2013 — 28 June: Friday
I got an unexpected midsummer present this morning. It seems that, having recently ordered a 2-CD version of "Under Milk Wood" with Richard Burton's ineffable narration,1 this first "AutoRip Eligible" purchase I've made (which hasn't even arrived at Technology Towers yet — or perhaps has already been nicked from my front porch before I could give it shelter) has been added to the Amazon cloud player. Now I'm perfectly aware that all my Amazon MP3 purchases have also been ending up there but I've so far blithely ignored that as I prefer to, erm, download them, store them, and play them here.
What I didn't realise, until invoking this player for the first time a few minutes ago to inspect the "Under Milk Wood" album, is that some (139, but who's counting?) of my previous CD purchases have also been quietly placed there, leading to some amusing chrono-illogical situations. For example, I bought my CD of Pink Floyd's "Piper at the Gates of Dawn" (said cloud player tells me) on 9 November 2004. However, the cloud player now contains a 2011 remastered version of this CD in MP3 format. And I can (if I wish) download this to save me the bother of ripping this CD... were it not for the fact that I ripped it2 nearly a decade ago.
It turns out...
... I already now have quite a sizeable cloud-based music library to think about:
Who knew?
Time for another cuppa, some breakfast, and some clothing before I head out on an early supplies run. If I have to shop on a Friday it's best done ahead of the hordes.
Bearing in mind...
... that chocolate is one of the essential food groups, who could not be enchanted by this tale?
Kryoryctes cadburyi 2005
(Cretaceous mammal) Tim Rich, leading a dinosaur dig at Dinosaur Cove, Australia, offered a reward of a kilo of chocolate for a particularly good fossil. (The other food on the expedition
was terrible.) But evidence of mammals among dinosaurs in Australia is even rarer. Asked what finding a mammal fossil would merit, Tim answered a cubic meter of chocolate. One of the
undescribed bones from that dig, when eventually examined closely, turned out to be from a mammal. Tim was dismayed by the price of a ton of chocolate, but the local Cadbury factory
offered to make good on the bet. Since the individual who discovered the bone was by then unknown, the whole team was invited. Making chocolate in a cubic meter piece is impossible, but
Cadbury made a cubic meter of cocoa butter and then let the people loose in a room full of chocolate bars. (Kryoryctes means "cold digger", referring to the polar latitude where the
creature died 104 million years ago, and the fact that the animal was adapted for digging.)
Found here.
I'd somehow missed...
... the appointment of the guvmint's resident medical loon. (Link.)
Somewhat later
It turned out to be a Big Mistake to nip out and trim back some of the jungle this morning before I'd even done the shopping. My eyes and nose have been suffering mightily for much of the day. Thanks, pollen. However, I've also been well-distracted as I've been combing through an e-book collection of over 13,000 titles and picking out just over 80 (so far) for closer examination. That's taken me the bulk of the day (it's now 19:29 and I belatedly realised I'm starving hungry, so I'm now munching).
[Pause]
And now my new set of reading is all safely sitting in my Kindle, courtesy of the USB lead. Cool.