Arctangential

I am going to Boston tomorrow. I’ll be gone for a week.

I’m sure nobody will notice, so I am announcing it here.

I’ve been building a lot of large-ish LEGO stuff lately — I didn’t plan to do them all at the same time, it just kind of worked out that way. I thought I would share a few pictures from my main LEGO page of the more neat big things I’ve put together recently: (Click thumbnails for larger versions)

This is a large model of a LEGO dude:

This is Yoda:

This is an articulated model of a battle droid from Star Wars episode 1. The way it moves is very cool; once I get my actual computer working again, I plan to make a short film to demonstrate:

And this is a big honkin’ Star Destroyer:

I also made a webpage about the construction of the Star Destroyer.

I’m currently only a few pieces away from being able to finish this set. I’ll probably post a picture when it’s done.

Caption contest!

“He’s escaped… into the matrix!”

I’ve been reading this book by Jorge Luis Borges called Collected Fictions which is, unsurprisingly, a complete collection of his works of fiction. It’s really, really, really good. Mind-blowingly so, even. In particular, there is a passage in his short story The Garden of Forking Paths which I particularly love and want to share with my readership:

…finally, Stephen Albert said:
“In a riddle whose answer is chess, what is the only word that must not be used?”
I thought for a moment.
“The word ‘chess,’ ” I replied.

It’s such a brilliantly clever piece of logic that I’ve been thinking about it for days. The fact that it’s to be found in a work of such literary beauty make it all the much more compelling. I would suggest this book (or at least one of his less comprehensive collections) to anyone with a love for reading.