chaoticutopia | September 28, 2008Ok, one more. You can’t leave the party without meeting Otto. He’s an infinite cat. That’s it! Thanks for coming, be it in person or virtually, and most especially, thank you for reading, commenting, and helping ScienceBlogs reach 1,000,000 comments!
chaoticutopia | September 28, 2008
Suppose you’re not really the social type at all, and would rather play around in some serene playground. Well, we have something for you, too! Take a break and chill out in Vector Park. They have all sorts of weird things to click on, like three-legged headless acrobats, an odd assortment of objects to be balanced on hangers, and a dog-or-bird-like creature that chases your spider. See the giant head, pick at its nose until bubbles come out, and more. However you choose to do it, enjoy playing around in Vector Park.
chaoticutopia | September 28, 2008Since this party is being held in my house, I imagine someone is certain to mention the giant squid in the bathroom. If you can’t make it, it won’t be you--but you can still have that same sort of undersea experience.
Here’s a game review I wrote a while ago for JayIsGames, that was never published because JohnB beat me to the punch. It may not exactly be a "party favor" per say, but it is a lovely game.... maybe even more so than my bathroom!
What happens when an oil tanker crashes into a coral reef, and the EPA fails to act in time? Well, if you’re talking about Kaleidoscope Reef, the…
chaoticutopia | September 28, 2008It’s probably very common right now... you go to a cocktail party during the election season, and you end up discussing politics. Who said what? Who agrees with who? Hopefully, after comparing responses at the Science Debate 2008, you should have a good idea of where our candidates stand, and would be prepared for any spontaneous party discussions.
So, since you’re so prepared, here’s a way to do the fun political comparisons without actually attending a party. Try the Match-O-Matic, created by ABC News and USA today. It throws you a variety of quotes from the candidates on hot-button issues…
chaoticutopia | September 26, 2008Ok, I’ll confess--school has been blowing my f*$#!^& mind this past week--but in a good way, really. I’m studying a variety of interesting subjects which are all tying together in surprising ways... which has lead me to do quite a bit of extra reading and writing. Not that I mind. I just wish I had time to wrap my head around it all, enough to make coherent blogs posts out of these ideas. I did end up making a rather intense fractal, abstract yet full of intense symbolic imagery. But I looked at it, and thought, ew, that’s a little too dark. It will, at least, take some explaining... it…
chaoticutopia | September 13, 2008After blogging about my experiences earlier this week, I had crows on the brain. So, as I went drifting through fractal sets, trying to come up with something for this week’s Friday Fractal (now a Saturday Set), I kept running across crow-like shapes. One in particular stuck out, perhaps because I found it while adjusting the parameters of a set labeled "flight". It seemed like a crow caught in a superposition of states... one of Schroedinger’s crows, perhaps. Is it a perched crow, glaring down at its foe? Or is it a crow in flight, wings beating furiously against the wind? Before you decide…
chaoticutopia | September 11, 2008Please join us!
Who:
Readers, commenters, and bloggers alike... anyone who likes to hang out, have a drink, and chat about science, life, and chaos... in other words, you!
What:
ScienceBlogs 1,000,000 Comments Party and Chaotic Utopia’s Back-to-Blogging Cocktail Party
When:
September 28th, 2008 4-6pm
Where:
Karmen’s suburban town home/loft (located halfway between Denver and Boulder, Colorado)
How:
RSVP, either by email (to karmen [at sign thingy] chaotic utopia [dot thingy] com [minus spaces and brackets and nonsense]) or by the comments below. (If you RSVP via the comments, please use a…
chaoticutopia | September 10, 2008
It was a little like Hitchcock; an unconventional dark encounter on an unremarkable monochrome day. My dachshund and I were trailing down the same belt of green lawn, mud, and concrete as the summery day before, and the day and days before that. The skies were cast over with thick clouds, so we didn’t bother to rush under the trees for shade. Instead, we strolled along with a slow, broken pace. I walked in a daydream, pausing every number of yards to wait for the dog to catch up. This was our routine. I walked, I paused; the dog patrolled in circles around me, sniffing the taller patches of…
chaoticutopia | September 9, 2008I love it when other people say exactly what I’m thinking, but in better words. Take Gloria Steinem on Sarah Palin for instance:
Women have become so politically powerful that even the anti-feminist right wing--the folks with a headlock on the Republican Party--are trying to appease the gender gap with a first-ever female vice president. We owe this to women--and to many men too--who have picketed, gone on hunger strikes or confronted violence at the polls so women can vote. (via the LA Times)
That’s right. Good for them. ’Bout freaking time. Of course, Steinem goes on to describe many…
chaoticutopia | September 8, 2008Oh, what a couple of weeks. Between preparing for the DNC and hosting out of town guests, my plans to return to blogging were somehow delayed. Now the excitement has passed and I’ve run out of excuses to avoid my computer. So, as I turn to this giant pile of bloggable stuff, I am wondering how on Earth I’ll ever catch up. Why not start with where I’ve already been?
Of course, this is old news now, as everyone has gone on to gossip about Sarah Palin, but I can’t help it... Barak Obama’s acceptance speech at the DNC was incredible. My husband Alan and I got to attend, with pretty good seats:…
chaoticutopia | August 15, 2008Summer around here must be coming to a close. The temperature has dropped and the kids are going back to school. Strangely, these circumstances have gotten me thinking more about the sun, rather than less. I blame my son... he came home after one of his first days at school talking about life on other planets. (Apparently, this week, he is aspiring to be an exobiologist. Previously, he wanted to be a pirate.) He asked what planets might have life and what they looked like, so I pulled out a book titled "Empire of the Sun: Planets and Moons of the Solar System" and we began to leaf through our…
chaoticutopia | July 28, 2008Warning: as the title suggests, this is just one long whine. It probably shouldn’t be read by anyone. For my own sake, I’m putting it out there, anyways. Proceed with caution!
So much for posting something every day. When I promised that, it sounded feasible. Then again, when I called my remodel "almost done", I think I was mistaking it for "done." This seems to be a new habit of mine... setting my expectations too high. Or maybe it is an old habit, resurfacing.
Whatever the case, I had planned to have my life back to (what could pass for) normal by the end of last week. Instead, I still…
chaoticutopia | July 19, 2008There’s nothing like spending a month staring at trees. As I hinted recently, my purpose for I was wandering all over the mountains, searching for aspen, was artistic inspiration. But to what end? Well... it all started when I painted my walls. Folks would come and observe my progress.
"The color looks great. But what are you going to do about the doors?"
I’d cringe every time. The battered hollow-core doors in a dark wood stain stuck out like sore thumbs, especially upstairs. There, the hallway was the loft, which was also our office. It’s the one room we spend more time in than any, and…
chaoticutopia | July 14, 2008
A new documentary on climate change, Sizzle, is being released soon. The film...
Wait! Don’t start dozing off. I know, I know, you’ve heard this before. I mean, c’mon, you browse around the virtual shelves at Amazon, looking for stuff about climate change, and you certainly won’t have as much difficulty as say, researching dentistry in the dark ages. (Just mouse over the links to see the vast difference." Even I’ve written my own powerpoint on the subject. Yeah. It’s been done. So, what makes this one special?
Well, Sizzle: A Global Warming Comedy is not your ordinary documentary. For one,…
chaoticutopia | July 14, 2008A few weeks ago, I headed up into the mountains to find aspen trees and branches for inspiration. I took Magnolia Drive, which rises out of Boulder Canyon and straddles a high ridge before opening out onto the Peak-to-Peak highway running along the continental divide, near Coal Creek Canyon. (The mouth of the latter canyon opens near my home.) So, I had my eyes peeled for trees, but instead I spotted a pair of white-tailed does who were nibbling grass along the roadside:
The deer were so calm when I approached that I was able to take several photographs. I was so taken by the scene, I didn’t…
chaoticutopia | July 11, 2008Finally, after months of painting, planning, organizing, and flinging, my home is starting to look like a home. I’m down to the little finishing touches: trim and accessories, windows and doors. Some of these just need to be purchased and installed, so, thankfully, this means I can start getting back to normal... cooking, filing, writing, e-mailing, monitoring comments and even (gasp) blogging!
To avoid burnout, I’m returning to blogging on a gradual basis, starting with some interesting but pointless light blogging. Some of it (like this post) might be related to my remodeling, but I…
chaoticutopia | June 13, 2008I mentioned in my last post (a few weeks ago) that I was taking a hiatus from blogging to work on my overgrown home remodel. I’d like to say I’m finished: "woohoo! All done, come and see!" but I’m not. I am, however, getting close. Close enough to start thinking about what type of art I’m going to hang on my newly painted walls. Why not fractals?
A few years ago, I would never have considered hanging a fractal on the wall. Sure, maybe if you have a college dorm room with tie-dyed sheets and Jimi Hendrix posters... but in a family home? Then again, a few years ago, my family strongly disagreed…
chaoticutopia | May 23, 2008I know you’ve probably come here looking for a new fractal. Unfortunately, the only thing fractalish around here is my frustrations with home remodeling. I suppose any project can do it--grow madly out of control: each small problem cascading into another, until the whole thing seems overwhelming. Sometimes, it can cause a nervous breakdown. I reached that point over spring break, when we tried to paint and renovate our entire house in a few days. (Hey, they make it look easy on TV!) At that point, I gave up, and said it would have to be done on the weekends. Then, of course, came finals and…
chaoticutopia | May 11, 2008Let’s finish this weekend of red, orange, and yellow, with some flowers for Mom. And a honeybee. The blossoms are more pink than red, but the bee definitely has the orange/yellow look going for it.
Moms like bees, right? Consider this: if it wasn’t for the bees, fertilizing everything from almond and cherry trees to rose blossoms, Mother’s Day gifts would be pretty lame--no flower bouquets, no boxes of fancy filled chocolates. See? Moms love bees... at least indirectly.
So, here are some flowers for Mom... with a bee:
Honeybee Pollinating a Prairie Fire Crabapple Blossom
Personally (…
chaoticutopia | May 10, 2008Both philosophy people and Beatles people should enjoy this one...
I was studying for my final exam in predicate logic, while simultaneously browsing through the Flickr "Song Chart" Pool (thanks to Of Two Minds.) The next thing I know, I’m trying to work out this proof:
Click the image for the a larger version, with the solution spelled out. If you still don’t get it, just enjoy this instead:
When part one ends, links to the other parts should appear at the bottom of the player.