sjh - mountain biking linux geek spice

[amusing] Making tests harder

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 14:32:00

Last week at work I was thinking about some of the exams run here and wondering if we could make jokes about making them harder. For example in the computer networking class. Hand the student a cage with a few pigeons and a copy of rfc1149 and to pass they have to communicate some message stored at the place the pigeons call home.

Another possibility for that class was to hand them some computer equipment, such as an Altair 8800 (I think we have one in the computer museum here at work), a few components that may be able to read the outputs of that and communicate to a modern network and ask them to write the contents of a web site on a ipv6 only web server.

I am sure there are many other interesting concepts for making the assessment harder, heck in reality a few years ago I was arguing for the final assignment in the computer networking class to be an exercise in exploiting a planted hole in some software. This would involve telling them some basic details about the hole. They would then have to understand network capture (wireshark), c coding (writing the exploit), manipulating network calls and sockets and data from code to get a meaningful result, layout of the system they are exploiting (we would give them references and details) and be able to analyse and collate data well. We could give each student something slightly different (we can generate each problem with some code generation mechanism) so they can not easily copy each other. Their task could be to gain some form of access through this hole and place a defined piece of data on the system they are exploiting with their implementation.

At the time (and probably still) it was deemed too difficult for the class and also somewhat off focus as it had more than just computer networks topics involved. All of the initial silly ideas I was having last week though of course reminded me of the rather amusing GRADUATION EXAM - AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT I recall seeing a printout of in the 90s sometime, a common Internet jokes item. Lets see you pass that exam in 4 hours.

[amusing] Typo Eradication Advancement League

Thu, 22 May 2008 18:18:00

This is fantastic, though I almost feel it should not be in /amusing. I have not even read the articles or website yet, just saw the links on Metafilter. The quote on Mefi was enough to get a laugh out of me.

Immediately, Herson spotted an offense - a second - floor awning outside a tarot shop that advertised "Energy Stone's." They climbed the stairs to the second floor and approached a middle-age women with a quizzical expression. "We happened to notice the sign for energy stones," Deck said, "and there happens to be an extra apostrophe. 'Stone's' doesn't need the apostrophe."
"And?" she asked, her voice flat with annoyance.
"And we wanted to bring it to your attention," Deck said.
A look inside the daring lives of Jeff Deck and Benjamin Herson, vanguards of the Typo Eradication Advancement League.

A Chicago Tribune article and their website are linked. Okay so sure I am not exactly the person who should laugh at typos, however as one of the comments points out, this is not exactly typos they are getting stuck into.

Also I should note it is pretty sad I have just effectively duplicated a Mefi post here.

[amusing] Oooohhh funny

Wed, 21 May 2008 17:29:00

So I read Kottke, Dooce, BoingBoing, Metafilter and other stuff, I would normally expect to have heard of long running bloggers that are hell funny and well known. Strangely today on BoingBoing I found a link (that is day 1, also day 2 and day 3 are up) to some guy taking his family to Disney World, and his write up is hilarious. Looking on wikipedia I find out James Lileks has one of the oldest personal blogs still updated and has done all manner of other things.

I read through one or two other bleats and he really is consistently good, there does not appear to be a feed link, but it could be worth the effort to remember to visit sometimes. The description of eating at a place called O'Hungrys due to it being suitably Simpsonesque is a good example. I like it. It comes as no surprise after reading some of his stuff that he is a professional writer and obviosuly enjoys the craft enough to do it in his own time (blogging), do anything enough and you improve in your practice of that craft.

As a side note, I could even use is first day report for another Annual May Zombie Post, what with the Zombie Thumpers he photographed at Disney.

[amusing] Break into song

Tue, 20 May 2008 16:28:00

On BoingBoing Cory put up a link to another HOWTO talking about how to do something people in his latest book Little Brother do. In this case it is HOWTO Lie to authority figures. I have not read the entire HOWTO he links to, however the last line quoted amused me greatly.

I like to stay relaxed by singing Irish folk songs to myself. The kind of song that goes on and on and on.

In the context of using this when lying to throw people off the fact you are learning I was mentally thinking how out of place it is (of course I also removed the "myself" from the quote). It is sort of like a Bollywood movie surrounded by figures of authority. Anyone breaking into an Irish folk song spontaneously is either lying or who knows what.

Of course the mention of Irish Folk songs reminds me of the fantastic thread on makinglight a while back pointing out things learnt from British folk ballads. The Doleful ghosts and the rest of it are all hilarious.

[amusing] An xkcd update

Fri, 16 May 2008 15:37:00

Since the last time I put a list of some funny xkcd comics up there have been more. And what do you know, for a geek this is still consistently the funniest web comic available (well I think so).

So I thought I should throw a few of the links to some that have appeared in intervening time, if for no other reason than so I have more easily available ammunition in my on going argument with Jane about what is actually the funniest web comic. My deluded sister seems to think it is Cyanide and Happiness (well hey they have met in real life (Randall and the C&H people (see the side bar comment from Jeph)) when obviously it is xkcd. Anyway some of the newer really funny strips follow. Of course, when reading xkcd remember the alt text is often as funny as the comic.

Give me a pointer can you, Nacho cycles, Messing with pronunciation, sudo Sandwich, more raptor humour, a combined megatokyo and xkcd piss take, Ask Knuth, misusing slang, Pokemon dismissal, a new ip datagram transmission format (like the tanks or orbital vehicles, or avian carriers), dont go into linux internals on a date (the alt comment goes along with the JWZ quote about software design for college guys), I know regular expressions, Kayak future not so much funny but it suits me, more hammer time, Tree houses and raptors on the brain, The problem with wikipedia (oh so true), Random Number, Lisp or perl, RMS Ninjas, Cat Proximity, The difference between scientists and others, Keeping yourself entertained with numbers, LOLcats in real life, Online package tracking Danielle said I was a geek the other day, all geeks understand though, Another zepplin joke, Raptor attacks goto programmer, programmers slacking off, Head out for an interesting life shows one of the lovely things seen in xkcd sometimes, Don't take two nerds shopping, A real big budget action movie for firefly fans, Strange night thoughts (this sets of my amusement at the quirky and strange), Bobby Tables sql injection in a name, plus the alt text is wonderfully amusing, Python, import antigavity, Nerd sniping, Fighting back against annoying music, sane build environment?, real programmers, Someone is wrong on the internet, Summer Glau blog venting, Overzealous wireless autoconfig, Spork genetics and a raptor joke, Making hash browns (sporks again too, read the alt text).

[amusing] Another ad, still a shame about the product

Sun, 11 May 2008 10:47:00

Last July I commented on the fantastic Carlton Beer ads (linking to those I liked (I do not like the Flash Dance ad)). A few days ago a friend mentioned she had seen a new Carlton ad with some sky diving in it.

Though in my opinion this is no where near as funny as the Canoe ad or the More horses/Metal ad, it has a scale and amusement value on par with the Big Ad, this definitely an ad you should watch. Strangely one of my housemates went skydiving yesterday, it must be a theme for the weekend.

[amusing] People who really get the strange humour

Thu, 01 May 2008 23:15:00

So I have mentioned from time to time how funny Fafblog can be. Today I have once more been reminded why we need posts from Fafnir in the world. Though I try to come up with strange stuff at times I can never seem to do it with such polish and style and such a well thought out voice as Faf. Sure there is some political bent to Fafblog, however at times like today there is no obvious hint of political content and still the humour is there. On that note I am out of time for today.

[amusing] Swordfighting

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 19:56:00

Clothing damage (fullsize)

On Wednesday there was mention on Neil Gaiman's blog of a scar on his daughter Maddy's face, Maddy got the scar at 5 and now 7 years later still tells people she got it in a sword fight, which is what, at 5, Neil suggested she tell people. (Maddy since claimed he said "in a sword fight with Spiderman" which seems to have confused him, though he does reference Heidelberg Scars) I thought all of this was fantasticly amusing, that a young girl go around saying she got her scars in a sword fight.

This got me thinking, the xkcd Richard Stallman sword fighting comic and the subsequent gift of a sword to him means if RMS ever has some obvious scars the best reason he can give people is he got them sword fighting. Any geek in hearing distance is likely to crack up laughing. (and I have to say RMS' response of what he will do with the sword is fantastic)

Though I probably can not claim the broken collar bone, sustained while tearing up the vest to the left, as a sword fighting injury. I wonder if I can claim the tattered clothing and the scars on my face if any hint of them remain once fully healed as some form of Heidelberg scar.

[amusing] I hope it is not just the date

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 18:16:00

I just had a delightful surprise when I saw a feed with new posts in my feed reader. It is possible Fafblog is back. The first post to the site in almost two years appeared today, then another one appeared. It has been suggested that they are messing with us, it being April 1 and all. However there has been a fafblog redesign from the green look to a new look. Lets hope Fafblog is back for real.

[amusing] Awareness Test

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 22:12:00

Someone pointed this out to me today when I was showing them the way cool Carlton Beer Ads. This could go in the mtb section, however I am putting it here (/amusing). It has also been pointed out to me that this was on a list I read the other day, someone posted the URL http://www.dothetest.co.uk without any other explanation, thus I did not waste the time to click on the link. Oh well.

Anyway go watch this Awareness Test on youtube (or elsewhere).

[amusing] A man needs a canoe

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 23:22:00

Until Jane told me about this ad while visiting this weekend for our Mother's birthday I had never seen it. Carlton made a few ads that were very funny, I had of course seen the Big Ad, it was a bit of an Internet sensation for a while. I had also, I think it was possibly even on tv seen the highly amusing Made From Beer which I also thought was rather brilliant and far more amusing.

Now this is where I am more interested, though the Big ad is clever and inspired marketing (notably viral marketing) I did not think it was particularly funny. With the made from beer ad I found the dry presentation of the various parts of the ad in the supposedly impressive but really piss taking way of talking about the imagery still has me laughing every time I see it.

Thus I was keen to see what they had pulled off with another ad and when Jane mentioned the Canoe Ad to me I was hoping it was good. I personally was definitely not disappointed, sure I may be a little biased recently but this is another hilarious ad. I know I am generally amused more by surreal humour and similar sort of strangeness so this is likely to appeal to me.

I was a little surprised when I showed a friend who loves the big ad the other two tonight and she was not amused at all, somehow she must be missing the surreal humour funny bone or something. I will say however I never found the flash dance ad for Carlton beer particularly interesting, somebody out there obviously does.

[amusing] Oh no the meme really is taking over my common sense

Tue, 01 May 2007 14:00:00

Eric Bana has a Gamma.

Thinking some more about this silly meme (yes I am wasting thoughts on something like this, how did I get this low), it occurred to me that another amusing one was the image to the left here. An alternate (to bring in the rhyming more) is wording such as "I am a Bana" here.

I really need to go an do something productive I think, Argh.

[amusing] Caught by yet another meme, or lol cats applied to computing celebrities

Tue, 01 May 2007 12:50:00

Donald Knuth has a Grammar.

I was trying to refrain from finding the lolcats thing amusing, heck I was not about to wreck my record, and in an attempt to get some Blogthenticity put a photo of a cat here. However when Jdub linked to the lolgeeks variation on the meme I felt the need to play along.

Of course this will be most amusing to computer science people (those who actually know who Knuth is and what he does).

[amusing] A good web comic with stick figures

Mon, 07 Aug 2006 18:29:00

My cousin Nick pointed *snigger* me at a rather cool geeky web comic today. I only realised when I saw a recent comic I recognised that I had already seen a link to this site previously but had not read more. I must say there are some fantastic jokes in the archive, I also like that the creator has to make it funny through the text as they are not doing anything with the drawing to try to bring on much reaction, though the simplicity in and of itself is pretty neat.

The one Nick emailed me about had me giggling, some of the others I really liked were c10 (though fairly obviously this was created before the recent news about the Japanese physicists who plan to create mini universes in their lab), c26 (a vet friend of mine is named Libby), c69 (almost appropriately numbered even), c73 (who needs those hammer time jokes), c86, c87 (which needs to be closely followed by c135), c107, c108 (could not stay away from the hammer jokes), c109 (pack them spoilers in), c118, c120 (endurance dating, of course this is the sort of thing we know Dave and Julie do all the time).

Anyway if you have some time maybe have a look through more of them.

[amusing] Dikipedia

Mon, 29 May 2006 23:01:00

I want to know why they had to call it Wiktionary rather than Dikipedia, after all the latter name would amount to endless seconds of puerile amusement for English speakers. No sense of adventure I tell you.

[amusing] Sarah found some more real life whacky warning labels

Mon, 22 May 2006 21:59:00

I do not know if it is the same as the pedometer Mikal was given and he simply did not feel the need to mention this, however we can be thankful Sarah shared the details from the instructions. This is fun like the instructions I got with my coffee grinder or the supposed warning labels seen in the wild by various people. As the commenter on Sarah's diary says, yay for Engrish.

[amusing] Turtle velocity

Mon, 22 May 2006 20:51:00

Ahh I love wikipedia sometimes, there is an article about Hairy Ball Theorem and it is a maths thing so get your minds out of the gutter.

I know I should not laugh but this Did You Know on Uncyclopedia got me giggling, "...that some species of turtle are remarkably resistant to centrifugal force, and can reach upwards of 5000 rpm before their wee little flippers fall off?"

[amusing] Operation: ANB is a great post

Fri, 16 Sep 2005 12:02:00

So Aaron has only been doing this blog thing for a little while, but I must say he seems to be continually posting some interesting stuff from his travels in Canadia.

The guest blogging practice really can work and be amusing as is appears Aaron has discovered with this post about the IKEA Nationals 2005, a great example of the blogging artform, photos, text, humour all based on an every day experience.

[amusing] Fairy Tales in the Key of Klingon

Fri, 16 Sep 2005 10:21:00

I have been wondering for a few days now if there were some way I could work this link into a post, however I have given up in failure and, due to this being most amusing, will dedicate an entire post to it.

I first saw this link on Kottke back in August, and have since seen it in other places. Another Mcsweeneys list, Klingon Fairy Tales. Including "Goldilocks Dies With Honor at the Hands of the Three Bears" and "Jack and the Giant Settle Their Differences With Flaming Knives".

Now I am just waiting for someone to write more than just the titles, as Kottke suggested, think of the titles as read by Michael Dorn with his Worf voice. This does make one wonder what other fairy tale titles one could think up for various characters in various shows and movies?

"Jack hopped on a plane to Bora Bora to avoid the Giant so he could Live, Grow Stronger and Fight another Day" as told by Methos (that link has been updated far more recently than methos.org).

"Snow White and the 7 dwarves sat around drinking beer and eating burgers, mmmmm Burgers" as told by Homer Simpson.

"Little red riding hood breaks a press-on nail while fighting the werewolf" as told by Buffy Summers.

"How the white knight had new legislation passed to better support Old Mother Hubbard and was brought the finest muffins and bagels in the land" as told by Joshua Lyman

[amusing] Speed of light, Avogadro's, Tomato and Cucumber and other universal constants.

Mon, 15 Aug 2005 21:13:00

While eating dinner I wandered around some of the blogroll links on blogs I read regularly. The Aadvark Speaks is one such site I stumbled upon, on the whole well written and a good read. He suggests that Tomato and Cucumbers are a universal constant (when paired together, and generally when in the presence of a sandwich). Who knows they might be, I personally look forward to reading of any scientists accelerating Tomato and Cucumber to the speed of light.

As for his telepathic waiters, maybe they have 802.11 or something chips implanted in their heads, who knows anything could happen. Interestingly this guy lives in Austria, I wonder how many Arnold's he knows?

[amusing] I let myself in with this chainsaw

Thu, 11 Aug 2005 09:10:00

I was rereading the Liberty Meadows "Big Book of Love" last night at home. A reprint of most of the 1997 run of Liberty Meadows strips. One strip had Leslie in Frank's room going on about being sick with some other random disease. The end of the strip Frank asks Leslie how he got in. Leslie answers "I let myself in with this chainsaw" and he is pictured holding one. So sure the context may just confuse the issue, and maybe you had to be there, but I cracked up big time. I think that would be a great title for a blog "I let myself in with this chainsaw".

Anyway for anyone who wants some more obvious humour, go have a look at what is on Fafnir's list of things to do.

[amusing] Please take the crack pipe away from those parents

Thu, 30 Jun 2005 19:49:00

On p.l.o.a today I saw a mention of this Baby's Named a Bad, Bad Thing site. Some woman takes on the task of providing some critique of the baby names some people on an online baby name forum come up with in their interests of uniqueness or some other half arsed ideas.

I agree wholeheartedly with anyone who says this site is funny, it truly is an amusing read, I am sure Mum and Jane will get a kick out of it, Mum because she so often pointed out these similar sort of crimes against children she had seen in her years as a teacher, and Jane so as to have more ammo to use when trying to get a rise out of mother, oh and because the snarkiness present in the comments on this site is damn good.

Oh and speaking of Babies, is anyone painting their house any time soon? <g>

[amusing] Uncyclopedia

Wed, 08 Jun 2005 22:14:00

So I found out about this Uncyclopedia from a BoingBoing post mentioning what Cory thought was a great Zork parody some user had put into the Uncyclopedia. The Uncyclopedia is (wait for it) a Wikipedia parody (geez I bet you never saw that coming), and I have to say there is some incredibly funny content on there already. Whoever said the Internet does not have a sense of humour needs to read this.

From the front page news item right now suggesting "Canada and California have announced plans to merge. The new country will be called Caca." to the pages on such topics as Australia and New Z'land (hey where is lca2006 again?), or other fun such as Linux or Star Trek. This has had me giggling for hours.

[amusing] Use the laser for good

Fri, 15 Apr 2005 23:54:00

So many people will have seen this story about Laser Controlled Zombie Flies (I got the link from BoingBoing), which of course has people saying things like "I, for one, welcome our remote-controlled headless zombie fly overlords."

Of course, when, some time later today I was reading Bruce Schneier's writeup on the difficulties involved with hacking the papal election system and I came across the following line

I read that the Vatican is worried about laser microphones, as there are windows near the chapel's roof.

it had me thinking, yeah thats right, and you probably do not want the papal election to be hacked by headless, laser remote-controlled catholic cardinals.

[amusing] Which was first?

Tue, 12 Apr 2005 10:08:00

Well according to Mikal it was the blog and not, as many suspect either the chicken or egg.

tags for this post: blog chicken egg

[amusing] Are you inspired with your tub'o'lard?

Sun, 20 Mar 2005 22:37:00

The take away at the Lyneham shops is somewhat (in)famous for a speciality they serve. Deep fried Marsbars! Can you imagine, a marsbar dipped in batter and placed in a boiling tub of lard. I can hear your arteries hardening as I type.

I have however just seen evidence of something even more gastronomically extreme, the Apostropher has an entry mentioning a bar in Georgia that serves two rather inspired dishes: "Hamdog: a hot dog wrapped in a beef patty that's deep fried, covered with chili, cheese and onions, and served on a hoagie bun topped with a fried egg and two fistfuls of fries." and "Luther Burger: a bacon cheeseburger served on a Krispy Kreme doughnut bun.". Personally I wonder if anyone actually eats these dishes and lives for more than another 10 minutes.

The Apostropher does on the whole appear to regularly be quiet amusing (or terrifying depending how you view some of the stories they link). As seen by reading about a Japanese Parent Pining for the Fjords or maybe this Legally blind guy who got a gun licence or a US citizen going for a stroll through Canada in winter. I am beginning to think I had better subscribe to this rss feed.

[amusing] There are less efficient message passing algorithms

Tue, 15 Mar 2005 21:10:00

Mikal said something ¹ along the lines that leaving messages for others to read in version control logs for a website is the world's least efficient message passing algorithm.

I guess this does depend on your definition of message passing and how the carrier is implemented, etc. It does however seem possible that Mikal has not yet read rfc 1217 (especially when using shuttle launch vehicles) which is likely to be a slower carrier for message passing algorithms than rfc 1149. (unless the avian carriers are dead I guess, which may indicate a need for rfc 2549)

1. What is it with the permalinks in Mikal's diary anyway, they show up on his html output, but my rss feed in liferea does not get a permalink I can copy with right click. Strange.

[amusing] Weird Pros

Wed, 23 Feb 2005 11:25:00

As many people by now know, Hunter S Thompson died this week, I really did not know much about him, though I have seen his representations in modern pop culture from time to time. Anyway I just thought I would mention, this is a hell cool quote.

"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."-HST

And now updating this entry, so as to avoid excessive posts, another amusing quote, this time in reference to Eleanor Gould, who also died recently, damn maybe I should get the Jim Carroll Band playing.

She could find a solecism in a Stop sign.

[amusing] More warnings

Mon, 07 Feb 2005 22:28:00

In honour of those strange warning labels, because I found them so hilarious the first time I ever saw a list of them I feel the need to share this link. Found on a Singletrackworld forum, another list of warning labels that make you wonder about the human race. Most amusing.

In other news, BCG put a few more reviews up. He was at The Waifs concert at the Canberra Theatre on Friday night. Good to hear he loved their music, Dave and Julie were there too and said it was pretty cool. OF course they played Tilleys on Thursday night which is an even better venue to see them, but it also sold out in half a second or something. Dave and Julie said the concert was good, of course Dave has been seeing The Waifs perform fairly regularly since their first ever appearance at the National Folk Festival a number of years back. Anyway Martin liked The Waifs performance (I don't blame him, I love The Waifs music), and also their support act Jodi Martin, who he had seen previously. I had a look around her site a listen to some music, good stuff so I ordered her two albums.

[amusing] Faffing about potatos wont be old in 5 minutes.

Tue, 11 Jan 2005 15:34:00

Yesterday on BoingBoing there was a link to some diary entry comparing Alberto Gonzales to a Baked Potato. Alberto Gonzales is the new US presidential nomination for the US Supreme Court, that however is not as important as the fact that this comparison is funny stuff. I read more entries and found this weblog Fafblog often pokes fun at the US administration, and whether you enjoy the slightly political bent or not it is constantly very funny and clever. For example, in the vein of Time's man of the year they nominated Fafblog's man of the year. Definitely on par with, and seemingly consistently more entertaining than Rory.

As for the 5 minutes thing, yesterday Kottke mentioned Dooogle, a search engine that only returns results about Doogie Howser M.D.. The concept of the search engine is amusing for about 5 minutes, after that I think it may get old. At least Whereis Anton changes and does not age as easily. Of course thinking about 80s children's shows got me thinking about shows other than Doogie Howser, such as how much I enjoyed Out of This World (teenage girl who's father is an alien, she can stop time by touching her fingers together), how much I like the theme song from that show, Bing Crosby's Swinging on a Star, and how much I would like to see the show again, though I probably would not enjoy it as much today, oh well (at least it apparently never jumped the shark). It is good to know some friends such as Mel and Lana can sing that theme song from the show word perfectly today.

[amusing] Why are you not a fish hatchery worker?

Wed, 22 Dec 2004 21:29:00

As mentioned, Mikal is evil, he pointed out how funny and clever this guy (Rory Blyth) is. Yet another thing to use up some time, and damn Mikal was right, the guy is clever and funny. Anyone who says something like

It was a day like any other in 1987.
Unless you choose to differentiate it by the rows of luncheon tables covered with newspaper, plastic, large salmon, and cutting implements.
Aside from that, it was very normal.
The reason I said that "It was a day like any other" is that there's a good chance that you work at a fish hatchery or a morgue. In either case, you should be able to relate easily to the events of this story. On the outside chance that you aren't a fish hatchery worker or an embalmer of the dead, then things might seem a little strange, but let's be honest: It's your fault for choosing a profession so strange that it doesn't involve regular contact with dead fish and flesh-cutting tools.
(source)

deserves to be read, I just have to remember to go read more of the stuff this guy has written now.

[amusing] Some random title

Wed, 24 Nov 2004 19:35:00

Scanned from yesterday's "The Canberra Times", I found this amusing.

Seeing as it is my birthday today maybe I should not be at work until after 8pm, writing up my triple tri report and finishing some changes to code that imports data daily before the import tomorrow morning. I would implement the change a different way by choice but for now Bob requested it this way.

[amusing] Don't let these people navigate

Tue, 23 Nov 2004 17:41:00

Some people started a Fools World Map, based on the queries such as a Texan asking "How many hours does it take to drive to Japan by car?" or those people who wonder if they can walk to Perth from Sydney (well sure they "can").

[amusing] More instructions

Mon, 22 Nov 2004 21:51:00

In the vein of those oh so important product warning labels (eg, on a packet of nuts "warning: contains nuts"). Tonight I had a dinner at Tilleys with some of my friends, celebrating my impending birthday. Rebecca and Ben gave me a coffee grinder (very cool, now I have to decide if I want to keep it at home or work). The instructions with the grinder include the helpful suggestion "3. The coffee mill cannot be switched on until the cover has been places.". This brings to mind the travelling gnomes, you may not use your coffee grinder before the cover has been on a world tour.