Personal Blogs

Loneliness is the worst thing in the world. Am I the only one that thinks that?

I have a place on the Chungnan slopes.

Sitting there you can see the Mountains.

No one there, no guests, the gate is closed.

No plans all day, just time and silence.

Nothing stops you gazing and dreaming.

Why not come and try to find me there?

Wang Wei (699-759 AD)

Trans. A. S. Kline and reproduced with permission, see

https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Chinese/AllwaterWangWei.php#Areply

Nothing. Always easy. After that it gets harder.

I had a job as a human cannonball. But they fired me.

I didn't make this problem up, I found it on the Numberphile Youtube channel, but it was new to me and I thought it was interesting. 

A frog is on the left-hand bank of a river. In the river are 10 stepping stones as shown.

The frog crosses the river, always moving to the right, by random hops. At each hop it chooses which of the remaining stones it will hop to at random, with equal probability for each remaining stone.

What is the expected number, i.e. the average number, of hops it will make before reaching the other bank?

When clockmakers reach the end of their career, they can't just retire. They need to wind down gradually.

Q. How do the Alligators pick a new leader?

A. They call a snap election.

'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.

This is from Tennyson, In Memoriam, and for most of my life I assumed it referred to some sort of triangle, with the writer ending up as the loser in love. But I think in fact the rival was not a person but Death, who claimed someone who was a dear friend.

I don’t always like Tennyson’s poetry, but this couplet shows he was sometimes a genius, and this saying resonates with all love, everywhere, and for all time.

I went to the doctor, I said “I don’t know if I’m coming or going.”. She said “Make another appointment on the way out.”