2011 — 2 February: Wednesday
Having barely finished some light email bantering1 I've been looking at "Adam". It seems choice of tablet is going to be even more tricky. Of course, I still have no compelling need/use for one, but (alas) that hasn't stopped me from barking up a series of technological cul-de-sacs (culs-de-sac?) over many years.
It's dull grey out there, already 10:14, and I'm hungry.
Vive la difference...
There's a mangled bit of Larkin buried in this interesting book review:
Fine finds no strong link between "a clear hormonal beginning, a neat neural middle, and a convincing behavioural end", though endocrinologists have spent decades trying to find it. The link eludes them, as it eludes everyone in the hard-wired-differences camp, because social experiences and the environment muddy the path between hormones and behaviour, as between brain structure and behaviour, and even between genetic predispositions and behaviour. These are not one-way streets.
For "middle" read "muddle" throughout, of course. Neurosexism, heh?
I've just been told my hire car for the duration of the repair will be a Toyota Prius. Should be interesting. Right. Time I wasn't here as I now need to be there for a bit. I conveyed the last packet of chocs to dear Mama yesterday. Mind you, I have a suspicion she's hoarding them. Very definitely a neural muddle in her case.
I wasn't best pleased...
... to see my preferred Soton discount bookshop closing down, but I was delighted to grab the two upper titles. The Maupin is even a signed copy:
I first made Mary Ann (Singleton)'s acquaintance back in December 1980, and have since introduced her to several chums. British middle-class chaps of a certain age will need no excuse for the "Dan Dare" (even if their mothers invariably threw out accumulations of "The Eagle"). I've been keeping Matthew Crawford's book on my mental shopping list since noting it here some time ago. And Jaron Lanier is an interesting chap. I browsed this book in hardback last February but didn't feel quite rich enough. (I note the BBC page for the "Material World" programme in which he popped up still sports the typo!)
The likelihood of...
... my using "AceMoney" has been steadily diminishing as I work through its help screens...
End of life issues
Interesting programme on hospices, which is dodging lightly past the question of euthanasia within the context of palliative care. This must change. About 5% to 10% of those bereaved suffer "complicated grief". Sounds as if I managed to dodge that particular bullet. But then Christa and I both knew what was heading our way, of course. Looking back, I cannot speak too highly of the hospice (the Countess Mountbatten unit, in West End) in which Christa died.
Meanwhile, above our heads...
... calmly and quietly floats "Dextre the Magnificent", hard at work, and looking totally cool. Click the pic for a larger image, and details of where to find more of the same.
As I grapple glumly...
... with the not-quite-as-simple as it should be account setup and data entry for my new favourite Home Accountz software (I'm now on Day 1 of their 30-day free trial) while feeding myself and fending off the new 2011 series of cold (and extremely unwelcome) phone calls from the bunch of pirates who trade as Anglian Home Improvements (an oxymoron if ever there was one — I have the leaky double glazing to prove it)... I console myself with the thought that Einstein couldn't2 handle his tax affairs.
It's 20:11 and +8C outside, but seems to have been raining. We have tentative plans for a walk tomorrow, upon which it had better not rain.
This is an entertaining tale.