The Graveyard

Via BoingBoing is a game entitled "The Graveyard" for Mac and PC. The game is a "Demo" but paying $5 to unlock the full game releases just one new feature - death.  The entire game (if you want to call it that) is you as an old woman walking through a graveyard, turning around and siting on a bench. Then walk out when you are done. There is more to it than that but I don't want to give it away. 

This is an art video game and one of the first to really get it right I think. The common thread to these art games is that they are usually not goal oriented, instead using the interactivity of the game to create an environment for something else to happen. The added element of "unlocking" death in this game is really  intriguing to me, especially since it costs money. 

Try it out! 

Skysails

I wrote about this a few months ago but have been tracking it with interest. It is Beluga Skysails a German company that is working on designing a new kind of sail for big cargo ships.  This kind of energy savings is great, and looks to eliminate CO2 from places that are less sexy than cars, but far more cost effective. (Ocean shipping produces 2x more CO2 than all air traffic).

Well the first successful test was done on a trip from Germany to the USA and back to Norway and achieved a 20% fuel-savings (thats 2.5 tons of fuel and $1,000 a day) round trip using an 80 sq meter para-sail. Next step, a 160 sq. meter sail followed by a gigantic 600 sq. meter sail to be built into a new super cargo ship. More of this please! 

Below is a german video showing the test trip. Happy sailing! 

Spring for Bonsai

Well spring is here and that means that it was time for me to dig up the bonsai from the back yard and see how they faired. It is also time for Megan's ficus tree to light up after a dark winter. So how did they do? 

First the ficus. I was worried that it was ill, but it was just winter. It lost about 50% of its leaves but since the sun has changed, it is covered in buds. 

My oldest bonsai had a hard winter though, and is quite damaged. I made a mistake in my placement outside that left it exposed to wind and more importantly rabbits, who chewed off about 60% of it. The photo on the bottom is of it last fall, the top is what it looks like now. But, I guess that is what happened to it every winter when it was a tree living in the wild, and it is already showing off new growth, so it should be ok. But, this damage does postpone repotting for another year. These bonsai are a long term project!

Last is my newest bonsai that I harvested late last summer. Well it did great over the winter, and I repotted it great this spring, if you can call it re-potting because it is living on a rock! The entire root system is spread out over the rock and then ends by touching down into its base. I am uncertain if the roots that touch down in the base are connected to the tree, but the long term plan is to slowly remove soil from the top of the rock so the roots thicken and can be exposed. Thinner roots should be developed further back and be able to gather water from the base which is always full of water. Again, I am going farther towards my "Witch Tree" look. 

The last bit, is that I did lose one tree that I harvested last summer, bringing last summer's survival rate to 1/3. It was a very nice cedar that was perfectly straight up and down, something that is very unusual for cedar. I should have waited to harvest it until this year. Live and learn. 

Light at the end of the tunnel?

Now that it's starting to feel like spring, the doom and gloom and anxiety that tends to hang over school through late winter is starting to lift. We're also wrapping up some classes in anticipation of starting surgery in just over a week (!!!). This year, we'll be doing spays and neuters on shelter dogs and cats, although you don't know until the day of surgery whether you have a dog or a cat, or a male or female. The cat neuter is a really simple procedure, while the dog spay is usually the hardest, so there are people wishing for either end of the spectrum depending on how confident they feel about surgery. I think I'll be happy with whatever animal I get- I just want the surgery to go well...

Yesterday, we got a nice break from the recent string of downer Professional Skills lectures (animal abuse, child abuse, compassion fatigue, and how to not lose your license among them) with an elective class called "Vet Med and Literature". It's basically vet book club, where we talk about a selection of readings that have something to do with being a student or doctor. It was good to feel semi-human again after a long week of classes. This was my favorite reading:

Mark Doty
Beau: Golden Retrievals

Fetch? Balls and sticks capture my attention
seconds at a time. Catch? I don't think so.
Bunny, tumbling leaf, a squirrel who's -- oh
joy -- actually scared. Sniff the wind, then

I'm off again, muck, pond ditch, residue
of any thrillingly dead thing. And you?
Either you're sunk in the past, half our walk,
thinking of what you never can bring back,

or else you're off in some fog concerning
--tomorrow, is that what you call it? My work:
to unsnare time's warp (and woof), retrieving,
my haze-headed friend, you. This shining bark,

a Zen master's bronzy gong, calls you here,
entirely, now: bow-wow, bow-wow, bow-wow.

--Beau

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone!

(Winnie is showing some serious self-restraint here....)

New Subaru!

Yup, there it is! All bought and paid for and Winnie approved. After living with it for just a few hours I can say that it drives just great! It clings to the ground, the steering is very responsive and it has good acceleration with a pleasant rumble. The brakes are strong, and the visibility is phenomenal. I think the suspension has just the right amount of travel to it. You can feel what your tires are hitting, but it is more like feedback from the road and less like just running over bumps.

When I was driving it home I thought it was a shame that I wouldn't be able to really try it out on some curvy roads because it just felt so fun to drive! Well, ask and you shall receive because two blocks later some lady who's line of sight was blocked by a parked bus pulled out of a driveway just a few feet in front of me - too close to stop. She slammed on her brakes placing her directly in front of me in the new car (on the way home for the first time no less) and I did too, along with whipping the wheel to the left to get around her. The car jumped sideways it moved so fast, and I was past her. The ABS kept everything in line even on the wet road. The only vision I got of the other driver was her bracing for impact! So, slalom on 50th street.

What else, on the way home we had some low level fog, so Megan hit the fog lights And suddenly the lines in the road were clear again! And here I just thought they looked cool.

So, it is my opinion that this car can get through just about any weather you throw at it. I look forward to having it for a long time and I can't wait to drive it again tomorrow! I hope I don't use too much gas this month...

Oops

I know I'm a couple days late....... but happy belated Pi Day everyone! A day to celebrate endless ratios, crazy people who can recite thousands of digits, and of course, pie. Mmm.

No Pi Day celebration is complete without some Pi Day carols and a listen to Luke "Pi Guy" Anderson's Pi Rap (although frankly, I enjoyed his Pi love ballad more... but according to the website, that one will be online next year). My favorite Pi Day was when I helped my uber-math-nerd friends connect Buntrock and the Science Center together with a giant string of sidewalk-chalked Pi. Good times.

Back to classes tomorrow...

Home!

We're home safe and sound, back to a happy corgi, clean apartment, and one more glorious day of spring break until I have to go back to class. Next week is a four-day week (Friday off for people heading down south for the SAVMA symposium), then we're in it for the long haul until summer vacation.

Will post about our wonderful trip tomorrow!