Don't believe me? Listen.

People wiser than me have advised me not to write anything after 10pm... if I was wiser I would listen. Then again, they also advise that I should get some sleep; batting a thousand. I think it does present a rather theraputic/cathartic exercise for me to express myself with such a blog as this, but (as always) the question is of balance and appropriateness. So against better judgement and at the worst time possible (3am) I shall attempt the impossible: appropriate, balanced honesty in poetic form.

This is impossible because the very form of art feeds itself, beauty for beauty's sake; but then if it was so enraptured with itself in an outward way it would seem self serving, which of course is not a beautiful thing. No, I have resolved the issue: poetry is best and most honest when it speaks from a position without dependence. Allow me to rephrase that, when a man has what he wants, he can freely speak his mind. That is not to say that he has no interest in things further, only to propose that when he is currently satisfied, he can honestly babble the overflows of his heart wihtout the entangling mess of current agenda.

Outside my window, the rain reminds me of my roof, and teases my ears with the gentle sway of a breeze-tide from an ocean above. The ebb and flow of the rain remind me of time and its passing. The drops themselves slowly find their way down the window, almost longing to come in where it's warm, hands and faces glued to the glass in a subdued slide. We here, find ourselves both above and below this rain. Above, because our purposes are grander, our situation more complicated and our plight known to more than us. Below, because we see only the final milliseconds of what must be an incredible journey in the clouds, climaxing with a prolonged free-fall that automatically optimizes each drop to land with balanced attack on the cheek of an unsuspecting ponderer, not too hard, not too soft. That impact ends the journey of the drop, but sparks an idea. That idea swims long and hard past infancy, and if its strength is steady, gets promoted to thought. Thought, though hardened with experience, must also fight to outlive its usefullness. If the usefullness passes and a thought remains, it becomes a fancy. Fancies, if they are clever, can master the mind's paths to generate dreams and desires, which give rise to many more ideas, thoughts and fancies.

But why do you care? For what purpose do I articulate these notions? Because I don't know myself, and I am talking to my eyes through my hands those things that my mind would communicate with itself. You (much the pity) are a guilty by-stander. ;)

Birthdays come and go

Well, it was my birthday, but now I am in a sea of un-birthdays. I had a marvelous day, lots of well-wishers and such. I thought I should post this funny little video that I took that morning with my phone (Samsung Omnia, courtesy of Don... thanks Don). My roommates are hilarious. ;)

I should mention that the reason Stephen's joke is funny is because there was lipstick on his jug of milk in the fridge (compliments of Leanne, I think), but he forgets to say that part...

I also had to ponder things, which is of course my way of emotional/mental digestion. All the ponderances do not belong on this blog, but one that I am currently sweating (in a good way), is my master's thesis topic.

I am currently deciding between a few different ideas, but after meeting with my two advisors (Ghandakly and Word) I think I am deciding between two possibilities. I could work on a control system for the shaker head, which would be a very fun project, and would involve a lot of fun stuff, and kind of be a capstone on the work I did when I started school (10 years ago...). That combined with the fact that I just saw an Israeli presentation of their digitally controlled shaker, and I know that I can do better!! (it's tough being this competitive!)

On the other hand, I could do a control system for active suspension for a 6-wheeled vehicle. This would be really fun, because it is another project that has been a long time in development and would be really neat to see work and could make some money for the company... always a good thing. ****Comments welcome on this***** Let me know what you think... ;)

Oh no! I lost my phone!

I can't seem to find my phone, so if any of you call... I'm not ignoring you! ;) Happy late Valentines!

Why today could've been better but wasn't terrible

No picture (definitely not video) today. Today I will tell you a story, and you will listen (if you know what's good for you).

It all began when i realized that I needed to wear a particular pair of jeans because my other two pairs were dirty (that is, they needed to be washed). So I am going through my (mostly) normal monring routine... brush teeth, put on clothes, etc. I have to work at 8am at the research lab, so I need to be in the truck by 7:40am. I am on time. This makes me happy. ;)

Then I park my truck, the normal 5 blocks away so I don't have to pay for parking over by the bus stop on 5th street. Hardly anyone is walking by since it is 5 blocks (about) from school. I continue to walk along my normal pathways, cut Orange before 4th, cut across the parking lot on 3rd, etc. Finally, I am about 2 blocks from my campus, people are quite a bit more plentiful by this time, getting to their morning classes across 2nd street. Then I feel a chilling breeze near my crotchal region... not good. I tried to quickly fix the problem, but there was no way to do that discretely - it was all the way down...

"Okay, game plan Gavin." I thought to myself. I quickly dodged between two parked cars and looked aimlessly around while my fingers tried to diagnose and solve, but to no avail. Realizing that time was the big obstacle, and I needed to get this finished quickly, I looked down and went to work. The problem was that things were stuck, so it took a fair amount of pulling (and a tad bit of jumping) to get things as they ought to be (up). When I had finally succeeded in my quest to close the barn, I looked up to find several people staring as they walked by wondering why I was jumping up and down and such. Embarrasing.

Finally, once said quest was completed, I continued my walk toward work. After a little bit of adrenaline (or whatever chemical is at work) wore off, I felt a stinging pain in my left thumb. Due to the temperature, and stiffness of the zipper, I had ripped half my fingernail off! So then I decided that the bookstore would be closesest place to obtain a bandage. Fortunately, no one asked me during the day how I hurt my thumb...

The rest of the day went really well, but I decided in the back of my mind, that the new jeans I am going to buy will be button-fly! (Yes dad, you were right.) I Hope you enjoyed my little story.

Senior Project Video

This is the fina demo video for my senior project. I guess I might as well release it into the wild blue yonder of the internet... nothing to hide here. It didn't work quite the way I had designed it, but it did work according to how I predicted. 8 months on this puppy. Enjoy.

Numero Uno Posto

I like to rhyme, so with this thyme
I will use the blog for a small flog.
Take one look at my post and its ghost
will find your tale, and nail
you to the wall, all!

(nope, not my best work, but y'gotta spit what's in your mouth, eh?)