2010 — 16 August: Monday
And so yet another week begins. And already it's feeling just a tad autumnal. Faster1 and faster, heh?
G'night.
Didn't think much...
... of the Borodin, but "In The Hall of the Mountain King" is a lot more lively! (Inevitably.)
Cooler, sunny (at the moment — it's 08:04) and rather a lot to do today. Better get on...
I clearly remember the voice transcription device that Isaac Asimov had one of his characters use in the final part of the original "Foundation" trilogy. Sixty years on...
Contemporary writers can dispense with typists and even keyboards and speak their books into being. The Dragon Dictation iPhone application is free. And although you can dictate for only 20 seconds at a time, for a generation of twitterers, it may be that writing a novel is one long string of verbal tweets. Dragon Dictation will not wait for Jamesian jawbations, nor will it shed tears at the beauty of your words, but it does have one editorial response — it censors out any curse words.
Even "dagnabbit"?
Tasks, part 1
Dear mama visited?2 Check. Next month's fee paid?3 Check. (Well, cheque.) Foody supplies gathered in? Check. Time (11:59) to grab a cuppa and a small snack and then head out again, this time in search of the lost "Word" (music) magazine.
A good grilling?
Back again, and it's time to fire up the new cooker for my first hot meal. Indeed, my first sausages on the top oven / grill. [Pause] Would probably have been better if I'd started by reading the user manual. How was I supposed to know you must leave the top door open? Still, gas ignition is a doddle. Quite impressive blue smoke for a while, too. They weren't kidding about those manufacturing residues.
As my mouth starts to water, what have I learned? Well, I don't need a central heating system while I have this device in the kitchen. The grill delivers a nice, high, even, heat, but it's vastly different from the older model that (after 34 years) even I could use. Is this a new hobby I see looming in my future? Do I need yet more hobbies? It's a helluva lot of fuss for a simple sausage sandwich! Plus "da book" says I should never line the grill pan with foil, thus immediately foiling any attempts to contain the messy residues. Dagnabbit, Christa, what's a chap to do in this relentless domestic struggle against entropy?
Ligeti's Lux aeterna seems quite appropriate, somehow. (I've got a Prom on in the background.) This is the piece that Stanley Kubrick used (in distorted form) in "2001" and got into a certain amount of trouble over.
Success
I got "Word"4 and a new "Ubuntu User" issue, then squandered my accumulated "Waterstone's" points on the book here, and (when I returned) found the DVD wedged into my venetian blinds, along with vouchers for Christa (a loyal customer) to cash at Peter Green. That strikes me as a bit ironic as I'm the one who's nearly finished5 spending many hundreds of pounds there on carpets and vinyl in the wake of the grand plumbing upheaval...
