Via a couple of blogs we read, that is, Kottke.org and Craft Magazine, we came across these totally amazing videos.
First, papercraft is simply amazing and so is stop-motion animation (see Coraline). Combine the two and you have the following:
Second, math can be beautiful. And not just for the obvious reasons... Fractals are really cool mathematical visualizations and the example below is no exception. It's basically a plot of a Mandelbrot fractal that is being continuously being zoomed in on. I've written programs to produce small Mandelbrot fractals and it's truly awesome how they seemingly go on forever repeating themselves. As Mr. Kottke suggested, the video is better in HD and full screen.
Up until last Friday, Lorena and I had been complaining a little bit about the fact that we bought cross-country skis and then the weather turned "warm". Hell, the day we bought them it was 40 degrees and raining. Well, I think our complaints made it through to the right people and, boy, did they ever rectify the situation...
All of you in NE Ohio undoubtedly have been dealing with the roughly 12-inch (some places more) blanket of snow that was dumped on us starting Friday afternoon and continuing on into Saturday. After getting home from work on Friday, I shoveled twice just to hopefully make Saturday's work easier. It was basically just an exercise in exercise as the amount of snow Lorena and I shoveled on Saturday was, simply, A LOT.
Around this time a couple of years ago we had a similar amount of snow in Moscow, ID that shut down the university and, frankly, the town. The snow piles we had in front of our house then were only around 5-feet tall, but that was just from our sidewalk. The pile above is 6-feet tall and that only accounts for about 2/3 of the snow from the driveway. The rest is in the yard at the other end. Even better, it was WET snow and so there was no shoving it around. It was all scoop-carry-throw. Mind you, I'm not complaining about shoveling. I'm likely in the minority of those that actually enjoy it. The best part is that our neighbors are fantastic and shovel their sidewalks too. It's totally amazing how clear sidewalks make it easier to walk around the town you live in...
And speaking of walking...
Since we wished for snow to ski in, we walked the whopping 1/2-mile down to the Towpath with our skis on Sunday to enjoy that which we wished for. Some people, and maybe some on horseback, had been on the Towpath before us, but it was almost like we had it all to ourselves. We headed south and only saw one other person who was out hiking. Making our way through the deep snow was pretty challenging, but it was worth it knowing that the return trip would be easier with our tracks already established. In fact, it was surprising how much more quickly we made the return trip compared how long it took us to reach the turn-around point.
All in all, it was a good workout and another fun way to enjoy the outdoors in winter. I know I'd much rather be on skis at 25-degrees than on my road bike. It also beats the hell out of riding the trainer/rollers in the basement.
We've got a lot of photos from our little skiing excursion, they're just still on the cameras. We'll see if we have time to upload them after digging out from the next storm-of-the-century-of-the-week that's supposed to hit us tomorrow. At this rate, skiing to work might be a viable option...
