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2008 — 15 Feb: Friday? Again! How?

It's 00:09, and this really will have to be a placeholder; I'm seriously tired. Before I turn in, though, let's see if I can't manage a smile.

As also captured by Big Bro

The other picture from 23rd July 2006:

But who could resist this search string from my latest server log file? I hope they found what they sought!

how is the publication of flowers for algernon significant in the scientific global and cinematic world/history?

I remember having the same sort of problem when I was hosting the Light Hearted Chronicle of CICS on a Hursley intranet server. There were so many snippets of "good stuff" in it that an amazing range of searches returned positive results. (Sample chapter.) And, if you haven't read it, I highly recommend Daniel Keyes' story "Flowers for Algernon" which was made into a film called "Charly". Details on Wikipedia of course. I hadn't realised it had made the "banned" list. Cool!

Back to grey, heh?

Well, it's not actually raining at the moment (10:26). A neighbourly spy (you know who you are, your skip delivery made for an effective alarm clock) tells me our waste food collection bins have arrived. Being still dressing-gowned and freshly-breakfasted I've not yet poked my bleary-eyed head above the parapet of Technology Towers. Mind you, I've already been cold-called by a Zöe seeking to improve my home "with designers!" to bring it into line with those owned by all said neighbours.¹ As I was in the throes of literary composition² at the time, I gave her my traditional slice of short shrift. How do they get my ex-directory number in any case? More corrupt plods, perhaps?

My lunch date has just warned me he'll be a little late which gives me a useful breathing space to remind myself how to get in the correct lane for that right hand turn off the A27.

Better get dressed, I suppose. The busy life of the retired widower!

Back to base

It's 16:52 and I've been back for ten minutes or so. A most enjoyable lunch and chat with Glyn in Wednesday's venue, followed by a quick coffee just down the road chez him, too. The conversation was wide-ranging and interesting. Different lives, it seems, often run along startlingly parallel lines. It's amazing what chaps can actually chat about when they get going!

I have indeed now got this new-fangled brown plastic food waste collection bin, along with an even dinkier (daily) bucket that fits inside it, and a munificent (free) set of ten biodegradable inner liners to get me going, as it were.

Tonight's excitement? Junior's flying visit. And, maybe, a nice hot bath first! Now, where (under the dust) is that sucking Dyson? Plus, let us not forget the wonderful Bruce Dickinson's Friday rock show on BBC 6Music! (On as I type...) And some online bill paying. Plus catching up with the small (tiny, actually) print in the latest changes to the terms of use of one of my bank's credit card Ts & Cs.

Erm. Does that actually leave any transaction that you can stop. No? I didn't think so. These idiots also quote my card number in their snailmail. Their logic is as flawed as their "ongoing commitment to keep customers fully informed at all times" as they go on to say "All of these changes will take effect from April 2008, and replace any other information that you might receive from us between now and then". And, to confirm my worst suspicions about the efficiency of their internal processes, they have a "PS" that calmly states "If your credit card has been re-issued recently the number shown at the top of this letter will be your previous card number, but we can assure you that both numbers refer to your account. If you have recently closed your account and have no outstanding balance please ignore³ these changes". Unbelievabubble.

One of my other gang of shysters also writes today, and tells me it permits itself to pay its (unsolicited) credit card cheques up to six years "from the date of issuance". Bloody outrageous. And I have to write to them to stop them sending me the damnable things.

Grumpy? Moi? Damn' right!

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Footnotes

¹  Which makes me wonder what I did with that quite funny book "How to keep up with the Joneses" from the very early 1960s. That wasn't by Herald Froy (a pseudonym of Keith Waterhouse) but it reminds me of an equally funny earlier title that was: "How to avoid matrimony". I've even found the test here. I remember his companion title ("How to survive matrimony" of course) contained a section called how to arrange a poker game over the phone while sounding as if cancelling one. I wonder why that stuck in my head?
²  An email to my sister-in-law in NZ who likes the photo above (but who, despite being married to the photographer, had never seen it — way to go, Bro!). Neither had I, by the way. Actually, Lis admitted later she had seen it, but hadn't immediately recognised that because of the way I trimmed off all the extraneous data (that is, the cars!) I was just thinking of your poor slow dial-up connection, Sis! You will of course be installing broadband before I arrive, won't you? Big Bro can surely afford us that little luxury!
³  Funnily enough, I had it in mind to ignore the entire letter!