Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Caren Explains: 3D Glasses

I got a direct mail marketing solicitation today. To view it, I was asked to put on 3D glasses that were included in the envelope. It was weird and trippy.



My earliest memory of 3D glasses comes from "Muppets Take Manhattan"... Scooter finds a job managing a movie theater, where "The Attack of the Killer Fish" is playing in 3D. The Swedish Chef is throwing popcorn in the air, offering a 3D expereince of his own. Boomerang fish-thrower starts throwing fish at the screen and they fly back around and hit the audience members who are wearing 3D glasses.

Today I wondered: How do 3D glasses work?



An answer from 3dGlassesOnline.com:

"In order to see things in 3D each eye must see a slightly different picture. This is done in the real world by your eyes being spaced apart so each eye has its own slightly different view. The brain then puts the two pictures together to form one 3D image that has depth to it.

Anaglyphic [ana·glyph·ic /"a-n&-'gli-fik/] adjective: a stereoscopic motion or still picture in which the right component of a composite image usually red in color is superposed on the left component in a contrasting color to produce a three-dimensional effect when viewed through correspondingly colored filters in the form of spectacles.

The mode of 3D presentation you are most familiar with are the paper glasses with red and blue lenses. The technology behind 3D, or stereoscopic, movies is actually pretty simple. They simply recreate the way humans see normally.

Since your eyes are about two inches apart, they see the same picture from slightly different angles. Your brain then correlates these two images in order to gauge distance."

I wonder if I could make 3D glasses into this month's fashion trend...

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Caren Explains: Insomniatic

From the liner notes of Aly & AJ's new album, "Insomniatic," which just arrived... and I quote:

"I N S O M N I A T I C
New Word Previously Undefined... Until Now

in-som-ne-a-tik / in-'sam-nE-&-tic / adj. [L. fr. insomnis
sleepless, fr. in- + somnus sleep --- more at SOMNOLOENT] (ca. 2007)

1. the statge of mind where one becomes addicted to the deprivation of sleep caused by an epic revelation of joy
"



Huh?? Addicted to sleeplessness because of a happy epiphany? That's the quickest way to cranky that I know... let's see how long that joy lasts... probably about as long as I listened to the album...

MTV addicts might recognize Aly & AJ from Super Sweet 16: The Movie. Their new single "Potential Breakup Song" is available on Radio Disney... clearly I am not a member of the target audience, nor is Bill, who said he would "Head Jolt" me if I ever reminded him of that song ever again...

Tomorrow I will explain: Head Jolt.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Life After Potter

So I lied about it taking me 6 months to read Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows... try 12 hours.

Kretz, Mary and I made a midnight run to Kroger, after a yard party and after Decatur's bookstore and Barnes & Noble were sold out of books... the lines at Kroger were ridiculous, 30+ people per register (and I live in a punk-hipster neighborhood, so seeing all these adults clutching Harry Potter books was amusing). The man in front of me had Harry Potter and a bottle of wine ("To appease my wife, who doesn't know I left the house to get this...," he explained).

I was pretty right about some of my predictions in the previous post, very wrong about others.

So now that it's over, I must say: "Way to go, J.K... you're like the Hank Aaron of children's fantasy fiction... a Barry Bonds will probably come along some day and jack up your epilogue, but we know where it all started...."

Check out this CRAZY post that Ashley made for us, after a long lunch at Brick Store... Six Degrees of Harry Bacon...

And Leila had some cool videos up on her page... check 'em out!

This is another I found on YouTube. Take a trip down memory lane with NSync.

"It Makes Me Ill..." video smash-up

Facebook users, load the original post for embedded video.

Friday, July 20, 2007

In One Muggle's Opinion...



Happy Day Before Harry Potter Day!
(Unless you're Harry Potter, because I think Harry is going to die when the book is released tonight).

In one muggle's opinion (and I haven't read any of the spoilers, so this is just my completely random guesstimation and no one should freak out upon reading this) here is who I think will perish in Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows...

- Harry Potter will turn out to be a horcrux, and will have to die so Voldemort dies, fulfilling the prophecy
- Hagrid, who has been loyal to Harry and hasn't had his chance to shine and save the day
- One of the Weasleys (maybe Momma Weasley, to tug at our hearts? Or Percy, who sold-out to the Ministry?)
- Belatrix, who's had it comin for a long time...
- Mr. Malfoy
- Lupin

Other thoughts: Neville will go on to be the Herbology professor at Hogwarts; Draco will turn against the Dark Side and have some confrontation with his ol' man; the creepy house elf will be a central figure in the book; Hermione and Ron live to tell the tales of their brave friend, Harry Potter; Peter Pettigrew will attempt to redeem himself; Snape gets to keep working in Defense Against the Dark Arts and maybe smile once... just once.

I'm not a super super fan (in fact, it will probably take me 6 months to get through the book) but I like the idea of the series because its success indicates that 1) imagination thrills adults and kids alike, and 2) print isn't dead (yet).

New York Times and Baltimore Sun released their reviews on Thursday, despite the fact that the book isn't out yet... boy, did that make some people angry... check out what the Bloomsbury's representatives said about the leak ... could this mean another Red Coat invasion and Revolutionary War II???

"I solemly swear that I am up to no good,"
CK