I'm losing my favourite game

[venta]

Return of an old rant:

I just called the Swan to book my car in for some work on Saturday. During my fifteen second conversation with the receptionist, she said "just bear with me a second" three times.

That's a whopping 12 bwm/minute, on average.

Comments

[wimble.livejournal.com]

Or, as a less irritating way of looking at it, only 3 seconds you had to bear with her.
Plus, at an estimate, another 2 seconds each time to say the phrase.
So that's 9 seconds gone.

How did you fill in the gaping 6 second void?

[venta.livejournal.com]

The annoying thing was that on the first two occasions, I wasn't actually being asked to bear with her at all. It just seemed to be the equivalent of saying "er".

The third time it was more than a second, while she put me on hold and talked to the mechanic.

Thankyou so much.

[lanfykins.livejournal.com]

I hate losing the game.

Re: Thankyou so much.

[chrisvenus]

Then stop playing. Otherwise you'll just lose again.

Re: Thankyou so much.

[lanfykins.livejournal.com]

Apparently I'm not allowed to.

Re: Thankyou so much.

[chrisvenus]

They said that to me too. I'm not playing though. I could keep pointing out that you are losing until such a time as you get bored of that "gah!" feeling and decide to stop having that reaction. At that point you are no longer playing the game.

Re: Thankyou so much.

[wimble.livejournal.com]

What? Is she playing a game?

What's it take to make her lose?

Re: Thankyou so much.

[lanfykins.livejournal.com]

I'm still in loss from the last time. I think I have to actually forget about the game before I can lose it again :)

Re: Thankyou so much.

[mejoff.livejournal.com]

OHforfuck'ssake!

I see I'm not the only person who likes silly ratios.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

Area of Vatican City: 0.44 km²

Number of Popes in Vatican City: 1 (usually)

Vatican City Pope density: 2.27 Popes/km²

Re: I see I'm not the only person who likes silly ratios.

[venta.livejournal.com]

:)

I remember being delighted during a lecture on computer architecture (a rare occurrence) when the lecturer started talking about the speed of light being a limiting factor in laptop design.

He pointed out that, for the purpose, it was most useful to think of the speed of light as being "about a foot per nanosecond".

Re: I see I'm not the only person who likes silly ratios.

[wimble.livejournal.com]

the speed of light = 0.983571056 feet per nanosecond to be precise.

Yeah, I can see how "1" is a useful approximation.

Re: I see I'm not the only person who likes silly ratios.

[ringbark.livejournal.com]

If it's any help to you, pi seconds is almost exactly a nanocentury.

Re: I see I'm not the only person who likes silly ratios.

[wimble.livejournal.com]

Is that still the case even when it's not any help to me?

Re: I see I'm not the only person who likes silly ratios.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

The foot/nanosecond thing kind of brings home the latency inherent to everyday experience, IYSWIM.

Re: I see I'm not the only person who likes silly ratios.

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

Or for practical purposes in PC hardware, roughly 4 inches per clock cycle.

Re: I see I'm not the only person who likes silly ratios.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Er, why ? I don't follow.
What happens for nine days ? I'm not very well up on my popery.

Re: I see I'm not the only person who likes silly ratios.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Why does no pope = infinite popes ?

Or are you referring to the infinite number of popes-in-potentia ? In which case surely it isn't infinite, it's about 24, or however many redhatty guys there are in the College of Cardinals these days.

Re: I see I'm not the only person who likes silly ratios.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

You got the fraction the wrong way up!

Re: I see I'm not the only person who likes silly ratios.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

Apparently the mourning period is supposed to be nine days. But wikipedia indicates that's not the only part of the usual interregnum. Not that the exact numbers matter much when we're talking zeros or infinities l-)

Other things that might throw the density off would be a visit by another Pope.

Re: I see I'm not the only person who likes silly ratios.

[venta.livejournal.com]

And who knows what an antiPope would do to the density :)

Re: I see I'm not the only person who likes silly ratios.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

How do you get infinite density rather than zero density for the nine days?