Boston Dynamics, a small DARPA-funded robotics company is designing the robot in the video for the US military. The video shows the bot, called BigDog, maintaining balance while being kicked, slipping on ice, climbing over rubble and leaping. It can carry more than 300 pounds.

(via io9)

Boston Dynamics, a small DARPA-funded robotics company is designing the robot in the video for the US military. The video shows the bot, called BigDog, maintaining balance while being kicked, slipping on ice, climbing over rubble and leaping. It can carry more than 300 pounds.

(via io9)

Another in the line of Kieslowsky movies I have been watching, Camera Buff is about Filip Mosz, a man of modest means who saves up and buys the first video camera his town has seen so he can take videos of his newborn daughter. Filip's first use of the camera is much like anyone else's, but when his company orders him to film a significant business event, his focus turns from home movies to all the possibilities of movie making.

Filip starts out with a very tranquil life, in love with his wife and with his newborn. He is happy to document family life. His opportunity at work excites him too, and he soon starts documenting the big event as well as a few other things, to his wife's dismay. The company film is sent to a local competition, and he gains a small amount of notoriety for his work. Soon he starts a film club at his work, and continues to make commissioned documentaries as well as pieces that interest them (none of which feature his own family). In one review I read, a person noted that this movie is meant to be partially autobiographical. The drive and obsession of an artist can change his perspective and priorities, and they can leave that person alone, too, when those who love them are driven away. The same reviewer suggested that Kieslowski changed interests to fictional stories because one can make an impact by resonating with an audience from a safer distance. I thought that was an interesting idea.

The movie also contains a commentary on the communist regime, which often limited what Filip was allowed to film. His boss often told him what he could or could not focus on, which stifled his creativity as well as necessitated a biased point of view through censorship. Here, Kieslowski shows that a documentary may present truth, but it is through a filtered lens, which means that the truth being told is always told from a particular perspective, and thus is always biased.

Filip doesn't understand that what he thinks is just a bit of documentary can make a larger impact than he expects. Besides the struggles he faces with family life, he unintentionally hurts other townspeople by submitting a bit of an exposé on certain renovations that were done in the town. He believes he is simply showing a truth, but that truth is a cause that has an effect - one that he does not expect.

Filip's obsession, despite the consequences, is very interesting to me. Even when he sees the error of the ways, he seems unable to stop himself from looking at everything with a filmmaker's eye. The scene at the train station with his wife was wonderful. There are several other ideas regarding filming others and filming oneself and artistry and politics, all displayed subtly throughout Filip's story. I thought Camera Buff was both enjoyable for its humor and touching in how one feels while watching Filip's personal demise and artistic success.

So, I haven't posted in nearly three months. I have been busier than a son-of-a-gun. Most of my days were spent working, then school, then officiating, then sleeping. I wanted to blog, but when I sat down to do it, I had neither energy, nor motivation. However now I have some time because it is finals week and I have nothing to do today, well nothing that has to be done today. So what is going on.

One class I am taking this term is Medieval History. It is a pretty good class, except that it is very hard for me to stay awake during. That is beside the point. The major project in the class was to either do a presentation or do an artistic representation of something Medieval. Well I did the artistic representation because I couldn't pick a topic in time to get a presentation scheduled. My topic was the trebuchet.

A word to the wise. If you do not have the ability to cut angular notches into your wood, do not make a trebuchet, or at least use different instructions than I did. It became apparent, while I have decent woodworking skills, that I did not have the ability to make the trebuchet as the plans suggested. I was scaling it down, but still it was very difficult. I had a very difficult time trying to nail 3/4 inch wood. For some reason it did not work well. However after a few short 6 hours of frustration I completed my trebuchet and when I had it in class, my professor walked in looked at it and said "cool." I hope I get an "A".

Writing class has been an adventure. I have done well, but there was a lot of tension in my class between a veteran and a group of four very opinionated students. Why this is important is that I sat right in between those people the whole term. While most of the discussion was from the group of four, who didn't understand the language that the veteran, who is about my age, used. He exaggerated his points in order make them. So he believed that the best course of action in the middle east was military action. However, when you have a controversial opinion you should probably put it better than he did. His exaggeration was that we needed to go there and blow the whole place up. Now, I understood this exaggeration. I think he did as well, however the group of four took it that he wanted to commit genocide against the people who live in the middle east. While that happened at the beginning of the semester and while things never really escalated too greatly, the group would disagree with any opinion that he had. So the last day we were to share what the main idea of our final paper was. I believe that the group was going to disagree with whatever he said. His argument could have been the sky is blue. They would argue that it was really sky blue. His topic was that as Americans we should not buy Chinese products, or products made in China, but we should only buy American, if possible. He said that would keep money in America, and benefit all Americans. Also, American products are better quality than Chinese so any extra you pay is worth it. However he put it in his exaggerated controversial terms and certain people in the class thought that he hated all Chinese people. Idiots. Anyways, there I was sitting in between these two groups hearing them fight, neither one would move an inch, no one was really trying to understand each other, and everything became ad hominem. I had to share my topic next.

I really don't like my philosophy professor. He used a false dilemma, oversimplification, and he took things out of context when he tried to talk about religious ethics. However when I asked questions in class, specifically about his false dilemma, where I brought up a third option, he said after holding his mouth slightly agape for a second "I'll have to think about that." That led to a nice discussion where the other religious people in the class jumped on him and never once got over emotional or angry. I will graciously accept two points for that.

I am doing well at work. I got a sweatshirt last week and a hat this week for how well I have been working. I think I am the greatest ever.

I am thinking about taking a golf class next term. I need a P.E. class just to stay active and that might be good. If it is full though what should I take?

I think it would be cool to make a movie where people randomly drop kicked people from awesome places. I always think that when I stand on the top level of the academic center and look down at the courtyard below. I usually seem some moron walk by that I want so badly just to see someone dropkick. Maybe I should.

I think Barack Obama will win the Democratic nomination. I really do not like Hilary. I think also it would be smart of the Republican party to have a minority VP candidate(Condi?). This way it will stave off the accusations that the Republican party is a glorified country club. Rich, white, old males who hate everyone who is not like them.

However my brother put it the best on this years election. You are either going to vote for big government democrats or big government republicans. I think I will go for the ones who will cut taxes.

Anyways ordering pizza on the internet may be the greatest thing that has ever happened to mankind.

Later

On Friday night Ric and I took it kind of easy.

Saturday, the violinist, Midori, was playing a free concert of new material (kind of as a warm-up before a tour) at the university, so my sister and I went to see her play. It was all music from the 1990s, which is sometimes enjoyable and sometimes not to me, but there was one particular piece that was, in her own words, "an epic". It was great to see her play. I had always heard of her but never been to see her. She seemed very grounded and I loved watching how meticulous she was, as well as how she used her entire body to play.

After the concert, Jenny and I drove down to South Coast plaza to get some shopping done. After a good lunch at Boudin (San Francisco-inspired food) we hit up Bloomingdale's, Sephora, H&M, Macy's, and Banana Republic at the mall, then The Container Store, Nordstrom Rack, and Macy's Home store across the street. That took about seven hours. I ended up hitting the jackpot at H&M. I'm glad I don't live near one, or I'd probably be broke. They have great clothes, and most regular shirts are $20 or less. I bought a lot. I got some replacement makeup at Sephora and Bloomingdale's, a $118 shirt for $15 at Macy's, and drawer dividers (because a narrow silverware tray does NOT exist) at The Container Store. Ric was given a massive gift card to Nordstrom from the head of his company for Christmas, so I bought a lot of miscellaneous stuff at the Rack. Also, we had to return a couple of things I was given for my birthday that I already had or didn't fit quite right, so I was able to buy some new canisters and a cutting board for the kitchen. So really, I didn't pay for about half the stuff I bought on Saturday. I think that's pretty good.

After shopping, Jenny and I ate at Octopus in Brea (love their food) and met up with Ric. We all went to see In Bruges, which is my favorite movie of the year so far.

I'd just like to say that I really love living somewhere where I can see an internationally famous Japanese violinist for free, eat San Franciscan food, shop massive department stores, eat Japanese fusion food, and watch an Irish-in-Belgium movie, all in some of the most beautiful weather in the world.

Sunday, Ric and I went to church and saw Judi and Ralph, then went out to breakfast at Ruby's with Liz. We went home to rest, do finances, and do some online research about appliances. We finally went to Lowe's and ordered a bunch of appliances: washer, dryer, dishwasher, gas range, and above-range microwave. Stainless steel, here we come! Thankfully, we had a coupon for 10% off, plus there was a promotion that ended yesterday that will end up giving us a few hundred dollars back! AND we're going to get rebates from the water and gas companies for a couple of the appliances as well, which will be about $200 more back! So, even though we did spend a lot, we're getting a good amount back. That feels good. This will be the first time I've had nice appliances. I grew up with whatever was the cheapest, so it's a new thing to me to be looking at these shiny new appliances and realizing they can be mine. I feel a little bit guilty, but I guess it's just the reward of saving our pennies.

After Lowe's, we went to Wicke's to see if any of their out-of-business furniture was any good. Meh. We went back home, where I put the drawer dividers (which are awesome!) into my silverware drawer for an hour and worked on more finances. We went out to eat and work on our taxes a little, then came home and watched a few episodes of News Radio.

I didn't do anything besides the silverware drawer for the house this weekend, but I guess I was productive in other ways. Up this week: a dinner with Judi, small work on the house, and some time with Dom, hopefully!

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Originally uploaded by brendoman

Check out all my photos here. I learned that once you've been to San Diego, every con pales in comparison. Still, I was surprised at how small the con was. Marvel and Top Cow were the only big comic companies there. No DC/Vertigo, Image, or Dark Horse. Not even IDW. There were a few big name artists and writers but not that many. Silvestri was the guest of honor and Jeph Loeb was there. The highlights for me were the Robot Chicken panel and meeting Summer Glau. The bummer of that was her handler guy was keeping people moving along so quickly that I couldn't get my picture taken with her. Other than that stuff, there wasn't much going on. I'm glad I went, but I don't know if I would go back next year unless they have some guests or panels I absolutely have to see.

My next big con stop is the New York Comic Con. Since I didn't get to go to Scotland I picked another destination I've always wanted to go to and planned my trip to coincide with one of the bigger conventions in the U.S.. I'm crashing at a friend's place and I got some cheap tickets on Virgin America so it's a pretty inexpensive trip. I managed to snag a ticket to Neil Gaiman's reading so that should be fantastic. Frank Miller, Alex Ross, Mike Mignola, and Guillermo Del Toro are also going to be there. I'm really looking forward to it.