Scary things

So Cheney is saying that the Eeeevil Terrurists will...continue to attack us if we vote Republican?

 

If he'd just simply said that voting Democrat was voting for terror or something, that would just be a typical, stupid Repub comment.  But this just sounds nonsensical: Vote for us!  The Eeeevil Terrurists are going to attack you for doing so!  Don't give in: risk your lives!  Leiberman for Senate! 

 

Or...something.  I'm feeling a touch of the Election Season Nasties today. I've now put two and two together - I'm going back to the States in early December, and I'll be *really* pissed off if I go back to a still-Republican government.

 

<PSA>But regardless of who you vote for, the important thing is to get out to the polls and VOTE.  Vote for Care-Bears if you must (actually not entirely unappealing, in theory), but VOTE.</PSA>

It's time for words!

Almost NaNo time again!

I'm going to take the same attitude towards it this year as I did last year: it'll be a bit more internal motivation for me to spend time writing every day, and the forums on the website are kind of fun, so I'm going to go ahead and try. But I don't particularly expect to reach 50K, nor will I be upset if I don't.

My parents got in to London on Friday. I've been playing tour-guide a bit and going around London with them. I haven't seen them since leaving home in April, so it's nice to spend some time with them.

Also: oh god can I swim back home in December? Because planes are scary and evil and want to kill you?

The computer is back (in a fashion)

My past two- or three weeks of laptop troubles are over, finally. The parentals arrived in London yesterday and brought with me all the various installation disks I needed and my external hard drive. Last night I copied the files I really needed (eg, every picture I've taken since leaving home in April) to the external drive and set about reinstalling windows.

The repair function didn't want to work, because it said it repaired any problems but really ended up making it so that Windows was installed but wouldn't boot. It would get to "You need to activate Windows" or something and...stop. (Note: this was at about 11 PM). So I grunted in tired frustration, went ahead and reformatted the entire hard drive, and started from scratch.

My spare time the next few days will be occupied by reinstalling crap. But on the bright side? I have sound!

A beautiful rainbow.

What could possibly be nicer than walking out of the tube station to see that, not only have the skies cleared a bit, but there's an amazing rainbow right above you, one of those rare ones where you can actually see the entire arc?

Not much, I'll say.

Maybe I'm psychic...

I'm really glad I decided to risk being late to work today and go back to get my mobile (which I use as an alarm clock and was still sitting on my nightstand), because there was a voicemail from my contact at the temp agency telling me not to go in to work. Apparently, the place where I'm working had some massive system crash overnight, so no data entry today.

It's a like a birthday and a divorce all in one!

Happy birthday, legalized torture!

We had good times, habeas corpus. It was fun while it lasted, but I think that we may need some time apart. Take care of yourself - I'm sure you'll find someone willing to take you in.

Geneva who? Nah, that's ancient history, man.

A video in which a high-school orchestra plays Nirvana.

Seriously, check this out. It's awesome. Based on this I have absolutely nothing but praise for whoever did that arrangement: it's immensely well done. Makes me miss being in an orchestra, not that we ever did anything quite that neat.

Cloth is cloth, nothing more.

A teaching assistant in West Yorkshire is coming under fire for teaching while wearing a full-face veil. Thanks for starting this issue, Mr. Straw!

Now, I don't have hugely strong opinions on this. I pretty much am reserving my vitriol for thing like illegal wars and whatnot. This issue leaves me feeling baffled more than anything, because...it's not like she's doing anything wrong. She's not beating small children. She's not teaching them incorrect methods of long division.

According to the BBC article, she was told to remove the veil while teaching because children had trouble understanding her. If that's true, that they couldn't understand her words, then it's a problem with her speech, not her dress. Last time I checked, a thin sheet of cotton is hardly a significant acoustical barrier.

Personally, if I were a parent? I'd be more concerned that the school's administration is wasting its time on what feels to me like an idiotic witch-hunt, rather than "Oh no, she's wearing a veil!"

Remember the Alamo!

Ken Feduniewicz is apparently running for House in the district where I'm registered to vote. According to my absentee ballot, he's a member of the "Remember the Alamo" party.

Uh?

Google says he's actually a member of the "America First" party.

Eh.

Yes, let's...stop immigration. Totally. Because....that....actually, wait, that makes no sense at all you dithering idiot.

*sigh*

Loonies aside, the House race is a fun one this year. Why? Why, because one Mr. Sexton (D) is running against one Mr. Saxton (R).
(Could Saxton's folks have found a photo of him that's any less flattering? I doubt it.)

Oh dear, once again.

I'm certainly not one for international hsyterics. I don't see unpleasant news stories and commence running around like a recently-beheaded chicken screaming about the End of Days and whatnot.

But, uh, yeah. Nukes. More of 'em. In the hands of a crazy guy. Juuuuust what we need, right?

For added fun, get China really pissed off. That stabilizes the situation.

How do you improve 1970's rock?

Add yodelling, of course.

So:

I've got a ticket to go back to the states, via Dublin.

On the bad side, it's a bit earlier than I needed and therefore wanted (6 December).

On the good side, it cost just over $200, and gives me enough time at home to pick up a job for a month or so before heading back out west.

Holy crap, December is soon, because it's already October! How did this happen? How is it already October?

To clarify:

Yes, I (most likely, unless I have an unexpected change of heart) will be returning to St. John's come January.

How is it October already?

I think I just left for Ireland a few weeks ago.  And now I've only got...three months left on my six-month UK visa?  How did this nonsense happen?

Reasons why I am glad I do not live in Georgia, #222

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061004/ap_on_re_us/potter_protest;_ylt=AnuXRFUDSZd5fF6eF6JyKFSs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3ODdxdHBhBHNlYwM5NjQ -

 

I like the penultimate and last paragraphs the most, I think.

Sadness

On the scale of 'offensive groups of people or things', I really think that 'little Amish school girls' are quite possibly *below* kittens.  Kittens can...cause allergies, I guess, and scratch at you.  Little Amish school girls?  They...live on isolated farms in central PA. 

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/10/04/wamish104.xml

When contextual ads go very wrong...

Courtesy of my 'work' label in Gmail:

 

Data Entry Jobs

Get the Data Entry job that you want. Start your dream job today.

www.careerbuilder.co.uk

Something I have just learned:

A lot of people see no problem with saving their CV as just "CV", and send it as an attachment when applying for a job.

 

I'm looking to grab two people for one- or two-day temp work here, just envelope stuffing.  After the third "CV.doc" attachment, I have decided to just stop downloading those.  If you can't be bothered to save your CV as something vaguely close to unique, I can't be bothered to look at it.

In the inbox today...

I shall be returning to the land of mountains and liberal arts come January.

 

This means that I now need to figure out whether I want to stay in London until my visa expires in December, as I'd originally planned, or go home to work and actually be able to save some money up.

 

Actually, I know which of those I want to do (the former).  Unfortunately, I also know which is the more responsible thing to do (the latter).  So do I continue with my "I'm only young and stupid for so long" thing until December?  Or do I suck it up, accept that I an a responsible grown adult, and do the financially responsible thing?