Labour! Law! Exam! Tomorrow!

Just had like four mugs of coffee which I normally don't drink, but Chris recently introduced me to the decadent pleasure of flavoured coffee whitener and besides I have to stay awake today because I'm supposed to be studying all day while the kids are at the babysitter's but I had kind of a late night last night so I'm - or rather I was - a little sleepy which is not conducive to good studying but hey now that I'm all wired for sound I should be able to study until 8:30 tomorrow which is when the exam is I think and I should probably check on that before tomorrow and wow I hope I can make the letters stop jiggling up and down long enough to assemble themselves properly into coherent words because otherwise oh dear I may have overdone the caffiene and I hope I don't just sort of crash all of a sudde

(no subject)

Here's what I'm doing today:

• Answer all practice exam questions
  
• Check others' answers
  
• Extract important cases
  
• Read handwritten notes too
  
• Finish summaries
  
• Look over the Review notes

And here's one of the songs I'm listening to while doing so:
Dubula

It's an African song, no idea what it's about although I believe it has something to do with shooting a bird (?). Our concert in February has the theme "Black History Month", which is a damn sight better than "Songs of Lurve", last year's theme. I'll sing African folk music and spirituals all day long if you let me. Overly flurffed and saccharined renditions of Wordsworth and Keat's love poems? Those I can do without.

A breather from unions and arbitrators and strikes, oh my

For once! I am sharing HP fanfic quotes with the appropriate link!

The Quality of Mercy, post-Half-Blood Prince, by mistful, she of the hilarious summaries of Troy and Goblet of Fire.

Unfortunately this is unfinished; she's up to chapter 7 so far. Haven't gotten quite that far yet, but so far what I've read is very cute.

Snips:

"Harry, dear," said Mrs Weasley. "You're up early, you must be hungry."

Harry didn't know whether it was natural or a habit formed from raising seven, but Mrs Weasley's standard greeting of 'you are breathing, so I'd better feed you' had always appealed to him intensely.

***
"Let me clarify!" Bill shouted. "When I said behave, I meant like decent, normal human beings. Fred and George, try and grasp the concept, I know it's hard for you. Harry, maybe it's best if you just don't talk to Draco. Draco, likewise. Fleur, go put on your dress, Draco, come on and I'll find you some dress robes. This is going to be a beautiful, special day, full of love and laughter, and if anyone ruins it I will have their head on a plate. Thank you."

***
Harry was on the team to keep Mrs Delacour off. She grasped his arms and said loudly: "It wasn't my fault that Eduardo was not man enough for me! I am a woman! I have needs!"

"Um, I'm sure you do."

She peered into Harry's face. "Harry Potter, isn't it?" she said slowly. "They say you're a very... powerful young wizard. We all have needs, Harry."

"I need to go," Harry said faintly.

***
Charlie looked grim. "Fred and George think they are very funny people," he said. "They think Love Potions are very funny things. They also think they are going to live to see tomorrow. I think I'm going to correct all those misapprehensions."

Wait, how old are we again?

Oh for the...

You know, some days I feel like I should really, really not look at the news any more.

So this huge global environmental shindig is going on in Montreal, with scientists and environmentalists and everybody and their little dog Toto from all around the world talking about how to go further than Kyoto, and talking about how the ice caps are melting and the polar bears and Great Lakes are dying and little Polynesian islands are disappearing and New Orleans is sinking and all sorts of lovely stuff is going on. And how we all have to try to stop fouling our nests. And they're all sick and tired of pointing out the fact that the US is the wealthiest nation on earth and puts out 25% of emissions but refuses to do sweet bugger-all about it because Dubya is concerned about the American economy (which I guess means the rest of the world's leaders aren't concerned about their economies).

So, enough already, says the rest of the world. The Americans won't change. Just let them drive their big-ass SUVs while we ask poor kids in India to tighten their belts and make the necessary sacrifices in order to clean up this mess.

And then Paul Martin says, "To the reticent nations, including the United States, I say there is such a thing as a global conscience, and now is the time to listen to it."

And guess what? Apparently the American delegation is very, very angry and hurt by this. They are shocked and appalled. What crass tactlessness. What heinious back-stabbing. Well, says one source, "[i]t is not clear that the United States would have agreed to participate in new climate talks in any case, but chances now have been reduced to zero."

Um... lemme get this straight. The US pulls out of an agreement they signed on to. Stall talks with single-minded zeal for years. Insist that there is no such thing as Global Warming. For years. Show up at meetings and act like a huge immovable object, refusing to budge a single inch.

But... now it's Paul Martin's fault they're not going to play nice with the other kids? Because he said a couple of nasty words? Mainly, "Listen to your conscience"?

Eat. Me.





Edit: Point of clarification: for "the US" and "the Americans" please read "the US delegation", "American leaders", yadda yadda. This is annoyance directed at certain yahoos in charge, not the citizenry at large.