2014 — 26 October: Sunday
BlackBeast tells me I should toddle around this morning finding (and trying to remember how to reset) any time device to whatever 'they' call GMT these days. Let's see. The one on the microwave is always a bit of a battle, though I only use it as a countdown timer for whatever is getting thermally agitated at the, erm, time. The one on the gas cooker does tell me the time (if I remember to glance at it) and demands a power off/on followed by a clock reset. I don't bother with the time display on the central heating system as (a) I can't see it unless I make a trip to visit the boiler, and (b) I leave the system on 24x7x365, letting the individual thermostatic valves on the radiators get on with their heaty regulating thing.
Anything on my current A/V stack with a timer has already worked out what to do. I can generally manage my little bedside Sony clock radio (though I keep the display so dim I can't read the thing anyway except in the dead of night [when I tend to be asleep]). My living room atomic radio-controlled monster clock and Android phone will doubtless do / have done their thing without bothering me. (Not so sure about the Raspberry Pi,1 but I so rarely perturb that while it's silently doing its web-serving that it doesn't matter.) The Linux laptop PC will doubtless realise what's happened next time I use it. And the electric analogue clock that ticks quietly on top of the plasma gas fire has no digits and is more decorative than functional... I merely wind back its hands and feed it a fresh battery from, erm, time to time.
That leaves two recalcitrant items: my Seiko wristwatch (which I usually wear only when I leave Technology Towers) has a two-position, two-direction knob to be twirled and I have little chance (with my fat fingers) of getting that right first time. Or even second time, for that matter. And my nemesis in the Yaris generally defeats the service technicians, so what chance do I have? It's going to be about 10 minutes adrift for the next six months.
Meanwhile...
... is that the time? Where's my breakfast?
[Pause]
Listening to Chrissy Hynde chatting on a Sunday afternoon. What could be nicer?
But how (I don't wonder) did I manage to miss this, early yesterday morning on the UK's main radio station?
God Bless that nominative determinism.
I recently bought...
... a replacement copy of "K-PAX" — a film Christa and I enjoyed down at Harbour Lights when it first came out — since I've lost track of who borrowed my original US DVD, and I had a yen to see it again. Just re-watched it, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Masterful acting, good music, pleasing story. Directed by the chap who made "Hackers" and "Backbeat". What's not to like? Though there's still no sign of the other two books of Gene Brewer's trilogy being made into films.
Two of my chums separately advised me of the TV version of "Under Milk Wood" that I've just (rather to my surprise) enjoyed on BBC4. It grew on me as the hour sped by.