Game Night

If you remember from my January 10th post, "Jason Geeks Out, Part 1: An Odyssey of Unrequited Love in Cardboard and Plastic", I love board games, but lament the fact that I can't find other people to play them with.

Well...(Survivors', "The Search is Over" swells and a montage of slow-motion smiles and laughter from last night's game night begins) I think I've finally found a good group of people. And Kate's totally into it, too, which makes it perfect.

Social games like Taboo and Apples to Apples are such a great way to grease the wheels of meeting new people. You can be as competitive as you like without having to keep score. If someone screws up a rule or takes an unfair advantage, who cares? Why stress about it. It's all about having fun, not winning.

It was a great time, one that you too can enjoy in the comfort of your own homes. In this economy, staying home and socializing makes much more sense that going out. So grab some snacks (I originally had "snakes" inadvertently, which would make for a very different kind of evening) some friends and a few board games and have a good time on the cheap.

Here's a great site to discover and purchase new games:

http://www.funagain.com

Holograms: Proof Lasers Can Do More Than Kill Aliens

Thanks again, Mela.  You've now given me ideas for two entries.  We still don't know each other that well and you're already an official sponsor of "A Year of Positives", with all the rights and privileges afforded that title (which consist of being mentioned in this sentence and the keywords at the bottom.)

Holograms are fascinating bits of artistry.  I'm no physicist, so I won't even attempt to explain how they work (mainly because I don't know.)  There are plenty of sites out there to confuse you thoroughly on the subject.  I'll just point out the obvious.  Holograms are 3D images captured on a 2D display medium using lasers and interference patterns.  Stare very carefully at the text in this entry.  Notice how it appears in full, unremarkable 2D?  That's because it isn't a hologram.

Now here's the part that will really bake your noodle.  If you take a true hologram (the image on your credit card won't work) and cut the image in half, you're left with two full copies of the entire image.  Cut both of those halves in half and you're left with four copies of the full image.  It doesn't matter how small you cut the pieces.  Regardless of the size or where the pieces are cut from they will always contain all the information from the original image.  Somehow the whole is contained in each piece.  How?  Black magic, clearly.

Now imagine this.  Any information can be captured holographically.  Instead of capturing a photo we could just as easily capture data.  Digital data,  like the information we currently save on computer hard drives.  Saving data holographically would revolutionize digital storage, completely precluding the need for back ups.  If a segment of your holodisk gets damaged, no big deal.  The remaining piece still contains all the information from the original.  Need to give someone a copy?  Just break off a chunk and hand it to them.  That tiny piece still somehow manages to contain everything the larger parent disk held.

It's mind-boggling, I know, but it's absolutely true.  Holograms are another example of just how astounding the physical universe is.

As an aside, I hope I never have to see that clown hologram close up.  CREEPY!

I'll Send You Mine if You Send Me Yours

It may be a bit early for this post, but tonight (I don't know you that well yet, but thanks, Mela) I was turned on to paperbackswap.com, and all instruments register an 8.9 on the Richter Scale of Radical!

Anyone that's read previous posts knows that I can't control myself around used book sales.  One book becomes ten books, which eventually becomes an old Sutter Home White Zinfandel box full of books (the box isn't mine...it came with the books.)  So needless to say I have shelves and shelves and boxes and stacks of mostly unread reading material.  What's an overzealous bibliophile to do?

Swap them.  Paperbackswap.com is exactly what you'd imagine it would be.  List all the books you want to get rid of and receive credits when another user requests one of them.  That user pays nothing for your book, and you pay to ship it.  You then use your credits to "buy" books from other users, and they pay for that shipping.  No money changes hands directly between the parties involved.  You're truly trading books (and CDs and DVDs) with a very large community of people.

I just signed up for an account and tomorrow sometime I think I'll peruse my shelves and shelves and boxes and stacks for grist for the trading mill.  I will say though that my book addiction is tinged with the collecting bug.  Reading the book is important, of course, but that rarely happens.  The "having of" the book is motivation plenty.  It remains to be seen whether I can find books I can part with.  I'm hoping I have a copy of "Potat-OH!: An Illustrated History of Tubers" that I can get rid of.

Note: If any of you sign up after reading this entry, use jdbloom@comcast.net when they ask who referred you.  Apparently I get some small bonus.

Note Also: I didn't write this entry in order to get the above-mentioned bonus.  I just think the idea is a really good one.  If you agree, remember who told you about it.

Note As Well: The Richter Scale of Radical doesn't actually exist.  And that registers very low on the Richter Scale of Radical.