Tesla Coils Playing the Mario Bros Theme

I've loved the idea of Tesla Coils since i was first introduced to them in the late 90's video game Command & Conquer: Red Alert. Apparently, they can be used for more than frying enemies.



Credit to Gizmodo for the following explaination:

"Twin Solid State Musical Tesla coils playing Mario Bros theme song at the 2007 Lightning on the Lawn Teslathon sponsored by DC Cox (Resonance Research Corp) in Baraboo WI. The music that you hear is coming from the sparks that these two identical high power solid state Tesla coils are generating. There are no speakers involved. The Tesla coils stand 7 feet tall and are each capable of putting out over 12 foot of spark. They are spaced about 18 feet apart. The coils are controlled over a fiber optic link by a single laptop computer. Each coil is assigned to a midi channel which it responds to by playing notes that are programed into the computer software."



And here's another video, though not as great... but still awesome, nonetheless.

Ninjas are awesome

Title says it all.

Nuff said.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

So, i finally got around to watching the fifth Harry Potter movie. I told myself that i would wait until I read Deathly Hallows before i watching Order of the Phoenix. I was really looking forward to OotP, since it is the first one where there starts to be real wizard fights. Goblet of Fire sort of did... but it became a more predominant theme in OotP.

Delores Umbridge was cast perfectly, although she did not quite fit the froglike description i had in my head from reading the books. Her voice, mouthy clicks, and actions were a perfect match. The same goes for Bellatrix Lestrange. Helena Carter was the perfect person to play this deranged witch, who craves nothing more than torturing her victims before killing them. The only casting job I disagreed with was Luna Lovegood's character. I am not quite sure why... I just didn't get the right feel from her. She seemed like she was really trying too hard to be the quirky, not-as-insane-as-you-might-think girl that joins the group.

The relationship between Cho Chang and Harry was very brief indeed. The key elements were still there, but i seem to remember it being a longer, deeper relationship in the book. This was the time where all the students were starting to 'blossom' and start relationships. At this point Harry was flirting with a few other women, all of which were left out of the movie. He had moments with Moaning Mrytle, Ginny Weasley, and even Luna. The Ron-Hermione friendship/relationship was not even glanced over.

The special effects were well done, although i have a few things i didn't like. The biggest one being that the Stupify spell was white, instead of red. This sounds nit-picky, but it was described very clearly in the book, and used on so many occasions, I really would have expected them to get it right. I really enjoyed the mental image from the books of red stunning curses flying by the green killing curses. It somehow seems less important. Less tangible. Given that one of Harry's mainstays is his compassion and mercy, which sets himself apart from the Death Eaters, simply making this spell white/clear really detracts from its importance in the movie.

Another little thing that bothered me was the omission of the DA magic galleon. This was the special token that alerted the DA members, and could let them know when to meet. Yes, this is a very small item... but if you've read Deathly Hallows, you know that it is mentioned again.

Apparating is such a cool concept, but they are played out in two different manners. Near the beginning of the movie, the Weasley brothers apparate next to Harry at Sirius' house. In this scene, they simply appeared. Yet, later in the movie, when the Order members arrive at the Ministry, they seem to shoot down to earth from above with a weird ghostly trail behind them. Then, to make matters worse, Death Eaters and members of the Order went chasing each other around the room... floating in this ghostly form around the walls. I realize they were most likely 'apparating' around while in the middle of their chase... but it is not at all explained, and nothing like that is ever mentioned in the books.

Another, slightly larger point that was glazed over was the explanation of the Prophecy. The fact that Professor Trelawney was the one who made the Harry-Voldemort prophecy is the only vindication that she ever receives. It should have explained why she was a teacher at Hogwarts, when she so obviously was not that much of a Seer. The Prophecy explanation makes more sense out of the scene where Umbridge sacks Trelawney, but Dumbledore continues to provide housing for her. He was protecting her. I think that they could have taken an extra 2-3 minutes to run through the who's and why's to better explain what the Prophecy was, and why, exactly, Voldemort wanted it to badly.

Despite the small things I've brought up here, i still enjoyed the movie a great deal. It represented the book very well. As well as a 2 hour feature can represent the virtual tome that is OotP. Given that the movie came in at 138 minutes, i dint think they could have realistically included some of the things I've mentioned. No one, save for the die hard Harry Potter fans, would have sat through another half hour of the story. I really am looking forward to The Half-Blood Prince, and definitely the culmination of the story in Deathly Hallows. However, i wish i didn't have to wait another 2 years for Half-Blood Prince, and probably 2 more years for the conclusion of the movie series.

Zak8022 score:

The Simpsons Star Wars Intro

Unattended Children...

I wish that i could post this sign on my street. Now, i'm not one of those people who hates children altogether (i'm not that old yet). I'm the kind of person who hates parents of evil children who give nice kids a bad rap. The kids on my street aren't bad... its just that they are allowed to roam the street doing what they want, leaving toys wherever they happen to loose interest in it.

All to often i see a kid acting like a stupid brat, and it takes everything i have not to punch the parent (be it mother or father) in the face. I find it hilarious when the parent knows their child won't listen to them, yet still feels the need to scream at their child to behave... regardless of how public a place it is.

One night i was getting some stuff out of my car, and a neighbor boy screamed at me from an open window in his house. Yes, I jumped. He scared the shit out of me. The best part was
then hearing his mother yet, at the top of her lungs, for the baby to 'shut up'. I can't imagine that the woman forgot that all the windows in her house were open, and that pretty much anyone on our street could hear her yelling at her child. It was a very white trash sort of moment... It made me laugh on the inside... as well as die a little bit knowing that that sort of person lives on my street. Maybe thats just what happens when you have two children from different men before reaching 20 years old (and despite looking 13!)

I've gotten off topic, again, deal with it... it'll happen alot. So, parents.... fucking raise your children the right way. If you cant fucking do it, call Suppernanny and be embarrased in front of the entire nation. And for god's sake, if you fail at raising one child, dont have more! Stop procreating!

I has a blog :-p

Well, here we are... Me, with a blog again. I tried this once... and it ended up created so much drama and bullshit for me, I gave it up. So, I'm going to try again. I still plan on telling it like it is... and voicing my opinion to whomever choses to read.

My intent is not to offend anyone. Although, I am sure it will happen at some point. My advice to you... deal with it! I'm not going to apologize for my thoughts.

"No i will not fix your computer."

That is what my shirt said that I wore to work today. My wife bought it for me because I all too often have people ask me to 'fix' their computer in some way... much to my annoyance. Its not that I don't like computers... obviously I like something about it since I constantly tinker with mine. Its just that I don't like messing with other people's computers. But I digress...

Within 5 seconds of my boss entering the office (yes, I beat him in) he reads my shirt and says "Oh yea, my computer at home has been really slow. Can you maybe look at it sometime this week?" I shit you not... he read the shirt that plainly says I won't mess with his computer... then proceeds to ask me to fix his computer. I can only assume that he thinks that rule does not apply to him, because I've been his own personal Tech Support for the past 3 years i've worked for him. I remind him that the computer in question is an older model, which was not top of the line 3 years ago when I bought it for him (he paid, but i had to actually buy/setup the computer). My initial thought was that he is comparing this older machine to his nice, new(er), 6 month old laptop. I told him this. He said that is not the case. I dropped the subject for the time being.

So, seeing as I didn't have much to do this afternoon, I head over to his house to check out this 'slow' computer. Nothing seems amiss. No massive amounts of adware/malware. No viruses. Just an older computer with 512MB of RAM. (For those not in the tech arena, that was the bare minimum for Windows XP at least 2 years ago... the current minimum is around 1GB). So my opinion is that there is nothing wrong with the computer, and suggest to my boss that he may want to upgrade the RAM. This is the part that really gets me going. As I tell him this, he rebuffs my explanation and says that is not the case. He says its slower than it used to be. He says he installed Norton Internet Security suite (against my advice) and that this program must be the reason for the slowdown. So I tell him to uninstall it and find out. I should have known better... because i know that within the week he will be asking me to go back to his house and uninstall NIS for him, because he can't figure it out.

I just don't understand why someone asks for my opinion... and then dismisses it without question. I'm not saying i'm an expert (far from it). But I obviously have a little more knowledge/understanding of computers than he does, considering he asks me to hold his hand installing the simplest of applications. Of course, he never asks for help of guidance when installing stupid ass applications that are of questionable validity (Plaxo, i'm lookin at you!).

And this, is an abrupt end to this entry... yes, i suck at writing... hence the blog... i obviously need practice.