Big Freakin' Lizard

Today while I was getting some sun and swimming I ran across this monster lizard swimming in the pool with me. This thing was crazy fast and looks more like an alligator than a lizard. I was able to snap a quick picture of it after I fished it out of the pool.

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A mobile phone test

Well. I was finally able to procure an iPhone for myself. It was no
walk inthe park, but this is easily the best phone I have ever owned.
Anyway, this post is just a test to see if the text and picture I blog
from the phone actually publish.

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Backyard Time Lapse

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Time Lapse Experiments

Last Christmas there were a few days where I was a bit bored and decided to play around with some photography techniques that I have always wanted to try. Primarily, I did some tests with time-lapse photography and found it to be pretty interesting. I compiled the pictures into a couple clips. The first will be attached to this post and the second will follow as a unique post. They really are pretty basic, but I can put them up anyway because:

A) Its my blog, I can self promote if I want.
B) No one reads this anyway, so whatever right?

Edit: My acknowledgment of this would mean I am talking to myself, and I am not willing to deal with the repercussions, haha.

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Jesusphone or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the iPhone 3G

I'll start by saying I am no better than any of this (because I want one too), but the current madness that surrounds the recent launch of the iPhone 3G has been quite an experience first hand. If you have been living under a rock lately, the iPhone 3G is apple's latest toy that was released this past Friday. It is essentially the same as the original iPhone that made its debut this time last year, just a tad faster.

I thought sure, that's a cool phone, and now that the price has halved since last year I might pop over and buy one. I figured it would be a pretty popular item down here in Miami, (where you are on the bleeding edge of fashion/gear/douchebaggery or you eat lunch at your own table) so I planned on getting there when the store opened.

WRONG

Click the read more link to see the rest of the story.



My first warning sign should have been seeing the people SLEEPING at the AT&T store on Thursday. I showed up on opening morning only to see 120 or so people sitting in lawn chairs in front of the store. It was a little unnerving seeing how many people were skipping work to get this phone. I opted out of waiting in line for 6 hours to get a new cellphone, which seems like a pretty normal reaction, but at that particular moment it was 120:1 in favor of me being stupid.

The next day I went to visit my father at work and we went to get a coffee at the shopping center next to his office building. I thought it might be interesting to see the chaos at the apple store there so we walked by. WOW. A good 36 hours from launch there was a line that was over 200 strong sweating and waiting patiently in the sweltering heat. I was shocked to see the amount of people that were rallying around a single object. Sure, I have seen the craziness that surrounds shopping during the holidays, but that is more like a consumer holiday. This single phone, this jesusphone, has managed to bring nerds, businessmen, and housewives together into a sweaty, gadget lusting orgy. Rarely can you witness such large scale exhibits of patience and dedication. It's a bit ironic though, because it seems that sometimes we can summon up the patience required for a little instant gratification. In summary: the iPhone defeats a failing economy with a roundhouse.

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Sebastien Tellier, The Legend, The Frenchman

I came across this song while I was in Italy and instantly loved it. Not only is music interesting and unique, but the video is hilarious. If only we could all be so handsome. The song is called divine and is off the album sexuality. Check it out for yourself.

Update: It was just made known to me through wikipedia that this album is a meditation on love making and the artist has directed his listeners to only partake in this album by candlelight. A novel idea, but he is alienating his daytime consumers.

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Pirates of Mountain Springs Retirement Center

I really don't have a whole lot to say about this picture other than it is important for you to see it in all of its glory. Pirates IV: Jack escapes the home.

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Which Clockwise Is It?

Here is an interesting animation* of what appears to be a spinning woman. Take a close look at it. What direction is she spinning when you look at it. Clockwise or counter-clockwise? According to some the direction in which you see the woman spinning hints and whether you are "right-brained" (artistic, philosophic, emotional, etc...) or "left brained" (logic driven, pays attention to detail, scientific, etc...)

Clockwise = more right brained
Counter-clockwise = more left brained

I am not so sure about this interpretation, but I will leave the judgment call to you.

After looking at this a few times you may be able to see the woman spinning in both directions. Click "Read More" for a hint for seeing it go counter-clockwise if you initially see it rotating clockwise.


Try focusing on the direction her shadow is moving and slowly direct your gaze up towards her body. You may see her go counter for a sec and then lose it. After a couple glances you should be able to "control" her direction.

*borrowed from the Sunday Herald

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Brief Intermission

Well, I was hoping to have something posted about the ridiculous things that happened on my Italy trip, but I decided to wait for the journal entries. Megan has yet to give the journal back to me, so I have opted for the lazy route and decided to wait for those entries rather than rewriting everything. In the meantime I have a few interesting/strange things for you to take a look at.

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Where to Begin

It has been a long while since I last posted here and so much has happened since that last post that I am having trouble deciding what to say first. Lets begin with some obvious good news; I am alive. Why is that news? Well, you may or may not have known, but I spent last 3 weeks traveling around Italy. This trip was 2/3 wonderful with all the accoutrements of a great, mind-expanding trip. The other 1/3, however, was a nightmarish experience that I am only glad I was able to walk away from with a small scar.
I will describe both with pictures and language as best I can, but nothing I write can even come close to the experiences I had on this trip. I jotted down a few entries in a journal while I was in Italy and I'll post them up once I can find it.

PS: I found this picture on a site that says we must "prepare for end times, have you made your decision yet." (I put the fractions, they weren't insinuating that you can pop into thirds and enjoy heaven and hell).

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What's Done is Done

College is over for me. It's weird to say, but it is. I had my last exam yesterday and today I hand in my last paper. After that is done, there is no more work. There is still that whole formal graduation thing, but its just that, a formality. After that I am only in the US for another 6 days before I stroll on over to Italy for awhile. I can finally relax for awhile and just take in the last glorious moments of college as they flit by. It tell you what though, I won't miss the smell of this dorm.

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Pottery Pictures Mk. 1

I said before that I would put a few pictures up of the pottery that I am photographing as a little "extra credit" project. I am making good on my word and putting them up even though you probably don't care. The first picture is displayed, but to see the rest you need to click "Read More!" Don't expect to be blown away.

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A Small Victory

You may or may not have caught it, but my last cryptic post was about how I need to make the few ceramic pieces that I have made this semester appear to be a cohesive body of work, for the sake of my grade. I decided I would take some artistic liberties with my works and expand them into the photographic realm. This is because I need to make my relatively mundane pottery seem artistic. So I thought, "What better way to make ceramic art than with lasers and LEDs." I'm sure the teacher will think there is all sorts of juxtaposition between earthy colors and space-age laser beams. Great. Only problem is I need a ton of lasers. My problems were solved as they usually are, with random happenstance. My first stop to find lasers was Staples. Office Supplies, laser pointers for presentations, you get the idea. Staples definitely did have lasers, but I didn't need the LAZX8999 ergonomic racing grip for $36.99. As I said, I wanted a bunch of them, so spending hundreds of dollars was out of the question. Then I went to Best Buy where I was promptly told they no longer carry lasers. However, some random middle-aged guy buying guitar hero overheard me and told me to go to a pet store. At first I thought he might be a crazy person that wandered into Best Buy for the AC, but then I remember how one of my cats at home used to go crazy chasing a laser dot. So I hopped on the bus and made the trek over to PetCo. Sure enough, they sell lasers labeled as the "Laser Chase II," for $4.99! What a steal! So I bought all the lasers they had. The pictures and description on the box are priceless. It says, "Dogs, cats, birds, lizards, and even fish go wild as they chase the red laser..." Nothing strange there. However, each of those animals has a line drawn to it and a picture to illustrate the animal. The fish is a shark, the bird is an owl, and the lizard is a T-Rex. Wow.

After all that, I took it home and took one experimental picture. It's not the greatest, but it is a proof of concept. I will be able to create my vision, or something. The picture is above.

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Something Out of Nothing

Well, the end of the year has come, and taken all of us seniors kicking and screaming. That is not to say that we are all done with everything. As it turns out, a little thing called my ceramics class has fallen through the cracks. I am pretty sure I have nowhere near the amount of work done as I should for the class. So its time to get a little creative. I need to figure out some way to make the small amount of work I have done look like a concise body of art. To do that I am going to need 5 lasers, 5 watch batteries, and a camera. We'll see if this works. I'll post the results if they are any good.

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Testing my Will

I just got back from the doctor's office for the third time this month and boy was a it a good visit. I have been pretty sick for almost all of April, which has been pretty trying. Each time I have visited the doctor previous to today they would take a look at me, shrug, and say "look like you have allergies, here are some sudafed." Super. Today a met with another doctor, because I just wasn't satisfied with the old "alergies" response anymore. There is just something a little frustrating about going to the doctor and having them point out that you are sick and wish you luck. Today, however, the practitioner was more concerned. She ran some tests (finally) and based on her professional opinion, believes that I am having a resurgence of mono. with a lil' bit of strep on the side. It makes me wonder, is there really someone up there pulling the strings, trying to test me? Or maybe I'm God's version of reality TV. Just give him BOTH so we can see what hilarity ensues! Either way; this sucks.

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What I'm Up to Now

It really is coming down to it now folks. The end of the year is nigh and that means I am almost done with my college career. So many things are going on right now; I'm putting the final touches on my last assignments, getting ready for final exams and papers, and wrapping up my undergrad research. As it turns out, that is only schedule for the next two weeks. After that its time for some senior week madness, where people that aren't quite ready to leave will get all together too drunk for an entire week. So many times I have heard that college is the best four years of your life and while I can't dispute that college is amazing, I am just as excited for the next stage of my life. I guess that I am ready to move out of the dorms and into a life of my own, which is exciting to say the least. I am going to be doing some really interesting and intense research in the upcoming years and I can hardly wait. I also look forward to doing a fair bit of traveling, as I am going to be spending three weeks in Italy between May and June! As it turns out now is the best time of my life and I can only hope that my optimism for the future will follow me through the years.

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Big bowl gold mushroom cowboy meat

Anyone that has eaten at restaurant in a foreign country that "caters" to the English-speaking knows that translation can be an issue. That being said, I don't think I have seen anything quite like what this guy encountered at a steakhouse in China. I'll have the "Salty egg vegetable sponge liver pig soup please." Oh yes, and I'd like to have a side of the "Cowboy Leg Beautiful Pole" and just some "Carbon burns fatty cow New Zealand" for the lady. Thanks. Comedic Gold, you can't make this stuff up. Hit the link for the full menu.

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Safety Dance

If you spot terrorism, blow your anti-terrorism whistle. If you are Vin Diesel, yell really loud.





I have recently been conducting some research involving hospital preparedness in the case of mass-incident chemical contamination. It is has been a generally depressing ordeal sorting through countless documents that chronicle horrifying events. However, during my research I came across a hilarious site that puts a light-hearted spin on preparedness. It takes real government illustrations and "interprets" their ambiguity in a funny way. Follow the link to check it out.

The image and caption shown are one example from safenow.org

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Everybody loves soap!

So, check this out. I was doing some thinking recently while washing my hands. "Hmmm." I thought. "I am getting a little hasty and rinsing my hands too soon and losing all that valuable soap!" "I sure miss that foaming pump that I used to have." I realized that I hadn't actually thrown out the foaming pump and so I got to thinking of a way that I could use the pump again. I figured it out and submitted my formula for breathing new life into an empty foaming dispenser to instructables.com . It is a really interesting website for any DIY project you can think of. Here is the link for my submission if you are interested in the technique. SOAP!

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Volver

This has been one hell of a week. I have been trying to shake illness for almost two week and instead of getting better it decides to get worse. The good news is I was able to convince my doctor to give me some antibiotics. The bad news is I have had more assignments due these past couple weeks than all semester. So it goes. On a ridiculously childish note, I have been assigned to put on my own rendition of a scene from Almodóvar's Volver with a group of my classmates in Spanish. Aside from being reminded of middle-school I am rather enjoying my directorial duties. I get to play a dead guy who is talking from inside a cardboard refrigerator. Neat! Anyway, sometimes its fun to butcher excellent films in a way that would have made the actual director cringe. Click the video to listen to the title song, I really enjoy it. It's called "Volver" by Estrella Morente

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