Don’t just leave boring regular notes as reminders around the house—instead, also inscribe magical runes on them! Leverage the unimaginable supernatural power of arcane sigils in your daily life!

Background:

People frequently leave notes around the house, either as reminders to themselves or as reminders to family members or roommates. For example: “Remember to push the fridge door shut, or it stays open!” or “Remember to lock the top lock when you leave the house!“

The Issue:

These reminders are all fine and good, but what if we also added the mystical power of magic runes to these notes? The power of magical inscriptions is an aspect of society that is very popular in traditional cultures, but has somehow been lost in the transition to a more evidence-based industrial society.

Proposal:

Let’s combine the functionality of a regular reminder (“Remember to turn off the stove after you make ramen!”) with the supernatural force of a magical symbol that will encourage the stove to be turned (Figure 1) off through arcane means unknowable to human beings. You can never be too careful!

Fig. 1: This magical symbol (on a stove) both reminds people to turn off the stove when they’re done cooking and invokes a magical supplication to the stove spirits to turn the stove off. This could increase the OSHA-compliance of this particular stove.

These mystical runes may also operate in a non-safety context, as shown in Figures 2 and 3.

Fig. 2: This symbol (on a fridge) both encourages the fridge-user to eat healthy foods and may potentially transmute unhealthy foods into healthy foods.

Fig. 3: Similarly, this symbol (on a dishwasher) may both encourage people to not put like, meltable peanut butter jars in the dishwasher AND might supernaturally prevent microplastics from getting over your dishes.

The power of runes may also extend to utilitarian household items, as shown in Figures 4 and 5.

Fig. 4: This rune may enhance the power of the adjacent vacuum cleaner.

Fig. 5: This magical sigil might boost the functionality of the nearby ear-protection earmuffs.

Conclusion:

There’s really no reason not to inscribe a magical rune on a sticky note!

PROS: May increase the impact of reminder notes that are left around the house / office / etc.

CONS: It is possible that invoking the spirits for favors might also cause them to exact a terrible price later (e.g. in some kind of Rumpelstiltskin-esque fashion).

Originally published 2025-01-27.