In these days of war and death and murder and terrorism and hatred and everything like that? HURRAH for the Afghan National Cricket team, and their triumph against adversity!

That is all.

The Daily Hate and stuff are forever going on about judges gone mad, and stupidly lenient sentencing (which does happen on occasion, but not nearly so often as people think). With that in mind, it's nice to report a judge getting it pretty much spot on: Judge Anthony Russell QC, I salute you.

ETA: more details in the MEN.

Other times, things give me hope. The very existence of Imaan gives me hope, for example. YAY tolerance!

Also, the very existence of innerbrat gives me hope, because while she's around making wise and thoughtful and thought-provoking posts like this one (see here for background), the world is a better place for just having her in it.

Ever been raped?
Know someone who has been raped?
Ever voiced an opinion on the topic of rape?

Read that post. If it were up to me it'd be put in the national curriculum.

In completely non-political news, my friend Imogen has signed up for LJ, but she can't work out how to add me to her f-list (you know, silly me, having a comm for my public blog and all) so this paragraph is just to say OI! IMOGEN! COMMENT ON THIS POST!! because once you do that I can friend you and it's all good ;)

... I got tagged by James Graham for my Eight for 08. I have been rather lax about reading my f-list recently, James, for which I apologise, but at least I've noticed now ;)

Eight things I can realistically hope for in '08?

1, That my wedding goes off without a hitch, and that I remain as blissfully and vomit-inducingly happy with my wonderful matgb as I am now.

2, That everyone I love is alive and healthy by the end of the year, or at least in no worse state than they are right now at the beginning.

3, That America doesn't have Huckabee for a president in the near future. Because, as burkesworks so eloquently put it the other day, when America farts, the rest of us are stood¹ downwind.

4, That politicians of all stripes start to learn the value of having a decent website, and, more importantly, what a decent website is².

5, That the Labour party's popularity freefall doesn't lead to a Tory government³

6, That I learn to stop procrastinating things which would take no more than thirty seconds (answering emails, a bit of tidying, making sure I eat properly, even going to the loo) in favour of answering memes on t'intarwebz. Yeah, these hopes are getting more forlorn as I go along, aren't they?

7, That I get a nice Trial of a Timelord box set. OK, so I'll admit that the script is (mostly) crap - *shakes fist in the direction of Pip'n'Jane* - but, oh the Sixie goodness. Also on my wishlist of Who DVDs: The Time Monster, Arc of Infinity⁴, Terror of the Autons, The Daemons, Attack of the Cybermen, The Happiness Patrol, and Battlefield.

8, That I get more than 2/4 from what I always say when people ask me what I want: world peace, a large bag of fifty pound notes, a bottle of brandy, and a shag

Dammit, no room for the repeal of SOCPA or the death of the ID-card-and-attached-database project. I have too many hopes all waiting to be dashed...

And now I must tag five people:

Blah. I hate putting people under obligations. Also, I would doubtless tag someone who has already done it, due to the afore-mentioned lax reading over recent days. Therefore, if you want to do this consider yourself tagged. Knock yourselves out.

---

¹ stood is a perfectly valid Yorkshire dialect particple of the verb to stand. I would like to see it adopted countrywide over the much more unwieldy standing, but a bit of a forlorn hope.

² In terms of the party I bang on about most, this will mean either them dumping Prater Raines as a preferred option for all their websites, or Prater Raines upping their game massively. I haven't seen a website by them which isn't crap in terms of both design and usability. But especially design. I mean, just look at that homepage! I could do better than that with five minutes in Dreamweaver. With my eyes shut! [/bitchyness] Seriously, people who think website design doesn't matter are like people who think SPaG don't matter, or that you only need to optimise websites for IE because only a minority use other browsers. It's true that good website design doesn't matter to lots of people, but to those for whom it does matter, it matters massively; whereas it doesn't offend the don't-cares if you get it right. Thus, getting it wrong really does matter, because if you get it wrong you offend a small-but-significant minority, but if you get it right you offend not one person. To me, this makes it worth the effort. There will probably be a more detailed post on this in the future... That's FOUR SB's Guide to... posts I need to make now *headdesk*

³ Yeah, that's a bit of a forlorn hope too, isn't it? If it doesn't happen in '08, it'll happen whenever Gordon calls the next election. But if I believed in any Gods my prayers would include please let the next election lead to a hung parliament, and thereafter STV for all! every single night

⁴ How do I love thee, Maxil? Let me count the tights ways.

Also, I found another petition that's nearly expired (expires midnight tonight). It would be great if we can all give this one a final push. Because it will mean that Mat and I won't have to bother having two wedding ceremonies.

Make humanist weddings legal in England and Wales as they are in Scotland.

NB: any links which may have been in the original entry are no longer there. Sorry.

( Originally posted 18th November 2005 )

NB: any links which may have been in the original entry are no longer there. Sorry.

( Originally posted 5th December 2005 )