What You Know About Math?

Okay...everyone can yell at me...call me a loser...with no taste.


I almost died laughing when I saw this...



This is an obvious parody of this video in case you didnt know already.

The New Pirates will probably ROCK

Ok. Sorry for the lack of posts lately. With graduation quick on my heels, a girlfriend, friends, and my job, all on top of trying to find a professional job it has been tough to post at all. You will certainly get more posts from me in the comming weeks after the dust clears from my graduation.

If you recall, I made a post earlier (a few weeks ago) I made a post about the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie. I was afraid of the general tone that the movie would take, but was hopeful of its outcome. This link sheds new light on my hope and makes me want to see it. This is a small few minutes of stuff that is behind the scenes that makes the movie seem like it will be the all out battle, dark, epic that i was hoping it would be. I certainly hope so, or it wont make up for its predecessors.

Carry me home

Nothing in this world pisses me off more than "Carry me Home" in Guitar Hero 2 on hard mode...

Books!

I have created a public Google notebook of the books I have, want, and am thinking about reading. If you have any suggestions leave me a comment on here or shoot me an email and I will make you a collaborator on the notebook itself. If you have any comments about the books I already have up there I would love to hear your feedback!

Thanks!

One step closer

Today I received my passing grades for the GACE standardized test! w00t. Hurray for being one step closer to "life". This is a huge relief to me. Now I have all the credentials needed to become a state teacher. All I need now is to graduate and I am ready!

Hurray me!

Birmingham gets an Apple Store

I have a few readers in Birmingham that I thought might be interested in this...

Spyshot: Alabama's Apple Store revealed

from Unofficial Apple by Dave Caolo

Filed under: Retail

Earlier this week, we mentioned that Alabama's very first Apple Store - in Birmingham - will finally open this coming Saturday the 14th. TUAW operative Jeremy saw our post and went down to the Summit Mall, camera in hand, and took this shot of workers revealing the store's facade. That's a cute display in the front window, though we thought the iPod shuffles were actually a lot smaller.

Thanks, Jeremy!Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Grindhouse is SWEET

I went last weekend to go see Grindhouse and I have to admit is was one of the most entertaining movies I have seen in a while. EliRoth/Rodrigues of Sin City teamed up with the brilliant Quentin T. to show a double show of blood, buts, gore, vulgarity, all out stunts, over the top brilliance. There are heads flying, cars tumbling, zombies, women with guns for legs, and to put the ice on the cake....Bruce Willis.

The movie is split into two movies that are completely seperate from one another. The first of which is Eli Roth and Rodriguez 's zombie flick (the name slips me at the moment). Its a gorefest-palooza. The intent of the movie was to recreate that old really bad 70/80s over the top action flick type of movie. The acting was terrible (but on purpose so it is in a way good). The movie is overal quirky, doing things like cutting out sex scenes and important plot scenes due to "missing reels". If you go and watch this one, you are definitely guaranteed more than once to yell at the scream, squirm in your seat, and cheer for your favorite characters. The movie has a grainy old feel to it on purpose in order to make it seem more like the "grindhouse" genre.

Terentino's section is really awesome too. Appropriately, it has a feel more accustom to him and less over the top. While the first movie seems more focused on the over the top aspect, Terentino attempts to recreate the movies of his childhood by making his a crazy stunt movie called "Death Proof". The premise is that Kurt Russel is an old burnt out car stunt man that uses his "Death Proof" car to go around killing innocent girls. He gets hold of a group of girls that just so happen to be current Hollywood stunt drivers and...well...it just gets nuts. This one was a little slow on the upkeep but when the action started, you spend the next 45 minutes on the EDGE of your seat fearing for the stunt drivers. All the actors in the movie has no stunt doubles. Terentino wanted to make a movie with no strings, no CG, and no fake shots. Most of the scenes with the stunts are shot in one seamless uncut reel so that you know there are no tricks going on. This movie is just balls to the wall stunt crazy. Girls ride on the tops of cars, cras fly through the air, and of course Maureen from Broadway's RENT gives us streamlined heroin style straight to the veins much needed comic relief throughout.

These movies/This movie MUST be seen in theaters. If you haven't had the chance yet I would suggest running out and jumping on this band wagon ASAP.

By far the best part of this movie was the intermission/intro trailers. If you don't have a feel for what a "grindhouse" movie is or is supposed to be like, Rodriguez/Terentino used friends in the industry such as Rob Zombie to direct trailers for fake grindhouse style movies. These make for a HILLARIOUS intro. I cant really put them on my blog for legal reasons, but take my word they are great.

Marriage

I received a Wedding invitation yesterday from someone I went to High School with....Someone that hated me with every gut that they had...I have no idea how this person got my address but I assume that they want a gift/money. Screw that! I have no desire to give them my attention.

This whole thing sent my brain whirling around (a humorously actually) about the whole marriage thing-a-ma-bob in general.

The holy sacrament, tie the knot, hook on the ball and chain. I don't get it. What is it about marriage that seems to get people so happy? I have reached an age where everyone that I know is starting to get married...and I have not even yet begun to think about it! There are a few things that I think that marriage is and a few things that I think marriage isnt. They are as follows

IS
1. Marriage IS necessary to start a family. This is ONLY for the reason that children of bastard families get teased...it has nothing to do with the people involved, but rather the better of the child
2. Marriage IS a sweet tax benefit
3. Marriage IS a great way to blow a LOT of money to show off to EVERYONE ELSE that you are happy with the person you are with.
4. A good place for an open bar.
5. Great for people who WANT it...SUCKS for people who get forced into it.

ISNT's
1. The way to prove to your girlfriend that you love her
2. Understood by most people. I feel the real reason for marriage is different than everyone else does. People seem to think there is a time limit that is ticking when you meet a girl...and if that time comes, its time to get married!! w00t!
3. ISNT (or shouldnt be) important to anyone other than the people getting married. If two people get married, whats the big deal with all of the big who ha? I want to get married on a beach with absolute minimum amount of people around. My brother as a best man...my best friends as witnesses...I love the folks but they will be lucky to get invitations.
4. On my priority list in any form or fashion
5. A prerequisite to moving in with your significant other....There is such things, however, as moving in with someone too early, and OFTEN I think it is living with someone only when you get married and not beforehand. Not necessary...but it helps with the meshing of it I assume.

Im just tired of getting phone calls from people that are my age that are ever so happy because they ran to the alter with a guy they met 2 months ago because they felt like they were getting old. Dont think Im terrible...I think marriage is great for some people, and if you really do love each other more power to you. I just dont understand peoples obsession with the "NEED" to have it...If you are with someone...and you love them...whats the big deal?

Luckily I am with a wonderful girlfriend that feels EXACTLY the same way I do. Its awesome to have that as one less thing on my plate..."uh oh...I have been with you for 2 years darling...I suppose its time to go look at rings or everyone will start pressuring you into feeling like I don't love you because I haven't turned you into a soccer mom or house wife yet..."

Its just very fun to see the reaction on individuals faces when someone asks me "Are you and your girlfriend getting married when you graduate?" or any slick reformation of that sentence and I reply something to the extend of "Nah...we are just happy the way it is...whats the point...?".

If you are ready to get married, I am honestly happy for you (whoever you may be reading this). I suppose this decision comes at different stages in different peoples lives. I am not bashing anyones motives or questioning anyones love for anyone else. I hope that this will not be misconstrued to seem as if I am a bitter soul, I am merely saying that I don't get it. Its not wrong in any way....its not terrible or in any way a bad things...I just don't get it...

A Comic I thought was worth putting in my blog

Here is a comic that I thought was funny enough to put in my blog....

Klein Bottle

A few people have asked me about the geometry of the Klein bottle since I posted last time. I cant really go into too much more detail without you actually being here with me and giving 3d representations of it. Here is a video that should help to show the creation of a Klein bottle from its 2D-Manifold though. Essentially the way a M-Strip is twisted and connected to itself once....a Klein bottle is twisted and connected to itself on every point of its 3D surface (hard to imagine...why? Because you can only bend and warp 3 Dimensional space inside of the 4th dimension...thus making what you see here only a theoretical representation of the Klein bottle rather than its actual form.)

Möbius Strip Madness

One of the coolest things in Mathematics to me is the Möbius Strip. The Möbius Strip is a 2 dimensional strip of paper that holds both 2 and 3 dimensional properties. Cut a strip of paper, fold it once, connect it back to itself. Start one point on the strip and trace along the strip and you will traverse every side of the mobius ring including the inside AND outside....while still ending up at the end...in a sense, while it is a 3 dimensional object, its surface is a 2 dimensional non-orientable topological surface (much like the widely loved nerd referenced and worshiped Klein Bottle).

The Möbius Strip was actually mentioned in my previous blog by the authors video as an example of 2/3 dimensional manipulation.

The Klein bottle is something I cannot even begin to explain...however I will try...Topology is a field of mathematics that makes sense to few...and those are the ones that tend to be insane. Klein bottles do however hold many cool geometric properties. Essentially, in lamen terms, a Klein bottle is a bottle created by the combining of two Möbius Strips. This is what you end up with...a bottle which only has one side, and amazingly CONTAINS ITSELF and whos INSIDE IS ITS OUTSIDE....ponder that one for a while...
But although it's a 2-D manifold, it can only exist in 4-dimensions...yeah...crazy...and freaking Mathematically AWESOME...I have an Klein Bottle coffee mug that I use often and its sweet...I have no idea how it works and never will...but I have the pleasure of taking it into math classes and looking smart while at the same time boasting my ability to hold coffee in a 1 sided 2/3/4 dimensional object....sweet!

Math Dork Stuff

Here is a really cool video that dwells into a little bit of "string theory". For those of you who are not very math or physics oriented, string theory is the idea that there are 10 dimensions and at the uppermost dimension lies a series of "Strings" that vibrate in a sense to make everything and nothing and all creation...lol...Its easy to imagine 2 dimensions (ie paper, flat surfaces, xy Cartesian coordinates) and 3 dimensional (the world that we live in, adding z to the axis and imagining things in 3d space) and even 4 dimensions (taking every instance of 3d space as its own identity and thus creating the illusion of the 4th dimension) time. But what comes after that...what does it exactly mean to be FIVE dimensional....or SIX dimensional. Rob Bryanton tries to explain this to everyone in his book.

"Imagining the Tenth Dimension" is a book that is being marketed pretty heavily that tries to break down mathematics of 10 dimensional space to people like you, who may not have much (if any) mathematical background. If you have about 10 minutes take a look at these video...they are by far some of the most interesting stuff I have seen in a while. I intend on buying and reading this book very soon (I just started Wolves of Calla, so it may take a few weeks for me to order it).

Imagining the Tenth Dimension part 1 of 2

Imagining the Tenth Dimension part 2 of 2

If you found this interesting, which I did, you may find his blog (which is a tad more technical in spots) to be interesting as well. Hes a bit quirky, but also a bit funny.

Double PS2

This weekend I raised my general self confidence by attending the Saturday Easter Bonanza at the local Flea-Market. In between dodging rednecks and ignoring tacky crap I was able to pick up TWO (not 1....2) Playstation 2's for 20 bucks. This gives me two shots at modding/installing the chip I just recieved today 1.

I rock

a lack of things to talk about

A lot of the "Cool" stuff I have to talk about is taken away by my awesome Google Reader feed that can be seen to your right here. To keep up with the latest internet crap that I think is sweet just click there. Its been a pretty lame past few weeks. What little time I have had to post I haven't done so because Its already listed there. I guess i could put them down anyways.

However, for your amusement...here are my most recent things that are going on in the life of Corey

1. I was totally duped on April Fools. I was given fake parking tickets by a friend and called yelling and very upset to...him...yes...and was so angry that I fell for it for like 10 minutes before realizing it was him...and only after he told me it was...Way to go guys.

2. My other good friend is now playing OGame. w00t.

3. I went and saw the "Lookout", and much to everyones opinions I thought it rocked.

4. I have successfully pat myself on the back for having kept a few things consistent in my life that I deamed as sort of "New Years Resolutions" including the following...Keeping my cell phone charged, keeping my time managed better via Calendars etc, organizing my music collection.

5. I have converted to Christianity due to this overly convincing video about the disproof of Evolution via a Jar of Peanut butter (Not really...but this video is HILARIOUS)

6. I got BitTorrent working on the school network...w00t! (For legal downloads only of course...)