Tell me, why does LJ only let me skip back 40 entries on my friends page now?

That's more than slightly rubbish.

Newsflash: Rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated.

I'll follow that up with something more witty and insightful when I don't have a French final tomorrow morning.

I just made private 6 years of entries, from 2001 (when I started this journal) to the beginning of 2007. I'm not denying my years of mid-twenties angst (hell, I'm sure I'm still there), but no one but me really needs to read that shit, do they?

Have you read any good Spanish or French language books, or seen any good movies in those languages? I'm trying to get my comprehension better before my finals and am looking for something interesting to immerse myself in.

Please, please, pretty please. I'd be ever so grateful.

I'm totally curious as to how much people believe, and how much it'd affect or hinder them.




Personally, I'm undecided. I believe in ghosts, but don't believe that every instance of a "ghost" is actually a ghost - most of it's probably easily explained away by more mundane stuff. I'd be fascinated to see a real haunted house or hotel, and I'm fascinated by haunted hotel stories [I'll admit to being a bit of a Ghost Hunters fan back in the day], but I'm not sure I'd really be game to stay there... and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't buy a supposedly haunted house. I've had enough of a stressful home-life to feel that home should be a sanctuary, a place of rest... and I don't think a ghost would be that restful.

Hell, I'm not even a fan of housemates.

Is it just me, or does mojito-style sorbet sound fantastic?

I didn't mention this on the day, but on Saturday it was 31°C here. That, for my Fahrenheit-inclined American friends, is 87.8°F.

Saturday was the 13th of September, which means 13 days since Spring "started", and we're not even at the Spring Equinox yet... and it's nearly 88 degrees. The week before was less than 15°C during the day (which is, what, 50s?), and rainy and windy... and then it jumps to that. For what it's worth, we had such a mild (read: boring and cold and grey) Summer here that 31°C is the same as the hottest day we had in Summer this year, on January 18. And we're getting the recap in September?

Today, it was 17°C before 0700, and it's forecast to be 27°C before the day's out (that's 81-ish Fahrenheit). My university's some way from home, and thus the weather is usually +2 degrees in Summer, and -2 degrees in Winter from what it is for me at home. So it'll be pushing 30 two days in the month already, and we're only halfway through.

The weather's insane, I tell you, and what's more insane is that someone, sometime, somewhere down the track, is going to read this and think that this insanity is completely normal, because they're used to the weather being so erratic.

Do you have a spare afternoon and can get to Dorset?

Because the Giant Penis Man needs rechalking.

(Work-safe, via cmpriest)

Sometimes, I wish I was an United States citizen, so that I could vote in the upcoming elections.

You know what I find fascinating, though? What's reported, and more importantly, what's not reported on the news in Australia with regards to the US elections.

For example: Last night's news on the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Commission) was about how Barack Obama made a veiled reference to Sarah Palin with his "lipstick on a bulldog" comment, and then spoke of how John McCain used the same comment with regards to Hilary Clinton. Overwhelmingly, though, it focussed on Obama, and thus portrayed him in a bit of a bad light.

Not mentioned so far on the ABC's news are:

Suppression of possible dissidents in Minnesota

That Sarah Palin's youngest child might actually be her daughter's

That Republicans in Macomb County Michigan are trying to stop people who've been served foreclosure notices on their homes (predominantly African-American Democrats) from voting

...and more!

Now I usually consider the ABC to be less sensationalist than commercial television news, and relatively impartial - almost as impartial as SBS's news. But the disparity between what's reported on our news and what I read about (mostly from your blogs, people) is alarming, not because we can actually influence the results of the election, but rather that whomever is elected to be President in the United States is someone that our country is going to have to deal with for the next four (or possibly eight) years. We need to know what they're like, what dirty laundry comes to light in this election and what they say about their opponents, what their tactics are and what their policies are. We, the people of Australia, don't deal with them directly, but our Prime Minister and his government will, and how he deals with them and what kind of people they are is one of the ways that we hold our government to account.

See John Howard's sycophantic fawning over George W. Bush.

Now I'm not saying that our news should be all US elections, all the time. Luckily, those of us with a brain will be able to search the internet and pay attention and get our information from various sources (with various reliability), and take it all with a grain of salt. But those of us the Australian public who voted John Howard back in 2004 or whenever it was because he "helped keep the interest rates on our mortgage down" probably won't have the presence of mind to research this stuff and inform themselves.

And the Australian public should be informed.

I'd love to know what's being reported is being reported, and why what's not, isn't.

There should be a special portion of hell reserved for people who park their cars outside your house at 5am with their stereos blaring. Especially when your windows are shut, their windows are shut, and you factor earplugs into the equation. It's just not right.

I have no idea if they're doing it on purpose, or if they just don't realise. I'm thinking about leaving a note on their windscreen (very politely, I don't think passive-aggressive BS will get me anywhere), as they may just not know that their doof-doof really is that loud.

I mean, come on. If you have to be at work at that hour, that really sucks... but we don't all have to join in, you know?

In other news, I have the opportunity to go to Buenos Aires for four weeks' exchange in January, and whilst the cost of living and exchange rate is in my favour, the price of plane tickets is not (in excess of $3K to go at that time of year). Conversely, I have the opportunity to go study in Alcalá de Henares, just outside of Madrid, but whilst the airfare is cheaper (than to Buenos Aires), the cost of living (especially when factoring in the Euro) is threatening to rule that out too.

Of course, I have to decide this week if I want to be able to apply for a grant from the university to go.

*sigh*