Researching my last article was amusing, but doing so made me realize an error in something I said last month.
I didn’t recognize someone I should have because I was jetlagged and hungry. She was non-plussed with my behavior and threatened to “take me off her Facebook.” Now, if I were Scoble, I’d be just happy to have room to add a different friend. But I’m not, so I value every person I’ve managed convince into accepting a friend request. This led to this apology-cum-excuse:
“I’m sure you know how it is: visions of chocolate after a transcontinental plane ride will take over the entire parietal lobe of your neocortex—temporary prosopagnosia is an unwanted side effect. It’s a survival thing.”
Since you’ve read the last blog entry, you see the obvious error in my excuse. Clearly the fusiform gyrus is located in the temporal lobe, not the parietal. Doh!
Still, since she hasn’t unfriended me yet, I’d have to say, that it amounts to as good an excuse as any: when in doubt, blame the chocolate.
[Chocolate blogging and another nitpick after the jump]
The chocolate blogger
This reminds me of one of the memorable Lunch 2.0 experiences this summer. I was at the NetGear Lunch 2.0 and someone grabs me and says, “Terry, you have to come meet this guy. He’s the Chocolate Blogger!!!”
I know it doesn’t sound all that funny, but if you could hear the reverence and amusement in their voice at meeting such a blogging celebrity. Heck, let’s face it, have you seen Brian’s blog? The guy makes delicious looking deserts. He could have any girl in the world with that blog… and some guys. 😀
Diffie-Hellman nitpick
A quote of mine has achieved some notoriety:
“…talking to women involves a Diffie-Hellman key exchange where God forgot to clue me in on the shared secret.”
—Me in Ruby, Photography, and Women
My spies on IRC have reported that someone noticed the subtle error in this statement: Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange doesn’t use a shared secret, but is a generator for shared secrets.
Here was my response (not on IRC, but to my spy):
Yes, I know that. Of course the algorithm for the generator is needed. So if you did a key exchange, and failed to arrive at the correct shared secret, you’re sort of screwed. That level of detail is… too much for a blog post.
So basically I’m claiming narrative economy was the culprit there.
If you don’t buy that, then maybe it was the chocolate deficiency. Because, that day was the day I wrote that quote, was the day of the transcontinental flight, was the day I failed to recognize a friend, was the day that I hungered for brownies, was the day, in a rush to eat, I forgot to eat the Mozilla brownies I horked—all the same day.
And I’m telling you, it wasn’t just Dave who told me those brownies were good.
[tags]Diffie-Hellman, excuses, chocolate, hunger, prosopagnosia, brain lobes, chocolate blogger, Lunch 2.0, phrenology[/tags]