Hello once again my fellow kitchen-mates.  I will be your chef today, and now let’s see what kind of cookies we have baking:

Two other students and I are currently working on a project for our English class. We are making a TED Talk for the assignment. Our subject matter initially started out as proving that computer programmers are creative as opposed to the popular belief that they merely hard-code for hours on end, but after a meeting with a tutor and discussing our idea, we developed it in a slightly different way. Now, we are going to prove that computer programmers use a combination of logic principles and creativity to get their jobs done.

My part of the talk will deal with many examples  and uses of how programmers have used these two tools together to achieve incredible feats in the media world. Some of my examples will also include real life situations that show  how necessary that it is that these two elements be implemented together.

My point also revolves around the idea that programmers have to be creative because their job usually consists of mimicking reality. Many gamers would agree that the best games are the ones that appear the most real to us. Games that keep the player coming back for more are the ones that flourish, and why? It’s because they imitate reality so very closely.

Keep reading as I will post again about the finalized video once the project has been completed.

Well readers, that’s all the cookies we had baking in the oven tonight. Stay tuned.

Hello once again my fellow kitchen-mates.  I will be your chef today, and now let’s see what kind of cookies we have baking:

Mini Saga:

He possesses a noble fire. Extinguishable not by water, nor by a raging wind or smothering dirt. His flame is unique. It only burns those who try to burn others. To the rest, it soothes a cold heart and a dreary soul, for his fire burns to aid the less fortunate.

Image Courtesy of Quizblog.in

Well readers, that’s all the cookies we had baking in the oven tonight. Stay tuned.

Hello once again my fellow kitchen-mates.  I will be your chef today, and now let’s see what kind of cookies we have baking:

I would like to state a few sentences to preface a theory that I have come up with for an assignment in our English class.

- I am in my first programming class with no previous programming experience.

- We are using the programming language, Python, in the computer science class.

- I have not researched or tested the theory I am about to present.

Now, people have often said the the mind of a programmer changes slightly as they are introduced to more programming. Programming requires a different mindset to understand and manipulate the logic embedded in the language. I was riding in the car the other day, when this new way of thinking about things hit me. I was looking at the trees along the side of the rode and I notices all the different colors with the changing seasons, and I thought, “How would I code this?”

We have not learned how to draw using Python, but I think that will be our next lesson. I have already had a tiny sample of what it will be like. You can select the color and the position of the cursor and where you want it to go or what direction you would like it to turn or even at what degree of a circle. Now, let’s code a tree.

I can’t present my theory without first having a picture to color. We could draw a tree by drawing a line straight up, until it gets to a desired height. Once it reaches that height, we can use the built-in ‘random’ module to call a random number which will represent a degree length. This will draw a branch in a certain direction, depending on what degree is selected. Through many more statements such as the previous one, we now have a bare tree.

This part I will definitely have to research. I am not quite sure how to attach the leaves to the branches, so let’s just pretend we have already achieved it.

Now that the leaves are on the branches, we can color them. The logic behind this will vary slightly depending on what it is you would like to color. You must use the HTML color scale to color in objects. For an all green tree, isn’t it boring to color the leaves of a tree one single color? The answer for my theory’s sake is yes. That’s why you use the HTML values (0-255) to scale and shade the colors. So we use our handy-dandy random module to call a random number from 60 to 255, the colors most appropriate for a green leaf(anything lower than 60 becomes too dark) and that number colors in the leaf, giving you a beautiful summer tree.

You can do the same thing if you want a green and yellow leafed tree simply by changing your range of colors. Green and red at both at values of 255 gives you yellow. So, by holding your green value constant at 255 and randomly alternating the red values gives you a tree full of yellow, green, and yellow-green leaves.

I chose to look at this because I want to be a video game designer. I don’t know how objects are created in the gaming world, but hopefully I can make things easier by creating or discovering some kind of new algorithm.

Well readers, that’s all the cookies we had baking in the oven tonight. Stay tuned.

Hello once again my fellow kitchen-mates.  I will be your chef today, and now let’s see what kind of cookies we have baking:

We had to profile a few individuals that we feel can be influential to our career path, so I chose some of my favorites.

First up, we have my cousin, Jon Garner (Jonny). This lovable, hairy man-child has always been, in many ways, my idol. He was the reason I knew my intended major when I was in 9th grade. Jonny graduated a few years before I got accepted to Tech. He graduated with a degree in Computational Media, my current major. He first grew interested in the major simply because he saw people playing games on the CM website.

Before he became enrolled at Tech, he loved sports. He loved to play basketball, football, and even indoor sports such as pingpong (I WILL beat him one day!). He became the video distributor for his high school sports, and even became the basketball team’s manager.

But sports wasn’t his whole life. He often worked with his father at his father’s auto-shop, giving him an insight of vehicles and how they work (a practical use for any man).

He helped me choose my major, and helps me with decisions relating to it.

Secondly, we have my favorite mentor, Drew Scheopf. This also lovable, hairy man-child has been my mentor for about two months now, and yet has helped me more than any of my TAs. We’ve hung out together, and he’s awesome.

He is currently a third year Computer Science major (slightly related to mine), and, like my cousin, loved sports. He was very well rounded, probably one of the reasons he is a good mentor. He played football, lacrosse, and wrestled, yet he was also a member of the Free Thinkers Society, and worked many jobs, including Little Caesars, Chick-fil-a, and work for his uncle.

He, like most people in the College of Computing, chose his major because he was good at it.

My third and final person of interest, is Dr. Michael Nitsche, a professor at Georgia Tech. I have not know this man for a long time (approximately four days) yet it seems he has already come through for me by agreeing to allow me to interview him for this assignment.

Dr. Nitsche studied in Germany (which is structured slightly differently than schooling in the United States. His original goal was to be come a teacher until he became gradually more  fascinated in the drama department. He told me that he pursued this interest, not because he felt he had a strong career in the field, but because he was purely interested in the subject. Once he graduated from Freie Universität Berlin, he moved on to attain his Doctorate’s Degree in Architecture. 

He became interested in computers once the Communications Age really took off. It was very interesting to hear about his studies in game spaces and how he relates it to architecture. I’m planning on buying one of his books he recently published to learn more of his theses.

He, too, was involved in many activities as a student. He  He played in a band, co-founded an improv theater group, organized public readings, and worked on a student radio. And he wouldn’t be able to be on my list if he didn’t include himself in sports.

Well, these have been my people, and I plan on getting to know them a lot better over the years.

Well readers, that’s all the cookies we had baking in the oven tonight. Stay tuned.

Hello once again my fellow kitchen-mates.  I will be your chef today, and now let’s see what kind of cookies we have baking:

As a small child, I had three main activities that I constantly performed.

I never could turn down a good video game. I started off with a very old Super Nintendo. I logged countless hours playing any kind of Super Mario game there possiblly was for the system. When I wasn’t enjoying kicking Bowser’s butt, I would go outside and play sports with my friends.

Playing sports took up most of my time as a kid. I would go outside, go around the neighborhood and gather all my friends, and we would play together all day. It varied from day to day in what we felt like doing. Some days we played kick ball, others we played football or basket ball, and sometimes we just messed around and played games like ‘horse’.

When I turned somewhere around eight or nine years old, my family moved away from that neighborhood to a new one where the nearest kid was about two miles away. As  much fun as it was playing in the yard by myself, naturally I spent a lot of my time indoors.

I had been in the habit of drawing whatever was on my mind, a skill I greatly improved on during the time of my isolation. My ideas came from the games I played, but eventually evolved into my own brain thinking up creatures and characters that I was able to sketch out on paper. The ideas sometimes formed into stories or game ideas that I wanted to make possible. Times like that made me want to become a video game designer.

As my life progressed, the ideas and stories became overwhelming, but in a good way. These ideas caused me to become frustrated when I couldn’t think of a way to make my fantasies become reality. From there on out, I knew I wanted to design games and have a say in what kids got to play.

My aspirations are to currently become a video game designer. There are more jobs that pay better, but I would rather have a job that I know will make me happy as I do it. Even if that doesn’t work out, I am currently writing a fictional fantasy book that I hope to have published more than anything. Those ideas have to go somewhere right?

Well readers, that’s all the cookies we had baking in the oven tonight. Stay tuned.

Hello once again my fellow kitchen-mates.  I will be your chef today, and now let’s see what kind of cookies we have baking:

Image Courtesy of Eric Cook

Let’s try something different today. You see, our teacher wants us to put up our own, unassigned blogs so she can see that there’s more to us than a person sitting in a desk. So see me.

All of you are probably wondering what’s up with the picture. Well, its a Christian poster that I drew on my dry-erase board. Can’t make sense of it? Keep reading.

Let’s break it down. I am a Christian, more importantly, a born-again-believer. The centerpiece of the photo, “1-1-Six”, has many meanings. The whole reason this got started was because I was listening to some excellent Christian-Rap. Yes, I said Christian-Rap. The 1-1-Six Clique is made up of several rappers that rap about Christ. Lecrae, Tedashii, PRo,  etc. are all amazing at sharing the Word. Let’s have a sample:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0_pzJfrqiU

I don’t know about you, but.. um.. RAW. Now, the basis for the group name comes from, not surprisingly, a bible verse. The verse is Romans 1:16 – “For I am unashamed of the gospel.” I like to have my quiet times (my time alone with God) with the music playing. It teaches and keeps me focused. Many people have come to change their lives around from their music, and I am thankful and inspired by that.

The next item will be the picture of the spec and the mustard seed. This is a classic verse in Mathew 17:20 which states that if we only had faith the size of a mustard seed, we could move the mountains. Does anyone know how small a mustard seed is? Let’s just say that the spec I drew is far too big to be life-sized.

The third item I drew is the shattered the mirror. This comes from a VERY enlightening example I heard a speaker once say to us. We, as followers of Christ, are supposed to serve God, and reflect His glory back to Him. Imagine that we need to use the mirror to reflect God’s glory back to Him. The only problem is that sometimes we get caught up in the world and in ourselves, and the mirror begins to drop down, until we are only staring back at ourselves, reflecting our own glory. The speaker laid the mirror on the ground, threw a baseball as hard as  he could down on it, and  picked it back up. We have to become broken and die to ourselves before we can reflect the glory of God.

If there is anything else you’d like for me to explain, do as the top right corner of the poster says and just ask me! If you see me doing something other than what I’ve stated above, CALL ME OUT. I am unashamed, and I am broken.

1-1-Six Clique’s new CD came out today. “Man Up” , Once that CD comes in and I listen to it, you better believe there will be another blog post on the “men” of today (myself included).

Well readers, that’s all the cookies we had baking in the oven tonight. Stay tuned.

Hello once again my fellow kitchen-mates.  I will be your chef today, and now let’s see what kind of cookies we have baking:

Dr. Hunter gave us an assignment based on Ze Frank’s Chillout song. We are to follow the same process that he did (seeing a problem, asking strangers to submit a small piece for the solution, and then combining them into one giant cohesive piece that helped with the original problem), only we were assigned to use three handcrafted objects. We have done just that.

The main focus of this project is the process. Now, we decided to invent a story, but how does that relate to Ze Frank? Well, each of us asked several of our friends to write us individual stories based on the three objects (a gourd, a necklace, and a pair of doves) that wasn’t too long, or in very great detail. These will be the pieces that we combine somehow into one collaborative final product. With several estranged characters and copyright infringements, it will be interesting to create the final product.

Here are some of the stories:

*****

Once upon a time there was a lonely white dove named Sir Frederick who lived in a gourd next to a lake with a big waterfall in it. He did not have any friends or family, and he longed for a female companion. One day Sir Frederick was out drinking water at the lake when he saw a beautiful she-dove bathing in the nearby waterfall. He was flabbergasted by her pure white color and sweet singing voice. He wanted to say hello and invite her into his gourd, but he was too shy. He decided to try to make her come to him. He flew around his gourd picking up red, blue, and black berries. He painted the side of his house with the juice from the berries in a colorful pattern to try to catch the she-dove’s attention. When he was finished painting, he retreated into his house and accidentally fell asleep. When the she-dove was finished bathing, the she smelled the sweet berry juice and flew towards the gourd. She admired the colorful pattern on the side of the house and decided to see who lived inside of it. She gently pecked on the side of the gourd to knock. Sir Frederick did not wake up. The she-dove waited patiently for a few minutes then knocked again. Fred still did not stir. The she-dove assumed that nobody was home and decided to take a look inside. She flew into the gourd and ran right into sleeping Sir Frederick. The she-dove was so shocked and frightened that she screamed as loudly as she could. Sir Frederick jolted awake with such a violent force that he knocked the she-dove unconscious. Fred felt terrible for accidentally hurting the she-dove and decided to try to make it up to her. He flew out of the gourd and gathered materials to make her a present. He quickly assembled a necklace of twigs, leaves, roots, and flowers to present to the she-dove when she woke up. When the she-dove awoke she was very confused, but she also was very impressed with the flower necklace Fred made for her. Fred asked the she-dove what her name was. Unfortunately, the she-dove suffered from long term memory loss and could not remember a single thing about her past. Sir Frederick saw a glistening window of opportunity in this turn of events. He quickly fabricated a tale of how the she-dove loved him dearly and that he recently saved her from the jaws of death. He told her that the events were too traumatic for her to recall. The she-dove was very gullible and thanked Sir Frederick for being there for her. The two doves lived happily ever after together.

******

The sailor and his crew walked through the drawn curtain entrance of Captain Cavalier’s Circo delle Meraviglie. As they curiously crept across the laid out dusty Persian rugs, they made their way to the old wooden pews which spoke of centuries past. They took in the musty smell of Dahlia’s and elephant manure, and awaited the first act. Acrobats flew by, elephants danced with each other, and lions jumped through flaming hula hoops. But it was the intermission “act” which one might call ‘the most wondrous of all.

One lonely drinking gourd, hollowed and giving off the faint odor of ocean water and rum, descended from the ceiling. As it twirled and stopped, ten feet in the air, two small white doves peeped their heads from inside. They stared into the audience, humming a tune almost inaudible to the human ear. As the tune reached the captain’s ears, he noticed that the birds were holding their heads against each other. They looked like lovers, and soon they began to kiss. All at once, they pulled their beaks apart, holding a golden locket, its’ chain spread from beak to beak. They flew to the captain, landed on his shoulders, and placed the golden locket around his neck. The captain’s crew stared at him in astonishment, with looks that implied their utter curiosity. His knobby hands crept toward the locket, opened it, and left everyone’s jaw on the floor. Inside the little locket was a portrait, one made entirely with the fine “hairs” of bird down feathers. The portrait, small and simple, was that of the captain’s dead wife; and the tune, low and lonely, was her favorite. It was a Nocturne by Chopin, sweet and simple, low and lovely. As the captain and his crew stared in amazement, the chandeliers flickered in announcement that the intermission was ending. The ringleader announced that all audience members should find their seats. All through the show the Captain could not get his mind off of the two white doves, still in shock over the locket which remained around his neck. Once the show was over, the Captain and his crew approached the ringleader. They asked who he might know in the circus, which might possibly have known his wife, and had the ability to do this trick. As the ringleader stared at them, the captain went on to ask about the doves. The man replied “We have many animals here: Five lions, eight elephants, sixteen horses, twelve parakeets, three monkeys, and one zebra. But, my good sir, of doves, we have none. You must be confused.”

The captain went to show the man the locket, but it was no longer around his neck; and as he turned around he noticed his crew was already headed back to the ship. As he boarded the ship, his confusion turned into questioning, and he wondered if he was losing his mind. The crew never spoke of the two doves, and the captain remained quiet for fear of affirmation of his lost sanity; but every now and again, when the captain was standing at the bow of his ship, he would see two small doves flying above the ship, one wearing a small golden locket around its neck. Whether he was crazy, or it was simply “wondrous” magic, he did not know.

******

A little boy, Austin who was seven, was sitting on the floor in his second grade classroom during arts and crafts concentrating as he folded a piece of paper. Suddenly he stood up and yelled, “I got it!” with as much enthusiasm as his little body could muster. At his sudden outburst, his classmates turned around shocked. The other children scrambled to see what he had, and one looked confused at the folded paper in the boy’s hand. “That looks stupid,” said one of the little boy’s classmates, “I mean it is just folded paper. You are stupid.” At this, Austin’s eyes watered and he exclaimed “I worked really hard on that! You meanie!” After this, Austin took his folded paper and ran out of the room. The teacher feebly attempted to call after Austin, but was too distracted by the other students, who were now out of control, to bring him back. Luckily though, the art teacher, who happened to have a class across the hall, saw Austin run out of the room.

Because he was not teaching a class at that moment, Mr. Johnson, the art teacher, walked out of his room and towards the direction that he thought he saw Austin run in. The teacher heard soft sniffling and slowly turned in that direction. He saw little Austin sitting alone on the swings staring at the folded paper in his hands, and then in a burst of frustration Austin threw the paper on the ground. Mr. Johnson made his way to the discarded item and picked it up. To his surprise in his hands he was a origami crane. “Austin,” the teacher said surprised, “did you make this?” Austin slowly nodded his head as he wiped his nose on the back of this hand. “I did, but Joe called it stupid. I don’t want anything stupid,” replied Austin. A smile appeared on the teacher’s face as he held his hand out to Austin; he was reminded of himself by the sensitivity of the little boy. “Follow me Austin. I want to show you something inside that I think you will like.” When they reentered the building Austin began to try and hide his face so that the other kids would not make fun of him for crying. “Don’t worry about hiding your face Austin. We are going back to my classroom,” the teacher said knowing what was wrong.

After they entered the art room, Austin sat down at the middle table like he would if it was time for his art class. Once Austin was seated, Mr. Johnson walked over to a cabinet and pulled out a strangly shaped item. “Do you know what this is Austin?” asked the teacher. Austin replied by shaking his head no. “It is a gourd, more specifically a drinking gourd. It was given to me by a student many years ago. You remind me a lot of him. He managed to hollow this out when he was in the fifth grade. It was very hard, but it made him special,” the teacher continued to talk, but Austin was confused, so in the true manner of children he interrupted the Mr. Johnson. “How does that thing,” gesturing to the gourd, “have anything to do with me? I mean it is cool and stuff but I cannot do anything like that,” Austin quietly mumbled. “The teacher just smiled and pulled the crane out of his pocket. “This crane is very special Austin. I am an adult and I cannot make anything like this. The only things that I can make are like this necklace,” once he while he was speaking he pulled a wooden bead necklace out of his shirt, “and this is something that I have been doing since I was your age.” Austin looked at the necklace surprised, “But Mr. Johnson making cranes is easy!” The teacher smiled as the young child began explaining how a crane was made. By the end of the day the student and teacher had made a small pile of cranes in different colors and having different sizes.

The next day in class Austin proudly made his cranes and told the rest of the students what Mr. Johnson had said. When Mr. Johnson walked pasted the room and saw Austin smiling he was reminded why he began working as an art teacher in the first place.