Life - On Pax

Life - On Pax

It's taken me a few days, but I've started to put some of my thoughts to paper finally.  I make...literally...no secret of the fact that Pax is reliably one of the best times of the year for me.  For six years now, we've been attending Pax as gamers, and I now attend it as well as a developer.

For those that don't know, Pax is a conflagration of gamers hitting Seattle for the Labour Day Weekend.  Over 4 days, games are literally celebrated.  If you play games, there's probably something at Pax for you.  And I don't just mean video games, although video games are a considerable part of that.  Exhibitors show off the latest and upcoming in video games, technology and merchandise.  Tabletop, board games, pen and paper, card games and deck building all show up and are played extensively everywhere.  You literally can't walk fifteen feet without tripping over someone in a hallway playing Zombie Dice or Cards against Humanity.  There are massive tournaments and tiny tournaments for games, everything from Towerfall tournaments to the League of Legends Championship Series that encompasses a hall for probably 5000+ people.  People bring their personal computers and set up a massive LAN play area, there are retro consoles, and D&D, there are huge tournaments and a hundred panels to attend.

There's something for everyone, in our crazy community.

Gesture - Hug

Gesture - Hug

Do you know what a hug is?  It's a gesture profile of arms wrapped around another person.  It's near universal, every culture has variations, and it is practiced among all age groups, all demographics and across gendered lines?

Do you know what a hug is?  I give someone a hug when I don't know what else to say.  And I'm verbose.  I'm articulate.  Sometimes though, words fail, words fail to provide comfort, or understanding, or sympathy, or empathy.  Words fail.  Interpretations are hard, cadence and word selection don't always explain appropriately what I mean.  But a hug?

A hug says I know you exist.  I hear you.  I don't know what specifically to offer you, but I hear you, I hear you and I am here.  Right here, right now, you have my complete and full attention.  Say anything.  Do anything.  I'm here.  I'm holding on to you, I won't let you go until you need me to.

That's what a hug from me is.  I'm right here.  Right HERE.  Immediate.  Connected to you.

Hacker Koan - Uncarved Block

Hacker Koan - Uncarved Block

In the days when Sussman was a novice, Minsky once came to him as he sat hacking at the PDP-6.

"What are you doing?", asked Minsky.

"I am training a randomly wired neural net to play Tic-tac-toe", Sussman replied.

"Why is the net wired randomly?", asked Minsky.

"I do not want it to have any preconceptions of how to play", Sussman said.

Minsky then shut his eyes.

"Why do you close your eyes?" Sussman asked his teacher.

"So that the room will be empty."

At that moment, Sussman was enlightened.