Endless Path

Been really busy studying up on Physics, anyone pro at electrical fields and forces who wouldn't mind helping me out a bit would be greatly appreciated. Also have a test Friday so I won't be around to do updates till the weekend, sorry folks.

Following Advice

So, I took up some advice on using a pillow sheet and placing the flash behind, except I used a tshirt instead. And I just had some fun with it, tweaking the location and angle. So here's a few test shots that once I start reviewing doesn't seem too great due to shadows and the transition of color. T-shirt might have been too thick or flash too close.

My daily vitamins I started taking while working outs. Smells horrible, takes a cup of water to swallow.

Was my first shot, trying to get a feel for shadows and lighting with something simple. Didn't look as bad when I was reviewing it.

Totally didn't come out as expected, had opened up the aperture and still got some major blurring, that and I didn't even bother to wipe them down for dust and fingerprints.

Had these lying on my desk after charging for my flash and figured I could shoot them to see if they gave some cool shadows but didn't come out as clean as I'd hope. Probably need to put the light closer and point it down for the effect I was looking for.

I'll get better at this eventually, love these types because I can arrange them however I want and have all the time to decide what to shoot.

Music Saturday

Waiting for the Taylor Swift album on Monday and listening to an audio book called "A Brief History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson. What's on your playlist or recommended listening?

Close of another week

It's that day again, just gotta get through it and claim your prize of the weekend. Seize the day! and enjoy a good song while you're at it

Super Super Late

Want to take this time to show you a little about this Light Box I was talking about.

But first there's this guy, he's been with me for years. Been abused in the heat sitting in my car for a couple years. Sat in pieces in my closet till I found all of him. Now he usually sits on my server protecting it from failing or other invaders.

Some comparison shot so you can get a scale of how big he actually is. That's a quarter, and that's the origami I folded up on Monday. He's tiny, but extremely durable as you can probably see from his wear in the first photo.

And now the actual box. Yea, it's just a box, like I said, with a sheet of printer paper in the back. I know it's technically not even a cheap DIY lightbox, but meh, follows the same principles of bouncing light and lets me remove a lot of shadows. I'll have to upgrade the box and come up with something when I plan to shoot anything bigger than a quarter.

Rainy Egg

Quickly took a few shots in the rain. Basically just felt like taking a picture of an egg, an egg I've been saving for some kind of project. Hollowed it out awhile ago and it's been sitting on my bookshelf for several months. What stuff do you have lying around saving for some random occasion or saving just cause?

Obligatory 100 Follower Post

Thanks for all the support. As I get more used to my schedule and plan accordingly, I'll have more time to adventure out and get some pics of the area and maybe learn some photoshop skills. Plan to keep spending at least 1-2 hours a day viewing and commenting on several blogs daily. Have a great week, I know I'm having one now.

Round 2

Looks much better; opened up the aperture to 4 so I still get some depth and liked my flash placement. The slight burning of the corners was due to actual light, not photoshoped, and was cropped so wasn't the lens. Like the effect of bouncing the light, but may want to create a larger scale of this for some other things. Still playing around with the light though.

Makeshift lightbox

So I decided to do a little testing with a piece of printer paper in a box and I guess I didn't have enough light to focus correctly and object is too small. Going to try again later.

Falling Behind

Used today to really catch up on homeworks. Heh, take 1 week off for lazying around and it really piles up fast.

Late Saturday

I'm finally back, did pretty bad on my test, but it's alright. Got the weekend to make up for its.

Made it through another week

You know what to do.

Your own hiding place

Get it. I'm sure this guy will lend you a box to hide in. He'll never notice once you get under it. Be on tomorrow for my rounds, or tonight while taking a break from studying.

Late Wednesday

Everyone has their own little hiding place. I've been in mine due to tests this week, but will start again this weekend after I fail them =\.

TV Tuesday

I present to you the TV man, another semi lame photo from my collection. Holidays are creeping up, meaning more photo opportunities for me. What are you excited for in the upcoming months?

Night Time Stroll

Stepping stones. It's hard to motivate myself to do stuff in the afternoon, what do you do to stay on top of your work or just stay active and get out there?

42

Happy answer to the universe and everything day. Sorry for the late update, but I'm having to search old drives and such for some decent photos. Still no new ones for awhile so bear with me a bit.

Ready for the Weekend

Getting ready to go outs exploring and such. Hope everyone has an active weekend.

Getting Close

Getting closer to that date. Remember to keep it safe for the holidays, still got 2 major ones in the following months. I don't count new years as much a holiday just cause..   Enlighten me if you think I should think of it as a major holiday besides staying up at night to watch fireworks on TV.

Ordinary Thursdays

This odd tree was taken at Spaceship park, in... somewhere, think PV. Anyways, this weekend I'll definitely go out somewhere to find some new pics. Any suggestions? City? Park? Beach? Stuff?

Happy Hump Day

The world can be a wondrous place, you just have to find the wonder.

Round and Round

Another Tuesday that's almost finished, another week revolving, another month starting, another year ending. Round and Round everything goes. How do you get out of the spiral?

Hiding out

Hi guys, you found me.

Monday Charge

Time to blast into Monday. Charging forward at the start of the week.

Another Sunday

It's Sunday, so I thought I'd share this picture I took from inside a church in Pepperdine University in Malibu.

Easy Saturday

Easygoing Saturday. Enjoying the weekend while it lasts.

Simple Wishes

Little bonus Friday pic before the weekend starts.  Anyone know any interesting places around Los Angeles to take pics?  Might as well stock up on the weekend.

Friday's here at last

Smoking Spider-man says enjoy your Friday.

Headlights

Interesting mod for those types of headlights.

Sat down under a tree and practiced panning for an hour or so.  One of the better ones from that experiment.

Winding Down

Have a nice evening.

Come for a walk

Take a little time by yourself and relax.  Go for a walk, enjoy your life.

Unrealistic Nemesis

Let's face it, the enemies in just about every show, movie, book, etc, are all retarded.  They lose their opportunity to destroy, devastate, or even kill because of their hesitation.  Often times they have the hero in their grasp, and allow for strategic or other fallacy to ruin their victory.  Can't we have a better class of villains that don't require such hesitation and are able to send fear into the audience and leave us rooting for the hero to vanquish evil?  Ultraviolet seems to stand out the highest on my list when considering the rooftop gunfight.  Why would they wait for her to walk into your circle, and why would you form a circle when you're shooting guns.  I understand it makes the movie flow, but having this scene tears away from reality and introduces the super retarded villain.  Also poor planning, you have that much time to organize people on a roof, why not position someone in another building to snipe or a bomb somewhere to ensure victory.

My mindless rantings on unrealistic situations.

Learning Python

First, a little introduction on my background in programming.  My first language was C++, and that was several years ago.  I used it for a year, maybe 2, and haven't even touched it since.  During that break I immediately learned some java, mainly basic syntax and some GUI.  After that I had a class on UNIX, where I learned some bash and got some VI experience.  All in all, I feel as if I know next to nothing about programming, so I can only offer my opinion on the best way to learn Python.

First, I tried working on Windows.  Installing Python was easy, finding idle wasn't quite so easy.  It's in the Lib\idlelib\ folder of the Python folder.  This alone isn't the problem with using windows.  However, this seems irrelevant when I want to run a file using command line of something like "python ex1.py" and it either shows as python is not a known command or ex1.py is not found.  I didn't want to have to deal with these issues in the beginning, so I went on my laptop loaded with a current version of CentOs with Python 2.4.  This was extremely easy to begin with; the terminal automatically recognizes the python command and execute files.  This also gave me practice in using VI, one of the most powerful word editors and definitely the most basic on UNIX.

So that's the start, at least as I remember it a few weeks ago.  From there, I skimmed some popular introduction guides found from reddit.  Based on my needs of having to do stuff, and then analyze how it’s done, I went with Zed A. Shaw's guide of Learn Python the Hard Way (http://learnpythonthehardway.org/home).  It provides several examples detailing each command with enough practice that you understand what the command does.  This was the most useful because it immerses you in experience.  Questions are asked between typing in order to help gauge your understanding on what is happening and why so you know what you're doing and not just typing.  The exercises go through quick if you have the time.  I typed them all and thought the progression could have gone a bit faster as the first 6 exercises were mainly on the print function and built in math.  If you have any previous programming experience, or a couple hours of free time a day, this will take less than 2 weeks to finish and understand.

The bigger problem is where to go from there.  You barely know the basic syntax and data storage.  There are many suggestions to read code, however you haven't seen all the data types or how they're possibly used.  Next, I'd suggest you quickly go through the intro chapters of How to Think Like a Computer Scientist (http://openbookproject.net/thinkcs/python/english2e/).  After that, slowly go through the new material so you can understand how data and memory are managed.  These are very important as you begin to deal with pointers and such.

That's as far as my expertise goes, I'll keep you posted on my progress as I continue to learn.  Another word of advice though, have a goal in mind.  What do you want to program? A game? What kind? Database? Address book? Website parser? Calculator for advanced equations? Daily Schedule?  Just have something in mind that you want to do, you're only as good and determined as the work you complete.

Zombie Analysis - Part 1

Biology/Anatomy

Forewarning, I will try my best to cover a wide range of zombie varieties and cite the source of any specialized ones.

Basic Traits

     Zombies function solely from brain activity; as long as the brain is intact, they are able to move and attack.  Zombies do not deliberately attack one another; usually proven wrong with the introduction of advanced or specialized zombies.  Nerves are destroyed or blocked resulting in painless beings.  Keen sense of sound, are able to detect wide range of sounds and immediately determine direction of origin.

Alright, similarities are few when I recall various interpretations of zombies.

Movement

     Zombies are able to tirelessly move; requiring no nourishment or rest.  Many series such as Left 4 Dead and 28 Days/Weeks show zombies that are able to run at their maximum speed for a seemingly unlimited time.  Also from these series, zombies have advanced motor skills and are able to easily climb stairs and other obstacles fairly easily.  Other series such as Shaun of the Dead or High school of the Dead represent the slow moving and clumsy zombie.  These meander around and are somehow able to maintain standing position, even when knocked down.  Surprisingly, they are able to climb stairs or avoid obstacles with little to no trouble.  These speculations show that zombie brains still contain moderately advanced motor skills from previous life. 

    

Infection

     Infection to a host is usually caused by general attack; i.e., biting of the flesh.  Once this has occurred, the victim has a few minutes at most before the transformation is complete.  Based on this, the cause is most likely bacteria living in zombies' mouths.  Contamination via saliva or other bodily fluids seems very possible, however is rarely seen in any depiction as this would result in near total and instant annihilation.  Once infection occurs, the victim is no longer savory and thus no longer attacked.  The need for new/uninfected flesh is the driving concern when dealing with zombies.  From 28 Days/Weeks, it’s apparent that without human flesh to feast on, they will eventually starve and die causing mixed feelings on the best approach for the situation.

    

These are only a few possible analyses of zombies and I plan to delve more into this subject in future posts as I examine zombie origins and real world scenarios.