Elections and such

So, the presidential election is all fine and well, but I always feel it is important to be informed for the smaller, regional/local elections that happen as well. This year is particularly difficult, because while I am now a Pennsylvania resident, my heart is still in Kentucky, and so it's tough to turn my gaze to this state instead of the one I'm interested in. Sites like this and this are handy for finding out who these people even are and what their schtick is, but any research tips are certainly welcome.

SCIENCE

Here are two pieces of technology that I think are fancy and magic. This touch-screen foil product is a transparent foil that you can apply to the back of a window and then plug into a CPU. Put a rear-projection or LCD monitor behind the window and ta-da! Insta-touchscreen! Heliodisplay is even more magical. It uses compressed air to create a projection surface and infrared to detect if you are touching the display. Check out the free-space interaction video. MAGIC.

Halloween Studio Crawl

Last night was prowling about in the local Goodwill trying to figure out a costume for tonight's Studio Crawl. I have been mildly depressed lately that I haven't really built a good Halloween costume in ages, and was poking about the aisles hoping to be inspired. I began thinking about props I could use, and my bright green parasol came to mind. It was bright green, it was Asian in design, and suddenly...that was it! I would go as an Eastern dragon and tote along my parasol! I was quickly galvanized to scour the Goodwill for any bright green article of clothing I could find. I put together the costume last night and the headpiece this morning. For the headpiece, I used a ball cap and created a dragon face on top with foam and feathers and the like. The bill acted as the dragon's snout, and I was quite pleased with the whole outfit! I even made three-claw gloves out of some purple mittens (it was nice to fire up the sewing machine again). Pictures to come soon, I'm sure. Anyway, I joined up with Edmundo, Carlos, and Rich, and we invaded Schell Games as the League of Awesome. Rich had put together a fantastic steam punk time travel monster-hunter get-up, with a brass-plated gauntlet, a steam-powered shot gun, and other such fun gadgetry. Carlos was a mime, and Edmundo was a classic Frankenstein monster. The details in their costumes was delightful, and the Studio Crawl was great fun. There were other such fun costumes from other IGDA members at the Crawl: Beast in scientist garb, Michael Cera's character from Juno, a Tonks and Lupin duo, and a FANTASTIC Phoenix Wright getup (the guy just modeled his hair out of flat fun-foam, it looked great!). All in all, a great night, and a refreshing one at that. Having a venue to go all costumed up is just the spark I needed after several years of dull or effortless costuming on my part. I feel very much in the Halloween spirit.

Clean clean clean

So, remember back when I said I was going to get rid of something every weekend? Yeah, that didn't happen. I should have known the hectic ETC schedule would get in the way. BUT, I have been making some progress. I disassembled my desk and moved it to the basement, and yesterday I did a massive room-cleaning spree. After 4 bags of trash and 1 bag destined for the Goodwill, I am feeling lighter already. Among purged items include 2 old motherboards, a pair of snowboots that I never ever wear, even when it snows, various trinkets that didn't live up to the sentimentality test, and the like. Next on the cleaning agenda: THE CAR (horrors)

The Wedding

Let me tell you my favorite thing about Kyle. Kyle is a good and clever friend, and it was always great to hang out with him at Basketball (or drag him into Game Jams), but there was always one thing that stood out to me about him.

If Kyle was over and we were playing games or watching cartoons or whatever, sometimes he would get phone calls. You could always tell when it was Angel on the phone.

You see, when he answered the phone to Angel, there would be a sudden, overflowing explosion of love radiating from the entire being that was Kyle. It happened as soon as he said "hello," and would continue to pulse and consume him and anyone lucky enough to be in the same room. This was great, because you would get a wash of residual love, because clearly there was SO much love that it simply could not all fit inside of Kyle, so it would overflow and fill the room and touch anyone that happened to be nearby and stir their hearts. This is the best thing about Kyle.

So, I was honored and excited and pleased to be present at Kyle and Angel's wedding. The whole feeling of the weekend was of intimacy and love, and all of the lucky guests got to absorb a part of that.

I mean, seriously, check out this series of images when Kyle and Angel first see one another on their wedding day. Can you not feel it?

So good! I am so happy and so excited for Kyle and Angel and the rest of their life together. I foresee many good things, and hopefully their infectious orb of love will follow them wherever they go and touch anyone they meet.

Ian is getting his degree in Marine Biology

Ian: "I saw a manatee once, but I thought it was a shark so I ran away." Kyle: "How old were you?" Ian: "It was a couple of years ago."