The Fandom President has been announced here. Darien and Selma would like to thank everyone who voted for them - we came a fairly respectable distance up the list for such a small fandom.

Since our new president will be providing rum for everyone this Campaign Manager is happy, as is our presidential candidate. Our vice presidential candidate is not so impressed but since we can just turn her off we'll ignore her.

Although Darien and Selma are sure President Sparrow and Vice President Norrington will do a good job (with rum or without it) they will be beginning their campaign for 2204 very soon to ensure their chance of success when they return to that time.

If you're reading this you should have voted for Darien/Selma. If not, you just need to go here and we're top of ticket 5.

This is a party political broadcast on behalf of the Time Trax party.

Darien and Selma would like to remind you why you should vote for them.

Sod it, the campaign manager has not had enough sleep or alcohol, so her brain is not currently in working order. The voting starts tomorrow, so keep on eye on this website: Fandom Escapist Election and vote for Darien/Selma.

Note: Although Darien and Selma feel that bribery is against their principles, I, their campaign manager, is perfectly happy with the idea. Just name your price and I will honour it in return for you vote.

Additional note: Although Darien and Selma value honesty, I, their campaign manager, finds dishonesty nice and refreshing. This, and the above note, may well turn out to be lies.

I was so enjoying seeing the different campaigns for the Fandom Escapist Election I just had to submit one of my own. I present to you Darien/Selma '04

Reasons you should vote for them:

• They are honest - Selma, being a computer, can't lie
• They are from the 22nd century - they won't repeat any mistakes that will happen in the next 200 years

The main focus of their campaign is crime. As a captain in the police force Darien has seen it all and Selma knows it all. They pledge to try their hardest to rid the planet of both dangerous fugitives and petty criminals.

I went to a Murder Mystery dinner last night. I thought the bloke who dunnit was far too obvious, so I went for someone else! I did get my poem read out though.

I thought I was doing really well this week because I didn't feel tired at all Thursday and Friday. Saturday, though, it hit me when I went to Tescos and all I could do when I got back was lie down and watch a lot of Time Trax. But then I didn't get home till 2am, which I haven't done for what feels like forever and now I feel great. And I drunk alcohol last night, which I also hadn't done for a while either.

Next weekend is Conference, so I should at least be alright for that, although whether I'll be able to do Wide Awake Club is something else.

I was very good this morning because I tidied my room (it had got to the point where you couldn't see very much floor anymore) and cleaned it. I also did my washing (of course it's rained all day so I couldn't hang it out, should have done it yesterday), updated my website, replied to e-mails and done some other stuff. I still have stuff to do, I've just got to the point now where I'm quite bored. I do have some Teachers to watch though, and I have just remembered I taped Murder in Suburbia last night. I might even be good and so some Rotaract-related ringing up as well.

Since I did it to undonne and edrys, it's only fair I give them the chance to do it back.

I want everyone who reads this to ask me 3 questions, no more, no less.

Then I want you to go to your journal (if you have one), copy and paste this, allowing your friends (including myself) to ask you anything.

I am now the proud owner of a digital camera. With pictures of the cat on. Well, I had to test it out and he agreed to model (ie he was asleep). It's for my birthday, and the really annoying thing is people who say to me that I shouldn't use it before my birthday. They're the same people who don't think I should open cards before my birthday either.

Assuming Emma gets it worked out (I should check really) my last birthday party is towards the end of May. And since I already have a present my birthday has already started. I always think of it as being on May Day anyway, whether that's the right date or not, so I stick two fingers up to these people.

I avoided watching The Worst Week of my Life because I had enough with weddings at work. But whereas that just annoys the heck out of me, this one makes me laugh. I'm going to go and catch up with it now.

fileg mentioned in her lj that it was national poetry month. Then, on a recent episode of Time Trax, Selma recited the first two lines of Jabberwocky and it got me thinking. The only poetry I've read (out of choice) have been comic verse, generally by Lewis Carroll or Edward Lear. I loved the latter's limericks when I was little. I can, though, manage the first verse of Jabberwocky from memory, although I'd have to look up what it means (and my book is currently in a different part of the country to me):

'Twas brillig and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe
All mimsy were the borogroves
And the mome raths did outgrabe.

My favourite from Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass was always The Walrus and The Carpenter though, which does, of course, have the well-known verse:

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--
Of cabbages--and kings--
And why the sea is boiling hot--
And whether pigs have wings."

The one other piece that sticks in my mind is this one:

One fine day in the middle of the night
Two dead boys got up to fight
Back to back they faced each other
Drew their swords and shot each other

Which appeals to my slightly warped sense of humour. There was a second verse but I don't know what that is (perhaps I'll try a google search when I've posted this).

In other topics, I am in theory getting things done this weekend that I've been putting off due to being too busy, or recovering from being too busy. Technically, I'm stil recovering being as I now have the office post-overwork cold.

We're 1-all in the tennis and the doubles starts this afternoon. For some strange reason they don't seem to be showing the reverse singles tomorrow though, unless they're assuming we'll beat Luxembourg. We certainly ought to but that's no guarantee.

I'm also going to go and see Starsky and Hutch on Monday. It's cheaper to go to the cinema on a weekday before 5pm than it is any other time - even if it's a bank holiday, which is weird. The cinema isn't shut at all over the weekend - I think the only day they do shut is Christmas Day.

I was watching Time Trax the other night and I felt sure I recognised one of the people in it. I had almost convinced myself I was imagining it but when I looked on the imdb it turns out he was Fe'Tor in Scratch n Sniff. The part that made it even more surreal was that he was also in another episode. In that one I kept wondering why one brother (the bad guys were two brothers) stood out more than the other.

According to TV Tome the next episode I have to watch has someone in it called Lani Tupa - they do mean Lani Tupu (Crais). Later one, Wayne Pygram (Scorpius) will turn up, assuming I recognise him without the make-up. And then going to different programmes - Jeri Ryan and Ronny Cox. I'm kinda hoping Ronny won't be playing the bad guy because I won't be able to believe him - since meeting him I don't believe Kinsey is bad any more. But maybe it'll be a question to ask him at SG8 - I bet not many people have asked him about his time in Time Trax.

And interestingly, Jonathan Glassner wrote the alien episode.

Woohoo, it's 04/04/04! I realised though, that the American date system gives one more palindromic date than the others. With our system, the date is palindromic if it's the 4th of the 1st-9th months and the 11th. With the American system, the date is palindromic if it's the 4th month and the day is 1st-9th, 11th or 22nd. Bugger.

1: Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 18, find line 4. Write down what it says:
Celestial Home Care Omnibus, better selling than 53 More Things To Do In
That would be the Hitchhiker's radio scripts, beginning of Fit the First

2: Stretch your left arm out as far as you can. What do you touch first?:
Air but if I had a longer arm it would be my bedside table

3: What is the last thing you watched on TV?:
Father Ted

4: WITHOUT LOOKING, guess what the time is:
Er, 2ish? 3ish? It's Sunday afternoon who cares?

5: Now look at the clock, what is the actual time?:
2.21pm

6: With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?:
The heating and my clock ticking

7: When did you last step outside? what were you doing?:
I went to Londis to take back the video my landlady borrowed yesterday (I also wanted to see it so I got to take it back)

8: Before you came to this website, what did you look at?:
I type this in blogger then copy it into livejournal, so if you're reading this via blogger then livejournal (to get the questions), if you're reading this on lj then it was blogger.

9: What are you wearing?:
T-shirt, jeans, fleece

10: Did you dream last night?
Probably but I don't remember what it was

11: When did you last laugh?
Probably during the Time Trax episode I watched over lunch (or possibly AT the Time Trax episode)

12: What is on the walls of the room you are in?:
Posters, photos, old birthday cards, postcards

13: Seen anything weird lately?:
Nothing immediately springs to mind

14: What do you think of this quiz?
It's definitely a quiz

15: What is the last film you saw?:
I'm partway through American Beauty while making CDs. The last one I finished was Young Adam

16: If you became a multi-millionaire overnight, what would you buy first?:
It would probably be food, not because it would be the first thing I'd think of, but because it's the easiest to get hold of (I'd get hungry before I organised buying a house or car for example)

17: Tell me something about you that I don't know:
I don't know, who are you? What is it about me you don't know?

18: If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do?
Make smoking illegal

19: Do you like to dance?:
Yes, if it's to the right music (I don't do slow dancing though, that's not dancing it's swaying)

20: George Bush: is he a power-crazy nutcase or some one who is finally doing something that has needed to be done for years?:
I don't know about power-crazy but definitely a nutcase

21: Imagine your first second child is a girl, what do you call her?:
I'm not having kids, I'll have enough problems naming the rabbits.
Ok, I'll imagine. I quite like Eleanor, Amy and Alice, although I think Alice might be a bit old

21: Imagine your first second child is a boy, what do you call him?:
I quite like Nick and Daniel but I can't use those. Maybe Tom but only maybe.

22: Would you ever consider living abroad?:
Yes, although that would depend on where and why I was moving there

I almost can't believe it's been so long since I posted in here - but then it's been practically the same length of time since I did anything except work, sleep and watch videos. I think I must have done about three weeks work in the space of two - most of that in the week before last when I did 57 hours (a normal week a 37.5). I was so tired after that - and still am, but it's getting better. I really don't understand how some people manage to do that all (or most of) the time. I actually don't remember most of it, I was too tired to think.

I have been watching Time Trax though. I remember it being on about 1994 on ITV, and the only reason I saw all of it was because we could get two ITV regions. Although I definitely remember watching one where I couldn't see any of the dark bits because it was raining. When I say I saw all of it though I'm talking about the first season. I don't think I'll be convinced there is a second season until I see it though.

It's quite strange watching it, because it was set in 1993 and made then. So it now looks really old - their computers all use floppy drives (3 inch and 5inch!) which, of course, no-one uses any more because there are so many more better ways. In general it's not been as good as I remember it being, whether that's because I was about 15 when I originally saw it and I've grown up (a bit!) since then or because I remember it, I don't know.

The best (worst) thing was the British episode. Now, it was made in Australia but the main character was American and certainly at least some of the guest stars were. So it was probably more American than Farscape but even that can't excuse the mess they made of that episode. Consider the evidence:

* Dodgy accents - there was not a single one that was believable. The best part was that the next episode featured someone who sounded genuinly english (with a London accent), although they did describe his accent as cockney (it wasn't anything like cockney)

* Some of the words and pronounciation: we'd never say transportation (it's not really a word here, we'd use transport), and data is never pronounced darta (or datta or dada). The word cop is becoming more popular but ten years ago we'd certainly say copper.

* London is always foggy. Even when it's nice enough not to wear a coat during the day. I don't remember the last time I saw true, proper fog like that. Mist is common in the mornings in winter but not night fog. And not in the summer.

* Newspaper stand at Gatwick. Did they ship that over from America or something? Admittedly I've never been to Gatwick but I'm willing to bet they don't have American newspaper stands there.

* Red telephone boxes. I remember those, they're a lot better than the BT ones which don't go down to the floor and mean you get a draft round your ankles. They're older than ten years though - one of the things people always comment about in Wallingford is the red phone boxes here.

* Barmaid comes to table to offer drinks. No, no, no! I think I only went to one bar in America and that seemed so odd. That's how it works in restaurants but that's different. In a pub you go to the bar. No exceptions.

* Soccer jacket. One of the characters had an American football style jacket because he was on the police football team. The only sports club at uni to have those style jackets were the American footballers but I can give them the benefit of the doubt here on the basis that means they must be available in some form so why not football as well. Except that on the back was the word 'soccer'. There's no such sport, it's called football, always.

* No cars on the streets. This is London, there are always loads of the things. Always. Why he didn't just use the tube, I don't know. Which brings me to another point. In episodes before and after this one they establish Darien can't get to grips with a 'stick shift'. He seemed fine in this one though. They also did the obligatory driving on the wrong side joke (they did it in the Australian episode as well).

* They should have watched The Bill. What I mean is they had two uniform sergeants investigating a serial killer. It's fine for them to be on the scene (although you'd expect PCs rather than sergeants). A serious crime like that, that would take time to investigate would be done by CID. In this case specifically what would now be MIT, it might have still been AMIP at that time. In their defence they were from Scotlan Yard rather than the local nick.

* I thought I'd just mention the stock footage they used of the Houses of Parliament and Tower Bridge just to prove to us they are really in London. I suppose you can't really blame them for that but it wasn't set anywhere near there!

So glad I've got that all off my chest now.

This last week I had a couple of training courses. The woman was talking about people being visual, auditory or kinasthenic (sp?) (ie the other senses). I was sitting there wondering what I was, as was everyone, then she pointed out the K people tend to fiddle with stuff - I'd been playing with the executive toys the entire day and a half (in all fairness I wasn't the only one). But then we did an exercise to find out which we were and I used lots of practical words, which supported the theory. And I don't understand/remember stuff until I do it. Which is all true. So I learnt that at least - no comment on any other practical uses of the training