2009 — 1 January: Thursday — rabbits!
Lousy transfer speeds are becoming very tedious. Oh well, happy new year! It's 01:30 and I'm recently back from the wilds of Wiltshire. Thanks, Cathy! Have a nice walk later today.
G'night at 02:02 (yawn). Brrr, it's cold.
Timed out, still
This morning's route tracing is somewhat better, but there are still significant time-outs. It's 09:41 and time for the breakfast that cheers (or is that the cuppa?) — Melvyn Bragg is whittering gently away about Stoicism. What exactly is the meaning of meaninglessness? At least they're asserting that exhilaration trumps consolation...
Listening, quite fascinatedly, to tales of old Frost Fairs but it isn't making me feel very warm. I liked the description of mince pies as "landfill". It's 11:50 and dry, cold, and rather grey out there. Meanwhile, reading the annual attempts over at edge.org to answer the unanswerable. "Mastering death", for example:
For death is the end of time, the end of experience. Even if you are religious and believe in an afterlife, things certainly are different then: either you exist in a timeless Paradise (or Hell), or as some reincarnate soul. If you are not religious, death is the end of consciousness. And with consciousness goes the end of tasting a good meal, reading a good book, watching a pretty sunset, having sex, loving someone. Pretty grim in either case... What to do? We spread our genes, write books and essays, prove theorems, invent family recipes, compose poems and symphonies, paint and sculpt, anything to create some sort of permanence, something to defy oblivion.
Marcus Aurelius had similar thoughts. Indeed, I quoted him on the day of Christa's funeral service.
Definitely...
... time for lunch. It's 13:07 and here's a (non) surprise: the Tories have no goal of joining the "Euro", unlike Slovakia. I always assume that when a politician says "never" he (and the lying charmers are, all too often, males) means "any minute now". Of course, those in loyal opposition can say and promise anything they like, generally, and they often do so. Meanwhile, can you imagine an entire country getting its gas supply cut off for non-payment of bills? Ukraine should switch to direct debit, maybe.
Later on...
The time spent trying to connect and upload trivial textual updates is certainly having a beneficial effect on my prolixity! It's 15:25 or so (though it may well be later by the time this struggles along the piece of damp string currently in use). Time to start getting ready for my first social engagement of the New Year, over in Verwood, but arrived at via Winchester...