2011 — 14 November: Monday
Since I can currently hear echoes from within my kitchen food storage cavern1 I shall be saddling up the Yaris later this morning to do another "Halo Jones" run. If it's halfway through November, why does one of my rose bushes have some new buds on it?
I've been following this chap's writing and film-making career for nearly 40 years so, although amused by his "gift-giving etiquette", I can't say it was a total surprise:
Meanwhile, I patiently await the interview between Lauren Laverne and Tim Minchin. (Link.)
Blimey! It's cold out there. I need fresh tea, Mrs Landingham.
Once more...
... unto the care-home, this time bearing coffee creams. I wonder if she'll show as much as a flicker of recognition? Probably not. No matter; there's not really a lot to be said, or done, that can or will change things. It's that awesome intelligent design showing its flaws once again.
And once more...
... back from the care-home, in the growing gloominess of a drizzly twilighty mid-November sort of yuk day. Quite why the motorway was so busy, and quite why so many people, pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists alike, are apparently blissfully oblivious of my presence on the road continues to bemuse me. Yes, I had my lights on. It's as bizarre, in its way, as the Mulder-esque time in Hawker Siddeley in a department where I had to make frequent external phone calls to would-be suppliers, and they always had to be made via the switchboard if I wanted to be sure of getting through.
Slighty spooky, though I've sort of got used to it over the years.
Handbrake off
Well, that was interesting. I've just plonked a DVD into BlackBeast's drive, pointed a piece of software called "Handbrake" at it, and turned a 43-minute episode of my (new, favourite) TV show into a 292MB .m4v file ideal for portable playback on my little Tablet PC. The video quality holds up surprisingly well, too. And (finally) I've found an application that can keep all six cores busy at up to 99% CPU for the seven minutes or so it took to transcode the file. It also took the processor temperature up from 25C to 48C for the duration. Uncool :-)