2013 — 4 December: Wednesday
I was excited — momentarily — when I spotted "Gravity" among the DVD titles in an email this morning from amazon.de and followed the hypertext link. That was when I also spotted the tell-tale "pre-order" colour of the click button and came back down to Earth. Well that, and the date (31 Dezember 2014) was also a bit of a give-away.
Somewhat closer...
... to home, today's excitement includes a test run walk for a new pair of socks for my walking boots. Fingers crossed (since I've never been able to cross my toes) and (I hope) blisters kept at bay. Today it will be just me and Brian, as Mike is currently still fighting off the neuropathic aftermath of his recent shingles attack. I cannot recommend that unlovely little virus1 too lowly.
Breakfast beckons.
Am I alone...
... in thinking that politicians2 uniquely combine arrogance and stupidity in greater measure than anybody else? Just askin'.
Meanwhile, today's walk — besides stretching the legs and blowing cobwebs out of the lungs — has given me food for thought. Brian is one of my software ice-breakers, and told me all about the firmware replacement available for my Humax Freesat HD PVR that turns it into a fully functioning Media and File Server, adding
- package management (for its underlying Linux system)
- web access to its EPG from my PC
- file transfers from and to the device
- control of recording and playback from my PC
It may even make the tea. We shall see.
Back in the Dark Ages...
... when I was still attending grammar school, I was shocked on learning — while enjoying an evening meal with the family of a school chum — that his mother had ceased to be a Catholic partly because of that stinky institution's medieval attitude towards women over (for example) their permissible medical treatment during pregnancy. The health and welfare of the unborn child taking priority over the health and welfare of the mother, for example.
I rather thought (and certainly hoped) we were now out of the Dark Ages. Not so in North America, it seems, where 50 years later, Catholic medical doctrines still hold sway in the steadily-growing number of Catholic hospitals. You are under the US Constitution free to hold whatever religious belief you choose, but I don't think the Constitution says you are supposed to express those (in my opinion, irrational) beliefs in the form of Catholic moral principle-based treatment (or withheld treatment) that damages a patient. So, you can end up on life support (profitably for the hospital, no doubt) no matter if your living will clearly and categorically states "Do not resuscitate" and you tattoo that instruction on your forehead.
There's a lively debate on the Diane Rehm show on NPR. But it's in some danger of making my blood boil. If that happens, I shall try to steer clear of a Catholic hospital.
Uncle ERNIE's...
... customer service manager has just emailed me to say there's a new secure message for me with "some good news from ERNIE". After a tortuous identification and login process I've therefore just learned that my £25 x 2 will trickle into my bank in about five days from now. I admit this is faster than waiting for a couple of paper cheques to arrive and then schlepping into Soton or Eastleigh to pay them in. But, in future, I think I'll just use the same online "Have I won?" checker on the same web site. Besides, they didn't even want me to answer any of the five security questions I so laboriously constructed last month. Where's the fun in that?