Pretty self explanatory really...

This cute lil' dude started as a sketch in my maths notes as a surprisingly detailed reminder telling me to pre-multiply the matrices in consecutive linear transforms - it was a bit of a dull lecture ;)

The rendering is all in photoshop, I considered vectors but decided to have a crack at tablet painting instead.

In other news, I have none!

The Juggling club got a shipment of new gear this week, which was quite exciting. In the huge box was a pack of "Magic Balls", which are in fact just regular juggling balls. But unlike ordinary balls, this set contained an informative set of instructions on how to juggle:

"Throw one by one in order the magic in the hand ball after air, another immediately after air ball in one hand, throws to rise again."

Oh my god, it's so easy when you put it that way!

This is called the "hedonic treadmill" by happiness scholars. It causes us to rapidly and inevitably adapt to good things by taking them for granted. The more possessions and accomplishments we have, the more we need to boost our level of happiness. It makes sense that the brain of a species that has dominated others would evolve to strive to be best.

Full (3-page) article here - It's a bit depressing though :/

(In happier news, I got a haircut today! Afterwards it looked like there was enough hair on the floor to make a small rug, which made me feel quite proud...)

This morning I peered into my mirror, as one tends to do from time to time. But on this occasion, I was somewhat mortified at the image I saw staring back at me. Maybe it was because I'd just gotten out of bed, but right then, it seemed that - without my knowledge - my hair had somehow transformed into something which was verging dangerously on the point of resembling a mullet.

must... cut... hair...

Another thing I realised recently is that ! is too verbose. Far too verbose. I don't mean the symbol, the symbol is good. But you try saying it out loud, and you'll see what I mean. It takes far too long to say "exclamation mark" out loud, and I think this needs to be fixed. This became blatantly obvious a little while ago when I asked about the name of a song that was playing, and my friend informed me that it was a Sufjan Stevens song by the name of "They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back From The Dead!! Ahhhh!!!". This is a long song name by itself, but when each exclamation mark is pronounced out loud, it becomes somewhat ridiculous.

The full-stop has a nice short name - "dot". Why can't we give the poor exclamation mark a nice short name as well? Something short, but excited. Like "woo" perhaps. I think "woo" fits the spirit of "!" quite well. The only downside I can see is that "WOO!" would now become "woo woo", which sounds a bit lame (and something my dad might say)...

And finally: sorry Janny. I was supposed to write a list of quirks, a la this, but it would seem I have not :/