2012 — 3 December: Monday
On some mornings1 sleep simply gets up in a huff and departs in a hurry. At which point I generally mutter a mild oath, totter downstairs — automatically polishing the banister on my jim-jam sleeve as I go — and (guess what?) boil the kettle for a cuppa while putting away the previous day's accumulation of dishes that have — with luck — all dried by the hi-tech scientific magic of evaporation. (Either that, or I play host to kindly nocturnal cockroaches with little dish-cloths.)
I found the...
... missing Monsieur Brel album. For no reason I could see, the "Sort name" field in iTunes contained Walker, Scott whereas on the other albums it was blank (and thus I assume used the Scott Walker default from the Artist name field). Problem is, I can't see any way to set or change this, despite close inspection of the meta-tags.
In other even less exciting software behaviour news, I learned (from an extremely frequently-accessed [if not popular] Mozilla document on problems with the Flash plug-in) that the keystroke and anti-malware defence system aggressively foisted2 on me by two of my online banks may actually be the culprit or, at least, a contributory factor. Problem is, I can't help noticing said fine software goes AWOL after nearly every browser upgrade.
Thinks: do I want supposedly safer online banking, or do I prefer the ability to play the occasional video from the BBC without having to change web browser? What would Josephine Public do, I wonder? Well, I've upgraded the anti-bad-guy stuff but haven't bothered to re-get and re-install Flash yet again. Bugs longa, vita brevis.
Bandwagons roll?
It seems to take an awfully long time for a guvmint to recognise that multinationals didn't get obscenely large by paying tax all over the place. Closer to home, it can also take an awfully long time to get back with stuff for Mother Hubbard if one forgets about the roadworks along the Bournemouth road. (I'd thought it was due to be done and dusted by now. Not so.) Breakfast is now an urgent agenda item.
Multinationals set the agenda. How reassuring to know they are always and unfailingly such bastions of good behavior. They never dodge taxes. They always have the best interests of every last one of their employees at the forefront of every stage of their planning because they never forget who actually does the work and generates that all-important profit. And, of course, they never over-reward their own internal ruling classes by encouraging or even merely tolerating dodgy share option deals, let alone massive salaries and pension top-ups regardless of corporate success.
So distant already, heh?
Encouraged by...
... the extent of the failure of the BBC's weather forecast (sunshine, when it was actually raining) for today, an elderly trio of would-be ramblers is now pinning its hopes on tomorrow. After all, how bad can it get?
Grumpy? Moi?
I don't know exactly which pompous and self-satisfied-sounding (while not directly actually answering any question, of course) senior chap from the Bank of England I've just been listening to with his "almost" recognition of "perhaps" a degree of "poor" peripheral vision "on the way up" but if I hadn't tuned away to another station I suspect I would have hurled my lunch salad. Idiots! I'd still be quite keen on seeing some bankers' heads stuck on spikes, to be honest. It might not help concentrate the minds of their colleagues, but you have to admit it would make an entertaining change from the rubbish that is popular culture and society these days.
Guess who's just...
... had an automated reply...
... from his MP after mildly suggesting, via an online email petition, that it would be smart of him to back the suggestions contained in the Leveson report on curbing the power of our fragrant mass media in the Benighted Kingdom?
Still, at least he didn't basically tell me to eff off and prepare to die, unlike the last lot. (Reminder.)
The sad news...
... in the latest issue of David Langford's reliably excellent 'Ansible' newsletter — of the death of US underground cartoonist 'Spain' Rodriguez — is slightly balanced by this wonderful vaguely Venn graphic from Steve Jeffery...
... poking gentle fun at the ignorant folk who tend to pour more than a reasonable portion of scorn upon people who (like me, with that now 49-year-old copy of The Fantastic Universe Omnibus) have for a long time very much enjoyed SF and fantasy in its many forms.
A pub lunch / walk is shaping up nicely for tomorrow. Now if only the barometer twitches in the right direction...