chaoticutopia
Posts by this author
August 15, 2008
Summer around here must be coming to a close. The temperature has dropped and the kids are going back to school. Strangely, these circumstances have gotten me thinking more about the sun, rather than less. I blame my son... he came home after one of his first days at school talking about life on…
July 28, 2008
Warning: as the title suggests, this is just one long whine. It probably shouldn’t be read by anyone. For my own sake, I’m putting it out there, anyways. Proceed with caution!
So much for posting something every day. When I promised that, it sounded feasible. Then again, when I called my remodel "…
July 19, 2008
There’s nothing like spending a month staring at trees. As I hinted recently, my purpose for I was wandering all over the mountains, searching for aspen, was artistic inspiration. But to what end? Well... it all started when I painted my walls. Folks would come and observe my progress.
"The color…
July 14, 2008
A new documentary on climate change, Sizzle, is being released soon. The film...
Wait! Don’t start dozing off. I know, I know, you’ve heard this before. I mean, c’mon, you browse around the virtual shelves at Amazon, looking for stuff about climate change, and you certainly won’t have as much…
July 14, 2008
A few weeks ago, I headed up into the mountains to find aspen trees and branches for inspiration. I took Magnolia Drive, which rises out of Boulder Canyon and straddles a high ridge before opening out onto the Peak-to-Peak highway running along the continental divide, near Coal Creek Canyon. (The…
July 11, 2008
Finally, after months of painting, planning, organizing, and flinging, my home is starting to look like a home. I’m down to the little finishing touches: trim and accessories, windows and doors. Some of these just need to be purchased and installed, so, thankfully, this means I can start getting…
June 13, 2008
I mentioned in my last post (a few weeks ago) that I was taking a hiatus from blogging to work on my overgrown home remodel. I’d like to say I’m finished: "woohoo! All done, come and see!" but I’m not. I am, however, getting close. Close enough to start thinking about what type of art I’m going to…
May 23, 2008
I know you’ve probably come here looking for a new fractal. Unfortunately, the only thing fractalish around here is my frustrations with home remodeling. I suppose any project can do it--grow madly out of control: each small problem cascading into another, until the whole thing seems overwhelming.…
May 11, 2008
Let’s finish this weekend of red, orange, and yellow, with some flowers for Mom. And a honeybee. The blossoms are more pink than red, but the bee definitely has the orange/yellow look going for it.
Moms like bees, right? Consider this: if it wasn’t for the bees, fertilizing everything from almond…
May 10, 2008
Both philosophy people and Beatles people should enjoy this one...
I was studying for my final exam in predicate logic, while simultaneously browsing through the Flickr "Song Chart" Pool (thanks to Of Two Minds.) The next thing I know, I’m trying to work out this proof:
Click the image for the a…
May 10, 2008
It was orange. I wrote a review about it.
I still can’t explain it... and I just can’t stop. But that’s what they call it: Good things should never end.
May 9, 2008
Maybe it’s because it’s nearly summer. Maybe it’s because I finally finished my finals. Maybe it’s all a result of coincidence and random web browsing. Whatever the reason, I feel like filling my blog with warm, happy colors this weekend. What better place to begin, than with a fractal?
A Fractal…
May 2, 2008
Senator McCain thinks the effort to preserve our horticultural record and a potential treasure trove for medicinal science is a waste of money.
This morning, I went to Senator McCain’s town hall meeting at the Jewish Community Center in Denver. The Rocky Mountain News made it sound as if I was…
April 26, 2008
So, here I am, with a huge backlog of things to post--science news and lab reports, fractal art, tips for green living--you know, the usual stuff. And, so, with all that ready to go, what do I do when I get my computer functioning? I write something else. I guess that’s not too unusual. Poetic…
April 20, 2008
For some of my friends, today is a holiday. So, to celebrate, here’s a fractal:
Fractal 420(Click the image for a desktop sized version, or here for an alternate version.)
Note: If you’re wondering where I’ve been, or why this post is so brief, don’t worry. I’ve just been having some issues with…
April 11, 2008
What if you could escape this busy world, rise above the clouds, and see everything from a new perspective? From that astronauts-eye-view, you could see the greenhouse effect in action: Sunlight pouring in, some reflected off of clouds in the upper layers of the atmosphere, some filtering down…
March 16, 2008
Now, this is the way we ought to be testing our children:
Questionaut: A Point-and-Click Quiz Adventure by Amanita Design and the BBC
One of the most talented names in the casual gaming business, Amanita Design, creators of the delightful Samorost series, have just teamed up with the BBC to come…
March 15, 2008
Well, I’ve probably set a new record for myself--2 weeks without a post. As you might imagine, I’ve been a little busy lately. For some reason, midterms really snuck up on me and hit me hard this spring... suffering a head cold and an internet outage in the middle of it didn’t help much. Throw in…
February 29, 2008
It is rather fun to have a birthday on February 29th. Today is my 8th birthday, which is pretty weird, considering my young son will have his 8th birthday later in the year. For him, it’ll be the same old birthday. For me, it’s, well, the same old birthday, but it only happens once every four years…
February 29, 2008
Leap through Labor to Leap through Labor to Leap
I created a bit of ambiguous poetry recently, and I simply couldn’t resist trying another. And well, it is Leap Day, after all... which is also my birthday, so it seems like a good time for a "free choice" fractal. That said, I couldn’t bring myself…
February 28, 2008
Oh, that fresh Rocky Mountain stream water... sparkling snowmelt, flowing from the ancient peaks to the broad plains, teeming with hermaphroditic fish. Hermaphroditic fish, you say? Like, fish with male parts and female parts, all in one? In our streams? Ok... well, maybe not everywhere... just…
February 20, 2008
"A feminine text cannot fail to be more than subversive. It is volcanic; as it is written it brings about an upheaval of the old property crust, carrier of masculine investments; there’s no other way. There’s no room for her if she’s not a he. If she’s a her-she, it’s in order to smash everything,…
February 10, 2008
This weekend’s fractal isn’t very late, when you consider its roots are found 50 million years in the past. The earth was a bit different then... think of it as a post-global-warming world, where greenhouse gasses have already run amok, driving global temperatures. The poles are virtually frost-…
February 6, 2008
I hadn’t planned to write another post full of complaints. I’m a mother; I intrinsically hate whining. Yet, here I am, with nothing but frustration and disappointment (and an awful pun in the title) to share. Here it is, in a nutshell: I missed my lab in the field yesterday. It was one of those…
February 4, 2008
School can be fun. Tomorrow, I’ll be heading up into the mountains outside of Boulder for my first official in-the-field lab. I’ll be the first to admit, I’m more of a research and writing person than an experimental and field work sort of person. Since I hope to make a career out of science…
February 1, 2008
I figured I'd post this fractal set while it is still Friday somewhere (here in Colorado, for instance.) My thoughts on it follow below.
Flying in Vapor: A poem and a fractal for riding the waves
I know what it's like
To be down in the water
And tossed by the waves
Each day, crashing into the next…
January 28, 2008
I don’t know what it is... maybe weeks with holidays in them will naturally cause writer’s block. Indeed, writers probably need an occasional break from their craft, just like anyone else. Unfortunately, they tend to feel more like a block than a break. I’ve had a few things lined up to write about…
January 21, 2008
I really ought to be working, writing or replying to comments, perhaps reading for my literature class. Instead I find myself lured outside into the bitter cold. My cat, however well his white fur blends with the snow-covered ground, must be freezing on such a night. Yet there he is, perched on the…
January 18, 2008
The following fractal is a tribute to our new overlords, Dendroctonus ponderosae.
Lindenmayer Trees and Fractal Brownian Motion
I wrote about the role of pine beetles in Colorado’s future last week. The conclusion of that piece: a slight rise in temperatures means a strong advantage for pine…
January 14, 2008
A new concern arose around the turn of the 21st century, among the advancements in technology and science: what is the future of our planet's climate? This is a bold question, considering traditional problems with predicting the future. We have no evidence of future events, due to the asymmetry of…