Freedom to fight and kill people in war
I had these thoughts while watching the Remembrance Day commemoration at Whitehall (on the telly):
If people / humankind have had to fight so hard and lose so many lives over this concept of freedom, is it possible that the freedom we’re talking about may not be the state we’re naturally meant to experience? What is the right equilibrium? Or is the fact that we’re sentient and have the ability to communicate enough to justify wars fought on the basis of liberation or freedom?
I left What’s On Xiamen in Xiamen, y’all
It is slightly amusing that some people I met in Xiamen (who are still in Xiamen) cannot help but tell me about the new restaurants, cafes, bars, barbecue stalls, etc. opening in Xiamen. Either they’ve never had much to say to me and this was the only thing we had in common (since I’m so quiet, the latest interpretation I’ve heard is quiet = ignorant + stuck-up), or it’s something that’s become a reflex.
Heh.
(All are welcome to go wild with mathematical interpretations of what ‘quiet’ means in the comments, by the way.)
Do you want to be my friend?
I’m spending loads and loads of time on social networking sites during office hours.
(Books and reader networking sites, of course. And — ugh — MySpace, too.)
It’s fun, dragging a publisher into the 21st century.
Also, TFIF. The weeks go by so damn quickly but there continues to be a huge, dynamic pile of ‘to dos’ on my list that never seems to go down.
Some things — mostly irrelevant — that I’ve learned recently
- Decaf green tea is not as nice as normal green tea (in fact, it’s a completely different colour and tastes rotten)
- You can eat too many potatoes
- A-format paperbacks are the size we normally get in Singapore, they’re the babies of the bunch (the larger B-format is the standard size in the UK)
- Pressing a key sequence in error while trying to paste something in a Microsoft Outlook email will send it prematurely (unfortunately, I still don’t know what this key sequence is, although I’ve done it loads of times)
- Sometimes, I just can’t make time to craft (and so I have to stay away from swaps on Craftster)
- No matter what kind of barrel a whisky has been stored in to mature, it still tastes bad (but okay in a cream liqueur)
- I give rational relationship advice (that resembles horoscopes in general accuracy)
A human catlol moment
Yesterday I bought Neil a muffin, but I eated it.
Alan Johnston’s kidnappers — American? Discuss
Neil will say it but doesn’t want to use his own server space to post about things of interest because he is a natural born troll. Here is the latest. You know that news about Alan Johnston’s kidnappers threatening to kill him if their demands aren’t met? Neil says the weapons the Army of Islam (all masked, why are those doing Allah’s work so afraid to reveal themselves?) were carrying are M-16s, not AK-47s, which are apparently the rifle of choice (AK-47s are more deadly or something). AK-47s are Russian and easily available.
The M-16 is American.
(Slightly worrying amount of detail in this M-16 vs. AK-47 comparison page.)
Doo-doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo-doo
(I don’t actually know if they were carrying M-16s, Neil was 100% positive they were, so if I’m wrong, he’s wrong.)
Tangent on the election
Has anyone noticed the flyers we’re getting promoting the parties in the Scottish elections are all* printed on glossy paper, which is notoriously difficult to recycle? What about their ‘green credentials’?
* The Green Party’s flyer is printed on recycled paper that’s slightly glossy (I’m guessing they don’t want us to recycle their flyer, either).
Crunchy on the outside
A couple of food (and eating) -related links, sure to get the mouth watering:
- Got a taste for testicle? Oakdale fete for you — via Terry. The fact that one has to mask the flavour of calf testicle with ‘heavy seasoning’ and breadcrumbs kinda tells me that calf testicle doesn’t taste too good.
- If you’ve enjoyed your calf testicles as much as your neighbour but you put on more pounds, It’s in the genes: breakthrough confirms DNA link with obesity — so the chubsters who want their cake (and pizza and ice cream and burgers and chips and chocolate) and eat it will blame their genetics, not the fact that they’ve never done more exercise that reaching for the phone to call their local delivery service. Putting them on a diet of calf testicles might actually get them moving.
Lunchtime can’t come soon enough!