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Morning all
CBS, etc and a beautiful sunrise just after 6am.
Pleasant walk, the wind was gentle and didn't pick up like it has the last couple of mornings.
Tonight’s major motion picture premiere was Monkey Man (2024), the directorial debut of Dev Patel, who also stars. Set in an Indian city, it’s the story of a chap who’s seeking revenge on the corrupt police chief who murdered his mother and the organised crime bosses who give him power, while scraping a living fighting in rigged fights in the Indian equivalent of an MMA place. His first attempt at assassination goes awry but, it being India, he finds sanctuary in a Hindu temple where he develops his affinity with the monkey god Hanuman whilst training hard, and ends up like an Indian John Wick (but without the guns) for his second go-around. I thought it was very good
After that, a rewatch of Heretic (2024). I’d forgotten how exceptionally good Hugh Grant’s performance is in this! Absolutely excellent
But Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East also give brilliant performances as the two young Mormon missionaries. I took this as an excuse to rewatch Companion (2025) starring the former, which continues to be my favourite film about AI running amok, maybe because it’s really the humans who are running amok and the AI has to deal with the consequences, and we all know that’s how things will really happen
My Freesat box stopped working so got a new one, arrived today. Hassle setting it up but seems ok except that the time is an hour out!
BST innit! Look in the settings for something like “Automatically adjust for daylight savings time” - maybe first make sure (probably in a completely different place in its settings) that it’s not fondly imagining it’s having a romantic week away in Paris, though I don’t know if they even have Freesat boxes there
I worked on the internal software for Freesat boxes at a client in Cambridge back in the early 2010s, but I don’t recall ever digging into the settings bit as that wasn’t my responsibility. I recall spending a fair bit of time checking that things flagged as “adult viewing” (i.e. soft porn) would remain so flagged if they were repeated at a later time and date on a different channel that wasn’t itself flagged as such
For tea tonight, I treated myself to an M&S Tomapork. This is a fancy name for a very large pork cutlet; they try to add to the mystique by providing rather convoluted cooking instructions, but I just whacked it in the Remoska (once I’d measured it to be sure it would fit) and it turned out fine. They probably also have some recommendation to accompany it with new potatoes and the like, but I had chips and beans
There’s something up with the 5 app, I think, as it behaved oddly and I couldn’t watch the end of last night’s Traffic Cops, so instead I watched some thing on All4 about a murder in Northampton in 2018
I’ve also had the bed airing today. I’ve got it partially remade; I just need to do the pillows and the duvet cover, and that’ll be good to go
And I’ve also been watching YouTube videos about how to do various clever things with the new forum software. Now that I’m pretty much satisfied with the data importer, I can crack on with adding a few features
Tonight will be a movie night, but I haven’t decided what to watch yet
It's been a lovely sunny day. Warm if out of the gale force wind.
Had a meeting at 3.30pm which the product manager and I elected to do in the pub so we could bitch about people without any risk of being overheard by coworkers. We get 10% discount so it's cheaper than going for a coffee. Honest. I headed home afterwards as I saw no reason to remain in the office.
I suspect there’s something weird going on with my broadband router, as things which were quite happy on the wifi are suddenly unable to connect. I spent much of the morning going line-by-line through the rep system so I can replicate it, and carefully documented my observations. I decided it would be worth printing them out for reference and jotting of notes in the margins, and suddenly the printer can’t be found. It seems happy enough in itself, and its wifi light is on, but it no longer appears - not even in a tool I have for scanning devices on the network, which reveals all kinds of details about lightbulbs and so on but can’t see the printer at all
I think I’ll turn the router off and on again and see if that helps
Meanwhile on the 25th of March 2020 Brillo popped in A Lot, with NF, LondonManc, and vetran getting a word in edgeways.
Walk (unabbreviated, towpath) walked in the sunshine & cold wind. Leather jacket today, so warmer than yesterday, actually raised a gentle glow after 3 miles or so & had to unzip jacket to cool down a bit.
Lunch: brunch. Entertainment: Y&Y waffling on about fake "product review" ads that lead inevitably to cheap chinese plastic crap vacuum cleaners. <click>
Cleaned the porch. And it needed it Then onto the stairs, followed by the landing, and part of the box room.
I think I need more furniture polish.
Got outside a mug of mediocre yet consistent coffee earlier once the ongoing cleaning frenzy had : me enough.
I wonder why I've accumulated all this crap. It's a mystery wrapped in an enigma.
Just discovered that a place I worked from 94 to 97 has finally stopped trading. Phil must have got fed up with working out of his Shed.
Tea: Tesco battered haddock etc. Nice enough. Entertainment: PM <click>
Look at Life: Fun with Flags (1967).
Those British Faces: Yvonne Mitchell.
Blaze: the unbelievable with Dan Aykroyd: weird weapons.
Alba: Scotland's Wild Side: that climber chap again. Carngorms. Running up & down a mountain. Then climbing a different mountain. Not nearly as frightening as that sea stack but dicey enough.
In another repulsive discovery, a maggot fell out of the toaster. I've vacced the damn thing yet again to see if that helps. Can't understand how there's any left in there since I clean the damn thing quite regularly.
It’s a sunny start again, and the wind has settled down a bit - though it’ll be back later. It’s currently 8°C (“feels like” 5°) and aiming for 16°, while the barometers are trivially up at 1016/1024mB
I awoke somewhat betimes today due to having raised the blind a little too high which let the sunlight in. I was able to ignore this for a while by turning my back on the window, but after a bit I figured I might as well get up and make the most of the day
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