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August 31, 2004
Linux!
This is my first post from the wonderful world of Linux!
Its suprisingly easy to install although I had heard that laptops made it more difficult, I had no problems, just set it running, some adjustments (network settings and the like...) and here I am!
Cool.
I'm going to install Linux on my microwave next.....
Posted by dottie at 2:35 PM
Linux
I have completed the transmogrification from Nerd to Geekboy.
Yes, I finally did it.
I installed Linux on my laptop.
If anybody wants me today I'll be in Easons choosing a pocket protector.....
Posted by dottie at 8:52 AM
August 24, 2004
Fuh ghedda bou dih!
A small piece of my attention at the moment is always focussed on New York. Its the republican party conference on over there at the moment. GWB wil be in town and when he's in town, expect trouble.
Everybody will be gunning for him, protesters, democrats, New Yorkers (not know for their love of the ultra-conservative....), and who knows, a few terrorists scoping out the scene too. Who knows what might go down - rioting, bombing, people blown over and sprain a leg from all the hot air emanating from the Republican party stage.
Most of all I'm worried for my mate Emmet, his lovely wife Fionnula and all his kith and kin who over there at the moment attending his cousin's wedding. I'll have a little nervous tick of worying about him periodically during the day - picturing him enjoying himself set in my notion of a typical NY scene (skyscrapers, bagels, neon shamrocks, you know the kind of thing) and then relaxing again. Which in a weird way is kinda nice coz I feel like I'm not fully here in Dublin at the moment - which is a nice thing, occassionally.
Be safe Brother.
Posted by dottie at 11:23 PM
August 22, 2004
Games v.s. Movies
Someday soon video games wil take over from movies as the mainstream choice of entertainment - at least for a certain demographic. We will see the rise of video game stars - people who lend their voice talent and / or body likness to game developers.
People will talk about them making a movie out of such and such game - in fact its already happened with Final Fantasy. The lines are becoming blurred between entertainment genre, where does it all end?
We know its gone mainstream when you video game stars start talking about doing movies in the same terms movie stars now talk about doing theater.
Roll on 'Doom 3 the movie'
Posted by dottie at 6:09 PM
Scientific design angst
Being a scientist by training I had to spend lots of time bending my brain to visualise strange concepts, in fact mostly inventing esoteric and inexpresible mental maps for concepts so that my brain could get some traction and start thinking about other esoteric notions. Thats what one does in Physics. Especially with quantum physics. Course I've forgotten all that now.
Now, well I would like to be a (web) designer. I'm trying real hard - somedays I get up and just draw parallel lines all over the (photo) shop and choose random fonts and just go for it. You see I tried the Michaelangelo approach to graphic design.
Michaelangelo once said that he saw the form of a statue in the marble and all he had to do was to free it. I tried that with graphic design.
It was too hard beginning with a clean sheet of paper, so I started with a full one instead, so I could carve my 'vision' from it.
That didnt work either. So I decided I would start reading and looking and finally I had to give in and start analysing.
Thinking is hard.
I used to think a lot and enjoyed it. I look back often on the shart golden era I had after I left college and my brain was still in a liquid state. The thoughts I had!
Course now my brain is like a bucket of nails covered in water. You know there were nails in their somewhere but they are all one big lump of iron oxide by now and theres no telling them apart any more.
SO its hard to learn this new skill, even though it's quite easy for me to visualise detailed objects in my head (I'm doing the millenium falcon as we speak - with Princess Leia driving it - in a gold bikini...) I find it hard to visualise a flat page split by a grid and coloured in and sporting some photos.
So I like to see sites like the one below that shed some light on the process and point out where the boundaries are.
http://www.veer.com/ideas/stream/
I think that is the biggest problem. Experts in any field like to generate an aura of mystique. They like people to imagine that what they do is a 'black art' and never wil the uninitiated partake of the sweet nectar served at the pinnacle of their profession. Or something like that.
Toss.
All they have done is figured out where the boudaries are, learnt the rules. Without knowing the rules you cant play the game. You might participate and produce a great work of art, err.. design, by mistake but the chances of reproducing it are slim.
Heres to finding a few boundaries.
Posted by dottie at 12:11 AM
August 16, 2004
Jones soda - again
Yiz might drop into the gallery on Jones soda, do a search for all the photos by Mark Lennox and vote for them.
Thanks
Posted by dottie at 3:22 AM
There is nothing more to be said...
Posted by dottie at 3:07 AM
August 14, 2004
Vedic maths
Just discovered that the ancient indians had arithmetic shorthand methods, so you can turn the act of multiplying two big numbers into a simple act of arithmetic.
Cool.
In my third year of college I decided not to use a calculator for arithmetic - its surprising how quickly you can arrive at estimates and then the final answer with a little training. The vedic maths methods would have been great - exact answers in seconds!
Posted by dottie at 4:03 PM
Birthday Boy
Yay! my body thirty(ahem) today - unfortunately my mind is still a teenager :)
Thanks to everyone who contributed to my full belly, and drunkeness last night. All donations were very gratefuly received!
Posted by dottie at 3:58 PM
August 13, 2004
Horror movie day
Friday the 13th
The fog
and according to the weather forecast - later it will be....
The shining :)
Posted by dottie at 7:52 AM
Jones Soda
Thanks to Denise for the link to:
Quotable quotes form the site:
Roadtrips: People in mirror can be happier then they appear.
Life: keep your friends close and your enemies wallet
I'm lovin this Jones Soda site. Its too cool for school.
Nice design, underground clique folk, obviously tasty soda (strawberry lime! Orange and cream!! Blue bubblegum!!!).
You can upload photos to put on their bottles!
I uploaded a photo for the 'Landmark' contest, might win, might not.
Have a look at my entry as it will appear on the final bottles when I win (ahem) :)
Comments
Jason Pugh
Just discovered Jones soda today...I'll be sure to give your photos some votes!
Posted by dottie at 1:34 AM | Comments (1)
August 10, 2004
Real photos - real stamps
An Post has got to start doing something like this!
The site (USA only I'm afraid...) allows you to upload photos of your choice and then order bona fide postage stamps with the pictures on them.
Holy jumpin Jeepers! It's like caller display for letters!
Think of the pornographic possibilities - upload a portion of a picture of yourself semi-clothed or otherwise, then chop it up into littlepieces with your favourite image editor, then send the stamps on innocuous looking letters to your beloved. Think of the the frisson when they finally get to assemble the complete image and commit a frenzied, tension releasing act of onanism.
Ah! Imagine the stamp collections of the future!
Comments
Denise
If you like that sort of thing go to www.jonessoda.com You can send in any photo you want ( so long as no one has their bits out in it )and they will put it on the labels of their drinks ( which have loads of yummy flavours like watermelon and blue bubblegum! AND they come in classy glass bottles) which will be sold all over the US. You can even order a crate of whatever flavour you like with your label with your picture of your gran on it or whatever! Unfortunatly I can only find 2 newsagents over here that actually sell the stuff.
Posted by dottie at 11:22 PM | Comments (1)
August 8, 2004
New walk
Usually I go for a walk for two reasons - to keep a litle bit fit, and to think. For this reason I havea set route that I follow, long hill to climb (about 1.5 miles), then a serene walk along the canal bank before the walk dumps me into the often surreal Dorset Street and then to home.
For a change I decided to go down North Circular Road, right down to Phoenix Park and Infirmary road.
Its amazing how many more things you see. You shut yourself off when you follow the same route day after day (one of the reasons I choose the same route..). I remembered nights with an ex girlfriend, James Joyce stories, and visits to the zoo to see the Meerkats (hows that finger Matt?).
I got my geography wrong - I thought I'd be able to duck in front of the barracks and snap some shots of the er.. 'ladies' who frequent the area, but I headed back up past Arbour hill prison instead. Which reminded me of dragging an 8x4ft sheet of 3/4 inch ply by hand from there to my flat with my mate George. You really get to appreciate the weight of plywood stretching out your arms like that.
Nice walk
Posted by dottie at 11:08 PM
August 6, 2004
Work work busy busy chop chop bang bang
Title says it all.
I've been busy.
Too busy to attend to personal hygiene, mind expansion techniques, 12 step programs, self-help focus groups, amateur dramatics, craft fairs, or the sexual liberation of Italian students.
Ah, Italy.
Posted by dottie at 9:17 AM