*''2001, A Space Odyssey'' - epic sci-fi from Kubrick.\n*''21 Grams'' - shocking and emotional story about life and death. Amazingly depthful characters.\n*''28 Days Later'' - British zombie horror. I like this. It's gritty and it feels British. Reminds me of the good old days of reading John Wyndham sci-fi and stuff.\n*''AI'' - Spielberged Kubrick which is nevertheless quite watchable and quite moving. The visuals are stunning.\n*''Air Force One'' - Harrison Ford in preposterous presidential action.\n*''Akira'' - the first anime I ever saw. Very philosophical and weird. Nice to look at too.\n*''Alien, Aliens'' - weird creatures (H.R.Giger anyone?) harass people in cramped futuristic settings. Nicely done.\n*''Amelie'' - Audrey Tautou plays an eccentric in this wonderful romantic comedy.\n*''American Beauty'' - Kevin Spacey in a wonderful story of self-realisation.\n*''American History X'' - story about neo-nazism. Well made, thought-provoking, shocking.\n*''American Pie'' - actually very funny.\n*''American Psycho'' - Bizarre film with Christian Bale. Forced, but necessarily so. Quite entertaining. Go yuppie!\n*''Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery, The Spy Who Shagged Me, Goldmember'' - Mike Myers make us laugh with swingin' 60's gags and frippery. Very hammy and over the top, and a fine example of how that needn't be vomit-inducing like so much related garbage.\n*''A Very Long Engagement'' - Audrey Tautou in a WWI romance.\n*''Babe'' - a film about a talking pig. Um.\n*''Battle Royale'' - Japanese film documenting an island death match between school kids. Interesting. Nicely made.\n*''Batman Begins'' - a bit of fun.\n*@@''Batteries Not Included''@@ - story about magical flying saucers coming to earth. A fun children's film, that I loved as a child.\n*''A Beautiful Mind'' - 'story' of mathematician John Nash. Russell Crowe does a good job as usual. Great visuals.\n*@@''Before Sunrise''@@ - wonderful philosophical romance from Richard Linklater.\n*@@''Being John Malkovich''@@ - surreal comedy with John Cusack. There is some amazing marionette work in this film. And some excellent acting.\n*''The Belleville Rendezvous'' - fantastic French animation with more than a hint of absurdism.\n*''The Birdcage'' - Robin Williams in another preposterous but entertaining film.\n*''Blade, Blade II'' - Wesley Snipes in ridiculously slick and over the top vampire hunting action.\n*@@''Bladerunner''@@ - Harrison Ford in a glorious piece of sci-fi noir movie history.\n*''Born of the Fourth of July'' - Tom Cruise plays a devastated Vietnam veteran in this insightful film.\n*''The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy'' - gorgeously shot and choreographed fights and chases set in a reasonably believable context.\n*@@''Brazil''@@ - Amazing. Terry Gilliam does 1984.\n*@@''Breakfast At Tiffany's''@@ - Audrey Hepburn plays a totally unusual and fantastic character in this wonderful and hilarious film.\n*''Bridget Jones's Diary'' - silly but fun chick-flick.\n*''Bus 174'' - tragic documentary about an ex-streetkid bungling a robbery in Rio de Janeiro, and ending up taking a bus full of passengers hostage for 4 hours.\n*@@''Casualties of War''@@ - an exploration of the immorality of war (set in Vietnam) using a slightly unrealistic group of characters. Fantastic film though.\n*''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'' - Johnny Depp plays Willy Wonka in this appropriately psychedelic offering from Tim Burton. Nice.\n*''Chicago'' - Well made and entertaining musical. Unfortunately, like most musicals seem to be, it seems to be mostly about showbiz and not much else.\n*''Chicken Run'' - Nick Park stop-motion animation about a chicken who wants to free the chickens she's held captive with. A moving and extremely funny story.\n*''Chinatown'' - entertaining film starring Jack Nicholson.\n*''Chocolat'' - gorgeous and frequently funny romantic film set in a strongly Catholic village in 50s France. A really heartwarming journey.\n*''City of God'' - story of a boy with aspirations to journalism/photography living in the violent slums of Rio de Janeiro. Fantastic cinema.\n*''A Clockwork Orange'' - political statement directed by Stanley Kubrick.\n*''Closer'' - Jude Law, Natalie Portman, Julia Roberts and Clive Own co-star in this excellently made film about the romantic interactions between 4 very different people in London.\n*''Clueless'' - a very watchable american high-school film. According to the all movie guide, this is a fair adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma, and has high artistic quality!\n*@@''The Corporation''@@ - an enlightening marathon of a film.\n*''Corpse Bride'' - bizarre Tim Burton film touching on some interesting topics. Beautifully animated. Soundtrack was a bit muddled though.\n*''Crash'' - A controversial and damning comment on society at large, and a surprising act of creativity!\n*''Cube 2: Hypercube'' - some people find themselves in a freaky [[Skinner box|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skinner_box]] apparently operated only by the forces of random madness. Entertaining, but feels pretty plasticky, from presentational, emotional and philosophical standpoints.

!List of 3 dimensional solids\n*Tetrahedron\n*Cube\n*Octahedron\n*Prism\n*Cone\n*Sphere, hemisphere\n*Dodecahedron\n*Icosahedron

^^The Truth comes in three parts:\n#Eskilla\n#~Wig-Lum\n#Sanax\n*Eskilla says that Nothing can be Known.\n*~Wig-Lum comes in two parts.\n**Wig says that the World is always Changing.\n**Lum says that the World cannot be Set in Stone.\n*Sanax says that Knowledge is the Machines that Set the World in Stone.\n- //a friend of a friend//^^

*Adding a member of a set to the set's additive identity leaves the member of the set unchanged.\n----\n*[[Zero|zero]] is the additive identity for the [[natural numbers]].

!Rationale\nEnjoying adverts as an artform is something that would have repulsed me only months ago. But now I feel like I can enjoy them entirely as art pieces. And there is one phrase that has really helped unlock that for me:\n*//The advertiser's customer isn't the buyer of the product they are advertising, the advertiser's customer is the organisation buying the advert.//\nAdverts aren't necessarily out to eat your freethinking mind. They're merely pieces of media that enable money to flow from businesses to content creation firms. Of course, that money wouldn't flow if there wasn't sufficient slack in the budgets of the advert buyers, and that slack is certainly in part due to the adverts they buy. But I think if you base your consumer decisions on proper criteria, then you can filter out all the crap advertising, and enjoy that small but glorious niche of wonderful art.\nAfter all, adverts are some of the most concentrated pieces of art out there. (Certainly in terms of dollars/minute, and often otherwise: they're such a momentary sort of art form).\nFollowing is a rundown of my adventures in advert land.\n!Television\nGood music and gloriously detailed and original video make some TV adverts wonderful. Of course, there are many rubbish ones. But every artform is plagued with rubbish.\n*Beer\n**One of the highest densities of decent adverts out there.\n*Perfume\n**Often stylish camera-work and decent music.\n*Mobile phones\n**Motorola are using some very stylish adverts to accompany their 'razr/pebbl' type brand.\n*Cars\n**Audi had an excellent car-as-a-spider, and a car suspended-in-spider-webs advert recently.\n**Volvo tend to use stylish but simple adverts.\n**Honda seems to use all different styles of amazing adverts too.\n*Electronics\n**Xerox are/were running a funky artist-splashing-paint-above-grey-suits advert.\n*Social\n**AOL has been running an advertising campaign across TV and billboards promoting its discussion boards. What's good about this campaign is that it raises important social questions in these advertising campaigns. Each advert seems to say 'wake up you people!'. I like them.

This isn't all the photography I've ever done, but it's all the photography I've got posted around the web.\n![[architecture]]\n<<tiddler architecture>>\n![[birds]]\n<<tiddler birds>>\n![[cave]]\n<<tiddler cave>>\n![[cigarettes]]\n<<tiddler cigarettes>>\n![[the city]]\n<<tiddler [[the city]]>>\n![[coast, river and sea]]\n<<tiddler [[coast, river and sea]]>>\n![[computer and equipment innards]]\n<<tiddler [[computer and equipment innards]]>>\n![[countryside]]\n<<tiddler countryside>>\n![[equipment]]\n<<tiddler equipment>>\n![[evian]]\n<<tiddler evian>>\n![[flour to dough]]\n<<tiddler [[flour to dough]]>>\n![[glass]]\n<<tiddler [[glass]]>>\n![[the globe]]\n<<tiddler [[the globe]]>>\n![[ice]]\n<<tiddler ice>>\n![[the ice hand]]\n<<tiddler [[the ice hand]]>>\n![[light]]\n<<tiddler light>>\n![[meccano man]]\n<<tiddler [[meccano man]]>>\n![[mysterious]]\n<<tiddler [[mysterious]]>>\n![[nature-humanity interface]]\n<<tiddler [[nature-humanity interface]]>>\n![[the open cube speaker set]]\n<<tiddler [[the open cube speaker set]]>>\n![[oxfam walk: may 16th 2004]]\n<<tiddler [[oxfam walk: may 16th 2004]]>>\n![[park ornaments]]\n<<tiddler [[park ornaments]]>>\n![[people]]\n<<tiddler people>>\n![[power station]]\n<<tiddler [[power station]]>>\n![[signs]]\n<<tiddler signs>>\n![[sky]]\n<<tiddler sky>>\n![[the toothbrush]]\n<<tiddler [[the toothbrush]]>>\n![[transportation]]\n<<tiddler transportation>>\n![[the uniformity pipe]]\n<<tiddler [[the uniformity pipe]]>>\n![[water and light]]\n<<tiddler [[water and light]]>>\n![[weather]]\n<<tiddler weather>>\n![[wine glasses in the sink]]\n<<tiddler [[wine glasses in the sink]]>>

!Details\n[img[An Introduction to Non-Classical Logic|books/nclogic.jpg]]\n!Summary\n*Discussion of various extensions/alternatives to classical logic.\n!Diary\n*Saturday 6th May 2006 - A tough read! Making slow but interesting headway into it. Probably need to research the less clear areas (such as tableaux) separately...

The follow sketches were thought of during physics A-levels by me and a classmate named Ant.\n!The Sketches\n1. afro-man wafted by the wind\n2. experiment to see how density of cake affects prob. of vomitting\n3. it's healthy to drink water: Ant goes about school day with a strap-on water keg\n4. guy is so hot in a double-glazed room that he smashes the window and tumbles out onto a flowerbed\n5. carpenty at a distance: nail guns, ninja star saws, crawling military style to retrieve blades etc.\n6. salt cellars on all the tables in psychology lessons. students salting their work. (pepper grinders and other seasonings too). perhaps some dips on a buffet at the back.\n7. penny-farthing trials/stunt-riding: dressing up in victorian gear, with tweed pipe etc. brogues\n8. anti-mobile-phone-mast demonstrators coordinating their activities using new 3G communicators and other wireless high-technology\n9. SIGMA catalogue: legal drugs at school\n10. western society breaks down:\n- classes in splintered 1s and 2s. newbie comes in and sits facing the wall at the back, voluntarily.\n- train carriages fill up so people are far apart. noone talks.\n- crowded tube trains: people desperately trying not to stare at eachother's armpits and boobs.\n- social workers just walking past the houses of their clients all day, not daring to knock, go in and help.\n- doctors being really prudish about inspecting their patients. looking away while performing examinations. etc. etc. etc.\n11. bring you the all-new multipurpose ETC., capable of almost anything, yeah... cool.\n12, room full of experts watching a film:\n- musicians: Wrong note!\n- pyschiatrists\n- CG enthusiasts\n- film studies\n- ethologists\n- mensa types\n13. he who thinks australian, drinks australian: physics: icebox, beers, barbecue etc. etc. at back of class\n14. multiple choice a-levels of the future: what class does an electron belong to: a) apple-turnover b) lepton c) apple-pie d) apple-juice (head scratching) (canned laughter and applause)\n15. earphones with many ears... woah! - a whole class is listening apart from one person... :(\n16. if CARLSBERG ran colleges, they'd probably be the best colleges in the world: "Lessons begin: 2:00 PM, Arrive At Your Leisure"\n17. hygiene crazy: - at job interview, just as interviewer extends hand, interviewee whips out latex glove, snaps it on, shakes hands in a restrained, disgusted, kind of way, then carefully peels it off, pops it in a plastic-zip-seal bag and pockets it.\n18. french rubbish collection: (in 2020) - recycling heaven\n- trays outside people's houses with odd pieces neatly arranged cordon bleu style\n- binmen move like waiters, driving posh cars etc.\n- tipping your dustman\n19. banana\n- a class full of students/or a lecture theatre etc., they unpack... a BANANA!\n- go to a restaurant: order what you like, but what you get: A BANANA!\n- TV, computer, watercooler installation, but no, it's A BANANA!\n- supermarket delivery: no, it's A BANANA!\n20. supply teachers: a big warehouse full of teachers continuously delivering info, people with sack barrows, and trucks and vans and a big logistics chain, and then the teachers are placed in front of a class, for the allotted time. Then they are whisked away, still jabbering.\n21. labour party Washer Dryer: 'fast spin', 'hot wash', 'rinse', 'fast cycle', 'u-turn', 'rough and tumble', 'delicates', 'heavy load', 'social fabric conditioner drawer' etc.\n22. footballer bar fight: ambulances, stretchers, physiotherapists, swearing, people passing out, NO BRUISES, NO BLOOD, other drinkers carry on as usual. NO collateral damage.\n23. refrigerated bookcase: 'I'm just getting a drink...' SURPRISE... frosty books but no drinks...\nbooks not drinks: "bar": "I'll have a war and peace please.."\n24. MIKE K ON HYGIENE: "You don't want to refreeze water"\n25. british exam system: waiter's handing you exam papers on a plate.

*aim to arrive about 15 minutes early to allow time to change and put the real world to the back of your mind, in readiness for training. [[Samu]] may occur here too.\n!Format\n*The [[manji]] is also hung at the front of the [[dojo]], if it isn't there already.\n*Registration is undertaken. [[Shorinji Kempo]] is an unusually [[bureaucratic|Shorinji Kempo organisation]] martial art.\n*Session fees are collected. These tend be small, and are used towards things like buying and replacing club equipment, covering [[senseis|sensei]] costs (who typically, or perhaps by Kempo philosophy, offer training for free), and subsidizing club events.

!See also\n*[[Books I'm currently reading]]\n*[[Books On My List]] - books I intend to read at some point.\n!The Book List\nThis is a list of books that I've read.\n*@@''1984''@@ - George Orwell. Introducing an important concept.\n*''@@20,000 Leagues Under the Sea@@'' - Jules Verne. I loved this as a child, but I remember him using the word 'perpendicular' an awful lot, which was of mild concern to me as I didn't know what it meant. For some reason I never looked it up!\n*''@@Alice In Wonderland@@, @@Through the Looking Glass@@'' - Lewis Carroll, mindbending stuff. To words as Escher is to images.\n*''@@Almost Everyone's Guide to Science@@'' - John Gribbin. An illuminating survey that is simplified but not over-simplified, if I remember correctly.\n*''Animal Farm'' - George Orwell. Unfortunately I didn't know enough Russian history to get it when I read it. But it was still a good read.\n*''@@The Blind Watchmaker@@'' - Richard Dawkins stirs up a mess again. But his ideas are always interesting and thought provoking.\n*@@''Captain Corelli's Mandolin''@@ - Louis De Bernieres, heartwarming lovestory with comedy, tragedy and lots of moral goodness in there too.\n*@@''Catch 22''@@ - Joseph Heller. Hilarious. Classic.\n*''Catcher in the Rye'' - J.D.Salinger. An interesting account.\n*''Danny Champion of the World'' - Roald Dahl. Lovely story of a boy and his father and their non-standard life.\n*''@@Database Nation@@'' - Simon Garfinkel. Eyeopening book about how databases, and the organisations that use and abuse them, permeate our society on greater and greater scales.\n*''Day of the Triffids'' - John Wyndham, classic sci-fi.\n*''The Diary of Anne Frank'' - interesting insight into WWII from the eyes of a hiding Jew.\n*''Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, The Long Dark ~Tea-Time of the Soul'' - I've forgotten most of these in the general mush of the Hitchhiker's Guide, but they were definitely fun.\n*''Discworld'' (all up to around the 23rd one) - Terry Pratchett. I used to love these. It's a fun universe full of satirical parallels to our own. But in the end it went on too long and I wanted to read other things.\n*@@''The Earthsea Trilogy''@@ - Ursula K. le Guin. depthful children's books about the life of a wizard in the universe of Earthsea. A very mature treatment of the subject of good and evil. Much less black and white than other notable children's books.\n*''The Emperor's New Mind'' - Roger Penrose, was an interesting disappointment.\n*''Esio Trot'' - a heartwarming children's story of a romance between retired folk.\n*''@@Essays in Skepticism@@'' - Bertrand Russell. Need to revisit this. I remember being captivated by some very deep thinking simply and clearly put.\n*[[EZ-Go|EZ-Go (book)]] - first book I read about the game of [[Go]].\n*''@@Fight Club@@'' - Chuck Palahniuk. The book that inspired the film. Great story. Great narrative style.\n*''Flatterland'' - Ian Stewart. Interesting tour through various areas of maths.\n*@@''Fools''@@ - Pat Cadigan. Amazing story about a world where you can buy and sell memories and personality overlays. Mind bending, and excellently written.\n*''Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation'' - Isaac Asimov. Fantastic and definitive SF.\n*''@@Franz Kafka, Stories, 1904-1924@@'' - Translated by J.A.Underwood. Kafka had one wacky imagination. I love this book. I love the way a lot of the stories are just little portraits with little or no point or purpose other than that they simply portray a scene with honesty, awareness and the rest of Kafka's individual brand of perception.\n*''Geometry'' - P. Abbot. A Teach Yourself Book, written in 1948. Very interesting, I intend to do the exercises from this book some time. Shows me what modern school kids (including me) missed out/are missing out on. We get other stuff instead, but it's still interesting to see.\n*''@@Great Apes@@'' - Will Self. Man wakes up to discover himself in a world of apes. Utterly crazy, utterly satirical and utterly entertaining. I love his attitude to the soft sciences. It's entertaining in a superior sort of way.\n*''Hard Times'' - Charles Dickens. One we did at school. Enjoyed it quite a bit.\n*@@''Haroun and the Sea of Stories''@@ - Salman Rushdie, Alice in Wonderland style surrealism and concepts meet Indian cultural influence and a batch of characters you really get to know. A childhood favourite.\n*''Haunted'' - Chuck Palahniuk. A batch of short stories, wrapped up in another one. Written to evoke and explore disgust and disgusting situations. Very well written. Very ugly. Very interesting. It ends very well. Very.\n*@@''Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy''@@ (all) - Douglas Adams, some of the first sci-fi I ever read. Some of my favourite books ever.\n*''The Hobbit'' - J.R.R.Tolkein. A fun book. The first and only 'big' book I ever read out loud with a group of friends (at primary school). It took most of one school year. We started with about 10 of us, by the time we finished there only about 3 or 4 of us left. What fun.\n*''@@How Children Learn Mathematics@@'' - Pamela Liebeck. Extremely interesting book about how basic mathematics is taught and learnt.\n*''How to Disappear Completely and Never be Found'' - Doug Richmond. This was such a surprising title to see on some oxfam bookshelves that I had to buy it. Very interesting account giving an angle into various risky and semi-legal areas of society.\n*''An Introduction to English Poetry'' - James Fenton - it is what it says on the front. Interesting.\n*''Invisible Monsters'' - Chuck Palahniuk. Story about identity and living a meaningful life, written in Palahniuk's signature style: clear, simple, gruesome and irresistable.\n*''Jailbird'' - Kurt Vonnegut. I've completely forgotten this... I remember reading and enjoying it though. Onto the reread list I suppose.\n*''The Kindness of Strangers'' - Kate Adie. Extremely interesting autobiography of one of the BBC's most famous reporters.\n*''@@Level 7@@'' - Mordecai Roshwald. Interesting science-fiction story about the experiences of a soldier ordered to start world war III by pressing buttons.\n*@@''Lolita''@@ - Vladimir Nabokov. Memoirs of a paedophile. Quite a story!\n*''The Long Road Turns To Joy'' - Thich Nhat Hanh - Introducing walking meditation. Awesome concept. Portable.\n*''Lord of the Flies'' - William Golding. Shocking stuff.\n*''Lord of the Rings'' - J.R.R.Tolkein. Nice descriptions, excellent remedy for sleeplessness too. Far too long. Oh well. I read it.\n*''Mansfield Park'' - Jane Austen. Haven't read many period novels (is that usual terminology?). Enjoyed it all the same.\n*''The Mathematical Tourist'' - Ivars Peterson. An interesting tour through various areas of mathematics.\n*''Matilda'' - Roald Dahl. A heartwarming story of a girl genius.\n*@@[[Maus: My Father Bleeds History|Maus: My Father Bleeds History (book)]]@@ - Art Spiegelman. Amazing graphic novel about Spiegelman's father's experience of WWII, and Spiegelman's relationship to his father.\n*''The Midwich Cuckoos'' - John Wyndham. More vivid sci-fi.\n*@@''Mister God, This is Anna''@@ - Fynn, is wonderful.\n*''Mother Tongue'' - Bill Bryson. Linguistic for the layperson. Eye opening.\n*@@''Narnia''@@ (all) - C.S.Lewis, these are the books that launched me into reading proper.\n*@@''No Destination''@@ - Satish Kumar's inspirational autobiography, detailing his lifelong spiritual journey.\n*@@''Political Ideals''@@ - Bertrand Russell. A lecture he gave, and was banned for giving, several decades ago. I like his thinking.\n*@@[[Power To The People|Power To The People (book)]]@@ - Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran. An optimistic survey of the geopolitical/technological energy situation, past, present and future.\n*@@''The Prince''@@ - Machiavelli, led me to believe that it has been widely misinterpreted.\n*@@''The Princessa''@@ - Harriet Rubin. Tagline: 'Why fight like Machiavelli when you can fight like Machiavella?'. An extremely interesting work of feminist writing. I came away with it thinking it was both a little over the top but also surprisingly to the point. I also came away with the feeling that underneath the feminist veneer is a potentially useful body of thinking for anyone. Definitely an interesting read.\n*''QED - The Strange Theory of Light and Matter'' - Richard P. Feynmann. Very interesting, but he gets a bit carried away with overly long descriptions of difficult maths when his (mind) pictures are the special thing.\n*''A Rebel's Guide To Lenin'' - Ian Birchall. Interesting, extremely sympathetic, summary of Lenin's life and works.\n*@@[[Rhetorical Terms and Concepts, A Contemporary Glossary|Rhetorical Terms and Concepts, A Contemporary Glossary (book)]]@@ - George Y. Trail. A fantastic little glossary, which takes the philosophical ideas it illustrates right to heart. An excellent and highly readable book that blurs the boundaries between reference, opinion and entertainment writing.\n*@@''The Satanic Bible''@@ - Anton Szandor ~LaVey, an incendiary book nevertheless containing important words of wisdom, so long as you are discerning!\n*''@@The Science of Discworld@@, @@The Science of Discworld II, The Globe@@'' - Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart, Jack Cohen. Some very down to earth, sensible, illuminating and funny ruminations on knowledge, science and humanity.\n*''The Seeds of Time'' - John Wyndham - old science fiction shorts. A good read.\n*''@@Self Made Man@@'' - Norah Vincent. A self-confessed hack takes her dubious talent into exceedingly interesting territory (she lives disguised as a man for over a year... and this is her story), which makes this book totally worth the (brief) read that it is. Very thought provoking. I wonder just how true it is...\n*''@@The Selfish Gene@@'' - Richard Dawkins. Some very interesting ideas explored here. The way this guy plays with ideas clearly lacks the usual reverence most scientists are perceived to have (refreshing!), despite his evangelical belief in said ideas!\n*''Six Easy Pieces'' - Richard P. Feynmann. Introduction to physics, by 'it's most famous teacher'. I think his methods have become canon now though, because almost everything in this book I've seen before. I'd like to learn more about Feynmann though, he seems like he was quite a character.\n*@@''Slapstick''@@ - Kurt Vonnegut. So it goes.\n*@@''Slaughterhouse 5''@@ - Kurt Vonnegut. Amazing story of a shellshocked soldier.\n*''Sophie's World'' - Jostein Gaarder, a gentle and easy-to-read tour of some of the philosophical landscape.\n*''Specimen Days'' - Michael Cunningham. Well written and entertaining story on the theme of Walt Whitman, written in Cunningham's trademark way: three stories of different genres, set in different times, containing multiple parallels and interlocking threads.\n*@@''The Story of My Experiments With Truth''@@ - Gandhi's autobiography. Awesome. A fantastic and inspirational read.\n*''Stupid White Men'' - Michael Moore. Lots of valid and not so valid points couched in over-the-top, idiotic garbage. But I guess he's fighting the good fight and doing pretty well. He redeemed himself in the movie The Corporation when he admitted that he was cursed to make anti-corporation media forever (due to his current command of the corporations's resources).\n*@@''Symbolism and Truth''@@ - Ralph Monroe Eaton, very dense book, but fantastic nevertheless. Extremely satisfying treatment of this area philosophy.\n*''Talking Cock'' - Richard Herring. A fairly tedious exposition on male anatomy. Represents an interesting viewpoint, but only, I think, inasmuch as it's one to avoid. Praise the cock? Yes. But not in isolation, or in overly simplistic/materialistic terms. Well, not every book is for everyone!\n*''@@The Tao of Physics@@'' - Fritjof Capra. An eye opening look at how eastern philosophy and modern physics are beginning to run parallel.\n*''@@Thomas the Tank Engine@@'' (very many) - Reverend W.V. Awdry. Some of the very first books I was exposed to. The stories (and illustrations) really are fantastic too.\n*''@@Tintin@@'' (almost all) - Herge. The only cartoon strip books I ever got into. These were great. And the TV adaptation too.\n*''Timequake'' - Kurt Vonnegut. More wonderful rambling.\n*@@''To Kill a Mockingbird''@@ - Harper Lee. Story about race relations and other social issues in America's deep south, told through the eyes of a child. Wonderful. Even school didn't manage to ruin it for me.\n*''@@[[The Tokuhon|The Tokuhon (book)]]@@'' - the [[Shorinji Kempo]] textbook. Very practical and very useful. A dip-in-and-out-of book from now on.\n*''Trouble with Lichen'' - John Wyndham. Interesting sci-fi about a lichen that drastically extends human lifespan.\n*@@''The Unbearable Lightness of Being''@@ - Milan Kundera, extremely readable and depthful book about philosophy and human relationships. \n*''War Talk'' - Arundhati Roy. A lot of anti-globalization essays and talks. Illuminating points, and extremely emotive.\n*@@''Winnie the Pooh''@@ - A.A.Milne, a classic.\n*''Yasmin and the Desert Snow'' - Barbara Paterson. A little girl finds a genie in a cooking pot and makes an unusual wish. A lovely illustrated children's book.\n*@@''The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali''@@ - translated and interpreted by Sri Swami Satchidananda. This is hardly a book you can just read. I should dip into this more!\n*''@@Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance@@, @@Lila: An Inquiry Into Morals@@'' - Robert M Pirsig, are two of the books which have had the most influence on me. See [[education in the hive]].\n*@@[[Zen, A Way Of Life|Zen, A Way Of Life (book)]]@@ - highly interesting introduction to Zen Buddhism, by one of the west's early Buddhist students.

[img[An Introduction to Non-Classical Logic|books/nclogic.jpg][An Introduction to Non-Classical Logic (book)]] [img[Ten Theories of Human Nature|books/humannature.jpg]]

This is a list of books I intend to complete sometime (along with brief reasons why I intend to complete them):\n*''Gödel, Escher, Bach - Douglas Hofstader''\n**Recommended multiply, and seems interesting.\n*''The Mayor of Casterbridge - Thomas Hardy''\n**Heard about it from my [[Shorinji Kempo]] sensei. Sounds like an interesting book. Added 10/06/2006.\n*''The Kingdom Of God Is Within You - Leo Tolstoy''\n**Gandhi found this book influential (he says so in his autobiography).\n**It deals with principles of nonresistance, which I find highly compelling.\n**I'll be able to say I've read Tolstoy.\n**//added: 07/04/2006//\n*''Manhood - Steve Biddulph''\n**Recommended to me in unusual circumstances.\n**Deals with a topic I'm unfamiliar with: men's studies.\n**Fits in with my current reading.\n**//added: thu04/05/2006//\n*''The Republic - Plato''\n**Classic philosophy text.\n**Been on my list for a long time.\n**//added: fri12/05/2006//\n*''Maus II: A Survivor's Tale - Art Spiegelman''\n**The universe seems to have been recommending this book to me...\n**I read Maus I.\n**//added: fri12/05/2006//\n*''Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury''\n**Seeped into my consciousness, probably via Michael Moore and his inane, but successful and probably good, jabbering.\n**Dystopian ideas are interesting to me.\n**//added: mon15/05/2006//\n*''The Sandman - Neil Gaiman''\n**Recommended to me at various times, dimly remembered, by people I respect.\n**Graphic novel - haven't explored these much yet.\n**//added: fri19/05/2006//\n

!Micro-breaks\n*Go get a ''cup of water''\n*Have a ''piece of fruit''\n!Active breaks\n*Do some ''juggling''\n*Play some ''haki-sack''\n*Play on a ''dancemat'' for a little while\n*Go for a ''walk''\n*Go for a ''bikeride''\n!Reading\n*Read an article or blog on the ''internet''\n*Read an article in a ''foreign language''\n*Read a ''newspaper or magazine'' article\n!Listening\n*Listen to a ''song'' and do nothing else while doing so\n!Watching\n*Watch the ''news or weather''\n*Watch a ''film''\n*Watch a ''tv programme''\n!Internet fun\n*Find somewhere on [[google maps|InternetTour]]\n!Socialising\n*Go ''visit'' a friend\n*''Comment'' on a piece of art (on [[deviantART|http://www.deviantart.com/]] or [[flickr|http://www.flickr.com/]])\n*Contribute to or start a ''forum thread''\n!Other\n*Do a puzzle or play a game such as a ''sudoku'' or online ''Go''\n\n\n\n

This website runs on TiddlyWiki. See the [[osmosoft|http://www.osmosoft.com]] website if you are having difficulty browsing this site or if you want to find out more about TiddlyWiki.\n*My conventions:\n**If a link has more than one sensible destination then I'll include the extras in brackets, labelled by website. Eg: ''[[deviantART|MyCreativityTour]] [[(dA)|http://conskeptical.deviantart.com/]]''\n*TiddlyWiki conventions:\n**External links are underlined. Eg: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prose\n**Internal links are not underlined, but are bold. Eg: [[BookTour]]\n*Structure of IPv2\n**My [[Journal|allJournals]] and the [[RecentChanges|allRecentChanges]] section are linear in nature. There are also two keystones of the site, from which the rest emanates: [[Tours]] of things/areas I find interesting and [[conskeptical]], linking to information about me and links to ideas I'm playing with etc. The [[RecentChanges|allRecentChanges]] section highlights notable changes to the site, the Timeline section on the righthand column contains details of every section changed, listed by day.\n**The majority of lists on this site are extremely incomplete: they are supposed to represent life in progress.\n*Slowness\n**If the animated thingies are a bit slow, then you can turn them off by clearing this checkbox:<<option chkAnimate>>.\n*Internet Explorer\n**Not everything here works properly with Internet Explorer. What can I say?\nAny [[reports|mailto:conskeptical@gmail.com]] of dead links and other miscellaneous decay are gratefully received.

So far I have nothing much to say about normal chess, but I do about...\n!Simultaneous Chess\nThis was a fairy chess co-invented by me and a friend in London a while back, it works like this:\n#Normal chess rules apply unless they are overridden by Simultaneous Chess rules.\n#One move consists of the following procedure: black and white think of their move, and signal ready when they have done so. Then they each make their move, resulting in each move of the game being made in a simultaneous fashion, rather than a 1-2 fashion as in normal chess. This necessitates, and suggests, various further rules.\n#If two pieces land on the same square after a move, they are both removed from the board.\n#You can take your own pieces.\n#You must not move your king into check (as the board stands prior to the move).\n#If in check you must attempt to get out of check, either by moving out of the way or by attempting to take the attacking piece. You may not 'block' the attacking piece's path.\n#Pawns may move diagonally onto an unoccupied square if it is possible that your opponent will move a piece there in the same turn.\nI've been playing with it for a bit, and there is definitely bluffing involved, and the depth of strategy is unclear to me at the moment. The rules probably need tweaking, but it seems like there is something to this.\n19/01/2006 - It needs more 'botch' rules to prevent rubbishness when chasing the king. I don't think I can be bothered with this any more :)

*recital of Seiku and Seigan from the [[Dokun|The Dokun]], followed by a period of seated Zazen meditation, followed by Shinjo from the Dokun.\nCultivating a healthy mind is as much a part of [[Shorinji Kempo]] as cultivating a healthy body is. In fact, according to Kempo, without one you cannot have the other.

Languages I've used:\n*''BBC BASIC'' - learnt on this!\n*''Inform'' - C-like language for creating interactive fiction.\n*''OPL'' - programming language for Psion EPOC machines. Interesting!\n*''HTML, CSS''\n*''Java''\n*[[JavaScript|MyJavaScript]] - the muckiest language I've ever programmed in. Seems interesting though.\n*''Perl'' - introduced me to the power of regular expressions.\n*''Python''\n*''QBASIC'' - was on a computer at primary school.\n*''Visual C++'' - I didn't really get OOP at the time though.\n*''Wiki markup'' - for Wikipedia (see InternetTour). It's a bit rambling and complicated now...\nLanguages I'm interested in:\n*''Lisp''\n*''Tcl/Tk''

*''Dark City'' - sci-fi madness in a surreal world. Fun to watch. Nicely made.\n*''Das Experiment'' - film based on the [[Stanford Prison Experiment|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment]]. German. Excellent.\n*''Deep Impact'' - an asteroid or something on course for Earth. Aaarrrggghh. A bit generic.\n*''The Descent'' - horror movie about a caving expedition gone wrong. Thoroughly gripping. Nasty.\n*''Demolition Man'' - Sylvester Stallone, Sandra Bullock and Wesley Snipes in ridiculous but entertaining sci-fi.\n*''Derrida'' - documentary about the 'founder of deconstruction'. Very interesting and entertaining, partly because the guy was obviously so impossible to film. He hardly played ball for the duration. Great stuff.\n*''Die Another Day'' - Pierce Brosnan as James Bond in this well made and slick spy film.\n*''Die Hard'' - classic cop film.\n*''Dirty Pretty Things'' - slick but plasticky British crime film. It does have Audrey Tautou in though.\n*''Donnie Darko'' - sci-fi film with time travel and other weird stuff. Interesting though.\n*''Doom'' - The movie of the game. Far too much dialogue and no where near enough action. Who would watch the movie of a first person shooter to watch meatheads //talking//? But there was plenty of pretty scenery to look at. For a movie rooted in the world of computer games, the camera work was surprisingly sloppy though.\n*''Downfall'' - film about the last days of Hitler's life. Excellently shot. It seems believable too.\n*''Enemy of the State'' - Will Smith in a pretty good spy/big-brother film. I enjoyed this a lot. Lots of ridiculously impossible technology. Nice.\n*''The English Patient'' - gorgeously shot love story set against WWII.\n*''Enter the Dragon'' - Bruce Lee martial arts. Fun. Impressive.\n*''Equilibrium'' - Christian Bale plays Keanu Reeves in this astonishingly wooden mish-mash of 1984, The Matrix and Deus Ex. Nice visuals though.\n*@@''Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind''@@ - Jim Carey proves he can act. A funny but serious film about relationships.\n*''Evolution'' - Hilarious film with David Duchovny. Nice.\n*@@''eXistenZ''@@ - Jude Law in an absolutely reality-bending film. Gorgeous visuals.\n*''Extreme Measures'' - a promising premise let down by Hugh Grant, a lame plot and general rubbish film making.\n*@@''Eyes Wide Shut''@@ - Kubrick's last film. Fantastic.\n*''Fantasia'' - Disney make a fairly trippy piece of children's entertainment which requires more than a minimum of attention span. Worth watching this. Great voiceover too.\n*''Fargo'' - more jollies from the Coen brothers.\n*''Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas'' - Terry Gilliam, Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro make this film absolutely stunning to watch. Incredible visuals and acting. Confusing, and manic. Withnail and I turned up to 11.\n*''A Few Good Men'' - military courtroom drama with an excellent performance by Jack Nicholson. It's been a long time since I saw this, and the All Movie Guide reckons it's more overblown than I remember it. Figures. I was probably 15 when I saw it.\n*''@@The Fifth Element@@'' - cartoon like comedy set in the future. Gorgeous visuals.\n*@@''Fight Club''@@ - anti-capitalist fairy tale with gorgeous visuals.\n*@@''The Fly''@@ - amazing sci-fi/love/horror about teleportation gone wrong.\n*''Forbidden Planet'' - 1956 sci-fi madness. Amazing special effects. Hilarious depiction of spacemen interacting with the recluse's daughter. Interesting philosophical undertones towards the end too. Has interesting similarites with Sphere.\n*''Four Weddings and a Funeral'' - Hugh Grant is ridiculous as usual.\n*''@@For Y'ur Height Only@@'' - A hilarious Filipino Bond spoof, featuring the 3 foot high Weng Weng in the leading role as gun-toting martial artist and woman pleaser extraordinaire, secret agent 00. The dubbing is truly spectacular. 'How in the devil do you catch an eel?' 'I lost a lot of good baddies tonight.' This film is almost too funny to be digested in a single gulp.\n*''Full Metal Jacket'' - Kubrick shocks as usual.\n*@@''Gandhi''@@ - moving film about one of the great recent peace activists.\n*''Gattaca'' - beautifully made sci-fi set in a future where almost everyone is genetically engineered.\n*''Ghostbusters'' - very funny mishmash of genres and silliness. Bill Murray is cool.\n*@@''Gladiator''@@ - revenge story set in ancient Rome. Glorious atmosphere and visuals. Russell Crowe brings his usual amazing screen presence to the film.\n*''The Godfather'' - Classic. Need to watch it again though.\n*''Good Bye, Lenin!'' - German film about a boy trying to protect his ill mother from fatal shock by shielding her from the fall of communism in East Germany that she was in a coma through. Definitely worth watching.\n*''Good Morning Vietnam'' - entertaining and heartwarming story about a military DJ in Vietnam. Robin Williams.\n*@@''Good Night, And Good Luck''@@ - George Clooney tells the story of how journalist extraordinaire Edward Murrow helped bring down Senator Joseph ~McCarthy and end his commie-bashing antics.\n*''Good Will Hunting'' - moving film about a troubled mathematician genius.\n*@@''Grizzly Man''@@ - A film about the nutcase Timothy Treadwell. He got eaten by bears, after having spent huge amounts of time with them. This film contains amazing wildlife footage, and the story of a truly interesting human being.

*[[possible routine]] - one sketch I made of a daily routine for use during a holiday period where all time can be self-scheduled and most tasks are relatively time non-specific.\n*[[critical points]] - recognising that days have scaffolds, and that defective scaffolding can lead to a defective day.\n!See also\nTodoTheory - ideas about orchestrating/managing tasks.

[[Notice]] [[IPv2]] [[I Sing The Body Electric]] [[A Truth]] [[Quality]] [[Books I'm currently reading]]

*''Premise:'' Every new petrol/diesel car that is sold has an expected lifespan of at least a few years. That's a medium term investment that is crowding out the speedy introduction of greener means of transport.\n*''Therefore:'' new petrol cars should have a shorter lifespan, to allow greener technology a look-in. Long term investments in harmful technologies should be curbed!\n!Selling points\n*Non-refillable petrol tank - no need for petrol stations. Better petrol safety measures.\n*When the tank is nearly empty, park the car, and it will be towed for destruction by council waste disposal services.\n*Your car will never be more than one fuel tank's worth old!\n*If you lose your car in the car park, don't worry, you can always buy another one!\n*Always up-to-date with the latest fashions, trends and technologies.\n*Discounts for allowing advertising on car panels.\n*No servicing/cleaning/maintenance costs or worries.\n*Car theft not such a big problem any more.\n!Advocacy\n*High throughput and low lifespan of units means that an enormous product range can be developed: every model can be tailor made to the (few) journey(s) it will ever make. Huge potential for an enormous sub-industry to develop. Could even use ~DPCs as a vehicle for introducing/advertising green technologies!\n*Opportunity for finer granularity in the auditing process: car owners would have to register every new vehicle. Terrorists foiled again!\n!Extensions\n*''Refurbishing:'' ~DPCs could be shipped halfway round the world for refurbishing and refuelling by skilled workers at central depots. This would combat the excessive waste caused by people using many tanks worth of petrol.\n*''Third World Benefits:'' Older refurbished models not suitable for use in rich countries (~MEDCs) could be sold at knock-down prices, or even charitably distributed (~Adopt-A-Motorist...), in poor countries (~LEDCs) such as China, India and most of Africa. This would accelerate these countries into their industrial phases, allowing them to develop as key players on the world stage. As they say, the faster you get into the tunnel, the sooner you're out again!\n!See also\n*[[hitchcock|http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/filmnetwork/A4061701]] - an awesome short film extolling the virtues of Electric Petrol Cars, part of the inspiration for the Disposable Petrol car.

!Details\n[img[EZ-Go|books/ezgo.jpg]]\n*http://webpages.charter.net/suewilcox/EZGobook.htm\n!Summary\n*Survey of [[Go]] playing techniques, to help everyone from the beginner up to decent kyu grades. Very idiosyncratic style.\n!Diary\n*Wed 19th Apr, 2006 - I'm beginning to get a bit out of my depth on the detail now (around half-way through), but the basic sketches are still useful. I'll plough through and finish it anyway, I can see that other books will help me more, the idiosyncrasy is getting a bit insane.\n*Wed 1st May, 2006 - Completed the book. Learnt quite a lot, am looking forward to moving onward now!

Shorinji Kempo employs these aspects of education:\n*''Goal setting'' - gives the learner a sense of context and the feeling that the overall task is achievable.\n*''A 'system of [[primitives]]' ''to ease internalization - there are no giant sized mouthfuls anywhere.\n*''Highly structured learning'' - large degrees of structure allow the learner to latch onto the structure they find appealing.\n*''Freedom enabling structure'' - allows the learner to express themselves freely within a structured framework.\n*''Continual practice at all levels'' - all levels are continually exercised.\n*''Ritual'' - good for mental state. See the Satanic Bible.\n*''Contemplation of its educational methods'' (ie: less blind faith) - gives the learner a reason to feel good about the methods.\n*''Teamwork'' - allows learners to benefit from each other's knowledge, attainment and encouragement.\n*''Supervision'' - speeds up the learning process through facilitators nipping bad habits and misunderstandings in the bud.

*[[cascading toms]]\n**[[cascading diagonal toms]]\n*[[crossed pairs]]

!Engi\n//engi: dependent causation or conditioned co-arising. A Buddhist doctrine expressing the interdependence of all things. It teaches that no beings or phenomena exist on their own; they exist or occur because of their relationship with other beings and phenomena. Everything in the world comes into existence in response to causes and conditions. That is, nothing can exist independent of other things or arise in isolation. The doctrine of the twelve-linked chain of causation is a well-known illustration of this idea.//\n(http://www.sgi-usa.org/buddhism/dictionary/define?tid=2208)\n!Film synopsis\n*An upcoming rural criminal has a nervous breakdown after he commits a non-lethal shooting on his first job after moving to the city. His life turns into state-department pinball and he falls right apart.\n*He ends up broken and hopeless in a mental home, where he gains undesired fame for his impenetrable but vividly disturbing poetry: his only continuing communication with humanity.\n!Inspiration\n*Bus 174\n*Requiem For A Dream

!Genres\n#Adventure game\n#Driving simulator\n#First person shooter\n#Puzzle\n#Role playing game\n#Strategy\n!Features\n*3D/2D graphics\n*destructible/modifiable environment\n*'head-up display'\n*inventory\n*multiplayer and/or online environment\n*AI engines to enable many non-player-characters.\n!Gameplay\n*linear 'story': eg Quake\n*non-linear 'story': eg Deus Ex\n*closed puzzle: eg Tetris\n*open-ended: eg Elite, various online games\n*level based/non-level based\n!Middleware\n*[[Graphics engines|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_person_shooter_graphics_engines]]\n*Physics engines - eg Havok\n!Examples\n*First person shooters are including elements of role-playing, driving simulation and adventuring in a more integrated way.

*Some ''computer games'' are good. Some aren't. For somehow who claims not to be that into computer games I've played a scary amount of them...\n**@@''Descent I''@@ - mindbending navigation in a true 3D environment. Lots of fun.\n**@@''Deus Ex''@@ - amazing role-playing FPS. Excellent story-lines, richly detailed universe, great scripts (vocal and computer!).\n**@@''Elite''@@ - the Archimedes version. Groundbreaking.\n**@@''Fahrenheit''@@ - Awesome interactive drama.\n**''Frontier First Encounters'' - development Elite. Quite good, but not as good, in my opinion.\n**''Grand Theft Auto III'' - fun, for a while.\n**@@''The Grim Fandango''@@ - probably my favourite adventure game ever. Gorgeous graphics, characters and story. Hilarious.\n**@@''~Half-Life, Opposing Force, ~BlueShift''@@ - very pretty, superbly crafted universe and story from 3 different perspectives.\n**@@''~Half-Life II''@@ - even prettier, great physics engine, and the universe and story are even more compelling. The shortness of this game is in its favour I think. Some games 'have to be completed', and those ones should be shorter, or at least made put-downable somehow...\n**@@''[[Iron Lord|http://ironlord.acornarcade.com/faq.htm]]''@@ - Archimedes. One of the first games I ever played. Probably wasn't as good as I remember it to be.\n**''Quake I'' - pretty, nice levels etc. but ultimately a total waste of time.\n**''Quake II'' - ditto.\n**''Quake III'' - especially so.\n**@@''Sentinel''@@ - another golden oldie. Great strategy game. Hop around an island while avoiding the gaze of rotating 'sentinels' (more like lighthouses) while trying to gain enough height to jump off each island. Imaginative design!\n**@@''Sokoban''@@ - that block-pushing game. Interesting strategy.\n**@@''Starcraft''@@ - the first computer game I ever played which didn't have 'goodies and baddies', as such. Great universe. Still a good game even today!\n**''Starfighter 3000'' - awesome, ancient, archimedes game where you fly around shooting things.\n**@@''[[Stepmania|dancemat]]''@@ - ripoff of DDR (the Dance Dance Revolution). Lots of fun, especially with dual dancemats. Cheaper than the arcade :)\n**@@''Tetris''@@\n**''Twinworld'' - ancient platform game from ubisoft. Very cool though.\n**''Unreal Tournament, GOTYE'' - good graphics, easy to dip in and out of which is good.\n**''Worms'' - turn based multiplayer goodness. Very funny and very well done.\n**''X2 - The Threat'' - '21st century Elite' maybe. Far more complicated though. Pretty.\n**''Xenon 2'' - awesome, ancient, vertical scrolling shooter.\n*''Paper games''\n**[[Sudoku]] - curiously addictive. See http://www.websudoku.com/.\n*''Board games''\n**[[Chess]] - the first 'proper' game I learnt play. Out of practice.\n**[[Gess]] - a curiosity game, played using a Go set to 'generalised chess' rules.\n**@@[[Go]]@@ - Chinese strategy. Unbelievable game. Unbelievable depth. Play on the [[Kiseido Go Server|http://kgs.kiseido.com/]].\n**[[Quick Scrabble]] - competitive word finding using scrabble tiles. It's a laugh, especially if you play for speed or for nice words.\n**''Scrabble'' - can be a lot of fun, especially for socialising.\n**''Upwords'' - an interesting variant of Scrabble, where you can play tiles over existing tiles.\n//see also: [[computer games]]//

!Introduction\nSee the [[Wikipedia entry|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gess]] for a rundown of the history. I will describe the rules in my own terms below.\n!Motivation\n*In Chess, the moves of the pieces are only arbitarily related to the shape of the piece. In Gess, the shape of the piece dictates the movement of the piece.\n*In Go, stones do not move, and there are no pieces. In Guess, stones do move, and there are pieces.\n*In Go, stones are played on intersections. In Guess, stones exist in the squares, as in Chess.\n*In Go, the objective is territory. In Gess and Chess the objective is destruction of a particular piece.\n!Concepts\n*The board, a Go board, is 18x18 squares in size.\n*Each ''piece'' is a 3x3 grid on the board, containing stones of only one colour.\n*Each piece may be referred to by its ''centre'', which could be any of the squares on the 18x18 board. This means there is an ''invisible ring'' of board squares around the outside of the board. No stones may exist on these squares, and stones which move onto these squares are removed from play.\n*The possible movements of each piece are dictated by the pattern of stones within its 3x3 confines.\n**A centre stone allows unlimited movement in a direction. No centre stone allows movement of 1, 2 or 3 squares.\n**The remaining stones dictate which directions the piece can move in. Any half-lines from the piece centre to other stones in the piece are lines of possible movement. Therefore, a filled in piece (all squares occupied) can move an unlimited direction in any direction (N, NW, W, SW, S, SE, E, NE).\n*A piece may only continue movement if it remains a piece. Therefore, if it (the piece, the 3x3 grid) intersects with any other stones during it's movement it must stop. The stones it intersected with are removed from the board, and the turn is over. It is allowable to intersect with (and therefore kill) your own stones.\n!Rules\n*Starting Position\n**The 18x18 board is 6x6 pieces in size, if the pieces are all adjacent. The starting position is similar to that of chess. (See Chess Piece Analogues below)\n***White row 1: Rook, Bishop, Ring, Queen, Bishop, Rook\n***White row 2: 6 pawns\n***Black mirrors white: Queen opposite queen.\n*Play\n**Legal moves are made until one player has no rings. The player with no rings is the loser.\n!Chess piece analogues\nHashes repreent stones. Full-stops represent empty squares. Colons show the centre of the piece.\n*Pawn: Can move 1, 2 or 3 spaces foward.\n{{{\n.#.\n.:.\n...\n}}}\n*Rook: Can move unlimited spaces N, S, W, E.\n{{{\n.#.\n###\n.#.\n}}}\n*Bishop: Can move unlimited spaces NW, NE, SW, SE.\n{{{\n#.#\n.#.\n#.#\n}}}\n*King (in Gess, a Ring): Can move 1, 2 or 3 spaces in any direction.\n{{{\n###\n#:#\n###\n}}}\n*Queen: Can move unlimited spaces in any direction.\n{{{\n###\n###\n###\n}}}\n*There is no Knight in Gess.\n!Survey of Gess Pieces\nBecause any 3x3 grid has the potential to be a piece in Gess (the only requirement is that the stones in the grid are of one colour only), there are far more pieces in Gess than in Chess. But there is no Knight, due to the way movement is defined in Gess.\nIn the following analysis, it is assumed the given configurations are somewhere in the middle of an otherwise empty board.\n*Generalised Pawns: Can move 1, 2 or 3 in any direction.\n{{{\n...\n.#.\n...\n}}}\nTaking the centre to be any of the squares around this lone stone, the stone, along with it's 3x3 grid, can be moved in any direction.\n*Slow rooks and bishops: Rooks or bishops with no centre stone. Evidently, the Ring is a slow Queen.\n*Crippled pieces: Any stones adjacent or close to stones of another colour all have reduced potential for being pieces, as the potential 3x3 grids in that area are reduced.\n!More Gess concepts\n*Speed: fast pieces have a centre stone, slow pieces have no centre stone.\n*Stone density: 'Shrapnel' blocks movement and is movable (often slowly) itself. Dense 'clusters' or lakes are good 'exploding' points for reaching areas of the board not obstructed by shrapnel. Clusters are often a good varied source of fast pieces.\n!Gess Strategies\n*Protect your ring(s) with shrapnel and clusters. Just 1 stone can easily protect the ring against a fast piece for 1 turn.\n*Build more rings: that way you can afford to lose some. This seems quite hard though.\n*Block your opponents freedom of movement by getting stones adjacent to their's in their key areas.\n!Advice\n*Don't expect Gess to play anything like Chess or Go.\n*Don't look on the board as a set of interacting pieces. Look on it as a set of interacting //potential// pieces. It's very easy to overlook potentially useful pieces by remembering the history of the stones and knowing that they started out as 'bishops' and 'queens' etc. Pieces are dynamic in this game, which is a bit of a mind bender.\n*Don't worry too much about losing stones: in Chess a single pawn advantage may win the game. In Gess, there are many more stones and any particular piece is worth far less than the board position.

[[initial go self assessment, Wed 19th April, 2006]] - evaluating my Go development up to now, and sketching out where I want to take it.\n!Useful Go related links:\n[[Sensei's Library|http://senseis.xmp.net/]] - shocking amounts of Go related stuff.\n[[Kiseido Go Server|http://kgs.kiseido.com/]] - play Go online.\n[[British Go Association|http://www.britgo.org/]]\n!See also\n*[[EZ-Go|EZ-Go (book)]] - the first Go book I read.\n!Topics Awaiting Attention\n*interesting starting positions, on the different board sizes //(18/05/2006)//

*@@''Hero''@@ - another gorgeous martial arts film from China in the House of Flying Daggers vein.\n*@@''High Fidelity''@@ - John Cusack in a fun film about a mid-thirties record collector facing up to girl trouble.\n*''Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' - very funny adaptation of the book. Well worth seeing. Marvin is surprisingly well done.\n*@@''Hotel Rwanda''@@ - shocking film about modern day conflict.\n*''House of 1000 Corpses'' - bizarre but gorgeously made horror film by Rob Zombie.\n*@@''House of Flying Daggers''@@ - absolutely gorgeous martial arts film from China.\n*''The Ice Storm'' - hugely depthful and nuanced drama. I like this a lot a lot.\n*''Ichi The Killer'' - Zany Japanese Yakuza film.\n*''Indecent Proposal'' - Robert Redford and Demi Moore in an interesting film on relationship strain. It's got a fantastic quote in it: 'If you ever want something badly, let it go. If it comes back to you, then it's yours forever. If it doesn't, then it was never yours to begin with.'\n*''Independence Day'' - entertaining almost end of the world film with Will Smith.\n*''Inside Deep Throat'' - documentary about the famous Deep Throat. An interesting piece of insight into the porn industry, and it led me to a funny piece of trivia about Douglas Adams's Deep Thought...\n*''Insomnia'' - a murder in Alaska, land of the midnight sun, shows sleep deprived Al Pacino, homicide detective extraordinaire, what it means not to lose your way. Robin Williams plays a bad guy. Excellent.\n*''@@In This World@@'' - film about two Afghanis making the dangerous journey to Britain to apply for asylum. Amazing.\n*''I, Robot'' - Will Smith in a film full of glorious visuals and well depicted sci-fi staples.\n*@@''Irreversible''@@ - appalling film about how 'time destroys everything'. Extremely well made and artistically executed. Very thought provoking.\n*''@@The Italian Job@@'' - hilarious 1969 comedy about a gold heist in Italy. The accents, the dress, the brazenness of it all is just wonderful. And mini coopers full of gold. Teehee.\n*''Jack and Sarah'' - Richard E. Grant in this entertaining romantic tragi-comedy. It's got Ian ~McKellen in it.\n*''Judge Dredd'' - It's a while since I've seen this, but I remember it being entertaining.\n*''The Jungle Book'' - the first film I ever went to see at the cinema. But I still don't know the songs...\n*''Kill Bill I and II'' - stylized and stylish ultraviolence from Quentin Tarantino.\n*''The Killing Machine'' - the [[Shorinji Kempo]] film, a joke biography of the founder, Doshin So. Lots of real Kempo moves in here, and real Kempo locations. Interesting and funny and gory film.\n*''King Kong'' - monstrously long offering from Peter Jackson. Stunning visuals.\n*''Kundun'' - story of the current Dalai Lama's life. Slow moving but gorgeously shot portrait. Martin Scorsese.\n*''Kung Fu Hustle'' - glorious martial arts comedy, from the guy who brought us Shaolin Soccer.\n*''LA Confidential'' - wonderfully made crime thriller with Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe and various others.\n*''Layer Cake'' - Heist film. Lots of fun. Ugly.\n*''Legends of the Fall'' - great story set in a well portrayed historical context.\n*''@@Leon@@'' - touching story of a hitman who takes in a girl (Natalie Portman) who's had her whole family murdered in a drug-related incident. She wants to learn to be a 'cleaner'.\n*''@@Life of Brian@@'' - hilarious Monty Python comedy about Brian who becomes an unwilling religious icon.\n*''The Little Shop of Horrors'' - hilarious musical.\n*''Lost In Translation'' - moving story about two strangers in a foreign land.\n*''The Machinist'' - interesting story about self decline. Once referred to as Memento meets Fight Club.\n*''The Magdalene Sisters'' - hardhitting and human film about life at a girl's reformatory (run by nuns) in Ireland in 1964.\n*''The Manchurian Candidate'' - interesting story about soldiers who got experimented on by the military.\n*''The March of the Penguins'' - unusual cinema! A National Geographic production about the life cycle of the emperor penguin narrated by Morgan Freeman. Extremely cute and touching, and a real eye-opener: penguins are a lot tougher than most of us realise!\n*''Mars Attacks!'' - Tim Burton excels once again in this hilarious comedy. Pierce Brosnan redeems himself well and truly. As does that woman off Sex in the City.\n*''Martha, Meet Frank, Daniel and Lawrence'' - glorious low-budget romance from ~FilmFour, set in London.\n*''The Matrix, Matrix Reloaded, Matrix Revolutions'' - enjoyed them all. Great visuals. Pseudo philosophy. What more would you want?\n*''Meet Joe Black'' - ridiculous film about Death having a holiday on earth. Nice soundtrack by Thomas Newman though.\n*''Memento'' - film about a man with memory loss, presented in a very unusual way. Tragic, comic and thought provoking.\n*''Memoirs of a Geisha'' - wonderfully detailed picture, apparently it doesn't compare so well with the book, but it's an interesting and aesthetically pleasing film.\n*''Me, Myself and Irene'' - Jim Carrey gets lots of laughs out of his main trick with this funny split personality film.\n*''Men In Black'' - entertaining dross with Will Smith.\n*''Mickey Blue Eyes'' - more slapstick from Hugh Grant. Reasonably funny, but not worth much.\n*''Minority Report'' - film about fate and destiny set in a semi-Orwellian future. Gorgeously shot, but ultimately just an action film.\n*''Monty Python and the Holy Grail'' - funny, but I think most of the humour is from sharing in the joy of those who made it, rather than any particular funniness about the film.\n*''Moulin Rouge!'' - Baz Luhrmann does his weird thing again. Mad but quite interesting.\n*@@''Mrs Doubtfire''@@ - classic children's comedy. I still love it. Robin Williams.

*practice of techniques with partners.\n!Goho (hard techniques)\n*[[mai ryusui geri]] - defend against a hand attack to jodan by dodging forwards and kicking.\n*[[ashiro ryusui geri]] - defend against a hand attack to jodan by dodging backwards and kicking.\n*''uchi uke zuki'' - defend against a hand attack to jodan by blocking and punching.\n*''uwa uke geri'' - defend against a hand attack to jodan by blocking and kicking.\n*''tsuki ten ichi'' - invite a sequence of attacks, blocking or dodging each one, culminating in a kick.\n*''uwa uke zuki'' - defend against a hand attack to jodan by blocking and punching.\n*''shita uke geri'' - defend against a hand attack to chudan with a block and a back leg kick.\n*''shita uke jun geri'' - defend against a hand attack to chudan with a block and a front leg kick.\n*''ren han ko'' - a sequence performed after a technique to demonstrate the seamlessness of the technique with other techniques.\n!Juho (soft techniques)\n*''katate yori nuki'' - escape from an outside hand grab.\n*''kote nuki'' - escape from an inside hand grab.\n*''gyaku gote'' - controlling form of kote nuki.\n*''ude juji gatame'' - control a troublemaker.\n*''ryote yori nuki'' - escape from a double outside hand grab.\n*''maki nuki'' - escape from a different type of hand grab.\n*''okuri gote'' - controlling form of maki nuki.\n*''okuri maki tembin'' - variant of okuri gote.

*philosophy of Kempo, based on [[Kaiso's Kongo Zen|Kaiso]].\n[[Kenshi|kenshi]] will gather around the [[sensei]](s) who will explain and demonstrate various points of [[Shorinji Kempo]] philosophy relating to any part of Kempo, from ways of learning or doing techniques, to reasons for doing Kempo and the history of Kempo.

^^I have perceiv'd that to be with those I like is enough,\nTo stop in company with the rest at evening is enough,\nTo be surrounded by beautiful, curious, breathing, laughing flesh is enough,\nTo pass among them or touch any one, or rest my arm ever so lightly around his or her neck for a moment, what is this then?\nI do not ask any more delight, I swim in it as the sea.\n\nThere is something in staying close to men and women and looking on them, and in the contact and odour of them, that pleases the soul well,\nAll things please the soul, but these please the soul well.\n\n- //Walt Whitman//\n\n(see the whole poem [[here|http://www.bartleby.com/142/19.html]])^^

This is the Ideas Playground version 2, [[my|conskeptical]] [[homepage|history of IPv2]] and general repository of broken thinking and half-baked ideas clamouring for a better life, a part of [[my web presence]].\n!Recent Changes (Friday 23rd June)\n/%\n\nFRIDAY %/ [img[friday|icons/5fri.jpg][RecentChanges 2006 06 23]] [img[music|icons/fountain.jpg][RecentChanges 2006 06 23]] [img[photography|icons/photography.jpg][RecentChanges 2006 06 23]] [img[poetry|icons/pen.jpg][RecentChanges 2006 06 23]] [img[human/humanity|icons/crowd.jpg][RecentChanges 2006 06 23]] /%\n\nTHURSDAY [img[tuesday|icons/4thu.jpg][RecentChanges 2006 06 01]] [img[autobiographical|icons/coffee.jpg][RecentChanges 2006 06 01]] [img[practicalities|icons/bin.jpg][RecentChanges 2006 06 01]] [img[maths|icons/maths.jpg][RecentChanges 2006 06 01]] %/ /%\n\nWEDNESDAY [img[tuesday|icons/3wed.jpg][RecentChanges 2006 05 17]] %/ /%\n\nTUESDAY [img[tuesday|icons/2tue.jpg][RecentChanges 2006 05 16]] %/ /%\n\nMONDAY [img[monday|icons/1mon.jpg][RecentChanges 2006 05 29]] %/ /%\n\nSUNDAY [img[sunday|icons/7sun.jpg][RecentChanges 2006 06 04]] [img[games|icons/go.jpg][RecentChanges 2006 06 04]] %/ /%\n\nSATURDAY [img[saturday|icons/6sat.jpg][RecentChanges 2006 06 03]] %/ /%\n\n%/\n~~[[legend]]~~\n!Recent music\n<html><a href="http://www.last.fm/user/conskeptical/?chartstyle=minimalLightRecent"><img src="http://imagegen.last.fm/minimalLightRecent/recenttracks/conskeptical.gif" border="0" /></a></html>

!Problem\nIPv2 is getting a little too large for TiddlyWiki: Firefox isn't always sure that the javascript hasn't crashed, and waiting for an 800k download to even start viewing a site is, even in this day and age, a little unacceptable...\n!Solution\nA different platform for IPv2, allowing flow of information from the current incarnation to the new one, and allowing for a larger and more flexible IPv2.\n!Requirements\n*Easier to navigate than tiddlywiki: highly centred around a decent presentation of information, as well as well-connected information.\n*Multi-file, unlike tiddlywiki which is single-file\n*Must be able to function without any server-side logic (to allow me to host it on free services, and makes it generally simpler and more transparent).\n*More emphasis on providing rich ways of accessing base technologies, rather than focussing being a technology in its own right.\n*More emphasis on shape and space than tiddlywiki. Basic (rectangular) graphical ability, eg, imagemaps.\n*Ability to export static XHTML/CSS pages for core content: reduce reliance on one browser: ie Firefox.\n*Ability to autogenerate RSS/Atom\n!Technologies\n*XHTML, CSS, Javascript (make sure it's extensible to allow cross-browser compatibility in the future)\n*RSS/Atom\n!Todos\n*Implement file write/read methods\n**possibly use a separate interface to write files and generally build the site\n**possibly use frames to read files into browser memory space: seems to be the simplest way of transferring data between DOM trees, but perhaps better still would be to see if file IO methods allow you to use ~URLs to retrieve files...\n*Implement a GUI\n**Implement a system of data view templates\n*Implement a database\n*Implement a method of 'extensible composition', to minimise repetitive data entry, but allow flexibility in data-entry.\n!Stepping stone applications\n*File open mechanism: display files (replacing key characters with escape characters) inside a webpage - try local files and ~URLs\n*File save mechanism: save contents of textbox to a local filepath of choice.\n*3-frame website scraper (UI, website, transformed website/website info) to demonstrate loading pages into a frame and manipulating them\n**Include a save function to demonstrate file save\n**If possible make it a 3-div scraper, and use scrollable divs and proper file IO to avoid use of frames.\n*Family tree to demonstrate basic functions: file IO, XML/data-storage-model, GUI\n*Timing mechanism\n**Animation mechanism - for swish ~GUIness

!as of friday 14/04/2006 the idea seeds bank is no longer in use\nThis is where I keep ideas that have intrigued me, but for one reason or another I didn't find time to follow them up. When they get close to the top of my list, they graduate to [[The Hatchery]], where they receive more immediate attention. The seeds are roughly categorised, but only so that they are less intimidating to browse through... The categories are more or less entirely fuzzy and overlapping...

*''Constantly useful:''\n**[[Wikipedia]] [[(Wikipedia)|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page]] - a fountain of much knowledge.\n**[[Google|http://www.google.com/]] - it's a burgeoning and morally dubious corporation now, but it's still the best.\n*''Frequently useful:''\n**[[All Movie Guide|http://www.allmovie.com/]] - genuinely good reviews and general information.\n**[[All Music Guide|http://www.allmusic.com/]] - genuinely good reviews, background information and amazing map of artist, band and musical relationships.\n**[[IMDb|http://www.imdb.com/]] - stacks of factual movie information. Not worth it for the reviews or ratings though.\n*''For daily consumption:''\n**[[Astronomy Picture of the Day|http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html]] - nothing like a bit of perspective to start off the day.\n**[[The Rigpa Glimpse of the Day|http://www.rigpaus.org/Glimpse/Glimpse.php]] - daily thought provoking nuggets from the Buddhist [[Tibetan Book of Living and Dying|http://www.rigpaus.org/WIR/TBLD/]].\n**[[Meriam-Webster's Word Of The Day|http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/mwwod.pl]] - expand your vocabulary one word at a time.\n*''Good to keep an eye on:''\n**[[eHub|http://www.emilychang.com/go/ehub/]] - list of website/applications representing the web2.0 revolution.\n**[[Pricelessware|http://www.pricelessware.org/]] - a source for the best in Windows freeware. (For those of us not yet running Linux :))\n*''Games:''\n**[[Kiseido Go Server|http://kgs.kiseido.com/]] - free online Go playing. Comes with a java interface too now, so you can run it in your browser!\n**[[WebSudoku|http://www.websudoku.com/]] - an inexhaustible supply of Sudoku.\n*''Interesting:''\n**[[Meatball Wiki|http://www.usemod.com/cgi-bin/mb.pl?MeatballWiki]] - cooperative exploration of online communities.\n**[[NIST dictionary of algorithms and data structures|http://www.nist.gov/dads/]] - if you don't know what that means you probably aren't interested in it (yet?). Try [[this|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_structure]] and [[this|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algorithm]] first :)\n**[[Urban Dictionary|http://www.urbandictionary.com/]] - slang dictionary for the networked masses. Quite interesting, and good if you run into some language you don't understand.\n*''@@Truly awe-inspiring:@@''\n**[[Google Maps|http://maps.google.com/]] - if you've never seen this before, go and look! Armchair geography has never looked so good. Google Earth is the downloadable version, which is better in some ways.

!Tuesday 6th December, 2005\nAs I began to realise that mathematics has a very real 'social' side to it, and can in fact be interpreted as a 'social science' in a very real way, I decided to have a look at the roots of my own mathematical education. I found national curriculum documents outlining the entire mathematical education of English children from ages 3-5ish right the way up to 19:\n*[[national curriculum for 5-16|http://www.nc.uk.net/webdav/servlet/XRM?Page/@id=6004&Subject/@id=22&Session/@id=D_xsQ8IA3uIRzPBy0RexmT]] - key stages 1-4\n*[[GCSE|http://www.qca.org.uk/5704.html]] - key stage 4 (end of compulsory education)\n*[[A-level|http://www.qca.org.uk/5661.html]]\nIt made for interesting reading, and it seems likely that it'll help me understand my own understanding in a better context. See [[routefinding in knowledge-land]].

!Friday 16th December, 2005\nI'm discovering that autobiographies are a great way to 'get to know' people that otherwise you never could have. So far I have 'met' the BBC's famous journalist and war reporter Kate Adie (The Kindness of Strangers), social inventor Nicholas Saunders (Me), and am in the fascinating process of getting to know spiritual traveller Satish Kumar through his autobiography No Destination. I think Gandhi has to be next.

!Tuesday 20th December, 2005\n''Variable context highlighting and hyperlinking''\nWhen hyperlinks get too frequent I find they tend to obscure the page, and detract from each other's presence as highlights. So for pages where fantastic amounts of hyperlinking makes sense (arguably any piece of text) it would be interesting to implement some form of choice in the highlight/hyperlink scheme for the page. The highlight/hyperlink scheme could be local to the page, or local to the user, and dependent on any number of scopes (eg, article dependent, language dependent, user dependent etc.). So, if I was browsing the internet on the subject of animals, I could tell my browser to ignore all links not related to animals, and even add highlights and links to any animal related text, even if it wasn't previously highlighted.\nLinks to dictionary or encyclopedia websites could be exchanged for links to the dictionary or encyclopedia of your choice. (You'll notice almost all of my encyclopedia links point to wikipedia, not everyone's choice of encyclopedia!)\nI could choose to read news articles with other people's notes and link schemes superimposed. I could add my own links to pages, either for private use or available for public use.\nI don't think this sort of super rich linking of the internet could occur as richly as it will without the upcoming [[semantic web|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_web]].\nAs a simple extension of linking, for when more than one link destination is appropriate, a more widespread and standards supported use of menu linking would be good.

!Tuesday 27th December, 2005\n''Holding up my life''\nDuring my travels learning maths and drumming I began to get a little annoyed that there seemed to be no decent way of systematically laying out my learning. At school I'd always filled exercise books, and been frustrated at the arbitrariness of what I wrote and where. I wasn't overly bothered though, because I knew that I would never have to refer to them again.\nThen I got to A-levels and everything got hard enough that I needed to be able to refer to my notes. But I didn't have a good system of note taking. So I scraped my A-levels on account of not being able to organise my notes (which reflected the deeper problem of not being able to organise my thinking).\nWhile taking drumming lessons I wanted to compile a book of rhythms, starting from the very basics, and working up. I could find no easy way of organising those rhythms either.\nDuring my first year courses, and having read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (picking up ideas of the arbitrariness of the categories and models we impose on our world) I realised that the mistake I had been making all these years was that I was constantly trying to impose a linear model on information that isn't linear by nature. My school syllabi weren't linear, and nor is the body of drum rhythms.\nI had been implicitly loading other structures onto data all along (basic tree structures represented by contents pages and different books, folders etc.), but having never been explicitly aware of these they were of no great help to my rational development.\nOnce I realised that trying to linearize all my data was futile I was happier. But then I realised there was no decent way of recording non-linear data. I was frustrated. I more or less stopped trying to record structured data, and instead relied on remembering it and remembering the relevant books to go to (both useful and important, but not replacement, skills).\nThen I found Treepad, and later TiddlyWiki. At last I could record structured data properly. And now I'm on the brink of an explosion of learning and creativity. I hope.

!Wednesday 28th December, 2005\n''Plagiarism and attribution''\nAs I slowly progress through the British education system it is making it clearer and clearer to me that plagiarism is not to be tolerated. But what is plagiarism? Copying someone else's work. As if they owned that work.\nBuddhist philosophy tells me that the ego and the self are illusions. I like that point of view.\nBut it still makes sense not to 'plagiarise'. But why? Because there is no learning value in it. There is a joke that copying from one source is plagiarism, but copying from many sources is research. The emphasis is on creating new knowledge, not merely duplicating old knowledge.\nPlagiarism is also a confounding factor for the body of knowledge as a whole. Knowing who came up with an idea is useful, because it's likely they came up with other (maybe related) ideas too. The knowledge tree gains hugely in terms of its utility if you can traverse it by author.\nHowever, the education system (and maybe by extension academia) is irrational in its attitude to plagiarism and ownership. It's almost as if the concept of plagiarism is being used to try and bury the idea that actually nothing new is being done and that our body of knowledge is actually hopelessly connected, resulting in endless and needless rediscovery. Discovery takes far more effort than learning from and corroborrating existing information. The concept of plagiarism is a 'respectable' face of the obstructions competition puts in all of our way.\nIn a well connected body of knowledge plagiarism wouldn't exist. What was once plagiarism would merely be rephrasing the argument, retelling the story, or a shameful attempt to take someone else's credit. Why should lasting credit be attributed for one-off contributions? Lasting credit should be attributed for lasting contribution. Maybe in extreme cases this needn't be the case, but certainly for the bulk of humanity that would work.\nIt also seems that an irrational attitude to plagiarism is used to hide the fact that teaching is appalling. In classes of over 100 how can plagiarism be spotted without deliberate and aggressive policing? In a class of 30 or less the teacher has a sensible opportunity to know the students and to know whether that student is progressing or not, regardless of 'plagiarism'. Plagiarism ceases to be a focus, and merely becomes a personal problem for an individual student and teacher to solve together if necessary.\nIrrational attitudes to plagiarism also have the effect of instilling a sense of ownership of data, rather than helping us contribute unselfishly to the pool of human knowledge.\nBy moving the focus towards recognition, competition, ownership and ego we lose the focus of knowledge and science, and dirty it with our mess. If we abandoned these foolish obsessions and instead focussed on the true tasks of improvement of the body of knowledge, the individual and the community things would be a whole lot better.\n\n''See also:'' [[education in the hive]]\n''Key concepts:'' open-source, transparency, education, altruism, egolessness, intellectual property

!Thursday 29th December, 2005\n''Why Did I Chose Maths?''\nThis is a question people tend to ask me, and lately it's one I've been asking myself. I almost titled this journal entry //Why I Chose Maths//, but then I realised that a more tentative title was more appropriate. People also often ask me the question 'What area of maths interests you?'. I usually tell them something about how the crossover between maths and philosophy is what I'm really interested in, which in an abstract sort of a sense is true. And then I make the big mistake of rambling into some rubbish about logic being a good example of that crossover. It is a good example, but it is a particularly dry one in its obvious sense.\nSo why did I choose maths? What is my interest in maths? What area of maths interests me?\nStructure.\nI think it really is as simple as that. Maths is the science of patterns. And what is the defining thing about patterns? Structure. Patterns have structure.\nAn integral part of the human condition is pattern matching. Our entire brain is a gigantic, biological pattern matching device. And that's why I chose maths. Patterns and structure satisfy me, and learning more about patterns and structure, learning to appreciate them to ever greater degrees is what I love.\nAnd the wonderful thing is that these patterns and this structure are absolutely everywhere. Completely inescapable. Patterns in music, in literature, in movies, in society, in nature, in life.\nAnd one of the most amazing things about the universe we live in is that very often the same patterns describe some of the seemingly most unrelated things. Maths seems to be a common thread relating absolutely everything.\nOf course, maths isn't about life particularly, at least my favourite area, pure maths, isn't. Things like the sciences and the arts are about life. My idea is that by equipping myself with an appreciation for patterns and structure in the abstract I can waltz around the sciences and the arts (patterns in the concrete) with far greater ease than if I started out focussing on any particular one of them. It's a big gamble I think, but hopefully it'll pay off! It seems to be doing so.\nIn a personal statement I wrote for my university application I wrote that 'maths is the one tool I can take with me anywhere'. I think it's true. When you learn to see the underlying patterns in the world around you, then you can really come to a truer understanding of what goes on. And be a part of it in a meaningful way. Of course maths isn't the only way of achieving that, but it's the way I've chosen.\nI hope I've answered my own question for myself. We'll see!\n\n''key concepts:'' pattern matching, structure, pattern, abstraction\n''see also:'' [[perceptions]]

!Tuesday 3rd January, 2006\nI recently posted a short essay I wrote called [[uniformity pipe]] to this site. It talks about how humanity seems to be locked in an endless and strange pursuit of homogenizing its environment.\nNeedless to say, I think this is a dreadful thing. I think what probably prompted me to post the essay (which I wrote quite a while ago) was an article I found on wikipedia (via Paris Catacombs and Urban Explorer, prompted by a friend after watching The Descent...) called Reality Hacker.\nIt instantly chimed with me. Approach the whole of reality with the mentality of a hacker. Which could get me into the quagmire of the hacking/cracking debate, but it won't. Suffice to say, hacking is not necessarily a vindictive activity, and a hacker is merely someone who likes fiddling with things and knowing/finding out how they work.\nUrban explorers are a kind of reality hacker. Science is a form of reality hacking. Think of the people you might know who are unusually good at working the system or scamming it or avoiding it. They're reality hackers, whether they know it or not. Reality hacking, by its nature, involves going off the beaten track and seeing what you find. When you're reality hacking, you're turning your back on the uniformity pipe (although reality hacking isn't the only way of doing that).\nIt's a nice concept, and one I'll be working with more I think.

!Friday 6th January, 2006\n!!Dissociative Identity\nA few years ago I saw an interesting documentary, probably on Channel 4, about people with dissociative identity disorder. There was one snippet of interview with a very interesting expert who put forward the theory that we all have dissociative identities. Our personality dissociates (and presumably reassociates) in a continuous plastic mush. When we get behind the wheel of a car, the car driving side of our personality, usually dormant otherwise, wakes up, and drives the car, leaving us free to do other things. The same goes for bike riding, and many other physical skills. The same applies to any other sort of skill or ability we might have. Dissociation isn't a binary property either. Presumably there are all sorts of dimensions to personality and identity that can come into or out of play depending on context and state. It seems to be the thin end of a wedge allowing some very interesting speculation into the workings of the human mind, and interesting descriptions and classifications of empirical evidence.\nAnd one of the great things about this kind of descriptive speculation is that often it becomes truer, even if it was irrelevant before, sometimes unlocking abilities that before we never had, or at least never knew we had...\n!!TiddlyWiki advances\nToday, a few days after starting work on javascripts to implement a [[freeform notepad|freeEdit]] inspired by ~TiddlyWiki and topic maps, version 2.0.0 of ~TiddlyWiki came out, along with a prominent link to [[TiddlyDesktop|http://www.digitaldimsum.co.uk/tiddly/tiddlydesktop/]].\nI had been well and truly pre-empted, in a truly labour saving way. Excellent.\nIt also turns out that the guy developing ~TiddlyWiki, Jeremy Ruston, has been sponsored to continue his efforts full-time. Bravo!\nSo amid all this success, I want to list a few directions that ~TiddlyWiki needs to take before it can take off proper:\n*''Documentation:'' ~TiddlyWiki seems in dire need of better documentation. For example, the methods for installing plugins and macros are findable, but not easily so, and I'm finding customizing the look of my ~TiddlyWiki more work than it's worth at the moment.\n*''Customisation:'' see above.\n*''Overview functions:'' at the moment, browsing a ~TiddlyWiki can be rather like wandering around in a maze. It would be nice to be able to see the relationships between tiddlers in a more overarching sort of way. Maybe some sort of zooming interface would be good. It's definitely possible. Perhaps Firefox's new support of SVG will play a role in this.\n*''Data conversion utilities:'' tiddler data should be importable and exportable in various ways.\n*''More options:'' at the moment the interface and the database seem to be locked together. It'd be good to see solutions that allow you to separate the code from the data, relating to ideas of exporting data and removing dependence on original software.

!Tuesday 10th January, 2006\n''[[Qualia|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualia]] and knowledge and education - foundations of the Tower of Babel''\nImagine a world full of partially sighted people with an excellent but out of fashion sense of smell. They ignore what sense of sight they do have and talk about what seeing could be like, and devise machines to do what they think of as seeing for them. They close the eyelids over their unused eyeballs forever. Their education system would be designed by partially sighted people for partially sighted people. Now imagine what that world would be like for the few percent of fully sighted people. And the few percent of people who thought that smell was a really cool sense. In the kingdom of the blind is the one-eyed man, or the echo-locating man, king, or merely an outsider?\nEven the realm of knowledge has its qualia. You can see the colour red, and you can talk about it. You can do maths or science or literature, and you can also talk about it. The talking is useful when it is entertaining, or insight-giving. When the talk is entirely disconnected from the realm of qualia, then how does it serve the original purpose? I can only suggest that it is talk about something entirely different, dressed up as talk about the original subject. What is that entirely different thing? Maybe that is an interesting question to answer. And a confusing one, because when we refer to traditionally external qualia such as sight, hearing and touch, there are logically obvious ways of distinguishing an 'original' quale from a derivative quale. But when we start talking about less traditionally external qualia (such as the things we see with our senses of reasoning or imagination or spiritualism) then there is no easy handle on the 'original'. Everything becomes a murky pool of interchangeable and non-obvious (mis)identity. No wonder knowledge and knowledge communication is such a fraught minefield.

!Wednesday 12th January, 2006\n''Reality-hacking myself''\nI remember, as a very small child, being in the back of the car on various occasions. I would look out of the window onto a depthful scene, marvel at the parallax, and then focus on the foreground, and try and stop my eyes from latching onto everything that passed by. I wanted to get a smooth panning effect in my vision as we passed by. I found the only way to do it was to focus on something further away that was comparatively stationary. Try as I could, I could not override the automatic object tracking feature that is apparently hard wired into me.\nI remember, as a sixth former, travelling in trains to school, standing at one end of the carriage, looking at the other end of the carriage, focussing my eyes on the door at the opposite end of the carriage, but focussing my attention on the windows down the length of the carriage. The sense of motion was quite amazing. There was no perception of the objects visible through the windows, merely a sense of rushing colour. It was quite an amazing experience the first time, and interesting thereafter.\nI remember, yesterday, walking along a road. There was a reasonable amount of fairly fast moving traffic. I noticed that every time my eyes locked onto a car I noticed the headlights first (and it wasn't the middle of the night either...). I tried to stop noticing the headlights first. I couldn’t. Was I making ‘eye-contact’ with all the cars, or were the headlights merely the brightest, most obvious, part of the car? By telling myself to focus on the windscreen at first I managed to move my focus away from the headlights a little, but it was surprising how little difference it made.\nSo I’ve described my toying with my object tracking, motion detecting and attention directing systems in three specific ways. Maybe it’ll be fun to compile a directory of other similar exercises.

!Monday 16th January, 2006\n''Pick a Path, Any Path''\nDuring my education I've found that a convenient method of ignoring the various educative tidbits that have been thrown my way is to dismiss them as merely part of a suboptimal path to the enlightenment that I'm seeking. That they might be, but it's even harder to forge ahead down a better path while someone is constantly nagging and dragging you down the 'suboptimal' one. It's strikes me that the optimal path may well be to read into the proffered path the lessons that you wanted to learn from your own better path. It's better to subvert what you've got into what you want, rather than to simply dismiss it and wish things were different.\nOn a related note, there are often very many different path segments that are all equally good ways to get you closer to where you're trying to go. It's good to recognise this and just choose one route (if that's all time will permit) and not worry about the choice in the process. A common question asked of martial arts instructors is 'but why are we practicing this form? What if the person doesn't respond with that move?'. And of course the response is that you need to practice just something, anything, in order to create a foundation on which to build. One thing I've found since taking up a [[martial art|Shorinji Kempo]] is that educational insights that are not immediately obvious in a mental learning context often become so in a physical learning context, and sometimes viceversa. I'm finding that keeping up my education on mental and physical fronts to be an enormously productive experience: each has benefits of its own while propping the other up as well.\nI find the game of Go to be an excellent half-way-house between mental and physical pursuits too. Without it I wonder if the depth of my cross-insight in the two areas would be as good. But that's a topic for another journal entry.\n!!Today's Wikipedia Reading\n[[Flow|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_%28psychology%29]] and [[hyperfocus|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperfocus]] - a couple of articles providing a neat east/west linkage on the topic of absorbed/meditative mental states. I was provoked into looking this up by the BBC Child of Our Time project which is broadcasting programmes on ~BBC1 at the moment.\n[[Knowledge representation|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_representation]] - this could just be the topic I've been looking for to commit to, combining almost all of my areas of interest: philosophy, mathematics, knowledge, communication and computing/programming, and linking in and applying neatly to my thoughts while trying to improve in my other areas of interest: photography, drumming etc. This could just be the all-encompassing angle on the world I've been looking for!

!Thursday 26th January, 2006\n''The Evolving Personalized Information Construct''\nI forget how I came across this, probably via some blog or other, but it was the first, and one of the only, flash movie(s) I saw that wasn't a complete waste of everyone's time. It's a future history narration extrapolating from current technological trends centering around Google and the internet. It depicts a world where the internet pervades all of the 'civilized' world through e-paper and other technology, where content creation has become almost entirely decentralised, although a fictitious company called Googlezon (Amazon+Google) holds detailed information about almost every single person on the planet, enabling this future u/dystopia. One of the nice things about this presentation is that under one relatively believable model 'heaven' and 'hell' are in fact aspects of the very same existence.\nBefore you read on I strongly recommend watching either or both of the short (~5mins) movies. The older one is slightly better produced, but out of date, while the newer one is more up-to-date:\n*older version: [[EPIC 2014|http://epic.makingithappen.co.uk/]]\n*newer version [[EPIC 2015|http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/epic]]\n!!Monopolies and data-controlling\nUnderstandably, for any 5 minute presentation, there are many areas which don't quite make sense. Firstly, I find it hard to imagine that one megacompany like Googlezon could ever exist. However, international standards, parallel to HTTP and XHTML etc., could be created by large companies like Googlezon and consequently be forced into the open domain, enabling a less centrally owned version of the Google Grid. I much prefer this model: Rather than Googlezon owning or at least storing all our personal data, the technologically infested future would have no 'god' data controllers. Instead, we would all personally own our profiles and data, and license them to trusted third parties. We could store with any provider we chose, including ourselves.\nOpen-source philosophy would play a huge role in this future, whereby any third parties with access to fantastic volumes of personal data (such as chain stores, Google, Amazon etc.) would have to have all their data-controlling algorithms open for public and governmental scrutiny. Updated human rights declarations and privacy protection laws would help ensure that personal profiles were utilized only in accordance with the licenses issued by their owners. There would be a variety of licenses under which you could release (parts of) your personal profile, ranging from licenses suitable for family members, for trusted/untrusted businesses, for contractors, employers/employees, health services, children, parents etc.\nA side effect of this all-pervading technological presence would be that almost every service would have a computer scientific aspect. Law would have to come in a multitude of flavours, including computer executable form. Almost every societal protocol enshrined in the boundaries of social norms and law would have to be translated into computer language, so that the extensions of selves in cyberspace could enjoy the same rules and traditions we enjoy in real life, while also benefitting, at our leisure, from the freedoms and extensions to these made possible by technology.\n!!The demise of the fourth estate?\nI also feel that EPIC 2014/5's depiction of the demise of the fourth estate is unrealistic. It would take at least a generation, or probably two for something like that to disappear, regardless of any technological advances whatsoever. They would merely adapt to reflect changing times. People and societies do not change their lives completely to accommodate new technology, nor do they recognise the benefits/possibilities of new technology immediately. Instead, they use new technology to enable them to do the things they did previously in easier or different or more ways. Newspaper reading is a very old habit that will die very hard. And the shared-knowledge that large newspapers and other large broadcasters give society will take a long time to be replaced, if it ever is. I doubt whether society will ever decide that it needs no methods of immediately communicating information to all of its members, without the prior choice of its members. We all need to know about local earthquakes and wars and provisions made for them and suchlike. I don't want to find out about those via some mashed up blog of a blog of a blog of a camera phone image of one corner of the disaster...\nWe may find it useful to refer to personalized news gatherers, but that won't completely displace the standardized one-size-fits-all broadcasters of today, even if their formats and methods change. However, their monopoly on media is already weakening, and will become much weaker in the months and years to come.\n!!Artificial intelligence\nIn a world like this I think the nature of artificial intelligence will become apparent. As we express ourselves in cyberspace more and more, and computers become able to exert influence in concrete human reality more and more, as the interactions between humans and computers become more and more depthful, crosscutting and varied, then we will have to learn to implement our social world inside cyberspace. Automation of previously human effort by computers will endow information technology with more and more of the powers, responsibilities and attributes of humanity. Maybe then we will begin to see more subtle differences between machines and humans, and even begin to affect the identity of humanity and technology in response to such insight.\nThis also points to why the robotic revolution of yesteryear never happened. Not only were we not technologically advanced enough then, the social consciousness had no understanding of the implications or the benefits, or the dangers, or even the requirements of such a development. Humanity and technology were nowhere near closely interlinked enough. Maybe if we were able to recreate humanity wholesale in cybernetic form then that would have happened, but it's becoming clearer and clearer (to those who didn't realise that it was obvious) that a huge advance (?) like that must occur in many small steps, and many small steps of every imaginable kind, including cultural, technological, political, philosophical etc. etc.\nThe results of those steps will likely not be the original vision at all.\n!!And finally...\nThis is definitely one that the [[Singularity|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity]] theorists should be and probably are jumping all over already. Or maybe half of why I find EPIC so compelling is its clear parallels with the Singularity, and its role as a very neat link between the clearly ridiculous, but illuminating, Singularity and other areas of human endeavour that I am interested in.\nThanks Robin Sloan and Matt Thompson for making such a thought provoking and interesting piece of media!

!Saturday 4th February, 2006\n''Knowlogic and OS''\nI remember, way back in the summer of 2002, and probably before that, dreaming about how I would revolutionize the world of computing with databases and operating systems all based on gloriously mathematical foundations. I even thought of a name for my database, Knowlogic, and the OS was going to be so earth shattering I would simply call it OS. I had been reading about relational databases and kernel design at the time. Exokernels and no-kernel systems especially caught my eye. Relational databases seemed so much more elegant than the foundations regular computer filesystems were based around. From an ideological point of view, the open source scene was becoming extremely interesting to me. I was also becoming familiar with more and more political and philosophical ideas.\nIt was all making lots of sense. Unfortunately, I would have to be superman at the hub of it all for it to work.\nOS would be an amazing operating system based on design philosophy alone. Instead of a normal filesystem it would use a relational database resting on top of some sort of rock solid abstraction layer for of all the nitty gritty hardware stuff. None of its code would be set in stone. In no-kernel configuration none of its code would even be set in stone between reboots. Probably rebooting wouldn't even have a meaning (in software terms) for OS. With such a mobile code base, OS would in effect be one giant options box. Every possible variable could be tweaked in real time, by software, to improve efficiency and utility, especially including whether or not it was tweakable in real time.\nEventually, even hardware would be taken over by the, admittedly hazy and elusive, design philosophy of OS. Everything would be super efficient, plug and play, hot swappable, bullet proof, multiply networked on many physical and semantic layers, ultra-reliable, and above all supremely user friendly and ergonomic. OS would represent a complete computing revolution, transforming today's clunky world of identical beige toasters rooted in historical accident into a world where a computing substrate of boundless variety had truly come to fruition. At last, humanity would have come to understand technology, and wear it on its back like a hermit crab wears its shell.\nAnd the very hub of this would be a solid core of mathematics and philosophy, unlocking more potential than all the woolly, semi-accidental programming in history combined. What computing and technology was missing was a true understanding of the universal application of maths and philosophy, in tandem with other considerations of course, to all levels and aspects of design.\nEventually I realised that my model was broad enough to encompass any technological environment whatsoever, and that the only logical step from there was to start playing my part in pushing the current situation towards what I realised was merely a Platonic ideal of what technology should be. Hooray I thought, reverie over, and got back to my maths textbooks.\n''The Present Day''\nIn the last few weeks I have started three mini-projects within IPv2, namely the [[Practicing drum kit]] rhythm library, the [[Shorinji Kempo Library]] and [[the edifice]] (my maths knowledge). The rhythm library never really got off the ground, although it seemed promising, but the Kempo library and the 'edifice' have definitely taught me some interesting things. I have discovered that even TiddlyWiki isn't perfect (surprise!). As with almost all composition tools, it is only suited to a narrow range of scales and types of composition. To be precise, TiddlyWiki is good for writing reasonably small chunks of text, and linking them together with reasonably few links. Ideally, the structure of the linkage should be quite obvious, especially in a system with a lot of text chunks (in TiddlyWiki lingo, 'tiddlers'). With both the Kempo library and the edifice I found that I wanted to create and link nuggets of information on a scale too small and dense for TiddlyWiki to properly handle. There's nothing wrong with TiddlyWiki, but I would definitely like to see creativity tools more suited to creation on a wider range of scales. Maybe this is where programming languages and creativity packages will start to merge. Who knows. In the meantime, I will have to revise my policy and write my 'libraries' on a slightly coarser scale.\nI also discovered that trying to load any sort of structure on information is a generally fraught exercise, especially when that information isn't clearly delineated. I've definitely moved far far away from trying to [[impose linear structures|Journal 2005 12 27]] on all my data!

!Tuesday 7th February, 2006\n!!Educational Insight\n''[[DDR|dancemat]] comes into my life:'' I forget how DDR initially came into my life, but I remember some of the first times I played it, at an arcade and at home and a friend's home. I enjoyed it because at first I couldn't do it, but with a little mental application and practice I could see that I had started out on a learning curve of not insignificant size. The coordination and visual and auditory reading skills were fun. They related physical activity with sensory and mental activity, and terrible music of course.\n''Juggling comes into my life:'' I'd always vaguely wanted to be able to juggle. I eventually stumbled across a website that clearly and simply outlined the necessary hurdles that needed jumping, and set them out neatly in order. Within hours I was juggling, and discovering a whole universe of possibility.\n''Go comes into my life:'' I'd been aware of Go for as long as I could remember, but I didn't take up playing it properly until I found myself in a student house with a bunch of random people I didn't really 'get' and one random one that I did, who played Go! Ever since then I've been playing quite a lot of Go, mainly against the same opponent, who basically taught me the game. As a result I think we are unusually unbalanced players, having explored our particular avenue of Go without really gaining the all-round experience that you get by playing a lot of people. But anyhow, our skills and aptitudes flowed across the board until today we're more or less evenly matched. And on that journey of learning Go I have learnt, and continue to learn, an awful lot of things.\n''[[Shorinji Kempo]] comes into my life:'' At about the same time I found myself in the random student house, I found myself taking up Shorinji Kempo at the university I had just moved to for my maths degree. This was a deliberate move, as I had decided that it was high time that I took up a physical activity, having abandoned physical education over 2 years previously, and decided that my life was lacking the joy that physical exertion gives. A little bit of cycling wasn't really enough. Team games didn't appeal, Eastern philosophy did, so martial arts it was. Kempo looked like the least aggressive martial art I could find. So I chose it. Like Go, Shorinji Kempo has taught me a lot of things, and continues to.\n''The things I learned:'' Besides DDR and juggling, Kempo is probably the first primarily physical activity I had undertaken since I was a young child that required significant mental input. I found that the levels of coordination required to do the various moves, even beginners moves, were much more than I was used to. Probably because I had reached a level of physical stagnation whereby almost every physical move I undertook was one that I had done thousands of times before, and was completely practiced and automatic. With Kempo, I suddenly found that moving around and exerting myself was not only good exercise and generally fun, it was also mentally stimulating in a way that I had partly forgotten and partly never experienced.\nAs a mathematician-in-training, and sufferer of the human condition, I find that pattern spotting is an inescapable part of being. And with Kempo I find that many of the things I am learning have direct analogues with important aspects of a) my education and b) the game of Go. The analogues are important, in that the structure of the information being learnt is basically similar, but also interestingly divergent. Although you need to remember a lot of things in Kempo, they're different kinds of memory. You have to bind new words to new actions, which is a sort of memory that I don't think is typically exercised that much. Not only that, but you need to remember the actions in themselves too, and eventually internalise them.\nOne of the things that a physical style of education really helps underline is that certain methods of education really are necessary, and can't be avoided or skimmed over. With mental education it's easy to delude yourself as to the power of your mental 'muscle', but with physical education there is far less room for that sort of delusion. If you don't learn something and practice it extensively, with physical activities there is simply no question of being able to progress further. With mental education you merely slow down and progress becomes slower, but not impossible. The dependence of Kempo on factors like timing and coordination make it less forgiving of inability, and far better at emphasizing weak areas. Think of juggling: juggling is impossible unless you can first throw and catch a ball. Without that first skill no further progress is possible. With mental learning there are boundaries like that, but they don't seem to be as tangible or clearly self-manifesting as those with physical learning, at least physical learning at an elementary level. So physical learning seems to be a gentler way of learning to recognise those boundaries and weak areas in all ways of learning.\nI would like to explore far more of these similarities and differences, and articulate them more clearly, but actually it's difficult, and it's a big project. So suffice to say, their very existence is something I am very glad about because where one type of learning is inadequate, the other might not be.\nI think Go acts as a sort of 'glue' for the cross-insight, because it stems from a similar cultural background to the one Shorinji Kempo does, and consequently there are similarities which are relatively manifest and easy to get a handle on, particularly the attitudes to conflict, competition and dealing with adverse situations. And Go is obviously not a physical activity, although it shares more of the structure of martial arts, at a less abstract level, than many other mental activities do. Which is why I find Go to be a great stepping stone for finding cross-insight between the various methods of learning I am coming across in my mental and physical explorations. Of course, it is also a great source of insight all by itself.\n!!A sudden little revelation\nAnd suddenly a little revelation occurs to me: The existence of different methods and topics of education, and the state of being relatively advanced in one and relatively fresh in another is generally a fertile position to be in. Why? Because being fresh, by definition, is seeing through new eyes, and as everyone knows, new eyes stick until they get old. So always be in a fresh position, because you will continually have new eyes to take with you wherever you go, even if it's somewhere where your old eyes are useful as well.\nThe moral of the story? Change your glasses, change them often, and get new ones sometimes as well! Above all, never get into a situation where you're wearing the wrong glasses!

!Thursday 9th February, 2006\n''Getting to know Gandhi''\nTolstoy has been recommended to me countless times by various people, but I have never seriously considered actually committing to any of his works (War and Peace in particular...). That could be taken as disrespectful to the people offering their recommendations, and in many instances it probably was, and unabashedly so. However, in many cases, although it felt disrespectful, I knew there was no disrespect at the root of my total lack of commitment to following up the recommendation. But I couldn't explain it. I knew it was something to do with the idea that the risk of the undertaking being fruitless outweighed the cost of the undertaking.\nI've been reading Gandhi's autobiography lately, and in it there was a reference to Tolstoy's 'The Kingdom of God is Within You'. Immediately, I knew that Tolstoy was on my reading list. Not urgently, but I know that at some stage or other I fully intend to digest that particular work.\nWhy can Gandhi recommend fruitfully, while many others, even those I respect, cannot?\nI can never ever meet Gandhi, or spend time with him or anything like that. The people making recommendations, those people I can and do meet, and I do spend time with them. Gandhi represents a different class of person from the real, live, people making recommendations to me. Gandhi is dead, they are not. Gandhi's life is over, it can be evaluated and judged etc. My friends's lives are not over, and although they can be evaluated and judged, they cannot be evaluated and judged in nearly such a complete context as Gandhi's can be.\nHistorical or iconic characters can be evaluated in a far wider scope than people you live right next to: the perspective is wider and comes from more angles. Icons are the 'successes'. They naturally carry a lot of weight, once you've chosen your icons.\nIcons can direct my resources much more effectively than those surrounding me can, because basically I choose my icons to reflect my agenda. Icons represent my natural desire, and tell me more about my natural desire than I could with pure introspection alone. My friends have their own agendas, and they have less of a grasp of my own agenda than I do, and as such their recommendations only follow through when the item they are recommending is already working its way to the top of my agenda.\nA magical and highly interesting situation is when you know someone who becomes an icon. I suppose it's also a fairly vulnerable situation to be in too.\nSo why do people make recommendations in the first place? I suppose it is one way of building a shared identity with that person, and in building a web of shared identity with many people, through recommendations (and other means), we build the social threads that weave together to create society.\nSo ignoring a recommendation could be like saying, no, I am not part of that thread of yours.\nBut that is no bad thing. We need people and ideas to form our particular threads of the social fabric, but at the same time individual and varied threads are woven together. Knowing people from many different threads can be excellent, and even if their recommendations on a 'thread' level have little or no bearing (although they may in the future: the fabric of society is in a constant state of flux), their roles are not confined to 'intra-thread' considerations. Social relations have many dimensions.\nI guess an unfulfilled recommendation is also sad because, at the end of the day, it represents someone wasting resources on making that recommendation, and even displaying an ego-deflating lack of character judgement. The reasons for these failed recommendations seem, at first glance, to be an interesting angle on human interaction.

!Friday 10th February, 2006\n''ideas of utopia''\nPolitical discussions are fun, and raise interesting points. Here are some that have come up lately:\n*People have stakes in the outcomes of decisions they aren't qualified to make.\n*People often aren't even interested in these decisions, unless they go wrong.\n*People who make these decisions have a lot of impact on other people.\n*People who make these decisions will generally have little feedback, except negative feedback. This has its advantages and big disadvantages.\n*There are always people who lose out in some important decisions, how do you know when the decision is optimum?\n*Pure democracy isn't necessarily compatible with an intuitive sense of morality. Democracy ''must'' take place within external frameworks, even if these frameworks are subject to careful democratic modification. Mob rule should not be an option that can easily be passed inside any morally good system of governance.\nI think it's inescapable that in human society we make executive decisions on each other's behalfs. How is it to be done properly? Good communication is key I suppose. Concepts of transparency are also good. And concepts of higher-order influence are also good. Just because we aren't qualified to make certain decisions, doesn't mean we can't set the boundaries of those decisions. The qualified decision makers should be able to reduce the situation down to a choice that inexperts can make. And this goes on I think, politicians have many agencies supplying them with these sorts of choices.\nWestern democracy has boiled down the democratic element to the rather minimal choice of choosing between just a very few options, do you want to live by Party 1, 2 or 3 for example. That's not really a democratic choice. And I think that's reflected in the general political apathy found in many democracies.\nPolitics is too much lofty and obscure jabbering, it would make far more sense for there to be more choices translated into understandable ones, and well presented to those that have a stake. Ideally those that have a stake would request information from relevant sources, and obtain choices that they could make. Maybe there is a path down to a truly devolved, but globally cohesive, human society.\nRoll on visions of utopia free of the internal homogeneity that seems to have characterised all the ones I've seen so far.

!Monday 13th February, 2006\n''Calculus saves the day''\nToday I was sewing velcro onto my dogi (a garment I wear for [[Shorinji Kempo]] training), and discovered that a short enough segment of string does indeed approximate a rigid rod. It made threading the needle a whole lot simpler. That, and threading a loop of string through the needle, rather than one of the rather fraying-prone ends...

!Thursday 2nd March, 2006\n''~BBC4 Time''\n~BBC4 has recently started a 4-part documentary called 'Time', in which one of the co-creators of [[string theory|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/String_theory]], Michio Kaku, muses thought-provokingly about time in various contexts. In episode one (short timescale time) we got to see how rats on marijuana, saline and cocaine perceived time at different rates, were reminded that although physical time may be fairly constant, personal time certainly isn't, and got an amazing glimpse into the life of an amnesiac who is stranded on a block of time less than 30 seconds long. He can remember nothing from after a certain point in his life, and his memory of current events goes after less than 30 seconds. He recognises only his wife, and every time he sees her he thinks it's the first time in many years. He is continually discovering his lack of memory. A fairly devastating state of affairs, and a thought-provoking one.\nThe reference to 'public time' also highlighted a futile aspect of my life whereby I have tried (unsuccessfully) to implement a pause in one of the strands in my life. Public time refers to the idea that as well as being at the mercy of nature's calendar we are increasingly at the mercy of societal calendars dictated by those around us. Our time is being encroached on at ever decreasing timescales, and the expected 'value' from each fragment of time is continually increasing. Michio Kaku made the interesting point that someone from 100 years ago would probably find today's pace of life truly frightening.\nI suspect that to someone living rurally the pace of city life would be truly frightening. The different rates of the passage of 'cultural/human time' across the world is a topic which I find fairly mind-boggling.\n''Memories //and// personality make us''\nThe case of the amnesiac stranded in time reminded me of a theme I remember coming across in various sci-fi writing, in which the question of what makes us us is explored in relation to our memories. And it reminded me that although memories ground our personalities and ground us in time, our experiences and our behaviour in the present are at least as important. If you plopped me down somewhere with no memories of past events I would still have my personal reactions and behaviours to stimuli that would be uniquely mine.\nA human being is the combination of those things, each aspect being a fundamental influence on the other.\nIt seems that many strands of thinking neglect this particular method of partitioning the human soul. To some extent maybe various modes of political thought seek to standardize the personalities aspect of the soul, reducing humanity to a bath of identical units coursing through time, their only differences being their particular histories. It reminds me of the physical model of an electron, where one electron is fundamentally indistinguishable from another. I guess the diversity argument has been more or less won in words though. But not in the real world.\n''Personal balance''\nTo what extent are our lives devoted to cultivating what will be our memories, and to what extent are our lives devoted to cultivating our personalities, emotions and attitudes? Ultimately I suppose they are both aspects of the same thing, and that every action we commit affects both of these particular divisions of the soul, but perhaps analyzing ourselves in terms of these two divisions can shed new light. Maybe we can class people into four groups:\n*non-dynamic (behaviors and memories constant: life is a search for the static equilibrium)\n*personally dynamic (memories constant, behaviours and attitudes evolve: life is a journey of personal discovery)\n*historically dynamic (behaviours constant, memories evolve: life is a quest for new experience)\n*dynamic (memories and behaviors evolve: the interplay between new experience and personal discovery is strongly explored)\nI wouldn't like to say which is best (I suspect that would be an immoral pursuit rooted in a meaningless premise) and throughout life our positions on this scale will probably vary. My own feelings are that Buddhism stresses the personally dynamic aspect, perhaps with an additional slant towards non-dynamism as the final goal. Western culture seems to encourage a manic quest for historical dynamism. Many very traditional ways of life seem to be rooted in non-dynamism. I know for certain that I personally subscribe to dynamism at the moment, although the balance of historical and personal dynamism tends to vary quite a bit.\nI think I like this categorisation. I wonder where it will lead!\n''Sutras and Koans''\nSutras and koans are something I have come across in my explorations of eastern thought. Sutras tend to be little nuggets of wisdom designed for extended meditation, while koans are little nuggets of apparently paradoxical wisdom designed for extended meditation. These sutras and koans serve as an inspiration for thought and personal discovery, and each one biases further thought in subtle ways. There are many sutras and koans, and it is impossible to devote meditation time to all of them. Perhaps choosing some key ones and using them as a crystallization point around which I can develop my personality would be a fruitful path, and a way of meditatively developing my personal side.\n''Hooks for further exploration''\nMy first experience of the sutra was in a fantastic book called the 'Yoga Sutras of Patanjali', all about the spiritual path of meditation. I came across Koans for the first time in a book called 'The Tao of Physics' by Fritjof Capra. In my mind [[Shorinji Kempo]] is a fantastic library of both verbal and physical koans and sutras, enabling personal development across both personalities and histories divisions of both the physical and mental aspects of the soul.

!Friday 3rd March, 2006\n''The University Training Seminar''\nMore on the [[Shorinji Kempo]] front. So what am I doing? A degree or a martial arts course? Obviously, neither. I'm forging ahead on a path of realization and spiritual awakening. Obviously...\nLast weekend I had the joy of jumping on a belated Megabus from outside Colston Hall in Bristol, heading for the happy capital city of London, host of this year's Shorinji Kempo UTS. We met up at a hopelessly small venue, a pub called the Zetland Arms. Maybe 70-100 people in a venue better suited for 30-50. We arrived after everyone else, on account of our tardy mode of transportation. I met up with my host, a charming Swedish [[shodan|kempo belts]] called Tjelvar, and found out who the three other [[kenshi]] who would be staying with him were, one of whom was from my [[dojo]].\nWe were all knackered from doing nothing on the bus, so after a short time at the pub we left to get some sleep before training the next day.\nThe weekend consisted of basically 9-5 training on both the Saturday and the Sunday. Instead of our usual 3rd dan instructors we got the tuition of maybe 7-10 extremely high-ranking instructors, all on rapid rotation, as if 3rd dan wasn't qualified enough already! Included among the instructors was the [[BSKF|Shorinji Kempo organisation]] head honcho Mr Mizuno Sensei himself. Being taught by him is always an awe-inspiring experience.\nTraining in a dojo full of several hundred kenshi is quite an experience. Several hundred people who all chose the path of kempo. A whole range of attitudes and abilities. In short, an amazingly fertile learning opportunity. And a thought-provoking glimpse into the type of situation where people's agendas line up so closely that their actions match down to individual limb movements. That's definitely one to think about.\nAs usual, there was the small but irritating price of a disco on Saturday night to pay, but that was weathered easily enough, in readiness for a 0900 start the following day. Unfortunately, [[Kihon]] after a disco night looks more like an inexpert drunken boxing session as everyone falls over the place in hungoverness, tiredness and general malcoordination.\nSo all round, it was probably the Kempo event of the year. I arrived with my green belt one week old (after a grading in Brixton the previous Saturday), and covered the entire green->blue syllabus in two days. It's all gone, but the second time round should be less difficult, and I definitely came away with renewed passion for this aspect of my life's journey. And a renewed respect for the principles and content of Shorinji Kempo. Uniting and developing strength and love is surely a good foundation on which to build a healthy and worthy life. This feels right.

!Tuesday 7th March, 2006\n''Sutras and Koans''\nIn [[soul division|Journal 2006 03 02]] I raised the concept of sutras and koans. As a little extra, the three favourites I keep on the front of IPv2 ([[I Sing The Body Electric]], [[A Truth]] and [[Quality]]) fulfil the role of sutras for me. These little snippets of wisdom have been the subject of a lot of background meditation for me, and by meditating on them they have drilled down to fair depths of my soul, and as far as I can tell they are forming good keystones around which other things can rest.\nOf course, sutras and koans mustn’t ever be allowed to sit where they sit forever, unquestioned. By meditating on them they can be switched in and out of positions of influence, helping to direct development in a positive and active way.\nThe QuotationTour contains some quotes which for me have the element of the sutra about them.\nOther concepts related to sutra and koan are: aphorism, maxim, proverb etc. Sticking aphorism or proverb in a thesaurus should help shed light.\nThe difference I find between sutras and koans and the more traditionally European ideas of aphorisms and proverbs etc. is that sutras and koans are expressly intended for extended meditation. Many examples of the European equivalents seem well suited to meditation, but I have not come across any indication that that is what they are there for.\n''Personal Privacy''\nIt was recently pointed out to me that this website is a very personal document exposed for all to see. Why would I sacrifice my privacy so readily, even eagerly? I think the answer is relatively simple. Transmitting my soul outwards seems to be a good way to affirm my existence, and even raise the level of my existence.\nOf course there are dangers to reducing privacy, but in the context of the modern day I think the average member of the public has only their concrete personal details to protect (eg financial details etc.), not so much the intricacies of who they are.\nFor me, partaking in a shared consciousness, and expressing the desire to, is much more rewarding than walling myself off in a protective fashion from the rest of humanity. The fact that I am willing to expose myself to strangers reflects a belief that strangers who are interested in what they see here will become acquaintances (or otherwise gain from the experience), and those who aren’t will not pose a threat of any kind.\nWhat about anyone who becomes interested for reasons harmful to me? Well, that hasn’t happened yet. I’m banking on it not happening too. Hmm :) To an extent, I think that slight danger is a fair price to pay for the opportunity to explore myself this way.\n''Avoiding Writer’s Block''\nWriter’s block can be a very general sort of affliction. Whenever you find yourself in a position where you want to be creative, but you don’t feel any flow, try changing circumstances until the flow does happen. For example, writing this journal entry was blocked for me, until I decided to draft it in Word. Then the creative juices flowed and out it came. I think the blockage occurred because editing IPv2 now carries with it a significant, but worthwhile (from a cohesion and appearance point of view), housekeeping overhead which is beginning to stifle creativity.\nThe upshot is that even the smallest little change in circumstance can unblock the creative spirit.\nOf course, failing all that, switch your attention to something else, and wait until the inspiration comes back!\n''Editing Dreams''\nRelated to writer’s block are my various musings about editors. I want to realise a system for really allowing creative juices to flow. Recent ideas on that path include:\n*A device for websites that tracks what you’ve read and what you haven’t, so you can easily find things you haven’t seen yet. It would also let you see things which were new, had updated since you last read them, and new things which would affect your understanding of things you’d previously read. Etc. The possibilities are endless. One for the Semantic Web anyhow.\n*Wider implementation of namespaces, especially within the realm of tagging. Tags can be used to implement a few clearly delineated categories, and as such the group of tags delineating those categories would logically occupy its own namespace. Other tags would be for catching more speculative searches. They too would require their own namespaces. There are limitless classes of tags. Namespaces in general need to be implemented on a fundamental level of information representation I think.\n''Pandora.com''\nApparently a bunch of musicians combed through lots of music, isolating similarities and differences and compiling them into a massive database they called the ‘Music Genome Project’. The upshot is that you can go to pandora.com, type in a band/artist/song and it’ll stream you a bunch of music related to your search term, and explain the reasoning for the music choice!\nA very promising looking tool for increasing your musical awareness!\n

!Thursday 9th March, 2006\n''Lost in the Library''\nYesterday I found myself trying to attend a meeting that was scheduled for the week after. This happened after a long bike-ride on a shaky bike in bad weather. On my way home I found myself going past the ASS Library (Arts and Social Sciences). The day before I had gone to the cinema to watch a fantastically insightful and illuminating film called Grizzly Man. As well as the experience of the film, a friend I was with recommended a book by one of the philosophy lecturers to me.\nSo I went into the library, having had a day of relative defeat, and wandered towards the philosophy section. I got totally lost and couldn’t find the book I was looking for. I didn’t even ask a member of staff for help. Apparently I was searching for even more defeat in my day. Why?\nIt strangely mirrored the appearance of Timothy Treadwell in Grizzly Man. A man who lived with bears, and ultimately was killed by bears. But was he killed, or did he choose to die? The answer lies in a complex mix of the two I think, and similarly, my subconscious quest for defeat could be interpreted that way too I think.\nInterpretations of the human will get very interesting when looked at like this I find. We needn’t be discontinuous from our environment, and when interpreted as such our will and circumstance merely become two extremes on a continuous scale of causality. It leads to a very depthful image of reality I think. \n''My Philosophical Bent''\nRelaxing recently at a coffee shop with a new friend, and experiencing the joy of rambling over infrequently explored conversational terrain in a joyful playful way, I got a fresh glimpse over the terrain of my own personality. I was rambling in the land of recreation, love, humour, also seeing my own ‘home territory’ of maths/science/technology in a new light.\nIt feels so relaxing to just jabber about fresh topics. As has been noted before, I love to be a beginner!\nPerhaps this also reflects the personal and private nature of most of my intellectual discourse. Because even more recently I was rambling on more frequently explored terrain with a friend of longer standing, and I got a similar joy. The joy of exploring reality, with company, not alone.\nShared consciousness is certainly one of the best feelings I can think of.\n''Deeper Time''\nRelating back to the amnesiac stranded on a 30 second block of time ([[soul division|Journal 2006 03 02]]), it seems possible that we’re all stranded on our own blocks of time. Most of us tend to have many small bridges leading off to other people and other past times, but ultimately it might not be so unfounded to say that who we are, although influenced by the past, is largely dictated by recent events. What length of time are you stranded on? A week? A month? A few days? A year?\nAs I grow up I can feel myself grappling with time, and my place within it. If I look back a decade, I don’t remember feeling lost in time, yet 6 weeks was definitely an inconceivable length of time, and I have no real recollection of a decent concept of time longer than a few days to a week.\nAs I got older I began to gain an apprehension of weeks and now even months, and just slightly of years. This increased appreciation of time led to the common feeling that time speeds up as you age. But simultaneously it didn’t speed up either. An appreciation of time on many scales allows you to experience time at many rates. Which is an interesting and multi-threaded sort of existence.\nBut this was a very lonely sort of appreciation of time. Being a human is, for me, is also about relating to other humans. And gaining the sort of appreciation for time that I have procured for myself, but in a shared-consciousness context, is very difficult. Especially when my collection of friends varies too fast for the longer time-scale aspects of time appreciation to work.\nThis is part of my desire for longer-term, close, friends. While I find that I can live on a massive island of time by myself, the island of time I can share with others is much smaller. Consequently, less can be achieved. This is the problem of cooperation.\nI suppose the ultimate goal is to float my island (or raft) of time into the great land mass that is the whole of humanity and history, and become part of it. How many human lives get forever lost simply because they found no mooring on the banks of history? Maybe they’re still floating out there somewhere, waiting to get assimilated. Who can tell.\nPerhaps none of us has a choice about becoming part of the landmass of history. Perhaps what we can aspire to though is some sort of a timely assimilation into shared consciousness and history. One that results in tangible benefits and positive feelings, before death. Hmmm.\n''Escaping from Models''\nIs it possible to think within a framework free of models? This was a recent topic of conversation. What I failed to mention in that conversation was that models are themselves a correcting factor, introduced to combat the way that we implicitly load models onto our discourse whether we like it or not.\nBut do we necessarily load models, implicit or not, onto our discourse?\nIf we don’t necessarily do that, then the correcting factor of being aware of models and using them consciously could actually just be our falling even further into the models trap.\nBut I find it hard to conceive of thought, or existence, that can’t be rationalised as a model. Perhaps models really are that general. How could the definition of models be (sensibly) narrowed so as to allow thought not founded on models?\nThat’s a tough one.\n''Grappling With Context Dependence''\nRecently I realised that I’ve been having real difficulties trying to account for the ancient aspects of us that nevertheless affect who we are. So many philosophical models seem to assume no particular history of the human soul and its development. There is a common theme that we are all blank slates with infinite potential, and blank slates that get filled by our own choices.\nBut what about evolution? What about all the information that comes with us, before we even start making conscious choices? What about the senses I’m born with, my natural aptitudes and abilities. The choices made for me and not by me? All these things, this enormous mass of historical baggage, how is that accounted for in these theories?\nI’m not so sure that I approximate a generalised sentient being as well as I thought I did. At root, I am a human being, and that is a very specific thing. How can I adjust my thinking to account for that? What would that even mean?\nRealizing the limits of being human is quite difficult. Perhaps it’s best to start on the easy side (simple physical limits) and see if they provide insight into the less tangible limits (intellectual, spiritual etc.).\nOnce again, philosophical ramblings throw up more questions than answers. And in so doing are infinitely more entertaining.\n''Technological Augmentation''\nScience fiction is full of examples of people augmented medically with technology. Chips in their brains and metal bones and motors for muscles. What about reality? What about people who can interface with machines so seamlessly that they wear the mantle of a machine like a second skin? People that can ride bicycles like the bicycle was part of them. People that can drive as if the car was an extension of their body. People that can interact with computers and the internet as if they were an extension of their mental capabilities.\nTechnological augmentation is all around us every second of every day.\nEmail, instant messaging, mobile phones, watches, public transport, private transport, television, newspapers, radio, pens, paper, books, electric lighting, even fire. Every element of technology augments you and extends your capability.\nOn an intangible level, even mechanisms of language, conventions of communication and modes of thought could count as technology.\nDoes it really make sense to think of ourselves as made entirely of meat? Or have we already gone far beyond that? I think the world of sci-fi has nothing on the reality of the modern world.\nBut of course, in this world of blind augmentation our augmentations are most likely conflicting with each other, and ourselves. It’s time to wake up to the reality of techno-augmentation. And do it better. And more cohesively.\n''Point Discontinuities''\nPlaying with maths lately I came across, and was taken by, the powerful idea of drawing conclusions about functions by analysing other very similar functions. The exact example was the way it is possible to take rational functions and poke point holes in them simply by multiplying by various factors of (x-a)/(x-a), or conversely, to eliminate holes by extracting those factors.\nIt’s not a complicated idea I suppose, but something must’ve clicked inside my head, and having a better grasp of the possibilities for manipulating functions can’t be bad!\n''Double-ended Links on the Internet''\nDouble-ended links are more resilient to breakage than one-way links. If the internet relied exclusively on two-way links then dead links could be a thing of the past. Every linked page would or could know what linked to it, and whenever links were removed or pages moved the links could be automatically updated or dealt with accordingly. The capacity of the internet to reconfigure itself globally would be far greater, probably leading to all sorts of interesting consequences, foreseen and otherwise.\nBut you might still want to implement a link that was one-way in some respects. You might not want the linked to item to know it was being linked to, or perhaps it wouldn’t have the capacity to be as linked to as people might want. What then? There could still be one-way protocols, accessible only from an abstraction layer of two-way protocols. A virtual two-way link could be maintained independently of the link target, allowing two-way operation of a one-way link. Software agents maintaining the links could provide two-way functionality by monitoring page moves/updates etc. I suppose they already do this.\nStrangely, I find w3schools to be a good source of this sort of inspiration. They crystallize the efforts of the ~W3C very succinctly. And it seems very likely that most of my thinking along these lines is in fact merely a slow game of catch-up with such institutions. And an interesting game of catch-up. The ~W3C is quite an organisation. Look it up if you don’t know it already.\n

!Friday 10th March, 2006\n''Drying Myself (a minor reality hack)''\nIt’s funny how you can be aware of something, without being consciously or verbally aware of something. A recent example is a way I discovered of drying myself after a wash. I’ve been doing it for quite a while now, but only today did it really rise to the surface of my consciousness.\nI’ve found that sometimes I’ll miss patches while drying myself, like patches on my shins, ankles, forearms etc. And it’s not always obvious which bits I’ve missed, and perhaps I wouldn’t find out until I’d got my clothes damp by dressing over damp patches of skin.\nAnd the method of not missing damp areas? Induce air flow over those areas, either by being somewhere drafty, or better still by waving body and limbs about, and the increased rate of evaporation induced by the air flow will result in damper skin areas feeling cooler than dryer ones. It really works, and in time I suspect this method of feedback will naturally cause my drying technique to become more effective and efficient. \nI think the waving body and limbs about method is best, because you can control the airflow and gauge the effect on the relevant body part more precisely. Also, the drafty method is less prone to creating interpretable temperature variations, whereas the waving limbs method allows you to control the temperature variation time-envelope, which makes sensation easier. Knowing where the airflow will occur next (through muscular control) also increases the sensitivity.\nSenses of the skin really are amazing. And discovering ways they work, and learning to work with them, is quite interesting!\n''~Epsilon-Delta Definitions''\nI’ve been revisiting these lately, and discovering how hard they are to internalize. It’s hard to fathom why. The gist of an epsilon-delta definition is that, given any epsilon it is shown that you can find a delta such that a proposition depending on epsilon and delta is true. The classic example is in the defintion of a limit: A function tends to a limit at a point only if for any given epsilon (greater than zero) you can find a delta such that as the function’s argument ranges over the delta-neighbourhood of the point, the function varies by no more than epsilon from the proposed limit.\nHopefully it’s one of those things that will naturally internalize, but it’s had quite a while to do so and still it hasn’t. However, I’ve just discovered that the internalization is on its way. I was stuck trying to prove that 1/x is continuous, forgetting that it’s ok to have delta dependent on x! I remember doing uniform and non-uniform continuity last year in analysis, but I don’t remember being told, or even coming to the conclusion, that any function with infinite discontinuities is only uniformly continuous over a union of closed intervals none of which include any discontinuities. I suppose it’s a pretty logical consequence though: The choice of delta depends on the slope of the function, and if the function has an unbounded slope, delta would have to be infinitely small to apply to the entire domain of the function. Delta cannot be infinitely small, so you have to restrict the domain, or allow delta to be dependent on the choice of limit point. \nThe moral of the story? If you’re trying to internalize something, even the slightest doubt and trouble can bring the process to a grinding halt, but that when you get over the doubt and trouble, you feel much closer to understanding, and are ready to hit the ground running, ready to trip right over the next doubt and trouble.\nHooray.\n''Challenges for IPv2''\n~IPv2 has been taking new directions of late, probably reflecting the new directions in my life and thinking. Is ~IPv2 up to transforming smoothly with myself (even if I’m not transforming smoothly? :D), or will I need to introduce step changes? I like the idea of looking ahead, and trying to anticipate any changes, so as to minimize the work in keeping ~IPv2 coherent.\nLately, the journal section has become more important, I’ve added an [[RSS|rss help]] feed, the number of tiddlers has grown large, and the level of required maintenance has increased. This has had knock-on effects on the usefulness of ~IPv2 has an expressive medium, and on its navigability. I think I’ve been falling back on the journal because it is naturally linear, and therefore easy to implement.\nThe introduction of several icons has made the [[RecentChanges|allRecentChanges]] pages, and the front page, nicer to look at, and emphasised several key aspects of the site: mathematics, photography, the journal and media (films, theatre etc.). I intend to introduce other icons for items such as [[books|BookTour]], [[music|MusicTour]], [[Shorinji Kempo]] and more, as they come into line with my current vision for ~IPv2.\nUnfortunately, TiddlyWiki doesn’t seem ideally suited for some aspects of the sort of use I am now looking for: Adding books and movies and other uniformly formatted data to tiddlywiki is tedious, and having large numbers of nodes doesn’t seem like something tiddlywiki was really designed for. Also, as I am trying to feed identical data to a number of strands (deviantART, flickr, IPv2, RSS) in various formats I am finding that the job of manually morphing the data for each medium is pretty labour intensive.\nI’m finding that navigation of a large tiddlywiki is also fairly cumbersome, and implementing multiple navigation schemes seems quite hard to do consistently. \nWhat to do?\nI think I am finally outgrowing the tiddlywiki. I hope another solution finds its way to me before I have to make another solution!\nPerhaps it’s time to look into content management systems. But ones that let you output static websites: I’m not up for an expensive change of host just yet.\n

!Sunday 19th March, 2006\n''Diffraction spikes: a retrospective reality hack''\nAs a small child I remember riding in the car in the dark, and looking at street lights and car headlights and all sorts of other lights. Very often my view of the light would include two large light spikes emanating from opposite sides of the light source. I asked my dad what they were, and I didn't get an answer I understood. Recently, while looking at the [[Astronomy Picture of the Day|http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html]] I came across the idea of a diffraction spike: an optical artifact caused by narrow obstructions close to the aperture of a light-gathering device like an eye or a telescope.\nFinally I had a name and scientific basis for my weird childhood experience. But what was (and does) obscure my view to cause these diffraction spikes? Eyelashes maybe? Defects in my cornea/lens? I'm guessing eyelashes for now, I definitely remember that squinting made the spikes longer. It also strikes me that the optical properties of the liquid film covering the eyeball could be responsible for a lot of the diffraction spikes and other weird visual artifacts. Try looking at a very uniformly coloured surface, and watching the 'floaters' drift by your view!\nI also remember that diffraction spikes were much more common in low-light conditions than in bright conditions. Possibly this is just because in normal lighting the low proportion of diffracted light is drowned out by the far higher proportion of direct light.\nInteresting anyway.\n''Dealing with big ideas''\nI seem to keep having massive ideas far beyond my ability to actually implement. Things I don't have the thinking time, money or resources to follow through. Why is this? I think the problem is compounded by the wide spectrum of areas my ideas cover. How can it be possible to develop to an extent that I can bring any significant number of these ideas through?\nA short book called [[The Cathedral and the Bazaar|http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/]] sheds some good light on this. I wanted, and seem to want, to cathedral build. Not usually a great idea, especially as one person is not generally big enough or long-lived enough to build a cathedral by themselves. The bazaar style of development seems much more sensible, and less effort, than the cathedral building style. Small-scale cathedral building can also form a good element of bazaar development (and vice versa I suppose...), so perhaps this is a good route through which to divert my cathedral building predispositions...\nWhat I have just neatly crystallized for myself is another method for future growth. Don't try and develop towards cathedral building: develop towards bazaar participation. To do so I will have to do a degree of cathedral building on myself, but that shouldn't exclude the possibility of allowing myself to become a bazaar project. \nThis sounds an awful lot like shared consciousness. What did John Lennon say in his song 'Only People'? 'Well, a million heads are better than one'. I'll second that!\n''Inaction from time pressure''\nPart of the general mush including the desire to cathedral build is the desire to do things thoroughly, which can make even the smallest task escalate into a gigantic monster of a mission. And make large time-filling tasks simply impossible.\nFor example, my degree.\nIt's supposed to be a reasonable slog for the relatively intelligent. I know that I easily have the capacity to digest the whole thing, at a fair pace too. But doing that would be like taking a racing car through a piece of beautiful countryside. Sacrilegious.\nSo I purposefully ditched the racing car they tried to give me and took up my bike, and sometimes even two legs. (Read Gandhi or Satish Kumar on the joys of going through life on two legs)\nAnd looking out across that glorious vista of knowledge, I can see that walking a journey that the others are dirtbiking across is going to take me quite a while. Especially if I keep getting distracted by the myriad curiosities along the way.\nWhat is the solution to this?\nMy conclusions from the cathedral building sections apply well here.\nThe title of this section refers to the common tendency of people to freeze in the face of a massive project. There are many ways of overcoming this sort of thing. The various funny management style things like GTD (getting things done), 43 Folders and Seven Habits of Highly Effective People are some amusing modern takes on the problem. (Although I find it interesting to note that these schemes are basically modern sutra collections... I suppose their humour comes in the management subculture that they appear to come from). What is my take on the problem? Buckle down and do it I suppose. Break the problem down into manageable pieces, take stock of my resources and how I need to apply them, and do that. Scale back if need be, and put the various plans in place for the various possible failures.\nI think project management could be a sensible science. Although I suspect the sensible scientific aspect is called operational research and is firmly divorced from project management. Who knows.\n''The null mind state''\nI often like to analyse my mental state, but one mental state I have so far neglected has been the 'null' mind state, that state that people often find themselves in whereby there is zero motivation to do anything, or even think about anything. A mind state that is as often as not going to result in mindless TV watching, computer game playing, reading of trashy novels and other apparently pointless activities.\nIt's easy to see why I haven't analysed it. While I'm not in a null-state I'm busy doing other things, and when I am, well, I can't be bothered! For some reason, during a recent null-state I came up with the idea of analysing, so I noted it down in [[The Hatchery]], where it was likely to receive attention at a more opportune time.\nThis time.\nSo where do these null-states come from? Under or overstimulation of the senses could result in exhaustion/boredom of a kind conducive to a null-state. Perhaps the subconscious mind sometimes needs to draw on resources that stunt the ability of the conscious mind. It certainly seems as if sometimes I'll emerge from a null-state feeling very fresh, and ready to tackle anything, often with solutions to the problems that seemed to push me into the null-state in the first place.\nWho can tell.\nBut whatever, now I know to look, perhaps I shall take the null-states as an opportunity for introspection and realisation, rather than an opportunity to feel rubbish about wasting yet more of my precious seconds.\nHooray for optimism!\n''Creating icons to represent various things''\nIcon creation is an interesting art in its own right. What small ideograms best represent a certain concept? And why? Also, there may be graphical restrictions on the icon which further constrain the image selection process. I'm creating an [[icon set|legend]] for the [[RecentChanges|allRecentChanges]] section, and in this case the graphical restrictions are that each icon is greyscale, 90 pixels square, with fair definition, but no extremes of intensity (black/white that is). I also want to create all the images myself, through a combination of photography and photomanipulation.\n*[[the human being/humanity|human being]] - What represents the human/humanity? The eye is a window on the soul. The human figure is the physical manifestation of a human being. Complex relationships are also a defining feature of human beings, but how would you represent those pictorially? The hand represents the manual and intellectual dexterity of the human race. I think I like the human eye the best as a representative graphic for the human being/humanity.\n*[[computing]] - I want to portray computing as the projection of human endeavour onto high technology. So a juxtaposition of a concept of humanity with a concept of high technology would be something good to aim for. The art of computing is clearly an example of intellectual dexterity, which can be nicely represented by the human hand. Traditionally computing is rooted in binary logic. Therefore, a human hand juxtaposed with the symbols 'zero' and 'one' might work well, although it goes against the symbolic realism of my other icons. However, Go stones, in their binary black and whiteness can neatly symbolize binary logic, and a human hand full of Go stones seems like a nice representative for computing.\n*[[planet earth]] - The standard icon for Earth is the globe as seen from space. But it's not likely that I'll find myself at a good vantage point for that shot any time soon. \n*[[civilisation]] - Nowadays, a city skyline is the quintessential icon of civilisation. A ceramic toilet bowl might be a more cynical take on that. Satellite imagery of the lights at night is also fairly representative. I'll stick with a skyline though I think. \n*[[The Hatchery]] - this is the 'preliminary incubation for ideas' area for ~IPv2. A picture of an egg seems perfect.\n*[[books|BookTour]] - a picture of a book is the obvious candidate..\n*[[movies|MovieTour]] - a film projector with prominent reels, or just loose cine film is the traditional icon for films. I'll take some photos of normal camera print film, they'll probably do the trick.\n*[[theatre|TheatreTour]] - The comedy and tragedy masks are the classic representation of theatre. I'll need to find some somewhere...\nAnd the moral of the story? Any amount of arty farty symbolic rambling will get you anywhere, but at the end of the day I ended up choosing my images just by browsing my photo collection, keeping my eye out for good crops. For the humanity logo, I chose a picture I took in a crowd in Prague. You get the human relationships thing, you get the human figure, you get civilisation. Nice. For computing, I chose a picture of a watch face. High technology affects the passage of subjective time in a very real way. A clock seems like a good symbol for computing. I did find a picture of a horizon, taken from an aeroplane, so that did for the earth section. I chose a picture of me with a cup of coffee for the hatchery. And so on. It seems the best way of doing something is to just get on and do it.

!Monday 27th March, 2006\n''Flashmobbing''\nOn Wednesday 22nd March I took part in my first ever flashmob. It was a lot of fun. The whole thing was started by a chain text, advertising a pillow fight in a prominent location in Bristol!\nOf course I had to go, and I had a fun 10 minutes of pillow fighting with between 30 and 50 total strangers (almost all of them fellow students, unsurprisingly!). Of course, no-one knew who started it, or even if the organisers were there or not. That was the beauty of it.\nCheck out flashmobbing. It’s funky.\n''Essence of code-snippets''\nLately the idea of code-snippets has taken hold of my imagination. It's strongly related to The Present Day section in [[this journal|Journal 2006 02 04]]. I've started a [[code snippets]] section in the [[computing]] section, which is basically a library of useful and reusable routines.\nThe three mini-projects in the previous journal ([[Shorinji Kempo Library]], [[the edifice]], [[Practicing drum kit]]) are also basically code-snippet libraries: libraries of small reusable pieces of information.\nOther things that define code-snippet libraries are accessibility and explanation of the information. So the definition could be:\n*A properly navigable library of small resuable pieces of information with associated documentation\nSnippet-libraries I want to do include\n*Juggling ball games (juggling, haki sak etc.)\n*DDR (dance matting)\n*Maths (probably the next generation of [[the edifice]])\n*Philosophical ideas\n*Invention (social, technological etc.)\n*Tours (currently my tours are just lists, with no real elaboration or interconnection).\nIn general, I think I would like to 'snippetize' all my creativity, in order to increase its utililty. See [[mixed paradigms in data creation]] for ideas on why.\n''Free-coordination''\nI've been playing with my juggling balls quite a bit lately, and rediscovering the continuum of ball activities: juggling, contact juggling, haki sak etc. And how 15 minutes of juggling can actually warm you up!\nIt made me think that free-coordination groups might be a nice type of social group to set up: whereby likeminded individuals get together for sessions of loosely structured exercise and coordination improvement. Perhaps the session could consist of warm-up, exercise, warm-down. My idea for a session could be a martial arts session with free-choice warm-up and warmdown. The free-zones in a session would be good for free exchange of ideas: people could learn about all sorts of other warmup activities that they didn't know as much about before: circuit training, stretches, juggling ball games, dance mats, etc. etc.\nAlternatively, the sessions could have a rotation of warmups and warmdowns, and even the main exercise zone could be relaxed: martial arts to free self-defence for example. This would rely on dedicated, knowledgeable and imaginative learners, and it would definitely be fun.\nRead [[peergroups]] for why it would be hard to set a group like this up. You'd probably need too many 'positives'!

!Sunday 2nd April, 2006\n''Experience is continuous''\nPeople often talk about 'new experiences' as if existence is a series of disjoint events, which can be compared to each other. I think it makes an awful lot of sense to also look at life as a continuous event, one long everchanging thread of existence. Sure, it can make sense to isolate sections of that thread and compare them to each other, but that shouldn't exclude the possibility that the very reason different experiences in life are comparable at all is because actually they are actually just part of the same experience.\nWhere did this come from?\nI was looking at the way I interact with people ([[classification of human interaction]], [[peergroups]] have some ideas on this), and I realised that I'd found myself sliding towards the extreme ends of a scale. It's the scale with 'everyone is the same' at one end, and 'everyone is unique' at the other end. It's funny, in important respects, people are the same, and in other respects they are all unique, and it's quite good if you can figure out which are which. How to do this? I'm not sure.\nBut I've found that by assuming that people are unique in ways they aren't, it's easy not to apply lessons learnt from others to them. And that by assuming that people are the same in ways they might not be it's too easy to allow people to fall into stereotypes (effectively, by doing so yourself).\nNot applying lessons is annoying, because it necessarily limits how far you can get. Many people like to make progress, and every lesson you fail to apply is another time you'll have to 'go round the loop' before you can go forward. Some loops are longer than others, and the longer they are, the better it is to learn and apply lessons fast!\nAnd by allowing people to fall into stereotypes (which people seem to do given almost any opportunity, after all, it is the easy option!), and allowing yourself to fall into stereotypes with them, you are also just 'going round the loop'.\nI know there is lots of joy to be had from whirling round the merry-go-round of life again and again, but if life is a themepark, then I for one also want to try out all the rides, and preferably have a good crack at climbing the wrong way over the fence!\n''Wilful/unwilful consciousness/unconsciousness of the situation''\nOf course, sitting there continuously taking notes from life is a dreadful state of affairs. As they say, sitting behind a camera lens stops you from experiencing life first hand, and I think sitting behind a notepad and pencil, or worse a computer screen and keyboard, is only that effect amplified hugely. But that doesn't mean that it doesn't have it's place.\nWhich brings me to another little classification scheme for people.\n|| ''Wilful'' | ''Natural'' | ''Unwilful'' |\n| ''Awareness'' | Enlightened | Gifted | Tormented |\n| ''Ignorance'' | In Denial | Helpless | Truth Seeker |\nMy feeling is that we all occupy some indeterminate shape sprawling across all six categories, probably weighted towards the bottom half of the diagram. I suspect that anyone could be said to be any combination of these things if you chose the correct aspects of their life.\nFor me, the ideal trajectory for life would be Helpless->Truth Seeker->Enlightened, but of course we all start off with a bit of natural awareness (which could be said to be part of the bootstrap mechanism which lifts us out of helplessness), and we all spend significant parts of our time in denial, and the unlucky among us may be tormented from time to time (or more often/continuously!).\nI think one of the fantastic things about humanity is our ability to communicate, and therefore our ability to be reached when helpless, and our ability to reach the helpless.\nIt's interesting to think of life as a trajectory on this diagram. Where will you end up? Where did you start? And where are you at the moment?\n''Dream Diaries''\nEvery time I have an interesting dream, later that day, when the dream itself is gone but the memory of it being interesting isn't, I wish I kept a dream diary. I've attempted dream diaries at various points in my life, but I find that they're not easy to keep.\nMy article [[technology of perceptions]] may well shed some light on this.\nPerhaps it's hard to keep a dream diary because to do so would imply a stronger bridge than there is between my dreaming world of perceptions and my waking world of perceptions. Trying to interact with my dreaming world from my waking world is hard because they're not linked well enough.\nSo this gives me added incentive to dream diarise. For one, when I can keep a dream diary, then I may have fair reason to believe that the bridge between the two 'islands of perception' is stronger than it is now, and that I am able to strengthen it further, and for two, attempting to dream diarise may in itself reinforce the bridge (and I hope it will).\nSo. A resolution. Keep a dream diary!\n''Art as stitch-assist for Reality''\n//Stitch-assist// - computer software for helping photographers stitch together panoramas composed of multiple shots.\nAlthough our experience can be usefully viewed as a continuous stream of experience, there is no doubt that more continuity is often be useful. 'Stitching together' the various disparate sections of the thread of our existence into a cohesive fabric (a fabric made from a single thread? ooooh...) is something I like to do, it lends structure, possibility and satisfaction to life.\nBut of course, I can't stitch my life together all by myself, because I don't live my life all by myself. It's wonderful that other people help me stitch my life together.\nAnd interestingly, art helps me do it. I think I am about to articulate a truly deep and important use for art. It's easy to say that art is something the human spirit needs, but why does it need it? It needs it in order to weave a fabric out of life, instead of leaving life a snaking thread of forgotten impressions. Art can help us build meaning into our lives.\nThere is an issue of 'humans seeing patterns in noise' which is an important topic, but there is an undeniable richness of pattern in our existence, so filtering out the noise is a separate issue (and there are good arguments that, to some extent, seeing patterns in noise is perfectly harmless and possibly even beneficial. Maybe a bit like red wine in that respect! :).\nArt can be viewed as the impressions from various islands of perception, on the waking island of perception, and as such art can be seen as a bridge between the various islands. And because art is made by different people, often for wide audiences, art can offer us bridges to each other's islands: if an artist learns to bridge-build from the waking world to the dreaming world, if they can make an artistic impression of that, then that can offer other people the opportunity to make the progress they made with less effort.\nAnd the more bridge building we do between our islands, the further afield we may be able to explore.\nFor me, the idea of 'alternate states of consciousness' is a very alluring one. It came to me via reading about Eastern thinking, and I think this idea of 'islands of perception' pertains quite strongly to it.\n''Bus 174''\nRecently I saw the documentary 'bus 174', a tragic documentary about an ex-streetkid bungling a robbery in Rio de Janeiro, and ending up taking a bus full of passengers hostage for 4 hours.\nI'm not sure how, but I think the way the messages and portrayal in that film jarred with the messages of popular film provoked a lot of the thought in this journal. The island of perception most popular film occupies is fairly distinct from the 'real' island. But Bus 174 seemed totally real. It joined up with so much that I'd read and heard about and seen that was undeniably 'real'.\nAnd even further up the chain of causation, I think the way I saw bus 174 was influenced by a recent Shorinji Kempo [[Howa]] session on the subject of Engi and Innen (see [[Film: Engi]]).\nA recent trip to the theatre to see 'Nights at the Circus' (an adaptation of the Angela Carter book of the same name) probably also sparked a lot of this: theatre I've been to see recently seems to have a fairly overwhelming social/philosophical element to it, which the medium of theatre seems excellently positioned to communicate.\nAmazing.

!Sunday 9th April, 2006\n!!Problem-solving, Programming, Thinking\nI found out what macros really are the other day, and together with a readup on aspect-oriented programming I found out how the ideas I wrote about in [[code reuse]] relate to the real world, and how they've been implemented in the real world.\nI also found a wikipedia article on [[programming paradigms|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programming_paradigm]], which made for interesting reading. I've never come across such a large collection of broad programming ideas before.\nSome 'paradigms' seem a little too fuzzy to be real paradigms, but many of them reference very interesting ideas. One difference between imperative and declarative programming seemed interesting to me: the former makes explicit the solution of the problem whereas the latter makes explicit the definition of the problem. Pipeline programming (a la Unix) seemed like a bit of an over-the-top sort of paradigm, but it's nice to think about pipeline 'programming' in comparison to other methods.\nReflective programming seems highly interesting, with it's stress on a program having access to its own code and structure (self-awareness, at a basic literal level!). It suggests a less hierarchical, more self-constraining style of command which I like. Of course, it might make sense to have a reflective programming style whereby program sections modify each other, as well as perhaps themselves... (parallels with external accountability etc.)\nOn a related note, I remember, as a child, asking my dad 'but who watches the police? Won't we need a police force for the police?' to which the obvious reply was 'but who would watch them?'. The obvious answer that I overlooked at the time was to have the //public// watching the police (and anyone else, including the police, who cared to look). If this isn't reflective society, reflective government, then I don't know what is. It seems that these political ideals only reflect deeper logical structures of reflectivity, which is interesting (although I guess other political ideals reflect other logical structures too). The idea of neat self-containment with no possibility/necessity for an infinite progression of higher orders is pretty appealing to me.\nThe idea of language orientation was highly interesting as well, whereby you start with a problem, and then solve it by writing code in a language that you develop as you go along. As an aid to understanding it seems excellent, and seems to point the way to an obvious but important idea: thinking-oriented thinking. Programming computers can only get you so far: at some stage, preferably before you finished your program, you thought about the essence of the problem, and then chose the correct tool to solve it, rather than diving straight into the problem with the first, most conveniently available tool to hand. And learning to think free of the constraints of any particular system of thought also sounds like a glorious skill to cultivate.\n!!Medical Research\nI've just finished reading Gandhi's autobiography //The Story of My Experiments With Truth//. It was an awesome read, and a perfect next step in the sequence of autobiographies I have read (see [[this journal|Journal 2005 12 16]]).\nIt outlines a large part of Gandhi's life, and contains a lot of his experiments with diet. A funny trend that came out in his book was that of him trying a whacky new diet, falling disastrously ill, having to retire from public duty for a while, miraculously getting better without the aid of modern medicine (instead using massage, water/earth therapy and diet/fasting), and plunging back into public duty and soon afterwards another whacky diet.\nHis life seemed to be punctuated by quite a few of these episodes of extreme illness apparently brought on not by pathogens, but simply by the inability of the human body to cope with certain behaviours and shortages of certain nutrients.\nWatching a news item about a few people in Britain who suffered multiple organ failure during a medical trial I had an idea, and an area to look into.\nWhere do the methods and protocols employed in intensive care units and emergency services around the world come from? It seems like an area that would be ethically very difficult to do research in, except in an observational capacity. Of course, purely observational research has the drawback that the data you gather cannot be 'designed' to be readily analysable, and therefore particular pieces of useful data might only be reachable through guesswork and the luck of the draw.\nI seem to remember that a lot of the work done by Nazi scientists in the mid 20th century has had a big influence on modern medical science, probably because they gathered data of a kind that is near impossible to gather in today's moral context. This seems like an interesting avenue to follow up.\nGandhi was highly dubious of modern medicine, and instead preferred to look after his health through the previously mentioned means, and by looking after his actions and moral conduct.\nSo I had an idea for medical research. Imagine the phase-space of the human medical condition. You could imagine that on the phase-space would be regions describable as: 'healthy', 'dead', 'multiple-organ-failure', 'broken leg', 'runny nose', 'about to have a heart-attack', 'indigestion', 'recovering after skull trauma' etc. etc.\nTo me, the way modern medicine seems to work is this: If someone strays too far away from the 'healthy' region, and you notice them, then do your level best to push them back into the healthy region somewhere, as soon as possible. However, the 'healthy' region is very large, and can be graduated according to how long-term the health is as well as how complete the healthiness is. Health seems to be defined by things like expected future lifespan and quality of life, probably with a growing emphasis towards quality of life.\nIt makes a lot of sense that medicine strives to push people as fast as possible out of the dangerzone, but of course there is the research side of medicine which can be said to have the aim of mapping out the phase-space of medical condition, within ethical constraints of course. The ethical restraints limit our routes through medical phase-space, making some areas very hard to reach, even areas which might be very useful to know about.\nSo what about people who are otherwise healthy setting out with the aim of adventuring in medical phase-space? Medically trained people taking each other to places in medical phase-space that maybe have never been visited before?\nAs an example, I wonder if what we know about organ failure is basically a mishmash of results from grizzly animal experiments and grizzly human misfortune: the animal experiments being less applicable to people, and the accidents being 'dirty data'. What if groups of people experimented with progressively taking each other's organs, under close observation with good instrumentation, to conditions that have never or rarely been recorded or attempted before?\nWould it be possible to allow medical research institutions to sponsor adequately qualified people to do this sort of research on each other? I wonder what has been done in this line already. And what the ethics of the situation are...\nRelated reading (wikipedia):\n*[[Human experimentation|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_experimentation]]\n*Unethical Medicine: [[Doctor's Trial|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor%27s_Trial]], Medical Torture (linked from previous), [[Unit 731|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731]], Nuremberg Code (linked from Doctor's Trial), Ancient anatomy (Herophilus etc.) etc.\n!!(Boundary-less) games\nBeing a go-player, and mathematician in training, I'm interested in board games, from entertainment, and mathematically interesting/aesthetic standpoints. Recently I found myself pondering the fact that almost all board games take place on a bounded board. With the notable exception of Conway's Life (not really a board 'game' in an intuitive sense...), and I guess [[gomoku|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gomoku]] (five-in-a-row) could be played on an unbounded board.\nI thought of a version of ''scrabble'' recently where you have a lot more tiles than standard scrabble, and the tile bag includes board tiles. You start with no board, and part of the gameplay is laying the board (including multi-scoring tiles) in such a way that you benefit more than your opponent. I suspect that working out tile proportions for a balanced and interesting game might be reasonably difficult, but I think it could be an interesting variant on traditional scrabble. (Inspired by scrabble, [[Quick Scrabble]] and upwords.)\n[[Go]] is a game traditionally played on 9x9, 13x13 or 19x19 boards, but there is no reason why boards of any size and shape cannot be used. Unbounded boards present a problem though: how to decide when the game ends? Traditional Go ends when the entire board has been 'settled', that is, it belongs to one or the other players. This might be difficult to establish on an unbounded board... So other rules or ending conditions could work:\n*Prisoner race: First to x prisoners wins. A bit trivial feeling. Perhaps good for learning to fight in the centre of the board.\n*Contiguous territory: territory only counts if it is part of a [[dragon|http://senseis.xmp.net/?Dragon]], and any stones/territory not in your dragon count negatively towards your score. Eventually the dragons should tangle up and further play should be to the detriment of both players. The game ends in the same manner as normal go: two consecutive passes.\n*Start on a 9x9 board, and trade moves for board extensions at any stage. The cost of board extensions could work on an agreement system: players could agree prices for specific board extensions. I can see that the agreement system could be quite interesting, and allow interesting battles extra space, and give opportunity for interesting sparring and improvement of judgement of mutual ability.\n[[Gess]] - This is a highly interesting game I found on wikipedia recently, a sort of cross between Chess and Go (Generalised chESS, or go/chess). I definitely intend to check this one out.\n!!Business Card Art\nI'm always interested in communicating to strangers, and generally being part of the shared consciousness and shared meme-pool. This was one way that occurred to me of doing it: Do photography/art projects that require very simple acts of public participation. In order that the participants get to see the fruits of their act of participation, you give them a business card with details of how they can witness their part in the project. It would be a great way of reaching a random audience, connecting with random people, and generally introducing a random human element to creativity. The act of designing art that others would want to participate in is in itself an interesting activity. I suspect the internet and other mass-reach technologies would play a central role in this working.\nWatch this space!\n!!Extensible Media Referencing Language\nWouldn't it be cool to be able to trade playlists with people? I thought of it, then found three interesting looking websites which do just that:\n*[[FIQL|http://www.fiql.com/index.php]]\n*[[Webjay|http://www.webjay.org/about]]\n*[[Plurn|http://plurn.com/app/About]]\nNot sure how good they are though. The playlists idea can be boiled down to these simple, intellectual property related, ideas:\n*Rights are owned on intellectual property.\n*Those rights ''do not'' extend to interpretations and opinions of that intellectual property.\n*Although it is not acceptable to transmit intellectual property without a license, it is acceptable to transmit a ''reference'' to that intellectual property under any conditions, and that along with the reference, other media can be transmitted.\n*That is to say: Although derivative works may not be allowed under the terms and conditions, there is nothing anyone can do to stop you transmitting a ''recipe'' for a derivative work (although they may try to stop you depending on context: eg, tinkering with machines, such as games consoles, which are not technically the 'owner's' 'property').\nThis sort of thing could definitely work to the benefit of IP owners: derivative works of this nature (such as playlists) would not work without the recipient of the derivative work first owning a valid license for the IP in the first place. So success of derivatives would cascade down to the IP owners anyway. (Or, the creator of the derivative work would not be breaching license: the license breach gets farmed down to the mass-audience: a big headache for IP protectors, but one which they're solving gradually.)\nOf course, this works only from a profit-motive perspective. What if the IP owner doesn't want their work to be included in derivative works that may subvert the message they are trying to get across? I think issues of free-speech come in here, and probably there would be additional legal mechanisms to regulate this kind of thing.\nHowever, this sort of derivative-works mechanism, coupled with a really decent way of universally referencing media, would make many types of derivative work such trivial fragments of information (basically just relationships between existing data) that it would be near on impossible to impede their flow without truly draconian auditing mechanisms.\nI think part of my chain of reasoning includes a jump from 'interpretations and opinions' to 'derivative works'. These are definitely two smudgy areas on a very smudgy line. I guess art and progress thrives on smudgy areas. So hey!

!Monday 24th April, 2006\n''The Butterfly Effect''\nThis follows on from a previous journal, [[Pick a Path, Any Path|Journal 2006 01 16]], and relates to a style of learning that many people enjoy. An analogy I like as regards this is the jigsaw puzzle analogy for learning. Learning can be seen as the process of accumulating 'jigsaw pieces' of knowledge, and piecing them together to create the 'jigsaw of understanding'. Highly knowledgeable people can be said to have a lot of jigsaw pieces, people with high understanding can be said to have their jigsaw pieces well connected together. An able few have many jigsaw pieces well connected together. All of us can be said to have our own jigsaws of understanding, each of us has a different number of jigsaw pieces, and our jigsaws are in varying states of connectedness.\nThe ways in which we go about constructing our jigsaws of understanding vary, and those ways can originate internally and externally in different proportions depending on who we are and the state of our environments.\nA common division of people's preferred learning methods is the 'practical/systematic' methods and 'butterfly' learning methods division. Practical/systematic methods rely heavily on historically accumulated and organised knowledge, and can be characterised by their highly time-consuming repetitive means of enabling knowledge and understanding in the learner. I would argue that they make the knowlege element explicit while leaving the understanding element implicit, making it easier for learners and teachers to underemphasise understanding.\nOn the other hand, 'butterfly' methods rely less on large blocks of historically accumulated and organised knowledge, and can be characterised by their lack of repetitive structure. Butterfly learners tend to flit from topic to topic, never settling on any one for long enough to really get expert in it. Practical/systematic learners tend to sit on topics for long periods, remaining ignorant of others, but getting very good at their speciality. Butterflies tend to be generalists. Practical/systematics tend to be specialists. This leads me to an alternate name for practical/systematics: caterpillars. They sit on a leaf and eat the whole thing, unlike the butterflies that drink the nectar from many flowers. With butterflies, the understanding element is explicit, while the knowledge element is implicit. Learners and teachers may fall into the trap of emphasising understanding, at the cost of underemphasising knowledge.\nUsing the jigsaw analogy, both butterflies and caterpillars collect their jigsaw pieces at varying rates, but what differentiates them is their attitude to their jigsaw pieces. Caterpillars take a jigsaw piece, find one that connects, so that they have a pair of connected pieces. Then they'll find another piece that connects, and stick it on. And so on and so on. Their jigsaw is one large area of connected pieces, surrounded by a pool of loose pieces. Butterflies take a different approach. They continually sift their jigsaw pieces, testing them against each other. If they fit, they get connected. The jigsaw of a butterfly is a dynamic mess of jigsaw pieces, connected in small groups. Big pools of jigsaw pieces, characteristic of the caterpillar, are rarer.\nIt seems clear to me that the most effective learners would be able to adjust how much like a butterfly or a caterpillar they are, using the slow perseverance and patience of a caterpillar in tandem with the dynamic abilities of the butterfly to spot unusual things and maintain many odd and seemingly unrelated things in mind at once.\nExtreme butterflies tend to look at caterpillars as boring stuck-in-the-muds with no aesthetic appreciation, imagination or ability to change.\nExtreme caterpillars tend to look at butterflies as naive fools, revelling in the juicy areas of knowledge, but unable to progress for lack of knowledge of the meatier, but often less appetising, areas of knowledge.\nOn another level, caterpillars can represent the huge inertia of mainstream society. Butterflies can represent the agility of alternative society, that aspect of society that is a source of fundamentally new ideas, and a safeguard against stagnation and slow traps. Looked at this way, caterpillars and butterflies need each other.\nAnd looked at this way, modelling yourself on both the butterfly and the caterpillar could be the optimum way to go. In nature, caterpillars turn to butterflies, which then die. People, on the other hand, tend to be born butterflies, turning into caterpillars at varying ages, from very young to never. Human butterflies tend to suffer from a lack of knowledge of what it is to be a caterpillar, which seems to be a tragic waste in many instances. Either the butterfly dies, or the caterpillar takes over. How often do you get the situation where both coexist together? I don't know. But to me it seems like it could have minimal cost for maximum benefit on selves, environments and societies. (An example of the principle of the Middle Path I suppose).\nIt strikes me that for most of my life so far, I've been a butterfly at heart, coerced into caterpillar type behaviour by the educational institutions I've partly grown up in. At last, as I become free of these institutions, I'm learning the true value of being a caterpillar by choice, and it's going to free up my butterfly wings more too. If you stick a butterfly and a caterpillar in a chrysalis, what comes out? I'm hoping to find out!\n''Linguistic/Philosophical Insight and Etymology''\nI've been experiencing a pretty fun thing lately. I think elevated levels of Scrabble and [[Quick Scrabble]], along with mental/philosophical/spiritual development have reacquainted me with my vocabulary in a nice way: etymological relations between words seem to be suggesting themselves to me in a way they never did before. Looking up these hunches turns up a real link satisfyingly often! Some recent examples:\n*annoy/ennui – the connotative 'auras' of these words share a similarity that reflects their origins. Both have been borrowed into English, at different times, from an evolving French.\n*facility/facile – this has been stewing in the background for a long time, since learning GCSE French. Facile, easy, reflects the function of a facility: a device for making a task easier. Training facilities make training easier, fabrication facilities make manufacture easier, etc. etc.\n*policy/police – the police uphold policy. In theory. Fairly obviously, but before I noticed the link, police, as a word, was just a plain word. Now it relates to the body of vocabulary better.\n*zealous/jealous – from an Old French word meaning sort of both. Zealous nowadays may have good connotations (hence over-zealous for the negative meaning), but jealous almost never has good connotations. But it's easy to see how the two terms relate, and they inject additional meaning into each other as a result of association, at least in my mind.\nWe've got over 2 million words in this crazy langauge, and there are countless other languages in the world, all of which exist in a froth of coinfluence and interchange. It's nice to feel like I'm getting to appreciate it all a bit better.\n!Today's Wikipedia Reading\nFor some reason I was reminded to look up metamorphosis, in terms of the stage between larva and imago in insects. So I did. And found that the internet has very little to offer in terms of detail of actual holometabolism (the technical term for metamorphosis). I even found hypermetabolism, which sounds interesting, but no details.\nBut I did find all sorts of other things. Ideas like [[autocatalytic sets|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autocatalytic_set]] (mathematical theory for how life could have bootstrapped itself out of non-life), [[exogenesis|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panspermia]] (extraterrestrial origins of life), [[panspermia|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panspermia]] (hypothetical tendency for life to arise in the universe at large), [[imago|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imago]] (adult phase of insects, in my mind a beautiful word too), [[geep|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geep]] (an artificially created goat/sheep chimera, very weird) and [[sessile|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sessile]] (zoology: immobile organisms).\nI also learned a little more about those weird creatures, [[sponges|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sponge]]. Apparently you can blend them in a blender, and they'll reorganise into a sponge! You can even blend different species of sponge together, and they'll reorganise back into sponges of the original species! Very strange indeed.

!Thursday 11th May, 2006\n''Becoming aware of your life narrative''\nIncreasingly in recent months and years I've been becoming fascinated with ideas of [[deeper time|Journal 2006 03 09]] and highly interrelated existence. As a friend of mine recently put it: 'you're all about the interweaving themes aren't you Crispin'.\nA neat handle on this came to me via [[Go]], specifically the book [[EZ-Go|EZ-Go (book)]], which stated clearly that ideally every stone you play in Go should have local and global benefits, short-term and long-term benefits, and generally be multipurpose. Why? Because every stone you play will sit there influencing the game until it is killed, which for many stones is likely to be never. Of course, not every stone can be that ideal, but the idea of making moves which contribute towards multiple objectives across multiple scales of time, distance, learning, strategy etc. is to me the glorious and natural extension of the old idea of 'killing two birds with one stone'.\nIt's very easy to fall into the trap of making petty, narrow, or single-purpose moves, in Go and in life, but through playing lots of Go I feel that I may have learnt the idea of multi-purpose moves a little better.\nAnd playing wide moves in life is awesome: life is such an unpredictable and expansive game that playing the narrow game inside it seems like such a waste.\nAs Bruce Lee said, 'Be water, my friend'.\n''The Final Camera''\nRecently I finished 'Haunted' by Chuck Palahniuk. As usual for his books, I loved it. For it's writing style, philosophical outlook, sheer grossness and general Palahniuk goodness.\nA particular idea that came out of it was the idea of 'the final camera', the 'camera behind the camera', that camera that gives you the perfect report of what's really going on.\nThat concept for me is truly awesome. Why? Because it bridges so many ideas from maths, computing, philosophy, media and politics, social relations and more. Because it is the concept that crystallized an important part of all the myriad bridges between the parallel concepts of 'ultimate truth' in these areas, and because Palahniuk talked about it in such human, non-abstract terms that a new dimension of reality was added to all my other conceptions of truth.\nThe concept of 'the final camera' refers to the desire for any reporter to be the last word on what they're reporting about. At least, the purported desire.\nBut when it's put in such clear and simple terms, it becomes clear, at least to me, that any reporter who has the vanity to utter 'the last word', and claim absolute definitiveness, is surely laughable, and that as reporters it is our job to merely connect ideas with audiences in appropriate ways.\nIt relates to a formulation of words I came up with which goes like this: //do not expect to find a 'basis' form, expect merely to translate between forms//\nThe final camera implies a hierarchy of cameras, all looking over the shoulder of the last, a never-ending hierarchy of successively better approximations.\nWhere is there room for cameras looking at cameras, and halls of mirrors, in this horrifically homogeneous model?\nIn my view Palahniuk makes an awesome case for an end to these grandiose ideas of finality, and in their place leaves flippant soundbites and grotesque imagery. But that's because he's not the final camera. He's merely playing his part in the wonderfully reflexive world we can live in if we so choose.\n''Musical Linguistics''\nNot so long ago I came back to my computer and switched the music back on. And it made no sense to me. I'd switched a song on in the middle (the media player had remembered where I'd got to), and because it had been a while since I'd been listening to the track, I was disoriented. Instead of a song I knew, I heard strange arhythmical sounds, and I was lost, until I managed to get my bearings again.\nThis doesn't happen to me very often, because I tend to finish listening to songs within a fairly short time of starting to listen to them (often within the playing time of the song...), so when it did happen to me I was pretty surprised.\nIt'd be interesting to start dropping myself midway into random songs and seeing how confused I get and for how long. And what songs lead to more confusion than others.\nIt immediately brings to mind ideas of signal processing on attenuated, fragmented or noisy signals. For example, have you ever had an irritating electrical noise brought to your attention, and then not been able to get it out of your attention? Or in a crowded place observed the way your ear can 'focus' on off the various threads of conversation floating around the place, each conversation going from part of the background noise to the focus of your attention.\nOr, quiet noises that you can only detect if they started louder and got quieter (you can follow the noise down, but not detect it at its quiet level).\nIn vision you get a similar thing: you can read signs with language that you're more or less familiar with at distances too far to resolve individual letters, but unfamiliar language is impossible to read under such adverse circumstances.\nI guess a science of 'musical disorientation potential' would have an element of looking at the level of symbolic redundancy in music, and its level of agreement with the various 'musical discourse communities'.\nMusical linguistics perhaps. Hmmm. It strikes me that a science like this could unearth some truly bizarre types of 'music' possibly unlike any that have ever gone before, by being highly aware of musical traditions, instrumentation and compositional devices on one set of levels, and aware of the more information-theory/signal-processing side of auditory perception on another set of levels.\n''Reflex Memories''\nToday I combined two exercises, which seemed to be a potentially positive thing to do:\n*Pronation/Supination exercise\n**Keep a haki-sak up in the air by bouncing it off the backs of your hands and your palms in sequences of rapid alternation. (Fastest method of doing this is to avoid elbow movement as much as possible, concentrating on forearm muscles to reverse the orientation of the hand.)\n*Memory exercise\n**Repeating lists to yourself\nDoing these two exercises together, so that you recite the next list item at each contact with the haki-sak, is an interesting way of encouraging internalisation/reflexisation of a list: coordinating the timing of the physical exercise with the timing of the mental exercise seems to be an interesting thing to experiment with (perhaps reinforcing mind/body interface?): and not immediately easy: trying the exercise with lists I know well (eg, the alphabet, months of the year, numbers in japanese/english) was still harder than trivial. I think the strange rhythmic aspect is part of what makes this good.\nDoing the haki-sak exercise in time to music is interesting too: it helps you hear rhythms in the music, and attune your movements to those rhythms. The constraints imposed by the movement of the haki-sak make for even more interest.\nNice.\n''Programming as a computer game''\nRecently I came across a website, https://www.youos.com/, which embodies a very interesting extension of open-source software development: game-oriented development. Computer programming as a massively-multiplayer open ended cooperative/competitive game. What an idea!\nI think they made one key mistake though: The development environment isn't native to the operating system (~YouOS: proprietary //Javascript!//) that the software is developed for. So the development environment isn't so much subject to the game (although I guess it might be in the future, or already, I'm not that involved with ~YouOS), and so modifying the process of software development itself is less likely to become a focus of the game.\nBut what an idea anyway. It reminds me of 'code wars' or whatever it was really called, a game where a mockup CPU and memory were modelled in a computer, and the game was to write code for the virtual CPU/memory system that could take over the entire system when pitted against other programs aiming to do the same. Sort of like a complicated version of Go, where the territory is clock-cycles and memory space, and there is far more in the way of rules and dynamic change.

!Thursday 18th May, 2006\nI wrote this on the 21st of November, before IPv2 had really even started. I guess this is one of the tremors that started the snowball of writing that IPv2 has become. Although it might read a little glum and pessimistic, I think it is actually optimistic. I like to think that pessimism is a grim diagnosis with no prescription, and there is definitely a prescription here!\n<<<\nI have an inability to write a story that I want to write. I think I know why this is. I find it impossible to create a believable universe that I would want the story to be in. This runs closely in parallel with a wider problem I have. I find it impossible to find the universe that I want the story of my life to be in.\nWhen I can write the story I want to write, I will be in the life I want to live.\nMaybe when I can start to write, then I will be that little bit closer to writing my way into the life I want to lead. By successive approximations. I can use writing. The creation of universes that reflect my own desires, desires that otherwise I would be blind to. Universes that help me realise those desires and possibilities.\nI can use writing as part of the mix to deliver me from running away from my life.\nMy stories don’t have to inhabit the same universe. Just as my life doesn’t have to play out in the same universe.\nMaybe I should rephrase my writing. I don’t write stories. I write text. Text that makes up my story. The story of my life is the biggest story I can compose. Within that story I can have the story that is all the text I have made.\nWriting a story, a part of that super-story, is a process of taking little pieces of things that I know and find out and building them together into a coherent whole that can be appreciated as such by someone who isn’t me.\n<<<\nSo there we are!

!Throwing Patterns\n*3 Ball Shower - basic juggling pattern with 3 balls\n*One Hand 2 Balls - keeping two balls in the air with one hand.\n*2/1 Oscillator - a bit like doing One Hand 2 Balls, but with two hands, and one of the balls is shared between the hands.\n!Contact Patterns\n*Hands\n*Arms\n*Shoulders/Torso\n*Back/Midriff/Hips\n*Knees/Thighs\n*Shins\n*Feet (tops, in-sides and out-sides, heel/toe-end)\n!Exercises/Space\n*Rotating while juggling\n*Translating while juggling\n*[[Pronation/Supination exercise|Journal 2006 05 11]] (4th subheading)\n**[[rebound exercise]]\n*Throwing/retrieving balls into/from relatively inaccessible parts of personal space (requiring efficient/unusual coordination, foot movement, awareness and/or balance)\n!Types of ball interaction\n*Momentary - as in batting\n*Extended gripped - as in catching\n*Extended ungripped - as in contact juggling\n!Fundamentals\n*Where to exchange the ball (between hand and halfway)\n*Eyes open/closed

*Refers to ''Doshin So'', the founder of Shorinji Kempo and Kongo Zen.\nSee the [[BSKF|Shorinji Kempo organisation]] [[brief introduction|http://www.bskf.org/foundation.html]].

*basics: repeatedly practicing the simplest techniques on which all other techniques are based. Interspersed with stretches.\n!Uke (blocks)\n!Ukemi (rolls)\n*''mae ukemi'' - forward roll\n*''ushiro ukemi'' - backward roll - //Amazing technique: look over 'easy' shoulder, drop down, then look over other shoulder, and roll. It works!//\n*''yoko ukemi'' - sideways roll\n*''dai sharin'' - basically a cartwheel\n!Zuki (punches)\n!Geri (kicks)\n!Tan'en (kata/forms)\n*''tenchi ken dai ikkei'' - the first tan'en learnt by most [[kenshi]].\n*''ren han ko'' - a sequence performed after a technique to demonstrate the seamlessness of the technique with other techniques.

''Main Menu''\n''[[Journals|Journal 2006 05 18]]''^^\n[[old rope|Journal 2006 05 18]]\n(18th May)\n[[interweaving themes|Journal 2006 05 11]]\n(11th May)\n[[learning|Journal 2006 04 24]]\n(24th Apr)\n[[freeform|Journal 2006 04 09]]\n(9th Apr)\n[[(all journals)|allJournals]]^^\n----\n''[[RecentChanges|RecentChanges 2006 06 23]]''\n^^[[(23rd June)|RecentChanges 2006 06 23]]\n[[(9th June)|RecentChanges 2006 06 09]]\n[[(4th June)|RecentChanges 2006 06 04]]\n[[(3rd June)|RecentChanges 2006 06 03]]\n[[(all recentchanges)|allRecentChanges]]^^\n----\n[[Me|conskeptical]]\n^^[[creativity|MyCreativityTour]] [[mathematics]] [[philosophy]] [[technology]] [[computing]] [[Shorinji Kempo]] [[Go]]^^\n----\n[[Tours]]\n^^[[books|BookTour]] [[music|MusicTour]] [[movies|MovieTour]]\n[[reading pile|Books I'm currently reading]]^^\n----\n[[Browsing IPv2]]\n----\n[[my email|mailto:conskeptical@gmail.com]]\n----\npowered by\n[[TiddlyWiki v1.2.38|TiddlyWiki]]

!Details\n[img[Maus: My Father Bleeds History|books/maus.jpg]]\n!Diary\n*Saturday 6th May 2006 - Seems to be an interesting graph novel, one of the first graphic novels I have ever intended to finish.\n*Sunday 7th May 2006 - Finished it. It is indeed almost unputdownable. Very good book. But I think it requires a bit of prior knowledge to be truly excellent. Without having read Kurt Vonnegut, Catch22 or Anne Frank's diary, and seen various holocaust films, I'm not sure if I wuold have got such a nuanced experience out of this book.

!See also\n*[[Movies On My List]] - movies I intend to see some time.\n!The Movie List\nThis is a list of movies I have seen, grouped alphabetically:\n*[[0-C|0-C (movies)]], [[D-G|D-G (movies)]], [[H-M|H-M (movies)]], [[N-R|N-R (movies)]], [[S-Z|S-Z (movies)]]

This is a list of movies I intend to see sometime, along with brief reasons why I want to.\n*''Ashura'' - looks to be a cool Eastern story/martial-arts film. 25062006\n*''Audition''\n**I've seen bits of it. A truly shocking Japanese horror film about a widower who auditions for a new wife, and gets more than he bargained for.\n*''Apocalypse Now'' - Francis Ford Coppola\n**I've seen most of it, but feel asleep towards the wacky final half-hour or so. It's a fairly amazing Vietnam film, and one of the 'big three' (Platoon, FMJ, Apocalypse Now), so it deserves a proper watching.\n**Coppola made the Godfather. Therefore he is to be watched :)\n*''Battle Royale II'' - I saw and liked the original Battle Royale.\n*''Brazil'' - Terry Guilliam\n**Involves Terry Guilliam (Fear and Loathing, Monty Python) and Michael Palin (Monty Python, travel journalist).\n*''Casablanca'' - It's a classic.\n*''Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room''\n**Recommended in a weird situation. Must check it out.\n*''Fast Food Nation'' - Richard Linklater, due out in Autumn 2006. I like Linklater.\n*''Fearless'' - Jet Li film in the Hero and House of Flying Daggers vein. Gotta be watched! 26062006\n*''Ghost in the shell'' - anime classic I haven't seen yet. 26062006.\n*''Happiness'' - recommended to me by Gemma. Looks weird.\n*''Howl's Moving Castle'' - Hayao Miyazaki\n**I saw //Spirited Away// not so long ago, and was wowed by it. Miyazaki is, apparently, an amazing anime maestro. This is a recent film of his.\n*''Jacob's Ladder'' - been recommended to me several times now. //04/07/2006//\n*''Lolita'' - Gotta watch all the Kubrick.\n*''Metropolis'' - original, and Rintaro 2001 anime.\n*''Peeping Tom''\n**Brought up by a friend. Looks interesting, and... meta. Huh. I said it.\n*''Pierrepoint''\n**Saw a news item about prolific English executioner Albert Pierrepoint. This is a film about him. Looks pretty interesting. He seems pretty interesting.\n*''Seven Swords'' - looks to be a cool Eastern story/martial-arts film. 25062006\n*''Soylent Green''\n**Stumbled across it on wikipedia recently, and it rang a bell. Looks interesting too.\n*''Dr Strangelove''\n**A Kubrick film I haven't seen yet.\n*''What the #$*! Do We Know?!''\n**On the subject of quantum physics, recommended by a tavern owner in Bristol while we were playing Monopoly there. Worth it just for the sheer unlikeliness of the recommendation and the situation.\n**Similar in style to Waking Life (Richard Linklater), which I liked a lot.

!Direction\n*Genres\n**follow the influence of 20/30s jazz\n**pop music\n**world music\n*Bands\n**10cc\n**Yes\n!See [[last.fm|http://www.last.fm/user/conskeptical/]] and [[pandora|http://www.pandora.com/people/conskeptical]] for more extensive and current information.\n!Notable songs\n*''Garbage:'' Version 2.0, You Look So Fine\n*''Dizzy Gillespie:'' Groovin' High, Salt Peanuts\n*''Keiichi Suzuki:'' Zatoichi OST, A House on Fire and Massacres\n*''Oasis:'' Heathen Chemistry, Born On A Different Cloud\n*''Sia:'' Breathe Me: Played as the final song on Six Feet Under ([[TVTour]]).\n*''Sting:'' Fields of Gold, Demolition Man\n*''Sting:'' Fields of Gold, This Cowboy Song\n*''Suede:'' Head Music, Everything Will Flow\n!Notable albums\n*''The Avalanches'' - Since I Left You\n*''Bob Marley and the Wailers'' - Catch a Fire, Legend\n*''Kate Bush'' - The Kick Inside, Never For Ever\n*''Miles Davis'' - Kind of Blue, Bitches Brew\n*''Four Tet'' - Rounds\n*''Garbage'' - Verson 2.0\n*''Dizzy Gillespie'' - Groovin' High\n*''John Lennon'' - Imagine, Mind Games\n*''Thelonious Monk'' - Blue Monk\n*''Van Morrison'' - Moondance\n*''Radiohead'' - OK Computer\n*''Red Hot Chilli Peppers'' - By The Way\n*''Sting'' - Brand New Day, Fields of Gold\n*''Suede'' - Head Music\n*''Zero 7'' - When it Falls\n!Notable bands/artists\n*Basement Jaxx\n*Electric Light Orchestra\n*Jurassic 5\n*Lamb\n*Massive Attack\n*Pink Floyd\n*Sia\n*Telepopmusik

!The Cajon\nThe cajon I played a lot with the flamenco band I was in. It's a fun instrument!\n\n[img[my drum kit|boxbig.jpg]]\n\nTop side: to sit on\nSound hole side: for sound to come out of\nOther visible side: for high pitched, fast decaying notes. (due to thickness and composition)\nThe side opposite that: for lower pitched, slower decaying notes. (due to thinness and composition)

My creative exploits can be grouped into a few categories:\n*A [[scrapbook|MyScrapbook]] I made several years ago, over a period of several years.\n*Assorted [[photography|MyPhotography]], [[images|MyImages]] and [[video|MyVideo]].\n*Various [[written|MyWrittenIdeas]] work including poetry, prose and notes.\n*Bits and pieces of [[javascript|MyJavaScript]].\nMuch of this is stored at deviantART (dA), although I intend to broaden that base.\n!Topics Awaiting Attention\n*[[business card art|Journal 2006 04 09]] - (4th subheading)

!The Kit\nThis is the Pearl Export I play when I get the chance:\n\n[img[my drum kit|drumsbig.jpg]]\n\n!Basics\nCymbals going clockwise from the bottom left are: hihats (pedal operated), crash, ride.\nDrums going clockwise from the white-skinned one are: snare, small tom, medium tom, floor tom.\nThe bass drum is in the centre (pedal operated).\nDrum stool at the bottom.\n\n!Particulars\nCymbals: Sabian ~Pro-Sonix Hi-hats (14"), AAX stage crash (16"), AA ride (20")\nHeads: Pearl Protones on the toms and snare (with Remo zero rings), Aquarian on the bass drum (22").\nSteel shell snare (14"). 12" and 13" mounted toms. 16" floor tom.\nFair amount of felt in the bass drum (touching both heads). Nice and muffled.\nComfy Gibraltar drum stool.\nSelection of sticks including nylon tips, wood tips, hot rods and brushes.\nEtymotic Research ear plugs.\nBright red ear defenders for innocent bystanders. (make the bass drum seem ''even'' louder!)

!cooperative doodles\n[img[cooperative I (dA)|thumbs/cooperativeI.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/5755870/]] [img[partly political broadcast (dA)|thumbs/partlypoliticalbroadcast.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/5755928/]]\n\n!PCB layout\n[img[timeswitch (dA)|thumbs/timeswitch.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4913878/]]\n\n!pentominoes\n[img[pentominoes (dA)|thumbs/polyominoes.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/25533280/]]\n\n!the underground\n[img[underground I (dA)|thumbs/undergroundI.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/5670460/]] [img[underground II (dA)|thumbs/undergroundII.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/5670548/]] [img[underground III (dA)|thumbs/undergroundIII.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/5670605/]]\n\n!voiceprint\n[img[voiceprint (dA)|thumbs/voiceprint.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/5281237/]] [img[voiceprint: concept (dA)|thumbs/voiceprintconcept.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/5281203/]]

Tested in Firefox only. I've put in no real efforts to make these cross-browser compatible. It seems that firefox1.5 doesn't save pages with Javascript ~DOM-tree modifications, which means I have to add more code in if I want to save pages...\n*[[savable fridge poetry|javascript/superfridgepoetIII.html]] - same as below, but words remember their places.\n*[[weird fridge poetry|javascript/superfridgepoet.html]] - a variant on the fridge poetry thing, supporting tooltips, at the expense of a more strict input format.\n*[[fridge poetry|javascript/fridgepoetry.html]] - paste some text into the text box at the top left, press 'load' and hey presto. Fridge poetry in your browser. Preloaded with the wikipedia article on [[magnetic poetry|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_poetry]].\n*[[game of life|javascript/conwayhelper.html]] - a javascript that shows the status the cells in a [[game of life]] position.\n*[[time calculator|javascript/timecalc2.html]] - a fairly ropey user interface onto a fraction calculator, time calculator and prime factoriser. It's not special, but it works.\n*[[node manipulation 2|javascript/relatenodes3.html]] - more node graphs, this time with a different control style and some extra layout functions.\n*[[node manipulation|javascript/relatenodes2.html]] - an experiment with creating a node graph without a line drawing facility. Thought provoking for me at least.\n*[[drum tab assistant|javascript/drumtab1.html]] - easing the process of creating [[drum tabs|drum tab assistant]]. See [[drum tab assistant]] article for details of use.\n*[[text manipulator|javascript/textmanip1.html]] - some experiments with string manipulation and regular expressions.\n*[[rectangles|javascript/rectangles.html]] - some experiments with drawing.\n*[[arithmetic tester|javascript/arithtest.html]] - page that [[tests your arithmetic|exercise checking software]] and times you.\n*[[freeEdit|javascript/freeEdit.html]], [[notepad2|javascript/notepad2.html]] - work in progress attempts at an [[idea cloud editor|freeEdit]].

!Pick of the pack\n[img[the mirror dance (dA)|thumbs/themirrordance.jpg][birds]] [img[epitaph (dA)|thumbs/epitaph.jpg][cigarettes]] [img[elixir of life (da)|thumbs/elixiroflife.jpg][evian]] [img[progress toward oblivion (flickr)|thumbs/progresstowardoblivion.jpg][ice]] [img[don't let go (dA)|thumbs/dontletgo.jpg][the ice hand]] [img[the end of a long day (dA)|thumbs/theendofalongday.jpg][meccano man]] [img[you don't know me|thumbs/youdontknowme.jpg][mysterious]] [img[open cube III (da)|thumbs/opencubeIII.jpg][the open cube speaker set]] [img[a variety of roofs (dA)|thumbs/avarietyofroofs.jpg][architecture]] [img[photography with gusto (da)|thumbs/photographywithgusto.jpg][people]] [img[king for a day (da)|thumbs/kingforaday.jpg][sky]] [img[incongruous II (dA)|thumbs/incongruousII.jpg][the toothbrush]] [img[soul food (dA)|thumbs/soulfood.jpg][water and light]] [img[wind assisted snowflakes (dA)|thumbs/wintry.jpg][weather]] [img[breathing space (dA)|thumbs/breathingspace.jpg][wine glasses in the sink]]\n!Groups\n[[all photography|AllMyPhotography]] : [[architecture]] / [[birds]] / [[cave]] / [[cigarettes]] / [[the city]] / [[coast, river and sea]] / [[computer and equipment innards]] / [[countryside]] / [[equipment]] / [[evian]] / [[flour to dough]] / [[glass]] / [[the globe]] / [[ice]] / [[the ice hand]] / [[light]] / [[meccano man]] / [[mysterious]] / [[nature-humanity interface]] / [[the open cube speaker set]] / [[oxfam walk: may 16th 2004]] / [[park ornaments]] / [[people]] / [[power station]] / [[signs]] / [[sky]] / [[the toothbrush]] / [[transportation]] / [[the uniformity pipe]] / [[water and light]] / [[weather]] / [[wine glasses in the sink]]\n!Websites\n[[deviantART|http://conskeptical.deviantart.com/gallery/photography/]], [[flickr|http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/]]\n!Topics Awaiting Attention\n*//extreme aspect ratio photography (vehicle mounted scanning backs sort of idea...) - 24/05/2006//\n*//HDR, multiple exposure photography (tue16/05/2006)//\n*//long exposures of static objects (mon15/05/2006)//\n*//categorisations of shots (sun30/04/2006)//\n*//list of interesting shots of human figure (sun30/04/2006)//

!1-10\n[img[fur (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/fur.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4475173/]] [img[sternum (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/sternum.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4475657/]] [img[inspire (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/inspire.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4625405/]] [img[ticker tape (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/tickertape.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4797450/]] [img[high spirits (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/highspirits.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4778606/]] [img[formido (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/formido.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4757202/]] [img[claw (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/claw.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4738065/]] [img[organic digitalia (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/organicdigitalia.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4645418/]] [img[maybe maybe not (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/maybemaybenot.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4490868/]] [img[dots (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/dots.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4510766/]]\n!11-20\n[img[splash (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/splash.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4526165/]] [img[empty (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/empty.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4531869/]] [img[statement not imperative (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/statementnotimperative.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4719178/]] [img[a little too involved (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/alittletooinvolvedI.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4663318/]] [img[foot (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/foot.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4541971/]] [img[malformed snake in mathland (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/malformedsnakeinmathland.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4625487/]] [img[distance (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/distance.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4565981/]] [img[flood (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/flood.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4681556/]] [img[intense (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/intense.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4547137/]] [img[dark (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/dark.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4442884/]]\n!21-30\n[img[eternity (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/eternity.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4526829/]] [img[patience (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/patience.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4700416/]] [img[nose eye horn (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/noseeyehorn.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4547118/]] [img[confusion (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/confusion.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4558718/]] [img[indecision (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/indecision.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4558742/]] [img[fup (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/fup.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4681586/]] [img[ambition (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/ambition.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4663353/]] [img[directionless (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/directionless.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4599944/]] [img[funky dragon (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/funkydragon.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4615786/]] [img[onlookers (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/onlookers.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4615996/]]\n!31-40\n[img[confuse (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/confuse.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4700489/]] [img[exhausted (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/exhausted.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4719208/]] [img[no rails (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/norails.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4738104/]] [img[span (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/span.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4757494/]] [img[unlikely (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/unlikely.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4818482/]] [img[wrong way (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/wrongway.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4778651/]] [img[flush levels (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/flushlevels.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4625591/]] [img[central form (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/centralform.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4842102/]] [img[discovery (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/discovery.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4625561/]] [img[spilt physics personality (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/spiltphysicspersonality.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4837965/]]\n!41-50\n[img[in two minds (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/intwominds.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4855290/]] [img[reflection (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/reflection.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4837918/]] [img[glimpse (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/glimpse.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4818458/]] [img[drum time (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/drumtime.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4681611/]] [img[blue rot (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/bluerot.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4645484/]] [img[radial (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/radial.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4837933/]] [img[radial II (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/radialII.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4855160/]] [img[hard and soft (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/hardandsoft.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4842082/]] [img[inevitably drab (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/inevitablydrab.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4842063/]] [img[enclosure (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/enclosure.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4873154/]]\n!51-60\n[img[playful steganography (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/playfulsteganography.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4855221/]] [img[flogging a dead horse (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/floggingadeadhorse.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4797587/]] [img[mind trap (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/mindtrap.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4873174/]] [img[predestiny (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/predestiny.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4873189/]] [img[big slap (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/bigslap.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4873215/]] [img[driftwood (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/driftwood.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4894188/]] [img[foresight (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/foresight.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4894054/]] [img[web of deceit (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/webofdeceit.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4894163/]] [img[through the handglass (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/throughthehandglass.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4894088/]] [img[at peace? (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/atpeace.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/4894140/]]\n!61-70\n[img[weary (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/weary.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/5008323/]] [img[quaver (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/quaver.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/5008274/]] [img[radial III (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/radialIII.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/5069314/]] [img[slate (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/slate.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/5074373/]] [img[fragments (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/fragments.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/5074349/]] [img[slam (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/slam.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/5074308/]] [img[react please (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/reactplease.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/5074329/]] [img[tough call (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/toughcall.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/5074279/]] [img[vertebrae (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/vertebrae.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/5069285/]] [img[crest (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/crest.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/5069250/]]\n!71-80\n[img[snakes (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/snakes.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/5069232/]] [img[kite (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/kite.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/5069214/]] [img[fringes (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/fringes.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/5069056/]] [img[crosslinks (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/crosslinks.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/5069182/]] [img[bubbles (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/bubbles.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/5094298/]] [img[harpoon (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/harpoon.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/5120149/]] [img[precise angle (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/preciseangle.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/5110908/]] [img[opticks (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/opticks.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/5120171/]] [img[pagoda (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/pagoda.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/5120188/]] [img[symmetry (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/symmetry.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/5120211/]]\n!81-90\n[img[rapid dozer (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/rapiddozer.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/5120220/]] [img[pagoda II (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/pagodaII.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/5120234/]] [img[germination (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/germination.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/5120242/]] [img[shear (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/shear.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/5137530/]] [img[vertices (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/vertices.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/5137546/]] [img[ghostly (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/ghostly.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/5137575/]] [img[alphphpha (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/alphphpha.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/5139755/]] [img[beyond R (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/beyondR.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/5142527/]] [img[T (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/T.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/5142611/]] [img[smattering (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/smattering.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/5142657/]]\n!91-98\n[img[bubble chamber (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/bubblechamber.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/5142695/]] [img[stream of consciousness (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/streamofconsciousness.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/5142736/]] [img[symmetry II (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/symmetryII.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/5155480/]] [img[beetle (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/beetle.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/5155491/]] [img[spiked (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/spiked.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/5155534/]] [img[bathroom tiling (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/bathroomtiling.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/5155517/]] [img[mistakes (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/mistakes.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/5155507/]] [img[tall flower (dA)|thumbs/scrapbook/tallflower.jpg][http://www.deviantart.com/view/5929263/]]

!Tabla\nThese are some tabla I own, and really should play more...\n\n[img[my drum kit|tablabig.jpg]]\n\nYes, that is the price label you can see on the large brass drum. Sadly I know no traditional rhythms on the tabla, but I do enjoy producing a wide range of sounds with them. Versatile instruments these!

!Cigarominoes\n[img[cigarominoes I|thumbs/cigarominoesI.jpg][cigarominoes I (video)]] [img[cigarominoes II|thumbs/cigarominoesII.jpg][cigarominoes II (video)]]

!Essay\n*[[essay]] - a general essay I wrote as a few years ago. See also the '[[tiddlified|essay tiddlified]]' version.\n*''[[thinking without language?]] [[(dA)|http://www.deviantart.com/view/24474303/]]'' - some thoughts about how we (could) think.\n*[[uniformity pipe]] - concept definition outlining how we homogenise the world around us.\n!Narrative\n*[[ladder]] - an awakening.\n*[[rain]] - a tiny piece of description.\n*''[[transcendence]] [[(dA)|http://www.deviantart.com/view/25165675/]]'' - an abstract sort of short story.\n*[[a new path]] ''[[(dA)|http://www.deviantart.com/view/9249013/]]'' - breaking free of constraints.\n!Notes\n*[[seamless mobility story]] - a motorola competition that i never entered, but had some interesting ideas for.\n*[[stories]] - some thoughts about things fundamental to most stories.\n*it might be interesting to write up my computing ideas as short stories or poems. Until I can write longer stories, short poems and even story fragments will do.\n![[Poetry]]\n!Film/Visual\n*An idea for a film about the relationship of the individual to the state: [[Film: Engi]].\n*An advert for the [[london underground|underground ad]].\n*A rewrite of the lobby scene in the [[matrix|matrix spoof]].\n*A large number of sketches I thought of with a friend during physics A-levels: [[Ant and Crispin's Funny Sketch Show]]\n!~TiddlyWiki\n*I'm using TiddlyWiki to play with ideas too. See the [[conskeptical]] section.

*''Natural Born Killers'' - I remember being entertained by this film. But I've forgotten the details. Gory but valid is what I seem to remember.\n*''Nikita'' - 1990 Luc Besson film, precursor to Leon. Very interesting angles on various things, cringeworthy in some places, odd pacing. Looks more dated than it should for a 1990 film.\n*''One Hour Photo'' - Robin Williams in this gorgeously shot tale of ordinary strangeness. The music videoness is truly interesting, makes for a very different narrative style at base, even if the film subscribes to most of the broad conventions of cinema, the actual foundation is music video, making for a very different experience.\n*''~Ong-Bak'' - Film about a Thai martial artist (trained in Muay Thai). Awesomely choreographed, but also horrifically violent.\n*''Outbreak'' - Dustin Hoffman plays the moral man in this film about an outbreak of a scary disease. Fun to watch.\n*@@''A Passage To India''@@ - an adaptation of the book by E.M.Forster. An amazing, and realistically set, film about cultural relations, with some very moving scenes.\n*''The Passion of the Christ'' - graphic depiction of Christ's last hours. Not sure what to make of this. Incredibly well made, although I forget whether it deals with the important issues adequately.\n*''Payback'' - Mel Gibson in a revenge film. I quite like the comic book style, but it's a bit raw to be really good. Has shades of Sin City about it, but Sin City was way cooler.\n*''Pleasantville'' - an interesting cinematic device is employed in this film that is choc full of in-yer-face symbolism. Fun to watch though, and nicely made.\n*''Pi'' - maths oversimplified and made falsely compelling. As a mathematician in training even I can think of better ways of communicating the awesomeness of maths. A glorious piece of stylization in almost every other respect though.\n*''Ping Pong'' - a heartwarming tale of the path to mastery.\n*''Platoon'' - another Vietnam portrait. One of the big three, alongside FMJ and Apocalypse Now. Well worth watching.\n*''Primer'' - Time travel on a shoestring. Interesting, but ultimately a bit silly. Did well at the sundance festival though. Not sure why. Maybe they got wowed by all the techno-babble.\n*''Pulp Fiction'' - funny, shocking, stylish crime film from Quentin Tarantino. There are some great characters in this film.\n*''Ransom'' - Mel Gibson in a fairly pointless thriller.\n*''Requiem For A Dream'' - from the guy who made Pi. A story of utter defeat. Tragic stuff.\n*''Reservoir Dogs'' - Quentin Tarantino's debut film apparently. An interesting watch.\n*''Road To Perdition'' - father/son relationship in gangster-era America. Nice to look at (Sam Mendes of American Beauty fame), but not a hugely satisfying film.\n*''The Rocky Horror Show'' - hilarious musical.\n*@@''Romeo + Juliet''@@ - Baz Luhrmann retells the story with his trademark over the top flair. Thinking about it, the cinematographic style is similar to that of Snatch. Interesting!\n*''Run Lola Run'' - German film about alternate futures. Interestingly shot, but does have an unusual amount of running...

!IPv2 To Give Way To vIP: the (virtual) Ideas Playground\nAt long last, ~IPv2 has, in my eyes, officially far outgrown the ~TiddlyWiki. You can see ongoing developments at http://tiddlyspot.com/conskeptical/, and http://conskeptical.dupliciti.net for the rest of my current web presence.\nOf course, there is still lots of goodness in here, but it is now frozen in time. Some of the information will find its way into new life, but this incarnation of it is now static.\n- Crispin/Conskeptical - Wednesday 5th July, 2006

general file-types: render, store, transmit, archive, edit, full data, slim\ngeneral modules: renderers, input handlers, user agent system\n\nsoftware construction paradigm:\n*information providers make information accessible to the system in standard formats\n*information display modules access that information and present it, maybe with the help of information translation modules\nthis could solve some of the rubbishness of the current windowing systems: windows could be placed on grids, user-created windows with custom information could be made, users could choose which widgets to use to control aspects of the system: in general everything would be much more 'runtime editable'. a fully-featured OS would basically include an IDE aspect that would allow the 'repetitive interaction: ASOS (application specific OS)' side of the OS to be dynamically controlled by (authorised) users. for systems where only ASOS was required, the OS could export itself in ASOS restricted form for use on given platforms.\nthis would be good because most ~OSes these days are sold flexible enough for everyone to be dissatisfied, when they should be sold flexible enough that everyone can 'stiffen' them to their own liking: escaping the crapness of an overly liquid (and difficult to use) OS.\nthere would have to be standards and suchlike to enable the concept of multi-user stations, although of course portable user profiles would allow users to use their own highly specialised settings wherever they travelled.

The organisation of any [[Shorinji Kempo]] club can be split into two categories:\n*''Upward looking organisation'' - deals with the requirements of the [[BSKF|Shorinji Kempo organisation]] and [[WKSO|Shorinji Kempo organisation]] have for clubs.\n*''Downward looking organisation'' - deals with the specifics of how you meet the requirements of the higher tier organisations, and how the club wants to run itself.\n!Upward looking organisation\n*BSKF\n**Deals with [[kenshi]] and [[instructor|sensei]]'s yearly insurance, WSKO membership and gradings.\n*WSKO\n**WSKO requires branch registers to be submitted quarterly, through the BSKF.\n!Downward looking organisation\nAny club requires at least 1 [[sensei]] and 1 or more [[kenshi]] (is there a lower limit on kenshi?). New clubs tend to be offshoots of existing clubs (administrative burden is channelled through the parent club, as if the new club was merely part of the parent club), until they have gathered sufficient momentum to register for branch status with WKSO, through the BSKF.\nMost clubs have several established kenshi who have additional administrative responsibilities. University clubs tend to have a Captain (deals with the university facing administation), a Treasurer (also deals with university facing administration, and handles the money) and a Secretary (deals mainly with BSKF/WSKO administration), who work together to achieve the club's administrative requirements. I'm not sure how City clubs tend to operate. I assume they have some sort of a similar structure.\n*All [[sensei]]'s require instructor's insurance.\n*All members need insurance and WSKO membership, organised through the BSKF.\n*Records of attendance must be kept in accordance with WSKO requirements.\n*The training venue has to be taken care of.\n*Any payments as regards training equipment/venues/gradings and BSKF/WSKO fees must be taken care of.

Here are some interesting people (some more so than others), not including my friends, family and acquaintances, but anyway:\n*''Artists'': Salvador Dali, M C Escher, H.R.Giger\n*''[[Authors|BookTour]]'': Franz Kafka (Metamorphosis etc.), Robert M Pirsig (Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance), Kurt Vonnegut (Slaughterhouse 5, Jailbird, Timequake etc.)\n*''Comedians:'' Bill Hicks, Robert Newman, Mark Thomas\n*''Conquerors'': Adolf Hitler, Genghis Khan\n*''[[Directors|MovieTour]]'': Stanley Kubrick (2001 etc.), Richard Linklater (Waking Life, Before Sunrise)\n*''Martial Artists'': Bruce Lee (Enter the Dragon), Doshin So (Shorinji Kempo founder)\n*''[[Musicians|MusicTour]]'': Louis Armstrong, Bjork\n*''Peace Activists'': Gandhi, Satish Kumar\n*''Philosophers'': Noam Chomsky, Bertrand Russell, Machiavelli (The Prince), Sartre ''|'' Plato, Buddha, Confucius, Sun Tze (Art of War)\n*''Poet'': Walt Whitman\n*''TV Presenters'': David Attenborough, Robert Winston\nsee also the list of actors/actresses in the MovieTour.

*''Anagram''\n**''[[notetaker]] [[(dA)|http://www.deviantart.com/view/4513894/]]'' - a poem about reality.\n**''[[sword words]] [[(dA)|http://www.deviantart.com/view/4526121/]]'' - a poem about lawyers.\n*''Descriptive''\n**[[red digits]] - an apocalyptic tale.\n*''Experimental''\n**[[conditional]] - rules to live by.\n**[[outpour]] - not so much experimental as virtually nonexistent.\n**''[[performance poetry]] [[(dA)|http://www.deviantart.com/view/9308139/]]'' - a bit experimental.\n**[[random]] - something to meditate on.\n**''[[the reflection]] [[(dA)|http://www.deviantart.com/view/6999296/]]'' - an experiment in [[crab canon|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crab_canon]] (sort of).\n*''Fridge''\n**''[[endeavour]] [[(dA)|http://www.deviantart.com/view/6505498/]]'' - long words. Political ideas.\n**''[[languid language picture]] [[(dA)|http://www.deviantart.com/view/9333085/]]'' - evocative imagery?\n**''[[luscious goddess?]] [[(dA)|http://www.deviantart.com/view/9332977/]]'' - blame it on the fridge magnets...\n**''[[temerity]] [[(dA)|http://www.deviantart.com/view/6505466/]]'' - long words. A simple thought.\n*''Human Condition''\n**[[opportunity]] - on creating junk and making space for gold.\n**[[a new relationship]] - word association with myself.\n**[[blue]] - dual meaning.\n**[[boxes]] - cynical.\n**[[the choice]] - cringeworthy, but expressing ideas I like.\n**[[compact]] - musings on a purpose for poetry.\n**[[drunk]] - a note on decency and waste.\n**[[free]] - expressing a desire for life.\n**[[sleepless]] - and in need of refreshment.\n**[[symbols]] - the inexorable march of abstraction know no mercy.\n**[[the tourist]] - the price you might pay for being one...\n**[[warm]] - snuggled up in bed.\n**''[[what you can]] [[(dA)|http://www.deviantart.com/view/6988276/]]'' - expressing an idea of simultaneity that I find compelling.\n*''Prose''\n**[[future worship]] - a cheery thought for the day.

!Details\n[img[Power To The People|books/powerpeople.jpg]]\n*http://www.vijaytothepeople.com/\n!Summary\n*Discussion of the world's energy situation.\n!Diary\n*Wed 19th Apr 2006 - Slow progress. Am wading through a lot of fairly interesting, but dry, history.\n*Sunday 28th May 2006 - Completed it. A dry but interesting book which I am glad to have read.

I find that my practicing follows a few strands:\n*Learning/exploring rhythm - one step up from a table top!\n*Exploring the [[sounds of the box drum]]\n*Meditative, just letting my hands play the drum while thinking of nothing, or other things

I find that my practicing follows several strands:\n*'Balanced'/'normal' rhythms, such as might be played in a band situation.\n*Set loops (with variation) either striking something on every count of a bar, or playing with more complex rhythms.\n*Meditative, just letting the sticks fly around the kit as they will.\n*Mobility/stamina.\n*Sticking and precise limb and stick trajectories.\n*Accenting.\n*Hi-hat.\n*Alternative (from 4/4) time signatures.\nMy drumming can also be classified into the following categories:\n*Rhythms\n*[[Fills]]\n*Rambling solos\n*Practicing techniques and specialties

^^In our highly complex state we advanced organisms respond to our environment with an invention of many marvelous analogues. We invent earth and heavens, trees, stars and oceans, gods, music, arts, language, philosophy, engineering, civilization and science. We call these analogues reality, and they are realities. We mesmerize our children in the name of truth into knowing that they are reality. We throw anyone who doesn’t accept these analogues into an insane asylum. But that which causes us to invent the analogues is Quality. Quality is the continuing stimulus which our environment puts upon us to create the world we live in. All of it. Every last bit of it.\n\n- from Robert M Pirsig's "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance"^^

!image\n<html><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/94575389/" title="served by Flickr"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/41/94575389_3c4b42603b.jpg" width="500" height="144" alt="Qualube" /></a></html>\n!hosted on\n[[deviantART|http://www.deviantart.com/view/11984567/]], [[Flickr|http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/94575389/]]\n!description\nA masterpiece of future-proof marketing...

Quick-scrabble is a board-free variant of Scrabble whereby each player creates their own word grid, taking one new tile from the pool every time all their tiles are part of their grid. Each player starts with 7 tiles, and everytime a player takes a new tile, everyone else has to take a tile too. The winner is the first person to complete their grid when there are no tiles left in the pool.\n!Detailed Instructions\n*Players\n**2-unlimited. Probably would work best with 2-6.\n*Equipment\n**One fairly large flat surface such as a table or coffee table.\n**One complete set of scrabble letters.\n*Setting up\n**Set all the scrabble letters face down in the centre of the playing surface. This is the ''pool''.\n**Each player gives the player next to them seven letters (a ''hand'') from the pool. There is no need to hide your hand.\n*Playing\n**Each player attempts to arrange their seven letters into a word ''grid'', as per the rules of Scrabble, only without scoring or a board. So EAR and TESTY could be an acceptable grid, with 'testy' using the E from 'ear'.\n**When a player has used their whole hand in making their grid (there is one separate grid for every player), they say 'go', and every player takes a letter from the pool, and gives it to the player next to them.\n**Players attempt to add their new letter into their grid.\n**And so on. You are allowed to 'smash up' and reform your grid if you get stuck, or if you see a word that you want to make.\n*End of the game\n**The game ends when there are no letters left in the pool, and one of the players has used all their letters in a grid. That player wins.\n**Kudos is awarded for big lakes of letters, clever constructions and nice words or words that other players don't know.\n**Dictionary use is allowed, but it takes time in a game that may be fast!

Some quotations I have come across that I particularly like:\n\n//Hate is a force of attraction. Hate is just love with it's back turned.// - ''Terry Pratchett''.\n\n//For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled.// - Richard Feynman in Rogers' Commision Report into the Challenger Crash. Appendix F: Personal Observations on the Reliability of the Shuttle.\n\n//I think the big mistake in schools is trying to teach children anything, and by using fear as the basic motivation. Fear of getting failing grades, fear of not staying with your class, etc. Interest can produce learning on a scale compared to fear as a nuclear explosion to a firecracker.// - ''Stanley Kubrick''\n\n//"All my work is highly personal; it's more personal than me. You know, reading my books is having a far more intimate relationship with me than having a relationship with me."// - ''Will Self''.\n\n[[A Truth]] - a neat little summing up, from a friend of a friend.\n\n//"''Google'' is like a pocket knife with all of it's tools closed. When you need one, you just open it. Our competitors are like a pocket knife with all of the tools opened. This can be impractical, and sometimes dangerous."// - I read it in the journal of Angelo Sotira (deviantART). I think it encapsulates a very sensible and much-ignored design philosophy.\n\n//"I could carve a better man out of a banana."// - ''Theodore Roosevelt''. Don't know who it's about, but it has a humourous ring to my ears.\n\n[[I Sing The Body Electric]] ''[[(bartleby.com)|http://www.bartleby.com/142/19.html]]'' - a poem by Walt Whitman.\n\n//"Isn't it enough to see that the garden is beautiful, without having to believe there are fairies at the bottom of it too?"// - ''Ford Prefect'' (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams). Sums up an attitude I definitely subscribe to.\n\n[[Quality]] - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert M. Pirsig

!Monday 5th December, 2005\n*Added entries to MyPhotography.\n*Started the ''~RecentChanges'' (renamed to [[allRecentChanges]]) section.\n*Added the [[history of IPv2]] section.\n*Added the [[Meatball Wiki|http://www.usemod.com/cgi-bin/mb.pl?MeatballWiki]] link to the InternetTour.\n*Completed adding entries to MyScrapbook.\n*Reinstated the MusicTour section.\n*Added a [[quotation|Quality]] from Zen and the Art of Motorcyle Maintenance.

!Tuesday 6th December, 2005\n*Added Noam Chomsky to the PeopleTour.\n*Started the ''Journal'' (renamed to [[allJournals]]) section for information that may age quickly.\n*Started [[routefinding in knowledge-land]] in the [[philosophy]] section.\n*Added [[Pricelessware|http://www.pricelessware.org/]] to the [[InternetTour]] and [[SoftwareTour]] sections.\n*Started [[User interface elements]] to the [[computing]] section.\n*Started a list of actors/actresses in the MovieTour.

!Wednesday 7th December, 2005\n*Started [[education in the hive]] in the [[philosophy]] section.\n*Started [[computer games]] and [[Game descriptions]] in the [[computing]] section.\n*Started the [[Shorinji Kempo]] and ''martial arts'' //(24/12/2005: renamed to [[human body]])// sections.

!Saturday 10th December, 2005\n*Started the ComputerLanguageTour to the [[Tours]] section.\n*Caught up with the MyPhotography section.\n*Caught up with the MyImages section.

!Sunday 11th December, 2005\n*Moved the WishList to the [[Tours]] section.\n*Started the TheatreTour in the [[Tours]] section.

!Sunday 18th December, 2005\n*started the [[postures]] and ''foundation movements'' //(24/12/2005: renamed to [[movements]])// sections in the ''martial arts'' //(24/12/2005: renamed to [[human body]])// section.\n*added a brief structural overview of the site to [[Browsing IPv2]].

!Monday 19th December, 2005\n*renamed the ''martial arts'' section to the [[human body]] section (more appropriate due to content).

!Wednesday 21st December, 2005\n*major work done on [[education in the hive]].

!Friday 23rd December, 2005\n*started [[percussion]] section (under [[conskeptical]]).

!Saturday 24th December, 2005\n*added a lot of poetry to the [[Poetry]] section of [[MyCreativityTour]].\n*added a 'milestone' [[essay]] of mine to the [[MyWrittenIdeas]] section, as well as prose pieces [[rain]] and [[ladder]].\n*started [[Idea Seeds]] in the [[MyWrittenIdeas]] section (a list collated from previous lists).\n*started [[exercises/activities]] in the [[philosophy]] section.\n*started [[perceptions]] in the [[philosophy]] section.\n*started [[the exercising mathematician]] in the [[mathematics]] section.\n*added/started a lot of material in the [[computing]] section including: [[RestrictedLink]], [[hotkeys]], [[agents]], [[OS]], [[database]], [[software development]].

!Monday 26th December, 2005\n*in the [[percussion]] section:\n**started the [[Practicing drum kit]] section and the [[Fills]] section under that.\n**added a picture of my [[drumkit|MyDrumKit]].\n*in the [[philosophy]] section:\n**[[continuum of me/not-me]]\n**[[human being]]\n**[[consciousness could be a virus]]\n**[[human modes of existence]]\n**[[development tree]]\n*in the [[computing]] section:\n**[[digital information transfer]]\n**[[data chromatography]]\n**[[software description tree]]\n*in the [[human body]] section: [[washing]] \n*in the [[mathematics]] section\n**[[analysis]]\n**[[how I remember learning maths]]\n**[[matrix or related quantities]]\n**[[recognising the form of an equation]]

!Tuesday 27th December, 2005\n*Added a [[tiddlification|essay tiddlified]] of my [[essay]].\n*Reorganised the MainMenu, and renamed the ''~HowTos'' to [[practicalities]].\n*Added [[cascading toms]] and [[cascading diagonal toms]] to [[Fills]] in the [[percussion]] section.

!Wednesday 28th December, 2005\n*Started the [[Practicing box drum]] section under [[percussion]].\n*Started the [[Units]] section in [[mathematics]], outlining the maths units I've done so far at uni.\n*Wrote a [[journal|Journal 2005 12 28]] about plagiarism.\n*Started the idea of an [[exercise generator]] program in the [[computing]] section.

!Thursday 29th December, 2005\n*Started [[sounds of the box drum]] to [[Practicing box drum]] under [[percussion]].

!Friday 30th December, 2005\n*started [[the edifice]] in the [[mathematics]] section.\n*started a [[glossary of eastern terminology]] in the [[philosophy]] section.

!Saturday 31st December, 2005\n*started the [[freeEdit]] section in [[computing]].

!2005 Q4 (~October-December)\n*December\n**[[Saturday 31st|RecentChanges 2005 12 31]]\n**[[Friday 30th|RecentChanges 2005 12 30]]\n**[[Thursday 29th|RecentChanges 2005 12 29]]\n**[[Wednesday 28th|RecentChanges 2005 12 28]]\n**[[Tuesday 27th|RecentChanges 2005 12 27]]\n**[[Monday 26th|RecentChanges 2005 12 26]]\n**[[Saturday 24th|RecentChanges 2005 12 24]]\n**[[Friday 23rd|RecentChanges 2005 12 23]]\n**[[Wednesday 21st|RecentChanges 2005 12 21]]\n**[[Monday 19th|RecentChanges 2005 12 19]]\n**[[Sunday 18th|RecentChanges 2005 12 18]]\n**[[Sunday 11th|RecentChanges 2005 12 11]]\n**[[Saturday 10th|RecentChanges 2005 12 10]]\n**[[Wednesday 7th|RecentChanges 2005 12 07]]\n**[[Tuesday 6th|RecentChanges 2005 12 06]]\n**[[Monday 5th|RecentChanges 2005 12 05]]\n//see also: [[history of IPv2]]//

!Sunday 1st January, 2006\n*Started TodoTheory to the [[conskeptical]]''/''[[practicalities]] section.\n*Started [[mental arithmetic]] in the [[mathematics]]''/''[[the exercising mathematician]] section.\n*Started the BreaksTour in the [[Tours]] section.\n*Started [[MyJavaScript]] in the [[Tours]] and [[computing]] sections.

!Monday 2nd January, 2005\n*Added [[uniformity pipe]] to MyWrittenIdeas.

!Thursday 5th January, 2006\n*Overhaul of MyPhotography coinciding with the addition of [[ice]] to my [[flickr|http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/]] area.\n*Added a drum tab assistant (yesterday) to MyJavaScript, my first scripting language.

!Saturday 7th January, 2006\n*Added documentation for the [[drum tab assistant]] in [[percussion]] and [[MyJavaScript]].

!Monday 9th January, 2006\n*Added graph drawing experiment [[node manipulation 2|javascript/relatenodes3.html]] to MyJavaScript.\n*Added pictures of my [[boxdrum|MyCajon]] and [[tabla|MyTabla]] to the [[percussion]] section.

!Tuesday 10th January, 2006\n*Added [[classification of human interaction]] to the [[philosophy]] section.

!Wednesday 18th January, 2006\n*added [[Chess]] to the [[GameTour]] section. It's about a fairy chess I co-invented though, at the moment.

!Thursday 19th January, 2006\n*Added a factoriser and time/fraction calculator to the MyJavaScript section.

!Tuesday 24th January, 2006\n*Started the [[personal development]] section in the [[philosophy]] section.

!Thursday 26th January, 2006\n*Added a 'things I have learnt' section to the [[Shorinji Kempo]] section.

!Friday 27th January, 2006\n*Started the [[Books I'm currently reading]] section on the frontpage and the [[BookTour]].\n*In MyWrittenIdeas\n**Added an idea for an advert for the [[london underground|underground ad]].\n**Added a rewrite of the lobby scene in the [[matrix|matrix spoof]].

!Sunday 29th January, 2006\n*Started the [[dancemat]] section in the [[movements]] and GameTour sections.

!Tuesday 31st January, 2006\n*Added ''breadcrumbs'' to [[User interface elements]].\n*Started [[scripting philosophy]] in the [[computing]] section.

!Thursday 2nd February, 2006\n*Started some ideas about the [[Educational structure of Shorinji Kempo]] in the [[Shorinji Kempo]] section.\n*Wrote the article on [[primitives]] in the [[mathematics]] section.\n*Started the [[Shorinji Kempo Library]] in the [[Shorinji Kempo]] section.

!Friday 3rd February, 2006\n*Continued edits to the [[Shorinji Kempo Library]].\n*Added a lot to [[the edifice]] in the [[mathematics]] section.\n*Started the [[nutrition]] section in the [[human body]] section.

!Saturday 4th February, 2006\n*Continued edits to the [[Shorinji Kempo Library]].\n*Continued edits to [[the edifice]] in the [[mathematics]] section.

!Sunday 5th February, 2006\n*Started the [[planet earth]] section in the [[conskeptical]] section.

!Monday 6th February, 2006\n*Restructured the MusicTour\n*Started the [[code snippets]] section in the [[computing]] section.

!Tuesday 7th February, 2006\n*started the [[mental gymnasium]] in the [[computing]] section.\n*added [[symbol generators]] to the [[code snippets]] section.\n*updated [[data structures]] in the [[code snippets]] section.

!Thursday 9th February, 2006\n*Started the [[mind software]] section under [[philosophy]].\n*Restructured the [[people|folk]] section under [[conskeptical]] a little bit.

!Saturday 11th February, 2006\n*Started [[working memory]] in [[mind software]].

!Sunday 12th February, 2006\n*Added a [[game of life utility|javascript/conwayhelper.html]] to [[MyJavaScript]] and [[mathematics]].

!Monday 13th February, 2006\n*Started the [[game of life]] section in the [[mathematics]] section.\n*Categorised the contents of the [[Idea Seeds]] section to make it more accessible.

!Wednesday 15th February, 2006\n*Added the fridge poetry javascript to MyJavaScript.\n*Started the [[Go]] section in the [[GameTour]].

!Thursday 16th February, 2006\n*restructured the main menu in order to make the important [[Me|conskeptical]] and [[Tours]] sections more accessible.\n*started [[string based]] in the [[data structures]] section with some routines for parsing nested brackets/braces.\n*updated the [[data structures]] section in [[code snippets]] by moving the circular tape section to [[array based]].

!Thursday 2nd March, 2006\n*Started an RSS feed for the site on the main menu, accessible [[here|http://www.219.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/conskeptical/rss.xml]] and the content accessible [[here|http://www.219.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/conskeptical/rss.html]]. //(Graduated from [[Idea Seeds]] after short spells in [[The Hatchery]] and [[Idea Seeds]].)//\n!Today's [[RSS|rss help]]\n*[[Thursday 2nd|rss/20060302.html]] - [[soul division|Journal 2006 03 02]] journal.

!Friday 3rd March, 2006\n*Started drawing attention to new and other items on the IPv2 intro tiddler.\n!Today's [[RSS|rss help]]\n*[[Friday 3rd|rss/20060303.html]] - [[UTS|Journal 2006 03 03]] journal.

!Saturday 4th March, 2006\n*Made a more site-specific RSS introduction at [[rss help]]. Sited on the main menu. Contains links to all the previous rss entries. //(Survived only a very short spell in [[The Hatchery]].)//\n*displayed the month, day and date updates were made in [[allRecentChanges]], where before only the month and date was visible.

!Tuesday 7th March, 2006\n[img[MyPhotography|icons/ticket.jpg]] Added Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Grizzly Man to the MovieTour.\n\n[img[MyPhotography|icons/photography.jpg]] Have just started a big run of image uploading. The images will be appearing on IPv2, deviantART and Flickr at a rate of one or two images per day. Watch this site, or subscribe to my [[RSS|rss help]] feed to see what's new. Alternatively you can subscribe to my Flickr [[RSS|rss help]] feed (see the [[bottom of this page|http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/]]), or if you have a deviantART account you can [[watch me|http://conskeptical.deviantart.com/]], although you'll miss out on the Flickr/IPv2 only submissions.\nToday I uploaded [[half way up the stairs|half way up the stairs (photo)]] and [[a dose of daylight|a dose of daylight (photo)]].\n\n[img[journal: UTS|icons/keyboard.jpg]] The [[UTS|Journal 2006 03 03]] and [[soul division|Journal 2006 03 02]] journals are the man recent textual updates to IPv2. I also wrote [[assorted|Journal 2006 03 07]] today, a collection of various journal items that wanted writing.\n!Other recent changes\n*Edited the intro tiddler IPv2 to have icon links to current developments, rather than textual ones. Increases the graphical content of the front page a bit more.\n!Today's [[RSS|rss help]]\n*[[RSS|rss/20060307.html]] - [[new photography|RecentChanges 2006 03 07]].\n*[[RSS|rss/20060307a.html]] - [[assorted (journal entry)|Journal 2006 03 07]].

!Wednesday 8th March, 2006\n[img[photography|icons/photography.jpg]] Today I uploaded [[the wall|the wall (photo)]]. I also decided to stop advertising photography on the IPv2 [[rss|rss help]] feed as it makes more sense to let my flickr feed take care of that (bottom of [[this|http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/]] page).\n!Other recent changes\n*Changed the individual photo pages (tagged <<tag photograph>>) so instead of displaying a thumb they display a larger, flickr hosted image. //(lived in [[The Hatchery]] for less than 24 hours)//\n!Today's [[RSS|rss help]]\n*[[RSS|rss/20060308.html]] - [[new photography|the wall (photo)]].

!Thursday 9th March, 2006\n[img[journal|icons/keyboard.jpg]] Today I wrote [[assorted II|Journal 2006 03 09]]. As a result, the following items left [[The Hatchery]] after relatively short stays:\n*journal: ''techno-augmentation'' - assuming technology as a part of self, embracing and accepting it with a critical mind: egs of Tiddlywiki, internet, email, RSS, cars, watches, descend into the entirety of generalised technology.\n*journal: my philosophical bent could move to less techno/scientific/mathematical/serious matters: reading about 'Consuming the Romantic Utopia'. What about love, humour, recreation? Daren't I muddy them with the analytical scalpel, or am I just being private?\n*maths journal: alternate forms of equations: with different ranges/domains. interesting. limits.\n*implementing one-way links with two-way links: dead link alerts etc.\n*journal: lost in the library. have i forgotten how to use the calculator. or was i searching for defeat? Grizzly man. skeptical of james ladyman, only when mention of his book comes up.\n\n[img[mathematics|icons/maths.jpg]] see ''Point Discontinuities'' in journal entry [[assorted II|Journal 2006 03 09]].\n\n[img[photography|icons/photography.jpg]] Today I uploaded [[sunset|sunset (photo)]]. I also converted [[ice]] to the new format (thumbs linking to photo pages, rather than directly to external sites).\n!Today's [[RSS|rss help]]\n*[[RSS|rss/20060309.html]] - journal entry [[assorted II|Journal 2006 03 09]].

!Friday 10th March, 2006\n[img[journal|icons/keyboard.jpg]]\n*Added [[expression|Journal 2006 03 10]] to the [[journals|allJournals]], removing the following items from [[The Hatchery]] after short stays there:\n**journal: reality hacking: drying off: induce air flow to detect damp patches!\n**maths: hitting the edge of the universe: why am i finding it so hard to understand epsilon-delta definitions? my current thoughts on them.\n**a review of the direction of ~IPv2: broad areas of the site, the new icons, journalling (update areas via journals?) etc., size (outgrowing tiddlywiki?), technology (tiddlywiki, RSS, etc.), integration with other websites (dA, flickr), navigation: chronological and semantic ordering\n\n[img[mathematics|icons/maths.jpg]]\n*Added [[ordering of the reals and their magnitudes]] to [[mathematics]]. //(short stay in [[The Hatchery]])//\n*Stripped journals out of [[mathematics]], and tagged the journals with 'maths' instead, as it seemed more logical.\n\n[img[photography|icons/photography.jpg]]\n*Today I uploaded [[the eager street lamp|the eager street lamp (photo)]] and [[a nod in greeting|a nod in greeting (photo)]].\n!Today's [[RSS|rss help]]\n*[[RSS|rss/20060310.html]] - journal entry [[expression|Journal 2006 03 10]].

!Saturday 11th March, 2006\n[img[photography|icons/photography.jpg]]\n*Today I uploaded [[tension circuit|tension circuit (photo)]] and [[tug of war|tug of war (photo)]].

!Sunday 12th March, 2006\n[img[photography|icons/photography.jpg]]\n*Today I uploaded [[don't jump|don't jump (photo)]].

!Monday 13th March, 2006\n[img[photography|icons/photography.jpg]]\n*Today I uploaded [[vanishing point|vanishing point (photo)]].

!Tuesday 14th March, 2006\n[img[photography|icons/photography.jpg]]\n*Today I uploaded [[slot car racing, Bristol|slot car racing, Bristol (photo)]].\n!Other recent changes\n*[[Shorinji Kempo]]: added this item to the non-specific things I have learnt: hip position affects leg mobility, increased shoulder movement increases mobility //(short stay in [[The Hatchery]])//

!Tuesday 14th March, 2006\n[img[photography|icons/photography.jpg]]\n*Today I uploaded [[slip through the net|slip through the net (photo)]], [[the other side of the river|the other side of the river (photo)]] and [[gateway|gateway (photo)]].

!Thursday 16th March, 2006\n[img[photography|icons/photography.jpg]]\n*Today I uploaded [[high and dry|high and dry (photo)]], [[ant trail|ant trail (photo)]], [[skew-wiff|skew-wiff (photo)]], [[trouble with aliasing|trouble with aliasing (photo)]] and [[rainbow flare|rainbow flare (photo)]].

!Friday 17th March, 2006\n[img[photography|icons/photography.jpg]]\n*Today I uploaded [[please don't feed the river|please don't feed the river (photo)]] and [[you are here|you are here (photo)]].\n!Other recent changes\n*started the [[civilisation]] section under [[planet earth]] and [[human being]]. Also started [[sociological]] under [[human being]].\n**(medium stay at [[The Hatchery]]: //journal: civilisations: a context for existence, and a place for the imagination to run riot//)\n*started [[string remixing]] in the [[computing]] section.\n**(medium stay at [[The Hatchery]]: //computing: remixing text//)\n*started [[communication methods]] in the [[computing]] section.\n*started [[string methods]] in the [[computing]] -> [[code snippets]] section.\n*started [[user interface methods]] in the [[computing]] -> [[code snippets]] section.

!Sunday 19th March, 2006\n[img[journal|icons/keyboard.jpg]]\n*Added [[mind games|Journal 2006 03 19]] to the [[journals|allJournals]] section, removing these medium-age items from [[The Hatchery]]:\n**explore: time pressure -> inaction\n**explore: state of mind whereby there is no motivation to do anything: excessive comfort?\n**journal: reality hacking: diffraction spikes\n**how to deal with constant inspiration OR why are my ideas always so big?\n!Other recent changes\n*Started dating hatchery items, so it's easier to move old items to [[Idea Seeds]]. //(medium stay at [[The Hatchery]])//\n*Started removing items more than a week old from the IPv2 tiddler recentchanges section (17/03/2006) //(short stay at [[The Hatchery]])//\n*Created [[icons|icon set]] for: human, computing, earth, civilisation, hatchery, books, movies, theatre (17/03/2006) //(short stay at [[The Hatchery]])//\n!Today's [[RSS|rss help]]\n*[[RSS|rss/20060319.html]] - journal entry [[mind games|Journal 2006 03 19]].

!Thursday 23rd March, 2006\n*Started [[set routines]] in [[computing]]/[[code snippets]].

!Sunday 26th March, 2006\n[img[philosophy|icons/timepiece.jpg]]\n*Added a discussion on [[interchangeable user interface elements]] to the [[computing]] section.\n**//(journal: computing: UI interchangeable elements: menus, toolbars, hotkeys etc. (use a hotkey for 'weapon select' etc.)) (1wk+ at [[The Hatchery]])//\n[img[philosophy|icons/cupsaucer.jpg]]\n*Added a discussion on [[systems]] to the [[philosophy]] section.\n[img[music|icons/fountain.jpg]]\n*Added an icon for music to the [[legend]]. It's a fountain.\n[img[human/humanity|icons/crowd.jpg]]\n*Added a discussion on [[peergroups]] to [[human being]]/[[sociological]].\n**//(journal: why peergroups aren't for me: stagnation) (1wk+ at [[The Hatchery]])//

!Monday 27th March, 2006\n[img[journal|icons/keyboard.jpg]]\n*Added a [[journal|Journal 2006 03 27]] on these 5 day old items from [[The Hatchery]]:\n**//(journal: flashmobbing)//\n**//(journal/philosophy: essence of code-snippets)//\n**//(journal:social: free-coordination: a framework around which people can cooperate to increase their coordination: unite body/mind)//\n[img[philosophy|icons/cupsaucer.jpg]]\n*Added a discussion on [[perceptions|technology of perceptions]] to the [[philosophy]] section.\n**//(physical reality: persuading the mental entity that certain sequences of perceptions are possible) (5 days at [[The Hatchery]])//\n*Started the SutraTour in the [[Tours]] and [[conskeptical]] sections.\n**//(a sutra chart? divided into categories maybe?) (8 days in [[The Hatchery]])//\n[img[computing|icons/timepiece.jpg]]\n*Added an idea for a [[simple 3D projection]] device to the [[technology]] section.\n**//(technology: 'hologram' device using excitable gas and crossed-beams) (5 days at [[The Hatchery]])//\n*Started the [[technology]] section under [[conskeptical]]\n*Added a discussion on creativity ([[mixed paradigms in data creation]]) to the [[computing]] section.\n**//(computing: editor ideas: implement object-orientation in non-programming environment. eg wikis etc. (blur boundary between programming and composing)) (5 days at [[The Hatchery]])//\n[img[theatre/movies|icons/ticket.jpg]]\n*Added 'Nights At The Circus' to the [[TheatreTour]].

!Tuesday 28th March, 2006\n[img[computing|icons/timepiece.jpg]]\n*Added a discussion on [[code reuse]] to the [[computing]] section.\n**//(journal: programming: function templates: to standardize things like local variable declarations, behaviour reporting, and other items that a family of functions may share.) (6 days at [[The Hatchery]])//\n**//(journal: programming: reusable loops (ie: loop conditions can be saved as a function, while loop contents can be changed...)) (6 days at [[The Hatchery]])//

!Thursday 30th March, 2006\n[img[written|icons/pen.jpg]]\n*Started an idea for a film about the relationship between the individual and the state: [[Film: Engi]]. //(1 day at [[The Hatchery]])//\n*Added some old sketches I made with a friend to the MyWrittenIdeas section: [[Ant and Crispin's Funny Sketch Show]].\n**//(put ant and my sketch ideas onto here) (<1 day at [[The Hatchery]])//

!Sunday 2nd April, 2006\n[img[photography|icons/photography.jpg]]\n*Added four photos to MyPhotography: [[the strange bubble|the strange bubble (photo)]], [[froth dome|froth dome (photo)]], [[choked snow globe|choked snow globe (photo)]] and [[the teapot and the inverted wineglass|the teapot and the inverted wineglass (photo)]].

!Monday 3rd April, 2006\n[img[journal|icons/keyboard.jpg]]\n*Added journal entry [[being human|Journal 2006 04 03]], removing these items from [[The Hatchery]]:\n**//journal: islands of perception: narrative and art: more bridge building. examples: theatre (nights at the circus), Kanye West, Roses (the weird '3D' bit of sound at 2:30). (2 days at the hatchery)//\n**//journal: why are dream diaries so hard? discipline? difficulty of bridge-building between islands of perception? (2 days at the hatchery)//\n**//journal: writeup on bbc4: bus 174 (5 days at the hatchery)//\n**//journal: philosophy of life: if you ignore the interconnections in your life and relationships you will never grow. Recognise and build on them for a deeper experience. In important ways, each seemingly new experience is really only a variation on old ones. (9 days at the hatchery)//\n**//journal: wilful/unwilful consciousness/unconsciousness of the situation (9 days at the hatchery)//\n[img[photography|icons/photography.jpg]]\n*Added [[quantum fluctuation|quantum fluctuation (photo)]] to MyPhotography/[[nature-humanity interface]].\n[img[philosophy|icons/cupsaucer.jpg]]\n*Added 'you never know what you really have until you let go of it' to the SutraTour, under 'Skilfulness' (reminded of this by a quotation in the film 'Indecent Proposal', added to the MovieTour today).\n[img[hatcher|icons/coffee.jpg]]\n*removed this entry from [[The Hatchery]] after about 10 days:\n**RSS: weekly RSS instead of just firing one off whenever something big happens on the site, reduces maintenance overhead on ~IPv2. increases rhythm, and would result in less mess in people's aggregators (if anyone subscribed to the ~IPv2 feed anyway!! :))\n

!Friday 7th April, 2006\n[img[movies|icons/film.jpg]]\n*Started [[Movies On My List]] under the MovieTour, outlining movies I intend to see some time.\n*Added 'Super Size Me' to the MovieTour.\n[img[books|icons/pages.jpg]]\n*Started [[Books On My List]] under the BookTour, outlining books I intend to read some time.\n*Added 'Six Easy Pieces' to the BookTour.

!Sunday 9th April, 2006\n[img[humanity|icons/crowd.jpg]]\n*Added some ideas on [[washing]] and [[clothing]] to the [[human body]] section.\n[img[journal|icons/keyboard.jpg]]\n*Added journal [[freeform|Journal 2006 04 09]], about programming paradigms and problem solving, medical ethics, board games and intellectual property.\n**//journal/computing: wikipedia reading http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programming_paradigm (4 days at [[the hatchery]])//\n**//computing: compare [[code reuse]] to macros, self-modifying code and the reflective paradigm (and indirection) (4 days at [[the hatchery]])//

!Tuesday 11th April, 2006\n[img[theatre|icons/ticket.jpg]]\n*Added //Gilgamesh// to the TheatreTour section.\n[img[books|icons/pages.jpg]]\n*Added //Haunted// by Chuck Palahniuk to the BookTour section.\n[img[photography|icons/photography.jpg]]\n*Added [[more than smashed|more than smashed (photo)]], [[jagged edge|jagged edge (photo)]], [[glassy|glassy (photo)]], [[cracks|cracks (photo)]], [[restuck|restuck (photo)]], [[teardrop|teardrop (photo)]] and [[futuristic swivel chair|futuristic swivel chair (photo)]] to MyPhotography/[[glass]].

!Wednesday 12th April, 2006\n[img[humanity|icons/crowd.jpg]]\n*Added a discussion on [[language learning]] to [[human being]]/[[sociological]].\n**//humanbeing/philosophy: layout of language learning method (15 days at [[The Hatchery]])//\n*Added a few thoughts on [[political/social awareness]] to [[conskeptical]]/[[practicalities]].\n**//practicalities+humanbeing/individual: layout of political/social awareness method (15 days at [[The Hatchery]])//\n[img[photography|icons/photography.jpg]]\n*Added [[fresh|fresh (photo)]], [[shards I|shards I (photo)]], [[shards II|shards II (photo)]] and [[shards III|shards III (photo)]] to MyPhotography/[[glass]].\n!Also\n*Started the AdvertTour in the [[Tours]] category.

!Thursday 13th April, 2006\n[img[games|icons/go.jpg]]\n*Added some thoughts on the game of [[Gess]] to the GameTour.\n**//gess analysis (2 days in [[The Hatchery]])//\n*Added a detailed description of [[Quick Scrabble]] to the GameTour.\n[img[kempo|icons/kempo.jpg]]\n*Added a little discussion on [[counting]] in Japanese to [[Shorinji Kempo Library]]/[[Taiso: warmup]].\n**//learn japanese 1-10 inside out (2 days at [[The Hatchery]])//

!Friday 14th April, 2006\n[img[theatre/movies|icons/ticket.jpg]]\n*Added 'The Cut' to the TheatreTour.\n[img[journal/written material|icons/pen.jpg]]\n*Added an old story I wrote called [[a new path]] to MyWrittenIdeas.\n[img[humanity|icons/crowd.jpg]]\n*Started [[fast draw]] under [[human body]]/[[movements]], about readying items for use quickly, and putting them back quickly. Part of the skill of opening and closing brackets...\n**//Camera quickdraw method for spontaneous photography (1 day at [[The Hatchery]])//\n*Started a [[distance estimation]] section under [[human body]]/[[movements]]/[[walking]].\n**//Stride length for distance estimation (1 day at [[The Hatchery]])//\n[img[technology|icons/timepiece.jpg]]\n*Added a discussion on [[chronometry]] to the [[technology]] section.\n**//Generalised 'stop' watch for making 'handkerchief-knots' with attached times. (1 day at [[The Hatchery]])//\n[img[practicalities|icons/bin.jpg]]\n*Added idea for mobile phone based memory triggers to [[practicalities]]/''remembering things''.\n**//Using phone as note taker (1 day at [[The Hatchery]])//\n[img[photography|icons/photography.jpg]]\n*Added [[yashica|yashica (photo)]] to [[MyPhotography]]/[[nature-humanity interface]].\n!The Big [[Idea Seeds]] Purge\n*//disperse the idea seeds through ~IPv2, and load more structure onto ~IPv2 (14 days at [[The Hatchery]])//\nThe [[Idea Seeds]] bank is no longer in use, as I have flushed it into the rest of IPv2, the idea being to breathe more life into both the [[Idea Seeds]] bank, the idea seeds themselves, and the rest of IPv2, via the idea that locality of reference is better for the imagination than non-locality of reference. Idea seeds that merely get transplanted will be italicised under 'Topics Awaiting Attention' sections.\n*[[practicalities]]/''decision making'': philosophy (human being/individual): cumulative decision making: drawing on your subconscious to make big decisions (30/03/2006)\n*[[practicalities]]/''decision making'': higher-order considerations - what to do when the particulars get overwhelming (conglomerate specific cases into fewer specific cases). (11th Feb) ''and'' dealing with degrees of freedom - what do do when you find yourself in a room with a million exits (paths through enormous phase spaces). (11th Feb)\n*Added the [[Topics For Future Journals]] to the [[allJournals]] section.\n*''obsolete/subsumed:'' //(computing) a system whereby you create skeletons that can fleshed out as much as you wish. (16/02/2006)// (general UI/creativity topics subsume this)\n*''already completed:'' //university as a data store for the global consciousness - 26/11/2005// - see [[education in the hive]]\n!Also\n*Added icons for [[practicalities]], [[games|GameTour]] and [[Shorinji Kempo]] to the [[legend]].\n**//Icons for practicalities, games, kempo (1 day at [[The Hatchery]])//

!Saturday 14th April, 2006\n[img[photography|icons/photography.jpg]]\n*Added [[he surveys his estate pensively|he surveys his estate pensively (photo)]], [[your lordship, I mock you|your lordship, I mock you (photo)]], [[a dramatic operation|a dramatic operation (photo)]] and [[fixing yer face|fixing yer face (photo)]] to MyPhotography, the first two under [[people]], the second two under [[architecture]].

!Monday 17th April. 2006\n[img[photography|icons/photography.jpg]]\n*Added [[dwarf short bread|dwarf short bread (photo)]] and [[resting sleepers|resting sleepers (photo)]] to MyPhotography/[[transportation]].

!Tuesday 18th April, 2006\n[img[technology|icons/timepiece.jpg]]\n*Started [[home]] in the [[technology]] section.\n*Started [[extensible coordination testing system]] in the [[technology]] section.\n*Started [[mouse/keyboard based interfaces]] in the [[technology]] section.\n*Added [[Disposable Petrol Car]] to the [[technology]] section.\n**//Weaning people off petrol cars with... The Disposable Petrol Car, the missing link between Fossils and Renewables. (less than 1 day at [[The Hatchery]])//\n[img[photography|icons/photography.jpg]]\n*Added [[india in the tealeaves|india in the tealeaves (photo)]] to MyPhotography/[[mysterious]].

!Wednesday 19th April, 2006\n[img[movies|icons/film.jpg]]\n*Grouped the movies in the MovieTour alphabetically, as the list was getting a little long for just 1 tiddler.\n[img[games|icons/go.jpg]]\n*Added [[initial go self assessment, Wed 19th April, 2006]] to the [[Go]] section.\n**//Analyse my Go progress. Want to become a student of Go. (1 day at [[The Hatchery]])//\n[img[books|icons/pages.jpg]]\n*Added [[EZ-Go|EZ-Go (book)]] and the [[Tokuhon|Shorinji Kempo Tokuhon (book)]] to the [[Books I'm currently reading]] list. Also, started individual book tiddlers, giving the cover, a summary and occasional diary entries for progress of the book.\n[img[photography|icons/photography.jpg]]\n*Started [[equipment]] in MyPhotography, and added [[macro mod|macro mod (photo)]] to it.

!Saturday 22nd April, 2006\n[img[books|icons/pages.jpg]]\n*Added [[Rhetorical Terms and Concepts, A Contemporary Glossary|Rhetorical Terms and Concepts, A Contemporary Glossary (book)]] to the BookTour.\n[img[kempo|icons/kempo.jpg]]\n*Started the [[Organising A British Shorinji Kempo Club]] section under the [[Shorinji Kempo]]/[[Shorinji Kempo Library]] section.\n**//kempo: admin section (22 days at [[The Hatchery]])//\n[img[photography|icons/photography.jpg]]\n*Added [[instrumentation|instrumentation (photo)]] to MyPhotography/[[equipment]].\n[img[games|icons/go.jpg]]\n*Added some notes on [[Sudoku]] to the GameTour.

!Sunday 23rd April, 2006\n[img[photography|icons/photography.jpg]]\n*Added [[the rig|the rig (photo)]] to MyPhotography/[[equipment]].

!Monday 24th April, 2006\n[img[journal/written material|icons/keyboard.jpg]]\n*Added [[learning|Journal 2006 04 24]] to my [[journal|allJournals]].\n**//journalize 'word of the day' and 'thought of the day' type stuff: like annoy/ennui, facile/facility, police/policy etc. (6 days at [[The Hatchery]])//\n[img[photography|icons/photography.jpg]]\n*Added [[hal's big bro|hal's big bro (photo)]] to MyPhotography/[[equipment]].

!Friday 28th April, 2006\n[img[photography|icons/photography.jpg]]\n*Added [[fools rush in|fools rush in (photo)]] to MyPhotography/[[the city]].

!Saturday 29th April, 2006\n[img[photography|icons/photography.jpg]]\n*Added [[perplexing|perplexing (photo)]] to MyPhotography/[[signs]].

!Sunday 30th April, 2006\n[img[photography|icons/photography.jpg]]\n*Added [[sandbar|sandbar (photo)]] to MyPhotography/[[coast, river and sea]].

!Monday 1st May, 2006\n[img[photography|icons/photography.jpg]]\n*Added [[a beautiful day|a beautiful day (photo)]] to MyPhotography/[[sky]].

!Thursday 4th May, 2006\n[img[photography|icons/photography.jpg]]\n*Added [[comedy construction trio|comedy construction trio (photo)]] to MyPhotography/[[people]].

!Friday 5th May, 2006\n[img[photography|icons/photography.jpg]]\n*Added [[being a good consumer|being a good consumer (photo)]] to MyPhotography/[[the city]].

!Saturday 6th May, 2006\n[img[human/humanity|icons/crowd.jpg]]\n*Added [[postsexuality]] to the [[philosophy]] section.\n[img[books|icons/pages.jpg]]\n*Added [[An Introduction to Non-Classical Logic|An Introduction to Non-Classical Logic (book)]], [[Zen, A Way Of Life|Zen, A Way Of Life (book)]] and [[Maus: My Father Bleeds History|Maus: My Father Bleeds History (book)]] to [[Books I'm currently reading]].\n[img[photography|icons/photography.jpg]]\n*Added [[funky bench|funky bench (photo)]] to MyPhotography/[[park ornaments]].

!Sunday 7th May, 2006\n[img[philosophy|icons/cupsaucer.jpg]]\n*Added [[amodernism]] to the [[philosophy]] section.\n[img[photography|icons/photography.jpg]]\n*Added [[edge of the world|edge of the world (photo)]] to MyPhotography/[[coast, river and sea]].

!Monday 8th May, 2006\n[img[computing|icons/timepiece.jpg]]\n*Added [[IPv2 replacement platform]] to the [[computing]] section.\n[img[photography|icons/photography.jpg]]\n*Added [[journey's end|journey's end (photo)]] to MyPhotography/[[sky]].

!Tuesday 9th May, 2006\n[img[photography|icons/photography.jpg]]\n*Added [[it slips through their fingers|it slips through their fingers (photo)]] to MyPhotography/[[sky]].

!Wednesday 10th May, 2006\n[img[photography|icons/photography.jpg]]\n*Added [[soaking up the sun|soaking up the sun (photo)]] to MyPhotography/[[coast, river and sea]].

!Thursday 11th May, 2006\n[img[journal/written material|icons/keyboard.jpg]]\n*Added [[interweaving themes|Journal 2006 05 11]] to the [[Journals|allJournals]] section.\n[img[philosophy|icons/cupsaucer.jpg]]\n*Added a discussion on [[honesty]] to the [[philosophy]] section.\n[img[photography|icons/photography.jpg]]\n*Added [[fingerskater|fingerskater (photo)]] to MyPhotography/[[people]].

!Friday 12th May, 2006\n[img[philosophy|icons/cupsaucer.jpg]]\n*Added [[musings on data and interpretation]] to the [[philosophy]] section. \n[img[photography|icons/photography.jpg]]\n*Added [[plato's cave|plato's cave (photo)]] to MyPhotography/[[people]], [[constructive destruction|constructive destruction (photo)]] to MyPhotography/[[architecture]], [[white van haunting|white van haunting (photo)]] and [[behind bars|behind bars (photo)]] to MyPhotography/[[the uniformity pipe]].

!Saturday 13th May, 2006\n[img[photography|icons/photography.jpg]]\n*Added [[gone|gone (photo)]] to MyPhotography/[[nature-humanity interface]]

!Sunday 14th May, 2006\n[img[philosophy|icons/cupsaucer.jpg]]\n*Started the [[double deconstruction project]] in the [[philosophy]] section. \n[img[photography|icons/photography.jpg]]\n*Added [[spurned love|spurned love (photo)]] to MyPhotography/[[the city]]

!Tuesday 16th May, 2006\n[img[photography|icons/photography.jpg]]\n*Added [[palace of the brute|palace of the brute (photo)]], [[noir architecture|noir architecture (photo)]], [[all that's left is the mask|all that's left is the mask (photo)]] and [[space platforms|space platforms (photo)]] to MyPhotography/[[architecture]], and also [[stolid construction|stolid construction (photo)]] to MyPhotography/[[the city]].\n[img[human/humanity|icons/crowd.jpg]] [img[maths|icons/maths.jpg]] [img[philosophy|icons/cupsaucer.jpg]]\n*Started a discusion on [[Set-theoretic formulation of kinship]] under [[human being]]/[[genealogy]].\n[img[practicalities|icons/bin.jpg]]\n*Added [[news feeds]] to [[practicalities]], a summary of news feeds I subscribe to.

!Wednesday 17th May, 2006\n[img[photography|icons/photography.jpg]]\n*Added [[sweetness and light|sweetness and light (photo)]] to MyPhotography/[[the city]].

!Thursday 18th May, 2006\n [img[journal/written material|icons/keyboard.jpg]]\n*Added journal entry [[old rope|Journal 2006 05 18]].\n[img[journal/written material|icons/pen.jpg]]\n*Added [[seamless mobility story]] (initial notes) to MyCreativityTour/MyWrittenIdeas.\n[img[photography|icons/photography.jpg]]\n*Added [[the dancing amputee|the dancing amputee (photo)]] to MyPhotography/[[nature-humanity interface]].

!Friday 19th May, 2006\n[img[photography|icons/photography.jpg]]\n*Added [[surrogate sky off duty|surrogate sky off duty (photo)]] to MyPhotography/[[the uniformity pipe]], and [[overcooked pub|overcooked pub (photo)]] to MyPhotography/[[architecture]].

!Friday 26th May, 2006\n[img[photography|icons/photography.jpg]]\n*Added [[censoring the past|censoring the past (photo)]] to MyPhotography/[[people]] and [[semantic field|semantic field (photo)]] to MyPhotography/[[signs]].

!Saturday 27th May, 2006\n[img[photography|icons/photography.jpg]]\n*Added [[parallel worlds|parallel worlds (photo)]] to MyPhotography/[[transportation]].

!Sunday 28th May, 2006\n[img[hatchery|icons/hatchery.jpg]]\n*Retired [[The Hatchery]] from service, using Topics Awaiting Attention sections instead.\n[img[photography|icons/photography.jpg]]\n*Added [[lifeless|lifeless (photo)]] to MyPhotography/[[architecture]].

!Monday 29th May, 2006\n[img[photography|icons/photography.jpg]]\n*Added [[do not dispose of in fire|do not dispose of in fire (photo)]] to MyPhotography/[[architecture]].

!Thursday 1st June, 2006\n[img[hatchery|icons/coffee.jpg]]\n*Started the [[autobiographical]] section under [[conskeptical]].\n[img[practicalities|icons/bin.jpg]]\n*Started the [[Daily Routine]] section under [[practicalities]] and [[human being]].\n**added [[possible routine]] and [[critical points]] to [[Daily Routine]].\n[img[maths|icons/maths.jpg]]\n*Added [[truth tables for two-valued binary logic operations]] to [[mathematics]].\n[img[photography|icons/photography.jpg]]\n*Added [[no entry|no entry (photo)]] to MyPhotography/[[architecture]].

!Friday 2nd June, 2006\n[img[photography|icons/photography.jpg]]\n*Added [[nerve centre|nerve centre (photo)]] and [[control room|control room (photo)]] to MyPhotography/[[transportation]].

!Saturday 3rd June, 2006\n[img[photography|icons/photography.jpg]]\n*Added [[urban but not domesticated|urban but not domesticated (photo)]] to MyPhotography/[[nature-humanity interface]].

!Sunday 4th June, 2006\n[img[games|icons/go.jpg]]\n*Added [[Juggling]] to the [[human being]]/[[human body]]/[[movements]] section.

!Friday 9th May, 2006\n[img[photography|icons/photography.jpg]]\n*Added [[take your best shot|take your best shot (photo)]] to MyPhotography/[[the city]], and also [[emergency entrance|emergency entrance (photo)]] to MyPhotography/[[architecture]].

!Friday 23rd May, 2006\n[img[music|icons/fountain.jpg]]\n*Trimmed down the [[MusicTour]] (moved to linked external websites), and added more general info to it.\n[img[human/humanity|icons/crowd.jpg]]\n*Added [[rebound exercise]] to [[Juggling]].\n*Added [[brain erosion]] to [[human being]].\n[img[poetry|icons/pen.jpg]]\n*Added [[opportunity]] to [[Poetry]].\n[img[photography|icons/photography.jpg]]\n*Added [[va va voom|va va voom (photo)]] to MyPhotography/[[transportation]], and also [[fishing for a bite|fishing for a bite (photo)]] and [[feed me please|feed me please (photo)]] to MyPhotography/[[birds]].

!2006 Q1 (~January-March)\n*March\n**[[Thursday 30th|RecentChanges 2006 03 30]]\n**[[Tuesday 28th|RecentChanges 2006 03 28]]\n**[[Monday 27th|RecentChanges 2006 03 27]]\n**[[Sunday 26th|RecentChanges 2006 03 26]]\n**[[Thursday 23rd|RecentChanges 2006 03 23]]\n**[[Sunday 19th|RecentChanges 2006 03 19]]\n**[[Friday 17th|RecentChanges 2006 03 17]]\n**[[Thursday 16th|RecentChanges 2006 03 16]]\n**[[Wednesday 15th|RecentChanges 2006 03 15]]\n**[[Tuesday 14th|RecentChanges 2006 03 14]]\n**[[Monday 13th|RecentChanges 2006 03 13]]\n**[[Sunday 12th|RecentChanges 2006 03 12]]\n**[[Saturday 11th|RecentChanges 2006 03 11]]\n**[[Friday 10th|RecentChanges 2006 03 10]]\n**[[Thursday 9th|RecentChanges 2006 03 09]]\n**[[Wednesday 8th|RecentChanges 2006 03 08]]\n**[[Tuesday 7th|RecentChanges 2006 03 07]]\n**[[Saturday 4th|RecentChanges 2006 03 04]]\n**[[Friday 3rd|RecentChanges 2006 03 03]]\n**[[Thursday 2nd|RecentChanges 2006 03 02]]\n*February\n**[[Thursday 16th|RecentChanges 2006 02 16]]\n**[[Wednesday 15th|RecentChanges 2006 02 15]]\n**[[Monday 13th|RecentChanges 2006 02 13]]\n**[[Sunday 12th|RecentChanges 2006 02 12]]\n**[[Saturday 11th|RecentChanges 2006 02 11]]\n**[[Thursday 9th|RecentChanges 2006 02 09]]\n**[[Tuesday 7th|RecentChanges 2006 02 07]]\n**[[Monday 6th|RecentChanges 2006 02 06]]\n**[[Sunday 5th|RecentChanges 2006 02 05]]\n**[[Saturday 4th|RecentChanges 2006 02 04]]\n**[[Friday 3rd|RecentChanges 2006 02 03]]\n**[[Thursday 2nd|RecentChanges 2006 02 02]]\n*January\n**[[Tuesday 31st|RecentChanges 2006 01 31]]\n**[[Sunday 29th|RecentChanges 2006 01 29]]\n**[[Friday 27th|RecentChanges 2006 01 27]]\n**[[Thursday 26th|RecentChanges 2006 01 26]]\n**[[Tuesday 24th|RecentChanges 2006 01 24]]\n**[[Thursday 19th|RecentChanges 2006 01 19]]\n**[[Wednesday 18th|RecentChanges 2006 01 18]]\n**[[Tuesday 10th|RecentChanges 2006 01 10]]\n**[[Monday 9th|RecentChanges 2006 01 09]]\n**[[Saturday 7th|RecentChanges 2006 01 07]]\n**[[Thursday 5th|RecentChanges 2006 01 05]]\n**[[Monday 2nd|RecentChanges 2006 01 02]]\n**[[Sunday 1st|RecentChanges 2006 01 01]]

*the session opening, humbly asking each other to help each other train.\n!Format\n*The [[sensei]] shouts [['seiretsu'|seiretsu]], meaning 'line up'.\n*The sensei says 'Renshu [[o-hajimemasu]]'.\n*The sensei then says [['shomen'|shomen]].\n*The sensei will then make any announcements, maybe ask if there are any injuries the dojo should be aware of, and then the session will commence proper.

*ending the session, announcements, tidying the dojo, and thanking each other for training.\n!Format\n*The [[sensei]] shouts [['seiretsu'|seiretsu]], meaning 'line up'.\n*The sensei then says 'Renshu [[owarimasu]]'.\n*The sensei then says [['shomen'|shomen]].\n*The sensei then make any announcements and ask for announcements.\n*The sensei then says [['otagai ni rei'|otagai ni rei]].\n*The sensei then dismisses the dojo.\n*The [[manji]] is put away, as is any other equipment not already put away. The dojo disperses.

other wiki/blog markups should implement links with simple formats so that other websites can be easily referenced. Eg, a ~WikipediaLink could look like {{{[(W)article]}}} and be rendered as a link straight into the relevant article of the relevant website, etc.

!Details\n[img[Rhetorical Terms and Concepts|books/rhetorical.jpg]]\n*http://www.class.uh.edu/english/EnglishDept/george_trail.html\n!Opinion\n*A fantastic little glossary, which takes the philosophical ideas it illustrates right to heart. An excellent and highly readable book that blurs the boundaries between reference, opinion and entertainment writing.

*''@@Schindler's List@@'' - Steven Spielberg shows he can make decent films. The first black and white film I ever really liked.\n*''@@Se7en@@'' - Kevin Spacey and Brad Pitt in an amazing detective thriller based around the 7 deadly sins.\n*''Shaolin Soccer'' - ridiculous but entertaining story with lots of groovy martial arts action as well.\n*''@@Shaun of the Dead@@'' - comic take off of Dawn of the Dead with Simon Pegg. I laughed so much my face hurt at the end.\n*''She's All That'' - Pygmalion in American high-school format. Well made I guess. A bit too stereotypically American for me though.\n*''The Shining'' - oddly scary Kubrick.\n*''The Shipping News'' - Kevin Spacey plays an incompetent fool who moves to Newfoundland and gets competent in this unusual story of personal growth. Shot in a lovely place, but apparently the portrayal of the society there is awful.\n*''@@Short Circuit@@, @@Short Circuit II@@'' - films about a military robot that becomes intelligent after being struck by lightening. Hilarious and charming children's entertainment. Was part of the general gubbins that got me so interested in robotics, computing and technology in general. Input input!\n*''Shrek'', ''Shrek II'' - fun CGI films full of fairy tale characters.\n*''Sideways'' - comedy about a pair of friends who go on a wine-tasting holiday. Very funny.\n*''@@Sin City@@'' - this adaptation from a graphic novel gleefully caricatures the social attitudes of the time (and this time) with a glorious display of technical skill and artistry.\n*''@@Sirens@@'' - Hugh Grant in a film that is actually worth watching. A very funny look at the interaction between prudish Victorian type people and a group of hippy-style people in Australia.\n*@@''The Snowman''@@ - the film of the famous song. Beautiful animation and a beautiful story. Britishness at its best.\n*''South Park'' - Very funny if you can get over the awful taste and crudeness.\n*''Snatch'' - lots of fun with Brad Pitt and some very pop-art cinematography.\n*''Spaceballs'' - hilarious sci-fi spoof. Easily better than Star Wars IMHO. I love the chestburster scene at the end. Eat your heart out Giger!\n*''Species'' - gloriously stunted speech, fleeting glimpses of H.R.Giger's amazing artwork and a totally stereotypically male-fantasy 'plot'-line. Nice.\n*''Speed, Speed 2'' - Keanu Reeves (first film only) and Sandra Bullock in preposterous action films. The first one was quite nicely made though.\n*@@''Sphere''@@ - Dustin Hoffman and various others in a fantastic underwater sci-fi horror.\n*@@''Spirited Away''@@ - truly gorgeous anime fairy tale. Very surreal, spooky, symbolic and undeniably beautiful.\n*''Super Size Me'' - Morgan Spurlock attempts suicide by fastfood in this documentary of a 30 day diet consisting of nothing but mcdonald's 'food'. Interesting, and full of good facts. Poor guy. Funny guy as well though.\n*''The Talented Mr Ripley, Ripley's Game'' - well made films about a sociopath. Nasty.\n*''Taxi Driver'' - Martin Scorsese makes a shocking film about an insomniac. Robert De Niro is excellent, as usual.\n*''Team America'' - Side-splitting political (and other) humour from the South Park team.\n*''There's Something About Mary'' - odd story about a girl who apparently personifies the idea of femme fatale, in the most literal sense.\n*''The Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines'' - steadily increasing preposterousness and ridiculousness. Rock on Schwarzenegger...\n*''The Thing'' - John Carpenter. Excellent horror. I'll rewatch this should the chance present itself.\n*''This Is Spinal Tap'' - hilarious music spoof in the style of a music documentary.\n*''Tomorrow Never Dies'' - Pierce Brosnan as James Bond in this fun but silly film. The Sheryl Crow song was fantastic though.\n*''Trainspotting'' - some amazing sequences, including toilet diving in the worst toilet in Scotland. Not for the faint-hearted.\n*''Tron'' - amazing (for the time) computer graphics in a film set inside a computer. Geeky. Entertaining.\n*''The Truman Show'' - Jim Carrey in a story which is just too silly to make decent cinema.\n*''The Truth About Cats and Dogs'' - I remember enjoying this a lot. I'd rewatch this if the opportunity arose.\n*''Turtles Can Fly'' - the first film to be made in Iraq since Saddam Hussein. Quite a place to make quite a film.\n*@@''Twelve Monkeys''@@ - excellent time travel movie with Bruce Willis.\n*''The Twilight Samurai'' - interesting film about a key episode in the life of a samurai. Gorgeously filmed, and there are a few short but fantastic martial arts scenes.\n*''Under Siege'', ''Under Siege II'' - ridiculous machismo films with Stephen Seagal.\n*''Unleashed'' - Jet Li in some truly awesome martial arts action. It's a nice film too.\n*''The Usual Suspects'' - fun fairy tale set in criminal world, Kevin Spacey.\n*''V For Vendetta'' - Guy Fawkes tale set in a future totalitarian Britain. Fun to watch, but drags a little in places. Natalie Portman is good though!\n*''The Virgin Suicides'' - not particularly entertaining at all. Just a very strange story.\n*@@''Waking Life''@@ - hugely philosophical, pro-dreaming documentary-type film in an unusual computer-modified live-footage style. Highly recommended. Richard Linklater.\n*''War of the Worlds'' - Tom Cruise in this gorgeous, but empty, sci-fi thriller. It's brief though, which is good.\n*''Waterworld'' - So now I recognise Kevin Costner. Big deal.\n*@@''The Wicker Man''@@ - a story of religious culture clash on a highland island. Extremely well made.\n*@@''Withnail and I''@@ - side-splitting tragicomedy about two Londoners hitting bottom.\n*''Wonder Boys'' - a weird tale of writers in America getting in tangled social situations. Highly funny and lots of interesting insight. Beautifully shot. Awesome characters.\n*@@''The Wrong Trousers''@@ - Nick Park stop-motion animation. Very funny, as usual.\n*''Zatoichi'' - martial arts film. Impressive.

*Cleaning of the [[dojo]], so that [[Shorinji Kempo]] may be practiced in a relatively clean environment. Some or all [[kenshi]] may take part in this before a session starts.

*acupressure massage designed to rejuvenate and relax the body after hard training.\nSeiho is categorised according to body parts. Typically arms, legs, wrists, hands, ankles, feet, back, head and face are good candidates for seiho.

This is an exploration of kinship based on a representation where the parent/child relationship is the fundamental relationship from which all others are composed. This is basically an exercise in finding loci on directed node-graphs with 1 flavour of edge.\nHere there are no restrictions on the number of parents a child can have, no reference to gender and no social rules, so later I intend to do an exploration of various biologically possible/feasible kinship systems, and also cultural kinship systems. These may reference additional attributes about individuals, including gender, social rules, viability (eg. incest), relative age and so forth.\nOf course, kinship is only one of the myriad ways people relate to each other, and other fundamental relationships could be implemented such as working, social, supply, power and other sorts of relationships.\nThe relationships here are composed in a tier system, with the Parent/Child relationship forming the first tier, and then compositions of those forming a second tier, and then compositions involving any of the first and second tiers forming a third tier, and so on. (A sort of 'factorial' tier system, where all previous tiers contribute to the next tier, as opposed to a 'layer-cake' tier system where only members from the previous tier contribute.)\n!Explanation of notation\nRelations here are all specified relative to an individual, 'a', and because relatives often don't come singly, relations are specified as sets, for example, 'Parents(a)' refers to the set of all parents of 'a'.\nHowever, it is often necessary to refer to individual relations from a set of relations, so this notation is used: ANY/ALL b from [relations]A. (The square brackets indicate that any relationship could be used here). The notation can be read out loud as 'ANY/ALL individual(s) 'b' from the set [relations]A'.\n*An example of a 1st tier relationship is 'Children(a)', representing all the children of 'a'.\n*An example of a 2nd tier relationship is 'Grandparents(a)', representing all the grandchildren of 'a'. However, Grandparents is not a base relationship (like Children) so it must be specified in terms of the base relationships:\n**Grandparents(a) = { b : for ANY c from Parents(a), b is from Parents(c) }\nThis can be read out loud as, 'the set of Grandparents of individual 'a' is the set of individuals such that for any member 'b' of that set, for any individual 'c' belonging to the Parents of 'a', 'b' belongs to the Parents of 'c'.' This is a little mindbending, so translating it into simpler English: 'The set where any member is a parent of any of a's parents.'. It's worth trying to learn to bridge the gap between the two sentences, so that both make equivalent sense to you. (This is directly imported from standard set notation.)\nNow that Grandparents has been defined, it can be used in 3rd tier relationships, which can themselves be used in 4th tier relationships and so on ad infinitum.\n!Tier 1\nParents(a) = parents of a\nChildren(a) = children of a\n!Tier 2\nGrandparents(a) = { b : for ANY c from Parents(a), b is from Parents(c) }\n~GrandparentsMAXIMUMINCEST(a) = { b : for ALL c from Parents(a), b is from Parents(c) }\n\nGrandchildren(a) = { b : for ANY c from Children(a), b is from Children(c) }\n~GrandchildrenMAXIMUMINCEST(a) = { b : for ALL c from Children(a), b is from Children(c) }\n\n~Half-Siblings(a) = { b : for ANY c from Parents(a), b is from Children(c) }\nSiblings(a) = { b : for ALL c from Parents(a), b is from Children(c) }\n\nPartners(a) = { b : for ANY c from Children(a), b is from Parents(c) }\nPartner(a) = { b : for ALL c from Children(a), b is from Parents(c) }

Since moving to the Bristol area I have taken an interest in Shorinji Kempo. It has highlighted a lot of interesting areas and points for me.\n!Essence of Shorinji Kempo - my interpretation\n*''Healthy Mind'' - ie, a mind well connected to its body\n*''Healthy Body'' - ie, a body well connected to its mind\n*''Self Defence'' - maybe this is where I diverge: for 'self defence' read 'skillful actions', which in my mind subsumes 'self defence'. Anyone who tries to attain skill in their mental and physical actions will automatically gain a sensible level of self defence.\n![[Shorinji Kempo Library]]\nA compilation of kempo-specific things I have experienced.\n!Kempo non-specific things I have learnt\nSenseis Dav Spilling, Mike Sadler and David Dunn have imparted countless gems of wisdom to me since I started to train under their instruction. Here is some of my interpretation:\n*If things are going wrong, look to ''correct your feet first'', and work up from there. The positions and functional ranges/limits of almost every part of your body are affected by your foot placement.\n*''Be as loose as possible.'' Through loose movement you stay fresh, maintain good proprioception, have greater opportunity to sense the condition/limits of your opponent better (if you're in contact with them), respond to physical force more fluidly and generally reduce the risk of bodily damage to yourself and your partner(s).\n*''Apply force in the direction of minimum resistance.'' It's easier. Related is: ''if possible, do not resist force.'' Flowing with an incoming force is a good way to avoid negative effects. If you can apply your own force perpendicularly, tangentially or in parallel then you may be able to use incoming force to your advantage.\n*Look to ''generate movement centrally'', ie from your pelvis, torso and shoulders. Movements are more powerful if generated this way. I think there are close parallels with the Alexander Technique here: central generation of movements encourages the use of the body as a single, cohesive moving object, rather than a collection of mechanically disconnected items anchored to a torso. This sort of globally coordinated movement is (according to the Alexander Technique) good for your back and core muscles. The alternative is 'locally' coordinated movement, which doesn't rely so much on back/core muscles, but does inevitably influence them, often in ways so as to stress them and create unwanted tensions. This is a contributary factor in a lot of people's problems apparently!\n*If you find that your ''freedom of motion seems narrow or restricted'', try altering the position of a body part 'upstream' of the affected body part. For example, rotating hips forwards or backwards or opening them out or closing them can affect the freedom of motion of the thigh, and shoulder position affects arm movement etc.\n*Ensure a relevant ''load path to ground'' is available when required. When applying force without a suitable 'earthing' all you have is your inertia as backup for your application of force. By 'earthing' yourself you become an extension of the ground, which is less likely to yield, and give a better backup for your application of force. Foot placement is often vital here, as they are (usually) your contacts to earth.\n*Generally ''keep your centre of mass between your feet''. This tends to improve balance, and ensures a wide variety of potential movement. When your centre of mass is not between your feet you are generally more committed to a narrow range of potential movement.\n*''Maintain eye contact with your partner'', or similar eye direction. This way you can constantly see the whole of them at once and not give away your next moves/intentions so much.\n[[Educational structure of Shorinji Kempo]] - some ideas I intend to abstract away from Kempo for use in general life.\n!See also\n*Wikipedia entry: [[Shorinji Kempo|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shorinji_kempo]]\n*[[The kempo club I go to|http://www.bris.ac.uk/Depts/Union/ShorinjiKempo/index.shtml]]\n*[[human body]]\n!Topics Awaiting Attention\n//*kempo/philosophy: meaning of randori: contained chaos: being random in the box (01/04/2006)//

!Structure of [[renshu]] (timings and emphasis may vary)\nEach of the following items (excluding Arrival) are led in and out by formalities led by a [[sensei]], involving lots of [[reiing|gassho rei]]. [[Renshu o-hajimemasu]] and [[Renshu owarimasu]] are the lead-in and lead-out for the entire session. Different senseis, and sometimes senior [[kenshi]], may take different parts of the session.\n*[[Arrival]] - aim to arrive about 15 minutes early to allow time to change and put the real world to the back of your mind, in readiness for training. [[Samu]] may occur here too.\n*[[Renshu o-hajimemasu]] - the session opening, humbly asking each other to help each other train.\n*[[Taiso|Taiso: warmup]] - warm up, important before any sort of reasonable exertion.\n*[[Kihon]] - basics: repeatedly practicing the simplest techniques on which all other techniques are based.\n*[[Chinkon]] - recital of half of the [[Dokun|The Dokun]], followed by Zazen meditation, followed by the rest of the Dokun.\n*[[Howa]] - philosophy of Kempo, based on [[Kaiso's Kongo Zen|Kaiso]].\n*[[Hokei]] - practice of techniques with partners.\n*[[Taiso|Taiso: warmdown]] - warm down: good to do after any sort of reasonable exertion.\n*[[Seiho]] - acupressure massage designed to rejuvenate and relax the body after hard training.\n*[[Renshu owarimasu]] - ending the session, announcements, tidying the dojo, and thanking each other for training.\n!Running the club\nI have been treasurer for the Bristol University Shorinji Kempo Club for 1 year, and I have picked up various things about running Kempo clubs through this experience.\n*[[Organising A British Shorinji Kempo Club]]

*Shorinji Kempo has a central administration based in Hombu, Japan. It is called WSKO (World Shorinji Kempo Organisation).\n*There are national federations in many countries, of which the BSKF (British Shorinji Kempo Federation) is one.\n*National federations are composed of branches. Usually there is one [[dojo]] per branch, but new dojos may be members of a parent branch, and get their own branch status once they are established.\n*All [[kenshi]] are members of every tier of Shorinji Kempo administration.

''//you've found the ideas playground, version 2// (by [[conskeptical]])''

[[IPv2]]

http://www.219.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/conskeptical/

*Software in constant use:\n**''Firefox'' - web browsing and Web2.0/AJAX platform.\n**''~PSPad'' - easy to use text editor with many powerful and/or useful functions.\n**''QCD'' - media player\n**''Thunderbird'' - email\n**''~TiddlyWiki'' - you're looking at it now. A fantastic personal wiki.\n**''~TreePad'' - simple but effective PIM\n(''[[Pricelessware|http://www.pricelessware.org/]]'' - a source for the best in Windows freeware. (For those of us not yet running Linux :)))

!Strategies\n*''Learn the board''\n**Go through the numbers 1-10 using hatching to fill in easy numbers, and judge the balances of different numbers on the field.\n*''Complete the board''\n**Using a combination of the functions below, fill in all the gaps.\n!Words\n*''Cell'' - an element of the grid, containing a number, known or unknown.\n*''Number'' - a number written into the grid, and known/assumed to be correctly placed.\n*''Line'' - a line across the board, containing each number, 1-10.\n*''Grid'' - one of the 9 3x3 grids on the board, containing the numbers 1-10.\n*''Board'' - 9 grids, tiled into a square.\n*''Construction line'' - each number is at the intersection point of two construction lines. These constructions lines show where another instance of that number cannot lie. By visualising multiple constructions lines overlaid on the board it is possible to localise the positions of unknown numbers, until they are localised to one square, at which point they can be written in.\n!Functions\n*''Line/grid surveying'' - know what numbers are required to complete the line/grid, and juggle the possibilities in your head. Because lines and grids overlap, you can exclude certain numbers from certain lines/grids due to their presence on the other lines/grids that intersect with the line/grid you are considering.\n**''Spot the missing number'' in a sequence missing one number, and fill in blanks of squares/lines populated with all but 1 number.\n*''Hatching'' - deduce numbers by excluding them from rows and columns by drawing 'construction lines' from other instances of the same number elsewhere.\n*''Number location'' - remember the possible squares a number can/can't be in, if it's restricted to a row or column you can draw a construction line from there, despite not knowing where the number might be.\n*''Virtual hatching'' - drawing construction lines from numbers in assumed but unknown positions, and seeing if contradictions arise (like the virtual construction line working with real construction lines to exclude another number from a set of cells which must contain the number somewhere). If they do, then the number can't be there...\n*''Multi-jointed hatching'' - deduce the row a number must be in, and you can draw a construction line across that row, giving a greater source of construction lines.\n!Phenomena\n*''Codependent pairs'' - often you get to a situation where a pair of numbers in one 3x3 grid are dependent only on the positions of the same numbers on another 3x3 grid. As soon as you fill in one of these 4 numbers, the other 3 go in 'free', if you remembered that that was their relationship.

This is a list of little nuggets of information that serve as some of the [[sutras|Journal 2006 03 07]] of my life. Each category is approximately sorted by importance, although the categories are only starting points, and ultimately the sutras and texts apply globally. Relevant texts are listed at the end of each category.\n!Morality\n*don’t take people’s choices away from them, or your choices away from yourself\n*peace and love\n*ignorance, choice, reasonable care, honesty\nTexts:\n*[[I Sing The Body Electric]]\n*The Story of My Experiments With Truth, M.K.Gandhi\n!Skilfulness\n*never assume you’re right\n*strive to commit skilful actions, don’t cut corners\n*improvement today is better than perfection tomorrow\n*you never know what you really have until you let go of it\n*do not live beyond your means\n*draw together strands from disparate areas\n*acquire the skill of closing brackets as a way of managing complexity\nTexts:\n*Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert M. Pirsig\n!Knowledge\n*do not expect to find a ‘basis’ form, expect merely to translate between forms\nTexts:\n*[[A Truth]]\n*[[Quality]]\n

*''24'' - fast paced drama with an interesting twist that it's more or less real-time too.\n*@@''6 Feet Under''@@ - groundbreaking drama. (E4)\n*''@@[[The Adventures of Tintin|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventures_of_Tintin_%28TV_series%29]]@@'' - loved these as a kid. (channel 4)\n*''Brass Eye'' - outrageous satire from Chris Morris. Hilarious. (channel 4)\n*''@@Child of Our Time@@'' - Professor Robert Winston presents this programme documenting an amazing BBC project following the first 20 years of a bunch of millenium babies.\n*''@@Doctor Who@@'' - BBC goodness from long ago. One of my first favourite TV shows. Not sure if I'd like it any more though. Doctor Ooooo?\n*''Futurama'' - hilarious political/social commentary in a sci-fi-toon setting.\n*''Have I Got News For You'' - political comedy quiz show with Paul Merton and Ian Hislop. Funny. (BBC)\n*''Room 101'' - entertaining celebrity interview show with Paul Merton. (BBC)\n*''The Simpsons'' - entertaining political/social comedy for all the family.\n*''Space Cadets'' - the only reality TV I ever thought was more than trash, and it turned out fantastic! (channel 4)\n*''@@Spaced@@'' - brilliant comedy with Simon Pegg.

*warm down: good to do after any sort of reasonable exertion.\nA short warm down consisting of dynamic and static stretches and cardiovascular activities.

*warm up, important before any sort of reasonable exertion.\nA warmup consisting of dynamic and static stretches and various muscular and cardiovascular activities including running, pushups, situps and similar things. There is lots of [[counting]], providing a good timing mechanism and method of practicing [[kiai]].

*The philosophy and goals of Shorinji Kempo rolled into a sort of 'Lord's Prayer':\n!Seiku\n''1:'' Rely on yourself, and not on others, for no-one is as reliable as\nyour own well desciplined self.\n''2:'' By committing evil you defile yourself. By avoiding evil you\nattain purity.\n!Seigan\n''1:'' In acquiring this art, we pledge to honour our founder and not\nbetray our masters, to respect our elders, and not slight the\nyoung. As comrades, we pledge to help each other, and cooperate\nfor the accomplishment of these teachings.\n''2:'' We pledge to leave our past aside, and to devote ourselves to\nmastering the art as plainly and naively as infants.\n''3:'' We pledge never to perform our art for selfish reasons, but for\nthe benefit of all mankind.\n!Shinjo\n''1:'' We are grateful that we are endowed with our souls from\nDharma and our bodies from our parents. We determine to\nmake every effort to return their blessings.\n''2:'' We love our country, and determine to better the welfare of\nour people.\n''3:'' We love justice, respect humanity, observe courtesy, keep the\npeace and determine to be true and brave.\n''4:'' We strive to master the art, and discipline the body and soul.\n''5:'' We love our comrades, and help each other. We co-operate,\nand endeavour to establish an ideal world.

!NB - The Hatchery Is No Longer In Use - See 'Topics Awaiting Attention' sections instead.\nThis is where I keep a log of things I want to add to IPv2 soon.

!Details\n[img[Shorinji Kempo Tokuhon|books/tokuhon.jpg]]\n!Summary\n*Textbook for [[Shorinji Kempo]]. Contains information for use in and out of the Dojo, directly and indirectly philosophically related too.\n!Diary\n*Wed 19th Apr 2006 - Still need to complete my first pass on this. Then will dip in and out as relevant.\n*Mon 24th April 2006 - Completed my first pass. Just need to study this in the background, and all will be well!

plays I've seen:\n*''Arcadia'' - at the Bristol Old Vic.\n*''The Comedy of Errors'' - at the Theatre Royal, Bath.\n*''The Cut'' - at the Bristol Old Vic (Donmar).\n*''The Dumbwaiter'' - Pinter. At the Bristol Old Vic.\n*''Gilgamesh'' - at the Bristol Old Vic (Youth Theatre Group).\n*''An Inspector Calls'' - (J.B. Priestley, directed by Stephen Dauldry), at a theatre in Norwich (around 2002).\n*''Nights At The Circus'' - at the Bristol Old Vic (Kneehigh Theatre).\n*''On/Off: Johnothan Pram'' - at the Bristol Old Vic.\n*''The Odyssey'' - at the Bristol Old Vic.\n*''The Seagull'' - at the Bristol Old Vic.\n*''Tamburlaine'' - at the Bristol Old Vic.\n*''This Is How It Goes'' - at the Bristol Old Vic (Donmar).\n*''Trainspotting'' - at the Theatre Royal, Bath.\n*''Tristan and Yseult'' - at the Bristol Old Vic (Kneehigh Theatre).

Software by [[osmosoft|http://www.osmosoft.com]], also the foundation of IPv2.\nIn my opinion it's the best freeware wiki out there, of any kind, [[let me know|my web presence]] if you know of anything that you think is better!\n!note to self:\nhttp://www.cc.gatech.edu/~dellaert/dhtml/tiddly.html is a good place to start with writing TiddlyWiki plugins

*classification of tasks:\n**measurable/unmeasurable - if measurable provide a progress gauge\n**priority - higher priority tasks get done first/more\n**size - make sure the task can be split into manageable chunks\n**timeout - make sure the task can be finished in time\n**dependencies/associations - would it be better to complete/work on other tasks first/in parallel?\n**mammoth - need analyzing and splitting up\n*''implementation''\n**use Treepad for the 'conveyor belt', use TiddlyWiki to precipitate conveyor belt items (so the conveyor belt isn't too loaded and unappetising)\nwork on everything. there are layers (a convenient categorization, in order of dependence?):\n*''substrate'': sleeping, exercising, eating\n*''human'': entertainment, friends (appearance etc.)\n*''education/work'': school/uni/job related things\n*''identity'': hobbies, other things that make you you that don't fall into the other categories.\nthose layers can be applied to the common timescales present in everyday life:\n*''micro'' - a few seconds\n*''short-term'' - a few minutes\n*''day'' - a whole day, commonly broken down into several segments (eg: waking/rising/morning/lunch/afternoon/evening/before-bed/bed)\n*''week'' - a whole week, commonly broken down into week/weekend etc.\n*''year'' - commonly broken down for different purposes into seasons/terms/holidays etc.

*//balance between assimilating the past, living in the present and preparing for the future. (25/06/2006)//\n**there need be no distinction, they are all the same thing (buddhist)\n**excerpt from [[free]]\n*//importance of communication//\n*//'being yourself' - risky but fulfilling//\n*//philosophy of life drives me, what drives other people?//\n*//similarity of 'learning the technique' with a martial art and with maths. i am too easily distracted by 'what if i just stand on his calf' type stuff... - 22/11/2005//

Life is a journey, and I for one seem to find myself going around in circles a lot of the time. Might as well enjoy the view!\n*''Computer related''\n**ComputerLanguageTour - a geek and semi-proud of it.\n**InternetTour - best publishing platform on planet earth, and getting more interesting every day.\n**SoftwareTour - staving off the day when I have to chuck my [[boat anchor|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boat_anchor]] in the harbour.\n*BreaksTour - a vital part of any day. Here are a list of things to do that can constitute breaks.\n*GameTour - subgames in the infinite game of life.\n*[[MeTour|conskeptical]] - bits and pieces about me and my interests.\n*MyCreativityTour - some things I've created myself.\n*PeopleTour - some interesting folk the human race has thrown up.\n*SutraTour - ideas I find useful for life.\n*''Watching, listening and reading''\n**AdvertTour - adverts are more interesting that I thought!\n**BookTour - literate and proud of it.\n**MovieTour - a very rich form of broadcastable human expression.\n**MusicTour - soundtrack to my life.\n**QuotationTour - some quotations that I really like.\n**TheatreTour - long live theatre!\n**TVTour - occasionally there's something good on the box.\nSometimes I want to see something that I don't.\n*WishList - here's hoping!

This is an outline of the units I've taken and their dependencies.\n||!Level 1|!Level 2|\n| ''Core A'' |Calculus 1|Calculus 2, ~ODEs|\n|~|MV Calculus|~|\n|~|Computational|(many)|\n| ''Core B'' |Linear Algebra 1|Linear Algebra 2|\n|~|Analysis 1|Analysis 2|\n| ''Pure'' |FTA|~|\n|~|NTGT|Algebra 2|\n| ''Mechanics'' |Mechanics 1|Mechanics 2|\n| ''Stats'' |Stats 1|(on hold)|\n^^(FTA: Further Topics in Analysis, NTGT: Number Theory and Group Theory, ~ODEs: Ordinary Differential Equations)^^\n!Themes\n*''level 1''\n**''calculus:'' functions, complex numbers, differentiation, integration, differential equations, infinite series (including fourier)\n**''mv calculus:'' functions of 2,3 variables, level curves, surfaces, partial differentiation, derivatives, chain rule, maxima and minima\n**''computational:'' vague introduction to programming and mathematics packages\n**''linear algebra:'' matrices, vector spaces, linear transformations\n**''analysis:'' logical notation, relations, proof, sequences and limits, introduction to calculus\n**''FTA:'' cardinality, failings of naive set theory, sequences and limits, integration\n**''NTGT:'' arithmetic algorithms, group theory\n**''mechanics:'' examples of vector algebra and calculus\n**''statistics:'' probability (+distributions), etc. etc.\n*''level 2''\n**''~ODEs:'' applications, interpretation, classification\n**''analysis:'' generalisation of continuity to multi-d spaces, metric spaces\n**''calculus:'' multi-variable functions, complex calculus\n**''algebra 2:'' rings, fields, algebraic numbers, ruler and compass constructions\n**''linear algebra 2:'' groups, rings, fields, permutations, vector spaces, matrices, polynomial rings, bilinear and quadratic forms\n**''mechanics 2:'' calculus of variations, lagrangian mechanics, rotating frames and rigid body dynamics, small oscillations, hamiltonian dynamics

!Graphical User Interfaces\n*Applications\n**''Specific/Embedded'' - small interfaces with limited functionality custom designed for small, relatively inextensible, inflexible systems.\n**''General'' - ie, for full-blown ~OSes such as Linux or Windows. Flexible and extensible capabilities.\n*Design paradigms\n**''WIMP'' - (Windows, Icons, Menus, Pointer) - usually a view onto a 2D euclidean plane where computational processes are represented by graphics on this plane.\n**''Zooming'' - a variation on the traditional WIMP theme, but the view is often not a 2D euclidean plane, with various schemes in place to enable vast quantities of information to be on screen at once. Detail is dynamically introduced and removed from the scene as the user changes the focus.\n*Interface elements\n**''@@Breadcrumbs@@'' - navigational aid whereby you can see where you've been before in a train of windows/pages/etc.\n**''Button'' - triggers an associated action when activated.\n**''Caret'' - focal point for text related actions.\n**''Icon'' - any distinct area of the screen conveying information or receptive to information.\n**''Menu'' - a triggerable selection of options, usually a list. Menu contents often dependent on context (to simplify decision making and prevent irrelevant options being displayed).\n**''Pane'' - a narrow area containing snippets of information and/or buttons, usually attached to an inside edge of a window, or associated with a window.\n**''Pointer'' - mobile focal point for general actions.\n**''Scrollbar'' - for navigating larger areas than in view at once.\n**@@''Tabs''@@ - an ancient UI element, but gaining a more general popularity in web browsers, file browsers and other related applications.\n**''Text'' - linguistic descriptions/labels. Requires the most effort to localise for a particular region.\n**@@''Toaster/Toasts''@@ - those little animated notification popups that appear whenever an MSN contact signs in, Thunderbird mail arrives, a Mozilla download finishes etc. More and more popular these days.\n**''Toolbar'' - a pane containing a row of buttons.\n**@@''Treeviews''@@ - a descendant of the antiquated [[outliner|http://www.outliners.com/]], now visible in file browsers, email clients, and various other applications.\n**@@''Twist-down knobs''@@ - related to the outliner concept of folding, where you can instantly compress large sections of a display into a headline or something, giving a broader overview.\n**''Window'' - related information in a container (window) for grouped manipulations.\n*Interface properties\n**''Focus indication'' - allows the user to distinguish active areas of the screen from inactive areas, eg for text input.\n**''Mobility'' - allows elements to move relative to the screen and each other.\n**''Resizeability'' - allows elements to be allocated different proportions of available viewing space.\n**''Window-shading'' - collapses a window to just it's titlebar to economise on space.\n**''Zooming'' - allows elements to be view in varying levels of detail. Very limited support for this in current ~OSes.\n**''Z-ordering'' - allows elements to be stacked above and below each other.

!Constructive browsing\nBeing a wiki, Wikipedia is almost entirely editable by its audience. The wiki format leads to a natural progression for browsing. Instead of merely browsing the encyclopedia, make sensible edits as you go. For example, if an internal link takes you to a disambiguation page from which you select the only possible link you could have wanted from the previous page you were at, then go back and change the link to point past the disambiguation page. Correct spelling and grammar as you go. Eventually, if this is the path you naturally take, you could end up contributing significantly to the editing of wikipedia, not through deliberate action, but merely by 'organically' extending your normal browsing action.

*Things I wish would happen.\n**''Application design'' - A better trend towards independence of data from applications.\n**''Documentation'' - Importance of good documentation recognised more widely. For example, I tried to dabble in a little Tcl/Tk recently. The documentation was appalling. So I gave up, despite having a strong feeling that it's a good and useful language. Knuth's Literate Programming seems to be a good first stab at attempting this.\n**''Formats and standards'' - standard format for user profiles/information, avatars etc. for use on social websites. I want to be free of the particular databases and formats various websites use.\n**''Operating systems'' - Windows superseded by something open-source as the dominant end-user operating system.\n**''Operating systems'' - A reversal of the trend that's leading us away from real time embedded operating systems (eg for things like ~TVs, hifis etc.). Ideally any user interface should have a significant real time element.\n**''Web search'' - Google superseded by an open-source, distributed search engine with far better capabilities and opportunity for extension and customisation. So far Nutch seems to be the best bet.\n*Some things already have happened.\n**''Creativity tools'' - Availability of a decent personal wiki. TiddlyWiki!\n**''Personal web publishing'' - An easy way of making a decent personal webpage. TiddlyWiki!

!Details\n[img[Zen, A Way Of Life|books/zen.jpg]]\n!Diary\n*Saturday 6th May 2006 - Have yet to start this properly, but it promises to be interesting.

!image\n<html><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/138120296/" title="served by Flickr"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/45/138120296_78ba4a5389.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="a beautiful day" /></a></html>\n!hosted on\n[[deviantART|http://www.deviantart.com/view/32641907/]], [[Flickr|http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/138120296/]]\n!description\nClevedon, North Somerset.

!image\n<html><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/109154440/" title="served by Flickr"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/43/109154440_78aab73b04.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="a dose of daylight" /></a></html>\n!hosted on\n[[deviantART|http://www.deviantart.com/view/30019769/]], [[Flickr|http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/109154440/]]\n!description\nlight is a relatively scarce commodity on the spiral staircase of Cabot Tower.

!image\n<html><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/128805572/" title="served by Flickr"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/52/128805572_9caece93e2.jpg" width="346" height="500" alt="a dramatic operation" /></a></html>\n!hosted on\n[[Flickr|http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/128805572/]]\n!description\nthis building has had its guts ripped right out, and I'm not sure if they're just refurbishing it in a serious way or actually demolishing it. My money's on demolish at the moment...

!image\n<html><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/94575458/" title="served by Flickr"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/39/94575458_fa84485251.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="a hole in the road" /></a></html>\n!hosted on\n[[deviantART|http://www.deviantart.com/view/12387448/]], [[Flickr|http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/94575458/]]\n!description\nconstruction toys are called construction toys for a reason...

!image\n<html><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/94519263/" title="served by Flickr"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/40/94519263_035fc8a827.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="a man a dog" /></a></html>\n!hosted on\n[[deviantART|http://www.deviantart.com/view/7467917/]], [[Flickr|http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/94519263/]]\n!description\ni went on a 21 mile walk for Oxfam last Sunday (16th May). The camera got into B& W mode somehow... which worked out ok in the end...\nthere were pretty things to see on that walk!

Seven index fingers point straight upwards. An eighth index finger is inclined at a shallower angle, pointing towards a greek letter on the wall. A metallic nib points horizontally towards the same greek letter.\nTwo metallic hands point to a quarter past eleven.\nAnd the end of the metallic nib describes a looping coil as the barrel rolls gently off the desk. It opens easily on the carpet tiles below.\nThe parallel gaze of two unfocused eyes drifts aimlessly around a room silent with the concentrated effort of seventeen pencil-wielding students.\nIndex fingers rise and fall. The eighth index finger wanders among them, like some sort of guiding light. A conductor's baton marking time for this silent orchestra.\nShafts of wood-encased graphite dance to the rhythmic touch of human fingers. Forearms twitch and tendons ripple, unnoticed by their myopic owners.\nDark ink flows out of the opened fountain pen and stains a single carpet tile. In thirty minutes a cleaner will come in and move the tile to a stock-room somewhere, and put a clean one in its place. The broken pen will be forgotten.\nThe unfocused eyes focus, and the gaze drops straight downwards.\nI'm looking at a sheet of lined paper. Arcane symbols writhe across the page, as if the ink was still wet and flowing with a life of its own, creating new arguments and logical structures, dense with interwoven meaning and context. And I can see what it all means. The flat paper doesn't want to be flat any more.\nNimble fingers crease the paper into a small giraffe.\nAnd nimble feet transport me straight out of this straitjacket for the mind.\n\nThe pen leaks its last. The symbols on my page dry up and and freeze into a lifeless, static array of meaningless shapes. The parallel gaze has gone, and with it, my nimble fingers and nimble feet.\n\nNimble feet in canvas shoes padding silently and swiftly down a corridor decked out in the same short-pile carpet tiles. The same beige wall paint, interrupted occasionally by banks of identical lockers.\nIdentical windows letting in almost no light, augmented by identical strip-lighting bathing the space in a uniform pool of artificial light.\nNo visible shadows are here. Unless you are an ant under the sole of my shoe, lucky to be just in the protection of the curling synthetic strands of fibrous floor covering.\n\nSo identical swingdoors bow unresistingly to the touch of my nimble fingers, admitting my passage to the next path. Taking me closer to the end of this repetition.\n\nAnd suddenly I'm in front of a glass revolving door. I step in. Push again. And I'm out in the street. Blinking in the sunlight.\n

teacher, smothering, marathon, kindred, tourist, like, open, striving, intersection, boundaries, comfort, overcompany, accommodation, shits and giggles, outweird, connection, curiosity, metaconversation, cross-fertilization, entrance exam, dreaming, excuses, facade, anchors, faith, monitoring features, reinforcement, attraction, repulsion, convention, anticonvention, arrogance, surreality, farcical, entertain, fate, structure, shared conscious, ethereal connection, exploration, curiosity, discovery, spiritual, guru, Ben, unusual, mutual naivety, openness, trepidation, sparks, confrontation, alternative, unexpected, potential, love, intertextual/cultural reference\n\n(02/03/2005)

!image\n<html><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/110400857/" title="served by Flickr"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/51/110400857_74ffee1c86.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="a nod in greeting" /></a></html>\n!hosted on\n[[deviantART|http://www.deviantart.com/view/30151087/]], [[Flickr|http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/110400857/]]\n!description\nthe street lamp says hello with electric light and a subtle nod of the head.

!image\n<html><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/94519214/" title="served by Flickr"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/35/94519214_1c6dceac34.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="a path between reality" /></a></html>\n!hosted on\n[[deviantART|http://www.deviantart.com/view/6973149/]], [[Flickr|http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/94519214/]]\n!description\nthis bridge is weird, the 'windows' are so manky and translucent, and the design so repetitive that it just doesn't feel real... perhaps... :)

!image\n<html><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/95735572/" title="served by Flickr"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/28/95735572_ab30883791.jpg" width="500" height="338" alt="a royal nose job" /></a></html>\n!hosted on\n[[deviantART|http://www.deviantart.com/view/22543343/]], [[Flickr|http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/95735572/]]\n!description\na seamless piece of rhinoplasty i thought.\n\nnot so seamless is the dodgy JPEG compression messing up the graduated colouring of the clouds... anyone know how to avoid this kind of thing?

!image\n<html><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/94609122/" title="served by Flickr"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/21/94609122_189cdc6ca0.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="a surprise for bilbo" /></a></html>\n!hosted on\n[[deviantART|http://www.deviantart.com/view/12519660/]], [[Flickr|http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/94609122/]]\n!description\nyep, the double-glazing people have come and changed his lovely round door for a rectangular UPVC one. won't Bilbo be pleased!\n\ni was somewhat surprised myself to find this in a showcave in Yorkshire. They use it to keep the air still in an underground cavern to reduce erosion i think.

!image\n<html><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/94609850/" title="served by Flickr"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/32/94609850_65723fee4c.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="a variety of roofs" /></a></html>\n!hosted on\n[[deviantART|http://www.deviantart.com/view/20702786/]], [[Flickr|http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/94609850/]]\n!description\na view over Prague from the clocktower just off the old town square. I liked the way the ridges of the roofs splay out towards the bottom of the picture.

Choose an action to assign to a key-combination that applies only to the current selection: eg, enclose-in-quotes, capitalise, format, transform etc.

!version 1\nAGENT SYSTEM:\n- humans are just agents too.\n- this is a model of the world. can be applied to problems, especially technical/programming ones to achieve reliability, utility, reusability and, er, beauty...\n- computers shouldn't be appliances, they should just be another platform for agents to cooperate with humans.\n- the agent system is good because it is all-encompassing, and allows another, often useful (?), take on the world.\n- it offers a foot in the door in the problem of intelligence, and the specialness of humanity too (as automated systems step into human shoes they don't suddenly aquire humanity, it gently grows on them).\n\nmulti-tiered agent cooperation leads into these categories:\n- AUTOMATION (reducing the number of high-level agents contributing to a loop)\n- AUTONOMY (minimum information requirements, from above (or below), for decision making)\n- TRUST/BORDERS (an important factor to make agents aware of, implicitly or explicitly in order to interact in a world of conflicts, concept of ~DMZs/~MZs comes in here)\n- COOPERATION/AUTHORIZATION/SECURITY (agents granting eachother authority, highly interoperable agents, granting/refusing requests etc.)\n- COMMUNICATION/INTERFACES (agents need platforms/media/languages to exchange information through)\n- CONTEXT (awareness of an agent's environment may be useful for the agent, those responsible for it and certainly its creators)\n- ORGANISATION (agents need to be aware of each other and when/how to make use of eachother etc, 'overloading functions' concept comes in here)\n- LIMITS (recognising limits allows best/infutile use of agents).\n- ETHICS (less clearly defined boundaries between humans and machines as concerns rights of action etc. responsibilities dictate allowed actions, can machines vote as proxies for humans (and if so, with what level of AUTONOMY?), and when do they get their own voting rights (as it were, decision making is clearly not based entirely on voting)?\n- PERSISTENCE (some agents last longer than humans, some last for microseconds simply to fulfil the moment-to-moment needs of other agents: implications in security due to memory effects etc.)\n- REDUNDANCY/REPLACEMENT (all agents must come to an end eventually, and none should be mission-critical)\n- CLASSIFICATION (sorting agents into sensible groups to represent systems effectively for design, maintenance, analysis etc. purposes)\n- COMPLEXITY (design issue: some systems will want to be chaotic, others will want to be easily understandable, defined, depictable etc.)\n!version 2\n!!introduction\nThe 'agent system' is a model for looking at the world, which provides a potentially useful, and open, framework for designing, describing or otherwise manipulating systems, models and concepts.\nIt a method that can be used in modelling the world. Because it is simply a way of thinking it doesn't discourage the use of other valid methods of modelling/designing, so it integrates rather than replaces. It can be applied to problems, especially technical/programming ones to achieve maintainability, structure, reliability, utility, reusability and, er, beauty...\n\n!!loose ideas\n1. humans are just agents too\n2. computers shouldn't be appliances, they should just be another platform for agents to cooperate with humans and/or other agents.\n3. the 'agents system' offers a foot in the door in the problem of intelligence, and the specialness of humanity too (as automated systems gradually step into human shoes they don't suddenly aquire humanity, it gently grows on them).\n\n!!contents\nmulti-tiered agent cooperation leads into these categories:\n\n1 - OPTIMIZATION\nthese categories are primarily to do with optimizing agent-based systems\n1.0 - AUTOMATION\nreducing the number of high-level agents contributing to a loop\n1.1 - AUTONOMY\nminimum information requirements, from above (or below), for decision making\n\n2 - SECURITY\nthese categories are to do with maintaining borders, minimizing information/resource leakage, in order to maximise useful/desired communication and resource usage. ALSO, see 'persistence'\n2.0 - TRUST/BORDERS\nan important factor to make agents aware of, implicitly or explicitly in order to interact in a world of conflicts, concept of ~DMZs/~MZs comes in here\n2.1 - COOPERATION/AUTHORIZATION/SECURITY\nagents granting eachother authority, highly interoperable agents, granting/refusing requests etc.\n2.2 - COMMUNICATION/INTERFACES\nagents need platforms/media/languages to exchange information through, and service brokers, so that they don't have to know all about the specifics of agents they are using.\n\n3 - CHANGE\nthese categories are about the way the system changes over time.\n3.0 - REDUNDANCY/REPLACEMENT/FAILURE/~DOWN-TIME\nall agents must come to an end eventually, and none should be mission-critical\n3.1 - PERSISTENCE\nsome agents last longer than humans, some last for microseconds simply to fulfil the moment-to-moment needs of other agents: implications in security due to memory effects etc.\n\n4 - (DESIGN) PHILOSOPHY\n4.0 - ORGANISATION\nagents need to be as if they are aware of each other and know when/how to make use of eachother etc, 'overloading functions' concept comes in here. service brokers important.\n4.1 - CLASSIFICATION\nsorting agents into sensible groups to represent systems effectively for design, maintenance, analysis etc. purposes\n4.2 - LIMITS\nrecognising limits allows best/infutile use of agents.\n4.3 - COMPLEXITY\ndesign issue: some systems will want to be chaotic, others will want to be easily understandable, defined, depictable etc.\n4.4 - ETHICS\nless clearly defined boundaries between humans and machines as concerns rights of action etc. responsibilities dictate allowed actions, can machines vote as proxies for humans (and if so, with what level of AUTONOMY?), and when do they get their own voting rights (as it were, decision making is clearly not based entirely on voting)?\n4.5 - MIDDLEMEN\nservice brokers can be 'glue' agents that help the other agents interoperate. they could be disposable agents that simply translate between the interfaces built into the other agents. they could be very simple in systems where the agents were designed with the same interface systems, but would come into their own where foreign systems had to come into contact. issues with security here too.\n

!image\n<html><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/94173153/" title="served by Flickr"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/12/94173153_fb614c24f1.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="airgap" /></a></html>\n!hosted on\n[[deviantART|http://www.deviantart.com/view/5508086/]], [[flickr|http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/94173153/]]\n!description\nbetween the two harddiscs in my computer.

!image\n<html><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/94173877/" title="served by Flickr"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/36/94173877_725c7b55e2.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="algal bloom" /></a></html>\n!hosted on\n[[deviantART|http://www.deviantart.com/view/6830795/]], [[Flickr|http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/94173877/]]\n!description\nwell, perhaps not... but it does show how many times the earth's radius fits around half it's circumference... :)

!image\n<html><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/147530160/" title="served by Flickr"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/45/147530160_5d2e3e68d7.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="all that's left is the mask" /></a></html>\n!hosted on\n[[deviantART|http://www.deviantart.com/view/33371786/]], [[flickr|http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/147530160/]]\n!description\nwhat happens when all that is left of you is the mask you wear? what then?

!image\n<html><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/94519201/" title="served by Flickr"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/29/94519201_e16ac189be.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="all they make is delays" /></a></html>\n!hosted on\n[[deviantART|http://www.deviantart.com/view/6973082/]], [[Flickr|http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/94519201/]]\n!description\ngood old British railways... they get you there, eventually. Of course, not blaming the workers, only their paper-shuffling, money-sucking superiors :D

[[Topics For Future Journals]]\n!2006\n*May\n**[[Thursday 18th|Journal 2006 05 18]] - old rope. (life narrative thoughts from a while back)\n**[[Thursday 11th|Journal 2006 05 11]] - interweaving themes. (life narrative, final camera, musical linguistics, reflex memories, programming game)\n*April\n**[[Monday 24th|Journal 2006 04 24]] - learning. (butterfly effect, etymology, wikipedia reading)\n**[[Sunday 9th|Journal 2006 04 09]] - freeform. (problem solving, medical research, games, intellectual property)\n**[[Monday 3rd|Journal 2006 04 03]] - being human\n*March\n**[[Monday 27th|Journal 2006 03 27]] - loose systems. (flashmobbing, code-snippets, free-coordination)\n**[[Friday 19th|Journal 2006 03 19]] - mind games. (diffraction spikes, dealing with big ideas, inaction from time pressure, the null mind state, creating icons to represent various things)\n**[[Friday 10th|Journal 2006 03 10]] - expression. (Drying myself (a minor reality hack), ~Epsilon-Delta functions, Challenges for IPv2)\n**[[Thursday 9th|Journal 2006 03 09]] - assorted II. (Lost in the Library, My Philosophical Bent, Deeper Time, Escaping From Models, Grappling with Context Dependence, Technological Augmentation, Point Discontinuities, Double-ended Links on the Internet)\n**[[Tuesday 7th|Journal 2006 03 07]] - assorted. (Sutras and Koans, Personal Privacy, Avoiding Writer's Block, Editing Dreams, Pandora.com)\n**[[Friday 3rd|Journal 2006 03 03]] - the UTS.\n**[[Thursday 2nd|Journal 2006 03 02]] - on the personalities and memories aspects of the soul.\n*February\n**[[Monday 13th|Journal 2006 02 13]] - needlecraft.\n**[[Friday 10th|Journal 2006 02 10]] - ideas of utopia.\n**[[Thursday 9th|Journal 2006 02 09]] - getting to know Gandhi.\n**[[Tuesday 7th|Journal 2006 02 07]] - educational insight.\n**[[Saturday 4th|Journal 2006 02 04]] - more knowledge representation.\n*January\n**[[Wednesday 26th|Journal 2006 01 26]] - EPIC 2015\n**[[Monday 16th|Journal 2006 01 16]] - pick a path, any path.\n**[[Thursday 12th|Journal 2006 01 12]] - reality hacking myself.\n**[[Tuesday 10th|Journal 2006 01 10]] - qualia and knowledge and education.\n**[[Friday 6th|Journal 2006 01 06]] - dissociative identity and tiddlywiki advances.\n**[[Tuesday 3rd|Journal 2006 01 03]] - reality hacking.\n!2005\n*December\n**[[Thursday 29th|Journal 2005 12 29]] - why I chose maths\n**[[Wednesday 28th|Journal 2005 12 28]] - ideas about attribution and plagiarism\n**[[Tuesday 27th|Journal 2005 12 27]] - ideas about my education\n**[[Tuesday 20th|Journal 2005 12 20]] - ideas about linking hypertext\n**[[Friday 16th|Journal 2005 12 16]] - me discovering autobiographies\n**[[Tuesday 6th|Journal 2005 12 06]] - me glimpsing the social side of mathematics

!2006\n*June\n**[[Friday 23rd|RecentChanges 2006 06 23]]\n**[[Friday 9th|RecentChanges 2006 06 09]]\n**[[Sunday 4th|RecentChanges 2006 06 04]]\n**[[Saturday 3rd|RecentChanges 2006 06 03]]\n**[[Friday 2nd|RecentChanges 2006 06 02]]\n**[[Thursday 1st|RecentChanges 2006 06 01]]\n*May\n**[[Monday 29th|RecentChanges 2006 05 29]]\n**[[Sunday 28th|RecentChanges 2006 05 28]]\n**[[Saturday 27th|RecentChanges 2006 05 27]]\n**[[Friday 26th|RecentChanges 2006 05 26]]\n**[[Friday 19th|RecentChanges 2006 05 19]]\n**[[Thursday 18th|RecentChanges 2006 05 18]]\n**[[Wednesday 17th|RecentChanges 2006 05 17]]\n**[[Tuesday 16th|RecentChanges 2006 05 16]]\n**[[Sunday 14th|RecentChanges 2006 05 14]]\n**[[Saturday 13th|RecentChanges 2006 05 13]]\n**[[Friday 12th|RecentChanges 2006 05 12]]\n**[[Thursday 11th|RecentChanges 2006 05 11]]\n**[[Wednesday 10th|RecentChanges 2006 05 10]]\n**[[Tuesday 9th|RecentChanges 2006 05 09]]\n**[[Monday 8th|RecentChanges 2006 05 08]]\n**[[Sunday 7th|RecentChanges 2006 05 07]]\n**[[Saturday 6th|RecentChanges 2006 05 06]]\n**[[Friday 5th|RecentChanges 2006 05 05]]\n**[[Thursday 4th|RecentChanges 2006 05 04]]\n**[[Monday 1st|RecentChanges 2006 05 01]]\n*April\n**[[Sunday 30th|RecentChanges 2006 04 30]]\n**[[Saturday 29th|RecentChanges 2006 04 29]]\n**[[Friday 28th|RecentChanges 2006 04 28]]\n**[[Monday 24th|RecentChanges 2006 04 24]]\n**[[Sunday 23rd|RecentChanges 2006 04 23]]\n**[[Saturday 22nd|RecentChanges 2006 04 22]]\n**[[Wednesday 19th|RecentChanges 2006 04 19]]\n**[[Tuesday 18th|RecentChanges 2006 04 18]]\n**[[Monday 17th|RecentChanges 2006 04 17]]\n**[[Saturday 15th|RecentChanges 2006 04 15]]\n**[[Friday 14th|RecentChanges 2006 04 14]]\n**[[Thursday 13th|RecentChanges 2006 04 13]]\n**[[Wednesday 12th|RecentChanges 2006 04 12]]\n**[[Tuesday 11th|RecentChanges 2006 04 11]]\n**[[Sunday 9th|RecentChanges 2006 04 09]]\n**[[Friday 7th|RecentChanges 2006 04 07]]\n**[[Monday 3rd|RecentChanges 2006 04 03]]\n**[[Sunday 2nd|RecentChanges 2006 04 02]]\n*[[January-February|RecentChanges 2006 Q1]]\n!2005\n*[[December|RecentChanges 2005 Q4]]

*a timeless interpretation and fork-point for postmodernism\n*recognises that modernity is an advancing front, and that any attempt at some sort of even remotely persistent and relevant philosophy cannot be founded on such an unstable front, or be so prone to aging.\n*recognises that modernity comprises components of all the past modernities in living, cultural and environmental memory/consciousness.\n*highly aware of 'history repeating': the future is the great unknown, but not that great or that unknown, at least not particularly more so than the past.\n*aware that historical knowledge and knowledge of the future may be gained from the manifestations of historical and future threads in the present, and that the field of future studies could carry as much importance and weight as that of historical studies.\n*rejects idea that civilisations have in practice learnt from past civilisations (in fact, that could be a definition of civilisation: civilisations could be culturally isolated groups of people)\n*advocates the idea that civilisation should not take the collapse of past or present civilisations as a reason not to learn from them, and we should strive to learn from all other civilisations we have any knowledge about.\n*advocates the idea that we should strive to learn from 'future civilisations' (horizon scanning), and thus contribute to enabling humanity to take control of its destiny, in whatever shape that may take (rather than being prey to the whims of whatever incidental control structures happen to be at the surface of the chaotic soup at the time).\n*advocates the idea that there could be levels of human organisation above the civilisation, and that we should take part in them if possible: that information can be transmitted between civilisations, and if possible the boundaries between civilisations, spatial or temporal, should be understood and broken down where ethical and possible.\nIn summary\n*amodernism is an interpretation of existence that takes a skeptical attitude to the idea of the linear progression of time, and instead prefers to focus on more complex structures, and even time independent models of existence (pastless and futureless models, and/or models where the past/future carry no ontological commitment: they are merely convenient labels for aspects of the present).

!image\n<html><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/94609557/" title="served by Flickr"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/24/94609557_8e47278221.jpg" width="380" height="500" alt="an extended farewell" /></a></html>\n!hosted on\n[[deviantART|http://www.deviantart.com/view/15886096/]], [[Flickr|http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/94609557/]]\n!description\nafter much consumption of tasty food we lingered for a while at this accommodating traffic island exchanging various nuggets of priceless information before finally moving off in our various directions, like petals of a strange concrete and human flower opening and wafting away on the wind.

path:\n*loose idea of sets, and operations on sets\n*introduction of natural numbers and construction of integers, rationals, reals (cuts of rationals)\n*exploration of properties of 1-d spaces (analysis 1)\n*exploration of properties of n-d spaces (analysis 2) including heavy emphasis on metric spaces

!image\n<html><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/94519498/" title="(served by Flickr)"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/41/94519498_acb7ab09f3.jpg" width="371" height="500" alt="and they said goodbye" /></a></html>\n!hosted on\n[[deviantART|http://www.deviantart.com/view/7925170/]], [[Flickr|http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/94519498/]]\n!description\nand no... this isn't a warning against the health hazards of smoking. that would just be.... ... see if you can think of another interpretation... :)

!Definition\n*Angles are a measure of rotation.\n!Metrics\n*Radians [[radian]] - there are 2 [[pi]] radians in a complete revolution.\n*Degrees [[degrees]] - there are 360 degrees in a complete revolution.

!Inverse Trig\nInverse trig functions provided in most programming environments only return primary angles, so here is one extension:\n*Find the anti-clockwise angle between the half-line joining a point (x,y) to the origin, and the half-line represented by the positive x-axis. The rationale is as follows:\n**Does the point fall on any of the axes? If yes, then find which trival answer is the right one. If no, then work out the angle in a right-angled triangle, then apply adjustments according to the quadrant the point is in.\n**The routine is designed so that the simplest cases are eliminated as efficiently as possible before working required for less simple cases is done.\n{{{\nfunction angle(x,y) {\n if (x==0) {\n if (y==0) { return undefined }\n else {\n if (y>0) { return half pi } else { return three halves pi }\n }\n }\n else {\n if (y==0) {\n if (x>0) { return zero } else { return pi }\n }\n else {\n var adj = absolute(x);\n var opp = absolute(y);\n var angle = arctan(opp/adj);\n if (x>0) {\n if (y>0) { return angle } else { return 2pi - angle }\n }\n else {\n if (y>0) { return pi - angle } else { return pi + angle }\n }\n }\n }\n }\n}}}

!image\n<html><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/113309114/" title="served by Flickr"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/50/113309114_4590ffaa6d.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="ant trail" /></a></html>\n!hosted on\n[[deviantART|http://www.deviantart.com/view/30438193/]], [[Flickr|http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/113309114/]]\n!description\nbut unlike ants, we cover the ground in tarmac first.

!image\n<html><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/90598687/" title="served by Flickr"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/11/90598687_77f1ae407b.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="even liquid can trip up" /></a></html>\n!hosted on\n[[deviantART|http://www.deviantart.com/view/4757461/]], [[Flickr|http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/90598687/]] (called 'even liquid can trip up' on Flickr)\n!description\nthis was shot on a gorgeous little beach in the Scottish Outer Hebrides.

[img[emergency entrance|thumbs/emergencyentrance.jpg][emergency entrance (photo)]] [img[no entry|thumbs/noentry.jpg][no entry (photo)]] [img[do not dispose of in fire|thumbs/donotdisposeofinfire.jpg][do not dispose of in fire (photo)]] [img[lifeless|thumbs/lifeless.jpg][lifeless (photo)]] [img[overcooked pub|thumbs/overcookedpub.jpg][overcooked pub (photo)]] [img[palace of the brute|thumbs/palaceofthebrute.jpg][palace of the brute (photo)]] [img[noir architecture|thumbs/noirarchitecture.jpg][noir architecture (photo)]] [img[all that's left is the mask|thumbs/allthatsleft.jpg][all that's left is the mask (photo)]] [img[space platforms|thumbs/spaceplatforms.jpg][space platforms (photo)]] [img[constructive destruction|thumbs/constructivedestruction.jpg][constructive destruction (photo)]] [img[a dramatic operation|thumbs/dramatic.jpg][a dramatic operation (photo)]] [img[fixing yer face|thumbs/fixingyerface.jpg][fixing yer face (photo)]] [img[skew-wiff|thumbs/skewwiff.jpg][skew-wiff (photo)]] [img[high and dry|thumbs/highanddry.jpg][high and dry (photo)]] [img[gateway|thumbs/gateway.jpg][gateway (photo)]] [img[vanishing point|thumbs/vanishingpoint.jpg][vanishing point (photo)]] [img[don't jump|thumbs/dontjump.jpg][don't jump (photo)]] [img[tension circuit|thumbs/tensioncircuit.jpg][tension circuit (photo)]] [img[tug of war|thumbs/tugofwar.jpg][tug of war (photo)]] [img[a nod in greeting|thumbs/nodingreeting.jpg][a nod in greeting (photo)]] [img[the eager street lamp|thumbs/eagerlamp.jpg][the eager street lamp (photo)]] [img[the wall|thumbs/thewall.jpg][the wall (photo)]] [img[a dose of daylight|thumbs/adoseofdaylight.jpg][a dose of daylight (photo)]] [img[big cheese|thumbs/cheese.jpg][big cheese (photo)]] [img[a variety of roofs|thumbs/avarietyofroofs.jpg][a variety of roofs (photo)]] [img[bow down to the termites|thumbs/bowdowntothetermites.jpg][bow down to the termites (photo)]] [img[pictures the marlboro|thumbs/picturesthemarlboro.jpg][pictures the marlboro (photo)]]

!image\n<html><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/94172983/" title="served by Flickr"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/30/94172983_60f098b7ea.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="archway" /></a></html>\n!hosted on\n[[deviantART|http://www.deviantart.com/view/5489038/]], [[Flickr|http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/94172983/]]\n!description\n for some reason the foreground cables remind me of one of those old whalebone arches...

*A quantity affecting the result of a [[function]].

!Circular tape\nA lot of events don't automatically report histories, which are often useful. For example, it's often good to know where a mouse pointer has been, as well as where it is now, or what keystrokes were committed immediately prior to the most recent one.\n*Add a data item to an array (representing the circular tape), and return the overwritten item. The rationale is as follows:\n**{{{history[0]}}} stores the index of the most recently added data item.\n**advance {{{history[0]}}} by one in order to get to the oldest data item. If this is beyond the end of the array, wrap around to the beginning (the circular tape aspect).\n**store the oldest item in a temporary location, ready to return it.\n**store the supplied item in place of the old one (the circular tape eating its own tail).\n**return the erased item, either for junking or to be stored in a log somewhere.\n{{{\nfunction newdata(newitem,history) {\n if (history[0]<1) history[0] = 1;\n history[0]++;\n if (history[0]>history.length-1) history[0] = 1;\n eraseditem = history[history[0]];\n history[history[0]] = newitem;\n return eraseditem;\n }\n}}}\n*Retrieve a data item from a circular array {{{history}}}, at an {{{offset}}} from the current position ({{{history[0]}}}) in the array. The rationale is as follows:\n**{{{pos}}} is the position in the 'virtual' array, as the true array is one too large, due to the position marker in slot 0.\n**{{{max}}} is the maximum value of the virtual array. (-1 to account for the position marker, -1 to account for zero-basedness)\n**{{{offset}}} is then reduced to a value within the width of the virtual array using the remained function {{{%}}}.\n**the position is then advanced by the offset, and adjusted to make sure it falls within the range 0-max\n**the value is then returned (+1 to account for the position marker in the real array)\n{{{\nfunction getitem(offset,history) {\n var pos = history[0]-1; var max = history.length-2;\n offset = offset % (max+1);\n pos+=offset;\n if (pos>max) pos -= max;\n if (pos<0) pos += max;\n return history[pos+1];\n }\n}}}

!image\n<html><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/94173356/" title="served by Flickr"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/35/94173356_2b041a6f26.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="artificial arteries" /></a></html>\n!hosted on\n[[deviantART|http://www.deviantart.com/view/5508142/]], [[flickr|http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/94173356/]]\n!description\nagain, the inside of my computer. the levels are all changed because the original was so underexposed...

!image\n<html><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/94574919/" title="served by Flickr"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/27/94574919_00577107b3.jpg" width="500" height="343" alt="artistic nude" /></a></html>\n!hosted on\n[[deviantART|http://www.deviantart.com/view/9849614/]], [[Flickr|http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/94574919/]]\n!description\nbut for our meccano man, who has never worn a scrap of clothing in his life, these games are but a curious diversion.

*defend against a hand attack to jodan by dodging backwards and kicking.\n!Steps\n*start in kokutsu dachi (weight on back leg).\n*as soon as gyaku zuki is on its way, roll body backwards, blocking kinteki with shita uke and attacking the opponent's chudan with jun geri.

Starting an explicitly autobiographical resource should help me become aware of my life narrative better, and allow me (and others?) to learn from my actions in a concretely interesting new way. And allow me to explore ideas of personal privacy more immediately too.\n!chronology\n*stories i've heard about me as a baby/small-child\n*earliest memories\n*young childhood\n*later childhood\n*teenage years\n!areas of my life\n*immediate/family\n*environments\n**school/s\n**habitations\n**india\n*'academic'\n**computing\n**reading\n**maths\n*interactions with peers\n**differences from other kids\n**friends\n**non-friends

preload the copy-paste mechanism with several buffers, so that each successive paste action pastes the next buffer in the queue. This would require a clipboard manager to choose between clipboard behaviours, allowing the possibility of many clipboard behaviours.

!image\n[img[backwards movie|thumbs/backwardsmovie.jpg]]\n!hosted on\n[[deviantART|http://www.deviantart.com/view/10812713/]]\n!description\n(closest fitting gallery i could find... if you have other ideas... let me know!)\nthis is an animated GIF made from continuous drive digital photography taken from a car passenger seat. we were overtaking the tanker, but it doesn't make any less sense running the movie the other way. i wonder how many other things we do in life would look just as ordinary run backwards as forwards?\n\nNB - to get the animation just hit the 'download deviation' button just underneath the picture... it should just open another browser window with the GIF displayed.

!image\n<html><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/144967422/" title="served by Flickr"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/47/144967422_65415d378d.jpg" width="500" height="88" alt="behind bars" /></a></html>\n!hosted on\n[[Flickr|http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/144967422/]]\n!description\nbut on which side lies freedom? :o

!image\n<html><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/140716506/" title="served by Flickr"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/47/140716506_ffaf8ea528.jpg" width="500" height="372" alt="being a good consumer" /></a></html>\n!hosted on\n[[deviantART|http://www.deviantart.com/view/32833285/]], [[flickr|http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/140716506/]]\n!description\nisn't that what we should all aspire to be?

!image\n<html><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/106377319/" title="served by Flickr"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/19/106377319_0359b4da79.jpg" width="435" height="500" alt="big cheese" /></a></html>\n!hosted on\n[[deviantART|http://www.deviantart.com/view/28433930/]], [[Flickr|http://www.flickr.com/photos/conskeptical/106377319/]]\n!description\nphotographed this on my way to the land where time and space have no meaning (Ikea). It's almost as if they just plopped it down here and are just getting ready to take the wrapping off... In the winter sun it looked very good.

*A [[function]] giving a one-to-one [[mapping|relation]] between two sets.\n----\n*If a function is both a [[surjection]] and an [[injection]], then it is an bijection.

[img[feed me please|thumbs/feedmeplease.jpg][feed me please (photo)]] [img[fishing for a bite|thumbs/fishingforabite.jpg][fishing for a bite (photo)]] [img[the mirror dance|thumbs/themirrordance.jpg][the mirror dance (photo)]] [img[fast food fast vermin|thumbs/fastfoodfastvermin.jpg][fast food fast vermin (photo)]]

*The blackboard bold characters are usually members of the [[Roman alphabet]] written with some or ma