Geistkrieg of Fring

One day at the GME I saw a get-well book incorporating Magic: The Gathering cards made for one of he regulars there by his friends entitled "The Rise and False Demise of the Ironroot Treefolk".

The phrase stuck in my head, and eventually became my way of referring to my school career, in Chatham and later in Blenheim.

So in one way, as I have now completed my 13 years of compulsory public education, The Rise and False Demise of the Ironroot Treefolk is finished.

But in others, it is not.

Recalling an activity from Grade 5(ish), I've (re)-designed a flag and coat-of-arms for myself, and in so doing learned quite a bit of blazon. I have no image of it, but it's blazon goes thus:

Gules, on a Canadian pale Argent an escutcheon Quarterly, I Argent, a compass Or II Sable, a mullet Gules III Sable a cubit arm Gules IV Argent on a book open Or, a letter A dexter, a letter O sinister, above a wreath dexter of maple leaves Gules sinister of cannabis leaves proper above this motto in a Escrol "EX RATIO VERITAS".

Silly, but I'm smitten with it for the time being.

The university application process is moving along, but is excruciatingly stressful.
As is schoolwork.

Realizing I squandered something great, and that I can't get it back.
Metaphysics is a useless game with no rules, so anyone can play but no one can win. A fun game nonetheless.

This post was supposed to be longer. I'm not entirely convinced anyone reads it anymore. Oh well.

Still moving through The Rise and False Demise of the Ironroot Treefolk, its ending is apparently excruciating.

You know, it's as though we commit suicide every moment of our lives: in continuing to live, and accepting that doing so will change us, we allow our past self to be annihilated. Passive suicide, Jesus-style.

Doesn't the opening of Voodoo Child sound a lot like ZZ Top?

I know first hand that computers (in the sense of Turing Machines, as well as that of desktop personal computers) can put yield as output things which are unexpected, and more complex, of a whole other class and on a higher level than things they receive as input. I am interested in, and have done a lot of research (reading and art and creation and thought, (it's all the same)) regarding throughput.

Damn you, Facebook, for eating all my Internet time.

If you're reading this, you're now invited to my garage for New Year's (apparently it's a Monday night, I'll have to check if it will be Sunday or Monday).

I'm not a huge fan of Heinlein's sci-fi (but note that I (still) haven't yet read Stranger in a Strange Land), but man is this guy quotable:

"How can I possibly put a new idea into your heads, if I do not first remove your delusions?"
"One can judge from experiment, or one can blindly accept authority. To the scientific mind, experimental proof is all important and theory is merely a convenience in description, to be junked when it no longer fits. To the academic mind, authority is everything and facts are junked when they do not fit theory laid down by authority."
"...the 3-legged stool of understanding is held up by history, languages, and mathematics. Equipped with these three you can learn anything you want to learn. But if you lack any one of them you are just another ignorant peasant with dung on your boots."
"Age is not an accomplishment, and youth is not a sin."
"Morals — all correct moral laws — derive from the instinct to survive. Moral behavior is survival behavior above the individual level."
"Love is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own."
"...the ethics of sex is a thorny problem. Each of us is forced to grope for a solution he can live with -- in the face of a preposterous, unworkable, and evil code of so-called 'morals.' Most of us know the code is wrong; almost everybody breaks it."
"I will accept the rules that you feel necessary to your freedom. I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do."
"A motion to adjourn is always in order."
"A touchstone to determine the actual worth of an "intellectual" — find out how he feels about astrology."
"Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. At best he is a tolerable subhuman who has learned to wear shoes, bathe, and not make messes in the house."
"God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent — it says so right here on the label. If you have a mind capable of believing all three of these divine attributes simultaneously, I have a wonderful bargain for you. No checks, please. Cash and in small bills."
"Sin lies only in hurting others unnecessarily. All other "sins" are invented nonsense."
"Sex should be friendly. Otherwise stick to mechanical toys; it's more sanitary."
"The truth of a proposition has nothing to do with its credibility. And vice versa."
"You pilot always into an unknown future; facts are your single clue. Get the facts!"
"Evolution is a process that never stops. Baboons who fail to exhibit moral behavior do not survive; they wind up as meat for leopards."
"Many short-sighted fools think that going to the Moon was just a stunt. But the astronauts knew the meaning of what they were doing, as is shown by Neil Armstrong's first words in stepping down onto the soil of Luna: 'One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.'"

Note that this is all merciless copypasta from Wikiquote.

I hate pseudoscience even more than I hate junk science. But I do love Wired.


Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. At best he is a tolerable subhuman who has learned to wear shoes, bathe, and not make messes in the house. - Robert A. Heinlein

CONSOLEGEDDON II

That's right, folks; it's back, and it wants YOU!

New Year's, My Place, Video Games, Table-top/card games (RISK, anyone?), and any other funs things we want to do. I'm looking at inviting a wider spectrum of guests, so the focus won't be so much on video games as it was at Consolegeddon I (But I'm still willing to smoke you over and over at SFII, if that's your thing.).

Invitations to be sent by phone/email/telegraph etc. sometime in December.

UPDATE: Marks from mid-term report — slightly higher than first reported.

Everybody's talkin', talkin', talkin' about going away, scholarships, programs, degrees, money, dorms, futures.

History - 85
English - 93
Math - 94
for a rounded average of 90.7

Volunteering in the library on spare - lots of fun. Stamp, scan, shelve, and spy on the kids using the computers.

Just read the Millennium Excellence Entrance Award application — ugh. Describe my community and how it has influenced the person I have become? A loose network of small towns populated almost entirely by stupid, mean, racist, bigoted, and otherwise inferior old people, which has caused me to become even more bitter, defeatist and arrogant. Is that what you wanted!?

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck. Fuck scholarships, fuck paperwork, fuck bureaucracy, fuck politics, fuck Remembrance Day, fuck war, fuck peace, fuck people, fuck animals, fuck the rainforest, fuck the Bomb, fuck the news, fuck school projects, fuck math contests, fuck exchange, fuck music, fuck novels, fuck the dewey decimal system, fuck volunteer hours, fuck schedules, fuck incompetence, fuck MTV, fuck church, fuck the Internet, fuck you, fuck me, fuck everyone and everything.

Take your graphing calculator. Set your window for [0,10] on both axes. Graph y1 = x mod 10 and y2 = 10 mod x. You'll have to figure out how to get the modulus function to work. Send me an essay about what you see, and I'll reward you.
 

Bewahre doch vor Jammerwoch!

Frantically trying to get remaining costume components, but have nowhere to be for Hallowe'en and/or following weekend.

I'd love to own one of these babies: sexy, sexy, calculator. Indeed, my math teacher has one, and it's sweet. Not available for retail purchase yet.

Working on Rubik's memorization—I'm back to where I can do the first two layers without a problem.

What's your favourite colour?

And on a much, much, lighter note...

... Seeing about entering CBC Literary Contest (mostly for fun, since I can't win, especially not with what I intend to submit.).
... Loving this open art project: http://skares.org (I've made 1.6.18*, and a few others)
...Wondering if my history teacher or any of the students will be reading this, which relates to this: http://www.xkcd.com/137/

* Geek points for the reference as always.