Here goes...

It's always nice to start off on a good note so here goes.

I went to some maths lectures with school and saw a talk on the fourth dimension. (total mindfuck) The guy talked about a 4-d version of the mobius loop (one sided looped piece of paper-see picture) called a klein bottle and showed us a hat that had been made in the style.

I thought it would be nice to buy one for our maths teacher (along with mobius loop scarf) and did so. After, the order I was expecting the normal computer generated do not reply response but no instead i got a nerdily witty order confirmation and a further reply when i thanked him for making me laugh

The emails went like this:

On 5 Dec 2010, at 22:23, Cliff Stoll - Chief Bottle Washer wrote:

Dear Jamie,

Thank you very much for your Klein Bottle order! I've just snuggled

the Black/Grey/White Klein Bottle Hat & Mobius Scarf into a 25x33 cm

padded envelope with the usual Acme literature, invoice, and agitprop.

While packing the one-sided hat and scarf, I took a few photos. You

can see these pictures at

http://www.kleinbottle.com/gallery2/main.php/v/456SomePhotosForJamie

I will bicycle (or maybe swim) to the post office tomorrow (Monday)

and send it via First Class Mail International (which means Air Mail).

The envelope should arrive in about a week or 10 days depending on the

post and customs. If it does not arrive within 3 weeks, please send

e-mail and I will do my best to track it down. Sad to say, this class

of service does not have electronic tracking.

So, from across the Atlantic and across our three spatial dimensions,

here's my one-sided cheers to you. I'm sure you'll like the one-sided

hat and scarf!

- Cliff (on a rainy Sunday afternoon in Oakland, about 10 km east of

San Francisco, California)

On 12/5/2010 2:51 PM, Jamie Green wrote:
thanks for your speedy shipment

I love the fact that humor has been incorporated in every aspect of your
website and it makes a change from the boring computer generated rubbish
I normally recieve.

even if it is computer generated it still made me smile

so thankyou

jamie

Hi again Jamie,

Computer generated?  Well, some of it.  I guess I could type credit card authorization numbers whenever one shows up, but I'd rather have fun with other things (like playing taxi-driver to my two sullen teenage kids).  Unlike you, they have zero tolerance for my humor (and repeatedly warn me to stay far away when their friends are near).  Sigh...

Warm cheers from the west coast of America, where it's drizzling down here, and probably snowing up in the mountains.

It was really unexpected and left me feeling (as the cliche goes) all warm inside.

You may say I'm old fashioned for appreciating real communication in the modern age, but when was the last time amazon told you the weather

Nerdy banter FTW

Ending on a seemingly unrelated but actually related quote: 'look it's a square....wait til you see a triangle'