Games and Puzzles: The Way Some Things Work
This post serves a number of purposes in that it is 'designed' to address the people who have commented over the life-cycle of this 'blog'. Yeah, the tenth stage of a life-cycle that I have only recently learned about through interaction with a beloved elder who, despite the medication, was well aware he was at Stage X, the transitory phase that includes mottling and cyanosis... his extremities had begun to cool.
We said goodbye.
Asking anyone to sit through nearly fifty minutes of film in the day and age of fifteen second commercials and three-minute video clips is asking a bit much. So I won't. What I'll do, is break it down into pieces.
There are five pieces to this puzzle.
Takes about ten minutes to sort of 'figure out' where this is headed.
Instructions:
General Audience: I, II, III, and IV.
Bad Boy: I, II, and IV.
Steady Roller: I, III, and IV.
Xanax: V.
Tom the 'Locksmith': When I saw the blue shirt I thought of you, because you would at least be able to recognize his glider. If, for some reason, you don't get the reference, I'm sure you have the ability (and experience) to figure it out.
I.(:53)
Please start at 2:10, just long enough to see the two red circles, followed by the shirt that is blue become tangled at 3:03. Then go no further. The whole puzzle eventually untangles itself.
II.(3:50)
There is organization with or without the tech - directly related to my last comment response. You'll see, right at the end of the prescribed segment.
III.(x=?)
Two pair for the gambler/mathematician. The perfect shuffle starts here:
::1234678
:1234
Bonus Round:
:34567
This post serves a number of purposes in that it is 'designed' to address the people who have commented over the life-cycle of this 'blog'. Yeah, the tenth stage of a life-cycle that I have only recently learned about through interaction with a beloved elder who, despite the medication, was well aware he was at Stage X, the transitory phase that includes mottling and cyanosis... his extremities had begun to cool.
We said goodbye.
Talk about...
 |
| GRACE |
under pressure
(and morphine).
(and morphine).
Asking anyone to sit through nearly fifty minutes of film in the day and age of fifteen second commercials and three-minute video clips is asking a bit much. So I won't. What I'll do, is break it down into pieces.
There are five pieces to this puzzle.
Please
DO NOT
follow the link
until the the instructions have been read:
Takes about ten minutes to sort of 'figure out' where this is headed.
Instructions:
General Audience: I, II, III, and IV.
Bad Boy: I, II, and IV.
Steady Roller: I, III, and IV.
Xanax: V.
Tom the 'Locksmith': When I saw the blue shirt I thought of you, because you would at least be able to recognize his glider. If, for some reason, you don't get the reference, I'm sure you have the ability (and experience) to figure it out.
I.(:53)
Please start at 2:10, just long enough to see the two red circles, followed by the shirt that is blue become tangled at 3:03. Then go no further. The whole puzzle eventually untangles itself.
Forever*
II.(3:50)
There is organization with or without the tech - directly related to my last comment response. You'll see, right at the end of the prescribed segment.
10:00 - 13:50
III.(x=?)
Two pair for the gambler/mathematician. The perfect shuffle starts here:
22:55
Martin. Mathematics. Magic.
IV.(1:31)
"Would lead to results no one would have imagined..."
28:46 - 30:17
V.(2:11)
Because you solve things.
32:41
is
where it gets really interesting.
(Need not go any further than :2345 34:52)
Bonus Round:
(Throw away the five and shift)
36:47
"Nothing to do with reality... it's all in your mind."
Revealing.
And I do agree with 44:22 - even though I don't know much about science.
Just drawing circles.
* A set that goes on forever:
Nice Mandelbrot set GIF...
ReplyDeleteI think most scientists who spend time trying to put together fundamental theories of the universe and matter and all that should be required to spend more time studying the mathematics and concepts of chaos and complexity...
Thank you.
DeleteThought you would have maybe recognized/liked the part with Diaconis. Persi really liked Paul Lévy's work on probability theory. And it's kind of cool how one of Paul's students was Benoît Mandelbrot.
Interesting the way some things work.
The # of frames in that gif is something I'd like to know and might check.
ReplyDeleteSome folks, most in fact can't do shit with nobody in their way and few can do whatever they want regardless of who or what are standing in their path.
I met the nicest wolves in jail. Rules in there. Rules that will take down an Alpha male as quick as an Omega.
Lotta comfort in knowing that the shit is spead evenly at the end of the day. Folks outside never seem to wanna live by a set of rules internally though they pretend to live by an external set everyday of their lives.
They are core less. Empty husks.
What in the fuck happened to my site? Sorry to throw that in but I just can't imagine? I know how the site works. i built my school blog code by code and know every HTML element like the back of my hand. I know what can get broke and how it is broken. They have my cell# and I still have no fucking images.
It will be rebuilt out of spite. Nothing good or ideal just pissed off refusal to walk away until I wanna walk away those motherfuckers.
I feel vibes in the blogosphere.
Apparently 475 says Wiki (just in case you already haven't looked it up).
DeleteJail, obviously not exactly the most accommodating nor fun place to be. In high school, they took a group of us to the county lockup for a little tour of the facilities. Before the jailer took us by the cages and gave that little speech where he says, "Don't mind them and just keep moving," before that he looked at everyone in our group and said none of us would make it in there and then he stopped and looked at me, "You, maybe. Hmm." I do not consider myself in any way an intimidating presence. Familiar to some, but not intimidating. No idea what the guy was talking about. And I sure as hell didn't want to find out the hard way.
When we got to the juvenile detention center later that day, we were walking by a few of the confinement cells that had their solid doors shut. From the open slat in one of the doors, a pair of eyes peeked out and then a excited voice said, "Hi Will! How's it goi..." just before whoever was leading our little tour sort of slapped the peek-hole shut. I remember people in the group kind of laughing in a nervous way. Of all the people... What had started out as joking around, a few dares and that kind of thing eventually caught on and formed a pattern. Jackass kind of stuff. Last I heard, he'd kind of gotten it together and was making better decisions.
Rules is rules I guess. And how fast some people just happen to figure them out is beyond me.
Husks...my outer layer builds up from time to time when simply going with the flow. After a while, I imagine a person can grow accustomed to the comfort (and protection?) those accumulated layers provide. Accustomed to what started out as comfort, then feeling kind of numb until, maybe one day, a little something inside stirs and that person (or what's left) starts to wake up. We'll see.
Continued...
Your site has been one of my few sources of insight into very constructive ways of dealing with a lot of different issues, mainly thought.
DeleteViolence has never been something I've been particularly comfortable with. However, I do understand there are certain skills formed through diligent habit that may indeed come in handy should circumstances be a little less than hospitable. Though I am not one to test that boundary, I am aware that I have been, at times, in the presence of people who are thoroughly versed in such practical matters. While some folks may appear to be more soft-spoken than others, there may be occasions when asked to walk away and not look back. All I can say, if anything need be said, is 'thank you'.
While there may be some truthiness to 'live by the fist, die by the fist', I think those kinds of sayings are actually more often used as a way by those on the receiving end to kind of 'hope' their way through the immediate pain and subsequent discomfort that may follow. By the same token, I believe there is a shared dynamic in those who are not outwardly violent yet who employ nefarious schemes to achieve their goals. This isn't blaming the victim, but calling attention to the way in which their perceived decency in the form of passivity can be leveraged against them through the distraction in hoping (there is is again) that karma will somehow catch up.
Some things get talked about and somethings don't. In order to keep what's left of my ability to sort of go with the flow just enough, the current medium has served quite well. Were it to disappear, that privilege to somehow be revoked, I think I would be okay now.
(Looks down) Appears my bullshit is getting a little thick an' I need to clean my boots off. If you'll excuse me for a moment.
Okay.
Now, about those blogospheric vibes you speak of, they do have the potential to effect the 'real' world as you have so generously shared one way or the other. You are 'doing' and that is, in my view, significant.
I too am kind of wondering what has happened.
Maybe the time has come for me to modify a few habits and learn just a little more about the technical side of things.
Thank you.
I watched as prescribed, illusion indeed is very strong. But like the cat, curiosity made me spare some time to watch the documentary from start to finish. Curiosity also let me to watch Madelbrot Set Zoom a few times from the same youtube user. So this is probably the 3rd sitting I have had before I actually made it through the documentary non-stop.
ReplyDeleteNod of acknowledgment much appreciated. We did all intersect 4:44, your readers I mean. Probably following the rabbit too far down the hole, which I tend to do far too often. Or end up derailed on click after click in search of more info. Much like Conway you do some serious but also do games too. Part of the fun of reading your posts. 8:19
As for myself, math was never my strong suit. Patterns, in nature and in humans is something I find much easier than sitting down to a worksheet of math problems. Maybe in a parallel universe I am the housewife fascinated by patterns with knowledge to offer but not the words needed for which to do so? Maybe this parallel universe my patters are more relating to behavior than geometric patterns? Hang on a sec, let me go chase this cotton tail. Where was I?
"Try doing this" @14:10, got it on the first try. I knew it looked too easy AND when I first clasped my hands felt too easy. So I re-clasped my hands to keep my pinky on the top arm on the top of the fingers being folded. Feels awkward but not as awkward as having your fingers stuck to your face because you interlaced them wrong at the onset of the trick. I just sat in my office on my lunch break watching this doc and looked funny for doing the above discussed trick -_- I figured it out before the reveal, which I am proud of since I suck at math and magic. I guess the noodle is working still.
29:03 those patterns I was talking about right before they delve into one if not my favorite artist. I see modular pieces in the background. Modular pieces that I tend to dabble in when the feeling is right. Sometimes cutting and folding small pieces of paper to assemble into beautiful geometric pieces is all the puzzle my mind needs to stay elastic.
Guess we will never really know how things work, not for sure anyways. Revealing anything is a subjective matter... what I show you is different than what you see, for we do not possess the same eyes. As was mentioned at the tail end of the doc,"Illusion is very strong."
Great post man. :) It was a bit getting back to actually spend some time watching, reading and writing. But glad I made it back.
Glad you found the entire documentary interesting enough to watch from start to finish. As for the Mandelbrot set, adding that to the 'end' of the post just seemed like a good fit. The way everything intersects and connects...
DeleteAt 4:44... I'm just kind of relieved that there is currently a medium available that offers the kind of plasticity that lets people view at their discretion. The clicking down that rabbit hole for more information, for me, has begun to lead to familiar territory. And, when stepping back, there is a 'design' or 'pattern' that is more than the mind simply making shapes out of the static in order to stay relatively sane.
A common thread that I follow among the 'readers'(gamblers, debt collectors, hackers, and other outstanding individuals) deals with 'illusions'. And the patterns. You notice stuff and don't mind typing about it, relentlessly. Because of what you see and say, the M set keeps moving: reptile care, EBT cards, homeless shelters, and more recently, the care and feeding of exchange students.
'Revealing' is interesting. What's kind of cool is when there starts to be enough life that's been lived through, some of the reveals are just as cool as they can be scary. As a step-parent, you've got some awesome ground it looks like you're covering that may not be understood till way later. I'm trying to do this with my kids, but, for some reason, it seems more difficult when they are your own. Grass is greener... right.
Thanks for the visit.
"As a step-parent, you've got some awesome ground it looks like you're covering that may not be understood till way later. I'm trying to do this with my kids, but, for some reason, it seems more difficult when they are your own. Grass is greener... right."
DeleteIndeed the grass is always greener. Until you hop the fence and realize it's AstroTurf or worse, green spray painted lawn. The last two months have been very trying, that's putting it lightly. The other day while running I had an epiphany that almost caused me to trip. I have been struggling, been hard on myself, been seriously looking at running for the hills... and then my brain did something funny. Through the maelstrom of life I saw it: change. I saw my step-son as he was 2 months ago standing next to my step-son now. WOW, there has been a vast improvement from when he arrived but looking day to day it seems like a constant struggle. So when I feel like I am about to boil over I look back to my epiphany and give myself 2 more months. At the end of those 2 more months I expect to look back at July 12th and notice more improvement. Reflection can be a powerful thing. Parenting; not for the faint-hearted.
Parental Reflections
DeleteReady or not, looking into a pair of eyes that returns the stare while repeating everything you've just said can be somewhat of a religious awakening. A sort of judgment day.
Sometimes the grass might appear greener, but the water is definitely warmer over here by about ten degrees (Celsius). In Fahrenheit-speak, the 'Kuroshio' is just above eighty right now, a tad warmer than the air temperature - at least in the morning.
You're right. Being able to step back (or run away) for a moment really helps put things into perspective. Going by what I've read, the pace of your approach on life is one that most most people would have to struggle in keeping up with. But then, I'm willing to be that the 'can do' attitude is contagious. Step-guardian as Dark Horse super hero whose skills include languages (both human and computer), biology, automobiles, and wilderness/urban survival that includes free climbing. (Nobody talks about the knives)
You've covered a lot of ground in just two months. And everyone's still alive. A good thing.