2008 — 11 July: Friday
It's 00:27 — I've just finished updating my A/V system diagram (on the quite possibly mistaken assumption that the new toy will indeed turn up later today).
So now, (and I'm sure she'd forgive the slight delay) it's time for tonight's picture of Christa, a still frankly unbelievable eight months since her death:
Christa in Saville Gardens car park, 1980
This was in the car park of Saville Gardens, as we set off for some fresh air. Magic times. G'night at 00:45 or so.
Busy, busy
It's 11:19 and brekkie has only just finished! Much Interweb research malarkey has culminated in another toy. Because my 50" plasma TV is so venerable (I jest, but it's getting on for five years old) it lacks the all-important hdmi socketry despite being capable of high-definition display. The video scaler with which I feed it a native resolution signal (1,280x768 progressive scan) also lacks hdmi socketry, sporting the previous generation DVI socket. So I've just tracked down, price-matched, and ordered a little box to take an hdmi input and break it out into both a DVI output and a separate digital audio output. That should arrive next week.
Meanwhile, as I admire the rain, I can also unpack and contemplate the new DVD player which has kicked off this latest round of expense. Now that I have three devices all capable of outputting digital video via hdmi socketry I decided I'd reached a tipping point, I guess. It's a hobby. Chaps need hobbies.
Dreary lunchtime weather
Enlivened (though only momentarily) by an automated phone call (from an agent, no less) seeking to scare me into buying a new aerial and TV system for the aftermath of the digital TV switchover. It's not even going to happen in this region until 2012, and I think it's fair to say I'm already well aware of the issue. Can't argue with a recording, but you can simply hang up. I wonder if my number has now been listed on a guvmint checklist as having been fully consulted and/or informed. Time (13:18) to retrieve my lunch from the oven before it goes up in smoke.
Aside to Christa
Eight months, my love. Incredible. You'd be telling me to get out into the fresh air for a brisk walk, I suspect... You're quite right, of course.
It's now 16:57 and I've spent much of the day having fun reworking the A/V system diagram (again) ahead of the physical re-arrangement (derangement?)1 that will start when the next little toy shows up. As I stared at it and pondered the implications of switching three devices over from RGB SCART to hdmi leads I realised I'd be able to remove one switchbox, but I've deliberately re-introduced a couple of other items. (The Sony Freeview box, a second minidisc recorder [just for playback], and the AMC analogue audio/video pre-amp [though I'm only using its analogue audio, just as I'm now only using the great fat Yamaha AV amp as an audio power amplifier].)
The latest game plan (apart from the urgent need for another cuppa) is to enable me to route practically any audio signal up to the study regardless of the main system setting. Of course, quite why2 I might wish to do this when I'm now the only person in the house is a fish of a different colour!
Ranked intellectuals
What is the collective name for a set of intellectuals, in any case? I can think of a few. Click the cartoon for more on this strange story:
Did you spot the phrase I used above that was popularised by one of these 100 top intellectuals, by the way?