Month: April 2003

My computer is broken – seriously. I spent all afternoon working on it. I’m now giving it a rest and working on homework that is due tomorrow. I’m working on homework at the University that I could be working on at home except that my computer is so messed up right now! I’m going to back up My Documents and install Windows 2000 over itself. If that doesn’t work I’ll convert it into a boat anchor. That better work, it just better.

Mom and Dad came to visit because their computer wouldn’t boot and they just wanted to visit I guess. But when I went to make a boot disk on my windows 95 machine it wouldn’t boot either. Then my Win 2000 machine started acting up and I lost my internet connection and it won’t let me open any programs. I can’t even login to my Linksys router. I don’t know what’s wrong with my computer but its really ticking me off. I now have 3 broken computers at my house to fix. Mom and Dad left theirs so they probably won’t be reading or commenting on the blog for the next week or so.

The motion capture workshop was this afternoon. It wasn’t nearly as exciting as I had hoped but it was very interesting all the same. Will (aka Anonymous) dressed up in black tights and then attached little balls with reflective tape on them all over the suit. There were about 8 or 9 cameras all around the room and sure enough the computer was able to track his motion. The data was then cleaned up and exported to 3D Studio Max where a bi-ped that someone else created was attached to the data and recreated the motions on the 3D plane.

I convinced Anna-Maria to come see the Steve Mann web-casted guest speaker. There is a really good reason why nobody web-casts their speeches; I found out that reason last night. The video screen was like playing Test Drive III on a 286. At least Test Drive III was in colour.

Recipe Update

Anna-Maria and I are going to make a new recipe either tonight or on Sunday night. This one is Vegetable Curry. I think most of these recipes are vegetarian. Anyway this one will be the best one yet and I’ll post pictures if I remember to take some.

Roommate Update

I talked to my roommate about the food situation. (I.e. the situation where he’s been eating my food without my permission.) He said he was sorry and knew that he’d been eating a lot of it and said that it was because he lost his job but now he has a new job and would like to pay me back between $30 and $50 for the food he’s eaten. I had no idea how much food he’d eaten so I said whatever he thought would be fair and so he said he would pay me $40. I guess that seems pretty fair, but like I said I have no idea how much of my stuff he’s eaten. Hopefully he will now stop eating my food.

Mom’s Email

Apparently mom hasn’t been able to read her email for the last week or so because she lost her inbox. How do you lose your inbox? She says that she opens Eudora, it checks and downloads new mail, but then nothing. There is no inbox available to read new messages from. I think maybe she needs to change into a higher resolution to see if it’s just hidden somewhere off her screen. I’ll either have to get a copy of PC Anywhere or go home because as often as she has problems on her computer it would be easier for me to just look at her screen and fix it then to try to figure out what’s wrong by her description.

Cyborg

The New Media Department is helping fund a guest speaker tomorrow. The thing is, he’s not actually coming to the University (I think I may have already posted about this guy). Anyway he’s being Webcasted from his office / home? in Ontario. They are marketing him as the world’s first cyborg. I’ll post my review tomorrow.

University of Lethbridge Enrollment

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I signed up for another semester here at the University of Lethbridge. They are Drama 1000, Music and Computers, New Media 3520, 3420, and 3030. It looks like Anna-Maria has decided that she is moving to Toronto whether or not she is going to go to school there this fall. I’m pretty sad about this and while I have considered moving there, it just seems pretty overwhelming considering the house, and the money to move, and if my courses will transfer and if I can even find a place to go to University that will let me in with the Major that I have in mind. I hope she just decides to stay.

Motion Capture Equipment Lecture / Experience

I signed up for this one day Motion Capture class that is taking place tomorrow. From what I understand the University has the equipment necessary to track a person’s movements and place them on a computer generated person. Similar to, or perhaps even the exact same way they captured the movements for Gollum in The Lord of the Rings. Hopefully I’ll get some interesting material that I can post to the Blog.

If you ever get a 17-year-old roommate, who has never lived away from home before, please remember to tell him not to eat your food otherwise, if you are like me, you may wake up in the morning without any milk for breakfast.

Dave Barry has a solution for the tense relationship the American’s and the French are going through right now. From his article:

We simply cannot allow a close relationship like this to be destroyed because of some silly little dispute over who gets to run the world. That is why today I am calling upon you, my fellow Americans, to ”extend the olive jar” to our French brothers and sisters and yappy little dogs. I want you to deliberately approach French people wherever you can find them — on the street, on the Internet, in the ”Small World” ride at Disney World, in public restrooms — and make friendly overtures to them in their own language (French). To help you do this, here is a list of friendly French phrases:

”Bonjour, personne francaise!” (“Hello, French person!”)

”Je suis un Americain, et, dangue il, je vais vous donner une grande vieille etreinte!” (“I am an American and, dang it, I am going to give you a big old hug!”)

”Parole! Vous ne sentez pas demi aussi de mauvais que j’ai prevu!” (“Say! You do not smell half as bad as I expected!”)

”Qui s’inquiete qui court darned le monde?” (“Who cares who runs the darned world?”)

”Voulez-vous la gomme? Elle ketchup-est assaisonnee!” (“Do you want gum? It’s ketchup-flavored!”)

”Voulez que je vous porte au mail dans mon SUV?” (“Want me to take you to the mall in my SUV?”)

”Vous pouvez vous rendre au garde de securite!” (“You can surrender to the security guard!”)

”Ha ha, je suis badiner juste autour hors de l’amiti!” (“Ha ha, I am just kidding around out of friendship!”)

”Hey, revenez ici!” (“Hey, come back here!”)

”Il n’y a aucune cause pour l’alarme! Mon pistolet a une surete!” (“There is no cause for alarm! My gun has a safety!”)

Yes, fellow Americans, with a little effort, we can heal this rift between us and our old friends. Because, in the end, we have a lot more in common than we do separating us! Or, as the French would say, ”Je suis un grand gros menteur” (“I am a big fat liar”).