2014 — 8 July: Tuesday
Having found little to delay me1 I can turn my full attention to my morning cuppa. It will fortify me before I venture out into the wider webbed world of zany planetary news.
At some point...
... there also needs to be a spot of gap-filling in Mother Hubbard's infamously-bare cupboard, but that can wait until after brekkie. [Pause] A new Pink Floyd album? Golly! (Link.)
Abusing MPs?
Oh unhappy House of Commons.
...the home secretary, Theresa May, came to the house to announce she was opening an inquiry into the allegations. Or, to be more precise, an inquiry into an inquiry. The Home Office had already had its own internal review of Dickens' allegations, conducted by permanent secretary Mark Sedwill, in which the missing files had been discovered but not found. May was certain Sedwill's report had been wide-ranging and thorough even though she hadn't actually read it. "I saw the executive summary," she said, explaining she hadn't done more because she had felt it was important to be impartial in a case in which senior Tories had been implicated.
It was all going so well, with the house putting on a united front, until Labour's Lisa Nandy quoted a former Tory whip, Tim Fortescue, who had told the BBC his job was to keep MPs out of scandals with little boys. Then it all got a bit too close to home.
Is it all that public schooling, do you suppose? Just askin'. Mind you, the Pope is now criticising some of his own senior troops for cover-ups, too. They will (apparently) be held accountable in future. So that's OK then. No hell for the wicked. (Link.)
Although I've...
... written more than 20 books of one sort or another I doubt many people regard training and reference manuals and similar material produced within the computer industry as the work of a proper2 "author". That said...
... even my starting salary in IBM Hursley Park — an anagram for 'risk humbler pay' — over 33 years ago was higher than this median.
Grasping the bull(et)...
... by the horns. It will be fascinating to see if $50,000,000 of his own money will make a significant difference in Michael Bloomberg's attempt to tackle the excessive exuberance of the National Rifle Association. Good luck to him, though. I heard this mentioned on NPR today, but when I went looking for more info I found Jeremy Peters of the New York Times was actually reporting it back in mid-April.
It's been raining, which should mean less of the stuff will be available to fall during our planned walk tomorrow. It's a theory.
Finding myself...
... at something of a loose end a few hours ago (after fixing the echo in M Hubbard's gaping cupboard) I somehow ended up prowling (like van Vogt's Coeurl) — though, in my case, it was along the DVD shelves of Asda:
And, as if that wasn't enough, I picked up a four-film Blu-ray set of De Niro titles for an extra tenner:
Of these, "The Mission" is new to me. I have quite old DVDs of the other three (and had "Goodfellas" on LaserDisk, back in the day). My existing "Goodfellas" has a second DVD of extras. "Heat" is untroubled by such stuff. As for "Once Upon a Time..." it's split across two DVDs, with a smattering of extras. Today's Blu-ray runs more correctly 9 minutes longer (at 229 total) than these DVDs — a simple artefact of the PAL transfer, rather than over-zealous trimming, if I can believe the cover blurb. (It was this full version that got the applause at the 1984 Cannes showing...)
30 years ago? How does that happen?!
Mr Postie...
... managed a short billet-doux from dear Mama's care-home. They're offering me a chance to give them up to five sets of contact details to whom they will send, from time to time, email "correspondence". Despite my frequent reminders (most recently, two days ago) that they should use email to contact me rather than phone or snailmail the message still isn't getting through to them. But since I'm the nearest thing dear Mama has to a living relative in the UK, and have her Lasting Power of Attorney for 'business' and 'welfare', I'm all they have (as well as all she has).
But wait! What's this? Another Blu-ray? Cool! Thanks, Mr Postie.
Well, I think "The Machine" is very much better than "Moon". An excellent little film. It reminded me, at times, of "A for Andromeda" and (of course) it had (or tried for) some of the pathos of "Frankenstein". But not so much of "The Terminator". By the way, though I clearly recall Denis Lawson from "Local Hero" I have no recollection of his three appearances as "Wedge" in the original Star Wars films. Shame on me. [Pause] Meanwhile, the latest monthly security patches (105MB or so) seem to have made themselves comfortable.