Nacho Libre

Nacho Libre absolutely intrigues me! I have the feeling that this movie could become my second favorite movie of all time next to Napoleon Dynamite. I mean just look at his picture! Could he be any more serious? Could he look any tougher? Could he have a bigger wedgie? How can he keep a straight face? Two years ago Mindy, Jill, and Jerry took me to Napoleon Dynamite and I laughed/cried through the whole thing. I am absolutely serious. Those who know me or were in the theater that day know I am serious. I was laughing so hard that when Napoleon Dances I had to put my coat over my head and close my ears, because my core muscles hurt so bad and I was starting to get an ear ache from all the smiling. I took some deep breaths so that I could return to the fun. So my expectations are high for this next movie, and I hope that it lives up to them.

Saving a matlab figure on a Mac.

I find that when i have created a figure using matlab on my mac, I sometimes get an image type that I didn't want. Today I wanted a .jpg but got a .eps instead. Furthermore a lot of the images I try to save don't open properly afterwards. So to save myself from the agony I decided to find out the command line for saving figures hoping that it would solve my problems. Sure enough using the command line rocks once again. Here is the command for saving a figure.

saveas(figure(#),'filename','type')

There is a whole list of types at this link, the ones I use most are jpg, tif, ai, and eps.
http://www.mathworks.com/access/helpdesk/help/techdoc/ref/saveas.html

My research has been reduced to the cheshire cat.

I have been messing around with my images to gain a better understanding of how they are analyzed. I analyze them for position of the spheres as they pass through the water. Knowing the position helps me determine the spin rate of the spheres. To get the position data I simply subtract two consecutive images, throw out the points that are gray, and look for the perimeter of the remaining blob. I then match the perimeter to the curve of my ball and I know the center. I got to a certain point and noticed that I had recreated the Cheshire Cat! I couldn't stop laughing. Yes I am a nerd.