Greeneders -- Supermarket Sweep Cartoons

Q. Can I help you? What do you want?
A. What do I want?
Q. Uh, in the next half-hour, say.
A. Oh, then mushrooms hammered flat and flavoured of chicken.
Q. Ah, of course. Aisle 7, non-religious ethics, sir.

Q. Why is this shelf leaking corrosive green gas?
A. Ah! That's the low-sodium salt, sir.

Q. Why is "Cheshire" in the "continental" section?
A. Well, it is in the continent, isn't it?
Q. Well, yes, but so is the washing powder in the continent, you haven't put that there.
Q. For the record, I'm implying you could move the "cheshire" into the "cheese aisle", not everything else into the "continental" section.
A. Oh good. Otherwise no-one would be able to find anything, they'd have to look at every product in the store just to by bread!
Q. Uh.... I'll just stop suggesting things now, shall I.
A. Very well. Thank you, sir.

Q. Hi.
A. Hello, Jack.
Q. Maternal progenitor and respected sustainer of my existence, Greetings. [Yes, I actually do answer the phone like this. Sometimes. I think I've never yet to the completely wrong person; I will almost always have seen caller id.]
A. How and where are you? [No, my mother doesn't talk like that, unless she wants to get my attention.]
Q. I'm in Tesco's. Can we chat later?
A. Please.
Q. Also, would you say lightbulbs were more like binbags or DVD players? And do you remember who wrote
A Mathematician's Delight? [Yes, I do talk like that, though much more so to people who will think it's funny. And have requested in-store directions over the phone, though only when it's particularly convenient or funny -- it's wrong to do so habitually.]

Bletchley Park

Last saturday was Becky's brithday, for which we made pilgrimmige to Bletchley Park (thank you for organising that!) Simont's post probably has a better description.

It's definitely worth seeing, for someone like me. (I did get the impression everyone was old, or a mathematician :)) It's a place that's important to us, that I didn't already live in (cf. Trinity :)). It's like stepping into Cryptonomicon :)

Quotes:
So, how do you know Becky?
The Tolkien Sociey
Hey, that's my line!
Aah... Cambridge?

You know you're old when you walk into a museum and the first thing you see is a joystick you owned new.

I'm sorry for laughing. You just had your "What I'm about to say is a calculation" expression on.

Did you see the GCHQ "continuing the fight" exhibit?
Lies! It's all lies!

Wow, that rounderbout had more cat silhouettes than you normally expect.

Chess gave me a lift down (thank you); the journey was very pleasant, except for some phantom roadworks that didn't seem to exist, but did halve the speed limit and put up large numbers of spurious cones. It's fairly easy to get to BP if there's a decent road to Milton Keynes and you don't mind lots of rounderbouts so much.

We joined the rest of the party in the computer museum, full of clunky 80s boxes, all still working and hackable -- one was pressed into use when Simon's brain ran out of calculation space. I hear it's been somewhat truncated, and for that matter, I can see C64s at home, but it's still cool to see them all being preserved in one space.

We were just in time to join the guided tour. These are never easy, but I thought the guide was good, his jokes were nice and not tedious, he made points well, and he directed a crowd of people with verve and precision. Despite constantly dodging another tour starting at the same time. This covered most of the site, filled in a touch more history than I'd read in Cryptonomicon (and got the different machines straight in my head). And there are little details about the people who worked there that help humanise it.

And when one of the questions at the end of one piece was "My calculator watch disagrees with the calculation you mentioned earlier", he met us at lunch and hashed out the misunderstanding, which it always gratifying to meet someone who does.

The history included the Poles who broke the original Enigma, who so often get overlooked in British histories (for the record, there were also many Polish pilots in the Battle of Britain, etc.) It would be interesting to read a *Polish* history book and see how they describe the era. Of course, I apologise to all the other countries, of which I'm even more ignorant.

Then we hid from the rain for a bit, then went for a further look round, and then I peeled off by myself to have a look at things in my own order. Many huts were shut up, including I think stuff about Alan Turing personally. There were also random inclusions, such as old but shiny vehicles, and a few model railways.

Fresher's Fair

And after all, I did manage to pop into the Fresher's Fair taking a longish lunchtime.

I'm sure there are more and more commercial stalls -- the whole back row or two were for things like pizza delivery and banks. Couldn't they at least form a pseudo-society? :) I presume it provides sponsorship, I certainly hope so.

There's still a decent percentage of stalls being run by people I know, good, good.

Tiddlywinks was being manned by someone under 40 -- indeed, looking under twelve. Apparently they hoping for undergraduate biogenesis.

Lures are doing fairly well, though I don't want to load up on freebies any more. At the back of the room there is Pizza, and various bookshop goodiebags (tokens, I believe). Everyone has a few sweets. Tiddlywinkers had tiddlywinks to play with. The conservatives had their union jack bikini, and lupie looked great in a terrible shocking purple corset/petticoat affair :)

This time last year, I think Clare took me (and Naath) to Geek Pizza, for the first time. This year has been fun, but I'm slipping behind the curve for my world domination plans, I definitely need to ramp it up a bit more.

Also, it's raining

Also, it's raining. When I left the house it was nice -- gentle invisible lines painting the world like artifacts in old film, undetectable even in the porch, until you feel their gentle caress as you step out.

Thirty seconds later I was wishing for windscreen wipers on my glasses and my warmer coat round my neck.

Now it seems dull and blue-grey and set in for the winter. If you don't see me, I'll be hiding in a spare conference room with a Vernor Vinge and waiting for the sun.