I definitely have a few things I'd like to write about and here's a little snippet on some of those things
Ray Tracing
I guess to start, I just want to showcase/discuss my final CS488 project, which was an extended Ray Tracer. I greatly enjoyed writing a ray tracer, because it was truly one of the most modular/distributed programming projects I've done. It seemed to echo nicely much of the software architectural designs I've read about but never truly seen in practice. I could almost imagine it done through Pipe-and-filter for instance.
On my upcomming work term, I really look forward to porting the ray tracer into CUDA even if I just manage a bare ray tracer it would be pretty cool.
One of the mos difficult aspects of the ray tracer, was surprisingly for me Refraction. What was aggravating was that to have a realistic refraction it required a lot of additional work then some of the other objectives (such as Depth of Field). Needing to implement attenuation (using Beer's law etc..).
Check out my gallery for the project
All things manly
I've been thinking a lot lately (odd I know) about some things about relationships and just between the whole courting process. I think I'm going to write about what I've been thinking about because I've been recently sharing them to some friends and they've found the information pretty useful and informative.
"What is the power involved when you lock eyes with a stranger that is the opposite sex? I have had it happen to me only twice (I'm 23) but each time, there's a strange hypnotising magnetic power that holds the eye contact - and their face is imprinted upon your brain. They don't have to be extremely attractive - the eyes that have it." - Some guy online
We've all heard how the eyes are the window to the soul, however I've been recently hanging out with some friends who are magicians very skilled with people of the opposite sex, and one of the main things I've noticed they do is truly lock eyes.
Eye Locking
Many of us believe we stare at the person we speak, however I began to notice that true "eye-locking" is rare and doesn't occur (people are in fact prone to avoid direct eye contact). When people believe they are eye-locking, they are in fact looking at their mouth, nose, facial expression or anything else but their eyes!
The fact that staring someone in the eyes is so unnatural and avoided, when people perform it, it comes off extremely intense and conveys strong emotions. You'll see eye gazing into those who are already in "love", however for those looking to convey to a girl across the room that they are interested, nothing is as powerful as truly looking into their eye.
Coming out of a semi-long first relationship, I was a large novice still when it came to the opposite sex and for myself can say this was one the biggest self-discoveries (writing about it here, so you don't waste as much time as me). So much of flirting is about the back-and-forth of staring at each other. Trying to catch glimpses when the other is not looking, or diverting your gaze when they catch you. The joke however is that so much more is conveyed if you keep your gazed locked and find each others eyes.
I have a lot to say about texting, which I'll write about soon....
I wrote this at like 3 AM, so I'm sure there are tons of grammatical mistakes. I'll worry about them in the unforeseeable future.
