Fail to Reject

A professor from the University of Washington has recently gotten press because of the way he gives his lectures on science: by singing them. Professor Greg Crowther has a website where you can download samples of songs he has recorded about science. A great find! Some of the songs included have titles like "The Krebs Cycle", "Glucose, glucose", "The Nucleus I like Best", and "Oxidative Phosphorylation". www.science-groove.org/Now/

If you like music, computer animation and imagination, you have to check out Animusic . It is a set of DVD's (for purchase) of music videos of computer animated "robots" and machines playing songs. The website contains little video clips of the animations. Resonant Chamber is pretty neat. Another cool one is Pipe Dream (scroll down the page a bit.)

You have probably heard of it by now, but if not, you should try using OpenOffice.org . It is an office suite like Microsoft Office, but it is open source. I like it because I like supporting open source projects, and I like alternatives to Microsoft. OpenOffice is FREE. I like quality free software. OpenOffice.org is mostly compatible with MS Office documents (ie, you can open documents made in MS Office, and save documents in MS Office format). I say mostly compatible because nobody knows what the MS Offics formats are. Even Microsoft Office documents themselves are not compatible with other versions of themselves. Anyways, it is a neat thing they got going on. Go to there website and download the application suite and give it a whirl. http://www.openoffice.org/

The Virtual Air Guitar project, developed at the Helsinki University of Technology, adds genuine electric guitar sounds to the passionately played air guitar. Using a computer to monitor the hand movements of a "player", the system adds riffs and licks to match frantic mid-air finger work. By responding instantly to a wide variety of gestures it promises to turn even the least musically gifted air guitarist to a virtual fret board virtuoso. Air guitarists’ rock dreams come true I am sure it is pretty limited at this point, but it is a neat concept.

http://www.ymck.net/e/sound.html This music is so happy! The joy of 8 bit music.

Breaking the rules, science on friday. http://www.wendycarlos.com/colorvis/color.html But there are pictures...

I recently have become aware of this totally awesome and free application that allows you to make paintings on your computer. It is called Art Rage . It is almost unbelievably good at realistically mixing the paint and showing the brushstrokes. And it is dang fun.

Since yesterday I accidentally did a post for music, today will be a computer application. Like anyone reads these anyways... I want to recommend another neat Firefox extension called Html Validator . This one is great for web developers, because it adds a really easy interface to validate your html. For every page you visit, the extension will check that page against the w3c standards. A little icon in the right bottom corner of the browser will let you know if there are any warnings or errors. If you view the source of the page, it shows all the errors, highlighted in the source, when you click on an error message, it takes you to that location in the source and highlights it for you. There is also a little help window about that error, and lots of other features I haven't begun to use yet. But I think this is a dang awesome extension.

In music, there is Serialism. Read about it in Wikipedia , and the music chamber . I wrote a serialist piece once, it was fun. I would love to do it again. If you want to hear my serialist piece, bug me.

Dear Readers, I do believe that you will be greatly interested in this article appearing in The Guardian titled " Don't Dumb Me Down ". It discusses science in the media. The author presents a paper on research he has conducted with some ideas on why science in the media is so often pointless, simplistic, boring, or just plain wrong. He breaks the stories down into three categories: Wacky stories, scare stories, and "breakthrough" stories, and discusses each type. From the article: "Statistics are what causes the most fear for reporters, and so they are usually just edited out, with interesting consequences. Because science isn't about something being true or not true: that's a humanities graduate parody. It's about the error bar, statistical significance, it's about how reliable and valid the experiment was, it's about coming to a verdict, about a hypothesis, on the back of lots of bits of evidence." The only weird thing about th

Open music record label named Magnatune (www.magnatune.com) . They call it try before you buy, you can listen to the full albums online of many artists released on this label. They cover a wide span of genres like classical, electronica, jazz, metal, rock, world, etc. Pretty neat stuff, if you ask me.

I am a big fan of winamp, but sometimes I want something smaller and simple: musikCube . musikCube is an open source audio player for windows. Features include: * very low memory footprint * clean and intuitive user interface * blazing fast navigation * fully drag and drop compatible * powerful batch tagging * an integrated cross fader * an integrated cd ripper I like the fact that it is just simple. I also like the dynamic playlists, based on tags and other song meta data. (last played, recently added, etc), and you can make your own spiffy dynamic playlists. I also like how you set up the folders where you store your music, and then anytime you add new songs to your hard drive, you just hit synchronise and it updates the library with the new songs. It also has global access keys, so you can make it go to the next song, play, pause, etc while using another application, so you don't need to divert your focus to the player to take care of things like

This website will tell: http://www.die.net/moon/

This week I saw the movie "Primer", which is an independent film that was shown at the Sundance festival in 2004. It was created by Shane Carruth. It is a science fiction film with a theme of time travel. I really liked it and there are a number of reasons: 1) The writer tried very hard to make the scientific conversations actually real, they are talking about real technology, etc. This is great because a lot of the time I am bugged immensely while watching movies with computers and technology and everything is horribly simplified (and wrong) for the average movie consumer. It is refreshing that someone took care in making a movie that isn't blatantly wrong in its scientific aspects. 2) Although the movie is slow, and this is a complaint by most people, I liked the pace. I like other movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Andromeda Strain . 3) The movie is pretty complicated and I didn't understand it all after a first viewing. This is great, because I like

For some reason, I have had this song in my head all morning, so I had better share it with you. It is a song by Kai Esbensen that he wrote for Bullet Lodge , the Minneapolis chapter of the Immersion Composition Society. It is science-y.

This sweet application brought to you by Mike Lin (who also made Startup Monitor and Startup Control Panel) is a great help to people who commonly copy and paste text. The application is called Clipomatic , and it is a free program you can download that allows you to keep multiple pieces of text in the clipboard. This way you have access to the last few blocks of text that you have copied to the clipboard. When I found this application I was like "Right on!" because I always thought that instead of having one "sheet of paper" on the clipboard, it should be a buffer where you can keep multiple "sheets of paper". Especially when you are doing a lot of copying and pasting and you have to go back and forth with different snippets of text. How it works it you just select text and copy it (Ctrl-c), or cut it (ctrl-x), like normal, but instead of pasting it with ctrl-v, use ctrl-alt-v, which brings up a submenu like in the screenshot above, which gives you a c

With all the press lately about "Intelligent Design", I thought I would comment a bit on it. A) Don't teach it in schools. It isn't scientific, it is just a point of view. If parents want their kids to know about this idea, they can teach them themselves. B) It isn't scientific, it is just ideas. You can't witness any proof, nor use evidence or tests to disprove it. C) God wouldn't use supernatural means to create a natural earth. D) Science and Religion don't clash, so quit trying to exclusively embrace one and reject the other. They are both about discovering the truth, and I believe they shouldn't contradict each other. Where they meet is where we say "I don't know." Here is an interesting article about it too. This article defines Intelligent Design as "the theory that life on earth has developed by a series of supernatural miracles performed by the God of the Christian Bible, for which it is pointless to seek any natur

On the taco shelf there was a taco, Much to my surprise; One with cheese and meat and beans, Of a monstrous, gigantic size. I tried to put it in my mouth, But it did not fit. A voice inside my head I heard, "Keep trying, sir, do not quit." I shoved and shoved and squeezed and squeezed, But I could not gulp. I grabbed the taco with my fist, And tried to make it pulp. Relieved, I was finally able to swallow it, Though nearly destroying myself, "A job well done," I sighed, and turned, Another taco was on the shelf.

This is the greatest blueberry adventure ever: Enjoy. Note: The initial little jump is great The blueberry is very adept at climbing a ladder without the use of arms The initial little jump on the diving board is cute Diving board follows laws of physics

Holy awesomeness were my first thoughts after listening to this a capella "remix" of the Star Wars Theme . This song was done by virt , each part of the full orchestra with his voice. It really is a fun thing to listen to.

Want widgets that show the system status of your computer? Try Rainmeter , highly configurable and awesome. (Better than Konfabulator, in my opinion). Having nothing to do with measuring rain, Rainmeter is a customizable performance meter, which can display the CPU load, memory utilization, disk space, network traffic, time and many more things. You can even make your own widgets easily, or download the countless plugins from the site. Also try Rainlendar , a calendar widget for your computer.

A group of scientists wandered into a kitchen that was full of the sweet smell of freshly baked bread. They quickly discovered that the source was the fine loaf sitting in the oven. Upon inspection, they found that there was no one in the kitchen, so they began developing a theory of how it got there. Examining the contents of the cupboard yielded results. In the cupboard was flour, sugar and salt. There was a source of water from the sink, and in the fridge there were yeast and eggs. They also found butter and oil. They determined that all these ingredients must have swirled and stormed around the room every which way until finally the mixture landed in the oven where it was baked. Sweet!

I got up early today, at 6:30, and took a shower, ate breakfast, and generally got things done early. It is a new era. Waking up early makes me feel refreshed and alive, like I can accomplish a lot. I plan to do this everyday for a long time. Think I can do it? We will see.

Once, I was taking my neice to a fast-food restaurant and I was trying to figure out what kind of sandwich she would want, so I asked, "Do you like cheeseburgers?" She said "yes." Then I wanted to find out if there was something that she didn't like on it, like pickles or lettuce or something, so I asked "Is there anything that you don't like on a cheeseburger, like pickles, or something?" She answered, "Well, I don't like that cooked brown thing." I had to laugh. It still is quite funny to me. I ended up getting a chicken sandwich for her.

Best selling album of all time. Over 45 million copies sold. 1982. Good songs. I have the vinyl record of this album. Man, it was good stuff. Don't you wish you could go back to 1982?

Firefox is an awesome web browser, part of what makes it so awesome is the ability to add extensions in order to extend the functionality of some parts. There have been many extensions written, and a lot of them are very neat. Here is a list of my favorite extensions that I use on a daily basis: All-In-One Sidebar (Allows the side bar to have more features and customizations) Colorzilla (An eyedropper that allows you to find out the exact color of something on your browser) GrepSidebar (Advanced search within a webpage) Minimize to Tray (If you have firefox open all day, and you don't want it to clutter the taskbar, this allows you to minimize the browser to the tray) Mouseless Browsing (by pressing the NumPad decimal key, you go into mouseless mode where the number keys allow you to navigate links) Scrapbook (Capture a webpage or part of a webpage for future consumption and or reference off-line, also it is good to be able to save a portion of a page that you find interesti

There are quite a few file browsers for windows, and they all generally do the same dang thing. After being used to features available to Windows Explorer, it is hard to switch to something else, because most of those alternatives are lacking in something. I have tried a bunch, but none of them I like more than xplorer2 (lite). Xplorer2, from Zabkat. The lite version is available for private or academic use only. It has all the features available to Windows Explorer, plus it adds more, like dual panes, tabs in each pane, and other cool features like mass rename, visual filters, etc. Plus, when you open it, it remembers where you were browsing the last time you used it. If you would like to know more of why all those features are advantages, email me . That is my suggestion for today.

Jonathan Carter Hornblower (Born 5 Jul 1753; died Mar 1815) British inventor of the double-beat valve, the first reciprocating compound steam engine. Patented in 1781 (UK No. 1298), this steam engine with two cylinders was a significant advance in efficiency. However, the patent was successfully challenged by James Watt's company (Boulton & Watt) for infringement of their patents. Hornblower ceased development on that design, but earned a fortune from his engineering work, and he made other inventions he patented, including a rotative engine and a steam wheel (steam engine). His compound steam engine principle was eventually rediscovered in 1804 by Arthur Woolf.

Japanese sets new mathematics record for reciting 'pi' TOKYO -- A 59-year-old Japanese psychiatric counselor set a world record of sorts Sunday by reciting "pi," or the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, to 83,431 digits. "I thank you all for your support," Akira Haraguchi told reporters and onlookers when he finished the overnight 13-hour feat at a public hall in Kisarazu in Tokyo's southern suburbs at 1:26 a.m. The ratio is about 3.14159. According to the authoritative Guinness Book of World Records, the previous record for reciting pi from memory -- 42,195 digits -- was set by a then Japanese university student in 1995. Haraguchi had already recited the ratio up to about 54,000 digits last September but was forced to end the attempt when his time ran out at the facility hosting the event. There was no time limit set for the hall where he achieved the new record which he said would be submitted for recognition by the Guinness Book

If you have not heard of the Residents, I wouldn't be surprised. They are probably the world's most enigmatic band of all time. They have produced records for over 30 years, and still, no one knows what they look like, or their names. They appear in costume in all their concerts so no one can know. I think they are cool. This album, called Mark of the Mole, was released in 1981. It is the first album of what was supposed to be the Mole Trilogy. They album tells a story of the Moles, who have to leave their underground homes because of storms and so they travel to another place in search of a home, to fall into the hands of the Chubs, who make them their slaves... etc. It is neat.

From an article from New Scientist Space.com Hubble spies lord of the stellar rings A spectacular, luminous ring offers the best evidence yet that a nearby star is circled by a newly formed solar system. The ring is composed of dust particles in orbit around Fomalhaut, a bright star located just 25 light years away in the constellation Pisces Austalis – or the Southern Fish. A recent image captured with the Hubble Space Telescope - which makes the system look uncannily like the Great Eye of Sauron from the blockbusting Lord of the Rings trilogy - confirms that Fomalhaut’s ring is curiously offset with respect to the star. The most likely explanation is that the gravity of one or more unseen planets is dragging the ring askew. The fact that the inner edge of the ring is relatively well-defined adds further weight to the argument because it suggests the unseen planets are sweeping up stray dust within the radius of the ring. The image was captured by astronomers at the University of Cali

Just a reminder, you should go to wikipedia when you want to find out something. And, you should go to wikipedia to update or create articles about something. It is an online encyclopedia where ANYONE can change the information. It really is fascinating. Wikipedia Try it in other languages too!

October 4th, 1957.

From 1972, comes the sweetest concept album from the band Jethro Tull: Thick as a Brick. Thick as a Brick is a 43 minute song, split in two (because you have to flip the record over in the middle of the song). On the CD, there are two tracks, just to preserve the original LP split point. The lyrics are built around a poem written by a fictitious boy, "Gerald Bostock" or "Little Milton". It seems like it was real, because the cover is a facsimile of a newspaper. The original LP cover was a spoof of a 12 by 16 inch (305 by 406 mm) multipage local newspaper with stories, competitions, adverts etc., lampooning the kind of horribly parochial and amateurish local journalism that still exists in many places today. The reason I like this song is because it has so many pieces, and parts. There are some common themes that keep coming back, but overall it is a journey, consisting of acoustic and electric guitars, drums, synthesizers. It is easy to just listen and get los

The computer application for today is an FTP client called "Filezilla". A great open source application with a webpage at filezilla.sourceforge.net . You can download it by going to the downloads page. If you don't know what an FTP client is, then you probably don't need one. Alright, and FTP client gives you the ability to log on to an FTP server and transfer files between that computer and yours. Used a lot for people to be able to update their webpages, by logging in and uploading files to the FTP server. There. You need to have access to an FTP server in order to do that. You'll need a username and password.

Knowing too much can ruin a movie for you. For example, I work with computers a lot, and it makes me cringe almost every day when I see computers in movies, because of the way they handle them, and the screen shots they show, etc. Well, if you were a physicist or even a pseudo-physicist, you might also be irked because of the lousy physics that are commonplace in movies. There happens to be a webpage dedicated to uncovering and documenting the physics flaws in movies called Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics . Go and learn.

Google Maps ( maps.google.com ) is the best map place ever. With drag and move capabilities, smart interface, and satellite view! Before, the earth was just the U.S. and the U.K., now you can see all countries on the map. Only, The streets and cities aren't there yet for most of the world, you can see country borders and bodies of water. Very cool. You can see little countries like Andorra , Liechtenstein , and here is Lake Baikal . For those of you who didn't already know, Google Maps is great, you can just type in the search bar something like '99 Russian Hill, San Francisco, CA' and you will get this .

I got this game for the original Nintendo Entertainment System for Christmas either in 1987 or 1988. It was a great game, sort of like tetris, but instead of blocks it was pills, and instead of trying to eliminate rows you were trying to eliminate virii by making three adjacent pills of the same color (as the virus) next to any virus. I must admit I wasn't as good at it as my sisters or my mom, but I enjoyed having this game all the same. I still really like the music for this game, I think it made quite good use of the NES' 8-bit, 4 oscillator sound capabilities.

Gentle Giant is an awesome band from the 70's and 80's. This is one of my favorite albums: Octopus. From 1973, it has great songs like "The Advent of Panurge", "A Cry for Everyone", "The Boys in the Band", "Think of Me with Kindness" and "River". I just realized today that it has 8 tracks, so there is one song per tentacle of jarred octopus. What do I like about the songs? Well, they are not all in 4/4. They have really cool melodies. They have nifty parts with the instruments. It really is a fun journey listening to their albums. Well, I hope that you are able to find a copy of this album, so you can listen to it too.

I like trying out different media players. One rather awesome audio player is called Ots Turntables . Ots Turntables, as the name suggests has two turntables, kinda like a DJ and you can load songs into a playlist, play them in the turntables, etc. It has pretty good record scratching abilities and other DJ features if that interests you. What I like is it has a great sounding dynamics processor which includes Ots Labs' own Automatic Gain Control and a great compressor. What this means is that when you play a bunch of songs in a row all from different sources they will play at the same volume level. It also makes songs louder and more in your face (like on the radio), if that is what you want. Ots Turntables also has a really good mechanism to blend songs together, it is smart enough to take in account songs that start or stop abruptly or smoothly and coordinates the fading efforts accordingly. The application is usually to be paid for, but Ots Labs also released a free versio

Lactose is milk sugar. It is composed of two molecules of "simple" sugars chemically bonded together - glucose and galactose. The enzyme lactase breaks down lactose into glucose and galactose which are easily digested by humans. Most human infants produce ample quantities of lactase for milk digestion. However, in the vast majority of adult humans, the gene which specifies production of lactase is turned "off" and these individuals cannot digest lactose - they are lactose intolerant. Symptoms of lactose intolerance include cramps and diarrhea. The lactose molecule, which is large, accumulates in the large intestine and affects the osmotic balance there. Since water moves across semipermeable membranes, such as the intestine, from areas of high concentration to low concentration, the addition of large lactose molecules causes water to enter the intestine. This can result in the very unpleasant experience of watery stool or diarrhea. Since lactose is a sugar, it is an

Eva typed me that message.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe movie is coming soon: Official Website , hopefully it will be really good.

Doctor Who Rocks!

When you want to hear the acoustic guitar and vocal works of Paul Trandem, you can. Just visit his website . I would suggest listening to the song "Just For You". That one is my favorite. The words for the song are thus: Some people wear their heart like a banner on their sleeve, Mine's in my pocket, but it's liquid and it leaks. You're the only one in the crowded room I guess, I didn't realize I was playing just for you. It makes me think of colors, blurry, and something reddish and squishy, but pouring, and it engulfs you and stuff. http://www.paultrandem.com/

Once, a long time ago, I got this computer program that allows you to create 3D objects, render them, do animations, etc. It was waaaay hard. I tried it for a bit, but I couldn't get it to do anything cool, really. Nothing. So I uninstalled it and forgot about it. Until it cropped up again, about a week ago. Blender 3D . Awesome application and it is open source, and free. The User Interface is a little (okay, a lot) different then what you are probably used to, but it really rocks. Like it is way easy to manipulate, rotate, scroll, zoom, etc. once you learn the tricks and the keyboard shortcuts. And you should see some of the amazing things that people are making with this program. Sample Images created by blender users . Now, this is an advanced application. I haven't even begun to tap into it's full powers and abilities, and it has a long learning curve. It won't be easy. But it is fun to tinker around and stuff. Make a mesh.

Having procured a new job on the other side of the cities, I often find myself in traffic jams during the rush hours. Consequently, I have noticed a few patterns in the traffic congestion routines. The traffic jammage happens in waves, that is why they call it stop and go. Annoying! I always wondered, "Why can't we all just go at the same steady pace, rather than all this stop start nonsense!" Finally, I realized that the best thing to do was to just go at a slow and steady pace, and average out the speed of the cars in front of me. I called it the "No brakes" method, where it was kind of like a game where you had to adjust your speed such that you never had to hit the brakes in a stop and go traffic jam. It makes huge gaps in front of you, which for some odd reason irritates the other drivers, but the fact is, you are not going any slower than anyone else. Some inside information which was recently delivered to me also talks about this same phenomenon, wi

You might want to make one. Instructions here.

Sometimes I crave new beginnings: A new day, a new week, a new month, a new season, a new year, a new job, a new place of residence, etc. It's good to start over. I think everyone quite possibly has that inside of them; a craving to start over, reboot, refresh. Recently I got a new job and I will be starting in a week, so I am in new-beginning-crave mode. The anticipation of starting over with a new job, new environment, new people, new place is exciting me. I am excited and somewhat nervous. I think our earth is nicely set up to incorporate new beginnings all the time. There is something so fresh about waking up on a new day and having the morning greet you. It's like you're given another chance to start over and become a new person. (Insert mushy paragraph about how every new beginning gives us a new opportunity to redefine ourselves, and who we eventually become is based upon the little choices we made throughout our lives) I fail to reject the above sentiment. P.S

Edga Jr. The Long Email Killa Filta. Do you know this guy?

A song by Brooke Murphy entitled Something That Happened is the subject of my blog today. Created as an entry for the ever popular Minneapolis-based Immersion Composition Society Lodge "Bullet Lodge", this song screams coolness and color. Well thought out, put together well, it for sure has my ears stuck to it. It is a song about something that happened. Exactly what happened, I dunno. Perhaps you can decifer the words and come up with an explanation. But, as for now, and for me, it is a song about color. I see colors, shapes, textures when I listen to the song. I love the vocals, the drums, how they smack once in a while, and the almost grainy flavor of the piece. It also has a mucusy, anatomical feeling to it. Enjoy. Something That Happened Lyrics: Once there were green enzymes in the distance They were tackling brown proteins and off-white carbohydrates My pink eyes could see them through the black binoculars That I held with my yellow hand And red stomach acid melt

http://www.syntiac.com/studiofactory.html For all those people who like to tinker with modular analog synths, here is a software modular synth. Right click to add components like Oscillators, Voltage Controlled Filters, Envelopes, Flangers, Sequencers, etc. Connect them with virtual patch cables, listen to it, tweak it. You can have great fun. The program is undergoing development, but most of it works great right now. Brought to you by Syntiac Pages. Program works in Windows.

Hoekey is a Windows application that allows you to create custom global hotkeys for your computer. The neat thing is it allows you to use the windows button in said hotkeys. For example pressing + opens up winamp. Comes in handy.

I had one of the Dr. Mario songs in my head this morning, which made me think about this awesome song I heard once. It is by virt, and is found here: Dr. Mario - Funky Pills If you like Dr. Mario, you probably have the songs in your head too. Listen to this for fun, man. P.S. I know it's Friday, not Thursday.

Sorry, folk, I can't think of any science experiments for today. But I do have a story... I was at a bookstore in a mall yesterday, and while perusing a book, I heard a Russian family talking amongst themselves. The wife was talking to her husband, when she said (in Russian) "What time is it?" I immeadiately looked at my watch and said (in English) "8 o'clock," to which she replied, "Thank you." After a brief period of silence, she asked "You speak Russian?" I said, "yes." Then she walked away, and I continued looking at my book. That is all. I think she was quite surprised that I could understand her. Normally, I would say that Russians speaking Russian in public places in the United States would not think that anyone could understand them. Ya vsyo znaiyu.

I really am sorry to ALL my faithful readers for missing Monday throgh Wednesday this week. I guess I got busy. So you are probably wondering what I would've said. On Monday, I would've said: "Go and find some of your own garbage, or make a code and have someone decipher it! Do it yourself!" On Tuesday, I would've said: "Go and conduct your own scientific experiments! GOSH!" On Wednesday, I would've said: "There are tons of computer applications! Go download one yourself!" And today, I talk about a picture. Well, maybe I will post a picture. Oh. I got it. I won't post it, but I will redirect you to it. It's like a picture redirection service. This is a pixelfreak poster picture. It is really awesome: Look! At! This! Commenters will report on how they did with codes, science, and computer applications.

Pete Townshend (of the band The Who), sang this song called "Face Dances Part Two" off of the 1982 album "All the Best Cowboys have Chinese Eyes". It is a good song. The meter is 5/4, and it is a quite catchy song. Go find it and give it a listen. Here is a link to the album information.

Pumpkins. Not this time of year. In the autumn. Picture credit to KE.

Metroid is a video game. The original came out in 1986 for the Nintendo Entertainment System. There have been many more games made in the Metroid series since then, including one for the Gameboy, one for Super Nintendo, two for Gameboy Advanced, and two for the GameCube. A guy named Stemage loved the music from the game so much, he made metal versions of the songs. They are really great. When I first heard them about 1.5 years ago, I was enamoured by the quality and the coolity, not to mention the nostalgia of the songs. I also was a long-time fan of the Metroid soundtrack. So, if you like Metroid and you like metal, you'll love Metroid Metal: www.metroidmetal.com . My favorite song is the Brinstar theme .

Screenshot of the GIMP

If you are interested in an application to manipulate images and photos, then I recommend the Gimp. The Gimp is an acronym for the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is similar to Paint Shop Pro and other graphics applications. The Gimp is currently at version 2.2.3 and is available for download at gimp.org . It is a cross-platform application, which means it is available for multiple operating systems (Windows, Linux, Mac OS X). For new users the interface might be confusing, because the Gimp uses multiple windows: one for the tools, one for tool options, one for image layers, etc., one for any other dialogs, and one for each image you are editing. But, the Gimp is completely customizable to make it any way you want. The way I like it is with all the tools and dialogs in one window, but in tabs on the right of the screen, and then a window for each image I am editing. When you get more advanced using the Gimp, you can also create scripts to perform automated tasks for yo

This questioned has intrigued me for quite some time. I decided to take a look at it today. First lets look at the definitions of the words: Retinal : Of or relating to the retina of the eye. Sieve : A utensil for separating the finer and coarser parts of a pulverized or granulated substance from each other. It consist of a vessel, usually shallow, with the bottom perforated, or made of hair, wire, or the like, woven in meshes. See also cribiform cells. Myopic : 1. unable to see distant objects clearly [syn: nearsighted] [ant: farsighted] 2. lacking foresight or scope; Slop : 1. Spilled or splashed liquid. 2 Soft mud or slush. 3 Unappetizing watery food or soup. Okay, so another way of saying Retinal Sieve is perhaps, "an eye that filters finer and coarser parts," and another way of saying Myopic Slop is, "near objects that look like mud," or "muddy objects that are nearsighted." I am assuming that when sieving something, one would want to

http://nickciske.com/tools/hex.php

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It's the shoes. Picture taken by CP.

To kick off the music section of this weblog, I will point you to a song I wrote in January 2003 as part of Bullet Lodge , a songwriting lodge which is a chapter of the Immersion Composition Society . (ICS) Bullet Lodge is a game, you have to write at least six songs in a 24-hour period. These songs become a day-album, which is then shared with other members of the lodge at monthly meetings. In addition to helping one to become a better songwriter and increasing one's ability to record, the pressure aspect of doing it in a day makes it extremely fun. See the above links for more information about Bullet Lodge and ICS. This particular song that I am showcasing comes from the second day album I made called "A League Itself Entirely Negated". The song is called Shopping Planet. Part of the reason how this came about is that we were to somehow put the phrase "Wal-martian" into one of our songs. Enjoy. Link to Shopping Planet (mp3)

You might have heard of Mozilla Foundation's internet browser, and that it is a good web browser. Well, it is. I use Firefox because I love the control, the tabbed browsing, pop-up blocker, customization features, and the fact that it is standards compliant. Some people say, "Who cares if it is standards compliant? What does that mean?" It means that developers can design web sites and know how it will appear in the web browsers and not have to make tweaks to the code to cater to all the different web browsers. Think of the plumbing in your house. You rely on the manufacturers to create plumbing parts according to standards, otherwise, you'll never know if the pipes that you are buying will fit into your house. So, I recommend that you download a copy of Mozilla Firefox 1.0 and give it a try. It is free, of course. www.mozilla.org

This is a part of a conversation I had with a friend a few days ago: Okay. So, last night with Eric at Perkins, I ordered tea with lemon as my meal. I dipped the teabag into the hot water, and the water turned a smooth and silky green, ever deepening into a nice toasty forest hue. Normal, right? Well, then I added a squeeze of lemon. Suddenly the tea turned fiery purple! Rich grilled fuchsia! Dark hot pink! We stared at this mysterious mug of chameleon chamomile and hibiscus broth. Maybe the acid in the lemon did something to the chlorophyll to break it down, such that the underlying anthocyanin pigments were able to flood forthwith? Then I remembered that cabbage is a natural litmus solution... cabbage water changes colors in response to pH level. So maybe this tea was doing that, too. How do we test this hypothesis, though? We need a source of alkaline to counteract the acid in the tea and see if it turns back to green. Where do we find alkaline solutions in

Pay attention to the left sidebar. There is a schedule. It will be followed more or less. That is what the general content will be on a given day of the week. Enjoy being bored by boring weblog. gartrag.

I could try to crush my head.

Welcome to the internet! There are a lot of people here on the internet. Lots of blogs. Why add to it? I don't know. There is so much information on the internet, you're probably sick of it. So am I. But isn't it neat? So, nobody will read this, but thats okay. I will continue to write these until I get really bored of it. -Sumpy