2016 — 30 May: Monday
The Bank Holiday morning motorway is suspiciously quiet.1 Though still, with the patio door wide open, it's slightly noisier than the BlackBeast PC behind my desk with its two fans (power supply and CPU) just barely audible. In fact, if I "tune in" to it, I can still hear the clock on top of the plasma fire2 we fitted in 2007, and that's three times further away.
What else can I hear? The fridge/freezer in the kitchen behind me. The occasional train. Aircraft into or out of Eastleigh. Even the two kids next door whenever their sugar rations cut in — all are potentially worse audio pollutants. (As is the CH boiler, when it fires up, but that's far less of an issue at this time of year.)
Worryingly, the level of bird song is much reduced from former years. Crows and pigeons are not accomplished songsters.
Time...
... for breakfast. And to switch on the noisy kettle again. I shall fire up some sweet music, methinks. [Pause] And contemplate this factoid:
One of his earlier employers was none other than John Newbery, after whom the famous children's literature award is named. It is even thought that Goldsmith may have been the author, or part-author, of the moralizing (but still touching) kids' classic, "The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes."
Which I have never read!
Meanwhile, "Mr Dilbert" explains here the reasons for Trump's progress. Funny and scary, which is a neat trick. (Link.)
I have just re-read...
... the excellent analysis by Norman Spinrad I encountered a year ago. It still nails it. Still worrying, too, of course.
I had to...
... stop my wholesale relocation and rewiring of the PC bits'n'pieces (mostly the network-connected hangers-on) for a spot of fuel at roughly the half-way point. But I'm delighted with how quick, tasty, easy, and (I hope) nutritious a meal can be assembled in a small bowl — today's treat was microwaved rice, peas, and tinned salmon (all mashed very aesthetically together) with a smidgen of ketchup and a simple buttered slice of wholemeal brown bread 'on the side'. Yum. Then it was back to "work".
I'm getting very fed up with the poor stamina of the dinky Dyson sucker, particularly after treating it to a new £50 battery a couple of years ago. So I gave up and fetched the "big" Dyson instead.
Now BlackBeast Mk III, at least, is back on the air. I'm seriously thinking of keeping both other PCs in reserve until I have a chance to assess Linux Mint 18 in a couple of months. The two Synology NAS drives are now where it's a great deal easier to get at them for dust extracting. I've brought my 7-port powered USB3 hub back into the game, using it for the local external 4TB USB3 hard drive — now safely sheltered behind the 34" Dell screen rather than trailing its leads where I can trip over them. Also for the Epson scanner, the Xonar soundcard, and a handy trailing 'extension' USB3 lead for whatever else I choose to connect.
Having greatly enjoyed...
... this venture by Ms Bujold into fantasy territory3 (a vast change from Vorkosigan):
... I've now downloaded all three of the series on to my Kindle. (To be more precise, on to my "Fifth Android Device" as Mr Bezos dubs it [my SHIELD Tablet PC]). I enjoyed her 'take' on a more in-your-face style of involved theology, and I always try to support the authors who give me pleasure. There's also a new novella in the series, but scuttlebutt suggests it's an unauthorised and unofficial variant at the moment. I gather she's been moving into self-publishing lately.
I wasn't 'eggxactly' thrilled...
... to spot a hairline crack in my intended 'chucky egg' when popping it into the little Krups boiler Christa brought over from Germany. But it gave me no reason to crack the same yolk as that made by the unfortunate curate about his egg.
Browsing...
... my latest 'Bibliophile' mail-order catalogue, while listening via my NUC to a gorgeously laid-back concert ("The Songs of Robert Wyatt and Antony & the Johnsons [Diversions Vol. 1] - Live from the Union Chapel, London", performed by the Unthanks) my eye was caught by some splendid bits of PG Wodehouse in between the various sets of books. Here's just one:
It isn't often that Aunt Dahlia lets her angry passions rise, but when she does, strong men climb trees and pull them up after them.