2011 — 23 February: Wednesday
Somewhat later1 I've just finished watching the remainder of "Kings". Over nine hours of surprisingly good entertainment. I haven't enjoyed a TV drama as different as this since discovering "Carnivale" a few years ago.
G'night.
Having just put my Life...
... on "hold" for the time needed to download and squeeze Win7 Service Pack 1 onto BlackBeast, all now (10:07) seems to be up and running much as before. Meanwhile, I've just learned that my lunch date has ducked out with trouble in the tum tum department, so the middle portion of the day is unexpectedly my oyster. The rain is a bit of a disincentive, but it is still mid-winter. I may pop over to the care-home to see if there's been any anti-viral progress or whether they're still in lockdown.
Traversing the rabbit hole...
... that I fell down following the Guardian's speculations about the content of our former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith's2 upcoming (no pun) programme about porn (here) I found (inter alia) one of the most delightful disclaimers I've yet seen on any blog anywhere:
I like marzipan :-)
It's noon, which means my "lemonses" are running a bit late. Put kettle on, mother! [Pause] And still it drizzles on. A bit tedious. Time for my nice, healthy salad and a small slice of pie. It's 13:23 and the best Mr Postie could manage was yet another invitation to obtain yet another credit card from the same shower of sharks I'm already using. I bet their marketing manager is paid far more than I ever was. I wonder if she's ever seen the lovely episode of "Boston Legal"3 in which the credit industry is exposed for the despicable tricks it employs?
Telecine trouble?
Having initially been alerted to an annoying visual flaw on the Blu-ray of "Notting Hill", and having now just confirmed the same flaw at the same time code on my 1999 NTSC DVD of the same film, I can see no explanation in the Wikipedia entry. Of course, the problem with finding such a flaw is that you can then not avoid noticing it during future viewings.
Case in point: there was one dead pixel on my previous 50" Pioneer plasma screen and, once I knew it was there,4 it niggled at me even though from normal viewing distance I had to admit it was barely visible.
Every day, in every way,...
... I'm getting better and better (if you recall your Émile Coué). I nipped out, as it were, between rain drops 90 minutes ago to grab a few bits'n'bobs to assist the prep of a packed lunch should we venture out on a walk tomorrow. Then, after reading a batch of archived emails between me and Carol from a decade ago I was in such a good mood that, when the phone rang with yet another cold call "about this survey you filled in" I was actually polite, and decided to explore this mythical survey a little.
Tell me more. I can't remember. (A flat lie — my memory has its flaws, but forgetting I'd filled in a survey recently hasn't ever been one of them as I actually don't fill in surveys. Whether I'll be economical with the pending Census is a matter I haven't yet decided.) "It must have been filled in on a cruise or flight recently..." Well, that's rather odd. I've never been on a cruise and it's well over a decade since I last flew. Are you quite sure it was me who filled the survey in? (He may possibly have detected a note of teasing contempt in my tone at this point.) "I'll have to look into this, Mr Mounce." You do that. But I think you'll find you've been sold a duff address list. (This is called letting him off the hook.)
Tea, Mrs Landingham? Yes, why not? After all, it's 16:28 already. That's a good time.
To swallow, or...
... not to swallow, all the PC tablet hype? Interesting piece here. I liked the comparison with the "two pane" approach of the scribe.
"No particular place to go"...
... as I'm riding along, more or less randomly, cruising though my video collection for evening entertainment. Tonight I kicked off with "The 10th Kingdom" to see if I'd get any further through it than the last time I tried. (I did, but only by about 15 minutes or so.) However, its opening sequence of shots of Manhattan and Central Park led me to my next DVD: "Kissing Jessica Stein". And I've just thoroughly enjoyed that. Time (21:57) for another cuppa and a "do the dishes" break.