Advertising

I don't know how much I've complained about advertising on here (I know I've done it out loud to other people), but I am startled at how pathetic and cheesy some of the advertisements I see are.  Especially since I've been in school for digital media, I've really noticed it. I'll point out, oh that was sad, or, that does not make me want to buy their product/service. However, my dad showed me this promo for VW Golf, which I think is very clever. Somebody at VW marketing is actually using their brain. Faith in humanity ('s ability to advertise) restored. Basically what happens is every second they drop the price just over a cent (dropping the price almost $1000/day). Once the price has dropped enough that you want to buy it, all you have to do is hit the button and get to a dealership within a month to get your new VW Golf for the special price. But here's the catch: once somebody hits the button, the countdown resets to the regular price and starts all over again. Cool, huh? I'm curious as to how quickly someone will hit the button. Last I checked, someone must have hit the button only a couple hours ago, but I don't know how much of a discount they got. Starting at just under $19,000.00, it's currently at $18,855.44. Let me know how low you see it!

Happy Pi Day!

thERE'S A VIDEO.

THIS IS WHAT I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR.

tumblr

So tumblr had a Terms & Conditions thing pop yesterday. Now, as most of the population does, I usually just check off the box and continue on without reading. But having heard some things about this particular set of terms and conditions, I decided to read them. Obviously there was all the boring legal stuff, but then every so often, there would be these gems:

Completely legit. I was laughing so hard my don told me to be quiet cause quiet hours had started. Before being acquired by Yahoo!, tumblr didn't have rules and conditions. So you can tell right away that they weren't into this kind of stuff. But even now that they have to have them, they still manage to be themselves and basically be the best site ever.

So companies, if you want people to actually read your Terms & Conditions, add a little something special to them. 

Sherlock

So season 3 of Sherlock finally has a (British) air date:

(We already knew it was airing in the USA on Jan 19th). Last week it was announced that it would be sometime in December or January (no sh*t Sherlock [I'm so puny]). And then people were thinking that it would be the 22nd of Dec or the 29th. But BBC released today the air dates of all three episodes (read with sarcasm and pain), with more theatricality than Sherlock himself:

They drove a hearse around London all morning with the air date and his name in flowers.
Personally I think it was a little out of character for BBC, but I loved it all the same. BBC had been tweeting the previous evening to be on the look out for a special vehicle. People were lining the streets to see it and take pictures with it. Talk about a reveal.

The weird part though is that Jan 1st is a Wednesday, when it usually airs on Sundays. It will, however resume that course, with the air dates being Jan 1st, 5th and 12th. So we get to see the episodes sooner, but that also means that it will be over quicker :(

Roller Coaster (& QOTD #23)

In my GBDA 103 class we went down to the UX & Gamification research lab that the Stratford campus houses (which I did not know about). It has this simulator which we got to try out. It was set on a roller coaster. It was so cool. You wore these goggles that looked into a small screen attached to the head set. There was also a screen showing it so that other people looking on could see what you were experiencing, but it wasn't 3D. Then if you turned your head, the view in the simulation would follow accordingly. It was really cool (not as good as a real roller coaster though). But after awhile it made you dizzy and now I have a headache. But it was fun.

(This is the thing you wore).

23. Are your eyes the same colour as your dad's?
Yuppers.

I define downtime as...
I don't know that I've ever thought about this specifically. I guess I would call it when you are relaxed and enjoying yourself. For example, I would define downtime when you are doing something you enjoy and you don't feel guilty about it. I mean, I enjoy spending time on the internet, but I'm usually supposed to be doing something else (like studying). So downtime would be when you don't have something else to be doing.

My AMAZING Weekend

While my weekend was amazing, it didn't start off that way. The bus was half an hour late, time which I was standing in line outside in the freezing temperatures. Eventually the bus did show up. But then it left before everyone in line was on. The bus wasn't even full. Then I started panicking a bit because I didn't know why it had left. But then another bus showed up, so it was all good. And what a coincidence, I got the same bus driver as I had when I was coming back from a weekend at home. The bus ride was fine, there was hardly anybody on the bus. My BFFLAAT met me at the bus station in Toronto. It was great to finally see her again. It was already kind of late so we just hung out in her room. I also met a lot of her friends and floormates. One of boys (whom I had actual met over skype before) complemented me and said that I was beautiful. I said thank you but I just thought he was saying that to be nice. But then my BFFLAAT said that when he gives a compliment, he really means it. So that was nice :) Too bad he's gay. (When I say too bad, I'm not saying I have a problem with him being gay, I'm just saying that it wouldn't be able to go anywhere, if you know what I mean).  I met this other guy as well who gave me a donut, which is always nice, but then I found that he watches Sherlock and we have similar movie and book tastes. We would get along well. On Saturday morning we went out for brunch at one of the caf's on campus with a couple other people. Then my BFFLAAT and I fangirled over Hunger Games characters (actors). We read a special edition magazine about The Hunger Games Catching Fire movie and started watching the first Hunger Games. And then Dylan Sprouse happened. Then we headed out for an early dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory. When we arrived they told us it would be a 5 to 10 minute wait and so we got one of those buzzer things but after two minutes it buzzed and we were led through the restaurant to our table. My BFFLAAT and I laughed because even though we were told that there would be a 5 to 10 minute wait the restaurant was completely empty. Why would we be told there is a 5 to 10 minute wait if the restaurant was completely empty? It was funny.  For those who don't know, The Old Spaghetti Factory was a blacksmith shop a century ago. Inside they have a bunch of cool things hanging from the walls and all the dividers are stainglass windows. They even have a carousel and a caboose train that you can sit in. The dinner was really delicious. There was this ice cream flavour called Spumoni. It is chocolate, vanilla and pistachio all mixed together. It was so good.  After we were done we walked back to my BFFLAAT’s residence to pick up her friend and head over to the movie. We were seeing the movie in the Scotia Bank theater which is this really huge theater with a lot of specialized theatres. It was assigned seating so we didn't have to worry about getting there really early which was nice. They have this pre-movie show that was interactive with their mobile app which is really cool but we didn't have their app so we couldn’t play, but it was cool to see the other people do it. The movie was amazing. I can't find anything in it to complain about. Obviously they couldn't fit everything in the book in but they were pretty close and it was so amazing. I cried at one point. I loved it so much. I would even go so far as to say it was better than the first movie. Morning we had a lazy morning and went to Starbucks for lunch.  Then my BFFLAAT and I watch some Catching Fire interviews with the actors. Then, since my BFFLAAT knew that I missed it, we watch the Doctor Who 50th anniversary special episode.  I don't even know what to say about it.  It was really well done and I really liked the storyline.  However that amazing story line changes absolutely everything.  It basically goes back in time and changes one of the main time points in the Doctor’s timeline.  I won't going to great detail because I know most of you don't watch Dr. Who and won't understand it but just know that it was amazing but also that it changes everything and I don't even know how to handle it right now. (I'm using this dictation feature on my Mac right now to type this blog post out because I'm too lazy to type it all out so that's why there's a lot of run-on sentences. Sorry). After that we headed out to the bus station. I almost missed my bus because I couldn’t see the bus and I wasn't sure when it started boarding. It all worked out in the end of course. But at every stop I panicked because I was freaked out it wouldn't go to my stop which was unrealistic but, you know, stuff happens. When I got to the bus terminal I was really tired and didn't want to have to wait for the city bus to come around so I just ended up taking a taxi home.  (Another note on this whole dictation thing. I never realized how much I say “just”. I've been editing the sentences after I speak them just to make sure that the sentence makes sense and I say “just” so much it's ridiculous). When I got back to residence I talked to my Doctor Who friend about the episode because it changes everything and we also chatted about the Catching Fire movie, which she has yet to see. Then we talked about exam schedules and I realized that I'm going home in eight days, which also means that my Italian exam is in eight days, which I completely not ready for. I've started writing review notes but I havn’t actually started studying for it yet so I’ll have to do that. I also have two astronomy assignments that I need to finish, not to mention studying for astronomy which I'm not looking forward to. Having heard about all the snow in London and thinking about how I'm going to be going home soon I just really want to go home right now. I'm really excited to be at home over December for a good chunk of time. So yeah. That was my amazing weekend with my BFFLAAT. I had so much fun (and once again I apologize for this whole dictation thing, the run-on sentences are really horrible. But using the dictation really sped up the speed of writing out this blog post, so there).

Google :)

A while ago I made a post about some cool things that Google does, and I just found about another one! You should Google  "atari breakout" and click on images. Enjoy!

Cold As...

Today in my astronomy classroom it was kind of cold when we came in. The prof commented on this and said that it should warm from our heat (he tied it into our lesson about radiation). But halfway through the class it was not warmer, it was most definitely colder. Comparable to outside. I never took my jacket off and had my scarf on the whole time. At the end of class the TA took us to the roof of the building to help us locate Algol, a star that we are doing an assignment on. It was cool to be on the roof and looking at stars, but it was so cold! I was thoroughly chilled after sitting in a cold theatre for 3 hours and then standing outside for half an hour. I can't wait to get my warmer clothes!

Shopping Continued

I was trying to think of the stores that I had been wanting to buy stuff from for my online shopping guide, but I blanked. However, it has come back to me: BBC Canada ;)

 The Fourth Doctor's Scarf (6')

 Melody Malone Novel T-Shirt

 TARDIS Scarf (6')

 The Fourth Doctor's Scarf (12' - the true length)

 The Tenth Doctor T-Shirt

 The Eleventh Doctor's Bowtie

TARDIS Modern T-Shirt

All of these products (much preferable to those listed in the previous post) are available on BBC Canada. I have to admit, it is temping to buy some of these because I have a free shipping voucher and 15% off voucher. Unfortunately, I can't use them both on one purchase (believe me, I tried). 

Recursion

A while ago, (well, a loooong time ago), I was bored and so I looked up funny things you can do with Google. You know, like when you search Google Gravity and hit "I'm Feeling Lucky". Or if you search "do a barrel roll". One of my personal favourites is "askew". When I was searching through the various tricks, I came across that if you typed "recursion" into Google, it will say, "Did you mean: recursion ?" But it would be spelt the same way. At first (and up until now) I thought Google had just made a mistake.  But now that I'm studying for computer science, in which I learned about recursion methods, I finally understand what Google was doing.

re·cur·sion  

/riˈkərZHən/

Noun

1. The repeated application of a recursive procedure or definition.
2. A recursive definition.

 If that doesn't make sense, basically (at least in computer science), something that is recursive is something that calls itself. I would try and explain that using methods and other computer science stuff, but none of you are going to understand it, so I won't bother. Anyways, when Google says "Did you mean: recursion ?", the word is a link to the word being Google searched. So when you type in recursion and click on the link from "Did you mean: recursion ?", you get the same result: it called itself, therefore causing the Google search of recursion to be recursive itself.
Needless to say, I love Google.

Artists, Models, The Market and Ducks

That describes my day today. It was an art field trip. We went to the Art's Project downtown and heard from Steve Tracy who is an painter having a show there currently.  He has some pretty cool stuff.  He recently finished a series called Sculpted Flowers, in which he uses a technique similar to that of decorating a cake. He fills tubes with a few different colours and squeezes it through a custom tip onto the canvas.  It results in a very 3D effect. And one that is very tempting to touch.  All of my friends expressed a desire to touch the paintings.  At the end of his talk, he asked if anybody had any question. I asked if someone were to touch them, would it be rock hard or bendable? And his answer: Oh, well you can touch them if you want. !!!  My one friend actually let out a little yelp.  Needless to say, everybody was walking around touching all the paintings.  Not something every artist would allow!

Then we went into one of the studios and drew gesture drawings and figure drawings. It was really neat to do a 30min pose, that's the longest we've ever done. I didn't think I would like it because when we were doing 10min poses I found that I had too much time. But knowing that I had 30mins allowed me to take more time on the proportions and then eventually work on shading.   Then we went to the Market and had lunch. (I think that this was what most people were most excited about throughout the entire day). I had a meat burek (a pastry tube type thing filled with meat and then coiled and baked, with sour cream, it's so good!).  Then we went down to Harris Park to draw the ducks. We were lucky and found a pair of ducks that were content with just sitting there while we drew them. However, the whole point of drawing the ducks instead of something was to try drawing something that wouldn't stay still. Ah well, it was fun. I brought my camera and took lots of photos of the ducks and my friends.  It was an overall great day. 

So cool...

Cool spiral mouse following thingy

Mysterious Staircase

I was trying to decide what to do for my sketchbook this week and I decided I might try a mysterious staircase. So I googled it, only to find that the one same staircase came up multiple times. I figured there must be something to this staircase so I looked into it. Apparently there were a bunch of nuns who needed a staircase to the upper level of a church that had just been built. They prayed that somebody would help them with their problem. A few days later a stranger shows up and says he'll build them their staircase. The thing is, he does it with out glue, nails or a central support. The staircase seems to be somehow supporting itself. Modern architects cannot figure out how it stands. Stranger still, the carpenter who built it didn't leave his name or wait to be paid for building the staircase. And apparently the wood that was used to build it is a mystery as well, because it doesn't grow anywhere in the region of the church. To this day it is still unknown who built the staircase and how it stands. Freaky, huh?

Anamorphic Illusions

I saw this on Daily Planet. It blew my MIND!