2014 — 24 December: Wednesday
It seems that Xmas is almost upon me.1 Since nowadays I cordially loathe all manifestations of it, I shall simply carry on — doing whatever it is I do — as "normal". No change there, then. Task #1: the wake-me-up cuppa? At hand. Or it was, until some blighter drank it while I wasn't looking.
Next? How about a reminder of Christa's wonderful smile?
This one dates from 17th March 2007, and was one of the first photos I took with my then-new Canon digital SLR. Goodness me, I miss that woman... Ho-hum. Breakfast next, methinks. Then I shall see what the world's been getting up to. Not a lot, I expect.
It's now exactly two years...
... since my first (and last) dalliance with Google's PageSpeed Insights. I note that my "Desktop" optimisation (without me actually doing anything) has crept upward from 83% to a quite creditable 92%. The experience of browsing 'molehole' on a mobile device, however, is a rather sadder story — a shameful 64%. So I may have to investigate this "Viewport" thingy, the which I knew not what of. Apparently, a simple incantation such as...
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
...may actually be all I need. However, this unfamilar tag is not part of a formal standard, and I'm damned if I'm voluntarily going to re-enter the painful world of web browser quirks and special cases. It's only a hobby, dagnabbit. So, watch this space. But not before breakfast. It is nearly Xmas, after all.
Ouch
Good job it's long been impossible to keep up:
A perusal of the best-seller lists of the past two decades indicates that the most popular books might more accurately be described as billionaire-themed smut, extended blast of own-horn tooting, Sociology 101 textbook with sexy one-word title, unfocused partisan rant, 250-page-long stand-up routine, text version of Muppets Most Wanted with self-serious humans where the Muppets should be, folksy Christian sci-fi/fantasy, pseudohistorical rambling by non-historian, and simpleton wisdom trussed up in overpriced yoga pants.
Well...
... having now tried2 the effect of that new meta tag on the experience of browsing 'molehole' on my smartphone, I prefer things as they are, thanks all the same, Google. Let's face it: this is neither a "responsive" web site, nor one catering to the "mobile" hordes. Not that the List Apart article on a "Pixel Identity Crisis" wasn't gruesomely fascinating. It's still just a retirement hobby.
I get to make the rules, and decide which ones to break :-)
Brian Greene...
... still writes elegantly. He can (almost) make (some aspects of) string theory sound less than ludicrous. (Link.) I predict I will finish the second of his two books...
... shortly after starting it!
Glancing back...
... at one of my weekly "Letters to dear Mama" revealed an IBM prediction that still tickles me:
My latest charmless young manager while regaling me with the news that I've been "ranked" in the top 20% of those in my salary band also let slip the fact that he'd already pencilled me in for retirement in two years time... But on the
other hand in two years time I will be entirely ready to flee the coop, I suspect, particularly as Christa will by then also have reached her translation company's retirement age. Still, I will have clocked up 25 years IBM service and just
by doing that I get a whole five extra days holiday in the 25th year. Worth shooting for.
Of such small-scale incentives is modern Corporate life made :-)
Late in 2006 — several months after Christa's penultimate surgery — my manager asked whether I would mind "working part-time (to extend my time in IBM) while he got his act together". I declined.
It's also been...
... ten years since I first chortled over this entry ("Overheard in Sainsbury's") in Joel Biroco's journal. Time for a mid-afternoon cuppa, methinks. Goes very well with the Brahms and the Schumann. (BBC.)
Just when did...
... noisy fireworks become such a necessary part of Xmas eve? Obviously, I must have missed that memo. [Pause] I've just received an Xmas present: my SHIELD Tablet PC is now at Android 5.0.1 and its (count 'em) 124 Apps are all 'optimised'... your guess is as good as mine.
I chose for...
... tonight's entertainment one of the titles that had initially turned up at a point when Christa's failing health meant making a conscious and deliberate decision to concentrate our energy (and what I realised was our remaining time together) rather less on things...
... that were unlikely to keep the pair of us laughing. It's a marvellous film, nonetheless, and I've just thoroughly enjoyed seeing it. But I was also correct to defer it at the time.