Open Mind Surgery

9:56am: Candlelit vigils and war musings
My turn to speak on the war... and in a way, I wish I'd spoken up and said something last night as well, but maybe it wouldn't have been appropriate (nobody else spoke, we stood around and chatted in small groups gathered around a tree in Hunter's Square.) There were about 200 people there, including a couple of women from Tennessee behind me, and a guy who was studying German and Russian who I also spoke to... nobody who I recognised, to my surprise (although two people from choir went past me while I was waiting for the bus home.) The vigil doesn't seem to have been that well publicised.

However, there were some lovely moments (apart from the pissed bloke at the beginning who wandered round with a bottle of Buckfast and called us all "fucking bastards"... boy, he's lucky it was a peace protest.) Small children ran around being cute and not getting burnt by their candles (phew). People, as they left, put their candles in an ironwork grid that surrounds the tree between the Tron Kirk and Starbucks, and when I left, there were over a hundred candles stuck in there. I wished I'd brought a camera, a photo of that moment would have been lovely (anyone?)

Even if war is declared now, even if the worst begins to happen - we can still make a difference. If, because of our actions, one less bomb gets dropped, or one less civilian dies, or the rebuilding of Iraq is given more thought than its destruction, then we will have made a difference. It's better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.

11:45am: If anyone vaguely remembers...
...there was once a bloke called Dan Rookwood at Pembroke. He is now writing for the Guardian about cricket. Well, I say writing about cricket - there seems to be more about weasels than cricket in this article, despite the ostensible[1] subject matter...

Today I have to phone lots of people in Nice and its surroundings, arrange a couple of nights in Paris for myself and a close friend (sadly, it's a friend from school rather than a romantic partner... DAMN! whinging again *hits self several times*), do a quote and book rooms for somebody else who's hopefully coming up for the Fringe (couple of American tourists), and chase up a bunch of Fringe venues.

[1]"ostensible" is suddenly my favourite word.

5:02pm: arse.
The feeble effort that the UK and US were making to get UN approval has failed. On one hand, respect for the UN - on the other hand, it looks as if we're now going to war. Dammit.

Robin Cook may have just done the first decent thing of his entire career by resigning over the issue (presumably so he can vote against war.) Hopefully a few more will follow him, and the vote in the House of Commons will be against war.

And there's a "mystery flu pandemic" starting - admittedly from China, but still, that coincidence worries me slightly. I am too damn paranoid.

I need to find some fax numbers for university careers services in Paris so I can send them a job advertisement - they seem to be in very short supply. Odd.

11:18pm: War, war, war.
I never thought I'd be proud of Robin Cook - but...


You're a Non-box.


What box do you get put in?
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The thing that freaked me out and made me post this rather than going "hmm" and not bothering? There wasn't a music-related question at all. And yet they guessed it. Nice.

*adds a couple of new friends and some new interests*