Thing I Wish Existed in Real Life

OK. I'm sorry. I claimed I would be giving updates regularly and epically failed yesterday. Will try to do better in the future.

To the topic of the day, stuff that is not in real life that I wish did exist. This is not a definitive list, and again probably has very little to do directly with Mudd.

Magic. In the most basic of definitions, this is pretty much anything that bends or breaks what we consider reality. For example, invisibility potions and being able to conjure up fireballs and all that kind of stuff. There's actually been some interesting pieces of work that consider what the world would be like if magic was the norm and you even went to college to learn about magic and elven history instead of thermodynamics and quantum physics. But yeah, that would be kinda cool. Of course, knowing me, I'll be the moron with little to no magical aptitude and have to make due buying wards and enchantments from the local shop.

A Soul/Spirit Analyzer. Maybe it's just me, but being able to analyze and detect qualities of the soul/spirit/spirit would be really cool. For example, you could do a scan and find out that your anger problem stems from a certain incident or preconceived notion, and then perhaps it would zap it or you could deal with it. Something similar to perhaps how in Psychonauts you go into people's brains and help sort out their issues. Maybe it's because I have too many issues myself or it's my self-improving nature.

Lightsabers. Seriously. Best weapon evar. Cuts anything except another lightsaber. Has this really cool hum. And it can deflect laser blasts. LAZERS! You just don't get any cooler than that.

Gundams. OK, I know they break physics since they're the biggest robot around and yet are the most agile, but the very concept of a giant battle machine with weapons and beam swords flying around and doing ninja-esque moves is pretty sweet. Space combat is also really fun since there's no natural "down" so in effect you have to watch in all 6 directions for enemies. Read Ender's Game for some interesting theories about Zero-G battles.

Zero-G generation. Zero-G chambers, directed zero point energy, lots and lots of magnets. It doesn't matter. Being able to float around and be weightless is pure awesome. Enough said.

Heads Up Display. Eventually the Cyber Warrior program will equip our soldiers with something like this. The idea is a HUD which provides useful information. Stuff like health status (heath bar?), quest log, overhead view of surrounding people, highlight useful objects, infrared overlays, and of course a reticle and ammo readout just in case those terrorist wanna bring us a traditional war in our home towns. Everyone suit up with your carbine rifles and shotguns, and the HUD will even help highlight enemies, allow team communication, and notify you friend from foe. Even just an automatic "quest log" to keep track of your to-do list would be sweet.

So, there you have it. Fun stuff that could be really cool to have around in real life.

Oh, and check out Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-Long Blog. You won't regret it.

Being a Band Geek

Now for something not Mudd related.

I happen to be musical in ability. Granted, I couldn’t make a living out of it, but I can play instruments competently and sing not horribly. In High School, I played in the Band. I in fact played the flute. Yes, I am in fact a male flute player.

Being very involved in Band in my recent past, I still have quite the affinity for it. Having a younger brother who is also in Band doesn’t exactly hurt either. Recently we got to see a Drum Corps show at Mount Sac. For those of you non-band geeks, a Drum And Bugle Corps (we tend to just call them Drum Corps) is kind of a better marching band. However, as its name implies, there’s only drums and bugle instruments. Drums encompass all percussion, so there is a pit line. There is also a Color Guard team that performs with them, adding color and cool rifle tosses to the mix.

The key is that they are really really good. If you check out teams like Blue Devils or the Santa Clara Vanguard on Youtube, you’ll see just how awesome their formations are. Trust me, getting formations correct is really really hard. The thing you’re missing is the sound. As cool as they sound on screen, it’s nothing to a live performance. Think wall of sound. Surround Sound. Dolby 5.1 Bose speakers movie theatre sound. It’s insane how powerful these guys’ lungs are. Cool stuff. So last Saturday we got to see the Blue Devils and the Santa Clara Vanguard blow away the competition. Sure it’s the beginning of the season, so they’re not quite up to their usual stuff, but it was still really cool.

In more recent news, the Band marched in the local Fourth of July parade. Luckily (or unluckily) my brother is the historian for the Band. This means that near the end of the year he’s going to get very little sleep and free time as he edits the giant Band Slideshow for the end-of-the-year banquet. It also means that we need to start getting footage now, in the forms of me walking along the parade route with the Band taking video and my dad taking pictures. So, kinda hot and a good leg workout. Hopefully the camera wasn’t shaking too much. We throw away footage that will make the viewers motion sick.

I guess you could say I’m still a Band geek. I still play the flute on occasion. It was weird when I found I was marching in sync with the Band, left foot on the downbeat. I bet I could still out drill-down most people. And being old and graduated, I get to moan and groan about how my days were so much better than the current Band. It’s kind of a right to be able to say “in my day.” Partially it’s mocking the stereotypical elderly person in the movies, but we seriously marched uphill in the sun to conditions ourselves. Both ways along the field. With horns up.

For your viewing pleasure, some Drum Corps videos:
Blue Devils 2007 1st Place DCI Championship Show

Santa Clara Vanguard 2007 DCI Championshhips show

Yokahoma Inspires, one of Japan’s new Drum Corps