On the Evolution of Igors

How would an Igor evolve?  That is the question I have asked myself and propose to answer in this post.

     First, for those of you who may not know what an Igor is:  An Igor is a fictional creature in the Discworld series.  All members of the species are named Igor (like the Q, if you've heard of them) and they serve as assistants to mad scientists.  They are much like humans except that they are very skilled in the realm of mad science.  They are usually quite sane, unlike the masters that they serve.  The thing about Igors that would affect their evolution is the fact that they do a lot of surgery on themselves.  They can remove and replace limbs with ease.  This led to them passing down body parts like heirlooms.  An Igor could have his father's hands and his mother's eyes, literally.

     How would this affect their evolution?  Well, if one assumes they pass on a random set of body parts (organs can be passed on as well as limbs), if they were to not pass on their reproductive organs, then the base Igor would become steadily worse, and body parts from ancestors more and more valuable as Igors degraded due to poor genes surviving on the coattails of relatives.  This would, of course, eventually reverse itself when the supply of ancestral body parts ran dry.  I do not think that this has happened to the Igors in Discworld, otherwise they would not still be as smart as they are, since they can't (obviously) pass down brains.
     Instead, I believe that they pass on their reproductive organs.  Odd as that may sound, it might be the only way for Igors to survive.  If they were to do that, strong genes would be able to produce more offspring for much longer than they would be able to if they died with their original owners.  It does seem to be a bit of a strange concept, but it seems to me that this would be the only way for Igors to survive.  This would accelerate the process of natural selection because there would be an intelligence deciding which genes ought to be passed on.  Like I said before, if they didn't do this the weaker Igors could survive with stronger bodies from their ancestors and would weaken the gene pool.
     Now, the question that arises from this conclusion is:  Who chooses which reproductive organs to keep and which to throw away?  Would it be individual Igors?  There's another concern that factors into this.  When do the Igors start swapping parts?  For the purposes of this post, I'm going to assume they start swapping when they reach maturity.  Now, back to the topic at hand: I think it's more likely that individual Igors would decide.  With other body parts, the parents and relatives pass on their limbs or organs by their own choice.  I would think that they would pass along their reproductive organs if they saw that the children produced by those organs were healthier or stronger or smarter or just better than other Igor children.  Though this is the more logical explanation, I prefer to think that there is a council of Igors who judge other Igors on their reproductive ability and decide whether or not those organs ought to be passed down.  It amuses me to think of a council whose only purpose is this.
     And on that note, I'll end this post.  I think I had something else to say about it, but I've forgotten what it was.  That tends to happen a lot.

Just Making Sure I Don't Go a Whole Week without Posting

So...  I guess I ought to write about something.

I know!  Triplanetary!

     Triplanetary is really old board game.  The rules can be found here.  It is played on a map with hexagonal tiles.  The interesting thing about this game is the gravity tiles and movement system.  In other games, ships enter orbit usually by flying into a planet.  In this game, the ships must first slow to orbital speed, then adjust trajectory in order to hit gravity tiles just right.  It will be easy to understand when I explain the rules of movement, as I am about to do.  In fact, that is probably what I ought to have done first.
     Ships have a limited amount of fuel and a limited amount of fuel able to be used each turn.  A ship may use a unit of fuel to alter its trajectory by one hex.  Refer to the rules for pictures.  So, a ship that can use two fuel units per turn may accelerate or decelerate by two hexes per turn, with no maximum speed (except that determined by the amount of fuel it has).  To alter a trajectory, one first pinpoints the hex a ship would land on without any interference from the thrusters (a ship will continue to move at the same velocity as it did the last turn if left alone; there is no friction in space).  Then, one changes that end point the same number of hexes as units of fuel used.  The manual has pictures and is more clear.
     So, gravity tiles are tiles with arrows pointing towards the center of gravity.  A gravity tile accelerates a ship one tile in the direction of the arrow the turn after the tile is entered.  Again, the manual has pretty pictures that are easy to understand.  Using this, one can enter orbit, or use it to change direction or as a slingshot.

     I really like this game, since it happens in space and I have a fondness for space, but it needs more special ships and buildings, which I plan on adding.

Toilets

So far, humans have yet to come up a with a decent mode of waste disposal.  Yes, it's a lot better now than it was a hundred years ago, but it still sucks.  If you have to sit on the toilet (either you are a woman or have to poop [or you just roll that way]) then you must sit on something that a few hundred other people have sat on (assuming it's a public toilet) and has been peed on (it has since been cleaned, but it has been peed on nonetheless).  When using a urinal, some people don't seem to be able to keep their pee in the porcelain.  It's just a bad system in general.

Anyways, the reason I'm ranting about how much bathrooms suck it because I was at the theatah today and the STUPID TOILET FLUSHED TWICE WHILE I WAS STILL SITTING ON IT.  ARGH.  I'm probably taller than half of all the people my age and older (since the fairer sex tends to be on the short side) and the thing is still set so high that it activates when it's not supposed to.  GARRAOGHAPGHAR.

Better Know a Meme: TL;DR

Welcome to part two of my series, "Better Know a Meme".  This time, it's the Fightin' TL;DR!

     TL;DR, or as i is more commonly written, tl;dr, stands for "Too Long; Didn't Read".  This is used for two different purposes, one of which is extremely helpful and another which could drive me into a murderous rage.  The latter of these is when a user begins his message with tl;dr (at this point it would be prudent to mention that it is used most often on internet forums).  When used in this fashion, it is usually preceded by a well-written post detailing an argument extensively.  The poster of tl;dr often then rambles on about something only tangentially related to the above poster and uses vague and easily rebuffed arguments and often has no grasp of spelling or the basic rules of grammar.  It is often used to dismiss the previous poster's argument.
     The other usage of tl;dr is to summarize a person's post at the end.  A poster will write a medium-length or longer post (though sometimes I have seen posts of even one or two sentences summarized in this manner), then summarize it in a sentence or two.  The tl;dr is aimed at readers and would be more accurately be interpreted in this case as "If that was too long for you and you didn't read it:".  It's really helpful when a poster summarizes an especially long post in this way because the reader gets the gist of what the poster wants to say and if the reader is feeling lazy, only a quick scan of the post is required.
     And that's TL;DR!  Put it up on the big board, Jimmy!

tl;dr:  tl;dr stands for "Too Long; Didn't Read".

Second Post in as Many Days

I'm working my towards a new record here.

     So, I'd ask for help from my readership with getting pygame to work properly, but, since my readership still consists of fewer than three people, I already know that none of you know how to fix my problem.  Since I'm trying to keep up with a post a day (so that I at least have one post a week since I'm sure I'll forget/be lazy a lot), so I guess I'll just ramble on about the game I'm working on.
     The Color Revolution:  Sometimes Things Aren't Always Black and White (cleverly suggested by one of the two [or possibly the one] readers of my blog and Chief Executive Accounting Orderly Somethingorother of said game) is an RTS set in the world of Flatland.  I won't go into detail about the premise, since, as I seem to keep saying, there are only one or two readers.  What I've been thinking about is that units ought not to be recruited during a skirmish.  In all the RTSes and turn-based strategy games I've played except one, the player recruits units during the battle.  I think that's a bit unrealistic, considering the time-frame of most of these games.  The problem is, it would be a little difficult to make a game where one does not recruit units interesting.  Both sides would normally start on equal footing, I suppose, with equal numbers of units (or at least units with an equal number of point values [foot soldier = 1, Chuck Norris = ∞, etc., etc.), and, if the players were both not stupid and trying to win, would both quickly set up camp in easy-to-defend locations and wait for the enemy to attack.  Whoever got bored first would lose and matches between professionals might take years.  I've been considering the problem and I may have a solution, though it's one I find to be less than ideal.  That solution is to not allow the production of units but allow the production of buildings and vehicles which the units can then control.  I've lost my train of thought; I apologize for the abrupt ending.  Perhaps I will be able to finish this at a later date.

Well, Yet Again I Have Failed to Keep Posting

Oh well.  I suppose updates will be irregular and infrequent, and this blog will have only its readership of one.

So, I found out today that my library moved the Young Adult section.  I went over there to check to see if they had finally bought the latest books in a series I'd been reading for several years.  (Note to self: Blogger saves drafts automatically [Note to self: Automagically {Note to reader(s):  Pretend you haven't read everything inside the parentheses}]) To my surprise, it had completely disappeared.  "Well, this is an unexpected development," I thought to myself.  I looked around.  Perhaps I had simply missed the card identifying the row?  No?  It was quite the consternation.  After a minute of searching, I noticed that there were extra shelves full of DVDs and CDs blocking off the area containing all the computers.  "Aha!"  So, it turns out they had moved the shelves into a corner.  Above the shelves, it says "Teen Corner" in a completely ridiculous font and surrounded by Clipart stars.  Thanks, librarians.  You just made my day.  That is, perhaps, the most hip and cool thing I have ever seen in my life.  In addition to pointing out to everyone in an entirely absurd and derogatory way that teens apparently get their own genre of books, not fit for the consumption of mature people, you've made me find a thesaurus to look up more words for ridiculous... er, what I meant to say is that you also put it in a corner, so if I want to go get a book from it, I have to stand in a corner (perhaps I should look up more words for "corner", too) like a dunce with my back to the entire library.  That may not bother everyone, but I certainly don't like it.  It's a good thing I have my spy sunglasses with mirrors on the sides, which I will remember to wear everywhere from now on.  But being in a corner is not the biggest problem I have with the new placement of the section--It's the utterly ludicrous fashion in which you've denoted its existence and the fact that it's separated from all the other books in the library.  It's on the opposite side of the building from the rest of the books.  We must prevent these monstrosities from poisoning the rest of our selection!  And the sign:  It looks like a five-year-old made it.  You're not even calling it something halfway respectable like it was before (Young Adult).  Gah.  "Teen corner"?