Four things make a post.

Today:
0) Proved my worth as an American by driving around and buying stuff.
- Groceries, gym clothing, and loaf pans.

1) Baked a loaf of beer bread, using Guinness.
- I definitely chose the wrong week to lower my carb intake, but I'm doing it anyway. The co-workers will be getting a loaf of mindblowingly good ( Read more... )

1. Make whipped cream, preferably infused with something tasty (I like ginger syrup, but YMMV)
   
2. Bring said whipped cream to a New Year's party, where it's enjoyed with the pound cake you baked that day.
   
3. Bring the leftover whipped cream home.
   
4. The next morning, over-whip the leftover cream and turn it into butter.
   
5. Put said concoction on just-baked ( Read more... )

Realization: Polynomials and indexed arrays of integers are, if not isomorphic, then *very* useful for understanding each other ( Read more... )

Context: One of the things I remember as a child (definitely when I was 8 years old, possibly younger) is that my father would ask me to get a piece of scrap paper so that he could show me something. What would follow would be some ad-hoc lesson about algebra, electronic circuits, or possibly matrix math. I didn't always get it on the first try ( Read more... )

So, I just finished reading all 1,004 pages of "Reamde" by Neal Stephenson.

( SPOILERS AHEAD. Random ranty observations about the book. )

There's now an orange hula hoop that fits in the entrance to my new cube.
A blue hula hoop for the old cube will be acquired shortly.

A few thoughts on what happens when projects go ugly:

There will be some projects where no one is going to come out okay. It's over time, it's over budget, and every person on it can be validly accused of something unpleasant.

Observation: Everyone can be playing by the rules, and emergent behavior can still screw everyone over, regardless ( Read more... )

Ladies and gentlemen, congratulations. Those of you who remain have made it to day four. Yesterday was all about you and using your knowledge of the camera and the camera alone to get the shot. At some point yesterday, you were probably wishing you had a flash. Well today you're going to get it. We have all the lighting equipment your little ( Read more... )

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to day three. Today's exercise is going to be firespinning shots. No flashes allowed. I'm sure you know what that means, but just in case it leaked out of your heads during theory class, that means a narrow color range, high contrast, and working closer to the noise floor than most humans will ever experience. ( Read more... )

One More State ( Read more... )