glittertigger

I can now drive my car again :)

zandev and I are now engaged to be married!

I wouldn't usually write about either sports or politics, but as what I've been doing for the last few weeks has largely been watching the Olympics followed by watching the US political shenanigans, I'm going to make an exception. I thoroughly enjoyed the Olympics - the venues were spectacular and there were some fabulous sporting performances. And I'm patriotic enough to get a buzz when we win things. What was really refreshing was seeing our athletes so openly saying they were going for gold. I've never liked all this "what matters is taking part" rubbish - competitive sports is about who wins. Rebecca Romero in particular was a huge breath of fresh air.

On the political front - I know the US election isn't really my business as I don't have a vote, but I reckon the future leadership of the US could make a lot more difference to the future of this country than which of our tedious centrist politicians happens to be in Number 10. I was enormously relieved Hillary Clinton didn't get the Democrat nomination. Whatever happens next, at least it won't be a Bush or a Clinton in the White House. On the other hand, I haven't really taken to Obama either. He's eloquent, intelligent, liberal and handsome and the mixed race background is probably an electoral asset. However the foreign tour and the grandstanding (especially his acceptance speech) come over as breathtakingly arrogant. He seems to believe the presidency is his by divine right. I've been waiting for months for someone to land a few decent punches and make him fight for it, but until this week no-one seemed to have succeeded.

Eight years ago McCain looked by far the best bet for the presidency and I was disappointed the Republicans didn't pick him. He now seems a little past his best and this time I was surprised but basically pleased by their choice. And I was more surprised by his choice of Palin as his running mate. I don't think it was aimed solely, or even primarily, at picking up Clinton's disaffected voters. I think the main objective was to fire up the conservatives. She has a phenomenal back-story (you can read that in a million places so I won't bother here) and classic conservative politics. She would be a danger to the Democrats if she was just a prettier Dubya and a better public speaker. I think their supporters have made a huge mistake in the petty way they've attacked her (to be fair, Obama himself has handled things very well). By using her to both bring home the right and attack the Democrats, McCain can keep his hands clean and make a play for the independents. It might even work and it's going to be one hell of a race to watch.

I think the huge danger to the Democrats is that part of her appeal (I wonder if McCain saw this) is that of the spirit of frontier America incarnate, in a very attractive female form. I even wonder if the reason the reactions to her are so visceral is that she stands for some deeper seated ancestral dreams. I saw a comment somewhere (apologies to the author but I can't remember where) saying that Obama stepped out of his Greek temple (boy was that temple an error) and got shot by Artemis. That struck a chord for me. Those who have fallen for her aren't going to give a damn about the details of her economic policies.

Having tried both recently, I find it much harder to walk a mile in flip flops than in 3-inch heels. Is it just me? (I do know that there are much better options than either of these.)

From lathany. The top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing’s users. As in, they sit on the shelf to make you look smart or well-rounded. Bold the ones you've read, underline the ones you read for school/uni, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish. Add (*) beside the ones you liked and would (or did) read again or recommend; even if you read 'em for school in the first place. 


I seem to have read 50 of these which seems fair enough (and only two of those were because my school made me). Embarrassingly I do have seven of the others sitting on my shelves unread. I've only just got Freakonomics so am expecting to finish that one soon.

Surprisingly my car engine still works. But the gearbox bearings are smashed to pieces and replacing the gearbox on a sports car turns out to be very expensive. As it has done 111,000 miles and the engine is also burning oil, it may not be worth doing. The car is going to go and sit on my Dad's driveway so he can do a thorough check on what is wrong and hopefully get it sorted over the summer. And I need a new car. Sigh.

The last two bottles of wine I opened (from different regions/manufacturers) were corked. I'm beginning to see the benefits of plastic corks.

On another note, I think I've spotted April Fools on several news websites. I won't say what they are yet so you can have the fun of spotting them yourselves.

I watched the world figure skating championships last night and was reminded how great a sport it is - you have dramatic music, sparkly costumes, graceful dancing and a touch of danger. The Canadian pair who came third gave a beautiful performance and this page contains a link to the video: http://www.cbc.ca/sports/figureskating/story/2008/03/19/isu-worlds-pairs.html

My thoughts on the judging are echoed here: http://www.thestar.com/Sports/FigureSkating/article/348150