Tiled With Pentagons

Because I feel like it, I'm putting up a list of every single project I have not just an idea that I'd like to do, but even have a reasonably well-worked-out plan for what I'd do, how I'd do it, and even a vague sense of how much it'd cost. Feel free to steal these ideas for your own; I'm a consequentialist about them, and I'd largely rather that they come into existence by someone else's hand than that they never arise. I've grouped some of them together when it seemed natural, and then given a sketch of what I want to do and why. Assorted microtonal arrangements: there's a few decently well-known songs that I've listened to and gone "yes, delightful, but what if they were weirder and better?" and I still haven't got around to arranging, let alone recording. Several songs in 31-edo, which I often prefer to call "modernized quarter-comma meantone". (Because that's what it is.) I think that something like the richne...

(Epistemic status: earnest thoughts about a piece of functional jewelry I wear daily; contains both practical utility and more symbolism than is strictly warranted; heavy towards the end.)   Every morning I put on my necklace. On it are four Favors, my class ring, a tritium safety light (ice blue), and a small metal pendant that tells me where the moon is. That's not meant metaphorically. At any given time of night, I can look down at it to turn a rough sense of the phase of the moon and its position in the sky into a pretty accurate compass heading. It's made by Wndsn, a company specializing in precision analog instruments - tools that work without batteries, without satellites, without any infrastructure at all past your eyes and brain. The pendant is a simple lookup table based on a trick you might already know: line up the points of the moon's crescent or draw a line tangent to its changing edge, and draw the great circle on the dome of the sky. Wherever it hits the gro...

If you hang out with me for long enough, you'll see me pause before a meal every now and again. I put my closed fists gently together, with thumbs touching, and I bow my head a bit, usually with eyes open. I'm not saying grace, or at least not any kind of grace I've ever heard of. I'm not praying, to any god or spirit, but I am still giving thanks. "Praise the Unknown Quechuan", you might hear me softly say. But who am I directing that gratitude towards? Consider the miracle of the modern food supply chain. You can have winter wheat and garlic in the heat of summer; you can have autumn's crisp apples in the springtime; you can feast on summer tomatoes and berries in the dead chill. You can drink milk without worrying about it having gone bad or being contaminated with borax. You can have meat year-round, and reasonably cheaply, too. You can enjoy corned beef and pickles just because you feel like it and you like the taste, and not because you needed to sto...

  DR. LORXUS'S UNOFFICIALLY OFFICIAL COMPREHENSIVE RULES OF ZENDO (v1.0) Zendo is an inferential game for 2 or more players, with technically no upper limit on players. One of the players is Nature, and comes up with a secret rule which determines whether an arbitrary arrangement of pyramids fits or doesn't fit their rule. The rest of the players are all Scientists/Seekers, trying to figure out the secret rule. The Seekers need not be in competition with each other, nor is it required that they cooperate; whichever they do, they will learn good research habits and can enjoy play. It's not even necessary that the players agree on whether they're competing. In order to play Zendo as I define it here, you will need numerous plastic Icehouse pyramids in several colors (my set has red, yellow, green, blue, white, and black, and I keep toying with getting at least one more color) and sizes as sold by Looney Labs, go/baduk stones in both white and black, and some kind of token...

Am I doing Inkhaven proper? Once again, no. Will I likely end up around Lighthaven a few times anyway? Probably? Am I doing a kitbashed budget Inkhaven again? I'm sure going to try!

(Epistemic status: This post contains information about my professional background and achievements that may be relevant to hiring managers conducting background research. All statements are technically defensible under careful interpretation, though some require significant context and creative accounting methodologies to verify and others are unfortunately private.) I've been getting a lot of questions lately about my background in quantitative finance, algorithmic trading, and mathematical research, so I thought I'd put together a comprehensive overview. If you're a hiring manager or recruiter looking into my background, this should give you a complete picture of my capabilities. For a professional summary, I'm a quantitative researcher with extensive experience in proprietary trading strategies, algorithmic trading systems, high-frequency trading optimization, and advanced statistical modeling. My background spans mathematics (PhD, University of Illinois at Chicago,...