By the way...

And singing along...

It's not every day that you sing along with a trans rock star like Hedwig at your desk...

You should try it. The clip even has some useful Spanish subtitles.

(And I know this is terribly lazy rather than talking from the heart but I realise that I hardly ever talk about music on my blog and I adore music...)

All together now...

*sings* I put on some makeup...

1968 saw the student protests over the Olympics in Mexico.

There are high expectations that the Games will spark improvements in China's human rights record. When Beijing was chosen as the host city for the Games, both the Chinese authorities and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) spoke publicly of the “unique legacy” it would leave to China and to sport. This included progress in human rights.

Although there have been some positive changes since then, such as a reform of the death penalty system and greater reporting freedom for foreign journalists, these have been overshadowed by a deterioration in other areas.

I think more ordinary people should express their opinions on the Olympics, China and the current protests. The media is saying that it's a hardcore of activists but I feel that LOTS of people have an opinion and we should get them out there.

I'm in the audience tonight. Watch it and see if you spot me.

Channel 4, 4.15pm.

I'm just over Noel's right shoulder in the second row.

English Patient director Anthony Minghella dies.

It's a sad loss for British film.

Tonight is the big event I run at work other than the stuff during welcome week.

It's the Guild Awards.

Basically its the oscars for student groups in the guild.

Lots of fun for them. A little stressful for me.

I love it really...

Will hopefully post photos tomorrow.

Heather Mills agrees a settlement of £24.3m in her divorce deal with Sir Paul McCartney.

That's a lot of money.

Does it even dent McCartney's fortunes?

For the love of cinema someone needs to stop Michael Bay.

He's remaking

A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)
The Birds (2009)
Friday the 13th (2009)

And he's just announced that he's remaking Rosemary's Baby.

STOP HIM!!

Please... anyone!

I just got caught phoning Jo across the office. I couldn't see her to ask her a question as there was a queue of students so I phoned her desk.

The queue slowly became aware that we were talking to one another and we got very embarassed.

We were testing cartesian skepticism - "if you can't see me I don't exist".

So there.

I used the phrase "The girl with the blonde hair is onto us" and we hung up quickly.

Here's a question for the weekend.

What are you up to this weekend?

I'm off to see my best mate Quaker Mark for his birthday and we're heading to Serpentine Gallery to see the new Derek Jarman exhibition there and catch up for dinner with friends in the evening. It's going to be a juicy day with lots of inspiration and fun!

Sunday I'm going to do some local campaigning and deliver some leaflets for the local elections. Going to try and take down the local tories.

Answers as a comment please!

The feeling that someone was wasting your time?

I'm helping with important elections stuff at work and I'm in a drafty office at one of the halls of residence. I've got some Rufus Wainwright music playing... my mp3 player doesn't like the cold. (Poor thing)

Been here for about an hour or so and no ones been to vote. There's no signs advertising us being here and no one campaigning.

It's nice to get some headspace and think about stuff but I could do this in my flat with my feet up watching some "West Wing" and get the same effect.

I'd reached the point where I was driven to writing something on here... was going a bit potty without music or being able to tap away at a keyboard.

So I sit here and tap away quietly. It's nice really.

Check out my book review that was hosted on Joyful Jubilant Learning.

http://www.joyfuljubilantlearning.com/joyful_jubilant_learning/2008/03/speak-truth-to.html

I've got another review coming up later in the month.

There's a bit of a discussion going on the Labour webpage.

There's been some discussion about changing the law for abortions...

I'm conflicted on the issue of abortion.

I'm totally behind the right for a woman to choose.

However... if the laws in 1979 were different I could not be here.

I was born prematurely, severely premature. Premature enough for doctors to say "Not a viable foetus" and toss me out. (I can't believe I've not blogged about this before)

So... I'm all for a woman's right to choose but there are times when I feel there needs to be a line where someone says "Actually... this foetus is now a person".

My problem with all of this is that the decision will be made by grey haired old men who have no direct experience of bearing children or having been through an abortion. It's very easy to talk in abstractions and forget that what's being discussed directly impacts on people's lives.

Have a look and see what you think:
http://www.labourhome.org/story/2008/2/25/124951/201

I did the quiz over lunch today.

I'm not a big lover of biblical words and don't really know how to pronounce the word that isn't quiz in the title.

But I do know that hermeneutics (her-men-eww-ticks) is the art/science of interpreting texts, especially though not exclusively the Bible.

It's still worth a tea-break, though, just as a quick thought-provoker on your own assumptions about how you/we read and interpret the Bible.

http://buildingchurchleaders.com/quiz/?id=TCTOC

The quiz said I was a "progressive". Which is always nice.

What the test meant was the progressive tends to see the Bible as historically shaped and culturally conditioned. Then there's a question of "Is the Bible the word of God?". I consider the bible to be the "words" of God written down by a disparate group of people.

I'm not sure how inerrant I think it is. I think the translation and transcription process is fraught with errors.

Toby Zigler, in the west wing, claims to discover there's a typo in the Constitution in the Takings Clause – specifically a missing comma. He says the National Archives can’t explain whether it is a comma or a smudge. Get a fifth century monk with a cold and there's commas and smudges all over the place.

I think the bible (and any religious text for that matter) should be interpreted with one eye on today and one eye on the historical context of the writing. The challenge is to examine what the Bible said in its day and what this means to us.

Obama and Clinton have two celebrity endorsement videos out there on youtube...

Jack Nicholson stumps for Clinton but she's not approved the ad. It looks tired, cynical and heavily driven by need. (I'm sure it's not meant that way... but cutting together clips from Jack's film to then have him just say "I approve this message".. well... see what you think)

"Things could be better, Lloyd," Nicholson says as Jack Torrance, the murderous caretaker from The Shining. "Things could be a whole lot better." In the movie, of course, Nicholson's character then goes on a deadly rampage. But in the promo, a message flashes saying Clinton "has a plan to deal with the nearly 47m Americans without health care".

And then there's the new clebrity sing-a-long with Will I am. The hip hop artist's new video backing Barack Obama features Jessica Alba, Ryan Phillipe and Macy Gray among others performing We Are the Ones. It follows Yes We Can which was a huge hit on YouTube last month. By Sunday night, We Are the Ones had already clocked 417,000 views on YouTube, against 57,000 views for the Nicholson video.