Is anyone going to Prestatyn for the SFX Weekender? (This is probably only likely to appeal to U.K. residents and those who have never been to a Pontins holiday camp)

Well I'm not going but then again I always thought that Prestatyn was welsh for "push that button". Any way I can't go anywhere till I finish A Game of Thrones by G Martin. It's so exciting I can't put it down. Now where did the grandchildren put that tube of superglue?

You need nail varnish remover to release superglue. More will make the problem worse.

Me! I'll be there on Thursday with Jen. Jen does some transcribing for SFX (now a bona fide employee) and has a whole page in the Vampire Special, her very own article. I can see her keeping me in my old age

Just to go off topic: Prestatyn sounds like the name of one of my medicines.

no no no - it's actually a campaign for metal recycling: press da tin!

If only it was that exotic!

It is only an hour away from Port Meirion, so we may call in to see Rover



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/30/2012 04:31PM by SkidMarks.

BUNYIP... pre-statyn surely is the state you were in before you started to take your medication

SKIDMARKS...After the Prisoner left the village Rover found himself at a loose end and became a brussels sprout snorter. His habit led to destitution and he can be found outside the fence farting feebly for pennies.

PRINZ HILDE... Pres dat tin is also the name of the Republic of Wales's mint.

OB,

Oh to be so well informed on such matters.

Perhaps you can explain the meaning of life to us in eight words or less?

Well, I tried explaining it to a gnat once but it died before I finished.

Actually I've reached the conclusion that I'm really an existentialist of sorts.

You're really an existentialist of sorts? Brilliant! The extension of the existence of Sorting is one of my favourite pet projects, and has been ever since my first game of 52-pickup, when I invented the BogoSort routine, briefly summarized as:
while not inOrder(deck) do
shuffle(deck)
Repeat until (deck(sorted=true));
otherwise known as:

A. Throw deck of cards in air.
B. Gather cards.
C. Check if cards are in order.
D1. If false, resume from (1.)
D2. If true, stop (after uttering suitable incredulous expletive).
D3. Just check every once in a while to see if you're dead yet.


Ah, those halcyon days!

You can rave about Bubble sort, Selection sort, Insertion sort, Shell sort, Comb sort, Merge sort, Heapsort, Quicksort, Counting sort, Bucket sort, Radix sort, Distribution sort or Timsort, but when it comes to sheer simplicity of programming, BogoSort beats them all. OK, so it's slow. Very slow. Really, really slow. But, it's dead easy to program. I wish I'd invented it, but I'd rather have invented the Stooge sort, named for the way the Three Stooges hit, poked, prodded and bashed each other.

Did you know that the Shell sort wasn't named after any computer-shell enclosing object-type thingy (not too technical?) but after its inventor, ... my memory fails... David or Donald Shell? Did you want to know? Does it require a particular level of nerdified weirdosity to disparage the Library sort in favour of the Shell-Metzner?

If you're now feeling out of sorts, just Google "Sorting algorithm" for a jolly good relaxing read.

God, I'm glad I'm retired now.

Dear Misty, You say you're retired but there you are tapping away on your computer in the middle of the night.

Sorting. Hmmm. Many years ago I chose to sort. I wanted meaning and pattern in my life. I actively sought assortments, I sorted assortments, I tried living on liquorice assortments. No enlightenment came so now I choose to do nothing but let it all come out in the wash.

Where will you stay when your house is in hospital?

OB, I haven't retired from my insomnia, unfortunately, so there's a lot of late-night tapping happening.

During my eviction I'll be holidaying with my sister in sunny Nelson. She's missed the quakes, but a while ago they had floods. I believe at least one washed-out road is still under repair. Her place is fine, though, and I'll really enjoy my stay.

Dear MC, I'm glad you are not dead yet. (I presume you have checked lately and would have stopped posted if so.) I hope you enjoy your stay in Nelson, wherever that is. I only have a vague idea of where the continent you are on is, so it's hard to imagine you just moving over a bit. You won't be sorted correctly, will that put you out of sorts?

.... and we are back!

It was good to see a few Ffiesta Ffamiliar Ffaces.

Were there any Pies

Yes, marked 'S' for 'sorted'.

Drat. I missed those. I tried the pies marked "S" for "Stirred around," the pies marked "S" for "Shuffled" and the pies marked "S" for "Scrambled" but I missed the Sorted ones. Next order I'll pre-order order.

old boiler Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Were there any Pies

No, but there were some pasties, which I think are similar. I couldn't be sure, though, as they were not marked.

They were probably "secret" pasties : inwhich case they would have been marked underneath the lid and you probably ate the evidence.