2015 — 13 October: Tuesday
If I had to guess,1 I'd say it was unpretty ¬warm out there this morning... But then, I'd also say it's not a sign of an ever more-civilised state for its police to be using tasers against children. And, yes, I'm referring to Blighty. What do I know?
Well, I know that a police officer who feels it appropriate to consider using a taser on a nine-year-old is a police officer whom I would happily taser out of the force.
In less appalling news...
... last night's film was so enjoyable I've just re-ordered it, this time as a Blu-ray. So that's one present sorted.
The eternal dilemma: shop before breakfast, or after? I shall decide over my next cuppa, assuming I can still find enough tea-leaves to rub together.
I must stop browsing the BBC. (Reason.)
I'd not seen...
... the word "co-irreligionist" before. I lead a quiet life:
Guess the interviewee :-)
I see a bête-noire of mine is being worked on. (Link.)
Just heard "Flowering Jasmine" by Georgs Pelecis (a Latvian composer). Amazon is not very well-informed about him. But then, nor am I. Nice piece of music.
I began...
... my second errand-of-the-day just as Beethoven's "Pastoral" symphony was kicking off, and have arrived home JIT to catch the final movement. Cool. To be precise, 9C out there. I appreciated the extra padding on the little black waistcoat the Birmingham cousins gave me a few years back now. And I have my 2016 kitchen worktop 'master' calendar without which I'd have even less of a clue in months to come than I do normally.
Tea! I need more tea!
The unnoticed...
... "Compression" setting in the Xsane scanning plug-in's "Advanced" settings may yet turn out to be useful. Though it will be annoying if it does as, erm, I've only just noticed it. Experiments continue, starting with today's delivery from Mr Amazon's Logistics gang:
Though listening to Laurie Anderson as a studio guest may prove a bit distracting.
Two proof points...
... from a little while back! First, to be found in a letter I wrote to dear Mama in April 1995:
Tomorrow, if I get a spare minute, I may try to establish electronic contact with a former ICL colleague as I spotted (by rather a circuitous route involving the fan club of American performance artiste Laurie Anderson on the World Wide Web) a piece of e-mail from an ICL chap from Bracknell who may be willing to put me in touch... Perhaps we should kit you out with a small PC and a modem...
She flatly refused to have anything to do with PCs, of course, except to express consistent and deliciously scornful (though generally ignorant) opinions about their lack of utility. Quite irritating, if I'm honest, but I was usually able to tune them out rather than rising to the bait. A piece of work, dear Mama.
Second, part of an international book exchange deal I was cooking up with Carol in 1994:
Waiting for The Commodore to plonk onto the mat, so I can forward it I hope this side of Christmas. And that cheekily reminds me, too. Can you get Laurie Anderson's book (title is written on a scrap of paper at home, but it's something like Readings from the Nerve Bible)? The radio had a series of extracts from it read by her, but the DJ took a perverse delight each time in saying that the book wasn't available in the UK. Let me check the title before you do anything rush/rash.
Carol got what was then her latest Patrick O'Brian, and (in turn) I see I got the title nearly right, too!
