Sleepless in Scotland

OH MY GOD DIE DIE DIE KILL IT KILL IT WITH FIRE! *twitches, froths at the mouth*

Uh, yeah, so work was of the bad today. It's just no a good sign when you're muttering the Litany Against Rage^* under your breath before it's even gone ten. Aside from the usual fuckwittery from the field sales team, there were several times when I got through to voice mails and people all seemed to have recorded their message in a state of Extreme Boredom, like, what the hell people, it's called inflection, look into it, and then there were the people I called to try and get them to take a survey who seemed to take it as a personal insult, all "You must be joking," or laughing all "What was that all about?" to someone in the background before properly hanging up, which, it's a survey fool, and if you've never heard of that, it's not my fault you live under a rock, and my co-workers kept being EXTREMELY LOUD, as if I don't have enough issues with phone calls and background noise as it is, and AAAUUUUUUGH!

*deep breath*

The good news is, they handed out incentives today, and I got one, which is nice, especially as it came with £15 of vouchers for Debenham's, which I believe has a rather nice yarn department, which is very handy as we're coming up on the end of summer and I'll start knitting again soon, yaye! Oh, and then I got a call from someone with hokage's real name. Heeeee! Also got the second caller from my home town in three days, bringing the total after two years to ... two. Huh.

Also also, after some chasing up from me, I got my (emergency) overdraft, which means that from midnight tonight, I will no longer be broke. Thank fuck. Now I'll be able to actually buy chocolate and tobacco in Belgium. (Which reminds me, I should check if there's a limit on how much I can take back with me.)

In completely unrelated news, does anyone know what's happening/happened to who_daily?

^* "I must not rage, rage is the mind-killer. Rage is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my rage. I will permit it to pass over me and through me, and when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the rage has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."

No S:AaB recap today, as I got distracted by the dishes while cold Case was on in the background, and then I returned to the living room to see Bones was on, and it was about a historical dig, and pirates, so of course I had to watch David Boroneaz get his glee on (awww, he's really not that bad when he's not playing Broody McMoperson), and um. "... Is that Rod Rowland?" Yep, my weird talent for switching on shows I never watch just for the eps starring certain obscure actors I like has struck again! This happens to me all the time with Adam Baldwin as well. Either I have some sort of weird homing device for these guys, or they're stalking me through the TV.

So this weekend in Bruges, a bunch of skinheads beat up a black guy, who is currently still in a coma. Yesterday afternoon, an eighteen-year old shot a Turskish woman, a black woman, and the two-year old (white) child she was babysitting. The Turkish woman is heavily wounded, the other two victims didn't survive. I just ... I'm almost not surprised about this, after watching the number of extreme right voters rise constantly since ... pretty much since I became politically aware, really, which would have been the early nineties, probably even before, but the first real Black Sunday was 1992, I believe. Something had to give in the end, and I can only hope that this is it, that it's not just a buildup to something bigger.

Oh, and then my mum got taken to the ER on Wednesyday with what looked like it could be a heart attack, then might have been lung cancer, but thankfully turned out to be "just" atypical pneumonia. I'm ... kind of glad I didn't hear of it until last night, actually, when there was an actual diagnosis, because I would have freaked the fuck out. Yeah.

Hello, co-workers, if you're going to sing, could you at least sing something I know? Preferably something Christmassy? Better yet, shut up!

(One week until my birthday. I'm not ready to officially be in my mid-twenties, damnmit!)

Also less than a week until the mistletoemagic deadline. And less than two weeks till Christmas. And even less than that till I go to Belgium. Cue panic in three ... two ... one ...

Oh, goddammit, a co-worker just strolled by whistling When I Need You and now it's in. my. head. and ARGH!

Okay, dorkage time. We've recently been getting daily reports on our call stats, totals of how many calls we've made the previous day, etc. I've pretty much consistently been in the top spot, and while I know this makes me incredibly lame, I get a huge kick out of that. (Yes, I'm competetive. Hush, you.) Yesterday was exceptional even for me, with 106 activities, which my supervisor congratulated me on, and the department head just e-mailed me to tell me what a great job I'm doing. *grin* And yes, maybe I take too much pride in a call centre job, but you know, I like this line of work, for some reason, and I like actually being productive. Yes, those six or so months of having very little to do but sit on my arse and surf all day were kinda fun, but boring, and I prefer knowing that I'm actually earning my paycheck.

(First Dutch-speaking person who makes a quip about living up to my name, dies, BTW. *glare*)

I hooold out my haaands and I touuuuch looove ...

Oh, boo, I won't be getting my Denise needles for another week at least! I e-mailed the woman running the shop I got them from, and her shipment of them is in customs and won't be with her until end of this week at the earliest. Bah! *sulks

Oh hey, Belgian slashers, do we want to arrange a get-together again or something when I'm over there?

And all that I sooooo wanna giiive youuu ...

I have a persistent headache and it's getting worse despite the painkillers. Grar. Need more coffee. And a cigarette. And possibly some sugar.

IT'S ONLYYYY A HEARTBEAT AWAAAAYYYYYY!

krazycat tagged me, so here, have a ( meme. )

Tag six other people to take this meme.

Hm, let's see, who hasn't taken this yet ... babyofthegroup, carelessmemory, deepsix, elance, jamaisneutral, and ruby_fruit.

( Another meme, cut for image. )

The current User Friendly storyline (starting here) is amusing me greatly because it rings so true. (I had to deal with pretty much exactly that for three years, remember, and yes, people do indeed act like that.)

In less amusing news, and the reason for the use of my politics icon^*, Didier Reynders can bite me. As I ranted at poor jamaisneutral:

WTF? "Evaluate" gay marriages? Why? I just. I can't even fucking articulate how pissed off I am. The bloody CD&V is in favour, for fuck's sake, but Mr Reynders has to go and be a fucknuggety twat and ARGH!

The CD&V is the Christian centre-rightish party, for the non-Belgians amongst you. Reynders is supposed to be a liberal. And his nonsense about public opinion and queer couples adopting is bad enough, but I can't even read his "We should evaluate same-sex marriage" statement without seeing red, spluttering incoherently, and failing to make any sort of sense. Maybe once I've calmed down I'll be able to formulate a proper rant, but for now, you'll just have to imagine my primal scream.

Fucking hell.

^* Which randomly reminds me, with 100 icon slots, I probably need Even More New Icons, and new and improved versions of the older ones. Something to ponder. Need to burn the images I have on my home computer to disk for use at work, I think.

Normally only bug ruby_fruit with these thought e-mail, but I think i have at least one Cable/Deadpool fan on my friendslist, and thought you might appreciate the cute. Awwwww. Also: heee! Oh, Bobby. *pats his head*

*dance of joy* *thumbs nose at the Bishops*

I love the internet. I can read my usual Belgian newspaper online, and even get the properly-formatted articles in PDF format if I want. Yay proper (Belgian) news!

Man, how did I miss the whole Condoleezza Rice kerfluffle? Yo, Belgians on my friwendslist? I do kinda rely on you to keep me posted on important things, you know.

In short, two weeks ago, Secretary Rice came to Belgium to scope out security and stuff for Bush's visit this weekend. There was an incident when she landed at Brussels airport, with some journalists who were kept way back from the plane to the point where they coudn't even get a picture with a huge telelens, a Belgian security officer, and a Secret Service (?) guy. According to my mother, it went something like this:

Journalists: "Dude, we can't even see anything from here. Can't we go in a bit closer?"
Belgian Security Bloke: "As far as I'm concerned." *lets the journalists move a bit closer so they can take a photo already*
Secret Service Bloke: "Hey, yo, you can't do that, this is our plane!"
Belgian Security Bloke: "... And this is my country, and these are my journalists."

Which probably is a wildly inaccurate version of what happened, but even so, it gives me warm fuzzy feelings. (Also, props to my mum for the phrasing, which is pretty much entirely hers and also hilarious and witty. Yay mum!)

And then today I read that there was at least one protest against Bush using sarcasm as a tool. Seriously, a whole protest with people carrying sarcastic signs like "Kill Kill Kill the Terror," "Fuck the Third World," and "War is good for the economy." I'm much amused. Mmm. My country tastes like sarcasm. :D

Mommy, the Dutchmen are SCARING MEEEEEEE! *whimpers, waves wee Belgian flag in distress*

No megolas for me today, she has to stay in with her foot up. :(

And my e-mail internet should be working by 27 August. Which is of course the day I leave to visit Belgium. *facepalm* Well, it'll probably be earlier, and at least it'll give me time to find a router/modem/whatever it is I need and set up things.

And watch DVDs, yay!

Edit: E-mail and internet are not the same thing, self.

Everyone should move to Belgium! We have good chocolate, great beer, and supersonic minis!

:D

HOLY FUCK THAT IS A SHITLOAD OF SNOW!

Fifteen fucking centimeters! Six inches! A SHITLOAD!

Melle: *steps outside, not suspecting a thing*
Melle's feet: *disappear in snow up to ankles*
Sam: *plays California Dreaming*
Melle: ... Very funny.
Sam: Antropomorphising me again, are we?
Melle: Oh, cram it.

ETA: ( HP personality quiz. Did not see this one coming. )