People are pickled for sure

Is anyone surprised that the situation in Burma has come down to violence and shooting people down in the street? I imagine not.

Is anyone surprised that when Robert Mugabe was asked today whether he was at the UN to address the problems of his country, he replied with, 'Fight the British!' And that then, in a later meeting, he rejected an offer of additional humanitarian aid from the UN despite the fact that his people are starving, 80% are unemployed, many are without running water or power and its all because he's a fuckwit? I imagine not.

Is anyone surprised that despite the fact that I've owned this computer for six years, I have only just now realised that I can control itunes with the buttons on my keyboard. The ones marked 'play' and 'pause' and 'stop' and that have cd/dvd/mp3 marked above them in big silver letters. I imagine not.

*snicker*

OMG! Boris might get to be Mayor of London! HEE! This man is total crack. I want him to win just because of that which is probably very wrong. Imagine all the people he could offend though! Brilliant! And check that hair. Mwhahaha!

I am part-way through the chores I need to do in order to have my flat ready for both the arrival of Scribble, and my mother post-Scribble. This, naturally, involves uploading photos on to my computer and being on LJ right now. Of course. Although I did have to break for food, hence this procrastination is totally valid really. Anyway. So far I have dragged my trunk (which is brilliant by the way. Its Victorian or something and I got it off ebay because I had always wanted one of those trunks that look like a pirate chest that you'd discover on the bottom of the ocean. It's exactly like that! Unweildy to drag around but so awesome) into my bedroom, cleared it of random crap and it is now a receptacle for my many pairs of shoes. When I have aired it more, it will also become a handy place to keep spare quilts/pillows/blankets etc. Because its just that massive, fo' real. How the fuck did kids drag these off to boarding school anyway? No wheels! But SO COOL!

Loving on my random trunk aside, I have also set up my nice table that used to be my grandmothers' and it now holds a lamp and my telephones and a pad for taking messages even! Which I will never use as precisely two people have my landline number and I rarely answer it anyway. But it looks nice! Things have been tidied. I have done a load of laundry. I have tied the bathroom cabinet and found a good storage place for make-up which is good because it keeps it out of the way and its not like I'm going to be using it for bloody ages.

And thats about it. I still have boxes to tackle and go through and move out of the way, and I must haul the spare mattress out from under my bed and tonight I must pack my bag for the hospital because really, its getting stupidly late to be leaving that. But all in all, things shouldn't take long. I will finish up tonight, tomorrow I will clean the kitchen and bathroom and vacuum and then I will be all done and ready to go.

Now, where's my baby?

ETA: Also, *snorfle* The West Wing staff must DESPAIR. When will someone teach Shrub how to speak? I hope never because its just too amusing.

Pics!

Also, have a picspam.

( Couple of London, a few of Tintern Abbey and one random one of a pasted landscape. Cut for bloody massive )

On Potter

Yes, I realise I am at one with the spam tonight. Forgive me. I just remembered a HP thing that has bugged me for ages and so it must have its own entry in the hopes that someone will notice it and give me a good explanation.

But first, check this art out.

Because if I have to accidentally click on anything that brain-hurty, YOU HAVE TO TOO!

OK, so the Thing. It is Apparition. What I don't get is that part of the method of doing it is determination to get where you're going, right? They're supposed to fix their destination in their head and then concentrate and as long as they're doing it hard enough, they'll wind up where they want to be.

But what if they can't visualise where they want to be because they've never been there before? Like, if Harry wanted to go to New York, would he just visualise New York in general? How would his destination be specific? How could he apparate in front of his hotel on, say, 77th & Broadway if he'd never been there and didn't know what it looked like? And what's to stop someone from apparating and ending up stuck through half a wall or something? If they didn't know a wall was going to be where they wanted to be, how would they know not to want to be there?

Its bothered me since apparition was first introduced, probably because I'd read The Belgariad before HP and the difficulties with that sort of travel were quite often pointed out in those books. But OK, its a whole different universe and kind of magic. One of the things I was looking forward to in HBP was hopefully having an apparation lesson explained...only when it was, nothing was actually made clearer.

Somehow, clicking on Snape art brought that query to mind which is why I've just had to post about it. Help me out someone?