Shape shifter

So I was just thinking that "isn't it weird that the iris and pupil are round?"
Well, I guess that's more of a query than mere thought. Really though, they're basically circles, and I find that, in general, naturally occurring geometric shapes are pretty rare.
Then I was thinking that no Iris is perfectly circular (some pain-in-the-neck philosophers would even argue the concept of circular), so really it's not a circle. In the same vein you could be like "hey rob. Isn't the human shape just the same. If I show a little man figure, you know what it is, and the degree to which it resembles the actual theoretical human form is just semantics, because no-one, and every-one does (resemble the human form that is)." Then I was like, wouldn't it follow then that the human form is a geometric shape? But then, actual geometric shapes have that whole mathematical equation thing going for them.
Then I thought about water droplets, snowflakes, ferns, pine-cones, planetary bodies and honeycombs.
There's probably more.

Real GDP

Well the results of the doodle poll are in. It seems parallel lines, spirals and checker boards are the standard. There is something to be said for freakish hands though.

Commercial review

So I normally try not to be too commercial or endorse one brand over another on this blog, though there have been a few exceptions. Usually it occurs when such and such a product is related to a human roblog tenet, such as 3m's Scotch-Brite pads for dishwashing. This is actually pretty difficult a lot of the time because I enjoy watching commercials so much, and often want to mention them here. I have dabbled with the possibility of beginning another blog for television commercial review, but that is crazy because I have a hard enough time merely getting posts up here.
So I'm doing it anyways. Robhut.
But I think television commercials reflect corporations' opinions of their audience. I am almost offended when huge corporations have crappy, or poorly thought out commercials. I know I personally enjoy the funny ones the most. I probably hold some bias in this respect, but I know that outside the realm of funny ads there is plenty of acceptable commercial advertising (like a Head & Shoulder commercial) and then there is not even trying (like so many McCain [foods] commercials).
So enjoy.

Optimus Prime

So.
You know my favourite part about watching how it's made? Sure, finding out how things are made is neat and cool at the same time, but really it's the dialogue, or rather the puns in the dialogue. Like the show on electrical transformers: "the shocking truth." OHHH Man. this glue will later melt and bond several components in place.
Did you know those things are filled with oil!

Broken dreams

Well, I seem to have broken my ankle. You know what the worst part about breaking your ankle is? Slowness. It takes me longer to walk anywhere, and going up stairs is crazy! I can't believe how tired I get when I use every step instead of 2 or 3 at a time, and did I mention it's slower? I can see that I did.

Except biking. I am just as fast, and surprisingly, the cast doesn't hinder me much.

Oh and maybe the breaking part sucked more than the slowness. I suppose it is how you weigh your decision making criteria. Is temporal consideration of importance? Semantics... maybe.

The limitations of Activity Based Costing

Well... Midterms. Still three to go, a quiz and an assignment before reading week. I still managed to watch Bones though. Did anyone else notice Dr. Brennan became Murphey Brown?

Giant hydraulic spiders

So It is crazy how many ideas I have for posts and then forget about them.. Not only that, but I'm always like, 'oh, I won't forget that', or 'I'll write it down when I get home'. Lately I'm having ideas all the time, but not many make it to paper or the screen. Some ideas I do remember, but they're going to require a lot of work to post. Problem is, my creative moments are usually when I'm walking to school, or working out at the gym, or driving, or basically whenever there isn't a pen and paper readily available. I need one of those pop-out note pads like Kevin Klein had in Wild Wild West, so I can write down whatever strikes me as remarkable at whatever given time. But I don't have to save the American government or Salma Hayek from Kenneth Branagh.... yet... so my ideas don't seem important enough to merit inventing a neat contraption like that.

Super graph wednesday, no wum sane?

Well the results of the compound-rob poll are in. 'Compound-rob poll'. Doesn't that sound like some sort of futuristic, super-flexible quarter-staff made from graphite composite that modern day robhood [man.. that should have been one of the choices] defeats little j Rock with? Perhaps, but what I was mentioning was that robriggle made a late break. Seems there are some Daily Show fans out there. Robstar, my gamer name has tied for the top spot.

Klutz player

On this, the day New Amsterdam was surrendered to the British in 1664, I am surprisingly wound free.
Yup. I fell off my bike again. It was actually two days ago. I did a total somersault on my bike. Lucky I was on a grassy part at the time. Apart from some grass stains I couldn't believe how unscathed I came out of it. I think I'm getting good at making potentially catastrophic falls look graceful. Key is to smile when you get up. When I fell of shiny bike a while ago my adrenaline took off and I felt funny and really shaky, then I was soooo tired later. This time though it was nothing so exciting, though it probably looked more exciting than the shiny bike incident. I wasn't even going to write about it, except that today I took a header down some stairs at school (this time I wasn't riding a bike), and again came out generally unscathed, which I thought was strange because it was on concrete and I just had a t-shirt on. Well, I was wearing pants too.... and shoes.

Event horizon

Holy smokes. You know that scene in Joe v. Volcano where Joe is dying on his suitcases in the Pacific, and the moon is super huge on the horizon. I used to wonder if the moon ever actually appears big like that. Someone told me once that the gases of the atmosphere can act like a magnifying glass because the light is passing through lots of it when it is near the horizon. I was like, yeah... could happen, but probably only on the Pacific. That is until Friday night. I was driving back to Peterborough from band practice and the moon was HUGE!! It wasn't a full moon like the movie, and it kinda looked yellowy. But it was huge. I almost drove into the ditch. It didn't last long though. In a few minutes it was up higher and already not nearly as impressive. Just thought I'd share.

Decision making criteria

So today I'm having 80's overload. In my first class, a guy used a Ferris Bueller clip, and if you check out today's Dinosaur Comics, there is some excellent 80's references. Like Choose Your Own Adventure books, that many an ill fated grade 9 student tried to use for ill fated book reports. But T-Rex has a point. I also get that giddy feeling when using 80's references, even though It pains me to admit my pop-formative years were the 90's.

Enduro

So yesterday I ran a race. 15 km. Here's the results. Just two minutes faster and I could have won the geriatric category. I'd also have to age 30 years for that. The winner, Serghei Logvin, finished in 57 min 48 sec. That kid is fast.
See all the results... or the race website here.

King Henry VIII

Well... I'm a tutor.

Gym Jam

Well.. I've started to go to the gym again. Suddenly, with this new semester I seem to have some spare time. The weather is being a bit cooler, and its getting darker earlier. Stupid fall. Lets skip to winter. I mean It sucks doing anything outside in the fall 'cause its too cold. At the same time, its not cold enough to do any fun winter stuff. Oh and there's the grey, bleak, dying nature bit.
What was I saying? Oh, something or other about closed captioning. The other day I watched Federer beat Jokovich in the US Open semi-finals. The closed captioning was not particularly necessary, but Johnny Mac is as excellent in CC. Now I want to play tennis.

Ambidextrous

I've just moved into a new place. No longer haunting an underground layer (it shall ever be spelled thus). The dish rack is to the left of the sink.
At my old place, when I visit my mom's place, and at the cottage it's all two sinks with the dish rack on the right. A guy could get used to that.
Lucky for me I have the skills to shake left.

Grease Monkey

Aww cheez. Today I tried to change the oil in my car. But I can't seem to get the drain plug out. That seems to slow down the whole operation. I don't want to strip the bolt, or resort to having to remove the whole pan. oi.
So I must take it to a professional, already breaking the promise I made with myself that I would do all the work on that car myself. Oh well. I had fun jacking up my car and then lowering it down again.

Cage match

Well, the results of the 16th century Japanese political philosophy poll are in. Looks like Tokugawa Leyasu won.

Secret Sauce

Wow. So on Monday it was hot and sunny and I mowed the lawn. This may not seem like anything special, except that it has rained just about every day since May. In fact it rained on Monday too, but only for a brief while in the afternoon. I had almost forgotten how much more excellent it is mowing the lawn when it's hot and sunny. So much more excellent. Perhaps it is brightness of the golden rays that seem to wash away the general malaise weeks and weeks of greyness seems to bestow upon its victims. Or maybe it's the super sunburn I got.

Node to self

Well it's been a crazy coupla weeks. Just one more final to go.
Here's how I remember the disadvantages of the payback method of capital project analysis: If I sell my soul to the devil so I can play guitar like a young Clapton, sure, the immediate benefits are obvious, but I might still get hit by a bus tomorrow, and the long-term doesn't look so good. Also, If I just applied myself a bit more, I wouldn't have to deal with the devil at all.

ESPN

Well the results of the Farley Mowat poll are in. Funny there's no 1.5 votes.
I must be psychic or something, because about a week after the poll went up I finished The Boat Who Wouldn't Float, and then read Swamp Angel, as though to fulfill some destiny I may or may not have of reading mediocre Canadian writing.
Has Rob become a critic? Stay tuned. Or don't, the answer is 'no'.

Not born normal, he is corn.

So, I used to have this excruciating time trying to remember the names attributed to anagrams and acronyms. I used to despise that text speak, really just a bunch of acronyms thought up by 12 year olds, was creeping its way beyond the tech realm. But how can you be a critic when you can’t even remember whether the name for an acronym is ‘anagram’ or ‘acronym’. And I’d dare not exclaim “Hey everybody! Lets make ironic anagrams out of corporate mission statements!!” no matter how badly I wanted to, because I was never sure. But just lately, I seem to know the difference. Isn’t that weird?

Thousand Islands

Meant to get this up on the weekend. Some FMA fanart for you all to enjoy.

Extreme bike

Hooey.
Today I fell off my bike. Let this be a lesson to you: Indecision sucks.
I was like "hmm... maybe I'll skip my locker and lock my bike up on the west side of the building, so I better go by the sports centre instead of the old folks home." Meanwhile I almost passed the Pioneer station. Now I have a skinned knee and another well placed bandage that makes me look like I had my appendix out. AND I bent the front wheel of my shiny bike. It now rubs against the front right brake pad. This does not bode well for shiny bike as its crank bearings are already wearing noticeably.

Birds and other predators

So you know how I like routine activities that keep part of your mind occupied while allowing a sort of preoccupied meditation with the rest like washing the dishes or the mildly-exerting-mowing the lawn. Business presentations aren't like that. In fact I think the anxiety attack they induce are the exact opposite of that. I wish I was a salamander so I could go hide under a rock tomorrow instead of doing my presentations. Ahh the gentle salamander. Not a care in the world. Other than birds and other predators and trying to find enough food to survive.
On second thought maybe I'd rather be doing the presentation.

Rebel scum

What if Bic ran a Star Wars promotion?