2014 — 15 November: Saturday
Every now and then1 my Humax HD PVR will sit there with its lights on but nobody audibly at home. (I leave it switched on, and set to BBC Radio 3 by default.) What I invariably forget, however, is that when I power it off and on — to force it to clear its head— it sends a power spike that triggers the protection on my Rotel power amp. So even when the Humax is back in business I still hear nothing until I also remember to power cycle the amp.
Other than that...
... the sun is actually shining this morning. There's a new Pale Moon rising (not everyone will understand that). And my cup runneth over with hot, fresh tea. I chose reading over viewing the David Lynch film last night, which may well be why I've slept so well, and so late.
Busman's Holiday
I was unaware of the story of William Cimillo, a New York city bus driver who one day in 1947 snapped, and drove his bus down to Florida. (Link.)
How...
... can it possibly be time for lunch, already? I've only been awake for about 15 minutes, surely? And didn't I make breakfast mere seconds ago? The sun is no longer shining, I notice. In fact, it's really quite dark grey out there. I may have more "outside awareness" (an IBM euphemism for a window) than in most of my IBM offices, but I haven't been very aware of the outside today. And I've missed the repeat of the "News Quiz" that I also forgot to catch on its first broadcast yesterday. Typical.
A neat aspect...
... of keeping a daily diary (retirement hobby, remember?) is that I can look back from time to time (as it were) and end up saying things like "Good God! Eight years ago, to the day, Christa and I made our last trip together to the bookshops (in my case) of Oxford." Though Blackwells was the only one in town, as it were. Followed mere moments later by the thought — as I munch my chicken salad2 lunch — "Crikey. I've been retired for eight years? Totes amazing."
I'm easily amazed :-)
Oops: that should have been "Totes amazeballs" (or so I'm now informed).
When I embarked...
... on this insane video stock-taking exercise, it was certainly not with the intention of sorting out all my more ancient DVD-Rs (burned, generally speaking, from still more ancient and gently laser-rotting LaserDiscs while they remained playable) and replacing them by commercial DVDs or Blu-rays. Though I suspect a dispassionate observer of what Mr Postie drops off at Technology Towers could gain that impression. Before I trot into the culinary laboratory to perform my latest experiment for my evening meal, let's dispassionately observe today's little pile of entertaining pixels. We can start with some of Leslie Nielsen's back-catalogue:
Say what you will about the pros and cons of digital video, but my six original episodes of the glorious "Police Squad!" sprawled awkwardly across two complete LaserDiscs (and cost a great deal more than the £4-40 of a single DVD [whose cover art has been amended to change the spelling of "In Color"]).
Ingestion has just preceded digestion. Yummy. My next trio are (just a little) more cerebral:
And my final title, on Blu-ray, is the gloriously entertaining:
Hard to believe it was made a third of a century ago. [Long pause] And Taylor Hackford is married to Helen Mirren. Crikey.