For as much as I love cooking, I'm surprised I've never posted anything on here about it. Partly, I suppose that's because I do so much less of it these days. Cooking for one is a pain in the butt if you don't much like (or have storage space for) leftovers. I also just don't get nearly as much joy from eating the food I make as I do from cooking it. It's kind of like with programming. The joy, for me, is in toying with something until I've come up with what I'm looking for. As such, I much prefer cooking for other people, and last Sunday provided a solid opportunity.
One of my former housemates and his wife have been coming over each week to watch the new season of Dexter. Last week, they offered to bring over some leftovers from their CSA share so that we could do dinner at the same time. They pledged a large winter squash along with several carrots and onions to the cause, and my mind immediately went to soup. Curry was the next thing that came to mind, and, once a quick Google search showed that this was not an unheard of combination, I ran to the store to pick up what I thought we might need. The result was, approximately, this (all measurements are guesses, sorry) :
Ingredients
1 Large-ish (3-4 lb) Winter Squash*
3-4 Large Carrots
2 Yellow Onions
1 1.5 inch Piece of Ginger
2-3 Cloves Garlic
1.5 Tbsp Garam Masala
1/2 Tsp Cinnamon
3 Tbsp Cider Vinegar (or Lemon Juice)
6 Cups Vegetable Stock
Salt and Black Pepper to Taste
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
Additional Heavy Cream for serving (~1.5 Tbsp per bowl)
Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 425. Split your squash in half, remove the seeds, and place it, cut side down, on a baking sheet with about a centimeter of water. Roast for half an our or until the meat readily separates.
2. Slice carrots and ginger relatively thin. Dice onion. Add to a large pot, warmed to medium heat along with the olive oil. Allow to sweat, stirring occasionally, until squash is finished.
3. Remove the squash from the oven and scoop out the flesh into the pot. Add remaining ingredients (minus the cream) and allow to cook for 10-15 minutes over medium high heat.
4. Puree the soup, either with an immersion blender or in batches in a traditional blender, and allow to cook covered over medium low heat for another 15 minutes or until desired consistency is reached.
5. Add additional seasoning to taste and serve, drizzling in cream as desired.
In all, it turned out well enough that there was a fight for what few leftovers remained. Definitely a recipe I'll revisit and tinker with the next time I've got people around to eat it.
*I'm not sure what sort of squash we used, it's not one I'm familiar with. A small-ish pumpkin or a couple of mid-sized acorn or butternut squashes would do the trick.
Friday, October 21, 2011
Friday, October 14, 2011
Community Season 3 Rebounds in a Big Way After a Slow Start
Season three of Community started immediately with a fairly ambitious goal. Right from the get go, it became clear that a major theme for the season was going to be the main ensemble -- especially Jeff -- coming to terms with who they (and one another) are. This has clouded the first handful of episodes as we have to witness the extremes of the bad behavior that these people are capable of and the tenuousness of the bond they have. Whether it's Jeff and Annie awkwardly hanging the lampshade on the defense mechanisms they've built up or it's the group treating outsiders with intense hostility as a way of reinforcing their attitude of togetherness, the proceedings have largely lacked the heart that defined the show for me (with the awesome ending to Geography of Political Conflict being a major exception).
The fourth episode, Remedial Chaos Theory, was a huge step in the right direction if the writers want to keep this difficult theme alive while letting the show be what it is at its best. The ridiculous, multiple timeline exploring structure provided a great way of showing the impact, good and bad, that each person has on this group by letting them highlight specific parings and show us what happens when individual people aren't present.
I'll freely admit that it took awhile for the episode to get going and not every joke was perfectly clear. Britta's pizza dance doesn't make sense if you don't immediately suspect that she was getting high. It also took me a second viewing to catch the crunch that tells you Troy was keeping candy in his cigarette case and not eating actual cigarettes instead of smoking them. The revisiting of the sexual tension between both Jeff and Annie also keeps feeling a little forced (the repetition didn't help this). None of that matters, though, in the face of the complete ridiculousness of the Troy-less timeline, especially when it's revisited in the bump. There was a lot to set up, from Annie's gun to Troy's fear of the Norwegian troll, but I nearly fell off my couch laughing as things kept going farther wrong.
A great episode that has me feeling good about what the show can do this season -- assuming they keep their ambition level high.
The fourth episode, Remedial Chaos Theory, was a huge step in the right direction if the writers want to keep this difficult theme alive while letting the show be what it is at its best. The ridiculous, multiple timeline exploring structure provided a great way of showing the impact, good and bad, that each person has on this group by letting them highlight specific parings and show us what happens when individual people aren't present.
I'll freely admit that it took awhile for the episode to get going and not every joke was perfectly clear. Britta's pizza dance doesn't make sense if you don't immediately suspect that she was getting high. It also took me a second viewing to catch the crunch that tells you Troy was keeping candy in his cigarette case and not eating actual cigarettes instead of smoking them. The revisiting of the sexual tension between both Jeff and Annie also keeps feeling a little forced (the repetition didn't help this). None of that matters, though, in the face of the complete ridiculousness of the Troy-less timeline, especially when it's revisited in the bump. There was a lot to set up, from Annie's gun to Troy's fear of the Norwegian troll, but I nearly fell off my couch laughing as things kept going farther wrong.
A great episode that has me feeling good about what the show can do this season -- assuming they keep their ambition level high.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Jobs and Ritchie
Steve Jobs died just over a week ago and, of course, there was hullabaloo galore. Just this past weekend, Dennis Ritchie passed and plenty of people are just learning of it now. For those who didn't follow that link, Dennis Ritchie was the co-creator of both the C programming language and the Unix operating system/kernel. For those of us who work with software for a living, the impact of his work cannot be understated. Still, I can't help wanting to slap my friends and colleagues who are expressing indignation about the comparative lack of outpouring.
Obviously, the entire technological landscape depends on Ritchie's work. C and its various extensions and offspring have dominated the programming landscape forever, and most of the web lives on servers running Unix-like operating systems (not to mention Mac OSX). But most people don't care about what makes the things they use work. If they did, we'd be a society of engineers and scientists. People care about how well things work, and Jobs was a master of providing technology that simply worked better -- or at least more intuitively -- than anything else out there.
More than that, Jobs was an incredibly public person managing an even more prominent company that virtually everybody has strong feelings about in one direction or the other. As near to the end as he could, he was keeping himself visible and relevant as he promoted the work and products of his company. What has Ritchie done in the last 40 years? I can't find anything other than winning awards for the contributions of C and Unix and sitting on a number of research boards.
So, while it's certainly sad that so few people even knew that Ritchie died, don't bring Steve Jobs into things. Their legacies have nothing in common, and we shouldn't expect remotely the same reaction.
Obviously, the entire technological landscape depends on Ritchie's work. C and its various extensions and offspring have dominated the programming landscape forever, and most of the web lives on servers running Unix-like operating systems (not to mention Mac OSX). But most people don't care about what makes the things they use work. If they did, we'd be a society of engineers and scientists. People care about how well things work, and Jobs was a master of providing technology that simply worked better -- or at least more intuitively -- than anything else out there.
More than that, Jobs was an incredibly public person managing an even more prominent company that virtually everybody has strong feelings about in one direction or the other. As near to the end as he could, he was keeping himself visible and relevant as he promoted the work and products of his company. What has Ritchie done in the last 40 years? I can't find anything other than winning awards for the contributions of C and Unix and sitting on a number of research boards.
So, while it's certainly sad that so few people even knew that Ritchie died, don't bring Steve Jobs into things. Their legacies have nothing in common, and we shouldn't expect remotely the same reaction.
Monday, October 10, 2011
Imagining An Ideal Multiplayer Experience for Mass Effect
The news is out, Mass Effect 3 will have multiplayer. At first blush, this seems like potentially troublesome water. Obviously, with squad AI being less than great, it could be a real boon to have a friend just pop into your game and control one of your teammates for you, but I don't think that's what this is going to be. For one thing, that would create all kinds of logistical troubles with the power wheel (can either teammate simply pause the action at any time to use a special ability a la Secret of Mana back in the day?), enemy AI (which tends to focus on Shep whenever possible, making it exploitable by a smart teammate), and victory conditions (I'd hate to be the second player who gets screwed and has to restart because Shepard acted the fool). For another, that seems like something that could have been announced back at E3 when they were already showing off new ways to control your squad with Kinect.
No, I'm guessing that this is going to be a distinct gameplay mode, either a side story a la the Splinter Cell coop missions or a set of traditional competitive gameplay types with a Mass Effect spin.
This, obviously, could suck.
That said, it doesn't have to. Imagine this:
Our basic template is Monday Night Combat, and if you haven't played MNC by now, shame on you. In short, it's a third person, class based, squad shooter where each class has three abilities they can level up as a round progresses. That's the foundation we need, but not with the standard, DOTA-esque gameplay mode, which just isn't something most people have an aptitude for (90% of the time, I've wound up on a team who think the objective is just to kill people and we get massacred).
Now, instead of those classes, we move ahead with the Mass Effect classes we all know and love: Soldier, Infiltrator, Engineer, Sentinel, Adept, Vanguard. These are differentiated by access to various Tech, Biotic, and Combat abilities.
Instead of shields or barriers, Soldiers have heavy armor that does not regenerate and health that does. They have access to all weapon types and can swap between three weapon ammo types: Incendiary (DOT), Cryo (slow/freeze unprotected enemies), Disruptor (increased damage to both shields and barriers).
Engineers have stronger than normal shields and can only use pistols and SMGs. However, they get access to Overload (heavy damage to enemy shields, temporary damage increase to unprotected enemies), Sabotage (prevent usage of the current weapon), and Combat Drone (moves around zapping nearby foes, knockdown burst on destruction).
Adepts have extra-powerful biotic barriers and also only get to use weaker weapons. They get warp (heavy damage to enemy barriers, temp. damage increase to unprotected enemies), Throw (knockdown, added damage to unprotected enemies), and Stasis (immobilization but increased defense).
Infiltrators have shields and can use rifles along with pistols and smgs. They can cloak temporarily as their unique ability and get to select at spawn time between one of Overload and Sabotage and one of Cryo ammo or Incendiary Ammo.
Vanguards have barriers and can use shotguns along with pistols and msgs. The can use Biotic Charge to move quickly between locations (effect of charging into a target TBD). They then get access to one of Warp and Throw and one of Cry and Incendiary Ammo at spawn.
Sentinels can spawn with either shields or barriers. Their special ability lets them swap between the two, quickly recharging to the opposite form of protection if their current form is depleted. They can only use pistols and SMGs and get to choose one of Overload and Sabotage and one of Throw and Warp.
A single round would consist of small-ish teams (6-8?) competing in traditional objective modes. Control point, attack/defend, CTF with Cerberus being pit against Citadel forces. Deathmatch is possible, but certainly plays less strongly to the class-based structure. As you kill people, get killed, and complete objectives, you unlock currency (at differing rates) used to boost your abilities for the remainder of the round.
Outside of matches, players can make a number of larger modifications to the way they want their classes to play. Superficially, they can control what race and appearance they want for each of their classes -- though obviously with less granularity than they get with Shep. They can also adjust the upgrade path for their abilities (different levels can increase AoE, reduce cooldown, up damage, or have other effects depending on the ability). I know that the main game is also going to have some fairly involved weapon customization, so maybe bring in some of that, too, in order to keep things from becoming too rote.
If they take this basic stripped down version of the traditional Mass Effect level tree along with the improved gunplay that they've already brought into the mix and provide adequate balance along with an effective way of aiming powers, I think they could come up with a pretty compelling experience. I'd certainly play it.
No, I'm guessing that this is going to be a distinct gameplay mode, either a side story a la the Splinter Cell coop missions or a set of traditional competitive gameplay types with a Mass Effect spin.
This, obviously, could suck.
That said, it doesn't have to. Imagine this:
Our basic template is Monday Night Combat, and if you haven't played MNC by now, shame on you. In short, it's a third person, class based, squad shooter where each class has three abilities they can level up as a round progresses. That's the foundation we need, but not with the standard, DOTA-esque gameplay mode, which just isn't something most people have an aptitude for (90% of the time, I've wound up on a team who think the objective is just to kill people and we get massacred).
Now, instead of those classes, we move ahead with the Mass Effect classes we all know and love: Soldier, Infiltrator, Engineer, Sentinel, Adept, Vanguard. These are differentiated by access to various Tech, Biotic, and Combat abilities.
Instead of shields or barriers, Soldiers have heavy armor that does not regenerate and health that does. They have access to all weapon types and can swap between three weapon ammo types: Incendiary (DOT), Cryo (slow/freeze unprotected enemies), Disruptor (increased damage to both shields and barriers).
Engineers have stronger than normal shields and can only use pistols and SMGs. However, they get access to Overload (heavy damage to enemy shields, temporary damage increase to unprotected enemies), Sabotage (prevent usage of the current weapon), and Combat Drone (moves around zapping nearby foes, knockdown burst on destruction).
Adepts have extra-powerful biotic barriers and also only get to use weaker weapons. They get warp (heavy damage to enemy barriers, temp. damage increase to unprotected enemies), Throw (knockdown, added damage to unprotected enemies), and Stasis (immobilization but increased defense).
Infiltrators have shields and can use rifles along with pistols and smgs. They can cloak temporarily as their unique ability and get to select at spawn time between one of Overload and Sabotage and one of Cryo ammo or Incendiary Ammo.
Vanguards have barriers and can use shotguns along with pistols and msgs. The can use Biotic Charge to move quickly between locations (effect of charging into a target TBD). They then get access to one of Warp and Throw and one of Cry and Incendiary Ammo at spawn.
Sentinels can spawn with either shields or barriers. Their special ability lets them swap between the two, quickly recharging to the opposite form of protection if their current form is depleted. They can only use pistols and SMGs and get to choose one of Overload and Sabotage and one of Throw and Warp.
A single round would consist of small-ish teams (6-8?) competing in traditional objective modes. Control point, attack/defend, CTF with Cerberus being pit against Citadel forces. Deathmatch is possible, but certainly plays less strongly to the class-based structure. As you kill people, get killed, and complete objectives, you unlock currency (at differing rates) used to boost your abilities for the remainder of the round.
Outside of matches, players can make a number of larger modifications to the way they want their classes to play. Superficially, they can control what race and appearance they want for each of their classes -- though obviously with less granularity than they get with Shep. They can also adjust the upgrade path for their abilities (different levels can increase AoE, reduce cooldown, up damage, or have other effects depending on the ability). I know that the main game is also going to have some fairly involved weapon customization, so maybe bring in some of that, too, in order to keep things from becoming too rote.
If they take this basic stripped down version of the traditional Mass Effect level tree along with the improved gunplay that they've already brought into the mix and provide adequate balance along with an effective way of aiming powers, I think they could come up with a pretty compelling experience. I'd certainly play it.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Fiction Practice
Somehow, I don't have any work to do for class right now. Wound up cranking this out fairly quickly as I killed time. I intend to keep working at it, since I'm starting to get an idea of where it might go, but I probably won't post more here. Thought feedback could be useful, though. Fair warning: I've never quite figured out how to handle prose dialogue within my default writing style. I feel like I swap over to writing a script the moment I have characters interacting verbally. Fixing this is my major goal for this project. Okay, story:
As usual, Darren woke up five minutes before his alarm was set to go off. He laid in bed staring at it, hoping desperately that it wouldn’t sound. If it didn’t, it might mean that it was secretly a weekend or a holiday or some other day where he wouldn’t be expected at work instead of just Thursday. Three hundred seconds later it turned out to be Thursday after all. Darren cursed history for not having provided anything worth celebrating on this particular date as he hauled himself out of bed and staggered into another day.
Coffee, of course, was the first order of business. Darren briefly considered the sack of fair-trade beans sitting prominently on the counter next to an overpriced French press as he tried to remember a time before the amount of effort you put into making your coffee was a direct reflection on your coolness. Surely, it wouldn’t be long before old-fashioned convenience was trendy again and he could stop pretending he actually used those ridiculous things. He pulled the actual coffee pot and the can of grounds out from the cupboard by the sink. He preferred the taste to that crap from Guatemala or wherever it came from, and it never asked him to feel guilty over his privileged existence.
Well, relatively privileged.
He hopped into the shower while the coffee brewed and tried to determine just how embarrassed he should be about the night before. The problem wasn’t that he’d had too much to drink. After all, Darren’s budget and conscience conspired to impose a fairly strict limit of four drinks per night under ordinary circumstances. No, the problem was that, in his nervousness, he’d consumed his allotment far too quickly. It had taken him weeks to convince Abbey that it was worth going on a date with a coworker, that they had enough in comon that the potential for paperwork wasn’t enough to merit not giving it a shot. He wasn’t sure if she’d slap him when he inevitably ran into her at the office or if she’d laugh at him. He did know that he’d prefer the slap.
The urge for coffee hit again as soon as he stepped out of the shower. He gulped down one cup before he finished getting dressed and poured the rest of the pot into a travel mug before sauntering down to the next corner. It was a chilly morning, which the weather forecast suggested would set the tone for the rest of the day. Darren fastened another button on his flannel shirt and largely ignored the cold while waiting for his bus to arrive. He saw Roger as he boarded, sat down across from him and took a swig from his mug, knowing full well what was coming next.
“So?” Roger asked.
“‘So,’ what?” Darren was not looking forward to this.
“Dinner. With Abbey. How did it go?”
“Less well than it could have.”
“That’s not saying much. How, particularly, did it stray from the ideal?”
“I may have propositioned her”
“May have?”
“It’s quite possible that the first words out of my mouth after dinner arrived were,” Darren glanced around and lowered both the pitch and volume of his voice, “‘So, we gonna fuck tonight?’” He must not have been quiet enough because an older lady turned around to frown at his choice of words.
“I take it she ordered the steak?” Roger smirked. Darren was not particularly amused.
“It was a joke! I said it in a funny voice and everything!”
“Well, maybe it wasn’t so bad.”
“She made an excuse to duck out as soon as she finished her chicken. Left half of her baked potato right there on the plate.”
Roger paused to choose a new cliche. “Hey, it’s not like she’s that great a catch.”
“Roger, this girl knows the full starting lineups for the Cardinals, both Arizona and St. Louis. Her favorite Coen Brothers movie is The Man Who Wasn’t There. She cried when Gandalf died, and she can play Chopin in her sleep.”
“...That sucks, man.”
“That it does.” Darren took another swig of coffee and questioned his decision not to add just a drop or four of whiskey to it.
As usual, Darren woke up five minutes before his alarm was set to go off. He laid in bed staring at it, hoping desperately that it wouldn’t sound. If it didn’t, it might mean that it was secretly a weekend or a holiday or some other day where he wouldn’t be expected at work instead of just Thursday. Three hundred seconds later it turned out to be Thursday after all. Darren cursed history for not having provided anything worth celebrating on this particular date as he hauled himself out of bed and staggered into another day.
Coffee, of course, was the first order of business. Darren briefly considered the sack of fair-trade beans sitting prominently on the counter next to an overpriced French press as he tried to remember a time before the amount of effort you put into making your coffee was a direct reflection on your coolness. Surely, it wouldn’t be long before old-fashioned convenience was trendy again and he could stop pretending he actually used those ridiculous things. He pulled the actual coffee pot and the can of grounds out from the cupboard by the sink. He preferred the taste to that crap from Guatemala or wherever it came from, and it never asked him to feel guilty over his privileged existence.
Well, relatively privileged.
He hopped into the shower while the coffee brewed and tried to determine just how embarrassed he should be about the night before. The problem wasn’t that he’d had too much to drink. After all, Darren’s budget and conscience conspired to impose a fairly strict limit of four drinks per night under ordinary circumstances. No, the problem was that, in his nervousness, he’d consumed his allotment far too quickly. It had taken him weeks to convince Abbey that it was worth going on a date with a coworker, that they had enough in comon that the potential for paperwork wasn’t enough to merit not giving it a shot. He wasn’t sure if she’d slap him when he inevitably ran into her at the office or if she’d laugh at him. He did know that he’d prefer the slap.
The urge for coffee hit again as soon as he stepped out of the shower. He gulped down one cup before he finished getting dressed and poured the rest of the pot into a travel mug before sauntering down to the next corner. It was a chilly morning, which the weather forecast suggested would set the tone for the rest of the day. Darren fastened another button on his flannel shirt and largely ignored the cold while waiting for his bus to arrive. He saw Roger as he boarded, sat down across from him and took a swig from his mug, knowing full well what was coming next.
“So?” Roger asked.
“‘So,’ what?” Darren was not looking forward to this.
“Dinner. With Abbey. How did it go?”
“Less well than it could have.”
“That’s not saying much. How, particularly, did it stray from the ideal?”
“I may have propositioned her”
“May have?”
“It’s quite possible that the first words out of my mouth after dinner arrived were,” Darren glanced around and lowered both the pitch and volume of his voice, “‘So, we gonna fuck tonight?’” He must not have been quiet enough because an older lady turned around to frown at his choice of words.
“I take it she ordered the steak?” Roger smirked. Darren was not particularly amused.
“It was a joke! I said it in a funny voice and everything!”
“Well, maybe it wasn’t so bad.”
“She made an excuse to duck out as soon as she finished her chicken. Left half of her baked potato right there on the plate.”
Roger paused to choose a new cliche. “Hey, it’s not like she’s that great a catch.”
“Roger, this girl knows the full starting lineups for the Cardinals, both Arizona and St. Louis. Her favorite Coen Brothers movie is The Man Who Wasn’t There. She cried when Gandalf died, and she can play Chopin in her sleep.”
“...That sucks, man.”
“That it does.” Darren took another swig of coffee and questioned his decision not to add just a drop or four of whiskey to it.
Monday, September 26, 2011
I Still Love HIMYM Despite Myself
I watched the first four seasons of How I Met Your Mother four times in a single year. It's a show for which I have inexplicable patience in large doses. It's fun, often clever, and features a core cast of characters with whom I immediately connected. Still, that didn't stop me from being less than optimistic about the show's future while I watched the fifth season as it aired. Post-jilting, the series hadn't seemed to deal a lot with the central premise of the show beyond offering a lot of teases. The season meandered a lot but didn't really commit to anything for more than an episode at a time beyond a couple of ill-fated pairings for Robin. The result was a collection of mildly amusing episodes that manage to be significantly less bad when you're watching them en masse without expectations.
Season six, on the other hand, managed to lose me about halfway through (shortly after a certain funeral). It spent an awful lot of time focusing on Ted's flirtatious relationship with a new addition who we absolutely knew wasn't The Mother -- mostly because of things we already knew about The Mother but also because she was already married. I missed a couple of episodes, which prevented me from catching up on CBS' website, and just gave up. I hear that Zooey ditched her husband or some such and that she and Ted dated for awhile and it was all as pointless as it seemed.
Season seven started last week, though, and I'm now caught up with the first three episodes, and I have to say, I'm feeling hopeful. It could just be the effect of watching 3 episodes at once and my lingering affection for these people, but I think it's making important steps to clear the way for the Event We've Been Waiting For. There have already been needless teases, including the cliffhanger ending of the second episode, but the season so far seems to have set an admirable goal: helping Ted move beyond his past and remembering how to believe in romance again.
I'm not sure if this will make it a show I look forward to watching week-by-week the way I do Community or Parks and Recreation, but at the very least, I suddenly find myself looking forward to binging on this season in a year's time when I can speed through the teasing and just watch these people grow and learn and enjoy one another. Hell, I'll probably go and pick up season 6 just so I can see what shenanigans I missed in the middle of all the time wasting.
Season six, on the other hand, managed to lose me about halfway through (shortly after a certain funeral). It spent an awful lot of time focusing on Ted's flirtatious relationship with a new addition who we absolutely knew wasn't The Mother -- mostly because of things we already knew about The Mother but also because she was already married. I missed a couple of episodes, which prevented me from catching up on CBS' website, and just gave up. I hear that Zooey ditched her husband or some such and that she and Ted dated for awhile and it was all as pointless as it seemed.
Season seven started last week, though, and I'm now caught up with the first three episodes, and I have to say, I'm feeling hopeful. It could just be the effect of watching 3 episodes at once and my lingering affection for these people, but I think it's making important steps to clear the way for the Event We've Been Waiting For. There have already been needless teases, including the cliffhanger ending of the second episode, but the season so far seems to have set an admirable goal: helping Ted move beyond his past and remembering how to believe in romance again.
I'm not sure if this will make it a show I look forward to watching week-by-week the way I do Community or Parks and Recreation, but at the very least, I suddenly find myself looking forward to binging on this season in a year's time when I can speed through the teasing and just watch these people grow and learn and enjoy one another. Hell, I'll probably go and pick up season 6 just so I can see what shenanigans I missed in the middle of all the time wasting.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
I Heart Math
I'm trying to organize some thoughts about computing, creativity, creation, and theology. This is the only thing that's come out so far that makes sense. Hopefully I'll be able to provide further context for it in the future, but I really enjoy it, so I thought I'd share it early:
So long as anything exists in this universe, just one infinitesimal speck of cosmic dust, some lonely, quivering little quark, then one exists. If one exists, then so do zero and two and negative one. In fact, one carries with it into being all of mathematics: addition and multiplication and algebra, calculus and general linear matrices and an uncountably infinite number of points called z in the complex plain that probably don't lie within the Mandlebrot Set. Mathematics isn't something we invented. It isn't something we observe or model. It is the simplest, purest fact of reality. It is the direct consequence of the universe being something other than the empty set.
So long as anything exists in this universe, just one infinitesimal speck of cosmic dust, some lonely, quivering little quark, then one exists. If one exists, then so do zero and two and negative one. In fact, one carries with it into being all of mathematics: addition and multiplication and algebra, calculus and general linear matrices and an uncountably infinite number of points called z in the complex plain that probably don't lie within the Mandlebrot Set. Mathematics isn't something we invented. It isn't something we observe or model. It is the simplest, purest fact of reality. It is the direct consequence of the universe being something other than the empty set.
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