therealpm

Just to be clear, I have been far too busy over the past few months to have had anything to do with the recent IT problems. That said, had the proposals contained in my report been implemented in full, I am confident this situtation would not have occurred.

Edit: It seems (belated) birthday wishes are in order for Baroness D'Souza. Congratulations etc.

Edit 2: Fuck off, Kinnock Junior

*Peter works his way quietly through yet another brief, occasionally stopping to flick the fringe out of his eyes.  His hair is far too long by now and it's beginning to annoy him. 

The TV screen in the corner is on, but remains carefully blank.  The Machine takes pains not to be visible when a guard might be peering through the door unless Peter specifically requests an answer.  Last night had been their longest uninterrupted conversation since the programming of the doppelganger.  Peter had guessed (correctly) that none of his guards would wish to miss The Thick of It, and so he'd had a whole half hour to talk with his creation. 

Peter being Peter, this had mostly involved a set of detailed instructions on what The Machine should do if the 'cure' killed him, and a request to both monitor and if possible, strategically intervene in the care pathway of Peter's two victims.  They were too far away for The Machine to do anything directly of course, but all patient records are computerised these days and overstressed doctors tend not to notice slight alterations to a patient's records or prescriptions when they've got another few dozen to manage as well.

The Machine tells him they're doing better and that LaGarde seems to be doing her best to make Osborne miserable.  It helps.  A little.*

*He's been told he has another inspection today- apparently it was delayed by a combination of staff cuts and his extended transformation, so Peter's dressed up in one of his better suits and tied his necktie loose enough that the collar can be inspected if necessary.

Bored for lack of work to do- Jo hasn't delivered the next tranch of paperwork yet and he's read all the books, he picks up The Machine's readouts and tries to work out precisely what got him into this mess in the first place.*

Machine, we have a visitor!

Machine, whilst your use of crowd sourcing to fulfil a directive is innovative, I suspect a simple monitoring hex might be more efficient.

This might be worth investigating for one of the smaller and potentially more mobile server arrays, especially as the installation of the improved lenses will considerably up the demands on CPU time for image processing.

...Machine, am I to take it that being confined to safe searches is somewhat tedious?

The necessity to avoid attending public appearances in person is beginning to grate, though it does provide ample validation of The Machine's projectile capabilities.

The other project progresses apace, or at the very least, generates copious piles of notes. Certain matters of sport have provided an amusing distraction.

Progress of The Machine: Optical bench cleaned and recalibrated for optimum identification and quantification of venom components, with the objective of eventual a-diabolical synthesis from common thaumaturlogical precursors.

This might take a while, I may have to consider adding this to my voicemail.

A wonderfully event-free week.  No scandals to suppress, no plots to unravel, just the gentle hum of The Machine in the background.


...might take a nap.