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Writing Stats

For the past 2.5 years, from January 2022 onward, I challenged myself to write daily. The goal at the time was to do it for one year, a minimum of 500 words a day, and writing about whatever, whenever, and with whichever medium, though it ended up all mostly being...
written on Sep 29, 24 (Sun)

Creativity

What is there to talk about? Really I’m just starting this journal as a sort of open notebook. How does journaling on a computer differ from journaling on paper? That’s what I want to explore. And to add to this, I want to explore that feeling of being lost deep...
written on Dec 19, 21 (Sun)

Tracking What's in the Mirror

Testing DeepSIM with full-body tracking. “One of the greatest instruments of the truth that God is nearer to me than Douglas is the mirror, which takes that Douglas obstruction out of God’s way. My mirror is a marvelous, marvelous teacher, more valuable than all the scriptures of the world.” -...
written on Oct 13, 21 (Wed)

Field Work -- Mt. Rainier

I took a trip to Mt. Rainier yesterday. The mountain has loomed over my horizon for all the years that I have lived in the vacinity of Seattle, but never have I confronted it’s imposing mass. What was a pleasant break from my daily digital world became another humble realisation...
written on Sep 04, 21 (Sat)

Isopropyl

Is pry loop? poor slipy, o’ poly rips. I pry pools; I or polyps. Pry is pool… so rip ploy. Oosy pripl, ripply oso. Is pry loop?
written on Apr 25, 19 (Thu)

Computing With Self Assembly

I have discussed self assembly before. The research involved borrows components from a range of disciplines including chemistry, electric engineering, nanotechnology, fluid dynamics, materials science, and biology. Sometimes it can be overwhelming to start a project when the prerequisites are so extensive. Therefore it is probably best to chose one...
written on Jan 01, 19 (Tue)

You Say You Want a Resolution

Bring on the new year. Though many treat it as an excuse to damage expensive carpets with aged red liquids, others perceive it as an old friend who has come to remind us that now is the best time, if ever, to reflect on the year gone and to adjust...
written on Jan 01, 19 (Tue)

Darwin's Origin

I started reading Darwin’s On the Origin of Species at the start of the winter holiday. This follows my recent interest in the essential writings from our history. Once, I used to look at these works with disregard because the essential components of the person and their work could be...
written on Dec 26, 18 (Wed)

The Five Elements

The Platonic solids are alluring. Their purity is so impossible yet their definition so simple that they attract questions to their existence. These questions have captured the imagination of mathematicians for centuries. Figure courtesy of here There are can only be five Platonic solids. To be Platonic we require that...
written on Dec 18, 18 (Tue)

Shape Shift

While playing around with shapes today, I asked myself the question of whether information could be encoded in a shape. To simplify the general question, I tried to come up with a result for polygons. Each side of the polygon is a digit in a binary number, and the side...
written on Dec 11, 18 (Tue)

Intellig-less Design

The term ‘programmable matter’ brings to mind scenes of nano machines swarming through the air, defying gravity, and assembling into a vase. Like a flock of birds, once disturbed, the whir off of the surface and begin to structure a new object. How these metal fairies have found homes in...
written on Dec 04, 18 (Tue)

Jerry Coyne

While in the throws of procrastination, I stumbled across an interesting man today. Jerry Coyne. Although his Wikipedia page contains lots of curious references to wade throgh, I recommend first checking out his blog, Why Evolution is True. Coyne posted six blog posts - just today! I can’t say I...
written on Dec 03, 18 (Mon)

Mass-Spring Cellular Automata

Today I am writing about a sketch for an idea I am working on implementing and will present in an extended form before the New Year, when I have time to write during the holidays. I enjoy toying with cellular automata. What appeals about the cellular autamata model is that...
written on Dec 02, 18 (Sun)

Silly Writing

The last journal was silly. The topics that I have discussed over the past couple weeks feel disconnected and incomplete. But this was anticipated, considering my approach was to document random encounters of that day. This silliness will continue for one more month and then the format will change. Instead...
written on Nov 27, 18 (Tue)

Why Do the Leaves Fall From the Trees?

Now that autumn has spoilt us with its palette of dry oranges and spiced browns, I want to reflect on a question I always find myself asking when walking through a canopied forest path in late October. Why do the leaves fall from the trees? A reductionist biological explanation won’t...
written on Nov 26, 18 (Mon)

Hamming's Words

A week has passed since my last journal entry and no posts on the Stream have been completed since the end of September. The daily journals are intended as training for writing longer pieces more frequently; culminating in a short book some years in my future. It is my goal...
written on Nov 25, 18 (Sun)

Museum for a Future

It seems lately I am drawn to documenting my thoughts about art. Covering Goodsell’s microart, Haeckel’s zoology paintings, Nelson’s bio-horrors and even, arguably, Turing’s endless morphological patterns. This journal is no exception. While trawling through material on last year’s Artificial Life Conference (or ALife 2018), I came across the ALife...
written on Nov 17, 18 (Sat)

A Question on Blastula

Many are probably familiar with Alan Turing’s radical work in the field of computation and artificial intelligence. But, my favourite work of Turing’s is his single biology paper published about the morphogenics and the growth of organisms. I have been slowly reading through it over the past week, something I...
written on Nov 15, 18 (Thu)

Ernst Haeckel and Alien Robots

Artists usually have a keen eye for beauty. In our everyday musings they find extravagant wonders. Yesterday I mentioned how biology is the one of the most fundamental sources of beauty and it demonstrates the artistic talents of this Universe. Today I would like to continue that discussion by presenting...
written on Nov 14, 18 (Wed)

MicroArt

Today is something light and easy. Instead of writing about a current thout process, I fumbled around in my collection of disordered links and writings and found some noteworthy work I wished to reflect on. Two artists will be discussed, both biologists. If there was ever a field most abundant...
written on Nov 13, 18 (Tue)

Failing at Science (and Why That's a Good Thing)

I dedicate today’s journal to failure because it is never emphasised enough how crucial failure is. In the scientific community we idolise our heroes; sculpted beings excuding perfection whose every thought process is a seminal piece of research that should be printed on gold plating and presented to the gods....
written on Nov 12, 18 (Mon)

Journal Introduction

The journal entries are meant to be fast, messy dumps of my brain contents over the day. Building a habit is like learning to run distance; it has to be improved incrementally. Lately I have found that my website writeups have been sporadic and much of my work has gone...
written on Nov 11, 18 (Sun)

Farnam Street

Farnam Street was recommended by Barbara Oakley via her mailing list which I am subscribed to (I recommend subscribing yourself). Farnam Street seems overly gilded on the home page; almost a classic ‘improve yourself’, ‘self-help’, ’21st-century money-snatch’ modernism. I urge reading between the lines and trying a few of their...
written on Nov 11, 18 (Sun)