What if we all voted?

I really like this new website that records how people would vote if people around the world had a say in the US Elections, it records who they'd vote for and what countries the voters come from.  It should be interesting to see the results - can there really be any republicans outside of the American deep south? I have always figured people outside of the US to be pretty overwhelmingly democrat, but who knows, maybe the results will challenge pre-conceptions.

Naturally I ticked the Barack box, although it was disappointing to see Edwards drop out, as he seems a pretty sound guy. 

Ok, so I had to share this mainly because I just watched it and burst out laughing.  Now, I know that some people use 'lol' just when something mildly amuses them, but I can honestly say this wasn't so much mild amusement as side splitting laughter.  I'm not sure why it amuses me so much, but I love Churchill and Orson Welles, and it's just such an amazing anecdote! Priceless.

Anyway, I figured I should blog it, mainly because while the whole street may now be awake because of my laughter, they're probably less than eager to know what it was for. 

Steven Fry | Deliver Us From Microsft.

Amen.  I haven't used Microsoft Office for years, I use Firefox and Thunderbird and can't wait for an opportunity to jettison Windows.  Microsoft spent years exploiting their market share, and trying to sabotage rivals, as far as I'm concerned the end can't come soon enough. 

Stop the zebra cull now! | Janice Turner | Times Online

Great column from Janice Turner this week on crossing the road. Like Janice I favour Zebra crossings they just work, they're one of those things that work right - you can drive across like normal unless someone actually needs to cross. No need to stop at lights for no reason, you only ever have to stop when someone needs to cross, and for the pedestrian you get to cross straight away. By contrast I hate the new Pelican Crossings. They've changed the lights so you no longer have the green man up above and in front of you, but instead it's next to the button - what use is that? You can't see it! They've even removed the beeping so basically once you start crossing you have no way of knowing what the lights are doing. They're just so horribly badly designed it's unbelievable.

Really enjoyed the superbowl last night, best one I've seen yet.  As I was backing Giants it was so tiresome to hear everyone going on for two weeks about how great the Patriots were and how they were going to go 19 and 0.  Fantastic performance by the Giants Defence, you have to wonder if Gisele wasn't wincing in the stands as she watched boyfriend Tom Brady take hit after hit.  The Giants had his number all game long and it was great fun to watch their defence make what's supposed to be the best offence in NFL history look pedestrian.  The 32 yard gain to Tyree was an amazing play, Manning doing what Brady couldn't and escaping the sack and Tyree pulling off an unbelievable catch.  Brilliant. 

Or perhaps this post should be entitled "A blog post about a blog post about The A. M. Pieces Library" as I had just written a blog post about the rather magnificent Library that is growing right here in my very abode, however upon pressing submit the world wide web swallowed up my post like the leviathan taking a large bite out of whatever the leviathan used to emerge from the sea and bite. 

Picture if you would the scene I painted, a scene of my pre-second bookshelf room, piles of books springing up from the floor like art-deco skyscrapers on the skyline of a metropolis.  That copy of Tolstoy's Cossacks I searched for perching atop the biographies of JFK and Catherine the Great, the sprawling mass of that huge art history book, two smaller piles springing forth from it bearing that History of Cricket tome and some dvd's I borrowed from one of the siblings. 

I would then have told you how this landscape called for one thing, and suggested that anyone with so little in their lives that they are able to remember this would have know what that was. Yes, due to the fact that I seem to have bought (judging from that sketch) a hundred and some books since I built the last shelf, it was time for another.

The post that the Leviathan swallowed would then have explained the problem this has left me with.  Yes, I have no idea how to organise my books. There are so many of them I mean, how do you organise? Do you categorise? Go alphabetical by author or title? Resurrect the Dewey Decimal system that the local library so cruelly derelicted of late? 

And that would be round about where the post that I wrote ended, with my confusion at how to organise the shelf leading me to give up, sit down and do some work.  Decisions like shelf organisation must not be taken lightly...

"The long lines of men reached out into the sea like tentacles. One after another they trooped in up to their waists and beyond, piling onto the flotilla that had assembled again.  They'd gotten tens of thousands off the beaches in the past few days yet still they were here in droves, some - the lucky ones - in line for boats, others sat on the beach waiting.  Waiting for the inevitable moment when the line breaks.  It has to break, the ruddy French are holding it.  They could down arms and pack off home to Picardy any moment now and leave the Highland Infantry to hold the whole cursed thing and then where would they be?  The 51st were brave to the last man but even they couldn't repel the whole German army."

Ok, so I've restarted my second story as I didn't like the way I'd presented a tiny bit of back story, but not enough to make any sense.  (Me? Not making sense? There's a surprise!)  At any rate, my new first paragraph as I wrote it is above, I left it a few days and came back to it and I'm not sure about it. 

The problem is with the style, I'm not sure when I'm writing in the third person like this I can then include thoughts in the prose like a narrative. (ie - It has to break, the ruddy French are holding it.) But at the same time, I don't like having to constantly say that someone is thinking "he thought" "she though"  etc.  It just seems that as is it's mixing third person narrative with first person thought.

Anyone any thoughts?  Is the above a valid style of writing? Yay or nay? 

I really need to get a good way into this so I can settle, I've wrote thousands of words, but keep editing and changing, so I need to start and get into the groove again if I'm to finish by the end of March. 

#1 Atilla the Hun and Atilla's Brother the Hun were both broad scots.

Were I scots I'd find it mildly offensive that the beeb casting directors think 'hmmm, scary barbarians - get scotsmen' but as I'm not I can let it fly.

#2 The BBC is not fit for purpose. 

Now, I know that a lot of people don't mind blood and gore, but I always used to expect better from the BBC.  Not anymore - it's gotten to the point when anything I see in the listings I assume it'll probably be gory if its on the beeb.  Look at Rome, Tudors, etc.  Big productions, but I honestly don't think a public funded broadcaster should be producing things that end up 18 rated.  It's not what the role of public broadcaster should be for.  The history programming is going the same way, and it just seems a bit silly - history programs (as opposed to historical dramas) are meant to educate, therefore they should be broadly watchable for all.