I just un-signed myself from one of my courses again. That means, this term, I'll only study 25 points. It's unusual for me to step down from my high horses and do something like this, but in the interest of my sanity I think it best not to juggle too many courses at once.
So, no more IT for me this term - henceforth, it's all probability, Fourier analysis, and Chinese. Hopefully this will be a workload more easily balanced. I know one thing for sure - the weight in my stomach just lessened considerably. It feels very, very, very good.
In other news, I wish Google would stop reading my mind. It's starting to get on my nerves that it seems to telepathically open every function I'm trying to access without me noticing it.
tisdag 27 oktober 2009
A Wisdom of Words
The ancient Japanese Zen masters tell a short story;
A monk asked Joshu, “Does a dog have the Buddha nature?” Joshu retorted, “Mu!”
"Mu!" is an answer stating that the question is without meaning; it "unasks" the question, it states "the answer is not defined". It is the answer to "What is ten divided by zero?" and the answer to "Have you stopped beating your wife yet?" assuming you've never done so.
I now want to tell a similar, but not identical story - with a similar, but not identical meaning.
A monk asked Joshu, "Does a dog have the Buddha nature?" Joshu retorted, "Lol!"
It has always surprised me that so few philosophers see a value in the whimsical and the random, the comedic and the light-hearted. Just because something is funny, doesn't mean it's not true. It doesn't mean it's not important either. When the answer isn't defined, what you have is ridiculous.
A monk asked Joshu, “Does a dog have the Buddha nature?” Joshu retorted, “Mu!”
"Mu!" is an answer stating that the question is without meaning; it "unasks" the question, it states "the answer is not defined". It is the answer to "What is ten divided by zero?" and the answer to "Have you stopped beating your wife yet?" assuming you've never done so.
I now want to tell a similar, but not identical story - with a similar, but not identical meaning.
A monk asked Joshu, "Does a dog have the Buddha nature?" Joshu retorted, "Lol!"
It has always surprised me that so few philosophers see a value in the whimsical and the random, the comedic and the light-hearted. Just because something is funny, doesn't mean it's not true. It doesn't mean it's not important either. When the answer isn't defined, what you have is ridiculous.
tisdag 20 oktober 2009
Two down, one to go!
Programming and Probability have both been handled, and I think, passed. So now only remains the devilishly difficult transform methods, which I have until tomorrow.
I'm wishing a lot that we didn't get to bring a formula booklet, because then there would be more to remember and less to practically do, which would have been a lot easier. There are so many steps to the kind of problems we're supposed to solve that I tend to get dizzy and confused, and so far it's been a rarity that I've solved anything exactly right - most of the time I make small errors everywhere.
Today will be spent studying for most of the day I think.
I'm wishing a lot that we didn't get to bring a formula booklet, because then there would be more to remember and less to practically do, which would have been a lot easier. There are so many steps to the kind of problems we're supposed to solve that I tend to get dizzy and confused, and so far it's been a rarity that I've solved anything exactly right - most of the time I make small errors everywhere.
Today will be spent studying for most of the day I think.
fredag 16 oktober 2009
ALSO
SQUARE ENIX (is that pronounced eee-nix or EN-ix?) AND POPCAP.
The game is called Gyromancer.
Look it up.
The game is called Gyromancer.
Look it up.
Holy crap!
Brutal Legend
Tim Schafer makes a game starring Jack Black. Wielding an axe and an electric guitar. Fighting demons. On a motorcycle.
What is up with that?
Also today I have my first exam, go me!
Also, for those who have missed it, google "Marblecake also the game" to see a reason why hackers are actually the most influential people in the world.
Tim Schafer makes a game starring Jack Black. Wielding an axe and an electric guitar. Fighting demons. On a motorcycle.
What is up with that?
Also today I have my first exam, go me!
Also, for those who have missed it, google "Marblecake also the game" to see a reason why hackers are actually the most influential people in the world.
onsdag 23 september 2009
Voiceless
So I'm down with some variant of illness. Again.
I've been on-and-off sick for almost three weeks now, with a second wave of "seriously bad" having hit me this Monday. The first time it was serious, I completely missed out on five days of school, and it seems like I'm going to miss this week as well.
And, as a side effect, I have no voice. None. I can cough up a few syllables, but anything I try to say beyond that just - nothing comes out. I've now spent almost 48 hours in near-complete silence. It's an interesting experience, actually, not being able to communicate except through charades. It's a good thing I have kind of an expressive body language, although when push comes to shove I have to write most things I want to convey.
As an even nastier side effect, I'm lagging behind with school worse than I ever have in my entire life. I'm talking to my student councillor now about dropping one of my subjects, because there's no way in the Nine Hells I'm going to pass it (the course book sucks, and I've gone to a total of three lectures out of 14), plus I still have three other subjects to balance - and I have Chinese. To add insult to injury, I've been more-or-less voiceless every weekend save one, so I haven't played any RPG's in three weeks now and once I get well, I will only have minimal time for that since I have so much catching up to do.
So yeah, I'm in a terrible situation right now, but I'm making the best of it. I'm sitting around at home watching Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and German documentaries, converting D&D-characters into Exalted characters, playing Peggle and generally wasting my time. A few years ago, I would look at such a situation and say, "Sweet!"
Sadly, I'm no longer that person. I need to have something useful to do. I need to feel like I'm making progress, like I'm learning or developing, or I get insanely restless. It's nice to relax, but I'm starting to get rather tired of it.
I've been on-and-off sick for almost three weeks now, with a second wave of "seriously bad" having hit me this Monday. The first time it was serious, I completely missed out on five days of school, and it seems like I'm going to miss this week as well.
And, as a side effect, I have no voice. None. I can cough up a few syllables, but anything I try to say beyond that just - nothing comes out. I've now spent almost 48 hours in near-complete silence. It's an interesting experience, actually, not being able to communicate except through charades. It's a good thing I have kind of an expressive body language, although when push comes to shove I have to write most things I want to convey.
As an even nastier side effect, I'm lagging behind with school worse than I ever have in my entire life. I'm talking to my student councillor now about dropping one of my subjects, because there's no way in the Nine Hells I'm going to pass it (the course book sucks, and I've gone to a total of three lectures out of 14), plus I still have three other subjects to balance - and I have Chinese. To add insult to injury, I've been more-or-less voiceless every weekend save one, so I haven't played any RPG's in three weeks now and once I get well, I will only have minimal time for that since I have so much catching up to do.
So yeah, I'm in a terrible situation right now, but I'm making the best of it. I'm sitting around at home watching Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and German documentaries, converting D&D-characters into Exalted characters, playing Peggle and generally wasting my time. A few years ago, I would look at such a situation and say, "Sweet!"
Sadly, I'm no longer that person. I need to have something useful to do. I need to feel like I'm making progress, like I'm learning or developing, or I get insanely restless. It's nice to relax, but I'm starting to get rather tired of it.
torsdag 10 september 2009
Transcendent Rules Analysis II
I've been fishing the forums for some more rules-tinkering, and here are two interesting ideas I found in a fixer's thread. Really, the only one interested in this is me, but I'm leaving it here as a note to self. So just go ahead and ignore this post, everyone.
Houserule 1) Perfect Defenses have increased cost when used against Perfect Attacks. The UFIO rule still very much applies, so the Perfect Defense still always wins - but when used against a Perfect Attack, it also costs 1 WP. This makes Perfect Attacks a lot more scary, since they're very straining for your resources. This rule isn't perfect, and it mostly duct-tapes over a hole in the system rather than actually fixing anything, but it was interesting enough to deserve a mention. It works as a temporary fix to the PD-PA unbalance.
Houserule 2) Hardness is applied after soak, not the other way around. In order for this rule to work sensibly, static Hardness values are reduced by 1/4 and DoOM sets Hardness to (your Essence). This means heavy armour is a massive, gigantic problem since you need to land a really good hit in order to do any damage. It also makes high soak a much, much more powerful means of defense, which is good at high Essence, where even Adamant Skin Technique begins turning useless because a good hit can still make your ears fall off or murder all your relatives (sorry about that, Vincent!). By allowing soak to stop ping damage in this way, you improve its power against all non-Sidereal attacks at least.
Houserule 1) Perfect Defenses have increased cost when used against Perfect Attacks. The UFIO rule still very much applies, so the Perfect Defense still always wins - but when used against a Perfect Attack, it also costs 1 WP. This makes Perfect Attacks a lot more scary, since they're very straining for your resources. This rule isn't perfect, and it mostly duct-tapes over a hole in the system rather than actually fixing anything, but it was interesting enough to deserve a mention. It works as a temporary fix to the PD-PA unbalance.
Houserule 2) Hardness is applied after soak, not the other way around. In order for this rule to work sensibly, static Hardness values are reduced by 1/4 and DoOM sets Hardness to (your Essence). This means heavy armour is a massive, gigantic problem since you need to land a really good hit in order to do any damage. It also makes high soak a much, much more powerful means of defense, which is good at high Essence, where even Adamant Skin Technique begins turning useless because a good hit can still make your ears fall off or murder all your relatives (sorry about that, Vincent!). By allowing soak to stop ping damage in this way, you improve its power against all non-Sidereal attacks at least.
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