Beware the Ides of March

It makes me think of HBO's Rome. War, conquest, gratuitous violence, egomaniacal dictators, and every obscene sex act imaginable - that show had it all! I can't beleive that they're not following up with another season already. What happened? The next two eras were perfectly set up to continue the story with the reigns of both Marc Antony and then the Augustus to be.

Spore

It's the new 'coolest thing ever' and it's called Spore. I'd heard about it before but never really got excited about Will Wright's latest creation until I saw the lecture he gave at the 2005 Game Developers Conference. The whole concept is simple and simply amazing, and the programming behind it all is completely mind-blowing. I won't bother trying to describe it in detail - just check out the edited video and see for yourself.

Synaesthesic Savant

Those of you that know me have probably suffered through more than a few discourses on my unyeilding fasination with synaesthesia. Well if you can stomach any more - be sure to check out the BBC's special on Daniel Tammet.

I really wish I could meet this guy - he's amazingly articulate for an austistic - which I take as evidence of ability to work around his deficits, rather than not being as deeply affected by them.

Three Sites Worth Visiting

Yesterday my brother pointed out an interesting music site called Pandora. Basically you start by naming a song or artist you happen to like and it starts a streaming playlist based on your choice. As you rate the songs you hear it adapts to your likes and dislikes and creates your own personal radio-station. I started out with Van Morrison and was surprised at how quickly I ended up with Alice Cooper - the software really is clever. And while I don't need a computer to tell me what I like, it has helped introduce me to a handful of artists I'd never before listened to. And it's free, so if you haven't already done so - be sure to check it out.

For those of you who like a challenge, Coudal Partners is running another logic puzzle entitled Da Vinci's Other Code (similar to the classic fish puzzle I linked to previously.)

And if you're bored and looking for all sorts of various nonsense to read through - I always enjoy Jamie Morrison's Nonist articles (no known relation to Van Morrison.) I was really moved by his vision in Protest in a Better World. It's worth checking out.

Apology for my inadvertent hiatus

I know the worst thing you can do in blogging is write a post explaining why you haven't been posting - as if anyone cares. But I really do feel bad for not writing here more regularly. Not because I feel the need to keep the momentum going and fear losing my readership (I obviously don't take either of those criteria too seriously) but because so much has been happening as of late and I feel I should be chronicling my life - if only for my own amusement.

So I shall endeavor to fill in the lost month of February retroactively - writing posts about things that happened weeks earlier and then dating them as if they were written at the time. I have the added advantage of a fuzzy long-term memory which will free me up to invent the facts I can't quite remember well enough.