Britt's Blog

You know what I want, more than anything else in the world?

I want a brand new mathematically complicated toy that requires learning a new programing language and which produces unpredictable, ever-shifting, strangely compelling visual output.

It’d be great if it could be so addictive that I lose all desire to do anything other than dink around on my computer so that I alienate all my friends, stop doing my job, get fired, and end up living on the street in a cardboard box that is located near a power outlet where I can plug in my laptop.

Behold, my new creation. I call him “Octopulus.”

Here is the code that created Octopulus:

startshape star

rule CircleLine .2{
CIRCLE {hue 200 sat .7 b .5 }
CircleLine{x .1 y .1 r -10 hue -.2}
}


This version of Octopulus is variation HTR.

If you download Context Free you can thank me later for ruining your life.

Loyal “Britt’s Blog” readers, I hope you will consider taking three minutes and fourteen seconds^* out of your busy day to watch our exciting new YouTube video, straight from the Beloit College Propaganda Bureau Office of Admissions. By the end of the video, you will want to be a student at Beloit College. *wiggles fingers hypnotically* You willlllllll coommmmme to Belooooooooyyyyytttt and briinnnnggg your tuiiiiiiition…..

But, seriously, the more people watch, the higher our YouTube rank will be, and also, it actually expresses a lot of the things that are special about Beloit to me.

^* Watching time does not include download time. No warranty is expressed or implied. Offer void in Alaska and Hawaii, the freak states.

There have been a few intriguing arty things linked on Metafilter lately.

I remember when I was a I made 3-D greeting-card things out of a templates in Omni magazine. (Scroll down to find the same templates on this page under “vertical cut popouts”!) I was quite fascinated by them—and I’m gripped by an urge to start experimenting again after seeing this awe-inspiring and wryly clever work with cut paper, and lovely, meticulously-trimmed trees.

Now, on a fundamental level I find the whole “altered book” thing to be just… wrong. I mean, it’s one thing for talentless people to make ugly scrapbooks, but, for the love of god, why would you take out your lack of artistic ability on literature!? I was offered the opportunity to do an altered-book journaling class, but declined. I pictured myself trying to be nice and go along, but then, when people pick up the markers and the scissors, I see myself leaping up, snatching books away, and running as fast as my legs could carry me.

However, wow.

Also, hee!.

Original MeFi threads.