24 July 2010 (Saturday) - A Lazy Day

Bearing in mind the amount of ale I shifted yesterday, it’s probably rather amazing that I was up and about before 7am, and feeling rather chipper with it. I checked my emails and the news over toast & coffee, and found that nothing much has happened in the world whilst I was off-duty yesterday.

Mind you, it seems there’s a new explanation for the Fermi paradox. I’ve mentioned the Fermi paradox before: basically common sense and reason tell us that humanity can’t possibly be alone in the universe. But if we aren’t alone, why haven’t we found any evidence of aliens yet? Scientists at the University of California have pointed out that for fifty years people looking for alien signals have been looking for the wrong thing. Blanket broadcasting to the entire universe is expensive; surely any aliens who are communication with each other will be directing their messages directly at each other. And since they would be using very directed messages, we would be unlikely to be in the firing line of such a message by chance. Which makes an awful lot of sense *provided* aliens know where other aliens are in the first place.

Yesterday I mocked the almighty who apparently smites sinners with frogs. I hate to think what Ralth Mothes and Paloma Werner have done to upset Big G, as according to the news he has smited them with a whale. Personally I’d sit up and take notice if I’d been smited off of a whale.

The phone rang. Would I like cheaper electricity? Dur – yes please! The nice lady asked if she could quote me for cheaper leccie. And then it became so transparently a con. I told her I wasn’t interested in answering her little survey because all she would do would be to ask me how much I was currently paying for leccie, then quote me a fiver a month less, and then once I’d signed up, her company would whack up the costs. I suggested she told me how much her company’s energy units cost, and I could decide for myself if they were cheaper. She flatly refused to give me a price, and told me that I was the one who was being unreasonable. I suggested she stopped phoning people until she could give an honest answer to a straight question. And then she hung up. I thought that was a result.

And then…. Originally the plan for today was Dover Kite Festival, but that got cancelled months ago. Then we were going to go camping at Sumners Ponds for the weekend, but I couldn’t commit to that because I wasn’t able to swap my Saturday morning shift until two days ago. There were plans to go to the Star’s charity day, but to be honest I had an elegant sufficiency of ale yesterday. In the end, together with the Rear Admiral, I spent the afternoon tiddler bashing. Some more tiddler than others, and there was the obligatory one that got away. Got away from the Rear Admiral, not from me, I hasten to add. But on the plus side, he can now touch the maggots, bait the hook and unhook the fish.

I think it’s fair to say I’ve done more fishing in the last month or so than I have for years….


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