2008 — 29 Feb: Friday, once every four years
It's 00:25 or so, and another four episodes of "Studio 60" are safely on board. Excellent show. When we found something this good, which wasn't often, Christa and I would usually ration ourselves to two episodes at a time, so I'm being a bit indulgent. So sue me. Plus I've been enjoying Neil Innes on the radio. Now there's a name from a glorious musical past. But I need a spot of sleep ahead of my meeting with Christa's bank chappie tomorrow today. Someone has to take over her accounts, and I guess I'd rather it were me!
Farewell Mike Smith of the Dave Clark Five. Only 64, too. Not exactly news to make you "glad all over", is it?
Where's that rain?
Good morning, at 08:45 or so. Last time I looked, about seven hours ago, the BBC1 local weather was showing a monsoon for me. Now they've changed their tune:
Continuing the theme of downbeat rock news, but unchanged tunes, I could wish that the radio wasn't playing the James Blunt track Carry you home quite so often. The lyrics... "watching you breathe for the last time" and so on are pretty grim from my present point of view. Move on, David.
I fired up my new Linux mini-PC2 last night having charged up its battery. It boots very nearly as quickly as my old Acorn RISC-PC was wont to, works fine on my LAN (though I await Junior's expertise on the wireless part as our little wireless router seems to be off its oats) and brings me eminently portable web access and web-based email. I've yet to try pointing it at my web server over in Texas for a good old SSH session, but I live in hope. No great hurry. After all, I'm still ingesting brekkie. Plus I suspect I should get dressed before calling on Mr Money.
Hah! The curse of Koestler strikes again. I was just reviewing my email exchanges with Mr Money (while idly listening to a lady theologist rattling on about depression) when the bank rang to defer the appointment to the afternoon. Well, look on the bright side. They don't call me Mr Flexibility for nothing, you know. That's a morning out in Southampton that I wouldn't otherwise have been able to enjoy. Should enable me to find something for mine dinner hostess tomorrow evening, methinks.
Stardust
There I am, glumly contemplating the Dyson glowering at me from the corner of the hallway, and what does the Guardian tell me?
Researchers revealed yesterday that limitless stretches of space are strewn with interstellar soot, making it harder to see very distant objects such as exploding stars or supernovae... The latest study suggests that space soot might be to blame, at least in part, for making distant stars appear more faint than expected.
At least I haven't suffered from soot around the house since we got rid of the two ionisers about fifteen years ago. They used to comb an incredible amount of fine, dark particulates out of the air and deposit this (electrostatically) on the nearest grounded surface — our nice, white-painted ceilings. You have, by the way, two more days to buy the UK DVD edition of Stardust at a mere £9 by getting yourself down to the "Shed City" branch of Tesco. I didn't need another copy, of course, but I did indulge in some (I hope) endorphin-elevating material:
- Mock the week — too hot for TV hence, I assume, the "18" rating
- Death at a funeral a new film by Frank Oz
- Extras, 2nd series
Still (13:45) no call from Mr Money, however.
Birds of a feather
A snippet from the release notes of the current Flock web browser: "Flock has been tested for users with up to two thousand friends. Beyond a thousand friends, unforeseen challenges may exist. Closing the People sidebar may return your surfing speed to normal. If you are incredibly popular with more than 2000 friends, we would love to hear about how the People sidebar is working for you..."
I do so like that "Beyond a thousand friends"! As a registered old curmudgeon, I doubt I could name a thousand people, let alone claim them all as friends. But this fine lady? I took the picture on 17th June 2007 — she was (delightedly) wearing the dress she had bought in 1974 to attend her brother Georg's wedding:
"She was once a friend of mine..." to quote an old rock lyric!
"Later that day"
Mr Money eventually got around to calling me, and (as expected) I was able to sort out the disposition of my Best Girl's accounts in, ooh, all of two sentences. Quite why I had to
repeat them several times is another matter, but no matter. Turns out the onus of the work is still on me, though he has to kick off the initial defrosting of the cash. But I'm assured
setting up new accounts online is easy-peasy. Then, to celebrate in advance of this cerebration, I took myself off to Roger and Eileen for a cuppa and a cheeky experiment. The experiment,
which was to confirm that my new tiny toy's wireless network detection and configuration is as easy as claimed, was a resounding success, and I was able to sit in Roger's lounge and
browse this page wirelessly courtesy of his network. Very neat. Final stage will be to gain read/write access to my remote web server. How hard can that be?
Update: I have persuaded the wireless network here to play nicely with the toy. Now (after recharging its battery) I shall attempt said Final stage. But first, a
cuppa and some downstairs relaxation.
Dodged all the traffic3 on the way home, replaced the car in its nest, and pre-heated the oven. So now (18:26) my intended supper is suppurating (as it were) and I can get down to some serious evening relaxation. No, wait, that's what I do every day!
Don't believe a word... dept.
Not long ago, I had cause to mention beta carotene in a positive light. I now "learn" here that "In 2002 a Finnish study of 29,000 male smokers found taking beta-carotene — which is converted into vitamin A in the body — was linked to an 18% increased risk of developing lung cancer." So there's your balancing act: more risk of Alzheimers, or more risk of lung cancer. Having watched Dad's death from the latter, I think I opt for the former.
Not funny, I know, but I have to smile (if only slightly) at the BBC's use of ambiguous English. Were these 29,000 male smokers really "discovered in the act of dosing themselves"? If so, how many smokers did they have to discard because they weren't doing so?
Bad movie challenge
Of what movie has it been said: "It has everything: common physics misconceptions, blatant misrepresentations of physical laws, a complete range of stereotypes, ridiculous feats of engineering, and pure fabrication of scientific "facts". The weighty or sad parts are so inane, they made us laugh out loud. The dialog, plot, and action are predictable, if not outright tedious. Yet, the bad physics provide nonstop surprises. It's the worst physics movie we've ever viewed. It's so bad, it's almost entertaining."?
Clue: It features an alloy named unobtainium.
A lovely set of snippets here from the late, great, Molly Ivins. This one made me laugh more than most:
I've been trying to find the depths in Bush's shallow.... Maybe we should add a rule that we can't invade any country the President can't pronounce.