2008 — 15 July: Tuesday
The merest placeholder. It was a long day, and I slept badly and woke far too early. Tonight's picture is the second sent over by Ute. It shows Christa and her "A"-level classmates in 1966 (eight years before I met her):
Christa and her "A"-level Meisenheim classmates, 1966
G'night at 00:02 or so. You can always check out my newly-simplified A/V system (which exists on paper and the web, but has yet to be plumbed back in "for real" downstairs.
No sun, yet
I see I was so tired last night I actually omitted this ")" from the previous sentence. The BBC says it's going to be warm here today. And, it seems, "We convey very deep remorse at what happened in the past that has caused the loss of lives and property," constitutes an apology between countries these days. (Source.)
Mindful of Virginia Ironside's opinion that "if you want to cry, listen to music" I'm cautiously listening to one of yesterday's inbound chunks of retail therapy: the "deluxe edition" of the first Alan Parsons Project album (from 1976), namely Tales of mystery and imagination. No tears, but the hairs on my arms are standing upright. The two-CD pack includes the (superior) original mix which was what I wanted to get my ears on. Christa and I both enjoyed the music very much.
Seven hours, going on eight...
... since my last entry, and no let-up yet. Report(s) to follow.
Be still, oh spinning head... dept.
It's 23:29 and I'm just back from an evening's somewhat frustrating experimenting with my video scaler hooked up to a Sony G70 projection TV, followed by a meal (thank you, Mike!) and my first chance to watch The Fountain which (I'm predicting) was not a hit at the box office. Before then, I had numerous tussles with my own system, and a two-hour tea break out at Hilliers with my main co-pilot. I've also got a few bits and bobs in the "recent acquisitions" department to report either now or shortly. But first, a cuppa!
Now say "Hi" to the new resident in my pear tree — chap name of Boris, I believe:
Boris in the pear tree, July 2008
Compare and contrast... with the specimen from 13 months ago.
The first of the few... dept.
Yelling "Buy me, David!" from the shelves of Borders and Amazon:
And, yes, that is the David Levy who started the bet, back in 1968, that no computer would beat him at chess for at least 10 years. (He won.) The book is actually based on his Ph.D. thesis — there's a critique of it here. Basically, when a book makes me laugh out loud in a bookshop, I almost invariably buy it. That was certainly the case with the Rees, which I leafed through on my last adventure to Bournemouth. "I once had a whim and I had to obey it, to buy a (book about a) French horn..." to mangle Flanders & Swann.