Ben Crowder

It’s unbelievable — the stuff of fantasy — but it’s real. See the Discovery channel video clip. And then see what he looks like after the operation. (Thanks to Daily Distraction for the heads-up.)

I graduated a year and a half ago, and since that time I haven’t taken any classes. That’s going to change this Tuesday. Now that I’m full-time, you see, I get free tuition, and I can take up to six credits a semester. Being addicted to learning and all, I plan to take full advantage of this boon. :)

The problem, though, is that there are so many classes I want to take. I took a lot of just-for-fun classes during my undergrad years, but let’s face it: there are tons and tons of really cool classes at BYU. The list keeps growing longer. (And if you have any good recommendations, I’m fine with it growing even longer, so leave them in the comments. :))

For this semester I’ve settled on two classes, Welsh 101 and Playwriting 1, both of which look like they’ll be a lot of fun. I’m excited. I miss being in class. I don’t really miss midterms or finals, but the exhilaration of learning makes it worth it. Mmm. I get little wavelets of goosebumps just thinking about it…

I just finished uploading the video of Tree of Blood to Vimeo:

(Tree of Blood is my latest play, which was produced about a month ago.)

[tags]New Play Project[/tags]

In my last post I briefly mentioned the transformative power of stories, and so here’s a little bit more of my thoughts about it. Except “transformative power” sounds too textbooky for me — stories change people. There, that’s simpler. :)

Not only do stories change people, but I don’t know if we can get by without them. Humans need stories. And we’re storytellers, all of us, whether we know it or not. That’s how we connect with other people. That’s how we talk about things — through stories. Did you hear how Biden was nominated for Obama’s running mate this morning? That’s a story right there. We have a character and an event, an action. Voila.

The more I think about it, the more I’m convinced that almost everything we say is a story. Even just an “I love you” from one person to another is a story, and a loaded one at that. They’re telling a story, trying to convey emotion to another person through language. And as the recipient hears those words, they enter the world of the story, even if only for a moment, even if they reject the story and its meaning. But to receive it, they have to become part of it.

You see, the English department has it all wrong. Stories aren’t meant to be analyzed.* They’re meant to be devoured, imbibed, swallowed down. During the time you’re reading that book or watching that movie, you and the story become one, you in the story and the story in you. It’s time travel and teleportation and ESP all rolled into one. :)

Living in somebody else’s head has a side effect, though. Whenever you consume a story (and in all honesty I think the eating analogy is true on more levels than one — stories are a type of food that we desperately need), bits and pieces of it are left inside you. The story changes you, giving you new memories, new experiences, new ways of looking at life and at other people. It gives you new eyes.

That’s the cool thing about stories. We can study facts from textbooks all day long if we want to, and we can learn a lot from them, but stories stick with us. They’re easier to remember, because they really do become our memories. Our vicarious past life, if you will. And since we model our lives off of those memories and patterns, both our own and those we’ve borrowed, our actions inevitably get altered, nudged in whatever direction those new eyes are looking.

This can be used for good, of course, which is probably why Jesus taught mostly with stories. “Be selfless” just doesn’t have the same convincing power as the parable of the good Samaritan. Not to mention the stories told about Jesus himself — I don’t know about you, but “Forgive them, for they know not what they do” has changed the way I react to people who do me wrong.

Since all coins have two sides, let’s not forget that this character-altering power can easily be a poison in the wrong hands. But I blogged about that only a month ago, so the dead horse gets a respite…for now. ;)

* Disclaimer lest I get a surprise visit from an assassin tonight: Analyzing stories isn’t a crime. There’s nothing wrong with it, except when the analysis becomes the focus instead of the experience. That’s when you lose the magic and the power. That’s when the autopsy itself turns out to be the cause of death. But if you keep the experience first and foremost, then analysis can provide some nice insight.

The other day I realized that almost all of my larger projects/involvements have something to do with the Church or the gospel or building the kingdom in general. Guess I don’t do secular very well. :P It’s as if I don’t have the heart to go through with projects that aren’t somehow connected with a greater purpose in life. Projects just for the money? No interest. At all. Cool ideas? Cool is, well, cool, but unless it makes people better, more human, and unless it somehow helps make the world a better place, my subconscious pulls out the veto.

The only seeming exception I’ve been able to think of is stories that appear to be unconnected at first, but even then, my worldview comes through in my writing, and I do see writing as a way to build the kingdom. (Actually, I think books and language in general have a huge part to play in that, so in a way I see my stories and plays as perhaps one of the biggest way I contribute. Which is still very small-scale objectively, mind you.) But that’s a post in itself, on how stories transform us (for good or evil) and make us new people. I think I could write that post over and over and over again and never get bored of it, it’s that important to me.

Which is why I really need to set up a regular time for writing each day. I’m too sporadic right now, writing only when deadlines are standing right next to me, breathing in my ear, or when the muse throws an anvil on my head. Nothing wrong with writing during those times, of course, but to get good, you have to do it regularly. Every day. That’s how masters are made.

It’s funny how your perspective is often so tied up with your capability. For example, five miles might seem like an objective measurement on the surface, but five miles to someone who has a car is not the same as five miles to someone who doesn’t have one. And five hundred bucks is a lot more to a minimum-wage employee than it is to a seven-figure CEO.

Makes me wonder how much of the human experience we actually do share, and how much we just think we share.

Even if we are all walking around with our own universes inside our heads, though, I’d rather keep believing that common threads bind us all together. It’s a saner view of life. And besides, I like connecting with people, sharing common opinions and experiences and preferences. Gives life some extra depth.

So, effectively, we’re all the same but all different. I love life’s paradoxes. :)

I went to the Orem Public Library tonight with some friends, and as I suspected would probably happen, the book sale lured me in. I walked out with 19 books. But it only cost me $16, which made me very happy because I spent $20 on a single book earlier today at BYU Bookstore. Twenty for the price of one, basically. (Actually, I could’ve gotten 27 for $20, really. Paperbacks for fifty cents and hardbacks for a dollar. It rocks. :))

Which books, you ask? They’re on my LibraryThing profile. And speaking of LibraryThing, I just discovered the series statistics — so now I can see which books I’m still missing from various and sundry series. Very cool.

Speaking of books, these same friends told me about Brian Dettmer, who has incredibly awesome sculptures he calls Book Autopsies. For example:

See? Blows my mind. Check out this InventorSpot article for more pictures of Dettmer’s work.

[tags]LibraryThing, Brian Dettmer, Book Autopsies[/tags]

I didn’t hear about George Lucas in Love until this past week, and I don’t know how I’ve gone this long without hearing about it. It’s awesome. (Backstory: when I was a kid, I was a huge Star Wars fan. Read all the novels, even. As I grew up I moved on, but I still have a soft spot in my heart for long ago in a galaxy far, far away.)

Watch it on Google Video or YouTube. (YouTube seemed to have better quality.)

[tags]George Lucas in Love[/tags]

I think the view counter on here is somewhat broken. You see, it’s saying Saturday’s post already has 3,375 views. But Google Analytics is showing only six pageviews since Saturday. Period. I trust Google more, frankly. Weird. (I did notice — through Google Analytics — that my Facebook virus post has gotten a lot of traffic in the last few days, however.)

Two thoughts. First, I’m not sure why I even have the hits counter up for public display. Does it really mean anything to you, the reader? No. The only way I can foresee it being somewhat useful is in determining the popularity of a post, but I think the number of comments is more useful for that. Could be wrong. :)

Second, Google Analytics rocks. Seriously, it’s amazing. I’ve been using it for a while now but hardly ever check in on it, but using it just now to figure out the views counter thing has opened my eyes. I’ve got to use it more often — particularly in planning out future editions of my websites. If you have a website and you aren’t using Google Analytics, it’s time for change. You won’t regret it. (And no, Google isn’t paying me to say that. ~wistful sigh~ :P)

[tags]Google Analytics[/tags]

This’ll be brief because I need to get to bed. I just got back from the Shakespearean Festival, saw Taming of the Shrew last night and Cyrano de Bergerac this afternoon. Shrew was okay but rather bawdy. Cyrano, on the other hand, was absolutely awesome. I really, really liked it.

We sang along to Phantom of the Opera on the way back home, and I realized that I really, really like singing along to songs. I need to do it more often. Regrettably, my lyrics memory is a bit spotty — but just now I discovered iTunes’ lyrics tab, and the cool thing is that on my iPhone, I can tap on the album cover while a song is playing and it’ll switch over to lyrics mode, all nicely scrollable and stuff. It’s sweet. :) (Now I just have to copy and paste lyrics in for all the songs I want to learn better. Anybody know any good, high-quality lyrics sites? Most of the ones I’ve found have gobs of typos.)