John Rambo

Three Hundred Seventy Ninth Post: John Rambo

Well 2007 is here. This year I am going to make the switch from PC to Mac. It isn’t much of a switch however, since the Mac can dual boot to Windows. The only thing that the Mac lacks is speed when playing games compared to a similarly priced PC. The only game I want is Unreal 2007. Other than that, I am content to leave the gaming to the game consoles. The Mac Pro is just designed for multimedia and making graphics. Of course I am waiting for OS X Leopard which combines both a 32 and 64 bit operating system. With Vista there is 2 separate installs. Mac users have always said that Mac was better, and I never believed them even though I have used Macs briefly at schools. From what I’ve read of Vista I am not impressed. It is 5 separate versions which add technology that is already available from other OS’s. The one thing I do like is Direct X 10. But time will tell which is better Mac or PC.

Rocky 6 has been recently released in theaters. I heard on a late show that there might be another Rambo movie. In “First Blood” the Colonel says, “You sent a 100 men after John Rambo. There all dead now!” He said this meaning Rambo could fight a hundred men. But in the new Rambo the Colonel says, “You sent a 100 men after John Rambo. At least one of them is dead now!” You see Rambo’s not as young as he used to be. (My Dad made that joke.)

I have an interest in spiral graphs. It is a toy from the 70's that a pencil traces curves as patterns turn in a circle. When I was working with curves I was thinking of different shapes and I found the spiral graph already does that. What does it do? Not only does it make interesting shapes, but these shapes can represent the way gears work. After all if you have a traditional spiral graph the templates used to draw are basically gears. It is very hard to find a spiral graph to buy. Mine uses a pair of templates. I was thinking of ways to construct my own. For example using pairs of tape rolls. But what I think would be cooler is connecting 2 compasses with different size gears and turning them. Though, that would be hard to use. Today spirals are just simply made with computers. Windows Media Player has tons of shapes as backgrounds. However I think the mystery of the shape is lost (at least on the none complex ones) when the drawer doesn’t get the feel for where the shape comes from by drawing it by hand. This is the same reason that most teachers teach drafting by hand first then move to the computer CAD programs.

So for all of 2007... May the Creative Force be with You