Nobody Knows Anything

Welcome to Diane Patterson's eclectic blog about what strikes her fancy

Archives for July 2004

How to catch a lion

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Yes! I’m still a nerd! I found How To Catch A Lion hilarious:

The Bolzano-Weierstraﾟ method

Divide the desert by a line running from north to south. The lion is then either in the eastern or in the western part. Let’s assume it is in the eastern part. Divide this part by a line running from east to west. The lion is either in the northern or in the southern part. Let’s assume it is in the northern part. We can continue this process arbitrarily and thereby constructing with each step an increasingly narrow fence around the selected area. The diameter of the chosen partitions converges to zero so that the lion is caged into a fence of arbitrarily small diameter.

(Via Darby, who picked the Schrödinger’s Lion method.)

Vacation? Yes! A vacation!

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So, we’re back from a week’s vacation. Not surprisingly, I feel completely exhausted. What is it about vacations that completely and thoroughly wipe one out?

Oh yes, I remember now: kids. When you are on vacation, you are on call 24/7. No preschools, no babysitters, and rarely a room or a moment to yourself.

It was fun anyhow.

We went on a drive trip up to Portland, then down the Oregon Coast to Mendocino, then home today. A full week of doing about 1500 miles.

Bonus: Simon has started talking up a storm. He repeated words we said constantly. The most hilarious version of this was when I promised Sophia we would get ice cream at our next rest stop. (Not to bribe her or anything. Just to get some ice cream. Mommy wanted ice cream too.) For the next half an hour of drive time, Simon chanted, “Choco cone! Choco cone!” Over. And over. And over.

Downside: Somehow, and I have no idea how, the spammers who have pretty much left my site alone for the past few weeks hit the comments section with a vengeance the day we left. Thank goodness we had internet access at the beginning and the end of the trip to take care of that as much as I could. If you happen to see comments for Vi*gra/Meri*ia/the like, please let me know.

Anyhow, if you are interested in our doings, continue apace…

(Warning! Excessively long, talky entry with photos follows!)
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Writer’s Tip

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You know that People for the American Way has published the Florida Felon List, which allows citizens to check to see if the state of Florida is calling them nasty names behind their back and, oh yes, disenfranchising them. Great move, props all around to PFAW.

I’m not here to get into the Florida thing. No, no: I’m here to tell all writers out here to get copies of the list immediately. Unfortunately, it’s 26 PDF files. On the other hand…it’s a gigantic list of names you can look at any time to spark an idea for a character’s name.

Need a name? Check the list. All different ethnicities and heritages. Easy to peruse in the comfort of your own computer.

I’m all about the writing help over here.