Action Figure Daniel

Author: Daniel

  • Whale Study (twice)

    Some time ago (last year) I did a whale study:

    I planned to make a cool Escheresk graphic with it (for a wedding gift to be sure) but I stopped working on the big picture graphic before it was done (whales do not fit together as nicely as butterflies, fish or birds).

    Recently, I was listening in on a phone conference for work. The meeting was quite productive, though my contribution was minimal (literally five minutes out of the hour and a half) though I did glean tidbits of important information that made listening to the call worth the time. As I was listening, I found myself bored. I grabbed some paper and made a real life origami whale study (with magnets on them so they could live on the refrigerator):

    Yes, the narwhal is my own genius variation on the whale pattern. By the conclusion of the call I had made two blue whales and two narwhals. By the end of the night I had added two turtles and two walruses. Sometimes I think that I have the best job ever.

  • Cheap posts

    Someday, I will complete a more interesting post (one of the ones that I have in draft that are waiting to be proofed, polished and published) but until then I am enjoying going through old works. There is something liberating about finally publishing something that I had written a while ago, recently rediscovered and can now publish (because, generally, these writings were written on my phone and thus had to wait until I got to a computer to be posted).

  • “Emergence” by Steven Johnson

    When you get a bunch of small and simple things together and give them simple commands, clear patterns of behavior begin to emerge. This is true for ant colonies, computer program logic and even cities full of people. We are finding more and more that we need more simple and basic programming and planning to achieve greater and more complex results.

    Interesting tidbit: Queen ants do not direct the actions of the colony, in fact no ant is “in charge”. Instead, each individual ant lays down and detect pheromone trails that indicate what is going on in the colony. If an ant detects too many pheromones from harvesting activities it will go check on the nursery.  If the nursery is full of “happily taken care of” pheromones then it will check on the gardens. Using this system of pheromones, the ants can quickly adapt to the changing needs of the colony. Additionally, the system is self healing because no single ants (or small collection of them) calls the shots.

  • Chihuahua versus Elephant

    I was reading some of posts and came upon It is strange when… and made a funny graphic:

    Yes, that is a chihuahua trying to bite an elephant’s leg. This is a prime example of failure.
    It still makes me smile.

  • Relating to Pack Rats

    I wrote this back in January, shortly after my car had been wrecked and before I got another car to drive.

    Recently I found myself being mildly appalled by my newly acquired pack ratish behavior. I blame this newly acquired behavior on the fact that I no longer have a car. Though I get to the store often enough, I have realized that I can’t simply jump in Elazar and go. Instead, if I do run out, I must find someone who in going, or is willing to go, to get the needed items. So, rather than risk running out, I find myself purchasing resupplies long before they are needed. This made me suddenly have a level of compassion for the pack rats of the world.