Where is coffee? I need the coffee!
I’m starting to panic about Christmas shopping now. I have NO ideas what to get for too many people and I am not getting much help and ideas. I may have to enlist ILX to help me with ideas at some point.
Do not buy people presents. Donate the money you had intended to spend to charity instead.
(I hate shopping)
OMG I’m marking exams, specifically the students’ essay, which is supposed to be a response to this question: “Discuss the relationship between form and content in any three of the works we have studied this term.” One student has taken that question to mean she is to write about “the relationship” (i.e., relationships) in three works.
that’s a pretty bad misinterpretation. That question does give me The Ph34r tho, and makes me glad I did a nice easy science degree.
I hate shopping except guitar shopping.
I like the charity idea, except I’d want to apply it to everyone i.e don’t buy any presents for anyone. Some are bought though—so it would seem odd. Maybe next year. Normally I do a blitz of shopping with the missus but it’s not gonna happen this year, she’s too busy for even a mini-blitz, so has delegated a load of it to me. I’m going to have to take a day off and just...DO IT.
I hate that thing when they announce on the radio what they are going to discuss later so you have to either wait around and make yrself late for work to hear it, or never find out what they were going to say about it. T’other day on Radio 5 Live they said that they were going to discuss why giving folks in Africa goats for Christmas *wasn’t* an ethical thing to do. Never did find out why.
See, I haven’t done presents for or from my family for years. Then I married into a family who buy presents for anyone they’ve ever met, just about, so after about the 8 billionth Superdrug make-up brush set (I don’t even wear make-up!) I insisted on them donating to whatever charity instead. And I would much rather give money to a charity of their choice, even a few quid, than by some token of, well, nothing really, because I never see these people and I would walk past them in the street without recognising them and I don’t see why I have to waste money buying people shit they don’t want or need just because of the date on the calendar.
(However, I did let my husband help with the cost of my ATP ticket this year, but that’s only because I couldn’t afford it myself due to jacking in of job, and I’m pretty sure he’d have bailed me out anyway and it’s just a “do something nice for me that I’ll appreciate” rather than buying something just because it’s Christmas)
T’other day on Radio 5 Live they said that they were going to discuss why giving folks in Africa goats for Christmas *wasn’t* an ethical thing to do. Never did find out why.
It probably is—it was just that some animal rights campaign group called Animal Aid had put out a press release saying it isn’t. Because, presumably, they think all goats should be free to roam in the wild blue yonder.
woohoo! I have been spending the past hour being put into the position of persuading my current crush to go out with somebody else. I am impressed with my abilities. So impressed.
Incidentally, and in less soul-crushing news, I got a slightly odd offer from a firm the other day. They are a general computer supply company, but in the sales pitch phone call, they said that they had plenty of special offers on Xboxes, PS2s, iPods, and the like, which could be added to an order by the company, but wouldn’t show up on the invoice, and could be delivered to a different address. I was quite impressed by the brazenness of the ‘buy from us! steal from your employer!’ angle...
I heard that argument, last christmas thought I heard a much more rational one that goats were unsuitable for the ecology of a lot of the places they were sent to as they eat too much of the wrong things.
This is all true. Which is why when you buy a goat for charity, the chances are that you’re not ACTUALLY giving a goat, you’re giving enough money to buy a goat. It usually gets spent on something less cuddly like sewage systems or wells. Still an enormously good thing to do, just don’t take it literally.
Yeah, last year, my mother-in-law bought me a voucher showing I’d donated x amount of school dinners to a school in Africa. Part of me was all “grrr, I’d rather something sustainable and useful”, but I figure it would all go to something useful in the end. I did stipulate that it should go to Oxfam, and I’ve every confidence that something useful is going to come of it, more useful that me having another sodding facecloth.
My sister is immensely proud of the alpaca she’s bought for a friend. Mainly about how cute it is...
I’m buying a Dolphin for Africa!
Also, I don’t want a cheery glossy card featuring waving orphans happily eating. I don’t want my money going to manufacture shiny cards. Do something USEFUL with it!
Morning, people!
Morning.
I am tired and cranky today, the yoghurt and brown rice diet is not good.
Ugh, not feeling any better yet?
Morning! Starting to get a little apprehensive about the work Christmas party tomorrow. Meanwhile, I’m putting together price lists for computers that we’re never going to buy and hassling Microsoft for my license keys; oh the fun.
morning! BAH was i here at 9.30 and there is no one to tell me what they need me to do because they had their christmas party last night. this morning i did not get hit by a bus, but i did nearly get mown down by an cyclist.
I’m not sure if I’m feeling crap because of illness or lack of food or other crap that is going on.
I’d recommend a sausage sandwich as a cure for all known ills.
Kill or cure.
Being mown down by cyclists isn’t so good—next time you whizz past someone, you’d better feel bad about it ! ;)
I’m quite excited by our xmas party on thursday. Should be mildly amusing. I’ve been practising doing my bow tie, and I look brilliant. I have to learn the words to the Internationale by tomorrow—eeek!
My goodies arrived from cafepress today—2 cool t shirts and a mug. You lot will appreciate them: http://www.cafepress.com/barlowshop
Incidentally, am I the only person who sees the number of answers on the thread and thinks of other significant meanings for that number?
I don’t do that thing Forest, but I had a housemate who did. She was from Austin, TX but was a student of British history who was obsessed with King Charles I. Fascinated by the fact that our landlord’s VCR had its clock in ‘military time’ (ie the 24 hour clock) one day she pointed at it all excited and said “Ooh! Ooh! 1625! The year Charles became King of England and the year he married Henrietta Maria!”
It usually gets spent on something less cuddly like sewage systems or wells
I’m disturbed that Johnney thinks goats are cuddly.
More cuddly than a sewage system.
Good morning! I’m in an excellent mood, even though I am fighting off iguana flu this morning.
Emsk, are you OK? PLEASE be careful out on those crazy London streets. There are a lot of idiots out there, don’t get mown down by busses or cyclists. Do you have your bike up and going again? Seems you were safer on it!
yay, Mark H has found an ILX with no work restrictions! Welcome back!
I don’t mind shopping, I just can’t be bothered buying anything. Had to endure “women be shopping” jibes from Dare’s boss all afternoon and so she bought a dress to spite him.
anyway... HURRAH, I LOVE SKATING!!! I WANNA DO MORE AND MORE AND MORE OF IT!!!!!!!!
Jim and his missus were supposed to come with us, but cancelled cause he was coming down with the flu. So Dare and I went to the Natural History Museum by ourselves. I was SO SCARED when I got on the ice, because I’ve not skated in 20 years, and I was all “I can’t skate” and terrified. But five minutes on the baby rink and it all came back to me. I had years of lessons when I was a kid—I used to be kind of a mad hockey player when I was about 11.
Apprently the best ice rink in England is five minutes from my house—I’ve walked by it a million times and never been in it. But Dare gave me her spare pair of skates under the promise that I would go every week.
Poor Ed. Brown rice is actually quite hard on the digestion. You should be eating over boiled white rice.
About all this “Give cows to Africa!!!” stuff... I don’t know. I’m not sure if it’s just not planned very carefully. (Why give dairy cows to Africa when 80% of Africans are lactose intolerant or something?) And goats can absolutely destabilise a threatened ecosystem since they are hardcore omnivores and will just devour everything faster than a plague of locusts.
But I suppose “dig a well for clean drinking water” doesn’t look as cute on a christmas card or whatever.
I did tell my brother to make a donation to Oxfam or FotE in my name for Xmas. But only coz he’s a Tory.
bah, I hate not being able to eat. I hate having bugger all energy. this must stop soon.
I did tell my brother to make a donation to Oxfam or FotE in my name for Xmas. But only coz he’s a Tory.
Irish cattle thief.
Can someone recommend something I can buy that is easily digestible that I can eat sitting at my desk right now.
I would say bananas, but I know that would make you iller. ;-)
Some kind of smoothie?
Oh, also that reminds me (Gooblar’s students)—I have a dissertation on Dylan to demolish in my inbox, heh heh.
I just ordered one of these for Amber and Alice, prob too late for Xmas but hey (ho let’s go)!
I have never skated. I ph34r I’d be rubbish at it—I am as sure-footed as a one legged mountain goat. But then, I wasn’t fortunate enough to have years of lessons as I kid like you did Kate, which may have allayed my (possibly stupid) ph34rs.
There is a tiny tiny skating rink in Oxford in the castle complex (actually the prison exercise yard complex but that doesn’t have the same marketing potential).
It’s possible that the real ILX would now be unblocked by our IT boffins were it operational. Rumour has it that the restrictions at the Oxford office were apparently stricter than the other offices around the globe and so in the interests of fairness they have been relaxed. This sounds like a rare and uncharacteristic act of altruism to me, and other explanations have been ciculating on the office rumour mill, including that we are making use of webthings for commercial reasons that were previously the preserve of ‘fun interweb’, such as blogs and podcasts. That said the podcast from our new chief CEO (we’ve just been taken over) was still blocked and an email came round saying “but you can of course watch it on yr computers at home”. This was greeted with snorts of derision, speshly as it is apparently two hours long.
Ohmigod, are those Ramones teddy bears?
I’m not sure if that’s brilliant... or beary scary.
x-post
MarkH, I thought I was going to DIE when I got on the ice.
It’s very scary at first. Dare *made* me do it, I really wasn’t going to, I was all “no, I can’t skate!”
But honestly, it’s a bit like riding a bike. It’s not difficult, but there’s a trick to it. It’s all about balance. I was terrified I was just going to fall over, but Dare told me “if you feel like you’re going to fall, bend your knees” and I did that every time, and seriously, I didn’t fall once.
I think to be honest I would be equally worried about collisions with other skaters (speshly big heavy ones). I know. Me wuss.
They’re made by “Toxic Teddies” like those little “porny/chainsawy/smoking/rude” ones you see around.
Ice Skating:
We did this last year, Dawn and Alice were like giraffes on, well, ice skates. I was OK with Amber, we had a couple tumbles but it was OK.
We have an ice skating thread now!
Ice Capades - Skating In London!
I’m going to copy and paste and answer there.
smothie not a bad idea, maybe I should get a mango lassi from the juice shop round the corner
Mmmmm, mango lassi. (I try to avoid fruit when I’m gastro-ill, as especially citrus can upset your stomach but a mango might be OK.)
Boiled eggs are pretty safe, you need to keep your protein levels up.
I can feel the atrophication as we speak.
I’ve only been ice skating once. I spent half an hour on the ice, and was terrified for every second of it. I value my fingers too much to go ice skating. it’;s the kind of thing that looks brilliant once you can do it, but learnign to do it looks REALLY hard. EVERYTHING is easy if you know how!
also, I can see how learning to skate when one is very very small is the way to go—just because the rules of allometry mean that kids hurt themselves far less when they fall over anywhere, not just on ice so one can learn the balancing act and overcome one’s fear early on and never have to worry again (if you keep on skating obv).
“Why is it that women are seen as unsuperior to men?”
Uh, sorry, wuh?
What does that even mean?
You tell me! I’ve got to mark it!
inferior or of equal worth?
Marissa’s doing your course?
Skating is totally great, isn’t it? I am still very very angry, 15 years on, with Richmond council for selling the Richmond ice rink to property developers. Said developers were supposed to be contractually obliged to build a new one in the borough. As I point out to every Lib-Dem canvasser who darkens my door—I AM STILL FUCKING WAITING!!
It almost seems like they’re trying to say “why are men seen as superior to women?” but garbled it with “why are women seen as inferior to men?” and came out with something utterly nonsensical.
Unless of course they were actually trying to say that they beleive women are superior to men. (Only if you’re an actuary, actualy.)
Please take the skating talk to the skating thread? It looks so lonely! I want to talk about skating, but over there.
Also, L@@K:
TSM are vampires!
1) drinking blood
2) NO REFLECTION IN MIRROR!!!
“The Faerie Queen was a very important person in the mythological world, as she was Queen of the Faeries.”
Are these like the literary equivalent of that “Find X—Here it is!” mathematical paper? ;-)
“There must be some reason why this person will always be remembered as Shakespeare’s brown-haired individual.”
Maybe because they have brown hair?
“Hey there, you don’t care
Beautiful boy with the long brown hair...”
I should set up some new users or something.
I’m thinking of publishing my own version of Kids say the Darndest Things.
xpost awesome.
Please take the skating talk to the skating thread? It looks so lonely! I want to talk about skating, but over there.
You could just rename the skating thread to
Watercooler Sub Zero: Ice Capades
as it’s all the same people and this thread is about a million posts too long.
ha ha ha ha! THat’s great, actually.