As I got older, it occurred to me that probably the aliens went about
putting a message into $\pi$ the way one goes about anything else:
\textit{they practiced}.  For example, first they probably wrote,
``Hello, world!'' (or the alien-ish equivalent) in the digits of
$\sqrt{7}$ or something.  And they didn't start putting pretty
pictures into $\pi$ until they really got the knack of it.

So I started practicing as well.  For years, I made no progress at
all.  But late one night I finally managed to change the 6-th digit of
$\sqrt{2}$ into a 7.  You can verify this yourself with a calculator.
(It used to be a 3.)  Soon I too had acquired the skill to embed
patterns and sequences in the digits of irrational numbers.  I know
this sounds insane, so I'll show you some of my handiwork.