A place for physics, video games, philosophy, and beer.

27 October 2010

Listening to: Metro 2033 Soundtrack

This game has a great, scary atmosphere. The atmosphere is complementing by an amazing soundtrack. Here is my favorite song. Enjoy!

Reading - The Reality Dysfunction by Peter F. Hamilton

I started reading a book last year called The Reality Dysfunction, authored by Peter F. Hamilton. I was quite intrigued by the minimalistic, yet beautiful cover. On the inside cover are a plethora of reviews from almost every single major literary critique, especially those that focus on science fiction. Every single one is very positive, making the book sound like a masterpiece. Plus, it is part of a space opera trilogy, so I was drawn immediately.

From reading the first paragraph, Hamilton's strong grasp of the English language is evident as he weaves beautiful prose together describing the formation of a wormhole. This pace would seem unmaintainable, yet, as far as I am, Hamilton has kept going at a ferocious pace that is both readable and unbelievable. I have never read science fiction so full of accurate descriptions and yet so lively and imaginative and I am only a hundred pages into this 1094 page tome.

I will be back with more impressions of The Reality Dysfunction. I am thinking of doing a chapter to chapter impression posts, but I have not made up my mind yet.

Simple, but Beautiful Cover

Thermal Radiation Lab Report

Below is embedded a lab report I just submitted last night for a grade. It was an easy lab to do, yet I had trouble trying to figure out what the results meant. Take a look for yourself. You may have to consult the second source to fully understand the setup. The setup is quite simple though so that should not be a hurdle to understanding what is going on in the experiment.

I may be overthinking this one, but I find it odd that the white side of the cube is warmer than the black side.

Thermal Radiation Lab Report

24 October 2010

Impressions: Metro 2033 (and some Gamefly)

Ashley got me a two month subscription to Gamefly for my birthday and last week I decided to finally set it up and chug through some games. The service, overall, is quite good, though it does take a while to get a game back after you send one in. I believe that it takes two to four games to send it in and then to get the next game it can take up to another four days to get a game back. Because of this, I do not see this as being a service I would use to get games through exclusively because it takes so long to get the next game. Luckily, I have a pile of games I have not played yet or are playing through (Mass Effect and Oblivion) so it is not a problem for me.

Metro 2033, by 4A Games, is the first piece of software I got through the service. I was not expecting much because the gaming media was talking a lot of crap about this game, however, my impressions differ greatly from that of the masses.

Moscow is gone.
Starting with events that must take place near the end of the game, you immediately get the sense that you, as the main character Artyom, are in for a lot of disappointments and will be a loner for a lot of the game whether by choice, or not. After this opening set piece, Artyom is awoken from sleep in Exhibition, which is the 'town,' if you can call it that as it is really just a barricaded part of the subway under Moscow, and are told that Hunter, an elite Ranger (defender of the subway tunnels), will be arriving and you must meet them. Hunter lets Artyom know that he needs to go to the stronghold of Polis to find help in defeating a new threat to the metro, the Dark Ones. Hunter is on a quest to eliminate as many as he can, but he just does not have the resources to do as such.

From here, you gear up the character with the little currency you have, which is military grade ammo, which is quite rare. Regular ammo is made in the tunnels and is not as accurate or powerful as the military ammo which is left over from twenty years ago, before the nuclear holocaust which has wasted away the above world. Various weapons practically held together by tape and glue are offered for you to use. From here, you can finally start the main quest.

Venturing into the tunnels is quite dangerous, as they are filled with various types of monsters, and even some raiders looking to steal all of your crap. I am not quite sure as of now if the monsters were caused by some kind of mutation of normal animals or if it has something to do with the paranormal. There are paranormal aspects to this game, which if done poorly, could have been real tacky and cliche. However, the paranormal stuff is not overdone and adds a lot of atmosphere to the game, something missing from plenty of current gen games.

Some of the hard-to-find good guys.
To the point I am in the game, which is approximately two-thirds of the way through the game, the paranormal  stuff does not have a major effect on the game. There are some very odd parts where you are not always sure about what is going on. I hope this is all wrapped up at the end of the game, but it is still cool to see a some subtle paranormal stuff integrated into this game.

Some people may not have heard, but this game also has its share of stealth missions, and boy are they hard. They don't have to be completed with stealth, though. In the end, using stealth for as long as you can is usually the best idea because when you encounter large groups of enemies, you will die if you are not stocked with plenty of bullets and medkits. The difficulty adds to the realism of these parts as it would be nigh on impossible for an ordinary person to take on a group of 5+ equally armed men in a tunnel with little cover. Adding to the realism is the need to charge your headlight every once in a while with a modified crank and wearing gas masks when on the surface and changing the filter for the mask every once in a while.

The Circus is in Town
Overall, I am quite excited to finish Metro 2033 because it is one of the better shooters I have played in a while. It is not all about pure action, but instead integrates a decent amount of emotion into the story with a somewhat cynical undertone. Although this may not be what most people look for in shooters, it is games like this that provide us with stories that we do not already know the ending to as so often happens with the recycled material usually passed as games nowadays.

17 October 2010

Larry King's Demise


Larry King announced on June 29th, 2010, that his long running show Larry King Live will end in the fall of the same year. Below is documented the events most likely to play out on the last day of the show.

Larry wakes up for his final day at his usual time, 6:00 AM. His clothes were of course laid out on the side of his bed when she woke up 15 minutes prior. He wished she had waited for him to wake up so they could share a moment together, but alas, he thought, Shawn and I will have much time to burn when when he is does filming today. So many years...

He meets Shawn downstairs and they leave together after Larry glances at the headlines hoping to pick a topic or two from the front page for tonight's show, but most of it is fluff. The oil spill was close to being cleaned up totally, so at least that might be something. Ah, what the hell, he though, the fluff questions I ask have worked for 25 years now getting people to talk, tonight won't be any different. I am with the President anyway, but I hope he keeps off the campaigning topics and talks more about me. God knows how much everyone else has talked about themselves, tonight is about me for once. Larry smiles.

After breakfast with the Usuals and his wife at Teddy's Restaraunt, Larry makes his way to the studio on the freeway taking in the sights which he won't be seeing much of in the coming months as Larry suspects he wants to travel for a month or two. He grips the wheel, regretting his decision to leave, but he knows it is the best decision because he is leaving the way he wants to.

CNN execs held an amazing bash for Larry: cakes, girls, cigars, and in the back room, Larry's old stand-by, a small line of coke. Yea, yea, yea. Bad for the health, but damn, the stuff was fine today, Larry thought. Plus, it actually clears my mind. I need to get ready for the President, no holds are barred tonight, I am going out with a BANG.

A short while later, Larry is on stage, eying the President. Nice shoes, he thought, but they don't go with the comparatively cheap suit; could the President not do better? I mean really, Larry now somewhat ornery, it is my last day in the business and of course Obama, absent-minded though he may be sometimes, could not get himself together properly for this, my end?! Man, another line would do me some good right about now.

With only a few minutes left, Larry was certain everything was going as he planned. Obama was fielding the questions in his well, I mean even he could not screw up these softball questions. Everyone at home was relaxed, though anxious to see just what Larry had up his sleeve for the end. Some of his old producing friends were standing next to the cameras, they couldn't believe it had been 25 years, and now this. Larry was certain he would end this show as no show had ever ended before. There would be no doubt, everyone would be talking about this night the next morning. He would be headlined all across the nation and the world. No third-world car bomb explosion would surpass him in notability the next morning.

This was it. This is the final moment of King's life. As he sits in his chair, the words of the interviewee go in one ear and out the other. The last remnants of King's persona, his life, his existence flow to the cameras surrounding him. This life-force crosses the nation's, the world's airwaves; everyone watching gets a glimpse, their brain penetrated and indelibly marked by the existence of Larry King. King clutches the arm rests of the chair, tighter and tighter as he slips away. His eyes clothes, his neck slumps. Obama, not sure of what is happening, keeps answering the question, though no one hears him. Everyone is transfixed on Larry as he slips from existence, ending his show and life exactly how he wanted to: in a final, massive blaze of glory.

The Fiction of HP Lovecraft: Part 1

I have been intrigued with HP Lovecraft for many years, this interest stemming from an article in a video game magazine called The Official Xbox Magazine. They had previewed a game called Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth. Some of the images they showed were downright creepy. I had never seen anything so intriging and as a fan of anything disgusting, revolting, or scary, when I found out the game was based on the writing of an author known as HP Lovecraft, I just knew I needed to start reading some of this authors work.

A few years went by when one day in Barnes & Noble I noticed a collection of some of Lovecraft's more famous fiction. It was called The Things at the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories [link]. I bought the collection but never opened it. For a time, I read some of Lovecraft's history, coming to know more about him, more interested in him, and yet, I still read nothing he wrote. Luckily, the major motivation to reading him came when Dylan purchased an omnibus of Lovecraft's work [link], which I have read on and off for a time now.

From now on I will present my experiences with the work of Lovecraft because I am falling deeper into love with his work, thinking of his as a true literary genius, possibly soon surpassing Tolkien, who everyone knows I love so much. I will start from the beginning, but be warned I read some of the stories about a year ago, so I may have too much of a nostalgic view of them.
Lovecraft wrote this when he was fourteen. It is obvious that Lovecraft was meant to write for he is a prodigy. A short story about a person lost in a cave. They have no light and have resigned to die in the cave. I like this because I have always been interested in caves and have wondered what I would do if lost in one. Some of the pictures of caves and the creatures that reside in them absolutely terrify me. So I could relate somewhat to this story, although I would probably be more freaked out then he was during his stay in it.
I do not remember this one quite well, but the premise was decent. A familiar curse plagues a family; everyone will die at the age of 32. Maybe I should go back and read it again, but it is not one of my favorites.
Another story that didn't impress me that much. A boy, heavily into daydreaming, discovers the entrance to a mausoleum. Buried there are the remains of a family who owned a mansion burned down many years prior. For some reason he sleeps at the entrance of the mausoleum. One day, he sleeps there, wakes up, goes to his house where he finds in an old chest a key. This key opens the door to the mausoleum. At this point, the story delves into some narrative twists.
Dagon! One of my favorite stories yet! A morphine addict, ready to commit suicide at a moments notice, is haunted by an experience he had during the War. He was on a ship destroyed by an enemy vessel. He survives the encounter but is adrift at sea. At some point while he is asleep, the character is grounded about land which has suddenly risen from below him. This land he then explores. After a few days he happens upon a deep chasm with a white monolith descended down the side of it. On the monolith is some hieroglyphic writing mostly depicting sea creatures. From here, the story gets even more interesting. Definitely one of my top 10.
Not quite sure what to make of this one because I did not understand it that much. According to critics, it is Lovecraft making fun of himself for being a cultured gentleman [link].
A decent story of a man who can't sleep, so stares at Polaris all night. He falls asleep one night though and has a strange, lucid dream about a city that slowly populates with townsfolk. Night after night, he dreams of this city, observing anything about it. Eventually he wants to become part of the town. he does, but the town comes under attack from an enemy and the rest of the story plays out in the dream.
In this story, a very violent and deranged man is brought into a mental institution. He murdered some family member after having a violent outburst where he was ranting about killing some creature of some sort. At the institution, all the doctors treat him as any other patient, but one doctor thinks there is something more to this patients condition. He is brought back to a time when he was an undergraduate and had tinkered with the idea of putting together a machine to read someone else's thoughts. Truly intrigued by what Joe Slater mumbles or screams when he wakes up from his dreams, the doctor wants to see if he can use a prototype of his device to get into the mind of this insane inmate.

Particularly appealing to me for I have been interested in the mythology of dreams since the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
Very short, yet intricately detailed. About stone ruins in a valley near a river. Philosophical in subject and touching, to say the least.
A story Lovecraft wrote for his friend who said he wanted to try whiskey before Prohibition went into effect. More comical than most of his work, but dark enough so as to reinforce Lovecraft's teetotaler beliefs.

About a man, known as Old Bugs, who mops the floors of a bar in a back alley in Chicago taking place in the year 1950 (Lovecraft had no idea Prohibition would be repealed by then). Old Bugs is of the very lowest of class, always trying to get drunk, so he does all the dirty work in the bar. He always tries to dissuade newcomers from starting the drink, for that is how he supposedly lost everything. Old bugs then goes to be by himself, staring at a picture of a women from very high class. Can he stop people from turning out like him?
Another story I found interesting if only because of what happens later in the story.

Juan Romero is a Mexican, but not of Aztec descent like the rest of the group he comes to America with. He in fact knows little of his origins. However, he has a ring which is the only bridge he has not burned for coming to America. He knows little about the ring, but cherishes it deeply. Juan begins working for a mining company. One day, a large set of charges are placed in the mine to open up a new gold vein. Possibly too many charges. The explosions is so massive it shatters windows across the mining camp, but also opens up a hole so deep that no rope can reach the bottom. I crew sent into the hole to try and reach the bottom come back up after failing to do so, but also refusing to have anything else to do with the hole again, but not telling why. Late that night, some mysterious things start happening, and Juan thinks they have something to do with his ring.
Definitely my most favored story so far, if only because of its fantastical setting.

A lighthouse keeper stares out to sea for years. The sea is something that he knows, that he understands. Slowly but surely the sea begins giving its secrets away to the keeper. After a while, the keeper notices a white ship sailing out at sea everynight, in the same direction every time. Basil Elton, the lighthouse keeper, is eventually allowed to board the ship which takes him on a fantastical journey to the city of Thalarian, City of a Thousand Wonders where all the creatures poets and writers dream up but forget or don't publish. Eventually they land in Sona-Nyl, Land of Fancy. Everything here is always happy and perfect.  However, Basil wishes to travel to Cathuria, the Land of Hope. He and the crew have heard stories of this place, a place that is supposed to be even better than Sona-Nyl. However, no one has ever tried to leave Sona-Nyl and travel past the great Pillars at sea because they just don't know enough of Cathuria to risk it. Eventually, Basil gets the crew and captain of the white ship to take him there...

14 October 2010

Comic: xkcd- Airfoil

Click for Larger View
Source: http://xkcd.com/803/

My Work: Thermal Expansion of Metals Lab

Hey everyone, just a quick post for now. I worked over the weekend on a lab for thermodynamics on a lab where I measured the thermal expansion of three metals (copper, aluminum, and steel) and compared the measured values to the experimental values. It is actually very elementary stuff equation-wise, but interesting never-the-less. It is also interesting to point out this stuff is around us all the time. You ever see those "cracks" in the bridge? Yea, cement expands and contracts.

Lab 4

12 October 2010

Need to Read: The Sunless Countries

Today, while browsing the stacks, another book caught my eye. Well, a bunch of books catch my eye everyday, but this one enthralled me.

In regards to how I choose books to read that I have never heard of, I go against the orthodoxy and will choose a book over another based on the cover. If the cover is gorgeous, peculiar, or original, I will generally read the book, and I have only been let down a few times by this method. I do read books with bland  covers or that even lack one, if I know what they are about beforehand.

So that is what first impacted me when I saw this book, the cover. As you can see it looks quite cool, at least if you are like me, you think so:


I read some of the reviews and mention that it has a steampunk setting, and as of late I am in a steampunk craze, playing through Resonance of Fate on the Xbox 360 and reading some of Jay Lake's Escapement

According to Amazon.com, the book in the fourth in a series, which makes me even more excited because it means I have a good chunk of time I can spend in the steampunk setting.

To end, I will leave off with some review quotes of this book:

“I loved it. It never slowed down.  The background is fascinating and the characters held my attention. It reminded me a little of The Integral Trees, with technology a little more advanced.”
--Larry Niven, author of The Juggler of Worlds, on Sun of Suns

“Schroeder…is proving to be one of our most ingenious devisers of exotic, fantastic settings as well as a spinner of ripping yarns….Schroeder’s world-building, storytelling, and character-drawing chops seem strong enough to give even Known Space a run for its money."
--Locus on Queen of Candesce

“[The] world-building continues to be impeccable, and the story’s timing is a fantastic tour de force of his creation.  The politics and structure of Virga continue to be a fine backdrop to some of the most entertaining space opera out there.”
--Booklist on Pirate Sun
-From Amazon.com

10 October 2010

Nicolas Cage's Agent

I enjoy most of Nicolas Cage's work, but this is probably true as of now.

09 October 2010

Listening to: Lou Reed

Lour Reed has some great songs. Everything I like that he has done has nothing to do with him being in the Velvet Underground, who I do not like. Anyway, here is my second favorite song by him, Pale Blue Eyes.

08 October 2010

Watching - Office Season 7 Episode 03

It's Friday night, I am sick of Sonic Racing, so I am watching the newest Office episode. Have you seen it yet?

07 October 2010

Timeline: 07 October 2010

Morning
First lab was a Classical Mechanics alb where we worked on a cylinder rolling down a plank. We tried to pinpoint the angle at which the cylinder started to slip instead of just rolling. We did this for two cylinders. We then put a mass in static equilibrium and measured the various angles, lengths, and what have you.

Afternoon
In Thermodynamics lab, we found out that every Monday for the rest of the semester we will have to hand in a lab. We have piles of various lab procedures throughout the lab to look for labs to do, but I just finished out my Classical Mechanics lab in this time so I could hand it in.

Evening
Went to work from 4 to 8 PM, then came back home and played some Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing (with Banjo-Kazooie). It is quite fun of a game.

Documents
The lab report I handed in today is attached below to browse, and also available here for download.

Work Done by Air Drag

06 October 2010

TImeline: 06 October 2010

Morning
Rose at 8 AM to another dull, dreary day. I cannot fathom why it has been raining so much, I do however know I want it to stop. Breakfast, then attended the first class of the day. After Classical Mechanics, where we studied potential energies and the like, I started to build my model rocket which in a few weeks we will be shooting off. Hopefully I can post a picture of it before shooting it off and maybe OF shooting it off.

Afternoon
Quantum was interesting and put what we learned in Mathematica Methods of Physics to use. Planetarium Techniques was cut short because we are just working on scripts for our next planetarium show. Since I had some free time, I worked some more on my rocket, and it is coming along fine and near completion, I think.

Evening
Attended colloquium, which was presented by an alumnus. A brief description copied from the college website is provided below:

Katherine Pazamickas, Lycoming College 2009 alumnus and 2010 National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) intern at Goddard Space Flight Center associated with NASA Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium, will discuss, “Magnetospheric Research, Robotic Satellite Maintenance and NASA Academy." This gala event will take place in Lecture Hall C-303 of the Academic Center. Students, faculty, staff, and the public are invited. 

Abstract: Katie Pazamickas will speak about her involvement with the NASA Academy this past summer at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.  She will briefly introduce highlights of her own research involving sawtooth events in the earth’s magnetosphere, after which, she will focus on the Academy group project, “Investigating the Feasibility and Implementation of Orbit Robotic Satellite Maintenance.” Satellite lifetime typically ranges between 3 to 10 years, depending on the orbit and mission type. Considering the high costs involved in the manufacture and launch of such pieces of hardware, satellite servicing is an area that has generated substantial government and commercial attention in the past 25 years. This project explored a new robotic design to be ideally suited for satellite servicing, addressing the major problems satellites face as they degrade.

Rest of the night was given to finishing up the rocket and writing a lab report for Classical Mechanics.

04 October 2010

Recep: 24 September to 4 October 2010

It has been raining out incessantly. People are dying according to the news. My feet are wet though. Lots of homework, very little enjoyable outside time. Weyerbacher is good.