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 recently cleared off a chair in my room because I never used it for sitting. It has now been taken to the church. I missed the returns of "Monk" and "Psych" yesterday, but I'll get another chance in half an hour and a day, respectively.

Right, you may be wondering about my new userpic. (I plan to change the userpic associated with some of the entries retroactively, so if you've been reading my archives, this is where I first used this one.) It's a design for a five-segment digital display, as compared to the seven-segment displays everybody currently uses. I doubt someone will actually produce it, but one can hope.

Some of you may know that kinkyturtle has created a six-segment display, which he also uses (in two versions) as userpics. One or two of you may even have seen the five-segment display he attempted in the comments to that entry, re-posted below.


The chances that you've seen ceruleanst's design are infinitesimal (partly due to his forced domain name change), so I'll put it here too. The point, of course, is that this idea is not entirely original with me.


Now, the other reason I posted these other designs is so I can compare them against my own. ( Protracted analysis you may or may not want to skip )

Now, to actually finish this entry, I'd like to mention that the userpic? Was created in Flash. Once I'd animated the segments, I exported it to a GIF format using the command under File. (I mention this because some people may find it helpful. Trust me.) The upshot of this is, since I just learned this, you will be seeing more animations here in the near future.

(By the way, since I started this post, I did see "Monk," and it was great. I suspect it was filmed far in advance, or at least I hope so.)

The new year has been eventful so far. I solved the GAMES Magazine contest, "Mystery Cross III," so quickly it seemed like an accident. I've made a discovery about incompatible polyomino decompositions, and I hope to write a paper on the topic. I read A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore, and he's really funny (think Dr. McNinja). I'm planning on reading more of his books.

Well, here's the first part of that story I mentioned last time. For now, it is titled with a bad pun. Enjoy.

( Shock )

If you're specifically looking for Nucleus, it's probably two entries below. It's annoying, but I'll have to keep redirecting (nonexistent) visitors until Ed edits his entry. (Since I don't want to edit this later, I'll allow that this might have happened.)

I don't generally play video games except for fighters (Super Smash Bros.), and it's not something I excel/exercise at. However, after playing Portal: The Flash Version and seeing my brother had borrowed The Orange Box, I decided to try it. Long story short, I beat it in about nine hours. (I'm sure that has a meaning, which is why I said it.) It was pretty fun, though I won't be investing more time into video games.

Anyway, I just finished reading the fan fiction Dire Peril. If you are a typical human who happens to use the Internet, then I'm sure you don't care. But if you are a typical Internet user (which I swear means something else), you might want more context. The fanfic takes place in the world of Exterminatus Now, a webcomic based in the setting of "Sonic the Hedgehog" with the caveat that none of the characters of the latter appear in the former, thus avoiding issues of copyright infringement between the latter two. (This is, I think, exactly the point where it would have become a run-on sentence.) Potential issues between the former two (EN and DP) are mitigated by the front-page endorsement of the fanfic by the webcartoonist(s). (It might be relevant to point out here that Scott Ransoomair linked to Zero Punctuation, so blame him.) So yes, I think the title is supposed to sound ironically dippy. Anyway, if you think that Mobius would be fun with all of the "Sonic" characters replaced by variously foul-mouthed and abusive Inquisitors and daemon-worshipers, have at 'em.

One more thing. I'm trying to write a furry story, not based in any particular universe, and I thought I was having a good time at it. However, it seems to be turning into a novella, and my... "pretty boy" brother logged me off of my account (on what's sort of a communal computer) before I could save the first half of the second chapter. I hope to be able to showcase it here, probably starting next entry, but this is a new kind of frustration. I'd like to think I can deal with it, although I have stayed up past midnight to get to this irritating point. This will be a problem, because we're entertaining family friends in a few hours.

If you're looking for Nucleus, it's in the entry chronologically previous to this, which makes it the one below this nine times out of ten. I asked Ed to change the link on his site, but I guess he hasn't checked his mail yet. For now, I'll talk about TV and puzzles in about that order.

I haven't been keeping up with Heroes and Chuck, partly because I can catch up on those easily. Tonight, I was going to watch one of them on the computer and the other on G4, but my family decided to watch home decorating shows, so I just watched both on the computer. I noticed the pinch of the WGA strike in the way Sylar found Suresh's place. Spoiler: ( it's a little disappointing. )


Now, NUMB3RS I have kept up on. I started playing Chain Factor almost as soon as I saw that, yes, there was indeed an ARG associated with the episode "Primacy." I uncovered a couple of Error Codes (capitalized because of course they're planted), though I was only chasing my tail on the Key Codes. It's winding down now, what with eleven of twelve Shutdown Keys having been discovered. About the episode "Graphic"... ( I wonder )


Well, I'd better wrap up before midnight. Here's the name of a president. Decode it.

13 83 86 67 13 25

EDIT: Corrected a probability and added a hint.

In case you were wondering, NO I did not get my Halloween costume ready in time. And now, it's time for SPOILERS!


Chuck! Revelation!( Revelation! )

I must say, though, part of that Green segment during the commercial break with Morgan and Casey rubbed me the wrong way. Morgan said he had an eco-friendly vehicle, and Casey responded by pointing out that said vehicle was a bike. It was supposed to be a put-down. What? Oh, come on! Bicycles are a standard alternative to normal cars; lots of people chose to ride bikes instead of cars specifically because they didn't use gas, loooong before things like hybrid cars started popping up. I wouldn't be surprised if NBC had received, let's call it a kickback, from the car companies for putting that crack in there. Phoo....


Heroes! Revelation!( Revelation! )


Journeyman! Revelation!( Revelation! )

In an effort to push my previous "Heroes" entry off the front page, I will be making two entries in (preferably) a short amount of time. This one is about TV.

Now, the new season of "Heroes" is plenty engaging, and I have a couple ideas on what's going on.
1. Nathan (seems to have) contracted Jessica Syndrome, so named for obvious reasons.
2. The dystopian fate where Sylar has become President Petrelli could well be right on track, depending on how fixed the date of "Five Years Gone" is.
3. I think the murderer could be one of the dead guys. Why not? It could reveal what their powers actually were.
4. Again with the date retconning! It originally said Hiro had traveled to 1607 (a nice, round 400 years ago), but that was overwritten with 1671. I'd guess the writers didn't want to predate Jamestown or Plymouth Rock.
5. Wikipedia is your friend. It'd be a shame if Monica Dawson (that black girl) could only do things she saw on TV.
6. Finally, we see some powers duplicated! I'm a little bothered that family members were never shown to have similar powers until the twins Maya and Alejandro Herrera came along. (Peter doesn't count.)

I'd like to perform a statistical analysis at the end of the second season, thus: take the number of characters with powers demonstrated in the first season (24), divide by the fraction of such characters that debuted in the second season (6 so far) whose powers have been observed in the first-season characters (2 so far), and the result is an estimate of the number of potential powers in the "Heroes" universe. This estimate is currently 72.

On that note, let's look at "NUMB3RS." The reintroduction of Colby Granger was a little confusing, but not much of a problem. The annoying part is the new cinematic style that accompanies Charlie's explanations. I thought it made a little sense the first time, when Don was distracted, but it got on my nerves when it kept happening. It was nice to see Amita use the old style in the latest episode, "Thirteen." (The change isn't as bad as USA's "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" opening theme remix, though. Ew.)

Now I'd like to turn to the newcomer to my lineup, "Chuck." Produced by Josh Schwartz of "The O.C.," it seems only natural for "Chuck" to run headlong into the tropes of the genre, that genre being spy thriller. (Wikipedia is not your friend. If we called every spy story with questionable technology "science fiction," the genre would nearly have died with "Dr. No.") This enjoyable romp gives "Psych" a run for its money. The only problem I really have (keeping in mind that only four episodes have actually aired) is some overuse of last-second near-misses (and maybe some genre blindness in the episode "Chuck Versus the Helicopter").

Words you'd think spell-check would find acceptable: dystopian, retconning, ew, and Wikipedia.

Darn. I should have posted on Friday the 13th, because I have this puzzle that would have been germane then. Oh well.

It is somewhat well-known that all years have a Friday the 13th in them. Less well-known is that regardless of the year, one group of seven consecutive months is guaranteed to have a Friday the 13th. What are those seven months? Bonus question: what is the longest period between consecutive Fridays 13?

Nothing much else to report. Someone on the rec.puzzles Google Group independently found the intended answer to one of my puzzles, and others found longer words. However, I like the ones that don't use the same inflection of words of the same part of speech twice, and those seem to top out at 6.

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).