Blog of Josh Hall

"An intellectual is a person who has discovered something more interesting than sex."

With video cameras getting smaller and smaller, I’d like to see a headband with cameras sewn into it on the front, back, and both sides.  This headband would be worn by athletes like in the NBA.  It’d be great to get that first person point of view on things like fast breaks or dunks, or even as reviews on close calls to see what the player saw.  We pay major athletes and idolize enough already, why not throw a camera on them to get the fans even closer? 

…which would be the next step…once you have 360 camera on a player, you can design a helmet or special screen for people to watch through and feel like they ARE the player.  If enough cameras are on and you can map their locations to a relation field, you’ll even be able to do free roam viewing, so that you can be watching the game as if you’re standing on the court, you’d just be jumping to the camera that has your current view in it.

Next time you’re with a friend on top of Mount Washington looking down at the fountain at point state park, ask them how many rivers there are.  If they’re completely clueless of pittsburgh’s history, I could see someone saying just 2, assuming that either the mon or the allegheny river just flow into the other.  If they said 3, they’re still wrong.  It’s straight out of a DaVinci code or Nationaly Treasure plotline, but the fountain is actually supplied by an underground water souce.  I’ve always known this, but a recent article in the paper reminded me of that fact.  So the real answer would be 4 rivers would be in plain sight.

for more on the under ground "river" – http://www.clpgh.org/exhibit/neighborhoods/point/point_n77.html

Finally got around to uploading the Mp3s from the shows at Robinson Clubhouse and Club Cafe.  They’re in the download section to the left and also on the myspace page.

Vending machines should have some sort of confirmation step.  All I have is bills, so i have to stick in $2 for the brown sugar pop tarts that cost $1.10 there in E2.  But as I press the buttons and hear the mechanical contraption spin and whirl, It’s the $1.85 ho-hos that are being spun to me.  BAH.  That was F2 for the pop tarts.  crap.  Vending machines are the devil anyway.

Growing up, we had this garden of sorts in the back yard.  It was about…40 feet by 25 feet.  I barely remember what we grew in it, I think i remember some lettuce or cauliflower rows, but I know I remember the strawberry section we had right next to the shed.  We had a little fencing thing around it to keep animals from eating them.  I use to love to sneak a strawberry or two.  wow, I must have been like 6 and I remember that pretty well.

I also remember going over Bruce Watson’s old house and seeing his garden.  Man, that was a sight to behold.  He had at least an acre or two of solid garden on the hill of his backyard.  If you don’t know, Bruce is a main character in the story of my childhood, whether he knows it or not.  But he’d tell stories about how he’d stand on his back porch early in the morning and raise his arms out and shout to his garden, "GARDEN!  GROW!  PLANTS!  GROW!" and that is what he attributed the success of his garden to.

To the point and sentiment/reminiscing aside, I want a garden at my house.  More to the point, a green house.  Not just any green house though, think Big Top Pee-Wee’s greenhouse.  I want it to be techy, of course.  Finger print entry, automated sprinklers, temperature and moisture regulators, hydroponic solutions, the works.  I want to be able to go get fresh fruits, vegetables, etc anytime I want.  I’m certainly not against working in the greenhouse, I’d actually love to take care of plants like that.  I’d just want to be able to live off veggies and fruits if a nuclear holocaust were to happen, ya know?  It’s like my own plan B. 

 Next post I’ll talk about the moat and electric fence surrounding the property…