Lusting after home decor

First off, I'm the type of person who prefers function over form. I appreciate something that sacrifices form to be more functional much more than something that sacrifices function to look good.

With this in mind, imagine my shock when I set my eyes on this beautiful home decor. Sure, the smallest, cheapest thing in the collection would probably cost me my right leg, 3 fingers from my right hand, and my left arm. However, that being said, I have never wanted any home furnishings so badly (and I'm right handed, so I could probably give up my left arm). Look at these lamps!

This floor lamp is an exhaust from a Red Bull Formula 1 car. As in, it is an actual exhaust manifold that was used in a race. At one point in it's life, this thing was glowing red hot, funneling gases from an engine revving to 19,000 RPM (You read that write, nineteen-thousand RPM).

This smaller lamp is made up from various components out of a gearbox. At one point, these components were trying to rip themselves apart getting 900 horsepower from the engine to the tires. 

Weight is everything in every form of motorsport, and this is taken to the extreme in Formula 1. You can be sure that these components were exactly as strong as they needed to be and absolutely no stronger. They weren't designed to look good, they were designed purely, 100%, for function. This makes them even more beautiful...they were designed for function, and they still look absolutely incredible. In the words of the great Brick Tamland, "I love lamp."

If you're in the mood for your jaw to hit the floor, check out the rest of the collection here (it's not all lamps).

Formula 1 - Singapore

This is shaping up to be an amazing weekend. With only 5 races to go, and 5 drivers still in the hunt for the 2010 title, this race could make or break for a few driver's hopes. It's a fantastic spectacle, at night under the lights, with downtown Singapore lit up in the background...it's a beautiful race to watch. The track is a pain to drive though. Every corner is slow speed, and to be quick, you need to be right on the limit of destroying your car. We'll see how it goes, the tension is definitely in the air! I can't wait! Qualifying tomorrow live at 10am eastern time!

Twitter

I started up a twitter account this weekend. I didn't think it would be something for me, but it's actually pretty awesome. It makes it easier to see really popular people as real people...not some larger than life persona. I'm not sure if I will post much on there, but we'll see. Follow me! haha. Not really. Well, you can if you want...it actually might inspire me to put relevant stuff up there.

This...is...coffee!

French press before the press

Whole bean french vanilla coffee --> grinder --> french press. So much better than the pre-ground crap I put up with for so long. This is one of the great things about the weekend...I have time in the mornings to make and enjoy an amazing cup of coffee. Now if only I could convince myself to wake up early enough during the week to do this before work. Haha, yeah right, I can't see that happening anytime soon. For now, I'll save it as one of the luxuries of the weekend. Weekends are awesome!

Artificial intelligence vs. intelligence

Tonight I played about 4 games of Starcraft 2 on hard difficulty (against the computer). I won with no problem, all 4 times. This was the first time I have ever beat the computer on hard....and I did it 4 times in a row! I was feeling confident, so I tried to play online. The first game was a training game, so the settings were on easy, and everything was pretty much in slow motion. I destroyed this guy. My army of 40 just walked all over his army of 10. It was clearly one of the first games he had ever played.

Sweet! Alright, so I'll skip the rest of the training sessions...the opponents don't seem to be on my level. I played my first game in a legitimate match. My opponent didn't seem to be able to speak good English, and I thought he was trying to say he was new to the game. Again, sweet! Maybe I can win my first legitimate match. It started out good, but then he had a small army that took me forever to kill. While I was trying to kill that army, he was busy building up a bigger one. Long story short...I got destroyed.

The easy thing about artificial intelligence is it's mostly predictable. With anything predictable (in real life or otherwise), it is easy to anticipate patterns and plan the best approach to any situation. Humans are unpredictable...much more difficult!

New poster!

I got this poster printed today at Walgreen's. 20" x 30"! I absolutely love it.

The reason I love this picture so much...

Carl Sagan

How have I not seen this interview before?!? Carl Sagan is the man.

"To live in the hearts we leave behind is to never die"

Part 1




Part 2



Part 3

Come on Motorola...really?

This past weekend I rooted my new phone. For those who don't know, it gives you access to everything in the phone. Now I'll be able to uninstall crap that I don't want (stuff that Verizon and Motorola didn't want me to uninstall). The biggest benefit so far is that I'm now able to run a new version of the operating system (Android 2.2, aka Froyo). Froyo has been awesome so far. When I got home from work today, my battery life was still at 80%! Normally I was getting about 50% battery remaining after work (with Android 2.1).

<rant>

The main reason to root though...the way Motorola handled the leaked version of Froyo. They sent cease and desist orders to all websites that had uploaded it. ANDROID IS AN OPEN SOURCE OPERATING SYSTEM!!! What does Motorola gain by alienating the most passionate members of their consumer base? The members that want to use the phone to its fullest extent. What do they have to gain by holding back an update that will benefit everyone. Moreover, what do they have to gain from wasting money on cease and desist orders? The update will always be out there. Once a file like this is on the internet, it will never (and I mean, NEVER) be removed. This is the reason I rooted my phone. Motorola handled this poorly, so I feel no remorse when I went behind their backs, hacked (rooted) my phone, and am now running the latest and greatest from Google. This is what an open source operating system is about....the community is thriving, and it won't be stopped by 'the man' trying to control everything.

</rant>

Digital vs. Analog photos

I picked up about 5 pictures that I had printed. AMAZING! I'm going to go into a picture printing frenzy. So far I have made only 8" x 10", and 4" x 6"; but I will be making a lot more, and a lot larger. Walgreen's just got a new printer which will make up to 20" x 30" prints. I can't wait to get some really big ones...I have ideas already. Check out the first 8" x 10" 's that I had printed, then framed by me.

And the one that I will make a huge poster of...

This is a picture from the end of my business trip to Aachen, Germany. Looking back on this trip, I think it really changed my life (I know it sounds corny and cliche, but it's true). I went to Germany by myself and with the extra day I had there, after all the work was done, I took a train to Amsterdam to spend a day there. It was by far the coolest thing I have ever done. I'm going to print a big copy of this (I printed an 8x10, but it's not big enough) and mount it somewhere on my wall. Not only is it an awesome picture, but it marks a big change in my life; when my self-confidence increased massively, and my ambition to achieve something great returned. No one will ever appreciate this picture as much as I do...period.

HD video with manual focus

Take a look at this video...by far the best video I've taken with my camera so far. The D90 doesn't have autofocus during video recording. So, with a short depth of field, I was able to maintain focus manually on Caleigh as she walked towards me. Good stuff.

30 seconds

Not the band (30 Seconds to Mars, I already did a post about them) but the shutter speed. Below is a picture I took while on vacation with the family off of our deck. The shutter speed was 30 seconds (it was completely dark). It looks so peaceful...I love shots like this.