It's been a long time, I shouldn't have left you without a dope rhyme to step to. But I have, so forgive me. Bleurgh.

It's going to be a weird exotic Christmas for me as me and Ale are off to Italy for two and a half weeks over the break. This means that this weekend is our English Xmas sort of thing, so we're going to do the folks' stuff and the card stuff this weekend, which'll be a bit weird.

Wish me luck for the Italian Christmas, I just hope they don't get too miffed when I ponce off downstairs half the time to sort out my revision notes for the January exams :os. It'll be nice to have a break though, even if it's a week of not thinking philosophy. Don't let anyone tell you a degree is easy, they don't know what they're talking about. Even if yours was ;o).

Gots to go, no time as ever. Peace wishes and hearty yule logs to all.

Christopher Lee, living legend, has been cut from the final Lord Of The Rings movie. Weird. :os

I can unofficial confirm that me and the missus shoulda woulda coulda be coming back to Leicestershire for a weekend a week tomorrow yes sirree. Hmmm. Let us know if yer fancy doing out me ducks.

Hugses,

Bonitious and Alessia
xox

I like this. For no particular reason. (via Fimoculous)

What makes spitting so uniquely offensive? Great feature in the Guardian. Best paragraph:

"Spitting, literally, dribbles contempt, and it is the noxious, viscous disdain of the act that makes it such a powerful and intimate insult. Other bodily fluids may be more unsavoury, but applying them into someone else's face requires a degree of effort which, the spitter is effectively saying, the spittee doesn't even merit."

Class.

Because it's being badass recently!

One for my homies, here. Chimp's MIT profile! Just look at that cheeky smile!

Gawd bless (indeed), the Christian Right in the US. So wound up in their own idealism and interests and faux-morality are they that they don't even see the person, just the case.

'Mentally Disabled Florida Rape Survivor to Carry Pregnancy to Term'. Cheers, Jeb Bush.

and the incredibly sad Terri Schiavo story. I quote from the article:

"It is difficult to know quite what Michael Schiavo (husband) makes of all this. As the Schindlers (parents) sit in their camper van discussing TV talkshow schedules, he has been all but silent, granting one interview in two years. And so, while one version of Terri's life - the one peddled by the Schindler family - remains well known, there is nothing forthcoming from the person who arguably knew her best."

Dignity is not a human right, it seems.

You beauty!

Although understandably the attention has been more on the suicide of Elliott Smith, I'd like to mutter fond farewells to another who has passed away - Jack Elam, aged 84. The name may appear unfamiliar, but if you have ever seen the wonderful Cannonball Run, well, he was the 'lazy-eyed' Doctor Nikolas Van Helsing. He also starred in a 1949 film She Shoulda Said No, also know as 'Marijuana, the Devil's Weed', the fantastically titled Cockeyed Cowboys of Calico County and Once Upon A Time In The West. Nuff Respect.

If food be the music of education, then game on.

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(via Sally Cinnamon)

In these troubled times for the Church, where there is talk of a schism because of where some men choose to put their jism, The Guardian handily returns to the source to see what the Bible (for what it's worth) says about man to man bumsex and man to man bumsex practitioners.

Some good linkses on MeFi, to articles by the linguist George Lakoff - here, on 'framing' and spin, similar article here and a piece to do with the Governator too.

Pitchfork gives 'Permission To Land' 8.4 in rare moment of admission of genuine enjoyment and enthusiasm. Huzzah!