After coffee we went back to Newgen�s to play AntiGrav. The game uses the EyeToy for the PS2, and it is a good use of a non-standard input system for a console game that is actually fun to play with. I am not good at it, but it is very fun to play. After playing the game for awhile we all left Newgen�s to go drive through a thunderstorm to get home, and that brings us to today.

When dinner was finished we walked over to Signs of Life, which is a book store/ coffeehouse/ art gallery. They had some new paintings there, some of which were good, some of which weren�t that impressive. I like Signs of Life because it just seems like a happy place, where everyone is friendly. Also their coffee is better than most places.

After golf we went to Newgen�s to dry off for a bit, and to play some Mario Cart Double Dash. It is a fun game, and having two players on the cart is a very interesting twist to the game style. After a couple rounds of that we all headed off to Free State Brewery for dinner. I don�t think anything stood out as exceptionally good this time, but by now we have pretty high expectations of Free State, so just average for them is still awesome anywhere else. If you are ever in Lawrence you must stop by this place to eat, it is very good, and relatively cheap.

On the way back to the cars, it stopped raining. We stopped by the skate park that they have by the golf course and tried our hand at extreme discing. The discs did surprisingly well skimming around the park and the half pipe work particularly well. If you ever get rained out of a disc golf game, go look for a skate park, you can make up for your missed fun there.

After lunch at Qdoba, Nicole, Newgen, and I walked up Mass. street for a bit, then when Jenette and Chris arrived into town we went out to a park in Lawrence to play a bit of disc golf. Unfortunately our game got rained out. But it was fun while it lasted.

For lunch on Tuesday we went down to Mass. Street and ate at Qdoba. It is basically Chipotle, but with a couple more things, like queso dip, and a couple of sauces to put on the burritos. Over all it is good, but head to head, Chipotle does the big burrito better, but Qdoba is still needed for some variety every once in a while. If someone said that Manhattan was getting a Qdoba I would look forward to getting it.

Making sushi went pretty well. As always the first roll is bigger than you want, because it takes much less rice to make sushi than you think. This sushi roll ended up being more like a burrito. It still tasted good though. :)

Random pictures from this weekend:

On Monday we went up to Lawrence to visit Newgen. While driving around to get supplies for making sushi we stopped to eat lunch at Runza. It was the first time that I had ate there, and it is not that bad. It looks like a Wendy�s on the inside, and their bierocks are pretty good, as well as their onion rings. It is not high on my places to go eat at, but I�m not opposed to it either.

Bat Bombs Away!

Defense Tech (article)

Want a good story?

The idea behind World War II's Project X-Ray "was that a bomb-like canister filled with bats would be dropped from high altitude over the target area," says Murdoc Online. "The bats would be in a sort of hibernation, but as the bomb fell (slowed by a parachute) they would warm up and awaken."

At the appropriate altitude, the bomb would open and over one thousand bats, each carrying a tiny time-delay napalm incendiary device, would flutter away and roost in various nooks and crannies, many of them in extremely flammable wooden Japanese buildings.

The napalm devices would go off more or less simultaneously, and thousands of little fires would start at the same time. Many of them would grow into large fires, and the ability of the Japanese firefighters to contain them would quickly be overwhelmed...

Seems to me, as outrageous as it sounds, that it could have worked... In fact, one afternoon while demonstrating the napalm devices, several bats woke too early in the lab, flew off, and ended up burning down the brand-new but uninhabited Carlsbad Auxiliary Army Air Base in New Mexico. Really.

Funny, ne?

DataTiles

DataTiles (site)

The DataTiles system integrates the benefits of two major interaction paradigms: graphical and physical user interfaces. Tagged transparent tiles are used as modular construction units. These tiles are augmented by dynamic graphical information when they are placed on a sensor-enhanced flat panel display. They can be used independently or can be combined into more complex configurations, similar to the way language can express complex concepts through a sequence of simple words.

Doesn't sound that impressive? Check out the video on the site, it is very cool. I wonder how far away we are from being able to mass produce this, because it would be very cool to have.

Home

I'm back from Lawrence. The drive home was a pain because of very heavy rain, but we all made it home safely. I will get pictures posted later today, after I get some sleep. I will also work on Project:BSE some.

Sleep for me now though.

Lawrence Update

After sushi last night, Newgen, Nicole, and I worked on beating Gauntlet, and we did after playing one level for what seemed like hours. After that Newgen and I played NHL Hitz some, then we went to bed.
Today looks like we will be on Mass. Street some, and maybe some other things. Well I am hungry, so we should head off soon.

Yay for food!

Sushi time!

Today has been fun so far. We got up to Lawrence by 3, and since Newgen got off work early we stopped by his house when we got into town. We then looked around the half price book store for a bit and then went to Runza for lunch. After some good bierocks we went around own to get stuff to make sushi. Then we came back to Newgens and I am on my new lap on his internet. So it *is* k-states fault for my internet not working at home.

Op, time to go fix the sushi rice. ja.

So guess what Burger King, Star Wars, and 20q.net has done? Well if you looked at the screen shot above I bet you can already guess. ^_^!

Thanks; Here's Your Burger, Good Delicious! For the link.

Also, since the Star Wars 20q is so cool that I'll tell you now (I want this post to stay the top post) that I will be heading up to Newgen's tomorrow, I'll be brining my laptop, so I may be able to post once or twice while up there, if I can get the wifi card to work in it... And if I don't post up there I'll post when I get back. Also, I will update Project:BSE when I get back, so make sure you get your completed missions posted by Tuesday.

Today after Chipotle we all (sans Jenette) went to go play some disc golf on campus. It was very windy today so there were a couple of times that the disc did not go places where we wanted it to go. One such case is when I threw my disc down a window well in a construction area. It was a pain getting down there and on my throw from the well ended up hitting the orange fence surrounding the construction area.
I get the feeling that playing disc golf on campus is sort of like playing mini-golf.