2013 — 28 May: Tuesday
What's the point (rhetorical question, I know) of my latest online bank telling me my latest online statement is available to view now when they have yet to update their PDF archive of the things? Mind you, there seems to me equally little point in my ISP warning me I have now downloaded 50.02% of my total permitted bandwidth for the merry month of May with quite so little of it left. I presume that wonderful Patricia Kopatchinskaja MP3 album yesterday evening tipped me over that particular threshold.
Meanwhile, I note a distinctly wetter cast to the weather than of late. (Though, come to think of it, I was still up quite late — 02:30 or so, finishing [and greatly enjoying1] the latest batch of Kindle-delivered Austen FanFic — so for all I know it may well have been just as moist a few hours ago.) I have not quite yet decided whether my 10" Android Tablet PC needs supplementing by a "real" Kindle as I've still not found the round tuit I need to take myself off into a Waterstone's to inspect2 the latest line-up of models in vivo.
Tea sorted, my next priorities are some breakfast and/or some fresh foodie supplies. The chicken or the egg, now there's a puzzler. [Pause] Plenty wet out there, but at least Mother Hubbard should be pleased. I'm leaving the car on the drive for a free car wash, and in case I nip out later for said Kindling. Certainly not until my next cuppa, of course, even if it's a bit early for "lemonses".
By the way... if books in the UK remain free of VAT, why the hell are e-books subject to it?
Summoned...
... from the depths of Regency England by Mr Postie's bedraggled knock ("drowned rat" springs to mind, poor lad) I must say renewing my acquaintance with these two rogues...
... will make a refreshing change of both pace and style. Though, I suspect, the basic plots will be amazingly similar: power, money, sex, social status, criminality.
La condition humaine. [Pause] Speaking of which, I wonder if I'm alone in thinking that allowing arms once again to be supplied to a conflict zone is no way of adding to the sum of human health and potential for happiness. "Jaw, jaw is better than war, war."
The rain has eased off a little, so I think I shall set out on my Kindle inspection. I can leave the second of my two Buffalo NAS RAID arrays checking; the first one completed successfully in a mere 20 minutes or so. (My chum Mike tells me he has again suffered a spot of bother with precisely the same equipment so I'm naturally keen to avoid any problems [which are probably less likely as he arranged for my arrays to do their own Disk Check once a month automatically].)
Sadly (for me)...
... the difference between knowing that the perversity of the Known Universe tends always to a maximum, and realising that this Truth obtains even right here in Technology Towers, goes only part way to explaining how long it took for me to settle my nice (and tiny) little new Kindle on the inhouse Wi-Fi network. Though (I always say) it doesn't half help speed things up when you use the right password. And, given that the basic Quick Setup Guide is on a single sheet of small paper, and consists almost entirely of a simple, wordless, drawing... it's also shameful to see how long it took me to refer to it.
But all is now sweetness and light, which is just as well as I'm starving hungry. As is the device itself, judging by the electric juice it's currently (no pun) slurping through its USB connection. It had no trouble locating, and helping itself to, the Kindle books on BlackBeast, and seemingly no interest at all in sniffing out those on the Android Tablet. I shall leave it in peace for a while as I have an empty tum to attend to. It's already 19:06; tick tock.
Ouch
I've just deleted one of the weirdest bits of spam email yet (and that's saying something). It purported to offer me compensation for the severe injury I had suffered at the "hands" of a robotic surgeon in the US of A.
My final Kindle-related confession for tonight: I've only just discovered there's a (well-hidden) power button that is much more convenient than plugging and unplugging the USB lead when seeking to 'dismiss' the screen saver. I've yet to find the incantation that will either let me change the time-out to a more convenient value or get rid of it altogether. Still, at least I shall be able to keep the device within reach at night — I had to take the Tablet PC into another room since its eructation on the arrival of each email would otherwise keep me awake.