What are you going to try new for 30 days?

Yes folks, this is another TED Talk. At a 3:27, I didn't think this video would take out precious minutes out of someones day that they could have been on facebook reading about how sleepy someone is that moment...and responding about it.

Moving on, Matt Cutts is an Engineer at Google and gives an inspiring talk about goals. What are some things you have always wanted to do? Why not try them for 30 days? These are some questions he asks and I started to contemplate all the things that I have always wanted to do but haven't done for the multitude of excuses I've used.

Painting, learning a language, learning a martial art, actually keeping up with an exercise regiment, and try to get A's in my classes. Those are some short term goals that have long term potential but the time just never seems to be there. Instead of starting at one of these, I decided to try one that Matt Cutts did and take a picture a day for 30 days. The best part about this is I asked a very special person to join me on this 30 Day photo challenge to take pictures that we would like to show one another. Start off small, work your way up is what I'm doing.

Watch this tiny video and maybe try it out, whats it going to hurt you? You may end up gaining confidence and gaining a new skill or hobby.

GO TRY THINGS!!!

PBS: Nova

(Yes, I'm that much of a nerd if you can't tell already ^.^)

Watching the Daily Show and the Colbert Report on Hulu, I came across Nova which is a science show on PBS. From their website they state "NOVA's approach, developed over more than a quarter century, is to select a topic of great interest to viewers and then produce a film that is as entertaining as it is informative, using the tools of good pacing, clear writing, and crisp editing."

On my hiatus of TED Talks, I've been watching several episodes of this show. I have come to find it so very fascinating. Then again, its is PBS...the same channel that brought you Reading Rainbow (oh the memories).

Nova has 54 min. episodes on a range of topics from Gothic Cathedrals to Cuttlefish (amazing episode by the way, which is below). The first show I watched was a show called Making Stuff: Smarter where they talk about new materials being invented for different purposes and taking cues from biology to produce these materials. Sharks, geckos, and the Terminator Cop are some of the inspirations for these materials. One of my favorite parts is when they are trying to understand how a gecko can climb any kind of surface easily. Taking what they know, scientists invented this type of pad that acts just like a geckos' foot and can climb surfaces. Of course they demonstrate it with a robot...thus my fascinations ran wild. Here is the episode below, but be aware it is a long episode.

Making Stuff: Smarter
"Explore a new generation of ingenious materials, including real-life invisibility cloaks."

Watch the full episode. See more NOVA.

Here are two other videos I would highly recommend if you like this sort of thing: CUTTLEFISH AND MICRORAPTORS (Just for Adam).

Watch the full episode. See more NOVA.

DON'T FORGET YOU CAN ALSO WATCH NOVA ON HULU!

Straight "A" Semester...Sweet!!

After having a horrible morning, I found out that I got two A's for my summer classes. Only semester to have straight A's and I am pretty stoked about it.

Anywho, I have not been able to get a copy of my phonotrope animations back from my professor but I do have my final animation which was a collaboration with Ri Chavez. Our animation is a stop motion animation made out of paper cut outs. We used Frame by Frame and had about 800 frames overall which took a very long time. With the added titles at the beginning and end and slowing it down on iMovie, we got 1:25. The story is as follows, this is a high school reunion where the fork guy is trying to hook up with the girl spoon but she ignores him and he storms off. A dish comes in with flowers, a high school sweetheart I presume, and whisks her away (the dish ran away with the spoon bit). Then you have the background characters to the right that have their own little things going on as well...but you have to watch for yourself. Enjoy!

Reunion from Brittany Smith on Vimeo.

i.am FIRST: Science Is Rock and Roll on ABC.com

A thank you goes out to Grease Monkeys - Team 457 for posting the link to this article on Facebook.

"will.i.am pairs up with inventor/FIRST founder Dean Kamen for i.am.FIRST -- Science is Rock and Roll, a groundbreaking, one-hour special promoting education, science and technology..."

"i.am.FIRST – Science is Rock and Roll is an electric hour of highlights from the 20th Annual FIRST® Robotics Championship"

                                        From ABC.com, read complete article HERE

F.I.R.S.T. has been such a secret for too long, this makes me very happy to see it is finally being recognized from people who can get the word out. As will.i.am. says "Its the superbowl for the mind"

For your viewing convenience, I've embedded the youtube videos of the show below...hopefully they will not be taken down anytime soon. I didn't get to see this show on television because I do not have any channels (the whole poor college student thing) so I'm excited to have found it on the good old youtube.

Thank you to RMHSRobotics for posting the videos!

PART 1


PART 2


PART 3


PART 4


PART 5


PART 6

Dean Kamen and will.i.am = Awesome!

CNN's Piers Morgan interviewed Dean Kamen, Inventor of the Segway and founder of F.I.R.S.T., and will.i.am from the band Black Eyed Peas. *Videos below*

From what I've heard, Black Eyed Peas made an appearance at the F.I.R.S.T. Robotics Championship in St. Louis last year. This makes me very excited to see that this program might get more attention that it rightfully deserves. Since I started in 2005, I have supported F.I.R.S.T. as a student and as a mentor. I agree with these two on that most schools are concentrated on just sports, which in most cases do not lead to college graduates. I am one of those students. I did not enjoy sports one bit and did not participate in any. I was always kind of nerdy and just didn't care for anything that had to do with sports. When I heard about the robotics team at my high school and went to the first meeting, I was automatically hooked. I didn't think at the time that it would make a profound impact on my life...but it did. It helped me to strive to graduate from high school when there was a chance I might not have been able too, its helped on my resume to be hired for jobs, it gave me that push I needed to go to college, and now I am less than a year away from graduating from college with a Bachelor's degree. I am living proof that this program works, and you are hooked for life.

Now I am interested on moving to the east coast to join the AmeriCORPS VISTA Program with F.I.R.S.T. which is a full year of full time volunteer service to promote the robotics program. I can't begin to describe how incredibly excited I am to know that this opportunity exists. This is something I can tell you now, I will probably be dedicated to this program for the rest of my life. It is that important to me and I think to this country.

Please Go and learn about F.I.R.S.T. and become involved. Sponsor, mentor, teach classes. No matter what your background is, you can be a vital member in your community and their robotics program.

Studio Art Problems: Final Project

Ah...the completion of my summer classes. What a relief! I had a post earlier talking about some ideas I had for my 5-week project and I finally came out with a product. It happened to be quite stressful because of financial strains but I think I accomplished what I wanted within the parameters given. We had critiques yesterday and today, mine was today, and it went fairly well. My biggest issue was the motor I used spun too fast (I did borrow it off of a mini-robot). My sculptural piece was a box made from acrylic with holes drilled on each side at an inch apart. I twisted wire using a drill and a hook looking bit to give it that nice and even look (my grandfather is a genius).With the wire, I pulled the wires through the holes and made a cross hatch pattern with different colors of twisted wires. After that, I laced the wires up the side like shoe laces which gave it a really nice aesthetic to it. Then having inspiration from Lazlo Moholy-Nagy's Light Space Modulator, I wanted it to spin and have lights. My good friend Rudy helped me out with the construction of the motor box using the program Solid Works. I then borrowed a motor from my former high school robotics team, Grease Monkey's, and some pieces of lexan for the base and motor box. I wish I had a better camera to have taken a picture while the lights were turned off. The reflection of the L.E.D.s off the metal wires made it look really neat and the shadows it created was also pretty awesome! Anywho, this was the result...

In the process of completion...

Close up of L.E.D.s and motor

A better look at the wires and motor box

Final Critique Set Up

Studio Art Problems: Final Project from Brittany Smith on Vimeo.

A special thanks to all the people who helped me out with this project: Grandpa Sam, Grandma Mary, Rudy, Mr. Henry, Ri, Brandon, Cale, Osiel, Mr. Binks (Class Professor and the one who told me about Maholy-Nagy), Grease Monkey's - Team 457, and anyone else I may have forgotten to mention.

Here is a random picture of a squirrel who is quite popular at our campus, not very shy either. If you look at his tail, it is much longer than most squirrel tails that I have seen...SQUIRRLY!!

Random Squirrel Picture

STAY TUNED FOR MY POST ON MY WORK IN MY ANIMATION CLASS!

Women Nazi Health Plan

I apologize to anyone who might be offended. I found this clip from Colbert Report hilarious. I feel that everyone should believe in whatever they want to believe without having to throw it in people's faces or judge anyone on such things. I liked this clip though, made me giggle...

…if we give your daughters and granddaughters access to birth control they will instantly turn into wanting harlots with an insatiable sexual appetite, because you know women are always on the edge of nympho maniacal orgiastic abandon… -Stephen Colbert



Not my usual type of post, but I felt like sharing.