The neighbour’s “home improvement” has continued. Drilling, hammering, banging at random intervals throughout each day and starting before 8:30am too.

My Wacom pen broke so I had to use a mouse. Pain arrived within minutes. Couldn’t use the big trackball, using the mouse was doable for a couple of minutes at a time if I then did not use the mouse at all for many minutes after. Got a mouse trackball (a Logitech M570) which works and is improving but it’s whole new set of muscle control and that is infuriating at times.

Winston had an eye op so he has one eye stitched closed to allow a corneal ulcer to heal.

Something upset the graphics drivers on the Windows laptop so that had to be restored from a backup image. Nothing of value was lost, just annoying.

Bought Starcraft 2 and downloaded the game. The European download defaults to the cuddly “sorry didn’t meant to hurt you” love’n'stuff German version because of their pathetic video game laws so that 7.08gb has had to be re-downloaded. Bought the Company of Heroes games from Steam. If you are going to play RTS you might as well play the best ones. I have Dawn of War / Dawn of War 2 / Starcraft (was playing SC up until the pen broke). Can’t play either as much as I’d like until I get the pen – the replacement was posted from Germany this morning apparently – as the pen = work, trackball = play and that helps the hand somewhat. Not as much as ibuprofen + paracetamol though.

It’s my birthday next month and I need to make a list of things I want.
I don’t own a dremel.
Yet.

What is the point of a vigil? Lots of people gather, they light candles, leave toys (and in the case of Steve Jobs there was chewed fruit) and they all hang about. Why? It’s not respect because most won’t have known the person. I can see that many users of shiny gear will have wanted to pay their respects in some way but it does seem an odd thing – especially chewed fruit. It looked cool enough that day in the news reports but later? And the days after? Why this need to go out at night with others and just mooch around while wax melts? Candles wouldn’t work so well in the day, I’ll give you that but really, why do this? Maybe it’s just the “done thing”.

People hold a vigil outside a US prison where someone is about to be executed and is 100% absolutely no shadow of a doubt bet your own life on it guilty. What on earth is the point of a vigil?

Random person dies in random place and random people appear at dusk holding candles. Weird. Especially if they died in the daytime. Or do vigils not happen 9-5 due to the needs of the economy?

Maybe there is some deeper meaning that I just don’t get. Maybe it’s some sort of collective guilt being assuaged by collective candle melting. And doesn’t the first person there feel just a little odd?