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.

Sleep
Saturday, 25 Mar 2006 :-:

"What sort of things did you learn about life at college?" a young person once asked me.

I paused, cocked my head to one side, leaned back, and drew in a deep breath.

"College," I said slowly, "taught me the value of sleep." I paused while they laughed and I collected my words for the chaser insight.

** * **

College has taught me the opposite; I have learned to push my mind and body to the utmost, to crave the hours when I am most alert, when I am learning, reading, thinking, reflecting, praying, and doing. I sprint early out of the gates, and the dim twilight has long passed by the time my shadowy outline strains to hold back the closing doors of consciousness. There is too much to do, too much to learn, too much to see and be to afford myself too much sleep.

How odd. I, who often rebel against the clock, fight for every minute I can have in this life. Only a careful balance measures out the best quality time.

For some, college is the time to find our limits. We gingerly extend a probing finger, find that they are soft and, with effort, move them further. It is a time to overextend and find ourselves still on our feet, with some wind left for a final dash. It is a place to discover that well-placed efforts are more effective than outright brute-force. And when one enters upon the art of living fully, one learns the value of all things in life: rituals like prayer, eating, and small talk; the infinite beauties of nature and time; friendship, of honor, integrity; food, and company, and nights under the stars; and even of sleep.

** * **

This afternoon, I speak to scholarship winners about my college's honors program. Who are they? What will their lives be? Will they succeed? What is success? Will they be happy? What is happiness? Will they find God? Will He find them? Will sorrow, or work, or illness, or momentary weaknesses of will, or indiscipline, or pride, or desire, or unhappy chance deter them from their full potential? Or will they shine?

I cannot say; I will likely never know. So I will pray for them and sleep, for it is almost 2 A.M., and my day starts early. I may not wish to ever sleep, but I owe it to them at least. And besides, the body is also voting in their favor.