the size of our world uses images of various celestial bodies set on a virtual table top to illustrate the size differences between the planets in our solar system and the major stars in the sky. very illuminating – i didn’t realize neptune was so much larger than earth and i certainly didn’t realize that antares is freakin’ ginormous.
via boing boing
at eric’s behest i got signed up for last.fm awhile ago. it’s neat – i can see what i’ve been listening to – top artists by week and everything, so that’s cool. but the ‘neighbors’ function, which seems like the whole point since that is the social networking part of it, isn’t working for me. neighbors are supposed to be people with similar music tastes. you look at their music and maybe you see some stuff you haven’t heard of that you’ll like also.
except.
i think my diverse musical tastes are screwing with this. for instance, today i’ve been listening to beatnuts, the streets, the pharcyde and rjd2. other days i’ll listen to josh rouse, ben folds, death cab and the high speed scene. if i’m alone at work i’ll listen to something girly like nikka costa or anna nalick. sometimes i’ll go sort of obscure and listen to some songs:ohia or my friend ryan. or, i’ll ‘rock’ some blockhead, boom bip and telefon tel aviv. suffice to say, last.fm doesn’t know what to do with me.
last night we had camera prep for ‘galileo’s grave’, the clayton brown written/directed and andrew suprenant produced film i’m working on this weekend. it went…alright. considering stef and i are both super rusty. setting aside the horrifying moment when i realized i was trying to connect the follow focus to the microforce, i wasn’t too lost. good thing shannon will be there the first few days on set so stef and i won’t be totally in the dark while we reacclimate to shooting film. the sr3 is as lovely as i remembered it. lovelier maybe, since i’d never before experienced the awesomeness that is the arriglow groundglass.
saw x-men 3 tonight with nako and jyl – it was great! i suspect that brett ratner is responsible for the added schmaltz, but the action was fantastic and overall the story was pretty good. lots of fighting and different mutant powers. you get to hear the juggernaut utter his famous line and see some scantily clad famke janssen and hugh jackman (together but not “together”. or whatever.). nako liked it so much she wants to see it again! stay after the credits for the extra scene!
as for reality violence as opposed to the comic-book fantasy kind…did i mention that aaron and i heard and saw the aftermath of a guy getting shot in a drive-by today at work? yeah. good times. the idiot gang bangers drove by two more times though, which gave me all the opportunity i needed to get their plates. i’m pretty sure they were apprehended (police cars speeding away fairly soon after aaron called in the plates) and the victim looked ok after the police/ambulance/fire dept. showed up. before that he was wisely playing dead/knocked unconscious and lying face-down in the gutter. i think he only got shot in the arm. after this aaron kindly drove me to the el.
note to self: use more functions when writing applications. why have i been retyping the same database queries over and over? i was all over functions, or components, or whatever, in coldfusion so why didn’t that knowledge transfer over to php? i feel dumb.
also, maybe two people – tops – who read this will have any idea what any of this means.
on friday silent hill opens and i’ve been breathlessly counting the days since i first saw the trailer. in preparation, antonio has set out to beat the video game ‘silent hill 3’, which is not the game the movie is based upon, but is still pretty creepy. last night i went to his apartment and charlie and i took turns reading the walkthrough* while antonio and charlie took turns at the controls. we got about 3/5 of the way through last night and are going to play tonight (and tomorrow night before the movie if need be) in order to finish the game before we see the movie.
other ‘silent hill’ and ‘silent hill’ related delights:
* – is this cheating? sort of. but we only have until friday night to finish this game off, so in the interest of time – walkthrough all the way.
eric: i like wil wheatons thing about the disposable mp3 player. that sounds good
kara: ?
eric: that is like what i’ve been saying there should be for YEARS now.
eric: http://suicidegirls.com/news/geek/15147/
eric: they also should make disposable cell phones, for if you lose or misplace yours.
eric: walk into walgreens, buy a disposable phone, punch in your account number and you are set!
eric: or i dunno, maybe you have to call cust service to verify identity.
eric: probably can’t have that tho cause it would help the terrorists or something
kara: right
eric: all with their improvised explosive devices and what not
kara: right
eric: and their hippety-hop music
kara: well seriously, i mean aren’t just regular watches and clocks helping terrorists?
kara: providing them with a cheap and easy way to buy timing devices?
eric: you know what else? freedom!
kara: time should be outlawed! chronology hates freedom!
eric: when time is outlawed, only outlaws will be on time
so…i’ve been hesitant to mention this, because on the nerd scale it’s only a few steps up from admitting that i’m really into d&d or gurps or i’m 38 and still a virgin or something, but for the past few weeks i’ve been hard-core diving in to perplex city, a massive alternate reality puzzle game…ok this is already sounding lame. i can sense all of you normal healthy-social-life people falling asleep or getting ready to steal my headgear.
the point is, this game is really cool. there are a ton of websites and mysteries to look into – this made-up universe is deep – a lot of intrigue, and the game itself is pretty challenging. you buy pretty foil packets of cards and solve the puzzle on each card for points. the person with the highest points once all of the cards have been released wins £100,000 (about $200,000 USD)!
the cards have other puzzles hidden in them too – the higher-ranked cards have map pieces on the back, some cards (the prime-numbered ones) have playing card markings and some have large shaded spaces thought to be parts of letters that will form a clue when the cards are arranged correctly. the cards also lead to more clues about the central mystery of the game: who stole the cube? one puzzle was to figure out a girl’s phone number based on clues, and if you call the number that leads to the girl’s website which in turn leads to all sorts of clues about the search for the cube and the conspiracy surrounding it.
so far i’m ranked 2170 out of 17,727 registered players. to give you an idea – i have 703 points and the player in first place has 7000. the game is british and the first wave cards have only been available for purchase in the united states for less than a month, so i think i’m doing alright. the packets are pretty cheap – $20 for 4 packs of 6 at insound. i figured it out, and if i buy the minimum amount of packets (no repeat cards…uh, i have 8 packets so far and like 10 repeats) to get a full set of cards, i’ll have spent at least $200. uh…yeah. so we’ll see (feel free to buy me some cards. makes a great umm…early going away gift…or a ‘just thinking of you’ gift or a ‘hey nerd, keep on nerdin!’ gift). i have no illusions that i’ll win, but i’d like to finish in the top 1000. so far some of the puzzles are really easy and some are insanely difficult. wish me luck!
kara: i just used ‘twee’ in everyday conversation. i don’t think anyone knew what i meant
kara: i’m ahead of the curve!
kara: …the dork curve!
eric: i think that’s a valid word to use, but yeah not everybody is gonna know it
eric: like among some groups it probably gets over used. belle & sebastian fans, for instance
eric: they’re all: “How was your bowel movement?”
eric: “Oh, it was kind of twee I guess”
check out this article over at somethingawful.com – it’s a ficticious log from on board enterprise NCC-1701-D (ok, the next generation ship, alright? look, i’m a NERD OK? haven’t i always been up front about this?). it is…HILARIOUS. a sample:
Stardate 41021
Call: 02:55 – Replicator Malfunction (emergency)
Complainant: Lt. Junior Grade WorfReport: Was woken up in the middle of the sleep cycle by a call from Lt. Worf. Asshead said he was having difficulty getting the replicator to produce k’ruh’nuwhatever. Some bullshit Klingon crap. I get there and Worf answers the door completely naked. Great start. He smells like he’s been running laps inside a dog’s asshole and he is apparently drunk again. I ask him what the hell the k’ruh’nuwhatever crap is and he launches into some unlistenable shit about his Klingon house. He’s slurring all over the place with his giant deformed Klingon dong flapping around and I’m barely able to stay awake. I pretend to “tune” the replicator until he passes out and then leave.
Status: Resolved.