I’m waiting for the FTL (Faster Than Light, people…what do you think this is, college football?) data so I can check CERN’s answers in the same way that junior high students check answers – by copying.
I hear that neutrinos can sometimes go FTL.
Maybe it’s their sweet ride.
A 747 crew was flying an endurance test and decided to have some fun with its flight plan. Thanks, Ohm, for the link.
Check out this great creation. The number of hats Harrison Ford has worn intrigues me.
I forgot just how much I love Pirates of Penzance. It has an insane storyline involving pirates who, well, don’t do anything
and a paradox from leap year birthdays.
It was when Mike’s actors paused briefly in a pose similar to this:
that I clapped enthusiastically. Thanks, Mike.
Have you seen the Art of Photobombing?
Some school years end with a fist-pumping victory lap around the track. Others end with an, “Ebb this junk; I’m goin’ home.” Since pesticides were being sprayed on the track on Thursday, the normal day of the lap, you can imagine which one I chose yesterday.
Having played the role of Rick in my library, The Cafe Americain, from 9am to noon yesterday, I jetted home to watch The King’s Speech with my wife and then Megamind with my daughters. Neither one need my endorsement. The history buff/teacher part of me loved watching Lionel Logue use elocution for good and not evil. The worn out nerd in me loved watching Megamind use “presentation” for evil and not eviler.
This week I had a conversation with a teacher who has read my book. She asked where I got my ideas for the amped fight scenes. I explained that that’s how I survived all my English courses in school. I can distinctly remember reading Watership Down and picturing the rabbits smoking cigars and having eyepatches while solving their problems with rapiers and not whatever they did in the book. It always led to an interesting class discussion in Mrs. S’s freshmen English class.
On the topic of books, the first book that I’ve read in a long time that really grabbed my attention was Okay for Now. Any fan of YA novels needs to read this now. Okay?
Jeremy is off trying to punch Antoine Leroux in the face. You can track him here or on the map below:
Whatever you do, don’t click on any squares.
But do you comprehend this culinary equivalent to the Star Child’s monolith?
He’s just a librarian.
Hey! Has anyone seen the librarian?
Today is Superhero Day at school.
“Our passengers must be hotter than I thought. Try and hold them off. Angle the deflector shield while I make the calculations for the jump to light speed.”
This concept art for the new version of the ride has me excited. June 6 is the scheduled re-opening.
The Game Developer Conference recently convened. Some of the legends of coding spoke. Here are a few highlights:
Pac-Man was initially created to attract girls to video games. Creator Toru Iwatani said that he wanted girls to play the game, but arcades were notoriously “dirty, smelly boy hangouts” (they’ve changed so much, right?). He said that the only way to combat that was to include the one thing every girl loved more than anything else: eating sugary desserts.
It was the early 80s. You gotta…nope. Sorry, Toru. Any way you spin it, it’s still chauvinistic.
The original file for Pac-Man was 24K in total size. Do a Google search. Most images of Pac-Man are larger than that.
Bejeweled used to be called Diamond Mine until Microsoft bought rights from Pop Cap to put it on MSN. (I remember that.) The name got changed to Bejeweled to parody a Brendan Fraser movie called Bedazzled that had just come out. Pop Cap originally was named Sexy Action Cool as a company name to parody an Antonio Banderas movie poster.
If you look at how much collective time has been spent playing different iterations of Bejeweled, an estimated 798,000 years have been spent lining up colored jewels. I’m pretty sure cancer could be cured if almost 800 millennia was pooled towards medical research.
My favorite, though, is Pitfall! (That’s the name of the game…Pitfall! It includes the exclamation point. No matter what, every time you mention the game, you’re excited.)
David Crane designed the whole thing in ten minutes on a bunch of graph paper. It took him over 1,000 hours to code it all. The bouncing on the crocodiles is an old Heckle and Jeckle cartoon move.
The game spent 64 weeks at the top of the video game charts. Not bad for a game that just rotated their hero’s graphic to substitute for tree art.
Before anything, check out this cool site from the Smithsonian.
Today a student needed to borrow a yard stick twice, once to retrieve a pencil that had fallen behind a desk and another to retrieve a paper.
In the same class a kid borrowed a ruler, apparently to scratch his head. No offense when I Lysol the ruler afterward. I would do it for anyone.
That got me thinking: how many people use a yard stick for its intended purpose?
Pop Quiz time (Facebook, click here)!
And, to satisfy the grandparents…photos!
While I was cleaning up, I noticed things were a little too quiet with my kids. When I checked on them, I found my oldest cleaning her room and my youngest ice skating on Clorox wipes in the bathtub.
Me: What are you doing?
Youngest: Cleaning.
Me: Oh. Carry on.
Saturday night we watched Despicable Me (great movie). Sunday we played basketball.
NBA Jam Guy: The toddler from long range!
My children’s Sunday School teachers rock. I should tell the director of Children’s Ministries. Yes, there is the occasional felt board, but on Sunday I walked in to find them at the end of an inductive Bible study:
There’s an intersection in Seattle that colloquially is known as my intersection (no Sasquatch jokes, please). I always appreciate easily accessible devices:
My wife also appreciated this guy who looks like George Carlin playing piano:
Anyone who is currently employed as an educator has probably heard of the FISH! Philosophy during a staff development training. My wife went to the fish market where that originated (although she didn’t have anyone sign the professional development triplicate, so I don’t know if it will count as recertification hours).
In April, old CBS shows will be streaming on Netflix. That means The Twilight Zone and the original Star Trek. (We’ll also be seeing Cheers and Family Ties.)
In December, ABC/Disney made a deal with Netflix for more content. I don’t know if you noticed the influx of made-for-Disney channel content, but that’s why. Side note: is it just me, or is every single show that’s made for ABC Family not something that I want my family watching?
Back in 1917, Clark Material Handling Company in Michigan built the first official forklift-ish device.
This weekend I had another chance to drive a forklift. Let me just say that if you ever have the opportunity to drive one, go for it.
It’s like the best game controller ever. One side has a crank wheel like I’m driving a bus (not like I have any experience with that) and the other has a throttle like a motorcycle.
That throttle also moves the fork part of the lift up and down by moving the stick back and forth.
I think this guy is way too trusting of my driving ability:
You have to be careful with these things, or else this will happen:
You’ll be forced to wear your wife’s KitchenAid attachment as a prosthetic.
Every time I step into the cabin of a forklift, I picture myself using this loader from the Weyland-Yutani Corporation:
Proud of you, Clayton.
Unfortunately, you never know when or where a time portal is ever gonna strike.
We do now. This Saturday at noon a portal will open up here:
View Larger Map
You can then go to the Enchantment Under the Sea dance and make sure that your parents meet, fall in love, and you’re born.
If you have time before the dance, you should check out Devin’s vintage baseball team at noon.
There promises to be plenty of ‘stache and swagger.
I’ve still got The Sickness, but I am starting to feel better. What’s more, I don’t expect to be clonked on the head by any Dead Collector any time soon.
I do have some catching up to do, although there are still things like Tangled that we haven’t seen. Did you know that you can pre-order it for its March 29 release
In video game nerdery, have you seen the UForce Master? Back in 1989, Broderbund (the people that brought you Carmen Sandiego, Mavis Beacon, the Prince of Persia, Myst, Lode Runner, Karateka, Choplifter, the computer version of THE Star Wars game, AND Print Shop) created a controller for the original NES that was motion-based. Here’s a quote from an ad for the controller (note the similar wording to the Kinect ads):
Introducing U-Force, the revolutionary controller for your Nintendo Entertainment System. So hot, no one can touch it. Now you can feel the power without touching a thing. It’s U-FORCE from Broderbund – the first and only video game controller that, without touching anything, electronically senses your every move, and reacts. There’s nothing to hold, nothing to jump on, nothing to wear, U-Force creates a power field that responds to your every command–making you the controller. It’s the most amazing accessory in video game history – and it will change the way you play video games forever. It’s the challenge of the future. U-Force. Now nothing comes between you and the game.
Most people just flailed in front of it (Wii Boxing, anyone?) and didn’t know how to work it. YouTube user mcjoekenna dedicated his life to mastering it.
I chose to show his Ninja Gaiden prowess since I could barely play that game using the traditional controller. (Slade – you remember Ninja Gaiden II and being on the wrong side of a locked door?)
Also of note, a great shirt found by Devin.
Almost got it…no 3X. I guess no Wookiees shop at TeeFury.
That makes me…T-furious.
I also caught up on some Narnia reading with my girls. Here’s an amazing quote from Lion, Witch, considering C.S. Lewis’ loss when his wife, Joy Gresham, died (you can read about it in A Grief Observed
I hope no one who reads this book has been quite as miserable as Susan and Lucy were that night; but if you have been – if you’ve been up all night and cried till you have no more tears left in you – you will know that there comes in the end a sort of quietness.
