Recently learned: the warm moist environment created by wearing an ear mold all day isn't really a concern (outside of an external ear infection, which is normally limited to itching) unless you have a hole in your ear drum. If the ossicles behind that ear drum are reasonably intact, then ossicular reconstruction is unnecessary, and you can get a simple myringotomy (edit: myringoplasty. The exact opposite of a myringotomy) under a local anesthetic. If you've got an implant on the other side, then the ossicles become even less important, because you're mostly using that ear for localization and for the feeling of acoustic balance.

This bears further investigation.

Javascript is generally regarded as a really weak language. Objects and classes in particular are unnecessarily verbose, and there doesn't seem to be a good REPL (there are some REPLs, but they're all lousy. Could be a problem with my terminal settings, I suppose, but I don't think so). As it turns out, though, Javascript has - as is so often the case - some really unexpected features. It has, for instance, first class functions; a function's return type can be another function (allowing currying), and you can pass a function as an argument. This is a pleasant surprise.

Should also make it easier to reimplement this all in Python in a sensible way, when the time comes. Might also be fun to do a web-based implementation in CLisp, even if that's outside the requested specs ... of course, if I want to start writing real-world code in Lisp, I probably should look the part. I already use too many parentheticals; it's just time to represent them all using actual parentheses.

"Hi. Oh, right. I can't actually hear you now; I'm not plugged in." [gesture to ear]

I often leave my hearing aids (for lack of a better, all-encompassing word) off when I leave my room at night. My glasses go on - I can barely see in the dark without them - but I don't need to hear to find food or the bathroom. I wonder what the experience is like for a hearing person, running into this situation for the first time? Last night, I ran into a new housemate, and went through the usual dance. Too foggy to lip read; took me a second, too, to figure out that something needed to be said. I feel, though, like I may have left her confused about something.

Not that this bothers me, really. It just seems to come up every now and then. Is there an explanation that might leave people less confused? On the other hand, I also don't want to launch into a lengthy one-sided conversation about why I'm not currently hearable, as my roommate puts it.