2008 — 14 May: Wednesday

Yawn. Placeholder. Good advice from Bro re dear Mama. Have to be up early for young Gill's visit. Did you check yesterday for local Black Holes?

Back online...

... as it were, at 08:02 to horrific news from China, and now India. (Burma didn't get a mention.) Some nights (most nights) I seem to sleep well; on other nights I wake up at around 03:00 and that then seems to be it for the night. Don't know why, and don't know what I can do about it. Last night was a typical example — yawn.

Not my place to comment on another country's oil policies, of course, but this response to the US Congress vote (97 to 1) to stop adding 70,000 barrels a day to the strategic petroleum reserve made me smile:

But Representative Joe L. Barton of Texas, the senior Republican on the Energy and Commerce Committee, said the measure was meaningless. "If all the members of the House would go out onto the steps and clap our hands three times and say, 'Down prices, down prices,' that would have as much impact as passing this bill," he said.

Carl Hulse and Steven Lee Myers in The New York Times


Isn't that how it works, then? (US retail pump prices.)

Time for a peep at Pepys! And, while I've never been to Los Angeles, I had no idea you can watch the airport's activity. (Needs Java.)

UFO

I know the feeling!

Now you see her...

... now you don't. While Chris was giving a chat at my former workplace, Gill popped in for a cuppa, a delightful and welcome natter, some weed1 identification in the back jungle, and an in-depth examination of the music library. Suddenly it's after noon and time for a bite to eat. The last of the crockpot, I suspect.

Both Christa and Peter (neither of whom live here any more) tend to get as much, and sometimes more, snail mail than I do. Turns out Christa's latest admirer has a day job as Group Chief Executive of the SAGA motor insurance outfit. His current blandishment (a free Parker ballpoint pen, subject to availability) just for ringing him will have to improve, I suspect. I further suspect my own profile would perturb his target demographic. While I regret I can admit to being over fifty, I've only held a driving licence for five months (to the day) which mandates a call rather than just filling in his "coupon". Nice to keep the nominative determinism going, though. His surname is "Goodsell".

Taxing times

In the context of this reversal over the abolition of the 10p tax rate, and given the long, and often sordid, history of public investment in computing technology to help provide all us hapless citizens (subjects, actually) with what's laughably called "joined-up" government, I fail to understand why "A direct tax rebate for the losers would have taken at least two years2 to prepare" but, that's apparently what the Chancellor said. Hell, I'm not even sure I like being referred to as a "loser". (Source.)

Nash-ing my teeth

The morning's music got me listening again. I'd somehow missed the totally Ogden Nash-ional flavour of the lyrics to "Gee, Officer Krupke":

Dear kindly Sergeant Krupke,
You gotta understand,
It's just our bringin' up-ke
That gets us out of hand.

Stephen Sondheim in West Side Story


Wonderful synopsis of juvenile delinquency, by the way. And, as I say, I've got the music bug back, and have been having a (CD) ripping time once again this afternoon. For example, I've just ripped U2's October from 1981 — they looked very young back then! No sunglasses, no silly hats:

U2 October 1981

Off to see...

... Matthew Bourne's Nutcracker! in about an hour or so. (Not my exclamation mark, by the way.) Details via the picture:

Nutcracker

"I like a spot of Tchai." But, alas, if I had to assign a "score" to the "score" this would only get about 6 out of 10. The dancers were young, talented, and energetic. The costumes and set were fine. But the choreography seemed uninspired. Can't win them all. By the way, Gill, you'll find that useful reference site here and I've corrected the name of the deweed gunk you told me about. Feel free to tell me which shops sell the stuff, and what rehabilitation measures are necessary after using it.

And, after my latest visit to the Microsoft Update "optional" section on both the XP Home and XP Pro systems, it seems I've finally managed to repair3 the integrated sound cards on both motherboards. Proof positive will have to await the replumbing of various cables and that will have to wait until daylight tomorrow. It's 22:54 and I'm too old and too tired to go scrabbling around on my hands and knees amongst the electric spaghetti tonight. The probability of error is rising exponentially as my eyelids droop. Here's hoping for a better night's sleep, lest I have to resort to my NZ sister-in-law's solution (which involves tuning into a religious radio station that plays soft music). Don't worry, it will be a freezing day in Hell before I opt for that cure. My name is Mounce but I am no son of the manse, Lis! Nor do I carry Scottish blood, come to that.

I'm getting old! This site reminds me it's 22 years since the "Challenger" explosion, and 41 since the Apollo 1 fire. Good God!

  

Footnotes

1  Apparently I need a product called "Clear Path Clear".
2  Another part of Her Majesty's "firm" managed to stop Christa's benefit payment within three days of her death, which struck me as pretty slick. I also don't get the logic of borrowing money to fund a tax rebate to court electoral success, but perhaps it's better to avoid straying too far down that particular rabbit hole.
3  "Repair" in this case means remind XP that the hardware is present and correct, and breathe some life back into it.