Warning! Angry Rant!

You might want to look away, I'm a bit hacked off...!

I'm heavily involved with a group called Toastmasters which is not a cult I swear.

Heavily involved to the extent that I'm the Area Governor of a group of clubs somewhat arbitrarily dubbed N1. I have four clubs I have to look after, some as far away as Camplefield and Saint Albans.

Anwyay, the main thing on my agenda the last few months has been area contests. They all have to happen by the end of this month - which means I have to organise a couple for my clubs. This involves a small amount of back scratching - one needs judges from other parts of town, so I've been visiting other area's to help judge their contests (four so far, at least two more to go.)

So I've been sweating blood organizing the first of these contests, which was on Wednesday. I basically spent most of Tuesday, cup day, running around collecting the bits and pieces I needed. I booked (and paid for) a venue. I printed masses of forms etc. I bought biscuits. I emailed dozens of people who were contestants. Anyway, it's been occupying a lot of my spare time.

And then on Wednesday I actually ran the contest itself. Which I thought went very well.

One of the contests was a kind of spontaneous speaking exercise. It's quite tough, one is asked a question, and then you have to speak about it for at least a minute.

And then what do I get, by way of thanks? Someone whined to my superior in the organisation that the question wasn't "neutral" enough. Fucking conservative twats. The question asked if the government should be supporting the racing industry during the Equine Influenza out break - which I thought was good a relevant give it was the day after cup day. And it gave everyone something to work with...

OK. Just had to get that out of my system. Damn it, this feels a lot like a completely thankless task... I put a lot of work into these extra curricular activities of mine. Perhaps I should have stuck to the Culture Jamming, at least that was meant to be a bit controversial...

*end rant*

Music

I keep whining that I need some new music. Then I look at the (literally) piles of CDs on my desk and think that perhaps I'm just not processing it...

Recently acquired:
"The Same" - (self titled, I think) - band of the husband of my friend Luna.

"We Are The Enemy" - The Enemy. Another of David Thrussell's side projects. Picked this up at the Snog gig the other night.

"Alles Wieder Offen (Supporters Version)" - Einstuerzende Neubauten. Yay, new Neubauten!

"E=MO2 + Live From the Hasty Pudding Theatre" - Emo Philips I have the first of this double album on a tape somewhere, so I was delighted when it was re-issued on CD. So of course my frenetic "buy it now" clicking finger found it on Ebay... "Have some coleslaw, Emo..."

"The Last Days of Rome (Single) - Snog. Pre-ordered this. I love a CD in the mail :-)

Followed by "The Last Days of Rome (Album) - Snog. Ditto. Turned up on pre-order. Me, a Snog fanatic? I don't know what you mean ;-)

"Big Science" - Laurie Anderson. This is the 25th anniversary re-issue. Includes the video for "O Superman". And a strange little bonus track called "Walk The Dog".

"Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah..."

But wait, there's more!

It turns out "O Superman" was inspired by a recording of an aria from an opera by a chap called Massenet. The Opera is called Le Cid. And once again my compulsive "must click buy it now button" kicked in... And it's on my desk. I don't even LIKE opera. I especially don't like opera in German so I have no idea what's going on. I can't even see the connection between "O Souverain" and "O Superman"...

And finally!!!

"Spirits" - Gil Scott-Heron is (hopefully) in the mail to me from the US because of (accursed! evil! engrossing!) ebay!!!

And..... dissolvedpet tells me I should get into Feindflug... German Military Industrial! Just what my collection needs :-)

Yay! Kittens!

Not sure if I've mentioned it, but schnitzelrug and Milkshake are staying here with their Daddy for a while. They were driving evildoom_bunny's mom nuts - and hence by extension driving EvilDoomBunny nuts.

Anyway, they're kinda her cats now... As much as they like me and I like them.

So, what am I going to do for cats? Well, as luck would have it, our supplier of Schnitzel, ladystardust_xs tells me that Schnitzel's grandmother has had a litter of four kittens. Two of which are Calico/Tortoiseshell! I'm going to claim both o' them :-)

All I need now is some names. I'm thinking "Bubble" and "Squeak", in keeping with the Food theme.

Hello Milksha55555555ke (that was her contribution)! Who's an affectionate cat? OK, so, you have a lovely bottom, but it's not really necessary to show it to me like that...

Ok... Now she's trying to / attack the antgggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg
ggggggggggvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvu8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8
u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u
8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u8u865
animated icon on this post.....

Neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerds!!!

And I thought I was bad....

Neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerds!!!!

Books

For reasons not entirely clear to me, I've been re-reading lots of Ursuala Le Guin's books recently, including at least five of the books in the "Earthsea" series.

(I think I like re-reading them because they're not particularly weighty, so they're kinda the book equivalent of fairy floss. Given that I usually read Chomsky and Primo Levi and other heavyweight shit, it makes a pleasant change of pace...)

Anyway, the other "major" series she's created is called the "Hainish Cycle" after a planet of the same name which appears in it. And for no good reason, I've decided to re-read them all - eight (or nine) novels and a smattering of short stories. The debate is - should I read them in the order in which they were published or the order of the internal chronology? Even the Ursuala FAQ doesn't have a definitive answer.

The really scary part is... I found three books (one, two and four in the "chronological" series) sitting on my bookshelves. Along with at least three other books by her which are not in the Cycle... Although there is some debate about "The Eye Of The Heron". Clearly I was (or am) a fan...