Problems in the world

I was disappointed and saddened (to the extent that I could be) when I head that Benazir Bhutto had been assassinated. I was hoping that she would return to power come Pakistan’s elections (if ever they happened) and bring that country back into line. By back into line, I mean that Pakistan return to being a progressive and more-democratic Islamic country than others that exist.

I’m worried now where the country is headed without a significant popularist leader to go up against their current dictator Pervez Musharraf.

Thomas.

Cricket! Yeah!

Looks like we’ve got us a cricket match here. Will be watching avidly. I expect my cricket-blogging friend will be excited too.

Thomas.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to everyone out there. I hope you spend the day in a manner that suits you, and that you get much enjoyment out of it.

Thomas.

Everything up in the air

Not referring to Santa, but the primaries of course. And, surprisingly, both the Democratic and the Republican race. New Hampshire is the latest state to undergo interesting (some may say strange) changes.

For the Democrats, Barack Obama, in the latest N.H. poll, is ahead of Hillary Clinton by 2 points, 30 to 28. Obama-mania is running wild, and it looks as though the ‘firewall’ that the Clinton camp thought N.H. was (because it was so pro-Clinton for such a long time) was all a mirage. John Edwards pulls up the trio at 14 points.

Previous polls showed an Obama/Clinton tie, so this isn’t a huge surprise right now. It is a surprise that the state has gone Obama’s way however.

I’m prepared to say that with the figures so close in N.H., that whoever wins Iowa (in a few days) wins N.H., and from that will win South Carolina. That means a clean sweep of the early states. And from that, much momentum going into Tsunami Tuesday. Obama is polling ahead in Iowa, so there’s a very good chance he will be the man for the clean sweep title.

If John Edwards (somehow) managed to win Iowa however (and frankly he is polling in a position where he might be able to get lucky), it leaves the latter two states wide open, and the race back at square one. But if Obama were to win Iowa, the Clinton camp takes a bigger hit as Obama will win all the earlies. Interesting times.

For the Republicans, it is surprising and interesting. John McCain, long written of my pundits and myself, is back in the race. N.H. polling, again, show that Mitt Romney holds only a 3 point lead over the political veteran McCain, and Rudy Giuliani makes the trio with 14 points. Mike Huckabee has firmed up at 10 points too. Mitt Romney was my pick because he had a serious lead in Iowa and a massive lead in N.H. – both that are now gone. Iowa to Huckabee and N.H. to McCain.

McCain is in the similar position to Edwards in that if he were to win an early state, he will go on. Lose and he is out. For Romney, he has a bit of an Obama/Clinton position – win Iowa and win N.H. too – and going from there into his campaign strategy of using these two states to go national. It means that if Romney wins Iowa, his campaign isn’t in tatters. If he loses Iowa though, he is stuffed.

That’s a bit of generalising though on my part. While you can make the same claims about Clinton, you are speculating with Republicans. They have no national frontrunner. Romney, Giuliani, McCain, and Huckabee are all in the hunt nationally. Tsunami Tuesday might not even be the decider for the Republicans in the way it will be for the Democrats.

Thomas.

Random thoughts.

Advertisements for 2008 shows are appearing on television. They look crap.

This Christmas is going to be rather strange for this house.

Mr. Rabbit has stopped talking to me.

While I work, I imagine how I’m spending the money I’m earning. Of course, I’m working that much that I don’t have time to actually spend that money.

I’ve taken up playing Playstation and N64 again – only because I get home too late to go on the computer.

I’m going through Internet withdrawal.

New Zealand have one of the worst cricket teams of all time at the moment. That being said, England are giving them a run for that title too.

I’ve begun to read through some of the assignments for HSTY2667 Politics and Cultures of US Imperialism. I got some good marks for that this year, and I’m thinking about putting up some of my writings about the topic on this blog. At the moment I’ve got two 1000 word essays (if you can call something that length an essay – they were part of the take-home exam) and a 3000 essay all about various aspects of US imperialism – or perhaps ‘imperialism’ is the correct way of writing it (you’ll understand if I post one of the essays).

Every day I try to check polling data coming out of the States on the Democratic primaries. Some days I’m happy, others I’m worried. It’s a roller-coaster.

Kevin Rudd seems to be doing a good job so far.

I’m extremely pleased about the decision to not hunt 50 Humpback whales by the Japanese. Now if they’d only smarten up and not hunt any whales, I wouldn’t be glad someone dropped bombs on their country.

I finished watching all the Star Wars films. As per expected: Original trilogy walks all over prequels. I have a hankering to watch the Lord of the Rings films now.

The communication between me and my friends is seriously lacking. I intend to see them much more often. Somehow.

My blogging skills have died off to the point where I can only manage short, unrelated thoughts. Here’s hoping the new year brings with it fresh ideas.

Thomas.

Not enough brain power to think of a title

All work and no play makes for suck.

Thomas.

Secrets

If you want the password for the previous post, email me: the.portmaniac@gmail.com. If you know that I won’t know who you are, identify yourself.

If you’re really lazy, comment here with your email address and I’ll send it to you  then.

Thomas.

Protected: University Survey

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Simple things …

I just found out one of the people I work with was a girl who was in my sister’s year at school. Further to this information, I found out that my sister doesn’t really like her. That sentence was most definitely toned down to what my sister said.

How to use this information to my advantage …

Thomas.

Money issues

Not the kind of money issues that are a problem. It’s sort of a problem of having more than not enough, but not enough to have too much.

I need to decide whether I want to buy a laptop, go to the U.S. in July, get a HECS debt, or not do any of the previous.

I want to go on a trip to America soon. And by soon, I would like to say July ‘08. That would be good and bad. Good in that it’s Summer over there, it’s tourist season, and everything is ‘running’. The problem is that it’s tourist season: Everything is twice as expensive, and there are too many other tourists about. Also, the friend I’ve pestered to go with thinks that he may have commitments during July.

Which is why my next offer of January was more acceptable, but not ‘08. ‘09 instead. And to be honest, it’s probably a more sensible time to go. However, if I’m going in January, I’m going to go earlier and try and get New Years in New York. And maybe Christmas. And then the holiday begins to turn into something quite long. But, saying that, it will be cheaper that time of the year. But it will also be colder. The cold doesn’t bother me at all, but it is a factor none-the-less.

There is a third option. The friend I’ve spoken to wouldn’t want to do some of the things I want to do over there. Actually, our whole U.S. trip centres around Vegas. We are both gamblaholics and love the film Vegas Vacation. We’ve talked about going to Vegas with each other for years and years now. While I’m over there, I want to meet some friends I’ve made over MSN, see some shows, go some places that are only interesting to a history major, etc. So there is a chance that I will go over for a short time in July, and then go over for a longer time in January with my friend. But this increases  expenses pretty much double.

Expenses are big on my mind at the moment because my scholarship runs out at the end of ‘08, and I have to pay for the final two years of university I have. I could HECS debt them, which I will easily be able to pay off by the first two years I’m out. The major push for me to do this is that I don’t want big, lump sums taken out of my savings each semester. It reduces the amount of income I have to invest in making more money. Thus I lose out immediately. But the HECS debt means I lose out in the long term.

If I do HECS debt, I can go on my holiday. If I decide that I don’t want to go on my holiday, or I want to go in January, then I can also afford a laptop. I want one for university and for home. The P.C. I have is quite dated, and it would be easier for me if I were to buy a laptop that would be mine, that I could take to lectures, than updating the P.C. for what I want it to do (play new computer games).

Of course, if I pay my fees up front, then I don’t do any of this.

There is another option, of course. Borrow from the parents. They have, for the most part, encouraged this option as a way to accommodate my holiday want and university costs. They seem to think that holidays are ‘good for the soul’ or something, and want me togo abroad. But I dread borrowing this amount of money from them. It won’t end well.

By the end of January coming, I want all of this resolved. So a lot of thinking for my part.

Thomas.