The Chronicles of Tom Gertin

I just recently finished reading Tess of the d’Ubervilles by Thomas Hardy about a week ago. This isn’t a representative sample of the type of books I usually read. I saw it collecting dust in a closet and decided to give it a shot.

Inside of the book I found a receipt from a book store called Super Crown. Super Crown is a book store a few minutes from my house that went out of business years ago, I don’t think the new Borders helped it much. The receipt was dated 01/16/99, Tess of the d’Urbervilles was purchased for $4.46 along with A Civil Action. I must have had to purchase this book for class, in January of 99’ I should have been in 8^th grade. I know for a fact that I didn’t read this book, I also don’t remember it being assigned. It makes sense though, searching online I found that it had a reading level of 8.36 and grade level of 8 to 9.

To me though it seems like the reading level should be much higher, I barely got through it. I must of put it down after the first chapter in 8^th grade because I didn’t understand one bit of it. As I dove in, I found out that this was a harder task than it first seemed. I had to recruit a dictionary to be by my side to help me get through the chapters. Often I would get bored and set the book aside for a few months. It took me two years to finish it. I think if you can get past the first third, the rest of the book will start to flow easier.

I can say I appreciate this book for what it is, even though I admit it isn’t my style. It was very well written. I could see why someone might think of re-reading it to get a fuller understanding and absorb more of it. Lots of the phrases were deep and flavorful, many of them in an older kind of English. I couldn’t relate much with any of the main characters, only parts of each of them.

** SPOILER ALERT ** (actually discussing the plot)

The main character of the novel is Tess. It is stated numerous time that she has good looks, but she annoyed me many times. I couldn’t understand why she loved Angel so much, and rejected Alec so much. Well I can understand why she hated him after he raped her, but not before. It’s almost as if she knew what was going to happen before it happened, and acted distressed preemptively. I thought Alec acted rather suave, he was light-hearted, wealthy, and fun going. Alec’s aggressiveness and assertiveness seemed to turn her off.

I was mainly turned off by Angel after his reaction to Tess confessing she wasn’t a virgin during their honey moon. In this part of the book, the difference between the 1800s and the present really show their great divide. I would more have understand Angel’s reaction if he himself was a virgin, he  admitted at the same time he wasn’t. So him applying the double standard was tragic and wrong.

But I’m not letting Tess of the Hook. It’s amazing how both Strong yet weak she was at the same time. At first she swore to herself she would never marry and live a hermit life of desolation after being raped. Then she became engaged to Angel, kept on telling herself she would tell him the truth, kept on rejecting him saying that she wasn’t good enough yet wouldn’t tell him why. She never had the strength to just tell him before the wedding though she had more than enough time. Yet after he left her by departing to Brazil she had the pride and strength to toil herself on the fields for hours a day earning nothing and going broke. I did think the ending was pretty good though. She let off some of that pent up anger, feeding off some of that enraged d’Uberville blood, and went out with a bang!

Looking through the Internet I read that BBC actually made a 4-hour mini-series in 2008. I wouldn’t mind watching it if it becomes available in Netflix. Also a movie was made in 1979, I might watch that as well. I don’t know why but I imagined Tess being blond or dirty blond, but on the movie covers it shows her with darker hair. It probably said what color her hair was in the book, but I didn’t pick up on it. Well enough of mushy novels, my first class for this semester just started so time to get busy studying.

This is a program I created that finds the shortest route of a network. The user creates the network by clicking lines that connect to each other by their nodes. Once the network is completed the user clicks the start destination button once and clicks on an existing node, then the user does the same thing for the end destination. Finally the user clicks on the compute shortest route button and it shows the result in red. Click on the image below to launch the applet:

This was my final project this semester for my Spatial Data Structures class. I had a lot of free time in November. I ended up spending most of it on this program, another program that processes filters on images for my Imagery Interpretation class, and a Facebook Birthday app that I should complete any day now. RouteFinder in its original form is a standalone Java program. I just converted it to an applet. Doing that and posting it online was actually a little painful. Oh well, the semester’s over and I have a few weeks to relax until next semester. Oh, and see Avatar if you have a chance during the Holidays.

Recently I had a chance to visit Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson in Charlottesville. If you have never been here, I definitively recommend that you visit soon.

The Thomas Jefferson Visitor Center and Smith Education Center was really grand. It is actually brand-spanking new, it had its grand opening on April 15th this year. In addition to a cafe with indoor and outdoor seating, a spacious gift shop, they showed a fascinating short film about Thomas Jefferson and had a museum that contained many impressive exhibitions. My favorite exhibit was Monticello as Experiment: ‘To Try All Things’, it explored Jefferson’s use of Monticello as a laboratory for his belief that “useful knowledge” could make life more efficient and convenient.

Here are a few things I picked up on:

Watching the film and exploring the museum at the visitor center let us pass the time until our tour started. We took the shuttle from the visitor center to the top of the mountain where the house and gardens were.

I really enjoyed the tour; our tour guide was really exceptional. Her stories and descriptions really made each room come alive. I took notice of the numerous innovations throughout the house such as wine bottle elevator in the dining room that could be used to pulley up wine bottles from the cellar below.

The outside view was picturesque. He designed it so the slave quarters were out of the line of sight from the patio. Outside also lay a fish pond, where it would have been stocked with fresh fish to be eaten later. Also from outside you could walk through the tunnel that lay below the house. In this tunnel Jefferson had a beer and a wine cellar. On one the side of the house near the tunnel was an icehouse. Jefferson’s workers would fill it up with many truckloads of ice during the winter and it would last most of the year.

Thomas Jefferson called Monticello his essay in Architecture. It took many years to complete, and was expanded at a time to add many more rooms. His house varied considerably from his original design, as he was revising it considerably. I’m just glad I had the opportunity to view it.

Earlier this week, one of my co-workers asked me if I like poetry. I replied that I like a some poetry, but on the whole I wasn’t really into it, party because I don’t understand a lot of it. I said something to the effect that anybody could throw a bunch of words together and call it a poem. I then said that music is a lot harder to produce, not anybody can compose a song and have it be judged as decent. This made poetry inherently inferior to music. This got my co-worker really riled up, even though as the discussion elevated I noticed that I had gotten myself into a corner. I didn’t really think poetry was inherently inferior to music, it was just my opinion that it wasn’t as good.

My co-worker said that it would actually easier for him to compose a song than a poem. So the lab decided to hold a competition, I would write a poem and my co-worker that write a song. The next day my three other co-workers would judge them both American Idol style and the winner would be decided. To make the story short I won! I don’t really know what this proved. Did it prove that poems are easier to write than songs? Or did it prove that poetry can kick music’s ass? I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure we were all winners that day. My poem [untitled]…

Bristlecaps. Thumbelinas, and corkscrews
All fine tools for Krackerwack
Whether lending a sole or patching a mule
Everyone rejoices on the fields of Mar
The brisk wind carries sweet smells
And greetings from old friends
As you feel the warmth from your rosy cheeks
You realize its time to begin

Unfortunately, my co-worker refused to have his song published. It was a bright and upbeat song called Funny Farm. I really wish you could have heard it, it reminded me of one of the Pokémon background themes on crack.

I visited Peru for the earlier this month for the second time this year. This trip was a little bit less hectic than the first, but I was still rather busy. One of the nights in Lima I got to take a tour around the city. We got to stop off at the Magic Circuit of Water in Lima’s Parque de la Reserva. I had heard about this place before, many fountains in a park, some that you could walk through. Actually being there was a whole nother experience. There are 13 different water fountains located throughout the park. Each one of them is different, they are lit up at night and music is played in the background. The Park is very beautiful and the fountains transmit a cheerful mood to you as you are strolling through. The Magic Circuit of Water was just inaugurated in 2007, it uses all of the latest technology in order to create the intricate monumental fountains. The showpiece of the Park is the Magic Fountain and the Fountain of Fantasy. The Magic Fountain holds the world record for tallest fountain in a park (240+ feet). Every night at the Fountain of Fantasy a laser show plays. It is quite a sight seeing massive fountains and powerful lasers all choreographed with a wide variety of music.

laser_fountain

The Tunnel of Suprises is really cool. You get to walk through a tunnel of water, it sort of makes me imagine what it would be like to surf underneath a massive wave.

suprise_tunnel

The last video is of one of my favorite fountains, the maze of sleep. The water fountains change patterns and spout of in different times. when the fountains shut off you can try to walk in the middle without getting wet!

maze_of_sleep

This is a video my pal Dane Evans from Virginia Tech sent me. He stars in it and helped write the lyrics. This video is just hilarious, I’m impressed. I’m sure if I had watched this during college I would have applied to be an R.A!

Where has Tom Gertin been the past few months and what has he been up to? Well mainly, I have been working on a new business! Yes I have been diligently clearing a path so the business will be able to take off. Tomorrow marks a big step in the journey me and my partners are taking. We are traveling to Peru for our first business trip. This is a crucial step and we have our plate full. We have to set up a corporation, attract customers, and plan operations among other things. I just wanted to give everybody a sneak preview of what’s to come. Things are looking bright, and if everything goes as planned we should be in full swing by August. More to come, stay tuned!

If your like Kanye West and don’t want no Robocop you can use Lego Mindstorms to create your own pacifist robot. Mindstorms NXT is a system that lets you build and program robots. Believe it or not it is made by LEGO. You can imagine building a robot using all of those fancy Technic pieces can’t you? These aren’t your standard Lego bricks. The Technic series are able to create more advanced models with more complex movable parts, such as gears axles, pins, and beams. The Mindstorms NXT system uses a computer that communicates with motors and sensor to make a lifeless model act like a real robot. The brain of the robot is called the Lego brick and is powered by six AA batteries. This brick has seven ports that connect to sensors and motors. The three motors typically run gears that enable a robot to move. The sensors include a touch sensor, a sound sensor, light sensor, and an ultrasonic sensor. A computer via USB or Bluetooth programs the Lego brick. All of these capabilities in an inexpensive package combine to make up the best way I know to get introduced to robots.

The included software Robolab is based on Labview. LabView is a visual programming language that allows you to program without knowing code. It is extremely easy and fun to use. The only downside is that it lacks some advanced features. You also have the option of replacing the existing firmware with opensource firmware made by third parties that let you program the Lego brick yourself using a variety of other computer languages. I tried to go this route after I built the four robots included and detailed in Robolab. I replaced the firmware with lejos, a firmware replacement that allows you to program in Java. I was able to connect the Lego brick to the computer and run some sample programs, but I’m going to need to learn more java in order to create my own program!

I took some photos and videos after I built my robots. Take a look so you can get a better feel of the Mindstorms NXT system!

 

This final video is a demonstration of Spike. Spike is a scorpion looking robot that crawls forward until he detects an object within a certain distance of its unltrasonic sensor. In this case it is my foot. He then ’stings’ the object with its tail. Fortunately he deactivates when a loud sound is detected by the sound sensor located in the rear.

robospike video