Capricious Me » 2005 » June

Cryptonomicon is so incredibly awesome… I nearly died laughing after I read this bit. (Anita, you especially will love this, as you know how the author had previously described Alan) :

“My husband and I operate a small bed and breakfast,” Mrs. Qrrt says. “We should be honored to have an Asdic man stay with us.” Asdic is simply the British acronym for what the Yanks refer to as sonar, but every time the word is mentioned in the presence of Alan, he gets a naughty look on his face and goes on an unstoppable punning tear.

alright. so i started Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson before I left Wellesley. It’s AWESOME. seriously. i love the WWII bits. It involves Bletchley Park, crypto, alan turing, and there’s the present day stuff… but the genius of it all is that it’s all related. :-D and there’s a cryptographer named Randy which reminds me of Randy my cs prof who taught cryptography. kekekeke.

anyway, after arriving home, i’ve been sidetracked by other books. There was a not so great mystery type thing set in post Revolutionary War Maine. (such a promising description, huh?) Stepford Wives, which was pretty good, and the Jane Austen’s Book Club which I’ve just started. Tidbits below:

Bernadette’s Austen was a comic genius. Her characters, her dialogue remained genuinely funny, not like Shakespeare’s jokes, which amused you only because they were Shakespeare’s and you owed him that.
…
Allegra’s Austen wrote about the impact of financial need on the intimate lives of women. If she’d worked in a bookstore, Allegra would have shelved Austen in the horror section.

I think it’s cute. So far. But I may stop if it gets boring because there’s also the Dante Club and the rest of Crytonomicon waiting for me. And Hornblower! (the books, just the books, no movies I promise till October…)

So that’s that so far. Started playing FFX-2 again… I’m in level 76 of the Via Infinito. Pretty boring. at level 80 I get to fight a boss. whooo. Other than that… unpacking hasn’t really started though I did lug everything to my room. I have to clear out at least one suitcase though, or I can’t bring anything to China.