March & April

ME anniversary

Mar. 2nd. 16th anniversary of the day my illness began. I'm reminded of the woman I spoke to at the housing association several years ago who said, "ME—that only lasts for 6 months, doesn't it?" and then referred me to another organization which turned out to be for housing mentally handicapped people.

Grabador

The box in which my DVD recorder was delivered is marked on one side "Grabador DVD", the Spanish term for DVD recorder. It sounds like a device for "grabbing" programmes out of the ether and storing them on disc. Alternatively there might be a land in Middle Earth called Grabador where the people are all incredibly greedy.

Mar. 5th. After several days of trying on shoes in various shops I finally bought a pair.

Mar. 6th. Returned the shoes. They were too loose. I hate buying shoes.

Mar. 7th. Beautiful mild day. But for the wind it would have been warm. Had a lovely walk through the park and back along the seashore.

Bravenet hacked

My counters, guestbook and tell-a-friend service have all been down for several days. It seems that someone hacked into Bravenet and Bravenet have therefore shut their services down while they check everything for viruses etc. The hacker must be feeling very pleased with themselves.

Mar. 8th. Bought Hush Puppies. TV delivered.

Mar. 9th. Went for a walk wearing the new shoes. They felt a bit strange, but you expect that with new shoes. They were ok on the level and going uphill, but coming down my feet were slipping about inside the shoes—they're too big. I've worn them too much to return them now, so that's £45 down the drain. Adonday veeah! That's a lot of money to write off. I've now realized why I'm having even more trouble with buying shoes than usual: I misremembered my size. All the shoes I've been trying on have been a size too large so I was just wasting my time. I hate buying shoes.

Mar. 15th. Just realized that "Diagon Alley" is a pun on "diagonally". Took me long enough to figure that out.

Japanese art exhibition

Revisited the Japanese art exhibition. On returning from my last visit I read the exhibition brochure and realized that I had missed a couple of the exhibits, so I went back today to look for them. One was just a sheet of off-white latex rubber—the artist hadn't done anything to it beyond hanging it up. Inspired by this masterpiece of creativity, I am pleased to present here my own latest work. I call it "Blue Rectangle". Any buyers?

I also took the opportunity to revisit my favourite picture in the gallery's permanent collection, a nineteenth-century Japanese print in which a go player of demonic appearance is beating his unfortunate opponent over the head with the go board and the go stones are flying everywhere. I don't know for certain the explanation for his behaviour, but I have always presumed that he lost! [More about go and the violent go player below.]

Last month: Previous visits to the Japanese art exhibition

Ridiculous advice

Had an uncomfortable conversation with a lady that I met this morning. She kept probing me about what I did so I had to tell her that I was an ME sufferer and explain how it affected me. On hearing that I was not well enough to do a job, she told me I should apply to do Voluntary Service Overseas!!! Yeah, that figures doesn't it? When a person can just about cope with life with the aid of a microwave, a freezer, an automatic washing machine, Internet shopping and support from a homecare agency, the obvious thing to do is send them off to live and work in some Third World country. The degree of incomprehension I get from some people is quite staggering.

Japanese prints and go

Came across Kiseido's website about the game of go. As well as information about the game itself, there's a "Go and Art" area. This contains a large collection of Japanese woodblock prints featuring a game of go or a go board. The character I mentioned before who is depicted beating another person over the head with a go board is, I discover from the site, Go-Board Tadanobu. He is in fact fighting off enemies, and not being a bad loser as I thought. A whole section of the "Go and Art" area is devoted to him.

Mar. 21st. Spring equinox. Mild with hazy sunshine. Bought another pair of shoes. They fit!

Mar. 26th. The shoes don't fit: they're too loose. I hate buying shoes. Maybe I should just give up and wear my trainers. That's what everyone else seems to be doing.

Andromeda

I've watched the first few episodes of the SF series Andromeda. It's Gene Roddenberry's latest posthumous creation. (How does he do it?) His previous posthumous creation, Earth: Final Conflict, was a very different SF series with its see-through aliens, genetically engineered symbiotic weapons and gesture-controlled insectile flying vehicles, the general air of mystery about what the Taelons were really up to and that strangely beautiful alien music. Andromeda, on the other hand, is a pretty conventional space opera.

The central character is Dylan Hunt, captain of the Systems Commonwealth starship Andromeda Ascendant, reminding one of Star Trek—though the ship is more comparable to Battlestar Galactica. Hunt and the ship are frozen in time for 300 years like Buck Rogers. Then, having acquired a motley crew of seven (including himself and the ship's computer), he sets off on a mission to defy the might of the Nietzschean Empire and re-establish the Systems Commonwealth which the Nietzscheans have destroyed—shades of Blakes's Seven. There is one very noticeable difference from Blakes's Seven, however. Zen, the computer in that series, had very little visible presence—just a screen with random flashes of light on it. The Andromeda's computer, by contrast, has a female hologram as a user interface. This computer is positively sexy!

Apr. 4th. Bought a fourth pair of shoes.

Apr. 5th. Went for a short walk—uphill and down again—to try out the new shoes. They seem to be ok.

Hygiene

The Consumers' Association has been drawing attention to the fact that many shop assistants who handle food are not required by law to have formal training in food hygiene. Their observations have revealed some very unhygienic practices. For instance one man who was wrapping slices of ham in plastic film used a sheet of the film to wipe his brow then wrapped some ham in it.

Yellow skunk cabbage

Saw a good display of yellow skunk cabbage (Lysichiton americanum) in the park. [See the Royal Horticultural Society page on yellow skunk cabbage for a picture.] This showy wetland plant with its bright yellow spathe is often planted in the larger parks where there is a stream to create the necessary marshy conditions, but in the past I've only seen it at a distance, surrounded by mud and therefore inaccessible. However in the local park's recently created wetland area, yellow skunk cabbage has been planted right next to the path so that you can see it close up without even getting your shoes muddy. Full marks to whoever thought of doing that.

I do think "yellow skunk cabbage" is a strange name for the plant. Yellow it certainly is, smelly it may be (though I didn't notice it) but as far as I am concerned it looks absolutely nothing like cabbage.

Site update: WebTV

Apr. 15th. Updated the site. Rendering on WebTV improved. This has been achieved by introducing a supplementary style sheet which is loaded only when the WebTV browser is detected. This makes it much easier to adapt to the peculiarities of this browser without affecting the appearance of the page in other browsers.

Apr. 16th. Planted a petunia in the flower box.

Apr. 17th. Planted three violas. Thought of planting a few 'cellos and maybe a double bass, but didn't have room.

Three-dimensional go

In Star Trek, the crew of the Enterprise play a form of chess on a rather elegant three-dimensional board. Andromeda features a three-dimensional version of go. The board is much less elegant: just three normal boards stacked one above the other. I don't find that at all convincing. I think 3-D go would be played on a cubical board, probably 9×9×9. That would have 729 vertices, compared with 361 on a conventional 19×19 board, so a game would take about twice as long as in conventional go. Any physical realization of such a board would be unwieldy and inconvenient to play on, so a computer would normally be used to show the board on a 3-D display or by holographic projection. The rules of go extend very easily to three dimensions, but the techniques of play would have to be worked out from scratch.

Printer

My printer's gone wrong. It's been making abnormal snapping and whining noises and turning on the ink-out error lights. I'm trying to find a repair service that will give me an estimate for the repair without charging a hefty inspection fee. It's surprising how many computer repair services won't touch printers at all.

Apr. 24th. The hillsides are golden with gorse flowers now.

Apr. 27th. The aquilegia (or columbine) in the flower box is in bud. Both the leaves and the buds are delicate, attractive shapes.

Titanic

Finished watching Titanic, which I recorded last month. It's gripping, moving...and the computer graphics are excellent—you can't tell the ship isn't real. It's taken me weeks to get through the film, watching a little at a time, but it's been well worth it.