I just got back from watching the Austin Aztex vs. Miami FC Blues soccer game. The Aztex won 3 to 1. The game was very entertaining to watch but I was slightly disappointed by how dirty the game was. Both teams were fouling quite a bit. There were 7 yellow cards and 2 red cards. The red cards occurred after two players started “fighting”. The fight ended with the Aztex player double slapping the Miami player. One of the worst things is when a player clearly fouls someone and then tries to act like nothing happened (argues with the ref). I still enjoyed the game though and it was definitely a show of skill.

In the story’s world, everyone would have a life score. People would get positive points for good actions and awards (i.e. perfect attendance award) and negative points for bad actions. The scores would be displayed on badges worn at all times. The scores could be given by a computer system or the government. Instead of a class system based on birth or wealth, it would be based on one’s score. People with high scores get perks and more authority. The plot could be based on someone finding out about corruption in the point giving system in the government or hacks of the computer.
A religion could be based on the system. You get into heaven if you have a minimum score and hell if you have a low or negative score. There could also be a purgatory for low scores. There would also be tiers in heaven and hell.
The scores would probably have to be normalized for age so an older person doesn’t automatically have a higher score. It wouldn’t be proportional since age should count for something.
Maybe points can be converted into money or yearly tax deduction.
The government could be harsh and kill anyone whose score goes below a certain level (i.e. -50). You would probably get a warning in the mail saying, “Warning: Your score has fallen below acceptable limits! Please do good deeds to raise your score.” Of course this means that you can murder someone and get away with it as long as you do enough good deeds.

I use SolidWorks for my research and this window pops up when I use Cosmos (a FEA add-on).

They should have just put an “x” at a top corner of the window and everyone would know how to close the window. Also, the “How do I close this window?” text isn’t even clickable.

Sorry to all for not blogging recently. Here are some videos I found that are pretty hilarious.

This movie is going to be awesome!

This spring break was one of the few times that I tried to go to SXSW shows. Normally, I am not very enthusiastic about going to live music concerts because I get bored with most of the visual performances and my back and legs hurt after standing in a crowd for hours. On a side note, people that smoke in crowds are extremely annoying.
On Tuesday, March 16, I went with my brother and friends (Jessica Allen, David Wogan, and Jessica Gonzales) to see Metric at Levi’s-Fader Fort on 5th street next to Rogue. Even though we didn’t arrive very early, we were able to get to the front row without too much crowding. Metric was amazing! Some shows I have seen seem to have more show/crazy catch than substance. You could tell that Metric knew how to play their instruments well and they had good showmanship (Emily, their singer, has an incredible amount of energy). My favorite Metric album is Fantasies and my favorite song is “Stadium Love”.

Pictures are coming soon!

About half a year ago, I learned of Gaussian numerical integration. It is a simple method to accurately evaluate a bounded integral. The idea is that there is a polynomial that approximates the function being integrated. The integral can be approximated by the sum of weights times the polynomial evaluated at different points. The more points used the more precise the answer is.
Link to a more comprehensive explanation.

Many years ago I created a general story outline that has evolved over time. There are two parts to the story. The first part takes place when the dinosaurs roamed the earth. The second part occurs in modern times. WARNING: It’s a little crazy, the time frames used are clearly ridiculous, and no science is used.

What archeologists don’t realize is that the dinosaurs were intelligent. They had a vast civilization that spanned the globe. One day a spaceship crash landed on Earth. The space travelers were chimpanzees. The dinosaurs captured the chimps and proceeded to perform experiments on them since they had never encounter an alien species before. One result of the experiments was the creation of homo erectus.
The chimps track their wayward ship to Earth and find out that their brethren were experimented on. They go berserk and call in their fleet. They bombard Earth and kill off the dinosaurs who don’t have the benifit of opposable thumbs to defend themselves. The dinosaur scientist who created the homo erectus specimens is able to cryogenically freeze his creations before he dies. The chamber holding the homo erectus specimens is uncovered during an earthquake and is damaged. Emergency protocols thaw the specimens and they escape.

present day:
Many years later, the chimps come back to earth and are surprised to find humans. They realize that humans are descended from the chimps that crash landed and were experimented on. Angered by the “abominations” they again call for their fleet. To survive, humans clone dinosaurs from fossilized bones and team up with them. Dinosaur technology with human’s oppossable thumbs are able to defeat the chimp aliens.

M8 now comes in three zany new flavors! M8 Homestyle (opossum, raccoon, squirrel, fox, muskrat, rabbit, armadillo, and rattle snake), M8 Exotic (llama, ostrich, zebra, giraffe, tiger, bear, panda, and koala), and M8 Endangered Species (bald eagle, golden cheek warbler, blue whale, Tasmanian forester kangaroo, monk seal, grey wolf, jaguar, and sand cat)

So awhile back, I had a couple of crazy ideas (funny/stupid/spoof ideas) of things to do with meat.
One idea is to make M8 which is similar to the V8 drink but instead of vegetables there are 8 types of meat blended together. The meats might be pork, beef, chicken, turkey, lamb, venison, horse, and monkey.
The other idea is to make a meat salad. Like a veggie burger where vegetables are formed into a meat patty shape, the meat salad would be ground meat formed into vegetable shapes like lettuce leaves and tomatoes.

Pictures from Thanksgiving at Big Bend are up on my photo gallery. They are only a select few of them so if you want to see more, go to my Flickr account. The photos are provided by Jessica Allen and Andrew Johnson (AJ).