The Topic of Great Randomness

[clangingnotion]

Hi! I'm new.

So just now I was looking at the schedule for the accepted students' day I'm going to tomorrow for a certain college, and one of the professors listed as giving a presentation is named Kathleen Skerret ! I just about died. (Maybe this place is just really committed to cultural diversity? On an intergalactic level?)

estar9821: That sounds really cool! I can't imagine having to speak that many languages just to get through the day...

[Zirsta]

[SilveredBlue]

So just now I was looking at the schedule for the accepted students' day I'm going to tomorrow for a certain college, and one of the professors listed as giving a presentation is named Kathleen Skerret ! I just about died. (Maybe this place is just really committed to cultural diversity? On an intergalactic level?)

Hahaha! Go up to her and ask her if "she's" wearing a moochteroof. (I do hope I spelled that right.) And do tell us the result....

That last sentence made me burst out laughing.

Wolf: YOU make me laugh too!! "My foot is falling asleep and it makes me think about it dropping off..." lol. I do that too, though! When I heard a description of some ankle surgery my mom's friend was having, I limped around for half the day because it made MY foot feel so weird. Yeek. I am NOT cut out to be a doctor.

Zirsta: Chocolate??? Can I have some too? I promise I won't give any to any underage species....

[illiriam]

I look forward to learning some new insults that will confuse the heck out of people. haha

Wolf, try videostic.com for full episodes. Or sidereel.com They typically work for me.

Crazybookworm, has the infection gotten better? I know sometimes they can be tricky.

Clangingnotion, if you meet a teacher who is a Rirhait in disguise, we will be ridiculously jealous. Send them our way, mmkay?

And now, on to my uber exciting news.....

I GOT AWOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ! I GOT IT, I GOTIT, IGOTIT, IGOTIT,IGOTITIGOTITIGOTIT. WOOOHOOOOOO.
I finally got down to my bookstore, and picked up a copy. So far, I'm on pg 119.....
(sorry for my over-excitement. I hope you all understand though...)

[dorotheia]

[Wolf]

So... erm... I'm skyping with kk, so my brain is totally not in this reply right now... because she's crazy...

So...
It's dark out..
BUT I'M GONNA SEE DD NEXT SATURDAY!!!!! WHOOOO!!!!! I'm so exciiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiteeddddd.


kk- May 25th is my dad's birthday! Whoo! Although if I get him a towel I think he'd be confused.. =P

crazy_bookworm - it's ok! really! it's just i don't think i should read ToGR right before bedtime.. cuz i keep dreaming about things you guys tell me, hahaa =P

estar9821 - ohmygosh. that sounds amazing!!!

clangingnotion - WELCOME!!!!! ^_^

Zirsta - Okay.. One... I am now retracting all Sarah Palin jokes I have and will just bounce and ask you if you own a husky and have ever seen the dog races. =D Because I love huskies soooo sooooooo much. Two... French... aaaahhhh!!! I took Spanish in high school for a few years and yeah ok let's see how much I remember... hola! That's about it. =P

Ok great now I'm distracted thinking about huskies and the Iditorod and Balto (LOVE THAT MOVIE!!!) and... and... *cries* i wannnaaaa huuuussskkyy........

SilveredBlue - ohmygosh. I totally ditto your statement! (Also, I start W@W today. Which makes that statement that much more awesome) Also-also... I have this habit of sitting ONE WAY while watching an entire episode of something online.. and so reading that story made me really self-aware of what my body weight was doing to my foot... lol!

illiriam - thanks for the advice! i DID have a really good site once, but then my computer crashed and i lost it.. heh. So now I resort to googleing. But it DID have tv in the url, and it was fairly short... ugh. I'll find it again, I'm sure. And.. dude. You can be excited all you want. You can even type in caps! (I am trying to encourage this because gosh darnit, I do it enough.. and.. well.. I think I may just resort to putting the caps lock on when I make my first post after meeting DD.. so.. getting the new book.. also amazing =D )

dorotheia + kk - Can one of you explain to me what 'TBONWM' is please? Acronyms confuse me, and I don't know what this one means at ALL. Hahaaa.

So.. right now.. it's dark out, I wish it would rain, and I think I'm going to go watch some Eureka now. I know I had something to post, and it was about the series, but now I totally forget. I started W@W today... I'm about 100 pages in now.. and OH! Yeah. Ok. So for some reason, I'm like, really scared to read ANYTHING about the new book. Even the back-of-the-book preview kind of stuff. I've never been like.. scared to read spoilers about a book before, even with Harry Potter, I would just go, "LA LA LAAAA CAN'T HEAR YOU" and then yell at people. But stuff is seeping into my dreams again! Cuz I'm pretty sure I dreampt I read the inside flap of the book. =P

[illiriam]

TBONWM is the Cat-Wizard-Series book, The Book of Night with Moon. I haven't read it, but I sure hope to eventually.

And Wolf - no, don't worry, no spoilers, I promise - you can take that dream out of your nightmare file. In my personal opinion, the book flap doesn't spoil anything, and while it may give you an inkling about the book, I don't feel that it is anything solid enough to let you predict the outcome.... I'm saying this all wrong. The bottom line that I was trying to get at is you shouldn't be afraid of the backflap teaser. Yeesh. Could I have made that any more complicated?

I think I would have preferred that dream to my dream from the other night. I know a common dream for people is showing up to class, and not being prepared for the test, or showing up and talking and finding yourself naked... blah blah blah. My subconscious is a cocky jerk. It's not afraid of not being prepared for a test. It is afraid of missing the test, and not being able to demonstrate it's knowledge. This dream has been happening for months now, each time before I have a test. I think my subconscious needs a big dose of humble pie.

And guys - the wait was worth it. The book was awesome. I paced myself since I got it yesterday afternoon. Every time I found an article for my paper, or wrote a portion of it, the reward was reading a couple of pages. Eventually, I gave up on the paper until I was done the book, but the theory was a good one.
Now I can take a few days a process what I just read, and once my papers are done? My reward will be a re-reading.

[Wolf]

oOh! Crikey! I wanna buy that at Books of Wonder, too! Gahh! Thanks for reminding me... lol. Guess I'll ask Books of Wonder if they have it when I call up to reserve two shiny copies of AWoM. =)

And... I love long complicated explanations! Teehee. I think it has something to do with the fact I understand Science *Fiction* a lot better than Science *Fact.* I just watched two episodes of Eureka, and annihilated half a box of cheerios. And (YOU KNOW YOU'RE A NERD WHEEENN...) I understand the phrases "anti-gravitational field," "thermal-plastic multi-filament polymer," and "particle accelerator ray" and yet if someone asks me to explain the innards of an atom... you can trust me to look up from my book, give them a blank stare, and go, "Uhhhh...."

Oh and in my care package -though I love my mom- I've discovered she bought me SALTED matzoh instead of EGG matzoh. Now, hypocritical as this is gonna sound... cuz I know I piled on the salt on my french fries tonight at dinner... duuuuuuude. SALTED MATZOH SUCKS!

Ohyes and if you haven't told us already, PLEASE TELL ME IF YOU'RE GOING TO NYC!!!!! I'll be the puddle of fangirl goo within a 10 foot radius of Diane Duane. =)

[crazy_bookworm]

estar: Welcome back and glad to hear you had an amazing time!

clangingnotion: Welcome to the forums, I hope you enjoy it here! We're all a little crazy, but don't mind us. :P

illiriam: Yes, my ankle's getting better, thank you for asking! Although having to take meds every six hours is starting to wear on me. Ick. I can't wait til Tuesday when I'm done my meds and don't have an exam so I can sleep in.

Wolf: Mkay, sounds good! And the answer is quarks! There's up quarks, down quarks, truth quarks, beauty quarks, and two other quarks that I can't remember the name of... Also, what's matzoh?

I'm lucky enough, or weird enough, I guess, that I never remember my dreams. I sleep like a log and it takes five to ten minutes for my alarm to pierce my brain.

Also, I'm gonna do a shameless plug here. 10 Things I Hate About You is on the bubble for whether or not it's gonna be renewed for a second season as there was 0.75 million viewers on TV last week, which means there's a possibility of it getting cancelled. So, the creator (I think he's the creator...), Carter Covington, asked people to make some noise on Twitter to promote the show and #save10things. I'm also doing a plug 'cuz Canada doesn't have that much pull on what goes on in American television. Although Canada has some pretty cool shows, and there's the Canadian content requirement on the media, a lot of good stuff comes from the States, and I really don't want it to get cancelled. Thanks, guys!

Also, having AWOM and not reading it yet is starting to get to me. I was fine up til yesterday, and then I thought, "I really want to read AWOM. No! Must study!" Lol. I'll be so glad when exams are over. Only 10 more days and then it's summer time!

Oh, right. Someone on here was talking about how their school year wasn't done until May. I don't know why my university decides to be done in April, but I think it's standard university fare in Canada to be done in April. Makes a nice change from kindergarten to grade 12, when the school year's from September to June, but I'm sure by the time May's done I'm going to want to go back to school.

[Zirsta]

SiveredBlue: Well, if you're not giving it to the aliens I suppose it's alright. *hands over bowl* Enjoy!

Wolf: Thank you. Every time someone brings up Sarah Palin I half die inside. Is that all stereotypical Alaska represents?! And although I do not own a husky, and don't think I will in the immediate future (my dad's allergic) I have indeed seen a dog race. I went out to Willow this year to watch the start of the Iditarod.

And I know what you mean! Sometimes it's tons easier to learn when I'm not specifically thinking I'm learning. Like, when I read something in a book, it sticks, while I won't remember a thing from science class.

crazy_bookworm: April? Lucky! School ends for me in May. I think someone should make a standard date for school to end, so there isn't all this jealousy, and we'll all get along! Haha I just can't wait for summer.

Oh great, I just remembered I have to have a monologue and sonnet memorized in three weeks... Eek! I will force myself to _stop_procrastinating_ and get to work.
...
Um, maybe in five minutes.

[96bookworms]

Well.....my life has been EXTREMELY monotonous (I love that word!!) lately, so I have had nothing to post about. Well...here goes...

Peeps: If you haven't seen it...I started a thread about peeps (mallows of marsh ) there was this contest on National Geographic, all about peeps!!!!! If you go to the thread, you can vote on your favorites!

The theater group I'm with is doing a trip to disney land next Thanksgiving, and I'm going. We get to perform in downtown disney, and get to do all kinds of workshops!! Anyways, we got the music for it a little while ago: One Short Day (Wicked) Popular (Wicked) (girls only) Dancing Through Life (Wicked) (Boys Only)
Ease On Down The Road (The Wiz) Everybody Rejoice (The Wiz)
Hair (Hair) Aquarius (Hair)
Hairspray (Hairspray) Nicest Kids In Town (Hairspray)
Footloose (Footloose)
Anywho...I listened to Hair for the first time, and I just started giggling uncontrolably..."ooooohhhh say can you seeeeeeee, myyyyyy eyeeessssss, if you can: then my hair's to short!" I love that song!!

We just had a staff party at the library, and it was LOTS of fun!! I've volunteered there for almost three years now, and it's soooooooo much fun!! Tonight we played put-put on the children's floor, and we had a "picnic" on the main floor. Then everybody played Wii. One of the older ladys was beating EVERYBODY at rockband...it was really cool. Part of the golf course was based of off the Harry Potter books...I had tons of fun...but now I've reached the hyper stage...

My friend sent me this video, of a cat playing on the iPad... hilarious!

My brain is dead now...I was really busy....Oh, and my school doesn't end till..ummm...June 12th? I'm not quite sure, but that sounds about right...I hope....it's not fair, ending in APRIL!!!!!

[Kathy Li]

Random achievements.

"And now for something completely different."

I have learned how to use breic's code to drostify a PiercePeirce quincunx. I am happy.



I am figuring out Eclipse.

And I learned how to use eeerotate to read manga on my EEE without having to scroll all the time.

[clangingnotion]

I have learned how to use breic's code to drostify a Pierce quincunx

Let's skip the part where I try to extract any meaning at all from that sentence and move right along to: THAT LOOKS SO COOL.

Wolf: I know what you mean about science. I credit YW for any passing interest I may have had in the experimental sciences ("Entropy? Yeah, actually, I have heard of that."), however I really don't see it in my future. I take biology this year and my eyes are starting to glaze over at the beginning of each class.

96bookworms: Your library sounds awesome! I mean, even awesomer than most libraries.

[Kathy Li]

I have learned how to use breic's code to drostify a Peirce quincunx.

Let's skip the part where I try to extract any meaning at all from that sentence and move right along to: THAT LOOKS SO COOL.

I'd explain more, but it tends to make peoples' heads hurt. But short version: I make these spherical panos by stitching together shots I take with a fisheye lens. Because I've captured the entire spherical view (straight up, straight down, back behind me, straight ahead, etc.), I can use remappings that are often done to represent the world as a 2D map. One of these is the Peirce's quincuncial mapping.

A quincunx, btw, is the pattern used for the five spots on dice or cards: four dots at the corners of a square with a fifth one in the center. It's a Latin/Roman word that was used to describe how military camps were set up, iirc.. Whoops. Wikipedia says it's a Roman coin.

Charles Sanders Peirce (according to Wikipedia) came up with this map projection of the world, to represent it on a square, with the poles represented at the center and corners of the square.



This kind of thing is done with math. The GIMP plugin, Mathmap, can run any picture through any math. This guy on Flickr, breic, who's a maths/coding geek and completely cool, coded up the transform from a regular equirectangular mapping (usual map-of-the-world stuff: x = longitude, y = latitude) to a Pierce's quincunx.

Here's the original equirectangular. It was taken standing underneath the Scripps Pier. The middle is the view in front of me, the right and left edges wrap around to show the view behind me. Here's an interactive view of it, where you can drag around to change the POV.



But breic didn't stop there. He's also the guy who came up with the Droste script for Mathmap. That's the math for turning anything into an Escher painting/tessellation (it uses imaginary numbers, btw.) So, he threw that code in, since a Peirce's quincux can also tile seamlessly, and he put in a "drostify" checkbox in the settings.

Yup. That's the short explanation.

[Lazy Leopard]

Oh. Looks like I might have to look at that plugin for GIMP. Of course, a fish-eye lens would also be fun, but I don't have a suitable camera at present either, so...

Thanks for the explanation. I love image manipulations like that.