Rick's b.log - entry 2023/05/05

My mower, on the other hand. Oh my god. It guzzles petrol. My little car did eight journeys to/from work for it's six and a half litres. Marte, on the other hand, drinks around 3½-4 litres just doing the mowing. Clearly American engines aren't built with anything like efficiency in mind. With the steep price of unleaded, each little mow will cost me about the same as two weeks of going to work. That's... nuts.

Price of fuel.

New computer keys

The size was given as 11mm by 13mm. I carefully measured my keys and they should have fitted. But they didn't, because it would have had to be 13x11 to fit. I have no excuse as the guy even wrote the description in English!

The keyboard and the labels.

The size issue was... a non-issue. A have a lifetime of experience of Blue Petering things to fit (with varying degrees of success).

You WILL fit!

A bit of careful cutting later, my keyboard now makes sense to me. The layout is a bit odd, the \| key is above Enter, and the #~ key is stuffed between Space and AltGr. Asides from that, things are where I expect them to be.
The only bémol (downside) is that it didn't include labels for Shift, Caps Lock, and Enter. So these still appear in French. It's a really minor thing, just kind of quirky having French labels on a QWERTY keyboard.

Which means, on a nice day, I can sit outside and... squint to see the screen. Why oh why do they always put such shiny reflective covers on. There is, actually, a screen protector fitted (and it won't get smudged with finger ick as it's not a touch screen). Kind of sad they went to that effort, but didn't have a less reflective type. Even indoors, in the kitchen, I can see my fingers reaching for the keys as if my hands were lurking inside and reaching out towards the front of the screen.

Writing stuff for my blog.

Portable battery

It's not a fast charge. I think it estimated four and a half hours from about 30%. I'm currently (as I write this) at 72% and it thinks I have two hours and forty minutes remaining.
So out of the box, you'll probably get around three and a half hours on battery (though this will depend a lot on how much hardware is in use). My timings are for writing in an editor, I suspect the big draw here is the screen/backlight, as the processor will probably be spending most of it's time doing nothing. I mean, even throttled back to 408MHz (rather than running ful tilt at 1512MHz), across the four cores that's tens of billions of processor cycles taking place between each time the lump of flesh prods the machine.

This King stuff is getting too much

But... you know... My feelings on the man are just a bit "meh". Or, to put it differently, he's not his mother.

I guess, perhaps, I've just had my fill of idiotic bollocks. Such as this article in The Spectator that says, and I'm not making this up:

This particular spoon, undeniably, is a very special one: doubtless the world’s most important spoon

The. World's. Most. Important. Spoon.

Well, there's an achievement.

If the sun is out, I'll be mowing. If not... I don't know. Charles is getting on a bit, so I guess if I miss this Coronation, his son's one will come along soon enough.
But, you know, there's something just so rather boring about the country having a King (with a Queen by his side, even if it's the most undeserving example imaginable). By contrast there was something rather special about the previous monarch. A Queen, not just the living breathing example of what a monarch should be, but a female one, who not only wore the trousers but kept her wayward husband in check. There was something fascinating about it.
But this guy? He's no Lannister. And that, I'm afraid, has depleted my knowledge of fictional Kings.

As for the actual event. Well, yay for him I guess. Even with a drop of oil from the world's most important spoon. His kingdom, however, is a bit of a shithole, and his subjects are not happy. Maybe the first thing he should do is get Rees-Mogg excited by digging up some obscure rule from 1054 that allows him to dissolve and abolish the government and reign over the country like a king should. I mean, even he can't bugger it up more than the past 13 years of Tory rule...

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David Pilling, 6th May 2023, 13:13

Funny thing about keyboards, is that normally I do not look at the key caps. But as soon as they're taken away I lose faith and need to see them. Like those things you can't do once you start thinking about how to do them.    Do you deny that some spoons are more important than others, no, then in which case there has to be a most important spoon.    BBC broadcast a video of the Celtic stadium, singing "you can shove your coronation up your arse". Meanwhile there's upset that Liverpool FC will play the National Anthem:    "Many Liverpool fans are rightly angry that the club feel forced to play the anthem by the Premier League, when so many believe they have the right to peaceful protest to mark the uncaring, ruthless attitudes of the establishment against the working people."

Anon, 6th May 2023, 21:25

I think I may have upset my neighbours today by printing out some A4 sheets and sticking them in my front window that read "NOT MY KING!"    I haven't had the TV on all day. Just turned it on now as Casualty's starting in a couple of minutes (yes, that's still running), but have been avoiding the news, the BBC News web site, etc etc, for the entire day.    Definitely not a Royalist.

Rick, 6th May 2023, 22:24

What, you mean you weren't watching the wall to wall coverage of two essentially random people having Important Crowns placed upon their heads simply by virtue of one of them being born in the right place?  For shame!    😂    Me? Well, it was a question of priorities.  https://youtu.be/nVRFBrnIkv8

Rick, 6th May 2023, 22:27

Yes, actually, I *do* deny that some spoons are more important than others. It's not a question of importance or ranking, it's a question of suitability. A measuring spoon is not much good for making tea, and even less useful for eating breakfast. Possible, sure. Useful? Not so much.    There exist many types of spoons for many purposes.    And, arguably, the most important spoon in the world is the one you need but don't have with you.

Rick, 6th May 2023, 22:30

Is Charlie Fairhead still around, or has he finally been moved over to the Holby Residential Home?

Anon, 6th May 2023, 22:44

Yes, Charlie is still in Casualty. Although he's gone grey, no longer has his trademark afro, and showing a bit of middle-age spread.    HD (off Freesat HD) is kinda scary, it shows all Charlie's wrinkles.

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