Happy pi day

[(–1)^(1/2)] [2^3] π

....and it was good

Happy π day everyone!!

10 seconds of my 15 minutes has been used

Today I was asked by a local TV station to help with some demonstrations for their news program to illustrate how freakin' cold it is in Minnesota. This morning the temp was -25°F. That's freakin' cold, my friends.[1]

I went to the station and we taped a few minutes of using a frozen banana to hammer a nail, blowing bubbles and watching them freeze and "popping" balloons. The edited footage was going to air tonight on the nine o'clock news.

Well, it turns out the big CBS news show with Katie Couric called down to the minor leagues for some video foder to fill up their national newscast. Long story short, they lumped about 10 seconds of the footage we shot into a story about how freakin' cold it is.

Here's the video. I'm the ugly bastard at about 1:37 using a banana to pound a nail.

Watch CBS Videos Online

So, what that means is I have 14:50 seconds of fame left.


[1] I must include a disclaimer here. While it is freakin' cold here in Minnesota, we must remember that there is an entire country further to the north of Minnesota (and another state). When it's freakin' cold here, it's usually f*cking cold in Canada.

y=mx+b is for losers

Everyone who has mowed a lawn or watched professional baseball is familiar with the patterns a lawnmower makes as it cuts the lawn. Here is one example of what I am talking about:

Or here is an example from Minute Maid park in Houston:

The easiest pattern is a linear one, but this is boring. To prove how much of a nerd I really am, I decided to forgo the y=mx+b motif and employ a non-linear function. This week I mowed my lawn in a sin(x) manner. See:

OK, the picture isn't great and I couldn't fit my whole backyard into one shot. I am also too lazy tonight to screw around with Photoshop and merge them together, but you get the idea. The bucket was meant to be a point of reference. It looks better in real life, though one could easily tell I drew this with a lawnmower. It isn't a perfect sine wave.

I was originally going to do ln(x), but I'd still be mowing. *rim shot* (Get it? If not see: [1])

Next week, maybe a zig zag. First I have to figure out the function for a zig zag. Or I could do f(x)=|sin(x)|. hmmmmm, so many possibilities, so little lawn.

[1] Think asymptote.