Happy Easter

"The bunny has a foamy mouth! The bunny has a foamy moth! Ha ha. Ha ha."

Cherry Blossom Viewing

Everything becomes a question of morals. 

This is a cherry blossom. 

Let’s blow it up. 

And the moral is... 

Level 1

 in the backstory.


You might have to do this:

URUiRiUiFiUF

UiLiULUFUiFi

To get here:

Of all the things I expected to find, this was not on the list.

But it happened.

The cube.

And the cherry blossom(s). 

All that there was was a curiosity about algorithms. In this case, what one feels like. Three or four days before the viewing, Wifey brought home a cube. 

Nobody could figure it out.

Having been down that road to nowhere once before, Dad was determined to read the instructions this time. The idea is that, over time(s), let’s say one hundred of them, Dad should have the patterns memorized.

Only problem is, Son didn’t understand that Dad needed another ninety-seven tries to be able to do it without reading from the manual. And, on top of that, the phone’s battery was running low, so accessing the collective electronic medium was not considered a practical option. 

Dad couldn’t figure out why ADHD son was so almost freaking out about his father not regurgitating the solution on demand. Even after the careful and explicit explanation of the first level (Stage 4). ADHD had asked Dad early on in the day and Dad was surprised how this could be upsetting the hyperactive offspring hours after the initial discussion/request. No, he hadn't forgotten.  And yes, he didn't understand. 

Then Wifey's steady voice of reason explained, probably for the second time that day...  she explained that Son had told his gang of cohorts, those little rascals who he’d been running full-speed and non-stop with while smashing just about every fallen petal in the park… offspring had said that his Dad could solve the cube. A simple kid’s father-brag. 

At his age, I hardly knew mine. 

In trying to show how to go about solving a problem, I have ended up creating one. 
Which is kind of how the problem gets solved. 
Eventually.

The first level’s easy.

Got 96 more times to go to really understand what an algorithm feels like.   

Maybe.

Single-car Accident(s)

“Wait a minute, it started out as a question?”

“Yeah. Sometimes our sessions could be like that.”

“So he asked you if you knew why there were so many single-car accidents?”

“That’s right.”

“And you told him you thought alcohol might be involved?”

“Of course. I mean, the area is pretty rural in just about every sense of the word.”

“But he said no alcohol was involved?”

“Yep.”

“So… what did he say?”

“He said there were tunnels. All over the place. Apparently plans were being made for a prolonged defense in the event of an invasion. Those plans included a network of tunnels and not just the ones everybody knows about.”

“The plans?”

“For the invasion?”

Operation Olympic

“No.  For the tunnels”

“You mean tunnels like these?” 

“Yes.”

“The maps, he said they were burned. So the occupation wouldn’t be able to find them. Which, as it turns out, was not necessary. They ended up not needing to destroy the plans. And the tunnels he was talking about were NOT the ones in Sasebo, that's far north. He said the accidents were happening in southwestern Kyushu... ”

“Kind of ironic, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. And that he asked me if I knew in the first place.”

“Like he wanted to teach you something?”

“On a number of levels. He also just wanted to talk.”

Lunch on the Go

Had this:

Here:

And couldn't help but noticed this:

Seriously...

(For a man who wanted to be taken seriously, he'd get mighty angry when he was.)

"He did what?"

"He used to go on these tirades and tell me what was wrong with me." 

"What do you mean?"

"We'd have these sessions where he'd sit me down in a room and just lecture me. It could go on for hours." 

Credit goes to the man with an archangel's name...