Well, well, well. Something appears to have worked!

My DSL modem has not locked up since I updated the firmware. Not bad for a firmware update that ended in "Update FAILED!" I guess you can't believe everything you read.

I just discovered this place called omnicircus. The artist is looking for a roboticist. Actually, he is looking for a variety of skilled people to help him bring his robotic creations into reality. It is a sort of robotic theater.

I am grappling with a fundamental question, now, about where I want to go. It looks like an interesting place to pick up some good skills - even possibly video editing skills - but it really comes down to whether I can commit to someone else's vision. That seems to be what I have been doing since I entered the corporate world...how I have earned my money all these years.

But something hit me on the way home from meeting this guy: I am destined to continue to work on someone else's vision until I become clear about what my own vision is.

Omnicircus seems a bit dark and brooding to me. When I see some of the stuff - the robots and the animations and the artwork and the music - I get an uneasy feeling in my gut, like I don't want to be around it. I have always felt driven to protray robots in a more positive light (one reason I became disenchanted with BattleBots). Lately, I have been seeing promos for movies like the Stepford Wives and I, Robot, and there always seems to be some sort of evil associated with the machines (or their creators), or something sinister in the use or the application of the machines. Terminator comes foremost to mind.

I guess that sort of thing sells better ratings. I just wish there were more uplifting stories about robots. Anyway, I have to decide whether his vision is something I can get behind - even if for a little while. I just need to study it more to see what it is all about - what his vision (or his message) really is.

I was also thinking on the way home that there is a difference between sending a message, and making an artistic statement. If you want to send a message, then the message has to be clear. Art, on the other hand, seems open to interpretation, so a message portrayed through art may not be so clear. So, I guess I need to understand whether this guy is trying to send a message or make an artistic statement. Perhaps I would understand better if I knew something about art. Anything.

I have often felt I was born with no artistic sense. I have never felt compelled to have decorative things in my environment (if you've ever seen my shop, that's pretty evident). Unless you consider my model airplanes and my computers and all my CRAP, art. What appeals to my artistic sense - if I have any - are things that occur in nature. Scenery. That is one thing I absolutely loved about living in Arizona - every sunset was a new masterpiece. Maybe that's why I don't like having paintings on my wall - they're so static. They never change. I'm happier with a window. And it might also explain the idea I had for a digital wall hanging that would show a different or ever-changing image on it every day (or gradually changing all the time). But someone beat me to that invention...yet I still don't have anything in my living space displaying anything artistic (except for what my wife has had me hang on the walls).

I simply have never been driven to pursue art. I have a clay...thing...that I made in school when I was very young. It was supposed to be an elephant. It looks more like a rabid mouse with elephantitus. I also have another clay...thing...that was supposed to be a rocket ship. What it looks like is better suited to a personal log of an entirely different nature.

This is an early clue that makes me question whether I have any artistic talent. But I think I have talent in other dimensions. I consider some of my source code works of art. But that is an art that nobody sees. I am the unseen artist. I also think I have some talent in video editing. Another unseen art. A good transition is one nobody notices (i.e. that does not distract from what you are watching), or perhaps even enhances the content.

Anyway, robot art pieces are of interest to me. Or robots as art. They move - they change. But just what IS art, anyway? What is it? Who defines it? Is it purely subjective? Can anything be art? Can a sprained ankle be a work of art?



Or a deer with a sprained ankle?



I believe the arts (in all forms) are essential to the continued evolution of a culture, even if I don't completely understand what art IS, yet. All I know is it involves creativity. And if creativity does not exist in a culture, I don't think the culture survives very long, for how can it adapt to changes in the environments?

So... Do I contribute (i.e. dedicate) my talents and skills to another man's vision? Maybe it is a good thing. Maybe I need to. Maybe this is the path that helps me clarify my own vision - to reveal whatever it is that is trying to present itself to me - whatever it is my soul is seeking. Why have I been into computers and gadgets all these years? Why am I now getting into acting? And why has this opportunity to do both suddenly presented itself?

Maybe it is a message - or an artistic statement? - from the universe.

Something is telling me I should do it. But is it the little guy on my left shoulder, or the little guy on my right shoulder, whispering in my ear? I know - it's those damn birds that have been squawking outside my window every morning!

"GET UP! GET UUUUP!!!"