My little sister all rev’ed up at Disney World. They actually let kids run around in boats with outboard motors, can you believe it?. Phyllis wasn’t too sure about it either.
 | You Might Like to Knowwww.thechristys.net | |
| You Might Like to Knowwww.thechristys.net | |
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My little sister all rev’ed up at Disney World. They actually let kids run around in boats with outboard motors, can you believe it?. Phyllis wasn’t too sure about it either.
Jansen. They are built out of PVC pipe and are powered by the wind. Sometimes they collect wind energy and store it in 2 liter soda bottles that are in turn used to move the legs , then gather more wind energy . . . How cool would it be to see a couple of these coming down an empty beach or walking across a desert? See the video below for some Strandbeests in action. Every year seaweed comes rolling in from the gulf to wash up in piles on the beaches. The brown seaweed is called Sargassum and is actually a type of brown algae. It’s a pain for beach visitors and some fishermen but it’s important because of the habitat it provides. There are lots of little crabs and fish that live in the floating rafts. In deeper water big fish hang out under the floating rafts of plants. If you look carefully at some that just washed up on the beach you might find a few tiny critters still hanging on. From what I read , this year has brought more seaweed on shore than most. Bulldozers work feverishly to pile up and remove the stuff and hall it off to keep it from stinking up the joint and chasing away the tourists. If left to it’s own devices it would pile up, trap sand, reduce beach erosion, help build the dunes provide food for crabs, attract flies and stink up the join (at least for a while). So is it good or bad? Like pretty much everything else, it’s both.
. . . but then I remembered my name wasn’t BABALOLA ADEKEMISHOLA just in time.
I wander when the First Bank of Nigeria calls City Bank if they takes them seriously?
If you have been to Google today you may know that today is the 40th anniversary of the Rubik’s Cube. There is one on their home page that you can play with. It’s just like the original. But if you look carefully below the search box there is a link to the Chrome Cube Lab. There are several different versions of Rubik’s cubes that you can play with. My favorite is the SynthCube. click on the image below and give it a try. Don’t forget to re-arainge the cube there is a random button in the upper right corner. I think I could spend hours “composing”
We have recently started a new business. We filled out, filed adn paid for all the forms and processes you need to register your business. There is not a lot of fun or creativity in that except the part where you need to choose a name for your new company. Now that all that is out of the way what’s next? OK, perhaps I should backup just a little. First you need to have a business idea , a product that people will want. I kind of skipped over that part. So come up with an idea that has a good chance to at least support itself. OK, you have a good idea, you have your name and you have given the government what they require. Now what? You need a logo of course! You could pull out your favorite Microsoft application and type in your company name with a truly thrilling font and call it done. But it’s missing something . . . I know . . . clip-art! You have your fabulous company name written in your thrilling font with 2 disembodied hands holding on to each other. One look at this will have customers beating down your door. Or not. Hmmm , it does look a little cheesy. Perhaps if I make the letters different colors? No. What about using real pictures of hands shaking? Eww, kind of creepy. Gee willikers, what’s an entrepreneur to do? What you need my friend is a Graphic Designer. They have worked with text and graphics and figured out some combinations that won’t give folks the heebee-jeebees. In fact , some of it looks pretty good! These guys are all over the place but of course there’s never one around when you need one unless you know where to look. One place to look is freelancer.com. There is a whole nest of them there (more on that in another post). You offer them some money and they give you some logos that don’t suck. You pick the best one, release the funds to your new best friend designer and in return you get something that could go on a business card or web site that won’t make people squeamish. Here is mine.
I talked about Kickstarter and crowd sourcing a couple of years ago on this site, the idea of a group of people contributing to an effort just for the satisfaction. Kickstarter is a web site that has taken it a step farther. Kickstarted got started to fund artistic projects like plays and art exhibitions but after they put it out there the Internet made it their own and know it’s high profile campaigns are products (hardware) and companies trying to launch. A little less altruistic but quite a bit more useful than the original vision. It continues to evolve. A friend of mine uses it to launch games. He has a business developing and selling board/card games. He now uses Kickstarter to fund new games. If he doesn’t raise the desired amount of money it raises a red flag that perhaps the game needs to be modified to make it more appealing. So much better to find this out BEFORE you invest your capital and launch a new product. It is also another way he has 2-way communication with his customers. Kickstarter campaigns (the term they use for projects) have been getting more and more sophisticated and have been gathering more and more money. Below is a campaign to launch a new 3D printer. They hoped to raise $50k and so far they have almost $3M pledged and they still have several weeks to go. Their product seems cool , their campaign is very professional and the people have said “I want one and here is my money”. It makes you wonder, what would have happened to these ideas 10 years ago? What ideas will be see come to light that wouldn’t have stood a chance without these options we have now?
Perhaps you don’t live in Houston but are still lucky enough to live in Texas. There is a good chance you live around Dallas. And if you live around Dallas you need to check out this blog – Dallas Indulge. Beer and food head the list of articles but there is also information on the Arts scene. If it happens in Addison (a suburb of Dallas which has it’s own happenings) you will find the inside scoop over at Dallas Indulge. Stop by and say Hi and soak up some local knowledge from a couple of 20 somethings who are always out on the town. Also, if you are a fan of craft beer , these are your people.
How creative are you? This is from one of the best magazines of all time which most of you will never know – OMNI magazine. It was hip, funny and smart before they grew up into snarky. This was from May 1984. I used to go to the library to read it. I laughed out loud (for real) when I read some of the questions.
Can you relate to Chinese vegetables? Or does your mind have the pizzazz of raw potatoes?
Discover your creativity quotient with this easy-to-score test.
The basic, purpose of this quiz is to knock you off your literal-minded feet and help develop your verbal and mental agility. You can calculate your score at the end to determine your creativity quotient.
Your alarm clock is melting all over your bed. You a. check your cell phone to find out what time it is. (0) b. think about how fast your clock is running. (3) c. ask it, “Why the long face?” (4) d. don’t really worry since the bed is melting into the floor. (5)
Penguin dust is a. something you buy at your neighborhood pet store. (1) b. a phrase in a poem by Gregory Corso. (2) c. fallout registered from an exploding penguin. (3) d. a command to a penguin , given after “Penguin, do the dishes” or “Penguin, cook-.” (5)
What is the square root of 69? a. 8.30662386292. (0) b. It’s obvious. (1) c. Eight something. (3) d. Totally disgusting to imagine. (5)
How do you know when you pass an elephant? a. You see a big, gray thing in’ your rear-view mirror. (3) b. You squash your wide receiver with a completion. (3) c. You feel excruciating pain. (4) d. You can’t close the toilet seat. (5)
The sequel to “Nude Descending a staircase” would be a. “The Same Nude Three Steps Farther Down ,” (1) b. “Nude Sliding Down Bannister.” (3) c. “Nude Ascending Staircase.” (3) d. “Nude Posing on The Landing.” (5)
There is a tiny rabbit climbing up your nose. What color is he? a. There is no rabbit on my nose. (1) b. There is no tiny rabbit— the lavender wombat ate him. (4) c. Khaki. (1) d. Which one of the rabbits are you talking about? (5) What wiped out the dinosaurs? a. The swamps dried up. (1) b. The Ice Age. (1) c. Furry little animals. (1) d. Penguin dust. (5)
My favorite television show is a. Fantasy Island. ( – 5.) b. The A Team. (1) c. Sesame. Street. (3) d. The test pattern. (5)
Humpty Dumpty fell off the wall why? a. Obesity. (2) b. Misunderstanding of the laws of physics. (3) c. Death wish. (3) d. Misdirected sex drive. (5)
How many angels can fit on the head of a pin? a. Straight pin or safety pin? ( – 5) b. Forty-four. (0) c. Forty-six (1) d. About as many as can fit in the finger hole of a bowling bail. (5)
Vocabulary test: scintilla , cartoucfie, synaptic, and skoobedoo. Of the above, I knew, without looking them up, the meaning of a. none of them. (2) b. two of them. (3) c. three of them. (4) d. all five words. (5)
My favorite poet is a. I don’t read poetry (1) b. Dylan Thomas. (1) c. Joyce Kilmer, (1) d. Gregory Corso, author of Penguin Dust. (5)
EXPLANATIONS Each number in parentheses indicates the creativity rating for that answer. Ratings of zeros, ones, or twos are signs that you are pretty neutral in the creativity department, Threes, fours, and fives show you have some verbal agility and imagination. Any score of minus five indicates a very disturbed personality.
WHAT YOUR SCORE MEANS
0 or less— Raw potatoes have more pizzazz than you. With some effort you can understand certain comic strips and cartoon drawings.
1 to 20 — You -have tried a crossword puzzle and once stepped inside an art museum. You are reasonably fluent in the English language.
21 to 59— You idolize Baudelaire and Rimbaud.. You enjoy Proust and wear black most of the time. dealing with average people is too painful for you.
60— You are dangerously insightful, practically unemployable, and probably psychotic. You can identify with Hamlet. You may also identify with vegetables, particularly Chinese. |
While working on my robotics project I ran into this. It’s called a Strnadbeest. A Strandbeest or “beach beast” is the work of Dutch artist/engineer Theo
