>> November 27 Wednesday

Almost there. Trials going along ok. I really wish that I had started this stuff earlier so that I could have more data for the experiment, but I don't guess it matters at this point. I kind of didn't do much today. I am finished with the canvas save for the lettering and the detail on the SLI figure. The display board is covered in cloth and I'l; out the hinges on tomorrow.

>> November 26 Tuesday

Trials continue ok. I painted the lamp and outline for the figure on the canvas today. The panels of the science fair board are assembled and I have cloth covering two of them. All of hte frames are painted gold and I have begun cutting posterboard "mattes" for the frames which is taking forfreakingever.

>> November 25 Monday

What a pain it is to cut masonite with a hand saw. But it is done sort of. I didn't bother to cut out a hole in the face of the board as I had intended to for the embedding of the TV, because it would be too hard to do and I don't know if I'll even have time to make a documentary so, whatever. Trials continue. The canvas is turing out well. I made some sketches and a composite in photshop and have started to paint the big background stuff and it is all coming along nicely.

>>November 24 Sunday

Trials continue with no problems that I can see. I've started painting the canvas with a base coat of white house paint. It seems to be taking to it fine. I also picked up all of the wood and supplies for the display board. I'm using masonite because it was cheaper than plywood, but I don't know how easy it will be to cut. My intention is to make it look all baroque red and gold with fringes and stuff.

>> November 23 Saturday

The trials are under way. I've been calling around and it looks like my tent idea is not going to work. So much for my Travelling Sideshow Museum of SLI. It will just be way too expensive and too time consuming to construct. So instead I have decided to just do the display board ala a science fair with a TV embedded within to show the documentary which I haven't made yet. OY! I have about a week to go and I have very little to show for my time thus far. I've decided to do a performance instead. I will carry the idea of me as the subject of this experiment even further and do a show where I am a sideshow performer with the less-than-amazing wild talent of sometimes turning street lights off and on. I'm going to paint one of those "freakshow" banners on a big canvas tarp we have and then hang it between two model streetlights or on the back of the display board.

>> November 22 Friday

Early yesterday morning, I climbed up the lamp post and attached the "darkness meter" with a bunch of camping straps. It should hold, but if it doesn't I'm not going back up there. It was cold and it sucked and I couldn't get anybody to go with me so I have no pictures. I began the trials Friday evening and started recording the time, date, and other pertainant information. Unfortunately I am opperating independently of the street light because I won't know if it has any instances of opperational ossicillation until I get the print out - which I am not going to do until I absolutely have to.

>> November 21 Thursday

The clandestine trade went down and now I am the proud owner of a bunch of wack looking circuit boards in an old PlayStation 2 box. It works though, I had my friends demonstrate that. Essentially it is a light sensor similar to those actually on street lights that cause them to turn on when the sun goes down. Only rather than turning a light, this device prints the date and time on a little roll of paper when the street light turns off. They turned off the light and it printed the correct date and time. It also has a timer on it that prevents it from constantly going off during dawn and dusk when there probably isn't enough light from anywhere to get an accurate reading.

>> Novemer 20 Wednesday

I started shopping around for materials to build my tent with and it looks like PVC pipe (as much as I hate the stuff) would be most reasonable. If I can figure a way to bend it, I think I can make a pretty cool hexoganal tent. I'd like to cover it with sheets that I'm going to try to dye yellow (I have about 8 cups of powdered yellow dye left over from when I had a t-shirt company). I can't sew at all, so this may be a problem. Maybe canvas would work better.

>> November 19 Tuesday

I consulted with a few underage EE friends of mine and worked out a plan where I would buy them several bottles of Jack Daniels in exchange for them building me a device that would would record when my streetlight turned off.

>> November 18 Monday

After another late night walk around the neighborhood, I located a number of street lights that I had several SLI experiences with. It seems like the perfect candidate for an experiment where I try to record the instances where the light cuts out. This morning I called Austin Energy, the power company, to verify that the lights selected had recently new lamp bulbs and that there were no reported problems or construction going on nearby that might affect their performance. Of the lights selected, only one is suitable.

>> November 16 Saturday

I have decided that I would do my project about SLI in 2 parts. Part 1 or A would be an experiment that I undertake with myself as the subject to try to recreate an SLI experience through systematic trials to determine if my mood has an effect on the frequency of SLI events. Part 2 or B would be a big ass tent that would hold a display board for the experimental data, several paintings and a tv which would show a looping documentary about SLI cut together from old docs hosted by Leonard Nimoy!

>> November 15 Friday

At work last night I was dicking around on the web, reading some Mack White comics and reading articles on the Austin ParaTimes site and eventually found my way to an article from the Washington Post about Street Light Interference or SLI. Holy macral! I couldn't believe it. This phenomenon happens to me with regularity. Being so prone to stress-induced panic attacks, I often go for long solitary walks in the middle of the night to clear my head. I've been doing this since I was in high school. I began to notice with growing frequency that while deep in thought, I'll pass under a street light only to have my concentration broken by the light switching off. I always thought that I was just crazy. Finally some justification. Well this seems pretty wierd science to me. So I'm going to try to base my project around SLI.

>> November 14 Thursday

I started doing some sketches of my Dream Wonder Cabinet. I had a dream last night that I was being terrorized by butterflies made of raw meat and scissors and bits of skin - it was freaky as hell. I also made some sketches of these butterflies which I think will be the first artifacts in my wonder cabinet. I'm also thinking of changing the website design to better suit the new project - this one with all of the grey is kind of sterile. I've also decided to build my cabinet out of really thick cardboard from the shipping department of the aerospace firm my roommate works at. Then I want to cover it with some of that simulated wood grain wall paper to accentuate how fake it is.

>> November 12 Tuesday

Yeah. I've decided that I want to do another project but I don't know what. I'm thinking about something involving a Wonder Cabinet - the renaissance collections of natural and artificial oddities maintained by aristocrats and scholors - sort of the distant relative of modern museums. I read Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder by Lawrence Weschler's over the weekend and am now inspired. Its about the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Culiver City, California. I'm thinking of building a cabinet to contain artifacts collected from my dreams. The original wonder cabinets housed collections of items gathered from all over the globe as these gentlemen traveled - souveneirs of wonder. Since I have neither the means nor leisure time of these gentlemen, I could record my dreams and bring back artifacts from Dreamland.

>> November 9 Saturday

M. Responded to my last email finally, but unfortunately only to tell me that he is too busy to spend time role playing. I understand. He was just doing this as a favor to me / for fun. The man has priorities and I respect that. I'm glad he was upfront about it, because had he prolonged the charade any further, I may have found myself in bad way come presentation time. So now I have to decide if I want to try to find another person to work with or play both roles or do something else entirely. I feel like a piece of tired, soggy toast.

>> November 7 Thursday

Having not heard from my cohort in California for a while, I'm beginning to wonder if I'm going to have to undertake this entire project solo. Initially I had hoped that I would be able to do a regular back-and-forth correspondence with M. where he would take on the role of scientist and I of the experiment and through the papertrail (of emails, letters, postcards, recorded video conferences) construct a narrative. Something like a cross between Griffen & Sabine [] & Frankenstein. Ultimately I wanted to create some sort of multimedia performance. I'd rather not have to undertake both sides, but I can if I have to. Regardless, I've started shopping for a new project just in case my fear is realized. I have no idea what I'm going to do if M won't correspond.