2010 — 21 June: Monday
I see Ubuntu is inching nearer towards respectability, at least on Dell's US website. I hafta say this looks quite tempting, too. Well, here starteth the next week, though not before I've had some sleep.
G'night.
My! How the money...
... rolls out. I think it's time to upgrade my gas cooking technology. The "New World" cooker is, after all, a little over 34 years old and, like its current owner, in need of a good scrubbing. Besides, with its constantly-on trio of pilot lights, think how much gas I'm wasting :-)
It's a sunny start at 07:46 weather-wise, though my thoughts are of a darker tone. Dear Mama, for all that she's 93 and frail and non compos mentis and safely in hospital, is partly responsible, I don't doubt. Still, I did get Christa's study all ready for its new carpet, and it will make a good buffer zone for stuff as I continue to re-assemble the 3D jigsaw I live in.
No more Friday BBC radio plays? Not good news. (Source.)
Font of no wisdom
I'm more amused than surprised at this. Source and snippet:
Little wonder, though: the font was made in a hurry. Inspired by the lettering in the graphic novel Watchmen, Vincent Connare — then Microsoft's inhouse designer — created the font within three days back in 1994 to accompany the company's child-friendly Microsoft Bob. Only later was the font packaged with Microsoft Word, and it was a fateful decision: Ty's Beanie Babies soon used it as their brand font; I used it in my newspaper; and once Disney picked it up, Comic Sans was unstoppable.
Ghastly font. Whatever happened to Microsoft Bob, I wonder?
Next thing I know...
... it's 12:52, and the new (Zanussi) cooker arrives on Wednesday morning from Mr Never Knowingly Undersold.1 I asked the nice lady to recommend not just a simple one but (as it was for me) an idiot-proof one. We shall see. At least I'll get a day to degrease its parking slot. The water softener is well on the way to being a fixture (or is that a fitting?). Despite a slew of poor reviews on the Interweb thing, both Brian and his long-time supplier supply and fit this model without any hint of the trouble and strife described. Again, we shall see. And my water pressure has been set to 3 bar. Next test: its chemistry.
Time for lunch. I've decided it's time to give a Waitrose cold meat pie another chance. It will be my first since this!
Hardness
It took seven tablets to change the incoming mains tap water from plum red to blue, suggesting a nominal hardness of 270 ppm so that's what's getting dialled into the magic box.
Progress report
Dear Mama's neighbour has fielded a call from the hospital she's in and just passed along the gist of it. The kidney infection is clearing up and, subject to a Social Services team assessment, and possible involvement of a Community Mental Health team and / or a memory clinic, they're thinking about letting her out. Personally, I think the time has come for a care home, regardless of what (if anything) she thinks about that. Interesting challenge to arrange from down here in the midst of my present domestic chaos, of course. Hurry up with your work in Brunei, Big Bro!
What a grim business.
Murphy's Law continues to rule my roost
As you can see, the kitchen has a new gap, in dire need of cleaning. (I should have taken the picture before removing the thick black dust-filled cobwebs but, just in case you know who is watching — a miniscule chance that I refuse to accept is actually zero [even though I know perfectly well that it is] — I cleaned off the worst excesses since I also know damn' well she would have been hopping mad at me had I published a "before" picture.)
If you click the pic, you can see the old family friend2 who used to live in this gap:
Farewell, thou good and faithful family friend
Those green glass bricks in the background, by the way, used to support the home-brew plasma TV screen's stand. Not any more. But Murphy has had the last laugh.
Having just barely shut the front door on the plumber, who's taking a slightly early bath having worked like a demon3 today, I got a phone call from Mrs Never Knowingly Undersold: About your new cooker, Mr Mounce?... It seems their computer system is telling them pork pies (lunch was delicious, by the way) and instead of bringing me the new cooker this Wednesday, it will not now turn up until next Tuesday. So let's hope the microwave can stand the strain. (I'm unaware of how to grill bacon or fry eggs in such a device, so that's going to be a pack wasted.) Grrr.
Rather later
Yes, I know I said "I eagerly await" the 40th anniversary remastering and release of King Crimson4 albums #2 and #4 — but deferred gratification has never really been my sort of thing. So, when a chap's basically been forced to buy a new gas cooker, the least he can do to balance his karma (after a chat with a similarly grey-haired denizen [not Les, this time, with his careful Fats Waller price check] in the basement of HMV to which music has long been banished) is to settle for the two 30th anniversary remasters instead... Very fine they are, too.
The evening meal is a thing of the recent (re)past, I've been cleaning some of the limescale off the draining board with a bottle of stuff that was under the sink, and I think I've earned my next cuppa before tackling that cobwebby gap in the kitchen units. Somehow, it's already 20:50, but I assume there's nothing worth watching and with the (several) CDs I acquired today, I certainly have plenty of music while I work. That dates me!
It turns out the King Crimson remasters are HDCDs. (I didn't realise Microspit had bought the patents.) The NAD CD player obviously recognised what it was playing, as it provoked the AudioLab pre-amp into displaying "CD/HDCD" rather than the more normal "CD/PCM". I haven't tried them in the Oppo yet.
It's only 23:27 but I'm zonked, so I'm off to bed. I don't doubt the charmless prospect of a trip to Dr Fang tomorrow morning will act as an adequate alarm clock. G'night.