jkslade.net

Seen here

I’ve started listening to last.fm as I work, and I’ve really enjoyed the swing tag — a nice mix of upbeat swing, not too distracting.

Here’s something I’d love to build:

It’s an RC car modified with a kit to replace the battery power cells with a compact hydrogen fuel cell system. It’s a bit expensive, unfortunately — the whole system would probably be ~$2,000. But it would be educational, right?

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1241118288

Merry Christmas!

This is just a test of the WPVideo plugin I just enabled:

How it works: the two Tesla coils have a primary frequency around 40kHz+ — outside the audible range for humans. The signal can be turned on and off at, say, 440 times per second (440Hz = A) to produce an audible tone. So it’s like radio waves being modulated to carry a signal, but it’s actually lightning

Having read about it from my sister, I decided to find out my own motherstyle:

Your type is: intj — The “Individual Integrity” Mother

“My kids are better off arguing their own point of view than telling me, ‘But everyone else is doing it.’”

• Individualistic and independent, the INTJ mother is both a role model and teacher of how to be an individual and live life with integrity. She is introspective, defining her own success from within, and generally confident in her decisions. She is unlikely to be persuaded by her children saying, “But all the other mothers are doing it.”
• The INTJ is competent in providing for her children’s basic needs, but she is likely more focused on developing their self-esteem and confidence. Observant and insightful, she puts great importance on independent thinking and self-sufficiency, yet she is comfortable providing protection and boundaries.
• Self-motivated and intense, the INTJ works hard and takes life seriously. As a mother, she lives for those moments when she can impart knowledge and offer her children perspectives on life and important issues.

I’d say it’s pretty close.

I took the superhero quiz and I’m somewhat surprised at the results…

Your results:
You are Superman

Superman 80% Hulk 70% Robin 65% Spider-Man 55% Green Lantern 50% Supergirl 45% Catwoman 40% Batman 40% Iron Man 35% Wonder Woman 30% The Flash 30%

You are mild-mannered, good, strong and you love to help others.

Not that it means anything, but it’s interesting… share your results!

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz

This is a cool optical illusion — try it out. The brain is weird.

Here is an interesting article on making a career out of designing & developing computer / video games… This is something I am very interested in, but most likely just as a hobbyist. Perhaps once I get to be wealthy enough through other means that I can pursue this full time, that would be fun.

I am interested in developing games mainly for two reasons:

• It is an artistic pursuit, and ultimately it is the creative part of engineering that I enjoy most.
• There just aren’t enough games that fit what I want to do with my boys.

The type of games I’m interested in making are very much family oriented — but it seems to me that current ‘family oriented’ games are geared at ages 3-6… there’s not much there for pre-teen, even into teenage years. I want games that I can play together with all of my boys, something low-key but engaging. It needs to be easy to get into the action, and play for 1/2 to 1 hour — say in the evenings after homework and such is done. Most games I see are just to large in scope to fit that, not to mention that most ‘high action’ games are too violent for my taste.

Anyway, it’s a dream to work towards, hopefully before all my kids are grown and out of the house

What do we like to play now?

• Battlefield 1942 — fun, but not enough team focus and not enough ‘arcade’ action to be real fun for my kids now. They aren’t into completing missions yet, don’t have the reading skills for it. And it is beyond my 3-year old, and he hates being left out
• bzflag — nice freeware, relatively fun action. Killing each other over and over again gets boring, the bots are no good to play with. But the controls are simple enough that my 3-year old can play (at least be involved)… now we just need one more computer for everyone (except mom) to have a seat.
• StarCraft — I’ve got my oldest son (8) into playing this a bit, but he doesn’t quite have the patience and sense of strategy to really get into it yet. But it is a great multi-player game… I wish it were faster to get into the action, though.

http://www.ridethesnowies.com/index.cfm

This sounds like fun, for when the boys get a little bit older. Close to home, too.