Back from Lincoln. It was lovely and I'd forgotten how wonderful it is to be with large groups of Lib Dems. Makes the flat seem even worse by comparison. I'm starting to think of moving out at the end of Lent Term...since I've only paid through the end of this term.

More on conference later?

Just a quick one

Because I've been ordered to bed. But, a note of things:

1) Off tomorrow morning to Lib Dem Youth & Students conference in Lincoln. I think much of this has to do with the chance to see Ryan again, explore someplace new and get out of London for a few days. This city gets to be a bit much after awhile (for all that I do love it). Let's hope I'm not too old!

2) Duchie's show at the Indianapolis Civic Theatre opens (for the public who aren't high school students) tomorrow! Silly me thought it was tonight, so I called to tell her to break a leg (but not her own). We talked for an hour, so it's probably good that it didn't open tonight! Anyway....go Duchess! And if you're in Indy, go see the Crucible! Also, the post-New Year's trip might be working out!

3) Went to a concert tonight at Queen Elizabeth Hall with a group from my course (Marjorie, who taught my British music class on the London program, would be so proud). It was by the Orchestra of the Age of the Enlightenment. I mostly went to be social and was sort of meh about the idea of music, but it turned out to be fantastic and so much fun! The musicans were all really enjoying themselves, the music, and playing together and I think that had a big impact on the mood of the audience. Anyway, I'm at the point of being up for another evening (probably a good thing, since we may have just formed a mini-cultural event group)! Did I mention that the tickets were £4 and there were free drinks afterwards? Woot for student discount schemes!

4) I'm sure there's more, but I have to pack for tomorrow and pack myself off to bed!

Woot!

Have just gotten the news that I'm going to be able to review the show at the Donmar that I wanted to see, "The God of Hell." On the other hand, I don't think I have the first clue what I'm doing (having not written a serious review since journalism class at NCHS). Anyone? Anyone? Ack. Suggestions will be welcome!

maybe...

Wait, does Will's promotion mean that Donna might come back? Because thinking that we may have seen the last of her would really be too much. Or maybe she'll get hired on with the Santos campaign, now that everyone's been fired! More Donna! More cowbell!

Here Today

This week's West Wing, anyone? I didn't quite cry, but there was significant mistyness. I don't want to spoil things for anyone who hasn't watched, but so awful and so painful to see that exit. Confrontations between those two are never good and always uncomfortable, but knowing that this was the last one and that things would never get patched up made it ten times worse. And the realization that only one of the original cast that I loved so much is really left in the White House(I want to qualify that statement by saying that the President doesn't count and Charlie's in a new role).... I'm going to be so utterly destroyed when this show goes off the air.

I really need to watch some old episodes. But not now. There's reading to do.

Don't Mind My Moaning.

I reeeeeeeeeeally need to go to bed. But, it's just past 2:30 this morning and I'm burdened with the knowledge that I've got loads of reading to get done. If I could just finish this one article, I'd be happy. There's a book excerpt, too, but the photocopy that someone gave me only has every two pages on it (didn't notice it was copied on both sides, eh?). That's the reading for SO424 on Thursday, too, so I'll try to do it by then. (And, for some reason I seem to be a week ahead (more or less) on all the reading for that class, even though I'm not, because everyone seems to be trying to get it done for the seminar held the next week, rather than for the lecture.) I-Law's reading is going to kick my ass tomorrow if I don't find some serious time to be reading...I think one of those articles is 80 pages long. Shite. But, there's a lecture at 1:15, office hours to go to, a LIMUN meeting at 4 at SOAS (and, yeah, I don't actually know where that is, other than Russell Square). I suspect that going to debate club this week might just be a bit of a pipe dream. On the other hand, I always feel charged afterwards...it's like a brain workout. We'll see.

I'm going to Lincoln this weekend for Lib Dem Youth & Student's conference. It's probably against my better judgement, but I'm really excited to see Ryan again and I'm reading for a break from London. This will, of course, be followed by Model UN at Oxford the next week. Eeeash. I wish I didn't have such an overactive guilt complex sometimes. Or just a better work ethic. I'm going to have to start hiding my ethernet cable. Or does someone want to find a program whereby I can lock myself out of the internet for periods of time.

I also noticed that it's 38 days until it's time to retake the LSATs. Now that that date is approaching, I'm starting to wonder why I was so committed to retaking them. I'm not going to be some crazy person who spends 8 hours a day taking practice exams and reviewing them (although I acknowledge that it would probably help my scores) and I haven't taken a class (which was my original reason for the retake). How much better will I really do? and where do I really want to go that didn't already admit me with the old score (*waves at the WCL people*)? Maybe its just that law school feels really, really far away right now (both geographically and temporally) and so the whole process feels weird and slightly pointless. I'm also in an academic environment where people have already done their law degrees, so they're not thinking about "going to law school" in the sense that we would as undergrads.

Other travel plans: Cambridge Model UN & a trip to Paris to see Muppet and the Earlhamites. (Note: saw the Muppet today on his way through London and I was so much happier for it!) Other ideas? I've discovered that train tickets around Britain are butt cheap if you plan in advance! Also, I now own a sleeping bag and am hoping to get my money's worth out of it!

No more rants, back to that article!

ID Cards

Now that the part that has to happen in the Commons appears to be over, would I be safe in wondering what the big deal was about introducing ID cards in Britain? Maybe I'm just so used to having to carry a form of government id (which I use mostly in place of signing my credit cards and, most recently, as proof of address to get my reader's card at the British Library), that I'm blown away by the idea of an entire country walking around without any way to prove their identity. Mostly, I'm not thinking in a police way, but this is a country in which credit card fraud is MASSIVE...wouldn't a little photo identification have helped? Being American, of course, I can barely fathom the idea of leaving the house WITHOUT my little driver's license. Also, if people in this country think that their government doesn't already have all of that data on file, then I'm surprised. Doesn't the NHS already know all about your health records? What's more personal than that? And your address, length of residence, phone number, etc. are all available on the voting register. And you've probably told at least one of the parties your voting preference. And if students are now required to show id before going into a party at the union, then wouldn't some offical proof of age be handy? Anyway. I do know that a majority of only 25 is pretty significant.