Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Prediction

The post containing the video of me solving a Rubik's Cube is home to a comment by Molly. Molly claims to have bought a Rubik's cube t-shirt today. Well, not a lot of people know this, but I'm a psychic, and can predict which shirt she is talking about.

Now, don't let me scare you, I only use my power for good, but Molly. . . .I. . . I think a picture is coming to me. Yes, yes, I believe I have a mental image of what your shirt looks like. It's, it's, I believe it's bla-- no, brown. Yes, yes, it's brown. And, it looks slightly faded, but it definitely has a Rubik's cube on the front with the red, blue, and yellow sides showing. And, wait, words, I see words. It says something above the cube. Something about intelligence. . .G - - E - - N. . . GENIUS! It says Genius! Wait, something before that. . .P-- p -- pu. . . I believe it says "Pure". Molly, is your shirt brown, slightly faded, and host to a rubik's cube with red, blue, and yellow sides showing with the words "Pure Genius" over it? Don't lie, I know that's your shirt!

Rubik's Cube Solve

Finally! A video of me solving a Rubik's Cube! It's not the fastest by all means, but I think it's pretty good. . .

Physics

So last year's physics class was an interesting one. If you've read previous posts you'll have heard stories about mirrors, lasers, bagpipes, and various other oddities. Well, I was wandering around on my computer and found a picture of my physics class. Do you ever have one of those days where it seems like all the planets align and you should just go out and buy a lottery ticket? Well, this picture is a glimpse into one of those moments. First off, I am not racist, nor should what I'm about to say be construed as a racist comment, it is merely an observation of the lack of diversity in my school. So here's the story.

We have an Honors physics class where nothing is being learned
We have an Asian (15% of the total asian population of my school)
We have an Hispanic (30% of the total hispanic population of my school)
We have a very difficult to build card house
We have a waterbottle on said card house
We have more card house on said waterbottle
We have the teacher taking a picture of the lack of learning in his class.

Basically, in a nutshell, two minority groups worked together to break the laws of physics in a physics class and the teacher recorded the moment. Where'd I put that lottery ticket again?

Uber Gummy Bear

So, whatever became of that time lapse red gummy bear? He's a GIANT now. Here's a pic of all three of the bears, labeled for ease of viewing.

Slideshow Scavenger Hunt

SCAVENGER HUNT!!! Basically, here's how it works. Hidden somewhere in this blog is what I have completed of the slideshow, including the big surprise. I don't expect any of you to find it, but you can try anyways. I'll throw in some hints and if you can figure them out you'll find it. So, here we go, scavenger hunt begins:

HINT - What could it be?!?!?

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Hedgehog Cannon




My friend came over a while ago and we played with my pneumatic cannon. I built the cannon from PVC pipe, a valve stem, and a ball valve. Basically, fill it up with compressed air, shove something down the barrel (normally water balloons) and then turn the ball valve. SHVOOM! Out it goes, really far. Well, we decided to shoot something other than water balloons. So, we dug around in my house and found a hedgehog toy that I got in about 1st grade.










PERFECT! So, we soaked it with water, shoved it down the barrel, cranked it up to 80 PSI and then fired. That thing soared! Everybody should build a pneumatic cannon! Party!

Gummy Bear

Ok, more things blowing up. This time I have just a picture and some really crappy time-lapse photography. I don't actually know how to make real time-lapse photography, so basically I just set up our cheap little tripod and set the oven timer for an hour and took pictures all day. Yes, it's sad, and it didn't turn out well at all, which is why it isn't posted in Youtube format. Instead I'll just have a link to watch the time lapse (don't waste your time). The time lapse was short so I looped it a bunch of times (don't waste your time). Here's the story:



About 4 years ago I had a 14th birthday party. It was quite the evening, full of really weird things that happened, including an errant gummy bear that sunk in a bowl of water. We left it, and the next morning when we rose from our VG stupor we noticed that the gummy bear had grown to enormous proportions! So, naturally, we smooshed it. Well, ever since then I've wanted to do this little experiment again. The green one here had been soaking one day. I've got a red one going now that I'll leave for two days (this just so happens to be the time lapse bear). Here's the large green bear next to a normal sized bear. Notice that the features are much more visible, to the point where you can see the muzzle and nose. It's a big picture, so click wisely, but if you want to see the details check out the big version (by clicking it).



Click the following link for crappy time lapse (don't click it):

http://jzzsxm.googlepages.com/GummyBear.wmv



Check out this picture:



Cup Stacking Update

So, cup stacking is fun! Here's my time so far. . .

"The Cycle" (what is done on the video on my earlier post)
(3 cup pyramid, 6 cup pyramid, 3 cup pyramid. . .collapse all. . .6 cup pyramid, 6 cup pyramid. . . collapse all. . .10 cup pyramid. . .collapse)

18 seconds

not bad for the second day if I do say so myself!

Another Slideshow Update (Sorry)

Perhaps this is the last slideshow update, perhaps not. Anywho, yesterday I didn't just receive news, I actually received product. That's right, I now have, in hand, the single most amazing aspect of this slideshow. How cool? It was donated, first off, and if it had been purchased it would have cost $160,000. No joke, I kid you not. It's within the first 6 seconds of the slideshow, so listen and watch carefully everybody! That's all.

BOOM!



I've had a request for more explosions. I searched my whole computer and this is what I found. Instead of uploading the file and making everybody download it I just found it on Youtube, but I promise I HAD IT FIRST! Enjoy, I'll put some more stuff up today as well! Remember, with a little patience all of these videos I'm uploading are dial up friendly!

Monday, August 28, 2006

Cup Stacking

Several years ago I remember seeing scary little kids about 8 years old stacking cups really fast. I thought it was interesting and remembered it, but never really pursued it. Well, I saw these cups in a Target ad yesterday and decided to buy them and try. I like Rubik's cubes, maybe I'll like cup stacking too! I'm going to get them at about 5:30 today and it's 2:11 now, so I'll let you know when I get them. I'll also update you on how it's coming! You should buy them too. Here's a video so you can see what the heck I'm talking about! See what I mean!??!?!?! Scary little kids! So small! So fast! I'll have to get over the fact that for the first several years of doing this I will be outclassed by 6 year olds. Oh well, I'll get over it!

Dial Up

In a world where technology is outpacing just about everything, it seems as though I, a technology addict and self-professed g33k, should be on the ball and rolling with the changes. Alas, there is one cruel and inescapable irony that comes with this brave new world. While little old ladies and technology impaired single moms everywhere are getting their brand new broadband connections and "Surfing the Net", I am relegated to the slow world of dial up. I equate having dial up to having some type of disability. People just assume that everybody has DSL or broadband, so I'll get links from friends that say "Go check out this video on Youtube!" or "Have you seen that trailer yet?!?!?" or "Hear, I'll e-mail you a song, download it!". The saddest part is that many of them have never actually had dial up, and when I tell them that I have it, they say "Oh, well, this song isn't too long, only about 3 minutes". Ok, um, just a heads up. A 3 minute song takes about 45 minutes to download on this end partner.

THEM: "Check out this video!"
ME: "How big is it?"
THEM: "Let me check. Oh, only about 12 megabytes, not bad"
ME: "Um, no way. Not going to happen."

12 mb on dial up equals a good 3 hours. No joke.

It irks me that I have to endure dial up when I believe that I should at least be on the same playing field as the rest of the planet! All these videos on my blog, save for the Cavaliers Show, were uploaded at my home. That's dedication right there. It wasn't just a click, boom, post thing. It took an hour and a half to upload each video, just so I could share it with you! The Cavaliers show I watched at school and posted it. It is not dial up friendly, I apologize to anybody with dial up trying to watch it. Don't.

But, I try to look at the positives. Since everything takes a while to load, I am a very efficient and deadly web surfer. I will find exactly what I'm looking for on the first or second page I open, whereas those desperate housewives with their new-fangled computers with high-speed internet will take hours to find something. People wonder how I can do what I do on the internet with dial up, I'm somewhat of an dial up ninja. Just imagine what I could do with broadband! I have learned patience with dial up (I'm not just saying that, I actually am a patient person thanks to dial up). True, media destroys my computer and people cannot call me for hours at a time, but I am a ninja of the interweb, one shot one kill web searches and a blog that basically kicks butt, despite the slow connection. I am efficient, I am better than anybody out there with broadband because I am not conforming, I do not need mySpace or Youtube. I have found the better half of the internet that is not saturated with wannabe emos. Dial up opens up doors that people with broadband blaze right past. Dial up, although a slight inconvenience and media killer, does do good things!

Sunday, August 27, 2006

Update to Slideshow Post

So, basically, I got news today that made me almost wet myself it was so amazingly cool! I am having the hardest time keeping it a secret, but I will! Everybody in band will find out what it is in November in the slideshow. There will be an aspect of this slideshow that I guarantee no other slideshow has ever had. Ever. Yes, it is that amazingly cool. The only person I told totally freaked out and thought it was the coolest thing ever. Basically, I'm still really excited and jittery. You can tell because I keep saying the word "Basically". That's all, I'm going to go hug myself!

Popcorn

The other day somebody popped some popcorn during lunch at marching band. It smelled good, so the director made a rule that half of all popcorn popped went to him. He made a sign and it was law. The next day, somebody in my section brought 15 bags of popcorn and we popped them during lunch. We delivered one to our director, he was surprised. We delivered another. He was even more surprised and said that was enough. We delivered another and he started to get desperate. We were using two microwaves and cranking out a bag a minute. Finally, not knowing what to do with the growing amount of popcorn in his office, he locked his door. Well, there's a window adjacent to his office so we just started piling bags in front of that. He came over and took down the old sign with the rule written on it and changed it to "Mr. Howard is satisfied with the current amount of popcorn in his possession". We made another sign that said "But we're not" and posted it on the window into his office. Finally he came over to the room we were in and tried to come in and take the popcorn from us, but we locked the door. He left to go get keys but he made the mistake of leaving his office door open so we ran 8 bags over to his office and ran back into our room and locked the door again. Finally our director figured out that he could just give the bags to students (which made us mad). After he left we taped a popcorn bag to his door with so much scotch tape that it was practically laminated to his door. We also taped kernels over the lock so he couldn't unlock his door.



That was all well and good, but the next day is when it got great. 4 of us decided to pop as many bags of popcorn as we could and bring them the next day. Here's the end result:




That's a lot of popcorn (80 bags to be precise)! lol

Saturday, August 26, 2006

Band Slideshow

I have started to piece together the slideshow for this year. Basically, it is going to rock. The camp portion is almost completed and I have started the ball rolling on some unbelievable (literally, you won't believe it) additions to the final project. I'll inform you of what that is later, suffice it to say that people will be amazed and say things like "I can't believe you managed to do that!" "Is that really the same guy?" "How did you get him?". There were enough tasty hints in those lines to keep you guessing for a while. C U Later. Oh, also, it appears that half of my entire band has discovered my blog. Hi peoples. Yay! Readers!

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Molly

Read the comments on the last several posts. Molly wants some attention. I'll give Molly some attention I guess, just keep in mind Molly that this is taking up valuable blog space so I may make fun of you more in the coming rehearsals.


First off, you guys need to know who Molly is. Here are some pictures. . .







As you can see, she is one of those laughy girls. The type that after beginning to laugh, she starts to make weird squeaky noises. Sometimes I wonder if she can still breathe (because you can never be too sure). As you can see, she plays clarinet. This is her first year in Marching Band (even though she's a Junior (No, she isn't playing soccer anymore)). Rumour has it that she's in love with me, because she's been talking about me with her friends for the last year. Not quite sure about that. . . . I'll let you ask her about that. She likes to work with Ashley and develop different forms of sign language. She also likes bobbie pins and shirts with outrigger canoe paddles on them. She had paint on her leg at one point, and shows this blog to her dad so I have to be careful what I type (so, um, ignore that thing I said earlier about her being in love with me, Mr. Dorris). I think that's about all there is. This blog entry is mostly just an excuse to put 8 pictures of Molly on the internet. Yep, that's Molly. Everybody say "Hi Molly!"

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

License Plate


So, is there really anything I have to say about this license plate or do you pretty much get it? It's good to know that some people in life understand what it means to be patriotic.

My Schedule for 2006/2007 School Year

Alright folks, after hours of waiting in line and slaving over my schedule during registration, I have officially hammered out something that works and that I'm happy with. Tell me what you think (or just read it and proceed on to a different blog, up to you!)

1st Semester
1 -- AP Calculus BC
2 -- Wind Ensemble
3 -- Engineering
4 -- 3D Solid Modeling
5 -- AP Calculus BC
6 -- Speech Team
7 -- Introduction to Microelectronics
8 -- College Writing

2nd Semester
1 -- Engineering
2 -- Wind Ensemble
3 -- Senior Economics
4 -- 3D Solid Modeling
5 -- AP Calculus BC
6 -- Speech Team
7 -- Microelectronics Applications (ROBOTS!)
8 -- College Writing

I'm looking forward to it! Definitely a geek schedule! Look at all the CAD! Engineering and 3D solid modeling! Yay!

Sprague's Clock Drill!

Monday, August 21, 2006

A1 Steak Sauce Update

So, earlier I mentioned that there was an A1 Steak Sauce commercial that had music from "The Rock" on it. Well, I just saw the commercial again and. . . .different music! I'm thinking there was some licensing issues. Well, that'll teach you to pirate some of the best music in the world you stupid steak sauce company!

Sunday, August 20, 2006

G33k Glamour Shot


Basically, I'm famous. See that picture in the upper right of your screen? That's me with a pi shirt and a calculator wearing a binary watch. See the picture in this post? That's a screenshot from the ThinkGeek website. Notice the guy in the lower right of it. . . yeah, that's me. Go ahead and click this picture to make it bigger, or just visit the website yourself!

Star Wars IV: A New Hope

So, for those of us with dial-up that can't pirate Star Wars movies, we are forced to the sad land of ASCII movies. Wait, did I say sad? I meant HOW INCREDIBLY COOL IS THIS?!?!?!?!? I am umaz-ed.

telnet://towel.blinkenlights.nl/

Poultry in Motion

So I'm just driving to Vancouver, minding my own business, when all of a sudden a motorcycle drives by. "CHICKEN!" yells my mom. WTF?!1? I look over and sure enough. . . .chicken. I whip out the camera phone and snap a picture of a chicken going 65 mph. At least it's wearing a motorcycle helmet! Just thought I'd share!

Saturday, August 12, 2006

Cavaliers 2002 "Frameworks"

The Cavaliers in their 2002 show Frameworks. Best Show EVER!!!! less than a point from perfection! Enjoy!

Wednesday, August 2, 2006

STUPID COLLEGES!

I think I'll watch some G4. . . . *traipses into living room and plops onto couch, turning on tv*

". . . interested in video game design? Want to play video games for a living?. . . "

AAAACCK! Stupid Devry Institute commercial! I'll jump to the Discovery channel.

". . . I used to not know what I was going to do. I took 4 years of electronics in high school and decided 'I should probably go to college'"

@$#@! ITT Tech, you will haunt my dreams! Fine, I'll go over to the History Channel.

"At Brown College you can make a living and have fun doing it!"

I'll have fun throwing this coffee table through the TV if I hear one more stupid advertisement for some stupid online college!!! Let's try G4 again. . .

". . .At ITT Tech you decide your future. . ."

*CRASH!*

Crap, now I need a new TV.

Ah, it was worth it though.

*Walks into Circuit City to look at new TV's*

Wow, check out this new surround sound system! ". . .COME TO BROWN COLLEGE TO SUCCEED WITH WHAT YOU WANT!. . ."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! They've invaded Circuit City! 200 screens and 1000 speakers of fake college propoganda!!!! MAKE IT STOP!

*cue incredible hulk-esque transformation into "LIBERATION MAN!"*

"I WILL LIBERATE THEE!"

*The store fills with screams as TV's fall and smash and speakers fly across the building.*

BE FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!


You have just experienced Snively Stream of Consciousness. Hope you enjoyed!