As
I switched on my lap-top this morning the Firefox browser announced it was
going to update itself. After a while it was ready to go but looks and seems *exactly* the same as it was before. If
it is going to mess about updating why doesn’t it have something to show for
itself?
Facebook
was relatively calm after all the arguments of yesterday, which was probably
for the best. Pretty much every hobby I’ve taken up I’ve given up not because
of the hobby itself but because of the toxic people I encounter whilst doing
it. I actually enjoy rummaging under rocks looking for hidden boxes and I don’t
want to be forced out of the game like I have been so often in the past.
People
are a problem… I’ve said before that people in general don’t know how to
disagree. Given a point of view with which someone disagrees, they rarely seem
to counter with “I disagree for the
following reasons…”. Instead people generally seem to either rudely dismiss
the point of view, or rudely dismiss the person expressing that point of view.
I
was taught the basics of debate at school… wasn’t everyone? Clearly not.
Talking
of school, over on the Facebook page for old boys of the Hastings academy for
budding geniuses there were some rather harsh words being said about my old
headmaster. And if you type “George
Henshall Hastings Grammar School" into Google, the first result you get
is a biography of the husband of the author Catherine Cookson in which Mr.
Henshall is described as “violent”.
I
can remember him as being rather strict and somewhat “old skool”, but the George Henshall I read about this morning
wasn’t the one in charge of my old school.
I took the dogs for our
morning walk. As we walked up the road Fudge tried to pick a fight with a
double-decker bus. I wish he wouldn’t. As I pulled him away I suddenly found
myself staring in shock.
There were a gaggle of
young ladies walking by in what might jokingly be described as “school uniform”. They *might* have been going to school. Quite
frankly they might equally well have been going to a pervert’s convention or to
the filming of a fetish-porno movie. Now (call
me puritanical if you will) but I’m somewhat old-fashioned. A schoolgirl’s
skirt should be at least knee length. It shouldn’t be seriously struggling (and failing) to cover the bum. I’ve
recently seen adverts on Facebook for Japanese sex dolls which were dressed in
pretty much the same way as these young ladies were. There is absolutely no way
that "Daddy’s
Little Angel TM" would have gone to school dressed like
that (not that she went much).
Eventually I calmed
down.
As we walked through
the park I had my phone poised ready to use my app to document any mammals that
we encountered. (Strictly speaking all
those (possibly) schoolgirls were mammals, but I thought it best not to
photograph them). I was rather disappointed with the results of today’s
mammal survey. Apart from a few schoolkids and my dogs there weren’t any
mammals to be recorded in the park. Not one.
However when I took my
morning photo in the Chinese Garden I realized Treacle’s bum was covered in
paint. "er
indoors TM"
has been painting the kitchen; I wonder if she knows there is a dog-sized splat
on one of the walls?
We came home, and I
spent half an hour on my cryptography course. I’ve done quite a few courses
with Coursera; this one is by far the most difficult. This morning we learned
about how easy it is to crack the encryption on a DVD. I say “how easy”; with the high-speed computers
of today cryptography has moved on leaps and bounds since the Enigma machines
of the 1940s.
I
settled my pups, and went off to get some petrol. Half way through refuelling "er indoors TM" sent me a message. Just as I answered it, so the petrol pump cut off. It
just wouldn't work again. I went into the kiosk to see what was going on and
the supposedly attractive grannie was really arsey with me. She'd deliberately
turned off the pump because she didn't like people using mobile phones. When I
asked why she seemed to think it was "obvious".
She seemed blissfully unaware that the United Kingdom Petroleum Industry
Association (UKPIA) has done several
investigations into the use of mobile
phones in petrol stations and found that "There were no confirmed ignition incidents associated with mobile
phones anywhere in the world."
I've
told her I shall take my money elsewhere in future.
I
drove up to East Farleigh where I had a little geo-adventure and finding myself
some distance from McDonalds I treated myself to a pork and apple baguette.
And
then I did the late shift… It was hard work.
No comments:
Post a Comment