q/ 7t q

-Written quote: "use argument by contradiction. Consider h=f-g, use IVT, min-max thm"-

I tried having a tall mug of green tea before bed last night, in hopes that maybe the slight caffeine content would help me sleep more alertly. I believe I had a fairly vivid dream, but I was so tired from Friday night's John Doe (interesting TV series) marathon that I kind of rolled over and forgot most of it. Something to do with international politics, I think. So the tea is still up for grabs.

I wonder, sometimes, whether the person who invented Hearts intended for the game to be a mushy allegory for romance. Maybe it's too hard to resist when you have a name like "the game of Hearts"

On the other hand, most of the interesting rules have developed over time. It becomes almost a collaborative effort over time, with each new set of house rules and strategies adding depth to the story.

- No point cards on the first round

- If you have the Queen of Spades, you should either avoid hearts altogether, or get them all

- When cards are passed, you can't see the cards you've been given until you let go of yours

- A common strategy is to avoid taking tricks so that you never have to lead

- Winning comes in giving hearts away

Reality check. I'm an INTJ. I overanalyze.

nd ntd aad

-Conversation quote: "snip in the but" [a horrific misspelling of "nip in the bud"]-

This week, I had a dream which contained a lady with a very fat cat. This cat was obese. Also, it had chubby human feet, which made it even more ACKKK to look at.

I have discovered a completely interminable dominoes game. I suppose technically speaking, the game has an end, but it is a game played to a certain number of rounds, one round for each possible double on the dominoes.

The set I was playing with was a double-twelve set. Yes, that makes 13 (not very short) rounds from beginning to end.

I was so sick of dominoes by the end. Here's a helpful tip: if anyone ever invites you into a game of Mexican train, run. Run far, far away.

Reality check. Weird thought: why do people sometimes refer to personal attraction as "magnetic"? You've got a 50-50 chance that the force is repulsive rather than attractive.

nd t d

-Tim quote: "the joy of snow to you"-

Most interesting dream this week was one where I was in a house built into a desert cliff. There were several other people in the house, and apparently we were all isolated there for weeks or months. As a result, interpersonal relationships were rather tense. Later that same night, I dreamed of the same house, but this time with only one person in it, and he befriended a huge wolf spider living there. I'm really not sure why my brain likes desert cliffs so much.

And now it's time for Philosophical Pet Peeves!

My first pet peeve is this: when people say the phrase "Before time began" Let me rephrase this as the equivalent statement "In a time we call 'before', time doesn't exist."

Please use your brain. "Before" and "began" have absolutely no meaning if time doesn't exist.

Reality check. Also, there are massive amounts of snow outside.

q qq qqqq

-Self quote: "Choose Your Own Adventure novels are discrete approximations of the many-worlds hypothesis."-

I had more dreams about my job this week. Whoop-dee-dee. But on a more exciting note, I did have a short moment of lucidity in one of my dreams, which I decided to use for flying (probably because I usually become lucid when flying, so the concepts are closely associated in my head). My ultimate goal for lucidity is to get a chance to talk to an anthropomorphized version of my subconscious/intuition.

I've got no inspiration today. Go read Darths & Droids.

Reality check. And ponder the nature of consciousness and the universe.