Birmingham, September 9th
Insect report: Thankfully no repeat of the wasp nightmare of last year but tonight we’ve been invaded by hoards of Daddy Long Legs, which is a name I always feel slightly embarrassed to say, like announcing you need to go poo poo or something, but seemingly everyone else uses it so it’s not that bad. They’re actually called Crane Flies which makes sense and they are the most fucking stupid of all insects, even moreso than the moth. Like the moth they come for the light but proceed to bounce around the room in a most annoyingly random fashion until I’m forced, forced I tell you, to get up and squish them. Andy came out with a fact which I have my doubts about but will pollute the internet with anyway. Apparently they have the most potent poison load of any and all insects but have no way to deliver it. Which is just typical of the dumb fuckers. I’m so buying a handheld mini-vac.
Coming soon – my war with snails.
Family report: My mother passed the age of sixty yesterday. Last November my father also passed the age of sixty. Both my parents are now over sixty. My sister has two children. I have white patches on my (occasional) beard. This is all cool.
Movie report: Election, starring Matthew Broderick and Reese Witherspoon, is a very good movie indeed.
Mac user report: Forgot to mention that I upgraded to Tiger the other week. Since Leopard has been announced I figured it best to try and keep up. It runs fine on my old G4 tower. Andy installed it on his G3 iMac and it also runs fine. Which, when you think about it, is rather impressive.
Other reports are pending.
It’s my understanding of the physiology of the Daddy Long Leg that they evolved specifically to bobble around campsite toilets and get embedded in wet whitewash.
Like that fact about everyone eating 6 spiders per year when they crawl into your mouth while asleep, sadly untrue…
http://www.washington.edu/burkemuseum/spidermyth/myths/daddyvenom.html
Moths are actually the ghostly skeletal souls of dead butterflies. They mistake lights for the heavenly glow of stars.
I’m with you on the ‘feeling faintly ridiculous using the name Daddy Long Legs’ thing – but if you call them Crane Flies no-one knows wtf you’re on about.
I think it’s their deliberate, almost calculated, vagueness that pisses me off. They are the Boris Johnson of the insect world.
Which is excatly why Boris should be PM – just what we need in Whitehall so that we can get on with our lives!
I just downloaded the new iTunes and the jukebox thing rocks (tho’ if I had more album covers it would be quite useful!). As I have a US account I could try a movie download sometime. But I’m really not that fussed to be honest. iTV looks interesting but why do we have to wait until 2007 when TiVo has been out there (in the US) for several years. No iPhone which disappointed me as I was hoping Apple could introduce iPod intuitive simplicity to a cell phone.