called me a black bitch, you think I'm gonna move?"
"That's what you are! A black bitch!", says crazy lady.
"Maybe so..." she says as she walks away.
My brother and I are already in the car discussing how disturbing it is that racism exits when we hear the final rant, in a manic voice, filled with self satisfaction and fear, "Nigger!"
I could go on and on about how this encounter bothers me. Instead I hope it speaks for itself and I'll try to do something about it.

Two more defeats.

Another night of softball. 0-6, Maybe we need cheerleaders (or some skills). Eitherway it'd be funner.

This site just launched. It would be nice if it succeeds. Lets give it a try. If you read this and you want Las Vegas to be a better place, vote and list something at Las Vegas Free Classifieds.

Be Your Own Newshound

Tom Regan at the CSM argues why you should be your own newshound.
This is how I do it...In my Favorites/Bookmarks I have a Days of the week folder, each day has links for other places newspapers (and blogs and webtoons), I click through each link when I have a second. Try these news sources on for size:
Google News
BBC News
National Geographic News
Accelerating Intelligence News
albawaba
Aljazeera
Xinhuanet
The Moscow Times
Haaretz
And check just to be FAIR. I bet this would be much eaiser if I could figure out how to use those RSS feeder reader thingamajigs.

Kristin Thomas Spam Poetry

Los Angeles

I'm heading to L.A. in my Dad's BMW for a going away party. I'll send in posts from my phone and then wrap them up into a real post when i get back.

Skunkity Skunkerson

Another night of softball. It was a double skunkin'. 0-4, baby!

Check out this Kerry photo at Zenarchary

eighth move

I got the latest chess move from my friend Mike. We've been playing the same game for months now. Its a good way to keep in touch. I have his earlier moves around here somewhere. I'll scan what I can find and back post them with links or something. Maybe I could get him to scan and email me my moves.

By the way neither of us claim any chess talent. Oh, and click on the board to see the whole postcard.

A Brand New Job!

I accepted a new job today! Wish me luck.
I'm a Job Captain at Carpenter Sellers Architects. I sent out resumes, had a few interesting interviews, and was offered a job. I feel so competent. Sufficient even. Now all I need to do is give notice.
I hate to go in and give the two weeks. I get so nervous. Despite doing a great job and arriving at the right time to move on, it always feels like a betrayal. Also, I was raised to abhor quitting. In our house perfection was expected, failure was acceptable if you gave your best, and quitting was simply wrong. You don't quit. So even though I've met all my commitments and done a good job I dread quitting.

First Friday - July

I went down to the Arts Factory for First Friday tonight and among other things saw Lost and Found by Greg Segal and Ana Maria Rodriguez. I admire these two shows for their efforts at truth finding. Segal's photographs seek out the dignity and self presence in downtown slums while Ana Maria finds conformity and vacuous absence in our suburban sprawl.
My favorite from toy industries was the ultra deluxe 'i think therfore i am monster'

I saw Spiderman 2 tonight. Great movie. Lots of fun action and character development. I'd like to see more heros show up in pop culture.
Spiderman related ephemera...
Spiderman 2 site,
words at McSweeney's,
a softer world cartoon,
and David Edelstein reviews Spiderman 2

Close to far.
Michael, my brother
Tony
Terrence
John, coach
James
Ron

Softball season started Friday night. 0-2 out the blocks.

prepare 4 downcount

my bluejeans is tight
so on to my love rocket climb
inside tanker fuel is not fuel
but love
above us
there is nothing above
but the stars
above
all systems gone
prepare for downcount
five
four
three
one
OFFBLAST

Via Blogumentary

Jarret Keene asked me to review his book Monster Fashion today via email and with some suspicion I agreed. I had emailed him the post below about a week ago. He seemed entirely genuine in his request, no question of that, I'm just surprised that someone would seek my opinion on their work. I've had a friend ask me to read her boyfriend's book before (which was great), but I've never had a stranger ask me.
Jarret is not entirely strange to me even though we've never met.
I saw him read last month in downtown Las Vegas. His wife and an another woman were there with him and they sat near me. If I had more time to sketch they might have made it into my drawing of the scene.
Maybe not. I draw what I see, and looking so intently always feels unseemly. If I'd been feeling particularly outgoing, introduced myself and asked permission it could have been a much more charming drawing.
So I went to order his book from Amazon.com and found a broad consensus that this is good stuff. The reviewers appear to be a coterie of poets and friends showing their support for Jarret's work. They are all enthusiastic and I look forward to adding my two cents. I feel challenged to speak intelligently. I shall do my best.

You can listen to Jarret read some of Monster Fashion over at Mperia.

Little Children by Tom Perrota

Little Children

I started reading Little Children the other day and I was thinking to myself, "Why the heck am I reading this?"
I remembered buying it on purpose. But what purpose?
Had Amazon let me down? "Your Recommendations" throw me a curve ball? No way. Amazon is always dead on balls accurate.
I just couldn't remember why I had bought and was now reading this sing song romance fiction. Straight story telling. And all made up. Finally when Sarah reads Madame Bovary in the book something jump started my memory.
I heard Tom Perrota on Fresh Air talking about how his character rereads Madame Bovary after her life detours from grad school feminist to motherhood and adultery. This sounded great on the air and it cuts both ways in the book just as you'd expected.
A few things about my high school reading of Madame Bovary:

1. I read it while my parents were reconciling after about a year of separation. I had it in my head that marriage just didn't work anymore. So the book confused me. Made me wonder if marriage had ever worked.


2. It was an early glimpse for me of the notion of feminism.


3. I remember learning the word apoplectic from reading it.

I think it would be fair to call Little Children a realist's romance novel. There's plenty of hidden love and lust, taboo perversion, and righteous anger. Elicit assignations and frank adultery. This story is about a few people living unhappy lives a couple of which cheat on their spouses to escape for a summer. We don't have to read fiction to know that marriages fall apart for bad reasons, or to feel jealous of young lovers. This summer you could read this story or spend it gossiping about your neighbor. Better yet, fall in love again (with your spouce if you're married) and tell us the story.

Its been about a year. Writing this blog. And I haven't found a voice. I don't know what it should be about or what value it could ever have.
When I read blogs the ones I go back to come in a few varieties: link lists, technical reference, and narrative diaries.
The link list is yer basic "I found cool site A via site I read B." Making Projects has mostly been in this vein. I'm not consistent however and I rarely find new things. I may not be good at this but I'm sure I'll keep it up. I like the lists at BoingBoing and Geisha asobi.
Technical reference; I got no skills. But benfit from the likes of Mandarin Design every week.
Narrative dairies, this is what I want Making Projects to be. I want to tell the stories of all the projects that pan across my mind, but when I sit in front of my computer everything just drifts away. It takes 50 times longer type it than it does to mentally dictate it. I want to tell the truth and in the most native way connect with other people. I want people to think, "I'm like that." I want to have a life that is like other people's. I want me and other people to think, "most people aren't that much different really." I read Kevin Sites and Mimi Smartpants, but I also listen to This American Life and read things like Jeffrey Brown's Clumbsy and Unlikely. Maybe there's enough ordinary in my life to be extra-ordinary.

Idol worship was all that, back in the day, and monothesim was not cool about it. If God is the only god then idol worship's gotsta be blasphemy, right? 2nd Commandment n' all. Geometry and calligraphy were a safe bet for Muslim artists...
On the left, a photo of a floor design in Granada, [Moorish] Spain. On the right, photoshopped for your backgrounderous pleasure.

Coming down the pipeline...XO: Wearable Robot. Strength enhancing exosuit thanks to DARPA (and the spider aliens). Anybody out there remember X0:Manowar?
(may require registration)
via KurzweilAI.net

Culture Here!

Jarret Keene

Lewis Avenue Poets Cafe under the Stars
I don't recall how I came across Jarret Keene's website. Either through Flummox or some other Vegas blog. He mentioned the Lewis avenue reading on May 26th and I made it down to see what I could see.
I came downtown with very low expectations. This is Las Vegas after all and neither poetry nor outside ring true. Reading barely has a ring to it here.
I saw friends and family of the poets, well wishing First Friday promoters and downtownites, vendors and myself enjoying good poetry in a passable urban public space in downtown Las Vegas. Overall, a pleasant surprise.
I met Dayvid Figler briefly, who mentioned Aquaman, listened to Harry Fagel and Jarret Keene, who both mentioned Captain America, and had to leave just as the next poet began. I enjoyed the poetry (despite the offputting anger and vulgarity from Fagel's reading) but really, I could do without the jazz.
Somewhere somebody thinks that light jazz is always appropriate for a poetry reading. I say, if you're building a brand to market a hip downtown Las Vegas culture in an effort to seed the city with a sense of place and a loci for talent, light jazz ain't gonna help.
The evening should be counted in the progress column, but the only thing needed to make this event a cartoon of itself was a giant sign and a flashing arrow reading "Culture Here!"
BTW...I'd love to have a sign like that. Or maybe a medallion necklace with flashing LEDs, a hit with all the ravers. Even a T-shirt, baybydolls for the girls of course!...

A Picture Share!

On Charleston near the 515
I was driving to my brother's house Saturday and there was major traffic around this secret installation of a gigantic sewer sleeve. Several tents set up along the road, a truckload pristine white of sleevery, and the stench of open sewer. Three hints into the secrets hiding under those tents.
Give up?
It's where they're hiding the aliens.

A Picture Share!

In front of my computer
I discovered that I can post to the blog using email. It's one of blogger's settings. Once you set it up all you have to do is write an email to publish a post.
I had already added the audioblogger phone number as a contact in my mobile so I added the blog posting email for Making Projects to the contact, I took a photo [a close up of my eye], and posted it from my phone!
From my phone I can now take photos, write posts, and record audio for my blog. And so can everyone else with a camera phone. All of us can become mobile photo radio journalists. Give it a shot!

Our Posthuman Future by Francis Fukiyama

In Our Posthuman Future Fukiyama argues for the creation of national and international regulating bodies that can intervene and prevent certain research in human biotechnology. These technologies assault the basis of human rights by modifying and threatening to harm human dignity. Reason, language, moral choice, and emotions combine in humans to produce politics, art, and religion.
Fukuyama would have the regulatory institutions draw a line between therapy and enhancement,

It's past my bed time have to come back to it later...

I stumbled across this entertaining spoof of WMD emergency graphics at Moxie via Utter Wonder via Zulkey.

A new post at Kevin Sites Blog: "...But then we hear reports that a second vehicle has gone into the drink as well. This one from Alpha Company--and the situation is much worse..."

I have three nephews: Noah, Joshua, and David. They tend to accumulate nicknames as they get older.
Noah's nicknames: Sunshine, Skinner, Bearskin rug...
Joshua's nicknames: Shawa (that upsidedown e thingy), Juju, Shawashawa, Joshie...
David is too young to start collecting nicknames.
(They have more nicknames but I can't think of all of them. I will update the post when I can think about it more.)

What got me thinking about their nicknames was that I came across BEARSKINRUG today while reading Jason Santa Maria's Grey Box Methodology for web design which was posted at the webgraphics blog.

I ran across Jason Rayles' book Fair about a year ago after listening to Jimmy and Jewel: A Love(?) Story at Transom. Now Transom has posted The Fair a audiovisual recasting of the book. Sure makes me want to have one.

At this link you can get a CineVegas Student Pass for $75, with a student ID. Nine days of films with 10 or more films a day. $450 without.

David Hasselhofflarity!
via Bethesda Bob

Over at You are Big, but We are Small you can find the pirate Furious. This is the kind of fun you have when adults play with toys.

Find the cheapest gas prices in Las Vegas at Las Vegas Gas Prices.
via Flummox

Kurt Vonnegut wrote Cold Turkey recently for In These Times. Check it out.
via t k b l o g

This is my new blogchalk:
United States, Nevada, Las Vegas, Summerlin, English, Paul, Male, 26-30, design, architecture. :)

The Useless Superheros are coming soon...

I've added a counter to the blog today. This could get embarrasing. Does anybody read this?

Theory of Revelation
As I see it revelation is necessary for faith. Some one, some tradition, or some relic must impart the articles of faith in order for us to know what to believe that we can't discover for ourselves. I feel revelation occurs when a person gains access to the Truth. This Truth is much greater than knowledge, or even wisdom. Think of pulling back the curtain in the Wizard of Oz or steping out of Plato's cave and staring at the sun. In my tradition the source of the Truth is God, so I will speak of God, the source of Truth without excluding other names for the source of Truth.
In one thought experiment I imagine that when God provides revelation to a person it changes them in a dramatic way. I imagine that if God were to provide the complete Truth to someone they would then be God. We don't find this in our history often and I feel that either full knowledge of the Truth is exceedingly rare or it tends to be fleeting.
In a second thought experiment I imagine God providing partial access to the Truth. This kind of revelation might be common and include anything from insight to prophecy. Again I expect a dramatic change, but not that the person becomes like God. Since the person is not like God they only have access to part of the truth and they have less than God-like ability to communicate the Truth.
My theory assumes that revelation is uncommon, incomplete, and impossible to communicate fully. This understanding of revelation allows for plural belief, and for rigorous vetting of the nontruth presented with the Truth.

Keep in mind I don't think that I have any answers about faith. These ideas are being worked out in my mind and might only be helpful for me.

The google developed social network orkut isn't accepting applications. You have to be invited. I'm caught between the anticipation of wanting to be a member (trusting google to make a good product, etc.) and the frustration of clicking Join orkut! and being rejected. I found out about orkut reading Mirror of Our Lives by Esther Dyson.

Kevin Sites Blog has a new post today. Sites is a freelance writer in Iraq. His blog posts tend to identify some person and tell their story. Its almost always a sad one but what can we expect?

sixth move

Other moves: 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

By the way neither of us claim any chess talent. Oh, and click on the board to see the whole postcard.

I love good maps. There's something wonderful about displaying complicated, revelatory information in a drawing. The Urban Institute has published The Gay and Lesbian Atlas by Gary J. Gates and Jason Ost. I've only looked at the pages available at the above links, but it looks like real tool for public policy analysis.
[Update: lead author Gary Gates is interview by NPR.]

A nice gallery of website icons at 300 Images From 1800 Sites via memepool.com.

Challenging new Graphic Novel format at Al Sacui 2003.

Here's a little interview of Ashley Wood at Design is Kinky. She has a very dark and sexy illustration style.
Also her website.

The article Hack Your Brain with an iPod at Forever Geek seems too implausible to be true. Must. see. for. self.

Spoetre: (Sp)am (Poetr)y (Re)dux: Take the pile of words found in a typical piece of spam. Dispose of unhelpful words. Insert articles, punctuation. Think, poetry.

Atomic commonweal,
annul this demur exile life.
Its phenomenal squash.
Quixotic, anxious, quizzical boathouse of pious provenance.
A galaxy of poverty estimates.
Libido spirit bring the second baseline.
The durable French colossus waits.

after an email addressed from Quinn Mcghee [afalweryd@sohu.com.cn] selling the top 9 generics

NPR's segments this week about Nelson Mandela look promising. NPR : 'Mandela: An Audio History'

This spam poetry made it through my filters today under an advertizement for something claiming to Unleash the Power of your Digital Cable.

Where we can knowingly figure out our impresario.
garbage can beyond is salty.
judge defined by philosopher, inside satellite,
and insurance agent around paper napkin are what made America great!
Furthermore, toward onlooker procrastinates,
and vacuum cleaner living with seek tuba player near bonbon.
Where we can almost make love to our wheelbarrow.
joel
solvent
dextrose
larkin
fiche
botswana
arizona

Andrei Codrescu spoke about spam poetry recently on All Things Considered. Listen here.

This commentary on Ain't Necessarily So by David Figler does a good job of describing my political viewpoint.

forth move

Other moves: 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

By the way neither of us claim any chess talent. Oh, and click on the board to see the whole postcard.

I came across this using Stumble! Guess the Dictator or Sit-Com Character You pretend to be a Dictator or Sit-Com Character and it guess who you are. It's fun.

Friday Five:

1. What do you do for a living? I design commercial buildings for a developer.

2. What do you like most about your job? Flexability and the sense of [creative] ownership in completed buildings. I imagine its a tiny version of the feeling of parenthood.

3. What do you like least about your job? I don't get to design beautiful things.

4. When you have a bad day at work it's usually because poor managment has put me in a embarrasing position.

5. What other career(s) are you interested in? furniture making, all kinds of design, teaching, being a cultural pilgrim, ambassador, peace activist

Friday Five:

What was...

1. ...your first grade teacher's name? I'm not sure any more. Mrs. Cinnamy?

2. ...your favorite Saturday morning cartoon? Superfriends, back in the day! Aquaman was so cool. He had telepathy, could breath underwater, and was a king named Arthur.

3. ...the name of your very first best friend? Diana Gomez. She lived down the street and was in the same grade and class as me. She had Collecovison and all kinds of cool games. We went to different jr high schools. Too bad.

4. ...your favorite breakfast cereal? Coco pebbles. Always watching out for that thief Barney.

5. ...your favorite thing to do after school? Play in the desert. (It sure beat sitting on the transformer waiting to get picked up.)

I have this strange mannerism that often catches me off guard. I imagine painful, unlikely events. For example, I used to work with an exacto knife while building architectural models. I would frequently imagine cutting through my finger. It actually happened often enough to consider this a mental fair warning that knives cut. To get to the unlikely part, sometimes I would go overboard and transfer the imagined blade to my tongue or eye ball. Yeouch!
Sometimes, while driving I image the vehicle I'm in miraculously not existing. In my head I go tumbling and sliding all over the road. Strange.

Over at Seven Revolutions they are trying to outmaneuver the apocalypse. Actually, they are looking into the seven most daunting problems and challenging revolutions in store for us in the near future. Do you get the knee-jerk reaction to overpopulation that I do? Well, maybe we're right. I live in Las Vegas, an ostentatious and artificial oasis in the desert. Did you know that about half the world's population lacks access to clean drinking water? Can you guess the other five before the page opens?