Recursive Words

Work has finished for Easter. Four days in the pursuit of doing as little as possible. Of course I know that won’t happen, but I can dream. I will admit to doing something of a happy dance earlier when I saw the weather forecast for tomorrow – a good chance of rain, which means I won’t be able to cut the grass. What a shame.

Just after finishing work this evening Amazon informed me that we’ve been given “early access” to Alexa+. Quite how it’s “early access” is something of a mystery, given that my Dad has had access to it for several weeks, and friends in the US have had it for months.

I just had a rather unnerving conversation with Alexa about my musical tastes, how our respective weeks have been, and what she might be able to do for me. We have several Echo Show devices around the house – they’ve had a massive upgrade to their user interface – it’s going to take some getting used to.

Our new television also arrived this evening – that replaces the old TV, Apple TV box, Firestick, and satellite receiver. One controller to rule them all, and in the darkness bind them. The primary reason for getting the television is it’s primary source is the internet – it’s not really designed to be plugged into an aerial – and yet, while setting it up I spied the coax connector on the back for the satellite dish – so plugged it in.

It turns out the new TV can not only see “FreeSat” channels – it can see absolutely everything available from the ageing Astra satellite that serves the UK. 600 channels of utter slop. After setting it up I scrolled through and found all manner of low-budget eastern-european news channels, dubbed soap operas, and movie channels filled with films nobody has heard of.

This brings about the natural question of “what happens to the old television?”. I now have it propped on the desk behind me in the junk room – wired up to the retired Apple TV. I can now watch Star Wars while I’m supposed to be working. Granted, I could do that before, but now I can half-watch it on a 48” screen that covers half the wall.

Guess who’s going to be playing Zelda on a 48” TV later. Just guess.

I suppose I should really go Easter egg shopping tomorrow for my family. We’re all supposed to be “being good” this year – trying to not eat so much junk. I have no doubt we’ll figure out some excuse as to why we’re allowed a “cheat weekend”.

A friend messaged me a few minutes ago – telling me she wants to read a blog post about me having been running, instead of about wanting to go running. She’s got a point.

Right.

I’m only really writing this to avoid getting on with anything else. It’s a skill. I’ve been practicing it for decades. It should probably have belts like karate. A black belt in avoidance and procrastination. Where karate has “drunken man” technique, perhaps I could have “sofa surfer” technique?

I’ll shut up now. I’m rambling. And procrastinating.