Dim Sum on Saturday

On prompting from holyoutlaw, Ulrika and I went to New Kowloon to meet up with a combination of fannish and LJ folks. marykay was there, as was the incorrectly handled mrhorrible. There was also another woman whose name I'm blanking on right now (though I'm sure Luke will jog my memory)(beachfaerie, sez Luke). The find of the day -- apart from the dim sum, of course -- was the smart, funny, and graciously willing to translate bonvogue.

The dim sum was as one might expect from a good restaurant -- yummy shiu mai, har gow, cha shu bao, etc. Anna ordered a fried squid in salt and pepper for Luke, and he was kind enough to share.

Best moment: Anna somehow dropping something, and apologizing profusely. Ulrika quipped, "I figure you're just trying to make us gwailo at home." Anna blushed brightly, giggled with her hand in front of her mouth in her most traditional and decorous manner, and said at the high end of her soprano, "I can't be-lieve you just said that!"

Me, having long been a student of regional First Nations tribes, I figure the Haida Gwaii have a clan in Seattle, the Haida Gwailo, who are forever in search of tasty chinese-prepared seafood.

Obviously, the New Kowloon is a prime spot for finding this tribe. :)

Cynical reason for a move against Syria:

...you know, the boys haven't had a live training exercise in an amphibious assault for a loooooooong time.

This goes back to my high school history teacher's reason for why the UK would never fully settle the Northern Ireland dispute. It was too useful to the UK military as a live training exercise.

It should be noted that he himself was an expat Brit.

And besides -- not unlike Iraq, the Administration probably already knows that Syria has no WMD... unlike Iran or North Korea, both of which the Cowardly Lion continues to treat with kid gloves. Wouldn't want our hands to get too messy, y'know.

Having something personal to say.

Just mundane day-to-day stuff, but still.

One suspects the reason I don't get more readers than I do is because so many of my posts are kind of... hm. Abstract, think pieces. And LJ skews, in my observation, to publicly posted emotional journals.

I'm not saying this is good or bad. Just an observation.

Much of the reason I don't post personal stuff is that there's little to report. Emotionally, I'm usually an even-keel kind of guy, and the day-to-dayness of my life holds little of interest.

But... Here's something, albeit not emotional. I torqued my back last night. I was just in the bathroom bending for some toilet paper... and when I straightened up, I didn't, fully. At least, not without a lot of pain.

So, I was lying in bed, hurting, most of the night, barely sleeping. Stayed at home from work (unpaid), and had Ulrika come out and drive me to the doctor. Put up with some tediousness because I recently changed insurance plans, and the paperwork hasn't fully caught up with me, yet.

It hurts less, now. I went to my SQL class. More of a dull ache, all the time.

So, given the curve, I should be mostly all right by the end of the week, I think.

Like I say, not much -- but something.

Speaking of curves

holyoutlaw recently reported that LJ has now hit the one million journal mark.

Which just croggles me. Because I have LJ number 50517, which doesn't feel that old, given that I read folks like roadnotes (26756), and started out reading reive (4791).

But not unlike the recent discussion in rec.arts.sf.fandom, where it turned out that yes, even among fans, while I may not have the most tenure on the net, I have substantial tenure (BITNET, 1982) -- being in the 95th percentile of eldest LJers just feels off to me.

Confirmation from the Guardian

Remember how I told you, back on 27 Feb, that Blair was in trouble, and might not make it through any Iraqi vote in the UN or campaign? And how this wasn't well covered by the US press at the time? And how Blair kept slipping domestically, right up to the precipice?

Well, dig this commentary from the Guardian:

"...before Blair departed for the March 18 Iraq debate, Downing Street had drawn up contingency plans for the withdrawal of British troops from the build-up in the Gulf and also for Blair's resignation, should the votes have gone against him. That is how serious (the Labour revolt) was."

And, further down:

"The reality, of course, was that the key decision rested with Gordon Brown."

Sound familiar?

Thanks to Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo for the link.