Flu down, Covid up – a tree for the whole millennium – AI and photography – last timetabled teaching

Covid up, ‘flu down. We may be seeing the start of another wave as the pattern is very similar to those previous upticks.

Last night I had a discussion with the person who’s planting trees round the area – yesterday he planted a twenty foot high oak tree in the park, the tree being container grown. He’s a photographer and mentioned that AI was taking over imaging. I sincerely hope not, because we’re going to get a blandness and sameness. We have to maintain originality – and I’ve previously said in this blog that I will declare any changes I make. Hopefully we’ll see a load less false colour images around and a lot more declared original pics. AI only takes and modifies what exists, it doesn’t create from scratch. There will be more rants like this.

Back to the oak – “Great oaks take 300 years to grow, 300 years to stay, and 300 years to die.” – Foresters’ proverb. He really is planting for the whole millennium.

Today was my last timetabled teaching session – a nine o’clock lecture. This ends a tradition of my first nine o’clock in my undergrad days at Leicester. Then we had six nine o’clock lectures in my first term, including Saturday morning. We also had ten o’clocks on the same days. Nowadays it’d difficult enough to get them in for one nine o’clock!

I have now switched off all the alarms for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. They were:

• 05:50 – Get up
• 06:00 – Yes, REALLY get up!
• 06:15 – If breakfast and coffee not started cooking I’m late.
• 06:30 – Breakfast should be being eaten.
• 06:45 – Hurry up, finish that coffee and get upstairs
• 07:00 – iI I’m not in the shower, I’m running late
• 07:15 – I should have left the house by now
• 07:30 – I should have reached the next village by now. If I haven’t why not?

These alerts are now a thing of the past, as is negotiating past Minworth water treatment works with potential associated pong at about 08:00.

And further, I may well see more of the summer than I have for several decades.

Music

Lapwood, Anna, (1995-), O Nata Lux, The Chapel Choir of Pembroke College, Cambridge, The Pembroke College Girls’ Choir, Anna Lapwood