All Nighter For ICM...

Well I am still up and it's morning almost sunrise. Been up working on my midterm for my Introduction to Computational Media, aka I.C.M. aka programming, class. Well I finished it about a half hour ago but I will have to be up because I'm expecting a package this morning from UPS so I need to be up and if I sleep I won't wake up. I'll sleep after I guess. But, enough of that, what was the midterm? Well it was more like a homework assignment then a full blown project. I decided to continue working with data parsed from icasualties.org. I took data on the monthly statistics of those killed by IEDs in the Iraq war in conjunction with the total casualties per month. I took the data and created a program to visualize it, it's a rather abstract visualization/representation of the data. The IED data expands along the x-axis while the total casualties data expands on the y-axis. Each death is one pixel of growth. Right now it is asynchronous. Its odd at times when both sets of data coincide with large numbers the result is cross like. I.C.M. Midterm

Of course today is also election day, me I'm an absentee so no going to someone's garage or some elementary school to vote. There is a pretty cool project Audrey told me about and I'll pass it on to you so take a picture when your out voting. pollingplacephotoproject.org. Also, regarding the election one of the most devious computer based phone banking thing I've ever heard of turned up, being used by of course that Grand Ole' Party. Robo Call Barage. The blasted thing calls you repeatedly if you hang up, and it acts like it's the Dem's calling you. If you listen to the whole message it teabags the Dem. Canidate. Bloody devious and mallicious. Oh yeah and bloody go out and vote.

More on Iraq. There was an article in the NY Times about Sniper's in Iraq taking it's toll on coalition forces. It's a fairly straight forward article but what got me was the front image. It's very graphic, way out of the norm, especially in such a large and mainstream newspaper. I'd read it. Sniper Attacks Adding to Peril of U.S. Troops

The N.Y.C. Marathon was run yesterday. The Kenyans did not when, shocking. A brazillian won, I hadn't really heard much about him. The American's didn't do as well as hoped, especially for the women's race. The women's race wasn't much of a race in fact, the leader got away from the pack early, everyone ran way to timidly. There's more, Lance Armstrong, I guess figured he'd try his hand at the marathon. Of course, why not? Well, apparently he lacked respect for the race, the distance, and to me the sport of distance running. "I think I bit off more than I could chew, I thought the marathon would be easier," said Armstrong. His longest run was 16 miles aka improper training. He did make his time, sub 3 hours, which is pretty good considering. However, halfway through he started getting shin splints. He hit the wall. Basically he ended up hobbeling in. "For the level of condition that I have now, that was without a doubt the hardest physical thing I have ever done," said Armstrong. He probably won't be able to walk right for a week or two. That's what it'll do to you. You can read about the rest.SI.com: Different Wheels

Welll that's it for now, I'm gonna go outside and take some pics hopefully of the sunrise. I've done some all nighters already but I hadn't had a chance to go out and take pics, I like to do that typically. I have pictures for most of the all nighters I pulled at Cal Arts. It's something that started then. Well off I go into the cold, weather.com says it feels like 36 degrees, agh!