(no subject)

I watched Aliens last night with some friends, then continued on to watch the last third or so of Aliens Resurrection. Aliens was an awesome film; I was confirmed in my opinion of it being the best one of the entire series. Sigourney Weaver is a realistic action hero, and a realistic woman action hero; compare Charlie's Angels. And, of course, there's the element of acid-spitting aliens with multiple rows of razor-sharp teeth being such a fun Saturday-night adventure.

I have come down with something, some kind of bug that's making the circuit of the entire Queen's student population. I had hoped that one and a half years of intermittant work in the Children's Library back home would have given me some extra immunity, but alas this was not to be. I slept for ten and a half hours; I feel better now, though still not 100%.

I've been spending most of this weekend working on school materials. I've caught up on typing my notes; now, for the writnig and sundry other forms of organization. We'll be reading Margery Kempe's two books for medieval literature, Foucault for theory, a late 19th century novel--Howell, I think--for New York literature.

Today has been uneventful. Some organization, more errands--returning library books, seeing a friend off on his practicum for his BeD in Oshawa, trying out the swimming pool (quite good, with water much warmer than that of the Gulf of St. Lawrence). Later, I'll be going out for dinner with a friend.

One

(I borrowed this from Proletarios Epanastatis.)

Your meme, should you choose to accept it, is to rank the following bands in order, from couldn't live without to couldn't care less. To add value to this process, you must also add one band to the list, and remove one band from the list, before passing the meme on (including these instructions).

Eurythmics
U2
The Beatles
Fleetwood Mac
R.E.M.
Aerosmith
Rolling Stones
Paul Simon
Talking Heads
Queen
The Doors
Green Day

Gack

I'm sure Iraqis would have major problems with this proposal from National Review Online. Get the US to help rebuild Iraq? Why bother, since Iraq isn't American:

As such, we would propose a fairer way to pay for infrastructure reconstruction in Iraq than the president's plan. First, the dollars for rebuilding this nation should not be given, but rather loaned, to Iraq through the U.S. government, or better yet, through a financial intermediary, such as the World Bank, or the International Monetary Fund. These loans should be collateralized against the future profits of the Iraqi oilfields. A formula which dedicates 50 percent of the oil profits to the repayment of these loans, could mean that within 10 to 15 years the debts would be paid off in full (depending in part on what happens to the world price of oil). Better yet, if the Iraqi government decides to privatize the oil fields through a public offering, some percentage of the sale proceeds should be dedicated to debt repayment. We would even go a step further; a substantial portion of the actual war costs could and should be reimbursed to the U.S. government from this oil money, because the ultimate beneficiaries of this war were the Iraqi people themselves.

I'm sure Iraqis will love this.

Another Close-Fought Chess Game

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I lost, but it was well-fought.