“Funny, but sad.”

You know, back in 2000, a Republican friend of mine warned me that, if I voted for Al Gore and he won, the stock market would tank, we’d lose millions of jobs, and our military would be totally overstretched. You know what? I did vote for Al Gore, he did win, and I’ll be damned if all those things didn’t come true.

–JAMES CARVILLE

Would anyone with a right to vote in the US please, please, PLEASE think really long and hard before voting for Bush (and then prefereably decide to NOT vote for Bush)?

Please? I know it’s your election and all, but the result actually affects the rest of us, too…

I’m getting masses of spam every day now – I start each e-mail reading session with deleting or setting filters for at least half of what’s in my mailbox. Today I got three messages from Mathilda (whoever she is when she’s at home) with the subject “Rebelling”. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m not really all that interested in an e-mail from someone I don’t know about rebelling, let alone three.

Anyway, it seems, today I have finally also won something. Martin’s been getting a few of these and I’ve been envious.

We are pleased to inform you of the announcement today, 24th June 2004, of winners of the promotional SILVER SPOT SWEEPSTAKES LOTTERY NETHERLANDS / INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS held on 30th May 2004 as part of our yearly bonanza. Your company, attached to ticket number 025-1146-1992-750, with serial number 2113-05 drew the lucky numbers 13-15-22-37-39-43, and consequently won the lottery in the 3rd category. You have therefore been approved for a lump sum pay out of US$2,800,000.00 (Two Million, Eight Hundred Thousand Dollars only) in Cash credited to file REF NO.SSL/4554256007/49. This is from total prize money of US$20,600,000.00 shared among the seventeen international winners in this category.

So, let’s see, is that US$20,600,000.00 divided by 17? US$121176 or thereabouts. Well, that’d come in handy, I admit. All I need to do is contact my claim agent by 30th June.

Darn, my schedule’s all booked until 30 June. I don’t have time to contact my claim agent. I guess that means I don’t get the money, huh?

Ah, life’s a bitch.

Apart from aquiring a terrible cold, I also aquired a scanner than scans film this weekend, and this evening I’ve convinced myself to stay off the couch and at the computer for long enough to scan this photo of a pussycat we met in Sunne last Easter. Pity about the branches getting in the way, but what can you do? Cats aren’t exactly well-known for taking instructions…

Back at work after three days off sick, and all I really want to do is crawl back home and collapse on the couch for another four days or so. I have contracted a very stubborn cold – started Saturday with a sore throat and sort of developed from there into flu symptoms (aching joints especially) and then into a “common cold” sort of thing (plenty of action in the snot-producing area and a very tickly throat). Cough.

The doctor gave me a prescription for cough medicine. Unfortunately it tastes vile and does not seem to have any effect (assuming its intended effect was to stop my coughing).

And the weather’s foul, too.

This is almost spookily accurate for being based on the name “Robin”:

Unfortunately the spookiness abates when I test with other usernames I currently go by in various places. (Via.)

My hobbit name:

Goldie Brockhouse of Loamsdown

Right.

Harry Potter this evening! Yay!!

I am Moo Goo Gai Smurf. Or, if you’re speaking Norwegian, Stalker Smurf. Beware.

In a year and seven days I’ll be Smurf Smurf Smurf. Now that is funny.

(Via)

I talk to myself a lot. Quite frequently out loud, though I try to avoid that if there are other people about, it can lead to misunderstandings…

Even when I’m not talking out loud, I tend to keep up a sort of conversation with myself – sometimes it’s more of a monologue, but quite often it’s a definite conversation – and it’s pretty much always complete sentences. You could record my thoughts and play them back and they’d be as understandable as most of my conversations (which might not be saying much, come to think of it). However, as with thoughts said out loud – to an audience or to the thin air – there is always an undercurrent of half-thoughts and such. Although my “conscious” thought is a flow of reasonably well formulated sentences, I rarely, if ever, think of only one thing at a time. This leads to funny moments (well, funny to me, no one else is aware of what’s going on in my head, after all – at least I hope not) – as I get exactly the same sort of effects in my “stream of consciousness” as I do in sentences said out loud whenever other – half-conscious – thoughts distract me from the topic at hand. In other words, I get half finished sentences and “slips of the tounge” in my thoughts. I find myself “saying” to myself “That’s not what I meant to think” quite as frequently as I have to tell people “That’s not what I meant to say”.

This sort of thing amuses me. No, I’m probably not quite sane.

Voice in my head (apart from my own, as outlined above): Michael Wiehe – Hemmet

So I saw Venus passing the sun. I felt it to be my duty, somehow, since I’m probably not going to have another chance to observe this fenomenon. I failed to get wildly excited about it, but what can you do?

In other natural fenomena news: Yesterday evening we had a hailstorm. With hailstones of between two and three centimetres in diameter. Now THIS did excite me. Quite happy I didn’t have to be outside in it, though.

And, oh yeah: RIP Ronald Reagan. I’d have said “about time”, only that would be rather rude. However, I will link to 66 (unflattering) things about Ronald Reagan (via). Enjoy.

There is a patchy cloud blanket this morning, so I’m currently watching the passage of Venus over the sun on live webcast from Trondheim instead of using my nifty glasses. Hopefully it will clear up later.