I'm going to make this weblog slightly more personal.

Before the past few entries, I've written primarily about politics and literature (but mostly politics). My reasons were that, roughly, almost every single personal weblog I had encountered was mind-numblingly boring. Unless I knew the person in "real" life, I felt no reason to be interested in the myriad of personal details such blogs inevitably contain.

After some reflection, though, I realized I need to have some sort of personal record. I can't quite articulate why; but it seems I have some urge within me to set things down on paper. I think I can do this without falling into the pitfall of making this a diary; and, anyway, the idea of making it comprehensive is unfeasible because some people I know in real life read this and I can't write honestly about them.

So, in that spirit, a scene from last night. I am helping my father do some text processing; he has five binary matrices he needs to enter into the computer and his scanner is not working. He wants me to read the matrices out loud to him. Initially I refuse, but, in the end, I yield.

After we are done, he says, with a satisfied look, "You know, it was not bad after all that you were created." "Yes," I reply, "and moreover, the time it took you to quote-unquote create me is probably less than the time you saved just now by having me read you the data." He casts me a curious glance and says "Your opinion of me is too low."