Last week I visited an outdoor labyrinth at a church in Bexley, Ohio. In addition to the labyrinth, there was an interesting sculpture. Here's its description:

"This sculpture was commissioned to convey and articulate the strength, security, and solidarity which parishioners experience from St. Alban's Parish. The text directs our attention to the Divine Source of this parish's strength, and reads: "For thou art my rock and my fortress; therefore thy name's sake lead me, and guide me." (Psalm 31:3; KJV)

Thomas Melville Chapin was chosen to create this sculpture, because he works with stone, which has the innate dimension of linking a sense of permanence and strength with the eternal.

White granite, sometimes called "Bethel Moonlight" because of its luminous quality at night, was selected for its pureness of appearance and durability.

The text, written in Braille, reminds us that these are inner truths. Rather than being raised in dots as is the norm for Braille, the inscription is cut in rectangles for aesthetic reasons and to suggest an old fashioned computer card or player piano roll...connoting that this psalm is a code that conveys a meaning broader than just the statement itself.

Projecting a sense of timeless eternal strength, this sculpture spans the ages--leaving an impression of primitivism as well as ultra-modernism."

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Fun with screen captures

Thank you to JudyforDean for pointing out the typo in this AP article about upcoming veep announcements.

And to jc, who told me where to find the screen capture program I just used. ;)

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Reports from DeanFest. . . .

Just arrived home tired but happy. The plane ride is shorter than the 3 el trip home from the airport! But all in all it wasn't too bad.

Demfest was a family reunion. It was so great to see so many friends after so long a time.

I thought I would get a little time to relax at the pool, but really, there were just too many friends to visit with.

Last night 15 of us went to dinner at a local Thai restaurant. Since we had decided where to dine at the last minute, the restaurant owners were in a bit of shock when we all walked in. They handled things really well and the food was great.

Subway really loved the food!
donna in evanston




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O Hai!

May the Eternal Blessings of The Ceiling Cat be a pwn thee...

Herein is my Deanstock 5 report to the community, and first of all I want to thank the folks who not only got this street musician to this event, but made my better two thirds comfortable sending me off to do something that was really important.

Demonstrating Gizmo is a bit moar complicated than I had anticipated, and as Denise saw, I had a problem with the readings that come when two hearts are using the machine. I'll work on this.

My concern was that it was difficult to demonstrate the level of coherence that I can get to when I'm doing my heart dance routine alone.

So when Denise posted that we were working on the demonstration, I was dealing with a number of unexpected glitches.
***

I spent about 4 hours spinning coherent heart waves in DC.

Some folks got to see me playing with Gizmo as they were leaving, but there was no prime time presentation.

Charlie played Gizmo for about an hour. I'd appreciate hearing his thoughts on what happened.

***

Something happens in my heart when I sing to Puddle. Something happens in my heart when I sing to Dean People.

It happened on Saturday night.

Namaste
Subway Serenade

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MY WEEK IN DENVER (not at the DNC )

In some ways it's hard to know what to talk about. Maybe I'll start with something no one would have expected: The campaign to bring the 2012 Worldcon to Chicago. The site of each Worldcon is chosen by voting at the one two years previously, and groups and cities compete for the right to devote two years of their lives to making it happen. This is in fact very much like a political campaign except that instead of going out and knocking on people's doors you throw parties (hotels prefer the term "hospitality suites") at conventions so people come and give you a chance to talk to them. I actually spent the bigger part of the first day helping prepare for the party that evening. The party seemed to go very well, with people enjoying the all-fruit smoothies we served. These were non-alcoholic due to hotel rules, but we expect to offer both alcoholic and non-alcoholic versions in the future.

I was also on three panels, all appropriate for me and yet all totally different. One was on "Technology for the Visually Impaired," one was on "Politics and the SF Fan," and one was on "Future Health: Living Longer in the 21st Century" (we concluded that, while we might be healthier longer, there would be no major life extension in at least the first half of the century). The panel on "Politics and the SF Fan" struck me as a bit schizophrenic. A couple of us wanted to talk about how SF fans relate to electoral politics while the others wanted to talk about how SF stories relate to and perhaps influence political issues.

I went to other panels as well. "A World Made of Birds" was an interesting discussion of what if the Cretaceous meteor had not driven the dinosaurs extinct. (Actually, of course, some dinosaurs did survive. We call them birds. Hence the title.) "SF as a Tool for Social Change" mostly concluded that SF does not bring about social change. It's a way to discuss the implications of change, especially technological change. Some didn't think that technology leads to much social change, but I pointed out from the audience that thanks to the internet I have friends I've never met. I don't think that any are of the canine persuasion, but I could be wrong. And at the panel on new reading technologies I found that there is a portable e-book reader (Bookeen) that will display the type at a large enough size for me to read.

The convention was over mid-afternoon Sunday. Early Monday morning (which happened to be my 72nd birthday) we left on a one-day tour to the south of Denver. First stop was the Air Force Academy, which both Penny and I would have been happy to skip. Although the view from the Chapel Trail was nice. Then on t