A Bug's Life

A post wherein Bridget grumbles about how a variant of her e-mail address has been used in spoofed headers for spam, and her inbox is filling up with bounce notifications. I'm learning how to say "Mail failure" and "Out of Office Reply" in several different European languages :-)

I particularly like "Mail du har sent er blockeret af af vores mail filter"

*Sigh*

Squee #1. Top marks to the Co-op, plus extra bonus marks for going beyond expectations. I think this is what people mean when they talk about making 110% effort.
I went in for some pitta bread, but they were having a 2 for 1 offer and had only one packet left in the shop. "Shame not to get the discount," I thought, "but I came here to buy one packet at the normal price so I'll go ahead and do that."
At the till, they remind me that there is this offer and that I could go and fetch another packet if I like. "No, this was the last one there," I say - "Well, do come back another time to collect your free pack," they say, and print me a special receipt valid for one packet of pitta bread :-) :-) :-)
I'm very cheap to please.

Squee #2. Surprise package from frandowdsofa, a set of postcards of some shiny metalwork pieces she'd mentioned at the Sheffield Gallery - including the not very shiny but made entirely out of cutlery Barking up the Right Tree :-) :-) :-) Thank you!

Squee #3. Interesting conversation at the Optician. I'd noticed a couple of dark spots on my vision for the last month, most noticeable when I wandered around in the dense white fog in Blind Light. Now, I don't catastrophise at all, but Simon thought "I don't want to worry you, but..." they can be an early sign of a detached retina. I went for a check, but they're just floaters.
One of the tests they do involves you reading some text printed on a card; below the paragraph about avenues of trees is a row of words
- accrue recover camera sauce commence -
or somesuch, which had no letters with ascenders or descenders. The optician hadn't noticed this before, and we had a chat about that and how the rest of the text on the card is written in a fairly old-fashioned style presumably so you can't skim it and have to pay attention to each single word. Eyes, Brains. Funny old things. Also discussed the use of AI in computer games, which really hadn't occurred to me before as a usage, as I still mostly play Spider Solitaire and Sudoku and other games which do not involve interplay between player and game characters and behaviour modification based on play.

morose remoras swarm on ocean waves
as sonorous macaroons murmur rancorous runes
we summon wereworms as venus wanes
venomous marrows cause awesome concern

Hmm, that doesn't look as odd as I'd have thought.

4. A Question About Sunglasses. "Do you wear prescription sunglasses?" asked the optician. I don't; partly because I'm cheap, partly because I don't want the fuss, partly because I like to see where I'm going instead of hiding behind a screen of dark glass.
Current thinking is that there is a strong correlation between UV exposure and macular degeneration, and they are recommending sunglasses as a protective measure, and handed me over to the "I can sell you spectacles" person as I left the eye test room. I averred, saying I'd rather wait till Spring.
Is it actually a good idea to have and wear sunglasses, or is this just upsell?

We're getting there, but we'll be up early tomorrow to finish sorting things out to go in the van. We've gone a bit crazy with the van, and are bringing a lot more things than I'd anticipated. Must Remember About Trip Home!! We seem to be taking a cubic foot of board games, and I keep picking out books that would be interesting and/or useful but putting 30% of them back again due to considerations of space and time.

I have one box of clothes (they look rather sad in there); books on fiction and tech and consciousness; lace pillow and bobbins (possibly redundant information, but I just like to say "bobbins"); Tai Chi stuff. I need to pack TAFF stuff, but will probably leave fanzines behind.

No gaming, no SF Foundation, no art stuff. No maths, no conrunning, no Japanese. No sewing, no bicycle. Really very few books from the unread stack - there are books in the flat already, and there are libraries and bookshops. Hamster. Half a dozen DVDs.