I clearly need to have computer glasses, now. I have upstairs glasses (writing), work glasses (in my bag), car glasses (in case I forget and am away), but now need computer glasses so that I'm not tempted to type things without wearing them. Oy vey.
Maybe I should get bifocals. But my head behind my ear gets very sore if I wear glasses all the time, and I only need them for reading and writing.
Unteresting music. Something you might hear on Nightwaves.
"Car Alarm (extended reprise) "
Last day at work. Monday is my first day at work at my new job ... doing the same job on the same service at the same place with the same colleagues, but with a different employer! Very odd to be asking for a P45 (*) so that I can give it to the same person who is about to give it to me! Apparently, they have to do that.
(*) USA: ~ W-2; France: STC; Germany: ~ LStB.
Now done 30% of #HadriansWall with kid, Bowness to Brampton (general area). Still no sign of actual wall yet, but starting to get large, linear ditches and mounds along the path.
Next step is to Birdoswald, which is as far as I've ever been from the other direction in casual walks. So I know there's ample stonework east of Birdoswald, so curious as to whether I'll get my first glimpse on the next stage.
Does anyone have opinions on O? When it's genuinely being used for apostrophe (the figure of speech), as a kind of cheep-ass vocative, "O death", etc, I still like to use it, because it's distinguished from the more general interjection for someone who's probably actually present, or to indicate disappointment, a sudden thought, etc. So you'd have
O death, where is thy sting
but
Oh, death, before you go, you left your soup spoon here last week
I know apostrophe isn't very popular in general these days, but where it's used, I think it helps to distinguish it from other uses. But some people are saying O is archaic even when apostrophe is intended.
What do folk think?
About to book a room in a hotel whose top feature is
socket near the bed
In a way that sounds kind of underwhelming, but on the other hand I applaud their focus on practicality.
I'm not sure what planet these BBC Business reporters are on about teacher collections. They suggest variously £5-£10 per pupil, and that everyone should be set an equal contribution.
It's full of quotes from various "psychologists" who clearly live very sheltered lives and very nice jobs, encouraging this kind of school gate peer pressure, and singling out families without any amount of cash to spare.
The kids should just write cards, or something, if they want to. I've never heard of or contributed to any kind of "end of year collection" and would be vary annoyed if asked to put in some kind of fixed contribution.
This sort of stuff makes me really angry. How out od touch can a national broadcaster get. This isn't The Daily Telegraph.
Batman and Robin is the best Batman film, because it best encapsulates the dreamlike, trashy, chaotic energy of the genre which should be celebrated rather than diluted into MCU middlebrow pulp.
Them: Can I confirm you are alone in a private room?
Me: I am at the top of a hill in a remote woodland. The phone signal isn't very good at home.
Them: We do recommend a private room for reasons of medical privacy.
Me: The squirrels will keep our secrets!
Them: So, we are here for a pre-employment mental health screening interview...
😀
South America is an absolute national anthem powerhouse. Everyone of them a cross between Gilbert & Sullivan and Rossini.
Aguirre, the Wrath of Khan
Directed by Werner Herzog and Michael Bay, this non-existent Star Trek sequel follows übermenschen attempting to colonise an ice planet occupied by nomadic, space-elk-herding people with ground too unstable for permanent structures or agriculture.
Inspired in equal parts by the historical Yermak Timofeyevich's campaign against the Siberian Khanate, and glamour models inside giant robots blowing shit up, with the help of Kirk and the crew, a cast of thousands attempt to portage a large Orthodox Bell over the frozen River Tunguska. Too heavy for the ice, Spock (Kathy Burke) and Lilly Phillips (inside a giant gynoid attack robot) fall to their doom. Who will save them?
The ending is enigmatic, with Kirk, injured and delirious, adrift on a makeshift raft surrounded by lemmings, heading downriver to arctic wastes. The closing quote is from Shelley's Frankenstein
The light of that conflagration will fade away; my ashes will be swept into the sea by the winds.
3 stars. No notes.
Me entering house with kid: ... he's a German guy, a slightly crazy German guy.
OH (in house): Who's that, Werner Herzog?
Me: Yes.
Plugin solar update. The government has given up on the BSI, who were hemming-and-hawing over minutiae as if energy reform isn't urgent. Instead they're going to publish their own standard largely rebadged from DIN, the German certification body.
I think this is good government in action.
Looking at the way trade bodies in the UK have responded to the plugin-solar announcement, it's clear that they see renewable energy's key market to be upper-middle-class folk who either like gadgets or showing off their beneficence, or both where, no doubt tradespeople can get the highest markup.
Industry bodies clearly don't understand the impact energy bills have on most families, or the real national security impacts of continued reliance on fossil fuel.
There is an urgency to this that people who stare at markings on ferrules really struggle to appreciate. Doing nothing is also an immense risk.
One of the odder things about Starmer's tenure was that he appeared not to have noticed he was in power. Every other statement was "the law states...", "the courts have decided...", "the opinion of Lord/Lady Bountiful is such that...", "precedent requires..."
He seems not to have noticed that he was prime minister.
Belgium play The Islamic Republic of Iran and New Zealand
Another memo missed!
Nonpareil are:: 📊 2/2
"Hundreds and thousands" are: 📊 1/2
The web has officially come full circle. You can read local news stories with lynx.
The most common local newspaper content platform emits the full story in the initial HTML response, and then takes it out of the DOM if various add and cookie stuff doesn't apply. So if you've got lynx installed, you can just read the articles, and no ads too!
Me on message app: "Thanks"
Kid,shoulder surfing: now put a smiley.
Me: "Thanks, :-) ." Sorry I don't know how to do the picture smileys on this thing. I don't really like them, anyway.
Kid: Oh, no not at all. That's the best smiley, an analogue smiley! They're the best ones. And you did punctuation, too!
Me: What else would I do?
Kid: That's a classy smiley. It's a kind of 1970s smiley.
What goes around comes around, I guess. :-) !
Do you know what "back-askings" are?