Post 4, Base64

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-The0

Zombie Walk!

So, a couple of weeks before Halloween last year, I heard of the concept of a Zombie Walk. It's like a flash mob, only instead of everyone just showing up, everyone shows up as zombies. They lurch about town, stopping traffic and generally making unaware citizens give weird looks.

Having no idea how to coordinate a flash mob, and given that the time frame was so small, I did nothing about my desire to actually participate in one. I perused the web and found that there were couple of really good ones that occurred in St. Louis and a couple of other cities. It sounded fun.

I think the idea of a flash mob is to simply show up with approximately NO warning, thus planning a flash mob is a little counter-intuitive. Nevertheless, I have decided that by the time Halloween rolls around this year, I will have organized and conducted a successful Zombie Walk.

There are a lot of fun variations off of which you can play. People running away, being caught up, horded by zombies and coming up as an infected. You could get zombie hunters, even dress up your dog. We could even try and play up some publicity, maybe litter flyers to a certain charity, or simply raise zombie awareness. There are so many options and things to plan, which is why I've started now.

The tentative date is October 23rd, and we're thinking somewhere in the University City Loop. More details are certain to follow. Here's the Facebook link.

And remember: BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAINNSS!!!!!

-The0

Liebe ist für Alle Da

As my closer friends and relations no doubt know, I am a HUGE Rammstein fan. I'm not the biggest fan in the world, but they are hands-down my favorite band in the world (though some others do come as close seconds.) The thing is, it's been several years since they've last been in the studio, ever since they worked on Rosenrot. They have a new album, and it comes out very soon. As such, they have started marketing the singles and such that have been selected off the new album, Liebe ist für Alle Da. This post is to review their latest video, to attempt to divine what the band wanted to portray to us, and to compare it to their best videos of albums past. A review of Pussy.

First off, the video (WARNING: EXPLICIT, GRAPHIC, ADULT-ORIENTED CONTENT!!!!!!!)

This video is either Rammstein's greatest or worst video. Speaking from a mature adult standpoint, It's pure porn. It's a very shallow story, comparing to earlier videos like Du Riescht So Gut and even later ones, like Benzin and Rosenrot. Rammstein has had a talent of putting together very compelling stories in their videos, ones which usually match the song nicely, but this simply pales. The lyrics also disappoint, as Till Lindemann is an accomplished poet, but as far as this song is concerned, even I've written better. As a Rammstein enthusiast, this is not their best representation.

As a sex-addled post-teenager still in love with the industrial genre and all things German, this is outstanding. The heavy use of English to speak to a wider, sex-addicted audience is a good demographic move. Their show their nationality brusquely, with smatterings of definitively German-branded words and concepts. It also speaks to their shocking side. Truly shocking, and not a moment too soon. With their rumored retirement on the horizon, I think they are probably just doing their best to go out on a literal bang. I am still in love with the driving, ass-pounding song, and you'll find me humming it at work sometimes. I have been starving for more material from them since they released Rosenrot 4 years ago. Bravo! Gimme fucking more!

Rammstein has always been known for their brutality, depravity, and stage presence. They have a provocative method of framing the very worst humanity has to offer. But what are they framing this time? Simply fucking? Does it all boil down to just fucking? I suppose in the loosest sense, it really does. They had the presence of mind to acknolewdge most of the settings in which porn stars, well, star. It isn't ironic, but definitely pulls some point. It just has to. Please?

How about:

Anyone can do a porn, Rammstein is pulling out, and at the end of the day, all we want to do is fuck.

-The0

Edit: 03/05/2010

Because of the release of the newest Rammstein video, the old link now goes to that. This link here seems the least infectable site for the whole, uncensored video. As a rule still, turn on your anti-virus, and again, make sure you're not at work.

Edit: 03/19/2010

Disregard. Fixed it again. Still NFSW.

One Step Forward

In regards to the previous post, I have settled on a leg/body design for my little robot "thought exercise," (since to be considered a project, you need to actually pump some effort, thought, and money into it.) Don't get me wrong, I REALLY want a pet that I don't have to feed, fear, or actually put any effort into, but the raw cost alone will be a while of saving up, and even after that, I have to put a lot of hours into learning how to make it function.

At any rate, I know which style of legs and body I wish to implement. I have decided to let go of the hamsterball idea, because I theorize that the spherical balance process will eat to much processing power to move as well. It's kind of like a Pogo-robo, I think. One point of contact with the ground, and all 5 pounds of weight precariously balanced above it. I can't expect myself to write a logarithm to balance and move. I can barely remember my trigonometry! Any thoughts or logic against this decision would be lovingly accepted and possibly implemented.

I was browsing the internet, looking for "How to build a robot" resources, when I came across a company called Lynxmotion. They are the only people I have come across so far that offer an Erector set of servos. You can't just use motors, you know. You need a motor that can go on command and stop when you need it to do so. Automatically. Anyway, Lynxmotion's hexapod sets are beautiful and pretty much exactly what I am thinking about now. You mount a Eee PC on top of it and pray for the programming sense to make it a little autonomus, and off you go! Robopet!

On an actual thought progress note, I had an idea for an add-on to the robot idea using computer science that I actually understand. Making a robot play fetch. Half-Life 2 made an NPC do it in game, why couldn't we do the same with a physical being?

Factors in mind are:

• Item recognition (easily embraced with specific colors and good lighting)
• Item tracking (stereo cameras and blotch tracking)
• Item retrieval (a grabbing mechanism)
• Item return (simply making a log of movements and performing them in reverse should do it, I think)

What I understand about electric cameras is that codecs work mostly on recording changing colors. I saw a video of a a paintball sentry gun that worked mostly on that principle. It would track, center on, and fire upon the largest moving splotch in the still image. It should be feasible to use this to find a moving splotch of specific color, and then, well, march toward it. Grabbing would be hard to program, and I still don't know jack about programming. I can turn a wrench and read though. Let's see where that gets me. Motivational video. It would seem a powerful processor isn't necessary for the motion. Maybe for the thinking, tracking, and fetching though. I don't know, this is all way too cool. To quote Freeman's Mind, "Robots are the only friends I need!"

On a related note: XKCD though it may be, this project could take me YEARS!

Sorry for the random spattering of words here. I've been thinking way too much about this. Hope you all are well.

-The0

In Too Deep

So I have decided that a fun, educational hobby would be to turn out a roving robot from my Eee PC Cassima (Yes, I name my possessions and toys. I'm not sorry.) I've been surfing Google results for about 10 minutes now, and it saddens me that I'm already in over my head. To make an obstacle-avoiding self-controlled robot (pet) has more factors than I thought it would.

• Camera Latency
• Image processing (identification of obstacles, or even a path)
• Machinery Control
• Balance
• Power Source
• Body Design
• How to feel Love
• And Much More!

The ONLY robotics experience I have is from when I played around with Lego LOGO back in 3rd-6th grade, and everything has taken leaps and bounds since then. I have no idea how to code, and I don't know but the first thing about how computer imaging works. I do think I could build a steady, stable sextpedal robot body, which would move slowly enough to be able to survey it's surroundings before it's next step or turn. The problem thereof, of course, is programmed control of those sets of legs or each leg (I haven't decided yet.)

I have so much to learn it almost edges on hopelessness. But! It breaks my current funk, and if nothing else, if I can pull this off, it's a whole new world of techno-savvy into which I can finally sink my teeth. Robots, man, robots.

Time to crack open the internet. Let's see what I can find.

-The0

Rockstar Personas

A while ago, when I still perused AlbinoBlacksheep, I came across an artist who had a very unique appeal. He called himself Doctor Steel. His music was something of a cross between rock, techno, and hip-hop. He called it hip-prop (short for Hip-Propaganda.) He wore mad scientist goggles, a perfect white lab coat, and he and his army of toy soldiers vowed to take over the world, and bring toys and happiness to all.

That is a lot of work to put into a character simply to propagate your music.  His fans are called toy soldiers. He writes about fun stuff like Planet X, The Fibonacci Sequence, and the Land of the Lost, to name but a few. He has an intellectual neo-goth steampunk flair that he totally plays upon, and I can't find a single link or resource that refers to him as a normal person. It's like there is an actual mad scientist making music out there.

I guess the point of this diatribe is to ask, why can't more artists do that? The closest I can think of right now is Trent Reznor and his ability to weave an alternate reality into an album (case in point: Year Zero.) I would happily attend a show that had a character performance and a musical performance. It would bring a lot more flavor back into the music industry, not to mention kind of re-humanize it in a way.

I'm not going to ramble. I would request that readers post ideas for personas, or actually make me aware of some other groups or people that do this. Examples: Gwar's grotesque costumes, or what if Five for Fighting brought vacuums on stage, so they could literally suck while they sucked?

-The0

I hope I'm not Ethically Biased

I had the strangest thing occur today. I got off of work (which I am truly beginning to loathe, between managers, quality of product, and overall wage), and I went and did my job at a friend house, only to a degree that I enjoyed. I found pleasure in doing what I do. And what was stranger was the fact that my enthusiasm may have been infectious. I was able to get everyone present excited in the project at hand, and the end result came faster than we all expected, and wound out better than we were hoping. It was a good evening.

Now, my question on this whole course of events is, “Why don’t I feel this way at work?” What keeps me from channeling my enthusiasm and creativity into my job? I choose to blame those that have established themselves before me. I’m not going to blame them for working in the field longer than I have, that would be immature and “hot headed” for lack of a better expression. To go against anything that the tenured workers have to say might as well be asking if I could violently fuck his or her mother. Thus, any use of materials or additions that might be consider that might be considered fresh, new, entertaining, or creative, get stifled and belittled by my co-workers and managers. So, I feel like if I’m doing anything a bit unorthodox, it will get belittled and thrown back at me. It’s not like I’m trying to sell this, but with my performance, leadership, and results at my friend’s house, I easily could.

But maybe it goes deeper than that. I am beginning to think that I’m forever going to be that guy that shows up to work not wanting to be there. I'll be the guy that doesn’t believe in the product simply because he’s dissatisfied with his experience of making the product.

So, after a bit of thought, the solution presents itself. In order to move forward, I have to put my nose to this dissatisfactory grindstone and pump out the best possible product I can, sub-par though it may be. Once I happen to do that, if I remain unrecognized for it, I begin searching for a place of employment. I hope this can come to fruition, I don’t have long, I’m nearly certain the general manager has it out for me.

* * *

This post is dedicated to my mother (who continues to be there for me) and father (who for some reason continues to believe in me, and bails me out time and again when I fuck up.) I love you both with all my heart.

-The0