Seven Random Things

Comment on this post and I will list seven things I want you to talk about. They might make sense or they might be totally random. Then post that list, with your commentary, to your journal. Other people can get lists from you, and the meme merrily perpetuates itself.

A month and a half ago, vvvexation participated in this meme and I said "I'd love some prime subjects." I just recently noticed that I have this draft sitting around that I should post.

prime rib

I'm not particularly picky about which part of the animal my meat comes from. I usually cook sausage and stir fry when I make dinner for myself. Lengua plus onions and cilantro is my favorite taco filling. I enjoy ordering pho with bible tripe, partly because the name sounds funny.

prime numbers

I remember reading that 37 was the "most random" number. It's prime, it's not a number that turns up naturally very often, it's bigger than ten but less than a hundred, and it kind of rolls off the tongue. In other words, it seems like a great choice when people are asked to "pick a random number."
Really big prime numbers are cool too. They're a crucial part of digital encryption. They can also have questionable legal status.

primary colors

At lunch one day, some of us observed that Google is kind of like preschool: there are lots of toys around, you can have a snack in the middle of the afternoon if your blood sugar is low, you're free to take a nap, and everyone eats lunch together in a cafeteria in primary-colored chairs.
I like primary colors and other colors that are easy to express in the RGB color space. Partly this is because I'm much more of a symbol-processing geek than an artist. I'm aware that using more subtle colors provides a more appealing visual experience, which is why I let other people be in charge of how things look.

primal scream therapy

It can be very cathartic to yell when you're as mad as hell. I'm not sure it would be a good practice for a 50-minute therapy session, since after the first two minutes or so you typically run out of things to be mad about or you've gone horse. 50 minutes staring at a Munch painting might be pretty therapeutic, though.

lexical priming

Lexical priming is the effect of word and grammar associations such that when we hear or read a particular word, we expect another word or grammatical construct. Conversely, if one is present but the other is missing, the phrase may sound weird. For instance, if a maw were described as anything but gaping would seem off.
I suppose lexical priming might help explain why most people have trouble understanding legalese. They don't have much priming for the words and structures used, so understanding the text is a bit like reading in a foreign language, even though you know the meaning of most of the words.

the genus Primula

I'm not a big fan of flowers (he said, sitting naked in the back yard enjoying the smell of dandelions, bluebells, and columbines). As noted on my LJ profile, I'm the only user interested in genus allium. Perhaps the layers of onion, garlic, leek, shallot, chive, and scallion appeal to my software engineering side. Among eudicots, I'm a big fan of family Cactaceae and other succulents. (He says, sitting naked in the sun.)

Optimus Prime

I haven't watched more than a couple minutes of Transformers since I was four or five, but I remember enjoying the show, particularly the noise they made when they switched form. The action figures (of which I owned none) were pretty cool too. Four years ago, I mused that a Transformers RPG could be pretty fun. And now that self driving cars are a real thing, it wouldn't have to seem too futuristic.