2009 — 28 December: Monday
It's already a week since the solstice. Shouldn't it be warmer by now?1
Time for bed. I have a crockpot to stuff before the walk in a few hours from now. G'night.
Frosty indeed
Time (08:15) to start stuffing!
Crockpot stuffed at 09:00 and self breakfasted 35 minutes later. While I wouldn't wish to come across as an SF nerd, I was pleased to hear Brian Aldiss make elegantly mild mincemeat of the interviewer earlier. As ever, when I know about something, I can easily detect errors in any mainstream presentation of it. When I don't know about something, how am I to trust any mainstream presentation of it? It's a pickle.
Right! Destination: New Forest. All ahead two, Mr Sulu (or whatever). Quick, before the sun disappears.
Finished with engines...
... after a pleasant 5.6 miles or so rambling around the frosty lanes of Minstead accompanied by the occasional robin and the more common 4x4 Chelsea tractors. But the sun stayed out for the duration, and a cup of coffee and a mince pie went down a treat at Bob's on the way back. It's now 15:04 and there are some Diabelli(cal) variations tinkling away as I contemplate a nice hot bath — I'm hoping the soaking will assist the bruise healing process, too. I never realised BBC Radio 3 has a blog...
Well, that explains it!
Not that I worry about non-existent job promotions any more :-)
Of course, such a strategy is not without its dangers. Doing your job badly is all too easy, and a promotion paradigm that obviously rewards underperformance would spell disaster. Garofalo suggests how to work round this problem and still use promotion to release poorly performing employees from jobs unsuited to their skills. "This is obviously counter-intuitive," he says, "but the best promotion strategy seems to involve choosing people more or less at random."
Certainly seemed to be the prevailing promotion paradigm in IBM.
A nice hot bath, a nice hot cuppa, and another simply glorious "Words and Music" programme — "exploring the intensity of youth and its transience" — well done, BBC. It's 17:43 and the crockpot is making my mouth water, too. But it can hang on for a few more minutes, methinks.
Stung into making a comment?
Well, I thought the first half of the new "Triffids" was done very effectively. I missed the original broadcast of the version made by the BBC in 1981, and wasn't able to watch the 1962 film because on its first release those marvellous people at the Board of Film Censors decided it merited an "X" certificate. Besides, dear Mama didn't approve of (among many other things) science fiction. Though she enjoyed, and recommended, Nevil Shute's "On the beach". Go figure.