What must be true?

The Sign on the Microwave

tralf2001 — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 15:31:42 GMT

It reads:

Please do not put whole eggs in the microwave.

They will blow up.

It also has a picture of a happy egg and a blown up egg between those two lines. Could you imagine a sign that would make you want to microwave whole eggs any more than that one does?

Manifest Destiny - Ver 0.2

tralf2001 — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 02:01:28 GMT

The game, with which I'm a lot happier now (except for the colors, but that kind of thing gives me a headache!). I'm happy to report that Kara was playing it even as I IM'd her to tell her about the new version.

Read in The Iowa Review this evening, c&p'd via Google

tralf2001 — Fri, 24 Feb 2006 01:31:00 GMT

Algren Meets Donoso
By Kurt Vonnegut

Back in 1969, with the Vietnam War going on,
in September, the start of an academic year
at the legendary Writer's Workshop
out at the University of Iowa,
I introduced the world-class novelist
Nelson Algren,
onetime acknowledged lover
of Simone de Beauvoir,
wife of the Nobel Laureate
Jean-Paul Sartre,
to the world-class novelist
Jose Donoso,
nickname "Pepe."
They are both looking down
from Heaven now.

We had all three gone bust,
and so had arrived in Iowa
to teach Creative Writing.
I explained to Nelson that Jose,
that Pepe, was from Chile.
Nelson thought for a moment,
possibly about Simone de Beauvoir,
and then he said to Jose, to Pepe,
"It must be nice to come
from a country
that long and narrow."

tralf2001 — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 01:08:46 GMT

EAR FLAP HAT PATTERN

Materials used in photo:
MC - Wool Ease (Heather Green)
CC1 - Simply Soft (Lt. Country Blue)
CC2 - Wool Ease (Wheat)

Stitches used in pattern:
ch - chain stitch
sc - single crochet
hdc - half double crochet
sl st - slip stitch

For Hat:
W/ MC ch 3.
Rnd 01: (sc in first ch made) 7 times. Join with sl st in first sc (always join in this way; always join at the end of each rnd).
Rnd 02: ch 1. sc in joining st. (2 sc in next sc) around.
Rnd 03: ch 2. hdc in joining st. hdc in next sc. (2 hdc in next sc, hdc in next sc) around.
Rnd 04: ch 2. hdc in joining st. hdc in next 2 sts. (2 hdc in next st, hdc in next 2 sts) around.
Rnd 05-08: Continue in the same manner, incrementing the number of straight sts between the increase sts until the hat is reasonably sized (close to being large enough to fit your head). Do more or less rnds to get it to the right size. This increases the sts by 7 each rnd.
...
Rnd 09-12: Continue with hdc around, increasing by 4 each rnd until the hat has the diameter you want. Work these rnds until you have the right size.
Rnd 13: hdc around. Join.
Rnd 14-15: Rep rnd 13 until you are ready to change colors.
Rnd 16: W/ CC1 sc loosely around, carrying MC. Join and cut CC1.
Rnd 17: W/ MC hdc around.
Rnd 18-19: W/ CC2 ch 1. sc in joining st. (ch 1, skip next st, 2 sc in next st) around.
Rnd 20: Cut CC2. W/ MC sc loosely around.
Rnd 21-23: W/ MC and CC1 follow a graph of your choosing.
Rnd 24: W/ MC sc loosely around. Cut MC. Cut CC1.
Rnd 25: Rep rnds 18-19. Cut CC2.

For Earflaps (2):
Attach CC1 to chosen spot on hat with sc.
Row 01: (ch 1, skip next st, sc in next st) 7 times. ch 1, turn.
Row 02-10: Continue with this st pattern, gradually decreasing to point of earflap. Stripe with CC2 after 3 rows. Do not cut CC1.

For Ties (2):
W/ CC1 ch 30 (or to desired length).
For heavier weight yarn, finish off and cut CC1.
For light weight yarn, sl st in 2nd ch from hook. Sl st in each ch back to earflap. Finish off and cut CC1.

Edging:
W/ MC attach to hat with sc. sc in each st around permiter of hat and earflaps. Finish off and cut MC.

Tassels:
For ties, cut 2 4" lengths of ea color. Fold in half and attach to ties.
For top of hat, wrap all three colors around your hand or a piece of cardboard. Tie in center, cut loops, and attach to top of hat.

EMG Atari Control

tralf2001 — Tue, 13 Dec 2005 03:22:42 GMT

Nick and Tim came by to see if we could get EOG (but really EMG) to work with the Atari running through BCI2000. I get to be the monkey. One electrode on my wrist for ground. One on my forehead as reference. Two by my eyes to get the changes in potential when I look different places. They couldn't get the DC signal to work (that's what we need for real EOG), so it was EMG instead - recording from the muscles in my face. Once everything was set up I was able to switch between going forward and turning. They also added shooting in the middle phase. Switching between them is pretty slow, and the control I had wasn't very great, but if I spent a little longer practicing I should be able to move around a lot quicker.

I control the Atari by blinking! No hands! Tim, Nick, me, Dr. Moran. Jim is taking the picture.
Tim does the software stuff that makes the computer talk to the Atari. Nick does the BCI2000 stuff with the ECoG patients.
The second joystick works, so people can play against me using that. I actually got Jim one time!

Sometimes the computer doesn't like to recognize the amplifier. Nick is next to me, Tim is next to him.
Jim is, once again, taking the picture with my phone. They [the pictures] turned out better than we expected.

BME Senior Design Poster Presentations
Wednesday December 14th, 9:30 - Noon in Whitaker

First Warrick (sp?), now...

tralf2001 — Fri, 25 Nov 2005 19:19:15 GMT

(13:15:45) Stickboy20004: although I prefer what's his name
(13:15:48) Stickboy20004: Wallace?
(13:15:59) tralf2001: yes
(13:16:06) tralf2001: are you waiting for him to take his shirt off?
(13:16:10) tralf2001: i can't remember if that happens or not
(13:16:46) Stickboy20004: hmm, maybe
(13:17:01) Stickboy20004: maybe I have something for black men whose names start with Wa

The Amazing Floyd and RfL Buttons (take 1)

tralf2001 — Wed, 19 Oct 2005 13:12:16 GMT

Click to download more sexy robot pictures.

Click to see the rest of the finished button designs.

Some notes from the Norton [Modern] reading for this week.

tralf2001 — Sun, 09 Oct 2005 00:05:52 GMT

Perhaps they are; but we might remind ourselves that criticism is as inevitable as breathing, and that we should be none the worse for articulating what passes in our minds when we read a book and feel an emotion about it, for criticizing our own minds is their work of criticism.
---Eliot, Tradition and the Individual Talent (p 942)

It cannot be inherited, and if you want it you must obtain it by great labor.
---same

Impressions and experiences which are important for the man make take no place in the poetry, and those which become important in the poetry may play quite a negligible part in the man, the personality.
---Eliot, Tradition and the Individual Talent (p 945 – 946)

Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those who have personality and emotions know what it means to want to escape from these things.
---Eliot, Tradition and the Individual Talent (p 946 – 947)

But very few know when there is an expression of significant emotion, emotion which has its life in the poem and not in the history of the poet.
---Eliot, Tradition and Individual Talent (p 947)

The intense feeling, ecstatic or terrible, without an object or exceeding its object is something which every person of sensibility has known; it is doubtless a subject of study for pathologists. It often occurs in adolescence: the ordinary person puts these feelings to sleep, or trims down his feelings to fit the business world; the artist keeps them alive by his ability to intensify the world to his emotions.
---Eliot, From Hamlet (p 949)

The possible interests of a poet are unlimited; the more intelligent he is the better; the more intelligent he is the more likely that he will have interests: our only condition is that he turn them into poetry, and not merely meditate on them poetically.
---Eliot, From The Metaphysical Poets (p 952)

We can only say that it appears likely that poets in our civilization, as it exists at present, must be difficult. Our civilization comprehends great variety and complexity, and this variety and complexity, playing upon a refined sensibility, must produce various and complex results. The poet must become more and more comprehensive, more allusive, more indirect, in order to force, to dislocate if necessary, language into his meaning.
---Eliot, From The Metaphysical Poets (p 952)

Those who object to the ‘artificiality’ of Milton or Dryden sometimes tell us to ‘look into our hearts and write’. But that is not looking deep enough; Racine or Donne looked into a good deal more than the heart. One must look into the cerebral cortex, the nervous system, and the digestive tracts.
---Eliot, From The Metaphysical Poets (p 953)

I had recreated the point of view of somebody else. Therefore the words ran with a certain smoothness. Shakespeare never expressed any feelings of his own in those sonnets. They have too much smoothness. He did not feel “this is my emotion, I will write it down.” If it is your own feeling, one’s words have a fullness and violence.
--Stein, From A Transatlantic Interview (p 989)

Somehow or other in war time the only thing that is spontaneously poetic is children.
---Stein, From A Transatlantic Interview (p 990)

Dirty has an association and is a word that I would not use now. I would not use words that have definite associations.
---Stein, From A Transatlantic Interview (p 991)

There is the eternal vanity of the mind. One wants to see one’s children in the world and have them admired like any fond parent, and it is a bitter blow to have them refused or mocked. It is just as bitter for me to have a thing refused as for any little writer with his first manuscript. Anything you create you want to exist, and its means of existence is in being printed.
---Stein, From A Transatlantic Interview (p 993)

As a note [super-meta]:

tralf2001 — Wed, 14 Sep 2005 22:18:57 GMT

Over the summer I created a community for my poetry here: tralf2001poetry. It's sparse, but I plan on keeping it up to date with my coursework this semester, as I'm taking poetry writing proseminar (400 level) and thus writing weekly. For example, I just updated it with the poem I'll be workshopping on Monday. All posts will be friendslocked which means you'd have to join the community, not just watch it, to see them. It's set at open membership, so joining is as easy as watching, and I won't have to bother with friending anyone back or issues with logging out.

To sum: I will no longer be using spypoems, but will rather be using tralf2001poetry to log [at least] this semester's poetry. Join at will.

New O-tation designs (click, then click again, to make them larger)

tralf2001 — Sat, 06 Aug 2005 14:54:52 GMT

	front 2 Latest Creed Card design (front).
	Back 2 Alt Latest Creed Card design (back)
	logo 1 Logo for Orientation Staff Jerseys
	final shirt design This is the design of the t-shirt we ordered as the Orientation give-away to the new engineering students in 2005.

Braiiins.

tralf2001 — Fri, 15 Jul 2005 16:30:51 GMT

Engineering Orientation -- just can't get enough!

tralf2001 — Mon, 11 Jul 2005 13:15:21 GMT

Orientation T-Shirts

This is the design I made this weekend for the Engineering Orientation T-Shirts. One of the possible designs. And the hard hat would look more t-shirt printable if used. But I quite like it, so I'm posting it here. (Click to make it bigger!)

20 icons, 3 fandoms

tralf2001 — Sat, 09 Jul 2005 01:21:40 GMT

River Icons
.. .. ..

Specifically Gifted Firefly Icons
.. .. ..

Veronica Mars Icons
.. .. ..

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Icons
.. .. ..
.. .. ..

I know who killed Lilly.

tralf2001 — Sat, 07 May 2005 16:44:06 GMT

01. 02. 03.
04. 05. 06.
07. 08. 09.
10. 11.

Out of Mind, Out of Sight

tralf2001 — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 17:36:49 GMT

Making icons; this will be updated throughout the day.

01. 02. 03. 04. 05.
06. 07. 08. 09. 10.
11. 12. 13. 14. 15.
16. 17. 18. 19. 20.
21. 22. 23.

Alternates

02. 03. 11. 12. 18.

Alias Season 3

tralf2001 — Fri, 31 Dec 2004 14:47:35 GMT

Remote encephelography? Are you kidding me?

tralf2001 — Fri, 10 Dec 2004 01:09:59 GMT

I have penguins and they taste so so good.

The bits and pieces one

tralf2001 — Sun, 07 Nov 2004 03:26:49 GMT

Who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions

I. Allowance

Finding the kitchen empty
or devoid, typed as devious,
deviant, derivative, delegation;
I pause. Finding the kitchen
empty in the mourning
I pour bowls of (throw them in,
rubbish, and think of them, not
again). Allow me the simplest of engagements;
I hope, the kitchen is empty, in the morning.
The night is sound, the field is wet, and you

II. Remember

I am a photograph
of myself, taken years ago and creased
in the corner, shoved between books
and other old papers.

Swallow, your eyes
fall across the room in stitches:
fading from left, right
and farther in
harms and arrowthoughts.
Your black breath

sticks in every stop
and click; thick, with magazine cutout

heads across the floor
in piles watching me and nodding
with breeze. Intent on playing
in twos and reflected lists with printed bullets
aiming

III. Persistence

Four times I've called - the first (one) an apple core - rotten
sweet, dissolving flesh, bugs, insects!
I'll disregard, for taste - the second (two) sticky palms,
together, clasped, grit in the creases. The third, the best
desire (three), just an ice cube. Melting
and fading, pooling and circumscribing further and further.
But the fourth (four), was my favorite.

People in cities don't understand / falling in love with the land.

tralf2001 — Sat, 30 Oct 2004 01:59:01 GMT

Moon on the meadow, bugs in our ears
Smoke in our eyes, wet wood, and tears
Out on the meadow, water somewhere
With you, my friend, I am there

I miss camp.

Physics rocks!

tralf2001 — Fri, 29 Oct 2004 05:31:37 GMT

Today one of the girls I tutor was studying torque, rotational motion, etc etc, so I put a pile of 4 rolls of duct tape on each of her hands and had her spin around in a chair! She didn't think it would actually work, but in the game of physics you always win. Yay! It was awesome.

Math Quotes and Canada

tralf2001 — Wed, 29 Sep 2004 23:48:55 GMT

Math Quotes

Here are some quotes from my math class. I thought they were appropriate for a general audience:

If you don't know what I'm talking about don't worry. That's not really the point of my lecture.

student: Are the homeworks going to be returned?
teacher (throwing his hands up in the air): Who knows?!

I don't want to write all of that down.

I would not dare verifying this by hand.

You have a lot of questions so I am not going to answer them now.

Yes. These are actual quotes from my math class.

Canada

I got a card from Bernie today! It was enhanced ten fold by the fact that it was mailed from Canada. It's the Canada that makes the stamps... uh, taste great?

My current wallpaper

tralf2001 — Mon, 20 Sep 2004 01:40:31 GMT

I love this girl/crayons picture. (Click for the bigger version.)

Restless Icons

tralf2001 — Mon, 08 Mar 2004 19:01:16 GMT

Willow's Dream

01. 02. 03. 04. 05.
06. 07. 08. 09. 10.

Xander's Dream

11. 12. 13. 14. 15.
16. 17. 18. 19. 20.
21. 22. 23. 24.

Giles's Dream

25. 26. 27. 28. 29.
30. 31. 32. 33. 34.

Buffy's Dream

35. 36. 37. 38. 39.
40. 41. 42. 43. 44.
45. 46. 47. 48. 49.
50. 51. 52. 53. 54.
55.

Various icons

tralf2001 — Sun, 21 Dec 2003 07:48:04 GMT

To be added to as I continue making icons today.

Firefly:

1. 2. 3.
4. 5. 6.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer:

1. 2. 3. 4.
5. 6. 7. 8.
9. 10. 11.

Dirty Dancing:

1. 2. 3.
4. 5.

brushes
n e g a t i v e

There's my icon attempt at being conformist.
want.take.have.

13 ways of looking at livejournal

tralf2001 — Fri, 10 Oct 2003 01:30:22 GMT

1

A girl and a journal
are one.
A girl and a journal and ten icons
are one.

2

Among thirty computers
in an empty computer lab
the only moving thing
was the keyboard of the journaler.

3

I was of three minds.
Like a journal
In which I have posted thrice in one day.

4

Rain slashed against the window,
pools tearing in the cracked ground.
I wonder
if my friends list has been updated.

5

I know noble news links
And lucid, inescapable dream entries;
But I know, too,
That the journal is involved
In what I know.

6

When the journal flew out of sight
It marked the edge
Of one of many windows.

7

The river is moving.
My friends must be writing.

8

I thought I saw a man
walk past familiarly.
Backdated entry.

9

I have 3 papers
to write
And I slept
through math again
Yet there is always time
for one more survey

10

All spreading before me is blank
as a page or a wall that has not been written.
It ate my entry again
time to start over.

11

I cut myself
to save space and bandwidth
hoping that someone will want to
read more

12

My fingers glide across
the keyboard, clicking.
I am a small part of the pantomime.

13

It was evening all afternoon.
It was snowing
And it was going to snow.
Nothing else to do
Except update my journal.

see also 13 ways of looking at a blackbird by Wallace Stevens