mrpz's Xanga

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Wed, 30 Aug 2006 04:04:05 GMT

New blog for FA students: MiceSpace. The Official Blog of the FA Media Center

You login to the "portal" with your student ID and password. Leave a comment!

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Wed, 09 Aug 2006 03:24:34 GMT

Ha! TeeenyPreemey wrote in her Xanga blog:

Sunday, July 30, 2006

havent been on here since forever so i just wanted to say hey. summer has been fun. TRYING to hang out with some friends haha. stupid parents wont let me... errrrrr

So ive heard that Tyson Mao (Hes Awesome) is making this movie called CubeFreak with some of his friends Leyon, Macky and others. i wanna watch that! haha

Heres the documentary...

http://www.cubefreak.com/cfindex.htm

Work it, Tyson! No, for real, it's cool that the word is out there. Tyson is a Cube Stud. The Cubefreak crew had a good day... about 9 hours of watching the rough cut, making notes, and talking about adding animated transitions and cutting extra stuff. Hope to get a lot of that stuff done tomorrow.

The Death of Garfield: A Photo Essay

Mon, 07 Aug 2006 21:40:44 GMT

Did you hear this? A blast from the past.

Mon, 07 Aug 2006 06:51:33 GMT

Mad props to Macky and the FA Cube Club!

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=3312137

www.cubefreak.com

Mon, 07 Aug 2006 06:41:34 GMT

Here are a few Myspace bulletins I've sent out recently, but neglected to post them here:

Jul 26, 2006 5:27 PM
The current world record for solving a Rubik's Cube is held by Leyan Lo, who boasts a time of 11.13 seconds.

Cube Guru Tyson Mao charmed America with his appearance on 2005's Beauty and the Geek 2.

Shotaro "Macky" Makisumi is featured in the Guinness Book of World Records for his mind-bending cubing skills.

The Rubik's Cube, a pop-culture icon from the 1980's, is back: sparking one of the most compelling subcultures to emerge in the new millennium.

In the spirit of the popular documentaries Murderball and Word Play, 2007's CubeFreak will change the way you think about the Rubik's Cube, genius, and your own potential.

Want to know more? Go to www.cubefreak.com and add www.myspace.com/cubefreak to your Myspace friends list.

David Paszkiewicz
pasz@cubefreak.com

Genius is 1% calculation and 99% manipulation.

Aug 6, 2006 12:49 PM
Rubik's Cube: 2006 US Nationals Tournament

Stay tuned for updates from the 2006 US Nationals Tournament, held 4-6 August at the Exploratorium in San Francisco. FYI, Chris Hardwick just set a world record for 5x5x5 blindfolded at 28 minutes 28.22 seconds. BLINDFOLDED!!!

Erika is there with new promotional merchandise: vinyl bumper stickers, trading cards, and two new tee shirt designs. (If you're intersted in supporting the cause and sporting the latest CubeFreak design, contact us at info@cubefreak.com ).

Mark is competing in the tournament--looking to move up through the ranks on his quest to become a sub-50 cuber.

Pasz is in LA putting the final touches on a rough cut--looks like we're pushing two hours at this point (1:56:16:06, to be exact), but we'll be massaging the story over the next few days to bring it to a more marketable time. There's just too much great stuff; it's hard to cut "gold."

Keep stopping back to www.myspace.com/cubefreak and www.cubefreak.com for updates: a new trailer should be coming in the next week or so. And tell your friends--the Rubik's Cube is back for the 21st century and CubeFreak gives you access to the top names: Macky, Leyan, Tyson, Jessica, Chris, Frank, Brent, Lars, Ron, Jon, Andy, Sunil, Dan, and Jasmine.

Aug 6, 2006 11:36 PM
MORE WORLD RECORDS!!!

I stole this from www.speedcubing.com:

August 7, 2006 Leyan Lo won the US Nationals 2006 with an 3x3x3 average of 15.50 seconds, Ryan Patricio was second with 15.61 and Toby Mao was third with 15.89.

World records: Toby Mao 3x3x3 Single solve 10.48 seconds, Frank Morris 5x5x5 Average 1 min 56.66 seconds, Chris Hardwick 5x5x5 blindfolded 28 minutes 28.22 seconds, Chris Hardwick 4x4x4 blindfolded 15 minutes 44.91 seconds, Ryan Patricio 3x3x3 one handed 24.03 seconds, Craig Bouchard Master Magic 2.73 (single).
American records: Bob Burton Master Magic 3.29 (average).

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thursday, July 06, 2006

Thu, 06 Jul 2006 18:56:46 GMT

National Science Foundation: Science Hard

June 5, 2002 | Issue 38•21

INDIANAPOLIS—The National Science Foundation's annual symposium concluded Monday, with the 1,500 scientists in attendance reaching the consensus that science is hard.

Enlarge Image

Farian explains the NSF findings.

"For centuries, we have embraced the pursuit of scientific knowledge as one of the noblest and worthiest of human endeavors, one leading to the enrichment of mankind both today and for future generations," said keynote speaker and NSF chairman Louis Farian. "However, a breakthrough discovery is challenging our long-held perceptions about our discipline—the discovery that science is really, really hard."

"My area of expertise is the totally impossible science of particle physics," Farian continued, "but, indeed, this newly discovered 'Law of Difficulty' holds true for all branches of science, from astronomy to molecular biology and everything in between."

The science-is-hard theorem, first posited by a team of MIT professors in 1990, was slow to gain acceptance within the science community. It gathered momentum following the 1997 publication of physicist Stephen Hawking's breakthrough paper, "Lorentz Variation And Gravitation Is Just About The Hardest Friggin' Thing In The Known Universe."

This weekend's conference, featuring symposia on how hard the Earth sciences are, how confusing medical science is, and how ridiculously un-gettable quantum physics is, represented a major step forward for the science-is-hard theorem.

"We now believe that the theorem is 99.999% likely to be true, after applying these incredibly complex statistical techniques that gave me a splitting headache," Farian said. "A theorem is like a theory, but, I don't know, it's different."

Members of the scientific establishment were quick to affirm the NSF discovery.

Enlarge Image

The scientists' assessment of a recent MIT paper on quantum physics.

"To be a scientist, you have to learn all this weird stuff, like how many molecules are in a proton," University of Chicago physicist Dr. Erno Heidegger said. "While it is true that I have become an acclaimed physicist and reaped great rewards from my career, one must not lose sight of the fact that these blessings came only after studying all of this completely impossible, egghead stuff for years."

Dr. Ahmed Zewail, a Caltech chemist whose spectroscopic studies of the transition states of chemical reactions earned him the Nobel Prize in 1999, explained in layman's terms just how hard the discipline of chemistry is, using the periodic table of the elements as a model.

"Take the element of tungsten and work to memorize its place in the periodic table, its atomic symbol, its atomic number and weight, what it looks like, where it's found, and its uses to humanity, if any," Zewail said. "Now, imagine memorizing the other 100-plus elements making up the periodic table. You'd have to be, like, some kind of total brain to do that."

As hard as chemistry and other traditional sciences may be, scientists say such newer disciplines as quantum physics are even more difficult.

"Quantum physics has always been a particularly tough branch of science," UCLA physicist Dr. Hideki Watanabe said. "But in addition to being some of the smartest Einstein-y stuff around, it is undeniably a really stupid, pointless thing to study, something you could never actually use in the real world. This paradoxical dual state may one day lead to a new understanding of physics as a way to confuse and bore people."

"I guess there's cool stuff about science," Watanabe continued, "like space travel and bombs. But that stuff is so hard, it's honestly not even worth the effort."

Friday, June 30, 2006

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 06:11:27 GMT

I had it first.

Thursday, June 29, 2006

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 16:27:49 GMT

I blam the ypos on my ieless keyboard, which is losing its batteies. See?

Thursday, June 29, 2006

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 04:50:29 GMT

I just got back from dinner/moving boxes. We went to dinner at Houston's, and there I had probably the best filet mignon I'd ever had. After that, we went over to Lis's house to pack boxes for her move to their new place. Hot and sweaty, in my dinner casuals, but I had to look manly in front of Krissy's dad. I need a shower. Doesn't it get cool at when the sun goes down, like it's supposed to? Woof!

I'm putting the finishing touches on my present to Seth and Rachelle; and on my "best man" speech. I'm trying to make it both
poignant and brief; who wants to listen to the best man blather on for too long. People just want to drink the champagne. You sit their, turned around in your chair, champagne flute in hand, with that half-smile on your face, and wait for the guy to finish talking. I get that But whn you're giving the speech, you don't want to take the easy way out and give a few lines. You need to make a few old ladies cry, you know what I mean?

Also, I bought the new Rubik's Sudoku game last night. I was in London at their HQ when they were designing it-- it's really fun, but very mind-bending. Haven't solved it yet.

Gotta run. Cleaning up my place for tomorrow night--I'm hosting the girls for some corned-beef tacos. (Got that recipe from Mrs Duran--excellent and cross-cultural, as well.)

pzout

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Wed, 28 Jun 2006 07:26:23 GMT

I just got back from seeing Superman Returns at the AMC with SooHoo and Shari, the new drillteam advisor.

The movie was enjoyable--I don't want to ruin it for everyone, so I won't go into detail, but I'll say that there are many surprising moments and parts that make you laugh, but overall, I felt like Superman did when he sent that continent off into space. Like a great weight on my shoulders. (A run-on and a fragment, together at last.)

CubeFreak has taken some compelling turns recently, and our editing time has been well-spent. As of today, we've pretty much rounded out a rough cut on the World Championships, but we found some "gold" as we were wrapping up today that we're going to hae to stick in there somewhere. Still a long way to go, but we're making adequate progress. It's encouraging. We all saw Wordplay yesterday, and while we enjoyed it, we also noted how similiar it is in theme to CubeFreak, and we discussed ways in which ours will kick Wordplay's butt. Keep an eye out for the website, which should be up soon.

I feel a bit rusty with the xanga, so please bear with me as I get back up to speed. I decided to return to MRPZ because I like to write, and I see a future for blogging, but after 6 months, I don't get Myspace. You leave comments? Is that the point? I blocked my Myspace from intruders--friends only. I originally started that as a way to keep in touch with my friends in the US and UK, but it was found out, so I've generally just lurked on it. But now that I found out how to make it private... I don't care anymore. Whatever.

Dinner with Krissy's parents tomorrow night (tonight? I haven't gone to bed yet.).

PBRme,ASAP.
pzout