2010 — 20 February: Saturday
My ex-colleague downunder in New Zealandland tells me: 'Now back to "Learning Objective C on the Mac", where are my glasses. Where is my Mac. Hmmm, fabulous weather and I sit in a darkened room gazing with delight at my 24" Apple screen.' Meanwhile, as I shiver my way to the front door, open it a tiny crack, and sniff the outside air (at 00:28) I'm predicting a frosty morning in a few hours from now. Time for bed.
G'night.
Frosted sunshine
Now (09:14) where's that necessary cuppa? Can't listen to Brian Matthew without a cuppa...
As you may know, I believe chaps need hobbies as a means to stave off the boredom. Actually, as a fully paid-up member of the world-class pottering club, I don't think I've ever just sat and contemplated boredom per se... Maybe that's why I don't get articles published in philosophical journals? Snippet and source:
Being observed to be bored stirs up judgment from others, especially parents. "Haven't you got anything better to do?" they ask. Do they expect the truth? That you do have nothing better to do than lie around listening to music, but that you're also perfectly happy doing this? And when did being told to tidy your room constitute an interesting alternative?
Okay, so sometimes you might wrap your bathrobe around you and snuggle into the sofa and think, I'll tackle the future just as soon as I've caught up with these old episodes of The West Wing. But that's how boredom works. Eventually you will step out into the brave new world. You have to move. That's what boredom is for; and perhaps why God invented cramp and bed sores.
Having listened to, and enjoyed, three short talks by AL Kennedy this week, I was pleased to find her featured among the authors offering (I suspect, not always entirely seriously) their rules for writing fiction. (Thinks: writing fiction? Never really tried that... could be a way of staving off boredom.)
Time for breakfast first. Can't write fiction on an empty tum, surely?
Joe Stack
I've just read this piece, followed by what purports to be the full text of the suicide "note"1 from Joseph Stack. Sadly fascinating stuff, with equally fascinating and amazingly polarised comments. It does indeed recall to mind some aspects of the 1993 Joel Schumacher film Falling Down.
Double Dutch to me
In the summer of 1989 my daytime gig at the IBM Hursley Lab was impersonating a CICS/VM2 developer. I was also drafting the first of two editions of my "Chronicle of CICS" in time for the 20th anniversary of this highly profitable product. Since CICS is inherently boring in and of itself, I was trying to leaven the story with events from the "real" world. To that end, I was trawling all sorts of odd places (including, but by no means limited to, my own little library here) and re-read my venerable 1978 Penguin Atlas of World Population History. I was struck by its description of Afghanistan as (then) being "Although today remote from the currents of world affairs..."
That was, of course, originally written shortly before the Soviet invasion. Who would have thought that, over 30 years later, the Dutch government would collapse in arguments over extending troop deployments in this "remote" troublespot?
Mind you, I thought the anecdote from 23rd September 1979 was funnier: American beauty queen Joyce McKinney appeared in court at Epsom, accused of kidnapping a Mormon missionary and holding him prisoner in a Devon cottage. She denied the charges, declaring "For the love of Kirk (Anderson), I'd have skied down Everest in the nude with a carnation up my nose". The lady went on, in April 1978, to jump bail and make for America, passing through Heathrow disguised as a deaf mute. And to my delight she turned up again, fairly recently, in the case of the south Korean pit-bull terrier cloning.
I've just been "catching up" on last Monday's missed radio. A quip from Beachcomber, aka JB Morton:
Somewhat later
As I veer, erratically, between domestic ineptitude and domestic godhood I'd appreciate it if nobody tells Christa I've just cleared some disgustingly ancient tubs of stuff from one of the freezers. The chemically toxic mess is now melting in the kitchen sink before being sent on its drainy journey. I figured stuff that said "Best before" mid-2008 was probably beyond the (ice cream) pail. It's 17:34 and would have been a pretty good day for a walk; sadly, Mike is in the middle of major kitchen work and on a fixed deadline. He has, however, kindly provided me with one part of tonight's viewing, while Brian has provided the other:
Cheers, chaps.