2015 — 5 May: Tuesday

For some while — two or three years, in fact, looking back — after Christa's death I got into the habit of staying up1 "well past bedtime" for what seemed at the time entirely natural reasons. Actually, I've always had a tendency towards being a night owl, though the fact that — for quarter of a century — a day in the IBM Lab typically loomed in my immediate future tended to curb my habit.

Tonight's excuse?

I started reading the book by Owen Jones "The Establishment: and how they get away with it" that I found during my recent trip to the seaside with Peter and his g/f. Consequently, not only am I currently wide awake... I'm also hopping mad. Heck, I may even vote on Thursday! However, it's now after 02:00 and a chap needs his beauty sleep sooner or later. G'nite.

Watching...

... a goodly chunk of the BBC (Northern Ireland) examination of the 37-day slide into World War I yesterday evening2 has also done very little to improve my warm feelings towards the "Establishment":

37 days BD

Odd, that. It could just be me, of course, but doesn't the cover art paint a near-perfect picture of what was then also the Establishment? Three years before my parents were born. Amazing.

An interesting...

... view on "entitlement" (not a feeling I've ever had much personal experience of, except when on the receiving end of others' clear expectations of it):

...highly entitled people don't have stronger desires, they just have less conflict — less guilt and overthinking when it comes to acting on those desires. Because they act on their creative fantasies, they often wind up launching ideas and enterprises that benefit the whole society.

Kristin Ohlson in Aeon


Or not.

I once felt...

... extremely decadent when buying my first-ever (and last-ever — they didn't last very long) remarkably cheap silk shirts while on holiday in Florida in 1992. I think they were about $14 each (which was cheaper than the LaserDiscs I was also filling a suitcase with). I have not the faintest idea what "tulle" is...

Tulle shirt

I've just replenished the stores cupboard, and will now be heading out on my first lunchdate in almost three weeks. (I tend to the reclusive while I am unwell. Seems beneficial all round.)

A pleasant...

... lunch, plus a couple of equally pleasant post-lunch chats and it's now time for some "feet-up" mode back at Technology Towers. The weather stayed bright, but is quite windy out there. Still no sign of the Probate paperwork but, actually, what's the rush? I'm retired, you know. And this month it's only taken me five days to spot the date on my wristwatch was out by one. Not bad going.

That lovely Uncle ERNIE is promising to send me £125 this month. Cool!

Since I first...

... started buying my own vinyl lps in 1971 I've never really pinned down what is meant by "classical" music. Is it merely anything featuring an orchestra? Written by someone who's now dead? I assigned the label almost without thought. Bach? Classical. Beethoven? Classical. Tchaikovsky? Classical... Easy, right? OK. Now what about Elisabetta Brusa? She's younger than me (for example). Can someone who's younger than me write classical music?

2x Brusa CDs

The answer (of course) is "Yes". Two down, one still to arrive. Meanwhile I've just added H265 support to my VLC player to enable it to play both the audio and the video from a file encoded in (or should that be with?) HEVC. Sadly, the same file is beyond the capability of my Oppo Blu-ray player. That can manage the audio but doesn't understand the video format.

  

Footnotes

1  Or even of being out of the house.
2  The screenplay veers much more toward the didactic than the dramatic in its first hour. But I was in a mood to learn.