dennis yang dot com

Actually, I think I saw it…

Ahh.. summers in Ohio. What did that mean? Trips to amusement parks and carnivals, mainly: Cedar Point (the gem), Geagua Lake (since closed, sadly), and Sea World (closed for awhile apparently, even though on my last trip to Ohio, I happily advised my row-mate to “definitely go check it out” — oops. Figures, it never really made sense to put an ocean park in OHIO of all places, did it?).

Anyway, without further adieu, here’s my list of carnival games that I love. I was talking with Steph the other day and that Roller Bowler game came to mind, and that was inspiration enough for this post. Thanks Steph!

Roller Bowler.
Man, this game was awesome. Deceptively simple, yet wickedishly hard. Oooo.. There’s one for sale on eBay! Only 104 days till Christmas! Act Now!

Whac-a-Mole.
Ok, even though I said that Steph inspired this post, that’s only half true. Cuz Masnick wrote up a post last night that mentioned this game, and I was like “Wow, two mentions of carnival games in one week — yah, I should write this up.” I do remember that it was fairly easy to cheat at this game though. At some kid’s birthday party at Chuck-E-Cheese’s in like 1986, I recall four kids, each with their hands holding down a mole. The moles had no chance, and the machine was streaming out tickets like a mofo, natch.

That Spinny Rope Ladder Game.
I did love this game, although apparently being a fat, nerdy kid does not prime you for a career in spinny rope ladder walking. I never did get even remotely close to that darned bell. Oh, the bell!

Other games that I love, but this list is getting long.
Shoot Out The Star (man, I love that game). Shoot The Clown In The Mouth With A Water Gun. Throw Darts At Balloons. Throw Rings At Bottles. Throw Balls At Bottles. Throw Dimes On Plates.

Hmmm. It appears that I love all carnival games. I can’t really think of one that I don’t like. Man, I’m a sucker. Or maybe just a huge aficionado of ginormous stuffed animals.

Oh, SNAP! I just found this: Wii Carnival Games.

So.. a few years ago, I posted an image of a monkey washing a cat. Well, you’re all in luck, because I came across it again, and this time, bigger and in higher quality.

Behold:

If anyone ever tells you that the Internet is a waste of time, you can send them right over here.

Giddyup.

[Found at dark roasted blend]

So, yah, I have a secret love for particle physics. There, I said it.

In the 11th grade, I attended a super nerdy particle physics summer camp at Northwestern.. Yah, while most kids were out frolicking their summers away, I was learning about all sorts of uber-nerdy stuff like quarks, muons, something-ons, and a whole bunch of stuff that really was completely useless from the standpoint of a high school kid. And, we got to go and visit Fermilab which is this super huge particle accelerator. That said, it was pretty much the peak of my particle physics education.

So, that’s why when I found this rap about particle physics this morning on BoingBoing, I was super amused. And the flow is actually not bad..

CERN Rap from Will Barras on Vimeo.

Uh yah.. nerdy. Like super duper nerdy.

Word.

Ever wonder how “people find the time” to create things like Wikipedia? Clay Shirky gave a fantastic talk a few weeks ago about the so-called “cognitive surplus” that is finally being tapped into with the many changes in interactive media that we’re seeing in recent years…

Definitely worth 10 minutes of your time to watch.. and then, go blog or twitter about it or something. Here’s the Techdirt angle on the subject…

I’d add “cut watermelon” to the magic quadrant though.. cuz that’s my fav.

I like twitter. That said, I don’t have it sending updates to my phone, just to IM, so when I’m away from my computer (which, admittedly, isn’t THAT often), I don’t get twitter updates (which is fine for the most part). I used to dodgeball, but now that I twitter, I find that dodgeballing doesn’t really make that much sense anymore.. (although according to Willo, she and her friends still are hardcore dodgeballers)

Even Mike, who was originally a skeptic, is now a convert.

I thought that this video kind of explains the twitter allure.

My fav derivative twitter application? Tweetscan. With it, you can get kind of a neat view of the tweetworld — right now, I’d say that sxsw is a good term to be watching… (I’m looking forward to a whole week of empty bars and parking spaces in the mission, ftw!)

So yah. You can Twitter if you want. I like it.

Also of note from this year’s TED.. Philip Zimbardo (famous for the Stanford Prison Experiment) gave a really interesting talk about the “Lucifer Effect,” or, how good people turn evil.. Zimbardo, studied what happened at Abu Ghraib, and explained what factors could lead seemingly good people down a path of evil…

From the boingboing post:

What can be done about this? Zimbardo offers heroism as the “antidote to evil.” Teach kids to be ready to act heroically when the see evil. We need to give them real role models. Comic book superheroes are bad models, because they have super powers. A hero is the soldier who reported the Abu Ghraib abuses. People wanted to kill him. They threatened to kill his wife and mother, too. He had to go in hiding. Teach kids hero courses, teach them hero skills, make them heroes-in-waiting.

TED was a few weeks ago, and I think the coolest thing to come out of it this time is the wwtelescope.. It’s a Microsoft project, and looks like Google Earth for the nighttime sky.. Nerdy, sure.. Launches in the Spring..

So yah, I was a huge astronomy nerd when I was growing up.. Many a night was spent sitting in the freezing Ohio nights, splitting binaries, which really wasn’t nearly as exciting as I thought it was going to be. So, yah, being able to explore the universe from the comfort of your computer seems pretty awesome in comparison.

I love personality tests… My MBTI type is ENFP or ENTP depending on how feely I’m doing that day (I’m right on the cusp of F and T).. So, when Shooey pointed me to a new personality test, I leapt at the chance and took it..

It’s the Enneagram Personality Type Indicator, and it sorts your personality based on 9 types..

Here’s my sorting:
10: Enthusiast
4: Peacemaker
2: Helper
1: Motivator
-1: Thinker
-2: Skeptic, Leader
-3: Artist
-9: Reformer

I’m not really sure what insight this gives into myself.. I mean, as an “Enthusiast” I’m apparently ruled by happiness, so I should spend time looking for things that make me happy. I suppose this is why, in college, my friends all called me “F&GD” which stood for “Fun & Games Dennis.”

Yah, that sounds good to me. More happy please.