optical illusions

Check out this optical illusion, where a black and white image turns to color. Before you click the link, just so you're prepared, what you're going to do is stare at the black dot in the center, then wait 15 seconds for the negative to go back to black.

What's at work is called an afterimage, where the staring causes the [whatever color] receptor to get fatigued, so that when you switch to looking at plain white, which requires all the color receptors, [whatever color] is sending fewer messages to the brain, so we only see what's left, i.e. [opposite color] instead.

But when you do that, usually the afterimage is kinda fuzzy. What they've done here is add the black and white dots to help give the photo some definition, so all the afterimage has to do is give it a light wash of color. Also, during the 15-second negative phase, the dots are gray, to ensure that those receptors aren't fatigued when it switches back to the original image! Clever.

I almost wish you could select the duration of the negative; if you could stare longer, the afterimage would last longer.

One of my favorite (and most infuriating) illusions is The Spinning Dancer. This has happened to me twice: On first glance, I think she's spinning counter-clockwise; then, I close my eyes and mentally picture her spinning the other way; I open my eyes, and I'm able to see her spinning clockwise. But from then on, I seem incapable of seeing her going counter-clockwise again! I assure you, the animation remains exactly the same throughout.

The Wikipedia article on optical illusions has an extensive collection of more fun ones.

Awesome. The Musical.

In the words of co-author Stuart Landes, it's "About being awesome and striving for awesomeness."

That's as far as we got.

Miss Saigon has its helicopter.
Phantom has its chandelier.
Les Mis has its rotating restaurant.
And Cats has its... junkyard.

Awesome. The Musical. will have a working roller coaster on stage/hovering over the audience. And an all-night pie delivery service.

I've already created the logo. First things first, you know.

bryanbird.com moved to a new host

This doesn't really impact any of my readers, but just FYI... I've finally moved my web site to a new host, and now Google is handling my email as well. I'm really really hoping this will solve the problems I've had over the past few years of delayed emails with my previous forwarding services from No-IP and MyDomain. No-IP wasn't too bad, but there were still occasions where I'd receive an email several hours after it was sent, rather than immediately.

That may not sound like a big deal, but more than several times I was waiting for something time-sensitive and it arrived the next day. When I was using MyDomain, I even had one email delayed two weeks. But it was free, so who was I to complain? No-IP, on the other hand, I paid for. MyDomain still handled my domain forwarding though, and recently it's been very spotty. I got tired of my "web site being down" when in fact it was just MyDomain not working.

In addition, I had been using Apple's .Mac (now called Mobile Me) to host my web site, mainly because I found it handy to use its auto-sync feature to keep a local copy on my hard drive. The annoying part was that I had very few options for uploading a new file. Since it doesn't support FTP, I couldn't host my blog there, for example. Instead, my blog had been published to Windstream's servers, on the measly few megabytes that came with my parents' DSL acocunt. I'm pretty sure I was over quota, but they never notified us or blocked me.

Now I'm living on my own and have Time-Warner Cable internet, but trying to use their (again, measly few megabytes of) FTP space has been infuriating. I don't think I ever did get it to log in. Such web space was common back in the days of dialup internet, but I guess now people either use other web page builders or don't create personal home pages, because the people I spoke to at Time-Warner Cable barely knew what I was talking about. And 10 MB? Please. They gave the same amount of space 10 years ago in the dialup days. Server space is cheap now.

Anyway, a couple of my friends use Dreamhost, and they had a really good promotion going on a few months ago, so I signed up with them. I just now got around to moving all my files over and re-assigning all my subdomains.

Does this mean anything for you? No. If you're reading this, you're viewing it on the new host. Notice that, up in your address bar, it now starts with "blog2.bryanbird.com..." rather than "home.windstream.net..." Same goes for my main site. Looks a little more professional, if nothing else.

I'm still in the process of going through my 400+ old posts to find old URLs that had said windstream or alltel to update them to blog2.bryanbird.com, but since the old files are still there, for now, no links should be broken.

And that's what I did today.

2008 in quiz form

I started doing this three years ago, and I find it a nice way to sum up the previous 365-6 days.

1) What did you do in 2008 that you'd never done before?
I visited Dorney Park, a Cedar Fair amusement park in Allentown, PA.

2) Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more?
Same story as before: I don't see the point; I'd rather do such things when I'm good and ready. A perfect example: I stopped chewing my fingers (going on six months now), and it had nothing to do with January 1st.

3) Did anyone close to you give birth?
Oh yeah. I'm officially an uncle now, as my sister-in-law gave birth to my nephew Branson this past September!

4) Did anyone close to you die?
No, but two friends lost fathers.

5) What countries did you visit?
Sarah Palin can see Russia from her house, and I can see Canada from the top of Millennium Force!

6) What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2009?
Perhaps not surprisingly, the same answer I gave last year: a 401(k)!

7) What date from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
A certain date in September. Those who know which date, know why. :)

8) What was your biggest achievement of the year?
"Achievement" seems to imply a finite, quantifiable goal that has been reached, but I'll offer up this: Being in Company taught me a lot about acting and forced me to stretch my abilities, and I thank Rob for that. I also moved out on my own, and stopped chewing my fingers.

9) What was your biggest failure?
I failed to keep my nose to the grindstone in certain areas. I sometimes try to think long-term, but things get scary when I do that. But I need to.

10) Did you suffer illness or injury?
Just the usual colds every few months. I even managed to bring under control some acid indigestion (that had goten pretty ridiculous) thanks to Prilosec. Hodgkin's is far removed from my mind at this point; I now have just two checkups a year, and only one CAT scan a year.

11) What was the best thing you bought?
I guess the MacBook Pro would rank fairly high. It was time to ditch the old laptop anyway, but I'd have preferred if it hadn't been necessitated by the PowerBook hard drive dying and other quirks it had developed.

12) Whose behavior merited celebration?
Hmm, my parents, I suppose. See previous cryptic note regarding September.

13) Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Not to get all political, but... I was pretty appalled at how some of the same people who claimed Barack Obama "isn't a Christian" also lambasted him for attending Jeremiah Wright's church. So which is it? Is he a Muslim, or does he follow lock-step with an inflammatory charismatic Christian preacher?

14) Where did most of your money go?
Furnishing my apartment! And the general cost of moving out on my own for the first time (security deposit, renter's insurance, etc.). I got some very nice hand-me-overs from friends and relatives, a few important kitchen items free by redeeming credit card reward points and Dave & Buster's tickets, but I also spent quite a bit furnishing the kitchen and bathroom. Since I had been saving money for this exact purpose, I decided to get decent quality stuff that would last a while rather than buying cheap plastic crap at Family Dollar that would break within a year.

15) What did you get really, really, really excited about?
2008 wasn't quite as fun as 2007, but I did some cool stuff. In February, I saw Wicked for the third time and bought my parents tickets to same as a Christmas present. That, of course, was when I was still living with them and had considerably more disposable income. I also got "really, really, really excited" about a series of job interviews, but unfortunately did not get an offer.

16) What song will always remind you of 2008?
Edit: I'd originally said songs from Company would remind me of 2008, but I struggled to think of an example of that happening. But as I was running some errands tonight, I heard "I Can See It" from The Fantasticks on Sirius, and realized that was it. When I hear those songs, particularly that one, it brings back memories of playing for that show at Cassidy in February and March, the snowstorms we had, the very early stages of my apartment search, how I had all these gigs lined up for the rest of the year, and how that song would get stuck in my head every night. As it is right now. That is what reminds me of 2008.

17) Compared to this time last year, are you:
happier or sadder - As I said last year, I wasn't sad at this time last year, but I can guarantee I'm happier now.
older or wiser - Wiser!
thinner or fatter? - I gained back (intentionally) what I had lost (intentionally) in 2007... and then some (intentionally?).
richer or poorer? - HAHAHAHAHAHA. Oh yes, I am poorer. Monetarily, anyway.

18) What do you wish you'd done more of?
Going to bed on time.

19) What do you wish you'd done less of?
Staying up later than I should. Tired of being tired -- although I seem to tolerate it better now than when I was younger.

20) How did you spend Christmas?
The usual way: a delicious breakfast at home, presents, cemetery visit, a delicious dinner also at home, then relaxation. I got some gift cards, some DVDs, and a few surprises I hadn't thought of.

21) How did you spend New Year's Eve?
The Landeses and I had dinner at Buca di Beppo, then retired to their house. I cut out a large "2008"-shaped piece of paper and had Stu write down all the CRAP that's happened to him in the past year. Then we went outside and burned the damn thing. Take that, 2008! (Also, I got the coolest Christmas ornament ever as a belated gift.)

22) Did you fall in love in 2008?
Nope. But unlike previous years, I'm looking forward to it happening in the future.

23) How many one-night stands?
Same response as the last three years: "Never had one and I intend to keep it that way."

24) What was your favorite TV program?
I think How I Met Your Mother still ranks as my favorite show on TV. I was re-watching some episodes on DVD, and I really don't tire of them. Ted Mosby rocks. And so does Josh Radnor.

25) Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Still no hate happening on this side of the table.

26) What was the best book you read?
Hmm, could it be possible that I read NO books from beginning to end during all of 2008? I believe that is the case. Wow.

27) What was your greatest musical discovery?
Like last year, I'm going to pull something from Broadway. Courtesy of Sirius radio, I discovered City of Angels, a musical from 1990. I just think it's a brilliant score. And next March, I will be in a local production of it.

28) What did you want and get?
Freedom. OK OK I jest. Living with my parents was actually rather ideal in many situations. However, I do also enjoy living on my own without housemates of any sort. I think it's something I really needed to experience in my life. But I also don't plan on living alone forever.

29) What did you want and not get?
Oh, isn't it funny that the answer to this is actually the same answer I gave two years ago: That job in Westlake!

30) What was your favorite film of this year?
Again this year, I didn't see many movies in the theater. I saw Bolt in Disney Digital 3-D, which was a lot of fun. I also very much enjoyed The Dark Knight.

31) What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 28, which puts me dangerously close to 30. You can read about my birthday here, but the summary is that Stu and Laurie and I took the day off work to go to Cedar Point, but Laurie passed out before even riding anything. (We later discovered that she was pregnant.) And yes, this incident went on the aforementioned "2008" effigy.

32) What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Oh come on, this one is too easy. "Immeasurably"? I might as well say winning the Mega Millions would have been more satisfying.

33) How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
Heh, it really wasn't much different than 2007. Which really wasn't much different than 2006. Mind you I've bought new clothes, but the styles and colors haven't really changed.

34) What kept you sane?
Having awesome friends and family, and awesome and understanding parents.

35) Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
I don't really get caught up in that sort of thing. But I do like Barack Obama, although I'm not exactly crazy about the fundie preacher (Rick Warren) he recruited to give the prayer at his inauguration.

36) What political issue stirred you the most?
I enjoyed watching the quartennial flip-flop dance from both sides of the aisle.

37) Who did you miss?
Last year I said I missed the taco nighters, and I still feel that way. I really need to organize a taco/wing night soon. It's been over a year now!

38) Who was the best new person you met?
Again I met a lot of great people and made new friends in 2008, largely from doing theatre, but like last year I think I'm going to play the director card and say Rob Gibb, who directed Company.

39) Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008:
I learned that Stu and I are awesome. No, seriously though, I already knew that. I like having friends. I like having a best friend. I like having friends who feel like family. I suppose I already knew that too, but every year this point is driven home more and more.

40) Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
This is kinda hokey, but moving out of my parents' house reminded me of empty nest syndrome, which reminded me of the sitcom Empty Nest, which reminded me of the theme song, the lyrics of which seem mildly appropriate:

Life goes on, and so do we
Just how we do it is no mystery.
One by one, we fill the days;
We find a thousand different ways.

Sometimes the answers can be hard to find;
That's something I will never be.
I'm always here for anything that you need.

Rain or shine, I'll be the one
To share it all as life goes on.
We share it all as life goes on.