2009 — 14 September: Monday

Having done the dishes, and finished pottering around for the evening, I'm now listening to Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour, so let's have another quite recent picture of Christa. It's from 17th March 2007, and I initially found myself wondering what we were up to, because I notice the ladder isn't on its hooks. In fact, the immediately adjacent photo shows quite clearly that we were having one of our occasional violent tidy-ups in the garage.

Christa in March 2007

It's about time for another one, in fact. Right, that's enough for now. It's already 00:32. G'night.

Before you know it...

... it's 09:27, I'm virtually dressed, breakfast is at hand, and the first cuppa is a distant memory, having been supped long ago while composing some "headless" thoughts to send back to NZ. It seems (provoked by thoughts of moving the iMac downstairs) there remains much to investigate about TightVNC and JollysFastVNC. (Mind the cookies.)

Meanwhile, my main co-pilot from the days of my training wheels tells me that Mrs L was forced off the road yesterday and we shall therefore be browsing Bleubelle for any visible damage in a few minutes. Then there's the matter of a couple of granite placemats from Tesco (probably the Bursledon superstore) since these are only a quid or so and make excellent pads for a spiked loudspeaker that is otherwise talking through the carpet to a floorboard. (I haven't looked into any of the theory behind this, you understand.)

Nice work...

... and (some of) my IBM ex-colleagues used to wonder why I was left of centre...

In some cases, such as Barclays bank, where bosses have been forced to beg shareholders for capital injections just to keep their businesses from collapsing, company remuneration committees have quietly adjusted future share-based payouts for executives to ensure potential rewards are not diminished by the dilutive impact of crisis capital-raising.

Simon Bowers and Julia Finch in the Guardian


Recall JK Galbraith's quote, here.

Ever seen one of these?

I hadn't — it's a pre-loaded digital audio player, ...

player

... complete mit one (count it, one) Fritz Leiber tale. A snip, if I can believe Amazon US, at $69-99. Their recommendations are usually better than this, I have to say.

Aside to Christa

My first-ever solo visit to the Tesco superstore at Bursledon. And I found the granite placemats in the kitchen department. (£6 a pair.) They're now firmly in place under the spiked feet of the front pair of loudspeakers. I picked up the next issue of The Word and a couple of cheap DVDs, including a new film by Jonathan Demme I was unaware of. Then Mr Postie dropped off a credit card bill that I've now paid, and the Blu-ray of the extended cut of Léon. The Blu-ray actually holds both versions, so it renders both my existing DVDs surplus. (My present extended cut DVD is a "Superbit" NTSC pressing — I last watched it with Big Bro a month ago.) I did not realise this was Natalie Portman's first film. Amazing performance.

Mag and DVDs

I also fitted in a quick burst of Waitrose on the way back, too. To the accompaniment of music from my USB stick, I've been cleaning and tidying things up a little in the kitchen and getting rid of the last traces of limescale in the kettle. Also managed to pass along the dust-gathering now-surplus Helios DVD player to #18. And, after quite a lot of nice music, before you know it, it's time for a quick bite. But only a small one.

Then, in a mere eye-blink, I'm back from another dash. Today's mystery project involves damsons, sugar (which in my case, I 'ad not got), vodka, and a preserving jar (which in my case, I also 'ad not got). Now — at 20:27 — it's fair to say I'm starving. But first, a cuppa with the help of the faster-boiling kettle.

If scammers clean up their spelling, grammar, punctuation... will their earnings improve, do you think?

Hello.

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You may find the Money Control Number and receiver's details in document attached to this email.

Western Union.
Customer Service.

History howlers

Fresh insight brings new delight. (Random example: "Among the goals of the chartists were universal suferage and an anal parliment. Voting was done by ballad.") Has anything changed, I wonder?