4 = 2 = 1

I always thought math is simple. It's not, it's complicated, as is life, especially nowadays. Never liked complicated, I found out (the hard way) that hapiness is in the simple things, those we take for granted, even though we shouldn't take anything for granted, cause that's when things tend to get... complicated. But one could possibly argue that simple is boring, while complicated is... interesting, engaging and challenging.

Choosing a title is also somewhat complicated, hence an interesting, engaging and challenging endeavor, whether it's a sophisticated dissertation, or a simplistic thread in a game's forum. And it speaks volumes. Let's consider literature for instance. A title can be straightforward and to the point, I mean there is not much left to imagination when one gets his hands on "Brothers Karamazov", "Anna Karenina", "Robinson Crusoe", "David Copperfield" or "Don Quixote", and even though —as the saying goes— you shouldn't judge the book by its cover, in this case the cover alone helps considerably.

Then you have titles like "War and Peace", "Red and Black" or "Crime and Punishment", those are adequately intriguing and with a good deal of mystery lingering about, but nonetheless still quite revealing.

At some point things start to get... complicated, and what am I supposed to think about "The Three Musketeers" other than that the author, Alexandre Dumas (pere) intentionally lied when he chose the title --note that I don't question his good intentions, misleading as they were. Damn it, the story is about the adventures of the... fourth musketeer, who doesn't even get to join their ranks for a good deal of pages, the others are just... planets orbiting around the sun in His glorious solar system.

I read somewhere that the author of a book should... die after publishing his work, so that the process of interpretation of their intellectual labor can go on indefinitely without them being around interfering with what becomes the responsibility of the reader alone, each and every one reader. Books are generators of interpretations by themselves after all. And the title is already a key of interpreting the book, it's Ariadne's thread delivered to Theseus upon entering the labyrinth, in modern games' terms that's borderline cheating —or taking advantage of a glitch, if you prefer mild terms—, is it not?

So maybe books shouldn't have titles at all. Imagine the intrigue, the mystery of a... nameless book, your hands trembling with anticipation when you (full of anxiety) finally get hold of this... liber acephalus, what a feeling that must be. Same goes with computer games, I guess.

What I'm trying to say here is that when one's trying to get two... watermellons under the same armpit then it's more likely to drop both on the ground, rather than keep them in tact and safely deliver them. One can always carry two watermellons though, but it has to be each one under a different armpit.

One can also possibly argue that one can still try and succeed rather than fail miserably, sure and what a feat of skill, what a remarkable achievement that would be. But that remains to be seen...

How do you eat an elephant?


How do you move a mountain?


What im trying to get at is that things aren't complicated, because volume of data doesn't qauntify in my mind as complexity.
As long as the principles are derived from basic rules then it is simple.

That's why a great teacher is somebody that can teach the basic rules underlying what is perceived as "to complex to begin understanding".

For example, we can put all the big mathemathical formulas that we currently know of that are applicable to all of reality on a single t-shirt.

what has deluted the view that these things are easy is quite simply ego and elitism in academics. If you aren't capable of giving a three hour roundabout sermon on the topic using the terminology of the field in question you aren't viewed as succesfull by your peers.

Which makes you a terrible conduit of information to the rest of society but an accomplished expert.

And if you take the time to make scientific topics understandable for the general public, your viewed as not being engaged enough with the field itself, because how else could you find the time to undertake such a task rather then deepen yourself in the field of study.

Which could warrant a thread in itself as to why society as a whole finds itself in the current position where "anti-science" is actually a movement that exists.

As for the topic of watermelons, we shouldn't dwell on an obvious solution for to long, it's quite clear that the correct course of action is to find somebody to share with and then divide the remaining one and carry it to the destination with a full belly and a conversation on the go.
Anybody worth his salt knows that a problem is a sollution playing hide and seek with your mind.

Peace,

-Boem-

Hm, you know there is a painting in Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, made by a Renaissance painter of the Florentine School (and a monk at that, who had an affair with a nun —the dirty old devil— and ultimately eloped with her to get married and have children) Fra Filippo Lippi, a grand favorite of mine. It depicts a knowledgeable old man, wise in the ways of all things of this world and... presumably the next, who was humbled by a clueless small child.

So fellow exile if... one(!) can eat a whole elephant, one bite at a time —needless I think to remind you here the risks of such an endeavor as clearly represented in the case of a certain fictional mr. Creosote character in Monty Python's "The Meaning of Life", but I do so just in case—, and also move a... mountain, one small rock at a time, then easily the next step is to remove all water from the sea with a spoon, and pour it into a hole in the ground. Only it isn't. Easy. At least. You can try though. Good luck with that.

And speaking of mountains, can't help but think of the old proverb which is actually an anapodoton about another... old man, and that if one cannot get one's own way, one must bow to the inevitable and all that crap, but what with the P.o.e.lice lurking round every corner, and the new P.o.e.licy of conduct in this here forum, one has to be extra-extra careful and remain nice and civil and also P.o.e.litically correct at all times, so I won't be dragged into uneccessary debates or bandy words for that matter.

I won't tire you any longer and ask for your forgiveness. I just hate math and numbers, but I love names and letters, can't resist toying with them, like a kid playing with those nice colored cubes with capital letters on them, still learning the ABCs...

"

Nizhidrhamannit wrote:

So maybe books shouldn't have titles at all. Imagine the intrigue, the mystery of a... nameless book, your hands trembling with anticipation when you (full of anxiety) finally get hold of this... liber acephalus, what a feeling that must be. Same goes with computer games, I guess.

Why stop there? Take out the rest of the words too, and you multiply that mystery, those possible interpretations, out to a new level of infinities.

The size... it matters, doesn't it? Fair enough. You do have a point Alt, I give you that. I mean, it's one thing to eat a bull of an elephant, but a baby elephant... well let's just say it's a whole different animal altogether.

And then there is the matter of the... penetration. To penetrate, or not, this is the question. But really I had no idea, is it possible such a feat to be accomplished without the penetration thing? I guess nature always finds the way, or was it because of human... intervention (I'm choosing my words very carefully here, treading lightly n all that)?

As for the monk, I guess it's... nun of my business, but I like the guy, I would've done the same, had I been in his shoes. Or sandals. Or whatever monks used to wear on their feet at the time. Unless they walked around barefoot, monks do such crazy things.

I like the collage, it's vivid and colorful, yet —how can I put it— suffocating, I can't explain why but the first thing that came to mind was Max Ernst's Ubu Imperator, and... Planescape Torment (the game)!

...
Take out the rest of the words, along with the title, create a... blank book. That'd be art. As in white canvas art. It's more about the process of creating the art, than about the art itself. I like the idea, but I'm a bit skeptical.

It's not that I disagree, but it's complicated, can't be done... easily. And it takes considerable amount of knowledge, and synergies. Abstract is not simple, as it might seem. It's like when children learn math at school. They first learn addition, the easy part. Only when they have a firm grasp of the concept, can they move on to subtraction, the hard part.

Not to mention that a blank book, undoubtedly a work of art as it might be, wouldn't be that interesting or appealing to the greater part of the community of the potential readers. Such a book would require a tremendous amount of intellectual labor on behalf of the reader (and I'm aware that I'm being modest here), most people simply can't be... bothered (I'm tempted to use the word arsed here but that would be inapropriate, wouldn't it?) with the task of reading an already written book, let alone imagine it in its entirety...

A pillar... erected is always a delicate matter, should be... handled with great care, whether it is a landmark, or a monument reminiscent of... certain events, or whatever. Like I said, tread lightly here, or swim carefully if you prefer, it's uncharted waters we're diving in, full of sharks and... krakens. Walruses too, for all I know. One could possibly argue that a walrus is a harmless, charming creature n all that. Yeah, tell me about it. I thought hippos were harmless, charming creatures too, like oversized piggies. Then I found out hippos could attack and easily shred to pieces a mature african crocodile (the BiG ones), those teeth they possess, the size of half an elephant's tusk are as sharp and deadly as... katanas, geez, and to think they only eat grass, herbivore my ass, the sneaky basterds...



Edit: And you, oh, you are sneaky too, like your hair, by the way. I mean I like your hair, sneaky hair...

Or was it Cabbage, Cucumber and Cauliflower....

3C's? Never heard of it. A wild guess: Computing, Conglomerate, China? No, it doesn't make any sense. Forget about it. I'm beginning to get this weird feeling like walking on a stretched rope here, again, stretched over a chasm or something.

I'd rather talk about literature. Let's take a look at the title of another favorite, The Last of the Mohicans. You start reading the book under the impression that it's Uncas, then at some point you realize the protagonist is Nathaniel, who is in fact not a Native American, so how can he be the last of the people he doesn't belong to? In the end, you find out that it is possible that Nathaniel Hawkeye does belong to the Mohican after all, even if the last of them is simply Chingachgook, which kinda leaves a bitter taste in your mouth, especially if you read it for the first time in a very young and tender age, like I did. Nevertheless I fell in love with the book. And Indian people, especially Mohican. Until that time I always dressed up like a cowboy, during the carnival. That year I made a special request (to my mother) for a swap in roles, for the first time I played the Indian part. Never regreted it.

And as one grows up eventually comes to terms with the fact that good stories need a good deal of drama, otherwise they wouldn't speak to one's heart, so to speak. And drama inescapably means loss, casualties, often times damage of collateral nature to one's loved ones (even fictional), ultimately and regretably death. But death doesn't exclusively mean the end of all things, some times death brings about new beginning, as with seeds falling on fertile soil and all that (even rebirth enter: the myth of the phoenix), an endless cycle.

Add on top to all that attribute points, skill trees, unicorns and rainbows, clowns and walruses, scimitars and... scar(ve)s, give it a good shake and what do you get? Modern electronic games, a recipe for success! Again! It's like going in circles I'm telling you, everything has to do with everything else. Ouroboros, a snake biting its own tail, eternal cyclic motion, everything flows...

^Made me think of this one i had seen recently


Can't you use layers in MS paint? Putting your background and line art on different layers is pretty common practice when you wanna do digital work.

Still has a nice raw look to it and i think the bottom one would feel a lot better if the second hand was more defined.

Peace,

-Boem-

edit :

https://www.deviantart.com/masateru/art/Alice-s-Adventures-in-Wonderla-159702626
Link to the creator of that piece, he has some other cool stuff, maybe you wanna browse a bit.

I wish I was a fisherman! Interesting pieces of art.

Now I see what you did right there. I see the connection. That innocent-wicked look, that sweet-sour face, those fragile legs and bare feet... She is an ex-witch turned assassin, after they (don't ask who they are) decided to chop off her arms instead of hanging her. She became a Kitava cultist, and after this horrendous ritual with sacrifices and... stuff she got those implants and somehow (after lots of twists and turns) ascended. Now she is the final boss of the new acts in PoE 2. Lightning speed, voodoo dolls, asian martial arts and arrows made of... Kitava's blood!