Since I just turned in a big essay recently, I am very much almost done with school this year. This ought to give me a chance to catch up on my blogging. Here are some things that distracted me up to this finals week.

I really shouldn’t have any reason to know that the Caramelldansen Speedycake remix is sped up by a factor of the 4th root of 2, and is thus three half-steps higher than the original.

Speaking of caramel (almost), Skittles have come out in “Chocolate Mix” in an attempt to horn in on M&Ms’ territory, and one of the flavors is Chocolate Caramel. While I don’t like caramel, it’s actually hard to tell the difference between the different flavors, except by noting they are various shades of brown. Thus the problem of “I don’t like caramel” is supplanted by homogeneity, which is also a problem for Skittles. I expect Chocolate Mix won’t attract either people who don’t like Skittles or people who do like Skittles, just those who are undecided. That's a pretty bad audience to target, at least on a regular basis.

I wonder whether Yahtzee is doing anything for his birthday or his "Zero Punctuation" anniversary. And by "anything," I mean "something in the video." On a related note, I've been thinking of doing some ZP-style video reviews of some things, most likely aimed at the furry fandom. In something like a chord, I might make a tribute video for ZP.

I submitted an entry to Nagfa's March ambigram contest recently. I found out about Nagfa through ceruleanst's journal, and I think this might be a good opportunity for me to get my name out.

This all makes me wonder, though, whether I'll have to decide between ambigrams and webcomics. I doubt it, mostly, since the aforementioned ceruleanst seems to be doing fine with that.

Yeesh, I started writing this entry weeks ago, and I didn't even mention getting hit by a car. I'd better wrap it up and work on another entry. (I'm fine, by the way. The car was turning, so it wasn't going very fast. The driver called 911 and the responders vetted me.)

Well, I didn't win the contest. I guess the jokes were too obscure, and using Flash wasn't much of an advantage. Though I can't figure out, if I think Flash is better than Paint, why I keep returning to Paint. I mean, Paint pixelates everything, and redrawing a portion usually involves deleting the offending bit, meaning the... OK, I'll just get to the pictures.

The first is a lateral symbiotogram (to take John Langdon's terminology) of the words "true" and "false." ( First image )

The next one is an experimental 120-degree rotational ambigram. I actually worked on this in Flash, but put it into Paint for some reason. I really should have exported it, and then as a GIF, but it's a jpeg screenshot instead.( Second cut )

This next one is a rotational figure-ground relation set on a gray background. If you're not logged into LJ, try to guess the words in it before opening the lj-cut. ( CutforBandWidth )

All right. This fourth and last idea is something I actually lifted from ceruleanst. However, since today's Chinese New Year, and since he hasn't posted about it yet, I think I can safely post it here without being accused of theft. (Though maybe I shouldn't, since he's just gone through that thing with that other ambigrammist and it only got settled four days ago, but I'm hoping to start up a friendly competition. Hmm, maybe I should wait on this last one.)

UPDATE, FEBRUARY 10: ( Grand Finale below )

Spell-check watch: "pixelates" and "screenshot." But at least it caught "imbedded." FURTHER UPDATE: Which is an accepted variant.

I just finished going through my archives and changing the userpics on some of the entries, not to mention removing the links from my Photobucket images. I may do this again with a different userpic. Anyway, this post is an entry to a contest for the comic Saiko and Lavender. And I can't believe I only just realized that the first name is pronounced like "psycho." While not a precise description of the bunny girl, this homophone fits the tone of the comic.

Anyway, here's my entry for the contest. It features a couple of characters that appeared briefly, on pages 18-22 of Issue 1. ( Wide-ish image )

It just occurred to me that I haven't posted any traditional ambigrams here yet. By which I mean neither of the two already here is symmetrical in the purely visual sense. Well, here's where I shall remedy that, at least with tonight's first sample.
( Wide ambigram & commentary )

Well, now that that's settled, here's my other ambigram for tonight. You almost certainly won't recognize this, so here's a link about that mathematical paradox.


I created this one by working my way forward from the beginning, and the upper-/lower-case inversion just suggested itself as a way to differentiate the two reading frames. I theoretically had a lot of leeway on this one, considering that the dot at the end could absorb as many letters as I needed, but I managed to limit myself to three. I'm amazed how distinct the large letters are from a distance.

Good night, and good luck.

I saw "Kill Bill Vol. 1" yesterday, an activity which bled into today. Figuratively speaking, of course. I find it odd, though, that I can tolerate movies with so much violence, as I don't tend to seek those out.

Speaking of Bill, I finished Bill Clinton's NYT crossword a while ago after maybe a week and a half. (No, I'm not posting the solution.) As sort of a celebration, I created this ambigram (which has nothing to do with Bill Clinton).

A self-descriptive ambigram that hasn't been done yet is one of the more sought-after prizes of the ambigrammist. --Kevin Pease

With that, I present to you Rot13!



This is quite an appropriate subject, since both Rot13 and 180-degree rotation are their own inverses. (Funny, I was just complaining about invertability this morning.)