Tuesday, December 21, 2004

Being a nondrinker doesn't go down easy

link (article)

Su-Jin brings up one of the early topics on this blog. Drinking. She also found herself friends with non-drinkers, i dont that that is too surprising, but i never really thought about other groups of non-drinkers. Its an interesting article, worth a read.

A Space Age Christmas

A Space Age Christmas (site)

In 1974 what will xmas be like in 2003? The answer is closer to the truth than you would think. For example, I did get a ticket for a day trip in orbit around the Earth, for christmas.

Monday, December 20, 2004

The Golem Project hurts evolution ideas?

Here is the first article I read from www.reasons.org It happend to be about the golem project. (That was the screen saver I was running, that evolved 'robots'.) It seems that Fazale did not actually ever do anything than read the final report. This is what she (?) said:

“Evolving” Robots Challenge Evolution
By Fazale R. Rana

“Evolvable” robots invented by a team of computer scientists from Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts, headlined the popular media last summer.1 According to the press, these machines were capable of developing, on their own, new and better machines, thus mimicking, in the laboratory, the evolutionary process biologists ascribe to nature. Reporters heralded the work as a key achievement in the area of artificial life, also citing it as powerful supporting evidence for natural-process evolution.

Details of the original report reveal, however, that though this research represents an important advance in the field of artificial life, most media overstated the researchers’ accomplishment.2 On closer examination, the work on “evolvable” robots constrains, rather than supports, biological evolution. The constraints it reveals raise serious problems for the evolutionary paradigm, calling into question the likelihood that biological evolution could proceed as a creative process unattended in nature.

The Brandeis researchers developed a virtually (rather than physically) “self-evolving” robot. Specifically, they used a computer simulation to “evolve” (or create progressions of) virtual robotic designs. They pre-selected two types of building blocks, rods and linear actuators, with the aim of generating (via the computer simulator) a robot that could move itself horizontally. By randomly altering structures again and again––each time selecting the best design elements, while discarding those it determined inferior—the computer simulator produced a robot design with a capacity for horizontal movement. The computer then produced a plastic prototype of the robot, and the researchers manually attached a motor to the robot to power its movement. The experimental protocol offered no opportunity for feedback from the physical world into the computer-directed “evolutionary” process.

The Brandeis scientists thus developed, for the first time, a successful interface between virtual search-and-optimization “algorithms” (step-by-step computerized problem-solving procedures) and a technology capable of producing a physical prototype.

Genetic algorithms (used for some time by engineers and scientists to search for optimal designs, including robotic designs3) mimic the process evolutionary biologists think is responsible for driving evolutionary change. A genetic algorithm begins by evaluating a number of initial designs according to a predetermined set of criteria. The most “fit” of these designs are modified by simple changes (called mutations, or asexual reproduction) or by combining parts of two or more designs (called sexual reproduction), and the new designs are then evaluated. The genetic algorithm repeats this process over and over again until a superior design (one that optimally fits the selection criteria) emerges.

Using genetic algorithms, the Brandeis scientists sought a robotic design capable of horizontal movement. The genetic algorithm started with two hundred random designs, with rods and linear actuators as the predetermined building blocks. A design that yielded a certain amount of movement in a certain amount of time would be “selected.” The most successful designs were used to produce a new set of designs by randomly modifying, removing, adding, or relocating rods and linear actuators. Typically, tens of generations passed before machine designs capable of any movement “evolved.” The “evolution” of working designs required 300 to 600 generations and about 100,000 designs.

The “evolutionary” process used by the Brandeis researchers produced a variety of fairly sophisticated machines. The robots moved by dragging, ratcheting, crawling, scooting (crab-like sideways motion), and side-to-side oscillations, to name a few. Robots typically employed about 20 building blocks (rods and actuators) in various configurations. These robust robotic designs retained the capability for movement even after researchers removed or altered the size of various building blocks.

Though the work of the Brandeis scientists might seem to lend empirical support to biological evolution, careful evaluation of this work uncovers several significant constraints that make biological evolution unworkable in nature.

Selecting Building Blocks
The choice of building blocks is critical to the evolutionary process. In this case, the Brandeis scientists thoughtfully selected rods and linear actuators. The simplicity of these building blocks allowed for maximal architectural and manufacturing flexibility. Thus, the intelligent designers provided the genetic algorithm with optimal features, giving ample opportunity to find a workable design. Selection of the wrong building blocks would have limited the design options to the point that few, if any, workable designs would be possible.

Nature offers a variety of building blocks, not all necessarily optimal. And, according to the evolutionary paradigm, nature offers no “intelligence” or process to select the appropriate building blocks to ensure the availability of the largest number of workable design options.

Modifying Failed Designs
The computer simulator was able to find workable robot designs only after many generations had passed. Tens of generations were required before any of the robotic designs acquired the capability for movement. The genetic algorithm kept the “evolutionary” process going, but in nature, if the selection criteria are not met, the evolutionary process comes to an abrupt halt. Inability to meet selection criteria means death of the organism and, more importantly, the failure to propagate the next generation. Biological evolution cannot modify failed or dead organisms to find one that will survive and yield the next generation.

Evaluating Transitional Forms
The relatively simple selection criterion (horizontal movement) required the computer simulator to evaluate about 100,000 designs. Selection criteria for a biological organism are far more complex and multifarious; many more designs would have to be explored randomly before a workable design for a living organism could emerge.

If the evolutionary process were at work in nature, multitudinous transitional designs would connect various organisms. Therefore, a large number of transitional creatures should appear in the fossil record. The near absence of transitional forms, one of the hallmark features of the fossil record, 4 stands in sharp contrast to the expectations of evolution.

Rearranging Designs
Efficient search among the robotic design possibilities appears to be dependent upon the dramatic rearrangement of designs with each generation. The algorithm employed by the Brandeis researchers modified, deleted, added, and relocated the components of successful designs after each round of evaluations. In biological systems, no mechanism exists to produce these dramatic changes. Rather, the mechanism that produces biological change (mutations) can only yield small variations on existing biological features.

Final Comment
The Brandeis scientists set out to “evolve” movable robots apart from any human intervention. However, human influence, and hence, intelligent design, permeated the entire experimental setup: the development and application of the genetic algorithm, the choice of building blocks and selection criteria, the manual addition of motors, and the provision of materials for production of physical prototypes. As one engineer from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) commented, “The resulting machines cannot match the complexity of the rapid-prototyping machine designed by human engineers that is required to do the actual fabrication.”5

The research program in artificial life will help researchers discover boundary conditions for natural biological processes. The results of this Brandeis study lead some scientists to anticipate that additional work will further challenge evolutionary theory and support the case for intelligent design.

References:
For example, “All Things Considered,” with Robert Siegel and Linda Wertheimer, National Public Radio, August 31, 2000.
Hod Lipson and Jordan B. Pollack, “Automatic Design and Manufacture of Robotic Lifeforms,” Nature 406 (2000), 974-78.
Rodney Brooks, “From Robot Dreams to Reality,” Nature 406 (2000), 945-46.
Niles Eldredge, The Pattern of Evolution (New York: W. H. Freeman, 1999), 133-45.
Brooks, 945-46.


What i say:

Selecting Building Blocks: She complains that the scientist thoughtfully selected rods and actuators, and said they did it with the utmost care and it was vital that they chose these to make the evolution work. Really they were just sticks and movers, its not that special, and actually the limit of only those two building blocks lead to a limit on how much the robots could evolve. The reason that this is the case is because the program punished the robot for having many pieces so with a complex robot and a simple robot that move the same distance the simple robot is selected... unfortunately this limited the complexity of the robots.

Modifying Failed Designs: She says that if a design fails everything would die. This is true, but in the program the only time that the design failed is at the very beginning. When the robot randomly started to work there was never a case when the robots de-evolved to a non-moving state again. So the only time that this is a valid argument is at the very beginning of the evolution, which if you remember is when random chemicals are bouncing off each other in real life.

Evaluating Transitional Forms: This is the one good argument in the article. Unfortunately it is not an argument about Golem, but just a general problem with evolution. So this does not count as a valid argument for this case.

Rearranging Designs: Oh my, this is why i think she never actually saw the program. It is true that random pieces were added and deleted (as is the case in nature...extra fingers...) but these were hardly ever useful in the design of the golem, more useful were the changes that were smaller, such as making a part a bit longer... this supports the evolution theory.

"The resulting machines cannot match the complexity of the rapid-prototyping machine designed by human engineers that is required to do the actual fabrication.": This is way way way out of context. The question asked if the golems could ever get complicated enough to make physical replications of themselves. The program was way to simple to allow for such complex robots to evolve. I wish the Golem guys would update the program that is more complex so that more complex robots can evolve. Unfortunately it was research, so it will not be updated.. i hafta wait until someone else makes a new version of it :( .

another thing is that they complain about the physical robots needing the motors to be added manually. This is just a shortcoming with the process, and not with the whole idea.

Anyways if you want to get in on the evolving robot fun go here to download the
Golem project. It is very interesting and a good use of your computers downtime.

First Day of xmas break

to do list:
drink tea...check
watch a bunch of tv about football... check
chill the most...check


so far xmas break is right on course. ^_^

Yay &!


Amber helped me with getting Illustrator to do what i want it to do... so here is the first Kasu Valley co. logo that i made on Illustrator. Thanks Amber! ^_^ Posted by Hello

Sunday, December 19, 2004

QB1ed

just got back from BW3. So let's review my day:

Football football painting bw3 football.

as you guessed it was a fun day ^_^.

Qb1 is set up pretty good and is worth playing. It is hard to guess the plays though.

blogsnow

blogsnow: current news (site)

I think this is what is causing my up in traffic lately. (I used to get 10 hits a day now i am pushing 20, many by people I don't know.) But i am listed as a spidered blog, so whatever...

This site has is interesting though. It uses blogs to rank the most important news, a novel idea.

Follow-up on the christian science fair.

I thought this was interesting enough of a topic to post as a new post....

At 8:29 PM, Clupbert said…

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6713443/ I think you should read this article. I am not saying that I believe the earth was created 10,000 years ago, but to say there is conclusive evidence that men came from apes and stuff would be wrong. Even scientists admit it is still just a theory, and you should read some things that say just how possible this is to have genetic mutations millions of times in a relatively finite time of 17 billion years. Until evolution becomes a law, and not a theory, I think it is ok to discuss opposition to it. Again go to that article. Even that famous atheist philosopher recently came out saying that he now concludes that an intelligent creator must have created the universe, and he is a very very very educated man. PS I'm not christian.


this was in response to the christian "science" fair.

The problem i had with it wasn't the event of a christian science fair, but that there was no science in the christian science fair. One of the winners won by showing her uncle was not a monkey, by showing he didn't like bananas. This is not science, this should have got an F if it was for a grade. Why? Because that is like me proving the world is flat by giving you a map printed on paper.... what kind of science is that?
Let's teach our kids to argue and think, instead of coming up with a witty (wrong) answer.
(p.s. I am a christian)

Impact of a Smoking Ban on Restaurant and Bar Revenues

Link (news)

This is a pretty sound paper showing that restaurants do not lose money after a smoking ban, so this is not a valid argument for not allowing a smoking ban.

What it comes down to is this: Do restaurants owners have the right to allow smoking in their own restaurants?

Suggested Google Alphabet

Suggested Google Alphabet (site)

A is for amazon,
b is for best buy,

keep up with the times as google searches change.
for example how long will f be for firefox?
it'll be intresting to check up on this once in a while.

God-Jesus

Link (pic)

The face of God?

Saturday, December 18, 2004

Welcome to the 2004 NORAD Tracks Santa Website

Welcome to the 2004 NORAD Tracks Santa Website (site)

here is the site... if Brendon and Trevor are around on christmas eve it would be fun to go here and look where santa is. (assuming Bobbie and Jeff let their kids belive in such things.... which i hope they do. Stuff like that is part of the magic of being a child, let them know 'facts' later when the magic of living has worn off.)

Santa to get crack fighter escort

NEWS.com.au (December 18, 2004) (news)

^_^!!!!

i'm glad some people still have fun with their job. See, if people would stop being so pissy about what you can and can't say, children wont be disenfranchised with their life.

Mass. Cos. Deny Gay Workers Some Benefits

Yahoo! News (news)

no they dont, they denied gay partners the benefits. I really hate people that try to sway public opinion off of false headlines. This is not responsible reporting.

World's tiniest non-volatile chip unveiled

CIOL : News (news)

32Gig jump drive? sure why not (in a couple years).

fun day

it didnt start that way, but it ened with fun.

today started with me working on my final, which i had to get in today. After working on that for awhile i got it done, chris gave me a ride to school to drop it off and pick up jenette. After that we went to pizza hut with aaron. I got some cheese sticks and very sryurpy Dr.P. After that we went to Aarons and played San Andreas. May i remind you that it is a very good game. After that i came home picked up nicole, we went to jenette's and chris'. Aaron and amber came over, Amber gave up chocklote chip cookies and we watched nicole play the sims2. So it wasn't too bad of a day.

Now nicole is working on xmas cards, and i am gonna play on the computer a bit.

yay no more school!

Thursday, December 16, 2004

Warp Factor Love

Putfile (Viedo)

A Star Trek love song. Awesome! :)

Here is another one with a flash... not as cool. Posted by Hello

Here is a pic from She Said up in Lawrence. The people were less blury in real life. Posted by Hello

Blocked me.

Link (flash)

^_^, i never had this problem when i dated.

my the times change fast. Good video though.
Well if you can't tell by the background around me, I'm at the computer lab in the stat building. Currently I am waiting for nicole to get done with her final.

I don't think I've gone over my day yet so lets do that.
I woke up moped around, started working on my final, stopped because it was boring, moped more, brought nicole to her final. And here I am. Ta da.

stupid un-motivated day.

EPIC 2014

EPIC 2014 (movie)

A pretty good movie about the internet and the future of news. worth a look.

One note: I doubt GoogleGrid would ever work. The music/movie industry would sue it, and google would bend to their wishes. So the GoogleGrid would only share blogger kind of things. In anycase it is fun to think about.

Hellacious Riders

Hellacious Riders (site)

1TB email account. I knew G-Mail's 1GB account was weak. ^_^

Things to do before Bush is inagurated...

Things to do before the Bush Inaugural---

Get that abortion you've always wanted.
Drink a nice clean glass of water.
Cash your Social Security check.
See a doctor of your own choosing.
Spend quality time with your draft age child/grandchild.
Visit Syria, or any foreign country for that matter.
Get that gas mask you've been putting off buying.
Hoard gasoline.
Borrow books from library before they're banned - constitutional law books, Catcher in the Rye, Harry Potter, Tropic of Cancer, etc.
If you have an idea for an art piece involving a crucifix, do it now.
Come out - then go back in - HURRY!
Jam in all the Alzheimer's stem cell research you can.
Stay out late before the curfews start.
Go see Bruce Springsteen before he has his "accident".
Go see Mount Rushmore before the Reagan addition.
Use the phrase - "you can't do that - this is America".
If you're white - marry a black person, if you're black-marry a white person.
Take a walk in Yosemite, without being hit by a snowmobile or a base-jumper.
Enroll your kid in an accelerated art or music class.
Start your school day without a prayer.
Pass on the secrets of evolution to future generations.
Learn French.
Attend a commitment ceremony with your gay friends.
Take a factory tour anywhere in the US.
Try to take photographs of animals on the endangered species list.
Visit Florida before the polar ice caps melt.
Visit Nevada before it becomes radioactive.
Visit Alaska before "The Big Spill".
Visit Massachusetts while it is still a State.

****
^_^, almost every one of them is wrong.

some sick:
'Get that abortion you've always wanted.'

some incorrect, since it was the dems that were wanting to change it:
'See a doctor of your own choosing.'

some just flat out wrong:
'Spend quality time with your draft age child/grandchild.'

Remeber we have already had Pres. Bush for four years... the next four years isn't gonna any diffrent. i.e. no mass bannings, except if its a ban against white christian male ideas.....

What Video Game Character Am I?


What Video Game Character Are You? I am Kung Fu Master.I am Kung Fu Master.


I like to be in control of myself. I dislike crowds, especially crowds containing people trying to kill me. Even though I always win, I prefer to avoid fights if possible. What Video Game Character Are You?


aaron made me do it. ^_^

Ah yeah... thats the stuff...

It took awhile but now it feels like school is over... which it isn't, i still have a take home part of my final to do. But man am i more relaxed now...ah.... ^_^

So hopefully I'll be less pissy for now.

Well I need to get on the final thing before all my motivation is gone. That would be bad. ^_^

Wednesday, December 15, 2004

A snowflake maker by Lookandfeel new media

Make-a-Flake (game)

Make a snow flake by cutting up paper... It's like real life but digital... and if you like your snowflake you can order a stamp pad of it.

ah, the internet. ^_^

Place The State On The Map

JengaJam.com (game)

Think you know where the states go?


Today has been ok so far, i took my final which wasn't too bad. So now all i have to do is rework the final and i am done for the semister...

Tuesday, December 14, 2004

confessions

method (site)

Have a heavy heart? Come clean... or watch others... >:).


Ah the day of studying, how i love thee. Actually it wasn't too bad, but I worked on linear models from 7am to about 3pm. This time went by rather fast, and really i don't feel all that much smarter. ^_^ ah well....

I got a $4 pit from the pita pit for lunch, and that was all the other fun i had for the day. But do not cry for me, beacuse today is BW3 day, soon i get to go kick some butt in trivia. (More like, others kick mine... )

A little post

before i head off to bed...

today was an ok day. I got my final final done for messy, so its finally finally done (^_^). Now i just got to get on the linear models stuff, cause that test is on wed. :P

Today was rather cold out, and will prob be the last day i goto school w/o my cap, my ears got too cold on the walk home.

Not much else to say, after I got done with my final my motivation was low so i didn't do much... oh yeah watched the new Screen Savers, its crap. They got 'hip' people to do it instead of 'nerdy' people. I used to love watching that show and going where they say to go on the internet. Now i can't stand to watch them. I want the old guys back....

ok off to bed i go, cause i have a big day of studying ahead of me (yippee!).

Monday, December 13, 2004

Internet Archive

Internet Archive (site)

the internet too small for you?
try all of the internet, ever.

(type url in 'waybackmachine' to see past versions of it)

I am watching a guy talk about this in C-Span right now, it's very intresting. ^_^

Sunday, December 12, 2004

Hive Palatine

Hive Palatine (site)

Here is the start of a good online project for necromunda... i really need to get my stuff typed up and all pretty so i can do/add to such things..

Anyways, this weekend:

Michelle showed up late Friday night, I didn’t see her then. She went with jenette and chris early to Lawrence, we (me and cole) met up with them at free state to eat some cheese soup for lunch. Then michelle left to go practice, and the rest of us wandered around mass. street for awhile. We bought some kangaroo jerky and went to newgen's. There we ordered Tryyaki (a Japanese fast food place, which wasn’t that bad) and played mario party 6. The game was fun, and has better mechanics than MP5. after that we went to go watch michelle (she said...) play at joe's b-day party. They were pretty good, and i would like to hear them in a studio. After her part of the show we all sans michelle went to newgen's and played GTA : San Andreas. Let me tell you, this is a great game. It has too much cussing, but the world is so vast it is just awesome. It is better than Vice City in every way. We played that for a couple of hours, then we headed over to the 2am hot spot of Perkins. The food there was bad (surprise, surprise) but it was still fun. We got done messing around at 4am, and we all headed back here. Got here around 5.30, and went to bed.
Today (sunday): woke up late, watched football, Andy came over and hung out for a bit, then we went to Chipotle... But Chipotle was closed :(, so we went to pat's. The food there was ok, but still nowhere as good as cox. Cox is the best BBQ anywhere. After that andy left to go back to Garden. We came back home and now i'm watching sunday night football.

Well i just wanted to give an update, when i get the pics from michelle's show d/led post some.

Saturday, December 11, 2004

army.mil?

eep!

just checked out who has been looking at my blog, and there was someone from the addy or army.mil...

never heard of .mil before...

scary.

iMusicast

so i sitting here waiting for Jupiter sunrise to come on, so i thought i would update el blog.

Today has been very busy (again), to day i worked on my final final project, i got 7.5 out of 8 problems done, so not too much left to do. Which is good, but man i worked on it like all day :P.

Went to the panera for dinner (skipped lunch) which was a good break. I got a steak sandwich and steak salad, they both were pretty good.

Michelle is on her way up (and should be here any minute now...). She is coming up to play at Joe's B-day party with She Said... So we are all gonna head up to Lawrence to go watch that and play in the city. Maybe i can pick up some xmas gifts, because we are way behind on shopping for that...

Well Jupiter Sunrise should be on soon, so i am going to leave now. You should check out iMusicast.com, its a nifty site, look at their calendar to see when they have live shows... then watch them ^_^.

Friday, December 10, 2004

Charlie and the chocolate factory

Link (movie)

a preview...yeah....

LEVERS

LEVERS (game?)
a fun little game

It is cold outside, its not so much the temp (40F) but its really cold cause of the wind. I'm gonna get warm now and drink some christmas tea. ^_^

xball and stuff

well today was productive in an unfun way... all i did was work on my project for messy, which i got done... now just to do the final final project for that class... hopefully ill have funner stories to tell tomorrow...

i watched a paint ball like sport called xball (NXL) on EPSN today. It is very fun and they should show more stuff like this.

also i found a name the tune game on the internet, where you tell it the group and then you name their tunes... its fun. Here is the like to that (set on Jupiter Sunrise).

Thats all for now...

Thursday, December 09, 2004

Soosed

Link (site)

Well my randomness has been brought to you by sossed.com. It find the newest pics posted on lj, and list them, a new page gets added about once a minute....

i have found:
...there are alot of messed up people in the world...
and the two most posted pic stuff is the "youare whoeverthecrap..." and something in relation to the guy from Pantera who just got shot.


to bed i say.

give help.

Link (pic)

^_^, oh, now that is funny.
how could you *not* give him a dollar?

^_^

Creation Science Fair 2001

Creation Education (site)

oh my... well i make fun of the far left, and now time for those on the far right...

think back a couple hundred years ago to when the sun revolved the earth... this is what science fairs looked like then... 'sept using the Bible to prove that sun around earth 'theory'.
my favorite entry is :"Using Prayer To Microevolve Latent Antibiotic Resistance In Bacteria" (isn't this using God to do your bidding?)
honorable mention goes to: "My Uncle Is A Man Named Steve (Not A Monkey)"
(now it is funny, but this is not science... and this was suppose to be a science fair. Let's at least attempt to do science at a science fair...)

ok here is the deal:
Scientists, you find out how the world works.
Religious folk, you tell us how to live a moral life.
Let’s not mix the two, because when we do it becomes a mess of nothingness.

the left is intolerant and extremist, the far right is making a false science that they think is helping their cause.
where do the smart people hide?... I like different ideas, let’s just think through them first. I guess that’s why I have my friends, they have viewpoints that aren’t blatantly wrong (they might be different than mine, but they aren’t stupid viewpoints).

The male model of infertility

Oregon Daily Emerald (article)

A hypothetical situation:
"February 3: Tests on protein injections are still not complete, but the Food and Drug Administration finally puts on its reading glasses and realizes that male contraceptive pills, based on hormones and approved in Europe for some time now, are 100 percent effective. A communal "d'oh!" is released. Unfortunately, just as someone is about to remedy the situation, a whole new slew of prescription medications arrive seeking approval. Side effects could include headache, drowsiness, addiction on par with morphine, dubious acts involving hot pepper sauce and all-expenses-paid vacations in Bermuda for our employees. "You bet we'll spend our time testing your drug!" Endorsement of the male birth control pill is put on hold. "

...this leads me to think you have no idea what you are talking about... should that suprize me? prob not..

Grading system gets an F

Oregon University of Oregon (article)

stupid says what?

"Although teachers cannot be responsible for the self-failings of their students, it still seems unfair that they are allowed to judge how much a particular student is learning. I pay the teacher to teach me, and then I get slapped with the label of failure if the teacher deems that I haven't learned the correct information?"

for more read the article. It's is prob. the least thought out campus newspaper article i have ever seen.

Wednesday, December 08, 2004

workday

well ive been working on my project all day, which isnt too bad, but i could think of better things to do...

thats sums up my day so far.
time to get ready for gamenight.

m1arcomunda

marcomunda (site)

here are some pics of some necromunda scenery. The modular wall and corners are a good design/idea... this might by my next standard in scenery making. (the couple year old, black box building standard, is getting old...)

although making some tunnels would be good as well....

Tuesday, December 07, 2004

Intelligence is greater than money.

CafePress (store)

I updated my CafePress store. Maybe i'll get buyers this time around. ^_^

'Titanic' Line Tops Cheesy Movie Survey

Yahoo! News (article)

They got the postman, but not for my favorite cheesy line of: "You give us hope like candy from your pocket."

BWuesday

Working on homework, watching the Postman, chilling the most. ^_^

The Postman is a pretty good movie, but they try too hard sometimes to make points.
Let's see, grouper is going strong (in the group is me aaron and chris). If you want to get in on the action let me know and we can get you added. The only downside to grouper is that you can not d/l music, just stream it, but transfers for files is twice as fast as BadBlue.

Today ive just been working on my final project (not the final fanal project) for Messy. It is hard cause we to not have examples of how to write SAS programs for this kind of data. grrr. When the movie gets over i'll run on down to school and run the programs. They will prob. all not work, but oh well.... After that BW3. Fun times.

Monday, December 06, 2004

Gym Class

Gym Class (movie)

The best short web film, dare i say ever?

you should watch it, it is good.

lets update this

shall we?

Let's see, what has gone on today? Linear models was boringer than normal. Came home played around for a bit, ate too much ramen for lunch, went to, what turned out to be, my last class of Messy.
Wed for that class we are going to get our final final project, which is due on Wed of finals week. But i still have the final project due for that class on Friday... two final projects but no final? deal.
So that leaves me trying to get both projects done by next monday so that on monday and tues i can study for my linear models final on wed. Not too bad.
Well, i think were gonna have lame practice tonight (no goalies, mucho people missing, just scrimmaging)... so i need to eat something to get ready for that. yippee.

Oh, its nice and cool and cloudy outside.

2already

Which means i gots to get to class.. will update later.

Sunday, December 05, 2004

Doom Funnel Chasers!

BigIdeaFUN.com (game)

a fun gravity game

Pixelfest collaborative artwork

The Man in Blue (game?)

One of my favorite subjects, self organizing systems.

How did a tree come about? when was it obvious enough to people that whas was slowly being made by diffrent people was a tree? Fun things to think about.

12MANY

12MANY (game)

i got 203 points. ^_^

Indy 4?

The Indy Experience.com (aritcle)

Looks like it still. Even with Harrison Ford. ^_^

FreeDay

Today was fun. We woke up around 11, got ready and headed off to Topeka. We did some xmas shopping and then ate at Cici's Pizza. It was pretty goot and very cheap ($11.11 for two all you can eat buffets, and drinks). Then we went to a Trants game. They played much better this time around. We ended up losing 3-2 in a shootout, to Tulsa. It's too bad we lost, but it was a fun time anyways. Now to sleep i go.

Saturday, December 04, 2004

Friday

today was a nice day.. since we last met:
Messy data went fine, nothing special about it
came home moped around for a bit, nicole got home, slept for an hour, went to Joanns but they didnt have the stuff nicole wanted, so we ate at Cox, got BBQ nachos and a side of sweet potato fries (good stuff), then we came home and watched Christmas Vacation and made some xmas cards. Now nicole is a sleep and i am roaming the internet. and that was the second half of my day.

Friday, December 03, 2004

Interesting pic

Link (pic)

did not reconize who it was at first.

chex

well i gots 5min untill i got to head back to school, so lets have a chat.

How was your day so far? Oh thats good..... hummm... intresting.... really? I didn't know you could use cheese for that. ... My day? It's been fine so far, i woke up bright and early so that nicole could get to school on time for her meeting, so i had a good chunk of the morning to work on ye old home work. But first i thought it woud be nice to get the notes for Messy printed off... But slide files were in Word-stupid-perfict... so it took me an hour to get converted over from the one computer that can read word perfict, but cant print, to another computer that couldnt read word perfect but could print.... you wouldnt think it would take an hour, but word perfect is rather stupid. I still had a bit of time to work on homework before the *oh* looks like my time is up, so long story short: Got most of the homework done, went to class, got back, found out that *all* of my homework was done wrong (as well as everyone elses' was), so redid all my home work. Came home ate lunch, watched a show about half-life. cherrio.

San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center

San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center (site)

How can one group be so loud yet be so wrong... on everything... possible...

The ALF Strikes in Iowa! 401 Animals Rescued! Labs Smashed!

The SF Bay Area Indymedia (article)

awesome! The giving out of the home addys of the professors was the icing on this craptacular cake.

Google Answers: Tea

Google Answers: Tea (article)

before i goto bed, here is a bunch o' reasons why milk goes in tea. Also it explains why the tea that i make, which is way to bitter to drink straight, tastes so awesomly good when i add milk.
...mmm...tea... ^_^

Google Answers

Google Answers (site)

it's crazy! Google does know everything!

I want to do this for a job... $80 for one question answered, man...

Thursday, December 02, 2004

purevolume

purevolume (site)

A very good site for finding new music... has lots and lots of groups, and most groups have song to d/l...

In other news: Today i didn't do much, there was no dryland, so in protest of hunger we ate at chipotle. I worked on homework, and chilled the most, for most of the day.

Egg Song

Link (Flash)

...oh my.... ^_^, if you could understand japanese i'm guessing this is what half the songs are like. ...must watch again...

Colorblind Web Page Filter

Colorblind Web Page Filter (site)

Web browsing with the new 'As Aaron Sees It" feature.

Marc Cuban

I just watched show about him on G4. He is very smart. He made broadcast.com, by hooking up his computer to the local radio station and broadcasting it over the internet. in 98 Yahoo bought the company for 5 billion. Later he went to the Dallas Maverick game (which he already had season tickets to) noticed that it was boring and not selling out... he thought 'I can do better' so he bought them, and did do better... now he goes buys companies and makes them better, and then sells them for lots of money....

I want to be rich...

Tea Time

I havent really done much today, soon i am gonna start working on my homework, so that is why i am here. Game night went fine last night, we ate tomato apple bacon soup, which was pretty good, and turkey apple sandwiches, which were about what you would expect. Played scene it (aaron's game) which was a good time. not much else happening right now. So i'll go make some tea.

Wednesday, December 01, 2004

Down right

cold out side. My ears still hurt from walking home.

Nothing to really say for right now... Got one assignment done for linear and got another one to do.... BW3 went fine, i think Amber Me and Aaron won the three games, in that order.

Well i need to find some recipes to use for game night tonight.