Running theme of Cryptonomicon

Wherein obviously

• Shaftoe's first haiku (December 1940) was a quick and dirty adaptation of the Marine Creed
  
  
• In '27 he got shipped off to Shanghai on very short notice, and no doubt had to display some adaptability
  
  
• The development of an offshoot of the species characterized by densely bearded males is an adaptive response to cold climates
  
  
• ...and so all physical adaptations to it must be placed in the same category
  
  
• "The bombes were adapted, by Turing and Welchman and others, from a design dreamed up by Polish cryptanalysts"
  
  
• Out of its handy pouch comes one Mark II fragmentation grenade, a.k.a. pineapple, and with a bit more groping he's got the Grenade Projection Adapter, M1. (Grenade Projection Adapter x3)
  
  
• "a small mammal...admired and even emulated by Qwghlmians for its hardiness and adaptability."
  
  
• Inside, a tiny anteroom is dominated by a sculpture: two nymphets in diaphanous veils kicking the crap out of a scurrying hag, entitled Fortitude and Adaptability Driving Out Adversity.
  
  
• Pekka ended up scoring a pretty nice nineteen-inch high-res multisync monitor perfectly adequate for his adaptable twenty-four-year-old eyes.
  
  
• Q.E.D. My thing about black stockings was a highly rational adaptation
  
  
• ..., we spent a whole week moving in a world that was perfectly adapted to stockings
  
  
• But this ROV carries its own power source-an oxygen/natural gas swash-plate motor, adapted from torpedo technology, and part of our peace dividend"
  
  
• Not only that, he has any number of peculiar ideas adapted from the Bavarian Illuminati, and is groping for some way to tie these in with higher mathematics
  
  
• Pigs adapt by fighting their way to perimeter of cage & hanging ear/heat exchangers out over the side to flap in the wind of the truck's motion
  
  
• It is a world, and a situation, to which Shaftoe and a lot of other people are perfectly adapted
  
  
• "Display some fucking adaptability," Shaftoe says
  
  
• So I displayed adaptability
  
  
• They were, in other words, capable of displaying adaptability
  
  
• Finally he starts to come around, starts to display adaptability
  again
  
  
• --you could adapt those same protocols to card games
  
  
• He happens to have a twelve-volt adapter for the laptop
  
  
• That these Jovian info-bolts are visible and moving is a visual cue that his radio adapter has managed to patch itself into the packet radio network
  
  
• "But Filipinos are highly adaptable."
  
  
• "So come up with another fucking way! Show some fucking adaptability!"
  
  
• "I see that you and yours have displayed adaptability and that is good"
  
  
• "Yes. The whole plan is ruined. Ah well, it was a nice conspiracy while it lasted. Perhaps Enoch Root will display some adaptability."

TC8_EP7 Top Chef Performance Chart of Charting Performance™

Wherein Chefs I would most like to eat with are Richard Dale and Carla


Watching team Bodega reminded me so much of Blais' menu at Element. Can't tell you how much I miss that place; never had so much fun eating.




Dale T, 16
Richard, 16
Angelo, 8
Carla, 6
Mike, 2
Tre, 4
Antonia, -4
Fabio, -1
Tiffany, -6

reminder: the numbers mean nothing, enjoy the pretty colors

TC8_EP6 Top Chef Performance Chart of Charting Performance™

Wherein you all know these numbers have no meaning


After episode 6, a slight shifting with the top 3 tightening up and the whole middle mass becoming massier.

1. Dale T, 12
   
2. Richard, 11
   
3. Angelo, 11
   
4. Carla, 5
   
5. Marcel, 4
   
6. Mike, 3
   
7. Tre, 3
   
8. Antonia, -1
   
9. Fabio, -2
   
10. Tiffany, -3
    

Now this is where we see that scoring the competition is a mirage -- aside from the whole "one bad dish sends you home" and hypothetical point totals being hypothetical.

Antonia was on the bottom team for the last two elimination challenges, so scored -2 points for each. But listening to the judge's comments, if her solo dishes had been judged separately, she'd might have been in the top. Taking her negative 2s and making them plus 2s gives her 7 points and moves her into 4th place.

EPIC

Wherein if I recall correctly it would be 2-3 months after this before I saw my first Wallets concert


Quoting the youtube poster:

A legendary performance by The Wallets at First Avenue, wherein Steve Kramer tars and feathers himself to the utter amazement of the audience and the band. We rehearsed this show for a few weeks and only performed it once. Steve Kramer: keyboard, vocals. Rod Gordon: keyboard. Jim Clifford: bass. Eric Anderson: drums. Max Ray: baritone sax. Paul Scher: tenor sax. Tim Rummelhoff: tenor sax. Bobby Rodriguez: alto sax. The trombonist, percussionists and dancers: I just can't recall the names. Sorry.

Bonus 1st Ave video from 1987, I Want To Go To Hollywood.

The return of the Top Chef Performance Chart of Charting Performance™

Wherein previously


*update: I missed Tiffany when I moved the data around and have now added her to the chart.


Thought: what would it look like if I applied values to Top Chef Performance and created a chart with pretty colors?

Result: Because I once had a class in statistics, the result is creamy awesomeness.

Fiddled with the inputs to give a little emphasis on EC wins. I've used the wiki page for the results and haven't verified for accuracy. Plus, some of the team challenges skew bottom results...so use this for betting at your own peril. Basically, this should demonstrate the chef's level of consistency up to this point and is not predictive of future performance.

I'm scoring as follows:

• qf top: +1
• qf win: +2
• qf bottom: -1
• EC top +2
• EC win +4
• EC bottom -2
• EC loss: -4

After 5 weeks, scoring is:
15, Richard
10, Dale T
9, Angelo
6, Marcel
1, Antonia, Carla, Mike, Tre
0, Fabio
-1, Jamie, Tiffani
-5, Tiffany

Richard has zero bottom finishes and Dale T has only finished bottom in the ep 5 quickfire. Marcel also has just one quickfire bottom finish (ep1) and Angelo has 3 quickfire bottom finishes. Until his elimination, Spike had no bottom finishes. Tre's three bottom finishes are all elimination challenges -- that isn't a quality indicator. Fabio has the most bottom finishes with 4 out of 10 competitions. Tiffany has the most bottom finishes with 5 out of 10 competitions.

Now for the pretty picture.