 |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I watched a great "Know Your Meme" video today, which helps explain Auto-Tune, the pitch-correcting software that Cher first used in the 1998 song " Believe," made most popular by the rapper/singer T-Pain, and which is now the source of lots of great internet videos. Weird Al even makes a guest appearance to explain how it works: As they point out in the video, what makes Auto-Tune truly great though is when it's used to make music from non-musical sources. My personal favorite are these songs: "A Glorious Dawn," by Carl Sagan and featuring Stephen Hawking: and "We Are All Connected," with Carl Sagan, Richard Feynman, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Bill Nye: And it's always worth watching I'm On A Boat, which will be literally true for me in about a month. current weather: Clear, 49, Wind: calm Tags: auto tune, carl sagan, music, t-pain, weird al
Current Location: 41°08'39" N, 81°30'05" W
Current Mood:  amused
Current Music: M.I.A. - Paper Planes
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Back on Sunday, October 18th, Ian and I took a little roadtrip, intending to take some photos of the falls colors in and around Ian's hometown of East Liverpool. East Liverpool has a certain significance for me, at least as far as roadtrips go, because it was the destination of the first real "roadtrip" I ever attempted, in order to get some photographs for a school project. That was back before I even had a digital camera. Ian and I set out, but unfortunately it was cloudier than forecast, and the leaves still seemed pretty green overall. I suggested a detour to Pittsburgh to give the clouds some time to clear. It also gave me a chance to check on something at IKEA I wanted to see, and I wanted to show Ian the view of downtown from Mt. Washington. Fortunately the clouds had started to clear by then, and getting in to downtown was particularly easy since the Steelers were playing the Browns at Heinz Field at the time:  I really love the view from Grandview Avenue, it's really unique to be standing on the ground, at a point higher than most of the buildings, but so close by:    After that we drove to East Liverpool, had chili dogs at the Hot Dog Shoppe, and then went looking around for things to photograph, but we kind of struck out. Ian didn't seem real satisfied with anything. For example, Ian wanted to visit a cemetery that sat up on a hill and had a good view of the valley below - only now there's a Wal-Mart in the valley. I did get a cool picture of the sunset and the leaves in Beaver Creek State Park:  I thought it was a pretty cool trip, but truthfully I'm not sure Ian would agree, he seemed pretty disappointed. Still, it was good to spend time with him. I saw him once more a few days later but he's completely dropped off the radar again since then. current weather: Clear, 37, Wind: NE 4 Tags: east liverpool, fall colors, ian, photos, pittsburgh
Current Location: 41°08'39" N, 81°30'05" W
Current Mood:  full
Current Music: Deadmau5 & Kaskade - I Remember (Original Mix)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I've taken a ton of photographs over the last week, but it's taking me forever to go through them, make HDRs, upload them and tag them. I had hoped to start writing about them tonight but I'm still working on it. So I have to fall back on some links again. In this case, something that combines space exploration and maps, a chart made by National Geographic that give a visual representation of 50 years of missions to explore our solar system and space beyond. The original National Geographic page is here, which has a special viewer, or you can view the whole thing in one big image here. **** Oops. Gregg's right, I already wrote about this two weeks ago. current weather: Partly Cloudy/Haze, 37, Wind: calm; Man it was cold today Tags: astronomy, maps, national geographic, space
Current Location: 41.144N 81.501W
Current Mood:  tired
Current Music: none
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I have some follow-up on that Klingon propaganda video I posted a few days ago, from Trekmovie.com. As it turns out the video was produced by a fan named Mark Farinas, who also happens to make viral videos for advertisers as a living. The article has some interesting details about some of the inspiration, the translation, and how it was made. Some (Turkish) Star Trek fans already had identified the children's choir background music as actually being a Turkish children's song. He's put out a new version with subtitles and credits, if you want to know what they're actually saying. I have to say, I like the video a lot more with subtitles: And just because I can, this seems like an appropriate time to point out that the United Federation of Planets actually got an official national anthem in the 7th season of Deep Space Nine: (that's not the video from the episode, so it's spoiler-free) Tags: klingons, star trek, ufp, videos
Current Location: 41.144N 81.501W
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: none
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
First off, I'm feeling a lot better today. I'm not really sure what was wrong with me, maybe a low level virus or something. I had a really bad headache last night, and really felt the need to go to bed. I slept ok, although I was cold and sweaty through most of the night. Today I've been gradually feeling better all day. The next thing in my massive backlog of things to write about is this video, in which a guy demonstrates a method to consistently de-bone flat (the two-bone variety) chicken wings: I don't really like eating chicken wings, for much the same reason that I don't like eating ribs - sure, they taste good, but they're a huge mess and it seems like it takes a whole lot of effort and mess for very little meat. But this looks like it could really help out with that - I'd like to try it out sometime soon. current weather: Mostly Cloudy, 45, Wind: NW 12; Mostly cloudy, but the sun is breaking through Tags: food
Current Location: 41.144N 81.501W
Current Mood: optimistic
Current Music: none
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I've done a particularly poor job of writing lately. Today I had hoped to change that, but I don't feel good at all this evening. I had a bad (traditional) headache in the late afternoon, continuing now, and I'm feeling really tired and kind of nauseous. In the meantime though, I have a huge backlog of links to share, so I might as well get that started. The video that this link takes you to is was produced by NOAA, and represents the water vapor satellite imagery for the entire 2008 hurricane season. Individual hurricanes are labeled. I think it's a particularly cool video, as it is essentially an uninterrupted satellite loop covering half of an entire year. Besides the hurricanes, you can see things like the daily cycle of thunderstorms popping up, which starts to recede into the tropics during September. http://www.nnvl.noaa.gov/MediaDetail.php?MediaID=75&MediaTypeID=2As for me, I think it might be bedtime. current weather: Mostly Cloudy, 48, Wind: SW 4 Tags: noaa, videos, weather
Current Location: 41.144N 81.501W
Current Mood:  sick
Current Music: none
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Among the (particularly nerdy) websites I frequent, this video has been all over the place today. It's a Klingon Empire propaganda video, in the style of Communist Chinese or Russian propaganda: It's sort of a mystery who made it, and why, but there's no denying that the quality is really very good and the detail is just insane. That's a targ in the test screen at the beginning, the Klingons are actually speaking and singing in Klingon, there are mek'leths and bat'leths, there's even a Pakled, and the Klingon towards the end looks just like Kor! Some people have thought it was a viral ad for either the next Star Trek movie or the Star Trek Online game, but both seem unlikely. Most evidence points to it just being a pet project of some guy that makes videos for PETA and Greenpeace - and it's possible still that it's somehow supposed to lead to those (based on what I've read of the translation), but whatever the case, it's a damn cool video. I mean, I don't even like Klingons; Cardassians, Romulans, the Federation AND the Dominion are way cooler. But this almost changes my mind! *** Update: according to those who actually can read/understand Klingon, apparently the pronunciation and grammar are particularly bad, to the point of making most of it gibberish. Hell if I can tell though :). Tags: klingons, propaganda, star trek, video
Current Location: 41.144N 81.501W
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: none
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I stumbled across some cool videos on YouTube this evening that I wanted to share. I guess people have been making new intros for TV shows, using the famous intro to Dallas as a template. You can see the Dallas intro here: And here's a totally awesome version of the Dallas intro, for Star Trek: The Next Generation: One for Star Trek: Voyager: **** Spoiler Warning (only watch this one if you've seen all of BSG!) And finally one for Battlestar Galactica: I was really hoping to find one for Deep Space Nine but it doesn't look like anyone has made one. **** Spoiler Warning (don't watch this one if you are currently or ever plan to watch DS9 in the future) However, someone has made a Deep Space Nine intro based on the Battlestar Galactica intro, which is pretty awesome: Tags: bsg, dallas, ds9, star trek, tng, videos, voyager, youtube
Current Location: 41.144N 81.501W
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: none
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I've been watching The Ascent of Money documentary the last few days. It's based on the book of the same name by Harvard professor Niall Ferguson, who is also the host of the series. The documentary was first produced for Channel 4 in the UK as a 6-hour series, and then it was shown on PBS first as a shortened 2-hour version and then later as a 4-hour version. I've been watching the UK version. Mom and Dad had recommended it to me, and I caught a little bit of a PBS airing back in July. I'm only halfway through, but I really like it so far. I find myself wondering why I didn't learn more of this sort of thing in school. If you're interested, you can watch the 2-hour and 4-hour versions that aired on PBS online, available here: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/ascentofmoney/current weather: Light Rain, 63, Wind: SW 7, Rain today: 0.03" Tags: documentary, miniseries, pbs, the ascent of money
Current Location: 41.144N 81.501W
Current Mood:  curious
Current Music: none
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I really enjoyed this comic entitled " Caveman Science Fiction." Sometimes I take a photograph, and I'm satisfied with the results, but what I saw in person was a lot more interesting. This photo that I took on Friday evening in the Giant Eagle parking lot is one of those photos:  The sun was just setting, and the (not quite) full moon had risen not long before in the east. At the moment I walked out of the grocery store, the moon was visible right between these two banks of clouds - which were moving, from the photo's perspective, to the left. I hoofed it to my car and grabbed my camera. But I don't have a very good zoom, and even if I did, there was no way to get the detail of both the clouds *and* the moon in one photo. I tried to take an HDR but the clouds were moving very fast, and I couldn't hold the camera very steady. But it was really beautiful in person. And fleeting - about 1 minute after I took this the moon was fully behind clouds. As I was taking the photo, a guy was walking past me, looked at me weird because he had no idea what I was taking a photo of, and then turned and saw the moon, stopped, just said "wow" and took in the view for a moment. That happens to me sometimes when I'm taking photos, and I love it. It's kind of neat to think that someone noticed something they wouldn't have otherwise, just because they saw me with my camera out. I didn't realize it at the time, but what I was seeing was actually the Harvest Moon, or maybe a day or so before the Harvest Moon. I'd heard the name before, but until I read the Wikipedia article on the subject, I didn't really realize why the Harvest Moon is so unique. For one thing, a full moon always rises right at about sunset. That seems obvious now that I think about it but I didn't know that before. That's true of all full moons, but in the case of full moons near the equinox at mid-latitudes, the moon rises with a shallower angle to the horizon, meaning it seems to hang around low to the horizon for a longer period of time than usual. When the moon is low, it looks larger, because of the "moon illusion," and it's more likely to look more colorful because you're viewing it through more atmosphere than usual. By the way, if I'm mangling the astronomy here, feel free to correct me if you know more about this than I do. It's possible I'm not interpreting these articles correctly. Finally, I wanted to share this ESPN commercial, which I saw for the first time today, although I think it might actually be 3 or more years old. If you're an OSU fan I think you'll particularly like it. Mark, you specifically should NOT watch it because I know you won't find it funny: current weather: Clear, 45, Wind: calm; Moon's pretty prominent tonight Tags: harvest moon, ohio state, photos
Current Location: 41.144N 81.501W
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: none
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
My GPSmap 60CSx came with a 64 MB MicroSD card when I bought it. That means that whenever I travel somewhere with it, if I want to load a full map with roads and points of interest, I need to do it manually before I leave. 64 MB is enough to hold about half of Ohio. But I realized two things recently: first, that 2 GB MicroSD cards only cost $10 (or less), and that the entire North America map set is only about 1.5 GB. So I'm installing the new card today. It'll be cool to have the whole North America detailed map on there all the time. But that's not why I'm writing this. The GPS unit saves tracks - basically a log of position, speed, etc. anytime I'm using it. It runs out of room fast, though, especially when I fill the MicroSD card with maps, so I (sometimes) backup the tracks to my computer, but rarely do I do all that much with them, even though I can glean a lot of information from them, should I wish. Well, it turns out that much like how my camera was taking RAW images without my realizing it, and filling up my SD card there, I've had an option selected at least since July of 2007 that backs up ALL tracks to the MicroSD card. I discovered this when I went to backup the old card. It has a full and complete record of every place my GPS has been active for over the last 2 years and 3 months. On one hand, this is really exciting, because I thought I had lost a lot of those tracks at various times, because I hadn't had a chance to back them up. On the other hand, it's sort of weird to realize that this thing I've been carrying around with me could tell anyone who got it exactly where I was at, say, 11:52 am on May 2, 2009. I think I'll keep it turned on though. Two years of use only made up 23 MB of data, so it should never be able to fill the new card. I haven't been anywhere I wouldn't want anyone to know about anyway :). And if I were, I would just turn off the GPS. Of course now I've advertised this fact on the internet. current weather: Mostly Cloudy, 61, Wind: SW 11 Tags: gps, maps
Current Location: 41.144N 81.501W
Current Mood: surprised
Current Music: ATC - Around The World (La La La La La)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
As part of trying to get myself back to writing consistently, in the absence of anything better to write about I think I'll just try to come up with an honest account of how I spent my day. I worked at Employer B until around lunch today. They're moving to a new office tomorrow, which could be cool for me, since it will be much closer. But I almost never actually work there anyway, so maybe not. I had a possible new job opportunity pop up two weeks ago, I'll call them Employer E, but it looks now like that's a bust. It got overly complicated, too, since Employer B also does work for Employer E, and had hoped to have me work for E through B. B had a meeting with E yesterday, and apparently E would actually like me to come work for them exclusively, only it would be in downtown Cleveland, and I would be paid significantly less. It should be worth noting that I only earn 80% as much as I used to with Employer M when I worked there full-time, and that's pre-tax, with no health insurance, vacation time or overtime. Or job security. On the plus side though I work whenever I feel like it, even from home if I want, and I don't need to be treated like a subhuman employee because I'm *not* really an employee. I make $2 less an hour than that at Employer B, so even less money would be a waste of my time, even if it didn't involve an hour commute into a major city. So I may hear more on the subject, but that's probably not happening. Anyway, I ran an errand at lunch (mailing a check to rollover my 401k from Employer M to an investment firm for my own IRA - mailing a check that large makes me really nervous), and then worked at Employer M. As for this evening, I got groceries on the way home, and then watched an episode of the remastered Star Trek and this week's episode of The Soup, which I never realized could be found online, which is great. I really like the remastered Star Trek - in some ways, with the remastering and the new effects, it makes TOS almost look better than early seasons of TNG. I would love to see effects redone for TNG or even DS9, although for the most part they hold up ok. I don't know how much they can improve the video quality of Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, or Voyager though, because I think they were all shot on videotape, not film. Enterprise was shot in HD, but I don't think it aired in HD at first. As much of a Star Trek nerd as I am, I've seen very little of the Original Series, at least full episodes, anyway. Up to this point, I've only seen "The Cage," "Doomsday Machine," and "The Trouble with Tribbles." And that's it. I've seen bits of many more, and know the general story of almost all of them, but have never actually watched them. I'm not watching them all, I've handpicked a little less than half of them, out of fan favorite lists. Tonight I watched "The Naked Time." I don't think I've mentioned this here before, partly for privacy for other people involved, but I've actually been exercising pretty consistently for the last three weeks, a nightly 3-mile walk. I'm really liking it so far. But it's raining and cold tonight so no walking today. I fired up the furnace for a bit this evening for the first time this fall. current weather: Cloudy/Drizzle, 52, Wind: W 6, Rain today: 0.14"; I kind of like this weather but everyone around me seems to hate it Current Location: 41.144N 81.501W
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: none
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
fusionpanda's journal
Previous
uncomfortable
confused
