by Robert Frost

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

Created by YouTube user shonkeyproductions, this video features a favorite song of mine: Tokyo, by The Books, from their album The Lemon of Pink. Despite a bit of shaky camera work in the middle sections, I think this video captures the song nicely... although the audio is a little on the low side. If you want to hear a better version of the track, try here (I'd recommend headphones).

I had first heard of them thanks to my friend Ben, who included Tokyo in a playlist he had posted online. While I've heard a few other tracks from the group, I still haven't gotten this album (but plan to rectify that today).

Tokyo is a song I can listen to repeatedly, over and over. Trust me when I say that I have a tendency to loop a song 50+ times without even blinking. This song was one I've listened to a lot before, and I always seem to hear/find something I missed, with each listen. It was also partly an inspiration for my Colourful Echo project, as I wanted to find a way to animate the song.

In a crazier moment, I had contemplated trying to transcribe all the various instruments at work here, and build each one and sync it via Flash. While it's still a distant possibility, that concept seemed way too difficult to do just with my ears.

As I'm listening to this song today, I'm thinking of revisiting the code I used for my Astronaut project, which combined audio with Flickr. Instead of words from the lyrics, I'd just be searching against the keyword/tag "tokyo," and time out images with the song. Gotta think on this some more, but it's got my brain humming in a good way, and it feels like another project.

GROW Valley is the latest installment of the GROW series, made by the quirky and wonderful eyezmaze.

For those unfamiliar with the series, it's a deceptively easy game in terms of control... but gets tricky, in terms of trying to figure out the right "solution." Users are presented with a variety of buttons (seven in GROW Valley). Depending on the sequence you select, the resulting animations change. Buttons interact with one another, and part of the fun is watching all the little things that happen between the various combinations.

This game has particularly long animations, which you can skip by clcking (if you see a Fast Forward icon). The "goal" of the game is to max out the levels for each button. I haven't gotten very far myself, and only have managed to get one or two items up to Level 5 or 6.

If you haven't tried them out before, I highly recommend the original GROW game, GROW RPG (which has more of a narrative to it), and GROW Cube. And though I'll sound like a broken record on this, Tontie is the most addictive number-keypad game ever.

Last Saturday, as I was walking to and from the office, I noticed a particular bit of light near the end of the day. It was one of those moments where it just stopped me in my tracks, took me out of whatever I was doing... and I paused a bit to just watch and observe.

There is a narrow walk-in closet next to the office, and a small window with blinds facing the main courtyard. We have a very large tree out there, and the particular angle of the sun hitting the leaves ended up making this pattern on the wall. To me, it looked like a slow burning fire, tilted onto its side.

When I used to do a lot more animation work with Flash, I would oftentimes get distracted by motion and light, by objects and their movement. I used to always wonder how I might recreate a particular effect or moment, via the computer. Old habits die hard, I guess.

I was reminded a bit of an old project called Abstractor, created by Ji Lee. I also thought of the morning, many years ago, when I encountered a small, blue balloon on the way to work - another moment that took me out of my routine, where I just stepped back and watched.

Related:
Abstractor
This Made Me Unbearably Happy
Inspiration on the Train
Spotlight

A week ago, we had a fire alarm go off at work and everyone evacuated the building. Or, to be a bit more specific, the fire alarm went off on every floor except ours, and by the time we started leaving... everyone else in the building had already evacuated.

Derry walked in to the office, saying that he thought he saw fire/smoke from the top of our building. As we discussed this, we could hear the sound of fire trucks softly in the distance. As we began debating what to do, the trucks got louder and louder.

Eventually, I decided to go downstairs to see what the deal was. When I opened our main door, I realized there was a muffled voice coming from the Southern stairwell. After pausing a bit, I recognized the voice as the building's audio alarm, telling everyone to evacuate.

I turned around, and started to tell everyone we needed to leave the building. I was last out, along with Mike and James... and as we were leaving, I saw that the lights had just started to flash on the walls. Up until this point, there was no signal and no notification on our floor at all (the muffled audio warning was coming from a different floor).

The disturbing thing? As we were walking down the stairs, there was no one else around. We've had quite a few fire drills and building evacuations this year, and the stairwells are usually crowded with tons of students.

On hitting Jackson, we saw why there was no one in the stairwell - everyone else had long since left the building.

Out of the several fire alarms this year, this time netted the largest number of fire trucks that I can recall. I want to say there were at least five or six of them.

I've only got two prior incidents documented on the blog, but so far this year... we've had to evacuate the building four or five times, easily (not including this instance). I'm not sure what the deal is, and how many were tests and how many were just false alarms.

By the time we hit the ground and walked across State Street, the firemen were already signalling for everyone to go back inside. Again, this should tell you how long everyone else had been outside, and how long we were still noodling around, oblvious, on the seventh floor.

I stopped in to Building Services, and let them know what had happened - they promised to look into it. Looking back, the incident is a lot more disturbing in hindsight.

Related:
Fire Alarm and Building Evacuation, State and Jackson
Fire Alarm, Revisited
DePaul Fire Escape, State and Jackson

A week or so ago, Ben sent out a company-wide email announcing the latest Emmis Interactive contest: Flipping Out (Search for the Next Pinball Wizard). Like so many of our other office tournaments (The Pingmaster and Rock, Paper, Scissor), this one would also be set up bracket/elimination style. And, of course, it would come with its own custom trophy for the ultimate champion.

We actually have a pinball machine in the office. Or, more specifically, Chris has a pinball machine that he keeps in the office.

Down the hallway from our main entrance, there's a side area that we refer to as the "Annex." We got the space a while back with plans to expand, but for now we've used it to store extra equipment, furniture, and even to host a few meetings.

Today's event was more of a warm-up, and to get people to play a few rounds. Before the tournament begins, we need to seed everyone... so the best score out of three games determines where you'll rank in the brackets.

Brian, TJ, Chris and Justin S, checking out the pinball room.

Yes, the Star Trek background is still up on the wall. I actually think it makes the room feel a little more arcade-like.

Mike, taking his turn.

Chris trying for an extra ball, while Ben observes.

Justin S on the machine.

Related:
Chris Buys a Comet Pinball Machine
Visiting Nickel City Arcade, Family Entertainment Center
Star Trek in the Office
Pinball Expo, 2009
Pinball Expo, 2007
The Pingmaster Trophy: Final Ping Pong Game
Rock, Paper, Scissors Tournament: Final Battle, AJ vs. Eddie

On Saturday, Liz had another class at The Needle Shop. She's attended quite a few workshops there, and has been slowly learning how to make more and more.

What's really neat about the workshops here is that each class works on a specific object or item. Typically four hours in length, students walk out of the classroom with a finished product (and the knowledge of how to make more).

Saturday's class was all about how to make an ottoman. While I took some photos after she got home, Liz had the foresight to snap a few shots during the workshop (and I'm totally glad she did).

Here's where it all begins - the base is simply a box, and the rest is built up from there.

The cushion is up next.

And then wrapping and stapling the fabric in place, before finishing off the back.

Here's the finished thing. It feels incredibly smooth and firm, and really looks professionally made. While the workshop taught people how to attach legs to their ottomans, Liz is still waiting on some custom legs she ordered off of Etsy.

The ottoman, flipped over.

During the class, Liz injured herself a good deal. She got a blister on her right finger, and also stuck herself with a pin. She also pinched her left hand in the staple gun, and accidentally hammered a finger. Who knew that making an ottoman could be so dangerous?

I first heard of Glenn Gould after seeing a movie entitled Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould - a series of vignettes highlighting certain moments and aspects of his brillian career (and eccentric lifestyle).

I don't know a ton of Gould's work, but I'm most familiar with his Goldberg Variations album. It's strange, but whenever I hear this I'm immediately reminded of college, and of the house where I lived with four other friends.

And oh! How could I forget? I have an old Flash experiment that I made a long, long time ago, also entitled Gould. It was all done by hand, with me matching each bar to the corresponding note played by the left and right hands. It was slow, meticulous work... but I derived a great deal of pleasure out of making that thing (and even skipped a day of work to finish it at home).

The Museum of Science and Industry made a great "Thank You" video for all the participants in their Month at the Museum contest. I think it's great that they made their own 60 second video (and it shows the MSI staff is just as creative as the applicants).

There was also an update made yesterday, regarding the status of the contest. Over 1,500 applications were received from every state in the U.S. (and two-thirds of that number came in during the final two days). More info on the MATM website.

Related:
Month at the Museum: Semi-Finalists Announced Today
Month at the Museum: Favorite Videos
Month at the Museum: My Video and Application
Month at the Museum Contest: Filming My 60 Second Video

Yesterday, I was a little late in getting my coffee. By the time I meandered into the kitchen, most of the mugs were taken... and this is what was left. Why wasn't this guy the first mug taken? Your guess is as good as mine.

Trying to decipher the narrative here was a bit tricky. It's a rabbit on the beach. Palm trees suggest Florida, or some tropical location. The eggs alongside the rabbit make me think that this is the Easter Bunny. To the right, slightly out of the frame, is a female rabbit in a bikini... who I can only presume is Mrs. Easter Bunny. Is she the one who does all the work, and lays all the eggs? Does he just hide the eggs, or is he also the one who paints them?

So many questions abound. Are they on the run somewhere, having stolen all the eggs? How are his sunglasses staying on, since they're not touching his ears? Why is the Easter Bunny balanced on his tail?

It's a wonder I got any work done, yesterday morning.

Related:
Early Morning Anthropomorphism
La Esmeralda: The Most Expensive Coffee in the World @ Intelligentsia
Intelligentsia Esmeralda Coffee, Revisited
The Best Barista in the United States
Two Rabbits Meeting on Neutral Ground