About Shlomi Fish
Node LinkNextWho are you?
Node LinkNextI am Shlomi Fish, a professional Israeli software developer, and author of articles, essays, presentations, and funny screenplays, stories, aphorisms and bits. I have a Bachelor of Sciences (B.Sc.) from the Technion in Electrical Engineering, but it would be a stretch to call me an Electrical Engineer, at least with my current level of expertise in the field. I’m actually more of a programmer and a specialised mathematician.
At the moment, I’m a computer geek (= a person who is enthusiastic about computers), and a former dork/"nerd" (= a person without a social life), because I recently started to increasingly socialise more. I’m interested in many other fields, including linguistics, history, writing, children and non-children literature, and T.V. and movies.
I should note that I am only one person, and in fact am unaware of any other “Shlomi Fish”’es of significance (at least not according to Internet searches).
Which FAQs do you comaintain?
PrevNode LinkNextAre you a Guy or a Girl?
PrevNode LinkNextI am very much a guy, despite what my first name’s suffix (the “i” of “Shlomi”) may imply to English speakers. I am also (mostly) heterosexual, but I hate being a macho in real-life, and have some other qualities that are considered somewhat feminine. However, I do not think that I’m a woman born in a man’s body. (Or a lesbian born in a man’s body, for that matter.)
Many Israeli masculine names end with an “i”: Avi, Ari, Meni, Beni, Ori, Uri, Udi, Eli, etc. An “i” suffix means “of me” or “mine” in Hebrew, or “having the property-of” (like “-ful” in English). There are also many Israeli Hebrew feminine names that end with “i”. One reason I’m using “Shlomi” instead of “Shlomy” is because “Shlomy” might be pronounced to rhyme with the word “my”.
What can you say about your name?
PrevNode LinkNextWell, “Shlomi” or “שלומי” in Hebrew (see its wikipedia entry) means “my Shalom” in Hebrew, or perhaps “Shalom-ful” (= having the property of Shalom) or “Shalom-Jehovah”. “Shalom” is an ancient Hebrew word, that is derived from proto-Semitic origins meaning something like “completeness”: “well-being”, “welfare”, "harmony", "wholeness", even "prosperity" (but probably not really “excitement”) - not only “peace”/tranquility. It is an ambiguous noun as the nouns of some ancient Semitic languages were. See also what I wrote about it on my blog (and some of the comments I received).
True to my name, I often feel that I have "more luck than brains" (as hard as it is to believe given many smart people consider me very smart) and while enduring some hardships (including physical ones!) was often at the right place at the right time (including on a certain Internet/television/etc. forum or resource) and came up on top. Moreover, my body remained complete.
Moreover, just like king Solomon [“Shlomo”] in the bible, I wanted to be kind, good hearted, and benevolent as a child by inspiration from fairy tales I read or listened to.
The reason why it is “Shlomi” or “Shelomi” instead of “Shalomi” is due to a certain pronunciation transformation in Hebrew, where certain vowels are shortened into a Shwa when they are distanced too much from the Stress of the word. Quite a few non-Hebrew speakers have issues with pronouncing Hebrew words that start with several Shwas in succession (as this scene from a screenplay I wrote indicates).
Now, most Israelis pronounce this name with the stress on the “lo”. I, however, prefer it to be pronounced with the stress on the “mi”, albeit I also answer to people who pronounce it the other way around. My version is the correct Biblical pronunciation. You can hear me pronounce it in Hebrew (Ogg, mp3) and in English (Ogg, mp3).
Please spell the name as starting with “Sh”, similar to the common spelling in English — not with “Sch” (the German spelling).
My last name - “Fish” (“פיש” in the Hebrew alphabet) - naturally means the aquatic organisms in English or (with a different spelling) in German. It was the last name of my late grandfather who was a Polish-born Jew, and I’m still carrying it.
“Fish” is an uncommon name in Israel, but there are also some variations such as “Fisher”, “Fishman”, “Fischer”, “Fishlov”, “Fishelson”, etc.
Note that the last name “Fish” is not meaningful in Hebrew and in fact in Ancient Hebrew the only possible pronunciation would be “Pish” (which means “pee” or “urine” in Modern Israeli Hebrew slang) because it uses the same letter - פ for both the "P" and the "F" sounds, and it would be "P" in the beginning of the word.
I had not given my last name a lot of thought until relatively recently (= 2022-08-25), but now think it may imply:
"Plenty of fish in the sea" - pluralism and tolerance.
Progressing carefully, but steadily, like a timid little fish exploring the ocean.
"Fishy" - weird/strange.
A contraction of "finish" and I like to bring projects and tasks to a usable state, and move on (while possibly revisiting them later): Perfection is in imperfection.
“Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime” - I invest time in learning useful technologies, and have little patience for people who wish to remain ignorant of knowledge which I consider essential.
Is “Shlomi Fish” Your Real Name?
Node LinkDespite what the name may imply to non-Israeli people, “Shlomi Fish” (written as “שלומי פיש” in the Hebrew alphabet) is my real, and legal, name. See the question above for more information about its etymology.
Where are you from? Where do you live currently?
PrevNode LinkNextWell, I was born in Israel in 5 May 1977, and lived in Tel Aviv for a year. Then, when I was 1 year old, my parents moved to Dallas, Texas, USA for my father’s post-Doctorate and later on we moved to Rockville, Maryland, USA and stayed there until I was about 5. Then, we moved back to Tel Aviv and I lived in Ramat Aviv Gimel ever since. This was with some relatively brief trips to other places in Israel, to Europe, to the United States and to Victoria in Canada.
Currently (January 2021), I live with my parents in Hakim Eliyahu St. No. 4, apartment No. 12 (on the Third floor), Tel Aviv, Israel ( Google maps ), and I'm usually at home there, usually either using one of my computers, or sleeping. Note that if you wish to meet me, whoever you may be, you should contact me beforehand because the video intercom is unreliable.
Why are you revealing your home address?
Node LinkNextWhat’s your sign?
PrevNode LinkI am a Taurus, but I don't believe in Astrology, despite the fact that Tauri always do. 😉
What did you study in university / college? Did you study computer science?
PrevNode LinkNextI studied in the Technion, completed my Undergraduate studies and graduated with a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc) in Electrical Engineering ("Proper" rather than "Computer Engineering" or "Computer & Software Engineering") diploma. That put aside, my studies involved quite a lot of software development and engineering-related mathematics. I also have not done a lot of EE or electronics work, before or after my degree studies, while doing quite a lot of software development.
Given how I recall my academic studies as being frustrating, vexing, and often not interesting, I am not planning on working on getting another academic degree (whether a B.Sc, an M.A/M.Sc, a Ph.D or similar) soon. However, I cannot promise that I won't change my mind about that in the future and enrol again.
The funny thing is that while my mother and I are the only ones in our family without a doctorate, I am considered the smartest one. That may have to do with me being more confident and "showy" and more likely to flaunt or utilise my skills.
Which human languages do you know?
PrevNode LinkNextHebrew: Speaking, Reading, and Writing - Mother Tongue.
English: Speaking, Reading, and Writing.
Literary Arabic: rusty, partial, and non-functional knowledge.
French: rusty, partial, and incomplete knowledge.
What is your day job? What do you do for a living? What is your work about?
PrevNode LinkNextCurrently (August 2022) I am happily unemployed, and trying to build esteem, success, recognition, fame, etc. as a writer/entertainer/amateur philosopher. My goal for now is to become the next big author — the next J. K. Rowling if you may. Even if I don’t achieve this goal, it’s going to be a wonderful, exciting, and wonderous, journey, and I’m not going to give up. (“Never Give Up!!”)
You seem very knowledgeable and capable. How come you said you were unemployed?
PrevNode LinkNextFirst of all, thanks for thinking highly of me. Otherwise, note that while I may be a competent software developer, I inhibit some issues that may make me unattractive to employers. See my critique to a post and some replies I received. I won't list my perceived problems here, just note that many employers care about several aspects of an employee's suitability beside raw competency and knowledge, and I feel they are often right.
That put aside, if you are still interested in hiring me, despite whatever faults I may have, then please contact me and we'll see about that.
How else are you known?
PrevNode LinkNextI’m also known as “shlomif” or on the IRC as “rindolf”. A certain Englishwoman Internet friend of mine, who can be amusing at times, has nicknamed me "Slimy Fish", which I didn't find offensive (possibly because I was no longer underage, and because I liked her; she also nicknamed the blocky ("Print") Hebrew alphabet "Tetris").
What is the origin of your “rindolf” IRC nickname?
Node LinkFor more information about the name "rindolf", see the dedicated page about my Rindolf nickname.
Rindolf “Woman-hands” [Forgot the last name] was a Dwarven warrior I played on a series of AD&D 2nd edition sessions, and one of my favourite tabletop Role Playing Games characters of all times. I probably picked up the name by analogy with such Germanic-originating names as Randolph or Rudolph. I was told "Rind" means "cattle" in Germanic languages, but what matters is that it has a nice ring.
The first IRC nickname I used was “dori” after one of the dwarves in Tolkien’s The Hobbit. Later on, I decided it was a too common name, so I switched to “gloin”, the name of a different dwarf there. Then I wanted something more original, so I picked up “rindolf” and the name stuck.
If I had been able to change it again, I would have picked “shlomif” for my IRC career, because it is my handle almost everywhere else, but now everyone on IRC know me as “rindolf” so I feel it's too late (not to mention that, in my impression, it is common and acceptable to use a pseudonym on IRC, to show some creativity).
The running joke we have on IRC, is that Rindolf is the evil twin brother of Santa Claus’s goody-two-shoes reindeer, Rudolph and Randolph, who are among his arch-enemies. Rindolf is also one of the cornerstones of the Evil Reindeer Evil World Domination Evil Conspiracy, with the evil aim to spread the Reindeer Evil all over the world. You can find some of the manifestations of this joke in the IRC conversations quoted on my fortune cookies.
How should I address you or refer to you?
PrevNode LinkNextWhen writing a letter to me, you can start it with “Hi Shlomi!”, “Dear Shlomi,”, “Hello Shlomi,” etc. or with “Hi Mr. Fish”, “Dear Mr. Fish”, etc.
Note that using “Hello Fish” is considered disrespectful! I hate it when people call me “Fish” to my face, albeit “Mr. Fish” is acceptable. You can also use my “Rindolf” nickname with or without a “Mr.” honorific. Also see Joel on Software's note:
In most of the English speaking world it is not considered polite to open letters to a Mr. Joel Spolsky by writing “Dear Spolsky.” One might write “Dear Mr. Spolsky,” or “Dear sir,” or perhaps, “Hi Joel!” But “Dear Spolsky” is usually followed by some story about embezzled funds and needing to borrow my bank account.
Some letters begin with “Shlomi,” in a separate paragraph. I personally feel that the person is trying to preach to me in this case, but I was told it is not considered bad form in English-speaking countries, so it may just be a cultural gap.
If you wish to refer to me in third person, you should start with “Shlomi Fish” and continue with “Shlomi”, “Fish”, “Mr. Fish”, etc. Alternatively you can start with “Shlomif”, “shlomif”, or “Rindolf”, which are my common Internet handles which I use everywhere I can.
On the IRC, I generally use the nickname “rindolf
”.
May I email you about X?
PrevNode LinkNextWhile the amount of emails that I receive is not overwhelming (yet), I still find that people are sending me some emails that could be written better. Here are a few guidelines for when not to send me emails:
If the email to which you are replying was sent by me to a mailing list, please reply to the list. From my experience, most E-mails that are sent to me in private as replies to mailing list posts, were intended to be public, and were sent in private by mistake or due to a user-interface issue.
If you do want to send me a private E-mail to a mailing list post, please explicitly note that the E-mail was intentionally sent in private, and detail the reason for it, and whether or not I can reply in public.
Please don’t send me a “Can you teach me how to become a hacker?” or “Teach me programming / software development” emails. See my How Can I Start Contributing to Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) essay instead.
Please don’t send me emails, trying to interest me in contributing to an open-source project for free, a pro-bono commission, or anything else that doesn’t involve payment. I follow my own interests and don’t work for free.Reconsidering this: you may opt to interest me in contributing to an open-source project, which you believe I may find of interest.If you have an online or offline publication, and can pay me for the trouble of writing an article, then feel free to inform me about it. Other possible commissions such as book reviews are also appropriate.
Please don’t send me emails with technical questions about open source projects or other general knowledge-and-experience questions that other people may be able to answer. I maintain a document explaining how to get help on the Internet and you should refer to it for general enlightenment.
An exception to this rule, may be questions about projects that I personally created or maintain.
What can you tell about your diet?
PrevNode LinkNextI don’t drink alcoholic beverages, don’t consume caffeinated beverages, have never smoked (e.g.: cigarettes), and have never “done” any of the currently illegal narcotics (e.g.: Marijuana, Cocaine, Heroin). I believe that this way I’m less tired, more energetic, and less moody. I don’t need such negative bio-physical aphrodisiacs to be happy, and probably neither do you.
Most of the people I talk with on the IRC who consume caffeine have become dependent on it and cannot function without their morning/mid-morning/midday/etc. coffee. On the other hand, I’m energetic from the time I wake up until I go to sleep. As for alcohol, it has negative short-term and long-term effects. And I also don’t want to become drunk because it will cause me to lose control of myself, and do silly things and say silly stuff.
I have never smoked or taken drugs, and intend to not do so. People with a drug dependency reduce their happiness and self-esteem like this, and damage their health.
All that put aside, I still believe all these substances should be legal, and should not be regulated in any way.
Note that as of July 2022, I am still taking prescribed psychiatric drugs which I hate and think are harmful but am forced to take.
Regarding food, I eat an omnivorous diet that includes meat (chicken, beef, pork/bacon/ham/etc., fish, seafood, and the occasional mutton) - sorry vegans/vegetarians but I feel like I need to eat meat. I used to avoid consuming sugary foods and beverages, but I now consume them again and am much happier.
So you avoid caffeine? You call yourself a geek?
Node LinkNextYes I do! Geeks come in many shapes and sizes (also see One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish) and they don't always completely match the stigmatic "computer geek" archetype (e.g: A Portrait of J. Random Hacker). I am still a geek because I'm technologically inclined and enjoy contributing to FOSS and open content.
Also note my sentiments about attractive girls (and guys) increasingly being geeky.
Which foods do you hate eating?
PrevNode LinkDo you have any mental illnesses?
PrevNode LinkNextAs a matter of fact, I do. I used to get into Clinical depressions (“MDD”), anxieties and Hypomanias and even a few Manias. The presence of the latter may indicate I have Bipolar Disorder (= “Mania-Depressia”) or Schizoaffective disorder .
I’m no longer getting into depressions or anxieties, which is good because when I’m in them, I feel that I am a bad person, think the whole world is bad and cannot concentrate on doing anything. I’m still getting some hypomanias, in which I feel quite elevated, while in fact knowing that I feel bad, and where I can still function, and still know that I’m a good person. Most of the time, I am OK.
Note that the opinions I express and what I say are not a consequence of my mental status, but rather of the many philosophical influences, I’ve been exposed to, which I feel made my thinking process straighter and more logical. Some people take many common “truisms” for granted, but I can often demonstrate they are wrong.
Here are a few jokes about it:
Shlomi Fish once defined himself as a “Programmer, Writer, Amateur Mathematician, Wannabe Philosopher, and someone who studied in the Technion in the vain hope of becoming an Electrical Engineer”. He does not consider himself a sane person, but is quite certain that only makes him more interesting.
Also this Freenode chat:
<tyler-> rindolf: you are seriously the craziest fucker I know <tyler-> and I know some crazy ass people <mofino> haha <rindolf> tyler-: I am crazy. And proud of it. <tyler-> rindolf: you should be <mofino> haha <mofino> Ahh man <rindolf> tyler-: being crazy is hard work. I worked all my life to be crazy. <mofino> Normal people aren’t fun. <rindolf> tyler-: “Craziness is not an action. It’s a process.” <mofino> heh <tyler-> rindolf: I see <rindolf> You need to tend to your insanity. <rindolf> tyler-: do you want to be crazy? <tyler-> rindolf: that’s why I feed my leprechaun at least once a day. <rindolf> tyler-: I can teach you everything I know.
(and “Ask not what your insanity can do for you - ask what you can do for your insanity.”)
My opinions are subject to change - they have changed in the past, and it’s likely they will change again. Furthermore, reality is dynamic, and Ethics, philosophy and opinions change with time, as technology, culture and education progress.
Which disabilities do you have?
PrevNode LinkNextI have the following disabilities:
Being openly bipolar (also see "Why Openly Bipolar People Should Not Be Medicated")
Note that I have been diagnosed as having Schizoaffective disorder by the Israeli Bureau of Medicine, and receive pension.
Partial fingers and hands paralysis - possibly caused by the psychiatric drugs.
Bad diction.
Stuttering.
A heavy Israeli/Hebrew accent when talking in English (and a touch of a Texan English accent when talking in Hebrew).
See this recording of me singing for evidence.
This has several implications:
It is hard and time-consuming for me to type.
It is hard for me to use voice recognition. When I say "Shlomi Fish" into my Android smartphone, in clear Hebrew, it thinks I meant "Shlomo".
When chatting online, it is easier for me to paste URLs for further discussion.
I may emit what seem to be non-sequiturs.
So please don't be ableist.
What are some of your personality faults/quirks?
Node LinkI am self-centred.
I am narcissistic.
I am ego-maniacal.
I am meglomaniacal.
I often avoid being an early adopter of interesting technologies, practices, or trends. Instead, I wait to see if it was just a fad, or study it only when there is a relevant use-case.
I have preferred to err on naïvety than on cynicism.
I tend to lose my temper.
I'm not particularly proud of them, but admit they may often be blessings in disguise.
On-the-other-hand, I am not ashamed to admit their presence.
What is the origin of your IRC part message (“Yay! I’m a Llama again!”)?
PrevNode LinkNextIt’s a quote from the Disney Animated film The Emperor’s New Groove, which is otherwise highly recommended. Here is the clip on YouTube.
Note: for a while I converted to using:
https://www.shlomifish.org/ ; It takes Summer Glau exactly a minute to write a rebuttal like in xkcd: “Venting”, and she would sign it as Chuck Norris. ( Summer Glau “Facts” )
that was part of my activism to promote the Summerschool at the NSA screenplay and Ms. Glau.
Why don’t you obscure/hide your email address? People can spam you!
PrevNode LinkNextFirst of all, in this day and age, it’s unlikely that the spammers will not find my email address. That’s because they also install a lot of malware on vulnerable computers to harvest email addresses from. Since I can’t avoid sending email to users of Microsoft Windows , and would rather not, I can never prevent spam entirely.
I find that manually deleting spam messages is not too time-consuming or errorprone. GMail and other webmail services also do a good job in filtering spam (regardless of their other faults).
All of that put aside, I think that having a convenient “mailto:” link is recommended because people don’t need to go through inconvenient hoops to send you an email. I love receiving (good) email about my site, and I’d rather not throw away the baby along with the water, just because spammers may have an easier time harvesting my already public email address.
For more information, see my post to the “Joel on Software” forum about “Email at the bottom of every page”.
What can you tell about the fish emblem on the top-left corner?
PrevNode LinkNextThis is EvilPHish from the comics’ strip UserFriendly.org by Iliad. I was a big fan of UserFriendly.org when EvilPHish was featured there, and it was so me, so I decided to make it my emblem. After downloading the big version of the comic, and tampering with it a little with GIMP (= the GNU Image Manipulation Program), I was able to produce a transparent PNG file that I could use.
After a while, I realised that most people recognised this emblem and associated it with me (in part because my last name is “Fish”) and decided to standardise on it as a user-pic or “avatar” everywhere, and so I did. Note that the image is still copyrighted by Mr. Iliad, but I hope its use by me is acceptable.
As a child and a teenager, I’ve been a bit frustrated by my last name being “Fish”, and was often teased for it. But I feel OK about it now, and it’s good that people can associate my last name with something they are familiar with, and with a memorable emblem such as EvilPHish.
You can also find various versions of the EvilPHish image for download and reuse.
Update: There is now a vector graphics SVG version courtesy of the amazing Marc Jeanmougin (Mc) and Inkscape. It is placed under CC0 but may be a derivative work of the original by Iliad.
Does the fish emblem allude to Christianity?
Node LinkNo, it does not - it is just inspired by my last name: “Fish”. I am in fact an Israeli and a Jewish agnostic, and as Jewish Israelis go, I have some natural aversion towards Christianity.
Why are you revealing incriminating details about yourself? This makes you look bad for potential employers.
PrevNode LinkNextA few people told me that I shouldn't mention the fact that I have been exempt from military service or that I used to get into clinical depressions and still get into hypomanias, because other people may think less of me. My response is that these are real and honest details about myself, that I would rather not keep to myself given the context, and the fact that I had to mention them many times.
While some employers may look down on me for mentioning that, I’d rather work for employers who appreciate honesty, sincerity, and openness. They should eventually realise that keeping non-private details to yourself is a sure recipe to losing your mind.
For more information, see:
“‘Publish or Perish’ → ‘Life or Death’” - blog post.
“Honesty” section - from “Putting all the Cards on the Table (2013)”
I believe that honesty is the best policy, and trying to be who you are not, or keep important details about you not in the open will end up working against you, and cause you a lot of aggravations.
How did you learn English?
PrevNode LinkNextWell, I am Israeli-born, but my parents moved to the United States when I was one year old until I was five years old (first to Dallas, Texas, and then to Rockville, Maryland), where I spoke English with the fellow children. However, after I returned to Israel at the age of five, the children there ridiculed me for my English. As a result, I did not want to speak it, and so forgot most of it, and just spoke Hebrew (which is my mother language). Possibly worse, I lost many of my earliest childhood memories, as I thought about them and remembered them in English.
After that, I had to regain English much more painfully as I learned it at school, and from other sources such as computerised Adventure games, books, films, Television shows, and the Internet.
Shortly after high school, I felt that my English has dramatically improved. Nonetheless, looking back at my English text from a few years back, I cringe at how bad it was, and some native speakers tell me that some of my writing is non-idiomatic.
I'm still trying to improve and not rest on my laurels (like I try with other skills and moral qualities I care about).
Note: I think my English improved after high school, despite the absence of a formal scholastic frame, due to a mixture of reading books, reading Internet texts in English, reading software documentation (I was employed as a software developer), watching some Television shows, and more practice at writing English texts (using computers' keyboards).
How can I improve my English?
PrevNode LinkNextSome of the effective ways I found to improve one's English are:
Write. Write a lot. Start a blog. Write about interesting stories from your past. Ask your readers to point out the issues in your text (and also in your code). Maybe start specialised blogs for writing about topics that interest you.
Read. Read a lot. Especially fine literature, though not too archaic. I really like reading quality Children and Young Adult's Literature in English (e.g: The Hobbit, The Treasure Island, E. Nesbit, Roald Dahl, Mary Poppins, Sherlock Holmes). There are many public domain and freely distributable fiction online in Project Gutenberg.
Pay attention to what you write and how you phrase yourself. Don't write too hastily.
Chat with English speakers on IRC - I like Freenode for that and they have an ##English channel, but other channels accept somewhat off-topicish discussion, especially some #not-channels or channels like #perlcafe , or #perl-cats, which are intended solely for off-topic discussion.
Watch/listen to some films to see how people use the English language in speech. There are many clips on YouTube and similar sites and you can learn a lot from them. There are some larger scale videos available online, offline and on torrents naturally.
Most importantly - remember that improving your language is hard work, but it's also fun, because hard work is often fun and rewarding and makes you happy. The opposite of fun and pleasure in general is not necessarily work. If people did not enjoy hard work for pleasure, then large-scale operating systems that are completely free-and-open-source-software such as GNU/Linux or the *BSDs could not happen.
You can find some other recommended online resources for learning English and improving it in the “Awesome English” curated list of links on GitHub.
Note: please do not use a two way bridge from and to Google Translate or similar services exclusively, because you can improve your English, but cannot easily improve that of Google Translate, because it often emits non-functional translations, and because it will encourage you to learn less.
Google Translate has some legitimate use cases (such as trying to get the gist of a page in a foreign language) but, like most other tools, it has its limitations.
Do you have Asperger syndrome (Asperger’s)?
PrevNode LinkNextSome people on the Internet told me that they believe I have Asperger syndrome or am otherwise on the Autistic spectrum. However, my psychotherapist (who has a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology and whom I met face to face many times), told me I most probably am not on the Autistic spectrum, after I asked him about that.
I do not wish to conclude whether or not that is the case for me, just to detail what I know.
Why are you obsessed with ten-sided dice? (d10) What do you do with them?
PrevNode LinkNextI originally ran into Ten-sided dice (d10s) in tabletop role-playing games, such as Dungeons & Dragons, and I found them remarkable due to the facts that:
They correspond with our decimal system (Base-10) and with the SI / International System of Units / Metric system.
They are the only role-playing-game-die that is not a platonic solid and instead has a man-invented shape.
As a result, the d10 became a symbol of power of mine. Now what I do with them:
After I donated my role-playing games' gear to a local role-playing-games club that my friends ran, I was given a solid brown 1d10 die that my friends at the time (~1997ish) allowed me to take. I carried it in my pencil case, and it became a symbolic object and feel it brought me a lot of good luck and bad luck (which are often two sides of the same coin).
Now, however, I decided to give it to Ms. Summer Glau (who is a Hollywood actress, but much more than that for me), and it is now her property, which I intend to officially pass it along to her and see what she will decide to do with it.
I also buy d10s in large quantities (went up to 10 packs of 10 purple translucent d10 dice each from The Dice Shop) and offer to give them away to people I interact with in real life (IRL), such as vendors, clerks and sellers in shops. While not everyone accepts them, many people do.
Following the transition from Selina Mandrake - The Slayer to Summerschool at the NSA, I bought a complete set of Tabletop role-playing games' dice, and use it as a symbolic object. This is its photo after being placed on my NUC computer along with the 1d10 die that I have given to Summer Glau.
Why do you link/quote web pages, posts, etc. from originators I dislike?
PrevNode LinkNextI normally link to such resources which I either agree with, partly agree, or are relevant to the discussion at hand. That does not mean I think everything these originators have published is true, but that does not mean that none of their posts are of merit, either. See ad hominem and similar fallacies.
Do you play Chess?
PrevNode LinkNextI do not play Chess a lot, mainly because I do not like it too much. I'm also not a very good Chess player, but one should hopefully not avoid doing something just because they are bad at it.
Some anecdotes regarding my experience with Chess enthusiasts are:
Someone on IRC told us that he thinks everyone should be forced to play Chess (in a true authoritarian fashion in my opinion). This is while I recall reading that in South Africa during the Apartheid, people of Black descent were legally forbidden from playing Chess.
I once agreed to play Chess with an online friend online. After the game was over, he analysed my play, which I found annoying and made me reluctant to play again (and felt like beating a dead dog), but perhaps I should have told him that.
Why are you attracted to so many girls?
PrevNode LinkNextAs I noted in an IRC conversation:
Hi all! I noticed many Hollywood marriages and other relationships have been stable ever since Sarah Michelle Gellar (♥!) was interviewed on "why my Hollywood marriage works?". I'm not against divorces / breakups, but I want couples to be happy even if I'm attracted to their female partner (and frankly I'm attracted to a metric ton of celebs, friends, and fictional characters - 😊).
Moreover, to quote a dialogue from Queen Padmé Tales :
Obi-Wan: I did, yes. Wow! And I thought my (one and only, hah!) girlfriend was bad. Do note, however that I kind-of am attracted to the bitching type. One of my many kinks. While my friends are attracted to everything that moves, I see no reason to limit myself ( Reference ).
Do note that there is a difference between being attracted to someone, and being in love with them.
Are you in love with [insert celebrity here]?
Node LinkAs of 2022-03-14, no. I love them as fellow competent geeky hackers and admit that sexual attraction is implied, but I'm not Romantically/intimately in love with them.
Are you a bot [= a chat robot]?
PrevNode LinkNextAs far as I know, I am a flesh-and-blood human. See Descartes' "Evil Demon" concept though.
What is your financial status? Are you rich? Are you poor?
PrevNode LinkNextCurrently ( 2022-09-13 ) I strongly suspect I have north of 30 million USD ( $30,000,000 ) in the bank:
In my terresterial hell, the situation is different:
I have some savings in my bank account and live with my parents and am supported by them and also receive national insurance pension. So while I'm not poor, I am not rich either.
I have some aspirations of becoming rich by individuals and organisations pooling enough money to relicense my works under permissive licences. There are other profits models and I welcome, e.g. people setting up merchandise shops for my works and (at their option) giving me parts of the profits.
Nevertheless, I work on my sites and other projects because I enjoy doing that, and find that I'm more productive this way than as a grunt software developer working on a project that I do not think is important.
Note that if you need some money, feel free to contact me and I can see about giving a one time payment (with no strings attached): Sarah Michelle Gellar quote.
What was the secret that you were most afraid will be made public knowledge?
PrevNode LinkNextThat I'm attracted to physically-strong females (and even to muscular ones).
After going public about it, I realised I am in good company as men (and women) find competence and strength, however manifested, sexy.
What is your lucky number?
PrevNode LinkNext24 ("twenty-four"). Some reasons for it:
It is the number of a bus that has been useful for me.
5 + 5 + 7 + 7 = 24 based on my birthdate.
There are 24 hours in a day.
24 is the factorial of 4. That is “1×2×3×4 = 24”. Incidentally “1+2+3+4 = 10”.
What is your favourite colour?
PrevNode LinkNextI think one of your works sucks
PrevNode LinkNextWhile I try to encourage criticism and try to get offended and try to grow a thicker skin, I'd appreciate you pinpointing at least one specific, concrete, problem. If you cannot or would rather not, then I'll have to dismiss your criticism as too vague, and go on with the rest of my life:
Josephus: And so did my good Greek friend, Alexander, who started by writing some poems to her which I didn’t like, and told him why. So he ended up improving slowly but surely, until he wrote a truly great poem about her, and people loved it.
Josephus: Then Phoebe — that’s her name — told him, while crying, that she loved the song, but that she still is not going to marry him.
Alexis: The Bitch!
Josephus: My thoughts exactly. Anyway, he felt very down for a long while, so I decided to introduce him to my redhead cousin - her name’s Elishevah - hoping it’ll cheer him up. He ended up liking her and he wrote a hack of that song as a love song to her, and she ended up falling in love with him, and he converted to Judaism and married her, and she’s now pregnant with their first born, and he writes more songs about her. Very good ones.
( “So, who the Hell is Qoheleth?” by Shlomi Fish (= me) )
Note that I employed this strategy, in real life, with an Internet friend of mine who is a retired Finnish software developer in his 40s, who lives in a small Finnish town. He shared some poems he wrote and I and other chat participants commented what we liked or disliked about them. His poetry did improve mostly consistently and… he now has a young woman living with him. I do not know what she thinks about his poems, but he's a cool guy regardless.
If you do not like a work, please try to comment on why you think it is lacking, rather than completely dismissing it or vaguely criticising it. Some examples for such non-helpful criticism are:
"It sucks."
"You cannot write."
"It’s a waste of space."
"Try to write it as if you were there."
People are often amazed by food reviewers in the recently trendy cooking competition ("reality") shows being very pedantic and pinpointing small and large problems, but it comes with experience and "with the territory". So I applaud these reviewers.
One tip I can offer for dealing with critics who only provide vague criticism is to ask them to point out one specific issue.
Telling a contributor why you dislike their work will make reworked and future works better, and your own future job easier. Reportedly, film studios often silently dismissed screenplays that they received. I recently submitted my Sesame Street / "Harry Potter" crossover screenplay to the Sesame Workshop and received no reply.
Another different approach is the canned response. While sometimes useful, it is often indicative that the problem needs to be fixed more permanently. I also recall being given a list of reasons by a web ad service for why my site was unacceptable, and they were far too vague.
( From "Be communicative" )
I hate you. I think you suck!
PrevNode LinkNextYou may be right. Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.
( Reference. )
How can I gift you?
PrevNode LinkSee this page.