Randomness.

Yesterday, around 4:49 PM, my celphone recorded an incoming call. No voice mail, just 'hey, you got called'. I checked; the number was in the 204 area code.

204 is Manitoba.

I know where all my Canadian friends are. And unless one of them is currently travelling, I can safely say that none of them are in Manitoba. I don't remember applying for any jobs in Manitoba, either, although with monster.com these days you never know. Experimentally, I called the number back; I got a recording saying 'you may have received a call from our organisation regarding a product or service offering, if you wish one of our representatives to contact you leave your name and phone number and we'll reach you within 1-2 business days'. Uh, no, honey. Sorry. Tell me who you are first and I'll consider it.

I suppose it was just a wrong number, or they'd have left a VM... still. I get my wrong numbers from Manitoba. PH33R MY M4D C4N4D1AN G33K-PHU.

On an unrelated note, I have just discovered that a Cadbury creme egg bought the week after Easter and stored in an office closet, wrapped in quite a lot of drugstore bag but nothing else, tastes the same on 29 June as one bought and eaten two weeks before Easter.

My take on the title news from Rowling...

(On being asked what I think of the 'Half-Blood Prince' part of the title...)

camwyn cwru: Oh, that. My first response was 'hmm... William, or Harry?'
TuxedoSlack: *snrk*
camwyn cwru: "Son, remember how everyone's said it was lucky your mother was a Spencer, because it alleviated the royal family's inbreeding problem? Well, er, there was a bit more to the Earls of Spencer than we thought."
TuxedoSlack: *falls over laughing* MY DED IZ PASTEDE ON YAY.
camwyn cwru: *snicker*
TuxedoSlack: *bows*

I got asked about this by a Canadian friend this Friday.

Since:

a) Canada's just had their election;
b) Canada Day is Thursday;
c) Independence Day for the US is Sunday;
d) I'm gonna be out of the country on Independence Day;

I thought I should do something patriotic now. Or at least something a civics teacher would be proud of.

Presenting:

THE ELECTION OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, IN FIVE HUNDRED WORDS

CANDIDATES: Hi!
VOTERS: Hi!
CANDIDATES: Where do you live?
VOTERS: Nebraska?
CANDIDATES: Eh. How about you guys?
SOME VOTERS: New York!
OTHER VOTERS: California!
STILL OTHER VOTERS: Iowa!
CANDIDATES: Okay, cool. Let's boogie.
NEBRASKA VOTERS, ALONG WITH A LOT OF OTHERS: Buh?
CANDIDATES: You don't have the electoral votes. Sorry.
NEBRASKA AND COMPANY: Augh!
CANDIDATES: Next census, maybe.
NEBRASKA AND COMPANY: Fine, whatever. *votes*
EVERYONE ELSE: *also votes*
BOARDS: Okay, who won?
VOTERS: Dunno, you tell us.
BOARDS: *count votes*
VOTERS: So who's president?
BOARDS: No one yet.
VOTERS: But- but-
ELECTORS: Hi! We're your representatives.
VOTERS: To WHAT?
ELECTORS: The Electoral College.
VOTERS: Buh?
ELECTORS: It's in the Constitution. Article Two, Section One.
VOTERS: . . .
BOARDS: Here's the results. Promise you'll do what the voters in your state want?
ELECTORS: Sure.
BOARDS: Great. Can you guys chill until the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December?
ELECTORS: No problemo.
VOTERS: WTF? What's going on?
AMERICAN HISTORY TEACHERS (THE ONES YOU NEVER LISTENED TO): Look, back when they wrote the Constitution, communication wasn't very reliable. So the men who wrote it said that after the elections, everybody would wait until electors from all the states could get together and have their votes counted at one go.
VOTERS: But, but, the number of electors per state is why?
TEACHERS: As many electors as your state has Senators and Representatives. So if you've got a lot of people, you get a lot of Representatives, and you get a lot of electors. And if you don't have a lot of people-
NEBRASKA AND COMPANY: You're probably us.
VOTERS: But why do we use electors at ALL?
TEACHERS: A lot of the Founding Fathers didn't trust the general populace. They wanted people to vote for electors with sense, so that only people with sense would select the president.
VOTERS: So-
TEACHERS: The Founding Fathers would think you were dangerous rabble.
VOTERS: . . .
TEACHERS: You can change it, you know. You just have to get a Constitutional amendment passed.
VOTERS: Augh!
ELECTORS: *check calendar* December!
VOTERS: You're gonna vote the way we said, RIGHT?
ELECTORS: Yeah.
VOTERS: Good, because we'd hate to have to show you what happens to, ah. . . 'faithless' electors. *crack knuckles*
ELECTORS: You don't have the slightest idea, do you?
VOTERS: . . . no.
ELECTORS: *vote*
PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE: *counts votes*
ENTIRE UNITED STATES SENATE: *witnesses count*
ENTIRE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: *also witnesses count*
PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE: We have a winnah!
VOTERS: They announced that back in November!
PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE: Yes, but now it's official! Yay!
THE WINNAH: Is it January 20th yet?
DISGRUNTLED SUPER BOWL FANS: Yes, dammit.
THE WINNAH: Cool. I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
WASHINGTON, DC: *throws party*
NEBRASKA AND COMPANY: *write to Congressional representatives*