2010 — 23 March: Tuesday
Can't say the weather looks very promising. There was a clear moon earlier when I wheeled out one of the bins. And I re-watched "New Moon" but, this time, with the director's commentary. It's definitely a better film than the first one, and I greatly enjoyed the first one.
Cold ones, heh? Brrr. I shall leave the plasma fire on "low" tonight, methinks. G'night.
It's a bracing...
... moistly misty start to the day at +3C out there. I'd been seduced (by the effect of the overnight running of the plasma fire) into thinking it might be just a little warmer.1 As I supped my morning wake-me-up cuppa and stared bleary-eyed at the Radio Times I noticed two potentially worthwhile lumps of televisual entertainment to help me unwind after the rigours of a hard day not spent in the IBM orifice:
- Invisible Worlds (which could be tricky to see, of course), and
- Yes Men fix the world (though, in my vast experience, "yes" men never fix anything, they do seem to get promoted...)
Can I wait the necessary 12+ hours? I expect so. Meanwhile, there's a variant of the opening dance music from "The Mikado" playing (Pineapple Poll, if I heard correctly). I played the part of a Japanese nobleman and (bass) member of the chorus in my one and only stage appearance in the Lower Sixth. Mind you, I played a lot of whist while offstage, too.
Drip, drip
I thought it wise, given the amount of water still collected from the boiler drain point overnight, to nip up into the loft to make absolutely sure that the header tank is no longer being topped up by fresh supplies. It isn't, so I guess the rate at which water has been departing the system (I thought it had drained last Saturday) is indeed an indication of just how badly clogged up its "arteries" are. Let's hope mine aren't in the same state. Time (09:04) for a spot of healthy cardboard cereal breakfast.
Right. I'm off out for a tyre-changing adventure in café society somewhere near Belbins. It's 10:17 and frankly rather grey out there.
Befuddled by maths?
In between her holiday-packing, my friend Gill found (and sent me) this Tom Lehrer clip from an ancient "Frost Report". It was new to me, as it was to her... Magic! It's 12:53 and positively rotten weather out there. But the tyres on my co-pilot's "Smart" are changed and road-tested. Better start vaguely thinking about lunch.
Befuddled by A/V?
Poor Brian, meanwhile, is having to resort to stuff like this as he grapples with his new Denon toy. Amazing. It's really not that difficult, surely? Hardly a three-pipe problem, Sherlock. Insert Tab 'A' in Slot 'B' and away you go. :-)
Befuddled by HP?
Seriously, has anybody ever found and successfully bought an HP product from their UK web site? I doubt it. It's an object lesson in how not to do e-commerce, starting with the proof-reading:
"Dekstops"? "Addtions"? Yet it looks so simple... <Sigh>
Later
It's 19:23 — the inner man is satiated, the dishes await my attention, a new batch of plums and blackcurrants is stewed, and iTunes is burbling away with a Curved Air album from 1972 or thereabouts. Pitch dark and wet out there, but nothing like the weather horror show and power cuts that my friend Carol has been contending with in the Hudson valley. What's next, Mrs Landingham?
Schadenfreude rules
Brian sent me a forum entry germane to his Playstation 3 (which he's using as his Blu-ray player). It, in turn, had two very informative links in it. I don't propose to admit whether they taught me anything, but those of a mind to find them interesting will, erm, find them interesting. They deal with hi-def audio and hdmi 1.3 respectively.