No Cheating Possible

Ok, I am sure if thought hard enough you could figure something out, but that is not the point.

I have two more work days this week (sandwiched between my super holiday weekends). I just might be bored to the limits of reason, finding some non-mechanical pencils and sharpening them down to their erasers is sounding really fun right now.

I want to play some email games. The easiest one that I can think of is 20 questions. But how to do it without cheating! Here is my solution:

1) come up with thing
2) type into text file
3) run through hash program
4) send you the hash
5) you guess and I answer yes and no
6) once you have your "answer", you type it into a text file, hash it yourself, and if the hashes match then you were correct!

Of course we have to observe some rules:

1) yes or no questions only
2) words typed into text file, all lowercase
3) blah blah blah...

MD5 Hash Program

So, if you want to play (tomorrow, Wednesday the 28th or later) post a comment and email "hotcactuspepper AT gmail DOT com" replacing the AT with @ and DOT with . you'll figure it out. I'll check that email tomorrow and we'll go from there!

Because I said I would...

Here are some old yearbook photos of me...

6th Grade


9th Grade


12th Grade


Now!

Note the upside down glasses... Technically I've already had them fixed, but I flipped them for the picture. See here for why...

Zero!!!

Neuroknowledge, is it me?

Self

So I was reading the article in Scientific American about how we humans perceive self or how we are self aware. Article teaser is here. It talked about different parts of the brain being in charge of different parts of our self. Like one part controls how we know ourselves in pictures or know words that describe us, a totally different part controls our memories of ourselves, and yet another part coordinates the whole effort.

I actually think my brain is inefficient in communicating between its parts. I have memories that I know are mine, but when I see pictures or video of myself odd things seems to happen. My memory of the event becomes the memory of the photo or video. This is weird because after seeing the photos I don't remember the event from a first person perspective. I remember it from an eerie third person out-of-body experience perspective. I know the images and video is of me, but I don't actually feel like I know the person in the photos. Trust me, its a strange feeling. I look at the pictures and think, "Is that really me?" or "Who's that?".

When I see the video of that time we got the aerobie stuck in the tree. I can't understand my actions. Maybe I am just more grown-up now, which I don't believe. Hang around me long enough and you'll see how child like I can be. The more I think about this the more I am creepin' myself out. This reminds me of how I know stuff, but don't know how I know it...

My brain works in mysterious ways, while capable of introspective thought as offered above, it is also capable of below...


Ren

As I was trying to finish reading the article I nodded off. I awoke to the dream of Ren, from Ren and Stimpy, maniacally fantasizing about a bagel shop. His voice had the Homer-esc "Doughnut" drooling quality to it while also near feverish cackling. Very typical of Ren, although I don't know why he'd be saying "Bagel Shop!". In the short temporal instance that was my dream I don't recall seeing Ren. I don't think I normally become other characters in dreams, so perhaps he was just out of my dream view. Or maybe the article I was just reading had something to do with it. However it happened is now irrelevant, what is important is my desire for a bagel. I wonder where the nearest bagel shop is.

Trash

In other news, a trash truck was driving up 18th street when it's back hatch swung open, dumping garbage into the street. Cubby! Clean-up on isle 18!

Keys

So it also appears that I have forgotten my keys today. I have totally locked myself out of my desk and closet. So, no chapstick, snacks, mints, bandaids, fancy pens, dress socks, work shoes, fabreeze, lint roller, or drugs or me today. I have unwittingly attempted to open my desk drawer at least 3 time already. To no avail I might add... it's going to be a long day...

Your Attention Span

Also, since I have added these extra blerbs onto the end of my post you have surely forgotten the main topic. Please now, go back to the top of this post, and refresh your memory before making any comments. Thank you! (I just hate it when my stupid tidbits steal the show...)

Smorgusborg... actually it's smorgasbord!

Smorgusborg is really a made up word or an important semi-autonomous Borg named "Smorgus"... This Borg drone is known as the "love" drone in most collective hives because Smorgus is really derived from "Smorgas" which is an anagram of orgasms.

Smorgas also happens to be Swedish for "stone skip." The best skipping stones are flat ones, so a smorgasbord (Swedes don't like 'a's) is a flat stone used a board which food is placed on. Now you know why you might say something like "venerable smorgasbord of food."

I think I prefer Smorgusborg!

So my post is about random things. The above example of a random thing is me looking up a word to better understand it. I utilized several searches (Google, etc), some turned up better results than others (A, B, C). And now I feel like I know the whole story. To figure out that whole Borg bit I used my imagination and an anagram generator.

Anyway, what made me start all this was a stupid joke I thought up on the way to work. Let me set it up for you...

Announcer Man: It's Spicy Tonight with your host, Tysen! Guest staring on tonight's show, video game super-star Cactuar, kitchen spice paprika, and musical guest Hikitama with her Spicy Music!. Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere's TYSEN!
Tysen: Good evening folks and welcome to the show. Blah Blah Blah... (in to monologue jokes) On the front page of Washington DC's Examiner the headline read "Bush: War is not lost." I say good job for Mr. Bush. It's nice to see that he's so optimistic about is approval rating! (rim-shot in background)

So after doing that bit over and over in my head I find it really unfunny. Which makes me wonder how to talk show host do it? I don't wonder how they tell those kind of jokes, but rather how do they pretend they're funny after hearing twenty times?



The above picture is of TomKat aka Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes from my fav celeb gossip blog. I thought I knew what the joke was going to be, but webgrrl only made a comment about how it wasn't some Scientology ritual thing, but just Katie's 27th birthday. My thoughts on the picture are, "Why is Tom stabbing Katie in the back of the neck?"

On a personal note, I am wearing my glasses upside down right now. Why am I being a total dorkus, you might ask. Honestly, it's not my fault. The somebody goofed at the eye doctor. Not only did I learn that they throw out your old lenses right after popping them out of your frames, but they won't go fish them out of the trash either. I got a new prescription, apparently my astigmatism is a little worse.

I took my old frames in to get the new lenses inserted and when I put them on it felt a little weird. Things seemed clearer but distorted. As I tried to walk to my car I kept jamming my toes on the ground. My glasses were making the ground look a lot further away than it really was. I went back into the office and inquired about my old lenses, figuring I could fashion a nifty monocle if I had to, but alas they had chucked them. What arrogance! They just assumed their new lenses and prescription would be perfect! I sat in the car for a while trying to get a grasp on my new world. It was freaking me out. I made it home ok, but it felt like was driving a truck. At home I just felt nauseous everything looked flat or just wrong. I got to playing around with my glasses and found out that everything looks much better if I wear them upside down.

Wearing them right side up distorts my perspective. Everything was scrunched at the top and widened at the bottom. It made stuff feel like it was shooting away from me or extra slanted. But with my glasses upside down, th right lens became the left and vice versa. So with my logic I deduced that the eye doctor people are retards. Either the doc wrote it down wrong, they ordered the lenses backwards, or the lab tech just put them in wrong. I just hope that the second pair of glasses I got, which are being made by the insurance provider, come out correct. This is a huge inconvience for me. Not only am I going to have to go back and get them to fix the problem, but I am going look like a doofus all week!

Maybe I'll post a picture later... I need to call and yell at somebody.

Blackouts, Time Travel, and my Alter Ego

What happens when I give a presentation? The short answer is a lot.

I am not talking about "a lot" in terms of information that is given and things learned by the audience, I am talking about what happens to me. Is what happens considered normal?

Blackouts

As I find myself I am sitting and looking at the speaker at the front of the room. He seems normal and what's this? He's thanking me, this is odd. Why am I just now "finding" myself? What was just going on? I slowly realize that I must have been giving a presentation of some kind. I don't forget that it happened permanently, but shortly after I finish the whole event slips out of my head. The details come back later but are blurry at first. Why should my mind completely block out the fact that I gave a presentation and how does it come back later?

Time Travel

Once I finally remember some of the details, it seems as if I was just starting the presentation moments ago. Everything is asynchronous. It takes effort to sort it out. When I start presenting my consciousness skips over the whole thing just to come back afterwards. I feel reassured that this might be the cause of my blackout. And I don't fear implanted memories or cover-up conspiracies, but I still wouldn't want them happening to me. The blackout is just my consciousness syncing back up with the time of my body. And here I thought it was my ego getting so large it caused a feed back loop to erase my memory.

Alter Ego

However, it might not be my ego's fault. While my consciousness is skipping forward in time like a smooth stone over a still lake what is my body doing? Who is running my body and attending to the presentation? As my mind skips in and out of sync with time it notices what my body is doing. It is dismayed at the words I am speaking. I think, "I just said what?" I fails to understand how I am coming up with the answers and sentences that I eject out towards the audience. I hear my voice, which is deeper and possesses a twinge of command. Is this my alter ego presenting or some schizo they let replace me? Sometimes the me, that is here now and writing, realizes what the physical me, who is presenting, is saying. Just before I oscillate back out of sync as I ricochet to the future I try to tell myself, "Quit saying 'umm'" and "Don't you know how to present?" Hopefully my alter ego gets the message, but I can never tell.

I don't understand what really happens. But it appears that people like it and the results are good. So why should I complain?

Stereopairs

I took a bunch of 3D stereopairs today. They are cool. Check them out in my flickr gallery.

Want to see this is 3D?

All my images are crosseyed type.

Updated: Frosty

I updated my Snowman movie... check it out:


(should work in windows media player 9+)

Leave a comment if you like it!

White Gangsters Wannabes, Children, Samuel L. Jackson, and Terrorists.

The last episode of the Boondocks TV Show was amazing. The animation is well done for the series, but the last episode had a hilarious plot and great dialogue.

Samuel L. Jackson guest voiced one of the characters and his dialogue was great. It was a combination of classic SLJ charactor dialogue from movies like Pulp Fiction mashed up with modern political mumbo-jumbo like Rumsfeld's Unknown Unknowns (also see here). It was twisted a bit more because his character on Boondocks was an ex-military white guy who'd been in Iraq, has corn-rows, talks like a gangster, but likes eggs sunny-side up with english muffins. It took me half the episode to realize it was Jackson, but that only made me like it all the more.

Basically, if you haven't seen the Boondocks cartoon you should. That is, if you find funny things that offend most other people. If you are like me then there are just too many things to like about the show. I especially the like the credits music. A heavy beat with light bouncy contrasting tune on top of it. The character are great in their zany own way. Huey, Riley (no relation to my brother, Grandpa, Uncle Ruckus, and co. The only part I don't like about the show is that once I own it on DVD and have kids I'll have to wait 15 years to show it to them. Not because of the bad language and situation themselves, but because other people would get mad at me for exposing "dangerous" material to them at a young age. It's hilarious! What'cha going to do? Morals are set by the majority, not the individual.

When you get tired of the PowerPuffGirls being to cute, switch to the Boondocks.

It's real!

And here I thought all chicks like this were robots. Well, as it turns out they are real. This girl from my high school class has... well just check out the pictures.

High School - Senior Year


Now...


Check out here website here or her myspace page here.

What the heck! And why wasn't I invited?

I think its all about the eyebrows...

What do you think?

Mazes for You!

In case you need some simple entertainment, they these!

Maze PowerPoint Slides

I generated these mazes with Daedalus and was sending them to some friends (because they need me to entertain them at work) when I thought, "Hey, I bet other people might want to try these!" So you had better want to try them!

Also, if you download the program to use yourself, here is my script file that I wrote to help generate the type of mazes I like (and that fit nicely on powerpoint slides). Tysen's Daedalus Maze Script

For those of you who don't have powerpoint here is a sample maze for you! (Click it for a even bigger one!)

One of those "stupid" blog games...

Rules are as follows :
Remove the blog at #1 from the following list and bump everyone up one place; then add your blog to the #5 spot.
1. Blither
2. Lily
3. Jerry
4. Video
5. ME

Next select 5 friends to piss off :
1. (your name here)

(I don't intentionally piss off my friends, if they want to do it they will OR maybe I have no friends OR maybe these things are like religion and burnt cookies, things you should impose on other people)

What were you doing 10 years ago?
I really wish I could remember... 1995. I was in Florida by then... maybe nearing the end of middle school. I dated this one girl (I was new to this whole dating stuff), I was her "good" boyfriend, the one she never did anything with. Other guys got some action or maybe viewed some of her goods. I got nothing... But then again I wasn't too keen on girls back then, didn't really know what to do with them.

What were you doing 1 year ago ?
Graduating from College. Sitting on my ass unemployed. Traveled a bit on vacation. Sounds like fun when compared to what I am doing now.

5 snacks you enjoy :
1. Pretzels
2. Wasabi covered almonds
3. Dark chocolate
4. Chips and Hot Salsa
5. Pickled products (pickles, okra, etc)

5 songs to which you know all the lyrics :
I have a problem with songs. I might know all the words, but not what order they go in. I have the best chances at completing songs from the B-52s, KMFDM, New Order, Morcheeba, and Garbage. However, I couldn't tell you which songs.

5 things you would do if you were a millionaire :
1. Pay for me to make guest appearances, as myself, in cartoons.
2. Hire computer nerds to implement my cool ideas. I hate coding them up myself.
3. Fund genetic engineering of animal to make the cooler. Like brain enhancement and vocal cord implantation for pets.
4. Collect lots of stuff that I wouldn't otherwise and then open a museum.
5. Run an ad campaign to make myself popular and then either run for something political or become a free babysitter for 7 to 13 year olds.

5 bad habits/traits :
1. nail biting
2. bad memory (maybe it's my fault)
3. short attention span
4. ego
5. insensitivity to normal sensitive things

5 things you like doing :
1. being in nature
2. playing games
3. biting my nails
4. thinking creatively
5. being the center of attention

5 things you would never wear again : (what kind of girly question is this?)
1. diaper
2. women's undergarments
3. dresses
4. fat
5. ?

5 favorite toys :
1. pocket knife & zippo lighter
2. computer
3. my Battle Beasts
4. digital still & video cameras
5. my wife and cat! They are fun to play with! Toys are fun. So they must be toys!

Are you lazy?

I have taken the liberty to make the comics easier for you.

Didn't get the jokes? Don't worry, you probably wouldn't have gotten them anyways... Zonk!

Pretty Winter Day in DC