Happy Halloween from Indiana Jones

My halloween costume this year was Indiana Jones, which was remarkably easy to do since I already had boots, slacks, a button down shirt, a whip, and the hat. I went out and bought a couple belts and a Indy looking bag, and all was well.

Overheard in State College

Girl 1: "What are we going to do if the party is cancelled?"
Girl 2: "What party?"
Girl 1: "The one with all the floats."
Girl 2: "The parade?"
Girl 1: "Yeah.. the parade."

Ahh, homecoming, how I will not miss you at all.

Railroads will save the world

I was very excited this morning to read this article in USA Today. I spent all day excited about it, and even showed it to some people, who were decidedly Not As Excited (tm) about it. This is probably the best news that I've heard all month.

The article is talking about Norfolk Southern Railway, which is updating some railroad tunnels and bridges as part of a new rail corridor from Norfolk, VA to Chicago. Points to take home with you from the article: The federal government is paying for over half of the project out of funds earmarked for highways. (Various state governments are also contributing money to the project.) The new corridor can handle trains that are double stacked with standard size containers (the same ones used for shipping all over the world), saving shippers around 500$ a container. With double stacked trains, Norfolk can actually make money. One train "replaces about 300 trucks".

Now, why are trains so important? Trucks are a terrible and inefficient way to transport goods. (By inefficient, I mean both physically and economically) Trucks get involved in many accidents on the highways. Trucks cause congestion on highways. Trucks damage highways to the tune of millions of dollars a year: one truck driving down the highway does the damage of 10,000 cars (Schwartzman). [Think about this: 1 Train = 300 Trucks = 3,000,000 Cars = lots and lots of your tax and toll money saved] Tires on pavement are way less efficient than wheels on tracks, not to mention that you're basically moving each item separately and with a diesel engine. Trucks pollute orders of magnitude more than trains, especially when you look at pollution per pound of goods transported, and in light of global warming, this is especially important. Trains are cheaper than trucks, these days, cheap transportation is everything.

Really, I'm mystified by the fact that we don't use trains much more than we do, in fact, we use trains even less than we used to. It just doesn't make sense in any way. Trucks should be limited to local delivery, the rail infrastructure should be updated and expanded, and something really has to be done about Amtrak. At any rate, you can see why this made me so happy. I hope this is the beginning of a new trend. Thank you, Nick Rahall, keep up the good work.

Princess Layla the Bubble Killer

Just a quick post, to introduce Layla, hunter of bubbles. She has to catch every one, and we need more bubble solution to help burn off her excess energy.

This is one good photo I took out of 40. She decided to play Blur the Picture.

I think it might be a favorite game of hers. Others include:

• Steal Stella's Shoe and Prance Around With It
• Chase the Ice Cube
• Run Flying Puppy circles Across the Room for No Apparent Reason
• Leaping Lick the Face
  and
• Wrestle the Kitchen Rug.

Now all we need is the flying cars

The future is now! As we were just saying on the phone :D

First of all, Philips introduces "Lumalive" Fabric, which is just, as a concept...

0_0

There's also a youTube vid.

Now if only they could crank up the resolution... but still.


So as I was saying - the future is, kinda, now. Ipods have finally gone way down in price, *and* are with video. In 2003 my parents paid $500 for a 3rd gen 30GB! Playstation 3 and the next Nintendo system (HTH does one say "Wii" and not sound like an ass..?) are actually finally COMING OUT. Wikipedia is for better or worse becoming the effective repository of all human knowledge, which gives me oddly giddy geek I-told-you-so feelings for some reason, and mapquest and maps google have totally changed the way everyone I know navigates. And you can zoom in on your HOUSE. Our neighbors have some crazy pools apparently. Suddenly *everyone* has a site on the internet, thanks to MySpace & co., no matter how Ba-Dong the design can be.

Google has become a freaking VERB.

And of course there's the Best ScreenSaver EVER - Electric Sheep.

Now you don't even have to download nuthin to see check it out, although personally I think in terms of sheer *pretty* the current flock WAY outstrips these videos. I just found that some of the sheep guys are now on MySpace - They have some youtube stuff, and some google vids. (Tons of free video and image hosting - yet another flyingCarsIsm.) Also hifisheep.com did what *I* was wishing for all along.

Creator of Electric Sheep on MySpace


He also has a google vid somewhere where he did a lecture at google, it was lengthy at an hour long, but so very informative. It answered a ton of questions I had about the sheep.

Awesome Sheep designer's myspace

Opposite of a desert tree at sunset

Opposite of a desert tree at sunset
Originally uploaded by Kusmeroglu.

I've been looking through pictures tonight, a little cruise down memory lane, and found this one, which I always meant to put up somewhere. I think it's a unique sort of play on the familiar desert tree picture. The background is the shops along college ave, picture taken in a winter storm twilight at penn state, 2005.

Research Project

I'm doing an undergrad research project on combining social bookmarking information with internet search. I'm trying to determine if adding tags to search results speeds up the process of finding the page you are looking for. Please help out by filling out this 5 minute questionnaire, I need all the responses I can get.

Thanks!

Aikido

I've taken a couple Aikido sessions with Penn State's local Aikido club, and I have to say that it's a lot more interesting than I originally thought. I've always been big on cross training, but Gung-fu always has the sweet spot in my heart. Gung-fu and all the other circular arts resonate with me much more. (I guess I'm just not a brute force linear kinda girl) At any rate, Aikido seems to have perfected the circular-ness of martial arts. It's so good, that even having some experience in martial arts (though I'm still very much a beginner), it still seems like magic when you execute a move right, and your partner just falls over. (Likewise, when someone gets a move right on you, and you find yourself on the ground) I also really like Aikido manner: they don't have any aggressiveness to them at all, no hands up in guard position stances, they just chill out and wait for the attack to be their opportunity. I'll have to drill breakfalling more, so I don't break any more collarbones, but I definitely suggest anyone that's into martial arts to at least try Aikido out, or practice with an Aikido student and let them show you what it's all about.

Disturbing things in the newspaper

I picked up a copy of USA Today to browse over lunch. (Apparently the new policy of not eating or drinking in classrooms means that people aren't leaving newspapers around for me to read second hand) It's been a while since I had the time to look in a paper, and I was surprised as some things I found in there. The article on higher education statistics, for one: The US only has a 35% college participation rate, and a measly 17% completion rate. 17%! I assume that community colleges and the like are a larger part of this than Penn State, but that still seems like such a low number, especially coming from my point of view. Craziness.

The other thing that I thought ridiculous: A book review of 'World War Z' by Max Brooks (review by Deirdre Donahue). I've never heard of the book, but zombies are always interesting, unless you say this about the book: "Brooks' clever premise is that a virus has turned people into the undead. Hordes of flesh-devouring zombies roam the earth, hunting down and infecting the living. Governments, armies, doctors, economies collapse in turn." Wow, how original and clever! Wait.. I must have missed something, that's the same premise of every zombie story I've heard of. (Doctors collapsing?) I'm going to go ahead and assume that Brooks' way of telling the tale might actually possess "more creativity and zip than entire crates of other new fiction titles", but still.

The strange thoughts one has late at night

So, I've been really sick recently, one of those colds that hits you hard and takes you down before you realize what's going on. Also, I can't sleep. I'm a night person, so I'm actually feeling pretty good right now, and not sleepy at all.

Anyways, I got to thinking about drugs, which led to thinking about yuppies, which got me to thinking about the idea of 'normal'. I don't know if this is a phenomenon elsewhere in the world, my thought is that it's localized to the good old US of A. Now, everyone has different reasons for this, but I've never met a person who thought they were anywhere near normal. (If you don't believe me, name one person who doesn't think their family is crazy) I think this is the secret behind the Power that the Media has over people (Americans?). All these trends and things, the crazy stuff people will believe, people following the big names in entertainment closer than, well.. anything important that's worth following, you get my drift. It's just a whole bunch of people striving for some non-existant normalicy, which the Media will apparently show them, with the zeal of moths to flame. Okay, it's kinda obvious, but the key here is Yuppies, damnit. Or maybe it's the Tylenol PM.

Google Maps version 2

In a previous post, I complained that google maps only displayed points on one world map tile at a time, so if you had it zoomed all the way out, and scrolled around, the points would dissapear from one view of the world, and reappear on the next one over. They fixed that, so as you scroll across the pacific ocean, the points migrate themselves over at an appropriate time. It's nice, I like it. Actually, I really like everything they did in the version 2 API, at least as far as I've worked with it.

Hopefully my mysterious problems where the maps only seem to work reliably on my own computer will also go away.

Paul Graham: How to Do What You Love

Good article on .. how to do what you love. Okay, obvious bits over with, I've always liked Graham's articles. I wish more people understood that liking what you do it extra important. Especially this bit: "You have to like what you do enough that the concept of "spare time" seems mistaken."

It jives very much with the fact that I just finished the Fountainhead by Ayn Rand (also, very good).

No Updates?!

Ah, it's been a while. I think I wrote a couple posts, but it must have been in my dreams because they are certainly not up here. Oh well. Life is busy, but good.
Python, my dearest, I have not forgotten you! (Even if I'm not dragging my butt to Texas for PyCon) Still letting that R.A.T. idea simmer in the back of my head.
In other news, Halo 2 is addicting.
In further, and also other news, I'm trying to muster up some inertia for a webcomic. I know you guys think I'm joking, but I'm serious. If these guys can make their own decks of cards, then there's gotta be some left for me.
Back to studying latin..

I worry sometimes

Things like this, and more obviously the increasingly terrible "grammar" (I use the term very loosely) used in instant messageing make me worry for the future. Now, I know and openly admit that I can't spell at all, nor am I very good at grammar, so this affects me more than others. I'm like a bad spelling and grammar sponge. Think of our kids, and the next generation, growing up surrounded by all sorts of errors and misuse. Oh the terror.

In other news, that A List Apart site is a really good read. I stumble across it looking for css and javascript (blech) solutions everyonce in a while, and always stumble away feeling more knowledgeable.

Nasa.. UFOs... Doinks... Oh my. O.o

So I'm googling along, minding my own business, and I run across this in a search for NASA space images on images.google -

... 0.o ?

Here's where it comes from - it's basically about how you can't trust things like image processing in the wrong hands (or possibly even the right ones..?). Brain not doing so hot without the sleep, so further commentary is sluggish in the forthcoming...

So, having basically not slept at ALL last night, I I'm thinking to myself, "Self, does this not strike you as ... more than just a tad odd?" (Yes, sadly, an actual quote from my stream of conciousness. Le Sigh.) My brain is not fitting pieces together so good just now. I'm not sure I can put more coherent thought into it than that at the moment, as fish-mouth-eyed (?? o_0 ??) as I feel right now, and plus I have actual, honest, cross-my-heart work that I need to Google for space photos for (oh, the irony).

But... Well, here goes nuthin'...
I'm having odd thoughts about the persistence of the UFO mythology / whatever - I think mostly about the possibility of some deeply rooted Jungian archetype type racial memory ... So maybe the reason people around the world see UFOs is because of media exposure and already having heard stories, or maybe it's because they're really "out there" and swinging by now and then to give us The Meaning Of Life or perhaps as crazy college-kid-aliens swinging by and playing pranks on us on weekends, or maybe we have some kind of UFO idea embedded in our psychological makeup to begin with. That would certainly make us look for the things regardless of whether they're there or not.

..Which of course, if our species is wired to believe in not only dragons and heroes, but also UFOs, would have all sorts of possible explanations by itself, and certainly doesn't exclude the first two possibilities.

The whole ideal of a racial memory does beg the question of external interference anyways.
My favorite example would definitely be the Vorta from ST:DS9 . (Unbelieveably insanely awesome show... dang do I miss it...) They were genetically engineered to believe that the species that altered their DNA were Gods.

Overall, odd and creepy thoughts to be having while this low on the sleep-o-meter.

Hawkgirl & Mystique - Halloweenies

First of all, I can't resist but point out the following delightful incongruity.

This photo is of Linden from this Halloween, who *wrote the post preceding this one*:

If you have the slightest familiarity with the Marvel universe, you probably recognize Mystique. (also here's a more succinct & faster loading article on Mystique)

Here's us together, I'm Hawkgirl from DC's Justice League (the Bruce Timm animated cartoon network version). I really, really just adore her, and the Green Lantern - they're both just so non-corny and overall kick-ass characters. We prove our geek street cred, yes we do! ^_^




I just moved, and I was about 1/3 unpacked at the time of this photo. That's why the messy background. :)

The wings I did in about a day, it was pretty nuts. I really still can't believe I pulled that one off. The mace I did in a flurry of late-night insanity, and I sorta accidentally made a real weapon out of paper, hot glue, and a styrofoam ball... how *do* I manage these things?? I didn't think you could make a dangerous *mace* out of craft store supplies... but I guess if anyone would do it *by accident* it would be me...

Here's some more of our pictures, with bonus costume switching ; )

Computers make the world go.

I've been mulling over a project in the back of my head, and thinking about computer/human interfaces in general recently:

The thing that we (and I'll presumptuously speak for all mankind for a moment) want is computers that do more automatically for us. The whole point of a tool is to make things easier. Sometimes I wonder if tasks are actually quicker, now that we have computers. They are, but not as much as people would like to think. There's all the buying, learning, upgrading, and dealing with quirks, bugs, and crashes. I would love to spend less time on that, and more time reading The Fountainhead.

The problem with computers doing things automatically is that we never want quite exactly the same thing. Even if computers do learn to automate a series of repetitive tasks, the second we want something slightly different, we run into the problem of how to tell the computer to do something different. As an example, when you pop a blank cd into a mac or pc, it realizes that the cd is blank and pops up a little dialog asking you what you want to do with the cd. There's also a little box you can check if you want it to always do the same thing. If 99% of the time you want to burn a music CD, you can tell it to always do that, but it's not simple, if not impossible, to tell it to stop doing that when you want to burn a data CD. Thankfully, that doesn't lock you into anything, you can always close the music burning software and open something else; but it's a good example.

So, the problem is finding an intuitive way to represent automating tasks, one that isn't in your face like so many Microsoft Office tools are. We are all gradually picking up this terrible JustClickYes syndrome. I think I might have something with the R.A.T. idea, where the burden of teaching the computer what you want is hidden behind an artificial life interface. The limitation of that is that I wouldn't want any sort of rudimentary (or advanced, for that matter) AI actually making changes to any of my files. Maybe there could be some sort of visual, but simple, task/activity monitor that keeps track of any sort of automated changes the computer made, and allows you to roll back in case you didn't want something to happen.

... kind of like version control systems. Ooh. Wouldn't that be something. Like a more complex and better looking Photoshop History, but with logic similar to Subversion. Then, the computer can run around and do whatever the hell it wants, and you won't mind, since you can always easily and quickly undo anything it gets wrong, but meanwhile, it will save you time. Time is of the essence and all that.

Gotcha: Google Map quirk

Since I've been doing nothing but playing with google maps recently, I discovered an interesting little quirk. You can zoom all the way out (or almost all the way out) so that you can see the entire world, but repeated to the right and left, which allows you to scroll and look at the pacific ocean. If you have a set of markers displayed on the map, it will only display on one world tile at a time. So, consider some markers located in Australia, and some markers located in Alaska. If you attempt to scroll so you can see both, you will only see the markers in Alaska, or the markers in Australia. At least in my case. Interesting little quirk though.

Comic Art Community- Leia By Bruce Timm

Woah. How cool is this?

Very Cool. (In case you weren't sure)
Bruce Timm, btw, is the artist whose style is the one they used for the Batman and Justice League cartoons. He is my hero.

Rodent Aggregate Tool

Take a Lookie!

This is my new project, which I'm really excited about. (This is one of those projects that came to me about an hour after I went to sleep) The more I think about it, the more I like it! (Also, I'm much happier on the inside now that I've made the decision to go Mac only)

The current development plan is to do it in Pygame and use PyObjC to handle drag and drop to/from the OS. Python makes me happy. Doing development on my Ti makes me happy. Lots and lots of drawing and scanning and animating to do, which also makes me happy because I've always wanted to try my hand at animating things.

The only things that make me unhappy art that my mac isn't internet connected right now, which stems from the fact that it doesn't get wireless signal where my PC does; I don't have a proper desk setup yet (pending on moving issues and money); and I have like no time right now to work on it.

But I am still excited about it. :)