A Real-World Devilish Wish

What this feels like is that I made a deal with a devil for people to actually be actively encouraged to be like me (avoid other people, wear sweatpants and t-shirts, etc.) instead of being made fun of for it, and of course when the devil granted my wish, it created a pandemic to accomplish my wish.

It is very strange to wake up in that kind of world. Most people are trying their best to do more extreme forms of many of the things that I try to do anyway in my normal life.

This is the type of thing that I would do as a Dungeon Master to a wish-maker who didn't phrase their wish very carefully.

Remote Login: "A Lot Like Astral Projection"

I approve!

pic.twitter.com/PFBB90zs2Q

— Science Diagrams that Look Like Shitposts (@scienceshitpost) January 26, 2020

(Tip of the cap to Charles W. Clark.)

Stay Tuned for My Mathematics Opinion Piece :)

Achievement Unlocked: I'm pretty sure that this is the first time I've felt the need to promise to an editor that I would not swear in an opinion piece that I'm going to write about mathematics.

Note: You should have seen the smile on my face when I was asked to write this. :P

— Mason Porter (@masonporter) February 17, 2020

In case you're wondering, the correct analogy (which you'll understand if you are familiar with Dragonlance) is "Tasslehoff was bored." (Nothing on Krynn is more dangerous than a bored kender.)

A sudden thought: I wonder if this counts as an Invited Tirade?

My 2011 D & D Character Sheet (According to my Students)

In 2011, I was honored and flattered when some of my @SomervilleOx students made a D & D character sheet for me: https://t.co/JOlvWpRI2b

They were wrong about my alignment and my diety, but that's ok.

Also, I have a +5 Vorpal Red Pen and a Decanter of Infinite Ice Latte. pic.twitter.com/hMd9jzHHWt

— Mason Porter (@masonporter) June 14, 2019

P.S. In case you are interested, here is my 2011 blog entry and the discussion therein.

An Icosahedral Pecan Pie

In 2009 or thereabouts, Charless Fowlkes and his collaborators made a large icosahedral pecan pie.

Just don't roll a 1 on this 20-sided die.

(Tip of the cap to Karen Kustedjo.)

My D & D Selfie

Apparently, there is a Saturday Night Live skit (which I haven't seen) from this weekend that has spawned the hashtag #DnDSelf, of which I approve. I decided to participate in it.

For my #DnDSelfie, here is (1) a shelf with lots of gaming materials (going back to first edition) and characters and stuff and of course (2) lots of dice, including d20s for all occasions (don't forget the small but deadly), and a plush mimic dice bag. pic.twitter.com/UYhHmnhcpR

— Mason Porter (@masonporter) April 8, 2019

Medieval Fantasy City Generator

This is so cool!

I also wonder if it uses any generative-model ideas from urban analytics and/or complex systems?

(Tip of the cap to Dungeons and Dragons Memes.)

Fun Fact: My First Publication was a Dungeons & Dragons Character!

My first publication (except items in @Caltech's newspaper) was not mathematical or scientific in any way. It was a Dungeons & Dragons character!

I won a contest to design the thief on a cover of Polyhedron.

(For it, I corresponded with editor @erikmona.) #myfirstpublication pic.twitter.com/tTfFHVFdPk

— Mason Porter (@masonporter) May 15, 2018

XKCD: "Right Click"

The new XKCD is another one of those that needs to be mapped out. I'm looking forward to seeing the resulting network. We should calculate some properties of it. :)

While navigating the menus, I managed to get eaten by a grue.

There are errors in some of the D & D categorizations.

Contribute to Science with your Dungeons & Dragons Backstories

Yes, really.

For science! I'm collecting D&D character backstories for training neural networks. Submit as many as you like. https://t.co/phclLHHfR3

— Janelle Shane (@JanelleCShane) September 18, 2017

(Tip of the cap to Jennifer Ouellette.)

Quora Question: What Powers are Ph.D. Students Awarded?

I had something to say about this question.

(My Ph.D. students get awesome powers, of course! What kind of advisor do you think I am?)

Mobile Phone = Cursed Pet Rock?

I agree with this tweet.

This description of a cursed magic rock from an ancient (1981) issue of DRAGON magazine is basically just a cell phone. pic.twitter.com/EmyrWqcpNb

— Robert McNees (@mcnees) May 29, 2017

(Tip of the cap to Sean Carroll.

Graph Alignment: A Major Open Problem

Graph Alignment is a major open problem in mathematics and computer science. pic.twitter.com/Q8EJDSYLge

— Mason Porter (@masonporter) April 20, 2017

GOP: Dungeons and Dragons Edition

The D & D themed trolling of the Republicans is hilarious. I am highly amused.

(Tip of the cap to Rachael Rosenthal.)

Update (3/27/17): This article in The Washington Post includes several more spectacular examples of GOP D & D. By the way, the hashtag is #GOPDnD. (Tip of the cap to Mohi Kumar for this article.)

Treants Love Baseball

I really like the new SMBC!

Maybe I was a treant in a past life? :) (Or "ent", if you prefer earlier terminology.)

Dungeons & Dragons Enters the National Toy Hall of Fame!

Dungeons & Dragons has entered the National Toy Hall of Fame!

The swing and Little People also entered the Toy Hall of Fame this year. I previously blogged about the 2016 finalists.

2016 Finalists for Toy Hall of Fame

The 2016 finalist nominees for the Toy Hall of Fame have been announced. Wow, I need to choose between Transformers and Dungeons & Dragons. Those are clearly the best two in my book, and I am definitely going with D & D.

(Tip of the cap to Dungeons and Dragons Memes.)

Tales from the ArXiv: Lyapunov Exponents and Dungeons & Dragons Dice

My latest 'favorite' figure caption —— to slightly abuse the term 'favorite', because it means I really like it but need not necessarily be my literal favorite —— from a math paper comes from today's arXiv offering from Amie Wilkinson.

This paper is an expository mathematical look at Lyapunov exponents and why they're interesting. It is based on Wilkinson's 2016 JMM current-events lecture.

By the way, Amie Wilkinson is the example I have broached when I brought up to mathematicians whether somebody who missed the age-40 Fields Medal would have gotten one if life breaks, etc. were taken into account. I think she probably would have gotten one.

"Curry's Paradoxical Combinator": A 3rd Level Computer Scientist Spell

"Curry's paradoxical combinator" (see this page) is something that occurs in lambda calculus.

It sounds more like a spell, like Mordenkainen's Disjunction (or perhaps even Tasha's Uncontrollable Hideous Laughter).

Curry's paradoxical combinator is a 3rd level Computer Scientist spell. It requires an intelligence score of at least 13.

The fact that the last name is "Curry" (think Tim Curry) also adds to the effect.

(Tip of the cap to Quentin Miller.)

Flirting with Danger

I am flirting with danger with the two parts of my new portable harddrive.