Behind The Design

IF:Geeky - Math

2007-07-13T00:19:00.000-04:00

Final image originally posted on DL With It for Illustration Friday topic: Geeky.

I had several ideas for "geeky" but simply ran out of time to really pursue any of them. The final image was a last-minute idea that changed drastically a couple times as I was making it.

Some of the geeky elements:

- Classic computer-style font ("magnetic card")
- Binary numbers around the border
- Colors common to many tech/modernistic websites
- Glassy look also common becoming a standard
- Mathematic symbols that make up the main message
- Hexagons reminiscent of role-playing games

For the binary n umbers around the edge, I wanted them to "mean something" so I thought I'd pull up Excel and simply use the DEC2BIN function to convert some numbers. Problem: that function was never installed and I didn't feel like hunting for the installation CD.

So what's a geek to do? Write a quick calculator. So, there may have been an easier route available, but this only took about 20 minutes and it works fine... I could even make the output in the correct font since copy/paste into PSP's text editor was also copying the font. I made it to handle up to 16 binary digits, but then found that for the illustration I only needed 12. The formulas are completely copyable to the right, so it can conceivably be extended to nearly unlimited digits.

The main message is roughly: "ALL UNIQUE but EQUAL"

All geekiness aside, I'm not a mathematician, so these may be very loosely used. But according to Wikipedia's Table of Mathematic Symbols, it should work out.

∀ is "Universal Quantification"
∃! is "Uniqueness Quantification"
= is "Equality"

And basically that is what we have to keep reminding our kids. They are all equally cared for, equally loved, equally valued, but they are uniquely different personalities, at different stages of life, and what appears to them as "unfair" is usually completely fair.

So? Is that geeky enough?
~DL

IF:Safe - Inspiration

2006-09-03T17:35:00.000-04:00

From Illustration Firday post "Safe" on DL With It

It's been a while... many years, in fact. Today I drew in church. Not just doodles on the Sunday School paper, but a full 15 minutes of scribbling. I'm sure if someone had glanced over, they'd have rolled their eyes and thought to themselves something about what's wrong with that boy.

But this was very different than the drawing I used to do as a child. Not the style --but the motive. As a kid, it was an escape from listing to something that I just wasn't the least bit interested in. This time it was an expression of what was on my mind and in my heart.

We had a special singing group in today, Soul's Harbor (can't locate a web link). They sang a good 'ol familiar gospel song, "The LIghthouse" and even though I've heard it many times before (mostly from visiting groups to our church), this time it touched me. It wasn't immediate though. It was durring another song that talked about safety. (I don't even remember the title of the song.)

I thought about our topic this week, SAFE. I had originally been thinking about something along the lines of a baseball player on home plate with a safe droped on his head and the ump saying he was safe AND out... maybe some spectators looking upward to try to figure out where a safe came from.

But the combination of Jesus being our safety and being our lighthouse inspired me to get out a pad of paper during the service and start scribbling. Literally. It was a vague idea, but here's what I did while the singers kept praising:

I know the religiously uptight would have had things to say. But I was worshiping. Many who are gifted in the art of music are applauded for expressing their faith through art. And that's what this was - an artist expressing his faith and belief through art.

Origianlly, I thought I'd beter get the ship in there for context. But later, I decided it would be better to just let the viewer had an unobstructed scene. Place yourself anywhere in the composition. Off to the side, avoiding the rocks, or stright down the middle, being warned that the rocks are there.

Here's a piece from the song:

There's a Lighthouse on the hillside
That over looks life's sea
And when I'm tossed it sends out a light
That I might see
And the light that shines in darkness now
Will safely lead us o'er
If it wasn't for the Lighthouse
My ship would be no more
Words and Music: Ronnie Hinson © 1971 Canaanland Music

Jesus once again addressed them:
"I am the world's Light.
No one who follows me
stumbles around in the darkness.
I provide plenty of light to live in."
John 8:12 (MSG)

IF-Insect-Cicadarama

2006-03-04T20:51:00.000-05:00

Many people will remember the summer of 2004 whenever someone mentions cicadas. This was the year that the 17-year variety made its appearance. Many varieties, though burrowing for 5, 7, or other numbers of years have different populations that appear every year. But the 17-year cicada is completely absent for 16 years. Our annual tree buzzing comes from a variety that is mostly green and black in much a military camouflage pattern, whereas the 17-year is orange and blue.

Knowing that these were not going to be seen for another 17 years, it was mandatory that we take the kids out to place where there were countless thousands congregating along a back-road just over the border from Michigan in Indiana. Sure they were everywhere anyway, but this location was both secluded and concentrated. You literally had to watch every step. I have photos of a tree of bush that you can play "count the bugs" and reach some pretty high numbers.

My oldest was 10 when we had our cicada adventure and my youngest was 2. What made this experience so important is that my youngest will be 19 and beginning college when they appear next. This was literally a once-in-a-childhood thing for them to see. I hope others took the time to marvel at these beautiful (but noisy) insects, instead of simply being annoyed by them.

IF:Song2 - Identified

2006-02-23T20:29:00.000-05:00

His Eye Is On the Sparrow
(refrain only...)
I sing because I'm happy.
I sing because I'm free.
For His eye is on the sparrow,
And I know He watches me.

When I saw Sunny Rae Day's post, I wondered if it was supposed to actually be musical notes. That led me immediately to the PBS spot, "Be More... Inspired," where birds landing on a set of phone lines inspires the musician to start creating. So I thought, "let's take this up just a notch."

Hope you had fun with this. :-)
-Don

IF:Chair - Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

2006-02-04T10:05:00.000-05:00

My first thought was the verb "to chair a meeting" or such. My immediate second thought was "My Father's Chair" by David Meece. This song has always hit me deeply. If you ever get the chance to listen, do. Better yet, visit the website and buy the album.

The lesson I get is to learn from the past, do better in the present, and look forward to the future. It is way to easy to let hurts from the past depress the present and rob the future. At the same time you can't deny past hurts. But it doesn't have to become today's reality.

No matter what yesterday and today present, there is assurance for tomorrow. I can't change the past. I can't always fix the present. But I know Who holds the future. As another song says, "Because He lives, I can face tomorrow..."

My Father's Chair
By David Meece

Sometimes at night I'd lie awake
Longing inside for my father's embrace
Sometimes at night I'd wander downstairs
And pray he'd returned, but no one was there.
Oh, how I'd cry, a child all alone
Waiting for him to come home.

Chorus:
My father's chair, sat in an empty room
My father's chair, covered with sheets of gloom
My father's chair through all the years
And all the tears I cried in vain
No one was there in my father's chair.

Sometimes at night I sit all alone
Drifting asleep in a chair of my own
When sweet sleepy eyes peer down from the hall
Frightened by dreams they cannot recall
I hold them close, calming their fears
Praying they always will say,

Chorus:
My father's chair sits in a loving room
My father's chair, no matter what I do
My father's chair, through all the years
And all the tears I need not fear
Love's always there in my father's chair.

Sometimes at night I dream of a throne
Of my loving God, calling me home
And as I appear, He rises and smiles
And reaches with love to welcome His child
Never to cry, never to fear
In His arms, safe and secure.

Chorus:
My Father's chair sits in a royal room
My Father's chair holds glory beyond the tomb
My Father's chair, my God is there
And I am His eternal heir
Someday I'll share my Father's chair.

IF:Flavor - The Deeper Meaning

2005-12-31T01:59:00.000-05:00

Christians are called to be "salt" in this world. We are not called to be the same flavor as everyone else. If you are a true follower of Jesus Christ, then your life will have some zing to it that will cause two reaction in people who do not know Jesus.

First, you WILL stand out. If you blend in seamlessly with the culture around you, then you are not salt. A person does not add salt to make food taste the same as it did before you added it. Salt SHOULD affect the flavor. As Christians, our silence is nothing more than flavorless salt... and we wonder why we are thrown out and walked on.

Second, you will improve the flavor of those you are around. A touch of salt will help to bring out the flavor in dull foods. It's not that those foods didn't have flavor to start with, it's that it wasn't strong enough. The flavor was dull and bland. Salt is exciting. It ads zest to a boring dish. Our Christian witness is not to condemn anyone! It is to show them what God is really like.

"Taste and see the the Lord is good. Blessed is the person who takes refuge in him." Pslam 34:8 (GW)

"Make your light shine, so that others will see the good that you do and will praise your Father in heaven." Matthew 5:16 (CEV)

As a Christian, are you being salt to your circle of friends? Your community? Are you adding flavor to your surroundings? Or are you blending in, trying not to cause any ripples?

Many who are antagonistic toward the Christian faith wish for religious silence. It was quite sad to see all of the illos a couple weeks ago for 'Imagine' that praised the words of the song "Imagine." The lyrics are not much more than a call to communism. No heaven, no hell, no religion, nothing to live or die for... these are not the pillar ideals of peace. It mentions no possessions... how many of those glorifying this song would actually be willing to give up their belongings? No car, no house, no computer? Nothing. The song revels in a false peace. One that is absolutely unattainable.

Peace does not come from abolishing faith. It doesn't come from political treaties. Peace does not come from the absence of wars or troubles. Peace comes when you are able to maintain faith in the future in spite of wars and troubles.

We cannot live in a fallen world and expect to be able to get by just hoping and wishing for troubles to go away. There is a peace that surpasses all understanding; it comes alive when we accept the Truth that God has shown us all through Christ... that we cannot save ourselves. But that there is a savior for us.

Salt also preserves. We are called to be salt. It is safe to conclude that we are called to help preserve those around us. We cannot save people, but we can show them a pleasant taste that will draw them to the source of our saltiness. Then they, in turn can become salt to flavor the world around them.

One more note... Too much salt and the dish becomes bitter. Too much salt and the blood pressure rises. The world does not need Christians bashing Bibles over their heads. But those who are lost DO need to hear truth. The key is to let God direct you and shake you over the places He desires for you to flavor. Not too much, not too little. The Master knows how much salt to add to each dish.

IF:Imagine - History

2005-12-16T20:47:00.000-05:00

The spacecraft design that I used in Illustration Friday's "Imagine" illo was drawn somewhere between 18-20 years ago. This is a direct, unaltered scan of the original drawing. I remember doing this in high school, but I can't remember exactly what year. There were actaully a series of these all based on a similar design style. This one was intended to be a personal version of a larger military craft design earlier.

My first thought for "Imagine" was the song of the same title, but not the one most people think of. My first impression was I Can Only Imagine by Mercy Me. But the very idea they sing about renders an illo impossible. We can only imagine what heaven will be like... we can never do an illustration that will come close to the reality of the heavenly realms; we simply do not have the ability to visualize what is in store. "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined the things that God has prepared for those who love him." 1Corinthians 2:10 (GW)

The next thought was that of a kid's imagination... especially my own from childhood. We all marvel at the imagination that children seem to have. But then it dawned on me... I haven't lost it! My whole business revolves around imagination. So why not illustrate myself at my current age? Better yet, why not illustrate myself both then and now?

And there you have it. I sat looking at the IF welcome page imagining how I would look as I was sketching the memory of sitting in class imagining my drawings coming to life in a sci-fi movie some day.

IF:Small

2005-11-29T14:45:00.000-05:00

This may be a bit confusing to some. My bad. I'm not exactly sure how to fix it except to explain it for those who may have barely caught a glimpse of it flying overhead.

The idea was to show "relative" smallness. The basic rundown of the image is that the reader is looking thourgh a microscope at a couple of single-cell dudes who are, in turn, looking at even smaller objects, viruses, who we learn from the caption are looking at something still smaller.

I admit it: I did not research at all as to just what these are supposed to actually be. But I just remember from biology class that viruses are incredibly tiny. So they would be "small" to the cellular critters.

Maybe I hit the mark, maybe not. I have a hunch that this will only truly strike a few people properly. But on a positive note, many of Garry Larson's 'Far Side' cartoons only tickled a select audience... of course, he also managed to hit a great variety of select audiences! :-)

I should have thought it out a biot more, BUT most of you know that time can be a precious commodity.

For those of you who "got it" and read this anyway, I know how you feel to have a twisted sense of humor! :-P

-Don

IF:Free

2005-11-21T22:40:00.000-05:00

This week's topic is perhaps the most misunderstood and misapplied word we have yet been offered. The majority of people (especially in the USA) define "free" as a state where there are no boundaries. No limits. No rules. No law.

In absolute, limitless freedom you cannot tell anyone what is right or wrong. No one. To give a single person a single rule is to destroy absolute freedom. To tell a person it is "wrong" to take the property of another is to limit that person's freedom to do so.

Freedom without limits is anarchy. Freedom NEEDS it's limits. If we don't, as a society, limit the freedom an adult has to control a child, abuse is the result. If we don't make drinking and driving a crime, more people die than do already. We need laws and boundaries to protect the freedom of the people.

If a helium balloon is cut loose and ascends skyward, is it now free? Not at all. It is pushed around by every air current it comes into contact with. It wanders aimlessly through the sky, continually upward. It cannot decend at will. I cannot move left or right, forward or backward. It is at the mercy of all the forces around it. And when it finally gets so high that the pressure around it fades away, it bursts. Dead. Not a very "free" life for the balloon.

To allow absolute freedom without bounds will destroy all people in the end. On the other side of it, we cannot have so many laws that freedom is abollished completely. We need freedom. We need choices and options in life.

If that same balloon is tied to 100 strings, it will be held flat to the ground by the weight of the strings. Too many rules and freedom collapses. Too few rules and freedom explodes. Both to an end that is not free.

But what is it that ties the balloon to the child's wrist or a chair? What is the string that lets it float free without soaring to destruction? It is "right" limits. Reasonable boundaries.

But to create even a single law, there must be truth. If truth is completely relative, then there is no justice in telling a person that they are wrong on any issue. ANY issue. (Even telling them there is no truth!) Without truth, one cannot demand that murder is wrong. It must be based on something that is true, something that is absolute.

There is a popular saying: "What's true for me may not be true for you and what's true for you may not be true for me." This saying cannot even be uttered without some dishonesty. If the person it is being said to does not find it to be true, the person who said it is already wrong. It is a self-defeating concept.

"Truth" by its very nature demands that there are absolutes. If there is no absolute truth, there can be no truth at all --mine, yours, or anyone's. If there is no absolute truth, there can be no foundation for morality, since morality, by definition, states that there are actions that are right and there are actions that are wrong. In order for something to be wrong, there must be a "right." In order for something to be right, there must be truth.

But people don't WANT to believe in truth, because if there IS right and wrong, they might be wrong. They might be right... But that is not much consolation when they might not be right. It is easier to deny the possibility of being right or wrong than it is to look into our own actions to see which they are.

"I'm free to do whatever I want... don't tell me I'm wrong. Your rule is not true for me."

Denial is false freedom. Pretending that something is not what it is does not free you from it. There are many measures (differing complexity) for gravity and the acceleration of falling objects, but the bottom line is: if you step off the 15th floor of a high-rise, you will not enjoy the result. Neither will anyone standeing within 25 ft of where you hit. You are completely free to accept gravity or reject gravity, but it will have no bearing on the end result. Just being free to choose, does not automatically make every choice correct. Just being free to choose a belief does not automatically make any or every choice true. It has to BE true OUTSIDE of any individual's belief in order to actually BE true.

Our beliefs only become true if we choose to believe something that is already true before we believed it. If we think that something BECOMES true just because we believe it, then we are believing in a lie. How can anyone be truly free believing a lie?

We are only truly FREE when we seek after truth. We can only seek truth if we are willing to accept that we may have to change, if the truth we find is not what we expected. As is oft said, the truth can hurt. But the truth can also save.

If you need to get to a hospital for a family member's life-and-death emergency, do you want a map with a disclaimer, "Directions are believed to be true by some editors and are not necessarily the directions of this company?" Of course not! You want a map that is accurate and TRUE.

And once you have a "true" map, you are still free to follow any path on it... but be sure that not all roads lead to the hospital! It would be foolish to think that. Yet that is believed by so many about life and death, mortality and eternity. "All roads lead to Rome" is used to describe the view that all religious beliefs are just different routes to the same end. The truth (accept or reject this) is that there is only one way to life.

"I am the way, the truth, and the life!" Jesus answered. "Without me, no one can go to the Father."

Every human is free to accept this or reject this... But that has no bearing on the truth of it. It was true before it was written and true today. I'm sure that none of this text will change anyone's mind about the position they have already chosen. But that does not change the truth of it.

Rejecting truth does not invalidate truth.

Simply denying God does not invalidate God. We are free to believe or not believe, but His existence does not depend on our beliefs. If we depend on our own feelings and/or inventiveness to define who or what God is, we have set ourselves up above Him... The ultimate act of rebellion; also the first sin committed in the universe.

I am thankful that I am FREE to write these thoughts and truths. But if many who claim to promote freedom in this country get their wishes, I will no longer be free to express my convictions. Many fear the message of salvation through Christ, claiming that merely being exposed to it is violating their freedoms. Rather than ignore the words of the Christian, they want to silence us. But that has been fortold in scripture, so there is no surprise there.

Fear is bondage and fear gives birth to bondage.

I have not used phrases like, "I think" or "I believe" because all that is written is truth. I have kept my petty thoughts and beliefs to myself here. I am free to talk this way, not because I am arrogant or close-minded... I am free to express this because it is true. How much more free could I be? And I am not free because of anything I have done. It's not who I am or what I'm worth. It's who Jesus is. I am nothing without Him. And with Him, I am servant... the ultimate act of freedom is chooseing to set personal freedoms down in order to serve others.

Jesus told the people who had faith in him, "If you keep on obeying what I have said, you are truly my disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

(John 8:31-32 CEV, emphasis added)