Sleepless in Scotland

E dropped by yesterday to give me presents, because she rocks. I got Lush (bweee!), and an Official Robin Hood Electronic Recurve Bow^TM (bweeehehehehe my co-workers won’t know what hit them :D), and the Best! Hat! Ever!

… Please ignore the fact that I look demented in that second picture. *cough* Also, State of the Hair, six months and two days after shaving:

Also, a not-that-small gripe brought on by surfing YouTube for Dubliners vids:

Dear YouTubers,

Carrickfergus is not, in fact, a song originally written by Charlotte Church. No, really.

Twitchingly yours,
Melle

Link from Anna: Sock It To Me: Competitive Knitters Get Deadly Serious. I want in! :D

More Serious Link, also from Anna: Lakota group secedes from U.S. Oh my god. I can’t wait to see the official US government reaction to this. O_O

Crossposted from Sleepless in Scotland. Comment here or there.

So Jerry Falwell is dead. I can't find it in myself to be happy about anyone's death, even his, but I'm very glad there's now one less loud, hateful bigot who thinks I'm a subhuman being who should just die and go to hell in the world.

Having said that, the fact that Phelps is planning to picket Falwell's funeral¹ fills me with an unholy glee. Every time I think about it, I can't help but giggle. The phrase "HA-ha!" comes to mind. The only thing that could make this better is if pro-gay organisations end up counter-picketing -- after all, Phelps is picketing the funeral because of the one time Falwell exhibited a shred of actual decency (and when the man who blamed 9/11 on queers and feminists calls you a hater², that's really bad), and because he claims Falwell was a "fag-enabler", and really, taking the high road and getting to watch the entire right wingnut collective squirm and/or brainsplodey would so be the cherry on this cake. :D

¹ I'm taking this link from other blogs's context links, and assuming that page does say something about the picketing plans. Amusingly enough, it's blocked from work because of "racism, hate". For once, the content filter is sort of on my side, heh.

² I can't seem to find the exact Falwell quote after Phelps's picketing of Matthew Sheppard's funeral, so if anyone does have it, share?

How not to get help from a call center: hang up every time you're put on hold for ten goddamn seconds.
How to confuse the fuck out of a call center agent: call in just as the fucktard above hung up, thus making me think I was taking said fucktard off hold when instead I was picking up a new call (for a different client, too. Gah.) Not this guy's fault, but still. My poor head!

This Joe Geeling story, and specifically the way the media seems to be covering it, is bugging me for reasosn I can't quite put into words, augh. The BBC story isn't too bad, but the version in the Metro (which I can't find on their website) opens, and I quote: "A teenager who murdered an 11-year-old boy because he rejected his sexual advances was jailed for life yesterday." The BBC also mentions the "rejection of sexual advances" bit, andit just ... it bothers me, because it strikes me that they'd not be writing this if the victim'd been a girl. Maybe I'm wrong about this--I have no rational explanation here, just a sense of bugging.

(Of course, in the case of the Metro article, there's just sloppy writing going on in general. "Detectives have suggested Hamer picked Joe because he was an easy target -- someone who 'in many ways was his polar opposite' at school." How the hell does being popular make you an easy target? Gah.)

And on a lighter note: Cavalcade of Cats. Favourites include: IraKitty, ShowerCat, ScaryKitten, and of course MoonCat.

Remember that shooting I mentioned? Now the public TV channel's received a letter, accompanied by a bullet, congratulating the shooter and wishing for Rik Van Nieuwenhuyse^* to be the next victim. People, WTF is going on over there? o_O

^* Businessman who was in the news a lot last year for refusing to give in to threatening letters (also accompanied by bullets) demanding he fire an employee for wearing hijab.

Aw, man. (I will never be able to watch the Toy Soldiers vid again, now. Ow.)

So the interview meme is making the rounds again, and I'm never one to pass up a chance to talk about myself, so.

( From Dae. )

( From Ruth. )

Okay, you know the drill, leave me a comment and I'll interview you, then you post the answers in your LJ and do the same for others. :D

I've not said anything about the Katrina situation, because everyone else has already been saying it better than I could, but I think you should all read this and this, because this specific aspect of the whole thing is making me more sick than anything. It's not even just the fact that tens of thousands of people were left behind to die in the flood because they have no cars or other means to leave, and that "mandatory evacuation" apparently does not mean actually providing buses and trains for people to actually, you know, evactuate. No, let's add insult to injury and pretend that the people who stayed behind did so because they're stupid and stubborn and chose to, for whatever reason, and then when they go and take food from the stores, food that will go bad by the time the waters subside, let's call it looting and threaten to arrest them for it!

I really hate people sometimes.

(Secret message to the Belgians on my friendslist: am I the only one who keeps flashing back to Oosterschelde, Windkracht 10?)

Yesterday was one of those days when I wish I drank tea. Unfortunately, I'm not quite that assimilated yet. (Besides, I think they'll get me into drinking Irn Bru before I succumb to tea. Heh.)

Friendslist and metaquotes are filled with musings on the difference between the US reaction to 9/11, and the London reaction to yesterday's boms. I feel the need to point out that part of that is simply because of the difference in number of deaths, and also in material damage--I don't think even Londoners would have sprung back quite that fast if there'd been a sudden huge gap in the skyline where, say, Big ben used to be. (Although, on the other hand, if that pinapple building or the London Eye got boomed, that might have actually sped up the healing process. Snarf.)

But a lot of it does indeed have to do with the simple fact that Londoners/Brits (and mainland Europe, though not to quite the same extent¹) are just kinda used to this kinda shit. TheBritish reaction to terrorism is gallow's humour, tea, and lots of grumbling about pesky terrorists and how dare they interrupt our days, mutter mutter pish posh. And you know, in the end, I think that's better than chest-beating and vows of bloody vengeance. Not that I think those who did this shouldn't be caught and brought to justice, obviously, but I see terrorists as not unlike toddlers throwing a temper tantrum. If you pay attention to them, they'll just get louder, but if you shrug and go make yourself a cuppa, they'll see that tactic isn't working and try something more constructive.

And in completyely and utterly unrelated² news, according to this website, which is absolutely brilliant, if I take a shortcut, I could walk to/from work in about 3.3 km (that's a bit over two mile for you USAians stuck in the Imperial Stone Age. :P) That'd take me about 40-50 minutes to walk. And the weather's been nice, lately. Hm. *ponders*

¹ I think the Belgian reaction to this sort of attack would contain more panick, but also a lot more beer, for example. :D
² Well, not entirely, as I did get that link through the london07072005 community.

( Meme! )

Just finished tagging the September entries for the 11th and onwards. God. Just. Yeah.

Today's Metro (free newspaper thingie) has an article on yaoi (as in, actual m/m manga, not the fanstuff) in it. It's very positive, makes a couple of good points, and I really liked the last paragraph:

Regardless of the availablility, women have every right to get excited about this new comic trend. After all, it's highly likely that Quick and her talented counterparts would have been laughed out of every publishing house in the North American hemisphere just a few years ago. A female artist who draws men having sex with each other, for another woman's pleasure? Don't be ridiculous.

In other news, I'm feeling all kick-ass and rocking lately. Don't know if it's the hair, or this outfit, or spring in the air or what, but I keep wanting to burst out into I Feel Pretty in the middle of the street. Heh.

Would it be tasteless if I said "The Pope is dead, long live the Pope"?

... Ah, well.