Hello, Blob. (A Brief Encounter With Abstract Life)

Out in some math-born corner of the void, the Blobs float.

They spin. Pulse. Change color like they’re listening to music only they can hear.

Once in a while, a presence enters their realm. A viewer. A traveler. You.

The Blobs notice. They shimmer, respond.

They spin brighter, move with more purpose, like they’re dancing just for you.

This little animation started as a whim. I wrote it in Python with Processing. Just a way to make something move, something abstract.

But once the Blobs showed up, they didn’t want to leave.

And if you watch long enough, you might feel them watching back.

The World Changed

The world changed a few days ago.  OpenAI released ChatGTP, a conversational AI open to everyone. It's blowing minds everywhere.

I have big plans with this thing ...

Boxed In: a look at recursion

"To understand recursion, you must understand recursion."

(How I love this.)

I made one of my little generative art animations with the idea of seeing what kind of effect I could get from recursively drawing some simple shape or shapes over and over again with small changes. 

I used just a box and a circle and came up with this:

While coding, this happens when a function being defined is applied within it's own definition, like this:

function makeBox(x,y,s)
  {
    translate(x,y);
    rotate(s/10+(col/2)%360);
    blah, blah, blah
      {
         makeBox(x+s/4, y, s/2);
         makeBox(x-s/4, y, s/2);
         makeBox(x, y+s/4, s/2);
      }
  }

In this case the function makeBox calls itself within it's own definition. This can be very powerful. And so much fun!

I hope you enjoy.

Latest Images

This:

and this:

based on this:

I started with the above image I generated as a part of my first foray into mandalas. The top image takes the lower one as a reference and generates random points of various sizes, sampling the reference image's color. Same for the middle image, except it paints with short strokes instead of points.

My New Solar Oven

I usually don't like cooking in the Summer. Heats up my kitchen. Since I don't have A/C I want to avoid this. Here is a solution. It's kinda fun to play around with different food stuffs to cook. So far mostly it's been veggies and chicken.





It's just a glass tube, vacuum sealed with a dark coating, a simple reflector and a tray that slides inside the tube.

I'm also experimenting with cooking times and placement of the oven in my yard.

Weekly Projects? Taking A Break.

Taking a little hiatus from weekly projects for a bit.  I think limiting each project to one week is too confining for my taste. So, they will be back but with a change. I'll probably just call them Projects.

And So It Begins.

The Whim That Stuck

Well, I did it.

I bought a house. In Quincy, California.

It has a creaky entry, a roof that looks like it’s held together with good intentions, and a view that will inspire absolutely no one.

I’m not moving there just yet—give me a few weeks to pack up my old life—but the deal is done. No turning back.

New city. New life. New chapter. Cue the dramatic music.

Was this a carefully planned decision?

Absolutely not. It was a whim. A nudge from the universe. A whisper that said, Why not?

And now here I am, trying to organize my entire existence on a three-week timeline. Plotting a future in a neighborhood I’ve only driven through once. Wondering if this house is a Rorschach test I’m supposed to live inside.

WTF am I doing?

Honestly? I have no idea.

But I’m doing it anyway.

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