2014 — 14 January: Tuesday
If I can believe1 the Met Office, today's ramble in a couple of hours is going to be bright, dry, and distinctly chilly. Not to mention, still rather moist underfoot. Brrr. And, if I can believe the BBC radio report on A&E problems in the NHS, I'd do well not to slip and break or sprain anything. Grrr.
Given the ability...
... of eny average fule to ask a question2 that the wisest of our species cannot answer, this annual think-fest is usually interesting. And often gets turned into a book, in due course.
OOO
Meanwhile, having more or less managed to grasp the essentials of object-oriented code (some 20 years ago), now I learn of object-oriented ontology. Jesus wept. Source and (closing) snippet:
We use a trillion plastic bags a year, and each one will take a thousand years to degrade, which means the vessel of your most recent grocery-store purchases will outlast untold generations of humanity. Ain't that something? We could all be wiped out by an asteroid or a plague and yet high above the barren ruins, there will float on a dusty wind a flimsy petrochemical product emblazoned with the Waldbaum's logo, a final testament to our sojourn on a planet that was never truly ours.
Walkies! [Long pause] Accomplished safely, with only one invocation of the ABS on a patch of black ice.
My cinematic...
... sensibilities have taken a while to evolve, with much help from Christa in earlier times. Case in point: when I bought, read, and very much enjoyed, the three thrillers by Marc Behm — which I did, a horrifying 30 years ago in December 1983 — I mentally filed away the fact (given on the back cover) that "Eye of the Beholder" had been filmed3 by Claude Miller with Michel Serrault (whom I did not then know from the delightful La Cage aux Folles nor from the exquisite Une hirondelle a fait le printemps) and Isabelle Adjani (whom I did not then know from L'été meurtrier or Subway) but thought very little more of it at the time.
Fast forward to 1999 and along came a second film of it, which we caught in "Harbour Lights" (as it then was) and both thought very interesting, if flawed.
Today — while I was busily trying to dodge the deepest parts of mud-filled puddles and generally getting slightly misplaced around High Cross and Froxfield Green — Mr Postie left on my front doorstep a DVD I've just imported from across the Atlantic of the earlier film version. Not that I wish to be thought of as any form of completeist. Perish the thought.
Time for my next cuppa.
The predicted...
... evening rain is piddling down, and the general distinctly winter-like weather (it was pretty cold on the walk, earlier, though sunny) makes me very appreciative of the nice, efficient new central heating system I paid a load of money for in 2010. It's just so nice to have hot radiators. The novelty still hasn't really worn off :-)
Meanwhile, Patch Tuesday all seems to have gone down without too much fuss, and a mere two re-boots.