2008 — 5 November: Remember, remember...
I actually (rashly) promised to dig out tonight's picture last May. It's a good job I'm a retired chap with a bit of time on my hands, isn't it? Anyway, back in May we went on a "Tall Trees" walk in Rhinefield, which is exactly where Christa and I took the "NZ mob" during their stay here in 1987. The picture is self-explanatory, I suspect:
Last night's entertainment was Sande Zeig's "The Girl" — one of those strange, moody pieces of film. So I then lightened things up by moving on to Michael Clancy's "Eulogy"! A deliciously black comedy about a dysfunctional family gathering for a funeral. Hilarious, and highly recommended. Oh well, it's 01:04 and I suppose I'd better get some sleep. I've just heard the news that video games are about to overtake music and video in this country. Now that's something I've missed out on all these years...
G'night. And good luck to the good guys over the pond! It's 01:50 but I'm drooping fast.
A new day...
... may have dawned (at around 04:00 GMT, apparently) but it's greyly Novemberish so far in these parts. The cuppa will help. There are some neat entries in the comedy section of the New York Times blogs:
Barack Obama was joined on stage by Bruce Springsteen in Ohio on Sunday. There was one tense moment when somebody in the audience yelled out "Born in the USA" and Obama
said, "For the last time, yes, I was!"
Fox has canceled "King of the Hill." It's about a homespun Texan who makes up for a lack of intellect with his fun, good ol' boy nature. Or, as they call it in the Bush
White House, "reality TV."
In other news... the late Christa Mounce of this parish (visible on the left in the picture above for any new reader) has just won her final ERNIE — every little helps. I shall spend it wisely, my love.
Head in the clouds... dept.
Cloud computing and data storage? I wonder.
This government is losing data on USB and portable drives in the hands of human beings on the public transport system. The idea of a cloud devoted to the details of the child support agency claimants floating in a server in Romania — cloud cookie land.
Hard to disagree.
I couldn't resist (actually, I didn't even try to resist) sending a link to today's Steve Bell cartoon to my dear friend Carol over in New York. Dubya going into the Star-Spangled Shredder... (Link.) Christa would have been equally delighted.
Wry smile... dept.
It seems Brenda was opening a new building at the LSE and asked how come nobody had seen the credit crunch coming. She thinks it's "awful" (apparently).
Wry frown... dept.
It seems "The Pirate Bay" inserts the random IP addresses of users ... to the list of people downloading files, leading [piracy] investigators up a virtual garden path. Is that quite cricket? (Source.)
R.I.P. Michael Crichton
Another one has left the building. He was a good writer when he put his mind to it. I was a fan since 1969 and "The Andromeda Strain". We're promised an obituary here.