Whatever happened to the traditional rainy bank holiday ? It looks as if it is going to be a beautiful day today. I was sort of assuming I would be spending a sober day, and probably spending some of it in my workshop. I doubt there will be any opportunity for boozing today, but if the opportunity did arise, a couple of hours in a sunny beer garden would be most tempting.
Yesterday I investigated
my still active first ever internet account. It was the first time I
have actually dialled up the ISP in, maybe, a year or two. It is
amazing that it is all still active and that my 15 MBytes of web space
is still available to me. What is even more amazing is that I seem to
be able to upload to that space while actually dialled up to another
ISP. I spent 20 minutes online to the old ISP uploading one video file
of Last Thursday night (see link yesterday). Today I think I'll upload
the 5 Mbyte better quality video file so look out for a new link soon.
The final, good quality, video file is 20 MBytes in size and obviously
too big to squeeze into 15 MBytes of web space, but I'll work something
out for it. All three files have the same content, but the third is
encoded correctly for use on a video CD. The best way to view it would
be to burn it as a video CD and play it in a DVD player (if the player
supports Video CD on a CDR disk - some do, some don't.
Since decimating all the foliage in my front garden some randy pussy cat has come along and decided to spray the air brick under the window. Or at least I think that is what has happened. There is a horrible stink in the living room. Usually it is near the back door that the occasional calling card is left preumably for Nelly's benefit. Little do they realise that the effort is wasted on Nelly as she is neutered.
Since decimating all the foliage in my front garden some randy pussy cat has come along and decided to spray the air brick under the window. Or at least I think that is what has happened. There is a horrible stink in the living room. Usually it is near the back door that the occasional calling card is left preumably for Nelly's benefit. Little do they realise that the effort is wasted on Nelly as she is neutered.
(You might have to right click
the link and choose "save as" and save the file before playing it)
Oooooaaaaaargh, yawn, stretch, aaaaarrrrrrrrrr. I should not be up this early on a Sunday. I should not be up this early on a Sunday even more so after not getting to bed until 03.00. Last night I decided to edit it down the video I took at last Thursday nights drink. From about 15 minutes of random shooting I have ended up with almost exactly 2 minutes of random sound bites. It is thoroughly disjointed, but does give an idea of a happy and noisy night out. The editing did not take that long (and it shows), but afterwards I spent hours converting the "master" file into numerous other formats to see how much I could squeeze it down. The idea is to make it downloadable from the internet so you can watch it. Of the 12 variations produced I would like to select three to upload to somewhere. First is a very low definition version that only takes up 1.5 MBytes. It is encoded using Microsoft wmf format. It looks pretty horrible, but is small. The next is in Quicktime format at about 5 Mbytes. It is a small picture, but reasonable quality. Lastly there is an mpeg version that is in the correct format to burn to a video CD. It approximates to VHS quality, but is 20 MBytes in size. I may upload the smallest file myself, but even that will take a large chunk out of my webspace - enough for 6 months worth of theses diaries. The other two will definitely need to be uploaded somewhere else.
I think I am going to watch Dr Who on UK Gold now. After that I will probably go back to bed for an hour.
Aside from the gardening, which was more destructive that creative, I have done nothing truly creative today. I have done some reading, watched some TV, and played with the PC a for a little while. Surprisingly the day has passed by very quickly. The down side to this is that it is going to difficult getting to sleep at a reasonable hour after this mornings 03.00 bedtime. Even though it is a bank holiday I would like to be up at a reasonable hour - say, 08.00 at the latest. It is not that I have anything special to do, but with the prospect of employment, somewhere, anywhere, some time in the, hopefully, near future I want to live reasonable hours. It is so easy to slip into late night and late mornings when there is no true reason to be up early. I get a strong sense of deja vu writing that. I must have said it before.
The low resolution video of Thursday night has now been uploaded HERE.
Today should be a no booze day. I have no plans to visit any pubs now until, perhaps, Wednesday night. Ivor is off work next week. So there is no temptation there, but Iain has suggested that he may be after a drink sometime in the week. That gives me the idea for a cunning plan. I mentioned that I could edit the video I took on Thursday night down to a few minutes of semi interesting stuff, and that I couldn't spare the space on my own web space to upload a web movie to it. Well, I reckon if I bought Iain a few pints of very strong cider I could persuade him to let me borrow a few megabytes of his web space and let him upload both a tiny low resolution web movie, for old farts like myself on dial up, and a medium resolution movie for those with high speed access. All I would need to do then would be to add a link from here to where the movies were hosted. The trouble is that I know you're reading this Iain, and so my cunning plan will now be rather less than a surprise to be sprung on you when you're drunk and vulnerable.
So what else is happening today ? I really ought to finish my job application and I intend to deliver it by hand sometime around midday. Then I can sit down and see if I can do some video editing. In between times I have this weeks washing to do, and probably other stuff that I will think of at the appropriate time.
First of all though. I
big Hi to Ivor, Iain, Patrick, Roger, Fran, Pam, Andy, Kevin, Bob, Ron,
Paul, Becky, and to Pam's cousin and Bob's other half (whose names I
seem to have forgotten already). I think that is all, but I'm sure I
must have forgotten someone. And, of course, hi to anyone else who
knows me - readers and listeners alike. A special thank you to Pam for
the picture of Nelly which has now taken centre stage on my mantlepiece.
I don't think I will do a
write up about last night. In fact I don't think I can. There was too
much going on. I have got a few pictures that I may include here later
on. Perhaps it will be tomorrow as I have a busy day ahead of me. It is
a slight shame that for all the pictures I took only a few are of
decent quality. Some of them have come out tinged with red as if the
flash lost synchronisation with the shutter. In consequence they have a
certain amount of motion blur where I was relying on the flash to
freeze the motion. I think that once I am in full time employment one
of my cash spending priorities will be to buy a decent camera. The one
I am using now can take some brilliantly sharp pictures under the right
conditions, but it has difficulty under less than perfect conditions.
It suffers noise in the low lights, and there is the shutter lag
problem that reared its head when using the flash last night, and makes
the timing of action shots rather hit and miss. I do have some video
footage of last night, but I doubt I'll be using that here on the web
site. In fact I doubt I will do much with it at all. I haven't played
it back yet, but I am sure there are no outstanding sequences that
would form the basis of any edited highlights. I think I'll just keep
it as a memory of the general ambience........................I
couldn't resist getting the camera out and watching some of it on the
viewfinder. It is not as bad as I thought. I still don't think I can
really do anything with it as a lot of it is disjointed, but I may have
a go someday and see if I can edit it down to a mini epic - maybe just
a few minutes long. At just a few minutes it might be feasible to make
it into a low resolution web movie. Although I don't think I can
spare a few megabytes of my current web space allocation to host it.
Maybe I'll have to ask Iain for some web space.
Today could well be a busy day, or at least this morning could be. I ought to be putting the finishing touches to a PowerPoint presentation I am making as part of my job application. Then I should be finishing the application papers. Once that is done I wanted to deliver them by hand. I should also be doing some shopping for general provisions, but I also want to buy a birthday present for Maxine.By 11.00 I ought to be at Ivors workplace where I have been volunteered to help with some heavy lifting. I don't think I am going to manage it all, and it is likely to be the pob application that will have to be delayed by another 24 hours. Once the work, for which I have been shanghied for, is finished it is............down the pub again ! This time there is a slight variation in the proceedings. The pub is only an aperertif for a visit to a curry house to celebrate Maxine's birthday. It is pssible, although I'll admit unlikely, that with a little food inside me I won't be getting totally sloshed. Oddly enough I didn't get totally sloshed last night. Fullers London pride is a lot less lethal than Kronenberg. I was pacing myself slightly, and I was not drinking on an empty stomach. By the time I got in last night I was feeling 100% in control of all my faculties, but I was feeling very tired. After reading my e-mail, and doing a quick review of the photographs taken last night, I went straight to bed and was asleep almost instantly.
Today could well be a busy day, or at least this morning could be. I ought to be putting the finishing touches to a PowerPoint presentation I am making as part of my job application. Then I should be finishing the application papers. Once that is done I wanted to deliver them by hand. I should also be doing some shopping for general provisions, but I also want to buy a birthday present for Maxine.By 11.00 I ought to be at Ivors workplace where I have been volunteered to help with some heavy lifting. I don't think I am going to manage it all, and it is likely to be the pob application that will have to be delayed by another 24 hours. Once the work, for which I have been shanghied for, is finished it is............down the pub again ! This time there is a slight variation in the proceedings. The pub is only an aperertif for a visit to a curry house to celebrate Maxine's birthday. It is pssible, although I'll admit unlikely, that with a little food inside me I won't be getting totally sloshed. Oddly enough I didn't get totally sloshed last night. Fullers London pride is a lot less lethal than Kronenberg. I was pacing myself slightly, and I was not drinking on an empty stomach. By the time I got in last night I was feeling 100% in control of all my faculties, but I was feeling very tired. After reading my e-mail, and doing a quick review of the photographs taken last night, I went straight to bed and was asleep almost instantly.
It felt quite strange to come home feeling very sober. Well maybe not very, very sober, but mostly sober. Today was the first time I have had a curry in a resturant for years. The last time was so many years ago that I have absolutely no idea what year it might have been in. Or with whom, for that matter.
To round off todays diary entry, here are 4 pictures taken at our booze up last night.
Today I will be spending a fair amount of time completing an application for a new job. After a long patient wait I have finally found a job that I really want to do. All previous jobs were just ones that I could do, but this one I am convinced is the job for me. It combines two areas where I think I have a certain amount of expertise - namely I.T. and A.V. In effect it is how I pass many happy hours here at home. Perhaps happy is not quite the right word. Happy when it all goes to plan, but frustrated when it doesn't. Luckily it usually come out OK in the end. There are several criteria for this job that, on paper, I do not really match, but I see little problem with that. For instance, although I am familiar with the concept of Powerpoint presentations, I have never had call to make one before. To rectify that, and to demonstrate that I can use Powerpoint, I am going to spend a little time this morning making a presentation to include with my job application. My first thoughts were that it was a bit of a cheesy idea, but after discussing it with both Ivor and Iain, who are, after all, actually in the trade, I have been convinced that it is a very good idea. With plenty of room on a CDR I am also going to include some other samples of my work. There will be a short video I edited. I think the best one will be the video I made of Patrick filming the reconstruction of a pirate radio station set in the early 1970's. It has a little more general interest than one of my railway videos although there is not really any story line in it. It is also fairly short. It is a shame I have not got a copy of the interview that Patrick did of me for part of his documentary. In that I was really quite unhappy about the way my voice sounded, but the pictures were, I am told, very good. The relevant point about that clip is that I did the lighting for it. It was traditional 3 point lighting and I believe the pictures had a little more depth to them than some of the other interviews which were made using more of a floodlighting approach. I will also include one or two still pictures to show off my prowess at using Paint Shop Pro. Finally I will include a backup copy of this web site to prove that I can work with web sites. This last bit is madness as I have just blatantly admitted that I have had no previous experience with Microsoft Powerpoint. Hopefully my short demonstration presentaion will show that I am at least capable of learning to use the program. I wonder how many other embarrasing comments I have made in these pages ? (Such as having serious doubts over my spelling of "embarrasing", and not having a spell checker installed on this Linux installation of Mozilla to check on it before hitting the save button).
Looking back at all I have written this month does give the impression that I have been boozing rather a lot. I think it is because it is not obvious how many days have passed between sessions. Each day does have it's own header, but once you start reading there is a tendancy to skip over the headings and just carry on to the next paragraph. I see little way around this unless I make up a calendar table showing the days I have been in the pub, or start each day with a bold " No Pub Today" heading. Once I am back in regular employment the lunchtime sessions will be a thing of the past, but for now I need the contact with other people that only the lunchtime sessions can supply. Of course tonight will be yet another boozy session, but this one is a special one. It is the bi-monthly drink where all the old friends who have migrated to diverse parts of S.E. England can come together and have a good gossip. One day I must determine if my usage of "bi-monthly" is correct. I am sure it means every two months, but sometimes it comes across as meaning twice-monthly. Well even if it is wrong you know now. As I use it here, it means every two months !
I spent some time yesterday trying out some live linux distros. I had better explain what these are. They are a way of running the Linux operating system from a bootable CD without any need to touch, or even need, a hard disk in the PC. Each of the many different types provides an assortment of applications that are fully functional. The downside is that because they are running from a CD they are a little slow to open. - CD drives being far, far slower than hard disk drives. I think the most impressive has to be Damnsmall Linux. It can be burnt onto a business card sized CDR disk as it only need a mere 46 MBytes. It provides a basic, but still comprehensive, set of applications. These include a web browser, media player, word processor, e-mail client and a host of useful utilities. All that on a CD that you can, and I now do, keep in a wallet.
I spent a considerable time yesterday just reading. While I was out I bought two magazines that I should not really have wasted my preciouss money on, but the temptation was too much. The first was the rather expensive Linux Format with a DVD cover disk. The second was the rather cheaper Rail magazine. Both were a good read, but Linux Format, as usual, had several articles that went right over my head. On the cover mounted DVD the theme was live distros. That is distributions of Linux that will run directly from a CD without disturbing anything that is on the hard disk of the PC. Indeed they will run without a hard disk even being present. I was particularly interested in the one called Knoppix. I had mixed success with earlier versions of Knoppix, but this version, 3.4, ran perfectly on the two PC's I tried it on.
So apart from reading I spent some time playing with PC's trying out different things. I also rang up about the I.T. job that I mentioned yesterday. I really wanted to speak to someone about it, but there was only an answerphone at the other end. So I left my details and I'll just have to wait and see if I am contacted. Today I am supposed to hear the results of the job interview I had last Thursday. As much as I need some income, I still hope that I don't get that job as I will have to take it against all personal choice.
This morning I must phone up about the job I mentioned yesterday. I looked at the advert again and noticed that the pay being offered was actually rather higher than I had imagined. That suggests to me that they are after someone with more formal I.T. qualifications. So it looks like I am dead in the water to start with. Nevertheless I shall still have a go for it. I think another chore this morning will be to go shopping. I had considered going yesterday, but decided I still had plenty of food reserves in the freezer for a few more days, but Nelly is periously low on "crunchies", so I had better get to the shops.
Once the shopping is out of the way I have three choices. A Lunchtime session in the pub with Ivor. Do something creative in my workshop, or have a play with the video I shot last Friday. The latter is quite appealing as I have not really looked at the 40 odd minutes I filmed then. I reckon that I can edit it down to about 5 minutes of interesting stuff.
I had a new variation of very strange dreams last night. I bet even a professional psychologist would have difficulty explaining this one away. I can't remember the whole story, but this is the releveant part that sticks in my mind. An old friend of mine, Brian, was some sort of villain and was being arrested by a copper who was also Brian. I am not sure what my status was in the dream. Now it feels like I was merely a passive spectator, almost like I was watching TV, but I may have been a cop or robber. All I remember for certain was that there were two identical Brians. They did not seem to be brothers or twins, but the same person playing two roles simultaneously.
I have seen another job, in the local free paper, that interests me. It is not something I have ever done before, but I think I could do it. The way the job is described makes it sound as if they want a cross between an I.T. technician and an A.V. technician with a bit of web design, and other things, thrown in as well. It sounds similar to what I do now as a hobby. So potentially I ought to be able to do it. It is for a charitable institution and so the pay offered may not be comparable for a proper I.T. job, but it may be enough for me. Also, with the crossover in skills required, they may not have too many applicants. Best of all is that it is fairly local. So I am going to make some enquiries.
We didn't stay on the train all the way to East Croydon, but got off at Oxted to go into The Oxted Inn, a Weatherspoons pub. It was terribly noisy in there, but we stayed for 2 pints of different beers from the Ichen brewery - and jolly nice they were too. During that time we missed the train we intended to get, but got the one half an hour later. Back at East Croydon came two revelations. First was the amount of ticket touts operating quite openly. Second, I noticed that one of the departure screens was showing something odd.
Unfortunately the image was too
dim for the camera to autofocus properly, and after a long day I could
not keep the camera still. You'll have to take my word for it that it
is a Windows error message. In the title bar said something like
"exploring - control panel". The message says something to the effect
that a programme is not responding and NT will close it.
After waiting around 20 minutes for a tram we got back to Elmers End for a 10 minute wait for the train. I finally got indoors at around 11pm. By then all I had eaten all day was one roll. It was a biggish roll, a sub infact, but that was all. So I decided to cook some food. I think it was close on 01.00 before I went to sleep this morning so I feel a little knackered now ( I was playing with yesterdays photos for 45 minutes before writing this at 08.00). I may go back to bed for an hour.
After waiting around 20 minutes for a tram we got back to Elmers End for a 10 minute wait for the train. I finally got indoors at around 11pm. By then all I had eaten all day was one roll. It was a biggish roll, a sub infact, but that was all. So I decided to cook some food. I think it was close on 01.00 before I went to sleep this morning so I feel a little knackered now ( I was playing with yesterdays photos for 45 minutes before writing this at 08.00). I may go back to bed for an hour.
Yesterdays job interview went well in so much as I got there OK and had a pretty relaxed time during the interview. I now know for definite that I don't really want the job. The original job description was slightly misleading in that it is hardly a technicians job at all. It is more a sort of souped up wharehousemans job. It seems that I was not the only person to be caught out this way. I was told that one applicant had an engineering degree ! They did ask if I felt that it would ultimately be too boring for me, and at the end I agreed it probably would. But it would also be true to say that the initial learning part of the job would be fascinating. They have a lot of interesting kit that that I would like to play with. I did get the impression that it is still possible they may offer me the job, and if they do I will reluctantly take it. My final words were with the bloke who was showing me around the place. I told him quite straight that I was not sure if I was suitable for the job, and that I didn't want to muck them around by accepting an offer and then quittting after a month or two. He replied that I shouldn't worry about it, and more or less implied that I should go for it anyway. Time will tell. If I do get the job offered to me then I will take it as I could do with some proper income, but I cannot see me lasting there for long.
So this afternoon I have a job interview for a job that I would prefer not to get. The job itself could probably be slightly boring, but that in itself is not my concern. The worst part is that I will have to learn to be a London bound commuter.I just hate the idea of 30 - 40 minutes on a crowded, hot and stuffy train (and the same coming home again).
Once this interview is out of the way I hope I'll be early enough to catch up with Ivor and Iain for a quick pint or two. It can't be too many as I need a clear head in the morning for a day of "Hog" bashing. Hog being the new trendy term for what I know as a "Thumper". And a Thumper is an old slam-door diesel electric train with comfy seats and a general air of looking like a real train.
Yesterday I did get pissed - it is true. I spent a couple of hours in The Herne alone waiting for Ivor and Iain to finish a huge printing job. During those hours of waiting I was quietly reading The Evening Standard and doing the two crosswords in it. I also slowly drank two pints of Kronenberg. So by the time Ivor and Iain got to the pub I was quite sober. Unfortunately I can never say no to free beer and that was where the rot set in. After another three pints I was home again feeling very hungry and rather drunk. So I ate a bizzare meal of peppered mackerel, potato saled and black pepper flavoured crisps (a large packet). That was followed by a large bag of chilli flavoured peanuts. By mid evening I was feeling hungover and bloated. On top of that the crisps and peanuts felt like they had lacerated the inside of my mouth, and all that salt made me feel very thirsty. By 9.30 pm I felt really rough, and to make matters worse a combination of the booze, salt, spices and the heat left me dripping with sweat. So I went to bed and surprsingly, considering the discomfort I was in, I went to sleep almost instantly. I woke up again just before midnight almost convinced that I had slept through the night. I was considering getting up again, but after a getting a fresh pint of cold water I decided to go back to sleep again. I woke up a couple of more times during the night, but it was not until 05.30 that I decided I may as well get up properly, even if it is temporary. I might, or might not, go back to bed again later.
At this time in the morning I feel mostly OK. My mouth still feels a little sore from lacerating it with very crisp and sharp crisps and then rubbing in chilli powder from the chilli flavoured peanuts.
Today I have a difficult decision to make. I could go back to The Herne for a second session or I could just have a quiet and close to sober drink with Kevin tonight. I think I need to see Kevin tonight to bash out a few final details for our day out on Friday. However I am tempted with The Herne where there should be more than just Ivor and Iain for entertainment. Maybe what I should do is to go to The Herne very late in the afternoon so it is only a short session and I will then probably survive for a night out in The Ram. I hope that the air con is working at full capacity in The Ram. Yesterday was a pretty hot day, and I expect today to be similar.
Up until now I have not mentioned the strange malady that afflicted me up until yesterday morning. It started Saturday lunchtime, or so, after a long time sitting at this PC. It was almost as if I had got cramp in a muscle in my left buttock. The exact location is difficult to describe. It was sort of slightly above the left buttock, and not wholly on the left, but maybe left of centre. Describing it as cramp is also not exact. It was more like the muscular ache you get after a cramp has gone away. Whatever it was I may never know, but I do know it was quite painful whenever I moved in a certain way that involved using the muscles in my left(ish) bum cheek. It was bad all day on Sunday, but yesterday, sometime during the course of the morning, it faded away. It is hard to say when it went, but by lunchtime I realised that I was not in any pain.
It looks as if it is going to be another beautiful hot day. I am looking forward to spending lunchtime in a beer garden. These boozy lunchtimes become more precious as time goes by. It cannot be too long now before I finally end up re-employed. If the next job goes to plan then it will mean no more lunchtime sessions with Ivor, Iain and Maxine until the day I retire. Now that is a sad thought, but it is fact of life that must be endured.
Once back from the supermarket I had a little light breakfast and watched some educational TV (about astronomy). During that I had a phone call from one of the employers I have applied to for a job. It is the one that is just north of Kings Cross. I am going up for an interview on Thursday afternoon. Although they are trying to put me off by suggesting the job may be a little boring for someone of my experience, I get the impression they might actually want me. They seem to be in two minds abut how they think the job might develop. At the moment it seems to be the sort of job a trained labourer could do, but they keep hinting that it could become more technical. I suspect it needs someone, me maybe, to point them in the right direction, or at least suggest what they could be capable of. The only trouble is I am still not totally happy about having to do all that commuting. It is some relief to know that I am up against some competition and my chances of getting the job are probably slim. However, if I am offered the job I am more or less forced to take it for financial reasons. If I do get it I think I will try and force myself to save like mad in case I can't stand it and have to quit again.
Another 30 minutes and I off to drink lots of beer - shame the sun has just gone in for the first time this morning.
I do sometimes worry about my C.V. Some would say it is too short and sparse, but others would agree it lists the essential information, and omits all the waffle. I based the format of it after having seen a lot of C.V.s that were sent to Mastercare. Generally the longer ones were boring, or in some ways laughable. I think it comes down to perspective. It is quite probable that if a C.V. was being read by some member of personnel who had a degree in English Literature, sociology, and American business studies, then the five page C.V. complete with "this is what I did on my holidays" would be most appreciated and appropriate. On the other hand my C.V. is pitched at an engineer who just wants to read the vital facts about what I know and what I can do. Personally I hope to be employed by the latter.
Today I have an urge to get into my workshop and do something creative. There will be time for other things later in the week. Tomorrow I may well go and have a lunchtime drink with Ivor. I have made a DVD-ROM for him with copies of a lot of the old comedy programmes I have recorded from BBC7. It was going to be just on a bare disk in a slip case, but I got a little carried away with designing a proper DVD case cover for it. I am quite proud of it and it will be interesting to see the reaction from a graphics professional to my amateur effort. Then at the end of the week I am having a day out "trainspotting" with Kevin. Primarily we are going out to say our farewells to the "Thumpers" (old slam door diesel electric trains) that run in the Marshlink line between Ashford and Hastings. Their days are numbered now and they will soon be gone to be replaced by unreliable "plastic" trains.
Being up so early on a Sunday morning leaves me two choices. Do I go back to bed, or do I watch Dr Who on UK Gold ? Both are mildly attractive, but not imperatives.
That filled a few lines and helped stop today being a blank entry. I can't remember any dreams with enough clarity to describe what happened, although I think one involved using a hard disk the size of a £2 coin. So there is nothing to add there.
Today I must get into my workshop and do some stuff there. That's about it. I'm sorry if you read all this drivel that there is nothing to entertain you today.
Announcing
the new Built-in Orderly Organized Knowledge device (BOOK)
The
BOOK is a revolutionary breakthrough in technology: no wires, no
electric circuits, no batteries, nothing to be connected or switched
on. It's so easy to use even a child can operate it. Just lift its
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an armchair by the fire -- yet it is powerful enough to hold as much
information as a CD-ROM disc.
Here's how it works...
Each
BOOK is constructed of sequentially numbered sheets of paper
(recyclable), each capable of holding thousands of bits of information.
These pages are locked together with a custom-fit device called a
binder which keeps the sheets in their correct sequence.
Opaque
Paper Technology (OPT) allows manufacturers to use both sides of the
sheet, doubling the information density and cutting costs in half.
Experts are divided on the prospects for further increases in
information density; for now BOOKs with more information simply use
more pages. This makes them thicker and harder to carry, and has drawn
some criticism from the mobile computing crowd.
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brain. A flick of the finger takes you to the next sheet. The BOOK may
be taken up at any time and used by merely opening it. The BOOK never
crashes and never needs rebooting, though like other display devices it
can become unusable if dropped overboard. The "browse'' feature allows
you to move instantly to any sheet, and move forward or backward as you
wish. Many come with an "index" feature, which pinpoints the exact
location of any selected information for instant retrieval.
An
optional BOOK mark accessory allows you to open the BOOK to the exact
place you left it in a previous session, even if the BOOK has been
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store numerous views at once. The number is limited only by the number
of pages in the BOOK. (BOOK marks can be purchased commercially in a
wide variety of styles, or easily created at home from readily
available materials by the BOOK user.)
You
can also make personal notes next to BOOK text entries with an optional
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seems so certain that thousands of content creators have committed to
the platform. Look for a flood of new titles soon.
Last night I had a drunken urge to do something I have mainly avoided - writing drunken ramblings in this journal. I have corrected a few obvious spelling mistakes this morning, but otherwise left it as it was. It is, after all, what I was thinking, but in normal circumstances I would be a little more subtle about it.
Today I think I know what I will be doing, but not in what order. I have two more days worth of radio recordings to top-and-tail, and then listen to. I think there is one "Round The Horne" and two more episodes of "2001 A Space Odessy", and there could be a couple of other things as well. Then I will have to go out and buy this weeks New Scientist. In fact I will probably do that first and do some reading while eating some breakfast. So I think there will be plenty to entertain me today.
Last night I was in the pub with Kevin. Since the Winter Warmer finished last month I have been getting home from these sessions almost sober. The ordinary bitter is not a patch on Winter Warmer. I wonder if it was the beer last night that has given me the runs this morning ? Probably not as it is too soon (I think). When I got in I had a flick around the TV channels and found an old edition of "Have I Got News For You ?" on UK Gold 2. So I sat and watched that. Then I turned over to Sky 1 and watched an episode of "Voyager". Finally I was lured over to Paramount Comedy 2 where there was an old episode of "Drop The Dead Donkey". It was madness, although very enjoyable, to stay up so late watching all that stuff. It was close on 2am before I went to bed. So waking up at 06.30 was just a little too early for me.Even now I have not had more than 6.5 hours sleep in total, but I am up now and I won't be going back to bed again this morning.
Once again the day seemed to pass quite quickly, yesterday. I can't really say that I did anything worth shouting about. Some of the day was spent reading a book. In this case it was Isaac Asimov's "The Currents Of Space". I had started it the day before, but it was sufficiently captivating, even on the second reading, to make me want get on and finish it.I guess it was being immersed in a good read that helped the day go so quickly.
Yesterday passed by very quickly. Yet it was not an action packed day. You could say that the most productive thing I did all day was to defrost the freezer. It needed doing sometime, but there was no real urgency for it to happen. Yesterday just happened to be a convenient time when it was almost empty. So today I should be out to Tesco to stock up on frozen food. Another thing I did yesterday was to listen to the first 4 parts of 2001, A Space Odessy. It is being broadcast on BBC7 as 10 fifteen minute readings. Each day there are two episodes listed. Yet they are being broadcast as one 30 minute episode. What is curious is that when originally listed they were shown as single 30 minute episodes, but the listings changed to show two 15 minute episodes. The story is being broadcast as a reading from the book rather than in play form, and it sounds very good too. My only complaint is that the reader (name forgotten) has a slight American (or possibly even mild Australian) accent. It is not too bad and mostly ignorable against his skill at reading aloud. So far it has been very enjoyable. Although I own, and have read the book myself, it is still the film version that tends to be remembered. The book contains subtle differences, or nuances, that actually make it better than the film in some respects. In particular the opening chapter(s) of the book that deal with the apemen are far better explained in the book than on film. In some ways this is not surprising as although the apemen sequence is important to the story, to cover it in full on the film would add an extra 20 minutes to the beginning of the film. Plus it could not be done without using subtitles, or a narrator, to explain what the apemen are thinking - something that is so easily done in the written form. There are another two episodes on tonight that I am looking forward to.
Once that was over I started heading towards home again, but thought I'd try an alternative route. I had gone up there via London Bridge and decided to go back via Blackfriars. As I approached Peckam Rye station I thought I would get off the train there and do the short bus ride to where Ivor normally drinks at lunchtime. It was a little late, but I thought that I would be in time for one pint before he went back to work. Big mistake ! I didn't leave there until some 4 hours later ! I was dropped off near home by Iain and staggered into the chip shop to buy some breakfast (at that point I had not eaten all day). Finally I slumped down in a chair, ate my sausage and chips, with extra salad, and watched some TV. On Monday nights I regularly watch "Enterprise" on Sky One, but this time I fell asleep soon after it started, and woke up again half an hour after it finished. So I decided to go bed. I fell asleep almost instantly, but woke up again a short while ago, and I now feel wide awake. I don't think it will last long, and I'll probably be going back to bed again soon.
Later in the day, once the sun is up, I think I will have shaken off the blues of the weekend enough to get into my workshop and do something creative. I also have some recordings of BBC7 to edit and archive. Yesterday there was an episode of The Goon Show that I have yet to hear, and also the start of a reading of Arthur C. Clarke's "2001" that may well be worth listening to. So hopefully I should not be bored senseless today. One other thing to do later is to et another job application off. Once again it is not a job that I really want to do, but it may be better than nothing.
I have not mentioned the weather yesterday. It started out similar to today. It was slightly gloomy and I was prepared for another miserable day. In fact by midday the sun had come out, and it shone all the time I was in the beer garden yesterday. It was even good enough to bring a little colour to my right arm, and probably my face. As one day is usually pretty much the same as the next, weatherwise, I am hoping that the sun will be shining again this afternoon.
I did not take many photos when I was out yesterday, but here's one for the trainspotters. It is of Networker 466001 looking bright and shiny while having a rest between peak hour use in Blackfriars station.
Last night I watched "Top Gear" on TV. I think that finished at 9pm abd I went to bed very soon afterwards. Initially I did not go to bed to sleep but to carry on reading a book of short stories by Isaac Asimov. I finally finished the book at half past midnight and was asleep very soon afterwards. I know I did a lot of dreaming, but I cannot remember any sequences. All I can remember is like still photographs. One such memory is of a page from a book, or maybe just a sheet of paper, with car prices on it. This was presumably inspired by watching Top Gear last night. The prices listed were rather large and it may have been a price list for collectable cars set sometime in the future. All I recall was at the bottom of the list, and presumably the cheapest car, was a Vauxhall Marina for £128,000. Another few flashs of dream I can recall were set in a radio/electronic junk shop. It was full of fascinating stuff all piled in haphazard heaps. It seemed to be housed in an old dungeon though, or maybe it was within a stone walled castle. There was an air of Frankenstein about it, but with no sense of menace. In fact it was quite the opposite. It was a fun and happy place to be. The owner was slightly eccentric and was playing with some high voltage generators which were producing some huge arcs and sparks.It sounds as if I remember enough to really describe what was going on, but I can't. I am still just recalling a few frozen images and a sort of feeling about what it was like. There was definitely no beginning, or end, or anything remotely approaching a story line. I was just there and that was happening. I read somewhere, recently, that the average dream lasts for about 5 seconds. That would be about right for that dream. It was just as if I had popped my head in the door and observed for 5 seconds and then moved on.
I am still not decided about what to do today. I do have a yearning to go out for some time and maybe a trip up to London to see the location of a possible new employer could be a good idea. It depends on the weather though, and also on how my guts feel. This morning I have a possibly gippy stomach. It feels rather bloated even though I have been to the toilet once this morning. Perhaps after I have washed and dressed it will feel better.
I had better get washed and dressed now. I have more shopping to do. I went shopping yesterday but forgot the vital item that was the core reason for yestedays shopping trip - toilet paper. I am down to half a roll, and that is a dangerous situstion to be in !
In other news I had a strange, and still unfulfilled, desire for some Bassetts Liquorice Allsorts this afternoon. In particular I want some of the round blue ones with the knobbly bits on it.
Yesterday was a very boozy day. I met Ivor, Iain, and Jill outside the pub as we arrived there at the same time. Inside the pub was Max and we were later joined by Paul and Ruth. I think it was only myself, Iain and Max who stayed for the whole session with Paul only appearing for a short while, and Ivor and Ruth both having to pop out for an hour, or so, in the middle. Ivor left us about an hour before I finally left with Iain who gave me a lift home. I'm not sure what time I was dropped off, but I am sure it was after 7 pm. I know it was not long before "The Bill" was on TV. I watched that with a throbbing head. Once it had finished I headed upstairs to bed, but got distracted on the way. I decided to listen to two episodes of Dan Dare that I had recorded off the radio. I must listen to the second episode again today as I fell asleep through it. By 11 pm I was fast asleep in my own bed. This morning the hangover has gone, but I still feel a little tired, and I am tempted to go back to bed. I was only woken up by Nelly who had obviously had her breakfast of "crunchies" and used her litter tray before jumping on my bed for a kip. The latter action, using her litter tray, was only apparent once I came down here. It was definitely peg on nose time !
I did finally force myself into my workshop yesterday. Once I had overcome my initial lack of enthusiasm I spent quite a long time in there. I might even spend another hour in there this morning, but not much longer than that as I am out boozing again with Ivor at lunchtime.
Right now I ought to take a shower and then force myself into my workshop. It's a shame it will be freezing up there. Not that it is warm down here, and that is a good reason for me to get under a hot shower to warm myself up.
Yesterday was another very lazy day. I did very little and was often bored, but two things did liven it up a bit. First I finally managed to dis-assemble Ivor's old laptop and get the hard disk out. I had put it to one side for the last week or two after failing to find a hidden screw that was stopping me taking it apart. Ivor will now be able to recover his data from the hard drive even though the chances of getting the rest of the laptop working again seem slim.
The other highlight of the day was a TV programme last night. It was the life of fictional character Norman Stanley Fletcher - the part Ronnie Barker played in the excellent sitcom "Porridge". In this "mockumentary" his life was covered from the day he was born up to present day. Some of the programme was a bit disappointing, but the clips from Porridge were still very funny, and it was good to see Ronnie Barker out of retirement to play "Fletcher" in old age.
In other , potentially, good entertainment news, BBC7 are starting a 4 part radio serial of Dan Dare tonight. I assume that this will be the radio plays from the 50's or 60's. I can't ever recall hearing Dan Dare on the radio before, but I am expecting it to be good. I vaguely remember reading some Dan Dare stories in The Eagle comic when I was a kid, and I know that one of the TV channels (Channel 4, I think) has been showing some crap modern cartoons of his adventures. Tonight I am expecting to hear Dan Dare speaking like an RAF officer from world war 2, and not like some puffed up yank. If, tonight, he turns out to sound American I'll delete my recording and cancel the other 3 parts. So there! Yah, boo, sucks !!!
The day started out really soggy. I got soaked going to sign on. Well maybe not soaked, but certainly wet on the outside. To make matters worse the cash machine I wanted to use was out of money so I had to go further along the road. This took me nearer to Tescos than Aldi so I bought my shopping in Tescos. I also popped into W.H. Smiths and bought a magazine. Having got home I had my breakfast and settled in to do some reading. The dull weather gave me very little inspiration do much else. Later in the morning the clouds broke for a little while and I think the sun came out briefly. It didn't last. Some time in the early afternoon the sky went really black and the rain poured down. There was even some thunder in the distance. After that the clouds started breaking up again and this eveing here was a little sunshine.
Tomorrow, with or without inspiration from the weather, I must get into my workshop and earn a little beer money. It won't be in time for a drink tomoorow night, but I'll find some money anyway. Hopefully I'll get the money for a boozy session Friday lunchtime. I could do with a pint or two. I have been feeling a little miserable today, or perhaps restless would be a better description. I have spent some time depressing myself about the potential idea of moving home. I have this idea that I would like to move out of Catford to nearer where everbody seems to have migrated to. Somewhere halfway between Barming Station and The Bull would be nice. They are about three miles apart so a 1.5 mile walk to the pub and a 1.5 mile walk to the station would be just about acceptable. The trouble is that would mean living right in the middle of Maidstone Hospital if the warped map in my mind can be believed. Perhaps I would settle for somewhere slightly off centre to a straight line. It is a fine idea but the logistics of moving would be a total nightmare. I am not sure if I could manage it. I prefer the path of least resistance, and the easiest thing to do is to stay put. On the other hand I believe that this house may be needing some expensive repairs in the future and it could be a good idea to cut my losses and get out while the going is good. I would lose a fair bit of value on the house, but that might be worth it in the long run. Decisions, decisions......That's why I fancy a pint and forget about it for a few hours.
All that waffle about the weather suggests there is really nothing to talk about. And it is true ! Yesterday was a very boring day. I could have done some work, but I wanted to have a day of rest, or perhaps a day of leisure would be a better definition. Even though it is a bank holiday, I think I will have to treat today as a normal day or I will go out my mind with boredom. So today I am going to do something.......
Over the course of that last paragraph it seems to have duller outside instead of brighter. Perhaps instead of trying to predict the weather I should stick with reporting how the day turns out later.
Last night Nelly was looking
very relaxed so I thought I would take a photo, or two, of her. Somehow
she is never as photogenic as Schiba used to be. I was unlucky when I
took this picture because seconds later I could have got a good picture
of her yawning and showing a fearsome set of sharp teeth.One thing of note about this picture (and another that will be a little bit down the page) is that the entire operation of downloading from the camera, and then the cropping and resizing was all done using Linux. I still hate using The Gimp, which is a very high powered image manipulation program for Linux (and Windows). The Gimp just does everything differently to my favourite program - Pain Shop Pro. It is just so hard unlearning one method while learning new methods.
This must be the last ever picture I took of Schiba. I found it in the camera when I downloaded the picture of Nelly above. It is so eerie in that it was also the last way I ever saw him - standing up by the window waiting to go out - except that on the very last time it was dark and raining. The picture was taken on the 15th of April and just two weeks before he died.
With few people at the pub today I did not drink as much as usual, but I still felt ravenous when I came in at about 17.30. In the end I ordered a huge mixed kebab with all the trimmings. I now feel rather stuffed, but it was very nice. I'll probably have the runs in the morning.
After a week of no Schiba I have been trying to work out what Nelly makes of it all. She seems to have settled in one respect, but sometimes she seems to act slightly strange. A few oddities can be put down to the fact that she has less food to choose from now. Also I am trying to keep her food intake down. It is hard to do this because I am such a softy, but she is very overweight, and I would like her to lose some of it. Mostly she was restricted to one small foil container of food a day, plus some Iams light. At first she was not keen on the Iams light, but she learned that she had to like it. Since yesterday she has been treated with ordinary Iams which she loves and are really her downfall I think. For the last few days she has taken to following me around on occasions. It only happens one or twice a day, but I am not sure of the reason why. This evening she lead me to the spare bed where I usually comb her. She jumped up and I gave her a very good rake through with the flea comb. She really likes that and sits fairly still while purring her head off. Fortunately I did not find a single flea on her so she can be spared the trauma of one tiny drop of liquid on the back of her neck. For some reason that terrifies her. Actually terrifies can't be the right word. She runs away from me and tries to avoid it, but after the dirty deed is done she is back to normal in minutes - hardly like a cat whose has been severly traumatised ! Once I had finished combing her I went to the toilet and she followed me in and jumped into the bath tub. Now that is odd. The only time she used to do that was the summer before last when she had a bad flea infestation. I used to encourage her to stand in the bath while I combed all the fleas out. It was one place where any escapees could be easily seen and contained. If it was not for the fact that I had just combed her and found nothing, I would have thought she was trying to get me to comb out a flea, or fleas, that were irritating her.
One thing I have noticed Nelly doing is trying out Schibas favourite armchair. He pretty much made it his own, but now Nelly tries out for size for 5 or 10 minutes, but never for much more. She did it this evening. She jumped up on it and immeadiately lay down. She then closed her eyes as if she was going to have a nap, but 10 minutes later she jumped off again and got on her "own" armchair. I suppose this means she still feels he could come back. I think I have got over that feeling now. I still occasionally glance down the garden, or check the back window ledge as I go into the kitchen, but it is slowly becoming less compulsive. I guess you have to compell yourself to get over that sort of tradgedy by yourself, but it would have made it easier if there had been someone to share it with for the first couple of days. Perhaps as Kenneth Williams wrote in his diaries (as related in a documentary about him on TV tonight), that a diary is a sort of a substitute for real people. (I can't remember the exact words, but it was omething with a similar meaning).