Friends

Friendship is a worthwhile thing; it is the nurturing we can offer other people, without being expected to give anything more.

Friendship is a parallel-processing event; the mutual acknowledgement of some thing, and its subsequent development.

Friendship is a resource-distribution  mechanism; sometimes our friends are the only ones who can see and provide what we need.

Friendship is an eternal hunting party; forever creeping up the next hill, looking for the game that will secure the tribe through winter.



But, we can only have so many friends.

Space Checkers pt II: Singularity Chess

     To us, winning is not victory in the game, but finding the most novel way to end it. Both of us have highly developed but effectively suppressed competitive instincts.The game becomes a memetic Rochambeau; in my second turn I capture his bishop with my own from across the board, but he responds by taking my bishop with a knight that that had been his first move.
     Quickly, the board to my left gets pretty empty.

Robots and Swords

Calculus is one of those things. It just is. And, everyone has to learn it their own way. While I was in calculus II, a friend told me to start thinking of those operations like robots; I just had to learn how to tell the robots to do their work. And, that worked! I learned the basics and got through II & III.

But now, I'm in ordinary differential equations. This is like having a magic sword that ALWAYS cuts SOMETHING, then finding myself in a pitch black room with another fellow wielding a similar sword. Good luck not losing an arm.

A Potentially Imprudent Notice

Today, I wrote a note on one of the NC3405 whiteboards;

Hello! Welcome to the Physics Lounge, A.K.A., the Euphoric Chaos Room. My name is Tabor and I'm sometimes at the desk to the right of the fridge. I'm a physics student, and I'm paid to assist you and your professors. I'm lucky to have this job. I have 12 hours every week to build, program, clean, write and repair whatever. So I need as much input as possible to be useful. If you have any suggestions, comments, or requests, please tell me. My email is tabor (dot) henderson (at) (geemail) (dot) com. Let me know! -T

This may have been imprudent, in that I've pasted personal information on a wall, specifically asking for work. But I like work! Good work, at least. So, I'll see what this brings me, and record the best of it here.

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.