A Bug's Life

Small broken table has gone off with a chap who will fix it, after pulling faces and discovering many, many little broken parts. I did check that he wanted a fiddly time-consuming job before he took it! Meanwhile another chap came to look at a larger hinged round table (also from Grandma) which is lovely but I don't use, and gave me more money for it than the repair work will be for the small table. Result! And I found why there was a ring of small dents on the underside - people used to spin wool and screw their spinny thing over the table edge, the dents are where it was attached. I knew some of the history of the table, but apparently not all of it. tamaranth said it was a palimpsest. Once they have fixed it up and done the specialist cleaning that I can't, they can sell it for more money.

I feel like a good little bourgeouis local economic pump. Cabinet makers and antiques dealers won't go hungry tonight.

For those of you asking after pictures of tortoises. He is not always this helpful with the weeding.

A writeable/erasable t-shirt which says

Days since someone last hollered at me in the street:__

The candidate literature is strangely unbalanced. On the front of one flyer they tell us all about why not to vote for the other guys, because of x,y,z big central government actions (cuts! fees! privatising one's grandparents! etc). But on the back, where it says why to vote for this candidate, it's all local issues - fixed a bollard, arranged cycle parking and fought for improved bus timetables. They broke the NHS! I mended a pavement! I can see why they do it but it does feel off-balance.

We have a pair of red-legged partridges who live near work. Here they are taking a stroll. Usually I see them scurrying along the edge of the car park.

( pic )

Books read (30-34)
The Non-Statistical Man, Raymond F Jones (1953-57, 1964)
Locas II: Maggie, Hopey and Ray, Jaime Hernandez
Guardians of Paradise, Jaine Fenn (2010)
The Seven Daughters of Eve, Bryan Sykes (2001)
Evil Women, Graeme Larmour (2008)

Films watched (45-56) 3 at the cinema, 8 DVDs, 1 tv
The Skin I Live In
In Bruges (rewatch)
The Lovely Bones (rewatch)
Battle Royale
Spinal Tap (rewatch)
The Pirates! in an Adventure with Scientists
50/50
The Shining
The Cabin in the Woods
Avengers Assemble
Penny Serenade
The Ghost (watching as I type)

Gigs (3-4)
Jesterlarf Comedy Club (Cambridge)
Avenue Q (Cambridge)

Books incoming 12 (10 bought, 1 gift, 1 loan)

VG: The Skin I Live In, The Shining.

Books read (21-29)
Principles of Angels, Jain Fenn (2008)
The Chrysalids, John Wyndham (1955)
Lord Foul's Bane, Stephen R. Donaldson (1977)
One Million Tomorrows, Bob Shaw (1970)
The Man Who Ate the World, Frederik Pohl (1956-59, 1966)
Converts, Ian Watson (1984)
Consorts of Heaven, Jaine Fenn (2009)
The Man With a Thousand Names, A.E. van Vogt (1974)
The Giant O'Brien, Hilary Mantel (1998)

Films watched (32-44) 1 at the cinema, 6 DVDs, 6 tv
The Big Lebowski
Patagonia
Goldfinger
The Secret War of Harry Figg
Ocean's Twelve
Zoolander (rewatch)
Hairspray (rewatch, recent version)
Brüno
Troll Hunter
The Three Musketeers (2011)
The Faculty
Broken Embraces
John Carter of Mars

Gigs (1-2)
Slow Club (Feb)
Richard Herring - What Is Love Anyway?

Books incoming 3 (1 loan, 2 book exchange)

Doing an online course, with regular quizzes (which seems to be the US version of "Tutorial problems"), but there were some questions which needed knowledge of a concept that hadn't been covered in the lectures or the reading.

And what concept was that? Why, it was that to use some advanced concepts, you needed prior knowledge of, um, other skills and concepts...

Today I have been mostly counting dresses (while sorting wardrobe). "Dresses?" I hear you ponder, "I don't often see bugshaw wearing dresses."

31 dresses
15 fit
12 are small
4 are now discarded
17 have been worn (other than trying on)
13 are black
4 are purple
12 were bought by me
1 needs ironing
1 needs mending

I've cleared out the big built-in wardrobe (big for Britain, a teeny tiny closet for Americans) and getting ready to put things back in. I'll need to if I'm going to get to bed tonight. I wonder if ordering clothes by when they were last worn will have an invigorating effect on my clothing?