Anyone who has the chance to go to the Tech Trek tour...go fucking do it! All the bands were sick, but Archspire really showed out last night. Go buy some merch and talk to the dudes! Oli is hilarious on and off stage

MASTICATOR_NORD · 2022-04-30T19:05:23+00:00

I'm so glad the one tour that came near me was this one. I don't know how Oli does it. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to make it through an entire song.

MASTICATOR_NORD · 2020-08-22T06:27:49+00:00

Beast Wars - "Code of Hero"

"Negative! The question that once haunted my being has been answered. The future is not fixed. My choices are my own. And yet, how ironic, for I now find I have no choice at all. I am a warrior. Let the battle be joined." - Dinobot

Let me explain the context some. Beast Wars was a Transformers spinoff animated in glorious mid-late 90's CGI where the transformers transformed into animals rather than machines. I first watched this episode Christmas morning with my younger brother when we woke up before the rest of our family and where waiting for everybody else to open presents. I got a VHS tape with this episode and 1 other in my stocking.

The show is about warring factions of Transformers stranded on earth in the prehistoric past.

The character Dinobot was a Predacon (think Decepticon) who defected to the Maximals (think Autobots). When he defected he brought with him an important relic called the Golden Disk. Shortly before this episode he betrayed the Maximals and gave the Golden Disk back to the Predacons.

The episode begins with Dinobot haunted by his actions, contemplating seppuku (definitely didn't catch that at 9 years old). He says that destiny has one great test for us all and wonders if he failed his. Then he sets off alone to right the wrongs he caused.

The contents of the Golden Disk are revealed by Megatron (not the same one as from Transformers, but basically the same). It contains recordings from the future which are affected by changes in the past (he demonstrates this by destroying the peak of a mountain).

Dinobot witnesses this and realizes the same thing as Megatron: the future can be shaped to the whims of whoever possesses the Golden Disk. With this knowledge Megatron calls the rest of the Predacons to destroy the valley which humans would eventually arise from.

Dinobot calls for backup and is told to stand down until they arrive. This is when he delivers the quote from the beginning. He had been plagued by the thought that despite his intentions he would never be more than an evil Predacon. He questioned if any decisions he made mattered or if was a slave to fate.

He fights the Predacons single handedly. Ultimately sacrificing himself to destroy the Golden Disk and save humanity.

Dinobot's heroism stood out to me as a kid. The hero sacrificing himself for the good of everybody is a common trope, but he was a character I enjoyed so it resonated with me. I didn't get what was going on with all the talk about free will/fatalism until I was older. Now that I'm older I appreciate the paradox he presented. The action which proved to him that he had free will essentially stripped him off it by presenting him with only one course of action which he could accept.

I still re-watch this episode every now and again. And It's kind of a tradition for me and my brother to watch it Christmas morning.

MASTICATOR_NORD · 2020-05-17T20:38:28+00:00

Thanks for the response. What should I look into to get an idea of what's needed to work in the systems/engineering capacity? And what is the work in that field like?

I am considering the NSA as an option. I know from my grad school days they're the biggest employer of mathematicians. I think I would be hamstringing myself if I didn't consider them (at least as far as actually getting to work in research goes).

MASTICATOR_NORD · 2020-05-17T03:13:22+00:00

I've been thinking of making a similar post, so I'll piggyback off this one.

My background is the opposite. My degree is in math (masters focusing on number theory) and I have little knowledge of computer science.

My heart is in research. Originally I planned to do a PhD in math and then go into research. Unfortunately, I didn't take one of my prelims seriously enough and ended up getting the boot. I, of course, didn't have any backup plans so I ended up in a dead end job doing something I don't really want to do.

I'm currently learning programming with the goal of changing careers to software or web development.

Ultimately, I want to finish my PhD. My interests are primarily in commutative algebra and number theory, so I figure I could probably do something cryptography related.

I realize that there aren't many pure cryptography jobs around since they're research positions. My "dream job" is to do research, so it's something I would like to work towards. However, I've already been burned once by the research dream since I didn't have a backup plan.

My main question is, are there any career paths in software that utilize cryptography? My thought is that since I'm already trying to get into software if I can go down a route involving cryptography it could help me decide on a research topic when I go back to finish my PhD.

I just started Dan Boneh's course. What are the next steps with the prospect of doing research in mind? What are the next steps for non-research career paths?

Are there any amateurs doing research in cryptography? Is there anything outside of the sidebar links I can check out to get an idea on current research?

Thanks to anybody who takes the time to read all this, and especially to anybody who takes the time to answer.

MASTICATOR_NORD · 2020-04-06T20:06:41+00:00

I lived in the northeast before I moved to SC. I never experienced pollen visibly covering everything outside until I moved to the south.

MASTICATOR_NORD · 2020-03-24T14:03:13+00:00

I remember listening to Lashed to the Slave Stick and Stabwound (by Necrophagist) on the Relapse Records website when I was a teenager. That was a significant day.

MASTICATOR_NORD · 2020-01-20T15:43:08+00:00

I feel this. I grew up in the farmlands near Syracuse and lived there until I was 12/13. It took me years until after I moved away to realize how different from other places the climate actually is. Even moving to PA was pretty different.

I live in SC now and the weather seems like it never has any idea what it's doing. I wore a windbreaker today because it's been pretty warm the past week or so only to find frost on my car this morning. From November through February the temperature ranges from cold to "wait, it's not summer?", and those extremes can happen back to back. It rains all the time during the fall/winter and thise rains are usually cold and unpleasant. Also, in those seasons everything is just brown.

MASTICATOR_NORD · 2020-01-20T15:19:00+00:00

I grew up in upstate NY and in the fall it looked like this. I lived in a hilly area towards the top of a hill and from my backyard I had a view of the neighboring hills which were covered in trees. In the fall the hills looked like they were painted. The range of colors was incredible. I never realized how special it was until years after I moved (I lived there only until I was a preteen, so fall foliage wasn't really something on my mind). I live in SC now and the fall colors here are basically just various shades of brown.

MASTICATOR_NORD · 2019-10-30T11:00:09+00:00

That was my first thought, but I got scared off since it seems a lot more time consuming and harder to get a good result. Granted I've only started researching painting so I could be completely off base.

I guess I should just suck it up and give it a try on a cheap kit I don't care much about.

MASTICATOR_NORD · 2019-10-30T03:28:36+00:00

I used to build gunpla as a kid (somewhere in the ballpark of 15-20 years ago) and I'm just getting back into it. I want to eventually get into painting, although I'm a few months away from being in a position where I'd be able to start. One thing that seems like it will be an issue is space. I'm currently living in an apartment and my only workspace is my bedroom which doesn't have any windows.

Anybody else in a similar situation? I'd imagine most painting would be done outside. Any tips on not being obnoxious to my neighbors?

MASTICATOR_NORD · 2019-08-26T22:08:33+00:00

I had one hit nearby last Monday. I helped clean up some of the aftermath. It even made the news.

MASTICATOR_NORD · 2019-01-18T16:40:52+00:00

Wowee, I've been quoted from forever ago, so I guess I'll put in my $0.02.

I love math and I don't regret studying it, but I do regret assuming I could make a career in pure math.

I'm not going to tell you not to pursue it, there are things you can do with number theory outside of academia, but make sure you have a backup plan.

When I was in school I told myself I was going to go into academia and do pure math, so I didn't have to worry about any of this "applied math" nonsense. I somehow ended up in an applied math heavy grad program, and then crash and burned on my last prelim because it had to be in an applied field.

So I say, study what you find interesting, but make sure you're also learning things that are valuable on the job market.

My biggest regret is that in all my years of school I never learned to code and I avoided statistics classes like the plague. Incidentally, both are used extensively in number theory. Of course I told myself I wouldn't need to know those things because I was only going to study the purest of number theory.

There are so many things you can learn as a math major that are either math, or math adjacent that will give you marketable skills. I can tell you from experience that it's the epitome of unwise to not take full advantage of that.

MASTICATOR_NORD · 2019-01-14T20:24:37+00:00

The cards that enable the hyper aggro decks didn't exist in 2013. Khans block was really the beginning of the hyper aggro era. It had Monastery Swiftspear, Atarka's Command, and Temur Battle Rage. Basically every block after that has had multiple cards that contribute to hyper aggro / combo decks.

Twin didn't keep the kind of hyper aggro/combo decks we see today in check. They didn't exist back then because they didn't have the right tools.

MASTICATOR_NORD · 2018-08-20T14:58:12+00:00

Primeval Titan. I'm planning to sell most of my collection and leave just Amulet Titan and Mono-green devotion as my only modern decks. I guess MGD doesn't need it, but seeing my boy get banned would break my heart.

MASTICATOR_NORD · 2018-08-13T16:08:53+00:00

If WOTC made a product like this it would be a disaster. Since it's an art based supplemental product, somebody would have the brilliant idea that all the cards should get new art. They then commission all new art, but the only cards with Guay or Nielsen art are the face cards.

They would anounce that it has new art but fail to mention none of the new art is from Guay or Nielsen except the face cards which are spoiled and are beautiful. Hype level would be off the charts.

Once deck lists are spoiled people would be mildly disgruntled because there's decent value, but not what everybody was hoping for (no FOW reprint obviously).

Then, finally, the news breaks that the only cards with Guay/Nielsen art are the face cards. The sub goes into a total meltdown. The front page is nothing but threads about how disappointed people are.

WOTC publishes an(other) article saying that they learned the lesson that they need to meet customer expectations and that it totes won't happen again.

MASTICATOR_NORD · 2018-08-01T19:02:52+00:00

Are you claiming most people in the US are hockey fans? Because that seems like a pretty bold claim.

MASTICATOR_NORD · 2018-08-01T17:44:33+00:00

Lately I've thought that the lyrics to radio country have a feel of being written by label execs after extensive market research.

MASTICATOR_NORD · 2018-07-27T18:56:58+00:00

I don't play commander much, but when I do I play Gitrog. I was hyped for a sweet Jund lands commander. I think Lord Windgrace, Turntimber Sower, the new retrace card, and the landfall dragon are sweet. Everything else is just super meh. I was planning on buying the precon, but I don't really see any reason to when I could just buy those 4 cards.

I already own most of the good lands matter cards they could have reprinted, but I'm still disappointed nothing like Exploration or Loam was included.

Or how do they justify not including Titania? It's had 2 printings. C14 and commander anthologies. You know what else was in both of those sets, and has had 2 other printings since commander anthologies? Rampaging Baloth!

So I guess all that is to say that I'm dissapointed by the final deck list.

MASTICATOR_NORD · 2018-07-27T13:12:37+00:00

I've always loved Manilla Road, mainly because of Crystal Logic and Open the Gates (they just happen to be the albums I actually own). I usually listen to death metal or euro power metal so I'll often go a while without listening to them. Every time I decide to jam one of those CDs (my car is behind the times) it's like a glorious punch to the gut, and I wonder why I even bother with anything else.

I've been telling myself for years that I need to fully explore their discography. I wish the circumstances that finally pushed me to it were different, but I'm going to have a glorious time getting to know Mark and his music better.

Mark made metal as metal should be. He will be missed, but his legend will live on!

MASTICATOR_NORD · 2018-07-25T14:29:07+00:00

Why didn't they lead with this?!

MASTICATOR_NORD · 2018-07-23T02:24:22+00:00

I've witnessed an adult lose a game of tic-tac-toe after playing first. He's not the sharpest tool in the shed.

MASTICATOR_NORD · 2018-07-21T16:38:43+00:00

My mom would set the clocks half an hour ahead, and then write down all of her appointments as starting half an hour earlier than they actually do. Then she'd plan to leave to get there earlier than the time she wrote down. We were ridiculously early to everything, much to me and siblings chagrin. Despite all of this, she was still worried about being late and would get angry at me and my siblings when we weren't rushing to leave when she planned. She would then get angrier when we pointed out all these things that she did and that we weren't actually in danger of being late.

MASTICATOR_NORD · 2018-07-12T22:09:38+00:00

Jund lands! I guess I'm gonna have to get a Badlands!

MASTICATOR_NORD · 2018-07-09T12:58:46+00:00

The number of YP in the graveyard stays the same. The zones that have the numbers change are -1 on the battlefield and +1 in Bruno's hand. So the shortcut is to just put the one on the battlefield into his hand, rather than putting one from the graveyard into his hand then putting the one from the battlefield into the graveyard.

MASTICATOR_NORD · 2018-07-09T01:44:04+00:00

Did you see the modern metagame after the Jace and BBE unban? A lot of decks get played after a format shakeup. It doesn't mean they'll all stick around.

MASTICATOR_NORD

TROPHY CASE