So. Everything is officially shit, wall-to-wall, but ( here is the Norwegian Men's curling team putting on their pants without using their hands )

Obviously, the most important things I should be wishing for for Mali are peace and stability, but nevertheless it's a huge relief to find out that the medieval manuscripts of Timbuktu most likely weren't destroyed in the conflict I'd been hearing ( Read more... )

Oh no. I woke up to the terrible news this morning that Jack Layton, the leader of the opposition, died of cancer overnight. I knew he'd taken a leave of absence about a month ago to focus on treatment, and he wasn't looking good then, but I was hoping he'd be back. I liked him! And I'm worried about the fate of his party without him. Last May ( Read more... )

I would like you all to know that now that my vote is making its way to Ottawa and there's nothing more I can do about the election, I have imposed a sanity- and paper-writing-mandated Canadian news media blackout upon myself, and it's making me horrifically antsy. Even though there probably aren't any more polls before the election either ( Read more... )

Well, I have voted, inasmuch as my ballot is now in the tender, speedy, and expensive hands of Fedex, on its way to Ottawa. Projected arrival time: 12:00 pm EDST Monday, with 6 hours to spare before the 6:00 pm deadline. Phew ( Read more... )

OMG! Non-confidence vote in Stephen Harper's Conservative minority government in the House of Commons in ten minutes!

Edited to add: Government has fallen. Now for five weeks of nail-biting election stress. I really hope the Tories don't somehow salvage this and end up with a majority (see "how gritty I really was" tag).

It is my dies natalis, and I have now walked the earth for 27 years - long enough that I keep having to stop and think and do the math to come up with how long ( Read more... )

Wow, I have been an epic slacker today. I didn't even end up doing much shovelling of the large quantities of cement-like snow that fell overnight and continued to fall all day (a random guy with a parrot hat and a snowblower showed up and did it as I was working my way out from the front stairs to the main sidewalk)! I didn't even cook the ( Read more... )

Currently watching the UK election results evolve on bbc.co.uk's election tracker and baking ginger cookies (molasses cookies to the United Statesians), for tomorrow's end-of-semester history department potluck. Given the slackertastic glory of my year, aside from writing fellowship applications, not to mention the slackertastic glory of my day, I ( Read more... )

Well, I think I've found an approach to leading discussion about Edmund Burke, John Stuart Mill, and the People's Charter tomorrow that won't have me spending four hours mentally hiding under a table in my classroom. I will be conducting a debate on democracy, which a group of students will judge, and then I will be talking about what context the ( Read more... )