Space Checkers

People play variations of draughts all over the world. Here in the U.S. of A., we play English draughts, more commonly called checkers. It's a simple, and sometimes fun, game. I played it with my dad and brothers growing up. The rules around the world are essentially the same, sometimes with a larger board, sometimes without "kings". It's a very abstract game, limiting everything to a small grid, and generally this grid is thought to represent some medieval battlefield. As a kid, I enjoyed this, but my attention span has waned. I can't find someone to play against without getting distracted. So, that, combined with my younger brother's continued interest in making his own "space game," led me to ask myself the profoundly inane question;

What if the checkers were in space?

A Synthesynaptic Response

For me, learning is all about finding that groove where I can imagine cool pictures and interesting things, while searching for ways to allow the symbolic mind to "catch up." It's a process of synthesis; I have to combine the crazy shit my brain experiences with the actual information about what is. I feel like I can imagine so much more than I can actually do, and at times, it's really frustrating. The feeling makes me think I understand things I think I don't, and try to ask questions that I haven't even properly formed. But at the same time, that feeling is the whole point. When you get somewhere you can imagine something you can't describe, that gives you a reason to either study more, or start writing science fiction. Once I'm on the far end, though, it's worth it. If I can ingest a physical theory well enough, it becomes a piece of my imagination. Once I understand something, it is synthesized into all of my future thinking.

A Cultural Leader

Dear Mr. President,

I am writing today to ask you a personal favor, as one American citizen to his President. I simply ask that you take a moment, and consider yourself in your position, as not an administrator, but a cultural leader.

My name is Tabor, and I've had a privileged life. I was raised in middle-class suburban America, and I'm barely aware of an era before the Internet. Needless to say, my perspective is limited. While I still feel more like a boy than a man at 22, men my age have seen combat and come home to tell about it (or not). At my age, some men have their first, or second, or even third child. At my age, some men have responsibility.