  I have been very negligent with Blogger,  but at the same time very busy =  Ok,  after checking my last post,  I haven't been that negligent,  only 3 days lol Long weekend this weekend,
 and I've decided to participate in Elysiun's Weekend Challenge ( given the topic " Atlantis"  I'll show you the results soon enough)  Enanami Enanami is still going strong,  the map is getting small bits and pieces thrown onto it.
 Some are of purely original merit,  others influenced by TV shows ( I was watching " The Seven Great Wonders ( of the)  Industrial World"
 featuring the lighthouse constructor Robert Stevenson)  and others are taken from my previous ideas ( remember,  I never steal other peoples ideas,  very heavily against my morals)  Really,
 from a few random squares,  scribbling at the points they meet up,  you can create a situation to let your mind wander.  The best thing though is that it even lets your logical mind,  not just creative,  to wonder,
 as it is considering what could happen at a given location ( near a volcano,  etcetera)  Robert Stevenson " You cannot build a lighthouse on a rock that is submerged for the better part of the day and receives gails at every other time!  said the Chief Executive of the Northern Lighthouses.
 Oh boy was he wrong.  Robert Stevenson became the builder of a lighthouse ( Bell Rock,  completed on the 1st of February 1811,  which stood 11 miles out to sea)  which saved dozens,
 if not hundreds,  of lives.  He had originally wanted to do it as ships crashed upon it regularly,  but it was not until an English Navy vessel ran upon it,  and thus lost all of its 300 crewman,  that the Northern Lighthouses Association supported him financially to do so.
 He not only calculated the angle ( although there is disagreement if it was nessacarily him or John Rennie who decided it,  and of whom designed the lighthouse)  but also developed an amazingly bright array of lights,  utilising parabolic dishes and by using many different techniques integrated ( like putting a tube over the candle,
 therefore making it burn brighter by using the convection currents it makes)  Either way,  both Robert Stevenson,  John Rennie and the crew who built the mighty monument,  deserve a mention.  As do many other people on this greater Earth.
 urlLink About Bell Rock,  and who built it.  This is made by ( and using the same picture as)  the people who made the TV documentary I saw ( BBC)
 urlLink About Robert Stevenson ( BBC)  urlLink A more fulfilled biography on Robert Stevenson Personalities A Slashdot article recently came up with something quite interesting.  It relates to me in some ways,  some ways may I note,  but I never flunk subjects (
getting the equivalent to Ds or Es,  which would be 60 or 70%  correct?  Sorry,  Australian schools usually only give percentages)  I always do reasonably well (
around 90%  most of the time)  urlLink Slashdot Article It also ended up giving a link to an interesting site detailed types of personalities,  urlLink The site,  with example personality And,  as usual,
 if you look down,  you'll see the hundreds of Slashdot comments,  a place where the occasional drop of wisdom can be found ( and starcraving lunacy at all other times = P)  this "
stick- to- it- ness"  TENACITY!  It's called tenacity!
 I swear,  the next grade- school teacher who I hear use the word " stick- to- it-
ive- ness"  is getting a swift and painful English lesson.  Seriously!  It's a syllable shorter!  Let's do a comparison!
 ( In list form,  because Slashdot's support for preformatted text is bad.  1.  Is it a real word?  *
 Tenacity:  Yes,  and a good one as well!  *  Sticktoitiveness:  No,
 and it never will be.  2.  How many syllables does it have?  *  Tenacity:  Four.
 Rolls right off the tongue.  *  Sticktoitiveness:  Five.  It's an ungainly hippo- in-
a- tutu of a word.  3.  Does it make you sound like a Special Ed teacher when you use it?  *  Tenacity:
 Not in the least.  *  Sticktoitiveness:  Yes,  if not straight- up retarded.
 Stamp out sticktoitiveness wherever you see it.  It's the red- headed stepchild of the English language.  lol Of other points noted in there,  intelligence is useless without dedication,  "
We all say that intelligence is the highest achievement,  but that's not entirely true.  Intelligence is distinct from knowledge,  which is distinct from dedication.  All three are necessary for success.  there's a lot of "
unusually smart people"  out there,  " You are a unique and beautiful snowflake.  Snowflake number # 3857493 to be exact.
 lol,  " Life is basically a vacation from death some author once said.  " Reiterating what many others have said,  stop whining and prove your worth.
 LONG!  " People tend to hold overly favorable views of their abilities in many social and intellectual domains.  The authors suggest that this overestimation occurs,  in part,  because people who are unskilled in these domains suffer a dual burden:
 Not only do these people reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices,  but their incompetence robs them of the metacognitive ability to realize it.  Across 4 studies,  the authors found that participants scoring in the bottom quartile on tests of humor,  grammar,  and logic grossly overestimated their test performance and ability.
 Although their test scores put them in the 12th percentile,  they estimated themselves to be in the 62nd.  Several analyses linked this miscalibration to deficits in metacognitive skill,  or the capacity to distinguish accuracy from error.  Paradoxically,  improving the skills of participants,
 and thus increasing their metacognitive competence,  helped them recognize the limitations of their abilities.  LONG!  ,  " The fellow who edited your comment mentioned that you were probably an INTP.
 This is true;  so am I.  This means that you are devoted to finding logical solutions to problems,  and are dreamy and absent- minded if you're not involved in something that interests you.  "
Be prepared for your spirit to be crushed"  " you can't call yourself something unless you can back it up"  " You will have to focus and refine your talents to get anywhere.  The ability to work really hard for a short time when you happen to feel like it won't help you any.
 Otherwise you will feel cheated when those without your " raw ability"  whiz by you in life.  " My only advice would be to stop telling people you're " uniquely bright.
 It doesn't go over well.  That kind of thinking is something you just keep to yourself. instead,  demonstrate your intelligence through action.  If you're interested in programming,  I'd suggest picking a pet project and getting your hack on.
 " Your talents will take you wherever they take you,  but friendship will fill the gaps"  * phew*  As you can see,
 those are the SELECT comments from a Slashdot article.  They have about 12- 24 of those every day,  and I try to read them all.  Takes a long while.  Some of the suggestions in there ARE novel,
 and will affect me for some time to come.  Robocup I haven't mentioned this before,  but I am involved in something called Robocup.  It's essentially programming a small robot to play soccer = P I've participated for sometime now.  I won't say too much more,
 other than this,  since I need to remind myself something.  GET A COMPASS!  = P It is quite fun though.  Realtime programming.
 Programming in a way that has to interact with all the inconsistencies of the real world.  And I have a great team with me =  And this year may be the best year of them all!  Coding Made some quite large steps with my coding.  I have essentially all the theory for raytracing downpat,  now just writing an implementation.
 The main problem I have at the moment is getting the right result returned lol.  Working on it.  The arrays seem to be a little wacky ( or more specifically,  I seem to be a little wacky with the arrays)  lol I plan on writing a tutorial on Sourceforge (
 urlLink http: www. sourceforge. net )  to exhibit the code and explain it in terms that I would have loved ( I've been battling through explanations that quite literally take a degree in mathematics to solve)
 But that's all bee part of the fun I guess =  Ideally I'd love to have various levels of raytracer construction ( bare bones,  diffuse shading,  specular shading,  reflection,
 refraction,  etcetera etcetera)  and also have a forum for everyone to talk to each other in ( newbies with older people,  all kinds of graphic theories merging together)  and a version of the raytracer that will keep on growing,
 of which I will add ANYONE'S code if it does not break the raytracer and any previous functions,  and also marks a small landmark.  This will allow newbies to go in and see all the kinds of things people have developed.  I am also very peeved that a book called " Graphics Gems"  has not been evenly partially published online.
 It has a whole chapter on Writing Raytracers,  of which I've never seen,  and probably never will,  which every institution or programmer refers me to.  Very agitating =  Anyway,
 I just updated my WIP ( work in progress)  for the Weekend Challenge entry.  I'll have finished ( probably)  by tomorrow.
 Goodnight,  and here's to hope.  =
