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December 14th, 2009
 | 12:21 am - Lyrics meme I caught this lyrics meme from glitterboy1, and though it started well, it quickly entered more troubling realms.
"I kissed an iainjcoleman and I liked it" sounded quite sweet, and "If you wanna be my lover, you gotta get with my iainjcoleman" was interesting, but complex, but then it progressed to "All I ever wanted, all I ever needed, is here in my iainjcoleman", which reminded me that I carry a donor card, just in time for "Who needs an iainjcoleman, when an iainjcoleman can be broken?" at which point I made my excuses and left.
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November 26th, 2009
November 20th, 2009
 | 01:42 am - Win This
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October 14th, 2009
October 8th, 2009
 | 10:20 pm - Poetry Day: The Dream of the Rood A poem for National Poetry Day. This is possibly my favourite Anglo-Saxon poem, and this translation by Richard Hamer does a pretty good job of getting the flavour of it across. If you want the original text, go here.
( The Dream of the Rood )
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August 23rd, 2009
 | 03:17 pm - Happy Birthday Happy birthday, katlinel! Though I hope you're having far too good a time on your holiday to read this before you get back.
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July 21st, 2009
 | 01:34 am - Supervillainy!
Your result for The Supervillain Archetype Test...
The MegalomaniacAmbitious, Intelligent, Calculating 
The Megalomaniac is the most prestigious of super-villain classes. If anyone is ever going to rule the world, it will probably be you. Your main goal in life is power and domination, you have the tools to do it, and you know it. Megalomaniacs are intelligent and forceful, and they tend not to let their emotions cloud their judgment. Most of the time. They are usually found, or not found, working at the top of a huge structured organization, though many prefer to work by themselves. The Megalomaniac has but one flaw, but its an invariably fatal one; arrogance. He knows that he can take over the world, and he isn't afraid to let you know, often elaborately and in great detail. They often do not foresee the fly in their ointment, because they do not want to admit that such a fly could exist. Sample Megalomaniacs: Dr. Doom, Lex Luthor, Ras al'Ghul, Kang the Conqueror, Emperor Palpatine, Brain Take The Supervillain Archetype Test at HelloQuizzy
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July 12th, 2009
 | 10:53 pm - Context-free speculation If LiveJournal had been around in Elizabethan times, imagine the fuss after Act 5 of Othello.
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 | 10:26 pm James Moran on Torchwood, and fan reactions.
Worth reading. The poor guy's had to put up with a lot of shit these past days.
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June 3rd, 2009
 | 10:43 pm So farewell then, Hazel Blears. An amoral, vacuous little apparatchik, and quite the thickest human being with whom I have ever had any substantial political dealings. Ever since she blocked a well-thought-out plan to deal with a significant antisocial behaviour problem in Cambridge, I have watched her rise in government with the sensation of throwing up a little in my mouth. She will not be missed.
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May 13th, 2009
 | 12:54 am - Oh, fuck Belated birthday greetings to the noble temeres and the splendid glitterboy1 .
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 | 12:41 am - My lovely wife It's been a tough few weeks at work, but it came to an end today. We had a review of our work yesterday and today by top people from the research council that pays for all our activities. This was a big deal: formally, it was about assessing how well we were doing half-way through our latest grant, but informally it was a lot about whether we continue to have jobs after this grant comes to an end.
So we've all been pretty busy over the past few weeks. For my part, I've had to produce the Annual Report, write articles for the newsletter, and provide content for the completely new version of our website that we've had to rush into existence for this week. It's been intense.
So the inspection came to an end this afternoon, and I made my weary way home. When I opened the door, I was greeted by a delicious aroma - chicken roasting in the oven on a bed of garlic, potatoes and carrots. When it was done, we just tore into it with bare hands - no finesse, but a very nice Maipo Valley chardonnay gave it a touch of class. Absolutely delicious, and all thanks to my lovely wife. What a wonderful way to end a hard and stressful few weeks.
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April 24th, 2009
 | 03:54 pm - European political profiler
nwhyte points to this European Union Political Profiler. It's quite neat. You answer about thirty questions, and it tries to locate you with respect to political parties. What's unusual is that, first, it gives strong emphasis to the parties' views on European issues, and second it allows you to do it for any EU member state.
I did it for the UK and Denmark...
( ...and here are the results. )
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April 20th, 2009
 | 11:16 pm - A typo that was much less amusing than I might have expected When looking for Lib Dem Voice, I just accidentally googled "Lib Dem Vice". To my great disappointment, all the results turned out to be quite dull.
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April 11th, 2009
 | 02:27 am - The wisdom of A. Judas Rimmer When you see this, quote from Red Dwarf in your journal
I just want to say: over the years, I have come to regard you as ... people I met.
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March 31st, 2009
 | 05:51 pm - A couple of must-reads Moazzam Begg interviews Binyam Mohamed - what Guantanamo Bay is really like, why Bagram is even worse, and the moral failures of the US and UK governments.
Also, US officials state that waterboarding foiled no terrorist plots.
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March 13th, 2009
March 12th, 2009
March 6th, 2009
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