My So-Called Life
the random and not-so-random musings of a twenty-something history geek
My So-Called Lifethe random and not-so-random musings of a twenty-something history geek |
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| About Lizzie: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Lizzie is a fully qualified history teacher having finished her course at Canterbury Christ Church University. She's also a geek who was secretary of the University of Kent Computing Society during her three year BA at the University of Kent. She is very much in love with her shiny Husband, though she is sad that he doesn't glow bloo :( More about her on her website: http://carina.org.uk |
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| May. 21st, 2009 @ 11:03 pm Socks | |||
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This website (Sock Dreams) makes me wish I lived in the US. *dribbles* I have a great weakness for nice/funky/cool socks. |
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| Jan. 25th, 2009 @ 12:09 pm President Obama's first 100 hours | |||
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| This is pretty cool - it's a bullet pointed list of all the things Obama has done in his first 100 hours of being President. Makes very interesting reading. |
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| Dec. 3rd, 2008 @ 08:29 pm Proposition 8, The Musical | |||
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I've been pretty wound up about Proposition 8 (with good reason), but I felt we could do with a lighthearted but pointed interlude to giggle over for a bit :) And so, without further ado, I present: Proposition 8, The Musical starring Jack Black, John C. Reilly, and many more... From various sources, but the one that actually prompted me to watch to and then post was Boing Boing. Cross posted to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} exmormon |
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| Nov. 7th, 2008 @ 08:42 pm Milestones | |||
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Firstly I feel I should mention the US election. Yay! Obama won! :D I wanted him to win, and have thrown aside my cynicism for now to become really excited by a politician. A terribly important milestone too - the first black president of the USA :D I hope he could be like Kennedy for my generation. Except for the sleaze. And the Assassination. Definitely don't want those bits. So maybe not like Kennedy, maybe more like staying as awesome as he seems now when he's actually President. The less said about Prop8 in Cali and an organisation I was formerly a member of, the better. Now that's out of the way, two rather important milestones happened to me today. I. I turned 25 sometime around midday today. I suppose I'm now officially on the wrong side of 25 now ;) . I have had a lovely day, and got some lovely presents and cards. Huge thanks to everyone who has wished me a happy birthday so far :) (Various on irc, some via text, ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} alisondh and moonhot97 on lj, and a couple via facebook). Thank you all - they were really appreciated.II. My final appointment with Nikki the Mental Health nurse was today, and we talked over some stuff about keeping well, dealing with triggers, preventing relapse and what to be aware of in terms of signs that I might be relapsing. Also lots of stuff about rebuilding trust in myself and my wellness, so one bad day doesn't panic me or those close to me. I'm told this is pretty much the last thing that comes back. I'm feeling pretty positive tonight at least, and I'll be happy if I maintain this level of okayness for a year. If I do, then comes the Big Scary of coming off the pills. But that's in the future. I want to use this space now to thank everyone who has supported me over the last 18 months or so. I couldn't have done it without you guys, whether you are aware of having helped or not. Now the Black Dog is banished to his Kennel. I hope he stays there. So for tonight I'm celebrating two huge milestones for me - being 25 and being discharged from the Mental Health team. Yay! Come celebrate with me :D Drinks on someone else!  |
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| Sep. 11th, 2006 @ 11:06 pm 9/11 (or 11/9 on this side of the pond...) | |||
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I was reading through my friends list tonight (and my bloglines feed) both of which include quite a few Americans. As a result of this, and the fact that we have been thinking about 9/11 on this side of the pond too, I have read several posts about the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington 5 years ago today. The best one I have found was by lisaofdoom in this post. In case you are too lazy to click on the link (I know most of you too well :P) here is the video she has, embedded right here in my very own ickle LJ.It's the start of The Daily Show from 20th September 2001, the first one after the terrorist attacks. The host is Jon Stewart who lives in New York where The Daily Show (shown on E4 at 8:30 every weeknight for those of you in the UK) is filmed. I think he says it better than anything I could write or anything I have read today. |
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| Jun. 1st, 2005 @ 02:59 pm An Update :o | |||
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Mostly feeling:
Many things to write about :) happyNow Playing: Sister Hazel: Killing Me Too Firstly, Ben and I have moved into the flat (yay!) and will be finally getting White Goods (fridge freezer and washer dryer) on Monday \o/ - you don't realise how fantastic the invention of the fridge was until you are stuck in the middle of summer (well almost the middle of summer :P) without one ;) I'd put the fridge right up there with Central Heating. Housewarming soon (promise!) and address and phone number in privated entry to follow this ;)) Secondly, I have been contacted by the National Blood Service Bone Marrow Register because, apparently, I am a preliminary match with someone. This was quite a surprise to me ;) I'm going along to St Georges Hospital, Tooting on the 13th of June to have another blood test. If everything checks out there then I will be donating some of my bone marrow to someone who needs it. Just thinking about it makes me go all squishy! ( The letter ) Thirdly, the unveiling of the "Deep Throat" who revealed the involvement of Nixon in Watergate has taken place. This is also something that has made me kinda fuzzy inside. This is always something I remember mum being interested in, and I think I see why. I see it as a defining moment in American politics. It's good to see the person taking the credit he deserves. Finally... ( A Meme! ) |
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| Apr. 19th, 2005 @ 09:02 am Stuff | |||
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Mostly feeling:
I feel rather better now about the mormon thing I mentioned in my last post, largely because of something ben said ("We should be glad he's in the top 100, after all he proves at least one fiftieth of the United States to be idiots"). amusedNow Playing: Barenaked Ladies: Enid Last night at work was funny. Becky was doing an international week quiz for school. One of the questions was "Where was Mozart born?" ( Becky said... ) I asked Tom if he knew. ( Thomas said... ) ( Mozart was really born in... ) The other amusing answer was to the question "Which country has two official languages, English and French?". ( Becky guessed at... ) Was a very amusing evening :) I'll miss those kids :| |
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| Apr. 19th, 2005 @ 12:42 am Oh dear lord | |||
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Mostly feeling:
It would seem the Mormon campaign to have old Joe crowned "Greatest American" may well succeed - AOL TV Channel have him listed in their top 100. Go to "Salk to Truman" and make sure you have a vomit basin at hand. cynical*sigh* Bloody mormons... (stolen from lisaofdoom's journal) |
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| Mar. 21st, 2005 @ 06:49 am The case of Terri Schiavo [Post May Offend] | |||
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Mostly feeling:
I have been prompted to post this morning by the case of Terri Schiavo, (and here and here) a woman in the US who has been in a persistent vegetative state since 1990. Her husband who is her legal guardian wants her to be allowed to die with dignity and has been fighting since 1998 for her feeding tube to be removed. He has been successful on three occasions (including this last one) and twice the decision has been overturned by those on the opposite side, Mrs Schiavo's parents and siblings because they: thoughtfulNow Playing: Dawn Chorus My take on it is that if there is anything left of this woman, she is trapped, unable to do anything inside this shell of a body. I don't think being trapped like that is in anyway a meaningful existance and I think she should be allowed to die. It is a difficult decision for people to make and the law courts have constantly approved Mr Schiavo's wishes. I do not think that Congress (overwhelmingly republican) should have got involved and certainly should not be passing laws to prevent it. It is government meddling gone mad, and the wrong people are being caught in the middle. Now we have intervention in this case what is to stop them from doing the same in other cases? Or even make abortion illegal again.* I hope if anything like that happens to me the people who love me will allow me to die with dignity and not stay like that for fifteen years. It isn't a life. It may bring comfort to the family because in a bodily sense the person they love is not dead, but in my opinion they are worse than dead. I have been told before that Greif is a selfish emotion, and I agree with it. It is an emotion for the living and not for the dead, one that doesn't take into account how much the dead person would have suffered if they had lived, just how much the living person wishes they hadn't died. I think the case of Mrs Schiavo is grief taken to its most extreme level of selfishness by the parents and siblings. In not wanting her to be dead they are denying her right to dignity, and trying to justify it by telling themselves and the world it is because they know she can have a meaningful existance. I think that is just unfair to her. *Abortion is something I don't think I could ever do, but I defend the right of women to it. |
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| Feb. 9th, 2005 @ 09:51 am I am sickened | |||
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Mostly feeling:
This morning  sickenedNow Playing: Travis: She's So Strange benc pointed me at an article he had read via his RSS feeds that had appeared in the Observer. This article is the account of a British man who was detained in Guantanamo Bay for 33 Months and it is truly horrifying. I don't usually quote from the bible and those who know me best will know that I'm in a very confusing place right now wrt religion, but I feel John 8:7 sums up perfectly what the attitude of the Coalition should be in all this. "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone". Everyone knows that no person or country can be perfect but that they should try as hard as they can to be beyond recrimination. In their "War Upon Terror" the "coalition" is doing things that makes them as bad as, if not worse than the people who committed the September 11th atrocities. Do they really think that by performing torture and denying people their basic human rights they are going to gain support? All they are doing is turning more and more people against them as a country and Bush's regieme.If this is the price of freeing the world from terrorism I want no part of it. |
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| Nov. 2nd, 2004 @ 01:29 pm American Election | |||
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Mostly feeling:
In case some of you have been living in a sensory deprivation tank for the last year and a half, there is the US presidential election today and some of the things I have read about it have led me to consider a few things, which I should like to state here (and hope I don't offend any Americans that read this). pensiveNow Playing: Phantom of the Opera: Notes From doing A Level Government and Politics at the time of the last American Election (and we all know how that one ended) I am aware of the system that the Presidential Election hinges on - that of the Electoral College. Now I am also aware that any democratic system has its issues, however this seems to be the least democratic of all the systems I have studied. It doesn't even mean that the overall winner of the popular vote wins the election (as it is in the UK and I'm well aware that our system sucks). It just seems bizzare to me that the Country often held up as the example of democracy and are fighting wars for (at least partially) democracy to flourish in other countries should have such an undemocratic system of electing their president. Surely at the very least *all* electorial college representatives should be chosen by their state proportionally so that it reflects the popular vote in that state more? Last time around Bush won Florida by less than a thousand votes but had all 25 of the electoral college votes. This doesn't sit well with me. We can only lecture others on what they should do if we ourselves are beyond reproach, and we aren't. It scares me that in the US people need to be advised on their voting rights (warning PDF), and that the same people need to be warned about not giving into intimidation. This is not what an election should be about, and surely no civilisation in the free world should need to deploy observers to ensure that voters rights are respected. The whole thing disturbs me. (P.S. I'm rooting for the Kerry/Edwards camp, and the thought of another four years for Bush/Cheney terrifies me.) (P.P.S I'm for a proportional represenational system for the UK and a fully elected second chamber ;)) |
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| Mar. 8th, 2004 @ 11:56 am ooooo-kay then | |||
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Mostly feeling:
He is the leader who valiantly works, daily, to lead us to restored and renewed peace. shockedNow Playing: Oasis - Champagne Supernova So who do you lot think it is? ( answer ) |
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very jealous!