Trivia that matter
If you ever encounter someone who hacks websites, shoot to kill.
I’m back, but it’s going to take a while to restore everything.
Update: A Christmas present from my ISP:
(I’m posting this from the office where the internet does work on this lovely brown Christmas morning.)
I recently checked out some more fractal generators for Macs. The most capable of this batch was Fractal Domains, which has numerous options for stylizing and coloring the fractal. It costs $20 if you want to export the results, though you can grab screen captures if you’re really cheap. The creator’s to-do list includes adding the capability of recording animations, but that is probably two updates away.
Fraqtive only does Mandelbrot and Julia sets, and it has fewer options for coloring. However, it’s free. The most recent version is capable of recording animations, but that version hasn’t been ported to the Mac yet.
The images Fractal Architect generates look more like abstract expressionism than mathematics. There is a free version, but it has severe limits on exporting. The interface is confusing, and trial-and-error doesn’t quickly yield interesting results.
Fractal Domains and Fraqtive are worth trying if you are interested in psychedelic paisley and endlessly intricate designs. However, the generators I looked at previously are probably better choices, and both of them, Xaos and Ultra Fractal, are capable of recording animations.
It’s going to be a few months before I return to the botanical garden, so here’s a toy soldier instead. Helicon Focus‘ RAW-to-DNG feature let me get decent exposures despite the miserable lighting.
A parenthetical comment from Eve Tushnet’s review of Krampus:
(The script also relies heavily on foul language for humor. Censorship is the mother of creativity, people.)
Remember this?
Michael Dudok de Wit, who made it, is working on his first feature film, The Red Turtle, due out next September. Studio Ghibli is co-producing it.
Another de Wit short, “Father & Daughter,” won an Oscar. It’s a bit weepy for my taste, though pleasing to the eye.
“Tidy” and “organized” are not synonyms.
Coming soon, but probably not to Wichita.
Natsume Yuujin-cho, episode 9.
Our unraveling as a nation draws ever nearer. When we can no longer look at the deaths of others without seeing whether those deaths can be bent to serve some political narrative, time has pretty well run out.
See also Professor Mondo.
Here’s yet another Touhou arrangement, this one of Mamizou Futatsuiwa’s theme from Ten Desires. I’m not entirely happy with this and may revisit it someday, but I want to move on to fresh disasters.
Here’s the latest accumulation of nonsense, ranging from slightly silly to extremely silly. As usual, I forget where I found most of these.
The “Most Wanted Song” is nowhere near as interesting.
Continue reading “Music for banjo, tuba, bagpipes and soprano. And accordion. And kids.”
A cheerful little ghost story, by way of Wonderduck.
Here’s the source, featuring Gene Kelly and Donald O’Connor.
More fun with Helicon Focus. The image above was assembled from 50 frames, the one below from 55, all at f5.6. The final depth of field in both cases is about an inch and a half. Click to see at full resolution.
Update: Uploaded a better version of the Humvee.
Even when the neighbors are quiet, the earth itself can be rather inconsiderate.
… are good songs about dogs.
Can you find the online version of the Wichita Eagle in the screencap above?
This year the local comic convention was within reasonable bicycle distance, so I visited it today and grabbed a few snapshots of the cosplay. Here are a couple. I’ll be posting them at my Flickr page as I edit them.
Update: Another W.W. variation.
… is a cheerful song or two about pigs.
