Monthly Archives: December 2004

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People told me about this but it’s taken me until now to follow it up.
“Plans by the Liberal Party in Western Australia to repeal homosexual rights reforms have prompted a gay rights group to call for a national bill of rights.
WA’s Liberal Party leader Colin Barnett has been told to expect an election campaign backlash from gay rights groups, after he confirmed he intended to repeal reforms if elected premier next year.
Included in his plans are pledges to raise the age of consent for gay males from 16 to 18, ban adoption and IVF services for gay and lesbian couples, and deny them access to the Family Court.
The Equal Rights Network (ERN) has called for a national bill of rights, saying Australians deserved to have fundamental rights such as access to the courts enshrined in the constitution to protect them against “wayward political parties”. ” (n.c.a)

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Really interesting article by author Caryl Phillip on society and identity: “I was still engaged in a struggle to recognise and protect my own identity, in all its intricacy, for I knew that I had to view it as unique, complicated, open to inspection and re-examination, and binding me not just to a particular tribe, clan, or race, but to the human race. I always understood that recognising this would be a prerequisite of writing well, for the more vigorously one resists a narrow view of self, the more one sees.”

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I was very taken with this interview about weasel words. It’s particularly good on corporate- and political-speak.
“I think Mr Howard quite cleverly redefined the notion of trust as simply trust us to run the economy properly.”
“Eric Alterman said about the US election recently that Americans now live in a post-truth environment”
I’ve decided rambling about personal stuff is just boring. Here’s a sample: stayed in Monday, went to a party, went to a party, had friends over for dinner, went to a party, went to a friend’s club, went to a party, went to a wedding reception, went to a party, went to a leaving do, went to see friends’ band.

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“Rich nations need to do much more to overcome global poverty, the aid agency Oxfam says in a report.
In real terms, the aid budgets of rich countries are half what they were in 1960, the charity claims.
Oxfam also says that that poor countries are paying back $100m a day in debt repayments.
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In 2003, the average aid budget of wealthy countries was just 0.25% of national income, and just 0.14% for the US.” (BBC)

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An internal job ad posted today for a Senior Archaeologist to excavate an Abbey ended with the sentence: “There are several ghosts and it is very close to the seaside.”

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I have an excuse…
“Researchers at UCSD are recruiting Southern California night owls to undergo monitoring and genetic testing to see if their condition is inherited too. The participants have a condition called delayed sleep-phase syndrome and typically prefer to go to bed in the early hours of the morning and wake up after 9 or 10 a.m., when many people are already caffeinated and ready for work.” (Wired)

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I’ve been reading random blogs today, and realised everyone else seems to ramble on about their personal life a lot more. So here goes, in almost reverse order: woke up late today after a lovely and deserved sleep in. Home from Tom’s just after midnight, leaving Rosie to deal with his and Will’s yardie impersonations. Up after three hours sleep on Friday night to go to Surbiton for Fiona’s hens day/Girlieday. Had a lovely day, and I hope Fiona enjoyed it. I scored far too many clothes in the clothes swap. We made up a new game called ‘everyone hit Foo with small black poufs’, it’s lots of fun.
Friday night was Playtime. I had a really good night, but I was pretty tired after the trashiness of the night before (crashing after-parties, perving on showgirls, drinking free gin, etc – it’s amazing what you can get away with when you’re wearing a corset) and left about 5am. Dreeny – I didn’t see any cute girls that I wouldn’t get in trouble for kissing, so I didn’t kiss any girls. I promise I’ll go out and kiss random strangers soon.
I had two days out of the office (supplier pitches and meetings) and I think my mail has died in the meantime. You can try emailing me for photos from Thursday anyway, I probably just can’t reply yet. Min and Miss Jo in corsets! You know you want to.
I also managed to see the London Look at the Museum of London and Encounters at the V&A. I’d been looking forward to Encounters but I was a little disappointed.