Barbarian's Curmudgeonly Rantings

I recently ran across a reference to programming as a sedate and quiet activity. Sedate, I'll grant them ... unless it's full body contact programming!

The text was actually in a GURPS rulebook. It was in a section on a skill (Autohypnosis) that allows a character to put themselves in a bit of a trance that grants them a bonus to a mental activity at the cost of a penalty to other skills (or to even notice distractions.) Fine and dandy, heck I'd even consider it a fairly realistic skill! Then there's this bit of text ..." This must be a relatively sedate one, done in a quiet place (library, lab, monastery, or placid wilderness)."

( And now for a short musical interlude ... )

I have no idea what made me think of this, but it's too weird not to share.

Bob would usually wait until the last minute to go out looking for holiday gifts ... quite literally. He'd often end up searching along the highway for things to give his family on the theory that he had once found a hat that wasn't too badly damaged. This caused his family no small amount of concern, not only out of concern for Bob, but also out of the strain of trying to look happy having received a gift of a semi-smashed beer can or half a raccoon.