Vote Wisely Vote Silly The Silly Party Support the Silly Party. The only party that is publicly committed to: * raising prices * destroying industry * causing inflation * ruining the economy A Silly Government would: * raise the school-leaving age to 43 * encourage naughtiness in high places * maintain confidence in British silliness abroad.

This was my daily Flying Circus outtake for Tuesday March 9th, but i could've sworn it was written last week about the Republican party and not sometime in the 70's. Replace "British" with "American" and this could by a flyer for the Bush campaign. If you interpret "raise the school-leaving age to 43" as meaning that kids might as well stay in school well into their forties since there won't be any jobs out there for them. I don't want to place too much stock in Howard Stern's sensationalized rants, but things are getting seriously screwy. People are horrified that Janet Jackson's breast popped out on national television, but they're taking their ten year olds to see Jesus tortured for two hours in The Passion of the Christ. Jimmy Kimmel made a good point: which broadcast standards should we strive for, the censorship of Iraq and Afghanistan or the unrestricted media of Europe? We seem to be tilting towards the former, although Dubya felt obliged enough to send troops to put Iraq back on the "right" track. Riddle me that contradiction.

Howard Stern has put together a pretty compelling argument that he is being forced out because he began criticizing the Bush administration. Now we've got the Republican National Committee warning media outlets not to broadcast anti-Bush commercials. Meanwhile they're using images of September 11 to portray Bush as America's saviour. Against the victim's wishes, mind you. The thing that troubles me the most is that no one will tell us why these things are being censored. Just that it's in our best interests. That sounds a lot like totalitarianism to me. Anyone in Europe need a bioengineer?

la nuit porte conseil et je sais le mal que l'on nous fait le mal que l'on nous fait parfois et mon humeur est down, down, down le monde est bleu comme toi

I've been seriously drained, down, and distracted lately. Cobi has fallen into a nightly ritual of peeing in the same spot on the carpet (while Veronica and i slumber), making it nearly impossible to clean. This morning i awoke and went to give her food and pills, and found that in addition to the nightly urine on the carpet, she'd also scratched the hell out of the tumor on her face, causing it to bleed all over her fur, the rug, and the kitchen. Thank you Nature's Miracle. The cleaner, not the little dog that is making my life so interesting.

Anyhow, in addition to my house devolving towards a slum (i told Veronica this morning that if we had children, Social Services would probably take them away), work has also been tying my brain in knots. Not the research side of it ... i like those kind of knots ... but the political side. For example, how am i supposed to do biological research (involving wet labs with incubators, reagents, glassware, etc etc) in a physics division where research is mostly done sitting in front of a computer? I've got several very good ideas for biological research projects, and could probably get them funded, but there's this little question of "where will the work be done?". One of the biology faculty talked our department chair into funding a postdoc for me to do these experiments. But how am i going to take care of a molecular biology researcher when all i can offer him/her is a desk and a computer? I can't beg, borrow, and steal lab space from collaborators forever. To make matters worse, i've got a radiochemistry postdoc arriving from China in two weeks. What he's going to do, i have no idea. Offhand i can think of several things he could work on, but where he's going to work and with what supplies ... dunno. The amount of work it's going to take to get an imaging research program started in a radiation physics division is beginning to dawn on me. It's not impossible, but the path to take isn't obvious either. It's hard enough being a new faculty member and just figuring out the rules ... now i'm trying to do something for which there aren't any rules. Not even a blueprint.

"Man On The Street" by the Skatalites may be the perfect ska song.

I love Broken Social Scene. No seriously, i love them.

Primal Scream's best album is far and away Vanishing Point. Don't even try to sell me on this Screamadelica bullshit. Especially after seeing "Come Together" in those SBC commercials.

every brother is a star, every sister is a star

First repeat quote in my blog. Happy birthday to me.

Less fatalistic news on the Ted front:

• I'm getting marginally better at World Soccer Winning Eleven 7 International, although it's still no cakewalk. My England squad beat Scotland 3-nil the other day, that was probably my best performance yet. More often i'm scraping out 1-nil or 2-1 victories. Cameroon is my bogey team, they've got my number for some reason. Odd, considering their stats aren't all that great.
• I've gotten some really great music lately ... Low Flying Owls' albums Elixir Vitae and Take the Scenic Route are fab ... i managed to dig up most of Etienne Daho's backcatalog, someone i got into in France in 1989 ... in keeping with San Francisco's annual noise pop festival, i've become entranced by bands like Holiday and the Tyde ... metal still kicks butt.
• Wedding plans are progressing nicely ... Veronica's got a dress and a ring, we've both got wedding bands, and we've locked in the location and hopefully a caterer. We're designing our own invitations, and V and Marcus have made headway on a theme for the decorations.
• Chelsea continue to win unimpressively, but at this point the W is all i care about. We drew nil-nil with VfB Stuttgart in the second leg of our Champions League encounter, but advanced thanks to our 1-nil victory in the first leg. We're now in the final 8, and will find out on Friday who our next opponent will be. Possibilities are Arsenal (egad no ... that would be horrible), Real Madrid (to be the best you've got to beat the best, right?), AC Milan, Monaco, FC Porto, Lyon, and Deportivo La Coruña. No softies in that bunch. Noticeably absent from that list is Manchester United, who were knocked out by a stoppage time goal by Porto. What a shame. Damn shame. Bummer.