2013 — 20 November: Wednesday

Fascinating.¹ The CFL I re-located yesterday to above the PC desk also now flickers, though only when at full intensity. I guess that points the finger firmly at the dimmer switch rather than the bulb as the guilty party. In other non-illuminating news I finished (re)watching Seasons #1 to #4 of "The Mentalist" yesterday evening, partly because I'd watched Season #5 for the first time less than a month ago. I don't often over-indulge in this way² but I must say I thoroughly enjoyed the journey, and my admiration for Bruno Heller's creation has only increased further.

Though his new 2013 production presumably suggests Season #6 will be the final one. That's also no Bad Thing either.

The average UK household...

... currently has debts of £54,000 if the soft-spoken 8 o'clock news chappie on BBC Radio 3 is accurately informed. And Hull is to be our 2017 second city of culture, largely thanks to Philip Larkin. Blimey.

Meanwhile...

... Intel's very latest version (yesterday's) of their HD 3000 graphics driver for BlackBeast's motherboard has been downloading for the last five minutes or so. There were indeed content protection and other issues with earlier drivers under Win8.1 Pro 64-bit so I shall be installing the new one Real Soon Now and crossing my fingers. It's a good job I only use the onboard graphics for driving the 60" Kuro plasma, and even that only occasionally. Had I not had my supplementary ATI Radeon graphics card to handle my two Dell 24" desktop screens I would have been very well-stuffed for the last month (and more than hopping mad by now).

The morning...

... would have gone more smoothly had I remembered to check that my wallet was in my pocket before arriving at Waitrose. Still, the duplicate round trip at least managed to ensure I was caught both by the rain and then by the checkout till failures. And, returning home for the second time I promptly found myself directed here (thanks, Zeno!) for a fascinating (and outrageous) story of LG Smart TV snooping by the mysterious Orient right here in River City.

Tea and breakfast are both seeming like welcome ideas right now.

Thanks, Mr Postie

Wet through though he was, he still managed to drop off both that first film with Linda Fiorentino; screenplay by Darryl "The Last Detail" Ponicsan, directed by Harold "Sea of Love" Becker...

... and news of dear Mama's £300 Winter Fuel Payment. Nice.

I've just passed the 40,000 mile mark in my little blue Yaris, even allowing for the 14 miles it had "on the clock" when delivered, and the round trip to the crematorium for Christa's funeral service (a couple of weeks before my driving test) when Peter insisted I didn't drive.³

Footnotes

¹  Though only to me, I suspect :-)
²  Well, that's true if you don't count the West Wing, Northern Exposure, Castle, Bones, Seinfeld, Larry Sanders, the 'L' Word and (oddly) Four Weddings and a Funeral, I guess.
³  The only other time it was driven other than by me was when it toddled off to have its bashed-in door repaired after the gentleman at the care-home kissed it with his Mercedes estate car's tow-bar while it was quietly parked. And I thus had 10 days to assess the Prius Hybrid... Lovely engineering, lousy looks.