Symbiosis

[bwt1213]

Now that my computer is back and apparently running okay (Windows declared that it will do yet ANOTHER update tonight, so I'm hoping it will continue to be okay) I set a new high score for the month: 705. It was a board Lalaltan had played and for which he had the highest score. I didn't come close to matching his word, but my score made it more likely that Lalatan will keep that best word, even if there is a better one for that board (yeah, I know THAT'S not likely). I often play boards Lalatan holds a record on, so when the next board came up and again Lalatan had the best and longest word I had no trouble playing again. This one was just 625, but it will probably be retired soon, too. I completed my nice run with a 666, but Lalatan was not mentioned on that one and the best word so far was just 12 points (I tied it); that one will probably earn someone a "best word" and "longest word" mark for that board as well. So there seems to be a natural symbiosis between people who play for high score and people who play to earn best word or longest word -- the boards Lalatan plays are often good ones for me, and if I do well on them he is more likely to add to his total of "best words" or "longest words".

[bwt1213]

The game for which "Lalatan had highest score" refers to longest and best word, not most points. So far as I know, Lalatan hasn't played for most points in at least five years and probably a lot longer than that.

[flops]

But most of all....yeah....most of all.... (note to others ALL communication I have made today ....including work stuff....has been in lyrics...but we are only looking for the next line...not the lyrics in their entirety...Im a kindergarten teacher afterall).

[flops]

(The next line is..) I like the way you move!

[bwt1213]

(The next line is..) I like the way you move!

There are various versions of the song with slightly different lyrics, but perhaps you're thinking of this one?

Oh Suzie Q
Oh Suzie Q
Oh Suzie Q Baby I love you
Suzie Q
I like the way you walk
I like the way you talk
I like the way you walk I like the way you talk
Suzie Q
Oh say that you'll be true
Oh say that you'll be true
Oh say that you'll be true and never leave me blue
Suzie Q
Oh say that you'll be mine
Oh say that you'll be mine
Oh say that you'll be mine Baby all the time
Suzie Q
Oh, Suzie Q
Oh, Suzie Q
Oh, Suzie Q, Baby, I love you
Suzie Q

[flops]

I was going "Bodyrockers"..."I like the way you move"...but then, as symboisis goes (and it's one of my favourite words)....it's all working (and since it's tomorrow in Australia, and it's really hard to find lyrics to match what I want to say here). But then, Tomorrow, Tomorrow, I love ya Tomorrow....(except if you live in Australia).

[bwt1213]

Yer only a day away! Hard to do Aussie in text. Ah, I remember my Australian customers almost 40 years ago -- sending floppy disks sandwiched between sheets of copper to defeat the magnets used to create the x-rays used by the customs in those days. My software was a program generator -- tell it what to do and it would generate code for you, and you didn't have to know anything at all about programming. Writing the software was like learning to balance on a slack wire with one arm while juggling with one's feet. But you could get used to it. As Hofstatter later noted, the human mind can adapt to nearly anything. I blame my youth, where I learned to square fifteen digit numbers in my head. In retrospect, that was pretty useless; a computer could do the same thing almost instantly, and never got tired or forgot a digit. I can still do natural logs, trig functions, and square roots mentally, but they are even less useful now than they used to be. It's all just arithmetic, really. Big lesson: Arithmetic is NOT mathematics, any more than rap is music. Flops: My favorite Australian song is "I'll Never Find Another You", by the Seekers. Go look it up on You Tube. She's an Aussie Linda Ronstadt. If you listen to that song and don't have a tear in your eye, you have no soul. And then listen to "The Carnival Is Over". It's the number one song for funerals, and I can understand why -- though I still prefer "Mr. Tambourine Man". It's late and I'm old and Dylan is closer to me than I'd like.

[flops]

Ahhh, the Seekers! I love the Seekers, my parents played the Seekers on the cassette player, in their very modern car! Dad has The Seekers on his IheartRadio now. My favourite is Georgie Girl.

It's still fun to do mental arithmetic, it's an easy way to impress the kids. We teach STEM in kindergarten, which includes programming through play. From a coding point of view, the internet rules, there is so much open source code around that you can generally just Google it, find some code that does what you want, and then all you need to know is how to put it together, and then test and test it.

I wonder what all that copper would be worth now...
and it seems you have a beautiful mind.

Which Hofstadter... Robert, The Physicist, Douglas (of the butterfly amongst many other things) or the character from The Big Bang Theory?

[bwt1213]

Douglas, of "The Eternal Golden Braid".

[flops]

fascinating guy...part philosopher, part mathematician, part programmer, even reading "The Eternal Golden Braid" is a Gallant Effort.