Optical Illusion

Read and follow the directions at the top of this page:

http://www.patmedia.net/marklevinson/cool/cool_illusion.html

If you ever see green or if the pinks all disappear at once, your mind is playing tricks on you!

Happy Birthday to me!

Last Saturday was my birthday, and while I don’t usually throw a big party for such occasions, you only really turn 29 once, and I thought: “Why not?”

This year there was singing…

…food…

…some people arrived in costume…

…there was even a marching band!

…Did I mention how many people showed up?

Now, I did overhear a few people talking about being there for Columbus Pride 2006, but I think it was just the heat addling their brains…

Unusual Grocery Shoppers

Seen at our local Kroger grocery store. Apparently these are actual props/costumes…and a very clever advertising hook from the "Star Wars"-themed exhibit currently at COSI Columbus.

Job Update

Temp jobs are a bit like playing roulette. Take last week for instance. I had two assignments. The first was for a great company doing fun stuff and everyone was super friendly and appreciative and I think I might pursue full-time employment with them. The second assignment was for super boring, where I was put in a greenly-lit room by myself, and given mind-numbing filing to do.

Fortunately, the people at the first assignment liked me so much that they asked for me to come back this week. The company is Highlights, as in the children's magazine I remember from any doctor/dentist office visit growing up. I'm working in their catalog department right now, and even though the work itself has been pretty basic, it's just a great environment to be in. Since this is their catalog department, there are sample toys everywhere! Whole cubicles filled with nothing but toys.

Mostly, I've been doing some mail merges and sending out large batches of faxes to a bunch of their vendors, and then processing the return faxes as they come in. Today, I'll actually be making some edits to some advertisements in Adobe Illustrator. It sure beats filing.

I've applied for a (paid) creative internship with their marketing department, and if that doesn't work out, there are other jobs there I may apply for as well.

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Addendum:  In addition to the aforementioned ad-edits, I had the interesting assignment of putting together an outdoor baseball-backdrop-sort-of-thing to see how well the directions were written and then suggest appropriate changes…and then I got to make the actual edits to the file in Photoshop (don't ask me why someone was using Photoshop for a layout project). Fun stuff!

One Sure Bet: Lackluster Blockbusters

I have to say, this year's summer box-office offerings have been largely disappointing. The most recent disappointment was X-Men: The Last Stand, clearly the weakest of the series to-date, perhaps due to its change in directors from Bryan Singer to Brett Ratner. A certain level of entertainment-quality had been established with the first two movies. Last Stand focused too much on creating hordes of new mutants with new powers (few of which are anything more than CGI-fodder for the big battle scenes), and too little on things that matter, like story and character.

The Last Stand movie I wanted to see was one in which the two rival mutant groups were forced to work together to fight against the humans who had declared war on all mutants thanks to a new so-called 'cure' for mutant-cy. Instead, the two groups were pitted against each other (once again, but on a larger scale than before) to be the first to reach the source of the 'cure'. Well-loved mutants on both side were killed (or 'cured') in the process, including a surprising number of core-players (as opposed to the aforementioned 'battle-fodder').

Strangely absent was the mutant Nightcrawler, although supposedly this was explained in a video game that was supposed to bridge the gap between the second and third X-Men movies. (I also just saw that the actor, Alan Cumming, is playing the lead role in Three-Penny Opera on Broadway, so maybe that explains it.) Poor editing, clumsy dialog ("Oh no, we must close the school now! There's nothing to be done! Oh, wait! Let's keep the school open afterall!"–slightly paraphrased, but close enough) and continuity blunders were the final straw, leaving this fan of the series sorely disappointed.

* * * * *

Into this bleak scene I present my 'One Sure Bet' for this summer. There is one movie that will deliver what it promises, and you will know whether you will like the movie or not before you even step into the theater. That movie is: Snakes on a Plane.

This is a movie that you will either love or hate, and the title tells you everything you need to know. The movie will take place on a plane. There will be snakes (primarily CGI, of course). People will scream. Mayhem will ensue. Many people will die, although a select few will survive to the end. This is a classic Disaster Film scenario, so there will undoubtedly be a half-hearted attempt to learn a little bit about the passengers before the mayhem ensues, and there will be at least one 'noble sacrifice'. The only real question is why the snakes are on the plane in the first place, and who is the intended target. My guess (based on a teaser trailer I saw and on the movie poster) is terrorists as this would be a fine trifecta of things-people-fear: snakes, planes, and terrorists. If you are the kind of person who watched (and more importantly enjoyed) either Anaconda or Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid, you will certainly enjoy this film. I'm not that kind of person, but it's good to know that at least one movie this summer will live up to its own expectations.

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Personally, I'm holding out for the movie that director Bryan Singer left the X-Men series to direct: Superman Returns.

The Sticky Fountains of Bellagio

I never thought I'd be the person to be sending around the latest internet 'viral video', but here I am (Thanks Lu!). At least I'm not filling up your inbox.

So, apparently Diet Coke and Mentos are a highly reactive combination, and these two guys decided to have some fun in the name of science (no, really, if you explore their website, there are all kinds of educational tidbits to learn).

Click Here to Watch the Video

PhotoMosaic Jigsaw Puzzles: Some Helpful Tips

Here's something about me that only some of you know: I enjoy putting together jigsaw puzzles. I know, it's a bit archaic in today's digital world, but there it is. I'll admit, I don't jigsaw as frequently as I did growing up, but every once in awhile I get the urge.

Here is my most recent accomplishment, a PhotoMosaic puzzle, where the puzzle is composed of a whole bunch of tiny pictures which create a larger image when seen at a distance (in this case a wolf):

As someone told me that 'only a crazy person' would try to put together such a puzzle, I offer proof that it can be done and a few pointers should you wish to try it yourself:

Hint #1: Turn all the pieces face-up and sort by major color groupings (in this case I sorted by bright/white, dark/black, and everything else). This puts a lot of pieces that fit together closer to each other. Pick a portion of the puzzle that has a lot of a given color and start with those pieces (in this case I started with the wolf's snout, which had a lot of whites and light-blues).

Hint #2: The tiny pictures are configured in a grid pattern. This means that all the puzzle pieces in any given row or column, will intersect the grid pattern at the same width or height as every other piece in that row or column.

Hint #3: The tiny pictures are all right-side-up! This gives you a huge advantage as you can pick up any given piece and know its orientation relative to the rest of the puzzle (in most cases at least; it won't be clear on some pieces which end is up).

Hint #4: When all else fails, look at the picture on the box. The tiny pictures are even tinier on the box, but you can figure out a piece's relative position this way.

Hint #5: As you get closer to finishing the puzzle it becomes extremely helpful to sort the remaining pieces by shape. This makes it especially easy to fill in those one-piece holes that invariably remain.

With these few tips you should find that these puzzles are really not much more difficult than your basic jigsaw puzzle. Happy puzzling!