Sweet Tasting Jonas is also a Czecky (or at least he was when he last posted). I remember asking him why they went by "Czech Republic" and he said "Czechia" sounded too much like "Chechnia". Although, upon reading up on it this appears to really just be an English language problem.

fanelian wrote:I only know a handful of flags

I now realize that my post lost some context with my attempt to avoid sounding like a complete psychopath. I don't think it's an especially big deal if people don't know a bunch of flags, but it's a different matter to act as though that stuff doesn't matter at all, because to some people it does.

chrismachine wrote:I knew because of the olympics, world hockey championships, my world issues class in grade 12, and current events.

It was actually a pretty similar thing with me. When I was 7, I had a Lego football set and I used to play out every single game in the France 98 World Cup on that set with my dad after the game had finished and write it up newspaper style afterwards. I can't quite remember why, but that was when I learned the difference between Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic.

James wrote:

fanelian wrote:I only know a handful of flags

I now realize that my post lost some context with my attempt to avoid sounding like a complete psychopath. I don't think it's an especially big deal if people don't know a bunch of flags, but it's a different matter to act as though that stuff doesn't matter at all, because to some people it does.

For serious. If you're ever talking to a 17th century seaman and act like flags are anything but serious business, you'll be cruising for a, um... keel... haul...oosin?

fanelian wrote:... I only know a handful of flags.

I figure as long as you know the flags of Spamtopia and Nopantistan, you're good.

PonderThis wrote:

fanelian wrote:... I only know a handful of flags.

I figure as long as you know the flags of Spamtopia and Nopantistan, you're good.

Yep, I know those! How could I ever forget Nopantistan?

But I confess to being shamefully ignorant of a lot of things in the "real" world. There are a lot of things I know about, but my knowledge is spotty, and I know a little bit of this and a little bit of that. I tend to know about stuff I'm either very interested in, or that has affected me or someone I care about, and a lot of tangential information. But I am aware of my weak spots, and do my best to keep my mouth shut and hide my ignorance as best as I can.

Iam gravely ignorant of current affairs. After years and years, my understanding of the Middle East isn't far beyond 'politics things happen and everyone is sad '. North Korea I have slightly more of a handle on, entirely because I find the comic-book-villain motive rather easier to digest, and hence the events of the region more interesting to read.

Speaking of the Middle East and current events, I emailed my congressperson about the United States' decision to withhold a membership payment of some $60,000 from UNESCO because of their allowing Palestine a seat in the organization and where he stands on it. I got sent back a reply about how Congress needs to lower the budget. Yes, that's really the heart of the issue. We are withdrawing our funding from UNESCO because we need to cut back on all spending, not because we refuse to do anything that could remotely be beneficial to Palestine. I sent back a reply which in essence asked him (or his aides, whoever writes his emails) to reply more directly to my question. I'm not optimistic about receiving a response.

Yeah, that $60,000 is really going to go a long way to balancing the budget.

So I got hired to mow this guy's parents' yard every two weeks at $40 a pop. Not too shabby. Not going to live on that, but if I knock it out in the hour or so he says it should take, that's $40/hr. Even if it takes me 5 hours, that's $8/hr, which is still pretty respectable.

Went over there to do the first mowing today and it indeed takes me 5 hours, because I kept having to stop to move stuff out of the way, like decorative lawn stuff. The yard also hadn't been mowed in who knows how long so I had to tangle with some weed that grew all over the yard whose stalks were two inch cylinders of fibrous tissue filled with sticky milk white sap. Then I slipped into the ditch after a stepping stone gave way under me and broke their mailbox.

Wow, that started off so well, too. Hopefully now that it's in better shape it goes more smoothly next time!

Zombie Protestor wrote:I had to tangle with some weed that grew all over the yard whose stalks were two inch cylinders of fibrous tissue filled with sticky milk white sap.

Oh my god, I hate that stuff.

jvcc wrote:Speaking of the Middle East and current events, I emailed my congressperson about the United States' decision to withhold a membership payment of some $60,000 from UNESCO because of their allowing Palestine a seat in the organization and where he stands on it. I got sent back a reply about how Congress needs to lower the budget. Yes, that's really the heart of the issue. We are withdrawing our funding from UNESCO because we need to cut back on all spending, not because we refuse to do anything that could remotely be beneficial to Palestine. I sent back a reply which in essence asked him (or his aides, whoever writes his emails) to reply more directly to my question. I'm not optimistic about receiving a response.

Sort of makes me think of how in this country, Vodafone got let off a tax bill that (if I remember the issue of Private Eye correctly) was approximately the size of the country's deficit, and then there was a lot of rhetoric from the Government telling us that the deficit was largely the fault of people on benefits.

i would totally love to jump into a debate about US policy towards israel but i will mostly stay out of it except to say: looking for rational behavior from the US government when it comes to israel is an exercise in futility.

sum yun gai wrote:i would totally love to jump into a debate about US policy towards israel but i will mostly stay out of it except to say: looking for rational behavior from the US government when it comes to israel is an exercise in futility.

Agreed. I just now watched last night's episode of The Colbert Report and the guest Peter Beinart, editor of the blog Open Zion, argued for a boycott of items from Israeli settlements in Palestine, rather than Israel itself. Admittedly, he may not have been able to adequately express his political plan in the brief time frame that a thirty minute talk show provides, but it seemed like he was trying to be pro-Palestinian without acknowledging Israel's imperialistic policies towards Palestine. Unless my understanding of the situation is completely off, I'm pretty sure that the settlers aren't a vigilante faction of Israeli citizens; they are given financial support (and, according to some accounts, weapons) to aid in the maintenance and defense of their settlements.

So I agree with his view that Israel has been horrible in its treatment of Palestine, but not in his proposed solution to the problem.

I abhor nail clipping at the office. I ca't understand why anyone would clip their nails at the office instead of home.

The sound of nail filing makes my teeth hurt.

Tornadoes. Hail. Woo! Exciting day to be in Dallas.

I spent my lunch break grocery shopping and starting dinner in the oven, and now nobody's home to have any.

(More lunch for me tomorrow I guess?)

Wurgh my hat job was going to end as of tomorrow but then as I was leaving te owner came and told me there was no work and we shouldn't come in so it has ended unexpectedly today which is dicks and I'm trying to find a place to move into and my friends are visiting at the end of the month and I don't have the money to deal with both of those things and now I have to find a job quick snap but also have time off around the time my friends are here and then after work I was going to meet someone but she cancelled so I met someone else and we went to a board game cafe and played Flash Duel and that was actually pretty good but then I came home and got an email saying the place I was going to vieew tomorrow has been rented so that's total dicks yo

So we had to borrow $120 from my dad today to keep the water on, and an hour later our gas has been cut off. That one, however, they want ALL of the payment plus a reconnect fee, which comes up to $340-something dollars, about 15 more than I get in a week on unemployment. So we have water, it's just not hot, and everything has to be cooked on our electric griddle or using our coffee pot for hot water. No dish washing or clothes washing as we don't have cold water laundry detergent.

It's really hard to get me depressed. I'm a pretty cheerful person. But wave after wave of this crap and I'm really starting to break down.

sum yun gai wrote:i would totally love to jump into a debate about US policy towards israel but i will mostly stay out of it except to say: looking for rational behavior from the US government when it comes to israel is an exercise in futility.

Yup.

Zombie Protestor wrote:So we had to borrow $120 from my dad today to keep the water on, and an hour later our gas has been cut off. That one, however, they want ALL of the payment plus a reconnect fee, which comes up to $340-something dollars, about 15 more than I get in a week on unemployment. So we have water, it's just not hot, and everything has to be cooked on our electric griddle or using our coffee pot for hot water. No dish washing or clothes washing as we don't have cold water laundry detergent.

It's really hard to get me depressed. I'm a pretty cheerful person. But wave after wave of this crap and I'm really starting to break down.

Sorry, ZP.

I spilled just-reheated lentil soup on my hand and it still hurts after an hour. There isn't a washing station anywhere near the cafeteria. How can that be? No tap water near a place where hot food is handled?

So some highlights since last I checked in here:

• Our home insurance company cancelled our policy without telling us, and we had to go shopping for a new one.
• My unemployment has ended. I got the last check today.
• The only interview I've been called in for turned out to not match the job posting.
• We're already about a month behind on our mortgage.
• Depression has somehow not overwhelmed me. I guess I've just been too busy to let it.