Getting Old School
I'll start by saying i had an awesome Thanksgiving break. I had been hoping to find something about it to post about (mainly because the drive is 10-12 hours to where I went, and I had tons of time to think) and... wow... got all I hoped for and more. To summarize: Food (Grandma cooking), no computers (relaxation), meeting new relatives (interesting), and getting to know my inner child (just plain fun). Also some other junk I'll throw in. No, this isn't an emo post about my life either, there were some interesting things that arose.
To start with, I drove to and from Grandma's with a friend I know from my church. Carpooling was great because it meant conversations with someone other than my differing personalities. Because he's well versed in history this led to fun puns such as (driving throughn vadalsville): "Home of the vandals," said at the same time, and both meaning the ancient people, not taggers. Lots of good discussion on many different topics, computers, linguistics, South Park, music, hicks, what the meaning of "Think of me when you think of Tim McGraw" could possibly mean, and tons of other stuff. I can't remember the whole thing 'cause I was pretty dead due to tiredness, but it was enjoyable conversation for the entire 20ish hours we were driving. I can't accurately post on this, but if you want a fun conversation and can get to me, I'll put you in touch with him.
The food, excellant, all three days. Had (all different meals): Pot Roast, Blue-Berry Waffles, Thanksgiving dinner, and Steak. Can't beat that. Got the recipe for a pumpkin pie that I loved. The key failing point of all pies is the crust. Almost always the crust is dry, right? And the pie is moist. Well, you finish the pie, you don't want a dry crust all of a sudden, you want something that'll continue being moist. This pie is made upside down with some cake mix on top, then flipped when ready. So when it's done, there's no dry crust, just a sort of soft/crunchy doughy crust that's quite moist (as it doesn't stick out past the filling). Genious. I grabbed that recipe from Grandma after discussing where pies fail for a while. It will get made in the coming week. I also played clean up at almost every meal, as Grandma peer-pressure is so great, so I've gained some weight.
Thanksgiving was tons of fun. I couldn't have asked for a better day. I spent the morning over at my Aunt and Uncle's house, which they built... much as I wish to do, chowing down on waffles and playing with a friend of the family's kid. He's 7. Reminded me what it was to be 7. Played Pokemon the card game, without him knowing the rules. Basically that was a fun excercise in adapting my own rules inside of the rules he made as we went. His mom thought his cheating was unfair, but I relished the opportunity to have to react to rule changes on the fly in a game that I didn't know the real rules to begin with. Luckily I've got tons of practice with CCG's, and was able to hold my own (ok, 45 minutes later and he hadn't been able to kill me). After that we went for a walk around my Aun't property. I was dubbed "Ferret Boy" and recalled that hacker handles are really just an extension of the names you came up with as a kid. No different except used to "identify" your work in a more... (often) illegal scale. After a while he dropped that and knighted me "Ferret Man". I think I'm gonna hold on to that one... might come in useful. Later we built a fort. Ok, to any adult. When was the last time you built a pillow fort? If the answer is longer than 5 years go build one now. NOW! Forgot the fun involved. Also the imagination... and that's the point.
THe wonderful thing about being a kid is the imagination. Somehow (not to sound like a Disney movie) we all lose this imagination. But if you excercise it I think you'll be surprised at what happens. This imagination is what allows someone to come up with a new game (using old Pokemon rules) that takes nothing new to play. Also to come up with ficticious characters in a real life setting, allowing for effective role-play. Finally, building a pillow fort is a lot like building any software. First you get the idea you WANT a pillow fort (or better AIM client). Then you enlist some help from whomever'll give it, and finally you all pitch in what you can and see if it stands. If it doesn't, go back to step two, and try again. If it stands, you've got a new product!
I was in such a good mood after those few hours with the kid. He (it sounds sappy, I know) really reminded me that the bets thing a hacker has going is the imagination to think up new attacks. And the conviction to get them working.
Also had a wonderful chance to meet the grandsons of my grandpa's sister, however that would be expressed in English. Spent a good coupla hours talking to them, as we have some similar interests, and they're about my age. One plays World of Warcraft (Horde and a caster on a PvP server, so the exact opposite of what I play), and he and I had a great time comparing our servers, gameplay, and subtle differences between PvP (Player versus Player) and PvE (Player versus Environment) servers. It was a good time for strategies, as we got to say how we killed each other's class, and our defenses. I know I came out of it a bit smarter, and was glad that even sitting around Thanksgiving dinner I was able to continue learning. That dinner was amazing, both in circumstances as well as food. In the middle two British exchange students came, and I then got to hear their experiences in America, and how they found our country (also witnessed their first bite of Pumpkin Pie). Again, all to pursue my goal of knowledge.
So, there you have it, a three day vacation, but look at everything I was able to leanr without going out of my way! What did you all learn over break / dinner? If the answer is "nothing" go look back at it again and I'm sure you'll change your answer.
