Hamsterminated!

Or, What A Clever Old Dog I Am
I take it you are all familiar with the hamsters that power all our electronic devices, from whopping big Cray supercomputers down to humble Devil's Digital Devices?*  They are normally obedient little slave labourers, but occasionally they rebel and refuse to co-operate, at which point they can be immensely stubborn because at that point they've got nothing left to lose.

"Stuff you, Conrad!"

     Yeah, apparently those Hamster Re-Education Farms out on the Siberian tundra are pretty horrid places.
     Anyway, Your Humble Scribe has for several weeks now been prevented from loading up photographs from his Devil's Digital Device by obstreperous hamsters.** The error message kept quoting "Server Error" which is Sekrit Computer Lingo for "Your Hamsters Are Revolting".
     "What if we remove servers as an issue when uploading images?" pondered Conrad to himself.  "That is, download mobile phone photographs to a C: file and save them there.  This means all the surplus pictures on the phone could be deleted and I should be able to upload to BOOJUM! no problem."

It worked!

      Yes indeed it did.  This is Darling Daughter on Wednesday afternoon, when we were all sitting outside at about this very time (looks out at overcast skies, chilling wind and gusting rain and sighs).  You can't tell from the cropped image here, but she was wearing flip-flops.  Try that today and you'd end up with frostbite.

      Now to chase the motley, clad only in boxer shorts, with bamboo skewers dipped in curare!

Conrad's Night On The Tile
Of course, the down-side of me being able to post photographs is that you'll have to put up with lots of them, and all the endearing/baffling/odd (delete where necessary) captions that go with them.
     For lo!  Here we have the interior of Night and Day, that being a bar-cum-music-venue on Oldham Street in Gomorrah-on-the-Irwell.  Art?

Publicity photos usually leave out us, the grubby public customers

     We began here, eventually.  Jason (birthday boy) laughs at timetables or schedules, you see.  Conrad noted a wall poster about a gig the night before that sounded interesting; afrobeats and Moroccan fusion and stuff, so I snaffled a flier for future reference.
     Then it was off to The Peer Hat, where further of us coalesced.  Interesting interior decor.  Art?

There's probably a word to describe it.

     From where we were sitting you could hear the floor-rattling basslines of whomsoever was playing in the basement - 
     - but more of that anon.  You know how I like stringing these things out over as many posts as possible.

A Word To The Wise
Conrad is partly convinced that his South Canadian readers like the blog because it features long words not commonly used in conversation.  If this is not the case, then you may want to avoid this frothing rant about words as found in Codeword puzzles.  Everyone else SIT BACK DOWN!
     I made a point of writing these down, that's how venomously irritated I was.  Okay.
     "GAMETE": a haploid germ cell that fuses with another.  A term from reproductive biology, in other words.  HOW IS THIS FAIR!

Great.  I expect they'll be using "MEIOSIS" next week.

     "ZYGOTIC":  the cell resulting from the fusion of an ovum with a spermatozoon.  O COME ON REALLY!  More reproductive biology?
     "QUALMISH": Are they making these up now?  <looks in Collins Concise> I suppose not.  But - I do have a point, don't I?
     "EXHORTED": Well, they're obviously not remotely Qualmish about these words.

Hmmm.  Just hmmm.

     There was also "TORQUE" and "YOKING" but I'm all ired-out now and can't summon up the enthusiasm or hatred to analyse them in depth.  Oh, yes, I do keep my Collins Concise Dictionary ready to hand down by the side of my chair, for just such moments as these.  Be prepared, I say.
     Bah!

A Little Musical Critique
This title usually has various bands - or Simon and Garfunkel - running for cover, but you needn't worry this time, chaps, for the song we focus on today (or tonight, depending on when you click that link) is pretty old, although I think there was a more recent cover.  Which, yes, is code for I cannot remember who did it and cannot be bothered to go look them up, either.
     Anyway, let us get this dog and pony show on the road.

In the jungle, the mighty jungle

The lion sleeps tonight

In the jungle the quiet jungle

The lion sleeps tonight

     Excuse ME!  This is the first verse after a lot of chanting about Wim and his Way.

Wim.
(Wenders, that is)

     I think you see the immediate problem here.  The lion is a creature of the African savannah, those wide-open plains and grasslands, and would not be caught dead in the jungle, where there is a distinct lack of space to run down their prey.

The savannah.  Note 1) distinct lack of jungle and 2) that there are 127 SAS troopers hiding in this shot.

     Not only that, the lion is an idle rascal who lets the lionesses do all the hunting, and whom is not above scaring away hyenas from their kill so he can eat it himself.  Just so you know.
     There is a second verse.  Shall I bother?  O go on, it's a while until lunch.

Near the village the peaceful village

The lion sleeps tonight

Near the village the quiet village

The lion sleeps tonight

     Your Humble Scribe is pretty sure that lions come in a pride, and that having a whole slew of said GIANT CARNIVORES dozing on your doorstep would render said village Silently Terrified rather than "peaceful".
     Although this may be where that band Quiet Village got their name from.

Quiet Village.  Proof I am not raving -

     Further proof.  Art?

 - yet. 

     We have rather got off-topic here, which is about par for the course, so I shall bid you adieu and go get lunch.  Chin chin!


*  They can breed 'em real small, before you ask.
**  Great name for a band there.  If you choose it, however, I want royalties.