A Simple Way To Go Faster Than Light That Does Not Work

Mom called to tell me that Peter (the middle brother I write less about) just quit his job of many years - certainly at least a decade - working in a home for autistic adults. He just burned out, after the management was getting worse and worse, apparently. This leaves him and his wife in a no-income situation (she can't work) and mom was understandably concerned.

I advised that he go get a job in a kitchen, since he worked in a hotel kitchen for several years in the 1980s and has kept up his skills as a better-than-average home cook since then. We remembered together how his workplace nickname then was "Lightning" because we was (at least at first) such a slowpoke. He once brought home a Happy Birthday Lightning cake that his coworkers got (or perhaps made) for him.

Before his current job he had a lengthy stint as a Wackenhut security guard. He's already looked a little bit into that, and got the impression that most such jobs now require one to pack heat, where in the past he just holstered a club. All agree that this would not be a wise career move.

So how was my Xmas?

I was with mom and dad in their house, along with brothers Peter and Ricky, and Ricky's friend Russell (known affectionately by my parents as "Sewerman"). Sentimental Ricky was near to tears because we nukes (plus Russell) were all together, which doesn't happen very often. (Note: There's a reason for that.) Ricky spent much of the day loudly obsessing over the wording of the Constitution, and how this explained the Civil War. Peter enjoyed a couple of card games with me. He's a big Aquarius fan, and teaching him Mama Mia was pretty fun, actually.

Some fun was had going through the photos on my iBook and telling stories about the people therein. I have given up explaining to Peter that I am not dating every woman who I mention in my stories about my life, so he now thinks I've having all these crazy flings, but this amuses him, so, whatever.

Here I have a little epiphany. To some extent I think everyone in my family feels the same confusion in my stories about my friends. Their concept of friendship is definitely different than mine, as is, perhaps, their whole concept of Proper Interpersonal Relationships. The more I think about it, drawing on my memories of growing up with them, the more I see a belief within my nukes that one is close to one's family, and keeps one's distance from everyone else. Friends can be fun activity partners, but getting too close to them will turn you gay, which means that you have failed as a human or something. No kidding -- my dad used to out-and-out warn me about this, when I was but a wee prog. This assumes that your friends are of the same sex as you, because being friends with someone of opposite gender, but with no intention to eventually marry them, is weird, and probably also a path to sexual inversion. The only way approved ways to bond with people are by a) marrying them or b) creating them, both of which brings them into your family, where it's OK to get as close as you want. Within limits.

Oh, my poor family, when I see them in this light. No wonder they're all broken. All they have is each other, because they don't think they're allowed anyone else. And what does that really give them?

Eh. Maybe I'm just looking for an excuse for my own difficulties in getting close to people when I write this sort of thing. It seems true, anyway.

Back to the gift exchange: Well, to be honest, I wasn't paying much attention. I mean, I usually ignore holidays (and the passage of time in general) but I was extra-special unaware of Xmas this year due to my workload, so I didn't even think about any giving. My parents got me a sweatjacket, which I then gave to Peter, and an electric razor thing with built-in vacuum cleaner, which, eh, I guess I'll eBay or something eventually. I had earlier told my parents that the best gift would be nothing at all, since I have too much stuff as it is, and this explains the lack of new furniture and whatnot. (Over the past year, in fact, they've attempted to gift me with entire patio sets and so on, and it's all I can do to wave my hands at them, no no no, really, you can keep it.)

---

Random observation: I view electrical outlets as the source of all life (especially since obtaining my iBook), and I plan my stay in any place by their availability.

My parents view electrical outlets as ugly wall defacements best kept hidden behind large, heavy pieces of furniture. Putting them dead-center behind giant sofas and bookcases always wins, for them.

---

I've spent the last couple of days in study. Been playing with Squeak for OS X, and kicking around MIGS, the modular Internet game system, my own mysterious project.

After deciding that my current strategy would make client-writing too difficult (or, at best, easy but with ugly results), I have yet again reshaped my ideas for how this game system would work, and have started slapping some code together, though so much of it is needed before anything can appear on-screen -- I'm trying to make a game-creation framework, rather than just one game -- that there's still a lot more to write before I can start enjoying any gee-whiz results. This is the most trying time of software creation, I believe, the period between barenaked concept and the first pre-pre-pre-alpha working model. I'm almost scared to put it down for the evening, fearing that the future me, seeing no deliverables, will just give up and not return to it. But: I've been working on this all night and need a break. We'll see what happens.

As a result of my rethinking, I have been learning a lot about SVG. If I stick to my present course, MIGS will rely heavily on this particular technology -- which is pretty cool. It's perfect for a lot of the nutty stuff I'd like to do in MIGS, particularly where it involves bringing together lots of little graphical bits from different sources and mushing them all together into one visual field. This is, more or less, my current plan for how MIGS will build and present game boards and pieces. It should in theory work both for people who just want to grab a client program, connect to a server, and start playing, and for those who wish to design and show off their own electronic signature Icehouse stashes or whatever when playing. In theory. We'll... um, see what happens.

---

One of the Arcus people, on hearing that I spent much of yesterday hiding out here at the office, said that he spend much of his day hiding in the basement of his father's home with his own two little sons, where they all rolled up D&D 3E characters. They now have an elf wizard and a halfling monk. I said: "Awesome."