mintybloggydiarythingy 2.0

Week from Monday 26th June 2023 - The Elf Centre are nagging me to monitor my BLOOD PRESSURE for their "ANNUAL HYPERTENSION REVIEW"... The BUZZIN' SPHYGMO has come out of the drawer and I've been compiling one of my famous charts, so that I can plot a four-day average. It all looks perfectly under control to me, but now I have to yomp into town to present them with the results. They also mentioned something about doing a 'non-fasting' BLOOD TEST for cholesterol, but I think I already did that LAST month(?) I'm always 'invited' in for these blood tests, but they NEVER tell you up-front what they are for, so it's hard to keep track. I'm having another pricking on Friday. They've done it to me again! I traipsed all the way to the Elf Centre on Friday, to be told that I didn't need the BLOOD TEST appointment after all because I'd already had it. I'd told THEM that!! It seems that I keep better records than the local NHS these ...

Week from Monday 19th June 2023 - Like everybody else I 'speak to', my HOBBY at the moment is letting Twitter know how I feel about those "PROMOTED" adverts by blocking or muting them, and/or clicking "I don't like this ad" for EVERY SINGLE ONE. I doubt it will deter Elmo from trying to make our timelines look like old copies of "EXCHANGE & MART", but it's quite satisfying in itself. I'm sure there might be 'algorithms' involved somewhere along the way, but at the moment it's like they're flailing around trying different things. As usual. One day, all the adverts are for 'shops' selling silly gadgets and doodads. The next day there's a run on BETTING sites... Today, I notice that it's mostly incomprehensible bollox about BITCOIN. All are dismissed accordingly... Interestingly, if I log-in on FIREFOX on m'laptop, there aren't ANY of these ads visible. uBLOCK ORIGIN seems to be doing its j...

Week from Monday 12th June 2023 - I'd finished writing my BLOGGYDIARYWOTSIT entry for last week, but I waited till now (Monday morning) before posting it - last minute updates concerning Sunday's final day at the CriTéRiuM du DAuphiNé and all that! Meanwhile, Elmo has broken something else on TWITTER in his 'DRIVE TO MONETIZATION'. Last week, there were problems with the TRANSLATION plug-in. It looked like they'd finally ditched the (often hilarious, it must be said!) BING translate engine and reinstated the 'proper' G***le one. Then THAT one disappeared again. Then it returned. Watch this space. There have also be problems with TAGGING your chums in replies, depending on which version of Twitter you're using. It's SUPPOSED to work like, when you start typing a @username in a tweet, Twitter auto-completes the name from your followers list. But twitterers report that it doesn't do that anymore, at least not on the desktop version(s). Probab...

Week from Monday 5th June 2023 - No sooner have we finished one run of televised CYCLING, it's time for another! This week it's the turn of the CriTéRiuM du DAuphiNé , a slightly less 'stellar' race in terms of who's in it, but it's generally regarded as a sort of 'dress rehearsal' for the TOUR DE FRANCE itself. TREK's nominal leader is GIULIO CICCONE for this one... but of course, half the time, the telly people will try to give the impression that JUMBO-VISMA are the only team in the race. As usual. At least the race commentary on this channel doesn't rely on the ramblings of an incoherent 'Father Ted' character. But I quite enjoy these one-week races. Although inevitably, it's just as hard to CARE about the actual results, at least there is some kind of ACTION along the way. The race isn't long enough for "the favourites" to CONTROL the race to such an extent and stop ANYTHING happening for weeks at a time! But I...

Week from Monday 29th May 2023 - The Giro D'Italia sort of fizzled out in the final week and all focus was on the "GC BATTLE", as these things tend to. Typical GC these days - Sod-all happens throughout the three weeks, then it all gets decided on the final Saturday! As I predicted, this race was all about Roglic and the Welsh wassock 'playing it safe' while everybody else was still trying to put on an actual RACE. I found myself secretly cheering on UAE's JOÃO ALMEIDA in the final couple of days, if only for the fact that he represented a realistic "Anybody but Jumbo or Ineos" ticket... Still, at least one could enjoy the scenery a little better once the last of the rain had cleared! ALEX KIRSCH, who would normally be seen as a 'lead-out man' for MADS PEDERSEN (if he were still here), had an opportunity to contest the SPRINT in his own right. But he had to settle for second place - he wasn't ever going to beat Mark Cavendish, was he? ...

What's on the Jukebox? - A playlist of top stuff that's currently setting the toes a-tappin', the fingers a-snappin' and the ears a-wormin' and generally shakin' my grooved thang to thrillin' effect. (Click on the wee lozenges to link to related YouTube clips, if you're curious.) Radiohead "A Moon Shaped Pool" (a.o) ◊ Magma "Köhntarkösz" (a.o.) ◊ Brand X "Live at the Roxy" ◊ Mark Stewart & The Maffia "Learning To Live With Cowardice" ◊ Ojos De Brujo "Techari Live!" ◊