No pictures of my own that warrant inclusion [here today], I’ve been here and reading a lot. Not out taking photos. You might hear me weave in and out of diet concerns today because that is how things unfolded. I planned to stay put because I did not know how I would react to giving myself injections. But like anything else, you get used to it. And I can already do it better than the nurse who showed me. Here is a picture that is most unusual for the supermarket doing the advertising. I'll let you decide what the oddity is, but generally, you no longer see this in American mainstream media.
Just as I got the paint and brushes ready, it started to spit rain. That is why I need a garage or workshop. Instead, I was back indoors watching it stay wet enough that I couldn’t do anything constructive. So, I did my daily research and strangely enough this features Star Trek and mermaids. Interested yet? Here’s the scoop.
I like sardines and they are allowed. So, I’d like the brand with the most nutrition for the calories and the hands-down winner is a Thai company called “Chicken of the Sea”. Trivia is that tuna was once called that because of its taste and appearance, and the name stuck when the company used it as advertising in the 1950s. By the way, for a view of an operationally sound and useful page, visit their web site. Interesting recipes, too.
Here’s a diet update. It takes around 72 hours for the full effect of the first injection to take hold. The feeling is of being light on your feet, as the calories are surging through your system, probably being digested at some multiple of the normal rate. Thus, you have no hunger and feel energetic. The third day is critical for most diets and I breezed through this so far. None of the empty pit or dizziness associated with suddenly lower food intake, no unpleasant sensations at all.
So what’s the connection with Cpt. Kirk? The original mermaid in the “Chicken of the Sea” tuna advertising was the lady who played Yeoman Rand, the chinless one with hair piled on top in a cone. Her name was Whitney but I spotted her as a little sleazebox the first time I saw her, and I’ve only watched maybe five episodes in my life. I was right, I eventually learned she lied about her age and went on amphetamines at 17 to get into the series. (She was turned down at first because she was too fat.) When you can’t fit into a Star Trek uniform while still in your teens, it is all downhill from there.
Bingo was a casual night, all regulars who know the drill. What was different was the Android music. You might say they ain’t making those things like they used to. I had a Sony Walkman back in the 80s that lasted two weeks on a set of batteries, and that is using mechanically-driven tapes. I’d get a year playing the radio. These “modern” Androids go blank in around three hours. That is not performance, Panasonic, in fact, that is worse than pathetic.
If you don’t already know, my bingo is a bit of a show, so the music is important. The crowd also expects it. So I led the crowd on a series of a cappella versions of everything from “Yellow Rose of Texas” to “Tie Me Kangaroo Down”. It was a success, no thanks to Panasonic. I have a small list of one-liners written down to keep things moving between bingo sets which I used up tonight as a comedy routine. Want to hear some of it? Okay, but I would not normally give away my act.
“Well folks, I watched a show on beavers last week. It was the best dam movie I’ve ever seen. I heard that 40 million Americans are overweight--I think those are round figures. I was going to be a gold prospector but things didn’t pan out. They could put erasers on both ends of the pencil, but what would be the point? For breakfast, a boiled egg is pretty hard to beat. I usually take steps to avoid elevators. I met a girl on-line but we didn’t click. At home, I listen to waltzes ¾ of the time. I went to Home Depot to get a tool to break up some hard ground and the salesman told me to take my pick.”
ADDENDUM
So what is happening with our robot, the one that never got built? That’s one way to view the situation. Because when we started, we didn’t know that we couldn’t build a robot because we didn’t have that kind of money. Materials, which can be scrounged, are not what I’m referring to. But anyway, we could have built something and that counts for a lot here. We took on something that others didn’t even dare touch unless they have advanced engineering degrees.
Ah, I hear the comment that high school kids can build robots. Wrong, they can’t. First of all, they are building kits, meaning the robot has conceptually already been built and they are merely doing some assembly. That is nothing like what we attempted. Secondly, those are not real robots, they are remote controlled servo-mechanisms. Again, nothing like our goal. And last, let’s not forget access to a completely equipped laboratory. Maybe not a great lab, but a lab that if even one tool or part was missing, it would bring the lot of them to a complete stop.
We did something most of them didn’t—we learned the logic and technologies. I say most of them because there is always a brainiac who aces the thing and makes us all feel bad. In general, I’m not impressed by the level to which high school students can take these projects. We have never deviated from the stance that a real robot contains its own intelligence and decision-making logic.
To that end, I am currently reading way above my own abilities on a topic called IK, for inverse kinematics. Most useful robots will have an “arm” of some kind. This must have joints. To get the arm to move to a certain position, IK is the mathematics involved in calculating the angle of the joints. Again, I am only looking at this topic, it is far beyond anything I can comprehend.
Think of it like those robot arms you see welding cars. There is usually more than one path the arm could move to get to a welding spot. How does it know which to use? To be honest, I can’t even read the formulas and neither can you. But my intention was just to become aware of the difficulties, which I am certainly willing to let somebody else deal with. I still can’t figure out op amps, though I could probably get a passing mark on the test.
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