Robert Seidel creates some of the most mesmerizing work, and he’s just put out another video online. Try to check out the really high-rez version if you’ve got the bandwidth, you’ll be rewarded, though there is a youtube version if you can’t face an 80 mb download.

There’s something about the movement and distortion in his animation, it’s twisted and disturbing, but very appealing. I love the mess and organic gunk that’s all over everything he does. My years programming 3D graphics have taught me to appreciate how much depth that dirt and imperfection can add to an image. I’m tired of hygenic abstraction.

If you like that video, check out Grau, my first introduction to him.

I noticed a lot of traffic after the Programmable Web listing. Some of it was directly from there but mostly from stumbleupon.com. Welcome to everyone who discovered SearchMash through that, and thanks to ChaseLightning and DaBug for the recommendation.

I hadn’t heard of StumbleUpon before, which probably shows my ignorance, but I’m very impressed by what I’ve learnt. I’ve added myself as petewarden, and I’ll be having some fun with it. On a business model note, it was very slick that the referring URL in my logs directed me to a customized page asking me if I wanted to create an ad campaign through StumbleUpon. If I was a commercial organization it would be very tempting, since they’ve already proved they can send traffic to you. From seeing that, I’d bet that SU has a profitable future ahead, and I’m happy for them since they also provide such a neat service for users.

I’m back in the UK for the next week, my first trip home in three years! We’ve just headed up to my parents in Cambridge, after two days in London. The visit to the US embassy for the routine visa stuff was the usual nightmare of arbitrary bureaucracy, but I survived. Liz spent the afternoon in Regent’s Park, and we went on a guided walk around London in the evening. She’s got some photos up at http://lizbaumann.com/Britain2006.html, the hotel room is really something to be seen, very Austin Powers.

It’s raining and blowing a gale here at the moment, and I’m loving it after the complete lack of weather in LA! A walk around the my home village of Over was muddy, but looking around the 800 year old church and graveyard always gives me a real sense of wonder.

After a weekend of marmite, tea and roast dinners here at my parents, we’re heading up to Keswick in the lake district for a few days of hiking and warm beer. My brother, sister and sister-in-law are all coming too, and it’ll be the first time we’ve gone away together since we were kids.