Speaker For The Diodes - April 5th, 2008

05:16 pm - Trivia

Things I learned in the wee hours this morning while trying to solve a geometry problem:

1. That pen is no good any more.
2. Glass cleaner (alcohol + ammonia + unnamed solvent) is even better at removing rollerball-pen ink from skin than I thought it would be.

(I've still got a couple of stains on my fingers where the skin is especially textured, but the dollar-bill-sized splotch on my calf (I was sitting cross-legged) came right off.)

06:43 pm - QotD

"Curiosity is the lust of the mind." -- Thomas Hobbes (b. 1588-04-05, d. 1679-12-04)

"I put for the general inclination of all mankind, a perpetual and restless desire of power after power, that ceaseth only in death." -- Thomas Hobbes

Calvin: Hobbes, what do you think happens to us when we die?
Hobbes: I think we play saxophone for an all-girl cabaret in New Orleans.
Calvin: So you believe in heaven?
Hobbes: Call it what you like.
    -- from the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson

[Yah, I couldn't resist. Dunno whether I'll quote from Watterson for John Calvin's birthday in July or not.]

06:51 pm - Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is ...

I need to find a way to get the following sentence inserted into the lists used by various fortune-cookie manufacturers for the fortunes:

Certain problems are trivial for you, but nobody will ever understand the answers you give them, because your numbering system involves colors that cannot be perceived by humans.

I would sleep better, knowing that random unsuspecting diners in Chinese restaurants were reacting to that from time to time.