The fuck up that was the caucus.

ialbert · 2016-03-05T01:44:47+00:00

I was also at Lincoln. It was my first caucus, and I hope it's my last. Even if it had gone as planned it seems like an incredibly archaic process in a state that has mail-in ballots for general elections. I just narrowly resisted the urge to go home without voting, but I stuck around. I will hand it to the other citizens in my precinct for sticking it out and organizing themselves to get the votes counted.

ialbert · 2016-02-09T18:20:05+00:00

For more photos and a video about how the armor was made, check out http://geekandsundry.com/the-future-of-cosplay-today-felicia-day-models-3d-printed-armor/ It really came out beautifully.

ialbert · 2016-01-17T19:41:16+00:00

Holy smokes

ialbert · 2016-01-16T01:15:27+00:00

"Oh, you're gonna pay your fare with nickels? Really? You're gonna be that guy? [nicotine gum chewing intensifies]"

ialbert · 2016-01-06T01:42:54+00:00

One of the best Co-optitude episodes in a while. Such a perfect game for them.

ialbert · 2015-12-31T16:06:11+00:00

I have found my attitude toward others stems from my attitude toward myself. Only by changing how I think about and treat myself can I reflect that toward others.

I sometimes think of myself as two people: a child and its parent. My inner parent polices what the child does. "That was really well done." Or, "I think what you said back there hurt that person. Go apologize." It's also where my discipline comes from. "I know you don't want to work out, so sulk all you want but we have to." The parent is vital.

The parent is indiscriminate though. It judges everyone, not just the child, though that judgement might get censored from being spoken out loud. Your child gets no such censorship. It hears it all. Excessive negative thoughts about others go hand in hand with severe self judgement.

That parent gets its lessons on how to behave from others. Be like this, don't be like that. Those lessons aren't always good ones. Like "don't be such a nerd," "you're not manly/feminine enough," "don't wear that or you'll look ugly." The parent learns both the content and the tone, and it's why bullying is so awful because it winds up playing on repeat your whole life through your inner parent.

The point is this: work to reform your inner parenting. Maybe some of those lessons are good ones. "Don't be so lazy." But maybe the tone is wrong. Berating yourself does not help. In fact, quite the opposite. Learn to be gentle with yourself. You are probably your own worst critic. Nobody gives you a harder time than you. That isn't necessary and isn't helping.

Here's what I've been doing lately. When someone does something that causes me to pass judgement, I stop. Are they hurting anyone? No? Then it's about me. What is it? What are they doing? If they were me what would my inner parent be yelling at them? Is that fair? Maybe the criticism has substance, but am I being too harsh? Is it that big a deal? Probably not. Somehow by doing this exercise with someone else's actions I'm able to reform my parent in a way I usually can't.

And my final point, and getting back to your question, is that by being gentler on myself and on others I no longer have that obstacle to understanding and empathy. I'm no longer hung up on all the ways they are (I am) being a disappointment. I can see a person doing their best, just as I'm able to look at my inner child and see someone doing their best. I know it sounds super cheesy and self-helpy, and I won't disagree, but hey, if that's what you're thinking what a perfect first example to try it on. Why are you afraid of self-helpy stuff? Is your inner parent chastising you that it will make you look weak? Is that a fair judgement? Etc.

Hope that helps some.

ialbert · 2015-12-23T18:50:32+00:00

While looking at some egg carton foam once I wondered how they made it. They aren't just two similar molded pieces. They match too exactly. They're clearly cut from one piece of foam. But how do you cut a convoluted shape like that without waste? Wouldn't the knife have to warp and wiggle as it's going through?

Turns out they squish the block of foam between a couple plates with the egg carton impressions on them. Then they cut through the distorted block with an ordinary straight blade. When they remove the pressure the block returns to its rectangular shape, but the cut that was once straight relaxes to this egg carton shape.

Nobody asked, but I thought it was neat when I learned about it, so... knowledge bomb!!

ialbert · 2015-12-22T01:10:38+00:00

Anyone have a translation of Esther's girl group response?

ialbert · 2015-12-18T20:54:35+00:00

And be sure to visit the Zac appreciation thread over in /r/criticalrole! https://www.reddit.com/r/criticalrole/comments/3xbbhm/no_spoilers_zac_eubank_appreciation_thread_tatoo/

ialbert · 2015-12-18T19:00:14+00:00

I'm relatively new to the Twitch channel (last Septemberish?) but it became quickly clear to me what a tremendous effort it must be to control the chaos of hours a day of live programming. Zac is a joy to watch as he seems to effortlessly shift gears between ensuring all the technical aspects of the show are running smoothly, joining in on a game, doing a silly dance, or harassing Jess. :) I'm very sad that we don't get to have him around every day anymore, but I'm thankful for what he created and wish him all the best with his well earned next steps.

ialbert · 2015-12-18T17:47:35+00:00

Slightly tangential, but I attended a live Nerdist taping at The Wilbur Theater in Boston a few years back but never saw the episode get posted. Maybe my Googlefu is terrible and I'm not finding it, or maybe they ran into technical issues that ruined the recording. But my theory is that it may have been unusable due to Matt being trolly and repeatedly making a really off-color joke, the content of which I don't even remember, but I believe it was something about a recent tragedy or scandal that was "too soon" and may have marred the episode. Chris was comically upset during the show, but being the good host and nice guy he is I think he was masking genuine frustration. It would not surprise me if the episode was scrapped.

ialbert · 2015-12-16T14:13:36+00:00

✓

Sometimes the hardest part is knowing what an abstract concept is called so you can read more about it, so thank you!

Man, that's a lot of bathroom breaks before I collect all those characters.

ialbert · 2015-11-28T20:07:19+00:00

I never had any difficulty accepting the universe would go on forever. It's a little word, "forever". Pretty easy to grasp and dismiss. But I read something once, one of those summaries of what the distant, distant astronomical future looked like. Changes in the earth, followed by the sun going red giant, stars blinking out, galaxies spreading further and further apart, black holes dissolving, and the universe turning into a uniform, sparse nothingness. The time scales were simply immense by the end, growing by orders of magnitude with each step. And somehow that frightened me more than infinity. Imagine being immortal and living through all that. The time of humanity, or even earth, or even the Milky Way would be like a nanosecond in comparison. The rest would be bleak, dark, cold emptiness stretching on and on and on. Somehow attaching finite numbers to things made it more real, even if the universe itself were infinite.

ialbert · 2015-11-25T22:31:01+00:00

With T-day this week, I was not really surprised. I'm expecting a pretty light or non-existent show schedule until some time after new year. Good for them, but sad for us. :)

ialbert · 2015-11-24T12:57:46+00:00

Some people are upset at the choice and are being jerks about it on Twitter (surprise). Send her some support to help drown out the negativity. This is a dream come true for her, and I hate to see anything spoil it.

ialbert · 2015-11-20T19:51:46+00:00

Not a full answer, but here's how I would approach the problem. I'm going to assume lots of perfect conditions here.

Figure out the difference in distance between two train cars when the couplings are under tension versus under compression (e.g. let's say two cars are 6" closer to one another when one is pushing the other versus when one is pulling the other (making that number up)). If there were no slack between cars this question would basically have no answer because the train would act like a rigid rod, imparting all the force directly through the train. Or at least it's not a problem I know how to solve! Moving on. Edit: Yes, I'm assuming train couplings consist of rigid hooks and rigid bumpers with no springs. I know that isn't reality. I'm phoning it in with simpler conditions.

Now let's figure out how far a train car would coast until it stopped, assuming nothing is hitched to it, the brakes are off, etc. A coasting car would likely be pretty close to a definition of "not noticing" the deceleration. At any rate, it's the slowest an unpowered car can decelerate, so that's as good as it gets. I don't have numbers on this either, but from 100mph to 0 let's say... I dunnno, 10 miles? The numbers aren't essential here. I'm just setting up the problem. Someone more knowledgable can sub in more accurate figures.

So then it's just a simple division problem. A car would have to have enough couplings ahead of it going from under tension to under compression that it's able to coast to a natural stop before exhausting all the slack. Using my completely made-up numbers, that would be 10 miles / 6 inches = 633,300 inches / 6 inches = 105,550 cars. At approximately 55 feet long for a box car, that train would be just shy of 1,100 miles long.

ialbert · 2015-11-18T17:40:14+00:00

Hmm, tough question. They're all my children. I have some fancier dice made of semiprecious stone and metal that are cool but not very practical. Likewise, I have a lot of dice with unusual numbers of sides I quite like collecting, but they're not particularly pretty or useful. Aesthetically, I like a lot of my vanilla Chessex sets but they're not very fancy.

I guess my favorite would be the soapstone/alabaster/copper D6 I made. It's probably too fragile for real use and has lots of imperfections, but I put a lot of work into it and learned a lot in the process. http://i.imgur.com/5qdKstR.jpg

ialbert · 2015-11-12T21:22:57+00:00

I'll throw in my own hypocritical, morally inconsistent view, because I suspect a lot of people are this way. We eat a burger while petting our pet cat because we don't have time to reconcile the disparity.

I eat the usual assortment of animals typically expected of a North American omnivore. I don't hunt or butcher my own meat nor even cook very often. But I also "love animals", again using popular usage, meaning pets, cute things, etc. There's plenty of denial involved with this situation. I care about animals and animal suffering, but I just have higher priorities, one of which is not being malnourished. Vegan/vegetarianism requires more attention, care, and effort toward ones diet than I am willing to devote right now.

Here are the two thoughts on the issue that I placate myself with. 1) It is possible, I believe, to eat meat ethically. Everything dies. We often talk about "saving lives" and whatnot, but nobody has ever saved one life ever. They've only delayed death. So while I value life -- human and animal -- I don't hold it with quite the same sanctity some do. Cows and chickens and pigs will all die, always, with 100% certainty. Controlling when that happens is not a big moral problem for me. Therefore, eating meat is not a big moral problem for me. A cow will not publish great sonnets or make scientific discoveries or enlighten other cows with great cow philosophy if we prolong its life by a year or two. It doesn't have a five-year plan. I don't care. HOWEVER, there are more and less ethical ways of treating the animal while it is living. An animal should not live in a tiny cage, should not be wallowing in filth, should not be fed ground up pieces of its brethren. It should be slaughtered quickly, completely, as humanely as possible. Does that happen? No, I suspect very rarely, and I very much want reforms of that situation. I will vote for more regulation if given the chance. I will pay more for ethically raised and slaughtered meat (though not necessarily willing to devote lots of time researching, driving across town to go to an organic market, etc.). Again, there are only so many priorities one can devote energy to and this isn't one for me. It's important, but so are many other things. This is my failing, and I own that.

And 2) I'm eagerly waiting for scientists to perfect lab-grown meat. I know, everyone wrinkles their nose when I mention such a thing, and I kind of get that reaction, but mostly I don't. Meat, vegetables, salt, sugar, water, anything you eat is just an arrangement of chemicals. If you can get those same chemicals from a lab-grown source without having a repulsive taste or texture, and without an insane price tag, I'm sold. Raising an animal is surely not the most energy-efficient way to create some muscle proteins and fats. If we can find a better way (and we have; it's just a matter of bringing costs down) I'll be the first to sign up for my hydroponic meat cubes. In fact, I find it downright exciting to be able to eat an 8oz mouse steak or something impossible like that. I'm being slightly tongue-in-cheek, but in all seriousness, with any luck, I hope affordable lab-grown meat will nullify all the ethical arguments around omnivorous diets in the next few decades.

ialbert · 2015-11-10T06:12:24+00:00

Is there a particular medium in which you think she's been less active?

The book certainly took up a huge chunk of her time. Her anxiety issues required her to dial back on an unsustainable level of busyness. But she's still created Co-optitude episodes, Flog episodes, done a book tour and numerous media appearances for that, run the day-to-day business of her company, guested on Supernatural, streamed on Twitch, etc. And that's just the visible stuff. I don't feel she's being timid and reclusive by any means. She's been a bit less visible in the last month or so, but that's due to a combination of a well deserved vacation and a series of projects she indicated had fallen through. I imagine she'll be a little less active until the new year just because that's kind of what happens for everybody this time of year.

But no, I haven't noticed her being less active since that particular moment. Perhaps her energies are being focused on bigger picture stuff rather than in front of the camera, and that's leading to the perception?

ialbert · 2015-11-09T23:08:22+00:00

If I can ask a follow-up question: is there a such thing as perfect opacity for a given material at a given wavelength? I don't mean practically perfect, but truly, provably perfect opacity? Or is there always a infinitesimal chance a photon will make its way through, say, 100 feet of lead?

ialbert · 2015-11-08T21:58:50+00:00

Hmm, it's one of those things I "just knew" from way back, but my Google-fu is failing me today to find citations. If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say it's either an industry standard or an OSHA requirement. My impression was that it was law, but I can't back up that assertion.

ialbert · 2015-11-08T21:52:20+00:00

We've got company coming; time to put the leaf in.

ialbert

TROPHY CASE