2010 — 15 November: Monday
A somewhat damp and chilly start,1 judging by the plumes of water vapour I can see from various condensing boiler outlets hereabouts, my own included. I didn't even wake up until 09:00 or so, which is very unusual for me. But then I was quite a busy little blighter all day yesterday lugging all sorts of stuff around. I'm amazed at how uncluttered the living room seems with just the one small rack of A/V kit, so that's progress of a sort.
But speaking of progress, I've been shocked this morning to hear again, in an email from Christa's main nurse Jane, that (13 months after her road traffic accident) she is still on crutches and will never resume nursing. Ghastly news! Life is both fragile and capricious, or at least random. Stick that little gem in your holy texts, all you religious types.
Hark, I hear the call of a cereal box summoning me to the kitchen...
How little I know... dept.
I never knew that Linux KDE development was based on Nokia's Qt "stuff". Its value proposition sounds very like what was said about Java "back in the day". I also see that OpenOffice development has been forked to form "LibreOffice". Is this a Good Thing?
Ignorance is bliss... dept.
I still recall attempts within the IBM Hursley software lab to define and measure "wellbeing"...
The UK government is poised to start measuring people's psychological and environmental wellbeing, bidding to be among the first countries to officially monitor happiness.
Despite "nervousness" in Downing Street at the prospect of testing the national mood amid deep cuts and last week's riot in Westminster, the Office of National Statistics will shortly be asked
to produce measures to implement David Cameron's long-stated ambition of gauging "general wellbeing".
Here's hoping the enhanced chicken salad I'm now hungrily tucking into will increase my personal wellbeing index. It's 13:43 and I belatedly realised I was trembling. Tut, tut. It's fair to say that Christa's liking for salads has fully transferred to me, somewhat to my surprise.
Somewhat later
Having topped up the fuel tank on the way back,2 I then nipped over the road to blag a cuppa and make plans for brunch at our bikers' café tomorrow. The cuppa helped disperse the last of the visual field zig-zags that are — I've learned from past experience — a sign of tiredness, tension, hunger (or some unlovely combination of all three). It can't be alcohol or choccy as I've steered clear of both today.
I'm now back at Technology Towers, listening with about quarter of an ear to the usual round of gloomy radio news3 while deleting a fresh batch of spam email and reading an item from Microsoft assuring me that email handling in Outlook 2010 is better than ever. Since I've never used any Microsoft email client or service I have no way of judging their claim. However, I shall soon be in a position to play with Windows 7 on the black beast. What fun. I intend to let it strut its stuff (just as I have Ubuntu) to get a feel for how it behaves. Then I shall decide which one gets to rule the roost, as it were, or whether one should offer the other "virtual" house room courtesy of VirtualBox.
It's 19:16, I'm hungry... kitchen duty calls. I'm sure there's a dry crust or two.
Writing for a living, heh? Incredibubble! Perhaps I should sign up? But the pay's not that high, given the work and the workload.
Oops
Having just finished the last of Boston Legal, season #5 and then phoned my son, he's put me on to this when I asked him whether "molehole" had gone off the air. Still, not much I can do about a server in Texas run by Texans, is there? :-)
It's 22:58 and the idea of a fresh cuppa has appeal. It will be my reward for doing the dishes.