2008 — 13 Feb: Middle of the week already?
It's just gone midnight, and the washing up water is still too hot to use. Guess who left the immersion heater switched on for 24 hours? It's not the first time I've done this, of course, but it's the first time I haven't been reminded by a gentle reproof. I guess I have to do my own reproofing1 from now on! "Bother!" said Pooh.
Let's see whether I can tolerate the dishwater now...
Blue tongue? I think not!
These were up on Beacon Hill yesterday. Mind you, as I approached they behaved more like the proverbial fly.
Cleared for take-off
I'd also meant to publish this Keyhaven swan before now. Sorry!
Up and atom
Well, not exactly, but it's 08:49, the latest batch of Microsoft gorp has slurped onto one of the PCs, an orange juice is on its way down, it's time to whip out the teabag (trying not to recall the phrase first encountered on that John Waters DVD lest I splutter over the screen) and prepare to face the newest day to come my way.
I do so like simple, reductionist thinking (not!):
Neocon myth #3:
The neocons had too much power and took over Bush's brain
Washington Post fact:
President Bush used the neocons for his own purposes and then dumped many of them overboard. (Of course, many liberals think Bush doesn't have a brain to take over
in the first place, but leave that aside.)
It's fair to say that the 90+ comments (some vitriolic, of course) make for far more interesting reading (in places) than this original op-ed piece. That is one severely polarised World Power, which has to be worrying.
I turn for lighter relief to Kevin Kelly's interesting work in progress. And, having seen that Mamet's Speed-the-plow (can that be the correct spelling?) stage production with Kevin Spacey and Jeff Goldblum2 gets a good review, it's time (10:01) for my brekkie cardboard health brick.
Who needs a printed newspaper? (Though, one who knows assures me that crumpled newsprint is perfect for cleaning the inside of my car's windows.) I don't even get any freebies delivered these days. But, were I still a skool kid, I'm to be offered five hours of culture per week... Incredibubble.
Lunchtime aqua-plan(n)ing
After a burst of commercial food shelf raiding and re-stocking I propose to take my main co-pilot off on a little lunchtime mystery tour, involving a sea view. We shall see what we shall see. Must pack the portable mega-pixels, of course. More later. Oh god, I've just learned the existence of scallop stout — hurl!
That Spinnaker Tower shows up wherever I go, doesn't it?
Again, the sunshine did little or nothing to alleviate the murkiness of the atmosphere. I was going to publish a view of the pub where we lunched but the haze and wobble renders it hopeless. Microsoft's Live Search Maps offers a seagull's eye view of the pub and its car park across the road (you may have to allow this software to install an add-in on your browser if, like me [and over 45% of my readers] you are using Firefox as your web browser). Your mileage may vary! My thanks to my co-conspirator for the link research.
Frankly, I got so fed up trying to correct colour, contrast, sharpness, lighting and what have you on the shots I took today that in the end (determined to show you this amazing buoy) I decided to give up and simply to solarise this shot of what I shall dub Edward Scissorhands, though whether he was waving or drowning, I really couldn't say:
Where were we? At Titchfield Haven national nature reserve, a few hundred yards along the coastal cliff road from a pub called the "Osborne View" which I wanted to reconnoitre ahead of my Friday lunchtime date there with young Mr Lewis. The road route is pretty straightforward though — as ever — the map3 is self-evidently not quite the terrain. Until, at least, I have one the same size as in that Borges short story! But the only way I'll get better at this driving to places I've never been before4 lark is to carry on doing it.
I treated the pair of us to a pair of "Eggs Benedict" (my first exposure to this fancy name for poached eggs on a muffin with bacon [should be ham?] and Hollandaise5 sauce) and am left wondering what the devil the correct plural is. The web designer (Jonathan Corum) who inspired the Molehole's initial look and feel is still documenting his own search (worldwide) for the perfect specimen.
(Anti)-Smear campaign
Cleaning windows (of the car, Iris, not the house!) is obviously an art with a few more tricks to it than I realise. Minimising the smear that only reveals itself in oblique sunlight turns out to be non-trivial.