blog: felix jung

So recently, I've been getting a lot of traffic to my Evolving Genesis experiment. I've taken to looking over my "Recent Referrers" list, trying to see where people are coming from, and what pages they're looking at. Tracking the links back, I found quite a few discussons going on, on various sites.

Oddly, the comments are all over the place. Some folks like it, and think it's neat. Other folks are going so far as to suggest that I added in some kind of check in the code, to prevent the sentence from ever appearing. Apparently, I'm not only a Creationist, but a Christian of dubious integrity as well?

For the record, here's the blurb to the Evolving Genesis experiment:

In 2001, I came across a Scientific American article about a strange art piece/experiment by Joe Davis called the "Self-Assembling Clock." Davis took apart a clock and placed the pieces inside a sealed Mason jar. According to the history books, "life supposedly arose spontaneously from colliding precursory biochemicals billions of years ago." By that same logic the pieces inside the Mason jar should spontaneously combine to form a fully functioning clock.

In a similar spirit, "Evolving Genesis" is a simple test in randomization. This program generates letters (choosing from a, b, c, d, e, g, h, i, n, o, r, t, v, space, period) and attempts to create the first line of the Bible, Genesis 1:1. Any letters that match correctly show up as white; any letters that are matched incorrectly show up as green.

There is no real point to this, I guess. If anything, after watching this I hope you will appreciate the astronomical odds against our being here, our being alive right now.

If you are a diehard empiricist like me, perhaps this little statistical experiment comes closer to blurring the boundaries between the miraculous and the improbable.

Ah, well. At least people are talking to one another about their views of the world. That's the important thing, right? Chalk this one up to my deciding to use the word "Evolution" instead of "Random." Also, I need to go into the Flash and make that help button a bit more visible... I don't think people are actually clicking on that guy. Because if they did... they'd realize what the experiment is all about.

From: the smockmomma
To: Felix
Subj: these old ladies think you're the bomb

you are as fascinating as your site. or is it the other way around?

regardless, did you ever think you'd be promoted by a blog maintained by three catholic moms?

that has to be better than msnbc, right?

-the smockmomma

Met up with Justin at Filter today, to sketch out the initial plans for Stu's website. This thing is going to be rockin' when we're finally done (and it seems like an easier task than we had first anticipated).

This project will be a cool combination of Ben's design, Justin's programming and my Flash. All three kung-fu styles, mixed together. It's going to be great.

This one, spotted on Milwaukee Ave.

I'd just like to remind everyone that I'm the bomb.

That is all.

Every year, Cathie throws a swinging Martini Party at her place. Gin and vodka abound, as do olives and onions, sliced fruit, buckets of ice, an army of shakers, and an assortment of martini recipes... all framed and stationed at various points in the kitchen.

Up until today, the past few times I was here... I didn't end up breaking out the camera. I didn't know a ton of folks, and was a bit hesitant about just walking around and taking pictures of relative strangers. This year, however, I dug into the sauce a bit more. :)

Andy, who some of you may recall was Internet-stalking me some weeks back. He had started to go through some of the older entries on here, and apparently couldn't stop reading. I haven't been able to yet, but one of these days at work... I'm gonna get a photo of him reading my blog (while he's not looking).

This is Aditra, Andy's girlfriend. When I found out she was here, I immediately asked for her picture. A while back, I had found out from Andy that Aditra did a lot of acting when she was younger. Her claim to fame? She was the Blackmer girl from The Untouchables, the little girl who runs out of the bar after Frank Nitti and says "Hey mister! You forgot your bag!" Right before she blows up.

As it turns out, Aditra is also quite fond of Texas Holdem. One of these days, we're going to have to get a game together where the wives and girlfriends also play. Although... from what I hear, they may end up wiping the table with us louts.

Chris, chatting with Sherman.

Phil, Charity and me. I was showing off my camera a bit, and took this photo to demonstrate the advantages of the reverse display screen... allowing me to take this shot.

For some reason, doing shots of Ouzo becomes a thing. I think Cathie's dad was drinking this tonight, in a glass with some ice. I had never heard of it before, and when I smelled it... I had an immediate, negative reaction.

A coupla things here, at this point. First - I never learned how to do shots. I know you're supposed to just sort of open up and throw down the thing, but I just never quite figured it out. I just sort of drink it really fast. Second - this Ouzo stuff tastes like medicine I used to have to take as a kid. So maybe it's not all that bad... but the memory it triggers is not a pleasant one.

I'm not even sure what in the hell it was that I took. But the smell is definitely the same. This medicine came in a bottle, with a dropper built in to the screw-top. I tried a few times to just drink it straight, but it tasted so awful that I remember my parents having to resort to soaking small pieces of bread with it - just so I could get it down. To me, that's what Ouzo smells like: this greenish, brackish medicine that I had to choke down as a kid. Blegh!

Since I was doing a shot with Andy and Justin, I ended up giving the camera to Aditra, so she could film. She, after all, has the most movie experience out of anyone in the room.

As we were making our way out, I walked by the couch where Cathie and a bunch of her friends were getting a photo. Cathie yells out at me, and asks if I want a picture of a bunch of hot girls on my website. Well, I don't need to be asked something like that twice.

Right before this, Justin and I were staging a goody shot, trying to recreate an old party moment when he and our friend Joey were dancing in Cathie's windows, trying to give the passing CTA train a show. This apartment has seen many a raucous evening.

Cabbed it back to Ukranian Village with Justin, and stepped in to Clubfoot... where they were having some kind of drink special from 9-1, and were going to be open until 3AM. We walk in right around 1, and the place is still packed. More so than I've ever seen. We end up running in to Pogo (who I haven't officially met until tonight), and chatted some. I threw down one drink here, and tried to wander some. After less than 10 minutes, I decided I was ready to bolt and headed back home.