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.

Upstairs
Thursday, 27 May 2004 :-:

Upstairs, the barn's foot-smoothed floorboards support forty folding chairs and a forest of music stands. We slip in-between the dusty, worn paths and sit down.

We are surrounded by the watching photographs of over 100 years of band members, their smiling faces looking in from where they rest on the walls, silently listening to the sound that bounces around the band hall. Many of them hold instruments.

A few of the old-timers' photographs show them in the band as high school students. A few members play under the watchful eye of their great great grandparents.

How many times have I set a can of soda next to my mutes? It's dry up there, and I down two cans in two hours to keep my lips smoothly moist.

Someone yells out a title, like "The Supersonic" or "The Dead Dog March" and we all rifle through a stack of tiny yellowing sheets the size of note-cards.

The band leans in and chatters for a few seconds, trying to organize.

"Did he say, the Dead Dog March?"

"Yeah."

"Hey, what did he say?"

"The Dead Dog March."

"The Debutante's Quick-Step?"

"No. The Dead Dog March."

At this point, I'm frantically squinting at the tiny notes, trying to catch key changes, repeates, and other musical hang-ups.

The director calls the title out again and raises his baton. We raise our instruments.

"When I signal, everyone bark," he says.

"Woof Woof Woof" a cacophony of voices rises.

"Good. Then when you hear the snare, shut up."

Bang!

Ahh, now I know the punchline. We chuckle. I stop barking.

"Ready everyone? All right, the Dead Dog's March." I memorize the first few measures, look up, and the baton comes down. The trumpets raise an initial fanfare phrase, and the music begins.

** * **

Playing with an informal community band is awesome. Yesterday's post was so sad because I've had so much fun in the past. If I'm staying away, it's because I see the end coming, because I don't want to remember the band as a bunch of old guys fading away, but as it was when I played, a bunch of very good long-time friends making beautiful music every Monday.