AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA OMG HE'S SPEAKING IN FRONT OF A GREEN SCREEN.

It's very hard to maintain my faith in humanity while listening to adoring crowds squealing their approval as Sarah Palin derides the very idea of reading suspected terrorists their rights and as Rudy Giuliani scoffs at the thought that there might actually be two or more sides to a conflict, as opposed to one absolute good and one dastardly evil.

I don't know why I do this to myself, really; watching the RNC. I know I'm just going to walk away from it offended and slightly nauseated, but somehow I always managed to underestimate the level of reflexive patriotism and emotive rhetoric and the disturbing obsession with war and "victory". It makes John Howard look reasonable by comparison.

(Also, it is shitting me that Palin doesn't refer to Barack Obama by name. Every time she calls him "our opponent", I get a little flashback to not-yet-President Bartlet. I think it's going to make me look like I can't remember his name. I think it's going to make me look addled. I think it's going to make me look dotty. And even if it didn't make me look like those things it would remain a stupid idea.)

(Also #2: Calling Obama's speech theatre, deliberately orchestrated in a crafted setting filled with adoring sycophants? Pot, meet kettle.)

The great thing about having one of those totally flighty sort of days where you can't concentrate on ANYTHING? It's the memes.

1. Do you like blue cheese?
I'm allergic to mould, so I don't eat it. I suppose I don't like it, as it smells like utter ass.

2. Have you ever smoked a cigarette?
Yes, but not since January. \o/

3. Do you own a gun?
No.

4. What flavor do you add to your drink at Sonic?
What's Sonic?

5. Do you get nervous before doctor appointments?
Not at all.
( 45 more under here )

You know, I was going to just post music and then go to bed before people in North America started tagging again. But, then I got to reading my lj, and I saw something that always drives home to me that Australia is a different and unique place indeed.

A friend of mine has mention that she is going to THE snow.

Yes, the stress there is mine. Much like going to the cricket, or the rugby, it's a necessary thing to add on to that handy little noun. In fact it's nearly one word. It should just be 'thesnow' or people should simply say 'Oi! Mate! Get outta the way of the telly, thecricket is on!'

Now, here's the thing. If you play a game of cricket, the 'the' is not required. You're simply going out to play some cricket, or some rugby. But put it in a professional context and it all changes. Everyone knows that when you say 'the cricket' you mean whatever test match is on that week. (Yes, that week. Cricket is a long and involved game). To be fair, if you say you're going to 'the rugby' you could mean league or union. Though AFL fans will say they are going to 'the footy' or 'the football'.

Linguistic geekery aside, why is saying the snow so significant?

Because this is Australia. We have precisely one set of mountains with 'the snow' and if you say that you are heading to this mystic place people assume it's either Thredbo in NSW or the Victorian Snow Fields. There isn't anywhere else. In fact, there's only snow worth going to a very few months of the year, and it's not anything like what I'm used to at home.

In fact, it's so significantly the only place with snow, that people don't say they're heading for a holiday, or skiing, or any of that.

Nope.

People tell you that they're going to the snow.

I love this country. I really really do :D

50. Call of Duty: My Life Before, During and After the Band of Brothers, Buck Compton - I got the audio cd of this from Manda. I'm not usually the hugest fan of audios, as I read a lot faster than other people read to me, but I enjoyed this one. It may be that I liked listening to Buck's story, and that I was traveling a lot that weekend, so had a bunch of listening time, but I liked it. I'd only really recommend it to other Band of Brothers fans though.

51. A Wrinkle in Time, Madeline L'Engle - it's been years since I read this and I forgot how much I loved Meg, Calvin and Charles Wallace. This book was very hard to find here in oz, and I wish it was easier, and not half of the crappy young adult vampire fantasy shite that's out there. If you do like young adult fantasy, you really should read this, and all the subsequent books.

52. Eleanor Rigby, David Coupland - Coupland is a very hit and miss writer I find; I either adore his books or hate them. Recommended by eudaimon, This was definitely a win. The story of a middle-aged woman who lives her life alone, suddenly faced with the son no one knows she has. It's touching in a very odd way, and his way of noticing details just works so well in this.

53. The World According to Garp, John Irving - Another recommendation, this time by bohemian__storm I really quite liked this book as well. Again amazing attention to detail, and the stories within the story were really fascinating. It literally is the story of a man's life, and a strange one at that. It foundered at bits, and I don't know that I'll be picking it up again anytime soon, but I would recommend it, and I think that someday I'll likely end up reading it again.

54. Persuasion, Jane Austen - While I've never been a big Austen fan, this is a book I have read before of hers (many years ago) and enjoyed. I did like it again, this second time through. You can lose yourself, reading this book, in the detail and the images that it evokes. It's a smart book, and I'd recommend it. Though, honestly (and this may make me a heathen), but there was a very faithful version of this made just a bit ago with Rupert Penry-Jones in it, and you'd likely do just as well simply watching that.

55. Gale Force, Rachel Caine - Urban fantasy light reading ftw! Newest installment of the Weather Warden Series, I do really love these books. I do not love the cliffhangers they end with, leaving you waiting for the next each time. But it's an amusing, well written and put together little series.

The rest of what I've read this year