Link: Dekem (Memory + Fighter)

http://www.spacehopperstudios.com/games/web_dekem.html

Diary: ugh…

Staryj Russkij Anekdot:
– Chego-to menia volnuiet Honduras.
– A ty iego ne cheshi.

Old Russian Joke:
“Honduras really bothers me lately.”
“Just don’t scratch it.”

Site Idea & Diary: Audio

Today, amongst musicians, programmers, and physicists, not a single one was able to give me a simple explanation as to why f*(3^n) for n = 0 to 11 gets us all the notes in a 12 note scale without skipping anything over… yet the answer is probably as simple as all things like this tend to be 😦 But realized that I have other questions that need to be answered:

1. Is there a number n for which there exists a m such that f*(3^n)=f * (2^m)… or 3^n = 2^m… at 12:50am… I am still a dumbass.

Update: It’s official – I am indeed a dumbass. Of course such two numbers do not exist! No matter how much you multiply 2 by 2, it will never be a multiple of 3! Ugh… pre-basic number theory… officially branded as: 2 and 3 are relatively prime and so 2 to whatever power will never have a common divisor with 3 to whatever power…

2. What stereo should I get? Got a projector for my room, but don’t have the speakers. Suggestions anyone? Perhaps this might be another site idea: something that offers people a chance to do reviews. Everyone contributes funds to what reviews they would like to see, and then a competition for the best review is set up. Sucks as there is a need for equipment, but then again, there are audio affecionados (sp?) out there who would be able to enlighten. Then the multiple reports could be pitted against each other. Better yet, the reports should not be done on some scale, but in terms of better-than/worse-than, so that a gradation of speakers can be set up… interesting project…

Diary: Music, Nuyorican, Mike…

Went to see http://www.yoke.tv/yoke/ – excellent stuff. The singer’s stage presence (+ “axe + chair” ) combination is priceless. Quotes other songs… it’s hilarious. Example: starts doing Michael Jackson’s Billy Jean, and then, half way through the song switches to Russian…

Checked out the nuyorican… a Melting Pot party… a place where dancing being “the soma for the masses” concept starts breaking down as there seem to be ideas, skill, and not too many drugs… or at least I didn’t spot any… still a bit stale for entertainment especially considering the fact that it’s a poet cafe that I’ve been meaning to check out for the past, what, now 5 years? And the one time I make it inside, it’s a dance party (even if a cool one)…

On the way back felt like chatting with someone… so started up a random conversation with Mike at a random coffee place… annoying that we couldn’t just enjoy the conversation, but that the atmposphere was loaded like air in a kitchen when something gets burned – I had to make it explicitly clear that I am indeed heterosexual and that I was not hitting on him… even though it was evident from the get go… these little glitches in communication with people are of definite interest… worthy of mentioning: if I read, it becomes easier for me to communicate with people. If I watch movies, it becomes harder… perhaps because reading is less of a lecture?

Want to… neeed to go to sleep…

Musings: the different me…

If I read, I change. If I eat, I change. If I sleep, work out, travel, or do virtually anything, I change. Yet I myself have only an indirect effect on how it is that I change by putting myself into the environment that forms me. And as much as I might like to think that sitting in a black box I can learn just as much as through interaction, I am starting to have to come to terms with the simple idea that my uniqueness is only defined by that which surrounds me. And, consequently, it would simply be impossible for me to think of anything that I am not exposed to.

Moreover, as I have poor memory, if I segregate myself from the world for a period of time, I start to disappear. If I am with people with whom there is no discussion, I start to fade out. I am still here – I know it, the people around me seem to know it, but nevertheless, the only proof that I have is the disturbance my presence might introduce.

Then we can take this to extremes… suppose there is a world where people become transparent ghosts if they close their eyes and stand there for long enough. Nobody sees them, and they see nobody, and so long as they do not open their eyes, they can move anywhere they please. Yet as soon as they begin to see, they aqcuire substance and are consequently grounded – lose their lucidity. Sleep?

Humor: Computer humor

“Some people say Emacs is a powerful operating system… albeit without a good text editor.”

Thanks Sergei.

Musings: the Anthropic principle

Ever since I read The Brief History of Time, my mind has been completely blown by the anthropic principle. The way I understand this concept is that it answers the question of “Why is something the way it is?” The answer is “because if it was any other way, we would not be here to observe it.” For example: why is the thing we call “a ball” have no square edges? Because if it had a an edge, it would have completely different properties and we would not be able to observe its behavior to be as it is now. This is a bit of an extreme example that borders too closely on discussion of semantics (to which all philosophical discussions seem to degrade), but, supposing that a ball could have a square edge (a very abstract supposition), then, in this world, things would roll in a completely different manner, and, therefore, a human being would be be constructed as it is constructed now, thereby we would not be here as we are now. This also, I think at this point, is the best way to understand things. For example, why are there 12 notes in a scale? Because it is the simplest way to construct a scale. If the simplest way was different, we would not be hearing the scale we are hearing now…

Diary, Dream: the splitting dreams…

I get up from my bed and decide to try to get myself to do a split. I sit down next to a wall along the right side of my room (if sitting on the bed) and start nudging myself more and more marking the position of my right leg by rubbing it against the wall and because I am wearing shoes, it leaves a small black mark… and eventually I am doing it: a complete spit and it feels awesome!!! and then I wake up. I realize that that was clearly a dream because I was making marks with my shoes – why would I have shoes on my feet in my room? So I stretch, go over to the same wall and decide just to try it out and see if I can actually do the split… I try, and I try, and I make markings with a pencil and lo-and-behold I can actually do a split and it feels incredible and then I wake up again to realize that it was clearly a dream because there is not enough space along the right wall to try a split and there is a box in the middle of the room that I didn’t see before. So I go to the other wall (on the left side), place my foot slightly behind the table as, otherwise, I would not have enough room, and slowly I get myself into the position and careful nudge myself into… a complete split and it, again, feels awesome – just like in the dream. Only, again, I wake up, but this time I feel groggy and sleepy. And that was clearly a dream as I see that there is no box in the middle of the room, nor is there a gap between the table and the wall to put my foot into, there is no exposed wall on my right as it is covered by shelves, and the tiny stretch of open wall on my left is just barely big enough for shoulder-width let alone for a split, and there is no other open wall. So I get up, and, for the heck if it, I go into the hallway, and try to do a split there, and, lo-and-behold, I actually, in fact, do not even come close to a split. And this was NOT a dream.

Amazing that every single time I “woke” up, I felt like it was completely real…

Humor: Links

Bad Karma: http://www.bullguard.com/badkarma/

Death Star: http://www.viralbank.com/image/image_disp.php?admin_id=1567

Humor: Be careful who you drink with…

http://www.kapibara.net/show.htm?show_id=-1813352383

hat tip: Mac