#((Hilbert's twitter is.......something))

[rookvie]

so..... i've been playing pokemon black lately!!

doodles mostly from the mid-game b/c i've played early game like 100000x already-- so i just wanted to get past it and to the parts i've not played yet..... lol

[epicspheal]

Something that I brought up on Twitter and thought would be good to bring up here is a bit about the dragon that chooses N in cactusverse. So full disclosure a lot of this is just solely due to the fact that I played White and White 2 as my Unova games, so the player in White gets Zekrom and N gets Reshiram. But as I’ve actually been fleshing out the stories for each of the regions, I’ve begun to realize that the symbolism of Reshiram being the dragon of truth could still work. Like yeah N is definitely looking for an ideal world which makes him being paired with Zekrom make a ton of sense. Yet when you think about the events of gen 1-4 there is an ugly truth to the relationship between humans and Pokemon. We’ve seen multiple evil groups hurt Pokemon. We’ve seen regular trainers not necessarily treat their Pokemon with trust and love. We see this not only in the gameverse but also in the animeverse and mangaverse. And now with legends (yes I’m including a game that came out a decade after gen 5 but bear with me) we know that humans themselves have been hurt. It’s never been all sunshine and rainbows. The truth is that the relationship between Pokemon and humans can be painful for both parties. N thanks to his painful upbringing and his gift of being able to communicate with Pokemon understands this clearly from the Pokemon’s point of view. Is it applicable to every relationship between humans and Pokemon? Absolutely not. The whole truth is that while some Pokemon get hurt by humans, the majority of Pokemon have good relationships with humans and benefit But of course N’s sheltered upbringing doesn’t allow him to see the whole truth until he travels the world. But still it doesn’t change the fact that his worldview, while heavily skewed, was in fact true for some portion of Pokemon. Going back to Reshiram, yes it’s the dragon of truth. And while N’s way of thinking isn’t entirely true, the key word there is entirely. Some of what he says and believes is true. And as Colress just mentioned in the Paulo interludes, Pokemon don’t have the same complex thoughts as humans. Even if we say Reshiram is on the higher level of thought complexity among Pokemon, that gives way to why it would still recognize N as the hero. Because what he says, on some level is true, that’s all Reshiram needs.

Conversely the protagonist (Hilbert in cactusverse) isn’t 100% and ideal trainer. No one is perfect. Even the absolute most legendary trainer that is Red isn’t perfect. But Hilbert strives to be an ideal trainer and has thoughts that align with what an ideal human and Pokemon relationship should look like. For Zekrom that’s enough. Hilbert isn’t always ideal, but on some level he is. 

[cheemken]

The Unova kids play pranks on each other this is true 100%

I bet the best one they’ve ever done was Hilda and Hilbert sneaking into Iris and Draydens house in the middle of the night,

Feeding Iris and Draydens Pokémon to keep them quiet ofc,

And just the two of them cooking all their food before putting them back into their containers

I imagine Iris makes a thread on Chatotter (twitter) about all the food she finds, all of them being captioned with something similar to

Champion Irissss

@theherooffate

“Who the fuck toasted all my bread??” (7:34am) *photo of soggy ass toast in plastic wrapper*

“ALL THE INSTANT COFFEE IS ALREADY MADE” (7:45am) *photo of coffee grounds container filled with liquid coffee*

“NOT EVEN THE EGGS ARE SAFE!” (7:53am) *photo of hard boiled eggs in egg container*

“WHO THE ACTUAL FUCK PRECOOKED THE PASTA???” (8:01am) *photo of cooked spaghetti shoved back into cardboard box*

“WHY HAVE ALL THE VEGETABLES BEEN SEASONED AND STIR FRIED?? They taste good ngl” (8:17am) *photo of stir fried vegetables*

“EVEN THE FUCKING RICE HAS BEEN COOKED. CANT HAVE SHIT IN UNOVA” (8:24am)

“I’m going to fucking MiniorBucks for breakfast” (8:30am)

I just know her thread went viral in mere minutes, Hilda responded to her last post in the thread with

TheBetterTwinHilda

@theheroofideals

“Shouldn’t have trusted us with a key, also your Druddigon absolutely loved the treats we gave her” (9:37am) *photo of her and Hilbert holding a house key*

NOT EVEN THE EGGS ARE SAFE HCKDNCKSNS THEY TASTE GOOD NGL CJDMND GIRLIE'S GOING THROUGH IT LMFAOOOOO THE FUCKING RICE😭😭😭🤣🤣🤣

I just know for a goddamn fact the twins and their white ass won't clean the fucking rice that well, or at all. Like Iris takes a bite of the rice with the stir fry and she's there gripping her spoon tight, "motherfuckers didnt even cook it right. This region is a fucking nightmare man FUCK"

She sees Hilda's tweet

Champion Irissss

@theherooffate

I GAVE YOU DIPSHITS THE KEYS FOR EMERGENCIES

TheBetterTwinHilda

@theheroofideals

We ran out of snacks, so it was an emergency🥰

Iris checks her cupboards only to see all her chips and cookies gone, went back to chatter all

Champion Irissss

@theherooffate

CANT HAVE SHIT IN THIS REGION MAN FUCK IM MOVING TO KALOS *a pic of her empty cupboard with a note from the twins saying "haha eat shit <3"*

[luckynatured]

🐤🐤

Send 🐤 for my muse to make a tweet about yours // Accepting

[felidaeng]

hey !!! i found you on twitter and i really really love your ideas and characterisations alot but do you ship n and hilbert together? cause iirc hilberts 14-16 and n is 18-20 :[ apologies if this isnt actually the case, thanks if you read and have a nice day kody felidaeng !

this is something i’ve gone over multiple times before, but to summarize, hilbert is 16 and n is 18. this is based on interviews that place n as 20 during bw2 and the anime (which uses many elements of bw2 in regards to team plasma specifically), story writer toshinbu matsuyima stating that hilbert and hilda were designed to be 16, several other sources claiming that hilbert and hilda were supposed to be the oldest pokemon protagonists at the time, and these ages fitting into the story of the game much better than the alternatives (n’s coronation ceremony that seems to take place just before the game begins would be a fitting coming of age ceremony for an 18 year old, 16 being the age that in america [unovas inspiration] is seen as young peoples first steps into being an adult on their own hence becoming a pokemon trainer, bianca and cheren having adult designs and legitimate careers only 2 years later, n being referred to as terms like boy/brat, etc.). n and hilbert (and by extension hilda, but canon leans much more towards hilbert) have an almost comical amount of subtext that begins with n being an inverted mirror of the player character through the story- being team plasmas protagonist, with his own box legendary and design that mimics what you’d expect of a pokemon protagonists. he’s also a deliberate parallel to rival blue, even going as far as to paraphrase a line of dialogue blue says to the johto protagonist, and saying it to the bw2 protagonist, while hilbert is a direct parallel to red. for them to have a significant age gap would be out of place, and does nothing for the story except make several instances in the game itself bizarre and off putting.

additionally, even though it’s possible that in-game canon hilbert MIGHT be 14, the protagonists do not exist as realized characters in the main series, instead being placeholders that the player can make into whatever they want them to be. even pokemon itself does this- serena, who appears to be in her late teens at earliest in her xy design, is 10 in the anime, and has romantic subtext with ash. going off of that information, you’d think that there’d be more upset about it being done…. but there’s not. you are supposed to project whatever ideas you’d would like onto the player character, which is how i’ve been able to build a whole original canon from the basics that the game gave me. this is also why i’m fine with people headcanoning the characters differently, and it’s more than okay to not want to engage with my artwork based on that, just as i personally don’t want to interact with content that portrays n and hilbert with a significant age gap and/or if it’s interpreted as a familial relationship, considering how i view the characters.

tldr; hilbert and n are only 2 years apart in age

[aaronsciencia]

things I wrote about Kepler once

(I already posted this as a thread on twitter but who cares. obvious note: just my opinion, would love to hear others thoughts about these things!)

1. why Kepler hates Hilbert and how that shows how much respect Kepler has for his own team

there are many reasons to hate Hilbert, alright, but the first thought that came into my mind after I thought a bit longer about this was: “oh fuck the respect he has for Maxwell huh”

Kepler only did the whole “hand in drawer” thing because Hilbert was way too lost in his own thoughts to answer Eiffel - his superior- , something we know Maxwell does all the time. Yes, Hilbert doesn’t respect his superiors, but that’s not the only reason why Kepler almost broke his hand, like I’ve said Maxwell also does this, but Kepler knows that Maxwell 100% knows what she is doing when she doesn't respond for a moment. The work she did for and with Kepler gave enough ground for trust and respect because her work is THAT good. Even Michelle (Maxwell's VA) once said: Kepler made her the boss of herself and he may be the commanding officer but he gave her a lot of autonomy [because of her excellent work]

and sure, this could have also been about Eiffel a bit because “hey, look Hilbert, if he doesn’t want to be a part of this, then you can’t do this to him.”, but I don’t think so. It’s not about the person. It’s not about Eiffel. Forcing someone to do something without prior consent? and ESPECIALLY without the needed knowledge if and how it works? That’s something he doesn't agree with (+ he already hated Hilbert and how he works). Hilbert may be a good scientist, but a human life means literally nothing to him, so he acts sloppier than a scientist who values human life which results in a high body count. He uses more resources than needed and that’s something Kepler would never tolerate. If the results don’t match the used resources, you’re out. Him gaining sympathy and trust from Eiffel is just a bonus. I mean… they never wanted to return with the Haephestus crew to begin with, why bother saving their lives, they just need extra hands for the mission itself.The bodycount in the end matches the results. Bigger picture, right? (and that’s why I love the scene now with Hilbert at the end where he talks with Eiffel and says:“You have no reason to trust me, but please: do not make the mistake of trusting him.” (idk. I just like how this scene is caused because of a lack of trust and ends with someone telling the other one what happened is no soil to grow trust on, but moving on)

2. Kepler and Jacobis first interaction (mini-episode: things that break other things )

Just a short thing first that ties to the finale: I am thinking a lot about how Kepler went from "friend" to "Daniel" to "Jacobi" and then to "Daniel" again.

also: Kepler quotes Shakespeare literally 2 min into the first conversation with Jacobi and basically sees himself as King Lear in that part of the play and Jacobi as Kent. Kent, who comes to the king to ask to serve him, so King Lear asks Kent for his loyalty in that scene.

I actually really like the scene he chose, because it does continue with King Lear after a few lines saying: "I thank thee, fellow; thou servest me, and I'll love thee." (it's something just "randomly" thrown in until you look it up and I love little things like that)

2.1 Kepler just knows the most random shit ever wtf

besides him being able to just quote god damn Shakespeare (which Eiffel does as well tho) he also does this. how the fuck do you just know things like this?

3. He gets less impulsive in really intense situations after Maxwell's death

fr: he literally doesn’t hesitate to kill Lovelace. Yes, she wasn’t human, but no one except him knew that and tbh I’m pretty sure that he would have shot her in the head like this even if she would have been the original.

But in the finale he gives Rachel literally every opportunity to not get shot. Gabriel in a Q&A once said "Kepler decided to kill Rachel when she figures out what he has done and not before that. And even in that scene he is giving Rachel every out. " He is like “Don’t you think we could do something else?” but she is like “No. No, this is the way to go." he doesn't even shoot her in the head.

[thebeatleaesthetic]

SEASON OF GLASS (AND IT’S COVER)...

I used a photo I took of John’s blood-stained glasses on the record cover. The record company called me and said the record shops would not stock the record unless I changed the cover. I didn't understand it. Why? They said it was in bad taste. I felt like a person soaked in blood coming into a living room full of people and reporting that my husband was dead, his body was taken away, and the pair of glasses were the only thing I had managed to salvage – and people looking at me saying it was in bad taste to show the glasses to them. "I'm not changing the cover. This is what John is now," I said.

– “ONOBOX” by Yoko Ono.

''What was I supposed to do, avoid the subject? ...A lot of people advised me that I shouldn't put that cover on the record, but I really wanted the whole world to see those glasses with blood on them and to realize the fact that John had been killed. It wasn't like he died of old age or drugs or something. People told me I shouldn't put the gunshots on the record, and the part where I start swearing, 'Hate me, hate us, we had everything,' which was just letting those feelings out. I know if John had been there, he would have been a lot more outspoken than I was. He was like that.

''My bedroom was right on 72d Street and on the night of the death, the fans kept playing this one record of John's. I was like a zombie, just lying there and hearing him sing 'Imagine' over and over and over. For about 10 days, it went on like that...”

– “YOKO ONO ASKS, 'WAS I SUPPOSED TO AVOID THE SUBJECT?'” by Robert Palmer (The New York Times, 1981)

John was killed, and it was very important for me to show that to the world, and for people to remember. Because I think that all of us are responsible of his death, of course including myself and both John and I were always trying to make a peaceful world.  And it’s very ironical that John who loved peace so much, died in a violent way.

– Yoko Ono, Ina France television interview (1981)

…I’ve seen a floor with a pond of blood. And that was the reality. And this was like a very, very, mild expression of that. And I was totally amazed that people felt that I was exploiting him. It wasn’t that at all. I felt the oneness with him and we were saying, `Please look at me. This is what you did to me.’ I mean, that’s what John wanted to say, I think.

– Yoko Ono, “Ono--Oh Yes!” by Jody Denberg (The Austin Chronicle, 1997)

…I would stick by it. That made that album not commercial and the record company called me and said, “Look, you have to change the cover otherwise we can’t put it out because all the shops say they’re not going to carry it.” And I said, “Well, we’ll just have to take a chance.” To have those glasses on the cover was important because it was a statement and you have to understand that it was like John wanted you guys to see those glasses. Because that was what was done to him. I saw what was done to him. It was worse than that cover shows. I’ve seen the worst of it and that cover was just like a very mild statement, a little message to you from John.

-- Yoko Ono, “Who the Hell Does Yoko Ono Think She Is” by Tom Hilbert (Q Magazine, 1988)

When I started to sing I noticed my throat was all choked up and my voice was cracking. I seriously thought maybe I should quit making the album because, as some people had advised me, “It was not the time”.

But the question was, when would it be the time? I thought of all the people in the world whose voices were choking and cracking for many reasons. I could sing for them. I could call it a “choke” or “crackle”. Well, wasn’t that what the critics had been saying about me for all these years anyway? That gave me a laugh, and it became easier. Many amazing things happened during the recording session. All I can say is that John was right there with me, busy trying to arrange things for me. That is why this album is not dedicated to him. He would have been offended. He was one of us.

– Yoko Ono (notes on the album)

...Ms. Ono, 80, posted on her Twitter account four antigun messages with an image of the blood-splattered glasses that Lennon was wearing when he was gunned down outside their Manhattan apartment building on Dec. 8, 1980. With the photo, once used on a 1981 album cover and in a 2000 antigun billboard campaign, she wrote: “The death of a loved one is a hollowing experience. After 33 years our son Sean and I still miss him. Yoko Ono Lennon.”

...She also used the image of the bloodied glasses on billboards that she paid for to help carry her message [of ending gun violence] in New York, Los Angeles and Cleveland. She used language similar to what she posted on Twitter this week on some of the billboards: “Over 676,000 people have been killed by guns in the U.S.A. since John Lennon was shot and killed on December 8, 1980.”

– “Yoko Ono Details Why She Posted Lennon’s Bloodied Glasses on Twitter “ by Jennifer Preston (The Lede)

John Lennon’s name isn’t mentioned in any lyric, but his presence is everywhere — from the cover photo of his shattered eyeglasses to Ono’s moving liner notes, which explain that the album wasn’t dedicated to Lennon because “he was one of us.”

– “Season of Glass” by Stephen Holden (album review for The Rolling Stone)

[Season of Glass] marks the point in time when we all lost a legend and not only encapsulates Yoko's sadness, but the world's. But more than her sadness, Season of Glass displays Ono's remarkable strength through this period.

– Ryan Schreiber

"Season of Glass was the salvation for me," Yoko said of her 1981 album. "I had gone into an uncharted period in my life, with no reference points... Music was the most natural thing I could think of. It was part of our life." The album's cover is a photo of John's blood-spattered glasses. As painful as it was to take the photo, Yoko knew that only she could "get it right."

– “Yoko Ono: Collector of Skies” by Nell Beram, Carolyn Boriss-Krimsky

For an artist who always had been uncompromisingly candid in her work, Ono's 1981 album Season of Glass, produced and released in response to Lennon's murder in December 1980, served as a deeply emotional--and inherently public–catharsis.

...And ultimately, Season of Glass offers heartbreaking testimony, not only through its wrenching music content, but directly on its face: Ono's photographic still life of Lennon's broken, blood-stained glasses next to a half full/empty glass of water on their apartment windowsill. 

– “Yes Yoko Ono” by Alexandra Munroe, Bruce Altshuler, and Jon Hendricks

A glass half empty. Her dead husband’s eyeglasses smeared with his blood. The window, the camera lens. All glass. Transparent. A misty rainy-day photograph viewing the New York City skyline through several gloomy horizons – taken from their bedroom window above Central Park. Their home. The city that John loved.

This was Yoko’s fragile world in December 1980.

...On the album cover, Yoko shares her nightmare – illustrating what the world had done to John and to her. Yoko reflects the horror right back on society, just as Jacqueline Kennedy wore her blood-stained Chanel suit in public for the remainder of the tragic day that she experienced the exact same trauma of seeing her husband killed in front of her. Yoko lets us see through the shattered window of her world and hides nothing – as always.

-- “SHATTERED. SEASON OF GLASS“  by Madeline Bocaro

‘spring passes and one remembers one’s innocence summer passes and one remembers one’e exuberance autumn passes and one remembers one’s reverence winter passes and one remembers one’s perseverance

there is a season that never passes and that is the season of glass’

– Yoko Ono (1980)

[tilde-he]

general recipes for attempting to produce novel ideas (and how does “invert something” compare to other ones?)

This post isn’t very polished because it was originally a comment I was writing somewhere, in response to something about a hypothetical design for a game. But it got long enough, and was general enough in topic, that I thought I’d post it here. But be warned that it is rather meandering, and does not successfully demonstrate any central point.

Something I (and no doubt many others) have noticed, is that to produce an idea that seems novel, often a very easy way to do this is to take the "normal" thing, and negate/reverse/invert it. "In many games, you gain abilities over the course of a game? Well, how about a game where you lose abilities over the course of the game.", "Usually in movies, what is shown is mostly shown in the same order as how it happens in the world of the story? Well, what about a movie where much of it is backwards?" ("Memento" does this I think? I haven't watched it), "the cops and robbers game on graphs, which is usually studied on finite graphs? Well, how about I come up with a variant on certain infinite graphs?" (to give an example I tried), etc. There's a reason that TVTropes has so many things listed as having "inverted" a trope.

So, this method *works*, but, here's the thing : I'm not sure the ideas that this produces, even if they are novel, necessarily tend to be all that great? There are multiple "general purpose formulas for coming up with a new idea", and I think "negate/reverse/invert something" is probably one of the easiest. I'm tempted to say "laziest", though that may be going too far.

I was going to try to look around the room and think of the ways to apply it to the things I see, in an attempt to demonstrate that the resulting ideas aren't that great, but it just came up with actual existing and worthwhile ideas. I looked at a camera, and what came to mind was the discovery people made that by looking at how a bright screen illuminates a room as seen by a single light sensor, you can in effect reverse the roles of the camera and screen, and produce an image which is as if it was lit from the light sensor, and taken from the viewpoint of the screen, which is a pretty cool discovery. I looked at a bottle of vitamin pills, and, well, my first thought was "well, what if the vitamins ate you", but that was stupid, the second thought was "well, what if you apply a medication by applying it to the outside of your body, like as a patch, as opposed to putting it inside your body", and, people already use nicotine patches to help quit smoking, and there are of course topical creams for a variety of things. I suppose another negation/inversion of "pills that you take by swallowing them" would be suppositories. To negate a keyboard, which is something you put your fingers on to enter input to the computer, there are two things I see to invert here. You could invert the "to provide input to the computer", and get "to receive output from the computer", basically a kind of computer braille output, which is presumably used by some blind people, and you could invert "you put your fingers on it" to get "you put it on your fingers", which would be, I suppose, like those handheld chorded keyboards like that which is used by stenographers, or, if you also partially negate the "input to computer" part, you get haptic feedback VR gloves. If you take a desk and negate "you put things on it", you get "you put it on things", a paperweight. I guess if you negate a digital tablet pen input device, you could get, a computerized thing to guide making lines on physical paper (I don't think this exists, but could be kind of neat I guess), or alternatively a pen plotter. If you negate a bowl, you get a lid(which goes on top of stuff instead of below, but still keeps things in a container) or a boat(keeps the liquid out of, instead of inside, the designated area), or an umbrella (keeps stuff out of the region instead of in the region, and also goes on top of the region instead of below the region). Ok, so maybe "just negate/reverse/invert something" often does produce ideas that are worthwhile, (even if not necessarily novel), so sue me. I still think other general-purpose-recipes-for-new-ideas could stand to get a bit more use compared to simple negation. There's a reason "What if a video game, *but you play as the villain*! So cool!" is so, uh, overdone/over-thought-of. Maybe I'm biased here, but I think "X, but mixed with Y", is a bit more versatile as an idea-producer than "X, but the component(s) Y of X is(are) reversed/inverted/negated" ? I think "X is to Y as Z is to what?" is probably even more versatile, and I think that the ideas it produces, at least when it succeeds in producing a non-nonsense idea, are maybe more likely to be more novel and fruitful. Like, you may be able to come up with more ideas more quickly by just saying "just negate something", but I think the ideas produced by "complete the analogy" may tend to have more that can be done with them, more room to expand on them beyond the initial idea/implementation. (For example, if we have some definitions of some types of mathematical objects, and we say that a foo is a bar that wobbles, and a bar is a baz that shimmers, one might ask “bar : baz :: foo : (?) “, i.e. what is the right definition for a type of baz which does something like “wobble”, even though it doesn’t shimmer (and so the usual definition of “wobble”, as applied to bars, perhaps might not really apply). for an example of this example, “If Hilbert spaces are complete inner product spaces, in that they are equipped with an inner product which induces a norm under which it is complete, and if vector space has a positive semi-definite hermitian form, it defines a seminorm, and if a Fréchet space is a vector space which has topology induced by a countable family of semi-norms, and which is complete wrt that family (and is Hausdorff), what do we get if we look at vector spaces with a countable family of positive semi-definite hermitian forms, which is complete with respect to that family, in order to complete the analogy “Banach Space : Fréchet Space :: Hilbert Space : (?)” )

Another general purpose idea-production-recipe that I have in the past been, imo, overly fond of, is the "apply an idea to itself" one. This of course can produce interesting results. Meta stuff can be really important and useful. But I used to put too much emphasis on it, overused it. And I suspect others make the same mistake. (For fun, let's apply a bit of meta here: what happens if we apply these "general purpose recipes for making a new idea" to the idea of "general purpose recipes for making a new idea"? Well, if we apply an inversion, and negate "new", we get "general purpose recipes for finding an old idea", which I suppose, if we massage it a bit, gives us "general ways in which different ideas can be related". If we apply negation to the "general purpose" part, we get the idea of "methods that are only applicable in restricted contexts, for generating new ideas". Perhaps these methods are just as important, or even more important, than the general purpose ones, with regards to producing new good and lasting ideas? Seems likely to me! Though I suspect that making this claim precise would be difficult.) One way of producing ideas that I think is nice, and which is kind of a form of or variation on the negation method, is to take a problem, something which is unsatisfactory, and look at what it would mean for it to not apply, or find the simplest thing, even if rather outlandish, which would preclude the problem. I suppose this could also be done for things which are not problems, but that starts to get close to just "negate something". But not quite, because it is more "find a condition which precludes something" or "find a condition which would make the negation possible". For example, what would it take for no one to deal with "the crowd" as a collective, only with individuals, to only need to deal with cumulative effects of the opinions of individuals, but not have to deal with these opinions of others acting together as a group? If the graph of what people interact with what people was an acyclic graph, or a graph with a large girth, that seems like it would be sufficient. What if instead we want to avoid the problem of the asymmetry between a person who interacts with many many people, and those who interact with such a person, but themselves only interact with relatively few people (e.g. people with 200 twitter followers replying to someone with 2,000,000 twitter followers) ? Well, what if we just don't allow people to follow or be followed by, or even see accounts whose number of followers differs from theirs by more than an order of magnitude or 2? Would anyone use such a social networking site? If they did, what would the interaction dynamics be like?

Ok, what was the point of this comment/post? The point was supposed to be “I think that ‘just inverse/reverse part of some other idea’ is over-used as a method or producing novel-seeming ideas.” But I did not really give much of an argument for it. I hope that nonetheless, this brief discussion of the topic “general purpose methods for generating ideas” was still somewhat interesting.

[niedplays]

Pokemon White: Part 1??

Still don’t know how to title these things! Anyway, howdy hey, it’s time to actually play video games on my video games blog!

Wanna say this now: I’m dumb. Like, just in general, but specifically, I made the all-too-wise decision to play on cartridge. This is dumb because, hey, that means I can’t take screenshots! Not unless I, say, shell out a couple hundred for a DS with a capture card, or, uh, just take pictures with my phone. Sure, I COULD just boot up a ROM, but, to be truths, I prefer the feel of playing the game in-person, not just emulating it. 

So pictures will likely either be mocked-up or taken from google, and, if necessary, sourced accordingly!

I held a poll on twitter, along with asking my friends, for the purposes of figuring out exactly who I should play: Hilbert or Hilda, boy or girl. Truthfully, my process usually involves picking which one I think looks better, though this is deluxe fucking difficult, since both Hilby and Hildy look great, as I have mentioned before. 

The first time I played White (which I preordered and started day of release!), I went for Hilda. And, as it turns out:

my friends and followers thought I should do that once more! So, Hilda it is! And, with a name I spent an agonizingly long time thinking up (Berkley, bonus points if you get the reference! Hint: I had to shorten it from the name Berkeley in order to fit!), I begin!

Pokemon Black and White trims the fat a bit, fucking IMMEDIATELY starting with Cheren and Bianca, who I will share my opinions about later. Right there, you get to pick your pokemon and get FUCKING BATTLING, because this is America, bitch! You get attacked in your own goddamned bedroom! 

Jokes aside, it’s a stock standard first rival battle (well, two of them), an agonizing experience requiring TRUE STRATEGIC EXPERIENCE, all in order to outfox your opponent. With only Tackle and either an Attack-lowering or Defense-lowering move, you’re supposed to outwit and overcome, using these two moves to play a delicate chess game between you and Bianca (and Cheren).

Or you can just mash Tackle and win. Or lose. Maybe a critical hit will happen. The first rival battle has always been a formality, and the fact that Gen VI on gives you the elemental move immediately is a small quality-of-life improvement.

I do like how your room gets fucked up after the battle. It’s the only time it happens in the game, but it’s cute. As a side note, all of the screencaps I can find online are of Hilbert, even though I picked Hilda. But hey, you know what? Genderfluid lives matter, y’all.

Anyway, oh! What did I pick for my starter, you say? Well, before I reveal that oh-so-tantalizing information, I’ll talk about my options.

Despite my love for Unova, I’m kinda... well, eh on the starters. Don’t get me wrong, I can appreciate them, and I think Oshawott is cute as fuck, but they (and their evolutions) don’t pop out as much as other gens. Dunno why, just a personal taste thing. When I first played White, I deviated from my tendency to pick Grass to nab Oshawott, which I lovingly named Lee Harvey.  Since then, I’ve played BW a couple of times, picking Snivy and Tepig at those times. So, I decided, let’s get back to my roots. Let’s pick Oshawott! 

Yeah! That one!

There’s not much to say about the rest of the very first part of the game. It’s stock standard pokemon, you say hi and bye to mom, you boogie down to the professor, they task you with collecting pokemon, and you go out. As much as I’d love to talk about how much I love Juniper, I think I’ll have to make that another part, since this one’s kinda long.

As an author’s note from 2006-era fanfiction, I want to say that I’m not gonna be as slow as I am with these first few parts, with the rest. I’m just spending a lot of time talking about how much I love Unova, since there’s... not really much to talk about until we get to the introduction of Plasma and the Striaton Gym. So this is all, effectively, filler until then. But hey, I discovered something new!

Whenever you leave your house for the first time, you see Pidove flying around, and it’s a really cute little cutscene. I’ve known about this since, well, the first time I played, but what I didn’t know was that it’s Pidove during the day! Leave your house during the night, and...

Woobat! 

Next time: PLASMAAAAAA 

[delicatelysublimeforester]

“The city that integrates landscapes, urban gardens, and green roofs to maximize biodiversity.  Which strategies can be applied to protect and maximize biodiversity and to reintroduce landscape and garden ideas back in the city to ensure urban cooling?” Steffen Lehmann

Pelican Preenning

Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area and West Swale Wetlands in the fog

West Swale Wetlands (Chappel Marsh) Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, Saskatoon, SK, CA

City of Saskatoon, SK, CA

Rime Ice at George Genereux Urban Regional Park, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. NE 21-36-6 W 3 “George Genereux” Afforestation Area – 133 Range Road 3063 NE 21-36-6

“The narrowing [and reduction of] roads, which calms traffic and lowers the UHI [urban heat island] effect, allows for more (all-important) tree planting.  Preserving green space, gardens and farm land creates a green belt around the city, and planting trees absorbs CO2.  …In all urban planning, we need to maintain and protect the existing ecosystem that stores carbon and plan for the creation of new carbon storage sinks by increasing the amount of tree planting.  The increase is the percentage of green space as a share of total city land is to be performed in combination with an densification activities.” ~Steffen Lehmann

Planting in reserved lands purchased in 1960 for a green belt or tree belt begins in 1972. “A tree belt as a windbreak and to create a sense of enclosure is suggested along the edges of development for all areas which will not expand in the near future. Such a belt can already be considered along the northern boundary of Westview Heights. In conclusion it can be stated that a seemingly overwhelming demand lies ahead, however, through careful timing, programming and design there should be few difficulties. It should be remembered that the city forefathers reserved beautiful parks along the river, others have developed in Kiwanis Park, the University Grounds and numerous treed and landscaped streets. They did so under adverse conditions with a population of 20,000. They gave the city a reputation as the “City Beautiful” and today’s residents should be willing to uphold their tradition.” (Wellman. 1963. P 18)_At this time City Council passes an order in council that the afforestation is protected in perpetuity.

As we look out on the southern extent of circle drive, along the shorelines of the Gordie Howe Bridge, and out onto Township Road 362A the view of Bert Wellman, Saskatoon Planning Department, can be seen  Wellman walked around Saskatoon’s perimeter choosing high spots of land for scenic beauty and brought his ideas to City Planner Bill Graham developing the 1960 Circle Drive Parkway, planting the parks, and establishing the trees.

Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area and George Genereux Urban Regional Park were afforested by the City Parks Department in 1972; 200,000 trees on 600 acres of land in three afforestation areas.  Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area and George Genereux Urban Regional Park were on the southwest side of the South Saskatchewan River, and the third was on the east side of the river, south of Diefenbaker park, and west of the Saskatoon Golf Course.  The afforestation areas were all preserved in perpetuity in 1972.

Bibliography

Lehmann, Steffen.   Part I.  Sustainable Urbanism Climate Change, and Resilience. Green Urbanism.  Formulating a Series of Holistic Principles.  Sustainable Urbanism and Beyond.  Rethinking cities for the future.  Tigran Haas Editor. ISBN 978-0-8478-83836-3  Rizzoli International Publications Inc.  New York. 2012

Wellman, Hilbert E. and Henry F. Frolich. (1963) Community Planning Scheme 1963. Henry F. Frolich, Assistant City Planner, and Hilbert E. Wellman, City Planning and Building Director. Page 18.

For directions as to how to drive to “George Genereux” Urban Regional Park

For directions on how to drive to Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area

For more information:

Blairmore Sector Plan Report; planning for the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area,  George Genereux Urban Regional Park and West Swale and areas around them inside of Saskatoon city limits

P4G Saskatoon North Partnership for Growth The P4G consists of the Cities of Saskatoon, Warman, and Martensville, the Town of Osler and the Rural Municipality of Corman Park; planning for areas around the afforestation area and West Swale outside of Saskatoon city limits

Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area is located in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada north of Cedar Villa Road, within city limits, in the furthest south west area of the city. 52° 06′ 106° 45′ Addresses: Part SE 23-36-6 – Afforestation Area – 241 Township Road 362-A Part SE 23-36-6 – SW Off-Leash Recreation Area (Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area ) – 355 Township Road 362-A S ½ 22-36-6 Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area (West of SW OLRA) – 467 Township Road 362-A NE 21-36-6 “George Genereux” Afforestation Area – 133 Range Road 3063 Wikimapia Map: type in Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area Google Maps South West Off Leash area location pin at parking lot Web page: https://stbarbebaker.wordpress.com Where is the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area? with map Where is the George Genereux Urban Regional Park (Afforestation Area)? with map

Pinterest richardstbarbeb

Facebook Group Page: Users of the George Genereux Urban Regional Park

Facebook: StBarbeBaker

Facebook group page : Users of the St Barbe Baker Afforestation Area

Facebook: South West OLRA

Twitter: StBarbeBaker

You Tube Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area

You Tube George Genereux Urban Regional Park

Should you wish to help protect / enhance the afforestation areas, please contact the City of Saskatoon, Corporate Revenue Division, 222 3rd Ave N, Saskatoon, SK S7K 0J5…to support the afforestation area with your donation please state that your donation should support the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, or the George Genereux Urban Regional Park, or both afforestation areas located in the Blairmore Sector. Please and thank you!  Your donation is greatly appreciated.

1./ Learn.

2./ Experience

3./ Do Something: ***

  “St. Barbe’s unique capacity to pass on his enthusiasm to others. . . Many foresters all over the world found their vocations as a result of hearing ‘The Man of the Trees’ speak. I certainly did, but his impact has been much wider than that. Through his global lecture tours, St. Barbe has made millions of people aware of the importance of trees and forests to our planet.” Allan Grainger

“The science of forestry arose from the recognition of a universal need. It embodies the spirit of service to mankind in attempting to provide a means of supplying forever a necessity of life and, in addition, ministering to man’s aesthetic tastes and recreational interests. Besides, the spiritual side of human nature needs the refreshing inspiration which comes from trees and woodlands. If a nation saves its trees, the trees will save the nation. And nations as well as tribes may be brought together in this great movement, based on the ideal of beautifying the world by the cultivation of one of God’s loveliest creatures – the tree.” ~ Richard St. Barbe Baker.

  “The aim of the Men of the Trees is briefly ‘ to develop a tree sense in every citizen, and to encourage all to plant, protect and love their native trees; for forestry is among the oldest and most honourable of the peaceful arts of men, and in its practice is unselfish and constructive service.’ ” In the words of Henry van Dyke, America’s greatest tree poet, He that planteth a tree is a servant of God; He provideth a kindness for many generations And faces that he hath not seen shall bless him.” Richard St. Barbe Baker

“City Beautiful” Saskatoon. "The city that integrates landscapes, urban gardens, and green roofs to maximize biodiversity.  Which strategies can be applied to protect and maximize biodiversity and to reintroduce landscape and garden ideas back in the city to ensure urban cooling?" Steffen Lehmann…

[pricelessmomentblog]

Book Club: Godel, Escher, Bach (December 2017)

This month we read Godel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter. 

This is a fantastically weird and wonderful book. At one level, the book is about a parallel between three people: Johann Sebastian Bach, Kurt Godel and M.C. Escher, in particular how their work in music, math and art manages to loop back on itself and express a kind of self-referentiality. On another level, however, this book is really a hypothesis about the human mind itself, that selves and souls can come out from inanimate matter the same way that M.C. Escher’s hands draw themselves or Godel’s creates math that proves that it cannot be proven.

Gödel, Escher, Bach is a wonderful exploration of fascinating ideas at the heart of cognitive science: meaning, reduction, recursion, and much more.

If you would like to stream audio on your browser, click here listen on Soundcloud. If you’d like to read the transcript, you may do so here.

Here are some of the highlights from this month’s review. First off, we establish what Douglas Hofstadter is referring to when he talks about a “strange loop”; it’s perhaps easiest to refer to the visual artist M.C. Escher to explain this very sophisticated concept:

An example would be [his images] of the drawing hands where he has drawn two pictures of hands which are holding pencils and drawing themselves. Other ones Escher has includes birds which turn into other animals and shift between the foreground and background. He even has one where there is a person looking at a picture in a museum and the scene is warping so that he is part of the museum itself.

So, this is something that I think is easy to see to visually, this kind of paradox, and it’s easy to dismiss it as well as being a bit of trickery. You might not even be a fan of M.C. Escher’s art, you might consider it too obvious. 

However, I think it’s a really good entry point to grasping this idea of a strange loop. Now what I think Douglas Hofstadter calls a strange loop or this tangled hierarchy is where you have layers of something where something is built on top of something else.

Next, I discuss mathematician Kurt Godel and how he showed that there were limits to logic itself: 

Hilbert’s problem was that, at the time, there were no different axiomatic systems for mathematics. His idea was that if someone could come up with a proof that shows that standardized axioms exists, and was consistent and also complete, that would be a major triumph. We could feel very secure resting in our knowledge that this mechanical system would work all the time. And what Godel did in the 1930’s, was that he showed that this was actually impossible.

Godel showed that any system that you have, any set of rules that you have, is powerful enough to represent the basics of natural numbers (the basics of arithmetic) will ultimately undermine itself by creating situations that we know are true but cannot be represented.

To explain Godel’s proof in another way: 

Think about how 2 + 2 = 4. You have a two, you have a plus sign, you have a two, you have an equal sign, and you have a four. What Godel is doing is saying, let’s take that 2 and put it in a number, let’s take that plus sign and put it as a number, let’s take that 2 and put it in a number, let’s take that equal sign and put it into a number and let’s take that 4 and put it into a number.

Now you have one super long number that represents 2 + 2 = 4 as not just a number but as something that involves plus signs and equals signs and has separate numbers but as just one big number. 

Okay so what can you do with this? Well if you go through a little bit of work what you can end up doing with this process is you can make a statement that is the mathematical equivalent of saying “this statement is false” or more specifically what it is saying is “this statement has no proof.”

There are also mind-bending ramifications of Godel’s work on our current concept of human consciousness:

…. he’s identified a system that has reached a level of sophistication that has the ability to loop back on itself. What’s the extension here? One of them is the idea of human consciousness. He’s saying that what perhaps the self is, what we are, as not bodies but sort of an abstract quality, what makes us different from rocks or computer programs that we have today, is that our machinery for representing things is sufficiently complex and we can represent ourselves in that machinery. Moreover, we can represent ourselves representing ourselves. 

We can have thoughts about our own thoughts and about the person thinking the thoughts and about their relation to the world at large.

Feel free to join in on our Facebook Group Discussion I’d love to discuss this book with you there, thanks. January’s book is James C. Scott’s Seeing Like A State. 

Book Club: Godel, Escher, Bach (December 2017) syndicated from http://ift.tt/2kl7pJj