Sunday 22 February 2009

1053 Just another working day

Added 3 pm. This is becoming a more detailed chronicle of 24 hours than I envisaged. I need to write soon about the differences between freedom from and freedom to because we are reversing away from the where I believe we had developed. Freedom is first level freedom from having insufficient food to survive, from shelter, from being harmed by others, including by the state unjustly, from false arrest and imprisonment etc freedom to be the freedom to me without adversely affecting others, to develop my innate and acquired physical, emotional, intellectual, spiritual capacities to their maximum potential. I will have to define the concepts further including who I mean by we, and by me.)

(Added at 11.30 am but corrected 3.15pm. I woke, I guess around 8 to 9am but knew I needed more sleep and drifted between dreams, vaguely remembered, at 11.30 and not all now unless I make the effort, and the feeling that I ought to be getting on with the day. Yesterday was a good day until I realised that the situation involving a group of service men and women taken hostage by Iran was developing into increasingly serious situation and that it was important to keep in touch as the media. Why I will explain later)

Today (March 29th) has been a very good work day and in other respects. I awoke at a good hour and attended to some official correspondence put to one side because I knew it would involve searching for documentation which I did not expect to need again, and which over two weeks I have searched unsuccessfully. I also needed to make copies, and my flatbed scanner had been playing up. It began when MSN offered an online upgrade of their internet and email programme, and this resulted in nothing happening when using the scanner copier icon. HP admitted this was a general quirk which everyone was experiencing and offered a solution which involved pressing two keys which brought the icon to the task bar, from which you could operate the software. (An irritant, but which would reshape my universe!) Then, because of a gap in use I forgot which keys to press so sheepishly went back to the HP web site, and learnt that a software add on to download would resolve the original problem, but by mistake I reloaded the original software which took a long time, before correctly adding the ad on which worked, in that the HP button brought up the software use on screen.

However, while I could make copies but anything scanned has blue wavy lines, and the machine started to play up. (There may be no direct connection between this series of developments, but I am reminded of the slogan, I may be paranoid but this does not mean that they are not out to get me! Added 3.30pm)

Because of printer problems, because of the amount of usage and because some inexpensive cartridges failing on colour reproduction, and wanting to upgrade the quality of printing in relation to some work outputs, I decided it was time to move onto a six colour separate cartridge system printer, scanner combined, which can also do slides and negatives from my historical collection. The previous evening (March 28th) I investigated possibilities on line, and then made up my mind to proceed) although I was able to produce copies required for the official correspondence.

After visiting my mother I investigated possibilities at two stores finding the only model which met my specifications was the most expensive at £200 and £225. I returned home and first checked the price of replacement cartridges with my on line supplier with the bonus of a 2 for 1 offer and eureka this was going work out well. (Words which come back to haunt me, added 3.40pm after making a telephone order for 120 cartridges, that is 10 x 6 for each colour then doubled 2 for 1 for a total of £189. which works out at just under £1.60 a cartridge, which means the odd dud will be no problem with the originals around £10 each bought singly.)

I then had a double bonus because the same machine was on offer on line for under £150 by one of the store chains, for collection at two stores in this area. One is less distance but involves going through the Tyne Tunnel, the other within a ten mile drive but involves a very busy section of local motorway, particularly on Fridays. (My original intention was to go to bed when I first became tired last night just after midnight and travel once the rush hour into Newcastle was likely to have lessened. However I stayed up until 4am and wanted to sort various things this morning before setting off, so had a lunch of chopped lettuce, tomato, an orange pepper, olives and prawns, followed by a banana, a few dates and dried apricots, I break off for a few dates and salted peanuts, where is your will power lad)

(I therefore did not set off until around 1 and the traffic around the Angel of the North were busy as anticipated and although the box was not ready for me on arrival it only took a few seconds, then to ay and to be on my way home. Added 3.55pm 30th)

(Added midday 30th, both main TV 24 hour news channels are now showing a TV broadcast by the soldiers taken hostages, yesterday the female was dressed in Muslim attire and made statements which the government had already demonstrated were false. She has sent three letters each with mounting hysteria. This is a situation which requires the understanding of the media, and the politicians who are outside the official loop. There are two priorities which have to be balanced. The first involves future relationships between the rest of the world and Iran and the welfare of Iranian people and everyone else. The second, and it always has to be in this order, whatever is said officially in public, is the welfare of those taken hostage and their families, and it is in this respect that I am not sure what the media is doing in showing their broadcasts unless it is considered this will be the most effective way of securing their release without adversely affecting the longer term position of this and other countries which involves doing nothing other than to indicate that the behaviour of the Iranian junta and its cohorts is unacceptable. There appears t be appreciation that it is important not to be goaded into action which will ignite the Middle East and produce everyone's worst nightmare. Alas we have been there before and sometimes there is no alternative but to yield ground in the short term, sometimes we have to say not one inch more. A quick salad and time to go for the new all singing and dancing scan printer).

( deleted from last night):- and they are a fraction, and then good fortune follower thoroughness and persistence, because although the two models were price £200 and £225 at the stores, the same model was advertised online as available at another branch about three miles further from first in a different direction for £145. I ordered and will collect as early as I can tomorrow. The traffic in the area is horrendous most Friday afternoons.

I have also acquired a router to enable AOL broadband to be used with Vista and will resist going over the frustrating situation which evolved when first I was told a router would be sent and then denied that this was so, although whether an individual exceeded their authority or there was a change in policy within management will never be known and my life has become too short to chase most acts of this nature. (The dilemma of resisting encroachments of freedom from the misuse of power of faceless corporations-how times have changed when the faceless used to be bureaucrats- comments made 4pm) so I decided to also go for the best in order to communicate with machines on all three levels of the property so that the conceptual visitors can check indexes, view work development photos, film clips and other background material in relation to the displayed and stored open work, and reflect on what the ten locked four drawer filing cabinets will look like when turned into monoliths and as to what they contain especially the one at the foot of the first floor bedroom, I have one also on the second floor which I use depending on mood. One has black bedding (creative as well as secretive) and the other Blue which is for the factual and event work. My fear is that I will not master the technology and reduce operational functioning further. However I did successful master a wireless system which projects sky from this room through books cases on either side of a solid brick wall. (Added 4.05pm I forgot to explain that I am turning my home into a living installation complete with conceptual visitors, including critics).

(Written between 1 and 3 am) My first effort with the technology of My Space profiling was to set up the site as quickly as possible, knowing that it would take me weeks to think through sections on interests, hero's and the like, but then the more I saw of the achievements of other individuals I explored further and with the help of Pimp my profile com established the present framework, after nearly going for a Gandalf presentation who was as ancient as me and where I hoped that I had gained some of his wisdom and willingness to serve the interests of others more able to accomplish tasks essential for the survival of the good life that we know. However I still wondered about how others did their tricks with sound, with changing photos, slideshows and with glitter (given that I have created some 6000 glitter cards to-date). I discovered that it is possible to have one song or tune or speech extract had Vincent which met my mood although others include, 'Where do you go to my lovely', 'Where have all the flowers gone', 'My way.' and Billie Holiday's, 'Its quarter to three set em up Joe', and of course the list is endless. Today by accident while checking out an unexpected friend request, I discovered Photobucket, but so far I have not mastered the varying sizes but have made a start.
I broke off (March 29th) for a quick naughty naughty lunch of four grilled slices of bacon and plain rolls, followed by a banana, a few dates and slated (salted) peanuts with a can of diet Pepsi and a general vitamin tablet. At the same time I watched Exodus Part three, the episode which ended the first season of Lost and most of the extras which confirmed my understanding that the series is about redemption and rebirth and that they have all been called by the Island, but what and where is the Island? (Break off 4.15 for more peanuts it is one of those days)

I made a dozen new Artman Glitter cards and decided to photo some for use on My Space through Photobucket. I also decided to photo the nine black or white boxes containing the 101 copies of 101 in Black and White, and this was successful but I need to work on the photos digitally before making use. I broke off from viewing the Lost DVD to upload the photos and had an hour before the daily visit to my mother. This was used to read the rest of chapter of chapter three numbers 2 Dago Droppings a first novel by an interesting young Gibraltarian M G Sanchez 'Rock Black 0-10.' I did not like the book's first two chapters, but I begin to see what he is up to and where I think he is going. I imagine native Gibraltarians will hate the book and him because although it is a good picture of life at the period, Gibraltarians have perceptions of themselves which they expect others to accept, or at least not to criticise in public. Of course I am an expert on everything Gibraltarian, relying on the accounts of relatives who left in 1939 and two brief visits in 2003 and 2004. A brochure arrived offering an 8 day trip to Andalusia and Gibraltar with direct flights from the local airport. There is a significant premium for not going with anyone and there will be insufficient time to visit the home village of my great grand mother, so I will do what I planned to do previously which involves a flight hotel trip to Gib and then excursions into Spain and perhaps over to Tangier and probably defer to the spring of 2008 than this autumn.

I was out of the house from five until eight and decided on food which comprised shell on prawns, red wine and cheese twigglets, three small pieces of baked fish and microwave veg, a few more dates and nuts and some soft dried apricots. We watched celebrity master chef, and I matched my mother with two after eight Azda mints, and Turkish choc thins, plus tiny tablets of creamy white chocolate, we then watched the regional news and went through a few pages of a 4 family photos and large print cards which she can read of a kind. I always wonder when I leave if this will be the last time we hold hands, and I can give her a hug and a kiss. I know she is exceptionally well care for and no longer feels alone. Sometimes I worry more that she will outlive me, of course I worry for me, but she misses when I am not there and it took us over sixty years to reach where we are and the time is irreplaceable. I listen to a local programme about England's Performance against Andorra. I have been to Andorra and on impulse stayed overnight without prior booking, having been shown the rooms first. I secretly hoped Andorra would score a goal, just as I will not mind if the Irish win the one day cricket against England later to day. It would have been a nightmare had Andorra scored and if Ireland win, having thrashed us at rugby union, but it might strengthen the national spine again for what is to come if Iran seriously harms any of our servicemen and one woman who were doing their job. They are not expendable, nor will what has happened to them be forgotten. We take our sport seriously but others should never forget how the British people behave when there is agreement over the cause, whether it is of our own or of others. No more needs or should be said, for now
(England are 97 for 3 so an Irish win is sill not out of the question—added 4.20pm)

I went for some cereal half an hour ago but settled for black grapes, and it is 3 am. It is now even later 3.30. Before writing I grew tired not having a nap or two during the day, having stayed up longer than I should because of some valued communication on MySpace. But then I knew what I needed to write about. I will reread in the morning before posting.

4.21 pm Live. I am ravenous. On return from collecting the printer I had 50 grams of smoked salmon in crackers with lemon and then a slice of ham roll, and then the peanuts washed down with a cup of tea. Of course the peanuts make one thirsty. We nearly lose the wicket of Peterson so have spent part of the day reflecting on yesterday reflecting on previous yesterdays. Tonight American Idol and gorgeous Paula Abdul and some set making work, and then decide if to start the 100th birthday albums outstanding using my exiting set up or go for the big bang with Vista, new printer scan and router system
Freedom is the ability to change mind as and when you want.

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