Lunar Bovine – Jason Cobill’s Weblog

Entries from August 2009

Caterpillar Cataclysm

August 25th, 2009 · 3 Comments · Drawing, Observations

So, I keep spotting these amazing caterpillars around my neighborhood, but cataclysmic events (for the caterpillars, at least) keep preventing me from taking pictures, so here’s a couple of quick photoshops.
The first one, a huge green caterpillar, which was nearly the length of my hand, probably 5 inches long, was crawling along on the sidewalk [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: ·

Natasha’s Big Food Adventure

August 24th, 2009 · No Comments · Observations, Ottawa

Natasha’s been participating in an online community called “Ottawa Foodies“, from which she’s been picking up all kinds of excellent dining recommendations and reviews of local food shops. She managed to snag an invitation on Sunday to the (1st?) Ottawa Foodies meetup, and so she cooked her heart out Saturday and Sunday morning so we’d [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: ··········

Lego Star Wars

August 21st, 2009 · 3 Comments · Review

I’ve been working my way through my brother’s PS2 game collection in my spare time. A few weeks ago I started playing “Lego Star Wars”, which I had some apprehension about (it sounds like a ridiculous idea), but I put it in my playstation to amuse my cousins, and discovered that it’s really fun! The [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: ··

The Power Cord Blues

August 20th, 2009 · No Comments · Frustrations

I’ve got the “Power-Cord Aint Properly Supplyin Juice To The Internet Router Bluuuues”. Or more specifically, “The Reds”. Two nights ago the power light on our 2Wire router went red, which according to the manual means the power adapter is shot.
It seems like just a plain vanilla 6 volt DC power adapter – which begs [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: ·····

Microwave Exorcism

August 10th, 2009 · 1 Comment · Frustrations, Observations

There were some electrical system upgrades going on in our building a few weeks ago, and although we unplugged all the sensitive electronics, the microwave was left attached to the wall, and became possessed by evil spirits.
Every so often while we’d be drinking tea in the living room or reading in the office, the control [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: ·

Tune Up

August 6th, 2009 · No Comments · Observations

A few days after the car went in for an oil change, it was time for Jay to go for his tune-up at the doctor’s. My physical was pretty routine (I’m still 5′8″ & 3/4, despite 15 years of stretching to try to break an even 5′9) but it turned out I was overdue for [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: ······

Canadian Stats

August 5th, 2009 · 2 Comments · Frustrations, Observations

On a bit of a stats kick, I decided to go browse over the tables at Statistics Canada, and ran into a surprising amount of data that you have to pay for. The data is not particularly expensive ($3 for the tables I was looking at) and I’m sure it’s full of juicy numbers… but [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: ···

Guardian Data Store

August 5th, 2009 · No Comments · Observations

Through Jeremy Thorpe’s excellent visualization experiments blog blprnt, I found the Guardian Data Store, a repository of Google Spreadsheets full of fascinating data. They’ve got a smattering of subjects available, from world population totals to pop music charts, and in many cases the data is broken down into subcategories of very useful fine grain and [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: ··

Grands Feux

August 4th, 2009 · No Comments · Ottawa

I’ve gotten to see way more than my fair share of fireworks this year – St. Jean Baptiste from our balcony, Canada Day when the whole neighborhood seemed to be packed with roman candles, the International Competition in Montreal was timed just right to let us catch Australia’s tremendous show from the Vieux Port, and [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: ··

Bobby McFerrin Science Lecture

August 3rd, 2009 · No Comments · Music

I stumbled into this very cool video of Bobby McFerrin (the “Don’t worry be happy” guy) demonstrating the power of collective musical expectations – playing the audience’s brainsĀ  like a piano. Super neat.
I’ve always been a fan of his musical experimentation – but you rarely hear about him unless you’re looking. I wish he had [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: ···