I was finally able to load my stand up routine to this blog. If you click the link below you have have a look at it.


My Stand up Debut

My best friend is graduating

So my BFF Spencer graduated this semestor and is heading up to Petosky to start "adult" life. We spent our last night (tonight) juggling, making guach, watching it's always sunny, and playing smash. It was like a marathon of all our favorite things that we have come to enjoy over the years packed into one night. 

What is art?

I recently had a thought about what makes something art. Now I I know that there is a type of art that says anything that is outside of nature; that is man-made and serves a function is art. So yes paintings would fall under this category; but then again so would furniture. Perhaps a better way to view art is something man made that not only has an affect on you, but also stirs the imagination. A chair can have an affect on you ( when you sit in it it makes you feel good), but most of the time when your sitting in a chair you don't find your self thinking as a result of sitting in the chair. Yet you may find yourself thinking from listening to beautiful music or seeing an instillation piece like Megan's. So maybe it would be better if we considered the definition of art as being; something man made that not only has an affect on you, but also stirs the imagination.

New skill tree in SWTOR

A game my wife and I play from time to time is  Star Wars The Old Republic (SWTOR) they recently created a new expansion and with it they implemented a new skill tree design. Where before you had 30 or so skill points to spend on one of three branches , now the skills are locked into place and you unlock them as you progress. You do get to choose 7 utility skills along the way now. While I can appreciate a simplified skill tree I wonder if this change was to make the game more appealing to casual gamers. On the other hand good players all use the same skills with the same skill rotation, so perhaps this will even the playing field between hardcore gamers and regular players who don't fully understand the original skill tree. 

Circuit from my EGR 106 robot.

This is the working curcuit to my line following robot. It utilizes transistors to increase power to the motor, and diodes to properly chanel the power.

My reaction of the news of CIA toucher

So I just read a CNN article (in reference to a US senate report that was just released) about the how the CIA abused individuals suspected of havering terrorist links following 9/11. Now I'm am NO fan of terrorist but I do not think they should be tourcherd. Because if someone is in pain they will tell you whatever you want to hear to make it stop whether it is true or not; and this could make officials follow false leads. More importantly however is I simply can't belive that in 2014 when we (Americans) can tourcher other humans. I wonder if how I'm feeling now is how other Americans felt when they heard about Nixan in the 70's, Selma in the 60's, or the internment camps in the 40's. 

I-movie thoughts

I had a blast putting together the I-movie project with my partner Megan. I did learn that video takes up a lot of space and that it is very tedious work. Luckily we were able to finish sooner than we thought we would and I can now focus on my other finals.

All nighters

So finals are here again. Sometimes I think finals are a way for schools to test how we'll students can go without sleep, and then then test them on everything they have learned in the semestor. 

Results from no shave November

So for the month of November I participated in no shave November. The following pics are the end result. While I like to consider my self a humbleish person I do think I grow a bomb ass beard. Although my stash is lacking; since I can't grow hair under my nose I decided to call this facial hair style a reverse Hitler. 

Signed up for classes in my new major

I just got done setting up my classes for next semester. Almost all of the classes I wanted (as in the classes offered at certain times or with certain professors) were full. In speaking to a friend we concluded that this was probably due to the fact that since they were mostly intro classes. The reason this was a factor was because at least in our two majors the advisors make freshman sign up for a full year of classes during orientation. While I can see the advantages of freshman not having to worry about schedule classes at the end of their first semester; my cynical side thinks that the real reason is because locking a student into two semesters of classes for a major makes it more unlikely for them to change their major, since they would already be 1/4 of the way through a program. The two major problems I see with this is that first off students in my situation who have changed their major won't be able to get into the classes. Second and more importantly locking students into a major doesn't seem to be to their benefit because this is a time of profound growth; and what a student liked in the summer following high school graduation might not represent what the feel their best skill sets in a college setting. Instead students should take a wide swath of classes that will fulfill gen eds, this would allow students to explore different fields of study before getting locked into one. 

Changed my major

I changed my major from mechanical engineering to information systems. The primary reason was because my financial aid would run out before my program would end. Also the new major comes with a minor in business which opens up more options in the job market. 

Unexpected Finding

Over the past year or so I have taken up the hobby of juggling. I have gotten better with practice but tonight I realized something that is counter intuitive. When I (and I assume others) would look at jugglers I would be impressed at how they catch all those balls at once. What I have come to realize though is that juggling is about throwing balls not catching them. Perhaps it is just my style but I have found that the better I become at throwing the balls consistently in the same spot, the longer my juggling sessions (jugs) seem to be. Now of course this could simply be a correlation not a causation. I look at it this way though, you have to throw the ball before you can catch the ball. You could be the best catcher on the planet but if you throw the balls just out of arm's reach then it doesn't matter. If on the other hand if you're a great thrower this will make catching that much easier, in theory you may never need to move your hands if you can throw the balls well enough.

Art Prize Inspired Idea.

In between classes yesterday I was able to go check out some art prize exhibits. My favorite one was actually the second one I saw. It is on the blue bridge down by the pew campus. What the artist did was set up a giant pin hole camera that you can stand in. If your not familiar the concept it works like this: if you place a lens on a box and place screen a set distance away from the lens inside the box (using trigonometry will help you optimize the distance for best quality). Whatever is outside the box will be seen inside the box upside down. The image below helps to illustrate how it works, and I believe this concept was how the first cameras worked.

The idea that this art inspired was creating "windows" for your house that utilized this concept. Of course you would need a mechanism to flip the image right side up. The benefits of this would be mostly economic since windows are a HUGE energy drain on a home. This reason is because they let in a lot of heat in the summer meaning you need the AC on more, and they let out a lot of heat in the winter meaning you need the heat on more. The heat transfer from a little lens however will be significantly less. As an added bonus you would only have to clean a small lens outside your house, and you will have no need for blinds/drapes because from the outside all you see is a little lens.

GVSU Renaissance Festival

I went to the Renaissance Festival that was being held at GVSU this weekend. I couldn't help but wonder if in 500 years would people be doing industrial revolution fairs in towns where people dress up as bankers or factory workers. Perhaps instead of reenacting sword fights (like they did this weekend) they would do pretend football games.

While I can appreciate other peoples appreciation for ye olde times and I personally find the renaissance to be of great significance to human history; I find it perplexing when people say "life was so much better back then". I feel that they are either a masochist, or they don't fully grasp what life was like back then. Low life expectancy, high infant mortality rate, and the height of medical treatment was bloodletting and leeches, lastly there was not internet. If these people are referring to the honor, chivalry, free flow of ideas and other good things that are associated with this era perhaps we should try to fold these ideals into our time instead of trying to turn back the clock.

My Opinion of Tyree Guyton

Who is Tyree Guyton?- Tyree Guyton is an African American artist from Detroit, Michigan. His formal education includes studying at the College for Creative Studies (located in Detroit), and he has received an honorary doctorate. He is considered to be a urban environmental artist. His friends consider him friendly.

What is Tyree Guyton's work about?-  Dr. Guyton's see's art in a different way "What is art? I ask myself this question over and over. Is my life an art form? I began to see and hear my own work in a new way that opened up my third eye of wisdom and my mind to see how everything is connected to this one source of energy or this divine power." This way of thinking of art has lead Dr. Guyton to create the Heidelberg project, which has become a community project that focus's on changing peoples life through art. 

What is Tyree Guyton's art making strategies. One strategy Dr. Guyton used during his Heidelburg project. was polka dots, his intention of doing this is to was to showcase the diversity he sees in his community. He also used pieces from the environment (like a home) and rearranged them, painted them to make his community more beautiful and bring people closer together.  

"Thinking outside the box" is to understand creative thinking. This means that you should have system or process for driving your creativity. The author listed a four step process for creativity. 

Three ways to think outside the box include: preparation- setting the ground work for the thing you want to create by gathering information, incubation- this is the process of organizing the the information gathered in the preparation stage, illumination- this is the process of the "ah ha" moment resides and it comes after you have sifted through all of your information thus far, and finally verification- where you are able to confirm either through analysis or others analysis that you have created what you set out to create.  

A correction

Turns out that what what I posted on my "thoughts" page was not my first post. THIS is my very first post.