2012 — 7 August: Tuesday

As I sup the cup that cheers1 I realise that — once again — I failed to put out my little black crate of glass bottles last night in time for the recycling chaps to empty noisily this morning. Perhaps I qualify for an Olympic medal in this domestic sport?

The worst part of being stuck in Dr Fang's chair for an hour — putting to one side the complete lack of visual interest in his ceiling — is the sheer discomfort of keeping my mouth open, rather wider than usual, while Frederick works his careful brand of magic. When I contrast the practices of dentistry 50 years ago there is almost no comparison. With luck, that should be it until my mid-January inspection.

The question is: Dare I risk the dribbling another cuppa will inevitably entail at this still rather numb point? I'd better nip back out to get something for lunch, too, come to think of it.

I must be in a...

... good mood. I was even polite — as I hung up — to the lady from (by her accent) the Indian subcontinent who just phoned me posing as my solicitor and asking me if I remembered the minor car accident that I "or a member of my household" (erm, that would be me) had had "some time in the last three years".

Mid-afternoon ruminations

I had one of my (very occasional) epiphanies last night, and finished working out the details this morning.2 I'd been making the elementary mistake of regarding my new Audiolab CD player as, erm, a CD player. It's actually a four-input DAC with a CD drive tacked on almost as an afterthought. I have therefore rejigged my audio system accordingly.

Of course, now I'm wondering whether to get a four-into-one digital audio switchbox and hook the audio outputs of the video kit up to the new toy — it has two optical, and two co-ax, digital audio inputs as well as the USB input. I'm at a bit of a loss about what (if anything) to do with this last item as I don't currently possess a USB lead long enough to stretch between BlackBeast and the A/V kit at the other end of my living room. Besides, it would render my lovely Creative X-Fi soundcard partially redundant...

Foobar 2000 and the USB...

... connection have now had over one hour of my life. I shall move on to the other recommended player, the JRiver Media Jukebox, and see if that can produce more than the occasional test tones. Failing which, I shall simply revert to the Creative X-Fi's optical digital output. I also called in on my supplier, but he's never actually set up the USB capability and, besides, he's a Mac bigot and confirmed that he knew not of "WASAPI".

After my little dalliance with the JRiver product I've decided to stick with my trusty "Boom!" and "Foobar" players. Life's a bit too short to dance with ugly software.

It's 19:30 and the (mild) discomfort in my mouth has subsided to the point where I can finally think about an evening meal. I'm starving! :-)

  

Footnotes

1  To offset, this morning, both a trip to my latest dentist and the news of the death of Robert Hughes.
2  While young Frederick was drilling and filling his way round what felt like my entire mouth, rejuvenating four failing fillings.