DIY Genetics

I have been reading up on Biopunks and their culture. I do like most of what has been done. One of the main books I have seen that talks about this is linked below. It is fun to see what people have done and what people can accomplish with just the supplies in their house.

http://www.amazon.com/Biopunk-Scientists-Hack-Software-Life/dp/1617230022

Gnome!!!!

Well, I was out popsicle shopping with my friend Josef when I realized I needed to get a present for a friend's wedding. I thought of getting something to hold the card, so obviously what symbolizes marriage and love better than a creepy-ass lawn gnome holding a $20?

I picked one out, but I think I like it too much. It is now adopted.(Pics below) Also, this is the LAST POST OF THE SEMESTER!!! WOOOO!!!!

My new gnome

New Gnome and "Anna Lee - An El for short"

Owls and Pits

I took an exam in my math course today and something bothered me... Here are the two questions:

(in bill nye voice) Consider the following [pause] list of names: Pooh, Eeyore, Tigger, Chris, Huffalump, Owl, Piglet. One of these fell in a pit. What is the probability one of these fell in the pit.

The characters continue their adventure by having a race to the great elm tree. Without any ties, how many different combinations are there for 1st, 2nd, and third place?

 Now, for these I decided to answer mathmatically... then I started thinking...

 How does an owl fall in a pit? How does Eeyore NOT fall in a pit? Can't Tigger bounce OUT of the pit? If one of them are stuck in the pit, does that mean there is one less in the race? Can owl fly during the race?  How long is the race? If it is short, owl will lose. If it is long, owl will win. SOO many variables. >.<

Registration and Crayons

As I've been sitting here the past 4 hours planning which courses I am going to take next semester (I was supposed to register April 12th, but could not afford to) I come to realize I have 9 courses remaining in my college career. 4 CIS courses, 4 non-CIS. Perfect split, yes? WELL, every single course I need is full. I have, at this point, between TWO COLLEGES, 0 credits available for me to take.

 I took a walk, did some laundry, and purchased crayons (real ones) and I have been sitting here, coloring in the Perkins placemats I was given by a sympathetic waitstaff in Wausau. My walk was a drive. >.<

I guess my distraction for the night is coloring.

CEREAL!

Backstory: I ran out of milk.

I have spent the last 20 some minutes trying different types of cereal using coffee instead of milk, as I am out of milk. So far, my favorite is a mix of 2/3 Golden Puffs, 1/3 Fruity Pebbles sprinkled with French Vanilla coffee-mate :D  the golden puffs with creamer on them (no coffee) tastes just like dry Lucky Charms, but once you add coffee? NOPE!

Also, do NOT mix Fruity Pebbles with coffee, without something to mix in, or you get that nasty "warm citrus acid and fake fruit flavor" taste that just NEVER goes away and is why there is no such thing as Orange-flavored coffee. (yuck)

Crayons

As I sit here finishing my semester project for class (due in two days, started at 12:30am) I realize one thing... explaining programming to a non-programmer is like teaching physics to a 3 year old. Due to this, I have been devising a way to explain this in terms a 3 yr old would come to cherish. Just follow these simple explanations and you will never have any more of those "wtf?" looks we all adore >.>;;

Bwahaha

So, as we all know and hate love, it is another Christian holiday. As such, I needed something to do. I don't go home for holidays due to my overwhelming hatred of forced family get-togethers.

How does one celebrate a sandle-wearing, prostitute dating, heritic who claims to be god that gets killed and comes back as a zombie to eat the brains of local children? Like this!

Cleaned house
Did dishes
Made about $50 worth of food
Ate about $10 worth of said food
watched Big Bang Theory.



Holiday well spent with the people I love ^_^

Babies

My last few hours can be summed up with one word: Babies

The article I am currently reading is: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2010.01006.x/pdf


I have been going through and reading Developmental Science... yeah... I'm that cool

WoW! So many Squirrels!

Today, between 10am and 3pm, there was a squirrel on the bird feeder outside my window 27 times. There were TWO squirrels on there twice.

 There may have been more, but I have succumb to WoW to alleviate boredom. I am now a lvl 27 Night Elf Res Druid playing on Alleria.

I have a kitty :D

Quest for Hobbies: The Guild

I have decided something scary... If I do not have a new hobby by May 13th (Last day of classes), I will become one of the masses... I shall play WoW. My server is already picked out, I have a high probability of being in a guild within hours of joining (damn family), and I have a 18mbps internet connection. Obstacles? My sanity and an odd desire for a social life off of the computer :D

During this quest, I discovered a new distraction called, "The Guild" - only adding to the hidden excitement behind picking up WoW. I have played it before, but had to stop as I played the wrong server and was not with my family.

Meh, I have been looking all over for something to do! I need help! If I don't want to run around saying, "Do you wanna date my avatar" I need to find a new hobby. Below is a small list of items I have declined.

Wisconsin Spiders

As I was combing the internet today looking up different types of spiders in Wisconsin, I found a distinct lack of information about toxicity. According to most of the internet, there are only two poisonous spiders in good ol' 'sconni: Black Widow and Brown Recluse. Now, if either of these bit ya, you'd know it. Either you'd die (widow) or you would have a gaping, rotting hole where you were bit (recluse). This got me looking into more alternative bite styles. I found nothing. Either way, I looked. My leg is now movable, Benedryl is keeping me awake, and apt has been successfully fumigated. YAY NATURE!

OVER 9000!

So, I was adding songs to my new mp3 player the past few days and I began to realize something scary. After I filled the 32gb player with only a few of the songs I know by heart, I realized I have memorized over 9000 songs. Yes Vegeta, OVER 9000!!!!!!111!!one! This got me thinking, because my music collection stopped growing about a year and a half ago.. I have learned more songs since then. Oh well, WELL over 20 minutes spent adding songs, as it took a few days. >.>


Fuck the zombies, brains are weird.

Two Words:

Angry. Birds.

This is my new distraction. This is my only distraction. This is my WORLD XD

Poor Yogi :(

Well, I decided tonight would be the PERFECT night to go through a canister of instant coffee, a bag of oranges, and a pineapple. You know what that means: Bears & How to avoid getting your head ripped off :D

Inspired by my article on how to train your bear, I decided to research more into how to not get mauled to death. To start off, I shall quote my favorite article on this one, "Don't be a tease." Avoid eating, leaving food around, or saying, "Na na! You can't catch me!" to the bear. Mr. Bear will get mad and maul you.

Time For Tickles!!!!

Next, make noise and don't be sneaky. As fun as it sounds to sneak up behind a bear and yell, "TIME FOR TICKLES!!!!" this only works for Katie. Remember, surprising a bear and forcing them into a fit of laughter is a great way to get mauled.

Our last and most useful tip would be to: When in doubt, use Bear Spray. For any and all other information, please watch this informative video:

Bessel Tractor Beams

Perusing the internet, I was reading articles on Light sheets and filming of living cells in 3d panes. From this, I started to learn about different forms of light and their effects on cells... which brought me to....

BESSEL BEAMS!!! Wooo!

Bessel beams are high-energy waves, synchronized so they will not spread out as they travel. Now, they are only theoretical, as they require infinite amounts of energy to create one.  The are fun to look at, as they are remarkably similar to "a ripple in a pond".

The fun part of these is that the synchronizing of the wave lengths provides for some awkward physics improbabilities. By synchronizing the flow of waves, you are able to create a small pull on the photon level from short distances. This is great for nano processing, but not so great for tractor beams that can lift you up and take you to the moon mole people :(

Facebook Privacy

I was browsing the internet and I discovered something rather fun. About a month ago, I quit facebook. I think I did this just in time.

You are now able to - as a facebook app developer - access all users' addresses and phone numbers. Yeah, you remember how you had to give them your phone number to verify your account? WELL, now it is accessible by EVERYONE. I wanted to test this, so I made a quick app and a fake profile. It works.

http://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/446

Gruttopolis

I have been distracted from ... well.. getting distracted, I guess. Not a single tangent this month as I have been too busy with school and family. The closest I will get is a post on my website which I have started to work on (about 4 hours so far).

Gruttopolis is my new site, and it has a testing server (.net) and the release server (.com). We now have SSL encryption on the site and account / character creation is all done as well. I will be working on this at work when I get the computer with the software, otherwise when my new laptop gets here, I will be finishing it up on there between classes.

Filler

I needed a distraction to keep posting, so I decided to take one I forgot to post and use it now! Woo! Yay! Huzzah! .. I'm done now.

Gruttopolis. The glorious glory of GLORY! I have begun working on this site once again. Per sanity (and mutual desire for entertainment) my friend Michael Lange is going to start helping me with the game. Because of this, I fear I might have to start working and thinking about it consistantly. I have purchased a testing domain, upgraded my hosting, and life is all good. I've spent about 3~4 hours on it this week alone, so I might as well use it as a "I'm still alive and kickin'" post while maintaining my 20 minute tangents only thing. This post will be deleted once I have time for a distraction, yea?

Dear. Sweet. Baby. Jesus. Make. It. Stop.

I had to. I.. I.. I almost made it before my brain exploded...