Last day, Kile and a strange book

31 December 2013

And so we come to the last day of 2013, and Jan is off to pick up Kile for a few days. We're not sure how long we will have him for but I'm sure we will manage to keep him occupied.

  

Last night I finished reading Rivers of London but I'm still not sure what it was really about. A two man team of CID officers dealing with the 'spiritual' side of the city where it crosses over to commit murders in the living world. I say spiritual but do so loosely. There are ghosts galore in it, minor river goods, all sons and daughters of the main river gods, and named for the various rivers in London. It goes back to pre-Roman times with the help of a vampire of all things, and come back up to date, where the hero overcomes all to win through. Well, now at least I can get back to reading something sensible, well, if ever Parry Hotter was ever sensible. Just started on last book last night.

I had been thinking of suggesting that we go to see Charlie in the Anker this afternoon but with Kile being here I'm sure we will now. We certainly won't be going out this evening! There will be far too much drinking and real silliness going on and neither of us is up to putting up with it. We will probably be in bed for around 11pm anyway. The plan was for a birding tomorrow to start off the 2014 birding list. One look at the weather and that been stopped. I suppose we will get out on Thursday though, at least I hope so.

So then, Kile has arrived and the place is in chaos already. The telly is on but tuned in for the Wii and Jan and him are playing happily - at least for now. So here's a photo of the little monster in birding mode ...

And today's funny is a short one from my normal source ...

A lorry load of Viagra was recently stolen in Ireland - Police are on the lookout for a gang of hardened criminals.       

An error message, books vs readers and friends

29 December 2013

A strange message has appeared on  my desktop just now as I fired up the lappy. It said that my Dropbox folder was full. I was puzzled because I was supposed to get a two gigs free storage on there and the only files I have in there are the ones I'm currently working on. Then the penny dropped ... it was the folder on my desktop that was full. It won't be now seeing as I have just emptied it!

Well, here's a thing ... I have a Sony Reader and I loved using it. Sadly its stopped working and seeing as it a few years old now it's too late to do anything about. Anyway, we scratched about and found the cash to by two Samsung Galaxy Tabs. Yesterday afternoon while we were sat in the Anker I was having a play with my tab and managed to download a free book onto it and began reading it. It's a Stephen Leather short story collection and it's not bad at all. But it got me to thing ...

These days we are spoiled for choice when it comes to reading materials and to access them. I love to hold and read an actually book, no matter if it's a paper or hardback. Looking at the top of my bedside table there's a stack of 20+ books I've read this year alone - and the stack isn't all of them. I also have piles of unread books everywhere, all waiting for me to get round to reading them. Those piles are added to fairly often too.

I also like magazines and buy lots of them. Yet aging though you can down load them to a reader and at sometime I shall be doing that too. But here's the thing folks, there's nothing like the actual turning of every other page in a book or magazine is there? No matter how good these reader devices get they will never give that same feel of holding a book/magazine and swiping a screen to turn over will never hold the same pleasure as an actual page.

However, there will continue to be a market for both print and reader files. As I said, I have piles of books waiting to be read. But if I go off somewhere for a week or so I can't carry all of those books can I? No, of course not. I would have to choose which ones to take with me, or buy new books while I'm away. But with a reader, or my new tab, I can carry as many books as the micro-sd card will hold; and at 16gig it will hold a good number.

And so for a photo ... 

a shot from under a high tension pylon.

And the Sage sends us more words of wisdom ...

Dear Dogs and Cats,
The dishes with the paw print are yours and contain your food. The other dishes are mine and contain my food. Please note that placing a paw print in the middle of my plate and food does not mean it becomes your food and dish, nor do I find that aesthetically pleasing in the slightest.
The stairway is not a racetrack. Beating me to the bottom is not the object. Tripping me doesn't help because I fall faster than you can run.
I cannot buy anything bigger than a king-sized bed. I am very sorry about this. Do not think I will continue sleeping on the couch to ensure your comfort. Dogs and cats can actually curl up in a ball when they sleep. It is not necessary to sleep perpendicular to each other stretched out to the fullest extent possible. I also know that sticking tails straight out and having tongues hanging out the other end to maximize space is nothing but sarcasm and disrespect.
For the last time, there is not a secret exit from the bathroom. If, by some miracle, I beat you there and manage to get the door shut, it is not necessary to claw, whine, meow, try to turn the knob or stick your paw under the edge and try to pull the door open. I must exit through the same door I entered. I have been using the bathroom for years--canine or feline attendance is not mandatory.
The proper order is kiss me, then go smell the other dog or cat's rear end, NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND. I cannot stress this enough!

On feeling tired, a whale and discpline or lack there of.

28 December 2013

Saturday; market day; but Jan and I don't feel like getting ready to go down there. Any shopping we need will have to wait until Monday now. And no, it's not because of any excess over the last few days, no, it's just general tiredness. Maybe tomorrow I shall be off for a few hours with me camera ... we shall see.

Did you by any chance see that show on telly called Whale with Martin Sheen? I ask because we watched in last night and enjoyed it. Moby Dick author got his idea from for his book from the real life story as told in that show. Things can be a long way from normal in the situation that ship's crew faced. They did what was needed to survive. Not a nice situation to be in or to talk about afterwards. And it's not a thing of a long time ago is it? There was a plane crash where survivors also ate those who died. No-one should condemn those survivors until they have been put in the same position.

There's an old saying isn't there; spare the rod and spoil the child. It is a statement that is ignored in these so-called more enlightened days. And look what is happening. Every weekend thousands of young people go out and get so drunk that they have no idea of where they are, let alone what they are doing. I know you've heard it before and not just from me; but it didn't happen when I was their age. Oh yes, I got drunk, but not to the extremes that the current lot are doing. The major difference is the disciplined manor in which I was brought up. There was no rod of course, but I certainly knew where the line between acceptable and not acceptable was drawn!

I mention this because of another show I've just watched on the CI channel. It is the case of a very spoiled young man who was given everything that he asked his parents for. He was only interested in his circle of friends for their sycophantic attachment to him, to lap-up their compliments. He eventually   killed his girlfriend and he even coaxed his parents to cover for him. Right up to being sent down for two years for perverting the course of justice, his mum was saying that her son wasn't responsible. At least his dad knew what they done but his wife wouldn't have it. No wonder the kid didn't know right from wrong.

Being Saturday its Telegraph day and from their pages comes some more useless information that you just won't survive with it. It was today in 1694 that Queen Mary II died from smallpox. Now there a scourge we don't have to worry about, thankfully! Not only that but Roy Hattersley is 81 today.

Yes, photo time ... 

This one of the bar decoration in a pub called the Lord Nelson in Brighton. Nice pub too and lots of nice real ale to try.  

Now let's see what else the Sage has been saying shall we ...  

A Russian couple was walking down the street in St. Petersburg the other night, when the man felt a drop hit his nose. "I think it's raining," he said to his wife.
"No, that felt more like snow to me," she replied. "No, I'm sure it was just rain, he said." Well, as these things go, they were about to have a major argument about whether it was raining or snowing. Just then they saw a minor communist party official walking toward them. "Let's not fight about it," the man said, "let's ask Comrade Rudolph whether it's officially raining or snowing."
As the official approached, the man said, "Tell us, Comrade Rudolph, is it officially raining or snowing?"
"It's raining, of course," he answered and walked on. But the woman insisted: "I know that felt like snow!" To which the man quietly replied:
"Rudolph the Red knows rain, dear!"

Tom comes for dinner, a strange book and comms problems

27 December 2013

Well, Christmas is over for another 12 months; only the New Year to go now and we can all get back to our normal way of life. We had our son Tom over to have Christmas dinner with us and he seemed to enjoy it. He also took all the leftovers home with him too so he has another dinner to tuck into later.

I'm currently reading a book called Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovictch. It's a strange tale of ghosts, haunting and death in London. Also involved is Father Thames and Mama Thames falling out over who is the boss of which part of the river. People are dying in and around the Covent Garden area, some of them after their faces explode. Two Met teams are working the case, a murder team from Charing Cross and a specialist team of one DI who is a master wizard and one DC who is an apprentice wizard. It all sounds a bit farfetched really but I shall keep on with it to see how it all works out in the end.

We have managed to misplace our main address book. We have searched everywhere for it and we can't find it. I suppose in a few weeks time it will turn up somewhere or other that we have looked at before, that how things normally work here in Jaronland. But that is not all folks ... Jan's lappy went funny on her late Christmas Day and she couldn't get it to work at all. It all started when her new Galaxy Tab seemed to clear her bookmarks off the lappy as well as all her email contacts too. So she tried doing a restore thingy. It went OK until if came to a blank screen after the starting Windows thing. and that is as far as I would go.

Yesterday Jan took Tom shopping. So I tried a forced shut down with the power button and hitting the F10 button and choosing the Start in Safe Mode option from there. Still no good. So I tried again but used the F8 button instead. Jan's lappy is now working fine again. But as to why it happened in the first place, well, your guess is as good as anyone's.

While I was sitting at my lappy yesterday I began typing away ... and here's what came out of it ...

 'Today is the day that I sat and planned a murder. You may wonder why I even thought of committing such a an act, and you are right to ask that question, not just of me but of everyone who sets out to kill. Yet you will never get a full a clear reply simply because killers don't know the real reason behind their crimes. They may claim it was revenge, or to punish the victim; and you may even get some who say, 'Because God told me to do it.' It's all a load of crap! We do it because deep down we enjoy it.

We love the feeling of power that we have when we point a gun at someone; we love the feeling of power when we first show our victims the knife that will end their lives; we love it as we push the knife into someone's soft white skin, to see the way the skin gives way to the sharp edge of the knife. We love to see blood begin to ooze out of the wound. But most of all, we love to see the fear, the pain and look that says, 'Why me? What have I done to you?' In most cases they have done nothing apart from being there at the same time as we are!'

The main copper in this story will be DI Marty Jayne, a copper coming back after his first outing in an unfinished story called Photo Finish. This one will be set in current county of Warwickshire and older Warwickshire when the city of Birmingham was part of the county.

Seeing we are only just out of Christmas Here's a photo of my mother when she was fine health wise ... 

As you can see, she liked scotch; but don't get the wrong idea though, those two bottles lasted her the whole year!

And once again the Sage has spoken ...

This guy asks his boss for the day off. "Why do you want the day off"? asks the boss. "Because my wife is going to have a baby" replies the guy.
Back at work after the day off the boss asks " Well, is it a boy or a girl"?
"Oh it takes months" comes the reply.