Preg-nancy pantsy

So I know everyone else we know doesn't think Celeste is actually pregnant. Most people think she's just letting herself go a little. Her co-workers even forget most of the time, especially when she wears maternity clothes. Only if she wears a tighter fitting shirt do they realize, "Oh hey, that one's pregnant!", and "When did that happen!?". So to prove that she really is pregnant, here are some photos!

Excited Parents

Bared to the world

Proud as punch

More Motion Fun

The new batch of videos are an implementation of Potential Fields. This sort of planning algorithm pretends everything in the world is like an electric charge. The goal attracts the robot with a certain force, and all obstacles repel the robot. Hopefully this gets the robot from its starting point, to the goal.

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This is one of my classmates videos...he's got really good ones.
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Spider-Man

We've been totally addicted to a TV show. It has consumed our lives over the last week. I know it's shameful. But it's such a delight to watch. You're probably thinking, "that darned 24 bug". Or "I know, Lost is a good show, huh!". But you'd be wrong. We're addicted to a cartoon. Spider-Man Animated Series...we love you! (a special thanks to Dave, who provided us with the episodes for Christmas)

It is a riveting show. So much more exciting than most normal TV dramas. You have real characters with real problems. Spider-Man is always plagued by his self-doubts. Things never work out for the best, even though he has good intentions. His love life is always in a whirl. Friends and colleagues are always getting in trouble. New enemies are constantly causing trouble, and old enemies are always brewing new schemes.



There are lots of potential movie appearances too. Dr. Conners is the professor that introduces Peter to Dr. Octavius. In the comics, and cartoon he becomes The Lizard. He messes around with genetic codes, hoping to integrate reptile DNA in humans so we can regrow limbs, etc. His experiments go awry when he tests it on himself. Also we will be sure to see Eddie Brock become Venom at the conclusion of Movie 3. The Vulture would be a cool foe as well. He is an old guy that has a competing company with Osbourne. He creates anti-gravity wings and uses them to get revenge on Osbourne who wants to take over his company. Cool stuff.

The cartoon has had tons of crossovers with other Marvel characters too. The Kingpin lives in NYC. He is a central foe in the cartoon. Maybe we could see a Daredevil/Spiderman crossover!

The cartoon was one of the most successful animated series that ever aired on Fox. And for good reason!

Snowed In

We got snow! And plenty of it. It doesn't hold a candle to Dever's mess in December, but it was enough to close down school and work for TWO days! We were pretty happy because we needed the rest to get better, and get caught up with stuff.

The forecast on Tuesday morning was 19 degress with 95% humidity, and 31 mph winds with gusts at 40 mph. Wind chill made it 0 degrees. It was a crazy day.

Nerdy Science Stuff

So I'm taking a Motion Planning class right now and our homeworks are all really fun. We get to animate simple shapes and pretend they're robots and see them avoid collisions with obstacles. Cool huh!

The first homework assignment was an implementation of what is referred to as a BUG ALGORITHM. It assumes that the "robot" is like a little ant. And we restrict the ant's movement to the 2-D world (it can't climb over obstacles). So, it has really simple and ultimately stupid approaches to reach a goal and avoid obstacles in the process.

Watch this video and enjoy!
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