2011 — 29 April: Friday
I gave up on today's dawn chorus as the only current player was a solo blackbird. Back to BBC Radio 3, therefore. And today's1 picture of Christa reminds me that she never lacked company while toiling to turn the builders' scrapyard into her lovely garden:
Let's see if I feel like a return to bed after my cuppa. It's only 04:59 or so. I thought an early night would make a change, particularly after listening to Mary Warnock's excellent views:
Now she is embroiled in a long-running debate about the status of religious ideas in British society. Warnock believes that religious thinkers are given a special authority in moral discussions and that they should not be; a fact she is robustly happy to discuss with any religious minded thinker, be they a bishop in the House of Lords or a columnist for the Daily Mail.
Right on, sister! :-)
Guess which of these splendid exemplars of tabloid "journalism's" finest is the one Baroness Warnock jousts with?
Erm. How can a monarchy be a democracy, by the way? What was special about 1981 — besides it being the depths of a miserable Thatcher-inflicted recession? And, surely when our wondrous bankers are on holiday their unique ability to screw up the economy is diminished briefly? What fabulous entertainment...
When disks fail
Here's an interesting argument for an SSD:
As a boot drive I installed a 128GB Kingston SSDNow 100 V+. Fast, yes, but the key selling point for me about SSDs is that when they fail — as all drives eventually must — they fail in read-only mode. Just buy a new SSD and mirror the partitions across to it. The software to do this even comes with the drive.
Right! Time (09:26) to set off in search of the lost bluebells.
Somewhat later...
... I'm back from another visit to the "Royal Oak" pub, somewhere along, or near, the South Downs Way ...
... (on an incredibly murky poor visibility day), having supped another pint of Guinness shandy, demolished another chicken'n'chips lunch, and after a ramble of a little over six miles. Clutching (in one of those serendipitous bits of international trade) a DVD (Randall Miller's "Nobel Son") from Mike's vast collection...
... which is now to become mine in exchange for a surplus copy of a DVD (Clement Virgo's rather steamy "Lie with Me") which will soon be leaving my more or less equally vast collection for a new home in Spain. It's good fun peering over Mike's shoulder and suggesting titles he should either buy or upgrade to Blu-ray while he's online. Cheaper for me, too.
Good grief! It's already 18:26 and time to start pondering my evening meal. Where does the Time go? [Pause] Finished watching the film and the last of its extras a few minutes, and half a croissant, ago. Nice and twisty (the film and the croissant, both). Now it's 23:52.