2008 — 27 Feb: Wednesday, and apparently colder
Yet another placeholder. It's 01:01, the dishes are done, I've remembered to switch off the immersion heater, and I'm now three episodes1 into "Studio 60". It seems to be jolly cold outside. And (unless I didn't understand the bit I half caught on the radio news) there seems to have been a widely-felt earth tremor here in the UK. Never felt a thing, squire, honest!
That's better!
By which I mean, having scurried downstairs at 06:53 to investigate what seemed to be a gentle tap2 on the door, I decided I had no earthly reason to get up at such a time and headed back to the Land of Nod until (shamefully, but I'm retired, you know!) just after 10:00. This bit of the UK seems to have survived its tremors, though I've had an email about the news coverage in which my satirical correspondent goes so far as to suggest that an MP in Reading was shaken from his expenses this far South! He also asks for my estimate of the odds on a Minister for Earthquakes being appointed before the day is out.
I liked the quote I found on the BBC's website: "I have never felt one as strong as that one before. I was in my sitting room and the grandfather clock was rattling rather violently." We had such a clock once. My hero Charles Babbage would have enjoyed the sensation, having had to make do with "a flirtation with a volcano".
In other email, I've been offered advice on more efficient techniques for the crock pot (thanks, Lesley), a summary of the geological terrain Mike and I traversed yesterday (thanks, Geoff), and an invitation to the next meeting of the "Dining Club" (thanks, June). I feel another iPod playlist coming on. Thankfully, it's also been confirmed that at least one of my circle of acquaintance could also see yesterday's little wood gnome. I'm a little miffed that nobody seems to have liked the treatment I meted3 out to the electricity pylon, but there's not all that much you can do to a photo of such a structure other than go for a dramatic metamorphosis. Thank you, Photoshop Elements.
Well past brekkie time. The life of the leisured, heh?
One final gnome
What, might you think, has stirred this chap out of his tree trunk home?
Well, it made me smile...
Alternatives to academic dishonesty.
Nowadays academic opinion offers a more complex understanding of cheating. At the University of California at Los Angeles, the official examination booklets include a credo that students must sign testifying to their honesty... "My signature below signifies that the work included is my own and I completed this assignment honestly." Underneath the signature, the credo continues, but the tone shifts: "There are alternatives to academic dishonesty," it offers. "Please see your TA, professor, tutor, the Ombuds, or the Dean of Students to discuss other options."
I'm reminded of that assessment comment: Your work is both interesting and original. Sadly the interesting bits aren't original, and the original bits aren't interesting.
Time for a quick ketchup
It's now 18:34. Breakfast actually got skipped today, "being as how" it was getting too near lunch time to bother, Still, at least I've had a day free of crock pottery. Lunch was a couple of chicken breasts in (and I quote) an orange4 sauce (colour or fruit? your guess is as good as mine). Evening din-dins has just been a couple of pork loin steaks with (and I again quote) apple & rosemary butter, juicy stuffing balls & bacon wrapped chipolatas (aka English sausagemeat). In both cases, I added spuds, carrots and either sprouts or peas. ("Five a day" — Hah!)
If you're reading this, Christa, there's also been some ongoing fruit ingestion, and a sinful slice of coffee fudge cake in "Poppies" during an afternoon mini-adventure (out to, and beyond, "Smart Arse" in Belbins) in the cute little Smart that has replaced my main co-pilot's "two horses". I also discovered your hiding place for a small jar of apple sauce, so that helped.
This was all in aid of my new "use it or lose it" approach to the foodstuffs I buy. I was getting fed up of the wastage as stuff dribbled past its "use by" date unused. Mind you, I've taken advice from a variety of people on how safe ignoring such dates is. I think my recent spuds did pretty well at five months past their suggested date.
Now it's 19:14 and the evening is, as it were, my oyster. Tomorrow, of course, I can set about topping up the foodstuffs — but tomorrow is another day. While Mike Harding rabbits on, I think it's time for Photo-, rather than food-, shopping.
No pleasing some people
I've been simultaneously slagged off as an omnivore (though it was my DVD "habit" rather than the food being so described, I believe) and criticised for eating too fast yet without getting indigestion. Nice to hear from you, Ian! Follow my footnotes next time, why don't you? Just for you (actually I bet you've already been to this "paint drying" link, haven't you? Go on, admit it!) More good applied math(s) stuff here. Some of which5 puts me in mind of the topic one-time IBMer "George" JT Czaykowski researched for his PhD thesis: "The slow viscous flow around a sphere approaching a plane" back in 1970.
No, I am unfamiliar with the word "nastic". However, I am familiar with "Procrustean", which is all too rarely seen. I recently found an example, though, in the wild!
Sandoval-Strausz touches on later developments, too, including the creation of chain hotels — pioneered by the Procrustean E. M. Statler, who standardized accommodations throughout the country — and the rise of resort hotels in places like the Catskills and Saratoga.
I used this delightful word (quite legitimately, in my opinion) when writing a detailed description6 of Full XBM — an ICL full duplex communications protocol introduced around the same time as IBM's SNA. Nearly 30 years ago; good grief!