Mood:  lyrical

State of the Union tonight...

I've never been big on these kind of things; they're most often a simple platform for some serious presidential puffery. Other than a constitutional mandate there's little reason to keep doing them, I think, given the fact that 24/7 news coverage covers... well... everything these days.

However, there is one recession-linked casualty that might be announced this evening: NASA'S Constellation program might be going the way of the dodo.

Seriously? Are you kidding me? It's gotta go, altogether? Isn't there a way to keep this thing on the front-burner with a just a little bit of trimming from its budget ('tightening Orion's Belt'... yeah, sorry...)

We're gonna be retiring those lumbering dinosaurs we call 'shuttles' quite soon, you know, and after that the United States will be left without any way to send up manned mission to... uh... well, anywhere.

'Constellation' is/was our way of getting the next-gen transportation we need to continue serving our manned-space interests. Without it we're looking at over a decade (at least) of nothin' doing...

I must say I don't like the current idea of 'carpooling' with other player like Russia and China: any picayune political situation could leave the US 'grounded' (literally). I mean, this is the United F**king States of America: we reached the moon first, and now we won't even be able to reach the ISS without help from a 'space-faring country' (how the mighty have fallen, huh?).

Seriously: there's some cool stuff out there in the darkness. We've only taken baby steps as it is. I don't think it would do to saw our legs off, now...

And while we're at it, lookit the Zelda art:

So far "Link's Adventure" isn't coming out as 'Quasi-R-Rated' as "Ocarina" was (kinda like I predicted). It certainly isn't even close to being as violent, but it is much, much more... well... 'sad'. If I had to pick one word to describe it at this fairly early date I would call it 'bleak'...

I like to think that I'm learning alot as I go with my writing, or at least getting my 'do's and 'don't's' down (say that three times fast). As much as writing is a journey more than a destination, I kinda like my current 'trajectory', so to speak. "Link's Adventure" is shaping up to be the best piece of standalone fiction I've ever written (yeah, I know: that's like saying your kid is the 'brightest' one in his special-needs class. Even then, though, that's saying something, right?)

And if you're wondering, yeah: the background in that image is from a Smash Bros. game (hey, I get the visual material from wherever I can, alright? Artistically-challenged beggars like me can't exactly be choosers now, can we?)

Posted by shanekentknolltrey at 2:41 PM MNT

Updated: Wednesday, 27 January 2010 3:10 PM MNT

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Mood:  chatty

So, as I sit in my parlor (yeah: I actually have a 'parlor'... you don't see those too often these days. But Shane also has a front porch, too; I'm nothing if not anachronistic)...

what was I talking about?... Oh, yeah:

So, as I sit in my parlor nursing my second Grolsch of the day, the wan light of the afternoon sun gently caressing my skin in a dusky golden hue while blue fire rising off my computer monitor glints lazily over my deep brown eyes, I'm reminded of the story of the guy who walked into a bar...

...he said ouch. Get it?

Maybe that guy had one too many. Well, there's a certain tree shrew in Malaysia that seems to be unable to have 'one too many', physiologically, anyway: the little f**kers live entirely off an extract of palm oil with a 3.8% alcohol content exclusively, meaning that nearly every moment of their tiny li'l lives they're scampering around with a BAL several times the legal limit (adjusted for body weight, 'natch) and yet they neither succumb to the effects of alcohol poisoning or, more amazing yet, participate in drunken fratboy games:

these guys are incapable of being affected by the intoxicant ethyl alcohol.

Neat, huh? Also of interest: these li'l guys are candidates for the most recent common ancestor of the entire primate lineage. What does that mean? Well, effectively, it means that at one time all our furry li'l ancestors were immune to alcohol's deleterious effects (again: maybe) and as we diverged from the critters everyone started picking up the habit, genetically speaking...

...you know what I mean...

God-damned shrew! Can you imagine what life might be like if we were like those widdle mammals?... 

 Something like this, maybe? 

Posted by shanekentknolltrey at 9:19 PM ADT

Updated: Tuesday, 29 July 2008 9:33 PM ADT

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Mood:  a-ok

What do you do when your own blog won't let you log in for two f**king weeks?

The answer is: not much...

Not that I needed a new reason to hate Tripod, or anything, but I believe that when I bloody friggin' type in a username of 'shanekentknolltrey' I should get access to this thing. Or at least I'm supposed to.

Tch! Well, I don't wanna criticize the wonky powers that be anymore: after all, I could end up getting locked out permanently.

The short answer is that my password got changed; I still don't know why. I do know that I was able to eventually change it back, hosanna in the highest.

Let's see: what's happened during my interminable abscence, eh?

Phoenix landed, for one, and this time the software gurus at NASA didn't confuse pounds and newtons, saints be praised, and the craft also didn't prematurely cut its descent engines, either...

Lord: Mars research is expensive, ain't it? And with our current track record, we shouldn't even be thinking about manner flights any time soon.

The Red Planet might even be better off without us: who knows? 

Everyone know we need to go to Jupiter, anyway: it should be the 'monolithic' crown jewel of our space program. I can think of 2001 reasons to go, and we'd really have a 'hal' of a good time, provided the vessel had a good bowman or two up front: someone who's wanted to reach for the 'stars' even as a little 'child'...

(yeah: this is the stuff you've been missing for two weeks. However can one survive without it? ;) 

Posted by shanekentknolltrey at 1:35 PM ADT

Updated: Friday, 30 May 2008 1:38 PM ADT

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Mood:  incredulous

Here's a hardly-novel story from across the desert sands.

*Yawn* Yes, yes: we'll have the Ark in no time, and all that. Heard it before, but I've yet to see the damn thing and its stunning tablets of law sitting in a museum yet.

...uh: these treasure hunters should remember that, assuming they find the thing, it supposedly kills on contact, so wear thick gloves, people.

Personally I think that the Ark is a bit inaccessible to us flesh-and-bloods at this point in time... Doesn't matter: it'd be more than nice to have the vessel and its contents on display (precluding any muderous angels or kill-on-contact abilities, mind you...) but as spiritual laws go, we've already had an updated version of that program installed on our spiritual hard-drives anyway, so the Ark is, in the final analysis, moot.

...unless you're Jewish. In that case, go wild: its the definitive bond between yourselves and El Shaddai, after all...

(makes you wonder: would the state of Israel attempt to claim ownership of the thing when it's found? Y'know: a-la Spain and shipwreck salvagers? Of course, the stakes here are slightly higher than just a paltry half-a-billion dollars-worth of gold bullion...) 

As for me, I'm content to let such artifacts (assuming they still exist in this plane of existence) rest.

Godspeed, in any event... 

Posted by shanekentknolltrey at 1:30 PM ADT

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Mood:  a-ok

Take a lookit this picture.

Nice, huh? It was selected as a Feature Picture by Wikimedia Commons (Wikipedia's media dump) but for some reason all efforts to nominate it as an FP on Wikipedia proper are stymied.

I bring this up not just because I love to use the word 'stymied' in a sentence (and I do) but because I have a hard time understanding the rationale for not FP-ing the thing: some naysayers claim that much better and higher-resolution pictures of the eye can be taken for Wikipedia's use.

Ooookay: but right now that's the best eye image they've got, and I wouldn't poo-poo the act of taking a photo of the human eye: it's not as easy as it looks. After attempting the act myself I'm convinced that the resolution of that photo is damn-well excellent. If it's beatable as an image, it ain't beatable by much.

For all my attempts I couldn't manage half the resolution power of that image (granted my camera's not as good, but it is usually excellent with extreme close-up shots). Lighting issues are a nightmare, eyelashes get in the way and hog the focus, shit gets reflected off the eye and into the picture (especially the camera itself: I've got a stack of pictures where my pupil proudly states that it's a product of the Canon corporation...) 

I've given up on getting a really crisp eye shot. The best I could do is take two of my better attempts and false-color the things; makes 'em interesting enough to overcome their lack of clarity, anyway...

^ The lightsource got into this one (that long black smudge on the left). I have neither the proper equipment nor the expertise with lighting issues to fix that...

^ At least you get some nice blood vessels with this one. The light was visible on it as well, but here I cheated and smoothed-out the left side. You can see the rim of the camera circling the pupil about a third of the way outside the iris. I didn't notice it 'till I was finished coloring. To hell with it...

These pics are 800 x 600, but the originals are a massive 2560 x 1920. Doesn't matter, though: it's all grains and blurs at that resolution.

Anyway: my own attempts make me appreciate that image a whole lot more... 

Posted by shanekentknolltrey at 2:36 PM ADT

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Mood:  caffeinated

Here's a news flash for 'ya:

The impossible is always possible, unless it's not... 

Now, this guys got his laurels and all, but why do I hear a whole lot of quacking in my head as I try to understand his logic?

Alright, yes: there's truth to Clarke's adage that, "if a learned man of science says something is possible and the public says its impossible, the scientist is almost assuredly right", but here's my problem:

this guy thinks that breaking the light barrier is doable, but that it's impossible to see into the future (however you want to describe that phrase)? 

Now, as I understand string theory (and believe me: I don't) isn't one of the hypothetical conclusions from certain assumptions in the discipline that the universe is built-up around a slew of dimensions, and that the multiverse itself shapes objective reality by virtue of which way the linguini noodles are pointing?...

(...I haven't had lunch today, sorry...)

...forget it. My only point is that given how little we understand objective reality at the moment it's far more likely that we'll be able to divine the future at some point, well... in the future... than the idea that we'll ever be able to go faster than a photon.

Although, in my book, both of these things are impossible.

...unless they're not.

And the next chapter of TYPERS isn't called "Evolution", anymore. It's now called "On the Razor's Edge". It's more appropriate for the subjectmatter and, on top of that, it just sounds cooler! 

And... well... it's not done, yet... 

Posted by shanekentknolltrey at 8:15 PM ADT

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Mood:  bright

Someone who found the anagram buried in my Antithesis splash page amusing had another tidbit for me: you can also rearrange those letters to get the phrase "I, ashen tits".

I usually don't find anagrams amusing (I only put one on that page 'cause it's so friggin' dull to begin with...) but I gotta admit: that was a good one.

And remember: Antithesis is a guy that really lets the "hate insist" upon itself!

...hmm: that wasn't nearly as good, was it? To hell with it all.

Posted by shanekentknolltrey at 1:51 PM MNT

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Mood:  chillin'

Far be it for the defense department and the military to have all the fun throwing up missiles at disabled spy satellites: why can't those guys at NASA get in on the demolition racket?

Seems they've found an excuse...

Alright: technically this sounds like a reasonable method to determine the contents of the moon's poles, or at least the quickest. But, then again, it's rather like a doctor slicing his patient down the middle in order to check for any possible tumors or diseases of the internal organs...

Don't we have enough sophisticated technology to determine the pole's contents with a less... I dunno, invasive procedure?

It's just that, as a taxpayer, I get a little bit nervous when I notice this apparent trend of sending complicated, state-of-the art equipment hurtling into stuff that's gonna destroy it...

Couldn't they just buy a few faberge eggs and toss them against a wall? 

In other news, here's a "tart" alert:

This (or most likely a heavily-modified contrast-and-color-variation thereof) is going to be the next chapter's leading image: 

And this is what I'd really like it to be, but unfortunately it's way too wide-screen (and, frankly, way too explicit, thematically...)

 Of course, if anyone wants to change my mind, I'm receptive to the argument (or, if you wanna tell me that both images are rubbish that's fine too: my ego will rise from the ashes, for sure  :-)

Posted by shanekentknolltrey at 7:45 PM MNT

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Mood:  a-ok

Lookit this...

NASA says it's just a rock. Oh, those poor, deluded fools...

Actually, that thing kinda looks like another odd creature dredged from the annals of cryptozoology.

Although, in the case of our friendly (hopefully?) Martian friend, I guess the term is 'exozoology'.

Sounds cool, anyway... 

Posted by shanekentknolltrey at 2:06 AM MNT

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Mood:  energetic

They grow up so fast these days...

Amazing? Incredible? Yeah: all of the above. Alot of this is indicative of a real trend over the past... I dunno, hundred-years or so (or more, I really don't know) wherein the age of puberty for girls seems to be dropping, sure and steady, while that of their male counterparts is somewhat more steady (though both are, apparently, indeed dropping...).

Of course, in this girl's case the phenotype is freakish, regardless of recent social trends. The thing to remember, of course, is that human maturation isn't a magical thing: we're all born with all the necessary chemicals and signal pathways to reach sexual maturity right out of the gate, it's just that normally we've got a regulatory system to stave off immediate development.

But that system is likely the most damn-complicated thing in the body, short of the brain itself, and it crosses paths with all the other systems, too. Problems always arise, don't they?

In fact, it should be noted that the world's youngest mother on record was a five-year-old Peruvian girl (ah, incest: it's a real bitch of a thing, huh?)

Still: it's kinda funny that the average age of puberty in the civilized world is still dropping like a stone even though modern age of consent laws dictate chastity for kids younger than 15 (etc...). Even a few hundred years ago such an idea would've been considered ludicrous to most people. As a society we're pushing back the age of sexual activity, but nature is (for whatever reason) working against us.

I'd just rather not see this precocious girl used as a decoy in the To Catch a Predator series anytime soon...

...or maybe I just wouldn't wanna see the kind of people that would show up at the house... 

Posted by shanekentknolltrey at 6:03 PM MNT

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