Halfapenguin.com
nature

....not important....

18:39, 13 Jun 2008

I know i'm a bit late on this, mainly because i only watched the countdown podcast this evening. I've tried to maintain an interest in US politics, but its difficult to do when you are on the other side of the ocean. After coming here i've tried to make up for lost time, but even then my first real exposure to John McCain was in the Iowa debate. I saw someone who made my skin crawl, he honestly struck me as someone "scary beyond all reason", and when he finally rose to the republican leadership i found my inital gut reaction confirmed time and again. But i didn't have the historical depth to know enough about his history, beyond his status as a Viet-Cong prisoner of war and his rather slimy entry into US politics. Comments like a hundred years in iraq, and lack of any knowledge about the world outside his bedroom, his attitudes to people who disagree with him, all helped confirmed my feeling that this is the president we were warned about. The one that would be so insane as to press the button. Then came the "its not important" comment, and after all the attempts to defend the indefensible, Keith Olbermann delivered this commentary. Part 2 Honestly, countdown can at best be called infotainment, it would not be considered news anywhere in Europe, but Keith Olbermann does sometimes channel the person he attempts to emulate. He may not be Edward R. Munrrow, and the republican party is far more calculating and intelligent than Joe McCarthy, but if enough people listen to him, they might start thinking again.

The Storm Commeth...

21:10, 10 Jun 2008

Finally after days of waiting there seems to be a storm starting up over Troy, I couldn't get a good outside shot, so i went for the google earth weather view showing the storm.

composite storm view
I do know that its been coming in from the rest of america rather than forming here, but sounds better that its starting up over here. Image is a derivation of information from Google Earth, and Weather.com

Update to the bat story

03:21, 27 May 2008

UPDATE: 3 police cars blocking my street, can't see what they are up to. There's no paddywaggon so they aren't rounding up the subversives, Also my camera strap decided to detach, but thankfully i managed to stop the camera hitting the ground too hard so its okay. I've gone back to bed, with the front windows open in the hope that sylvester will make his own way out.

i was having the weirdest dream...

02:50, 27 May 2008

...all about friendly housing blocks, and evil psychotic ones with nasty inhabitants (someone fed me stella last night). As per normal with a weird dream like this i faded in and out of consciousness until i realized there was something in my flat, mainly due to the fact that it flew into and out of my bedroom. Despite here being 2 inches of open window in the back window, a bat has creeped into my apartment, and has subsequently found that it can't get out so easily. This explains the weird dreams.... However due to the fact that i'm freaked out by all this, i am sitting in the living room with all the lights on, but its too scared to come to the front to go out the windows. I have the trouble that i can't get back to scare it out because there is only one hallway for both of us to get to the the back and it keeps fluttering around. Also the police are out in force on my street, but i can't really look because i'm petrified by the bat... I'm buying window filters tomorrow. Sylvester seems to have gone to ground for now, i've made it all the way to the back of the house, and closed all the cupboard and rattled everything i can rattle, i'm gonna go investigate whats going on with the boys in blue and then maybe i can get back to sleep... I was going to put a photo up, but me bleary eyed is not a pretty sight... I love nature, just not when its trapped in my apartment and gets way too close...