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Monday 29th July 2024

7903/20844
I don't seem to have any interest in the current Olympics. I guess I believe that the only true sporting contest is against yourself. But back in the day I did like watching some of the athletics and maybe Torville and Dean (did I really enjoy it or was I just swept up in the idea of the UK - and thus somehow me- winning stuff). I was really into middle distance running, partly because that is what I was best, so Coe v Ovett (and then Cram) was a big deal to me. Over the last few days I've watched two documentaries about the old days and two of the greats that I was invested in, Daley Thompson and Linford Christie.
Fantastic work from the BBC on both of these, balancing up rightful bouquets for the incredible things these two achieved with their flaws and quirks. I have always been obsessed with obsessive personalities and what drives someone to try to be the best (I know a little about this of course as the world champion of self-playing snooker) and both these men took things to another level. To the point where there victories are basically personal defeats. You don't really think of sports people as nerds, but only because sport isn't one of the subjects that gets picked on. But Thompson in particular let everything else in his life go to hit glory. And was a bit of an idiot. I still loved him though. Heroes are just people and people are flawed. Heroes probably more than the rest of us schmucks.
I spent a lot of the day searching for my back up drive which continues to elude me. How is it possible that I have mislaid something so important? I did find another back up drive that I thought would do the job, but although it looked like it was backing up, in the end it didn't. That's presumably why I bought a new one. That I then cared so little about I lost.
I did at least manage to get the broken laptop hooked up to a monitor, but it wasn't mirroring the full display, just showing the basic screen and so I couldn't reach lots of things I needed. Amazingly the 40% of screen that worked on the laptop, that had disappeared today, suddenly and briefly sprang back into life and even more amazingly I somehow worked out how to fix the issue, so at least the broken laptop is usable. I decided that I'd see how much it would cost to fix, but the only appointment that I could get before the holiday is in Northampton. So tomorrow I go to Northampton. What a fucking palaver.

The first Ed Fringe podcast was released today. We will be releasing 3 brand new eps a week for the next four week's. Starting with Marjolein Robertson (recorded fittingly in Edinburgh). Lots more to come. I am very glad not to be going to the Fringe again this year. Perhaps I will feel ready for it again next year - Catie might be taking a stand up show up.



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