Rene Magritte: La condition humaine, 1935, Huile sur toile, 100 x 81 cm, Genève, collection Simon Spierer.
By the way, I decided not to put a counter here--it would just show me checking to see if anybody'd read this stuff.
9/30/96
This page, like the rest of my homepage, is hopelessly out of date. I think that I will create a completely new page with a link to this old one, in a new www directory. That would probably be better. I'm enjoying this semester. Continuing to reread the New Testament--I just finished 2 Thessalonians. This summer was wonderful--spent four weeks in Oxford, learning British History (since 1930--mostly political) and studying Shakespeare. Also took long walks along the Thames, played bar billiards in pubs, gazed on graves and churches, grew to love England fiercely. What have I been up to lately? ACM/DPMA stuff, classwork, played LOTS of cards and played a good deal of D&D. Hanging out with the usual suspects--by the time you've become a junior, that's become both highly specialized (the people I spend most of my time with) and very varied (the number I know and like). Reading a lot--lately into G. K. Chesterton, Gene Wolfe (I read the BOOK OF THE NEW SUN this summer--perhaps the most impressive work, all together (other than the Bible) I've ever read), Borges, Tolkien (again), Mervyn Peake (finished the first two Gormenghast novels), philosophy (THE PASSION OF THE WESTERN MIND, specifically, although the secularization and malevolent meaninglessness of much of everything since about 1600 frightens me), history (AJP Taylor's ENGLAND 1914-1945 this summer)... Greg Egan short stories, random science fiction, fantasy, etc. Think I've read all of John Mortimer's Rumpole books now (finished the last one in University Park in Oxford the day before I left this summer). Amazing how the web's grown into something so huge that no one can ever find any one piece of it... Spent a lot of time in my office in Withers (where I'm writing this now). I'm considering working for the NSA this summer...
11/6/95
Still working on the book (and not caught up, due to some file-system problems. Haven't done the report for Sterling yet. Bombed a Physics test today. And this semester just isn't living up to expectations (agreed with by Steve, James, Chaffee, Tracey, David...) But I'm doing okay, learning to live without my computer, and I've registered for next semester.
I'm taking MDS304, the next required Franklin course, Ethical Dimensions of Progress and MDS324, Hoffman's Alternative Futures class. I'm also picking up two more CSC requirements, CSC311 (Data Structures) with Dwyer, and CSC201 (Assembly Language) with Dr. Staff. The other two courses I'm taking are Kessel's Science Fiction (ENG376) -- whee! and PHI340, Philosophy of Science, with Harold Levin. An 18 hour load, but I think I'll enjoy it.
10/26/95
Working on the book for Sutton, trying to fix my computer, which has decided to start crashing all the time (memory chip may be loose), hoping to write up a little research on dead computer languages for Bruce Sterling's Dead Media Project soon (I'm still technically a lurker until I do), get Ethernet set up, do well in my courses, etc. Busy busy busy busy. But enjoying most of it.
Alli says this page is too long--but I don't care! Anyway, I'm about to move to OS/2 and hopefully be able to cruise the Net from my room once I convince it to work with my Ethernet card.
In other news I have WAY TOO MUCH TO DO. The LIVE HUMAN stuff isn't working very well-- people don't have time to write 500 words of random English text. At least not the people I know. I'm sure there's other stuff to mention, like Tank Wars or the fact that I have ---SHOCK--- likable suitemates this year, but I'm basically still me, still trying to do a little good and usually failing, still seeking to serve God and enjoy what little spare time I have, still working on strong AI in my basement laboratory...
Check out my new section on Artifical Life. I'm going to include a program I wrote this summer, in downloadable format, and a few other items as we progress. AL has replaced traditional AI as my chief interest in computers.
Also, I am performing an interesting experiment on some of my fellow students here at State--stay tuned for more info on that, under the title:
That's all for now.
The Experiment isn't going very well, in that only TWO people have bothered to send anything to me. So, you'll have to wait until they help me out for any info on that.
I have a key to Withers now! Whee! Also, I'm learning Forth and LISP. This page is becoming increasingly incoherent. Entropy, I sense, has gained a subtle victory here.
I'm heading home for the summer May 13th. So this page will probably go out of date, and some of this personal information definitely is wrong. I will be at the same email, residence hall, etc., but I won't be around this summer. Sorry!
I am a freshman at North Carolina State University, majoring in Computer Science, Applied Mathematics, and a Multi-Disciplinary Studies humanity to be determined. I was born in Elkin, North Carolina on November 24th, 1975. I probably will scan a picture someday and insert it here. Until then, I am skinny, short (5'6"/5'5" or so), wear Escher t-shirts and jeans when I'm not out of them, have brownish/blond hair, hazel eyes, and wear glasses because I hate the thought of contacts.
I am attending school largely on the largesse of the Duke Power Foundation. I am one of the 1994 Duke Power Scholars. Duke Power Scholars are selected from students in the Duke Power service area. Three scholars are selected from among Duke Power employee's children, and three from non-employees. I am among the latter. My parents are both teachers at Starmount High School, my alma mater.
My mother, Carole Groce, teaches mathematics at Starmount High School. She's an excellent teacher, and she is the one who introduced me to computers. My father, Leonard Groce, teaches architectural and mechanical drafting. I was fortunate enough to have him as a teacher for two years. He is one of those innovative teachers who you really love having when you don't want to kill him. Warning: do not attempt to do battle with this man: he is relentless!
These pages are amazingly boring, but if you want real boredom, you'll have to wait. The year I turn 50 I intend to publish my JOURNAL, a monumentally dull study of my life, illusion, pathos, science, God, truth, and bad prose. This journal consumes a sizable portion of my time, and is approaching 3000 pages in length. It was begun on September 5th, 1992. It will, of course, be an electronic publication. At the time I began writing the JOURNAL, I used Microsoft Works 2.0. I have now moved up to MS Word 6.0, but haven't bothered to convert the old files--my roommate has a conversion program, I'm just lazy. It's quite a few megabytes of single-spaced text! I'm running Word now on my latest computer, a 486-50DX2 color laptop made by Amrel. It has 8 megabytes of memory, a floppy drive that doesn't work about half the time, a nice (14.4K) modem, and a lot of software packed into its 260 megabyte hard drive (including Turbo C++, MIT Scheme, two versions of Prolog, UCB Logo, MSW Logo 4.0, ZBasic-32, and a few things that aren't programming languages). I am, obviously, an avid programmer. Programming is an excellent mental excercises, and the metaphors involved in programming are easily as powerful as those in physics and mathematics.
Alex David Groce 6000, Highway 21 Jonesville, NC 28642When will I be home? If I decide to serve as a commencement marshall this year, I probably will be here until the 13th. After that, alas, I'll be off the web for the summer.