Fishs  

Originally seen on Metafilter, posted by my brother.

Boredom begone!
    There exist a preponderance of games which (mostly) require nothing but pen and paper, ranging from the relatively mild Fictionary and Word Association, to the more artistic Exquisite Corpse and Eat Poop You Cat (seen previously as an online game), and finally the downright nutty Dvorak and 1000 blank white cards. My favorite, by far: the elusive other foot.

It’s already been a week, with no real blogtivity to be seen (apart from the occasional spambot trying to hack into my site). So, instead of my promised “Sunday Science” entry, I’m falling back to the “Sunday Satisfying a Bare Minimum Number of Posts Per Week.”

In any case, this blog is still in its experimental/evolutionary stages, so if it really doesn’t work out, I guess that’s just the will of Darwin. Today, however, there will be a post. I’m still not sure what I’m writing about here, but if I can’t get quality, I should at least be able to get a small amount of quantity.

As of my writing this, my blog now has ten users, not including myself. So, I suppose it’s a worthwhile question: what do my “friends” want to see me write about? More physics? East village derelicts? Megaman? Easy ways to entertain your friends on a budget? You know my style. Leave a comment.

I’ll attempt to write something weekly about a current topic in science which interests me. Hopefully I can keep it up for more than a couple of weeks.

This week, Quantum Computing. See comments for details.

Considering my layout now looks so much like an apple I almost tried to take a bite of it, I figured I’d start a stack based on computer nostalgia. Number one on that list for me is probably Hypercard.

This was a brilliant and innovative piece of software, essentially capable of teaching a fourth-grader how to write a computer program. The format of cards and stacks might be seen as a precursor to html programming, but the creation of a stack was far more immediate and tactile, and scripting code was almost like writing a sentence. As a result, you could often just type what you thought the program should do, and it would become valid code, perhaps modulo a slight tweaking of syntax here or there.

Currently for OSX there exists a program known as Supercard. I’ve tried it, but I definitely didn’t get the same satisfaction out of it as I did with hypercard, as a kid. I’m guessing this is partly due to the sparkly veil of nostalgia, but also partly a result of how much less creativity I have now than I did as a child. Perhaps if I sit and stare at the screen for awhile, I’ll come up with something really good.

You know… I wouldn’t DARE to call myself “poor”. As tight, budget-wise, as things may be right now, let us establish a few things so as to clear the air: 1) I LIVE somewhere, 2) I EAT everyday, 3) I HAVE clothes, a job, some amount of money. In addition, I don’t live in a major world warzone, nor does everyone I know have an incurable hantavirus of some sort. In other words, I can only concede a sort of cutesy, sitcomy form of “poverty”.

Now, Buddhist humility and Taoist realism out of the way, allow me to expand on a realization somewhat dear to those of my artistic yet poor brethren: Everything is destined to run out at the same time. Yes, starving artistes and coffeehouse soldiers, should you be living check-to-check and a constant attendant at your bank’s “Account Balance” webpage, trust that your instant coffee, your milk, your toothpaste, and the very soles of your $20 sneakers will run out at the same time. It’s hilariously inevitable.

And that, for those who’ve stuck with me up until the end, is Middle Class Poverty as a ratio to Basic Goods.

Good night, and good luck.

You may think I’m stealing ndrw’s buzzword, “stack”, but really I’m hoping to increase its use and popularity. This stack is intended for discussion on things that are lacking in this world. If you’re a computer geek, that may well entail programs that should exist on various operating systems. If you’re not into that crap, then I suggest just complaining about stuff. Potentially we may discuss resolutions or alternatives to these gaping holes in our existence. The possibilities are endful.

Alright, now that I’ve got most of the formatting issues out of the way, it’s time to get this blog started. Anyway, welcome to the fishs blog. If you’d like to become an author or contributor, I can make that happen. If you’d like to know what the fishs blog is all about, then tough city. I don’t even know what this thing’s about.