2015 — 29 December: Tuesday
I don't suppose it's just me who finds it easier1 to say "Oh, hang supplies shopping!" when it's dismally grey and wet out there. My lunchdate will no doubt entice me out...
The BBC Radio 3 announcer's news of an upcoming guest whom she describes as "The great Shakespearean actor, Sir Anthony Sher" sits awkwardly in my mind alongside my crystal-clear recall of his portrayal of the deliciously odious Howard Kirk in Christopher Hampton's adaptation of "The History Man".2
Probably just me. I gather 2016 will see much focus on the Bard 400 years after he died. I wonder what became of his "second best bed"?
Thinking about Linux Mint 17.3...
... I've been tidying up my desktop and trying to fix the anomalous way in which items pinned to the System Panel shift randomly around between reboots. The "Shutdown" applet is both mobile and blocks the repositioning of other items around it. So I've moved it over to my left-hand "application panel" instead. Here's my desktop:
Spot my mouse pointer! The "Black Hole" is the difference between the 1,080 pixels of the Kuro plasma screen and the 1,440 pixels of the 34" Dell screen. The total desktop "width" is 5,360 pixels.
Nice to see it's brightened up considerabubble out there in time for my lunch. Question is: is there time for another cuppa before I set off?
Nicely put!
Or do I mean OMG?
Abraham Lincoln put it best in the runup to the Emancipation Proclamation. He said that he had been approached with conflicting advice by religious men who were "equally certain that they represent the Divine will." Lincoln confessed that he too would like to know the will of
Providence but added, "These are not, however, the days of miracles, and I suppose it will be granted that I am not to expect a direct revelation. I must study the plain physical facts of the case, ascertain what is possible and learn what appears to be wise and right."
These are not the days of miracles either — although it would be close to a miracle if American politicians took responsibility for what they do here on earth without pretending that the answers can be found in anyone's vision of heaven.
Gotta love "bloviating", too.
Tweeting isn't...
... very likely to become my thing, but this mildly amused me. Source and snippet (not guaranteed to be 140 chars):
Some of Jarosinski's references will be obscure for readers outside the academy, or even career academics who haven't worked or studied in literature departments heavily invested in 20th-century continental theory. A typical "in-joke" involves an invocation of Saussurean linguistics via an interlingual pun: "#DeferredSentence / My French: / Pardoned. / My langue: / Out on parole."
Looking back...
... even I can see my steady progress in the last few years. Minor shards of evidence taken from this date in years past:
2006: Acquiring half a dozen DVDs, wondering about a Lost Sheep
2007: Dashing around local shops, then feeling sorry for myself :-)
2008: Household maintenance
2009: Music and fonts
2010: Family humour, fonts and cartoons
2011: Teasing Junior, ripping music, visiting dear Mama
2012: Swapping anecdotes from the I.T. past
2013: Mentioning my keen eye for an imperfect Caslon, and "Filipino Food"
2014: Watching — gobsmacked — the Peter Davis Vietnam documentary film "Hearts & Minds"
"What is this life if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare." (A couplet misquoted by the KGB to a spy in the FBI, if Wikipedia can be believed!)
For some reason...
... I stalled on page 222 on my first attempt, back in January 1997:
Silly me. It's enthralling, and I've just finished it.