As a long time user of Google Mail, I was surprised to log on today and find a new announcement waiting for me. As I read it, I felt a big bubble of excitement well up inside me like … er … a big bubble (I’m the similie king - fact).
Google has today launched a range of themes for GMail. Rather than having just the plain old blue and white interface, I can now customise it in a number of ways. Mine now looks like a messy desk - not unlike this website. Or, indeed, my desk.
It’s a great day for Google Mail users and the easily distracted alike. Hooray for Google! Hooray for Google Mail Themes! Hooray for me!
Just slipped that last one in there. My ego needed fed.
In an episode that could potentially strain relations between Warsaw and Washington, Radek Sikorski, an Oxford-educated politician who has lived in the US, was reported to have made the jibe by an opposition politician, Ryszard Czarnecki.
Writing in his blog, Mr Czarnecki, an MEP, quoted the foreign minister as saying: “Have you heard that Obama may have a Polish connection? His grandfather ate a Polish missionary.”
A spokesman for the Polish foreign office conceded that Mr Sikorski had made the controversial comment, but denied that the foreign minister had intended to insult Mr Obama, whose father was Kenyan.
“Mr Sikorski did not tell a racist joke,” said Piotr Paszkowski, the spokesman. “He was only giving an example of the unpalatable and racist ‘jokes’ that surround President Elect Obama.”
Oh, so it wasn’t a racist joke, it was only an example of the type of racist joke someone could possibly make about Barack Obama. In much the same way, I suppose Hitler wasn’t really a deranged, mass-murdering sadist, he was merely demonstrating a range of ways in which ten million Jewish people could theoretically be killed.
Today is a historic day. (Notice I didn’t write an historic day like some people do? That’s because the letter H is many things, but one of the things it is very much not is a vowel. Some people would do well to remember that fact).
Anyway, today is a historic day. Today, the United States will vote in their 44th President, and there’s a very good chance he’s going to be black. For many reasons, I hope Obama wins. The most minor of these reasons is the colour of his skin. I think it’d be a testament for how far racial equality has come if Obama became the most powerful man on the planet.
More importantly, though, I think he’d make the better President. I also admire the fact he hasn’t really resorted to the same mud-slinging the McCain camp has used in the run-up to the election. And he’s a fan of Superman. That wins my vote any time, because a fan of Superman is by default a fan of Truth and Justice. It also means we could chat about comics if we ever found ourselves stuck in a lift together.
Anyway, what better way to commemorate the importance of the US Presidential Election, than by posting a video of Skeletor and Evil Lyn singing Meatloaf’s Dead Ringer for Love? If there’s a more appropriate way of marking the occasion, I’ve yet to hear it.
I made this video clip a couple of years back for my old Random Rant website. It’s high time it got another airing.
On another note, I watched Peter Kay’s “Britain’s Got the Pop Factor” last night. For the first five minutes I cringed, and thought Kay had lost it. The show quickly picked up, though, and I can honestly say I haven’t laughed as hard in ages. It was one of these shows that almost makes you want to give up writing, because you know there’s no way you’re going to be able to touch the level of brilliance being displayed on screen. Absolute genius.
After weeks of tinkering about with the Wordpress/MySpace settings, I think I’ve now finally managed to convince one to talk to the other. As of now, every post I make here on BarryHutchison.com should (all being well) be replicated on www.myspace.com/barryhutchisonauthor
I’ve had to cancel the other account I set up, because there was an underscore in the web address (it was /barry_hutchison) and that seems to be what was causing the problems.
So, if you added me as a friend under the previous profile, I’ll have vanished from your friends list. Do feel free to add me again, wontcha?
