2008 — 16 Feb: Saturday, but what's the weather like?

It's 00:08, and time for another placeholder; better not stay up to my usual time since I'd be cutting into Junior's beauty sleep. He's on the PC phone via his MacBook, using an unsecured wireless network from a hapless neighbour somewhere in the vicinity rather than sorting out whatever it is that's gone wrong with our own secured wireless network router. Better not comment!

Parentally speaking, I often find the "don't ask, don't tell" approach works well. In all manner of areas. G'nite.

Undive! Undive!

In other words, surfacing somewhat sluggishly into the frosty sunshine at 09:44 bearing the OJ for Junior and clutching the precious cuppa for Senior. Plans for today? Far too early to say, I think. Lunch will be on the cards, and a certain amount of loft accessing as the unused ski trip kit is once again stowed up there. Probably some supplies shopping, too. Speaking of cards, Christa's just been sent a £5 voucher based on the spending I've been doing in Waitrose1 on our card. I trust I can use this! It more or less balances the increase in the TV licence fee that's also just plopped onto the doormat.

People! You hafta smile sometimes:

More clues can be found in the extensive literature on irrationality. People tend, for example, to rate longer explanations as being more similar to "experts' explanations".
But any meaningless filler, not just scientific jargon, can change behaviour: studies have found, for example, that people respond positively more often to requests with uninformative "placebo" information in them: office warriors will be interested to hear that "Can I use the photocopier? I have to make some copies," is more successful than the simple "Can I use the photocopier?"

Ben Goldacre, writing more "Bad Science" in The Guardian


After treating Junior to a simple lunch out and (as predicted) clambering around with his ski stuff up in the loft, off he went (via a garage to check his tyres at my suggestion) back to his Battersea flat. I then set off in turn for a minor-league pootle round the shops, but was forced to beat a hasty retreat because of some idiot's inability to remember to put his wallet into his back pocket. Still, I didn't really need anything (what with being so well-organised and all) so I decided to spend some of the afternoon rather mindlessly updating my DVD lists — these have been languishing untouched since back in mid-September, when Christa's radiation therapy beat the worst of her pain for an all-too-brief time of semi-normality.

One problem solved...

I'd been vaguely wondering what to put into tomorrow's sandwiches for the Sunday lunchtime perambulation. The solution is staring at me, right now, from an overfull plate: tonight's Provencal chicken, which (as it were) exceeded my grasp. Or at least, my tum's capacity. Not so sure about what's left of the stir-fry veg I did to accompany it, mind you. (My own invention; I won't say "inspiration" as the experiment was not wholly successful.) I don't have (or certainly cannot find, which is much the same thing) a wok. I used the extra-virgin2 olive oil with added Omega-3 goodness and the bog-standard model of (once upon a time) non-stick frying pan. I also deduced that "stir fry" in this situation meant keep stirring while things fry. Seemed to wo(r)k OK. If Christa could see me now, what the devil would she say, I wonder?

Stereo photography, etc.

In the late 1960s, as (for want of a better term) my grammar school education was grinding to an end, I developed an interest in 3D photography. I had already explored the world of anaglyphs, and even gone so far as to write to the BBC with my proposal for an anaglyph-based 3D TV system now that colour TV had finally arrived in the UK. A good stereo photograph needs to have the kind of deep focus demonstrated so well by Gregg Toland in the film Citizen Kane. Objects in the foreground, middle distance, and at infinity all need to be reasonably crisp. This would have been a good 3D image, last Sunday:

Mike and Bob

Though it's more normal, of course, to use a single camera and some form of optical splitter to capture the left-right pair!

  

Footnotes

1  Judging by the omission of Waitrose from this list, my choice is good!
2  Let's not even go there, shall we?