Early Risers.

[iL Dottore]

7 hours ago, brianusa said:

There are so many euphemisms for death and dying these days that being dead almost sounds good!  You pass, so it would seem or Be with Jesus or Taken by the Angels.  However you are just as dead with out all these niceties either in the fiery pit, an expensive coffin or pine box.  Death is as real as birth and life itself; its just that we don't know of it and perhaps just as well!😧

    Brian.

I read, somewhere, that death is the new pornography. The article claimed that just as for the Victorians all matters sexual were referred to by euphemism, (or basically swept under the carpet and not talked about at all), so nowadays death has replace sex is something you either don’t talk about, address directly or only refer to by euphemism.

 

Whereas, for the Victorians, death was a matter of fact event and you just went on with your life (Queen Victoria excepted). Somehow, I can’t see having granny laid out in the front room for everyone to “pay their respects” whilst you have breakfast in the kitchen, happening at all nowadays.

Edited July 22, 2022 by iL Dottore

[iL Dottore]

23 minutes ago, TheQ said:

I've just scan read that article "When Scotland was Jewish" and it's one of the biggest loads of carp I've ever read..

I think you can justifiably claim that conspiracy theorists work on the premise that their “victims”  (which is an appropriate term, I believe) are poorly read, if not poorly educated (which is not the same as being stupid – although undoubtably many believers in conspiracy theories are just that).

 

The more you read, the harder it is for you to be gullible – which is why authoritarian and dictatorial regimes (no matter their politics) absolutely love bannng and burning books.

 

And whilst a recent survey showed that the average number of books in a British household was 104, another survey showed that at least 1 in 10 households contained no books whatsoever.

 

Here’s an amusing take on reading, from Penguin the publisher: https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/2020/03/what-the-amount-of-books-you-read-a-month-says-about-you

[NGT6 1315]

Moaning awl. Currently warmer indoors than outdoors. No, summer's not my season of preference!

 

Currently dealing with some improvements to the electrical wiring in the basement. There's been a marked lack of power outlets in particular, which I'm rectifying (no pun intended) these days.

 

All of that is made more complicated by the pre-existing wiring having been configured in, shall we say, ways you probably would no longer choose nowadays. The lighting circuit in particular is tied into the mains in a somewhat creative way, which but makes keeping track of things and thus troubleshooting rather more complicated than it should be. All of this means some serious thinking is required to understand the setup in the first place!

 

I but did already manage to tidy up the wiring in the old garage in such a way as to more cleanly separate mains and lighting, so I guess having assisted Dad in all sorts of home improvement things in Ye Olde Countree is, in fact, paying off.

 

Of course, I'm mindful enough that I would call in an electrician if I should encounter any issues I could not sensibly and safely resolve with my own means. That being said, I do think having good knowledge of any peculiarities in your house goes a long way in being able to troubleshoot a lot more easily!

 

Stay safe and ta for now...

[NGT6 1315]

12 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

And whilst a recent survey showed that the average number of books in a British household was 104, another survey showed that at least 1 in 10 households contained no books whatsoever.

 

In addition to my wiring improvement, we're also carrying out some additional renovations here and there, one of which involved moving the library downstairs. Elise said she reliably estimates there to be beyond 1,000 books in this house!

[iL Dottore]

Good morning all,

 

Friday at last!

 

THE SAGA CONTINUE…

 

Having determined that the problem with the business computer was internal (either a failure in the USB-C connector, the power centre or the internal battery), the next step was to find out if it was still under warranty (it is!) And where I need to go to go in order to get it repaired.

 

Although the Lenovo website gives you plenty of opportunity to buy their computers, finding out how to get the damn things repaired was a Herculean task. I finally had to ask the help of that nice Mr Google in order to find the right places on the multipage Lenovo website where I could ask for technical support and find an authorised repair centre. Accordingly a polite, yet firm, message was sent to both technical support and the closest authorised repair centre. I expect a response in geological time…

 

Fortunately, the Acer laptop – which I had “retired“ last year when I got the Lenovo - was pressed into service again and is performing flawlessly. The only tiny caveat is that the operating system is Windows Home as opposed to Windows Pro, which means some limitations on accessing certain shared drives on the cloud as the Windows Home OS isn’t designed to handle that level of security. Fortunately, nothing I can’t work around. 
 

IN FURTHER NEWS

Mrs iD and the Wolfpack are returning from the Holiday Hovel this evening late this evening – mainly because near the Holiday Hovel during the first week in August there will be a huge Scouting jamboree with over 50,000 Scouts expected to attend (or some similarly large number). As quiet walks with the dogs off the table for the next two weeks or so, Mrs ID has reluctantly decided to return to our “city property“.

 

I’m really looking forward to having them back.  We plan to go out for lunch tomorrow: something I am looking forward to not just because of the company, but also because it will be the first meal in something like six weeks but I haven’t prepared myself.

 

Well, enough drivel from me, enjoy POETS day!

[TheQ]

10 books a month, quite possibly, down from 12 a week in my early teenage years, not helped now by the time spent on this forum. Around 2000 books in this room, and a lot more scattered around the house. 

[iL Dottore]

15 minutes ago, NGT6 1315 said:

 

…Elise said she reliably estimates there to be beyond 1,000 books in this house!

I have absolutely no idea how many books we have – I lost count after 2500. With the exception of the bathrooms and the master bedroom, there is not one room in the house – Including the workshop in the cellar – that does not have one or more bookcases. We even have a dedicated room that has been turned into a library.

[J. S. Bach]

19 minutes ago, NGT6 1315 said:

In addition to my wiring improvement, we're also carrying out some additional renovations here and there, one of which involved moving the library downstairs. Elise said she reliably estimates there to be beyond 1,000 books in this house!

The same here. Reading is one of my favorite things to do.

[jamie92208]

I was brought up in a house with bookshelves in every room and love them.  I refuse to have a kindle as i like the feel of a book.  I was rather shocked when I moved into lodgings with a family near Leeds.  They had three young kids and apart from a few children's picture books there wasn't a book in the house.  I don't read as much as I used to but there are still plenty of books around and I always buy some when we go to the UK as well as picking up 2nd hand ones in charity shops round here. I've even bought and read a few books in French.

 

Jamie

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[The Lurker]

Greetings all from a grey but dry and somewhat cooler fold in the hill. 

 

Last day of the school year for those Lurkers still there. Younger Lurker has finished and is still asleep. That means I work from home today - but being Friday, that's my general habit anyway.

 

Books: I have never tried to count the number of books in our house. The one bookcase in this room is double stacked on each of the6 shelves with books lying on the top. There is also an overflow pile on a box we used to use for toy storage. And there are bookcases or piles of books in all the other rooms of the house except the bathrooms. Both Mrs Lurker and I have always read and although Elder Lurker is not so keen these days, he loved books until study put him off (it did that to me too for a while - but I didn't have the internet to Wilf in those days so returned to books quite quickly), Younger Lurker has never "got" fiction but happily reads anything F1 related, especially "Autosports" magazine. We were quite surprised when we first visited NCT friends to find they didn't have a bookcase in their lounge.

[Barry O]

Ey up!

Caught up with one of my erstwhile staff last night. Tank design, training system design and Armoured bridge launcher design were put to rights.

 

Books.. yes we have lots of them and could really do with building an extension to house a library.some friends have done just that.  Not just allsorts of books but her indoors and the other musician friend have lots of musicscores/parts.  So far her indoors has accumulated 3 music storage facilities.. plus some she leaves out and about.. 

 

Mugatea time to be followed by email time then club opening time.. 

 

Stay safe!

 

Baz

[polybear]

10 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

Europe has a large advantage here in that all EU member countries could share the cost of a service that could travel to the country needing it at the time, rather than having to shoulder the cost entirely like you would if you weren't in the EU.

 

 

The Head of the LFB reported that Greater London were down to just 3 spare appliances on the hottest day, because all others were out fighting fires.

 

9 hours ago, southern42 said:

Video lasts 46mins. The two lads play continuously for half an hour before having a break.  To give you an idea, the longest I keep going for is about 3 mins at a time. Standard of play is just as far behind, if not more so! I have an awfully long way to go!

 

 

Bear recalls a Trumpet player being interviewed on telly - apparently it is possible to do "circular breathing" where the player breaths in and blows out at the same time (meaning very long notes can be played), which sounds kinda clever to this Bear.

The thought of blowing candles out on a cake whilst simultaneously hoovering up the crumbs has a real attraction - though could be fraught with danger if you got it wrong....

 

8 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

(Rural bushfire fighters in Australia are nearly all volunteers who go through this kind of thing without even getting paid!)

 

 

I hope as a minimum they got paid (and well) whilst on an active call-out; if not then it's bluddy criminal.

 

8 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Evening all from Estuary-Land. A couple of packets arrived today, one from the UK and one from Hong Kong. Both were purchases from E-bay. The postage on the packet from Hong Kong was £2 but the UK postage was £3. I might add that the UK package was only posted last night.

 

Not sure if it's still the case, but until very recently China (and HK?) got preferential treatment from "developed" countries regarding postal charges (that's them sending us stuff, not the other way around) as they were/are regarded as "developing countries".  China?  With the size of their Armed Forces & Nukes??

 

58 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

 

Having determined that the problem with the business computer was internal (either a failure in the USB-C connector, the power centre or the internal battery), the next step was to find out if it was still under warranty (it is!) And where I need to go to go in order to get it repaired.

 

Although the Lenovo website gives you plenty of opportunity to buy their computers, finding out how to get the damn things repaired was a Herculean task. I finally had to ask the help of that nice Mr Google in order to find the right places on the multipage Lenovo website where I could ask for technical support and find an authorised repair centre. Accordingly a polite, yet firm, message was sent to both technical support and the closest authorised repair centre. I expect a response in geological time…

 

 

It would be a great concern to this Bear to send a pc to a repair centre/leave with a shop for them to repair, as they would have access to the hard drive and all that it contains (not that Bear has anything "dodgy" you understand...).  The risk of theft, fraud etc. etc. being too great in my book - or indeed adding any sort of hidden spyware etc.

No doubt as it's iD's work laptop he has such things well and truly covered;  I use separate back-ups on external drives so if my own laptop were to die and I couldn't fix it myself (and the hard drive was playing up) then it would be a new laptop (assuming a new drive wouldn't fix it) rather than taking it to a shop etc.

I had an external drive that died once whilst still under warranty - I used a program that over-writes all the data multiple times (IIRC the U.S. DoD quote something like 36 times) to ensure that it couldn't be recovered before returning it for a new drive).

Incidentally (and I'm sure that many fellow ER'ers know this) deleting a file doesn't delete it - it merely deletes the reference to that file (a bit like removing the index card to a book in a library - the book's still on the shelf but the card saying which shelf is gone).  So to delete the actual information in that file the location has to be over-written with new information - and ideally multiple times so the original information can't be recovered.

 

43 minutes ago, The Lurker said:

We were quite surprised when we first visited NCT friends to find they didn't have a bookcase in their lounge.

 

Bear doesn't have a bookcase in the lounge (though I do have one in the conservatory - dedicated to the products of a certain Wild Swan etc.).  I must admit to wondering how on earth people manage to keep huge open bookcases/books dust free - Bear's has doors on the front.

 

Bear here.....

Today's Fun?  Wash the Bearmobile.  Then MIUABGA....

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. At the last count I had about 3,000 books but the last time I counted them was about ten years ago. Since then the number has nearly doubled and it does not even include 'disposable' books such as fiction paperbacks. Currently I am reading 'Operation Pedestal' by Max Hastings, the story of the Malta Convoy in 1942.

[TheQ]

36 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

 

 

Bear doesn't have a bookcase in the lounge (though I do have one in the conservatory - dedicated to the products of a certain Wild Swan etc.).  I must admit to wondering how on earth people manage to keep huge open bookcases/books dust free - Bear's has doors on the front.

 

Bear here.....

Today's Fun?  Wash the Bearmobile.  Then MIUABGA....

The invention of battery vacuum cleaners, the type that can be converted to do the floor , have made it a lot easier...

 

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

Well, what a change in the weather, it was blisteringly hot on Monday and Tuesday, quite warm Wednesday and Thursday, today it’s chuckinitdarn! Mind you, the garden is in real need of a good soaking. I’ve no idea how many books we’ve got, we’ll into 4 figures I should imagine. Sheila no reads most of her books on a kindle, which she loves, although she was hesitant at first. All my books are real books, mostly about the subjects that interest me, railways, military vehicles, aircraft boats etc and military history. I was going to walk to the butchers, but I think I’d get very wet, so I shall call there on the way back from the big Swedish furniture store. 

 

Bak later. 

 

Brian

[BlackRat]

Greetings one and all from a overcast (as per norm) Kernow.

 

Ive been slowly going through my book collection and many have now been redistributed to either the railway minded pals (one gets the books and mags in exchange for him fixing my PC as and when required) and the rest to charity shops.

 

A recent trip to the Exeter show found me browsing through a second hand book store and realised several of the books were the same titles etc as I had given away.

 

Then the realisation that they were probably all from the same person who no doubt had croaked, kicked the bucket or whatever.

 

There’s still four double Billy Bookcases full and a load more up in the loft so there’s still a way to go.

 

The sad reality is quite a few bought for reference we’re only ever looked at whilst sat on the throne.

 

Still a good way to pass the time tho.

[monkeysarefun]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

I hope as a minimum they got paid (and well) whilst on an active call-out; if not then it's bluddy criminal.

 

 

Following the 2019 fires the government announced for the first time  volunteers could claim up to $6000 compensation, but that doesn't cover all of what some of them sacrificed, many were off work for several weeks  fighting fires, or travelled around the state and country as needed often paying for their own fuel or airfares. Others used up annual leave and almost all were away from home over the Christmas New Year break.  It was all done voluntarily though, Australia has a don't let your mates down   kind of vibe, as opposed to  "my rights!"  that means  there's never a shortage of people queueing up to join either the Rural Fire services, or the state emergency services, which are a similar volunteer organisation that is called on during floods, storms  and natural disasters. 

Edited July 22, 2022 by monkeysarefun

[PeterBB]

11 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

I better not tell you how we found out tgat someone had died once, then.

 

Jamie

Derbyshire news today has a case where DNA had to be used to ID the dead person -  person who live in flat below had complained to the council about flies even after doing a thorough 'spring clean' of her own house.  Police had to break in and found him in the bathroom ... staet will probably be similar to how you found ...

[The White Rabbit]

Morning,

 

Grey, damp and cool - quite a change from two or three days ago. I was hoping to go for a wander but will stay dry and place bets on raindrops running down the window. 

 

Plenty of books in this burrow too, never counted them but thinking about it, there must be well into four figures. While I was at the railway, we'd often get collections of second-hand books in from deceased enthusiasts. Mixed emotions, as it was nice to see others being able to appreciate the books but obviously at the cost of someone - sometimes someone I knew - dying.

 

Once a collection had to be collected. It might even have put il D's to shame. I had to use the 4WD and 'employ' a native tracker to find the house. It was a very nice house but half a mile down a rutted farm track, off a single-tracked country lane with grass down the middle. A prolonged work-out later, there was no more room in the back and we'd only taken the railway titles - perhaps a fifth or so of the total? 

 

The second-hand collections also gave me another thoughtful moment - I found one of my works in one collection. Nice to know that it was valued and the owner thought it worth keeping but it certainly gave me a 'funny feeling'. I have heard writing a book is one way to be remembered after you've gone. Hopefully in a positive way? 

 

Anyway, sounds of impatience arising from downstairs, so TTFN. 

 

Edited July 22, 2022 by The White Rabbit
indefinite articles

[PeterBB]

3 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

I think you can justifiably claim that conspiracy theorists work on the premise that their “victims”  (which is an appropriate term, I believe) are poorly read, if not poorly educated (which is not the same as being stupid – although undoubtably many believers in conspiracy theories are just that).

 

The more you read, the harder it is for you to be gullible – which is why authoritarian and dictatorial regimes (no matter their politics) absolutely love bannng and burning books.

 

And whilst a recent survey showed that the average number of books in a British household was 104, another survey showed that at least 1 in 10 households contained no books whatsoever.

 

Here’s an amusing take on reading, from Penguin the publisher: https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/2020/03/what-the-amount-of-books-you-read-a-month-says-about-you

The more you read ... does 25 blogs per page x the number of pages equate to book reading?  If so then ERs are all avid readers.

Books - on the move many trips were made to a local charity bookshop so probably down to hundreds now but, not read many of late.

Edited July 22, 2022 by PeterBB
typos

[southern42]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

Snip...

 

Bear recalls a Trumpet player being interviewed on telly - apparently it is possible to do "circular breathing" where the player breaths in and blows out at the same time (meaning very long notes can be played), which sounds kinda clever to this Bear.

The thought of blowing candles out on a cake whilst simultaneously hoovering up the crumbs has a real attraction - though could be fraught with danger if you got it wrong....

 

snip

 

 

I looked into circular breathing years ago. That is as far as I got with it. However, I did have some flute technique books - scales, exercises, etc. - which included breathing from the diaphragm. This is excellent for us whose nose gets bunged up at certain times of the year and you cannot breath through that particular vessel. I also find it helps to relax all those muscles around the chest and back and consequently the neck, arms, hands, fingers...and so forth. All those things that contribute to better and easier playing.

 

I have never tried blowing out candles whilst simultaneously hoovering up the crumbs so cannot comment on that other than I would probably get sucked up, along with the candles, LDC, and plate, etc, by our very energetic Henry who has no difficulties breathing in!

[PhilJ W]

1 hour ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

Following the 2019 fires the government announced for the first time  volunteers could claim up to $6000 compensation, but that doesn't cover all of what some of them sacrificed, many were off work for several weeks  fighting fires, or travelled around the state and country as needed often paying for their own fuel or airfares. Others used up annual leave and almost all were away from home over the Christmas New Year break.  It was all done voluntarily though, Australia has a don't let your mates down   kind of vibe, as opposed to  "my rights!"  that means  there's never a shortage of people queueing up to join either the Rural Fire services, or the state emergency services, which are a similar volunteer organisation that is called on during floods, storms  and natural disasters. 

Nearly all of the volunteer firemen in the UK receive a retainer for which they are expected to answer the call whenever possible. Whilst on duty they are paid the same rate as the full time firemen.

[PhilJ W]

One of the SEERS members who died at the age of 97 a couple of years ago had four twenty foot containers full of books. It is only in the last few weeks that they have have been finally sorted and the majority found new homes.

[Darlington_Shed]

41 minutes ago, The White Rabbit said:

I found one of my works in one collection

 

One of my favourite anecdotes was told by poet and author Simon Armitage. He had given his parents one of his books with a personal dedication; some time later he was browsing a secondhand book shop and found a copy of the same title. Opening it, he discovered his handwritten note to mum and dad.

 

I average about a book a week these days, well down from my teenage years and early 20s when I got through 5 or 6 library books a week. We have bookshelves in every room except the bathrooms, and there's probably around 2,000-plus books in total, temporarily diminished by the annual cull that sees several boxes delivered to the local Oxfam shop.