There is currently a minor flamewar on the town list about the degree of monogamy to be found among canada geese, and whether or not they ever pine to death, if there mate is killed by as off-leash dog. It is actually a kind of proxy war about spanking, but you only know that if you've been following the plot.
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(3)
01:33:19 PM,
Monday 15 May 2006
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Having heard a snippet of the Bananaphone song on TV the other night on Countdown, I had to go and become reacquinted with the flash animation. The wikipedia article lead me to the sublime Badger Badger Badger, which I somehow missed the first time around. Erika fails to grasp the appeal.
Look, don't complain to me. No one made you follow the links.
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(7)
07:03:08 PM,
Saturday 13 May 2006
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Latest bit of family vocabulary I'm trying to place... 'pink fit'. We use it to describe particularly irrational temper tantrums, but the main usage I can find online is 'not in a pink fit' meaning never. Familiar to anyone?
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(2)
06:39:17 PM,
Saturday 13 May 2006
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A good point made on Bloggingheads. Corporations don't like free trade, and are not conservative. They simply support whoever they feel they can buy. At the moment, that's the republican government. Historically, the democrats have been just as available when they've had influence to sell. From the looks of it, Hillary won't be an exception.
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12:55:16 PM,
Friday 12 May 2006
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My building, a 10 story square beige affair with ghastly carpets, has a huge overhang, perhaps 15'. This space is taken up by a walkway and... flowerbeds, right up against the building, where neither rain nor sun shall ever fall. Meanwhile, the bike racks sit unprotected, just beyond the overhang.
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(1)
12:48:00 PM,
Thursday 11 May 2006
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My company is excited about the Deficit Reduction Act. Lots of more money being spent trying to control spending.
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09:39:25 AM,
Thursday 11 May 2006
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Been listening to Sinead O'Connor's Black Boys on Mopeds recently. It's a lovely song, but it's also as stunning a piece of moral idiocy as I ever hope to encounter.
The relevent lyrics, released 9 months after Tianaman Square...
Margaret Thatcher on TV
Shocked by the deaths that took place in Beijing
It seems strange that she should be offended
The same orders are given by her
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England's not the mythical land of Madame George and roses
It's the home of police who kill black boys on mopeds
The case she's referring to is one where Nicholas Bramble, falsely suspected of stealing a motorcycle, fled the police at speed and died when he crashed. The scale of the error in moral reasoning here really does appall me. It's important to call things by there right names and so on, to make distinctions between stupid tragedies, and a ham fisted tyranny ordering the army to slaughter demonstators. It's a fairly common sort of mistake that she makes. For some reason, levels of sheer hate that we would all understand as unbalanced, destructive and reprehensible in personal life are accepted without a murmur when watching the TV. Maybe it doesn't matter, steam valves and all that. The only reason it matters is that we are, however remotely, a democracy, and this sort of communal idiocy makes our government that much stupider. But we have plenty of other ways of being stupid about politics. Never mind. Carry on.
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(3)
05:15:49 PM,
Tuesday 9 May 2006
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Cycling allows for a whole variety of absent-mindedness not otherwise possible. For instance, in is quite difficult to drive to work and only then realize you left your keys on the table. Today's example was more subtle... when I get in a car to drive, I do a wallet check. Not so with cycling. So today I ended up in the 6 items or less at Whole Foods with a lamb shoulder, oranges and some chicken thighs, only to discover that I was entirely without currency. I could go back, it's only 2 miles, but I'm too demoralized, so a freezer dinner it is.
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05:45:13 PM,
Thursday 4 May 2006
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I must look at the keyboard when I don't realize I'm looking at the keyboard, perhaps with my peripheral vision. How else to explain my bizarre drop in Dvorak accuracy when touch-typing on a regular keyboard? The lesson: rearrange your keys if you want to try Dvorak.
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(1)
05:38:53 PM,
Thursday 4 May 2006
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This is ridiculous. I write email all day. Writing specs usually presents no difficulty at all. But now they've given me a Word template, and all my finely honed paper avoidence mechanisms are kicking in. (Though baking homemade pretzels on an extended lunch break was a new variation).
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(3)
08:42:35 PM,
Monday 1 May 2006
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Strategize gives me hives
Never wordsmith your boss's memos when they ask for comments, no matter how excessive the business-speak. Either they'll be offended, or they'll stick you with editing or even drafting all future memos. Limit yourself to the mistakes and the content.
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07:23:41 PM,
Monday 1 May 2006
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Should homemade, boiled pretzels be brushed with milk before baking? Answer to follow.
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(2)
03:37:12 PM,
Monday 1 May 2006
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site & script courtesy of Moss
