I have the power

But when I say that I have the power, it's not really a power but more of a skill. And by skill I really mean potential. And when I say potential I'm really meaning 'potential to'. I mean, I could act but I never do. What I mean to say is that I have the power of procrastination. It's an art form and one that I've developed over a long time.

I practice day and night, attempting to get down to work, but never actually doing so. This is a prime example. I am writing about not doing any work! Crazy nut that I am.

My little Halloween costume

Seattle's alternative newspaper, The Stranger has a guide to the best political Halloween costumes for this year - including arrested protester, Abu Ghraib prisoner and Richard Reid 'Shoe Bomber'.

"Your child will be the hit of the neighborhood costume parade in this recreation of the Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse scandal's most indelible image. As an added bonus this easy-to-make costume will remind everyone on your child's trick-or-treat route of our national shame! "

link

The Cost of War

The War in Iraq Cost the United States:

$142,647,398,644 by 30th October 2004

""Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."

President Dwight D. Eisenhower
April 16, 195"

www.costofwar.com

A Change of Heart?

"[Gay marriage is] a big deal for people. While they might not be gay, they may have a family member who is gay, a friend that's gay or a child that's gay," said Dale.

The largest gay republican group in the United States has come out, days before the election, not supporting Bush. As "the nation’s largest organization of Republicans who support fairness, freedom, and equality for gay and lesbian Americans" (link), the LCR's have questioned the Republican party's actions without distinctly expressing their disapproval for the candidates. Two weeks ago the executive director of the Log Cabin Republicans wrote to Chairman Edward Gillespie of the RNC to show disappointment with the party's actions.

"The RNC itself has admitted to sending mailers to voters in Arkansas and West Virginia that seek to equate the recognition of gay and lesbian families with banning the Bible. This dishonest and disgraceful mailing represents a new low in this election cycle."

The group has now apparently withdrawn their support for GW Bush in the 2004 elections. The time is ripe for an alternative.


MSNBC
Same story, with a date - Thurs Oct 28 2004
Log Cabin Republicans

I saw him at the Discotheque

There was this boy at the club , and we talked. Then we danced, and I laughed. The vodka was an influence, culling my inhibitions. I was out of control, I was forward and too much but somehow he took it all.

And I really like him, and I want to see him again.

When you meet someone at a club you can never tell who they are, can never be sure they're anything like you, but I'd met him before, we'd already made first contact. What is difficult is that when I really like someone I get scared because, because I really like them. If I'm ambivalent about a guy, if I'm not intimidated by my own affection, I can be a scream, can play the fool and can have a laugh. But if I really like him I worry because I want him to really like me back.

Tonight, I'm scared.

I'd liked her before but didn't know this:

I didn't know what fun she was - on the West Wing she's a giggle - in real life she's a scream! I would have never guessed - Lily Tomlin's a hoot.

link

The Mission...

"Please note: Homo operates a strict door policy for fags, faggots and their friends"

We've decided to come out and party. Tonight is the exhausted-but-pretending evening where all the fags will be out in force. I don't know when we're meeting or where we're meeting but Fran and I are going to have a northern 'laff'.

Club Mission

Kerry the flip-flopper

Oh, no, I mean Bush.

oops

Dollot...

"culture is a product of consumption"

Culture individuelle et culture de masse


And that's all I have to say about that!

Artists Donating Art

"Some of Britain's best known contemporary artists have given or have promised major works to the Tate Gallery, to plug the gaping holes in the collections caused by years of standstill in government funding.

Damien Hirst, David Hockney, Sir Lucian Freud, and Gilbert and George are among those who have promised art, while Antony Gormley and Anthony Caro have already given major works."

"The Tate is also launching a fund raising drive to build up a purchase fund of £50m to £100m, of which only the interest would be spent on buying art, unless something extraordinary came on the market.

Sir Nicholas said that given the cuts or at best freezing of its government funds, year after year, and the staggering inflation in art prices, the gallery's buying power was now about 5% of what it had been 20 years ago."

I think this is fantastic. Most importantly is the involvement of Paula Rego who is by far the most interesting and arresting of the artists here. I find Hockney and Hirst slightly sideways in the way their art comes across whislt Rego's work though not straightforward in any way, is beautifully executed and composed. I can't wait to see what she's given.

It's interesting of course, that a major art museum like the Tate is forced to stoop to the level of appealing to the artists themselves for donations. Of course these same artists will be more keen to aid the Tate than perhaps the MoMa, because the Tate has consistently supported struggling, growing artists. But what is it about the UK art market that means that the museums themselves cannot afford to purchase their own art, cannot compete on the the open market?

Guardian story

A Legend Passes

John Peel has died.

BBC Director of Radio and Music Jenny Abramsky said,
"He had a remarkable rapport with all his listeners.  Everyone at BBC Radio is devasted by the news.  John is simply irreplaceable.  Our hearts go out to [his wife] Sheila and his children."

He was unique, he was eccentric, he was a legend.

RIP


Radio1 reports
link

WIRED.com - love your condom

"Believe me, Plan B is not something most women are going to treat casually, returning again and again as a regular habit (as some doctors fear). A pregnancy scare is downright terrifying, and I've seen more than one woman suffer the side effects of the morning-after pill. Neither is an experience anyone wants to repeat.


As for the teenagers, I'll say one thing: It takes guts to go to the doctor or ask the pharmacist for contraceptives. Anything we can do to encourage such responsibility in sexually active teenagers is a good thing."

link

My playhouse

Actually, no.

This is the pile in which I live.

Gothic eh!

Unfortunately it's technically Victorian, but I don't like to admit that - it sounds too current. We're not one of those 'McMansions'!

Who do you think I am!

Sup in Silence

I was punished for my act of kindness today.

On a whim, I took pity on a group of outcasts from my hall of residence. We eat every evening in a large dining hall, where everyone makes small talk and gets to know the (almost) random collection of people they sit with each night. Tonight I saw that the table with many of my friends on it was filling up so, rather than taking the remaining place, I sat with the group of 'quiet' students...

They're not quiet by design, but by being boring. Lack of personality is conducive to a rapid and uninteresting meal.
I was punished because, though my intentions were good, I simply couldn't make anything of the situation - they provided me with no material to run with, nothing to comment on, to make smalltalk of. I couldn't stand it and resorted to thinking to myself of other people's conversations, of their far more interesting evenings.

Shy people are just so fucking dull!

I would never think of myself as part of the 'cool' crowd, but compared to them, even I'm interesting. No more pity in dining choices from now on - I'd rather starve.

Unintentionally Apt Quote

Investigating music industry sleeze, China's Xinhua news agency speaks the mind of millions:

"BEIJING, Oct. 24 (Xinhuanet) -- New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's office now shits their attention to the music industry, particularly its practices for influencing what songs are heard on the public airwaves.
He began this investigation whether the United States' largest record companies are skirting payola laws by hiring middlemen to influence which songs are heard on the public airwaves."

link

Operation Clark County

The Guardian newspaper, last week ran an editorial experiment where they purchased the voting list of a marginal county in Ohio, and proceeded to give away the names and addresses of voters in the county meaning that well wishing worthies could write persuasive pro-voting letters to the constituents. The campaign generated worldwide coverage and large amounts of outrage. In an article today the editor of the section that ran the piece reflects on the success of the action.

"...It's been like that for the best part of a week: Canadian newspapers, Irish radio, US TV networks. Fox has been frothing. Rush Limbaugh has been raving. A quick Google search as I write this produces the Washington Post wondering, "Can the Brits swing Ohio?", and the New York Times reporting, in unusually demotic voice, "British Two Cents Draws, in Sum, a Two-Word Reply: Butt Out". Elsewhere, detailing the robust response to our campaign, the Arab News in Saudi Arabia asks gravely: "Can the 'special' US-UK relationship survive?"."

link

You got no recognition

A couple days ago I wrote to a website that I frequent. It's an advertising gossip and news blog called Adrants. They carry a lot of news on new/running campaigns and big moves in the advertising industry, but in a way accessible to the average reader. So, seeing this story in the Guardian, I sent them a little blurb and a link to let them know about it.

I wish I had a copy of the text I sent in, but I used their web form-style input so I don't have a copy. Take my word for it, right - I send them a heads up.

The result was this post: "Sun Editors Fight with Marketers". I'm glad they agreed it was interesting, that it was timely for the blog. However, what isn't so great is the lack of acknowledgement. If Adrants is going to be a site that takes submissions of stories from the public, which I'm assuming is what their Send Tips, Gossip, Dirt link at the top of their pag is about, then they should acknowledge this. They should show, like others do, ie Boingboing when someone who isn't the stated 'author' of the page submitted the story. This would be fine if they were a newspaper - no-one expects USA Today to give a little 'thanks' to anyone who pointed a story out to a reporter. However, they're not a newspaper, they're a blog and should behave like one, telling readers when someone else's editing has resulted in news.

Adrants

Sporty Queen

Can I tell you how fantastic my day has been? I know this is all self-interested and tedious to anyone who isn't me, but I don't care - my optimism can't be defeated.

I went to my European politics class at 10:30 which left me plenty of time for a leisurely breakfast with my fab Canadian friend Tannis and my friend from Mexico, Carlos. It seems like the three of us have become breakfast buddies. We eat together, just by chance at the time, almost every day. It's so chummy and comfortable and relaxed that it just makes my day go so much better than it otherwise would have done.

The class was great - a group of my colleagues did a presentation on the politics of right-wing extremism, and for some reason the rest of my tutorial group didn’t seem really interested. So I’m sitting there, all keen and everything, asking loads of questions on after another. After each answer I’d stop and wait a moment, expecting someone else to want to ask a question, but no, they were all asleep.

I didn’t really expect to be having fun in my tutorials, but I am. I leave every one buzzed and looking forward to the next one, which is slightly surreal. I expected to enjoy getting into the subject, but didn’t expect to want the seminar to go on for another couple hours.

So the class was good, I looked either like a fool thinking I know too much, or just very enthusiastic and interested. Hopfully the latter. There’s one guy called Ken in my FPD class who does what I’d like to emulate. He asked me loads of questions for my presentation and simply expressed an interest, but without dominating and by keeping calm at the same time. I ‘d like to do that, it’s admirable to help other people out by being interested. I think.

After the class I headed over to the Union to mail a fab little card I had with the trademark phrase, “Love from, Me.” The LGBT coffee (two) hour(s) was next and I just kind of hung out there, admiring two hot guys in there. They did oblige and stick around for my viewing pleasure for which I am grateful. I didn’t tell them this of course, but I’m sure that in time they’ll work it out!

So sat around and ate my yoghurt and kiwi fruit for two hours there and then we played the alphabet name, making up names for the female genitalia. It was fag education – the one lesbian there was teaching us! So after gay boys meeting it was off to the gym where I bumped into Hanna which was cool – she was just there already – I hadn’t even planned to meet anyone there! So that’s cool. We did the whole cross trainer thing together for a bit and then I had to go do my exhausting running ‘thang’ so I left her. She has a lip piercing. Love it.

Then, THEN, it was off to yoga. So I meet these three great girls there – Annie, Sophie and Some-other-name-ending-in-E like Katie, or something. Anyway, so got a mat next to Annie and had a laugh with her there and then we kind of walked out together while she was telling me about her girlfriend! And I was, to myself, screaming ‘Yah! A dyke!’ but stayed calm on the façade. So we’re going to do yoga next week too! Gosh, can’t wait.

And that was it! Class, Gay, Gym, Yoga.
And then home to a meal cooked for me! Today, my life was bliss! And now I’m out to the bar to get fucked with the LGBT society.

Ciao!

Laws, what laws?

It appears that through all the bubub over Indymedia's server's being snatched from their mounts in London last week, no-one was able to confirm who was actually responsible. It turns out, nobody here. A Liberal Democrat MP from Sheffield followed up the organisation's queries with official questions to the UK intelligence services and they were, to the Government's knowledge, not involved.

So Rackspace, the UK hosting company, based in the US may well, conjecture here, have removed the servers under the direction of US authorities even though they were subject to UK law. Suddenly their system of priorities becomes vastly clearer - UK law matters not, EU law matters not, US law reigns supreme.
The fallout from this will be quite something to see.

"Mr. Allan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which UK law enforcement agencies were involved in the seizure of computer disks containing material published by Indymedia from the London offices of Rackspace. [192111]


Caroline Flint [holding answer 18 October 2004]: I can confirm that no UK law enforcement agencies were involved in the matter referred to in the question posed by the hon. Member for Sheffield, Hallam."

Richard Allan
The Register

New RSS?

I'm onto a new RSS reader. I've found that if I don't have a site on RSS, telling me when there are new updates, I simply don't really get around to reading it, ever. For a while I used NetNewsWire after using the atrocious Amphetadesk and others. Many others, like Firefox's built in RSS reader on the XP OS. It turns out that Shrook is by far the best I've seen. NetNewsWire would, for some unknown reason, simply refuse to update some sites for days on end whilst I knew for sure that they'd been updated - I'd seen the pages working. Odd. I got tired of it, got tired of waiting and got tired of not really being all that enthusiastic about the trial full-featured version either. Lite and New were not all that different for me - I use the main basic features of just reading the RSS feeds and don't really need a weblog editor; that's what Blogger is for. Anyway, MacDevCenter.com has a great analysis/roundup of the most recent RSS readers of the moment. link

Of course, Shrook they like you to pay for, and but it's all snazzy like that - seems to be a really professional effort as opposed to the half-hearted botch jobs that I've experienced thus far.
So, even though I'm an imporverished student, I may well just be shelling out the $25 for a license. I don't want to, and for me $25 is a lot, but to keep in contact with the world without having to spend hours online at a time, checking out every story, it may well just be worth it.

"The Freshest News:
Shrook's sophisticated Distributed Checking mechanism means you see new items long before users of any other news reader. Simply put, each time one copy of Shrook finds a new item, it tells the central server, which tells all of the other copies, including yours. The average time between an item being posted and appearing in Shrook is just five minutes, all without placing undue burden on publishers. Other programs have you wait up to an hour."

Shrook

Whale rights?

I point everyone to Bag and Baggage today to notice the decision that Whales don't have the right to sue GW Bush for destroying their method of communication for the tradeoff of slightly less deficient sonar systems.

"[A]ny human-made noise that is strong enough to be heard has the potential to reduce (mask) the ability of marine mammals to hear natural sounds at similar frequencies, including calls from conspecifics, echolocation sounds of ondontocetes, and environmental sounds such as surf noise. . . . [V]ery strong sounds have the potential to cause temporary or permanent reduction in hearing sensitivity. In addition, intense acoustic or explosive events may cause trauma to tissues associated with organs vital for hearing, sound production, respiration, and other functions. This trauma may include minor to severe hemorrhage. "

Tell me again, what is a 'minor' hemorrahage - I didn't know that internal bleeding could ever be thought of as minor. I guess I'm wrong. Fuck the whales.

It is obvious that an animal cannot function as a plaintiff in the same manner as a juridically competent human being. But we see no reason why Article III prevents Congress from authorizing a suit in the name of an animal, any more than it prevents suits brought in the name of artificial persons such as corporations, partnerships or trusts, and even ships, or of juridically incompetent persons such as infants, juveniles, and mental incompetents.

I couldn't agree more.
Link to PDF decision piece from the Ninth Circuit case.
BoingBoing
bgbg - original link

Stupid Stupide

I'm so knackered - my thoughts seem to automatically translate into typing. Hint - don't hold a conversation in real life, and via IM at the same time - it'll only end in tears; crossed wires are fine, crossed conversations can be fatal.

Plant a tree/cut one down!

"My friend Gregory and I went back up to the redwoods last Friday to document the horrors we had seen the week before. To us, these tree carcasses provide a shining symbol of our own demise. The beginning of the end, if you will. Humans in the future will look back at this time period and wonder how we could have been so careless and stupid. These trees help keep us and the whole planet alive."

Lisa Rein's site has recently mentioned the atrocity that is Northwest logging in the United States and how the lumber companies are presently able to cut down, essentially whatever trees they like as long as they own them. The issue of the harm to the environment and to national heritage through logging prompted the introduction of a California Senate bill - SB 754 - designed to "prohibit (1) cutting or causing a substantial probability of significant harm to any heritage tree". Trees are the most beautiful things in the world and the trees of Northern California are especially sacred. Their age and majesty reigns over all others whilst their height awes one at every sight. Driving around California, seeing lumber trucks in front is commonplace, but every time, heartbreaking. The bill didn't pass the senate, but looking at what it could have done, would have done is still important if only for our education and in a hope that one day, a bill like this could be introduced once more.

(a) Most of California's original old-growth forests have been cut down.
(b) Currently, no state or federal statute bans the cutting of most old-growth trees in the State of California.
(c) California's remaining old-growth trees are a unique natural treasure. California tree species include the tallest, largest, and some of the oldest living things on Earth. Some California tree species live to be thousands of years old.
(d) Numerous threatened and endangered species depend upon ancient and old-growth trees for their survival.
(e) Old-growth trees and mature forests store more carbon, a component of the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, than young trees and tree plantations do. Some California old-growth forests sequester more carbon than any other forest type on Earth, reducing global warming from industrial and other emissions.
(f) Most of California's surface water originates in forested areas.
(g) Old-growth forests are a rare and threatened forest type. Individual old-growth trees are building blocks for restoring natural forest structure and maintaining ecological diversity.
(h) People from all over the world come to California to see our heritage of ancient trees, which benefits the economy of California

Lisa Rein's logging video + blog
SB 754 Didn't Pass
Ancienttrees.org

Vote for me!

The Guardian newspaper in the UK launched, about a week ago, a campaign to encourage readers to write to registered voters in the marginal constituency of Clark County, Ohio. The newspaper purchased the electoral roll for the county - just as anyone else can do - and is giving out the addresses of voters to those that apply for an address online.
One of my lectures talking about democracy the other day, mentioned how if we lived in a truely democratic system then everyone in the world would be able to vote in the US's presidential election on November 2nd. I couldn't agree with this view more, we're all affected by the election but in reality have no sway. This 'campaign' is one way of working towards that - of giving people from the rest of the world some sort of influence, however indirect, on the election.

"* It works like this. By typing your email address into the box on this page, you will receive the name and address of a voter in Clark County, Ohio. You may not have heard of it, but it's one of the most marginal areas in one of the most marginal states: at the last election, just 324 votes separated Democrats from Republicans. It's a place where a change of mind among just a few voters could make a real difference.

* Be courteous. Remember that it's unusual to receive a lobbying letter from someone in another country. Think about how you would respond if you received a letter from Ohio urging you to vote for Tony Blair - or Michael Howard..."

Guardian.co.uk/clarkcounty

Mrs Dyke

You need to give me more information than that! You can't just say 'I'm seeing someone new' and leave it at that. You can't just say that you haven't been yourself lately and leave it at that. I need detail! I need gossip and I need chat! Tell me everything, and then make up some more just to keep me talking!

And that goes for all of you! By which I mean, both of you!
Details!

Arresting presence

"Its been 15 years that Aung San Suu Kyi was put under house arrest in Rangoon by Burmese military goverment. After these years she still represents the Burmese people's best perhaps sole hope that one day there will be an end to the country's military repression"

link via TwentySomething

Aung San Suu Kyi

Conference Weekend

Hippy happy-clappy, jumping-shouting, high-on-something liberals still scare me. Even though, when you gather 20,000 of them together for a weekend (as has just happened in london) they all agree with one another, somehow they still manage to make a lot of noise.
If you concur, don't shout!

European Social Forums

Staying with my sister in London over the next few days - I'll be attending a social conference with speakers from around the world including Gerry Adams, George Monbiot and Che Guevara's daughter Aleida.
"The main themes for the forum will be: war and peace; democracy and fundamental rights; social justice and solidarity; corporate globalisation and global justice; against racism, discrimination and the far right; environmental crisis and a sustainable planet."

I can't wait. We'll have a giggle and be political - she can be all lefty and I'll be completely centrist. She's think I'm a right-wing faggot biggot, but who cares, I'll just keep schtum.

Later!

Remember me

THE ULTIMATE SILENCE
October 12, 1998



Listen to the mustn'ts, child.
Listen to the don'ts.
Listen to the shouldn'ts,
The impossibles, the won'ts.
Listen to the never haves,
Then listen close to me ...
Anything can happen, child.
Anything can be.

~ Shel Silverstein

Six years ago today, Matthew Shepard was murdered for being homosexual.

What will you do to end the silence?

Click here to post this on your own page or weblog

Greatest 'hits'

I can't imagine anything more tedious and laborious than having to listen to a whole album of Robbie Williams 'hits'. He's become a fat, laid back, pompous and self-promoting idiot who lives in LA whilst flogging his rubbish music back to people in England. Why people put up with such hypocrisy is beyond me. He claims to have a referernce to living here but doesn't actually practice it because he doesn't (honestly) like it here. If you're going ot take advantage of an audience at least be honest to them. Plus, he didn't really write most of his songs - his songwriter Guy Chambers did - he's merely a lager drinking, tabloit fodder front for the music. Take a break and listen to something classical - it'd do you good.
Robbie Williams online
Amazon sells it for £8.49

Kick him under the table

So last week I had to do a presentation comparing Democracy and Authoritarianism. I stressed about it, I read like four books for it, and I worked really hard. My hardest thing was making myself cut out what I didn't need to say, to cut out the chaff from what was essential; I'm so glad I did that. I used my computer to play a song from iTunes that was two and a half minutes long and forced myself to stop talking just after the song finished. We had about three minutes each to talk for, and I could have easily gone on for ten or fifteen if needed - could have rattled on for a while, but I knew that we'd be judged on our teamwork and for our ability to stick to the limits proscribed.

Today, another group made a presentation. They talked for half an hour. They went on and on, boring everyone to death and repeating themselves over and over. I couldn't believe how dull they were, and yet at the same time felt sorry fo them because one of their group was so selfish, was so arrogant as to think that the rest of wanted to hear what he had to say.

Summarise bitch - we know what you're talking about!

Easy ride?

I think it could be quite easy to get seriously depressed whilst studying Chinese. I’ve taken on the monstrous language as an elective this semester and after just three weeks of study I already behind. Yesterday I spent the whole morning writing out Chinese characters in a vain attempt to drill some of them into my head. We have the quite-aptly-named drill classes for this as well, but somehow the skill in picking up benign symbols has eluded me. You know how, when looking at a little bit of Braille, you think to yourself, ‘how can those dots represent language’? This is like that, but in 3D. It’s not only letters, but the words are their own symbols. And you don’t just have to learn one form of writing the language, but two because not only are there the Chinese characters but also the pinyin (Romanized) phonetic transcription. Of course you have to learn the Roman version – after all, how would you look up a character in the dictionary?

I felt rather pleased with myself when I recognized a few characters in a passage the other day, and was able to translate ‘This is not a steamed bun, this is a steamed dumpling’ into pinyin. That was good for me.

My neighbour wrote it out in characters.

The end of a week

It's Sunday, and the end of a long week.
To be boring and person, to focus on me rather than some 'cool' hot button issue, I will say this: I'm feeling fat today. So tomorrow, I'll do the gym. This may be boring news, but it's something and my head is too tired to care about thinking about doing anything else, so that's what's on offer.
Gym - haven't been in a gym for months - I'm going to get so toned!

Nobel lauraete - 'AIDS a weapon'

Recently announced Nobel Lauraete Wangari Maathai confirmed her claim today that the AIDS epidemic is the result of a biological agent created maliciously for warfare. Though widely thought to originally have sprung from monkeys, every so often the claim that the super-evolved nature of the Immunodeficiency Virus surfaces again. Here, however, a newly exposed voice makes the claim - one that will either be pondered or laughed out of the schoolyard.

""In fact it (the HIV virus) is created by a scientist for biological warfare,"

"Why has there been so much secrecy about AIDS? When you ask where did the virus come from, it raises a lot of flags. That makes me suspicious," Ms Maathai said."

link

Kenyan wins Nobel peace prize

"The news that she won the Nobel prize came as a shock to Maathai, who was "going about her business" in a remote area of Kenya when the announcement came from Oslo, her daughter told CNN.

Her family in Nairobi did not wait for her to celebrate, she said. "It's really a great surprise," her daughter said."

link

Youth Noise

"Your World Your Noise
10 Reasons to Update Your Family Values"

I can't work out what this site is trying to be. I found it somewhere online and wondered who it represents. It's a Save the Children Federation entity, seemingly attmepting to make 'youth' feel included, to be an inclusive force. However, with purely odd features like the one above -10 Reasons to Update Your Family Values - it comes across as grasping. Why am I supposedly trying to update my family values? What is it that means they need to be updated? It's like a great current social affairs magazine that remains decidedly non-serious. Also, they like stock photography FAR too much.
Who writes this stuff, "It's our turn. Start gearing up for the National Student/Parent Mock Election on October 28th. Millions of students and their parents in all fifty states and fourteen countries/territories are welcome to cast their vote, deciding the winner in their own version of election day."

Kids are that dumb - they notice when there's no credit given - is this written by Save the Children or is the author simply the PR guy from NationalMockElection.com?
Youth Noise

Adrants

The most self-interested, bithcy, breasts obsessed advertising news website around. It's a classic, fantastic and always edgy but not in the 'nu' hip way - that odd and kind of funny 'eugjh?' way.

They're on rss now too, which means I'll read it even more.
Adrants rss
Adrants

Skip the sucking up

"Professor Oren Yiftachel, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel.
Professor Yiftachel's lecture is organised by the centre for democratisation studies, University of Leeds, as part of their ongoing series of lectures on 'building democracy'."

If I weren't such a dick, I'd go to the talk - it sounds like an amazing topic. However, as I'll be cutting a chinese class later this afternoon ANYWAY, I don't feel like hanging around for four hours to listen to him. I feel bad, but also I'm exhausted and emotionally drained. With these sort of lectures you really have to be awake and alert and on form for all the mingling and chat that goes on before and afterwards - I just can't do that today.
Mr Yiftachel - would you perhaps rechedule to monday afternoon - three-ish?
Ta mate.

What makes me happy...

"Thank you for expressing your interest in the Dance Expose society and for
coming to the auditions last week. Regrettably we are unable to offer you a
place in this years show, due to the unprecedented demand in applicants and
limited membership spaces. We would like to reiterate that the auditions were
based mainly on performance and not dance experience, as we recognise that many
of you have years of dance experience behind you. Once again we would like to
thank you for taking the time to attend the auditions and wish you every
success in the future."

How are you?

"Hey there"
"Hi"
"How're you doing?"
"I'm good, good really, thanks, how're you doing?"
"Great thanks, I'm ok!"

And repeat, perhaps a hundred times a day. This mind-numbing ritual is the
necessary and obliged nicety that is continually repeated throughout
university campuses around the world. You don't know each other well enough
to enquire about substantive events, and so resort to semi-friendly, off the
cuff greetings which mean essentially nothing at all despite the number of
times repeated.
Add to this fact the reality that the repetition become ever more sickening
and dull with time. As you welcome these mundane relationships every day
you become progressively aware of how pointless and shallow they are and
kick yourself for continuing them.

One needs a cull of those we know - there is a limit to the number of
'friends' I can care about at a time - you just can't follow everybody's
life.

Being Alone

I write this post from my internet-isolated computer, cut off from the rest
of the intelligent world, stuck in a room in a manor house, in a city I
don't know. One becomes unaware of the extent to which we rely on internet
connections in everyday life. In a way, one of the most difficult things
about moving away from my family home and to university has been, quite
simply, a lack of internet connection. This isn't only for a lack of
trivial connectivity to entertainment and playful websites, but because
being disconnected now means isolated.
Advertising likes us to believe that our mobile phones supply us with
absolute connectivity, with the ability to browse the web, check email, send
SMS messages and call other phones. This is, however, simply not true. My
phone may be able to do all these things, but I with a simple broadband
connection I can do all these things and I can do them for free. To look at
my emails on my phone would cost me almost 50 cents per megabyte which,
though not killing is deceptive. You look at one website and you’ve
downloaded 10k because it's a little text thing, but check out a second one
and there's your money - you've downloaded over one Mb right there and
you're the way to another. My phone, though cute, is internet capable for
me only in emergencies; other than that it's too expensive and too capable
or racking up bills.

I first thought of myself as being geeky for relying on the internet, for
relying on a techie tool to keep in touch but then realized how ludicrous a
view this is; the vector for contact doesn't matter - it's what you do with
it that counts. I'm lost without the net not only because of my inability
to make VoIP calls to friends across the world but also because I can't
research papers, prepare presentations or check up on emailed updates from
my department.

Without email, you're alone. Reading through libraries of conversations
with friends really doesn't replace instantaneous contact. I need to talk
to someone who already knows me - not someone I need to censor my thoughts
for, to spell it out to, to explain every joke to.

In a few weeks, I'm coming home to visit. They'd better laugh then.

POOFTER

I'm standing at the bar with some of my friends, not drinking anything. I've been trying to get over a horrible cold-like ailment that's been going around. I went to sleep last night with a wracking cough and sandpaper lining my throat, so I thought that though I was going out in an attempt to appease my friends, I wouldn't drink.
The barman, a fat oaf of a guy, drifts his eyes up towards me as though he's favoring me by his attention, and enquires,
"Pint?"
I'm lost for a moment, not really sure what word from the English language he's just jabbed at me. He raises his hand to his mouth in a motion imitating someone downing a beer and repeats the question.
"Pint, do you want a pint?"
Suddenly I get what he's saying and with a start, shake my head.
"No no no, I'm great thanks, I'm not drinking."
He smiles as he walks away, then spins around to face me, points at me whilst looking in my eyes and declares across the crowded bar,
"Poofter."

My friends, momentarily stunned, gasp and then giggle.
I'm still stunned. I felt like calmly walking over to the bar and smashing a bottle over his head. This, this kind of thing, is why I hate straight men and straight bars. I still don't know whether he was joking, or if he simply thought that declaring it was a hilarious truth. Either way, I won't be buying anything from him again.

At the same time, with my unchanging expression and yet obvious shock, I felt like I was falling into the all too common faggot trap. I didn't become aggressive and demand an apology, did not cause a scene in which he would be ashamed into an act of contrition. I felt like a failure in not standing up for myself, but ashamed, for some reason, that he was right.

I felt ashamed, for some reason, for some inexplicable reason, for being gay.

I hate this guy.

I went for the audition

Yesterday was an audition turn-up-and-die event for the Leeds University Union's Dance Expose society. I decided over the summer that I really want to get back into doing some kind of dance and what some might call 'creative movement' - dance then.
In one of the multitude of societies fairs over the last weeks I picked up the information for the dance society and decided to go along. To boost my confidence I managed to get Kate to come along with me though she shirked the idea of doing an audition as well - being dressed in skin tight jeans wouldn't have helped her though anyway so it's just as well.

Attempting to copy the 'leader' in the moves of Basement Jaxx's 'Tell Me' was dire. All the lithe girls in legwarmers seemed to be able to pick it up - I died on my feet. If they'd asked me to improvise to the song, to just do the kind of dancing they were attempting to do - but do it off the bat, I could have done. I'm good at that. Here though, I died.

I walked out of the room feeling like someone had kicked me in the head. Very hard.