The frustration of computing...

Playlist
Feldman - Early Piano Pieces
Brian Eno - Lux
Alice Cooper - Billion Dollar Babies
Uriah Heep - Sweet Freedom
Mott the Hoople - Brain Capers
Mott the Hoople - All the Young Dudes
Alban Berg Quartett - Hommage
Alice Cooper - 1969-2000 (CD-R)
Alice Cooper - Setlist Wishlist (CD-R)

Once again up around six and working on refining the computer experience...

It is draining...

The problem is, I don't really understand what's going on...

Breakfast at home then a walk to the zoo with Annie for a trip into town...

To the Scottish National Gallery for the RSA Annual Exhibition...

It seemed the majority of the works were better than I've seen at previous such exhibitions...

Some accidental pics were taken...

The poster featured "Spike" by David Mach was probably the most impressive piece - the catalogue had it priced at £170,000....

His two other pieces (Mickey Mouse and Robert Burns - both created from foam and pins) although impressive from the point of view of how they were created, looked horrible...

Anne remained unimpressed by my liking for paintings which seem to be just black or white squares...

This American chap asked us the definition of a White Elephant - re the painting over Anne's shoulder in the pic above.......

We explained that "A White Elephant" is an idiom for a "valuable but burdensome possession" whose owner cannot be rid of and whose upkeep cost is considerably greater than its usefulness or indeed worth....

Apparently, the term originates from Thailand, where the Kings of Siam would gift a white elephant to  obnoxious courtiers, to ruin them by the cost of elephant maintenance...

Don't know what the difference is between the maintenance cost of a white elephant and a non-white one - washing costs maybe?

These days, the term is mostly used to describe an object, scheme, business venture, facility, etc, considered to be without use or value...

I should have pointed him to "The Edinburgh Tram"...

Out into the overcast day and through Princes St Gardens...

Where Emma the Jack Russell puppy entertained with her wee half and half face...

...and where the bloomage was blooming...

..and the magpies were magpieing...

To the Fruitmarket where this was the only piece, out of a myriad pieces by David Batchelor in his "Flatlands" exhibition, which did anything for me - none did anything for Anne...

I've seen some dreadful stuff in galleries over the years but little as subjectively bad as the graph paper based drawings which adorned the walls of the lower gallery...

I did pick up an amusing cat based book of cartoons in the shop though...

Over the road to the City Art Centre where the theme was fashion...

The best floor for me though was that containing portraits...

...including children with their computers photo-shopped out of theirs...

Up Cockburn Street, with a view to lunching at The Baked Potato Shop - alas there was no room - so on up the South Bridge for coffee and a Tuna Melt each...

...at the Black Medicine Company...

..with its handy spoon-shaped wee biscuits...

A browse in Blackwell's Books made me want to go home and look at my own classical CDs - nothing purchased...

Down Infirmary St then up St Mary's St - where our erstwhile record shop is now a Scottish Tat Outlet...

This, number 32, 2nd Floor, where Anne and I first started seeing each other over 33 years ago...

Over to Jeffrey St, noting this outside the new Council Buildings...

...and a bus home...

Decided to move stuff and tidy stuff - there was an accident...

Eventually, mission accomplished...

The rest of the day, from around 4pm till after midnight, was once again spent hunched over the computer desk trying to get the printer to work...

I can e-mail docs to it but, despite much uninstalling, reinstalling, resetting etc etc etc et-bloody-cetera, I retired with it still not working and decided to try and just forget it and move on...

So I'm now in a position where I can't create any new docs on Word or Excel (as I don't have those programmes any longer), can't record my own music (not that I have anything planned right now), can't burn CDs which will work on a  "normal" CD player and can't print anything without having to e-mail it to the printer...

Great...

Lights out...

Highlight of the Day : Art....