2015 — 19 December: Saturday
It's looking like one of the "milder" Xmas seasons1 since the start of this retirement skylark though clouds are scudding merrily along past the rising sun as I sup my morning cup. I lack the religion gene and don't "do" cards but I suppose I could think about writing what's in some danger of becoming my traditional end of year catch-up emails.
There's also an empty crockpot just waiting to be stuffed, as the relentless nourishment of the inner man continues regardless of the season.
Then there's a Kodi DB...
... just waiting to be queried to serve many of my informational "needs". My forced emigration2 to the Land of Linux last February removed update access to the DVD Profiler system. This, in turn, meant leaving behind a snapshot of my DVD collection at that point just sitting neglected on an Invelos server. (Though I can delete it easily enough if I wish, of course.) I've paid my lifetime registration fee so that's not a problem.
I can't be bothered with WINE or VirtualBox just to run Microsoft's gorp, so Kodi will be stepping into that functional gap "real soon now". Courtesy of Brian's clever Python, I can easily generate and host simple video lists outside the firewall. First books, then (any minute now) videos. That will only leave the mess that is my sprawling music collection.
The classical stuff having by some way the higher entropy :-)
If only...
... this spreadsheet of Presidential candidates and their apparent (or undeniable) propensity to rely on force was satire, it would be quite funny. (Link.)
Why my...
... little ¬blog is a blog with a ¬ in front of it:
No amount of careful writing can overcome careless reading. This thought occurs to me as I try to decode yet another squeal of contempt from one of my regular blog-trolls, who as usual chooses to misinterpret what I say...
I'm told that the great political breakthrough of the blogosphere is to give a platform to people not inhibited by qualifications. I suppose I'm in favour of that. I feel increasingly convinced, as the light fades, that attainments aren't enough to make us good.
Were they ever? Recall that bumper sticker from "Car Talk" — Unencumbered by the Thought Process...
If I can believe...
... this week's freebie from the TLS I acquired one of the best of Arthur Miller's essays — "The Crucible in history" — 15 years ago...
He recalls writing the play in an impulse to respond to a ... climate in which "it had come rather quickly to be believed that a massive, profoundly organized conspiracy was in place and being carried forward mainly by a concealed phalanx of intellectuals, including labor people, teachers, professionals of all sorts, sworn to undermine the American government". He discusses the parallels between the Salem witch trials of 1692 and the "ideological war" of 1950s America: "in both was the menace of concealed plots, but most startling were the similarities in the rituals of defense and the investigative routines ... in both eras ... the charge itself, suspicion itself, all but became the evidence of disloyalty".
That, and his enormous earlier autobio should suffice, I think. Now just bring me a Loyalty Oath to sign.
The last time...
... I visited the Wordle site was not that long after Christa's death, when I used it to generate a couple of word clouds to express a few of my thoughts about her. I now have another little project in mind, so I'm pleased to find that activating the "Iced Tea" Java applet add-on in Firefox on Linux (for the very first time, I might add) to enable me to perform a little test run doesn't seem to lead to undue Java grief. Visual evidence:
But first, I need some late lunch, before it drifts too near evening meal territory. Or the world of visual zig-zags, for that matter. [Pause] Nearly forgot: it's the last two episodes of The Bridge, Season #3, tonight, too. There goes a chunk of my evening. [Pause] Very good it was, too!
In other news...
... I've actually reached the end of Season #1 of Battlestar Galactica for the first time ever. Not the prequel miniseries, either, but the 'real' thing. Since I never saw the original version I have no basis for comparison, but it seems fairly amiable tosh. A bit heavy on the ol' monotheism versus polytheism though. Actually, I first started watching it over eight years ago, but lost all interest for a long time (!) in the turmoil first of Christa's declining health, and then the aftermath.