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2007 — 7 Apr: Sunny Sat

"Jack's return home" to quote from an old Tony Hancock sketch (though, of course, it wasn't old when he wrote it, but then nor was he!) For "Jack" read "Peter" (aka Junior) and all should clarify.

Shockingly slothful slow start today, following a wine-fuelled early evening with the neighbours and then some later familial catch-up when the offspring actually showed up. Easter road traffic is something fierce coming out of London, particularly when the weather sucks people to the coast. Now, suddenly, it's after noon and I haven't even finished reading the latest Mac User magazine. But Postie's gentle hammer blows earlier delivered news of the pension, while (even earlier) Mr Amazon dropped off the latest in the sublime series of George Herriman's "Krazy & Ignatz" reprints from Fantagraphics:

A brick stuffed with "moom-bims" indeed!

And, speaking of "stuffed"...

A second scholarly round of Aptana tuition (not to mention a refresh of the IDE software since I last gave up using it in irritated frustration in early January) has put me at least partially back onto the path of righteousness and subversion HTML (etc) source control. I can see, and appreciate, its power and usefulness. It's the "Guns of Navarone"¹ cliff-like steepness of the Learning Curve that deters me. Oh well, time for a quick trip into town to show the Apple Store to Junior and watch him succumb to Easterly temptation.

Not so. He has dismissed the MacBookPro as being too "toy-like" — his phrase, not mine. What do you say to that, young Ian?

Equally stuffed

I've just bought a copy of Extracts from the red notebooks by Matthew Engel (proceeds from which are going to his late son's Teenage Cancer Trust). I cannot resist quoting from his section called "War":

I also picked up a nice hardback (Everyman) edition of Pride and Prejudice — pure self-indulgence — and the new novel I heard Lenin laugh by Martin Sixsmith. Definitely a good day, particularly with Ken Campbell riffing madly on "Loose Ends". But I shall dip once more into Jane while the mayhem that is Casino Royale goes on downstairs for the benefit of our young visitor.² Bliss!

Speaking of "bliss"...

I captured Junior doing what Junior does best:

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Footnotes

¹  Come to think of it, the steepness of the unclimbable cliff in "The Princess Bride" might be nearer the mark, while also dating me less. I can't resist adding that Big Bro was sufficiently taken with the earlier film with score by Dmitri Tiomkin that he actually got the soundtrack album, back in the days when those were pressed on vinyl.
²  He will return to London with three series of The Sopranos, Joel Spolsky, Paul Graham, and Verity Stob. Plus the two full-fat fantasy novels he picked up in Waterstones, of course. Chip off the old block if you ask me. More amusingly, he's also seriously suggested I draft an updated version of my CV for him. Seems his present outfit is in some need of documentation, and is rather poor at communicating. Now that rings a faint yet familiar (alarm) bell.