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Month: May 2004

Caput Mundi

2004-05-26 John Winkelman

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Posted in PhotographyTagged Grand River comment on Caput Mundi

Stiiiiilll Rising!

2004-05-25 John Winkelman

Today the river rose up past the edge of its east bank in front of the WaterWorks Pub on North Monroe Street. According to weather reports, if we have no more significant rainfall, the river will rise another two feet before cresting on Thursday afternoon. That means all of Monroe Street could be under water. I work on Monroe Street. I may have to borrow my neighbor’s kayak.

Posted in Life comment on Stiiiiilll Rising!

…Nor Any Drop to Drink

2004-05-24 John Winkelman

Sorry for the lack of updates; I am out of the habit of ‘blogging. When I leave work the last thing I want to do is spend more time looking at a computer; especially now, when the weather has finally turned and the monsoons are coming home to roost.

Last week Grand Rapids had a genuine mud-slide ; the first I have heard of in my fifteen years living here.

Yesterday I took a two-hour walk around Riverside Park, which was mostly under water. I have a couple of pictures up in the River Project section of es.o. They scarcely do it justice.

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The water in places reached from the river to Monroe Street, a distance of over a hundred yards. Where people usually play disc-golf, a blue heron caught fish.

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As I was leaving, a group of river pirates on jet boats invaded the park and snatched several children from the playground equipment.

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Today the river at the 6th Street Bridge dam is so high that surface tension is almost re-asserting itself; a state which would turn the dam into “just another big rock in the river”. At the fish ladder, the water on the sidewalk is knee-deep. Even when the ice let go in March the water wasn’t so high.

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Local experts say that the river could rise as much as three more feet over the next two days, which would put the water well up onto Monroe Street, and do a good job of reminding us that we live in a flood plain.

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Posted in PhotographyTagged Grand River comment on …Nor Any Drop to Drink

You Know What’s Funny?

2004-05-20 John Winkelman

Americans fighting over what it means to be patriotic.
Millionaires talking about sacrifice.
Fat people blaming food.
Alcoholics blaming beer.
Dumb people blaming television.
People who vote blaming people who don’t vote.
People who don’t vote blaming people who vote.
People who mistake the Administration for the country.
People who back their beliefs with violence.
People who are willing to kill but not to die.
Christians who blame God.
Buddhists who blame God.
Atheists who blame religion.
Politicians who take credit for anything.
Politicians who consider themselves to be leaders.
Politicians who call other politicians dishonest.
People who believe that The Right exists.
People who believe that The Left exists.
People who put themselves in categories.
People who believe in precedents.
People who believe in presidents.
People who believe presidents.

Posted in Life comment on You Know What’s Funny?

Embedded Flash

2004-05-18 John Winkelman

Click to see a biomorph.

Posted in ProgrammingTagged artificial life, Flash comment on Embedded Flash

I :heart: My New Camera, part n+1

2004-05-17 John Winkelman

orange-beetle

This one was about a quarter-inch long. Photographed on the wall in my bathroom.

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This one was about an inch long. Photographed on a flowerbed at my parents’ house.

Still fine-tuning the focus and depth-of-field at that range. I am pretty happy with things thus far, with the whole summer ahead of me.

Posted in Photography comment on I :heart: My New Camera, part n+1

Re-BOOT!!!1!

2004-05-16 John Winkelman

Weeellll I thought es.o was looking a little dusty. Originally I planned to get the new look up on May 1 to coincide with the ReBoot , but for various reasons that just didn’t happen.

The background photo is from a few months ago , and the colors used in the design are taken from the photo. Mr. Bock offered much design advice after seeing my original concept, which would have hurt your eyes and killed your computer. If you are looking at this page on a PC, and you are using any flavor of Internet Explorer, Shame On You! Go download Mozilla or FireFox and you will see the beauty which is translucent backgrounds.

So where have I been? A brief recap: The Kendall class ended at the end of April. All of my students passed, there were more As than Ds. Several of the projects completely blew me away. For the next few months my time is my own, then in September I go back to teaching. Same Bat Time, Same Bat Class.

Much time and emotional energy went to assisting Cliff and those around him, through what was absolutely a trying, scary few weeks.

Any free time in addition to all of this was taken up by work, or recovering from work. This past Friday a major project launched; one in which I had to wield mojo as I have never before wielded mojo: Discovering Design . Normally I don’t post Day Job projects here, but this is one I of which I am quite proud. The posts I made about The Brain a few weeks back? What I learned there went in here.

Last and MOST IMPORTANT, I have been training hard in Master Lee’s class . We have a tournament in a couple of weeks, and the Grand Rapids Festival of the Arts show a week after that. This year the show will take place on my birthday. My 35th birthday. I can think of no better gift.

As miscellaneous addendum, the news of the world around us has kept me rather depressed. I made the grievous tactical error of watching The Video last week. The non-Hollywood-ized violence, the everyday banality of the decapitation, as if it were no more important to the participants than the butchering of a pig, gave me nightmares. I grew up near a slaughterhouse, and what was on The Video could have happened, with a slight cast change, therein.

What next? Sleep. Sleep and maybe playing around a little with game development. Bock is working on one, and it kind of whetted my appetite for that kind of thing.

More as time and energy allow.

Posted in LifeTagged Kendall College of Art and Design, teaching comment on Re-BOOT!!!1!

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