Fortune Favors the Bold
Be mindful of the race from whence you came,
And emulate in arms your fathers' fame.
Now take the time, while stagg'ring yet they stand
With feet unfirm, and prepossess the strand:
Fortune befriends the bold." Nor more he said,
But balanc'd whom to leave, and whom to lead;
Then these elects, the landing to prevent;
And those he leaves, to keep the city pent.- Virgil, The Aeneid
In this particular translation, the famous quote "Fortune favors the bold" is listed as "Fortune befriends the bold". Another common version is "Fortune favors the brave", but my favorite variation is "Fortune favors men who dare". That's because bravery and boldness are perhaps permanent traits; characteristics that you possess at all times. They are part of your personality. But even a coward can dare, once in a while. Does Fortune smile upon such a person? Or is it only upon those who are always brave or bold? I'd like to think the former is true.
Busy Reading TPS Reports
Dear UCLA Football Team,We would like the USC Trojans to be in the BCS Championship Game. To this effect, we would like you to respect "the system" and let them win this Saturday. Please note that if you do not do so, you will be going against every media personality out the air, and you will also screw up our "system".
Thanks,
The BCS and University Presidents
It seems the players at UCLA didn't get the memo. I guess we were too busy reading TPS reports or something. I guess we were too busy caring about winning the game. You know, too busy working hard and showing up on the day of the game. Too busy not looking past our next opponent to our bowl game, mediocre as it might be. Sorry, guys. Our bad.
Of .plans
Your not-so-humble author ushers in a new age of dot (don't call it a blog) plan articles, updated for the (now not-so) new version of this website. As you may or may not recall, .plan filesare Unix's version of network signatures, originally intended for informational purposes. Yours truly has never had such a file, but given the whimsical nature of my mind, perhaps it is apropros.
On Zero's Importance
I start at zero because it is, after all, the first number. In fact, it is quite unfortunate that we even call it the "first" number - it is the zeroeth number, and that doesn't mean it is some sort of special case - no, zero IS foremost in all manner of true mathematics. Lambda calculus, a favorite hobby of mine, defines zero as thus:
