Lorem Ipsum

"…neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit qui in ea voluptate velit esse quam nihil molestiae consequatur, vel illum qui dolorem eum fugiat quo voluptas nulla pariatur?"
Lorem, lorem ipsum

"Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but because occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure. To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage from it? But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure?"

Yes, that's what (the original of) that odd little lorem ipsum placeholder you see occassionally in layout templates means. If anyone wants to send me a copy of the original - Cicero's De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum - as a birthday gift (next month, BTW), I would gladly accept it. I don't read Latin, though; so an English translation would probably be appreciated more. The title translates as The Purposes of Good and Evil (loosely; literally it's On the Ends of Goods and Evils). Actually, the more I find about Marcus Tillius Cicero, the more I'd like to read his work; especially De Natura Deorum (On the Nature of Gods), De Officiis (On Duties/Obligations), Laelius de Amicita (Treatises on Friendship and Old Age), and De re pubicla (On the Public Matter [Government/the Republic]).

Hell of a way to start a new blog, eh?

Well, that's what happens in the mind of the Deege. I tend to go wikisurfing. Basically, I look up something I'm curious about on Wikipedia, and the read applicable article. While I'm reading, I middle click (that is, open in new tab) interesting-links, making a tree of sorts that gives me new and (usually) interesting things to read about. Kinda like googlesurfing, only I tend to end up at fewer pictures of boobs. But that's how I got from the Lorem Ipsum placeholder text to typewriting monkeys.
That would be the infinite monkey theorem, you know... "An infinite number of monkeys sitting at an infinite number of typewriters hitting random keys will -- over time -- almost surely type a particular chosen text", usually the combined works of Wm. Shakespeare. Since the odds of randomly producing even a sequence of 20 letters (discounting spaces and punctuation) would be the equivalent of hitting 4 consecutive lottery jackpots (1 in 26^20th); the IMT is usually used as a way to express that something is so far-fetched as to never happen.


Tonight's Wikistring:
Lorem Ipsum -> Cicero -> De Natura Deorum -> Infinite Monkey Theorem
Tonight's Games:
Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords (DS)
Kingdom Hearts 2 (PS2)
La Pucelle Tactics (PS2)