superluminous velocity

The Venture Bros is a show near and dear to my heart.  It showcases the kind of pan-generational pop culture collage mentality that is so crucial to modern nerdiness, and for that I give it my undying respect.    A few weeks ago, it was brought to my attention (by fellow NYC nerd Molly) that the show’s creators Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer would be speaking at the Museum of Cartoon and Comic Art (MOCCA) near Houston St.  Seeing as I love the show, and visiting the museum was on my list of things to do anyway, I was immediately sold on the idea. 

Cut to the night of the event.  Molly and I arrive to the ‘Museum’ to find about 250 of New York’s Nerdiest lined up inside the winding hallway.  Apparently, the massive turnout was just as much as a surprise to the museum as it was to us; we were the last people allowed to enter, which turned out to be lucky for them. 

The space itself was extremely claustrophobic, a medium sized gallery space with every surface coverd by framed comic and cartoon works from all eras (think mickey mouse - hellboy) and crammed full of nerds.  We immediately saw the two animator/voice actor/directors sitting at a table with a laptop and a plasma screen tv in front of the crowd.  The excitement in the air was palpable, and agitation was visible on the face of the interviewer.  After a few minutes of idle audience chatter, the Doc looks out into the crowd and asks:

“Does anyone know Vista?”

Now, I am a computer scientist, and a bit of a microsoft advocate, so I certainly fit the bill, but, not wanting to be the tool to get up and try to show off, I kept my mouth shut, at first.  However, it soon became apparent that out of this small enclave of nerds, I alone was capable and willing to deal with whatever the issue was, so I stepped up.  Popping a squat between the two talented dudes who have entertained me so much over the years, I began to tool away (it was a dual display issue).  To my amazement, they began the panel while I was actually up there working! 

It turned out that they just had a mismatch on the resolution of the tv and the display out, so I fixed it pretty quick.  As I got up to leave, Jackson Publick said to me that I was now an honorary member of Team Venture!  I wanted so badly to interrupt the whole show and try to get him to do the V finger “Go Team Venture!” bit, but I restrained myself. 

The rest of the event was pretty standard, but informative.  We all got to see some sneak peak clips of season 4 (which I await with bated breath) and I got to briefly talk to the guys and shake their hands and get photos.  After it all, a woman who I presumed to be running the gallery and event comped me a membership to the museum too.  Double score.

And that my friends, is how I became a part of a fictional animated super science crime solving team.  

Tonight’s adventure is an open mic night/poetry slam at a cool cafe and bar called Smooch in Brooklyn.  I checked this out for the first time last week (it occurs every Tuesday).  In fact, last Tuesday was my first time performing something public in about 10 years.  I read a poem written last year during my visit to NY/NJ, and one that’s a bit more convoluted as well.  I think tonight I’ll go with ‘Ode to the Little Things in Life‘.

The  event itself is very chill; a few people (fifteenish) show up, some sign up to perform, and the whole thing gets started between 9 and 10pm.  Smooch itself seems to be Australian owned, or themed, because they have a variety of Australian beers, and I saw some vegimite on the counter.

Wish me luck!

Getting close to the end of the summer, seems like a good time to drop a post on my status.  I’ve been working out on the peninsula for a company called Multiverse Networks.  Multiverse makes a virtual worlds platform; that is to say that they make tools and server systems for others to build their own virtual worlds and link them together.  Sort of like a 3d internet.

In other news, I am now perilously close to becoming a real adult (sort of).  That is; I’m graduating in just 1 more agonizing semester at Case Western.  WOO!  I will be taking no less than nine hours of art (Jewelry and Enameling II, Graphic Design I, and intro to Glass Blowing), three hours of Philosophy (Intro to Philosophy), and one religious class (Intro to Judaic Studies) which should be a real hard one for me.  All in all, shaping up to possibly be my only fun semester at Case!  The only real downer is the fact that my frat (BX DKE) lost our house as of the end of last semester due to arrangements made by the office of Greek Life.  As a result I will be living in dorms again.  Kinda lame, but I’ll make the best of it.

As far as what I’m going to do after graduation, that’s still pretty up in the air.  I would like to take several months to travel, seeing as this may be the only time in my life that I am this unnatatched to responsibility.  The list of places to visit includes but is snot limited to:

• Japan
• Korea
• Germany
• Australia
• Brasil
• South Africa

Traveling alone for six months doesn’t really seem like a great idea though, so I’m currently accepting applications for a traveling companion.  The plan is to go to a place, set up a base of operations (aka apartment or room or hut or whatever is available) spend half of my time working remotely, and the other half exploring.   When this all starts, the blog posts will start coming hard and fast as I discover neat new things about Spaceship Earth.  Wish me luck!

I have a beard. That’s right, a manly rugged tuft of scraggle protruding from my face. It keeps me warm in the cold winter, and I can dip my face in a river when it’s hot (evaporation is a cooling process). Because I so love my beard, I have decided to dedicate this post to beards in all their glory.

To begin, lets examine some notable beards from history:

• Confucius’s Beard
• John Lennon’s Beard
• Poseidon ’s Beard
• Merlin’s Beard
• Abe Lincoln’s Beard
• Z.Z. Top’s Beards
• Queen Hatshepsut’s Beard

The list could go on and on, so I’ll cut it off there (the list, not the beards). With so many influential people of beard, one wonders what influence the beard itself had on history. Would things have turned out differently if Karl Marx was clean shaven? about Jerry Garcia? We’ll never know.

Did you know there was a World Beard and Mustache Champion? I didn’t until my friend Jack Passion won the coveted title. Now that is a beard to aspire to.

On September 1, 2007, at the age of 23, Jack Passion won 1st place in the highly competitive “marathon of bearding” Full Natural Beard division of the 2007 World Beard and Moustache Championships, held in Brighton, England by the Handlebar Club. [Excerpt from JackpPassion.com ]

In a startling turn of events, I have just now, whilest writing this post, discovered a band dedicated entirely to beards. They’re called ‘The Beards’ and they sing songs exclusively about beards. The best thing about them is that they actually rock pretty hard. All their myspace friends have beards and apparently they are the first registered team for the 2009 Beard and Mustache Championship in Australia.Check out this quote from the begining of the live recording of their song, ‘No Beard, No Good’:

We’re gonna do another one about beards. We checked at the door and two thirds of you have beards. That’s a good effort. Two thirds of you are doing a good job.

Now I know beards don’t leap to mind when someone mentions Dexter’s Lab, but for a small percentage out there this episode leaps courageously to mind.
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vxiot3TM6RE 400 400]
And here it is, your moment of Zen, my favorite poem.

-Shel Silverstein

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvnqF81Hx3g 400 400]
Far in the unpopulated wilderness of the space, lies a military base of such phenomenal importance that it is referred to only as “Project Omega Sincerely X.” One million scientists, managed by three million administrators, encumbered by six million consultants, and supplied by ten million blue collar workers, were all left to live off of fat government subsidies, protected only by the extreme secrecy of their location.
The project delves into the furthest unknowns of nanotechnology. Its goal, to create the galaxy’s ultimate and most destructive starfighter…….. for peace.

The starfighter uses a brilliant new nano weapons and energy system. All ofits actions draw from either the energy tank, the matter tank, or both. These can be refilled while in battle, just by sweeping up some debris of your enemoies!

Suddenly, the space station is under attack. The dormant AI awakens. Desperate to save its own skin, it boots up the engines and takes the only pilot it can get: YOU.

Nanocide is the product of Team Vertigo’s efforts in the 2007 Advanced Videogame Design Course at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. The entire semester was dedicated to the creation of one well-designed videogame that could eventually be run on an X-Box 360, and thusly it was developed in C# on top of the XNA framework.

The game can be downloaded in its entirity here.

Team Vetigo:

• Jesse Fish
• Jim Kogler
• Jason Kompara
• Brian Kompara
• Eric Neuman
• Harry Walsh
• Jim Suffolk
• Mike Iorillo
• Dan Griffin
• Allen Balaj
• Rob Polk

I saw one of my favorite bands (OK GO) yesterday at springfest!

They were really great. The concert took place in the middle of the day in one of the campus gymnasiums, and a surprising number of people showed up.

OK Go at Case Springfest | Get Over It

What surprised me the most was the “rowdy” nature of the crowd. First of all, you have to realize that when I put something in quotes, I mean it. “Rowdy” for Case means that people were clapping and jumping and singing along; all things I have never really seen at any campus concerts. That being said, the establishment (Case) did everything in its power to quash whatever fun was being had. Some people actually had the nerve to hoist each other up and crowd surf on the thin (for crowd surfing, not for Case) mass of hands and shoulders. These brave souls were immediately apprehended by security guards and other such agents of lameness.

OK GO did domething I’ve never seen before at a concert of any type, they took the show literally into the crowd. In the middle of the show they jumped off stage and made their way over to a small platform that had been waiting for them in the midst of the pocket-protected throng to perform several songs. I was lucky enough to be this close to them:

OK GO at Case Springfest | Crowded

Damian Kulash, the band’s lead singer was in high spirits despite the lack of crowd energy. I think he actually appreciated that the bunch of nerds at his show were at least swaying and singing. He even went so far as to discuss the band’s nerdiness, including how keyboardist Andy Ross was a “card carrying nerd”, and encouraged all of us to raise our gadgets like the lighters of old in rock concerts of yore. Someone raised their laptop.

Typical.