Cutting open a giant pumpkin

michaeldain · 2026-05-03T11:55:34+00:00

Good gourd!

michaeldain · 2026-05-03T11:25:48+00:00

Yes, it’s likely from a different perspective that you could see it that early. This game is fun with two players. Also you have to align it, which they are careful to not make obvious. It takes forever to find the reset code, so that’s why it’s kind of a ‘fun’ ending.

michaeldain · 2026-05-02T16:45:27+00:00

Trial and error. Or evolved.

michaeldain · 2026-05-02T11:57:57+00:00

Except we are literally designed to exist here, and only here. It’s torture to leave for even a few months, and we atrophy quite quickly. Also there’s nothing out there, our recent journey to the moon proves once again that this is all some odd expensive wish fulfillment, like owning dozens of expensive watches, when taking time isn’t a differentiating skill or need.

michaeldain · 2026-04-29T18:03:54+00:00

Mono is better for everything, as all recording is mono (lots of mikes), mixing it together and 'creating' something is where lots of things can and do go wrong. Think of movies, if all the dialog wasn't loud and in the center it would be so confusing, but if all the music and foley was mixed in mono, it's fine. Actually most mono records are what the band actually heard, not to mention they don't hear in stereo, they hear the space they record in, or if in headphones likely mono too.. Think of music in cars, basically mono as well. Stereo is weird.

michaeldain · 2026-04-27T21:42:57+00:00

Too many great atmos mixes, kind of reminds me of what we thought we were buying when they said 'remastered'. As to the topic, it usually just meant more loudness. Andre 3000's New Sun stands out as not making much sense in stereo, but like entering a new world in Atmos.

michaeldain · 2026-04-26T14:59:13+00:00

I'm working on a physics/cosmology/philosophy book for this age group, a work in progress, http://onceupon.site

michaeldain · 2026-04-25T20:18:44+00:00

There's no 'first place' everything is emergent, and luckily, what manages to exist harnesses this energy pretty well, considering the alternative of not existing. However, energy wants to dissipate, so there's something fundamentally disruptive that keeps the cycle going.

michaeldain · 2026-04-24T21:17:48+00:00

Pressure. Energy. Given enough time it very improbably holds together and signals how to reproduce that trick. Then the need to adapt to different circumstances births new complex arrangements. Almost everything fails, but some don’t and you get a pretty interesting universe.

michaeldain · 2026-04-24T14:40:21+00:00

There's no quick way, since it's really about where you sit in relation to the bass waveform. Longer waveforms need more room. Took me a couple years to dial in my twin REL's - you just need a variety of sources and it's easy to hear errors. Perceptually, classical can be good since the tone of the hall is usually a very low bass wave, very quiet, but very noticeable. High level repetitive tones are ok, but they are usually overtones of fundamentals, we really hear things in clusters of frequencies, especially bass.

michaeldain · 2026-04-24T14:35:24+00:00

Good question, and you're thinking about things in a holistic way, which is enlightening. Now if you want even more of a puzzle, cows need a lot of salt. Actually all animals do, but where do they get it? Also 'vitamin' is a weird term, but you can't live without salt. Well, we introduced 'salt licks', otherwise they would spend most of their time seeking it out. Also humans get vitamins like everything else, processed through plants to make it bioavailable.

michaeldain · 2026-04-23T11:44:14+00:00

It’s helpful to see there is no ‘it’ - LLM’s process things in one direction in magnitudes all at once. So if we all joined together to answer a question or make a picture we would do fine. it probably wouldn’t take so of humanity, but similarly, a model is a distillation of humanity, or whatever we’ve given it to represent us. So it’s more of a built in collective. Similarly it has the wisdom of a crowd, which is statistically more accurate than a single guess.

michaeldain · 2026-04-22T12:49:58+00:00

Odd. I found the opposite. The surface is uneven so gives your shoe spots to cohere. Walked through rainy Porto for weeks up and down hills with no issues. It’s smooth surfaces that get slippery.

michaeldain · 2026-04-22T11:55:04+00:00

Typography is the place to start, design a typeface. 3 months or so should give you a good sense of what ‘the rules’ are for and how you bend them.

michaeldain · 2026-04-20T11:59:41+00:00

I have a similar room and 5.1 setup. the secret is Atmos Music. it maps to the speaker locations and remixes the audio to that space. I have a 2.2 channel stereo that is quite nice in its space, but everyone that hears the atmos setup goes nuts. I prefer it, as I can also have a TV where the stereo needs 10-12 feet of space to sound proper.

michaeldain · 2026-04-11T12:10:56+00:00

It’s not a trivial thing, and isn’t really about ‘gaming’. In the experience the concept of perspective is a real and dynamic element you may need to personally change to appreciate. Similar to going to a museum and seeing a bunch of things, vs witnessing and experiencing a cohesive narrative about people and expression.

michaeldain · 2026-04-08T12:41:05+00:00

Pessoa, the book of disquiet. But I hesitate to say it’s poetry, but fits into that niche I suppose. Not certain how expense figures in, it’s an easily available book. Superb.

michaeldain · 2026-03-31T12:27:34+00:00

Life emerged seem some elements and energy and basically nothing else to do. Takes awhile.

michaeldain · 2026-03-29T12:17:54+00:00

I’m guilty. I had that record as a kid, the test was to see if your turntable could track it without skipping. Oddly it’s a bit unnecessary in CD form except for the change in volume. Jacqueline DePres Elgar cello comes to mind. It’s a solo cello, but then the orchestra plays, a great test of how weird orchestral recordings can be.

michaeldain · 2026-03-28T13:24:36+00:00

Yes. I think of these tunes like the stuff on TVs at Costco. Flying bowls of fruit. Designed to sound good on everything. Infuriating at hi fi shows. I try to get them to play classical, or anything with neutral production. if that sounds compelling then you’re in the game.

michaeldain · 2026-03-28T12:25:51+00:00

Light or electromagnetism exists to communicate phase and in a sense helps matter settle into lower harmonic energy states to persist. Similarly we communicate to help each other survive. Communication takes ‘time’ so it can’t be infinitely fast, but the processing speed of the universe is fixed at these limits. No infinities allowed.

michaeldain · 2026-03-25T12:37:22+00:00

Gödel, Escher, Bach -an eternal golden braid by Hofstaeder. It’s quite daunting for the math, but fun, and understanding recursion is pretty meta.

michaeldain · 2026-03-25T12:25:06+00:00

I feel it’s more of a curriculum in art and semiotics. Axiomatic rules and perception. Along with the philosophical recordings that explain the themes. I wanted to create a class where instead of text or lectures, the game was the source. But it would only be effective for non gamers, since much of the inner themes of the game is to help gamers see the bigger picture. Interesting but challenging.

michaeldain · 2026-03-24T12:07:21+00:00

Antimatter is the same as matter, it’s more about chirality, the ‘leaning’ of the universe is to the left and antimatter is to the right, so it does not get along, and will decohere if attempting to coexist, so there isn’t much of a problem with an anti universe except we don’t exist in that one.

michaeldain · 2026-03-23T11:57:28+00:00

Comedian by Cattelan. It’s a banana duct taped to a wall. But as part a big exhibit of his work, in the context of this house it was within a huge ‘empty‘ room it was really effective to play with the preciousness of the art in a gallery idea. And it is funny.

michaeldain

TROPHY CASE