Growing Up On Planet Meow

My growing up was strange and abstract,
hardly anything on TV made real sense.

And my comics were complicated and nuanced,
and I never had all the issues, just questions.

I think the TV shows where I come from aim to be strange,
because I still don't know what Przybysze z Matplanety are all about.

I remember little more than the intro of Sonda,
which was a pretty reasonable science show, but I never knew when it was on.

I grew up watching 5-10-15 as in years old,
and to this day I remember wondering what the hell it was going to be like to be 15.

I thankfully skipped over that period of my life,
by coming to Unites States, the magical city of Brooklyn, NY.

I was aware of English words, but I would mostly understand things from context,
it did not help that I learned most of my English from the DJ Kat Show.

If it wasn't for Inspector Gadget and Ninja Turtles,
I don't know what I would have learned, DJ Kat was as wonderful as random.

There were some odd Eastern European shows too,
such as the cigarette smoking Wolf and Rabbit from Russia - Ну, погоди.

I think my favorite thing to do was read the comics,
Thorgal was about a Viking from outer space.

Funky Koval, a futuristic secret agent,
saving the world from aliens and something.

And Rork, where I only had one book,
and it seemed to have been about science and monsters.

I had a few copes of Hans Kloss,
which was about a polish spy in germany.

And when I was younger I basically learned to read from,
Kajko and Kokosz and Tytus, Romek i A'Tomek

It was my earliest education for sure,
countless dreams were had about all the unusual things in there.

When I settled down in New York,
and became a fan of X-Files.

I took to the New York library,
to look up stories aboutt the Sasquach and Mokele-mbembe.

To me my trip to the library was absolutely the same as learning from comics and shows,
it wasn't so much about entertainment but trying to understand the world.

I read many paperback about X-File like stories,
and simply realized that is how religions are formed, there was no fact there, it was all fantasy.

The last paper-only book I've read was "Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner",
shortly thereafter I ran from canton to Ann Arbor, I think it took me six or eight hours.

I was more shuffling, than running,
but again, it was an amazing educational experience.

And then, as I bough a proper MP3 player,
I stumbled upon Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything.

It quickly became my favorite Audiobook,
I've bee re-listening it the last couple of weeks before sleep.

That book connected me to all the other books,
mostly Science, and Adventure.

I didn't really use any books to learn my programming languages,
early on I would type in a concept followed by the word "tutorial" or "HOWTO".

As in "Visual Basic Database Tutorial", now I just browse the documentation,
I actually try not to memorize things on purpose.

I still memorize, but without trying,
I like looking things up, I like finding new things to learn when I search for something else.

It seems like there is about ten or twenty things that I am learning,
things Circuit Design, Music Composition, 3D Modeling and the like.

And I break things down, in music I am currently focused on Drums for example,
lmms is testing a new audio sample set (instrument sounds) and there is a much nicer drum selection now.

In circuit designed I got very comfortable with simulating circuits,
because then all the math is done for me.

My biggest realization was that all those breadboard prototypes with all the wires sticking out,
are fed into computers to automatically create the circuits we see on circuit boards.

SO the breadboards,
are the bees knees.

In 3D modeling I am still training myself to think in terms of 3D printing,
there are huge problems with not being able to reliably print overhangs.

But there are strategies such as cutting the 3D shape in two,
in such a way as to eliminate overhangs, and later snap the two parts together.

There are no real limits in modeling for 3D printing,
but I like creating problematic 3D models that help me grow my knowledge.

I just recently published,
the world's most daring Dryer Machine knob and it feels great to the touch.

I have to enlarge the socket in back,
but it is already tapered, so it will become one size fits many.

The way I learn is by pausing one thing and pushing another,
and when I feel I maxed something out, I switch to something else, and later return with wiser solutions.

I have never gotten stuck,
never overwhelmed.

Learning,
has always been very fun and relaxing.