In my part of the world ...

1.  I have changed my dA signature.  I still like that Genghis Khan's quote, but since economy is the single biggest pain-in-the-ass ailment today, might as well make use of a quote from Robert Heilbroner, who wrote Behind the Veil of Economics: Essays in the Worldy Philosophy.  (New York: Norton, 1989)  Its full quote:

In capitalism, no one whips the man who doesn't show up for work.  Nobody assures discipline in the sense the feudal lord does.  The disciplinary function, and it is there, God knows -- the function of getting people to do work they don't particularly like and do it regularly -- is provided by the system, in the form of the need to gain income.

By the way, government has not had the monopoly over coercion and violence, according to Thomas Ferguson (University of Boston):

American history is replete with examples of business groups and individual firms retaining vast armies of military and paramilitary forces for long periods of time.  In the nineteenth century many railroads kept private armies.  The Pennsylvania Coal and IronPolice ran their own Obrigkeitsstaat [authoritarian state] for decades.  General Motors maintained the Black Legion; Ford sported a veritable Freikorps recruited by the notorious Henry Bennett; and any number of detective agencies, goon squads, "special consultants," and wire-tappers have also been active ... Force on such a scale potentially menaces competitors, buyers, and suppliers almost as much as it does workers.

The lesson:  Do not count on the private sector as the lesser of the two evils.

2.  Finals week ... yay!  I actually finished the final yesterday, so my spring semester is now over.  I was taking a class in elementary statistics.  I have not been taking any math classes for years, so this felt rather refreshing.  In hindsight, college counselors should have directed students to take classes like statistics before classes like analytical chemistry.  Seriously, unless you already know something about concepts like confidence interval, significance level, standard error, and a few others, you will run into WTF moments whenever your lab report requires you to indicate these figures.

3.  Got myself a Moleskine hard-bound notebook, size A4.  The Hard Red for Art that I already have feels a bit too claustrophobic.  I am only using a fountain pen with this A4 notebook, so this suits me just fine.

4.  If you are looking for a quality fountain pen with fine nib and willing to spend some money, try Pilot/Namiki Vanishing Point, fine nib.  (The last time I checked Amazon.com, it was $132.)  The only bad thing is it comes with a Con-50 twist converter, which has rather small reservoir capacity.  They should go old-school and include Con-20 squeeze converter instead.  I ended up surfing Google to find a merchant selling Con-20's.  Another alternative is to save a used disposable ink cartridge, then use a syringe to refill.