Quantum Singularity [...Adam M. Bartz...]

I can't hear you over the awesomeness of this mustache.

2010-11-01T09:06:00.000-07:00

Today begins the yearly event commonly referred to as No-Shave November. This year, with any luck, I will be participating all month long. I say 'with any luck' because I'm not entirely sure that I will be supported what so ever by my girlfriend and other friends. I may or may not be attacked sometime during the month.

In honor of the beginning of the month, both at the beginning and the end of this post are some wonderful references for what you can do with facial hair.

And don't feel that just because you can't grow decent or any facial hair, you can't participate. For women, the easiest way you can participate is by not shaving your legs. It may seem gross, but on the bright side, you may be a bit warmer this November.

Men: Don't forget, just because you can't grow any respectable facial hair doesn't mean you should be ashamed to participate. I can't grow a good looking beard to save my life, but I like to try anyway.

If I can remember, and we all know how well my memory is, at the end of each day in November, I will take a picture. This picture will show the growth. So don't feel awkward, because you won't be more awkward than me!

Didn't see that one coming.

2010-10-25T07:50:00.000-07:00

The epic Warhammer battle that I was expecting didn't go as I had originally planned. It was supposed to be a 2 vs 3 match of Bretonnian & Tomb Kings versus Wood Elves, Vampire Counts, & Beastmen. By the time we got around to figuring out what we wanted to do, it was far too late to begin a decent point match. Instead we threw together a five-way objective match. The objectives were pretty simple, and I ended up coming in second place (completed my objective of collecting 3 flags, but I didn't get the most victory points of those who completed the objectives).

On the brighter side, I believe that this weekend should be a painting marathon. With any luck, I'll be updating my painting diary a bit. Speaking of which, here are a few photographs I took from my last painting session.

From Warhammer Painting Diary

In theory, all of my Raiders will be similar to him. I'm still trying to decide what to do with the skin, but it's working for now.

All we want to do is eat your brains

2010-10-22T09:21:00.000-07:00

I'm not entirely sure what prompted me to think about the Quantum Singularity, but it popped into my mind. I started to wonder how long it had been since my last post. When I looked, I felt kinda bad that I haven't posted anything since my mom's passing. But now is a good of a time as any to get back on top of things and start posting on a semi-regular basis again (and hopefully there will be some casts too).

Just wanted to let you know I'm still alive. Rumor has it that there is going to be a large scale Warhammer match tonight between the Wood Elves, Beastmen, Tomb Kings, and Bretonnian. :)

In memory of Carrie A. Bartz

2010-07-01T13:00:00.000-07:00

I come posting a not-so-happy cast. On June 21st, 2010, my mom suddenly passed away in her home. The following cast was created in rememberence. It contains the obituary notice that was posted in the Pioneer Press newspaper and also contains something that I shared during the service about my mom.

Click here to download the Special Cast

I mention a couple times in there about a website about my mom. You can reach that website at http://www.carriebartz.com

Splat.

2010-06-15T07:13:00.000-07:00

So, I have successfully plastered myself against a wall with all of the work that I've stacked on myself. Somewhere along the line, I thought it was a good idea to accept a second job here at school during the summer. My workload has exploded from 15 hours a week to nearly 40 hours a week.

"Adam. Quit your complaining. Most people work 40 hours a week and you don't see them complaining."

You're right. I don't. And in fact, I used to work more than this per week. Back in the day, I worked for the State of Minnesota at the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. I worked there during the week for 40 hours, and then I was still employed at Target on the weekends, working another 30 hours. 70 hours a week baby, this is nothing. But wait, my story gets better! I'm also taking a summer class, CS 111 because I need to get a higher grade (B- or better) to get accepted into the Computer Science major in order to finish my degree.

"Pfft. That's nothing. People go to school and work full time jobs all the time. They're called graduate students."

Yeah yeah, I realize this. I mean, again, I used to do that. Referring back to my 70 hours a week, I also was a full time student at St. Paul College. 70 hours + 16 credits = batshit crazy. Now I'm only 40 hours + 4 credits. Not too bad. Life can get a bit crazy and stressful, but nothing out of the ordinary. But wait, my story gets better! I'm also doing some freelance web design projects for 3 different people.

"Now you're just pulling my leg."

I wish I was. I'm kinda hungry because I ran out of money for groceries and am stuck eating ramen and tortilla chips until June 18th. One of the projects I've kinda let slide more than I should because I believe down-time (7-ish hours a day) can strike a nice balance. What does my downtime consist, you ask? About 4 hours of sleep and 3 hours of video games/goofing around on the internet. Sometimes I change around my sleep to gaming ratio, but on average, that's what I get.

So that's my life in a nutshell. It is a poor excuse for not putting up any casts recently, but it's the best I've got. I've got some 'vacation' time coming up next week, so maybe I will try to put together a few special casts while I'm out in San Diego, California. Perhaps you all can watch me get burnt to a crisp. So yeah. Who knows. Maybe after work tonight I'll put something together.

A day late and a dollar short

2010-06-03T07:57:00.000-07:00

Thanks for everyone who replied on facebook, sent @me tweets on Twitter or sent me an e-mail about my idea for GameShelf. I've decided that I'll be sharing this application once I have a beta version ready for release. I don't have any clue how long it will take me to write this up, but my current goal is to have it done before school begins in late-August.

This brings me to something else I wanted to talk about. I know every college student says it, but I feel that I need to add my opinion to the already overwhelming pool of people: I can't wait to be done with school.

I say this not because I have been in school for the past umpteen million years, but because I am super excited to get my career started. Although it sounds boring and tedious (because it is), I look forward to the day when I'm spending my life in a poorly lit office with no windows, being bathed in soylent green, and working on the next generation of computer software. Why do I look forward to such a grim future? A job where printer paper will have more color than my skin? Because I will feel like I am contributing something useful. Right now, I'm writing code that I may or may not reuse, learning languages I won't every touch again, and studying studying theories that may be obsolete by the time I hit the real world. To me, this doesn't seem like a good use of my time, but I understand the need for it. In many other majors, the coursework that a person learns in their college career, as long as they get a job/career in their field of study, proves useful right away and typically stays with them until they're done with their job. Computer Science on the other hand, is not that nice. For example, I'm currently doing a lot of work with higher level languages (C++, Java, PHP), because that's where my field is. Why do I need to learn Assembly? Yes, it is a useful language to understand how electronic logic works, but doesn't do much else for me. Isn't that what the engineers are for? Since they make the hardware, they should program its basic logic functions and then the higher level programmers take it and make it something the sheeple can use.

Now, before you say "drop out of school and just jump into the workforce". No. There's a several reasons why I'm going through the painful process of college and the most important of those reasons is that most firms don't hire anyone worth doing anything unless they have a degree. Yes, I could work at a help desk and get my techno-fix that way, but it wouldn't be as satisfying, nor would it be a career.

I also don't want to turn into the next Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. I'm not looking to make a ton of money for some sort of product that will revolutionize computing and force the majority of consumers into blindly accepting my product, then forcing them to use only it for the rest of their lives. If I'm going to be working with people, I'd rather work alongside them instead of above them. Yes, I understand why positions such as project leads and managers exist, but that kind of stuff doesn't matter to me. I feel that when I find my niche, it'll be in a small development firm (hopefully my own), where I am working with about five or six other programmers to create something great. Something that may or may not revolutionize computing, but revolutionize the experience of using a computer/technology.

So that's my little rant for today. Hopefully I will have some sort of cast up this weekend. I've got coding projects coming out my ears, so we'll see. My goal is a video cast, however, you may have to suffer with just a plain old audio cast.

Not ____cast worthy

2010-05-31T22:37:00.000-07:00

Just as a brainchild I want to write down (and hopefully not get stolen). I'm gonna start working on a personal application that I'm, for the moment, calling GameShelf. This program/application will act as a virtual 'bookshelf'. Instead of holding the titles (and covers, publishers, synopsis info, etc) of books, I want it to hold video games for all current systems with similar information. At the moment, I am thinking of developing this application just for Facebook and Android Market (v1.5+). The reason I'm kinda throwing this out there is to ask this from my readers/viewers/passerbys: If something like this was available, would you use it? You would be able to keep track of games you've completed, games you're in progress of, and games currently on your wishlist.

Please drop a line for any suggestions, or even if you'd simply use something like this.

Podcast number two!

2010-05-25T20:02:00.000-07:00

So, I've put together another audio version for my blog. Podcast-style. Which also features opening and closing music by Tom Lehrer! Anyway...

Click this link to download the mp3.

If you enjoyed the music by Tom Lehrer, you can get more here: Last.fm on Tom Lehrer
Preserve: Nothing wasted. Everything gained.
And this is the realm of the World of Darkness

And the podcasting begins....

2010-05-18T11:39:00.000-07:00

So, I decided to record myself again. This time, in a podcast/audio only form. :) Anyway. Here is a link to the mp3.

Download the Podcast [EDIT 05/22/2010 - I properly edited this post, so now there isn't any awkward silence. Huzzah.]

As I have mentioned in the show, here are some links for you to enjoy.

Dr. Who - The Tenth Doctor
Wil Wheaton's Radio Free Burrito
Games-Workshop Warhammer

If you enjoy this, please feel free to contact me via a comment reply, e-mail, tweet something to @ninjaweasel, or whatever!

I'm not dead yet

2010-05-15T22:26:00.000-07:00

So, it has been quite a while since I have posted anything. My original intent was to have a daily video blog going, and then I got sick, then I got busy, and the finals hit. But that doesn't excuse me from at least trying to TYPE a blog post. Ya know, since that's how blogs originated.

So, I just wanted to share that I'm not dead yet. What I have in progress is an audio blog (possibly a video blog if I can find a place that doesn't look like a mess...or I can't find a place to host audio) that will be summarizing the past while of my life, a nostalgic moment I had earlier today about video games, and a glimpse at the upcoming projects I have this summer. I will also be sharing some notes on my Warhammer painting diary, and anything else that may come up between now and my posting of that.

2010-03-29T23:49:00.000-07:00

Alright! Let's hear it for the second episode of the video blog!!! ...yeah, that was lame. I apologize for the crappy audio-video sync, but as soon as I get my act together, I'll be uploading videos that actually are timed correctly.

Again, thank you to all three viewers that I have that read/watch my blog. You are my heroes.

2010-03-28T23:47:00.000-07:00

So, this is my first video blog segment entitled, Episode 00.0. I hope they will continue as an alternative/addition to text blogging and make me update this a little bit more frequently. But seeing as how it is almost 2:00am, I'm going to call it a night.

It's just another power of two

2010-03-09T21:46:00.000-08:00

Just a quick note, since I don't have a whole lot of time tonight. For some reason, I've recently discovered that my night has been revolving around powers of 2. When I wrote my facebook post, I had about 8 hours before I had to be at work for 4 hours, where I would then afterwards meet with my advisor for another 2 hours about 1 bid (for all of you who don't know your exponents, 2 raised to the 0 is 1).

Hopefully, more will be written tomorrow afternoon before I pass out. It is spring break afterall, and I don't have anything better to do than blog. Haha...

2010-03-01T06:46:00.001-08:00

Oh life, why do you insist on keeping me busy?

Spring semester 2010 is almost at it's half way point. Spring break is almost here, and many students here are ready for it to arrive. We need something more than just the normal 2 day weekend to relax and not worry about our academics. You can only push for so long before you break, right? I really should keep that in mind.

Things that have been going on in my life include:

Winning a bid to help relocate and redevelop a website for a teacher conference

Creating a bid for a Regional Board of Directors position for MACURH

Actually getting work done for ZBT Development

Sparring

Playing the love that is Tales of Symphonia (under orders)

My RHA job is also getting a bit more stressful. I have a few award bids to write, a committee to guide to review a constitution, and some working relationships to repair/keep under control. Oh, how lovely.

I guess I'm kind of looking forward to spring break. My sister said that she would come and hang out with me for a couple days, which is exciting. I'm also excited to be able to have some time alone with the girlfriend. We've been together for about a month and a half (or so), and we've only had time for one date. It'll be refreshing to be able to have some time to work some romance into both of our lives and have that as the highlight of a day instead of writing a paper or preparing for a midterm.

Folding space, thus reducing time.

2010-01-24T13:25:00.001-08:00

"The silence isn't so bad. 'til I look at my hands and feel sad 'cause the spaces between my fingers are right where yours fit perfectly." - Vanilla Twilight by Owl City.

This song, specifically this little chunk of the song, has been looping through my head. It's also been the ONLY song on my playlist for the past few days. I see no direct correlation.

In other news, it's been a while since I've posted. I've been trying to take this weekend to get caught up on life, and this blog post was one of those things. My classes, as I thought, are proving to be difficult which in turn makes them that more interesting. It is nice to be challenged. And fairly refreshing.

I don't have a whole lot to say today. I had a bunch of things I wanted to put in here, but they've escaped me now. Oh well. Maybe while I'm playing Super Mario Brothers Wii I will figure them out again.

Computer assisted design - It takes an idea and makes 3D stuff

2010-01-05T15:23:00.000-08:00

So, it's been a while since I've last updated. Yes, a little bit over two weeks. However!! In my defense, I've had a lot of preperations for Christmas, New Year's, and helping my sister move out of our parent's house. The end of 2009 was quite full, but very pleasing.

With the beginning of 2010 underway, the second half of the academic calender is about to begin. I've discovered, that the academic calenders don't seem as important as they once were in high school. Mainly because there are 3 points in which a person can graduate from college, unlike in high school when everyone graduated at the same time. In college, you look at them only to tell when classes start, end, finals week begins and ends, and when any breaks/three-day weekends occur. I've used it a few more times than that to figure out deadlines for the Undergraduate research conference, but that's about it.

However, I'm also excited to start my classes. I have some difficult classes ahead of me starting this coming Monday (January, 11th). They should prove exciting though. Upcoming, I have Calculus II, Human Anatomy, Machine Structure and Programming, Public Speaking, and a Computer Science Seminar course. This will be the deciding point about where I want to go with my education. Right now, I'm sitting at a point where I could choose any one of a million possibilities that involve computers and technology. However, I have focused in on three or so possibilities. The first is taking a purely Computer Science route. Taking on this as my only major would involve taking up a minor, which based on the classes I'm currently enrolled in, would likely be Biology. It is one of the quickest minors I can obtain without taking the Mathematics minor built into the Computer Science major. Another route which is closely similar is Software Engineering. This differs from Computer Science near the end of the academics. Some courses are no longer required, but a few others are then required in the place of the dropped courses. An idea that springs to mind is, 'Why not go for both?' That is very possible. However, a little bit of digging brought up another alternative. This being Cognitive Science. With various concentrations, I could major in this and have a deeper understanding of 4 different fields (Computer Science, Biology, Philosophy, and Psychology). Should I concentrate in Computer Science while majoring in Coginitive Science, approximately half of a Computer Science degree would be earned. And THAT has made me think of earning 3 degrees. However, this would then require me to push myself harder academically then I've ever pushed myself before. And I have a feeling that I would be the first to walk down this path. My interests in computers has drawn me toward Artificial Intelligence. And that's why I'm tempted to look at Cognitive Science, since this is one of the larger focuses of the field. I'm not sure what I will be doing, but I have until late March to figure it out.

But everyone needs balance in their life. As I talked about in my last post, I've involved myself into a game called Warhammer. This past weekend, I spent some time with friends of mine and we sat around almost all weekend and built models that we had either purchased or had been gifted with. Based on the game's point system for their models, I have roughly 1200 points in models alone. With various 'upgrades' that the game system can provide and proxying 1 piece, I can field an army worth almost 2000 points. This makes me smile. I was able to go from 0 points - 2000 points in nearly a month. However, this will involve a great deal of painting, patience, and possibly frustration when they released my army's updated armybook. It is due for release in February and very little information is being released to the public. I am new to the scene, so I am not particularly phased by the lack of information. From what I've read, however, this is not exactly a promising sign. From the rumors I have been reading, I fear that one of my model units (called the Pestigors) won't be useable anymore (point wise, that's nearly 10% of my army). But, we'll just have to see if January will produce any more rumors or facts from Games-Workshop.

I think that will conclude my update for today.

Except for this: I still haven't forgotten about the photographic, audio, or video versions of what I want to do with this blog. I'm still trying to determine the best ways of getting these accomplished with no cost to myself, which is proving difficult.

A different kind of acceleration

2009-12-21T01:02:00.000-08:00

I strongly believe that each and every geek has some sort of gaming that isn't console, handheld or computer-based. I used to dabble in Dungeons & Dragons while I was high school and my first year of college. My second year and so far in my third, I've participated in a little bit more than just that. I've played several campaigns in the realm called World of Darkness. It's similar to D&D, but the rules are a bit more strict. It's more serious than D&D, which on some levels makes it a little bit more attractive. Alas, though, these two wonderful tabletop games are not the purpose of this post.

Where I'd like to draw your attention to, only because it has recently fascinated me, is the realm of Warhammer. Specifically, the Warhammer Fantasy section of Warhammer. And by recently fascinated, I mean I've started to really get into it over the past two months or so. The game runs a little bit like this: You choose your race, you buy models of that race to represent your army on a battlefield, and you fight against another army based on a couple pieces of paper and some(times a lot) of d6.

The army I have chosen is the Beasts of Chaos. As their name suggests, they're an army of beastmen and various nasty creatures. As far as I can tell, they're kind of a difficult race to get a first grasp of and to win consistently with. This is due to their lack of everything but melee options. Because I only recently obtained some of my own models, I have been proxying with models from various other armies that my friends have graciously let me borrow for games. Now, don't get me wrong. The Beasts do have *some* magic. However, I have not had very good luck with it. I can't decide if my army is just not suited for magic or Manfred (the first model I received, and the General for my army) just really does not like magic. He has tried to be all magical twice. The first time he exploded on the field, and the second time most of his spells just kinda fizzled.

Anyway, I went to the local hobby store by my house to buy myself some glue to start putting these guys together. I started with my Bestigors since they're metal and take almost no time to put together. Right now, the primer is drying, and I'll soon be able to paint them. Don't know what kind of palette I'll use on them, but I'm sure it'll look awesome...eventually. I'd take some in progress photos, but I don't really have the lighting for it (or for painting them in the first place). If I can get some decent lighting, I'll take a picture of them primered and various stages in their painting progress.

Myriad of possibilities

2009-12-17T23:28:00.000-08:00

Every once in a while I go on binges of geekiness in hopes of bettering myself. Well, often this makes me, in fact, appear even more geeky to the rest of the world. In tonight's binge, I decided that some of the things that I have stumbled upon while scouring the internet should get posted to my blog and shared with the world. Granted, I understand that nobody reads this yet, but someday, it'll get read and enjoyed.

The first thing I wanted to share is not actually from the internet, unless you buy it there. Conveniently, at the end of this segment, there will be a link to where you can purchase this book. For my birthday, I received a book called The Geeks' Guide To World Domination by Garth Sundem. I read it in bursts because it's actually pretty good stuff. In essence, this book is geek humor at its finest, talking about science, math, latin, beer, and many other geeky subjects. But something that I found to be very true to my own existence is the following passage from Sundem's introduction to the book:

"...we rocketeers remained geek kings and queens of only the rocket club (and - in the spirit of full disclosure - later the jazz band and the math club and the chess clubs. Wow, this is actually rather cathartic). Today, with highly specialized knowledge of all sorts driving the world, it is as if more and more people are clamoring for inclusion in these clubs. Everyone now wants and needs information, leading to a much wider pool of adoration for the alpha geeks in each discipline.

It may be no revelation that yesterday's geeks rule today's world. A quote widely misattributed to Bill Gates: "Don't make fun of geeks because one day you will end up working for one." But with most of society now acting as phytoplankton at the base of the ecosystems in wich geeks are the alpha predators, we are not only driving the traditional geek fields, but we're starting to drive cool as well."

After reading this, I started thinking about my life. No no, I'm not going to get all emotional and sappy about my hard-knock life. But I am going to say that I'm pretty sure that I've made the correct choice going into Computer Science and Software Engineering. Although it is a very geeky field (in a tie with the physics, chemistry and mathematics), I will be the person who will say, "Yes. This can be done." Thus, envied by everyone. Now, I just have to work on being ridiculously good looking and life will be happy! Haha. Who am I kidding. Anyway, here's your link to purchase this book.

Moving onto the second the I wanted to share is Wil Wheaton. Okay, I'm not actually going to cut him up into little pieces and give everyone a piece of Wil Wheaton, but I'm going to turn your attention to a couple of things that he does. First one, is his Twitter account. Good stuff to follow. And easy to do if you have Google Chrome and Chromed Bird. The second piece of information about Wil Wheaton I want to bring everyone's attention to is his blog, WWdN: In Exile. It's fun to read, and I'm glad I stumbled upon it. And finally, he has two podcasts that I have downloaded and am currently listening to. So far, I haven't listened to Memories of the Futurecast yet, but I do know that Radio Free Burrito is absolutely brilliant.

The last thing I want to share with you tonight is short video series called The Guild. It grabs various stereotypes about video gamers (specifically MMO gamers), and pulls the attributes apart and takes a handful of them to their extremes. It's highly entertaining. Not that I encourage the use of torrents or anything, but you can easily find the first two 'seasons' of The Guild on Bit Torrent search engines, or you can watch them through YouTube. Or, apparently, you can go to their website: WatchTheGuild[dot]com and....ya know, watch it.

And on that note, inspired by Mr. Wheaton, I'm going to add another thing to things that I may think about adding as features to this blog. That addition may be a podcast. Not wanting to do this alone, I tried to convince a friend of mine to co-host a podcast with me, however, this may not happen with her until the end of January at the earliest. I might solo one before then...but who knows. I'm still trying to put everything together to get a reader base before I attempt to get much of a listen base. Though now that I think about it, it might be an amazing idea to get both of these off the ground. Heh, I'm a genius.

Space and time are...relative?

2009-12-15T10:17:00.000-08:00

I'm in the process of moving out of my bedroom. Don't worry, I'm not actually moving anywhere permanent. I'm just packing up all my stuff and pretty much moving/storing it in my parent's basement until I am done with school and/or get a place of my own. With me being at school 8-9 months out of the year, my mother decided that she would like to use my bedroom as a guest bedroom. She has similar plans for my sister's bedroom, since she has started talking about moving out and into an apartment with one of her best friends.

I've also contemplated adding another feature to this blog: having photoblog content. Or perhaps even a photo webcomic. I'm still playing around with all of the features that Google is capable of (or has purchased), so I'm not entirely sure how or when I might implement these ideas.

I'm also excited to say that I'll be beginning the programming of my research project later this week, along with writing up some either web code or game code for a project with students from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities. My research is trying to find underlying patterns within a few of Cellular Automata using Particle Swarm Optimization. With any luck, it won't backfire. The game/advertisement is a space conquest game that I've been asked to do some web development for and possibly some Java programming. We'll see how it goes. I haven't connected to the server where everything is being stored for a few weeks, but oh well.

Infinite in time, mass, and velocity

2009-12-14T23:36:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the Quantum Singularity blog. This blog will be used to document various things within my life. In short: I don't know the purpose of this blog. It could touch on things I find amusing, progress that I make on my research, hardships that I may be dealing with, or anything else under the sun. I will also be keeping a mobile blog as well. A link to it has been posted on the sidebar on the right hand side. Based on it's name, 'Singularity: On the Run', I plan to throw just quick posts there when I don't have access to a computer or don't have time to write up a full blog post.