29.6.07

Ratatoullie

I just saw Pixar's *ahem* sorry, it's Disney now, Ratatoullie. For those who don't know, it is about a psychotic (and when I say psychotic, I mean he has psychosis) rat in Paris who wants to be a chef. This means it's time for .... A DRIVEL REVIEW!!!

first off, i was disappointed that Pixar sold out to Disney. i don't like the idea of all our media being controlled by a select few corporations. It's bad that our entertainment is being controlled by people who we have no say over. Abcnnbcbs controls most of the information control in this country. Given this, you can imagine my distress when Pixar melded with Disney. Then cars came out. I did not like cars. Bad film, 'nuff said

so, Ratitoullie. Fairly good. Nice tale, plot was rather predictable, and there where the obvious "the world is a nice good place and people are all nice and good underneath if you can just expose it" kids morals. Ignoring that "would the world be better if we all had the morals of children" thing, it was a good film. the plot had more ups-and-dons-- than I expected.

The animation was good, and the rendering was awesome (for today's standards. time travel does not apply.) In my opinion there were to many chase-style scenes (lots of fast moving scenes that tare rather overwhelming. examples include: running through the sewer, being chased around the kitchen etc.)

overall review/final word/positive-negative/5: positive / 5

28.6.07

summer and friction

Today, thursday, is my first full day of summer! Rejoice! With summer comes a lot of free time, and I hope to use some of that for more blogging.

So, without further ado, my summer goals/plans etc.
1) Homework. Nothing special, just some reading 'n' the like.
2) Math. I intend to skip a year of math (officialy 11th grade) so that i will be two years ahead.
3) Stop motion. I also intend to make 5 minuets of stop motion animation, either in one or two long episodes, or several short episodes.
4) a new desk. My present desk is small and cluttered, but I plan to get a new one. I wanted something that was large, and the best I could think of was a door, so that is what I have. I chose a door because it is cheep, and is nigh on three meters long, more than enough space to spread out.

In other news, I have finnished my first novella. it is set in victorian london, and is centered around the whitechapel murders, more commonly known by the "name" of the murderer, Jack the Ripper. I will upload it as soon is I have found a nice file-sharing site that supports PDF's and does not have an expiration date. since it is a measly 200kb, file size or bandwidth limits wont be a problem.

And Finally, Friction.
I don't trust friction any farther than I can throw it, which is not that far. Recent estimates about the distance Friction can be thrown put it at about 5-7 nanometers. While I have not reviewed the test to confirm the results of the crack teem of scientist, the exact measure is irrelevant as I doubt I could throw Friction that far anyway. Even if i could throw friction several kilometers, I would still not trust it.

Allow me to explain. I do not easily trust forces. Strong and Week nuclear forces are actually fairly nice to me. They have never done wrong by me, and can be rather nice company on occasion. Strong and Week are the kind of Forces you would invite to dinner, or your brother's wedding. Normal force, while not as nice as Strong and Week, is ok, and we have no real problems with each-other. Tensional force and I tend to ignore each-other, and we went our separate ways after middle school. Applied force has bean my only real friend, and I use it daily. we have had good times together, and i would be very sad to see Applied go. Gravity and I have had a bumpy relationship, which has occasionally come to blows, but we do alright. But friction, a man (woman, child, cat or other entity) cannot trust friction to give out under his (her or its) feet (fins, paws, roots etc.).

It is just the sort of back stabbing thing one could expect from friction. one minuet you will be walking or driving or swimming along, and the next minuet you'll be stuck floating along, unable to stop yourself, save hitting things. I can't trust friction, and you are a fool if you do.

p.s. i use "man" and "his" first because they apply the best to me, though that is under some contention (to be continued, maybe.)

26.6.07

ethnic food.

My apologies for the neglect over the last few days. One more day of school (sigh) before summer(!!!!!! W000t!!!)

Anyhow, onto today’s post.
I went to a Chinese restaurant for lunch yesterday. (insert things like “The food was good” and other standard compliments). This made me wonder, what is ethnic American food? Before you answer, what ever that answer is, consider this:

Ethnic food does not necessarily reflect food in that country. While ethnic food is often similar to the food in that country, the particular dish does not have to be from said country. The examples I sight for this include General Tso’s chicken and fortune cookies, neither of which came from china, and fortune cookies are from California.

Ethnic food, even when it originated in the country it claims to be from, does not need to be made of the ingredients that is was made from in that country. I understand where some ingredients would be hard to get in other countries, or difficult to sell (think grasshoppers). The examples I site for this is the ketchup that can be found in pad-Thai( if you guessed it, give yourself ten points.)

These two points lead me to conclude that American ethnic food would probably be some variant off of: deep fried Crisco and Velveeta(which could be substituted for cheese whiz.) the two could be fried separately, or mixed together served with “coca-cola” made from the effluent off the deep fryer( probably healthier for you…) I came to this because, 1) when you think of American food, it is greasy, and 2) is is unhealthy. Deep fried Crisco is the greasiest thing i can think of, and it is made on the cheep with ingredients available in other countries (i assume.)

If you disagree, please, leave a comment.

24.6.07

Peter Watts

Hello all,

so, while i am not in the clear when it comes to finals, i hope to distract you with what has distracted me, that is to say the writings of Peter Watts. i strongly recommend them, as they have engrossed me for hours. They are released on a freedom friendly Creative commons license, so you can go and download them if you want to. A word of warning, they are very dark, so don't go to them if you are looking for a fun read.

Ja'son out! (whooshing noise)

17.6.07

I grovel before you, oh almighty reader!!

my sincerest apologies for not updating!

time to talk about what has bean happening in these last however many days since i last updated. school is not out yet (we get out late here due to a large number of breaks, and the weather delaying school.) this means that i have finals and project galore! i have had precious little free time. this will only get worse in the upcoming week.

that being said, i went to the Freemont solstice parade, and i brought by chestcam with me! on top of that, jeremy of Jeremy's podcast brought his camera, and captured video. expect plenty of footage. there will likely be (and in fact are) several areas where footage will jump forward several minutes. this is due to the large number of nude (except for the paint) bicyclists at the event, and Vimeo does not allow nudity on their website.

summer is on the way! w00t!

in other news, i made this little guy for model making practice. tell me what you think. he is shown next to a starburst for size comparison.





also, the best explanation of net neutrality ever.



please ignore the extensive editing, it was not my fault...

7.6.07

jericho is back!!!

Jericho was canceled. the fans organised, and sent in literaly tones of nuts (from a line n the last episode). but there is hope! this just in from CBS:

To the Fans of Jericho:

Wow!

Over the past few weeks you have put forth an impressive and probably unprecedented display of passion in support of a prime time television series. You got our attention; your emails and collective voice have been heard.

As a result, CBS has ordered seven episodes of "Jericho" for mid-season next year. In success, there is the potential for more. But, for there to be more "Jericho," we will need more viewers.

A loyal and passionate community has clearly formed around the show. But that community needs to grow. It needs to grow on the CBS Television Network, as well as on the many digital platforms where we make the show available.

We will count on you to rally around the show, to recruit new viewers with the same grass-roots energy, intensity and volume you have displayed in recent weeks.

At this time, I cannot tell you the specific date or time period that "Jericho" will return to our schedule. However, in the interim, we are working on several initiatives to help introduce the show to new audiences. This includes re-broadcasting "Jericho" on CBS this summer, streaming episodes and clips from these episodes across the CBS Audience Network (online), releasing the first season DVD on September 25 and continuing the story of Jericho in the digital world until the new episodes return. We will let you know specifics when we have them so you can pass them on.

On behalf of everyone at CBS, thank you for expressing your support of "Jericho" in such an extraordinary manner. Your protest was creative, sustained and very thoughtful and respectful in tone. You made a difference.

Sincerely,

Nina Tassler
President, CBS Entertainment

P.S. Please stop sending us nuts :-)

3.6.07

02007 northwest folklife festival.

i went to the northwest folklife festival on monday, may 28th i also went with my special camera rig. this is the rusulting video, curtesy of Jeremy R. of Jeremy's podcast. also fetured is rouge onion of Perfect grammer. this is it:






2007 Northwest Folk Festival from Jeremy Ruhland on Vimeo