Danger Syndicate

Being the weird guys we are, Jeff and I participated in today’s Flash Mob Austin mission, a typical “Freeze” deal (for those who don’t know what I’m talking about, it’s where a group of people go to a spot, usually heavily populated, and then freeze for five or so minutes, and quickly leave, acting like nothing happened). The Freeze was at Whole Foods on Lamar, and was a huge success! Tons of people showed up, and Jeff and I, who were late and missed most of the briefing meeting, had no idea how many people were actually involved. We were surprised by the turnout, and didn’t have any idea all of these innocent-looking Whole Foods shoppers were actually dedicated freezers.

By Flash Mob Austin’s estimates, about 200+ people showed up at the park for the briefing, which is AWESOME. A couple “agents” brought camera and video recorders, and this is the first video that FMA posted on YouTube. There aren’t any employee reactions or agent interviews, but it gives you a good idea of what went down (and Jeff is barely visible in the shot at 2:19!).

And here’s a Flickr set of photos taken during the briefing and debriefing periods at the park at 5th and Guadalupe.

After the freeze we went back to the park where the briefing was and everyone told stories, most notably a woman called Paramedics down to the Whole Foods because she thought something was wrong with one frozen man (and apparently didn’t notice everyone else!). The employees made an announcement during the freeze along the lines of “Attention to all the people who just froze, welcome to Whole Foods! We are having a chili cook-off later on and there is a delicious special over by the seafood!” The best thing overheard, though, was probably “Whoa! This must be some sort of rift in the space-time continuum!”

from flickr

All in all, a crazy event that was a lot of fun! Join your local Flash Mob if you know of one, and if your town doesn’t have one, start one! I’m sure Improv Everywhere would be delighted to get more people on board.

For more updates on this mission and other Flash Mob Austin events (please join if you’re living in Austin right now! And if you’re not living in Austin, move here because it’s great!), check out Flash Mob Austin’s site.

Sorry that no one’s posted in a while. The second semester of school started, and damned if it isn’t really really time-consuming.

BUT!

I got the complete works of Lewis Carroll for x-mas, and I am pleased to announce that it is pretty much awesome. A large portion of the book is dedicated to various card and word games that Carroll developed, ranging from simple to extremely complicated (the guy had a lot of free time!), and that is what brings us to todays topic:

Doublets

Doublets, or Word Ladder, is a game invented by Carroll that is endless amounts of fun and intellectual workout. The way it works is this: you have a starting word and a target word, usually related in some way, and you get from the original to the final word by linking to other English words. The way you can do this is by 1. adding a letter 2. removing a letter 3. changing a letter or 4. rearranging the letters (making an anagram). However, in the “purist” version, which is how Carroll originally proposed it, only allows for changing letters. Here is an example:
Evolve MAN to APE. MAN>RAN>RAM>RIM>AIM>AIL>ALL>ALE>APE.

Here are some by Carroll that I have solved:
Add FOUR to FIVE.
Get COAL from MINE.
BLACK fades to WHITE.

And here are some ones I came up with on my own:
READ a BOOK.
RING the dinner BELL.
KNIT her a SOCK.
The ARMY WANTs you.

Carroll also proposes the Doublet “Make a KETTLE HOLDER” using the purist method, but I haven’t solved it yet. Please feel free to try and solve any of these Doublets, and post them in the comments! I want to see if other people come up with better word routes than the ones I used (often there is more than one way to solve a Doublet).

…is definitely the greatest thing! Apple is good at interface design, I’m pretty sure. Everything’s simplified in OS X — not that I couldn’t handle the intense complexity of XP, just that the intense complexity of XP was the root of all of its problems. I imagine Microsoft gets often lost in their own code.

OS X is Unix-based, which is excellent. It runs much faster than my Windows machines with similar specs have (although, to be honest, this is my first dual-core computer…), and I really like the interface much more. The way files, programs, and windows are laid out makes so much sense and keeps everything easy, giving me more time to do stuff.

Dashboard’s nice, I can keep track of D-Syn’s statistics and Twitter, weather, movies, etc. Quicksilver has definitely increased productivity, and if you’re on a Mac and not using, go get it! Right now! It’s deliciously free and unimaginably useful! I could not live without it.

Of course, there are problems with OS X. Not all hardware works with it, I’ve had DJ equipment stop working (but then start working again…?), and some graphic tablets don’t work for Mac, which has limited my options in shopping for one. The way the file system is laid out doesn’t give you a lot of room for customization (i.e. having things where you want), but it’s adaptable enough for me, and anyone who is stubborn in that way has no business working on one of these lovely machines.

The main problem I’ve been having is getting wifi. Whereas my Windows laptop could get perfect reception from this range (which is actually fairly far from the router), the MacBook cannot. I believe this is because I have a Wireless-G router, and the MacBook has a Wireless-N card. I should be upgrading shortly.

All in all, a great, dependable purchase, and a definite upgrade. Bottom line: sexy.