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Why not write about it?I stuck a wiki and a journal together because I'm complicated like that. The journal is for passing thoughts and observations, the wiki is for more sketched out ideas. Sometimes you'll see a link to a wiki page that hasn't been written yet. Don't worry, it will be at some point. |
March 29, 2006: mushyhouse Recently updated wiki pages:
March 29, 2006: Geek Crushes  March 24, 2006: Tom's of Maine Very disappointing news, Colgate-Palmolive bought Tom's of Maine, which makes all sorts of vegan, natural toothpastes, lipbalms, etc., that are not tested on animals and that I use regularly. They've written about the purchase on their site, and they say it was a decision made so that they can grow the company. The problem is that Colgate-Palmolive doesn't hold the same ideals as they do, they are known to test on animals and are generally just another big corp trying to make money at the expense of the planet. And I can't really stock up on toothpaste in the same way I stocked up on US-made Converse All-Stars when Nike bought them and moved manufacturing to sweat-shops overseas. February 05, 2006: The time has come for Scientists to rise up... You know when Charlie Brown does that AAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!! thing? Yeah. Bush-appointed NASA press guy saying, "It is not NASA’s place, nor should it be to make a declaration such as this about the existence of the universe that discounts intelligent design by a creator.”. February 03, 2006: oh how I love Mag Ruffman One last night last year I happened to turn on PBS and there was this wonderful show on called "Anything I Can Do". This tool-wielding woman made all sorts of neat stuff, mistakes and all. I was smitten, but not fooled - she's obviously one smart cookie, licensed contractor and all. I was very sad when they stopped playing the show at 4am in the morning. I knew I'd seen her before though, she was in the TV version of Anne of Green Gables. Of course! She has a site called ToolGirl.  dreamy. February 03, 2006: World of Warcraft I've never played the game (and never will). They don't allow anything but heterosexual relationships in the game because they are worried about the stupidity of other players! They know there will be some gay-bashing but instead of doing something about that, they'd rather keep everything safe and het. Idiocy. Not to mention how problematic the game is fundamentally, pitting race against race. So very typical but so very wrong. February 03, 2006: Tofu I just watched a video of how tofu is made commercially. They ended up with a three-foot by two-foot block of tofu. Gosh that made me hungry. I like to eat tofu 'raw'. People always say tofu has no flavor, but I think they're completely wrong. I'm working on making more of the little tofu press I designed last year for pressing the water out of store-bought tofu and also for making your own. It's quite a bit of work to make tofu but when I've done it the resulting tofu was amazing. Today a woman asked me if I was an artist or a musician because she said I had that 'look'. January 29, 2006: Ionic Breeze I basically found an Ionic Breeze. It was sitting on the curb outside of store, unboxed, obviously used, and no one was around to claim ownership. I figured it was broken. They don't even sell it at that store. So I looked at it for a bit and then took it home. It works fine. Actually it works great, it just needed a good cleaning. It totally got rid of cat litterbox smell, something my HEPA air filter never managed. There's an ozone issue with the Ionic Breezes (google), but I think intermittent use (with a timer) should be fine. I actually know the smell of ozone quite well because I used to play with high-voltage alot... It's supposed to be very cheap to run, I'm sure it's less than my HEPA filter but I'll measure its energy usage to make sure. The price for a new unit is astonishing, $350. I never would have bought one, so it was a neat find (not as neat as finding a 1913 Singer sewing machine in the trash though...). January 27, 2006: Logic I'm a very logical, rational person but for some reason when I program, which is by definition logical expression, I like to do it intuitively. Which is probably why I'm not loving implementing a finite state machine. I just thought the contradiction was funny. January 19, 2006: Guitar Straps Sometimes I will enthusiasically start working on a project and then just stop. Months later I'll suddenly have an idea or just the sheer inspiration of will and pick it up again. I like to think that it simply takes awhile for some things to 'crystalize' in my mind. It can be frustrating though, because once I'm latched on again it becomes difficult to sleep or do anything else. I finished my guitar strap end cutting die last night and it works even better than I thought it would. I like to work out processes and create specialized tools instead of just forcing things into existence. I feel it's less stressful in the long run and less wasteful of resources all around. Plus it's fun, there's a certain elegance that emerges from a process when things become effortless. January 16, 2006: lipsync Many years ago I wrote a little program to help with lipsyncing animated characters. I was selling it to people myself for a while, but then I sold it to a company that makes animation software (I had to re-write it in C++). After I finished it they basically offered me a job, but I didn't want a programming job and I didn't want to move to the west coast. So that was the end of the program for me, and I don't even know if they ever integrated it into their software. Last night I dug up the source code and it still works great. The vertical dope sheet format and the intuitive interface still hold up, I'll surely be using the program for my game project. I've noticed that some other lipsync applications copied some of the more clever bits, like the automatic phoneme breakdown. I wish I hadn't sold my program, by now I would have open-sourced it and it wouldn't have floundered in inept hands. January 16, 2006: Screenwriting software I was very happy to find a free, open-source screen writing software package that runs under linux (and mac and windows) - celtx. It looks very cool, but from reading the message board it looks like backing up your work revisions is a must (it's a must anyway), especially if you use the online storage option. Yes, I'm running linux more and more these days. I'll be writing about that more later. January 11, 2006: popcorn? chopsticks? of course. What do you mean you don't eat popcorn with chopsticks? How do you keep your hands from getting all oily? January 01, 2006: Crazy Glue I figured out why your character can't open doors in so many fps games. They can't let go of their guns. : D JournalArchive |
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