How many passes?

This one has made the rounds, but if you haven't seen it already, take the test.

Robert Lang @ Stanford

Last night the math department at Stanford hosted a lecture by Robert J. Lang, origami mathematician, theorist and artist. He talked about a lot of things I didn't expect, such as the industrial and product applications of origami. He explained some of the math and algorithms he and his colleagues use to design origami. It was a very fun lecture. In the Q & A I asked about paper technology and he tipped me off to a paper source that is better for his complex designs than the cheap-o common paper I usually try to use. Hooray. Also, he signed my books.



A female praying mantis about to eat off the head of her mate. I've never been able to fold a single Lang mantis... so this one blows my mind.



Robert Lang's stag beetle: an example of how he uses the "tree method" to design any base with an arbitrary number of flaps. Pretty cool, but after making a bunch of Lang's insects myself, I'm also really impressed how the nice paper allowed him to shape each limb into a skinny little beetle leg.

Bill and Hillary

Here they are, looking non-political, and happy.

Dress forms behind curtain

Boring, but pretty

Here's a picture of the view from our deck. Oooh, pretty. How can I leave California?

Mom's Christmas Salad

It's taken me a long time, but here is another blog post. This is a picture of mom's Christmas Eve salad being made. I like that there are Christmas colors and stars in a Christmas salad.

Cute Threadless T-Shirt

Carrie's Getting Married!

Carrie's getting married, in quite a dress! This dress sells the whole movie for me!

The bridesmaids dresses are pretty crazy too!

Check out the photo gallery on IMDB

My Website is LIVE

My website is live. Check out www.margaretcumming.com

A Cute Thanksgiving Animation

Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving. I saw this video on YouTube that combines two of my favorite things: stop motion animation and Thanksgiving!

Furry with Rivers!

Here is a picture of all the US rivers! I think it's interesting to note the locations that have very few rivers.

Ich spreche Deutch!

Willst du die rote wein oder die wieBe wein haben?

I wrote the previous sentence with minimal errors after my German lesson with Emily today! By "German lession" I mean I we watched Run Lola Run (Lola Rennt) and Das Boot (The Boat) and I asked her what things meant and she explained many things, including numerous grammatical irregularities. It was a lot of fun! I could now take orders on a German U-Boat!

My Halloween Pumpkin 2007: Evil Kitten

My Halloween Pumpkin 2007: Evil Kitten
Originally uploaded by redsublet
Here is a picture of my 2007 Jack O' Lantern: Evil Kitten

Big Earthquake Spices up Amy's Birthday Party

At Amy's birthday party tonight, guests were amused when an earthquake shook the building. The 5.6 intensity earthquake was based near San Jose and felt by nearly everyone in the peninsula.





Image Source: USGS

Web 2.0 Best Practices

My friend Kim made a great video. It will quickly teach you some valuable lessons that will help you persuade your users to register on your Web 2.0 site!

CUMMING the Fragrance

AAAAHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH
gasp
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHAAAA

Alan Cumming came out with "Cumming the Fragrance" this year. Could it be he's capitalizing on the double meaning of his last name?
Why didn't I think of that!

If you want to see something really creepy, see his ad. The tagline should be, "Now that you've just had sex with Alan Cumming..."
Yikes!

Alan Cumming for CUMMING the Fragrance

Coffee Design

Who knew you could do this with latte foam?

Source: New York Times Blog

Tom and I were talking about chiche's today and he mentioned this indexed post.

Yay Presents on Indexed

Check it out: Gapminder

Hans Roslings spoke at last week's IDSA conference. I was in a job interview at the time, so I missed it, but many enthusiastic designers told me to go check out Hans's website, and it's riviting. See for yourself!

Can you spot the Elk in this picture?





Thanks to Emily for taking this picture! :-)