We’ve all seen the photos, stories, and video streaming out of the devastated regions in the southern United States. I don’t have anything to add to those stories, other than a plea to help. How does one continue to live when not only has one’s home been washed away, but one’s job and the paychecks it brings are all underwater as well, and you find yourself in a place where you don’t know anybody? It’s too much — unfathomable for us comfortable suburbanites, I fear. One is reduced to quoting Blanche Dubois: “I’ve always depended on the kindness of strangers.”

But we can help out. (I’m sure many of you have done so already.) There are a bunch of relief organizations that are lending a hand, and which make it very easy to contribute to their efforts. Mercy Corps is one of my favorites, but you can, of course, support whatever group you like.

Just do help somehow. (Liam decided to kick in the couple bucks he had saved to the relief effort last night, you’re not going to let a six year old show you up, are you?)

Go and give. Be generous.

Thanks.

Last Friday, I took Liam to see Tim Walsh perform a laser show at the Price Senior Center. Liam had seen a flyer advertising the event a month and a half ago at the library, and had been keen to go ever since. Having a certain enthusiasm for such things myself, I decided that would be a great thing for us to do together.

Due to a scheduling mixup, we ended up arriving an hour before the show started and decided to take a walk up to 7-Eleven and get hopped up on Hawaiian Punch before things began. After we had a sufficient sugar buzz, we stashed the remaining drink in the car and took a seat in the welcome coolness of the Senior Center’s main auditorium. The last time I’d seen this room, it was still being renovated, so I was pleased to see that it was now complete, and had been beautifully finished.

The lights dimmed and Mr. Walsh introduced his show, explaining some of what we’d be seeing. The first bit was an introductory sequence that explained how laser shows work, followed quickly by some nice sequences of imagery projected onto a screen above the stage. While there was nothing particularly out-of-the-ordinary about the projection of these images, I was glad to see that the state of the art in the software that drives the projection has come along, allowing Mr. Walsh to move the “camera” through three dimensional spaces, and for objects in the foreground to occlude objects in the background. He then moved on to a few more presentations that demonstrated the aurora borealis effect one gets when shining a laser through a piece of shaped glass, and the various beams, sheets, and waves that one can create by projecting lasers through the air.

After these fairly standard (though well done) presentations, Mr. Walsh launched into some new territory. He explained that he had long been interested in merging the music and the images the laser show creates, and that he had finally discovered a way of merging the two that he’s exploring that he believes has considerable promise. By taking the electrical signals that move the mirrors to aim the lasers and feeding that signal into the speakers, he’s able to use the same waveforms to create both the images and the sound. He went on to play a piece for us called “Sidewinder” which used this technique. It had a very electronic, syncopated feel to it which, while harsh at times, was quite compelling, especially when one observed the synchronicity between the aural and visual aspects of the piece. He went on to demonstrate the technique in several other pieces, including an interesting one based on variations of Taps. One of the central musical motifs of that piece was a slide up and down the overtone series, generated by a spiral on screen slowly coiling and uncoiling itself.

The show wrapped up with a few more traditional patriotic pieces, including a rendition of Deep in the Heart of Texas, for which the assembled audience spontaneously provided the series of four claps at the appropriate spots. (I guess Pee Wee Herman was right about that.) I’d have loved to have gotten to stay and visit with Mr. Walsh a bit, but evening was coming on and we needed to get home. Liam loudly proclaimed the show “the coolest thing ever” on the way home, so I considered it a night well-spent.

See the Laser Spectacles website for more information on the sorts of laser-based shenanigans Mr. Walsh & Co. are up to. Be sure to see the Laser Harp and read about the world’s largest video game (Asteroids, as it turns out).

In A Book-Lover’s Idyll, I waxed rhapsodic on libraries and told of a mysterious book that helped to spark my love for them. A few months ago, I was rooting through the racks at Half Price Books and stumbled across the mystery book, apparently in the same edition as the long-lost one I started to read two and a half decades ago, as I immediately recognized the cover art. It was Thrice Upon a Time, by James Hogan. I’d read some of James Hogan’s other books over the years and enjoyed them, so was anxious to finally bring closure to that my long-standing Quixotic quest and finish the book.

You know what? It wasn’t bad. Certainly not the majestic opus my memory had built it into, but an enjoyable read nonetheless. But far better than the reading was, of course, the discovery, the chance to read the last page of the book I’d started 25 years ago — definitely the longest it’s ever taken me to finish reading a story!

I’ve finally finished up the England Travelogue, filling in the days that I didn’t have time to write about while actually on the trip. If you were following along while we were over there, the new bits are Days 15 & 16, Days 12 & 13, The Wedding Day, and Day 5.

Google has released a new instant messaging/voice chat system, built on Jabber, an open-source standard for such things. I’m fiddling about with it this morning; my username on gmail is SeanMcTex, if anyone feels like saying hello.

This morning on The Big Think, I found a link to the partial text of the new Iraqi Constitution. From the preable:

We the people of Iraq, newly arisen from our disasters and looking with confidence to the future through a democratic, federal, republican system, are determined — men and women, old and young — to respect the rule of law, reject the policy of aggression, pay attention to women and their rights, the elderly and their cares, the children and their affairs, spread the culture of diversity and defuse terrorism.

We are the people of Iraq, who in all our forms and groupings undertake to establish our union freely and by choice, to learn yesterday’s lessons for tomorrow, and to write down this permanent constitution from the high values and ideals of the heavenly messages and the developments of science and human civilization, and to adhere to this constitution, which shall preserve for Iraq its free union of people, land and sovereignty.

Wow. Strong, beautiful stuff. A few more thoughts while reading the document over:

• Islam is recognized as the state religion, though the more fanatical sects (especially the Saddamist Baath party) are specifically opposed. The multifaith nature of their society is, however, acknowledged and supported.
• Women’s right to participate in public life (including running for office) are upheld.
• Interesting that several rights are limited not only by the rights of others and public order, as in the American system, but also by “the general morality.” The right to privacy and the right to free speech are those that are curtailed in this way.
• The rule of law (Lex Rex) is emphasized strongly — something one would expect to see in the wake of despotic dictators.
• The structure of the federal government looks similar to the American model — an executive, judicial, and legislative branch, the latter with two houses.

This is fascinating reading. I personally find it quite heartening, principally because of the differences from the American model. It would appear from this document that Iraq is indeed beginning to chart its own course — not becoming a little America, but its own entity. Though there’s still a terrifically long way to go, if the promise of this fledgling constitution is realized, then there may well be hope for Iraq to stand on its own feet and that our people might come home.

A little background: My great guy-you’d-use-your-one-call-from-prison-to-phone friend Ross moved to Los Angeles immediately after graduating from the University of Texas in 1992 with an eye toward breaking into the film industry. While zillions of people embark upon this particular adventure, the capricious streets of that city are enough to send most of them home, tail between their legs, within a few years.

Not Ross, however. Through a combination of doggedness and smarts (not to mention his dashing good looks), he has managed to carve out a pretty darn good life for himself out there. His latest venture is Boom Studios, a comic book publishing enterprise that is turning out some superb work.

I’m no expert on the funnybooks, but I’ve really taken a shine to Hero Squared, a fledgling series written by Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis and drawn by Joe Abraham. The premise of the story is that Captain Valor, a superhero from an alternate universe, gets tossed into our world, where he discovers that his analogue in this world is Milo, an unmotivated, cynical Gen-X slacker whose help he has to enlist. Milo’s girlfriend Stephie also has an alter-ego, who turns out to be Captain Valor’s arch-nemesis, Caliginous, who laid waste to their dimension before banishing Valor to ours.

While the alternate-timeline plot doesn’t break a whole lot of new new ground, the writing turns a somewhat pedestrian setup into a great series of gags and exchanges that are enormous fun to read. Captain Valor’s straight-laced-to-the-point-of-nerdy brand of heroism causes him considerable frustration when he encounters Milo’s lack of motivation and indifference to many of the issues that face them. Milo is baffled by Valor at first, thinking he’s pulling some sort of elaborate practical joke, but eventually begins to work alongside him (out of necessity) without ever losing his cynical edge or really granting Valor much respect. My favorite character by far, however, is Sloat, Caliginous’ sidekick. Sloat attempts to improve himself by reading a word a day from the dictionary and working his new vocabulary into exchanges with his boss at the most inopportune moments, resulting in some delightful absurdity as they pursue their nefarious agenda. His exchanges with his mentor in evil are priceless.

The books themselves are high quality, printed on glossy paper with rich, saturated colors, and look superb. (Silly putty won’t be transferring images from these comics!) The artwork is very nicely done, with lots of detail that complements the action in the story well. The quality of the character design is especially apparent where we see Milo and Captain Valor next to each other — it’s obvious that these are essentially the same person, but bearing the marks of very different lives.

So, get thee to your friendly neighborhood comic retailer and buy a copy of Hero Squared. (If you lack a nearby comic shop, you can order here as well. But seriously, if you’ve got a local outlet, use it! They need your business!) For more on Ross and his plans for Boom! Studios, see Comic Books Resources’ Interview with him.

When school is in session, I generally make a habit of walking Liam and Abigail to school right before heading off to work. This morning, as we rounded the corner into Liam’s hallway, he pulled an index card, carefully folded in half, from his pocket.

“Here you go, Dad!”

“What is it, buddy?”

“It’s for you,” he said, obviously pleased with the planning and execution that had allowed him to present this unexpected boon to me as we parted.

I carefully unfolded the index card to reveal the text of his farewell: “BI DAD”

While I thanked him profusely for his thoughtfulness, I don’t think I’ll be displaying this one proudly above my desk at work.

It’s been a very busy time since we’ve been home; I’m trying to get caught up on everything, but I’m afraid posting here has fallen behind a bit. A few pertinent items:

• Today was the first day of school for the kids. Emily, Abigail, and Liam, with varying degrees of excitement at the prospect, all made their ways off to their respective classrooms today. I think it should be a good year for all of them. Emily and Abby are very much looking forward to seeing their friends again, and I think Liam will enjoy school more now that he’ll be in the Gifted/Talented program and will be a bit more challenged academically. More details to come in a week or two, I expect.
• We celebrated Abby’s birthday officially this past weekend. She had a few of her girl friends over on Friday night, followed by a lunch with some of the extended family on Sunday. Everyone seemed to have a good time and to enjoy my latest chili concoction (this batch included cocoa, coffee, and Guiness on the ingredient list).
• A number of other things, including a wedding at which we helped and a work friend’s birthday party, soaked up our Saturday in worthwhile ways.
• I helped out a bit with the kids’ classes at church on Sunday. The director of the program was working to teach them Bach’s “Dona Nobis Pacem,” which is Latin for “Give us Peace.” My suspicions that this might be a bit ambitious for the 8 and under set were confirmed when I noticed that Liam was belting out what could hardly be considered a blessing — “Dona Nobis Possum.”
• Christina reports on Daniel and Fanny’s wedding. One of my favorite bits — Darth Vader with a fiddle. This way lies the Dark Side.

Today Daniel and Fanny are getting married up in Canada. I wish like the dickens that we could be there, but it just wasn’t possible to pull off so closely on the heels of the England trip. Congratulations, you guys! Hope the day is an unmitigated joy. We’ll raise a Shiner in your honor.

Today is also Abigail’s ninth birthday. (How is it possible?) Happy Birthday, my dear. We love you very much, and are thrilled to be able to celebrate this occasion with you!