Books, books, everywhere there are books!
Meme borrowed from mergle:
1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth (complete) sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence (or two) in your journal, along with these instructions.
Attempt #1
大村さんは暗算が得意です。
(oomurasan wa anzan ga tokui desu.)
Mr. Omura is good at mental calculation.
This comes from the entry for あんざん (anzan) in the
Kodansha J-E dictionary. I had to get a bit creative with counting here, but there
are complete example sentences in this dictionary, so it works out. That said,
it doesn't say much for my recreational reading habits (really, this was the nearest
thing to me at the moment). Let's try again...
Attempt #2
When we look at input sizes large enough to make only the order
of growth of the running time relevant, we are studying the
asymptotic efficiency of algorithms. That is, we are
concerned with how the running time of an algorithm increases with the size
of the input in the limit, as the size of the input increases without
bound.
CLR, MIT Press,
was sitting directly below the dictionary. Really, the book gets better in
the later chapters; this is one of those intro chapters that anyone capable
of deciphering the later chapters probably already knows by heart. Okay,
there's got to be something better beneath this pile. Oooh, look what's
next!
Attempt #3
As California's financial troubles have grown, taxpayer groups
started putting legislators' feet to the fire to get rid of surplus property
the state owns--including a Bay Area massage parlor, part of a golf course,
strip malls, and fashionable properties in Sausalito and even
Tahiti!
Argument against Proposition 60A, the official Voter Information Guide
for 2004, Volume II (I've been saving this gem for the folks who don't
believe what a California election looks like). This argument is quite
lucid by comparison to most of the arguments presented in the guide. I'll
skip the other 2 voter manuals, and move on to the slightly further
stack of books...
(So, am I the only one who binds the last part of the sentence to say
"surplus property the state owns--even [all of] Tahiti"?)
Attempt #4
Except the Hand, and that's because no one knows who he
is.
Hah! Finally, a quote from a (deliberate) work of fiction, and the
reference to the Hand is rather appropriate for the audience :) This is from
Modesitt's Magi'i of Cyador -- if you haven't read Recluse, I highly
recommend the series...
And I believe this sentence is sufficiently cryptic to end my quest, so
I'll stop here...