Notebook of Sand

• Recent Publications
• Recent Projects
• Conferences & Speaking
"Comparing Spatial Hypertext Collections"
  ACM Hypertext '09
"Archiving and Sharing Your Tinderbox"
  Tinderbox Weekend London '09
"The Electronic Nature of Future Literatures"
  Literary Studies Now, Apr '09
"The World University Project"
  St. John's Col. Cambridge, Feb '09
"Ethical Explanations,"
  The New Knowledge Forge, Jun '08
Lecture, Cambridge University
  Tragedy in E-Lit, Nov '07
Hypertext '07: Tragedy in E-Lit
Host for Tinderbox Cambridge '07
Keynote: Dickinson State Uni Conf
Upper Midwest NCHC'07: Speaker
eNarrative 6: Creative Nonfiction
HT'05: "Philadelphia Fullerine"
  Nelson award winning paper
NCHC '05:
 Nurturing Independent Scholarship
Riddick Practicum:
  Building Meeting Good Will
NCHC '04:
  Philadelphia Fullerine
  Lecture on American Studies
WWW@10: Nonfiction on the Web
NCHC '03: Parliamentary Procedure
ELL '03 -- Gawain Superstar
• (a)Musing (ad)Dictions:

Ideas. Tools. Art. Build --not buy. What works, what doesn't. Enjoy new media and software aesthetics at Tekka.

Theodore Gray (The Magic Black Box)

Faith, Life, Art, Academics. Sermons from my family away from home: Eden Chapel!

My other home: The Cambridge Union Society (in 2007, I designed our [Fresher's Guide])

The Economist daily news analysis

Global Higher Ed blog

• Hypertext/Writing

Writing the Living Web

Chief Scientist of Eastgate Systems, hypertext expert Mark Bernstein. (Electronic) Literature, cooking, art, etc.

Fabulous game reviews at playthisthing.

• Stats

Chapter I: Born. Lived. Died.

There is a Chapter II.

Locale: Lancaster County Pa, USA

Lineage: Guatemala

Religion: My faith is the primary focus of my life, influencing each part of me. I have been forgiven, cleansed, and empowered by Jesus Christ. Without him, I am a very thoughtful, competent idiot. With him, I am all I need to be, all I could ever hope for. I oppose institutional religious stagnation, but getting together with others is a good idea. God is real. Jesus Christ is his Son, and the Bible is true. Faith is not human effort. It's human choice. I try to be the most listening, understanding, and generous person I can.

Interests: Anything I can learn. Training and experience in new media, computer science, anglophone literature, education, parliamentary debate, democratic procedure, sculpture, and trumpet performance. Next: applied & computational linguistics, probably.

Education: Private school K-3. Home educated 4-12. Graduated Summa Cum Laude from Elizabethtown College in Jan 2006. As the 2006 Davies-Jackson Scholar, I studied English at St. John's College, Cambridge University from 2006 - 2008.

Memberships: Eden Baptist, Cambridge Union Society, ACM, AIP, GPA.

Alum of the Elizabethtown College Honors Program, sponsored by the Hershey Company.

Shoes and England
Sunday, 1 Aug 2004 :-:

When I was young, maybe eleven or twelve years old, I asked my grandmother for a pair of shoes.

Dark grey, dilapidated shoes -- close up

Last night, Dad did something unusual. He spoke of his childhood in Guatemala.

My grandmother refused to buy me shoes. Instead, she said, "Son, remember this: You were born poor. You will always be poor, and you will die poor. Never forget this."

My father never forgot her words. But he never chose to believe them.

** * **

This Fall, I will be wearing a robe at my college's convocation procession. There, the college will honor my academic achievement. Before the ceremony, my mom and dad will join me at a luncheon. I know my dad will be bursting with pleasure.

For me, college is a miracle. Every breath I take is an infinite blessing (pdf). As long as I can remember, my father has been telling me the opposite advice of his grandmother's. He has told me to reach my full potential.

My father has dedicated his working life to enabling my brother and I to reach our full potential. I have no adequate means to thank him.

** * **

My dad finally got his first pair of shoes from a landfill at the age of 16.

** * **

Akenfield, by Ronald BlytheDad is a voracious reader. Even though English is his second language, he reads more than most people I know -- including intelligent college acquaintances. The other day, I gave him a copy of Akenfield: Portrait of an English Village. The book, the best I have read all year, consists of interviews with aging peasantry in an English village.

Usually, we think of History as the doings of the great. When we think of England or Europe before the 20th century wars, we think of nobles and parliaments and cities. True, history was happening in the cities, but real life goes on in the poverty-stricken rural areas as well.

It's difficult to read, my Dad says, because the experiences of impoverished British farmers remind him of his childhood and early manhood in third-world Guatemala.

** * **

What must it be like to have no hope?