Hey Idiot,
They're called U-turns. Not "four-points-in-the-freaking-middle-of-the-road-turns."
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Data crunching as art
A couple years ago, Wired.com featured an article about artist Aaron Koblin, who uses data to create beautiful visual art.
While many people would see lists of numbers and data as dull and mundane, Koblin proves them wrong with exceptional masterpieces compiling data into thought-provoking pieces.
My current desktop background has been one of Koblin's Flight Pattern pieces for quite some time. The graceful beauty of the lines representing flight patterns in 24 hours outline the continental United States and show the power of technology and travel.
He has also done some music videos, one of which I am a huge fan, called The Wilderness Downtown. It is the interactive video project for Arcade Fire's single "We Used to Wait." Utilizing Google Maps to animate the viewer's childhood neighborhood, it creates a sentimental touch that isn't expected in a data-filled world.
http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com/
His project, Ten Thousand Cents, (http://www.tenthousandcents.com/) puts new meaning to the phrase E Pluribus Unum (From Many One). He divided a picture of a ten-dollar bill into tiny little pieces, then asked people (for one penny each) to re-draw the segment that was sent to them. All the tiny pieces, when put together, look just like a ten-dollar bill, but represent 10,000 different laborer's work.
A project similar to the aforementioned crowdsourced piece is The Sheep Market, where participants were paid to draw "sheep facing to the left. The result, thousands of cartoon sheep, is both funny and unique. Check it out at http://www.thesheepmarket.com/.
To see more of Aaron Koblin's works, go to his website at http://www.aaronkoblin.com/.
While many people would see lists of numbers and data as dull and mundane, Koblin proves them wrong with exceptional masterpieces compiling data into thought-provoking pieces.
My current desktop background has been one of Koblin's Flight Pattern pieces for quite some time. The graceful beauty of the lines representing flight patterns in 24 hours outline the continental United States and show the power of technology and travel.
He has also done some music videos, one of which I am a huge fan, called The Wilderness Downtown. It is the interactive video project for Arcade Fire's single "We Used to Wait." Utilizing Google Maps to animate the viewer's childhood neighborhood, it creates a sentimental touch that isn't expected in a data-filled world.
http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com/
His project, Ten Thousand Cents, (http://www.tenthousandcents.com/) puts new meaning to the phrase E Pluribus Unum (From Many One). He divided a picture of a ten-dollar bill into tiny little pieces, then asked people (for one penny each) to re-draw the segment that was sent to them. All the tiny pieces, when put together, look just like a ten-dollar bill, but represent 10,000 different laborer's work.
A project similar to the aforementioned crowdsourced piece is The Sheep Market, where participants were paid to draw "sheep facing to the left. The result, thousands of cartoon sheep, is both funny and unique. Check it out at http://www.thesheepmarket.com/.
To see more of Aaron Koblin's works, go to his website at http://www.aaronkoblin.com/.
Wait...WHAT?!
Today I was catching up on some missed episodes on the cwtv.com website when I saw this:
Take a closer look...Vampire Diaries wants viewers to catch WHAT?
Take a closer look...Vampire Diaries wants viewers to catch WHAT?
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
"Wanna go for a walk?!"
So my uncle sent me this link of a super extreme hike in Spain, joking that I should do it the next time I head to Spain.
http://www.angelfire.com/ak2/intelligencerreport/scariest_path.html
The 2:18-2:40 mark is my favorite.
I responded to my uncle by saying "knowing my daredevil dad, we've done similar or far worse feats on our family vacations."
It's true...my brother hopped onto an unsupported 40 foot rock pillar at age 12 at The Fiery Furnace in Utah. My mom was freaking out.
Or there was the time my dad and my brother went hiking and stashed their water bottles throughout the desert to retrieve later...then took an entirely different route home, without access to water for several hours in high heat. This ended in their bursting into the closest convenience store at the end of the hike and standing in the beverage aisle, chugging several full bottles of Gatorade without taking a breath. Between bottles, they managed to gasp out to the sales clerk "don't worry...we promise...to pay for these."
Or...there was the time we went surfing in shark-infested waters in Kauai. Or that same day, when Eric and my dad went surfing straight into a large coral formation, emerging from the saltwater with bleeding shins and wounded limbs, their faces plastered with prideful grins from the awesome wave they had caught.
Or there was the time in 2009 we went running down scree in Glacier National Park to see who could get to the parking lot first.
Or there was the time Eric and I climbed into a cave in Ohio only to find hundreds of bats sleeping in the darkness, and I rushed out of there so quickly that I smacked my head on the cave ceiling, literally chopping the hair on my crown off, and leaving bleeding gash.
So really, I could totally see myself doing this.
http://www.angelfire.com/ak2/intelligencerreport/scariest_path.html
The 2:18-2:40 mark is my favorite.
I responded to my uncle by saying "knowing my daredevil dad, we've done similar or far worse feats on our family vacations."
It's true...my brother hopped onto an unsupported 40 foot rock pillar at age 12 at The Fiery Furnace in Utah. My mom was freaking out.
Or there was the time my dad and my brother went hiking and stashed their water bottles throughout the desert to retrieve later...then took an entirely different route home, without access to water for several hours in high heat. This ended in their bursting into the closest convenience store at the end of the hike and standing in the beverage aisle, chugging several full bottles of Gatorade without taking a breath. Between bottles, they managed to gasp out to the sales clerk "don't worry...we promise...to pay for these."
Or...there was the time we went surfing in shark-infested waters in Kauai. Or that same day, when Eric and my dad went surfing straight into a large coral formation, emerging from the saltwater with bleeding shins and wounded limbs, their faces plastered with prideful grins from the awesome wave they had caught.
Or there was the time in 2009 we went running down scree in Glacier National Park to see who could get to the parking lot first.
Or there was the time Eric and I climbed into a cave in Ohio only to find hundreds of bats sleeping in the darkness, and I rushed out of there so quickly that I smacked my head on the cave ceiling, literally chopping the hair on my crown off, and leaving bleeding gash.
So really, I could totally see myself doing this.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
A homophone to think about!
I have discovered a new homophone (group of words that sound the same but mean different things)!
Grimmest.
Grimaced!
The end.
Grimmest.
Grimaced!
The end.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Antonio, Barcelona, Carmen, it's as easy as 1, 2, 3!
The "spelling alphabet" is an alphabet used by the army or navy or radio people to communicate the spelling of things without them being confused for other letters.
Like "d" and "b" sound the same when read aloud, but won't be mistaken if you say "delta" and "bravo."
You most likely have heard of these in movies before. Or, if you are like me, you recognize them from the N64 video game "Rainbow Six."
What intrigues me is that in other languages, the words are different. I mean, obviously Spaniards aren't going to use the "alpha, bravo, charlie" alphabet we use, so they use their "antonio, barcelona, carmen" one. I saw this on wikipedia while browsing links from the creepy "numbers stations" article due to a recent Fringe episode I saw, and it was pretty interesting to see what words they use to refer to the letters of the alphabet. They seem to have an obsession with first names and cities, whereas we use...random stuff.
See the chart at the link below...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spelling_alphabet
Like "d" and "b" sound the same when read aloud, but won't be mistaken if you say "delta" and "bravo."
You most likely have heard of these in movies before. Or, if you are like me, you recognize them from the N64 video game "Rainbow Six."
What intrigues me is that in other languages, the words are different. I mean, obviously Spaniards aren't going to use the "alpha, bravo, charlie" alphabet we use, so they use their "antonio, barcelona, carmen" one. I saw this on wikipedia while browsing links from the creepy "numbers stations" article due to a recent Fringe episode I saw, and it was pretty interesting to see what words they use to refer to the letters of the alphabet. They seem to have an obsession with first names and cities, whereas we use...random stuff.
See the chart at the link below...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spelling_alphabet
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Monday, January 24, 2011
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