Buttons for Mouse

Twitter!

2011-02-10T13:41:00.000-08:00

As is probably evident, I am not keeping up with this here blog. But I did get a public twitter account, so I will post all the terribly exciting things in my life there. SO all you people who want more of my life in your life, may I direct you to:

http://twitter.com/#!/mousereeve

and also,

http://mousereeve.com/

Place Value Visualizer

2011-02-06T21:43:00.000-08:00

Remeber these?

Hint: this one post, and this other one

Well, I made a (somewhat) usable version on my website, that lets you flip through different functions, constants, base sytems, and place values.

Still a little buggy, but nonetheless:
http://mousereeve.com/placevalues/

Photodump

2010-07-07T10:15:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've uploaded the photos from my camera. A sampling of the odds and ends:

My birthday cake. That was a long time ago.

The scrabbible.

An early and somewhat unexciting experiment with safety pin-based wearable electronics.

I.. honestly have no memory of this.

Oh now this one. This is just one photo in a huge set that documents how sketchy looking the rout to a basement basketball court below one of the campus dorms is. I always felt like I was breaking in when I went down there.

My prized collection of containers laid out.

A dress that needs to be refitted made from an XXL Battlestar Galactica shirt.

The fate of my last phone.

It's Summer!

2010-06-24T22:15:00.000-07:00

Undeciphered, Asemic, and Otherwise Awesome Documents

2010-06-17T15:59:00.000-07:00

I've expended a great deal of energy finding copies of books with made up, encoded, or asemic writing; more than seems proper. Hopefully by compiling the documents here, I can make it a little easier for everyone else.

Most files are already available online as PDFs, so I've just linked to those, and others I compiled and put on my google docs account for download. They are roughly in order of how much I mentally categorize them in with the Voynich Manuscript. Let me know if anything is wrong, missing, broken, or otherwise problematic.

The Voynich Manuscript
This is the first document that caught my interest; it was discovered in 1912 by a book dealer, Wilfrid Voynich, and consists of over two hundred pages of indecipherable (and quite possibly asemic) text and images. There is plenty more information about the document all over the internet.

Voynich Manuscript (pdf, 56.2MB), originally found here.

Spurious or unverified translations have been proposed by William Newbold, Leo Levitov, John Stojko, Joseph Feely, P. Han, Claude Martin, Richard Rogers, and James E. Finn. There are others, but these are the ones I could tie to specific documents.

Codex Seraphinianus

A friend introduced me to this one - it is a more recent (late 1970s, early 1980s) document. It is similar to Voynich in the sense that it records an imaginary world in an invented language and script, but tidier, more organized, and more accessible to the modern reader. Rumor has it that the page numbering system is base 21.

Codex Seraphinianus (53.6MB), also available for copious sums of money.

The Rohonc Codex
The Rohonc (or Rohonczi) Codex is a Hungarian document of mysterious origins and content. It is thought to be written in some sort of proto-Hungarian language, or, more commonly, a hoax of a proto-Hungarian language, rather than an invented world. Nonetheless, as far as I can tell, no one is entirely certain.

Rohonc Codex (28.5MB), compiled from GIFs of each page.

Fair warning, I suspect that a few pages may be missing from my PDF (and, possibly, the original GIFs).

The Dresden Codex

This is a pre-Columbian Mayan codex, and the most complete of the four remaining American documents. While it isn't incomprehensible, fantastical, or asemic, it is beautiful and historical. The Mayans (and, for that matter, all the pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations) are fascinating, technologically advanced, and not given half as much consideration as they should in world history classes. The Dresden Codex is, apparently, an almanac full of highly accurate astronomical information.

Dresden Codex (100.4MB)

The codex is hosted by FAMSI (Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc.), along with the Madrid (48.8MB), Paris (2.9MB), and Grolier (1.5MB) Codices.

Zr + 4HCl → ZrCl₄ + 2H₂
U + 3F₂ → UF₆

Roberto Altmann, a Cuban Lettriste, made this beautiful comic around 1970. It is 13 pages long. That is pretty much all that I know. I assume the dialog is asemic, but don't quote me on that.

Zr + 4HCl → ZrCl₄ + 2H₂ / U + 3F₂ → UF₆ (22MB), compiled from JPG scans of each page.

Steganographia
I am reluctant to open the Grimoires and Esoteric box because 1) it isn't really all that relevant, 2) there is just way too much out there, and 3) and Joseph H. Peterson has already made a wonderful online catalog so there isn't much point in me doing it as well, but I'll include Johannes Trithemius' Steganographia here because it is, as the name suggests, steganography.

Steganographia (201KB), an html/text version is here.

Fair warning, it's in Latin. Sorry. It may be more interesting to look at the encrypted content than the original document. Ask google.

There are, of course, plenty more documents that I don't know about or can't find enough information on. But hopefully this can remedied.

More With the Roller Derby

2010-05-29T19:58:00.000-07:00

KimPending Doom, jamming for the Taco Kickers:

Backgrounds are cruel, illustrator is beautiful.
Based on a photo by Nicolas Charest, at the Taco Kicker's vs. Eves of Destruction bout in Victoria, CA.

Metrix Create: Space, Maker Faire, And Other Places with People

2010-05-20T19:51:00.000-07:00

I made chalk! Specifically, yellow chalk swirled with red at Metrix Create: Space in Capitol Hill. I don't have a photo of said chalk, which is probably for the best, because the yellow came out a bit.. vomit-y. Metrix, on the other hand, does not remind me of bloody vomit at all. If you are in Seattle, you should check it out; I am pretty enamored of it. They even sold me conductive thread!

Here is a picture of someone else's chalk looking really awesome as someone adds another drop of food coloring. I have no idea why the dye spreads out like this, but it looks beautiful and fractal-y.

Next up in my list of gathering places for interesting people making interesting things is the Bay Area Maker Faire, which is happening this weekend.

I am excited.

And I lied, there are no other places with people in this post. Just Metrix and Maker Faire. But they are wonderful enough to make up for it.

Random Sketch: Jammer

2010-05-16T05:03:00.000-07:00

I am going to pretend that the scene after this one is of scoring points rather than getting hit.

And also I am lousy at backgrounds.

Sketched off a photo taken by Don Osborn Photography at the Eves of Destruction vs. Taco Kickers bout.

Domain

2010-05-15T19:45:00.000-07:00

If things (and by things I mean links on this blog) are acting oddly (and by oddly I mean not working), it's probably because I have a domain now!

This will be really exciting when it starts working.

When it does, you can find me at... drumroll...

http://www.mousereeve.com/

My own domain! It's almost like I'm famous! Now all I need is a wikipedia entry.

Reverse Steampunk

2010-05-12T13:07:00.000-07:00

I am convinced that this is the innovation that will make me rich and famous: Reverse Steampunk. It's genius.

Instead of re-contextualizing modern technology in a Victorian context, Reverse Steampunk re-contextualizes Victorian technology in a modern context.

Imagine the possibilities:

A typewriter designed to look like a computer
A cellphone that actually only does morse code
A horse drawn carriage disguised as a car
An iPod that functions as a music box
An iPad frame holding a notebook
A ballpoint pen that has to be dipped in an ink well

I am going to go gut my laptop now. I suggest you do the same. The possibilities are endless, and endlessly awesome.

Negative Bases

2010-05-06T18:45:00.000-07:00

I am too busy right now for any really exciting revelations, so instead I will post a visualization of binary, negabinary, trinary, and negatrinary. For binary, black=1 and white=0, while in trinary black=2, grey=1, and white=0.

I love how the order of the digits reverses in the second column of the trinary systems.
Now I am going to go back to being way busy.

Robot Mermaid is a Lady

2010-04-30T07:25:00.000-07:00

I accept that this probably makes no sense. But robot mermaid is a lady. Not a fish man. She is too polite to zap you with her deathray eyes for calling her a fish man, but it hurts her. Deep inside.

Taken from my electrical engineering notes.

Apocalypse Pie

2010-04-27T09:10:00.000-07:00

I recently scanned some pages from my diary/sketchbook, and found this sketch from a pre-NaNoWriMo planning session.

In short, if you were wondering what happens when I read a stack of Tank Girl comics and then re-watch the movie while thinking about story ideas, now you know (click to enlarge):

The general premise was that Nellie P. decides one day that the apocalypse has happened (whether or not anyone else thinks so), and that the only reasonable response is to open a traveling pie shop. Violence and deliciousness ensues. It was a pretty fun story to write.

I ended up vector-ifying it, because I love my wacom pen. I'm not sure if it is an improvement on the sketch or not, but nonetheless (click to enlarge):

Mi Hermana

2010-04-25T08:16:00.000-07:00

So my sister is pretty great. She has recently come back to the US after 13 months traveling around South America, and picked up jewelry-making skills along the way. It's beautiful stuff, and all on etsy:

Taos Stagecoach earring made from vintage belt bits:

Onyx Mermaid earrings:

Gypsy Rose earrings:

There are even more on her etsy site. I recommend it.

The Fractal Bear Meets D&D

2010-04-21T07:18:00.000-07:00

DracoDei has turned Mandelbrot the Fractal Bear ...

...into a monster in Dungeons and Dragons. It's really well thought out, too. I have never played the game in my life, but I found it a fun read nonetheless.

So go take a look.

Random Sketch: Grills!

2010-04-19T12:54:00.000-07:00

Guess what I have been doing with my exciting, project-doing self? Drawing pictures of grills and relevant peripherals! I bet you are excited. It's a project for Technical Writing, but I will post it nonetheless to prove that I am in fact capable of using Adobe Illustrator. School computers have awesome software.

I am sure you are all impressed. Especially by the ugly typography on the charcoal bag.

Spatial Reasoning Games and 3D Binary Phrases

2010-04-12T17:17:00.000-07:00

I started using this method of doodling in class in high school, and I've kept at it (and some minor variants) since. I was thinking of creating a step by step guide, but the whole fun is working out how to do it, so I'll try to find a middle ground on the whole ambiguity front.

The basic premise is as follows: Get tired of paying 100% attention to your professor, and decide to doodle. Then think of a short (maybe 3 word) phrase. I'll use "one two four" as a suitable example. Convert each of the letters in the phrase to the binary equivalent of their numerical place in the alphabet (a = 1 (decimal) = 1 (binary); b = 2 (decimal) = 10 (binary); c=3=11; d=4=100; et cetera). Now use black squares to represent 1 and white for 0, and create a grid for each word with the letter on one axis and the binary place values on the other, like this:

In reality, do this step in your head and go straight to the next one, but for the sake of explaining, it had to be diagramed.

Now, take the first word and draw it in on the x-y plane. I use one square on the diagonal per two squares on the horizontal. Like this:

Expand it into cubes:

And then do the same thing with the other words and stack them:

All that is easy once you get the hang of it. The next step is to mentally rotate the figure ninety degrees and draw it over from that angle. And then rotate it again. And then again. My notes end up looking like the left side of this page. I added the letters and numbers for your convenience.

(Click to enlarge)

When I get tired of this, I mix things up and add more complications - my current favorite, as seen on the right side of the page, is assigning a binary place value to each side of each cube, and then writing another word or phrase across the blocks of the original words. You can see that I cheated a little for the second part and drew "floor plans" of each level before I drew it. All the insides are really tricky to keep track of. But on the left side I didn't cheat at all; I drew it straight through, only making minor changes for poorly drawn lines.

It's fun. I recommend you try it.

Idle Thoughts of an Idle Mouse: Nonstandard Systems Part 2

2010-03-29T18:14:00.000-07:00

Oh boy! More nonstandard systems! I bet everyone is excited. I am going to go on about nonstandard measurement systems now.

I started thinking about this while reading The Poetics of Military Occupation, by Smadar Lavie (which, by the way, I highly recommend). The book is an ethnography written by an Israeli woman about the Sinai Bedouins, and does not have much to do, as a whole, with what I am here to consider, but this passage that caught my eye:

"She was silent. He was silent. They remained wrapped in their own silences for about an hour, until ants began to crawl into the anthropologist's brain. She was getting fidgety. She sketched one camel after another in her notebook, retied her headdress, scratched her knee, poked her ear, drew more camels." (page 166)

While I could go on an entirely different rant about how much I love her writing and the merits of a narrative voice in ethnography, I will refrain. Although I do love a narrative voice in ethnography. Instead, I will go on a rant about measuring things using other, unrelated things.

Lavie's camels, here, are a unit of time. The act of sketching a camel indicates duration without relying on a clock. Compare the two stretches of time that she describes in these sentences. First, they are silent "for about an hour," a literal and standard measurement, but afterwards her portrayal of time becomes fanciful, and gives a sense of "being there" (to borrow Clifford Geertz's term) that was wholly absent from "about an hour."

Perhaps sketching camels is indicative of a greater theme within the book - the Lavie the anthropologist and Lavie the woman living immersed with the Mzeina Beduoin, measuring her time both in her participation in the culture and the representation of it that she creates. But maybe not - my literary analysis may be getting out of hand here, as well as my assumptions about how many people have actually read this book. The point is, her units - camels and fidgets - create a measure that is useless for stopwatches, but vastly more informative for readers.

I don't think this is just a literary quirk of hers - people have a tendency to apply a touch of metaphor to their measurements. The example that comes to mind is time and money - I know that when I first got a job, I tried converting the price of things I wanted to buy into hours of my life spent at work. A new pair of skates costs 35 hours of work, a pen costs half an hour, et cetera. This is not really the case at all - skates and pens are priced in dollars and that is the way that it is, but with an easy conversion (we all have fond memories of dimensional analysis from high school chemistry, right?) connections surface within more abstract values. The mere idea of considering cost as time reflects the value of time beyond the monetary level - is it worth devoting this much of my life to this product?

My favorites are the measurement systems that require metaphor rather than dimensional analysis, as there are few things that please me more than the overlap of narrative and technical elements. The most obvious approach is to measure something using the units of something else - density in decibels, or length in volts. I admit it might not fly on a lab report, but it has a deep poetic appeal. Alternatively, measure quantitative things using qualitative indicators, or vice versa. Happiness in terms of dollars, or duration in terms of enjoyment.

To make any sense of the disconnect between what is being measured and the units used, one has to reconcile them, find the abstract, emotional, or otherwise non-concrete link, and in the process evoke a deeper connection within the individual. Measuring happiness in terms of dollars, for example, says something about a person that is much more complex than their ability to use a little metaphor here and there.

Anyway, my point is that I find this phenomenon fascinating and I'm keeping an eye out for it, because surely it is indicative of something.

Redesign

2010-03-27T09:20:00.000-07:00

I have done a redesign! And by redesign I mean I picket a new blogger template, because I am industrious like that.

But I did design an op amp for the occasion, so I hope I get a little credit.

Also, since I have now transitioned from teenager to crone, I made the font bigger so I won't have to squint through my glasses and wave my cane around to read what I write. But mostly just made everything sort of grey. I guess that is an improvement?

Idle Thoughts of an Idle Mouse: Nonstandard Systems

2010-03-26T16:46:00.000-07:00

And idle I am - it is spring break. Without the distraction of school, two things are catching my interest right now: nonstandard numbering systems and nonstandard measuring systems.

Numbering systems, as we usually think about them, have a fixed base (b) that is raised to an integer exponent (x) that varies by increments of one. That made sense in my head. The point is, numbering systems tend to be regular and predictable. Each place value is determined by f(x)=b^x.

This gets a little bit strange when the base isn't a positive integer. Think about base pi; it isn't as complicated as it sounds, I promise. Pi^0 is 1, pi^1 is pi, pi^2 is... um, pi^2. Compare it to decimal:

Decimal: 10^2=100, 10^1=10, 10^0=1

Pi: pi^2=pi^2, pi^1=pi, pi^0=1

The exact same pattern. It is going to have a whole different set of irrational numbers of course, but this happens to some degree with any change of base (the only base with no irrational numbers, I suspect, is infinite). Now, examples: (after the jump)

base: 10 pi

----- 01 01

----- 02 02

----- 03 03

----- 04 10.220...

----- 05 11.220...

----- 06 12.220...

----- 07 20.202...

And so on. Not actually that interesting, once you think about it. But it did undermine one assumption I had about numbering systems - that the range of digits the number system uses (decimal uses 0-9, binary uses 0-1) is base-1. Clearly, there can't be 2.14159265 individual digits. It just doesn't work like that.

Now: negative numbers. Good fun! Consider base -10. According to the Google monster, this is called negadecimal. Apparently I am not the only one to think of this, which is at once disappointing and a great relief. Compare the place values:

Decimal: 1, 10, 100, 1000

Negadecimal: 1, -10, 100, -1000

And so on. The sign alternates, because that is what happens. The conversions are straightforward. For example:

Decimal number: 12

1(10) + 2(1) = 12

Negadecimal equivalent: 192

1(100) + 9(-10) + 2(1) = 12

Simple. A little trickier to figure out, but not so bad.

Now this same concept can be applied to all sorts of fun and exciting numbers, including ones that pretend to be letters, like i and e. Imaginary numbers are pretty cool, too, but I think you can figure that out all by yourself.

Once changing the base from one number to another gets old (when someone proposes base 79 I am no longer excited because I am a jaded, jaded little girl), try making the base vary. Sometimes it is decimal! Sometimes it is binary! No one knows where it will strike next! There are a wealth of opportunities here.

But why stop now, confined within this f(x)=b^x formula? I am not going to let this hold me back. Number systems that aren't positional are actually very common. Tally marks (base 1) aren't exactly positional, as the position is irrelevant here, but they aren't exactly that exciting, either. The example that I thought of first is money - I've noticed how interesting money is ever since I started spending hours of my life putting it into cash registers. Consider the place values for modern US currency:

100.00, 50.00, 20.00, 10.00, 5.00, 1.00, 0.25, 0.10, 0.05, 0.01

This doesn't fit the happy paradigm of f(x)=b^x at all. People act all confused when I talk about base pi, but this is, if you ask me, far stranger. While it is extraordinarily common, we talk about money in terms of the decimal value of the bills, rather than in the currency number system, so no one has to think about it very much. If we did use the numbering system in money, it would be something like this:

base: 10 -- US dollars

----- 00.01 0.0001

----- 00.05 0.0010

----- 00.10 0.0100

----- 00.26 0.1001

----- 01.05 1.0010

----- 10.00 100.0000

----- 16.14 111.0104

----- 33.58 1103.2013

It is pretty obvious why we don't use this, but nonetheless, every time you pay for something in cash, you are using this system.

Time is pretty strange, too. 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week, 52.177 weeks in a year, a varying number of weeks in a month, and 12 months in a year. And this is a system that we actually use on a regular basis without really converting it back to decimal (although we do handle the numbers above 9 using the decimal system). Also, the entire English System.

I am sure there are many other examples of systems like this that aren't coming to mind right now.

Now, this is quite enough of my rambling thoughts on how interesting (and uninteresting) numbering systems are, and for all of you (anyone? hellooo?) still reading, I will go on about nonstandard measuring systems at a later date.

Housekeeping!

2010-03-12T11:16:00.000-08:00

Definitely time to start moderating comments! Spamspamspam. Also maybe when this quarter ends I can finish up a few projects that have been sitting in my sewing cupboard.

I am in fact still making things! Just a lot of those things happen to be homework assignments and labs. But I now have a quarters worth of electrical engineering-based ideas, so maybe there will be circuits! Everyone likes circuits.

Maybe I will even do a layout redesign when I get some more free time. All very exciting. I am sure you are excited, barely able to contain yourself.

Starburst Purse

2010-02-02T12:12:00.000-08:00

A gift for my mother made from one of the sleeves of a vintage dress. The circle design on the red felt is based loosely on the Franciscan Starburst pattern (a line of dishes sold in the mid 1950s).

In action:

On The Merits of Stale Bread

2010-01-25T07:40:00.000-08:00

I found a few loaves of bread (a baguette and a couple La Brea seeded demis) at QFC for $0.25 each on account of them being stale.

A large portion went to making thoroughly delicious cheddar puffs. I recommend this. I also beat the egg whites by hand which means I earned those puffs.

The rest went to french toast. Delicious french toast. Deliciousness was a theme here.

I made the egg part from an egg, a bit of milk, and rosemary, then, in the way of french toast, soaked slices of seeded baguette in the result.

Traditionally this sort of thing is done in a pan, but, being a rebel, I grilled everything on a George Forman.

Then I put them on a plate, lightly buttered it all grated Dubliner over the whole thing, and topped each slice with a bit of roasted garlic. Success.

iChat Log Modification: Expanded Edition

2010-01-06T06:54:00.000-08:00

Who am I to deny the requests of commenters? I like getting comments, after all. This in mind, I have created a small tutorial for modifying iChat logs at Evilwire's request. Huzzah for Evilwire.

The idea here is to take a transcript of an old conversation from iChat and alter it after the fact to make it appear that people actually said different things. Tricky!

Without further ado:

First off, make sure that iChat is set to keep transcripts of chats:

Open iChat preferences:

Go to the "Messages" tab, and check the box that says "Save chat transcripts to:" (if you're feeling wild and crazy, you can even select where the transcripts will be saved).

Now have a conversation:

Finish the conversation, and close it.

This is where the fun part begins!

First off, get hold of a hex editor. I use HexEdit, but a quick google search will find you something compatible with whatever platform you are using.

Now, open the transcript of your conversation in HexEdit:

It will look something like this:

You can slog through the whole mess if you would like, squinting at it, until you find the section of text that you would like to modify, or you can do a search:

And ta-da, here is the section:

There are two copies of the text in the hex code - modifying the first will change the actual appearance of the chat when you open it again: this is the one that actually makes a difference. Modifying the second one makes it that much harder to tell that the transcript has been altered, so the choice is yours.

In order for this to work, you cannot exceed the original length - if the original statement was 3 characters long, the new text must also be 3 characters. You can make it shorter by adding trailing or leading spaces which were ignored by ichat the first time I tried this back in May, but with later versions of iChat appear to still show up.

Now alter the text:

Save your work, and open the file in ichat:

Success! It now looks like we were discussing world domination. Everyone will be fooled.

K-9 iPod Case

2010-01-03T06:40:00.000-08:00

A gift for my father, who formerly kept his ipod in an old chewing gum box.

Made from some felt and an old ripped dress I got from my favorite store on the Ave, Red Light. I've been getting a lot of milage from it. More to come!

Christmas Cookies

2009-12-30T11:32:00.000-08:00

Close inspection will reveal that cookie-making was left to my brother and me this year.

Cut to the Darwin

2009-11-18T17:02:00.000-08:00

Earlier today, I was walking to the library when a man offered me a copy of The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin off the stack he was holding. This is a first for me - normally I get accosted by Christians of various stripes with New Testaments or LaRouchians with comparisons between Obama and Charlie Chaplin. I asked him if he was affiliated with something and he told me it was the 150th anniversary of the book. Not really an answer to the question.

As it turns out, this is just another prosthelytizing scheme - evangelist Ray Comfort writes a looong introduction about all the possible problems with evolution how intelligent design and creationism should be taught in schools alongside evolution.

Welcome to another tactic: pretend to care about science in order to promote creationism.

I am all for having the works of Charles Darwin around my apartment, but I'm not so into the idea of having Ray Comfort's.

I did a quick redo of the book design and let my brain rest from impending exams.

The original book:

And my version:

His eyes are creepy. In retrospect I should have realized this would be the case before cutting them out. I didn't actually spend any time planning or considering - it was pretty spur of the moment, as I'm sure one can see in the precision of the lines.

The Ray Comfort part:

The actual Darwin part:

The back cover:

The red line was cut from scrap from the cover and crosses out Ray Comfort's name, and the photo of darwin was taken from a page I removed and is placed over Comfort's final words before the book ends.

And now the philosophical question ensue!

Is it hypocritical of me (with my dislike of censorship) to literally cut Comfort's ideas out of this book?

Does this count as bowdlerizing, even though it's just my edition?

As this is my personal copy, it says "The Origin of Species on the Cover," not "Ray Comfort's Origin of Species," and I am not in any way infringing on or preventing the distribution of Comfort's ideas, I am going with the premise that this is just a symbolic reclamation of Darwinism and a wonderfully therapeutic way to take a break from surface integrals.

Make Yourself an Old Fashioned Cellphone Handset

2009-09-23T09:53:00.000-07:00

With a basic understanding of electronics, a soldering iron, and a spare phone, it isn't too hard to make a cell phone handset. Since people have been asking me how it is done, my more electronically savvy father has written up a guide to doing it yourself, which I have put on instructables for your convenience.

Enjoy!

Adapting a Telephone Handset to a Cell Phone - More DIY How To Projects

Telephonery

2009-08-13T11:13:00.001-07:00

With the guidance of my father's superior knowledge of electronics, I've hooked up an old receiver from an old broken rotary phone to work with my cell phone.

It certainly does get me odd looks on the street.

The Playwright Box: Page 6

2009-08-03T15:47:00.000-07:00

Still have a few more pages archived

The Playwright Box: Page 5

2009-07-19T08:31:00.000-07:00

The Playwright Box: Page 4

2009-07-14T15:40:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty sure this is based off one of the actual plays. Yes.

Also, I've lost my wacom pen, so I might have to leave everyone hanging about the ending. Or at least I would if anyone was paying attention or knew what was going on.

The Playwright Box: Page 3

2009-07-07T09:38:00.000-07:00

Bonus points if you know where I sketched this.

The Playwright Box: Page 2

2009-07-03T07:00:00.000-07:00

The Playwright Box: Page 1

2009-06-29T10:53:00.000-07:00

Oh right, forgot about this thing. I'm all distracted by things that aren't the internet. Here is the first page.

The Playwright Box: A Tale for Confused Children

2009-06-21T11:54:00.001-07:00

Hint: this is the cover page. Further pages will follow.

My Very Favorite Alchemist

2009-06-09T12:26:00.000-07:00

Sure, everybody talks about Bacon and Flamel. But really, can he even compare to the wonderful 15th century alchmist Sir George Ripley?

Sir George Ripley wrote his alchemical treatises in verse. And it is awesome.

Read him. Then create the philosopher's stone.

http://www.levity.com/alchemy/ripgates.html

If anyone knows what sort of meter he is using, do tell. All I know is that reading it while right on the verge of falling asleep gives it a wonderful cadence.

Strawberry Pie

2009-06-04T21:18:00.000-07:00

It has been excessively hot in Seattle lately. There is something about high temperature here that make them somehow much higher than the same ones in the Bay Area. I hear tell of mugginess. It might also be that the dorms never turn off the heaters.

But tonight there is a cool breeze, and I have baked a strawberry pie (the only oven is 3 floors away from where I sleep, which is inconvenient, but a bonus when it's really too hot to cook). I think this is a sign. A sign for me to eat pie.

This pie was much more organized and orderly than my apple pie, possibly due to my using a recipe.

Only slightly modified from the one I found at cooks.com. They use far too much sugar, and clearly don't cook in a dorm.

1 deep dish pie crust shell
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
2-3 tbsp. sugar, divided usage.
1 1/2 qts. fresh strawberries, washed, hulled and quartered
4 tsp. cornstarch

Whipped cream

1. Prepare pie crust according to directions for empty baked crust, cool.

2. In a small bowl, combine cream cheese and roughly 1.5 tablespoon sugar, stir until smooth; spread into bottom of baked crust.

3. Puree (or chop finely, if you lack pureeing abilities) half of the strawberries.
4. In a pan, combine pureed strawberries, remaining sugar and cornstarch. Cook and stir over medium-low heat until mixture thickens (about 7 to 10 minutes).

5. Remove from heat, stir in remaining strawberries. Let cool 2 minutes, pour into crust. Refrigerate at least 3 hours (does anyone actually do that? Eat it right away, people, live a little!); serve with whipped topping. Serves 8. Well, maybe just 4.

Random sketch: Spin Out

2009-06-01T16:14:00.000-07:00

I am back from Maker Faire with a brand new sunburn! It was good times as always, but lacking in fighting robots. Still, tesla coils, things on fire, clever people, contraptions. I cannot complain.

On a wholly unrelated note:

This is actually a page of my diary. Don't go reading it.

The odd blur/nonblur affect is stuck in to make sure it's illegible, on top of being in code, tiny, and a bit sloppy. Not that I'm paranoid about my ciphers or anything...

Dormitory Apple Pie

2009-05-26T13:26:00.000-07:00

Ingredients:

1 granny smith apple

4 sheets filo dough (by which I mean a massive package or two of filo dough that you will be eating every day for the next few weeks to avoid being wasteful)

Cinnamon

Excessive amounts of butter

Cheddar cheese (sharp is best)

Brown sugar

1 roll aluminum foil

A knife

1 washcloth (optional)

Instructions:

1. Pile ingredients into a precarious stack and carry them down 3 floors to the kitchenette. Run back upstairs as necessary for whatever you forget.

2. Wipe mysterious substances off kitchenette countertops and lay down a sheet of foil.

3. Fail to preheat oven. If oven is occupied by an abandoned cake, hope that someone comes back for it.

4. Slice and core the apple, aiming for a largish surface to volume ratio.

5. Construct a tray from aluminum foil to hold apples and bake them at whatever temperature. Hint: pinch the corners of the foil tray in to increase structural integrity and make it possible to retrieve apples.

6. Construct a small aluminum foil bowl with handle in which to melt butter. Put on a burner set to medium to high heat. Switch to a burner that doesn't smoke when turned on.

7. Lay out a sheet of filo dough and brush with butter. By brush, I mean drizzle a bit on and spread around with the knife used to cut apples. Repeat for about 4 layers, give or take.

8. Remember that the apples are still in the oven and pull them out with the washcloth (if available) or very gingerly with ones fingers or corner of clothing. Turn the temperature to 400 degrees F if you haven't already.

9. Eavesdrop on people coming in to wash dishes.

10. Place apples in the center of the filo dough, sprinkle with cinnamon and a small amount of sugar, and slice a thin layer of cheddar cheese over the whole business. Add some butter for good measure. At some point, realize that the apple to dough ratio is off and set aside excess ingredients for later culinary experimentation.

11. Fold the filo dough around the apples and try and get it to stay in place. If it rips, cuss at it and cover over the hole with a new layer of filo dough.

12. Construct a foil tray and carefully transfer the pastry to it.

13. Put it in the oven.

14. Wait a few seconds, then reopen the oven and put some butter and, if desired, sugar and cinnamon on top.

15. While the pie bakes, use combine remaining ingredients as your fancy strikes, construct trays for them from foil, and put them in the oven, too.

16. Stare in the oven window until the pie is golden brown. Remove from oven using washcloth or ill-advised combination of fingers and clothing

17. Eat the pie using the knife while sitting on the floor staring in the oven window at the stuff that is still cooking until that, too, is golden brown. Try to remember to turn off the oven and burner.

18. Hide the remaining results of your cooking from prying eyes and carry it all back up to your room. Eat it before someone asks what it is and you feel obligated to offer them some.

19. Update your facebook status to reflect the deliciousness of the resulting pastry.

Practical Demonology

2009-05-21T10:41:00.000-07:00

I absolutely adore The Lesser Key of Solomon (free online here: http://www.sacred-texts.com/grim/lks/index.htm), a 17th century grimoire detailing "the ceremonial art of commanding spirits both good and evil."

The book is surprisingly readable and fun - it combines the absurdly bizarre statements and absurdly mundane. The spirit Agares takes the form of "a fair Old man riding upon a Crocodill, very mildly" and Gusion takes that of a Xenophilus (obviously). But their powers, while often dramatic and supernatural, also cover friendship counseling and help with geometry homework.

So I've compiled a quick and easy list of which demons to call to solve your daily problems (the parenthetical numbers indicate the order in which they appear in the book, for your convenience). Cross reference with the helpful details provided here: http://www.sacred-texts.com/grim/lks/lks05.htm

Do you need.....

General advice?

Talk to Marbas (5), Gusion (11), Purson (20), Berith (28), or Asmoday (32)

Help with friends?

Try Amon (7), Barbatos (8), Botis (17), Glasya-Labolas (25), or Forneus (30)

Tutoring in...

Arithmetic? Ask Asmoday (32)

Mechanical engineering? Marbas (5)

Philosophy? Buer (10)

Astronomy? Morax (21)

Geometry? Asmoday (32)

English? Bune (26)

Demonology: not just for historical esoteric crazies anymore!

iChat Skills You Probably Shouldn't Have

2009-05-15T21:46:00.000-07:00

Altering iChat logs is actually really easy.

The top is a copy of the original conversation, unaltered besides the name blotched out, and the following ones are some different ways I altered it.

I used my trusty hex editor. I can't make any one piece of dialogue longer (although I'm sure that there is a way), but to make it shorter, I just replaced letters with spaces that ichat ignored.

Should I make a tutorial or something?

The Drink-Climate Equation

2009-05-06T14:58:00.000-07:00

I have a fairly accurate (if approximate) sense of the outdoor temperature when I'm at work (making espresso drinks), despite not being able to see outside. The more iced drinks, the warmer it is, and an increase blended drinks (like those rather questionable smoothies-from-a-box) only really begin to sell when it gets into the 70s (Fahrenheit).

So far, I haven't been able to get hard data on the correlation between the proportion of cold drink sales and the outdoor temperature, so this formula is entirely hypothetical, based on my general impression rather than any comprehensive study of sales. Oddly enough, I actually have other things to do when at work... I suspect that k might vary by location - the Seattle standard for a hot day, I've found, isn't quite the same as that of Los Angeles.

k(c+2s)/d=t

where:

d=total drinks

c=cold drinks

s=smoothies and blended drinks

k=the drink-climate constant

t=outdoor temperature

And now I know the whole internet is just frantic to go get me a bulk of cafe sales data. Right? Right?

Extra Bracelet Links

2009-04-23T05:20:00.000-07:00

....make very good earrings.

Alien Abduction? Vampire Bite? Alien Vampires?

2009-04-19T14:23:00.000-07:00

Two mysterious upside down 'v's on a person's shoulder:

Very mysterious.

Current hypotheses:

1. alien abduction

2. very small vampire

3. ^__^

4. evil corporation

5. small, Zoro-like personage with initials V. V.

Any other explanations?

Links

2009-04-16T08:04:00.000-07:00

Some links to odds and ends, old and new, where I've turned up on the internets

as seen on page 16:

http://www.steampunkmagazine.com/pdfs/spm5-web.pdf

can't take much responsibility/credit for this, but nonetheless:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ceq6wKRM-Jg

I'm still a bit confused about why this happened, by I can't complain:

http://fashioni.st/2009/04/maggie-mouse-sigmund-and-brianna-8th.html#links

page 83 if you have the actual magazine:

http://makezine.com/17/album/

and for good measure:

http://hmschronabelle.deviantart.com/

Cookie Sierpinski

2009-04-12T10:45:00.000-07:00

Detail had to be sacrificed for the sake of surface area. Tasty, yes.

Everybody Loves Typewriter Keys

2009-04-08T06:41:00.000-07:00

I got one of those lovely typewriter key bracelets as a gift a long while back, and as I don't wear bracelets very often, so I made a little extension - some chain with the same sort of clasp as the bracelet.

As a result

Julia's Cookies

2009-04-05T16:00:00.000-07:00

A Julia set for a Julia

Random sketch: Skin

2009-04-02T06:44:00.000-07:00

Human Cookie Sprinkles

2009-03-31T07:53:00.000-07:00

Pulled from the tastier version of Watchmen that didn't quite make it in the comic and film world...

And it wouldn't count as baking without the obligatory skull cookie.

Watch Case Bracelet

2009-03-28T20:14:00.000-07:00

I've always loved and collected watch insides, and over time I've also amassed a few cases, some quite beautiful. For lack of anything better to do with them, I made them into a bracelet.

Ada Lovelace Day Part II: Someone is Leaving Out Information on the Internet

2009-03-27T10:50:00.000-07:00

The Wicked Teacher of the West may do me a great honor, but leaves out some important details of her story. Naturally, I am righteously outraged: someone is wrong on the internet! Well, leaving out important details on the internet, at least. So, in the traditional and time honored way, I am writing a pithy but searing rebuttal!

What her post leaves out is that she, as my middle school computer science teacher, was the one who piqued my interest in computer science. I am immensely indebted to her for not only providing the opportunity of making Lord of The Rings digital madlibs in perl (ah, the obsessions of my youth), but for encouraging and providing countless opportunities for me to do more than just my classwork. A large percent of the Things I've Done she mentions were made possible by her.

So how's that for a smackdown, huh? I think I have a beautiful future ahead of me in blog flame wars.

And by the way, thanks for being my tech heroine.

Skeleton Ada Remebered

2009-03-24T06:08:00.000-07:00

Happy Ada Lovelace Day

My first attempt at doing a relief in sculpey - good times.

Based of this picture

Space Earrings

2009-03-23T07:22:00.000-07:00

They go with my dress made from an extra-extra-large Cylon shirt.

Cephaloearrings

2009-03-21T20:14:00.000-07:00

From my turning-everything-I-find-into-earrings phase, the cephaloearrings.

In a hollywood heist style move, I turned one of the earrings into a necklace and wore it to my high school graduation, in clear violation of the rules. It was pretty epic, I had to hide it in my robes and get it through the full pat down and inspection.

So goes my life of crime.

Paper sierpinski

2009-03-17T08:30:00.000-07:00

A small break from revising english papers:

And for a sense of scale:

Pie for Pi Day

2009-03-14T19:51:00.001-07:00

Strawberry rhubarb is the path of truth.

Also, of delicious.

Happy pi day!

2009-03-14T13:59:00.000-07:00

Try and use $0.84 when you spend money today.

Also, I am very impressed by the girl who set the new pi reciting record at my former middle school's pi day celebration. Not only is getting 256 digits totally awesome, but it is also 2^8. If this were an adventure film, this would be a vital hint. I think it is fair to say that my middle school is way cooler than your middle school. Another girl did 50 digits in Spanish.

I think a school is doing something right when Pi Day is a bigger deal than Christmas.

Sierpinski Triangles!

2009-03-12T09:03:00.000-07:00

Introducing my newest idée fixe: The Sierpinski Triangle!

Starting with....

....a sierpinski journal entry

written during math class, fittingly enough, although we weren't talking about anything terribly related, and none of the writing has much to do with math...

Chartreuse is a Shade of Red

2009-03-08T10:36:00.000-07:00

It is time to clear up the issue around chartreuse. It's a reddish color.

That is all that I have to say.

(actually, it couldn't hurt to point out that it's.... finals time! so posting will hit a lull)

Happy Square Root Day

2009-03-03T18:11:00.000-08:00

f(x,y)=√(xy) levels 1-2, the first column is black=1, grey=0, the second column is done by diagonal lines, one direction for one, the other for 0.

see here

Random sketch: Portrait with Fish

2009-02-25T02:01:00.000-08:00

Prose Poem: Morning Shift

2009-02-22T14:19:00.000-08:00

Morning Shift

I like to think of her as the woman with the space ship, a classic style flying saucer loft with a kitchenette, great location above a bakery or independent café, a bus stop nearby. Not red plastic or shiny chrome, but a subtle matte or twill – the fashionable fabric of the hour. Its landing gear is smooth as a designer heel and its port holes curtained with the priciest silk that can be bought on the intergalactic market.
Her white hair whispers from beneath her jaunty beret, like a low resolution photograph of the milky way, and the wrinkles on her face are firm and definite from her travels, she wears them like diamonds. And she knows: the French don't set the fashion trends, she goes to the source, where the light reflecting off their purse-clasps will only be seen by earth long after it has gone out of style. And she knows: her scarf lies just so against the neckline of her coat and she can carry it off when the gravity changes and the sky is flaming orange. With pursed lips, having stared down the widely-feared armies of be-tentacled Europans, she condescends to wait in line to buy a fruit cup and a meat pastry, six dollars and eighty four cents.

Pretty Binary Functions

2009-02-17T07:43:00.000-08:00

Following up my previous post about visualizing 3D binary, some prettiness from different two variable functions (at a much higher resolution). Note that the first level of the third function is the background of this blog. It used to be the first. I changed my mind.

First row left to right:

f(x,y)=(cos(x)+3)*(sin(y)+3) levels 1-4,

f(x,y)=(cos(x/pi)+2)*(cos(x/pi)+2) levels 1-4,

f(x,y)=(x^2)*(y^2) levels 7-8,

Second row left to right:

f(x,y)=(log(x))*(log(y)) levels 1-2,

f(x,y)=(x^4)+(y^4) levels 6-9,

f(x,y)=(x^2)+(y^2) levels 6-9

3D Binary Patterns

2009-02-16T07:06:00.000-08:00

I've been doing multivariable function in math class, so I started thinking about graphing binary in 3D. I've been stacking 3D sets of binary words for ages now, but I'd never done anything more interesting than that. I'm not sure how mathematically rigorous this is, but it is pretty, and that is enough.

First, I drew out a few levels of f(x,y)=x+y on this scale, filling in the z-axis with the binary place value (a cube set on z=1 is in the 2^1=2 place value, so it has a value of 2).

Here is a diagram, rotated so that the pattern is easier to see:

This is not very informative, as all the information below the surface layer is hidden. To remedy this, I switched to considering each place value layer separately, as shown below for all the cubes at z=0 (or the place value 2^0=1)

In order to produce these digitally with my limited graphical abilities, I used a bird's eye view of each place value layer. I wrote a quick program to generate the patterns for my using the formula I worked out a while ago. Here is f(x,y)=x+y at z=1, 2, and 3:

Stripe-y, but not very interesting.

f(x,y)=x*y, on the other hand, is just plane awesome. Shown here are the first 5 layers:

I don't know if this really qualifies as a fractal, but each decreasing level is a one quarter size approximation of the one that came before. If you try mentally stacking these views, it looks a bit like Cantor's comb, if it was a stool instead of a comb, and a bit more complicated.

The fact that binary produces fractally patterns (fractally is now a word) is not surprising. The most obvious binary pattern, just the numbers 1-31:

(isometric diagrams made with this)

Background in Binary

2009-02-15T09:40:00.000-08:00

The blog has a new pattern for the background.

The formula I used to generate this pattern is...

f(x,y)=(cos(x)+3)*(sin(y)+3)

...where the results are rounded down to the nearest integer and converted to binary, and only the one's place is considered. The resulting pattern consists of these results with a 1 represented by a lighter dot, and a 0 by a darker dot.

Binary is pretty. Consider yourself warned.

Edit - change from this

to this:

Happy Valentines Day?

2009-02-14T07:00:00.000-08:00

This is all that I have to say on the matter. Interpret it how you will.

1378-1415, The Great Schism

2009-02-13T18:11:00.000-08:00

In 1309, the pope visited Avignon, France, and, given the turbulence in Rome, decided to stay. Seven popes later, the papacy was still stationed in Avignon, and was suffering from the financial burdens of having to build a new infrastructure, as well as the symbolic burden of having abandoned Rome.

At the advice of Catherine of Sienna, the pope returned to Rome in order to restore the papacy to its former glory. Shortly after, as popes often do, he died. The next pope was elected with the consent of the French, but soon got on their bad side, and lost their support.

So the French elected their own pope in 1378. And for so for around 37 years, there were two popes (actually, there were even three at one point, ironically instated by the Council of Pisa in 1409, which was held in order to resolve the two-pope problem).

Basically, from 1378 to 1415, we had the glorious period of.... Pope Fight!

Buttons for Mouse's Neck Mark 1

2009-02-10T10:28:00.000-08:00

I'm pretty sure there is a much better way of making something like this.

Quilt

2009-02-08T18:27:00.000-08:00

The quilt I made with guidence from my dear mother for college. It's massive and warm and comfy.

New camera: success.

Clockwork Necklace

2009-02-03T14:05:00.000-08:00

I like to think this is more than the average clockwork necklace, what with it being in a case and terribly photographed. If I ever get hold of a camera I'll try and get a shot of the lovely detailing on the case and of the mechanism inside.

Fairy Skulls, or the Medium of My Childhood

2009-02-01T11:05:00.000-08:00

I have gotten back in touch with my childhood self through sculpey.

I'm pretty happy with this second attempt:

Me first attempt was kind of, well, meh:

Now I just need to make them part of some kind of dazzling work of art...

Random sketch: Artichokes is Murder.

2009-01-30T10:12:00.000-08:00

Not my greatest piece of art of all time, but a well needed justification to tell this story. Yes.

I was getting pizza once evening, and I saw a type that looked appetizing and meatless. But I'm a cautious one, so I asked the guy working there if it was, in fact, vegetarian.

He told me it was not, due to its containing artichoke hearts.

I ate it anyway. Maybe I am a bad vegetarian now?

Random Sketch: Tangent to her curves

2009-01-28T15:44:00.000-08:00

I'm still not entirely positive that I really graphed f'(x) properly, but the gist is there. Graphing: not my strong point.

Fixing the Weather

2009-01-25T14:24:00.000-08:00

I fixed my weather widget:

Circles Upon Circles

2009-01-25T07:00:00.000-08:00

Trying out some different stitches I found on the internets. Eventually, I'll do something hip and mathematical. First, I'll just make circles.

The best part of embroidery is the way it feels - the outermost circle is especially nice to run a finger over - and of course, it cannot by digitally conveyed.

Random sketch: Feeding the Fish

2009-01-22T08:57:00.000-08:00

This is what my life looks like on a normal day. Yes.

Decrypting Lolcats: Part 2

2009-01-20T00:02:00.000-08:00

That was not all that I have to say about frequency analysis and lolcats.

1. In the previous frequency table, it is important to realize that the difference are not very notable. The variation in the early letters can be blamed on the smaller sample size of the lolcat text used, and by the time when the differences are clear, it is unlikely that the percentages themselves would be useful.

2. It may also be worth considering whether numbers are used along with letters in the lolcat cryptogram - if the cypher uses more than the usual 26 letters, the frequency analysis should be expanded to include numbers. Using all 10 of the numbers, the frequency table should be readjusted accordingly.

3. The quantities and values of the letters used in a scrabble game roughly reflect their frequency - this can be seen by playing from a scrabble set made in a different language, and the graph provided. So if one wanted to make a lolcat translation of scrabble, these charts must be taken in to account.

Decrypting Lolcats: O Vsm Jsd Vjrrdnithrt?

2009-01-19T08:33:00.000-08:00

I'm sure I could go on for pages and pages considering whether lolcats have their own language or not, but when it comes down to cryptanalysis, lolcatese uses a different vocabulary and spellings from traditional english, and thus the exact same tricks cannot when analyzing a lolcat substitution cipher as regular English.

First off, the frequency analysis is not going to work out exactly like it does in traditional english. For one thing, there are going to be a great deal more Zs. Included is a comparison of a Lolcat analysis (generated from icanhascheeseburger entries) and an English analysis (taken from here).

Second, many of the common words are going to be unique - if it's 3 letters, starts with 't' and ends with 'h,' chances are you've got 'teh.'

And so on.

Chicken Bomber

2009-01-16T13:05:00.000-08:00

Embroidering on t-shirt fabric: not a good idea. Chicken aerial bombardment: very good idea.

Also, I need a camera so I can aspire to higher resolution than a webcam.

Making Change

2009-01-14T16:36:00.001-08:00

The coins in a cash register are organized from highest to lowest*: quarters, then dimes, nickels, and finally pennies.

Using these four coins as place values, I have a new, albeit very limited, counting system. It has only 4 place values, obviously there can be a maximum of 4 in the pennies place value, 1 in the nickels, 2 in the dimes place, and 3 in the quarters place, and finally, the whole number must not add up to 100 more (in this case, you would give the customer a one dollar bill).

To make this more interesting, I occasionally substitute a single skipped place value with a decimal point. This means that 31 cents converts to 1.11. Of course, this is not very mathematically sound, but things work better this way.

The effect is to create another level of numbers above the monetary value of the coins returned, making transactions a little more interest.

Here are some of the most notable results:

41 cents -> 1111

84 cents -> 3.14

17 cents -> 0112 (the first four fibonacci numbers, but is arguable less cool because it break the skipped coins = decimal place rule)

I'm sure there are others, but those are the only ones that come to mind.

*Maybe some registers do this in reverse order, but I declare them non-canon.

In other news: you can tell while steaming milk when it is at around 140 degrees by the sound it makes.

Sebastian the Betentacled Cyclops

2009-01-12T14:27:00.000-08:00

I made him ages ago and only recently remembered his existence.

Oh hey - people!

2009-01-11T12:23:00.001-08:00

Mandelbrot the Fractal Bear: Capitalist Edition

2009-01-10T16:06:00.001-08:00

Lots of people are now trying to buy Mandelbrot the Fractal Bear.

(In related news: thank you Jake von Slatt and Cory Doctorow for my current warm fuzzy feeling of minor-internet-stardom/creepiness, depending on your opinion on mutant teddy bears.)

Anyways! I am all for selling you a fractal bear.

But! I don't have any on hand to sell, and I don't have any parts on hand to remedy this.

So! I intend to go teddy bear hunting and see if I can remedy this.

In summary! Maybe you can buy one later, I will see what I can do.

Binary Palindromes Cutout

2009-01-07T17:45:00.001-08:00

My current infatuation is binary palindromes (binary numbers that read the same way forwards and backwards, like 101, 110101011, et cetera). The patterns that they produce are lovely, so I made a little cutout of the palindromes that exist between 257 and 511.

Random sketch: Poem

2009-01-04T18:51:00.000-08:00

There is a poem in this picture.

The End of the Christmas Cookies

2009-01-04T10:38:00.001-08:00

There was some chocolate molasses cookies dough left over....

Smile!

2009-01-01T13:07:00.000-08:00

I was talking to a friend on ichat one evening while photoshop was open.... the results:

when combined with an affection for Lovecraft:

Patterns in Binary Lists

2008-12-28T16:12:00.000-08:00

When you list out the binary numbers that result from a function, patterns naturally develop vertically - within in place value column. It's more obvious than it sounds - look at a list of the binary results for f(x)=x from f(0) to f(7):

000

001

010

011

100

101

110

111

In the first column (2^0), the pattern is 0101010101 and so on. In the second column (2^1), the pattern is 00110011..., the third column is 00001111... Because these are so simple, you can see what the pattern is without really thinking about it. Naturally, as f(x) gets more complicated, so do the patterns.

But the more complex patterns are pretty, so I needed a way to generate the pattern of any given column for a function f(n). This is really very simple - I wrote a function that produces the binary digit in a given place value (2^k) of a given number (n):

([n-n%(2^k)]%[2^(k+1)])/(2^k)

Make this into a series, and substitute f(n) for n, and I have the formula for the columnar pattern in a given f(n) and place value value.

Σ [([f(n)-f(n)%(2^k)]%[2^(k+1)])/(2^k)]*(10^n)

n=0

Using this formula, the pattern for the 2^4 column of f(x)=x^2 from 1 to 16 is:

000110101011000

It's prettier when the trailing and leading zeros are removed:

110101011

That is my useless and probably not original (but pretty) contribution to mathematics for the day. Thank you.

EDIT: The equation will generate the proper digit, but as the series loops, the digits will not add together into a nice and tidy list. To remedy this, one must multiply the whole business by 10^n, as shown in red above, to put each one into its proper place value.

Centipede Bear

2008-12-26T20:21:00.000-08:00

This bear was a gift for my sister - I suppose it could be considered an arachnid, what with having eight legs (six arms and two legs, but still), but it has more of a centipede look to it.

Dewey Decimal Clock

2008-12-26T20:04:00.000-08:00

As I write this, the time is 8:05, or "Serial Publications," depending on which clock you look at. I've added a little gadget to this mess (over there, on the side bar) called "Dewey Decimal Time" that provides you with access to the latter sort of clock.

I'll assume that you know what the dewey decimal system is.

A clock that runs in dewey decimal is less obvious, but really quite simple. The time is, in its standard form, numbers. The dewey decimal system also uses numbers. So all the clock does is convert the time to a three digit number (9:03 matches up with the dewey decimal category 903).

Naturally, some accommodation must be made for any time later than 9:59. For these, I simply add the middle two digits (10:29 produces 129, and 12:52 produces 172).

It may not ever become a widely used system of time, but it has some of the character that the usual digital clock lacks.

Random sketch: Science

2008-12-26T18:09:00.000-08:00

This is what I imagine it is like to be a scientist. Accordingly, I had to do some tailoring on my lab coat for chemistry class.

Mandelbrot the Fractal Bear

2008-12-23T11:50:00.000-08:00

Continuing my mutant teddy bear theme, a gift for my brother: the fractal bear.

His name is Mandelbrot.

UPDATE! People who are asking me about buying a fractal bear of their very own, see here

Random sketch: Tsiology

2008-12-13T15:14:00.000-08:00

Tsiology: noun, a treatise on tea.

Prisoner's Dilemma

2008-12-13T14:26:00.000-08:00

I wrote a little java applet for a simulation game of the prisoner's dilemma ages ago. After changing computers a couple times and many years passing, I had lost the source code. And for some reason my decompiler (which has always served me in the past) just pulled up blank .java files when I try to get the code from the .class file that I had online.

But this is for the best! In all likelihood, it was very bad, untidy code. And the scoring was wrong. So I rewrote the thing from scratch, and now have a sleek little time-waster, which, as far as I can tell, I can't embed in a blog, so it can be found over at utterly pointless, complete with an explanation.

Sure, the graphics aren't the 3D avant-garde, but I like to think I have made my contribution to the gaming world.

Emperor Norton I

2008-12-12T19:13:00.001-08:00

I made this when teaching myself to embroider. I apologize for the inferiority of my stitching - it was a first try.

If you don't know about Emperor Norton, then you should go do some research; it's well worth your time, and a part of US History that is not given nearly enough consideration.

Random sketch: Ghost!

2008-12-12T14:03:00.000-08:00

Mildly inspired by the awesomeness of Freeman Dyson.

Binary!

2008-12-12T13:41:00.001-08:00

I've been sketching binary in my notes ever since I learned what binary was - I usually draw a box for every 1 and leave a blank for 0. There is a load of things you can do with this (try making the 1s into cubes and translating words into binary and then stacking them into massive 3D structures). It's pretty time consuming (and difficult at times), which is what makes it fun, but also serves as a limitation when I want to look a the patterns that are produced.

So I wrote a quick javascript bit to generate binary with black boxes for 1 and light grey for 0 - it has the place value along the top (the leftmost column is 1, then 2, 4, 8, et cetera moving to the right) and each row is a number in a function f(x). The image to the right is f(x)=x. It is much prettier when drawn by hand, but the pattern is lovely either way.

Notice that each column has a pattern - the rightmost one is every other, the next is two 1s and then two 0s - it's pretty obvious how it will continue in this case.

It get more complicated as the function gets more complicated, or course.

Here is f(x)=x^2

There is still a pattern to each column, but much less obvious.

But that's not all! There's another way that I like to visualize it - using

a diagonal line instead of a solid going from right to left or left to right depending on the number. This tends to just look like noise when the functions get more complex, but it can produce some lovely results.

The clip I've got here if f(x)=x, starting at about f(101), as there is more to see with the bigger numbers.

Victoria Doll

2008-12-12T13:33:00.000-08:00

This is Victoria - I made her out of a flannel comforter bag of mysterious origins and scrap cloth from old projects. Her right-most eye was the upper casing of an antique watch. Beyond that, she is mostly just immensely huggable, and creeps out my roommates.

A full view: