I started learning Origami around 4th grade. I got a little kit with a book and some paper and went nuts. I never really went beyond the basic levels, but it was pretty fun. Occasionally I find myself making something when I’m bored (like now – I’m in a class at work where so far everything has been review). This gallery is way beyond anything I’ve ever done. Enjoy.
This a pretty cool idea using Google image search. Since Sony digital cameras have a default naming scheme for pictures, these results are the first pics taken for their respective cameras after their owner uploaded them to the net. It works for Canon too, although the naming scheme is different. Pretty cool.
I just finished watching Inside the Actors Studio with Michael J. Fox. I’ve only seen the show a handful of times, but I saw a preview for this one yesterday and made sure to record it. His first major role on Family Ties started before I was born and ended before I was really old enough to care about TV shows enough to know who starred in them. I remember him first from Back to the Future and it’s sequels which I still love. It’s one of the few DVD sets I own, and the movies are so timeless I can’t wait to enjoy them with my kids someday.
When Spin City came out I watched it all the time. It was consistently one of the funniest shows on TV. It was never as good once he left.
I remember how I felt when he finally announced to the world that he had Parkinson’s (after hiding it for five years). I remember how I couldn’t believe that the disease could affect someone so young who wasn’t the least bit deserving of it (not that anyone ever is). I was sad he was leaving his show, but I admired his courage.
Tonight he sat through most of the interview and you would barely know he’s affected at all. Just over halfway through his symptoms finally became visible and he left the stage to take another pill. Still, when he came back out he was able to make a joke out of it and talk openly about how it has affected him. The fact that he doesn’t let it limit his life is really amazing to me. He’s gone on to started a foundation for Parkinson’s research, written a book called Lucky Man, and still dreams of put something new on TV or directing a movie. He also had some very encouraging words for a young actress struggling with a similar disease:
What’s in my power, what’s in my control? Do I throw in the towel and have a tantrum about it or kill myself or what? None of those are acceptable solutions to me. The only one that’s acceptable is to go on and see what happens. And what I find is cool is there’s great stuff out there. When you walk through this stuff, when you walk through the fear, when you walk through what are people gonna think about it, you know, what’s gonna happen. Well something’s gonna happen. And we don’t know what it is, but chances are at least 50/50 that it’ll be pretty good. And so I’m willing to take that risk.
I think I’m gonna buy his book and make a donation to The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.
Currently Playing: Surphace – Outlit
Well I’ve been working hard to come up with a new site layout. I stumbled onto CSS Reboot the other day and decided to sign up. The only problem is I’m supposed to change my site over on Tuesday. I don’t know if I’ll make it with things fully finished, but I think I can have a new basic skeleton by then. So CSS Rebooters be patient with me. I did a little checking and this won’t technically be my first layout without using tables. The current template I’m using on Blogger uses all divs, but I’ve only done a little modification to a pre-existing design. This time will be brand new from the ground up.
I just read some interesting news about the Revolution. Apparently it’s been confirmed by Iwata that it will launch Worldwide next year. He mentioned the time frame as “sometime after April.” Let’s hope he means May 1.
Revolution Report has more good news about the controller. I don’t really plan on picking up a copy of Edge, but sounds like they have only good things to say about the controller. I especially like this part:
returning to TGS’s show floor after playing the [Revolution] demos [was] a faintly surreal process. Suddenly, the 360 looks incredibly old-fashioned. Picking up a DualShock for a quick play of Rogue Galaxy seems preposterous. The [Revolution] controller makes it instantly apparent how much of a cheap fudge the 3-D controls of the last two generations have been.
News isn’t all good, though. Mark Rein, VP of Epic Games (no relation to my employer) recently got a little mouthy about the controller. I think he’s confused. He thinks the next generation of gaming is all about the graphics. How much shinier can you make them? The next-gen consoles are already to the point where many of the games aren’t even going to be using the full potential of the hardware. What’s the point?
Hasn’t Nintendo said all along that their next system was going to be about games? What’s wrong with making good games? Graphics are nice, but they don’t make me go out and buy games. Isn’t the whole reason Nintendo wants to make things more intuitive for all kinds of gamers so they can focus on the games? And what’s wrong with a gimmick once in a while when it has so much potential for fun? I can understand him being skeptical, and I can even understand him speaking out about it. However, I can’t understand him saying something this stupid:
Rein then conducted a quick audience survey to find out how many people present owned a GameCube – and found that rather a large number of hands were raised.
He then asked everyone who also owned a PS2 or Xbox to put their hands down – and concluded that under ten per cent of the audience were Cube owners only.
“Hard to make a business on less than 10 per cent,” Rein said.
Wait…what’s that? Is he saying Nintendo has a hard time making money? If I recall Nintendo is the only one of the big three that makes a profit, and it’s a tidy one at that. Just because they aren’t fighting for market share using the same methods that Sony and Microsoft are doesn’t mean they don’t have a strong business model. While response to the Revolution controller has been overwhelmingly positive, it strikes me as odd that Rein would alienate himself and his company like this. It’s all OK in my mind though. He makes himself look like an idiot, and I have an even better reason not to buy his games. I don’t care about another version of Unreal Tournament. I’ve never played before, why would I start now? I’ll enjoy watching him eat his words.
That’s all for now. Hopefully the party on State Street isn’t totally insane yet. I’m going back to working on this new layout.
Currently Watching: Law & Order: Criminal Intent
I’ve liked baseball as much as any sport since I was a little kid, but tonight’s end to the World Series makes me sad. Two years in a row it’s been a sweep, and that’s just boring. Tonight’s game was decided by a single run scored in the 8th inning. I don’t really care that the White Sox won or that the Astros lost (although I would have preferred the opposite). What bothers me is that in the end it wasn’t very exciting, despite all of the controversial calls on the way to the series.
That’s another thing that bugs me. Bad calls (questionable at least) seemed to be the bane of the post season this year, and I hate to see that when they directly affect the outcome of such important games. So many people think replay in baseball would be the worst thing ever, but sometimes I think it would be appropriate in some situations. As a baseball fan, I guess I’m just disappointed in how things wrapped up.
Read:
Students can be suspended for a lot of odd reasons these days — wearing “objectionable” T-shirts, cross-dressing for prom, planning elaborate senior pranks — but a principal at a Catholic high school in Sparta, New Jersey, has added another offense to the list: having a blog.
Ok, stop. I don’t care if this is a private school or not, this is absolutely ludicrous. Who is this guy to say that none of the students at his school can express themselves through a website? I can understand if they want to limit comments made about the school or its staff, and it would be perfectly appropriate to hand out school punishments for violations in that regard. But to say that you can’t even have a blog because of the possibility of exposure to the bad people of the world…give me a break. That’s like saying you should never go outside because there’s a possibility you’ll get a cold that leads to fatal pneumonia. No one can live their whole life inside a box.
What really gets me is that this is an issue for parents, not the school principle. It’s the parents responsibility to make sure they know what information their child is putting out on the web, and to teach them what is appropriate and what is not. The school can certainly teach guidelines (and they should), but for a kid to face suspension simply because he writes his thoughts online is shameful. A school trying to instill values into its students for home life is one thing, but actually trying to regulate home life is something altogether different and completely unacceptable.
I woke up yesterday with lots of pain from movement in my wrist. In some ways, this was nothing new, as I occasionally have some pain (sprain-like) in both wrists. It usually lasts for a few days and goes away. Well this time around I’ve been fighting it for about two weeks and it was finally starting to get better. Until yesterday.
So I decided I’d had enough and that it was time to make my first trip to the doctor since coming to Madison. I was thinking about it and I haven’t been to a doctor in about four years, so I just scheduled a physical. He looked me over and didn’t have any earth shattering news about my health. It was the first time I’d been to a doctor using Epic so that was kind of cool. He had them draw blood to do some routine tests, so I’ll get to check those results on MyChart sometime soon.
The pain in my wrist is being caused by a ganglion cyst. Mine is on the back of my wrist but it isn’t that large, but it’s big enough to see in relation to my other wrist. Let’s just say I’m hoping the immobilization treatment option will do the trick. I’ll be wearing a wrist guard for the next week or so hoping the cyst will go down. It feels pretty good after day one, so I’m just going to play it by ear.
I’ve always liked his stuff. Here’s a pretty nice compilation of Escher’s work.
Currently Watching: World Series Game 3 (Currently tied in the 9th – Go Astros!)
Next season will be the tenth for Stargate SG-1 and the third for Stargate Atlantis. It would also make the original the longest running SciFi series in US television history, beating out X-Files. It really deserves it. I’m eagerly awaiting the second halves of the current seasons.
Between the Stargates and their followup Battlestar Galactica I can’t get enough of SciFi Friday. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that BSG will get renewed as well. These shows are just amazing, and I’m not just saying that because I like Science Fiction. I really believe these are series that anyone can get into, whether you are into SciFi or not. I hope all of the cast members return. There isn’t really anyone I would want to get rid of on any of the shows. I’d kinda like to see Ford actually come back in Atlantis, too. I feel like he kinda got the shaft in season two. Now if we could only get Richard Dean Anderson to come back to SG-1 more often…
Wow, I’m a little slower than usual on this one. SPOnG is reporting they know when, how, and for how much Revolution will launch. I’ll remain skeptical, but this would be pretty freakin’ sweet. I’m really surprised they’re talking about a worldwide launch as opposed to the staggered launches of the past. It just means those of us in the US and Europe won’t have to wait so long this time around.
Edit: This story has popped up elsewhere, although I’m not sure I would say “various online sources” just yet.