For anyone who's interested in space, this is probably old news, but for everyone else, here's something very cool that happened this week: The first photograph of a planet around another star.

I got one of those self-perpetuating internet era chain letters today. But since it was my mom, i'll go ahead and do it. However, i'm NOT going to pass it on to four other people. And hey - the message didn't come with any warning saying i would die in 3 hours if i didn't pass it on, so i think i'm safe.

Without further ado, here are six quirky things about me that you may or may not know:

1. I want to write a novel. Several of them actually. I've got lots of (what i think are) great ideas rattling around in my head. I was even going to do NANOWRIMO this year but apathy set in. ;) Perhaps some day™ i'll get around to it.
2. I love to paint miniatures (dragons, drawves, elves, etc..) and build miniature dioramas. Life always seems to get in the way, and i'm lucky to squeeze in 3-4 hours a month. Click here to view some of my work.
3. Annoying Habit: I often don't give straight answers to questions. And usually it's not that i'm trying to be obtuse. It's just that there are many ways i could present the answer and i'm trying to figure out which is most precise. Ask my wife about this - she hates it.
4. Back in my senior year of high school i took AP English. We had an assignment to read a novel by Charles Dickens. We read "Little Dorrit". Or ... we were supposed to. I never actually did. But I still have the book, it's still sitting on my nightstand, and 18 years later, i'm STILL reading it (i actually do pick it up and read a chapter now and again ... i even have two pages dedicated to it: Page 1, Page 2)
5. I believe in the technological singularity. A few years ago people had no idea what i was talking about. Now, only most people don't. Oh, and i even know when the end of the world (as we know it) is going to occur, but i won't tell you. Muah ah ah hahaha!
6. There's nothing better than a cheesy vampire and/or zombie and/or martial arts movie.

Ok, almost the coolest app i've found yet for my android g1 ... the TunesRemote. It connects over wi-fi and allows you to control your itunes music library from your phone. (coolest app is the compareanywhere barcode scanner - which, btw, was written by the same guy). - Tunes Remote

In other android news, i'm making great progress on my game. it's completely playable, works great, and is quite responsive. the only things left are extras like high score lists, save/restore game state between app runs, an extra tileset, and a page with instructions. hopefully i'll have it ready to go within a week or two.

Oh, also in android market news: here's a great site to check in addition to the official market: http://www.androidapps.org/

It's been a busy week and lots of interesting things have happened. Here are a few highlights: First, with halloween and then Gwyneth's birthday back to back, and my mom visiting, and going to some plays, and parties, etc.., i haven't had time to breath for a bit and at about 11pm last night (Nov. 1), my wife asks, "weren't you going to do NANOWRIMO?" ... oops. Oh well - i'm screwed now. First day is done and i'm already behind. I even had several chapters outlined and everything. I might still do it a bit for fun, but i'm not going to try to get 50,000 words in the month. I'll focus instead on getting the first few chapters written and fleshed out really well. See if i can't describe my setting so vividly that it would make Dicken's proud.

Another thing that's been eating up a huge portion of my time is my new Android G1 phone. That's right folks. I couldn't resist. I ran over to the T-Mobile store on Oct. 22 and ordered myself a new phone. It arrived 2 days later in the mail and i've been playing with it ever since. If you're not sure what the G1 is, you probably don't really care about cool phones all that much and so no amount of description would really do it justice. You'll just have to see one in action for yourself. But this is in my opinion the best phone on the planet right now. Totally amazing. I've been nothing but happy with it since the moment i turned it on. Oh, and yes - i've been spending 1 or 2 or .. 4 hours a day learning the Android SDK and writing programs for it. I'm working on a game right now (you may recall my post from 2-3 weeks back talking about pathfinding algorithms ... well, here's the tie-in) :)

So, one last thing. And for those of you who haven't read the Harry Potter novels yet, but might some day ... just skip the rest of this blog entry. I'll even put it in black text on a black div so you can't see it unless you highlight the text. If you want to know what i'm writing about ... read on!

On the official LDS website there is a great little tool that will help you locate church buildings, tell you what time the local congregation meets, and any other pertinent information (such as 'this is a student ward', or 'this is a sign language ward'). Very cool stuff for those looking to find a place to go to church while out traveling.

LDS Maps

Thanks Dave for pointing this out!

Ran across this awesome life size storm trooper made out of legos at the local WalMart today. How cool is that?

Last night i found myself in need of a pathfinding algorithm to solve a problem i'm working on (note: if you're thinking 'what kind of crazy geeky thing are you doing in your spare time late on a Sunday night that would require you to learn pathfinding AI?', ... well ... that's a discussion for another day! lol). I did a quick search and came across this page (there's actually 4 pages), which in a matter of about 30 minutes of reading had explained everything i needed to know about pathfinding. And it made sense. Ok, so why couldn't my professors at school have explained pathfinding in such a simple and succinct manner as this webpage? Pathfinding is an important computer science problem encountered over and over in everything from games to package routing to launching rockets at the moon. I never really had that aha moment before when discussing, reading about, or implementing pathfinding code.

I hate the cold and flu season. Every year it seems to strike our home. The fact that we have kids in school probably doesn't help. Alex came home last week feeling miserable and achy and coughing. I made a few jokes at his expense and even (in a joking way) went over all the things to do to avoid getting sick, like washing your hands, not touching your face, staying as far away from coughing people as you can, etc..etc.. Oh well - it didn't work. Being in a confined space like a house with someone sick inevitably leads to more people getting sick .... like me and Luann. We've both got what he had. He was out for 3 days. I'm now on day #3 and it's finally starting to let up just a bit. At least i can breath this morning and the coughing has stopped. What to do ... It seems like over the years the human population has built up quite a catalog of viruses that transmit from person to person in never ending waves. It would be cool to see an animation of the flu and cold virus's as they spread around the globe in a constantly shifting pattern, going from here to there, changing intensity, mutating, infecting everyone in sight. If only it were possible to take every single person on the earth, physically separate them from each other for a week or two (long enough for any viruses to have run their course and been attacked and killed by the immune systems). Then when everyone got back together, nobody would be sick. We could get on with our lives without having to worry about the common cold and flu viruses being all around us!

What is it that defines the pinnacle of human achievement? One of my coworkers said it's the tire - don't laugh; he actually had really good reasons. My wife said it was our ability to land a man on the moon 30 years ago. But they're both wrong. The absolute pinnacle of human achievement is ... the spork.

Yes, that's right. What other invention is so ingenious? It can be like a spoon if you've got some runny soup. If the soup is a little thicker with things in it, it can act like a fork. You don't have to have two separate utensils anymore! Just think of the savings in terms of money and manufacturing. Not to mention the drawer space you'll save. Less dishes to wash (you'll save on water and soap too). Oh, and the extra health benefits -- because you don't have to stress over whether or not to use a fork or a spoon to eat that mac and cheese. The spork has you covered!

I have looked into the nanowrimo.org website. It's basically a community website where you can sign-up and chat on the forums. You can also upload your manuscript whenver you want and it will give you back a word-count. If you reach 50,000+ words before the month is out, it will let you download a certificate that you can print out.

So, ... basically, there's no big advantage to being a member of the site if you're not going to be involved in the forums. And i'm not really a forum kind of guy. However, that doesn't mean i won't do the contest. It just means i'll do it on my own terms. Plus, my neighbors want to get together every few days and just sit around with our laptops and talk about what we're writing and have a little writing fest. I'm sure treats and drinks will be involved!

I read all the rules. You can't write anything in advance, but you can come up with story ideas and outlines. I've got a vauge idea that i want to flesh out. I am going to start on that now. That way i don't have to waste the first bit of November deciding what i want to write about.