Wired Sage

I saw a pulp-science show the other month offering a scientific explanation of life after death experiences with quantum entanglement. My question to you: What do you think of a sentient universe? That is, one with the ability to think, being quantum-ly entangled to every living brain within it. Does that make science into a religion?

With the multitude of stars and the ability for entanglement to work instantly without regard to distance, think about the possibility of billions upon billions of sentient life forms throughout the universe, all contributing to a higher, universal consciousness.

Maybe religion wasn’t far off with an “all knowing” or omnipotent god?

Think about each brain as massively parallel organic computer, and think of quantum entanglement as a network bringing them all together as a supercomputer cluster. Think about the processing capabilities! Think about the intellect of the macro-consciousness! Mind boggling!

Have we mere mortals peered into Heaven?  Have we just glimpsed the mind of God?

I put together this game way back in 2007 for my daughter’s Valentine’s Day party. If you are a teacher or student, please feel free to use this in your class. I think it’s a fun, free, holiday children’s game that can liven up any school party.

You can download one convenient file, which includes the rules, all of the calling tiles and 30 playing cards. You can also download a pack of 30 additional playing cards if needed.

Game Contents

In the PDF package there are 30 randomly generated color game cards, 10 sheets of color calling tiles, and 2 sheets of monochrome calling tiles. Print the number of game card pages you need and the type of calling tiles you’ll use. There are different variations of game play all explained below.

Game Play

Variation #1 – Simple Rules

In this variation, you only need to print out the number of cards you need and the last two pages of the PDF file with the monochrome heart calling tiles. Cut the calling tiles out. Place the calling tiles in a hat or other container. Mix the calling tiles up. Distribute the cards to the players. Everyone gets to mark the center square because it’s a free spot. Pull a calling tile out of the hat. Read the saying out loud, for example “Red Hot” or “Love me” or “Wow!”. Players will mark their cards if they have a heart of ANY COLOR in ANY COLUMN with that saying. Play continues until the first player gets five in a row across, down, or diagonally across their playing card. That player will call out “Candy Hearts!” and is the winner.

Variation #2 – Color Rules

In this variation, you only need to print out the number of cards you need and the nine pages of color heart calling tiles. Cut the calling tiles out. Place the calling tiles in a hat or other container. Mix the calling tiles up. Distribute the cards to the players. Everyone gets to mark the center square because it’s a free spot. Pull a calling tile out of the hat. Read the color of the heart and the saying out loud, for example “Purple, Red Hot” or “Yellow, Love me” or “White, Wow!”. Players will mark their cards if they have a heart of that color and phrase in ANY COLUMN upon their playing card. Play continues until the first player gets five in a row across, down, or diagonally across their playing card. That player will call out “Candy Hearts!” and is the winner.

Variation #3 – Auditorium rules

In this variation, you will need to print out the number of cards you need, the nine pages of color heart calling tiles and the last page of HEART tiles. Place the calling tiles in a hat or other container. Place the HEART tiles in another hat or other container. Mix both sets of tiles up. Distribute the cards to the players. Everyone gets to mark the center square because it’s a free spot. Pull a calling tile out of each hat. Read the letter of the column heart and the color of the second heart and the title out loud, for example “H, Purple, Red Hot” or “E, Yellow, Love me” or “T, White, Wow!”. Players will mark their cards if they have a heart of that color and phrase in the particular column upon their playing card. Play continues until the first player gets five in a row across, down, or diagonally across their playing card. That player will call out “Candy Hearts!” and is the winner.

Note:

In all variations of play, the game cards were created randomly, and do not have two of the same sayings on a card. Variation #1 has 63 different saying. This will produce a “Candy Hearts!” winner relatively quickly. Variation #2 has 63 different sayings, in six different colors, for a total of 378 combinations. Variation #3 has 63 different sayings, in six different colors, which can occur in one of five columns, for a total of 1890 combinations. This is best suited for large groups and will need many more randomly generated cards to avoid multiple simultaneous winners.

Feel free to mix and match to your liking.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Last year, June 2009 to be more precise, I contracted imemories to digitize some old 8mm film that I had saved from my parents. It was pretty expensive, but I didn’t have a lot to do. I figured I’d break the job up into smaller bits and spread the cost over a few years. I’m glad I got part of it done before my father passed away this summer. I think that motivated me to make sure all of the video I’ve taken over the years was safe.

So back in March of 2010 I started a project to ‘recover’ all my home video. I could have used imemories to do this also, but I had so much video, it wasn’t cost effective to pay someone else to do the conversion work. It would have been tens of thousands of dollars for them to do it. And sure most of the tedious, boring, busy-work would have been farmed out; but, I’d still be stuck doing the hard work of categorizing and editing the video. It just wasn’t a cost effective solution. Plus, I had almost everything I needed. My old Video8 VHS camcorder still worked. I had a way to capture and digitize the analog footage. I just needed to pick up a miniDV camcorder that was in working condition to digitize the close to fifty hours of miniDV footage I had. Thank goodness for Craig’s List! I found a working camera for $80 and after about a month of working, I completed Phase 1 of the project — getting everything onto a hard drive.

Thinking this through, phase 2 might still be uncompleted. Phase 2 consisted of getting everything into an iMovie format ready for archival and editing. I migrated computers and think I may have several dozen hours of Video8 footage in EyeTV format. If that’s the case, I’ll figure it out after Phase 4, which will be the accounting and audit phase to make sure I didn’t miss anything. If I missed anything, Phase 5 will be to do whatever it takes to finish the project. I do mean, “Whatever it takes!”

So, I find myself here, in phase 3 — “Compression and Archival”. Since I started this whole process, I learned that iMovie saves my HDTV footage from my newest camcorders in Apple Intermediary Codec format. This is the native format that iMovie uses for editing. My understanding is that it’s a lossless codec and takes up 50% of the space that DV encoded events do. With this new knowledge, I am in the process of re-encoding all my DV footage to be this newly discovered native apple format. Afterwards, I plan on encoding each event as a .mov and .m4v file, then archive it onto optical medium (DVD +R DL).

I just started this last week. So far, I’m working on my third event. I think I could do an event a day: it takes about four hours to encode both formats and two hours to burn it to disc with verification for each hour long event… some events are two hours long. It takes ten minutes to set it up to start, two minutes to export to the 2nd format after one two hour conversion, then ten more minutes to set up the disc burning. So, about twenty two minutes of real computer work per day of waiting. Taking into consideration the lack of efficiency on my part, and the inevitable hurdles I’ll come across, let’s say I can complete five events a week. At around a hundred and twenty hours of events I’m looking at approximately four months of work for this phase. The product will be a DVD library of cataloged, home, video footage in neat little DVD cases with covers and explanations of what is contained within.

Wow, sounds a bit OCD, doesn’t it? Well, you know what they say… if the skin fits… wash it! They don’t really say that… it was my attempt at OCD-humor. Forget it. OCD stands for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and is sometimes epitomized by the frequent washing of one’s hands — it’s also epitomized by the compulsive need to explain failed humor, inform and enlighten others, and generally drone on for hours, blogging crap no one will ever read. But I digress.

“So what,” you say? So, I started another phase of this monumental task. I do it for me, to keep track of time, but, mostly to show that if you break it up into small enough pieces, no matter how big the task is you can tackle it.

How’s that for a blog entry really about nothing pulling a moral and life lesson out of nowhere! I think what I just did needs a name. If we were playing hockey, it would be comparable to a hat-trick, so let’s call it a head-trick!

Not that I think anyone reads this, but if there is a person out there that does, or if years from now when I’m suffering from Alzheimer’s I need an overt reminder, last year I had a really bad week. My Dad went into ICU and was eventually diagnosed with MDS, a form of Leukemia. So, from that week in September, till July 4th, my Dad fought his disease. On July 4th, 2010, he succumbed to pneumonia.

I saw my dad just weeks before when I took a few extra days off to visit him on my way to Michigan for the Odyssey of the Mind World Finals. It was only 600 miles out of my way and only an extra day of vacation from work to visit for three days. At work we were (and sadly still are) navigating a huge merger and unfortunately the pressure there on top of everything else prohibited me from spending more time with my father during his last days on Earth. It saddens me, but I take comfort in the simple phrases, “That’s life,” and “You have to do what you have to do.” They were phrases I heard from him often. He missed a lot of my childhood too. Not that I blame him. He was doing what he had to do to keep a family afloat, although, sometimes against his will, but all that is water under a very old, very distant bridge. I was doing what I had to do. I keep telling myself that. And I know that he understood.

I’m the kind of adult to make myself a big bowl of ice cream before dinner and when my kids complain I reply, “It’s good to be an adult!” Now I feel quite the opposite. Being a responsible adult, I was compelled by cynical, rational, dependable, logical thought to do what I had to do instead of doing what I wanted to do. Although, maybe to be fair I cowardly hid behind my responsibilities to avoid mental anguish and heartbreak? It was so difficult being with my father the last two or three times I visited him. Each time it tore a hole in my heart. I can honestly reflect and see that I did take comfort in my responsibilities and felt a little like they were excuses to avoid my obligations to my father. If I were to grade myself, I’d give myself a B+, I did a good job, but I could have done so much better.

And since my last post, I’ve been in a really bad place all summer long… last spring… last winter, and all of last fall. Life is just starting to feel like it’s beginning to return to normal. I know I’m still grieving. I also know that I won’t know when I stop. It’s not like you can put a date and a time stamp on the end of the process.

If someone sees this writing, far in the future when technology allows time travel into the past, please do me a favor, visit Mike Esposito at the Barry Tepp Company in Metuchen, NJ, USA at 11 Lenard Street, (Latitude 40.547102, Longitude -74.372678) some time between 1973 and 1974 and give this message to him, “Your son Andrew has sent a message through time. He loved you with all his heart and missed you terribly. He knew everything you’ve done in your life, all your secrets were revealed, and he forgave you and loved you unconditionally until the end.” That would be nice and shouldn’t mess up the time line any, he came to know that. It would just be nice if he knew it sooner.

Dad at the NJ Aquarium, Aug 2008

Special Thanks to my brother Donald for the Snow Shovel.