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Akano

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Blog Entries posted by Akano

  1. Akano

    My First BrickFair

    By Akano,

    So, it looks like both KK and I will be going to BrickFair (so long as we have friends willing to give us rides). So, if you want to meet us, BE THERE! 8D
     
    KK has said Tekulo's rather jealous about our adventure to the fair of bricks. Don't worry, Tekky, I'll be sure to take pictures and hopefully grab some good bricks.
     
    In other news, I've caught up completely with the 900 comics of Order of the Stick, and it's a fantastic series. If anyone out there has a few days to kill, it's a blast to read, check it out.
     
    As for my comics, I should make some new ones, huh? >>;
     

  2. Akano
    ...and I'm not enjoying it as much as I hoped to...
     
    *avoids all the random objects being thrown at him in disagreement*
     
    Let me explain.
     
    I'm currently rescuing the maidens in the Dark World. I'm making the assumption that you're supposed to rescue them in numerical order, but I think they can be saved in (almost) any order. I've rescued two of them, with the third lying in the Dark World equivalent of the Lost Woods (the Skeleton Forest, I think?). Anyway, it took me forever to figure out how to get over there, since no obvious path showed itself on my map.
     
    This game needs a guide. A Navi, Tatl, Ezlo, Midna, or King of Red Lions. Someone who knows the world and can help you get to where you need to go. I've been to the fortune teller in the game to figure out where to go, but he only gives you names, not directions, which makes it frustrating when I'm running around like a chicken with my head cut off all over Hyrule trying to figure out where to go next.
     
    Perhaps it will grow on me, but right now I'm longing for Minish Cap and its wonderful gameplay...
     

  3. Akano

    Akano's A Graduate?

    By Akano,

    Yep, that's right, every peoples. I graduated from high school on Saturday. I feel so old.
     
    I'm sure people are wondering, "What's this going to mean for the comics?" Probably not too much, at least not until autumn, because I'm still going to be home until marching band in college starts up.
     
    And I still have no clue what I want to be when I grow up.
     

  4. Akano
    Science is awesome. I am currently reading a journal article about how people are making the acoustic version of iridescence. For those who don't know, iridescence is what certain insects, jewels, soap bubbles, and CDs exhibit as that rainbow effect that changes color depending on what angle it's viewed. The sonic or acoustic version of this is creating something that varies in pitch depending on the angle at which you stand relative to it.
     
    Awesome.
     

  6. Akano
    Yeah, believe it or not, it's snowing here. We have at least a foot of snow and it's still coming down.
     
    I suppose that's not too unusual, at least for where I live. Two years ago a festival we have in the second week of April or so was cancelled due to snow. XD
     
    Weather as usual in my realm.
     

  7. Akano
    Haldo, BZPeople!
     
    As you may have noticed, this summer the blogs were highly accented with my extreme absence since I took a trip to the northern UK. The reason for this absence is simple: I was studying for, and subsequently started taking, my preliminary examinations for continuation to my Ph.D. in physics. Last week for me was filled with three four-hour exams: one on Monday (Quantum Mechanics), one on Wednesday (Electromagnetism), and one on Friday (Classical, Special Relativity, and Statistical Mechanics grab bag). I am happy to say that I survived the initial onslaught of my prelims and am now in phase two: a twelve-hour take-home exam to be done over seventy-two hours (10 a.m. today to 10 a.m. Thursday). I have glanced at the problems but not worked on them yet, but I feel pretty good about the quantum section.
     
    In other news, the new school year is set to start in a week, but I have a class starting this Thursday. That'll be quite fun. 8D
     

  8. Akano

    Dear Chairman...

    By Akano,

    I love watching series over and over again to see if there are any subtleties the writers threw in that I never noticed during my first viewing. However, I rarely find a series that, when I watch it, I get the same feeling of suspense, the same feeling of revelation, as I do when I watch Red vs. Blue Season 6: Reconstruction.
     
    If you haven't seen Reconstruction yet, be warned that there will be spoilers in this entry.
     
    What is it that's so great about this particular season of a very comedic and ridiculous take on the Halo universe? Well, let's start with the premise of Red vs. Blue. We have two teams of ridiculously inept soldiers who are "at war" with each other for what they believe is the fate of the universe. Being the ineffective soldiers that they are, their battles usually end in whacky hijinks and the exchange of insults, and they very much keep those personalities in Season 6. A brief summary of the characters and their personalities:
     
    Red Team
     
    Sarge - Gruff and regimented leader of the Red Team, older, comes up with convoluted plans and ridiculous tactics. His hate for the Blues is only surmounted by his hatred of Grif.
     
    Grif - Lazy comic relief who is smarter than he looks, just unmotivated. Has a sort of love/hate relationship with Simmons.
     
    Simmons - The nerd of the Red Team, enjoys math, sucks up to Sarge every chance he gets.
     
    Lopez - The Red team's robot who can only speak (poorly translated) Spanish. Deadpan snarker.
     
    Donut - (absent from Reconstruction) Guy who wears pink armor and is rather effeminate.
    Blue Team
     
    Church - Self-appointed leader of the Blue Team
     
    Tucker - Lazy member of Blue Team who only thinks about picking up chicks.
     
    Caboose - The token cool dude of Blue Team. Probably the most popular character on the show for his ridiculous lines.
     
    Tex - A special ops soldier and Church's ex-girlfriend. The only soldier who can actually do something.
    Now, mix these characters with Agent Washington, a completely serious special ops soldier (like Tex) with no tolerance for humor. Surprisingly, this works extremely well (considering the number of ways they could have screwed this relationship up). Together, they are all trying to find a new threat known as the Meta who is killing off Freelancer agents (like Tex and Wash) to obtain their armor abilities and AI, which help them in battle.
     
    Then there is the overarching banter between the Director of Project Freelancer and the Oversight Sub-Committee Chairman. These conversations open every episode in the form of audio letter and alternate between the two, and they illustrate one of the most awesome passive-agressive power struggles I've ever witnessed in any series (and they are never on screen throughout the entire season!). While brief at the beginning of each episode, the subject of the dialogue, while at first seems unrelated, is actually intertwined with the entire motivation of the events of the season.
     
    And if that didn't seem to make things come full circle, the big reveal in the season further seals the deal. When I watch this one moment when Washington fully reveals why the Reds and the Blues were stuck in the middle of a boxed-in canyon in the middle of nowhere, why these Freelancer AI have plagued them and caused all their problems from the get go, and why he needs to put a stop to what Project Freelancer has done and bring them to justice, I am stunned. I always watch the scene and marvel at how perfectly everything is drawn together. I get the same goosebumps during each subsequent viewing of that scene that I got the first time I watched it. The reveal is always fresh; it always keeps me on the edge of my seat; it never gets stale, and that is why I consider this the crowning moment of the entire Red vs. Blue series.
     
    And I can't think of any other series that does that to me.
     

  9. Akano
    KK got me sick. Jerk.
     
    In other news, MAJORA'S MASK 3D CONFIRMED XIKQADRVVGSJUPOLWTW!!!
     
    I'm pretty psyched about this development and am throwing my money at the screen to make it be mine now. It's not working.
     
    Now, please excuse me while I hack up my left lung.
     

  10. Akano

    January update

    By Akano,

    Haldo, BZPorples,
     
    I hope everyone had some awesome holiday funtimes! Mine were packed with traveling, visiting friends, gift giving and receiving, and all the food. All of it.
     
    I also saw The Force Awakens twice while I was home. It was pretty fantastic. The part where we find out that Chewbacca is Rey's father was quite the twist![/trololololol]
     
    Now I am back at school. Though classes don't start until next week, I'm in my lab typing this and sorta doing work. (I've been at a loss to find a certain physical quantity for the past week and have been trying to cope with this by watching various videos. Right now I'm watching Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey. When Knowledge Conquered Fear = WIN!)
     
    Otherwise, things are going the way they've always been going.
     

  12. Akano

    Life Updates

    By Akano,

    HI, BZPOWER!
     
    So, in the last few weeks, my family came to visit (including Tekulo and KK) and we spent the latter half of the week seeing sights and enjoying each other's company. My mom won a game of Trivial Pursuit on a category that was supposed to stump her. Story of my Trivial Pursuit life.
     
    When they left, they abandoned KK with me, which has led to me stepping into the nerd realm of playing Dungeons & Dragons. We're doing a campaign in the land of Hyrule with the races of Hyrule being used as analogs of D&D races. We're currently in the Forest Temple seeking an herb to cure the Great Deku Tree's muteness.
     
    I'm also working in a new physics lab where I'm studying the energy states of the hydrogen molecule (H2). I'm thoroughly enjoying it, since I'm learning computational stuffs and learning my way around Linux. (Emacs rules the school.) The program I'm working with is in Fortran, which is my native programming language but was written by someone else with a lot more skill than I possess.
     
    And now I'm shoveling through a LOT of data.
     

  13. Akano

    Awesome Cartoons

    By Akano,

    As brothers tend to do, KK and I spent our Saturday evening watching a cartoon about brothers navigating an unfamiliar world simply trying to get home. Over the Garden Wall is a brilliant miniseries, and if you haven't seen it, you should. The story is captivating, mysterious, and makes you ask all sorts of questions to the very end. The animation is beautiful (similar but different to Gravity Falls), the characters are incredibly fun and interesting, and the plot doesn't necessarily progress the way you think it will, but at the same time has many familiar story elements. Also, the celebrity voice acting is done really well, which isn't always the case when you have big names in your cartoon credits.
     
    Go watch it. It's a great ride.
     
    Also, slightly related, new Gravity Falls tonight! 8D
     

  14. Akano

    My D&D Characters

    By Akano,

    So, recently I told you all that my brother, KK, has come to stay with me this summer and that we've started a Dungeons and Dragons campaign in the land of Hyrule, set some 50 years or so after the events of Majora's Mask. We recently just dealt with some undead necromancy in the Kakariko graveyard and are waiting for orders from the King of Hyrule on where our party will travel for our next mission. KK has also gotten me into the wonderful webcomic The Order of the Stick, which lampshades and parodies the Dungeons & Dragons universe and gameplay. I have since made my player characters in the style of OotS's comic design and wish to share them with you, my lovely reader.
     
    Atlov
     
     



    Atlov is a Hylian wizard who specializes in the Storm Domain (bonus points to those who figure out where his name comes from). He aspires to use his wizard talents as a servant of the Royal Family of Hyrule.
    Stats
    Lawful Good, Level 2 Wizard, 12 HP, AC 12
    Str: 10
    Dex: 14
    Con: 15
    Int: 16
    Wis: 14
    Cha: 13
     
    I'm planning to take a level in Cleric with Atlov after I get my level 2 Wizard spells, since it will give him a nice diversity and allow him to heal himself in battle. He currently worships Nayru, but I think that will change, a) because the Hyrule campaign thingy we're basing our game on doesn't give Nayru many good Cleric domains, and b) because while Nayru is the goddess of wisdom, it may make more sense to worship Hylia (since he wants to serve the Royal Family) or not have a preferred deity (since he may feel that they're all equally important).
     
    Ralu
     
     




    Ralu is a Zora bard from Zora's Domain. He enjoys traversing Hyrule and gathering new stories to tell through the soothing tones of his fish bone guitar. The diplomat of the group, since his Charisma is out the wazoo.
    Stats
    Chaotic Good, Level 2 Bard, 15 HP, AC 13
    Str: 11
    Dex: 11
    Con: 16
    Int: 15
    Wis: 9
    Cha: 16
     
    Zoras get a penalty to strength, and I rolled a bad Wisdom score, but fortunately he doesn't need it too badly. Ralu worships Farore, since he's Chaotic rather than Lawful (otherwise I would have had him worship Nayru). I haven't developed his character too much yet, so we'll see where I take him during our journey.
     

  15. Akano

    I'm in Scotland

    By Akano,

    So, I'm currently in Edinburgh, UK for official Hogwarts business doing research with a collaborator at the local university. Things I have done include
    Vaguely losing consciousness on the plane ride over the Atlantic to adjust to new time zone. Would not qualify it as sleeping.
    Instead of checking into the hotel (which didn't allow checkins until 2 p.m. local time), climbing Arthur's Seat to the summit with my advisor like a boss.
    Enjoyed a Guinness. (Not Scottish, I know, but arguably fresher than those sold in the US.)
    Things I have not yet done include
    Tossing a caber.
    Wearing a kilt.
    Playing bagpipes.
    Trying haggis. (Will probably do this at breakfast tomorrow, though.)
    So far so fun. Also I've done research. Totally why I'm here.
     

  16. Akano

    Over A Month? Crud...

    By Akano,

    Sorry I haven't posted an entry here for more than a month. My life recently has been quite busy. For instance, a week ago I had to perform for my school's spring musical. It consumed much of my time, usually practice and performances went until 10-11 pm. @@;
     
    Anywho, with that out of the way, I'm hoping to work on my 100th comic (no, it isn't done yet. ><. I hope to have it done possibly by next weekend, since my spring break is coming up. Also, Nerdfest 2007 State competition is coming up at the end of my spring break. Wish me thine luck!
     
    Just letting you know I'm alive, the one and only,
     

  19. Akano

    Equation of the Day #3

    By Akano,

    Just so everyone knows, I obtained the awesome LEGO Haunted House over Fall Break and have pictures that will work wonderfully in a review. You can probably expect that next week at some point (I hope). For now, let's go over another fun physics equation! This one is probably very familiar to you, though you may not have any idea what it means. I give you mass-energy equivalence:
     



     
    Where E is energy, m is mass, and c is the speed of light. It's a very simple-looking equation with only three parameters, but what does it mean? Well, it means that anything with mass – you, your cat, your house, the Earth – has latent energy stored in it, and the amount of mass determines that latent energy. For an object at rest, this correlates to the rest mass of the object. If an object is moving really fast (near the speed of light) its kinetic energy causes it to actually get heavier, since the object can never actually reach the speed of light (only objects with no rest mass move at the speed of light).
     
    So, if we have an object sitting and doing nothing, and it suddenly glows for a split second, then stops, where did the light come from? Well, light has energy, as we know, so we could calculate the energy of the light that escapes our object. If the light emanates in all directions, then the net kinetic energy of the object is unchanged. But conservation of energy says that energy can neither be created nor destroyed! Have we violated the laws of physics with our weird glowing object? Well, no, because if you were somehow able to weigh the object pre- and post-glow, you would find that the mass of this object is actually slightly less after the light is given off.
     
    But wait! Doesn't conservation of mass say that matter can neither be created nor destroyed? Well, yes, it does say that. So the only way for this to make sense is if the mass is converted into the energy that was emitted. We know that energy can be converted into different forms (electric, mechanical, thermal, etc.), so this must mean that mass is another form of energy that can be converted to and from! Pretty neat, huh?
     
    Minutephysics has a cool video on this with a bit more technicality and pretty pictures of radioactive cats, but this is my text-based explanation simplified.
     
    Another thing that may cross your mind is that this looks very similar to Newton's second law:
     



     
    So, does Newton's second law equate force with acceleration? Well, no, because in the mass-energy equation, the constant of proportionality, c2, is a universal constant; it is the same for any and all objects in the universe. The mass of an object, however, varies from object to object, and is thus not a fundamental, universal constant, so while these equations are similar and relate two seemingly different entities, they do not conceptually perform the same task.
     

  20. Akano
    I have been up to lots of stuffs recently. Mostly of the electronic gaming variety.
     
    First off, I played Mega Man X for the first time courtesy of the Wii U Virtual Console (prompted by a fantastic video by Egoraptor). Fantastic game; the more I play SNES games, the more I regret not owning a SNES in childhood.
     
    After playing Fire Emblem (Rekka no Ken) and Sacred Stones, I finally caved into my roommate's demands that I play Awakening; OMG SO MUCH AWESOME! Probably one of my favorite games of all time, and definitely looking forward to playing it again.
     
    Right after completing Awakening, I received Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney in the mail. Another fantastic game; Layton puzzles and story combined with Phoenix Wright courtroom shenanigans made for an awesome crossover. I just wish Maya hadn't been given a valley girl accent. :/
     
    And, finally, my roommate got some 3DS Smash Bros codes, one of which he shared with me. I'm loving Mega Man so far; will definitely be playing as him once the Wii U version comes out (not getting the 3DS version; I'd like to spare my buttons of a painful death). I really wish the demo included Robin as a playable character, though; of the new roster, I'm looking forward to playing as him the most.
     
    On a more academic note, this Thursday is my Ph.D. preliminary exam oral defense, so that'll be fun. I've already worked through the problems that I will be asked about, and I think I've solved all of them. Hopefully all will go well.
     

  24. Akano

    New Comic And Some Maths

    By Akano,

    Hi, all,
     
    New comic (and topic) have been posted over in the comics forum! Check it out!
     
    To address the maths in the new comic, the first sum is
     
    1 + 2 + 4 + 8 + ... = Sum(2^n), where n = 0, 1, 2, 3, ... all the way up to infinity. Now, if we look at the partial sums of this series, we see that the sum of the first term is 1, the first two terms is 3, the first three terms is 7, first four terms is 15, etc. Clearly, the sum gets bigger the more terms you add on. However, let's say that we have
     
    s = 1 + 2 + 4 + 8 + 16 + ...
     
    We can rewrite this by using the distributive property,
     
    s = 1 + 2 (1 + 2 + 4 + 8 + ...)
     
    But, what's inside the parentheses is clearly the sum we had before, so we can rewrite this as
     
    s = 1 + 2s
     
    Subtracting s from both sides, we get
     
    0 = 1 + s
     
    Therefore, s = -1 = 1 + 2 + 4 + 8 + ... So, while the sum does not converge to a number in the traditional sense, it still has some other meaning that says that it is equivalent to -1. Similarly,
     
    1 - 2 + 4 - 8 + ... = Sum((-2)^n) where n = 0, 1, 2, 3, ... all the way up to infinity, or
     
    s = 1 - 2 + 4 - 8 + ...
     
    We can again rewrite this as
     
    s = 1 - 2(1 - 2 + 4 - 8 + ...)
     
    What's inside the parentheses is, again, the sum, so
     
    s = 1 - 2s, or 3s = 1. Therefore, s = 1/3 So, while the partial sums (1, -1, 3, -5, 11, ...) get larger in magnitude (with alternating +/- signs), the sum is still on some higher level equal to 1/3. Neat, huh?
     
    If this doesn't make sense, that's okay, because it is confusing and highly mathematical. What I think is cool, though, is that you can still show these two statements using alternative mathematical methods, meaning that these values are consistent with different techniques. It's about as awesome to me as how classical physics comes out of quantum mechanics when you take the limit of quantum mechanics for a "large" (classical) system.
     
    I love math and science. 8D
     

  25. Akano
    I have posted before about the genius of physicist David J. Griffiths. I thought I'd post a few quotes by him to share why I think he's awesome.
     
    "…You can always tell the particles apart, in principle—just paint one of them red and the other one blue, or stamp identification numbers on them, or hire private detectives to follow them around."
     
    "...And, of course, if you’re in a really bad mood you can create a state for which neither position nor momentum is well defined..."
     
    "It is traditional to write the Bohr radius with a subscript: a0. But this is cumbersome and unnecessary, so I prefer to leave the subscript off."
     
    "If you think this is starting to sound like a mystical numerology, I don’t blame you. We will not be using Clebsch-Gordan tables much in the rest of the book, but I wanted you to know where they fit into the scheme of things, in case you encounter them later on. In a mathematical sense this is all applied group theory—what we are talking about is the decomposition of the direct product of two irreducible representations of the rotation group into a direct sum of irreducible representation (you can quote that, to impress your friends)."
     
    "I’m not at all sure what I’m supposed to say today. Maybe you’re expecting a grand philosophy of education. But I learned very early as a parent that almost any philosophy of childrearing is worse than no philosophy at all, and I am inclined to think the same applies to teaching."
     
    "Personally, I never bring notes to a lecture unless I am egregiously ill-prepared, for they break a very delicate and important bond of trust with the listener: If B really follows from A, how come he has to refer to his notes?"
     
    "There are a thousand ways to get a problem wrong—not all of them bad—and many ways to get a problem right—not all of them good."
     
    "Above all, I think studying science—and especially physics—is a tremendously liberating experience. I don’t happen to know how a carburetor works; I’m not even sure what a carburetor does; let me be frank: I don’t know what a carburetor looks like. But I do know that the behavior of carburetors is perfectly rational; somebody understands them, and if I really wanted to I’m sure I could understand them too. For I have confidence, grounded in the study of physics, that the world is rationally intelligible, and this, to me, is the most important—and most profoundly liberating—idea in human experience. The universe is comprehensible..."
     
    "A colleague of mine in Chemistry likes to boast that ‘‘anyone can teach; the important thing is to attract good researchers.’’ I think it’s exactly the reverse: competent research physicists are a dime a dozen, but good teachers are few and far between. Please don’t misunderstand: I’ve got nothing against research—I do a certain amount of it myself, and I think it goes hand in hand with good teaching. But I regard myself as a professional teacher, and an amateur researcher, whereas most physicists are professional researchers but amateur teachers, and it shows. In my opinion by far the most effective thing we can do to improve the quality of physics instruction—much more important than modifications in teaching technique—is to hire, honor, and promote good teachers."
     
    There are many more wonderful quotes, but I don't remember them/don't have the sources on me. Perhaps I'll add to this in another blog entry.
     

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