I encountered this quotation afterward, which reassured me that feeling dead in the water for months at a time happens to the very very best of us.

I can illustrate the … approach with the … image of a nut to be opened. The first analogy that came to my mind is of immersing the nut in some softening liquid, and why not simply water? From time to time you rub so the liquid penetrates better, and otherwise you let time pass. The shell becomes more flexible through weeks and months — when the time is ripe, hand pressure is enough, the shell opens like a perfectly ripened avocado!

C. McLarty, The Rising Sea: Grothendieck on simplicity and generality, in J. J. Gray and K.H. Parshall eds., Episodes in the History of Modern Algebra (1800–1950), Amer. Math. Soc., Providence, RI, 2007.

A diagram showing the domains of single-length vs infinite-length words in a particular type of iterated functional system.

I once spent about four months trying to understand a single diagram in a math textbook.

The Swole Stroll

If you don’t want to fiddle, Linux Mint Cinnamon.

Well, speaking as someone who came to realize that I was working for a company that was ripping off its customers, you’ve already gone through a LOT of stress before you get to that point.

It was the Basilisk!

Woooooooo

Re: internet only available at the public library.

Hell no. That would really fuck over disabled people.