Comments on: Acceptable in a six-year-old http://mcgees.org/2009/11/09/health-care-animal-farm/ Website of Joshua McGee Mon, 06 Feb 2012 23:58:27 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Joshua <i>(Site Owner)</i> http://mcgees.org/2009/11/09/health-care-animal-farm/comment-page-1/#comment-63460 Joshua (Site Owner) Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:51:32 +0000 http://mcgees.org/?p=1786#comment-63460 <i>Right? Γ(z)? Log-convexity? Anybody? OK, sorry.</i> You know, ten years ago I would have been able to derive that joke for you if I had graph paper or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathml" rel="nofollow">MathML</a>. I just discovered that ... um ... I <i>can't now</i>. The explanation would involve this: <img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/math/9/1/7/9176c967bc5113089b2be4d98199beac.png" /> Anyway, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma_function" rel="nofollow">here you go</a>. <a href="http://xkcd.com/447/" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/too_old_for_this_shit.png" /></a> Right?  Γ(z)?  Log-convexity?  Anybody?  OK, sorry.

You know, ten years ago I would have been able to derive that joke for you if I had graph paper or MathML.  I just discovered that … um … I can’t now.  The explanation would involve this:

Anyway, here you go.

]]> By: Joshua <i>(Site Owner)</i> http://mcgees.org/2009/11/09/health-care-animal-farm/comment-page-1/#comment-63459 Joshua (Site Owner) Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:39:11 +0000 http://mcgees.org/?p=1786#comment-63459 See, one shouldn't do drugs. They keep one from realizing that, on the whole, people suck. They're kind of like religion, <i>Pokémon</i>, and E! (4.26082048) that way: once you leave, you never think of going back. Except, you know, for the inherently antisocial drugs <i>I</i> might favor. Gah I don't understand the draw of stimulants, hallucinogens, or -- um -- whatever class MDMA is in. But I suppose that's because I like to be sedate, alone, and don't like to wander too deeply into the alleys of my fucked-up mind. <small>See, that's like "There on the red carpet is <a href="http://www.eonline.com/" rel="nofollow">4.26 Entertainment News</a>" Right? Γ(z)? Log-convexity? Anybody? OK, sorry.</small> See, one shouldn’t do drugs.  They keep one from realizing that, on the whole, people suck.  They’re kind of like religion, Pokémon, and E! (4.26082048) that way: once you leave, you never think of going back.  Except, you know, for the inherently antisocial drugs I might favor.  Gah I don’t understand the draw of stimulants, hallucinogens, or — um — whatever class MDMA is in.  But I suppose that’s because I like to be sedate, alone, and don’t like to wander too deeply into the alleys of my fucked-up mind.

See, that’s like “There on the red carpet is 4.26 Entertainment News”  Right?  Γ(z)?  Log-convexity?  Anybody?  OK, sorry.

]]> By: Bob Mike http://mcgees.org/2009/11/09/health-care-animal-farm/comment-page-1/#comment-63436 Bob Mike Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:57:39 +0000 http://mcgees.org/?p=1786#comment-63436 Socialization is hard to predict in the long run, and at Niall's age I don't even know prediction with anything approaching accuracy is possible. From the ages of four to twelve, I was an introverted kid somewhat famous in my family for having only one friend at a time. I would latch onto a single kid to the exclusion of all others, and I was extremely possessive of that particular friend. Like other forms of monogamy, it was an inclination that I'd eventually outgrow. At 12 I discovered D&D, so the number of people with whom I was comfortable socializing increased from one to four. Then at 16 I attended my first LARP, which raised my comfortable social number from four to somewhere in the neighborhood of thirty. At 18 I got my first hit of MDMA, which prompted a jump from thirty to several thousand. Today I'm extroverted to a degree that I don't think that anyone who knew me at Niall's age could have guessed. Goes to show you never can tell. Socialization is hard to predict in the long run, and at Niall’s age I don’t even know prediction with anything approaching accuracy is possible. From the ages of four to twelve, I was an introverted kid somewhat famous in my family for having only one friend at a time. I would latch onto a single kid to the exclusion of all others, and I was extremely possessive of that particular friend. Like other forms of monogamy, it was an inclination that I’d eventually outgrow.

At 12 I discovered D&D, so the number of people with whom I was comfortable socializing increased from one to four. Then at 16 I attended my first LARP, which raised my comfortable social number from four to somewhere in the neighborhood of thirty. At 18 I got my first hit of MDMA, which prompted a jump from thirty to several thousand. Today I’m extroverted to a degree that I don’t think that anyone who knew me at Niall’s age could have guessed.

Goes to show you never can tell.

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