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.

Being Smart
Monday, 15 May 2006 :-:

Mark Bernstein recently quoted an excellent post by Kathryn Cramer about immigration issues, a post which also explores deeper questions. The quote slapped me in the face:

Back when I was young and naive and he lectured me about Marx and Lenin, I signed up for a philosophy class on the Philosophy of Marxism and I read all that. And then I discovered that his Communism was not about philosophy at all, but about lecturing to a young blonde who hadn't read what he'd read. Once I'd stolen that high-ground and started asking questions about the base and the super-structure, he retreated into computer stuff, which he was much better at than I was.

I took the Fortran course; he got the point.

Last weekend, I spent an evening with a friend, lecturing him on all sorts of interesting things. I was exhausted, and I let my mind range. He was enthralled.

I talked entirely too much. It was quite impolite. Later, when I apologized, he demurred, saying that it was a fascinating evening.

But that doesn't make it right. I was being the person in Kathryn's quote, sans the blonde (we can't have everything).

Unfortunately, I have a tendency to do this semi-frequently. It's not consistent with true, Christ-like love. It is not the action of a priestly person who always looks to serve the needs of others. As a Christian, I should not revel in my intellect at the expense of others; rather I should revel in the truth of Christ and the Gospel more frequently.

To all of you whom I have treated in this manner, I apologize. One of you turned away from me in disgust (it hurt when you did so, but you were probably right. But why didn't you tell me?), but most of you became yet more interested.

So I need your help. Please keep me from slipping into this again.

** * **

I have derived a law: Smart people who win arguments often only prove the human inability to understand much at all.

If it were otherwise, people with little intellect, education or training would (from time to time at least) be able to win arguments against smart people. But complexity spoken by an intellectual looks more impressive than simplicity spoken by a simpleton.

There is always someone smarter than the smartest person.

** * **

This post began with Mark Bernstein. It shall now end with his finger. He has such a great way of putting things:

Mark Bernstein points at the One True Source of Knowledge
P.S. To B3: I still stand by my argument that 4'33, by John Cage, is actually a quality work, one with a poignant artistic message, and that it should be played more often. You can't get out of that one so easily.