My core class in university this semester is based around electronics and human interactions with objects. We are exploring new ways to use sensors and electronic output (such as motors, lights, and sound) to create a unique and meaningful 'interaction'.
Or as Phnelt re-interpreted the assignment: what can you look at and think "this could be more sonic!"

For our first mini intro project we made a rudimentary lego mindstorms robot crocodile that opened it's mouth and eyes when someone waved a hand in front of it, wagged it's tail when it heard sounds, and snapped it's mouth shut when a button it it's mouth was touched. Very cool, but not particularly original or creative as far as the application of electronics go.

So now I've got a very basic understanding of how sensors and digital output programming works, and no idea what to do with it.
Our class brainstormed a bunch of ideas, but it came down to the fact that there are very few situations where I'm not already interacting with electronics, and I don't really want to add more electronics to my life. Ever seen those TV adds for gizmos that automate something that really didn't need it, like scissors? DO NOT WANT. It just makes things more complicated, annoying, and dependent on batteries.

Lots of the ideas from our class were focused on medical technology. Last year someone made a waist belt that vibrated in specific spots depending on where sounds were coming from, for Deaf people to have an improved awareness of their surroundings. Another was a prototype of a pair of rain boots that lit up different colours based on whether they were in water or not.

The best route seems to be making our interactions with things that already involve electronics more "sonic" somehow. Does anyone on the flist have a deep need for something in their life to be more sonic?

Gauis saying "Someday he will see you for who you really are" in the last episode totally continues "because you belong together."
I saw the video for Taylor Swift's song You Belong With Me and I immediately thought that there NEEDS to be a Merlin vid to it!

I went looking and found out there already is one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1imZOKB7bk
But I just don't see Morgana and Arthur as a pair at all, they're too much like siblings. Plus Morgana hasn't really been a negative for Arthur much in the show.

What I really wanted was for the "other girl" to be Uther's persecution of magic. Where the song talks about "her" bringing him down it would be Uther executing a sorcerer, that sort of thing. I'd have to think of something suitably metaphoric for 'high heels' and 'short skirts', but it would be an interesting juxtaposition.

I really need to take the time to get good at vidding so that I can bring these things to life instead of just writing them down and hoping I have some cash when sweet charity rolls around.

Merlin's dialogue could have been taken directly from a high school romance drama, with Gaius playing the comforting father. "Someday that boy will see you for who you really are!"
Merlin and Arthur's love is so true.

I am excited for new vids this season, and that crystal heart is so going to be used as a metaphor for Arthur's love. Also, apparently Arthur is too sexy for his shirt.
Can't wait for the next episode!

Does anybody need an invite code for dreamwidth? I've got two up for grabs. I know pretty much everybody who was interested already has one, but if you're one of the stragglers just leave me your e-mail.

We decided to name him Pickwick!
He has gotten much bigger in the two weeks we've had him, and he is much more active! This does mean he spends less time cuddling and sleeping in our arms, but he plays a lot more. We are both pretty clawed up from his playful pursuit of "catch the hands and feet and bite" game, but he's so cute and you know he's just trying to play.
( Photos of Pickwick! )( Fleas, Ottowa  )

We adopted a little boy kitten yesterday!
His birthday was March 21st, 2009. He's only two months or 7 1/2 weeks old, and he is so tiny!
phnelt is running a poll for his name over at her dreamwidth. please vote!
phnelt.dreamwidth.org/19978.html
we've narrowed it down to four options;
Pickwick
Inigo
Bismarck
Tribble
( photos  )

Today is my first day back from phnelt and I's epic trip to New York and Washington DC with her family. Photo post to follow as soon as I upload and pick the best pics.

( assorted tourism )

I firmly believe that the song "The Fool on the Hill" by the Beatles would make an amazing Dr.Who vid.

( the man of a thousand voices )

I attended Carmen with phnelt recently, and live professional opera is indeed joyous! As a kid I saw Madame Butterfly and a version of the King and I, but no other live operas. I paid a ton for the tickets, and they were still awfully high up, but luckily my cousin is studying opera here so now I can get $15 tickets to the matinees! Rigoletto is next. Glee! The music is played so often that of course I knew half of it, and damn it was stuck in my head for a week. I found myself humming it at the bus stop!

My next venture out was to Coraline in 3D! I loved it. I've been avoiding doing a re-read of the book until I saw the movie, to prevent nitpicking. I'll have to re-read it now so I can compare. I'm a big Tim Burton fan and him combined with Neil Gaimen is a dream come true for me. The crazy taffy ladies reminded me of the aunts from pushing daisies. Also, the mouse circus was friggen intense. Vote yes to the sophisticated gent of a cat too.
Sadly Phnelt and I both had headaches after the 3D, but I am pretty glad that 3D is really catching on as a mainstream movie thing. Too bad I missed seeing Bolt.

Last night I went with a buddy to a two person performance of the musical The Last Five Years, the musical that produced the song "I could be in love with someone like you" of the SGA vid! That song was never actually in the musical, but was written for it and then replaced with a different song. I have been wanting to see that musical ever since I first saw the vid. I've had some other songs from it downloaded for a while. It turned out to be a pretty emotional show in a really honest way. It was awesome, both actors were great singers, and the woman had actually played a small part on stargate atlantis! Majorly serendipitous.

I posted a few of my sculpture assignments from last semester on my deviantart!
They have such titles as: Colossal squid in a jar, Pony in a ball, and The Glorious Revolution! Check them out?
phnelt  is particularly fond of the pony in a ball, and she is fully responsible for the orange/pickle thing, her history nerdy-ness is always inspiring. I'm really proud of how my wooden squid mobile turned out. Download the video!

http://chibi-muse.deviantart.com/

I intend to continue posting my art from last semester, so I'll post a note here when I post more art.

After quite a few all-nighters I am done! The biggest final projects were the one due last monday and the one due yesterday.

Monday's biggie was an essay/case study for design history about how "during the period of 1950 to 1970 the Space Race and the rise of science fiction TV and movies combined to completely change the dominant subject matter of tin-toys from circus, nature, and storybook themes to space and science fiction themes." More precisely I spent 2,000 words talking about Robby the Robot wind-up toys, science fiction, and space technology.

Friday was the final soft product design project. Our last project was to design and sew a laptop bag (for phnelt 's laptop). This time we had to design and make a muslin and a final version of a backpack for some sort of sweaty activity. I'm not big on sweaty sports-type activity, so I figured I might as well choose the coolest thing I could think of: Spelunking! Or as actual cavers seem to hate that term, "cave diving". Yeah!

My muslin was in these awesome 90's-tastic colours: white, neon pink, and electric blue. XD My final bag was sewn over two days, and all through friday night until 1:30 when the bag was due. :( I am STILL tired and crazy. I was late to hand it in, but luckily my teacher assumed it was because of the snow. The bag is pretty comfy, and super-cute looking. I think it turned out amazing! I will hopefully post pictures soon. </lj>

Trip to Edmonton for Thanksgiving!
Happy times, I miss my e-towners all the time.
Shout out to all y'all e-towners on my flist: I less than three you!
Yay for turkey and mystery (how many sausage/sex metaphors can we squeeze into each sentence?). And we stayed with Regina who we haven't seen since we moved, she's the sweetest lady around!
Michael made a tasty cookie and survived a surprise encounter with my mom! (as did Regina and her family unit)
Britt, silly pictures are impending I swear.
I hung with most of my family peeps for a while, good to see how they're all doing. Breakfast with my Bro was awesome, the blue plate diner grills a mean cornbread. No time for a full-out post right now, maybe I will get back to it.

This past weekend was the opposite, drugery and anxiety and stress over a mountain of homework! It got to the point of Phnelt and I trading homework. You know it's sad when you're procrastinating doing your homework by doing other people's! But Nina came over and was reading in solidarity with us.

And last friday Nina, her roomies and I all went to the midnight horror double feature at the Rio! Oodles of fun, with raffles and a "horror comedian" in zombie-like makeup who made so many awesomely bad jokes all with the punchline "It's not easy, being creepy." The movies were both black and white, 30's old! First was "Freaks" which had an amazing dwarf actress and was horribly creepy at the end. Apparently 30 minutes of it were censored and lost, I wonder how scary it would have been with them...

Second was the first Dracula movie! Pretty terrible, and filled with uncomfortably long shots of Dracula making buggy eyes in dramatic lighting. I fell asleep halfway in and woke up near the end to find Nina curled up on the seat beside me and her two roomies gone. XD
I clearly don't have the stamina for being out at the movies until four in the morning! I don't even feel compelled to watch it for the parts I missed, it was really bad.

The rest of my week will be crazy homework combined with the fact I desperately need a haircut and a doctors appt to refill the monthly pills.
 

New art! Just a pencil doodle that turned out a little sexier than I planned. Please check it out on DeviantArt.
chibi-muse.deviantart.com/art/Suspended-99290685
(is anyone annoyed by my always linking to Devart instead of posting directly here? Because I could really stop being so lazy and post it here if everyone hated it)

I'm almost finished the laptop bag I've been working on! I just need to test it when phnelt  isn't using her laptop for German homework before I sew the final seam. I will try and post pictures once I get it marked!

In other news I had to rip out the 10 rows of complicated edging I had knit on my sweater because when I connected them in the first row I created... dun.dundun. a MOEBIUS sweater! Lame, and unfixable. So now I've re-started and I just finished the complicated edging and am moving on to the rest. I love the circulars because I can fit them in my tiny purse.

This afternoon I went to a high tea with the VanElegance loli girls to celebrate crazisilverange's birthday. Pudding was late, but the rest of us started right away with beautiful tea's and large tiered trays of finger sandwiches and pastries! It was yummy, and very nice to meet some new people in the fashion. Pudding had the most adorable gloomy-bear apron! Next weekend is a meetup with a different group of loli's to go to the vintage carousel in burnaby, yay! Except I would really like to have my new skirt fixed by then, and I know I won't have time with all my homework and student union meetings. What to wear...

Just a quickie to say: look I'm alive on DevArt too! Check out the link:

chibi-muse.deviantart.com/art/octo-loli-98764530

I want an octopus dress, this would be so fun to sew!

I'm in desperate need of practice drawing backgrounds and using colour, so this evening I did some work on this digital painting I've had on the back burner for a while. I like the general light/dark contrast, but I'm not really happy with the colour yet (especially the girl). Maybe I'll look up some reference photos.
http://chibi-muse.deviantart.com/art/colour-background-experiment-95425062

New stuff!

http://chibi-muse.deviantart.com/art/Snape-Lucius-in-asia-93115668
I posted a new drawing I doodled on in Parksville to get some practice doing backgrounds, and hopefully I'll be posting some more new art as well as posting my older stuff and school assignments. Enjoy the silly HP fan art!

Alan Rickman is shmexy even with a mustache and Eliza Dushku (Faith from Buffy) is hot like burning, so the movie Bottle Shock is destined to be sexy and awesome due to the combination of these two forces.
It's based on the 1976 Paris Tasting that "rocked the wine world". It looks fabulous from the trailer anyways, french/british "snobbery" combats american "wholesomeness".

http://www.bottleshockthemovie.com for the trailer.

I must see this when it comes out.