Yesterday, I posted something and then forgot to actually explain the image. I feel bad. Go back to see the full explanation of that sweet picture. But when you finish reading it, come back here because I got a treat for you. This is a 3D drum. There are a few things about this drum, so I want to explain a few things about them before I go on about how I mastered this artwork. Two years ago, I built a drum in my dorm room. I bought a 2'x2'x1" piece of super-ply. I bought nylon cord, brass tubing, a coping saw, and a 16" goatskin drumhead over the internet. With the coping saw, I cut the plywood board into four pieces. I put two pieces away and they are still sitting in my toolbox. The other two would become the drum body. How does a person turn two 1'x1'x1" super-plywood boards into a drum body? Simple, you cut concentric rings out of each of the boards. But the concentric rings are more tightly packed on one of the boards than the other. Then you take the widest ring from the wider-spaced rings board and put it at the top. Then you take the widest ring from the thinner-spaced rings board and put it under. They fit together with an airtight seal. You glue them together. Then you cut more and more concentric rings until you have a drum with the correct height. It's harder than it sounds. A coping saw is the wrong tool for the job. Later, I learned that a band saw could not only do that in five minutes, but it could cut it at an angle so that the drum body would be smooth inside and out. Instead, my drum is layered. That's fine with me. It may create a high noise to sound ratio, but it sure does put out a lot of volume. It can make more noise than a person shouting at the top of their lungs and it projects off buildings and over hills. I know because people have told me so when I drum. I made the goatskin head wrong. You're supposed to soak it for many hours and I soaked it for half an hour. It was nice and rubbery when I took it out, so I thought it would be good. But it wasn't. It's as stiff as a board. It won't make a proper sound. I even analyzed it with my AltSci3D Direct Acqusition for a Physics 207 (Physics of Music) term paper. You can read that paper here.
As promised, this is the precursor to yesterday's wonderful 3D cell phone. I've been thinking, you know, maybe I should become a manga-ka. Yeah, a real professional. Looking at this, you're probably sighing audibly. Real manga-ka's can pump out something 100x better than this in five seconds. It's done all wrong. The method, the look, the perspective, and the tones are all wrong. Any professional would say, "When you're old enough to go to the university, take art classes." Of course, then I'd tell them that I've almost finished my degree in physics and they'd sigh audibly. A physicist trying to be an artist. It's a shameful thing. But I'm not very good at physics either. Last year I got D's in *counts on his fingers* six of my physics classes (EM 1, EM 2, Quantum 1, 227, 228, and a Seminar). I'll be retaking them this year. My grades in lower-level physics were not much better. Why do I want a Bachelor's Degree in Physics? I like physics so thoroughly that I take great pleasure in getting poor grades. The poorer the grades, the more I'm learning. Boy I sure am learning a lot. I did very well in math. I understood it too well. I got a 4.0 in humanities 200 last spring. I got a 3.5 in American History. I got a 3.8 average for a full year of German. Even though I've taken my time here at the UW, I'll be graduating on time. Actually most of the people who will graduate with me will be a year or more older than me. I'll be a young physicist and I will become it easily. I will not stress about getting 6 D's because I am getting something more valuable than gold. Really, the past three years have been the best I've had. It isn't saying a whole lot either way, but I want to be this happy and this crazy for the rest of my life. But when I graduate, I can't just take a job or just keep taking physics classes. It will immediately become un-crazy and I will hate it thoroughly. So my plan is to pay off my debts and do something completely crazy like travelling the world. In my travels I plan to find: an achievable solution to America's problem, a lifestyle that is sustainable, convenient, and happy, and a tasty noodle shop.
