2011 — 14 January: Friday
My eyes tell me I did a good job in the books warehouse. My back1 has a different opinion.
Giles Brandreth, on a desert island? Hmmm. I still enjoyed his recent volume of diaries, though. Over a year ago... good grief! (He's just admitted that editing and re-reading them was depressing.)
The list of things finer than a cold, wet, grey, English, winter morning is pretty long. It's 09:57 and there's a patient crockpot waiting to be stuffed. That's task #1 therefore.
My archaeological expedition2 was interrupted by Mr Postie bringing me yet further attempts by Scottish Power to lure me back into their embrace before I've fully escaped from it. "Too little, too late, at too high a price". And this venerable Michael Crichton film:
Tom Selleck (more recently enjoyed in "Boston Legal") and, yes, that really is Gene Simmons (from "Kiss") playing the bad guy! Having recently bought his own copy on my recommendation, I was tickled to see that Mike awarded it only 2 out of 10 so I shall be amused to see if I've remembered it too fondly :-)
As I munch towards the end of ...
... my late-ish lunch (it's 13:52 or so) while reading bizarre rubbish like this (though, I admit, the idea of a pope "signing off" on a necessary miracle is a wry one) or, elsewhere in the same paper, a perfectly rational case for better gun control (which obviously reminds me of Warren Zevon's "(Send) Lawyers, guns and money", not to mention Kevin Kline's character in "Grand Canyon") I think to myself "David, is the world barking mad, or is it just me?"
I presume, if I were mad, I'd hear a reply :-)
Well, I never (knew that)
Buried inside the 2004 Prestige Lecture "Progress in Computers":
... although it is not obvious, on the surface, a modern x86 processor chip contains hidden within it a RISC-style processor with its own internal RISC coding. The incoming x86 code is, after suitable massaging, converted into this internal code and handed over to the RISC processor where the critical execution is performed.
And there's me thinking that was microcode. [Pause] I'm off to blag a cuppa with Roger and Eileen while it's still daylight.
I'm by no means 'au fait'...
... with the cinema of modern Greece. And if "Dogtooth" is in any way typical of it, I shall not be making a closer acquaintance. It's enough to put me off watching another film tonight, that's for sure. No matter. It's 21:08, my crockpot was surprisingly tasty, and I'm thoroughly enjoying my big, fat, Vernor Vinge book. There's something very cleansing about an occasional burst of epic space opera :-)
Fingers crossed for tomorrow. Someone is viewing dear Mama's house.