Radioactive Lemon

The New Order

2008-08-01T23:29:00.003-07:00

I will not delude myself in thinking that anyone reads this blog. Therefore, if you perchance happen to see this on facebook, my advice is to ignore it. That disclaimer in place, I can now relieve myself of the shackles of coherency and keeping interest. This is more an exercise in fluency and willpower.

It seems all of my posts begin with, "It has been so long, etc. I've been busy, etc." When I haven't been doing anything particularly interesting, "creating," I tend to neglect writing. It is so much more natural to speak for me. I guess that is why I've never been able to keep a journal for any extended period of time. The last time I did, it was for the express purpose of giving it to someone dear to me at the time. Fairly doubious act, to be honest. If something important happens to me, I tell friends in order to have something to talk about. After a while, the "news" fail to be fresh and interesting, and it is demoted to my memory, to be forgotten eventually. Sad.

Looking over my old posts from various "start and stop" blogs I've had makes me smile. I guess the mood I've been in is what others call "maturity" or "growing up." I remember the things that I cared about and am very amused, at the same time more or less apathetic. Is this what maturity entails? Apathy?

I'm changing. I've always wanted this change to be for the better, an evolutionary process upward. Looking back, I feel like I'm losing something of myself. I guess this is the reason for this newest burst of lyricism, a desire to preserve. At least I'll know this is what Anton, age 19, was worried about in 2008.

What does all of this mean? Well, it means I will try to write more often, eventually fill in the gaps in the last few months of my life. Also, that I have succumbed to the annoying and uninteresting tendency of writing about myself. Hopefully if I put it in writing, I'll be able to commit to writing regularly. As I have been told that I am a fairly private person, this should also provide an opportunity to get a first approximation to the inner workings of my brain, for those interested. Finally, you (... um me? ...) should see things I have found on the internet that may be of interest to others.

-Anton, Commander of Pants

Hm... Yeah.

2008-02-03T00:19:00.000-07:00

So, clearly I haven't been updating very often. I have to say a lot has changed in my thinking and doing. But I'm too lazy to write about it just yet. So, I offer some random things I've found on the internet! :)

* Hackety.org - A blog about random hackish things by _why. Specifically, about various interesting languages, art, geekish things, all in strange convoluted prose. Always interesting. Especially cause _why always hacks interesting stuff together.
* Processing - A programming language based on Java that is specifically designed for artists and designers. Seems to be very popular for creating digital artish thingies. Good thing to learn.
* GeneratorX.no - An event that explores computational art. "Art from Code". Pretty cool stuff to watch.
* Conspiracy.hu - a demoscene group with some valuable articles about coding, etc. If you are not familiar with the demoscene, I'd recommend checking out:
* Scene.org - a collection of downloadable demos by various groups from release parties. You will a really fast graphics card to render them. But the amount of stuff you can pack in 64K is AMAZING!

This goes with my current trend with a dash of Bohemia. My friends and I have been writing songs about tits and mustaches and apple sauce. Yes, it is amazing. Anyway, moving on.

* RlsLog.net - a blog about current scene releases. Yeah, nuff said.

Well, that's about all I've wanted to share, I guess.

The track of the day will be Adiemus (Radio Mix) by Enya via youtube.

Oh and this one. The chorus is catchy. VengaBoys - Boom Boom Boom.

Till next time.

Over

2007-05-14T18:45:00.000-07:00

So in a the fall of my relationship with Angie the story of which would make a great Emo song, I've been wondering...

What keeps people together?
How long is long enough to get over it?
If it slows you down, why does it feel so good and safe?
Why does a relationship cause you to stop thinking?
Where is a good bridge to jump off of in Chandler, AZ?

Oh well. Screw it all.

I never did take you on a date...

2007-04-04T17:21:00.000-07:00

2007-04-04T17:16:00.000-07:00

2007-04-04T16:56:00.000-07:00

2007-04-04T16:54:00.001-07:00

Back!

2007-02-11T14:19:00.000-07:00

So I haven't posted in a while. Well, here's what's been up in roughly chronological order.

I finally got my driver's license! It took me a year (my permit expired). Test was pretty easy, and I passed with 3 or 4 checks (for speeding - going 31 MPH in 25 mph zone...). Now, I still can't drive anywhere due to lack of insurance! Blast!

Lesse, I have gotten back to my cubing hobby for a week. I finally learned to do my 5x5 professor's cube. Of course it takes me like 40 min. I stopped because I had dreams where I would analyze rotations, and I've stopped paying attention in class. But it is done now! Yes!

Munchkin takes up my lunch periods at school now. My girlfriend thinks I make up the rules so she finds it annoying and doesn't like to play. Oh well. I've already bought an expansion for it (the unnatural axe).

The ability to pay for stuff has been provided by my tutoring people. I now tutor two people. Still no "real" job, but tutoring pays well.

My hard drive started making strange clicking noises and died. This has been the 2nd one this month. Something is really up. My dad blames Linux, of course. Actually, linux is the only thing that runs and doesn't do horrible things to my hardware...

Yesterday, Angie and I went to the Coronation Dance and shook our groove thangs. It was pretty fun. I'll post pictures as soon as I get some (pictures).

Today is my mom's birthday! Yay! I made salad.

And with today's aimless browsing, here's what I found online:

* Tea Mushroom (or Kombucha as it is called here) is a tangy drink made of fermented tea. You can make some with instructions here, here (via instructables.com), and here (via Wikipedia). I know it looks gross, but actually it is very good. I used to love it as a kid. Would come over to our neighbors and drink it a bunch. Yeah. I'll start making it when I actually complete some of the other stuff I do... and stop being lazy.

* Here is a pretty cool website about tesla coils and other high voltage stuff. I wish I actually understood the physics I was taught this summer. That's it. I'm going to read that stuff again.

* Here is an instructable on making an "Ikea" dj table. Pretty cool. Too expensive though :o)

* This guy makes a "portable" xbox 360 laptop. I still think real laptops are better. Pretty cool anyway...

Frickin' Parity Error!

2007-02-07T14:52:00.001-07:00

2007-01-31T09:27:00.000-07:00

2007-01-31T07:36:00.000-07:00

You Tube Goodness

2007-01-25T21:07:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been finding more and more creative ways to do nothing online. Here is some stuff I've found:
This gem is called the evolution of dance:
evolution of dance
This one is some crazy robot dances. The second performer is insanely good. Wow.
Robot Dances
Many impersonations of singers over the Bohemian Rhapsody
Bohemian Rhapsody
A cool instrument. Strange and impractical, but cool nonetheless.
IntracTable

2006-12-30T18:10:00.001-07:00

Finally Updated

2006-11-30T18:53:00.000-07:00

So, it has been fairly quiet on here for a while, huh? I haven't died, don't worry.
I finally dug through my pictures on ye old flash card and here are the gems I procured!

This is Angie and me after the choir concert a while ago.... Didn't know about this one. Anyway, here's a group photo featuring Jamie M. and Steve S.

For Halloween (I know it was like forever ago now...) I traveled down to Savers on the I-10 and Elliot and for a mere $10 I had myself the experience of wearing a dress and wig. The theme was Pretty Pretty Swedish Princess. Now the QC disclamer
(disclaimer: wearing QC merch is not guaranteed to make you a Pretty Pretty Princess) doesn't apply to me. Anyway, here's what came out of the trip. This is me before I went over to Angie's to go trick or treating. She went all out on me making me put on makeup and pantyhose that were way to small. Also I acquired sock breasts. Uck. Never doing that again. Only masculine kilts and wraps from now on (like my gladiator costume!).

Lesse... The whole thing with the lockpicking went well.... I got my picks (having waited like two weeks and spending $50 bucks on it :( - Oh well. That is the price of knowledge). I found out that you can make your own picks for about 70 cents each if you have a grinder (I don't). There are links to videos and information to that in my del.icio.us bookmarks (see the sidebar -> ). I'll put up a picture as soon as the batteries charge for my camera... (don't you hate to have to do that?)

Hm, as for the DDR pad, it is in the works, but has been put on hold indefinitely as I finish my college apps and try to improve my grades (I have two C's ! Never had so low a grade...). I bought the lumber and stuff for less than $20! I'll add pictures soon, also.

I've been doing various web design stuff. Namely, I designed a template for my mom's art website at Tytchinskaya Art Studio. This site's gallery is generated with a Ruby script. It does the resizing and generates the html too...

Ruby is teh awesome. Speaking of Ruby, I recently bought The Ruby Way. Turns out it costs $23.99 now. I bought it for 40. Damn it.

Hm. I also, went to go see the Pick of Destiny recently. I'll need to write about it later. This post is already y too long. Anyway, until next time :)

- Your special sauce.

PS> Angie, you are not my only friend! Oh and in your face! I did update. Ha haha ha!

2006-11-30T14:20:00.000-07:00

Small Post

2006-11-06T01:19:00.000-07:00

Ok, so sorry for not updating (Then again, only I'll be reading this, so...).
I didn't die, I was just busy. I promise to write about what I did on Halloween, (Sweedish pretty pretty princess goodness!), my piano competition, the SAT II scores, DDR pad supplies and continuation... It is all coming.

In addition, some musings as to Why the FuCK I am doing a government paper about 7 hours before it is due. It is 1:22 am right now. I'm pissed.

Oh yeah, and I will need to write about computer troubles/time worthlessly spent!

That's it! I'll get back to writing my masterpeice of BS!

--- The new Dali Lama

Mondays again.

2006-10-30T17:57:00.000-07:00

People started asking me whether I am doing weed. I thought about that today. It's as if I am on weed, but without the weed. I seem to have gotten so lazy recently. I've skipped a few assignments, stopped really paying attention.Yeah. I will fix that. Eventually.

So today was a weird day. Angie got pissed at me for no apparent reason. Oh well. We'll work it out, I'm sure. Though I am pissed.

Anyway, in actually interesting news, I have taken up the DDR pad again. In fact, I bought all necessary materials, and will begin construction sometime this week (probably the weekend). I am happy to report that the grand total for my project was less than $20 dollars! I am quite proud considering that other peoples' pads are over $100. That is the cost of authenticity I guess.

My dad pointed out that having switches in the pad is a really bad idea. So, he suggested a capacitance button. Yay! No moving parts. So, we'll see how that works out.

I also renewed my interest in lockpicking. For those that are interested as well, I suggest this wikipedia article as well as this online store. However, be aware of the legal consequences of possesion of lockpicks. Check your state/federal laws reguarding this. For example, in Arizona,this falls on Chapter 13 section 15-05:

13-1505. Possession of burglary tools; master key; manipulation key; classification
A. A person commits possession of burglary tools by:
1. Possessing any explosive, tool, instrument or other article adapted or commonly used for committing any form of burglary as defined in sections 13-1506, 13-1507 and 13-1508 and intending to use or permit the use of such an item in the commission of a burglary.
2. Buying, selling, transferring, possessing or using a motor vehicle manipulation key or master key.
B. Subsection A, paragraph 2 of this section does not apply to a person who either:
1. Uses a master key in the course of the person's lawful business or occupation, including licensed vehicle dealers and manufacturers, key manufacturers who are engaged in the business of designing, making, altering, duplicating or repairing locks or keys, locksmiths, loan institutions that finance vehicles and law enforcement.
2. Transfers, possesses or uses no more than one manipulation key, unless the manipulation key is transferred, possessed or used with the intent to commit any theft or felony.
C. Possession of burglary tools is a class 6 felony.

link

So be careful. Don't do anything stupid.

Let's see. Also, I've also become interested in DJ'ing. For this, I've found an interesting tool called BpmDJ and this book. Yay!

Also, I've been notified that our Engineering Club will be doing FIRST and there are some pretty awesome mentors involved. AKA Kick-ASS! I wanted to do this last year, so I'm pretty excited. They're going to need C coders, and I guess I'm the only one that is even close :).

Also, I'm going to need to make us a website. I already agreed to make a website for our NHS club. I was interested in RoR so it was all RoR-like. Except then exams happened. And it ground to a halt. To this day (a month or so since) it is in the SVN repository somewhere. Oh well. I guess I should just give them the HTML sources and that's it. I should probably do the same for Engineering Club.

Well, yeah. That's about it. Thanks for reading (someone?) :).

Homecoming 2006

2006-10-24T17:02:00.000-07:00

Well, homecoming came and i have to say, it was almost as good as prom last year. Angie had this amazing silver dress on. It was really soft and silky. For dinner we went with friends to Di bepos. The portions were huge! Anyway, Angie ordered pizza (as usual :) ), and we split it. We ordered a small, and we couldn't finish it. Hanging out with the Asian crowd was alright, but we didn't really have that much in common. They ditched us as soon as we got to the dance, but we were actually happy that happened :).

Then we went in to the dance. It was kind of akward at first, because no one was dancing and it was fairly cold, but eventually, people were drawn to the dance floor and I could now dance my inherent whiteness behind the crowd. Honestly, it was the first time after having a girlfriend that I didn't feel that bound to behave in any certain dance. Usually, I would run off and do something crazy, but after being with Angie, I couldn't do that. But this dance, I didn't even feel that obligated to stay. I just wanted to.

Well, afterwards, we walked to her house, (I'm a nerd! I walk! :) ). Unfortunately I couldn't stay ;).

Overall, I really enjoyed the dance, especially with Angie wearing that dress :) .

Home Made RAID Array

2006-10-22T20:31:00.000-07:00

This isn't really a real post, just writing stuff down to get it off my mind.

I've recently been thinking about building my own RAID array for file server use (as I keep running out of space). Here are some links to look at...

Poor man's RAID at InventGeek

eBay RAID Controller Search

DIY NAS Built on Desktop Linux and Hardware RAID

Build a Cheap and Fast RAID 5 NAS

Other interesting links (misc) i've found today.
Various tools by a Gentoo developer

Ok. Now to be totally screwed by my Rome project for Ms. Dempsey. Stupid busy work!

State Fair Goodness 2006!

2006-10-19T22:01:00.000-07:00

Well, That was the last time I went to the State Fair with the choir. I don't really feel that bad about it, not because I didn't like it, but because I know I'm moving forward and I'm excited what I'll see and do.
Anyway, the Fair was awesome. The crazy amount of people, shady food and rides of questionable safety always get me excited :). I have to say though that the fair was really expensive. Overall, Angie and I probably spent over 60 bucks. That's ridiculous! Oh well.
I have to say, the Ferris Wheel was the best. We went on it twice; that's how awesome it was, though too short.
In the spirit of this blog, here are some pictures!

Here is Angie after we got wet on the waterlog ride at the State Fair. She sat in the front :).

"In Motion" at the park with all the gang!

Raisa and Shuba exclaiming about the "insaneness" of the rides. They were afraid to go on them :). I really like Raisa's expression.

This is Hebert giving us the pep talk before we went to the Fiar.

Steve and Jamie

2006-10-19T18:36:00.000-07:00

(Friday, 20th)Aww! They're cute. Their relations are in danger cause Jamie fell in love with the hot bassist from NAU today. :)

Homecoming Plan 2006

2006-10-18T20:37:00.000-07:00

Disclamer: Do not repeat. Likely to make you look retarded/racist. Also, please don't be offended. This is meant as a joke. I do like black people, I promise. Also, since I know Angie reads this blog (no one else would :) ), please don't read until tomorrow!

Alright. Here's the lowdown. So to ask Angie to Homecoming I decided to write a rap. Here it is:

Now I told everyone I am almost black/
like an Oreo, Yeah I'm doin' the rap /

So taking inspiration from DDR and Sher /
I would like to show a certain lady that I really do care/

I hope that lady will recall/ how last fall/ she took a chance/
and we pranced/
(no beat)
in a mannor that can only be described as random body movement

Anyway, a year and a month since/it was the best year of my life, it made sense/
I hope she will see/ that we were meant to be/
So tell me baby/ Will you go to Homecoming with me?

Yeah, so isn't great, but hopefully she'll think its cute. :). Now for the costume!
A few hours and a quick run to Basha's later, I have my bling all good and ready! :)
Here are some pics for your Paparazzi enjoyment :). I'm going to go do homework!

DDR Plans (part II)

2006-10-18T18:26:00.000-07:00

Well, like I said before, I will be using a keyboard to attach buttons to. I have gutted it, and I have pictures :).

If anyone wants to do this themselves, and are unable to take the case apart, make sure you unscrewed everything. There were some tricky screws under the rubber "legs" of this keyboard.

Inside, quite compact (very good :) ) I found a microcontroller that claimed itself to be a Chicony MC17003.

The buttons aren't capacitance based, but are actually simple switches. Thus, adding buttons should be as simple as randomly pluging in switch leads between the two black headers. Of course, one would have to avoid buttons like ctrl, shift, enter, winkey... stuff like that. This will be guess work.

Now to test the buttons. Here's my testing "rig" :) :

By the highly scientific method of "poke-and-check," I have concluded that the best "rows" to use will be somewhere around the 7th slot on the bigger of the headers.
If you use linux (I do), you have an excellent program at your disposal called showkeys. Run it with the -a command to see which keys your poking corresponds with. Here is my output.

That's all I'm going to do today. Check back soon for more DDR pad goodness ;).
Out.

Procrastination as a Solution to all of Life's Problems

2006-10-17T22:11:00.000-07:00

"And that will pass." - King Solomon

And with that in mind, I am choosing to neglect schoolwork to design a logo for my blog. Guess what it will be?
That's right. A radioactive lemon.

Wish me luck! I have no skill whatsoever in GIMP or Inkscape. Well, chance to learn I guess!

DDR Plans (part I)

2006-10-17T17:04:00.000-07:00

So, recently I have become fairly addicted to DDR. After discovering that there is a wonderful emulator for it called StepMania that runs on Windows and Linux (!) I played it over spring break (instead of studying for SAT II's :) ). However, as I got better, my hacked Kraft pad (which you can get here) wouldn't cut it anymore.

Thus a plan to build my own pad was born. The other pad plans that I saw online were just too expensive to make for a poor student like me. My goal is to make a fairly usable pad for less than $20.
Here are my criteria:

Cheap

Functionality is the main priority

The exact dimensions aren't that important

No masochism including:
Bending metal

Cutting an inch off of each 12"x12" pad block

Use as much material lying around as possible

So the basic plan is to use available materials, making up the actual plan while doing the project in my spare time. In order to satisfy the cheap requirement, I decided to use an old, broken USB keyboard (picture)...

... to act as the controller, as StepMania supports keyboard input, and its just easier and more importantly cheaper than breaking apart a gamepad (no d-pad hacking required too!).

The pad base will be two 2'x4'x1/4" particle board panels. I want to make it fairly portable so I will add a hinge so that the pad will be foldable. I'll post the pictures later, when I'm that far.

The arrow buttons will be 12"x12" pieces (instead of the standard 11"x11") of different colored linoleum glued to a harder material, probably more particle board. The sensors used will be surface mount switches attached in parallel to the keyboard controller, surrounded by some kind of squishy material like mousepads.

We'll see how this will work out. Wish me luck! :)

My Beautiful Girlfriend

2006-10-16T21:19:00.001-07:00

A Day in the Life... Part one of Many

2006-10-16T11:11:00.001-07:00

Today was a fairly interesting day. By that I mean I've done some very stupid things.

First, I was late to school 'cause I overslept. Everyone in Calculus is used to that though. Well, later in government class, we somehow started talking about birth control. Apparently, it is now legal to buy birth control over the counter (again), and the girl doesn't even have to be 18. Yay, I guess. I asked the class what would happen if a guy took the pill, and Cierra (a very activist girl in my class) replied that I would get a massive dose of female harmones. "So I would grow breasts? Sweet!" was my reply. Ms. Adams, my govt. teacher looked at me wierd, and the class laughed. Well, that was fun.

After choir, I had a dentist appointment where I would get this...

...put into my mouth to replace the temporary crown I got. Well, everything seemed great except I kind of bled and the crown didn't fit :). So, I'll have to do it again next tuesday. Alright.

I didn't feel well because of anesthetic that I got injected (they thought they were going to have to cut my gum) so I didn't really feel like going back to school. I was excused for the rest of the day so I just hung out on campus. I went to Ms. Moran's chemistry class with Angie, and apparently Ms. Moran really doesn't like Angie. That's frustrating. She snapped at me, because Ms. Moran yelled at her. :(. Oh well.

Anyway, later, I hung out with Adam, from choir, and played guitar. Well, I played guitar; Adam mostly spaced out. He gave me a link to his myspace (adam weingart). You can tell what he's into from myspace... I thought he was pretty cool but geez, he is so f*ed up with the stuff he does. He locked his keys in his truck, by the way.

Anyway, I jammed on his guitars; I really liked his 12-string guitar, by the way. My mom apparently called my cell phone something like 7 times, but I didn't hear it. She called Angie (who was working...) and both were really worried. I felt really bad about it... So much for visiting her at Basha's...

If this is what it's like to be a sterotypical American teenager, I want out...

So now I'm going to work on my DDR pad idea. I'll post the project as soon as I get somewhat underway...

Also, I need to work on that thing that I am going to do to ask Angie to the Homecoming dance this saturday. Details later... when I'm done :). You'll also get pictures, because I have to many MMS messages left :).

Out.

Compatability issues everywhere! Yay!

2006-10-15T23:58:00.000-07:00

Hm, Konqueror and this richtext editor aren't friends. This isn't good. Oh well. Good bye browser-based rich text posting, I guess. Oh well.

I'm tired, and there's school tomorrow.

Goodnight.

This is how we do homework

2006-10-15T23:41:00.000-07:00

Why not a picture to start out the shiny new RadLem blog? Well, here is my cat, Kiki laying on my table while i'm attempting to do something useful. Here's to a lustrous blogging career!