Yes, I have an interview, today: over in Pilgrim’s Hatch, near where my family live.
And I’m not actually feeling nervous about it.
Possibly?
I’m getting older: or — ha! — more confident.
More possibly?
I’ve a lot more on my plate to worry about.
We’ll have to see how it goes.
~≈§≈~
As a quick thought: one I know Old Peculiar regular, Debbi, may disagree with me, here.
But I notice that a cross-party group of MPs on a fact finding mission to Canada who’ve publicly advocated legalisation of recreational cannabis: and feel it may, successfully, go through parliament in five to ten years time.
It’s not something I like the idea of.
I’ve met a few people, over the years, who’ve had various shades of schizo-affective disorder, or schizophrenia, and who’ve blamed their cannabis use for triggering or severely aggravating their condition.
Something I believe is supported by the little research I’ve been able to access.
I’m putting in for extra, health related, benefits.
The assessment’s in Chelmsford.
Hopefully?
My phone’s Maps function will be able to get me there in time … and won’t leave me running around all over Duke Street.
~≈§≈~
Oh, just as an extra thought?
I’ve always like the idea of alternative operating systems.
In point of fact?
The first Mac I bought — many moons ago — was a second hand one, running an early version of Ubuntu, called Warty Warthog.
The second hand dealer I bought it from, didn’t have a resellers license for the relevant version of Mac OS X: so that’s I got, instead.
Ubuntu’s open source license is a lot more forgiving of these things.
As a result? I’ve always like seeing alternative OSes: and felt governments — local and national — could be making more use of software … that’s got very low licensing costs.
To get to the point?
I sneaked into Brentwood Library, yesterday: after installing the current version of Ubuntu onto a live disc.
And seeing how it looks.
Rather good.
To the point I’m tempted to sneak back in and install it on one of their machines …
Or, at least, the day I get my benefit payment should wind up in my bank account.
Which basically means one thing.
Good old fashioned bill paying and food shopping.
Frankly?
Nectar points come in handy, there.
~≈§≈~
Do you mind me wurbling on about technology?
There’s — famously — a lot of controversy about Chinese tech firm, Huawei making equipment for the county’s 5g phone network.
Theresa May’s government? Had provisionally suggested allowing the company’s investment: whilst UK phone companies asked for clarity on the subject.
Yesterday?
The government announced it was postponing any decision about Huawei’s involvement in UK infrastructure: as the company is still blacklisted by the US.
The reason I mention it?
Is simple this.
I think the government is lying to us.
I think the real reason they’s postponed it?
Is so that whoever takes over as Conservative party leader — and therefore as Prime Minister, and as a PM with a different position on the subject — can take over today.
Remember, about a week and a half ago, I had a CT scan?
I’m due to get the results, at some point, this week.
They say that no news is good news: and yes, not hearing is nerve-wracking.
But … ?
The sooner they get here, the better.
~≈§≈~
At any rate … ?
I’m thinking that the old saying amongst Alcoholics Anonymous members has a certain amount of appeal: they’d usually advise I should just worry about today.
Saying that … ?
The plan for the day is to head to town: and try to sell a keyboard!
I’ve got this old Mac keyboard: one that went with a vintage, first generation, iMac I had.
Granted, I could keep it: and see if it works as a USB hub with my current model.
It got HWTech a big ‘Thank You’ … and me some handy cash.
Which is nice …
~≈†≈~
In other news?
That same inheritance?
Got me a book … dating back some ⨯ amount of years ago.
As a youngster? I’d swapped … something or other, with a neighbour: for a copy of an interesting graphic novel — a reprint from the Nineteen-forties or fifties — called Tales from the Trigan Empire.
Something I’d long since lost.
But was able to buy from Amazon, recently.
For an eyebrow raising price.
Frankly?
I’ve been reading through it, marvelling at the artwork and story, thinking you couldn’t do it like that, today.
Selling it to my local branch of CeX? Is my usual course of action.
However, with the hard drive in question?
The las time I took the thing into Brentwood CeX, there was a problem.
Apparently?
The hard drive only had one partition, called an EFI boot partition: and nothing else.
Now, I have to admit, that piece of news … was something I wasn’t sure I liked: as I wasn’t sure I could do anything about it.
As soon as I got back home?
I posted a question to the relevant Apple forum: and got an answer that looks helpful.
Hopefully?
That will help.
~≈§≈~
OK, streaming services.
There’s a few, isn’t there?
It looks like the UK will get another one … come October.
Something I know the BBC have wanted to do for years, is use the iPlayer — the BBC’s catch up service — as an international streaming service: alone the lines of Netflix.
Which never caught on.
However, Aunty Beeb has worked with ITV. To introduce a streaming service called Britbox: to sell British TV content abroad.
And have announced that the service will start in the UK, towards the end of the year.
I have to admit, I’m … slightly concerned.
My worry? Is that both iPlayer and ITV Hub — ITV’s equivalent to the iPlayer — may be phased out, here in the UK: in favour of a subscription service.
The fact it’s only now — at blah o’clock in the evening — that asking when Lancashire day is, seems like a good idea.
You know … I really need to get out, more.
~≈§≈~
At least possibly get out more …
Or watch a film or two.
Not that there was anything catching my eye.
Which left me thinking I should raid my collection: to see what I could see.
You can tell that I have a copy of StrangerThings, series 3, sitting around, can’t you … ?
~≈§≈~
Episode 1 — Chapter One: Suzie, Do You Copy? — opens in 1984, in the Soviet Union: where a pair of scientist are demonstrating a new piece of equipment to a senior general.
Who immediately has the senior scientist killed … when the kit fails to open a portal to the Upside Down*.
A year later, in Hawkins?
The new Starcourt Mall has opened: and become a hang out for the romantically inclined Mike (Finn Wolfhard) and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), and their friends sneaked into the mall’s cinema, to catch Day of the Dead: only for a power cut to happen at an inconvenient moment.
In other parts of Hawkins?
Hopper (David Harbour) talks to Joyce (Winona Ryder): he’s seriously concerned about Eleven and Mike … While Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) is back home: after attending a science fair.
He’s got a home made radio tower he wants to show the gang: one that totally fails to work the way he intended.
But that — strangely or otherwise, for Hawkins — does pick up Russian radio transmissions.
The question, here?
Do those transmissions have anything to do with the exploding rats in the old steel mill … ?
We’ll have to find out …
~≈§≈~
Now, I have to say, I loved the first two series of Stranger Things, I really did.
How have I felt about this opening episode of series three?
The challenge, for any series?
Is to make sure that each succeeding series stays fresh.
Stranger Things’s first two series have done that: by showing us the demons of the Upside Down: in the first series.
How hard — in series 2 — it is to defeat them: but that they can be defeated.
In this third series, though?
The Duffer brothers have refreshed the franchise … by introducing an old fashioned Cold War menace, to weaponise demons.
I get the impression that’s not necessarily going to go well: although the company claims it will make sending money internationally a lot easier, regulators are uneasy.
I also note that the blockchain part — the chain of servers underpinning a cryptocurrency — is going to be limited to a few servers.
Unlike Bitcoin: where the likes of you and I can run a bitcoin mine, regardless of how well we understand the maths.
