suddenly have a massive craving for camomile tea, but all i can find in our cupboards is either pear and guava, or lime and ginseng herbal tea. what the... ? heh.

jumped at 10:57 PM

woke up this morning to a knocking on the door. rather ungraciously opened it because my dog wouldn't shut up and they wouldn't go away. gah. anyhow, was another of those pesky evangelists trying to convince me that 'the only way to real world peace is through god's way'. *quotes* Think not that I am come to send peace on earth; I came not to send peace, but a sword. -- Jesus, Matthew 10:34. whee, maybe jesus is spearheading one of the countries in the 'coalition of the willing'? no wonder bush is so adamant he's doing the right thing.

and i had to be NICE to him, because he seemed like a really nice guy. but honestly, what i really wanted to do was let loose with a torrent of abuse. *growl* i'm not christian. i don't believe in god. i don't care what you think. now go away. put it this way eh? if you're right, you're okay and i'm stuck in a place where they've lost control of the ambient temperature. if i'm right, it won't matter anyway. so get lost, keep your fucking convictions to YOURSELF, i'm NOT interested dammit. some people may take offense at this. whatever. I take offence when you come around and insult MY beliefs by telling me i'm wrongwrongwrong. fuck. off. i get enough of this bullshite from my family, who're mostly scarily devout christians. i hesitate to use the word fanatical here, because they're my family, however, the symptoms are definitely there in some of them. after all, it's not a cult if it's YOUR religion is it?

besides that rather unwelcome visit, the rest of the day was pretty good. :) ran the gel for the PCRs of the new DNA we extracted on wednesday, and the damn things worked! *faints* was VERY unexpected, and if any of you heard screaming emanating from the dark room today, you know who it was. *sparkle* however, it also means that we're in for a very hellish coupla weeks, doing another 50 or so PCRs.*sigh* always a black cloud to go with the silver lining. heh. staff & students day was wonderful, though it kinda sucked that so few 3rd year bio people turned up, we went mainly because it was the last one for us, and we enjoyed ourselves tremendously. some parts were, predictably, cringeworthy, but i escaped those by going for a little walk outside and making it back for the next item. one thing we did miss that i regret, was joel having to do a pole dance as a forfeit. heh. oh, and for those interested, you know who you are, shandon was there today, and yea, he did perform. haha. quite well at some points actually.

am feeling rather.. relaxed and somewhat at peace with myself, probably because i just did two hair treatments and curled up in bed with a girly magazine and some lemonade. good day all round, and i'm off to enjoy what remains of it, before it all starts again tmr.

this weeks friday five:
1. If you had the chance to meet someone you've never met, from the past or present, who would it be?

you know, i really don't have a clue? because you just know that if you do meet them, you'll be disillusioned, and anyway, they won't know you from adam. and i've met most of the people i want to. heh. a1. rob thomas. anggun. chester bennington. savage garden. *ponder* aha! orlando bloom. and sean biggerstaff. *nod me* damn i'm shallow. alright, lemme just redeem myself a bit, i'd like to have met stephen jay gould, charles darwin, or gerald durrell. :)

2. If you had to live in a different century, past or future, which would it be?

future. i have no particular desire to return to the past, i'd miss my creature comforts too much. as for which, well, i'll tell ya when the time comes. or not. heh.

3. If you had to move anywhere else on Earth, where would it be?

what, with like, money? *grin* Edinburgh, Switzerland, Sweden or the Maldives.

4. If you had to be a fictional character, who would it be?

ohhhh tough one! *bites fingernails* kethry, from the oathbound by mercedes lackey, or sophie from howl's moving castle by diana wynne jones. or, again giving in to my frivolous side, poppy from perfect timing by jill mansell, and annabelle from sarah harvey's fly-fishing. all good books btw. :p

5. If you had to live with having someone else's face as your own for the rest of your life, whose would it be?

josie maran. *nod me* or jennifer love hewitt. or the guess model, whose name i don't know. *grin*

currently playing : take a bow - madonna

jumped at 5:30 AM

so here we go. the majority of the world is against this unprovoked, unsupported, unjust, morally despicable war. not counting their leaders of course, who can be bought and bribed, but the people themselves, who for some reason don't have a voice anymore. no choices, no power, and in the US no right even to disagree without being labelled anti-american. ah, precious democracy. the same thing they're pledging to spread in the middle east. wonderful. especially since the US seems to be backsliding somewhat into Imperialism. but no, damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead, we're gonna bomb those poor bastards right outta existence. and as for all those people who're like, okay, we're at war now, we have to support our troops; so, now your government has passed it, that's it, we're all pro-war now? *rolls eyes* i'm not saying to not support the troops, i mean, honestly, what're you supposed to do? knit them socks? how about special, chemical-weapon-resistant socks? all i'm saying is that just because it's started, there's no reason to just let go and accept everything like it's a foregone conclusion. granted, the war probably is, as is the outcome, however, you can make a difference in the next elections after all, and even before that. *sigh*

also, i'm waiting for the news report that states, massive weapons deposit found in iraq! then cynical lil me will start wondering where on earth those weapons came from, and probably conclude that it was the US themselves, who after all still have to justify this war somewhat, and are not above forging evidence, as with the so-called 'evidence' that iraq had concluded a deal with nigeria to obtain uranium.

"Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else." ---Teddy Roosevelt

heh.

i can't believe that this is the world i'm going to have to live in for the next 60 or so years. can anything be more depressing? or futile?

jumped at 7:59 AM

just wanted to make a short little post to show y'all that i'm still around and whatnot. *grin* not dead yet, though it's a close thing. heh. been slaving away in the lab the past few days because our bacteria decided that in order to make our lives more miserable, they'd grow. lol. so yea, been busy running endless PCRs, agarose gels, and some DNA extraction and subculturing, til 7pm the past few days! always the last ones leaving the lab. *sigh* getting our final report draft back from dr zaman tmr, so we'll see what she says, if she's read it already there was a bit of a good sign today, she said she'd be quite willing to write us reference letters. *grin* yay! haha. if she hasn't, that might all change tmr. :p and the bloody ribotyping didn't work. *growl* expensive mistake that, coupla hundred/thousand dollars for one run. gah.

in other news, my mum gave me the bloody shock of my life today, when she told me that there was this place offering a special on manicures and pedicures for two people, and did i want to go? *faints*

currently playing : all i need - matchbox 20

jumped at 8:05 AM

have a look at this. oh dear god. if they became any more 'playground' they'd start pushing each other off the swings. how honestly pathetic can you get? where's your precious free speech then hm? democracy? always wanting to be the worlds peacekeeper when you're quite obviously the biggest warmongerer, trying desperately to divert your peoples attention from the incredible chaos you're wreaking on the domestic front? with much success obviously, looking at these reactions. and have a look at the comments on the report. "Who made her speaker for Texas?" news buddy, she was expressing her own views. This isn't even about whether or not the war should go ahead. this is about what you all are so bloody fanatical about, the power of free speech. remember that? the little thing in your constitution that allows racist groups like the KKK to express their views without any real backlash, that allows the publication of books detailing the way to make a bomb? yea, that.

"If she finds it so wonderful over there why doesn't she go live there then?" oh god, shut up before i make you stand in the playroom corner. Honestly. So she's been overseas and maybe had her eyes opened a bit to what the rest of the world is feeling, outside your little borders. perhaps you should open your little mind a bit too? have a look at other peoples point of view? like, the rest of the world? even if we all revert to playground mode, put it this way, you don't own it, you're just the biggest bully in the sandpit.

yes, yes, september 11th, september 11th. there's not a shred of proof that saddam is related to al qaeda, your governments public relations officers have cleverly managed to just stick the two in the same sentence often enough that you believe it. yes, i know you're pledged to a war on terror, but why him? why now? there's more proof showing that the september 11th perpetrators were from saudi arabia than iraq, i don't see them getting attacked. and well, you've left him alone for 10 years damnit, plus a lot of his weapons were rather cleverly provided by y'all way back when. ya know? when y'all were bosom buddies? and, a lot of people died at 9/11, that's true. and it was horrific. and unforgivable. but there are a lot of unforgivable things around nowadays. so many people dying all over the world, like in the ongoing israeli/palestine debacle.

so, lemme just get this straight. you're going to attack iraq, because of one person, who may or may not have had links to the al qaeda network, and you're going to kill probably more innocents than saddam would think of doing at one time, perhaps forcing him into using some of his 'weapons of mass destruction' (god save me from hearing that phrase ever again) as a last ditch attempt to defend himself, and just as a byproduct of course, of your benevolent war on behalf of the world, (who, btw, mostly are against this, except perhaps the countries, like bulgaria, who you've bribed), you'll get your paws on the whole of Iraq, and its oil, and lots of business for american companies in the rebuilding of it, but you know, all that's just a byproduct really, those particular advantages have never crossed your mind, have they? *snort*

and, back to the first part of this post, why is saying something against your president suddenly anti-american? you voted him into office, but you still have a right to have an opinion on what your country is doing on the world stage. for all i know it's in the constitution, i certainly haven't read it, i come from a country where speaking out against the government is slightly frowned upon. but that's alright with me, that's just the way we are, (not to mention they'd never do something quite so enormously stupid, but i digress), you, on the other hand, have a reputation for allowing, as mentioned above, free speech, remember? and don't even get me started on 'freedom fries'. *smacks her forehead* *rings a little tinkly bell* remember who gave you the statue of liberty? feel like tearing it down yet?

and, it's just occurred to me that i'm not really going into this issue with the best of backgrounds. heh. half-british, formative years spent in australia. put it this way, i'm not really enamoured of either of those premiers at this point. and! one last thing, last, honest! haha. i do not welcome flames. you disagree, fine, that's your problem. i'm a bleeding heart left winger who'd get torn up in minutes by rednecks, but, that's my prerogative. any outright flames will be deleted. and their IP's blocked. my blog, my rules. don't like what you read, i'm not forcing you to, you can fuck off to some pro-war website and plot conspiracy theories with them k? *smiles sweetly, angelically even*

jumped at 5:28 AM