Little Worlds art, No. 4

A little while back, I received some art from 4of7, a regular visitor and commenter on IMAO. He is an artist, and has his own blog, Little Worlds, where you can view some of his art.

Here’s another one of the pieces of art 4of7 shared, and that I’m please to now share with you.

Fun With Cubes #4 – 3 Point Maze. Copyright © 2013 Don Scholand. Used with permission.

I have more to share in future posts.

Robot musicians

Robots have been doing scary things.

There have been robot snakes, pee-drinking robots, pizza-deliverying robot killer whales, killer surgeon robots, ...

The list goes on and on. Because robots are taking over the world. Not like we humans have done anything good with it, but still. Robot overlords? Not sure I'm crazy about that idea.

But, maybe not all robots are bad. Maybe they can be here to amuse us. Like the robots that make music.

In Japan, there's a thing called Z-Machines that will be releasing a record in April called "Music For Robots." Actually, it's music by robots. Here's a sample:


[The YouTube]

So, robots aren't all bad.

Unless this is a plot to keep us entertained while they take over. If so, at least we'll be entertained while soulless beings with no regard for human decency make the decisions. Kind of like the Democrats in charge. But with entertainment.

Little Worlds art, No. 3

Some time back, I received some art from 4of7, a regular visitor and commenter on IMAO. He is an artist, and has his own blog, Little Worlds, where you can view some of his art.

Here’s another one of the pieces of art 4of7 shared, and that I’m please to now share with you.

Fun With Cubes #3 – Summer 2013. Copyright © 2013 Don Scholand. Used with permission.

I have more I’ll share in future posts.

Classic Doctor Who Season 12

I'm watching the classic Doctor Who episodes because ... I forget why, but I've started, and doggone it, I'm gonna see it through. I'm up to Season 12 now, and that means Tom Baker as The Doctor. The 12th season was only 20 episodes long, comprising five serials.

The first serial, Robot (4 episodes), indicated just how much the show changed over the first 12 years. The show was very serious when it began, with the occasional bit of levity. Patrick Troughton brought more humor to the show, as did Jon Pertwee. But right off the bat, Tom Baker was a clown. Literally. When The Doctor awoke following his regeneration, and changed clothes several times, including once coming out of the TARDIS as a clown. And, the odd getup that Baker was known for wearing was the least strange of the outfits he was trying on at the time, so the Brigadier told him it was fine and hurried him to investigate the case they had.

That serial also introduced the character Harry Sullivan (Ian Marter), who would travel with The Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) for the remainder of the season.

A season-long arc (or remaining season arc) began in The Ark in Space (4 episodes). Arc. Ark. Get it? The Doctor and his companions travel to space station Nerva (the aforementioned "ark") in the far future and save the day. The ending leads directly to The Sontaran Experiment (2 episodes), which featured the Sontarans, the second but nowhere near the last of appearances by that group of bad guys.

Tom Baker broke his collarbone during the taping of The Sontaran Experiment, but that big, stupid scarf hid the brace he had to wear. So, +1 for the big stupid scarf.

At the conclusion, they try to get back to Nerva and the TARDIS, but the Time Lords intervene and send them on an impossible mission against the Daleks. They'd spend the rest of the season trying to get back to Nerva.

The serial Genesis of the Daleks (6 episodes), tells of, well, the genesis of the Daleks. We meet Davros for the first time. He's the dude that created them. He's stuck in a Captain Pike-mobile, but can talk. He does have a flashing light, though. In a mission doomed to failure, The Doctor (Tom Baker) goes back to the time of the creation of the Daleks, in order to change history. Apparently, The Doctor (Tom Baker) forgot that The Doctor (William Hartnell) told Barbara in Season One's The Aztecs that history can't be changed ("Believe me, I know!").

That ends with a return to Nerva, but at too early a time. They battle the Cybermen in Revenge of the Cybermen (4 episodes). The Cyberman hadn't appeared since Season Six's The Invasion, excepting a brief cameo in Season 10's Carnival of Monsters in which they played no role. There is a plot hole big enough to drive a TARDIS through in that serial. Gold is poisonous to Cybermen. Yet, some Cybermen land on a planet that's made of gold (or has it lying around all over the place).

Remember that after first meeting then battling the Cybermen in Season Four's The Tenth Planet, The Doctor (William Hartnell) died and renewed? Well, during this serial that reintroduced the Cybermen, between the broadcast of episodes one (19 April 1975) and two (26 April 1973), William Hartnell actually died (23 April 1975).

On that sad note, Season 12 ended, and The Doctor and his companions entered the TARDIS to head to Season 13. As shall we.

Little Worlds art, No. 2

A while back, I received some art from 4of7, a regular visitor and commenter on IMAO. He is an artist, and has his own blog, Little Worlds, where you can view some of his art.

Here’s another one of the pieces of art 4of7 shared, and that I’m please to now share with you.

Fun With Cubes #2 – City Block. Copyright © 2013 Don Scholand. Used with permission.

I have more I’ll share in a future post.

A great-grandma phone

My mother is thinking of getting a smart phone. She has one of those indestructible flip phones that makes and receives calls. Does it very well. But, she wants more.

She likes to text. Yes, there's a 78-year-old woman in southeast Georgia that stays in touch with her daughters and grand-daughters (and grand-sons, too, I suppose) by texting. Of course, on one of those little flip phones, If she wants to say "Thank you," she has to type 88,444,22,666,555,###,9999,6966,888. And, if she accidentally goes too far, she has to keep pressing until it goes back around. You remember those days, right? Well, that's called "Wednesday" where she's from. It's also called "Thursday through Tuesday."

Well, she thinks she wants a smart phone. Everybody else has one, and she don't want to be left out. And she's not sure what she wants to do.

She's thinking about an iPhone, but they're just so expensive. So she's wondered about one of those Samsung Galaxy S4 phones. But they're expensive, too. Her oldest daughter has one of those DROID MAXX RAZR things. One of those phones where words are spelled all capitalized and wrong. She doesn't want one of them, because she sees where my sister is always on the Facebook complaining about it, and she doesn't want to spend a lot of money on something to complain about. There are lot cheaper ways to find something to complain about.

Now, last summer, I sought out some advice for myself and many of y'all suggested the Samsung Galaxy S3 or S4. Of course, some other phones were suggested, too, and they sounded good. I ended up getting an iPhone 5, but not because I ignored the suggestions. It was because I went with a smaller carrier that had a limited selection. I actually got a Samsung phone from the carrier, but they didn't have the really good ones (no Galaxy S3 or S4) like y'all suggested. And, boy did I find out there's a difference between the Samsung Galaxy and the Samsung SomethingElse. Ended up replacing it with an iPhone 5, and been happy.

Well, my mother is on Verizon. And they have a good selection of phones. I just want to make sure she's happy with whatever smart phone she gets. I'm going to suggest an iPhone (based on my personal experience), or a Samsung Galaxy S4 (based on the rave reviews y'all and others I know have given). I'm also going to show her the rest of the suggestions y'all made last summer. But, since that was nearly a year ago, and lots of things happen in a short time in the technocracy world, I'm going to ask y'all again if there's currently another phone she needs to consider.

What, if anything, should I add to the list:

• iPhone
• Samsung Galaxy S4

What else goes on this list?

Thanks.

Little Worlds art, No. 1

A while back, I received some art from 4of7. If you weren't aware, in addition to being a regular visitor and commenter on IMAO, he is an artist, and has his own blog, Little Worlds, where you can view some of his art:

I call them "little worlds" because each one is unique and separate, constructed according to the internal rules I set for it, with just a touch of randomness allowed into the design, to bring it to life and make it just unpredictable enough to be interesting. I never know for sure how each design will turn out until the last line is drawn and the last block of color is applied.

I've been wanting to share some of the art I received, but, well, for a while, I didn't have a scanner. Yes, I could have run up to Walgreens and scanned it, but I planned on getting a printer with a scanner, so I waited. Well, it's now months later, but I'm no longer a slacker without a scanner. I'm a slacker with a scanner.

Here's one of the pieces of art 4of7 shared, and that I'm please to now share with you.

Fun With Cubes #1 - Braided Cubes. Copyright © 2013 Don Scholand. Used with permission.

I have more I'll share in a future post.