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Three Mini-Rants
Nov. 21st, 2007 06:40 pm1) If somebody gives me a confirmation number, it should actually be a number. Something which starts with, say, a "W" is actually a confirmation code.
2) Once again I made the effort to get a proposal in on time for a conference. (In this case, a working group proposal, but the same thing I am about to whine about happens with abstracts.) Once again, I submitted it on the deadline day. And, once again, the next day I got an email telling me the deadline was extended a week. Does the word "deadline" mean anything to anybody besides me? (And, yes, other folks tell me I shouldn't complain because I'm done and all, but it annoys me.)
3) Finding my money belt should not be as hard as it is proving to be. My fear is that it is somewhere in the second bedroom, which I have not yet found a good name for. It would be the study, but I have this little study nook (with built in computer desk) which claims that title. And library seems pretentious. Office is confusing, since I have two work offices. Den is inaccurate. This was going to be a rant about unpacking, not about room names, but I seem to have digressed.
By the way, celebrity death of the week is Ian Smith, ex-president of ex-Rhodesia. I've been thinking some about colonialism in general, having just read Graham Greene's The Quiet American (which, for some reason, I thought was set in Hoi An, but it's mostly in Saigon and never mentions Hoi An). The real problem with the "white man's burden" sort of colonial rule that Smith fostered is that it inevitably leads to strong man politics as its counter. Robert Mugabe is just the flip side of the same coin, but with a better scapegoat. I'm sure there are still whenwes mourning Smith with their refrain of "When we lived in Rhodesia..." but maybe most of them have emigrated from South Africa (probably to Australia) by now.
2) Once again I made the effort to get a proposal in on time for a conference. (In this case, a working group proposal, but the same thing I am about to whine about happens with abstracts.) Once again, I submitted it on the deadline day. And, once again, the next day I got an email telling me the deadline was extended a week. Does the word "deadline" mean anything to anybody besides me? (And, yes, other folks tell me I shouldn't complain because I'm done and all, but it annoys me.)
3) Finding my money belt should not be as hard as it is proving to be. My fear is that it is somewhere in the second bedroom, which I have not yet found a good name for. It would be the study, but I have this little study nook (with built in computer desk) which claims that title. And library seems pretentious. Office is confusing, since I have two work offices. Den is inaccurate. This was going to be a rant about unpacking, not about room names, but I seem to have digressed.
By the way, celebrity death of the week is Ian Smith, ex-president of ex-Rhodesia. I've been thinking some about colonialism in general, having just read Graham Greene's The Quiet American (which, for some reason, I thought was set in Hoi An, but it's mostly in Saigon and never mentions Hoi An). The real problem with the "white man's burden" sort of colonial rule that Smith fostered is that it inevitably leads to strong man politics as its counter. Robert Mugabe is just the flip side of the same coin, but with a better scapegoat. I'm sure there are still whenwes mourning Smith with their refrain of "When we lived in Rhodesia..." but maybe most of them have emigrated from South Africa (probably to Australia) by now.
